“Of course not. Lying to you isn’t going to help you.” She sat down on the chair next to his bed. “I have to admit, Mr. Flynt, that I haven’t taken care of many patients with amnesia. But I looked it up in my nursing books last night.” She swallowed as she remembered her determined search for every bit of information she could find. “And that’s what all the books said. You generally regain your memory in bits and pieces.”
“Please, call me Tom,” he said. He gave her a smile that looked forced. “It may not sound familiar, but apparently it’s what I’m supposed to be called. And it sounds a lot better than Mr. Flynt.”
“All right…Tom.” Her voice sounded different, low and intimate in the quiet of the room.
She sounded like a woman talking to her lover.
Tina swallowed and clenched her hands tightly in her lap. What was she doing? What was the matter with her? She couldn’t possibly be attracted to this man. He was a complete stranger to her. And for all of the kindness in his eyes, there was an aura of danger around him. For heaven’s sake, he even carried a gun.
She thought she had learned her lesson well, all those years ago.
“Are you as conscientious with all your patients?” Tom asked, and she gave herself a mental shake.
“What do you mean?”
“You said you went home and read up on amnesia. Do you do that whenever you have an unusual patient?”
“Of course,” she said immediately, grateful for the change of subject. “If I don’t know what to do for a patient, how can I take care of him or her properly?”
“Ouch,” he said, but there was a twinkle in his eyes. “I thought I was special.”
“You are,” she said, giving him a grin. It was far easier to maintain her distance if she was bantering with him. “Right now, you’re my favorite patient. Since you don’t remember anything, I can tell you whatever I want and you’ll believe me. That’s exactly the kind of patient I like.”
“I promise to be very gullible,” he said solemnly.
She laughed and stood up. “And if I believe that, you have some oceanfront property just outside of town you’d like to sell me, right?”
“You’ve got it.” The smile lingered in his eyes as he watched her. “What’s on the agenda for today, Tina?”
“Rest,” she said firmly. “You have to take it easy so your lung can heal.”
“I was figuring to go out and get in a few miles of hard running,” he said, then stopped. Tina recognized the startled expression on his face.
“You’ve remembered that you like to run,” she said.
“Yes.” He stared at her. “I don’t know how I remembered, but I do.”
“That’s another piece to the puzzle,” she said. “And that’s what the textbooks I read last night said would happen. You’d remember when you weren’t trying to force it.”
“It’s going to be hard not to.”
“I know.” Tina felt a wave of sympathy for him. She wasn’t sure how she would feel in Tom’s circumstances, but she knew she would try as hard as possible to get her memories back. Even the bad ones. “I’ll try to keep you distracted.”
“You won’t have to work very hard at that.”
This time she couldn’t mistake the heat in his eyes, or the message there. To her surprise, she felt an answering warmth bloom inside her. She stared at him for a moment, shocked, then hurriedly turned away.
“Does that mean you’re easily entertained?” Her voice sounded strained, and she struggled to even it out.
“It means I’m going to selfishly hog as much of your time and attention as I can.”
She didn’t have to be looking at Tom to know what he meant. The tone of his voice told her he was interested. She hoped to find the words to tell him to save his breath, that she wasn’t interested in getting involved with him or anyone else, but they wouldn’t come. Finally she turned around to face him.
“You’re my patient,” she said, trying to make her voice firm. “I’ll give you as much time as you need.” She hoped that he saw only professional interest in her face.
The gleam of satisfaction that filled his eyes told her that she hadn’t succeeded. But he nodded slowly. “That’s fair,” he said. “I know you have other patients.”
“And I have to start taking care of them,” she said. “Or my supervisor will have my head.”
“I don’t want to be blamed for the loss of that beautiful hair and those gorgeous eyes,” he said. “Go ahead. I’m not going anywhere.”
Tina nodded, not trusting herself to say anything more. She murmured something incoherent and practically ran through the door. She paused when she was in the hall, taking deep breaths to calm herself.
“Are you okay, Tina?” one of her fellow nurses asked, a worried expression on her face. “You look kind of dazed.”
“I’m fine.” She forced a smile. “Lack of sleep, I guess.”
The other nurse rolled her eyes. “Tell me about it. This place has been a madhouse for the last thirty-six hours.”
She hurried off, and Tina stood in the hallway for a few moments, composing herself. Then she tried to put her reaction to Tom firmly out of her head. She walked over to the desk and studied the board where their assignments were posted. “Who else am I taking care of today?”
Tom watched the door close behind Tina with a final-sounding click. He heard her speaking to someone in the hallway, then listened as her footsteps receded down the hall. She was gone, but she’d be back. For the first time, he found something positive about his dilemma.
Right woman, wrong time, he told himself bitterly. He had no right to be interested in Tina White. He knew nothing about himself, not even his name. He could be married with ten children, for all he knew.
He looked down and studied his ring finger on his left hand. There was no wedding ring, and no pale line like he’d recently removed one. He had been telling her the truth yesterday. He didn’t feel married.
But that didn’t change anything. Although he was attracted to her, found her interesting and sexy, he had no right to pursue that attraction. And for all he knew, she could be married herself. Or at least involved with someone.
But she didn’t seem involved, either. There was a remote quality about Tina, an innocence that surrounded her. He’d noticed her reaction when she realized he was attracted to her. He didn’t think the shock he’d seen in her eyes had been faked.
Could he do the right thing? Could he submerge his interest in Tina, bury it deep enough that it would wither and die? He hoped so. He didn’t want to cause her any pain.
But he would be in the hospital for a few more days, so he would enjoy the time he could spend with her. She had told him not to force his memory to return. Thinking about Tina would be a pleasant alternative to wondering who he was.
He listened carefully, but he couldn’t hear her in the hallway. She wouldn’t be back for a while, he suspected. She had practically run out of his room, and she would busy herself with other patients for a while.
He wasn’t sure how he knew that, but he was certain he was right. The irony of it put a grim smile on his mouth. He didn’t know his own name, but he knew Tina well enough after two days to predict how she would act.
He looked away from the door and clicked on the television set suspended above the foot of his bed. Maybe if he listened to the news, it would shake something loose in his brain.
A