When Morning Comes by Francis Ray Page B

table.” She grinned. “Because I grew up with a father and grandfather who like sports, and later a brother who is just as wild about them, I have all the sports channels.”
    â€œI’m not much into sports,” he told her.
    She frowned, and he gave her the pat explanation. “I was always too busy with other things.”
    Lifting a brow, she folded her arms over her breasts. “I just bet you were.”
    Like others, she’d thought he meant women. There had been few dates during high school. Cade’s father was a hard man who kept Cade busy with chores on the small farm in East Texas before and after school and on weekends. Cade was never considered a part of the family. What George Mathis called love, others would call free labor.
    Cade was up by five every day and was seldom in bed before midnight; he never had a free moment to just relax. In college he was too busy studying to impress the man who, no matter what Cade accomplished, never had a kind word to say.
    â€œYou’re wasting time,” he finally told her.
    â€œGoing.” Unfolding her arms, she started down the hall.
    Too keyed up to sit, he wandered around the beautifully decorated room. There were family photos on the white brick fireplace, on the glass end tables. The family was smiling, happy. It was easy to see that they stood together because they cared, not because they were forced to. Cade didn’t have one picture of the people he stayed with the first eighteen years of his life. And he didn’t want one.
    He heard the water running and glanced down the hallway. He imagined the water running over Sabrina’s naked skin before he could stop the image. Cursing his lack of restraint where she was concerned, he grabbed the TV remote. Instead of sports, he let it remain on the news channel, anything to drown out the sound of the water.
    She was off-limits to him. He didn’t date women he worked with or ones who would object when he moved on—and he always did, always would.
    â€œI hope I wasn’t too long.”
    Cade glanced around and simply stared at Sabrina. She was breathtakingly beautiful in a straight white sundress that stopped just above her incredible knees and a hot pink knit short jacket with rosettes. Desire blindsided him, and he realized what bothered him about Sabrina. He was beginning to think of her as a woman he wanted in his bed.
    Frowning, she came to him, placing her small hand on his arm to stare up at him. “What’s the matter? Is it one of your patients?”
    She always thought of others and he couldn’t stop thinking of her. “No.” He picked up the remote, causing her hand to slide off his arm. He wanted too badly for her to keep touching him, for him to touch her.
    â€œLet’s go,” he said, unable to keep the gruffness from his voice, hoping he still had time to stop whatever it was that made his body yearn for hers.

 
    Seven
    Sitting in the passenger seat of Cade’s sports car at the Sonic drive-in, Sabrina silently wondered what had happened between the time she’d left to take a shower and the time she’d returned. Cade had gone from almost teasing to the uptight surgeon. She wanted the other Cade back.
    â€œIs there something wrong with your hamburger?” Cade asked.
    Sabrina glanced down at the bacon cheeseburger. She’d taken one bite since he’d handed it to her. That was at least ten minutes ago.
    â€œI can order you something else.”
    She glanced at him. She could evade the issue or meet it head on. “What changed between the time I went to change and when I returned?”
    Broad shoulders beneath the blue-and-white striped shirt stiffened. She could almost see the wheels turning as he tried to think of an answer without outright lying. A man who didn’t lie. She’d met pitiful few in her lifetime.
    â€œNever mind. I guess I’m not as hungry as I thought I was.” She