Prognosis: Romance

He let her walk a couple of steps ahead of him toward the parking lot. Her thin white cover-up fluttered when she walked, floating around her slender body to end at midthigh. He could just see the outline of her yellow bikini through the now-dry fabric. Her hair had dried into a mop of soft red curls that looked temptingly touchable.

When she glanced back at him with a smile, it occurred to him that she wore no makeup, but she didn’t need enhancement. He found the splash of golden freckles across her nose and cheeks intriguing and couldn’t imagine why she would want to hide them. While she probably wouldn’t be described as a true beauty, he couldn’t imagine anything he would change about her fresh, pretty features.

He realized abruptly that he didn’t want to tell her goodbye and drive away without any prospect of seeing her again.

James cleared his throat as they reached his car, and Shannon braced herself, wishing they could skip past what she sensed was coming. She had hoped he would be immune to her relatives’ heavy-handed hints.

“I enjoyed the meal with your family,” he said, giving her one of his intriguingly faint smiles. “Thank you for inviting me to join you.”

“The least we could do,” she assured him. “And everyone enjoyed meeting you.”

She hoped that sounded casual and generic enough.

He frowned just a little, as if it had indeed caught his attention that she hadn’t referred specifically to herself, but he smoothed the expression almost immediately. “I’d like to hear more about your business sometime. It sounds very interesting.”

“You should check my Web site. Kid Capers dot com. All the details are there.”

His frown lasted a bit longer this time. “Um, yeah, I’ll check that out. But what I meant was, I’d like to hear more from you. Maybe we could have dinner sometime?”

He really was an attractive man. His dark hair was so thick and temptingly touchable. His elusive smile made her want to go to extra lengths to earn it. She liked the way he moved—with a deliberateness that was both elegant and masculine all at the same time. Her prided instincts told her this man was actually a study in contrasts—cordial, yet reserved; friendly, yet private; open to others, yet somehow closed on a personal level.

It was the latter quality that made her smile regretfully and shake her head. “I’m afraid I’m very busy right now, between my part-time job and getting my new business off the ground. I know you’re quite busy, too, so perhaps it would be best if we just say goodbye. It was very nice meeting you, James.”

His expression unreadable, he nodded and shook the hand she offered him. She tried without much success to ignore the frisson of awareness that went through her again when their palms touched so briefly. There were most definitely sparks here, she thought, rather quickly pulling away. Which didn’t mean she should place herself in a position to get burned. She still bore the scars from the last time she’d played with fire, romantically speaking.

“Goodbye, Shannon. Enjoy your ball game.”

With that, he climbed into his car. She turned to rejoin her family, but couldn’t resist glancing over her shoulder as he drove away. She was aware of a funny little pang inside her when the car disappeared from her sight. Ordering herself to get over it, she drew a deep breath in preparation for her family’s scolding for letting that nice young doctor slip away.

Shannon hung up her cell phone with a satisfied smile. “And it’s a deal,” she murmured, pumping her fist in a gesture of success.

Devin Caswell, her friend, housemate and occasional assistant, clapped her hands with a muted cheer. “You got the gig?”

“Booked it.”

“Details?”

Shannon glanced at her notes. “Birthday party, nine-year-old girl, first Saturday in September—two weeks from tomorrow—at the home. The kid takes dance lessons, plays soccer, loves purple, like every other nine-year-old girl in the world and enjoys handcrafts. Her mom wants each guest to leave the party with a hand-crafted item to keep as a favor. I suggested decorated tote bags or headbands or beaded necklaces or friendship bracelets. She liked them all.”

Devin chuckled. “Going to be interesting trying to work all of that into a two-hour party.”

Wrinkling her nose, Shannon made another note on the pad. “The mom gave me free rein to come up with the projects, though I have a somewhat limited budget. It won’t be a big bash, but I’ll still make a small profit and that’s what counts. Maybe I’ll get some more jobs out of it.”

“Two weeks. Short notice, wasn’t it?”

“She apologized for that. She said she had intended to handle all the arrangements herself, but apparently she’s realized she just doesn’t have time to do the party justice. She said a friend of her husband’s recommended me. She was vague about who it was; I assume it was a former client. I’ll ask again next time I talk to her, so I can thank whoever it was for the referral.”

With a wry smile, she added, “Mrs. Hayes seemed to think it was a miracle we didn’t already have a party scheduled that day. I didn’t bother to mention we’re more likely to be free than booked on any given Saturday.”

Dark-haired, dark-eyed Devin wagged a finger, trying to keep her expression stern rather than amused. “Of course you didn’t mention that. One has to look successful to be successful, right?”

“Exactly.” That was the reason she and Devin had set up the living room of their small, rented house with as much an eye toward hosting potential clients as entertaining friends. The TV was housed in a cabinet with a door they kept closed when not in use. Few knickknacks cluttered the polished surfaces of the tables on either end of the plain, beige couch accessorized with a few colorful throw pillows. The framed posters on the walls were inexpensive, but tasteful.

Bookcases grouped around a round wood table in one corner of the room held albums of photographs and sample materials for the theme parties. The clutter of bookkeeping, order forms and supplies was stashed in the bedrooms and the tiny, barely-one-car garage used only for storage.

She hadn’t needed to show Mia Hayes any of the samples, she mused, glancing at the telephone. Mrs. Hayes had asked only a few questions before booking Shannon’s services. Whoever had passed along the recommendation must have been convincing. Shannon made a mental note to try to find out who it had been. Word of mouth was invaluable in this budding business and she wanted to make sure to express her gratitude.

She glanced at her watch, realizing she would have to try to solve that mystery later. “I’d better get going. Don’t want to be late to work.”

Having spent most of the last night at the hospital where she worked as a Certified Nurse Assistant, Devin yawned and nodded. “I’m headed to bed for a few hours. By the way, when you get home, I want to ask you about someone you met recently. A handsome young doctor?”

Freezing in the process of reaching for her purse, Shannon looked over her shoulder as a vividly clear image of James Stillman popped into her head. Six days had passed since their meeting at the lake, but she still had no trouble recalling every detail of his appearance. She could even still hear his deep, pleasant voice echoing in her ears as he’d asked her to dinner.

“How did you hear about that?”

“Talked to Stacy before work last night. She mentioned him, then asked if I knew him from the hospital. I told her the name doesn’t sound familiar. I don’t know all the med students, of course, only the ones working in post-op during my hours.”

Shannon sighed lightly. Stacy had probably given a dramatically embellished account of her son’s rescue. Who knew what else she’d said?

“Kyle fell off his floating mattress and a nice medical student happened to be there to help him. One of us probably would have noticed and gotten to him in time, but we were very grateful to James for his assistance. We asked him to join us for burgers, he did, it was all very pleasant and then he left. End of story.”

“Hmm.” Devin eyed her assessingly. “How come you didn’t tell me about that before? How come you didn’t ask if I knew him?”

Shannon still wasn’t sure why she hadn’t described the incident to Devin. Maybe because she was still chagrined she and her siblings had been so momentarily lax with watching the kids in the water. She didn’t even want to think about the worst-case outcome of that negligence.

As for the meeting with James, it was a onetime thing, so hardly worth mentioning. Right? “It didn’t come up. We’ve both been so busy lately.”

“Stacy said the guy sure seemed taken with you. Did he ask for your number?”

“No, he didn’t.” She wasn’t lying, she assured herself. Devin hadn’t inquired if James had asked her out.

Her housemate frowned in disapproval. “And you didn’t offer it?”

“I did not. I didn’t even know the guy.”

“According to Stacy, he was a gorgeous doctor-to-be who rescued your nephew and was nice to your aging relatives. What more do you need to know?”

Devin had fallen into the habit of serving as surrogate big sister to Shannon when Stacy wasn’t around. She’d been known to fuss about Shannon’s not-always-healthy eating habits, about her not always getting enough sleep or working too hard at her two jobs. Shannon didn’t like being supervised by her housemate any more than she did by her family. She had learned to be very firm in drawing boundaries with Devin.

Tucking her purse beneath her arm, she reached determinedly for her car keys. “I’m leaving now. Get some sleep, Dev.”

Looking dissatisfied, Devin sighed. “Okay, fine. See you later.”

Shannon opened the front door. “See you.”

Thoughts of James Stillman drifted through her mind as she made the drive to the west Little Rock toy store where she worked part-time. If she were being honest, she would have to admit it hadn’t taken the reminder from her housemate to bring him to her mind. Images of him had popped into her head too many times since their encounter.

He was the first man who’d seriously caught her attention in several months, but she wasn’t convinced she’d been wrong to turn down his invitation. Something inside her had warned that even a simple dinner date with James could lead to complications. Ever since her last painful relationship—the second romantic disaster in her relatively short life—she’d vowed to herself to always listen to her instincts from that point on.

She had just finished assisting a customer with finding a popular doll accessory two hours later when her sixth sense, or whatever it was, kicked into overdrive again. Blinking in a startled reaction to the sudden, unusual tingling feeling, she turned warily.

Looking preppy and gorgeous in a dark blue polo shirt and crisply pressed khaki pants, James Stillman smiled at her from the end of the aisle. “Hello, Shannon.”

Caught off guard by seeing him there—and by the presentiment that had been odd even for her—she gaped at him a moment before regaining her composure. “James. What are you doing here?”

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