Judy Duarte: Under The Mistletoe With John Doe

They’d met at Baylor University, when he’d been a graduate student trying to earn an MBA and she’d been in medical school. She’d found him to be handsome and charming, the kind of man who could have had any woman on campus.

Looking back-and knowing what she did about his cheating nature-she realized he could have slept with the entire female student body and she never would have guessed.

She’d been naive back then, and if there were signs she should have picked up on, she’d missed seeing them. All she’d had to rely on were her feelings about him and her hormones. And boy, had they been wrong.

So how could she trust her instincts about John now, when she had even less to go on about him?

“A couple of police officers came by today,” he said, drawing her from her musing. “They asked about the robbery, but I couldn’t provide them with any information.”

She wished she could promise him that everything would come back to him someday, but there was a strong possibility that he wouldn’t ever remember anything about the assault, just the things leading up to it and afterward.

“Were the officers able to give you any clues to your identity?” she asked.

“They told me that I’d had a little run-in at the bar with two local thugs who were harassing a cocktail waitress. They might have resented my interference and waited for me in the parking lot.”

So John had a heroic nature? Betsy hoped that was the case. She’d hate to think she was drawn to another loser.

Time and again she’d promised herself she wouldn’t let Doug’s deceit completely shatter her ability to trust a man in the future. And each time her father showed a kindness to her ailing mother, each time he’d kissed her cheek or patted her frail knee, Betsy was reminded that good men did exist, that they honored their marriage vows. That they stuck by their women through sickness and health and through thick and thin.

But was John Doe one of them?

She couldn’t be sure. And she feared falling for the wrong man again. That’s why she’d focused on her medical practice after her divorce. And it’s why she’d poured her heart and soul into her patients and the hospital.

After all, she had a skill and a responsibility to heal. And she wasn’t going to let anyone or anything interfere with her calling again.

But now here she was, visiting a man she knew nothing about, thinking about him in a purely feminine way. And while she’d tried to convince herself that her interest in him was influenced by a desire to see him heal and get on with his life, she knew better than that.

She was attracted to her patient.

Or rather, to a patient. John Doe was no longer hers, so she could easily nullify the rule, at least in her mind. But her attraction to him was increasing by leaps and bounds, and that was unsettling.

He reached over and tapped the top of her hand, which was resting on the bedrail. His fingertips lingered on her skin for only a second or two, but the heat of his touch sent her nerve endings helter-skelter, her blood racing.

“What’s the matter?” he asked. “What’s bothering you?”

“Nothing.” She tried to smile, to shake it off. “Why do you ask?”

“Because you’re wearing a pensive expression, one that tells me you’re a thousand miles away.”

“No, I’m still here.” She forced her smile to deepen, her gaze to zero in on his.

He’d obviously picked up on the fact that she was distracted-but it wasn’t because of another case or dilemma that worried her. It was clearly him causing her mind and thoughts to wander.

And she couldn’t risk letting that happen. Whatever was going on between them had to be one-sided. And even if it wasn’t, she couldn’t stay at his bedside a moment longer. Not when her body was going whacky, just being around him.

So she glanced at her wristwatch, then back at him. “I have a meeting with a colleague before my shift starts, which means I need to go.”

Honesty was always her policy, so even little white lies never sat easy with her. But she couldn’t think of another excuse to leave.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, as if her visits had become a ritual they both could count on-and look forward to.

She wanted to remind him that it wasn’t a done deal, but she’d already tossed out Doc’s offer for him to stay on the ranch. And John had agreed.

So she stepped away from his bed. “Have a good evening.”

“You, too.”

As she turned and walked out of his room, she picked up her pace as though she could outrun all she’d been feeling back there, but reality dogged her down the corridor and into the elevator.

John had only touched her-and just briefly at that. But the fact that she’d reacted so strongly to something so minor left her unbalanced and skittish.

She did her best to regain control of her senses, but it wasn’t easy.

When the elevator doors opened on the second floor and she stepped into the corridor that led to the cafeteria, she tried another tack.

Okay, so she was sexually attracted to John Doe. What was wrong with that? It’s not as though she had to actually act upon that attraction.

And there was probably a very good reason for it, too-one that went beyond the man’s looks and the intoxicating sound of his voice.

She’d sworn off men and sex ever since she’d told Doug to pack his things and move out of the house they’d shared when they’d been together. She’d been determined to focus on her career, on her patients. And she wouldn’t let a relationship get in the way of that again.

But she was only human, with sexual needs and desires that had been dormant for too long. So it was just her hormones at play. Her body was merely reacting to its basic need for sex and zooming in on a possible candidate.

That’s all it was.

She just needed a sexual release. But where did she find a potential partner, especially in Brighton Valley? And what about the hours she kept?

It was going to be tough. Especially when John Doe was the first sexual interest she’d had since she and Doug had split.

But there was no way she’d sleep with a patient. Especially one who had no idea where he’d come from or where he was going next.

Of course, with John Doe living only a couple of yards away from her house, she feared she was fighting a losing battle.

After her shift ended the next morning, Betsy once again took the elevator up to the third floor. But this time she was going to stop by John’s room for practical reasons.

When she reached his doorway, she found him standing at the window, looking toward a copse of trees and scanning the hills that surrounded the medical center.

He was wearing a hospital gown, which was tied in back, and she couldn’t help but smile. Those ugly, frumpy garments weren’t the least bit flattering on patients, but the one he had on looked pretty darn good on him.

She had to admit that that was because his loose-fitting gown gaped open a bit, revealing a stretch of skin at the shoulder-and another near his butt.

As if sensing her presence, he turned and met her gaze.

“Good morning,” she said. “It’s nice to see you up and around.”

He shot her a smile that nearly took her breath away. “I was just checking out the view.”

She’d been doing the same thing, only not on the rolling hills and the stark bushes that had been full of colorful blooms a few months earlier.

He made his way back toward the bed, but instead of throwing back the blanket and climbing between the sheets, he took a seat in the chair next to it. “I’m really looking forward to getting out of here. I keep sensing that I have something to do, someplace to be.”