The Nurse's Secret Suitor Read online

  Caleb looked up. To his credit, he looked surprised. “Pardon?”

  This close, incandescent lighting illuminated the strength of his jaw, the chisel of his cheek, the divot gracing his chin and the nice curve of his mouth. When had he grown so appealing?

  Kate settled deeper in her chair and looked away, scolding herself for finding him so. The last thing she needed was attraction to someone destined for the front lines. Too many families—hers included—were ripped apart by war. That wasn’t what Kate wanted for herself, when it came to love. “You’re like my shadow.”

  “Whaddaya mean?” For an imposing, well-built military guy, he looked skittish all of a sudden.

  “First at Bri’s cabin this weekend, and now here at the Eagle Point Civic Center meeting.”

  Guarded relief settled over his face. “I was at both places before you got there,” he teased in lighthearted tones. “Maybe you’re stalking me.”

  Kate was shocked and a little appalled at the way his words made her blush. To hide her face, she became extraordinarily interested in the Frontline Army magazine he held. Nostalgia marched through her at the images of military medics tending service members. Quit it. That’s your old life, remember?

  She cleared her throat. “How long are you here?”

  “An hour, same as you.” He smirked.

  “Ha. Always the joker. I meant how long stateside?”

  “Four months. I leave after Bri’s wedding.”

  “At least you get to be here for that, before throwing yourself back into d—action.” She’d almost said danger.

  He didn’t need to be reminded.

  “Yeah.” He cleared his throat and seemed fidgety. Was she making him uncomfortable? Replaying their conversation in her head, she realized she’d probably sounded too accusatory when she sat down. Remorse filled her. She was in a crabby mood, thanks to all the issues—personal and professional—taking up her time, but that was no excuse for being rude to her best friend’s hero brother. Especially since he had such a short amount of time to enjoy being home before he was sent off again.

  Kate admired his courage, yet feared for his safety. She’d patched up too many gung-ho brave souls just like him. She cared, for Bri’s sake of course. Caleb was all the flesh-and-blood family Bri had left.

  Keep him safe, Lord.

  Maybe Kate could befriend Caleb while he was in town. It would be nice to have someone to spend time with, particularly since Bri would be too busy to give either one of them much of her attention. Bri would want that for her brother and, like Bri, the scope of Kate’s problems tended to dwindle when she focused on someone else’s issues.

  She stuck out her hand. “Let’s start over. Friends?”

  He took her hand, then glanced to her face before looking away. He was acting so strange. Guilty, almost. Looking back, he nodded. “I’d like that.”

  They fell silent as the meeting was called to order. Kate tried to pay attention as the monotone mayor droned on, but found herself distracted by the solid, shy man beside her.

  Lem Bates, Lauren’s grandfather, approached them after the initial information was presented. “Caleb and Kate, can you two head up the storybook ball props?”

  “Us? As in, together?” Caleb raked a hand over his buzz.

  Lem grinned. “You two are the youngest whippersnappers on the committee. Some of the props get heavy after they’re built. We could use your physical strength and stamina. Besides, building those props could take long hours. I think you’d work well together.”

  Caleb flicked a glance her way and back to Lem. “Me, too.”

  If it didn’t bother him, then it wouldn’t bother Kate. “Props sound like fun.” Her phone bleeped a text from Mom. Kate stilled when she read that Grandpa’s vent settings were adjusted as much as they could be. Kate swallowed, realizing he may be nearing a point when there’d be nothing else the doctors could do.

  As Kate readied to text Mom back with “Should I come?” she was horrified to find her fingers trembling on the itty keypad. She was also mortified to feel the heat of Caleb’s stare on her. She looked up and tried to neutralize her features.

  “Everything okay?” He glanced at the phone pointedly.

  After debating a second, she tilted the message screen so he could see. “My grandpa’s having problems. Could you let Bri know?”

  He nodded slowly. “How about you, Kate? Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” She despised the quaver in her voice and the draw of his.

  He raised his chin and held her gaze, making her feel her facade was far from effective. He shifted toward her and the text.

  Something about the set of his shoulders seemed strikingly familiar all of a sudden. Silly, right? Why, she could count on one hand the number of times she’d seen him. Must be the sleepless nights spent awake, praying her guts out for Grandpa and her parents, playing tricks on her mind.

  She pressed her phone into her purse, wishing she could tuck uncertainty away, too. She shrugged, trying to project calm. “With Grandpa, it is what it is.”

  Concern in Caleb’s eyes only intensified. Kate rose from the table both to escape his overwhelming empathy and to visit the ladies’ room.

  Once at the door, she peered back, glad to see Caleb now occupied with scrolling and poking through his smartphone instead of scanning the pointless, dumb emotions pulling at her heart and playing out over her face, making her feel incredibly exposed and weak.

  Lem, watching them both more shrewdly than Kate was comfortable with, seemed to sense her escalating discomfort and moved on to the next two people on the committee.

  * * *

  Caleb didn’t feel a bit sorry for what he was about to do.

  Kate might have said she was fine, but the tremors taking over her eyelids and fingertips spoke of high stress levels.

  Her mouth might have uttered it is what it is, but he knew good and well “it” was breaking her apart. He’d be happy to be her shield, but she wasn’t ready to let him as Caleb. What about BB?

  While Kate composed herself in the bathroom, he texted his sister and asked her to bring the note he’d tentatively written Kate as BB. He’d planned to leave it on her car after her next on-call night shift at the trauma center. But he’d use it now.

  Via return text, Bri agreed to sneak it onto Kate’s car. Several moments later, a second text from Bri confirmed the delivery had been planted on the Jeep, parked where no one could see the benevolent transaction.

  The words he’d written ran through his mind and he hoped they’d bring healing from uncertainty and worry.

  Hello again, Sunshine,

  Hoping you remember that not even the darkest nights can overtake the day. Do you know your eyes shine like the sun when you smile? Shine often.

  BB

  Once the meeting concluded, Caleb and Kate stuck around to discuss the next steps of their project and walked out together. Crossing the parking lot, he peered up the sidewalk for an eatery. Everything he’d known was gone, and not a lot of new joints had popped up to take their places. Sad. But it only highlighted how important to the town the work could be that Kate, Mitch, Ian and Bri were doing.

  Folks were depending on the trauma center and their lodge to dig the town out of financial ruin.

  Too bad he wouldn’t be here to see it built back to the bustle it’d had when he and Bri were little. Nostalgia and homesickness hit, nearly making him wish he didn’t have to leave in four months. Caleb squelched the thought and squared his shoulders.

  He’d never make ranger school with that kind of waver.

  “I’m starving,” he said, fighting to overcome the shyness that made him hesitate to talk to her. “Where’s a good place to eat around here now?”

  Kate studied him carefully then gestured across
the street. “One block down there’s a joint called Sully’s. They have to-die-for chili burgers.” She peered around. “Where’s your car?”

  Caleb chewed the inside of his cheek and feigned interest in the ant colony invading fresh-cut grass near the sidewalk.

  Kate turned a one-eighty. “Seriously, where’s your ride?”

  Gut churning, Caleb kicked the brick steps. Cleared his throat. “Uh, right there.”

  Kate stared at the bright purple bicycle and stepped over to brush a hand along the white wicker basket in front. Her finger trailed along big neon plastic flowers plastered to it.

  “It’s Bri’s. I sold my truck to help pay for lodge repairs.” Caleb’s ears flamed. Kate would forever razz him about riding a girlie bike. It couldn’t have saved his ego a little by being a mountain bike or a masculine color, either.

  Kate slowly turned. Respect rather than mischief twinkled from her eyes. “You mean you rode this? Straight through town where anyone could see it?”

  He shrugged. Looked away. “I said I’d help out with the committee, and I wasn’t going to go back on my word. Pride comes last. Plus, I didn’t wanna take Bri’s car. She has Tia.”

  Kate was next to him in a flash, lifting his face much the same way he’d lifted hers that night on the patio.

  “Caleb Landis, you are more of a man than any truck-toting male around. I don’t know of a single other guy who’d have the guts to ride that through town.” She released his face but the soft sensation that her fingers left remained. “Still, it’ll be dark when we get done eating. So let’s put your bike in my Jeep and I’ll drive you home. And, for future reference, call me for rides.”

  He wasn’t about to argue with that. Not only would it save him some face over the girlie bike, it would afford him a few more moments with her to find out how her parents and granddad were doing.

  They started down the sidewalk when Kate detoured down the alley toward her Jeep with Caleb following, leading his bike. His palms moistened. He hadn’t wanted her to find the BB note in his presence. Caleb lagged back.

  She turned. “Aren’t you coming?”

  She flashed a grin of such warmth it made him not only walk into a decorative, steel light pole, but grab it and say, “Excuse me.”

  Kate snickered enough it started him laughing, too. Felt good. Furthermore, she looked burdenless, all incapacitated with laughter. So he was glad she did, even at his expense. He just wished he could get past feeling as klutzy as an elephant on ice skates around her. The only time it had gone away was when he’d been BB.

  At her car, she initially passed the windshield and then arced backward. Her cheeks tinged red as she slipped the note from her wipers.

  Caleb angled away, trying his best to look simultaneously patient, oblivious and bored. In reality, his heart thumped like a war drum.

  Despite his best intentions, Caleb could not keep from watching Kate’s quiet yet profound reaction as she read. Her shoulders relaxed and the twin dimples that occasionally accompanied her megawatt smiles peeked through.

  Bri was right. The note lifted Kate’s burden. For now.

  He saw the moment she realized that the first note he’d left at EPTC with her mask wasn’t going to be a one-time thing—that her bandit would continue to reach out to her. And as long as he lived, he’d never forget the look of tangible relief. Her chin wobbled precariously. She covered it with her hand before he could see for more than an instant, but he didn’t have to see to know.

  The bandit’s kind gesture almost moved her to tears.

  He looked away, partly to provide her emotions a cove of privacy but mostly because if he didn’t, he’d rush over there and do something more stupid than walk into a light pole. Like hug her.

  The note was enough. It would have to be enough.

  If he was closer to God and sure he’d be heard, he’d beg God to let it be so.

  A few moments later, as if aware of his scrutiny, she snapped to attention, tucked the note into her snakeskin handbag and schooled her features. Nevertheless, she seemed stronger now, taller and more peaceful. As they would say in military speak—at ease.

  Caleb bit back a thankful smile and experienced profound relief that Kate didn’t seem to suspect he’d written the note or that his sister had delivered it secretly.

  “Your bike can go here,” Kate said as she popped open the back. “And once it’s stowed away, can you grab that bag?” Kate nodded to the military rucksack in her backseat as she hefted a camouflage duffel bag. She must have used both overseas because they were well-worn and military.

  What was she doing with the bags? He restrained his curiosity, figuring that soon enough he’d be able to see for himself.

  “Think you’ll ever go back?” Caleb asked as they marched with the bags back through the alley toward the main street.

  “To Sully’s? I go there all the time. I love it.”

  “I meant the military. Heard you were top-notch.”

  Her face hardened. “I have no interest in that anymore. I served my time.” She smiled stiffly up at him, which almost made him trip over himself as he paused to let her pass. “I do have an interest in downing a Sully’s Super Chili Burger, however.” She grabbed his shirt and steered him there.

  Bossy little thing. Of course, she’d been a drill sergeant.

  Once inside the diner, she advanced as though she owned the place and set the duffel inside the owner’s office door. She gestured for Caleb to do the same with the rucksack he carried. Reading the confusion on his face, she answered his silent question.

  “Sully’s owner reminds me of my grandpa. They were war vets and served at the same time. Sully lost all his military stuff in a house fire. All he has left is what’s in here.” She gestured at war memorabilia on the diner walls. “I figure this stuff means more to him than to me.”

  Alarm trickled through Caleb as well as a sense that she was making a rash decision. “You’re really sure about getting rid of these?”

  “I am.” She lifted her chin, face dared him to talk her out of it. “That’s my old life. I don’t want reminders of it.” She raked harsh eyes over his T-shirt’s army triathlon emblem.

  He could see that Kate’s walls were granite-hard and fortress-high now, unlike the vulnerability she’d displayed in the garden at Mitch’s wedding. If she’d only open up like that to BB, then that was yet another reason why the masquerade needed to continue.

  Caleb glanced through Sully’s office at Kate’s hard-earned and respectably decorated past, abandoned and crumpled in two heaping bags on the shoe-scuffed floor, and squelched the urge to tell her she might regret giving it all up and walking away. After all, did he really know her well enough to make that call?

  You know her better than she realizes, down to the satiny feel of her lips and how her chin quivers when she cries, something whispered inside him. Probably his unwieldy conscience.

  Would Kate be livid once she found out he was BB? Probably. But if BB made her life better now, the wrath was worth it. Right?

  “You look like something’s on your mind.” Expressive eyes watched him intently as he motioned her into a booth. Hair spilled over her shoulders as she scooted in. She’d grown her dark brown, cropped military hair out to luxurious lengths.

  He almost commented on it but clamped his mouth shut, sat and stared ahead. Some things were better left unsaid. “It’ll work itself out.” He slid a menu her way.

  She leaned in. “Sometimes talking about it helps.”

  A laugh choked out of him. “Trust me, not this time.”

  The waitress brought ice water. Kate sipped hers like a regal princess. He resisted the urge to guzzle his. Manners were in order. She was, after all, a lady. “Thanks, Caleb.”

  “For?”

  She shrugged. “Friendship. Ha
nging out. For getting me.”

  “I get you?”

  She grinned. “Yeah. I think you do.”

  Caleb sliced a piece of nut-dusted French bread for her.

  “I could use a friend,” she added. “Bri’s strapped with wedding plans. I’m not the type who thrives alone. I get into too much trouble.” Mischief brightened her gorgeous eyes.

  He laughed and tried not to dwell on how astonishingly pretty she was when she smiled. “Somehow, I can believe that.”

  “See? I told you that you get me. It’s proof we’re going to be great friends.”

  The waitress, a pale-skinned waif with coal-black hair, came back and took their orders, then left them alone again. “I’m glad we’re both comfortable with just being friends,” Kate continued. “Otherwise, people in town might try to fix us up.”

  Caleb struggled not to choke on his water. “R-really?”

  Kate nodded. “Yeah, besides our waitress and a few others, there aren’t many people our age in town, so everyone seems to think a newly arrived single man must be my Prince Charming.”

  “But that’s not what you think,” he said, even though he already knew the answer.

  “Nope. I’m not interested in you romantically. It’s nothing personal!” she hastened to assure him. “You seem like a great guy, and I’m glad we’re going to be friends. But you’re military all the way, and that’s not what I’m looking for.”

  He nodded. “Fair enough. I’ll only be around for a few months anyway, and then hopefully it’s off to ranger school, so it’s not like I have time for romance, either.” He thought he saw a flash of disappointment cross her face, but it was gone before he could be sure.

  “So we’ll make the most of the months as friends. After all, we’ll be spending a lot of time together with fund-raiser meetings and the work we’ll do together to ready props. Plus, Ian texted Mitch and informed him you applied at EPTC part-time as a surgery tech. Mitch called Ian first thing this morning.”

  Caleb perked up. “You think I got the job?”

  Kate grinned. “I mess with his and Mitch’s to-do list all the time. You’re top of the list for him to call for an interview. Well, after SpongeBob.”