Almost Twilight by Teresa McCarthy Page B

had to check on his
patient to see if she needed anything else. He was responsible for her now. It wasn’t
as if his father was telling him what to do. This was his job as a
professional.
    “You
are not to bother the pretty lady.” Selena’s command came from the open kitchen
window.
    Lifting
his head, Rafe stopped in front of a low hanging palm tree. “What did you say?”
he asked in disbelief.
    “You
are not to go into that room.”
    He
ate up the distance to the condo and faced Selena at the door. “I’m a doctor.”
    Her
large form blocked him from entering. “Yes, and you are a man.”
    Rafe
dumped his coffee in the flower bed. This was getting ridiculous. “So?”
    Selena
let out a loud, “Hmphh.” 
    Some
sixth sense told Rafe this was war.
    “You
are a doctor, you figure it out,” she said and turned around, slamming the
screen door in his face.
    Rafe’s
nostrils flared with fury. But he knew if he stepped into that condo and
disobeyed Selena’s orders, there would be hell to pay. “For crying out loud, Selena,
is nothing sacred anymore? Not even my own home?”
    Mumbling
to himself, he stepped around back and walked down the trail to the small shed
located about two hundred feet from his condo. Once inside, he fired up his truck.
    “You
want anything while I go into town,” he cried to Selena as he pulled in front
of the condo.
    Her
purple turban popped in front of the screen door. “Tell Joe, I won’t be home
tonight. Tell him not to pick me up. I’ll stay with the pretty lady.”
    “Joe
won’t like that.”
    Selena
shrugged and disappeared from sight.
    Joe
was Selena’s husband, a beanpole of a man who was the only male on the island
who didn’t cater to Selena’s commands. But the man loved her more than the
ocean was blue, and being as it was, Joe liked his wife by his side every night.
    No,
thought Rafe as he pressed his foot to the gas, Joe wouldn’t be happy to know
that his wife was staying the night. And Rafe wasn’t happy that Candy was
staying the night.
    Rafe
swerved out of the way of a man on his bicycle and realized Candy Richards was
becoming more to him than what Selena called a pretty lady .
    And
it was his father’s fault, every single solitary problem with Candy. She was
seeping into his blood like a disease.
    He
had to hold fast to his cold bedside manner with that lady. Candy was
everything he wanted in a wife, spunk, kindness, and a lust for life. But he
could never have that, because when he had seen her rolling on the floor in
pain, his heart had stopped dead.
    Dead
like Tanner’s first wife, a beautiful woman whom he had tried to help, but
couldn’t. Dead like his mother whom he loved and lost.
    No,
patient mortality was about all he could deal with as a doctor. Falling in love
right now would destroy everything he had worked for.
    Candy
Richards touched parts of his heart and soul that he thought were never there. But
he was a doctor, and as such, his patients came first. If that meant not having
a wife to worry over, then so be it.
     
    Candy
listened intently to the exchange of snapping voices outside and stifled a
laugh. Selena was not one to lose a fight. Rafe would never win anything with
that lady.
    Grinning
up at the ceiling fan, Candy thought for an absurd moment that maybe Selena was
right. Maybe Rafe did like her more than just a little bit.
    She
was turning her head toward the window when the sound of an engine roared in
her ears. She stilled as Rafe’s voice floated above the low hum of the vehicle.
He had a car!
    “He
lied to me!”
    Candy
threw the covers off the bed. That man lied to me about getting a ride to
town? 
    Fury
rippled through her. Rafe had distinctly told her there was no way to get back
to town until later, but he seemed to have transportation now. It couldn’t have
been Selena’s car, because the lady had just asked Rafe to tell her husband not
to pick her up.
    “Why,
that rat!” 
    Candy
sank her head against her pillow