Long Simmering Spring (8 page)

Julie had been disappointed when the old doctor’s patients had left, citing Julie’s youth and inexperience as their chief reasons why. She might be young, but she was a good doctor, and she’d spent a lot of time and energy over the past year proving it. Her bottom line was finally starting to improve, but there was always more she could do.

She blinked and got back to the issue at hand. “You have nothing to say about the fact that it’s Cole Grayson?”

Lisa laughed. “Like always, you’re thinking about things way too much. It’s just a date! And he’s the sheriff, not a serial killer. Cole seems like a stand-up guy and if he wants to take you out and give you a night off work, I’m all for it. Plus, he’s completely edible.” Lisa flicked her hip off the door frame and righted herself. “Just relax. I’ll finish up with the sheriff.” Then she turned on her heel and walked down the hall.

Julie got up and shut the door to her office. First Lexie and now Lisa. Who else in town thought she was working too hard? Probably everyone. Star Harborians had a tendency to gossip, and opinions had a way of circulating faster than Jimmy Bishop’s speedboat. Was that why Babs kept inviting her over for dinner, integrating her into town life? Into
her
life. Or why, whenever Mitch was away, Lisa would ask her to catch a late-night movie? She couldn’t deny that she liked it. These friendships were deeper than the casual friendships-of-convenience she’d made while in med school. But none of them were big distractions of the kind generated by a relationship.

She loved her work, but surely she couldn’t live the rest of her life an empty husk.

Her mind flickered to Cole. He was dangerous, for the very reason that she couldn’t control her reaction to him. Julie swallowed. Who said she needed to control her reaction to him? She didn’t need—or intend—to fall in love with Cole. She just needed to get her mind off work, and right now, the sole question she needed to ask herself was whether she could handle a date with him.

Well, she was about to find out.

“Okay, Sheriff Grayson,” Lisa said. “Dr. Kensington has informed me that we’re transferring your records to the VA, so we’re not going to do any blood work today. Let me get your paperwork squared away and we can get you out of here.” The tiny woman moved expertly around the patient room. “You can get dressed after I leave.”

Cole grunted. He was still reeling from his interaction with Julie. When she’d touched his leg, massaging his thigh with those long, strong fingers, Cole knew he had only seconds before he was going to embarrass himself. So he’d placed his hand on hers, stopping her from rubbing him. But that had been a mistake, too. Her pulse had throbbed in her wrist, the same way his body throbbed when she touched him.

“You interested in Julie?” Lisa asked sharply.

Cole was surprised as much at being snapped out of his thoughts as he was at her forthrightness. But he wasn’t a man to mince words. “Yeah. I am. Very interested.”

Lisa didn’t back down, taking an aggressive stance. “She’s a special woman, don’t you forget that.”

“I won’t.” He had to hand it to Julie’s nurse. It had been a long time since anyone had stood up to him like this. Usually, folks were too cowed by his physical presence. Either that or his reputation preceded him.

As she stared him down, Lisa’s curly red hair burned against her white skin, and there was fire in her eyes. He couldn’t believe he was facing off against this sprite of a woman. Before he could help himself, a smile crept up at the corners of his mouth.

“Something funny, Sheriff?” Lisa asked coolly.

“No.” He composed his face into an impenetrable mask and looked at her politely.

“There are people who love Julie and don’t want to see her get hurt. Lots of people.”

“I don’t intend to hurt her.”

“Good, because if you do, I’m coming after you myself.”

This time, Cole couldn’t help but smile. “Ma’am,” he said politely, before dipping his head to hide his grin.

With a sharp sniff, Lisa turned, red curls bouncing on her shoulders. Cole just caught her own secretive smile as she exited the room.

CHAPTER 8

“Finalize March insurance forms,” Julie muttered to herself as she stood in her bedroom the following night before jotting the words down on a little pad on her dresser. And her latest shipment of prescription pads had been misplaced. “Reorder prescription pads,” she said, jotting that down, too.

It’s Saturday. Stop thinking about work,
she ordered herself, pacing back and forth in front of her dresser to try to relieve the stress. Her long, flowy pants flipped around her legs as she walked. Back and forth, flip and flop.

She was driving herself crazy. It was just a date, for God’s sake!

“Check bandage supply.” Then she groaned, and in an uncharacteristically acrobatic maneuver, she vaulted backward onto her bedspread. She simply had to put herself in a different mindset.
Think about Cole. Embrace the fun.

But her nipples hardening brought a different set of distractions.

“Oh, good grief.”

God, she was pathetic! With a sigh, she propped herself up on her elbows. She didn’t want to want him so much—truly, she didn’t. It was making everything that much harder, because the more she thought about him and not her work, the guiltier she felt.

Standing, she plucked her house keys from her dresser and threw those into her evening bag. At that moment, the doorbell rang.

“That man has a sixth sense,” Julie muttered, sweeping up her clutch from her vanity stool.

“I’m coming,” she called as she walked down the stairs to the front door. She opened the door to darkness. “Whoops,” Julie said, flicking on the porch light. “Sorry about that.”

The dim bulb came on, illuminating Cole standing on the stoop. He was wearing gray slacks and a slim, blue button-down shirt that was almost the same color as his eyes. The shirt skimmed over the surface of his shoulders and chest, hinting at the power that lay beneath.

For once, his black hair was swept off his face. It looked good. With his hair out of his eyes, his piercing, inquisitive gaze came into sharp focus. And then it was the easiest thing in the world to simply forget about her to-do list and her practice, because the man was gorgeous.

She swallowed before speaking. “Hi.”

Cole just grinned and gave her an appraising glance. “You look great,” he said. “Shall we?” He reached out his hand to her.

Without any hesitation, she put her hand into his. Immediately, his large hand engulfed her smaller one with a firm pressure. Tucking her purse under her arm, she grabbed the doorknob and pulled the front door shut, hearing it click.

“All set? Let’s go.” Cole led her down the stairs to his waiting car, a black Dodge Charger. He opened the passenger door for her and then walked around the front of the car to the driver’s side, giving her a prime view of his profile that almost took her breath away.

“Where are we going?” Julie asked after Cole lowered himself into the driver’s seat and buckled his seat belt.

He looked over at her. “I thought we’d head to New Bedford. There’s a little Italian restaurant I haven’t been to in a long time. What do you think?”

“Italian sounds great,” Julie responded.

“Glad you approve.” He smiled as he turned the key in the ignition. The car roared to life, and soon they were speeding away from Star Harbor.

As Julie seldom got out of town, getting off the Cape would be a treat. Even better, they’d be away from prying eyes. At least being grist for the Star Harbor gossip mill wouldn’t be on the menu this evening. It was a good move on Cole’s part, and Julie finally found herself relaxing. But only fractionally, because she still had to deal with her unbelievable attraction to the man sitting right next to her. An attraction she was becoming increasingly hard-pressed to control.

Cole angled his head toward her, still keeping his eyes on the road. “You okay?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said. “I’m—glad we’re doing this.”

“We could have done
this
sooner if you hadn’t put me off for so long.”

“I wasn’t ready,” she admitted.

He laughed a little. “I guess I wasn’t, either.”

“Who’s to say this dinner couldn’t be a total flop?”

“Only way that could happen is if you tell me you’re a Yankees fan.”

“I’m not, so I guess we’re in the clear.”

He gave her a slow once-over. “Guess we are,” he said, his voice rough.

Her wit failed her, and her cheeks warmed. She looked out the window into the darkness. What was it about this man that made her senses reel?

It took about thirty minutes to get to New Bedford and find parking. As they were walking from Cole’s car to the restaurant, he put his hand on the small of her back. The purely proprietary gesture was charged, but Julie tried not to read too much into it.
Fun—not serious, right?

Cole had made a reservation and they were seated quickly. They ordered some appetizers and a bottle of cabernet. When the waiter departed, Cole leaned back in his chair and looked at Julie. “Good?” he questioned softly.

“Good,” she responded.

For a few minutes, there was silence as they read their menus. The waiter came and poured their wine. Julie took a sip, enjoying the way the robust red slid down her throat. “Lovely,” she murmured when Cole gave her a questioning look.

“So,” he began after they’d decided what to eat and he’d had some of his own wine, “I think we should start again.”

“Start again?”

“Yeah. Pretend like we didn’t grow up in the same town. Pretend like we didn’t go to high school together.”

“Pretend like you didn’t kiss me behind the track when I was fourteen?”

“That, too.” He held out his hand for a shake. “I’m Nicholas Grayson, Star Harbor’s sheriff. You can call me Cole. I’m mostly reformed. And you are?” He pasted a false-looking earnest look on his face.

Julie laughed. She couldn’t help it—he looked so unlike himself when he was pretending to be innocent. “It’s a bit late for first impressions, don’t you think?”

“Hardly,” he said, his fake-chipper look fading and morphing into a sexy, burn-you-up-from-inside gaze that was more like the Cole she knew. “Your turn.”

Julie swallowed. The rules of the game had just changed. “I’m Julia Kensington. I’m a doctor in town. My friends call me Julie. I work too hard. Nice to meet you.”

Then their hands touched, and a sizzle ran from her fingertips up her arm. His palm was firm and warm. After a long moment, he released her. “So what made you decide to come back to Star Harbor?”

“My parents,” she said softly. “Or, their memories, at least.” Cole was watching her with an inscrutable expression.

“I heard about the accident while I was in Afghanistan. I’m sorry.”

Julie shook her head slowly. “I miss them every day. Being at their house helps a little. Helps make me feel like I’m close to them.” She blinked. “But I also came back to start my practice,” she said, calmer as she spoke about her work. “I’d always wanted to be in a small town, and once I completed my residency, I realized the small-town practice I wanted was right under my nose. So I came home.

“I love that I know all my patients by name and that I don’t have to look up their records to know what kind of insurance plan they have. I can walk to work, I own my own place, and I’m a part of a real community. That’s it. I wasn’t lying—I do work too much.”

Cole had leaned forward in his seat and was watching her intently. The glow from the candlelight flickered on the scar on his cheekbone.

“Why’d you kiss me?” she blurted out.

“Why’d you slap me?” he retorted.

“You first,” she said without hesitation.

“You were beautiful,” he said. “I wanted to show you. Now you.”

She swallowed, then tried to speak calmly. “Part of it was surprise. And I have to admit that at the time, I thought my first kiss was wasted on you.”

He actually looked upset. “Why would you say that?”

“You were so cocky back then—like the rules didn’t really apply to you. You said whatever you wanted. Did whatever you wanted. You had no filter.”

“That pretty much sums me up,” he said, his voice tight. He looked as though he wanted to continue, so she stayed silent. She was rewarded when he spoke again. “After our father died, I—well, my brothers, too—we all found different ways to deal with our grief. I can’t explain it. Seb went around chasing skirt. Theo buried himself in his books and plotted crazy pranks. Lord knows what Val did to ease the pain. But I just went off the deep end. God, you know what I was like.” He shook his head. “I’m the first to admit I was more than a jerk in high school. It’s a time of my life I’m not very proud of. I knew I had to channel that wildness into something useful or I’d end up dead or close to it, so I cut out of Star Harbor as soon as I could. I enlisted in the army. Applied and got accepted into a Special Operations Forces unit. Talk about rules!

“I was on active duty for nearly seven years, until I got wounded in action. I knew I was going to leave anyway, because my time was already up. Once I’d healed, I went straight to college on the GI Bill. Thought I’d never want to see another weapon again. But after I graduated, I needed to work, and I figured I’d put my training to good use. That’s when I joined the Boston Police Department.

“After three years, two different partners, and more domestic violence calls in the middle of the night than I want to count, I’d had it. I needed to come back to Star Harbor, where the worst thing that happens on my shift is that Mr. Anson drives with his headlights out.”

Julie had grown quiet while Cole spoke. When he finished, she swallowed, trying to collect her thoughts. “I—” she started, then paused. “I didn’t know how much you’d done. War is a lot for anyone to handle.”

“I know.”

“I just assumed that . . . that . . .”

“That I’m the same guy I was at eighteen, making fun of the band geeks and stealing cars for joy rides?”

“I never thought that,” she said hurriedly, then gave him a tentative smile. “Well, maybe a little bit.” He smiled back at the gentle tease, and for the first time, she wanted to understand him—where he’d been for the past decade and a half, what he’d done, and exactly how much he’d changed. “What did you do with your Special Forces unit?”