Deb Kastner - Hart's Harbor

She looked at him, her gaze wide, and her full lips turned down with just enough stubbornness to hint of a pout. “Don’t be discouraging.”

“Well, it’s true. And you’re avoiding my question. What’s wrong with here, anyway?”

Gracie just stared back at him without answering, her sparkling eyes full of the thoughts she refused to speak aloud.

He stopped and turned in front of her, forcing her to look up at him. “Gracie, why do you want to run away from home?”

The silence was deafening, at least from Kyle’s point of view. He made it a rule to stay out of others’ personal lives, and the one time he’d made an exception, he’d managed to stun his usually chatter-friendly nurse into complete silence.

“I’m afraid I can’t do Paris this afternoon,” he added when she continued to stare at him as if he’d grown a second nose. “I have patients scheduled for this afternoon, and I wouldn’t want to let them down. I’m sure you have patients of your own to attend to. But we can do lunch if you’d like.”

“Lunch?” She still looked dazed, but at least he had her talking.

“Sure. You know, a little food, a cup of strong, hot coffee…we can set every tongue at the Women’s League wagging without even leaving town. Stir up a little gossip, you know?”

She arched an eyebrow, and he chuckled softly at his own joke. “What do you say? Does that sound good to you or not?”

He turned to her side, put a hand to the small of her back and gestured her to the right, down another hallway that led to the rear entrance to the building. He didn’t really want any tongues wagging—not with his name attached to them, anyway. He was staying here in Safe Harbor to lay low for a while, not to become a public spectacle ripe for town gossip.

But for some unexplained reason, he felt obligated to Gracie Adams. Somewhere within the conversation, he had become personally committed to getting that beaming smile back on her lovely face, even at the expense of his own anonymity.

As if summoned by his reflection, her smile returned, illuminating her face like the lighthouse at the end of town. “It has potential.”

“What has potential? The wagging tongues, or the food?”

She pursed her lips, then answered decisively. “Food.”

He chuckled and shook his head. “So what are you in the mood for? What sounds good to you? The Bistro or Harry’s Kitchen?”

He realized as soon as he asked the question how obvious, almost foolish, it sounded. The Bistro was clearly the type of restaurant tantamount to Gracie’s unique style and personality. A real gentleman would not have hesitated. He’d simply have taken her to the classy joint.

“Harry’s,” she said immediately, to Kyle’s surprise. She tugged on his arm so he would face her. “And I’m buying.”

His pride welled up in quick defense. “I was the one who suggested it, Gracie. I’m buying,” he retorted in a vain attempt to salvage what was left of his injured male dignity.

Gracie snorted a laugh and took his arm, pulling him down the hallway. What annoyed him most was that he let her do it.

“Don’t be stubborn, Hart. I’m going to buy you lunch, and you’re going to let me.” The pixieish smile she flashed him let him know without a doubt she’d won this battle.

And she knew it.

“Do you always get what you want?” he asked, holding the door for her as they exited the Safe Harbor Family Practice building where they’d both spent a busy morning helping patients. The sun was shining brightly, and they both donned their sunglasses as they walked.

Gracie shrugged, appearing not to take the least offense at his less than innocent question. “Oh, pretty much.”

She paused and met his gaze, her smile fading into a playful pout that left him wondering what she was really thinking. “Except when it really counts.”

“Leaving Safe Harbor,” he supplied for her, taking a stab in the dark.

She nodded.

Kyle wondered not for the first time why Gracie was so intent on leaving such a charming small town. The town she’d been born and raised in.

He was certainly glad to be in Safe Harbor, and he was especially glad Gracie was here now, with him. Apart from his friends Robert and Wendy McGuire, who’d been fundamental in bringing him to Safe Harbor a couple of months ago, Gracie was one of the few people here with whom he felt genuinely comfortable talking, at least beyond exchanging simple, civil niceties.

She was brutally honest, but he found he liked that in a woman—or at least, this woman.

Besides, she was a real trip to be around. He never knew what to expect with her. Never knew what she would say or do. In his staid and somewhat stoic life, she was a refreshing breath of air.

He’d never before been in as intimate a situation with her as this lunch situation proposed, but she was a close friend of the McGuires and had been introduced to him early on in his stay at Safe Harbor as someone he particularly ought to get to know. Perhaps there had even been a certain suggestive gleam in his old friend Robert’s eyes. And since she also worked in the clinic with him, he’d had ample opportunity to get to know her.

At least superficially.

This was the first time she’d shared any information of any real depth with him, though she was certainly friendly enough in offering cursory details of her life. He’d always known there was more to her than she was letting on, layers she was merely hinting at in her conversation.

But whatever she had tucked away in that pretty head of hers had remained that way, and he’d respected that privacy up until now.

He had his own secrets to keep, too.

But now, he’d accidentally scratched beneath the surface of Gracie’s because of the guess he’d made about her desire to leave Safe Harbor. Which was, he mused uneasily, nothing more than conjecture for him.

Who would have known a man like him, who preferred a medical manual to any kind of emotion whatsoever, would be able to come remotely close to—never mind actually being able to guess—the inner motives of a young woman with so much going for her right here in town?

Gracie loudly cleared her throat, and Kyle was pulled from his musings to discover she was staring at him as if he’d grown two heads.

He shrugged his shoulders and flashed her a crooked, apologetic grin.

“Let’s walk to the restaurant,” Gracie suggested, stepping one foot off the curb and looking back, eagerly holding her hand out for him to follow and smiling in earnest.

Kyle readily agreed. How could he resist? It was a warm spring afternoon, slightly exceptional for May in Wisconsin, though in fact he wouldn’t know personally since this was his first, and probably only, year in the state, having been born and bred in the Lone Star State.

Texas.

Kyle took a deep, ragged breath and forced his dark memories as deeply as they’d go into the back recesses of his mind. Now wasn’t the time to be treading back on his melancholy. He’d already been brooding enough in poor Gracie’s company.

It was a wonderful, sunshine-filled day, and he was with a beautiful woman. The air was ripe with spring, with the pungent scent of budding flowers and fresh green grass just after its first spring mow.

A man couldn’t ask for more blessings than that, now could he?

Gracie, Kyle realized with a start, had been chattering along as they went, while he’d been completely consumed by his thoughts. And, he also realized bluntly, he hadn’t a single clue as to what she had said.

She was quiet now, though, observing him with a tantalizing tilt of her head that sent the sunlight shimmering off the highlights of her red hair.

“A penny for your thoughts,” she said, her voice rich and warm.