Moving into the room, he placed the bottle on the nightstand and eased down onto the edge of her bed. The movement caused her to stir and soon her lids fluttered open until she focused on him. She looked like she had the other night, just before he’d made love to her with his mouth. So much for putting distance between them.
“Did you take a pill without telling me?” he asked, not even trying to hide his irritation.
She blinked, eased up onto her side and looked him in the eye. “I took one just before I lay down. I think I overdid it with taking my sling off. I only did a few more exercises than usual with my arm, but it started hurting more than it had been.”
He picked up the bottle, marched into her adjoining bathroom and flushed the pills. When he came back out she was on her feet and angry.
“Why did you do that?” she cried.
“Because I’m afraid you’ll get hooked. These are highly addictive. And I told you if you did that again I’d flush them.”
Callie laughed. “I won’t get addicted, Noah. I took a pill only a little before it was due. I’d had the other one in my system for over six hours. It’s not like I was going to OD.”
Even the term made him ill. The image of how he’d found Malinda was embedded in his head for the rest of his life. He found himself instantly seeing Callie that way and the thought made him want to vomit.
“If you’re going to stay in my house and allow me to be your doctor, you will do exactly what I say, when I say it, or I won’t help you anymore. I thought we’d already settled this.”
Callie stepped back, blinking. “Wow. Um…okay. Calm down. I promise not to do anything else without asking.”
He stared at her for several seconds. He needed to get a grip.
What he really needed to do was remember this wasn’t Malinda and he truly didn’t believe Callie had a drug problem. He needed to lighten up before he drove her away. Then what good would he be to her?
God, his past had consumed him and overtaken his emotions, fueling his anger. Callie still had nearly a whole bottle of pills, and if this were Malinda, that bottle would’ve been gone within a few days. Callie had been here a few weeks.
He took a deep breath, trying to erase the previous images of fighting with Malinda.
Remembering the surprise, he told her, “I had something delivered and I was hoping you’d be awake when it came, but you slept through it all.”
She tilted her head and grinned. And just like that she’d forgiven him for bursting in and yelling at her. Yeah, she was quite different from Malinda.
“What is it?” she asked, smile beaming. “Did you get a dog? I’ve always wanted a dog like the one I left back in Kansas.”
He laughed. “Um, no dog. This is something else you left back in Kansas.”
Her brows drew together and she shook her head. “My old beat-up Jeep with the broken horn and busted grill?”
Taking her hand, he pulled her toward the door. “Just follow me and stop guessing. You’re taking the fun out of the moment.”
She shuffled her bare feet along behind him as he led her down the stairs and through the wide hallway toward the back of the house where he had a game room.
When he entered the room, he flicked the light on and stepped aside so she could see.
“Oh, my God,” she squealed. “Noah, you didn’t!”
Seeing her reaction was so worth paying extra to have the pool table delivered and set up so quickly. “I’m a fan myself and had thought of adding one to the game room, so when you mentioned it, I knew I needed to get one. Max and I used to play in college.”
She stood staring and he almost felt a fool at her silence, so he kept rambling.
“Of course, we played while killing a case of beer and talking about women.”
Her eyes darted to his and she smiled. “It’s nice you two are still so close.”
“He’s like family,” he told her.
She moved farther into the room and ran her hand along the green felt of the pool table. “It’s going to be hard to do this with one bad arm.”
Stepping closer to her, he gr