AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It was enough to make a girl lose every scrap of confidence. ‘Janet wanted to know if you’d like some more coffee.’
‘Yes, please.’ His voice was terse. ‘I need the caffeine to keep me awake. I had a terrible night. Again.’
Evanna hesitated. Two days ago, before the bathroom incident, she would have been concerned enough about that statement to question him further, but now she didn’t dare because she was suddenly horribly aware of everything about him and the effect he had on her was incredibly frustrating.
She just didn’t know what to say or do. And clearly he felt the same way because he made no effort to detain her when she scurried towards the door.
‘I’ll ask Janet to bring you some coffee.’ She delivered the message to the kindly receptionist and retreated to the safety of her own room, finished her clinic and then restocked and tidied until she could be sure that Logan would have left on his house calls.
‘Logan’s looking terrible,’ Janet clucked as she locked the surgery door. ‘Four cups of coffee he’s asked for this morning. It’s a wonder his hands aren’t shaking too much to hold his stethoscope. And the same yesterday.’
‘Kirsty’s probably keeping him awake,’ Evanna mumbled, as she returned a set of notes she’d borrowed. ‘Disturbed nights.’
‘Well, you can tell from the shadows under his eyes that he’s having disturbed nights, but I don’t think Kirsty is the culprit.’ Janet checked the clinic list for the afternoon. ‘He told me only yesterday that she goes right through the night now, bless her.’
‘So what’s keeping him awake?’ Evanna delved into her bag for her keys and Janet gave a sigh.
‘I don’t know, but I was hoping you did. You’re the one he talks to, Evanna. Through all of last year when he was struggling to keep everything going, you were the only one he really talked to.’
Evanna stilled. It was true. Logan had found her easy to talk to. But since she’d stripped naked in his bathroom, he’d hardly spoken a word to her that didn’t revolve around patient care.
Which meant only one thing. Clearly he felt as awkward about the whole incident as she did, which was entirely ridiculous, she told herself as she waved goodbye to Janet and made for the door. They’d known each other all their lives. Surely they could get themselves past one embarrassing incident?
If he wasn’t going
to tackle the subject then she would. She’d mention it and dismiss it as if the whole incident had been nothing more than a laugh.
Logan kept the top down on his sports car, hoping that the breeze might clear his head.
Four cups of coffee and a splash of cold water on the face had done little to revive him and he vowed to have an early night.
Then he remembered that an early night was going to make no difference whatsoever. It wasn’t going to bed that was a problem, it was sleeping when he got there. Eyes open or eyes shut, he saw Evanna. Naked. Her creamy, smooth skin still glistening and damp from the shower, her hair trailing down her back. It had been two days since he’d walked in on her but he couldn’t erase the image from his brain.
He felt himself grow hard and cursed repeatedly, jabbing the car into gear more viciously than was necessary.
He was afraid to stand up when she walked into a room in case she noticed the effect she had on him.
What was the matter with him?
Why was his reaction so extreme?
Was it just because he hadn’t had sex since Catherine’s death? And so what if it was? What could he do about it? He was hardly likely to go up to Evanna and suggest that they spent a steamy night between the sheets together, was he? What was he supposed to say? Oh, good morning, Nurse Duncan. Doug McDonald’s blood pressure has come right down on his new drug regime and, by the way, do you fancy stripping naked and sleeping with me because I can’t get your body out of my head?
Suffering from an intense bout of male frustration, Logan pulled the car to the side of the road and switched off the engine.
He sat for a long moment just staring out across the sparkling sea while he sifted through the options.
Forget the whole thing, that was the obvious option. But he’d just spent an extremely frustrating two days trying to do exactly that, and it hadn’t worked. So forgetting her wasn’t an option.
But what was the alternative?
Tell her how he felt? Ask her out?
He almost laughed as he anticipated her reaction. He’d known Evanna all her life. If he asked her out, she’d laugh and, anyway, they already spent a great deal of time together. She was in and out of his house, helping him with Kirsty and joining his extended family for meals. She was his sister’s best friend. How was he supposed to make it clear that he wanted the time they spent together to be different? How was he supposed to let her know that when he asked her to spend time with him, it wasn’t a platonic invitation.
How did you turn a deep and lasting friendship into a love affair?
The answer was that you didn’t.
