Return of the Last McKenna (Harlequin Romance) by Shirley Jump Page A

settled hard and
bitter in Brody’s stomach. Did he want to see Kate living with that the rest of
her life?
    He wasn’t here to assuage his own pain. He was here to help her
with hers.
    “How did you…” she took a breath, let it out again, “how did
you get past that loss?”
    “For a long time, I blamed myself,” Brody said, his mind
drifting back to those difficult days in med school. “For a while, I thought I
should do something else, something outside of medicine. I felt so damned
guilty, like you do.”
    She nodded, mute.
    “He was always joking, that patient of mine. It got so that I
even kidded him about walking the streets of Boston, told him to keep an eye
out. He thought that was the funniest damned thing he ever heard. It became a
running joke between us. He’d thank me for stitching him up and joke that he’d
be back for another appointment next week. I did the same thing you did, Kate, I
blamed myself. What if I didn’t joke with him? What if I’d lectured him about
being careful?” He tossed the remains of the leaf onto the ground and turned to
her. “For weeks, I was stuck, like you. Then I realized I wasn’t doing myself,
or his memory, any good.” His gaze swept over Kate’s delicate features. He
thought of all she had told him in the last few days, and of what Finn had said.
Do something proactive. That was what Brody had done all those years ago, and
what Kate needed to do now. “I ended up going down to city hall and petitioning
them for an audio crosswalk at the intersection where my patient was hit. The
kind that beeps, warns people with vision problems. It might have been too late
for him, but it wasn’t for the next person. Doing that helped me a lot. It made
me move forward.”
    “That’s what I need to do.” She sighed. “Someday.”
    Then he knew how he could help her. How he could get her out of
that self-imposed cement. Something bigger, better than baking cupcakes and
delivering desserts. “How do you feel about taking a trip to Weymouth this
afternoon?”
    “Weymouth? Why?”
    “Let’s go look at that location you were considering. See if
it’s good enough for another Nora’s Sweet Shop.”
    “Oh, Brody, I can’t—”
    “Can’t? Or won’t? I’ll be done with patients at three, and last
I checked, the sign on the door said you close at three. I’d say that’s a sign
we should go. Do something proactive, Kate, and maybe…” his hand covered hers,
“maybe then you can move forward again.”
    She studied him for a second then a smile curved across her
face. “You’re not going to let me say no, are you?”
    “Not on your life.”
    “Okay. Meet me at the shop at three. I’ll give the realtor a
call this morning.”
    He got to his feet, put out a hand and hauled her to her feet,
too. Now she stood close, so close, a strong breeze would have brought them
together. His thoughts swirled around the sweet temptation of Kate Spencer. Her
emerald eyes, her beautiful smile, her slender frame. And then to her lips,
parted slightly, as if begging him to kiss them. How he wanted to, and oh how he
shouldn’t. “Then it’s a date.”
    * * *
    A date.
    Kate pondered those words all day while she worked. Joanne had
called and said she’d be tied up for a few more days with her daughter. “She’s
finding out a new baby is a lot more exhausting than she thought,” Joanne said,
“and my son-in-law couldn’t take any more time off from work to help her. Are
you sure you’re going to be okay without me?”
    “I have temporary help,” Kate said. “You just enjoy that new
grandbaby.” She and Joanne chatted a bit more about the new baby, then Kate hung
up. She glanced at the clock, saw the hands slowly marking time until Brody
arrived.
    Nerves fluttered in her stomach. Crazy. He might have used the
word date, but that didn’t mean he meant it. They
were going to look at a piece of real estate, for goodness’ sake, not go
dancing.
    That word conjured up the