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“Whoa.” She gave him a sideways look. “I mean, you’re pretty and all, but décor you’re not. Or a chrome and glass guy.”
He rolled his eyes.Pretty? Really?“Half the time I was afraid I’d break something. The other half I felt like a house pet.”
She let out an unladylike snort that made him grin. This was the Kaitlyn he’d wanted to see again.
“You’d make a pet like a wildcat would,” she said dryly.
He gave her a sideways glance. “I think I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“How it was meant,” she said.
By the time they joined up with Interstate 35 north of Austin, leaving them less than fifty miles to go, the atmosphere in the truck was…he couldn’t think of the right word for it. Friendly? Pleasant? Relaxed? Convivial? They all applied, but none were exactly right.
Warm, maybe. He could go that far. Because there was a sort of warmth between them. The problem was the next word his mind wanted to fasten on wasaffectionate. And that was not a direction he wanted to go.
Did he?
He made himself look to the west, where far out of sight lay the lake he’d once lived next to. If that adventure hadn’t proven his instincts about people—especially women—sucked, he didn’t know what would.
Yet this woman had passed muster with his mother, brothers, Lucas, Quinta, and even the wary Tri. That had to prove…something, didn’t it?
Just drive, Rafferty. That’s your job here. Just drive.
When they got off the interstate and down onto West Central in Temple, he was glad he had to pay attention to the unfamiliar streets, so he could quash the useless thoughts whirling in his head.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“It’s just notthe same,” the man sitting in the wheelchair insisted. “Film has a certain quality, a depth, a warmth.”
“Yes, it does. But they each have their place, don’t they?” Kaitlyn said.
She’d been delighted to see Nick looking much as he always did. Dr. Bailey, the electrophysiologist doing the procedure, or EP as he told them to call him, was just leaving the room as they arrived. He paused long enough to reassure her that all would be fine, that in reality it was a fairly basic procedure that was almost as routine as anything involving the heart could be.
“Dr. Muir informed me that Nick is her favorite patient, so I wouldn’t dare mess up,” he said with a wide smile.
It had made Kaitlyn smile as well, because she suspected the genial Dr. Muir said that about all her patients. Then again, she did seem to have a particular soft spot for Nick.
There was paperwork to do, and that took a while. Ry had assumed he’d be waiting outside the room, but once Nick had found out he’d given her a ride all the way here from Last Stand he’d insisted on meeting him. And that had been…interesting. Nick knew about the job, of course, and when she’d introduced Ry as the subject of the assignment, he’d turned an interested eye on him.
“Kaitlyn showed me pictures of your work. Very impressive.”
“Thank you,” Ry had said.
“Just don’t call it art,” Kaitlyn couldn’t resist putting in. Ry shot her a sideways glance.
“Oh, I wouldn’t,” Nick said.
Ry had looked back at Nick. Judging by his smile, he was pleasantly surprised at that. “Thank you. It’s a craft.”
She could have warned him he was about to be dismantled, but she didn’t. She just watched as Nick reduced Ry’s insistence to rubble.
“There’s a good eye, skill, and a deft hand there. And the stellar choice of elements to include. Plus working in essentially three dimensions yet also flat, a sort of bas-relief in leather. Not to mention the fact that you create items of actual use. So all that puts it far beyond mere art.”
Dr. Muir arrived just in time to head off whatever reply Ry might have made. Kaitlyn had gotten to know her after Nick had given her medical power of attorney—as Kaitlyn had given him in turn—when he’d started having problems and Kaitlyn knew it was typical of the woman that she would show up even though she had nothing directly to do with the procedure about to be done. Nick was her patient and she took that very seriously.
It wasn’t until after they’d wheeled Nick off for the prep and Ry had wandered out saying something about coffee, that she hit the post-op treatment information page of all the papers they’d handed her. Reading it, she far too belatedly realized that she hadn’t gone far enough looking this up last night. Nick would have to stay in the hospital overnight while they monitored both the incision site and the settings of the new device. He’d had been making light of it all, probably so she wouldn’t worry, and he hadn’t bothered to mention that.
Her mind started to scramble. She would have to find a place to stay, somewhere close by, then a way to get Nick back home, then a way back to Last Stand by Monday, when Jillian was due to come back. She really hadn’t thought this through—her main goal had been to get here to him and deal with the details when she arrived. But now—
