“Believe me, Autumn, I understand,” Emily replied reassuringly. “Now you know why I’ve been running myself ragged ever since he learned to walk. He’s so darned fast!”
“They all are,” Jeff agreed with a chuckle. “Take it from an expert in treating bumps and cuts while listening to distraught mothers saying they just took their eyes off the little darlings for a minute.”
“You scared the hell out of me,” Webb informed Autumn with a hand pressed dramatically to the area near his heart. “When you screamed and threw the phone down, I nearly had a heart attack.”
“Thanks again for coming after me, Webb,” Emily told him, giving him a smile that brought a flush to his tanned cheeks. “I know it’s not serious, but you were right about me wanting to be here with Ryan. Mr. Dawson said I could finish the reports tomorrow. He’s very understanding about my obligations to Ryan.”
Autumn didn’t ask how Webb had known where to find Emily. She’d suspected that the two had been in close touch for the past few weeks, though neither had been overly talkative on the developing relationship.
“Want to skip the wedding tonight, Autumn?” Webb suggested, glancing down at his casual clothes and her jeans and T-shirt. “We don’t really have time to change now, anyway. I’m sure Carl will understand when we explain what happened.”
Autumn agreed heartily, welcoming the excuse. Webb and Emily took Ryan home a few minutes later, leaving Autumn alone in the examining room with Jeff. She swallowed a lump in her throat and gave him a shaky smile. “Thanks, Jeff.”
“No problem.” He stepped closer to her, dropping his hands on her shoulders. “How are you? You were so pale earlier that I thought I was going to have to treat you as well as Ryan.”
She grimaced. “I just felt so terrible about him hurting himself while I was supposed to be watching him.”
Jeff pulled her the few inches remaining between them and wrapped his arms comfortingly around her. “It wasn’t your fault, honey. I wasn’t exaggerating when I said that accidents like this happen all the time. Actually, you were quite efficient and resourceful. You brought him straight to me without panicking, and you had him calmed down so that we could treat him easily. Until we had to wrap his fingers, of course.”
Autumn managed a chuckle. “He hated that, didn’t he?”
“They all do. Kids don’t like having any part of themselves bound. Too restricting.”
She leaned back in his arms and smiled up at him. “You’re a very good doctor, Jeff Bradford. If I had kids, I’d want you to be the one taking care of them.”
His eyes darkened dramatically. “I fully intend to be the one taking care of your kids, Autumn Reed.” He kissed her before she could respond, the embrace starting out light and comforting but quickly turning to searing passion.
Mindful of their surroundings, she gulped and pushed herself hastily out of his arms, refusing to consider the message he’d not so subtly sent her. “I know you were about to leave,” she told him, preventing herself from babbling only with a great effort, “so I won’t keep you.”
“You don’t really think I’m going to let you go that easily, do you?” he inquired, watching her with amused understanding. “Now that your other plans have been canceled, you have no excuse for not having dinner with me.”
She tried, anyway. “I’m not really dressed to go out.” Her hand swept the air between them, indicating the contrast between her jeans and T-shirt and his dress slacks, shirt and tie.
“We’ll go to my place,” he offered immediately. “I’ll put some steaks on the grill.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” she demurred, knowing what would happen if they were alone at his house.
“Autumn, I’m offering dinner. I won’t ravish you.” His eyes glinted suddenly with mischief. “Unless you want to be ravished, of course,” he added.
She stifled a sigh, knowing she was going to accept. She’d been such an intelligent person before she’d met Jeff Bradford, she thought. Whatever happened to all that common sense she’d once prided herself on possessing?
Jeff drove his BMW home, and Autumn followed in her Fiero. She talked to him as he started the grill and put the steaks on, explaining that Emily’s baby-sitter had called earlier to say she’d been detained, which was why Autumn had been in charge of Ryan when he’d burned himself. While the steaks were cooking, Jeff excused himself to change out of his work clothes and into jeans. Autumn sat by the pool and sipped a cool drink while he changed. She’d love to swim in that pool, she thought wistfully, but of course she didn’t have a suit with her. She was musing over tantalizing images of skinny-dipping there with Jeff when he rejoined her. If he noticed her heightened color, he wisely made no comment.
After dinner they watched the episode of Jeff’s soap opera that he’d taped earlier that day. Autumn teased him about his absorption in the story, though she secretly found his weakness appealing. Of course, she found everything about him appealing, she admitted reluctantly. And that was the problem.
“I know you don’t like Dr. Noble, but you have to admit the guy’s a pretty good actor,” Jeff was saying when he regained her attention. “I don’t know what his real name is, but he seems ready for feature films to me, though he’s still young.”
“His name’s Lonnie O’Neal, and he’s twenty-nine,” Autumn replied without thinking. “And you can bet he’s got his eye on Hollywood. He’ll jump at the right role when it’s offered. He’s intended to be a star for years, and he hasn’t let anything stand in his way so far. I doubt that he’s changed since I knew him.”
“Since you knew him?” Jeff repeated, turning on the couch to stare at her. “You never told me you knew him.”
She realized what she’d done. Her thoughts had been so caught up in her confused feelings about Jeff that she’d talked without considering her words. “I knew him,” she admitted. “Quite well, actually.”
Jeff’s brows drew sharply downward. “You mean you and he were—”
She shook her head quickly. “Oh, no, not me. Summer. Lonnie and Summer were engaged six years ago. She was crazy about him, though I always thought he was shallow and vain. They were both theater arts majors at UALR—the University of Arkansas at Little Rock—and they planned to become stars together. Then Summer had a motorcycle accident, and Lonnie walked out on her before she even got out of the hospital.”
“He did what?”