“Sam.” She cut in firmly. “You won’t recover unless you take care of yourself. If the pills will let you rest in relative comfort for the next few days, then you should take the pills.”
He lifted an eyebrow. She sounded so determined, it seemed like a waste of breath to argue any further. “Okay. I’ll take one.”
His sudden capitulation apparently caught her off guard. “All right, then,” she said after a moment, and turned toward the kitchen. “I’ll be right back with the water.”
Rather than waiting for her, he followed her into the kitchen, pulling the sample pack of pills out of his pocket. Like the living room, the kitchen was small and efficient, with not an inch of wasted space. Serena opened a cabinet and pulled out a plastic tumbler, which she filled with tap water. She jumped when she turned to find Sam only a step or two away. Water splashed over the side of the tumbler. “I didn’t hear you behind me,” she said unnecessarily.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“Did you find your pills?”
He opened his hand to show her the small yellow tablet in his palm.
Serena handed him the tumbler. He swallowed the pill, washed it down with half the water, then reached around her to set the glass on the counter. His arm brushed hers with the movement, and he felt her stiffen. Had the kitchen been bigger, he suspected she would have done a quick sidestep away from him. But since that move would have flattened her against the refrigerator, she stayed where she was. Sam was the one who moved away. As nice as it was to be close to her, he didn’t want to give her a reason to regret offering him a place to recuperate.
“I’ll leave you to settle in,” she said, avoiding his eyes as she moved toward the doorway. “Mother’s cooking a big lunch. She wanted me to invite you to join us—or, if you don’t feel up to that, she’ll bring a plate out to you. The meal should be ready by one, which will give you a couple of hours to rest first.”
“Your mother doesn’t have to cook for me. You said she stocked basic supplies. I’m perfectly capable of preparing a meal.” At least, he assumed he was. He didn’t actually remember cooking, but how hard could it be?
Serena’s smile was suddenly ironic. “She lives for this sort of thing. And we are going to have lunch, anyway. It isn’t that much trouble to make enough for one more.”
“Then I would be pleased to join you. Thank you.”
She was still moving toward the exit, putting as much distance between them as possible in the small space available. “We’ll see you at one, then.”
She was gone before he could respond. He supposed he couldn’t blame her for being nervous around him, considering the circumstances. What he didn’t understand was why, if she still had so many reservations about him, was she being so nice to him?
Marjorie fussed over her preparations for the meal until Serena finally couldn’t stop herself from protesting. “Honestly, Mother, we aren’t having a visiting foreign dignitary for lunch. It’s only Sam Wallace—and we don’t really know who he is.”
“He’s our guest,” her mother replied as if that settled everything. “I hope he likes pot roast.”
“Everyone likes your pot roast.”
Marjorie slapped a hand to her cheek. “What if he’s a vegetarian? I didn’t think to ask.”
“He isn’t a vegetarian.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I heard him wishing aloud for a steak when he was in the hospital. Vegetarians don’t fantasize about steak.”
“All I made for dessert is chocolate cake. Maybe I should throw together a quick fruit cobbler, in case he doesn’t care for chocolate.”
“Every normal person likes chocolate.”
“Your sister doesn’t.”
“Yes, well, the operative word there is ‘normal.’ No normal woman of Kara’s age would drop everything she’s worked for to run off to Nashville with a country singer wanna-be she hardly knows.”
Marjorie sighed. “You really should stop belittling Kara’s decision, Serena. After all, it’s her life. She has a right to choose how she wants to live it.”
“I just wish she hadn’t left me to deal with the life she abandoned here. Marvin, the newspaper—her stupid dog.” Curled lazily in one corner of the kitchen, Walter lifted his head and yawned, as if to prove himself unaffected by Serena’s habitual less-than-flattering description.
“Now, honey—”
Serena held up her hand in an apologetic gesture. It wasn’t her mother’s fault that Kara had run off on her quixotic quest, although it was Marjorie who had persuaded Serena to try to keep the newspaper running. It was just that Serena had been feeling overwhelmed lately by all the responsibility she had shouldered. And her concern about the unsettling vagabond who would soon be joining them for lunch wasn’t settling her mind.
She could still almost feel the brush of Sam Wallace’s arm against hers, and she still reacted with a funny little shiver of awareness that made her extremely nervous. She had no intention of following her sister’s example and falling for an attractive stranger. Look where that had gotten Kara—her whole life up-ended so she could trail after the guy in pursuit of his dreams. Sam Wallace had no aspir