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“Do you think Deidre should go to the hospital?”
“From what I understand from Colleen and her brothers, Deidre is typically a strong woman. She’s probably just dehydrated and run-down. We
’ll get some fluids and food into her when she wakes up. You know what stress and grief can do to a person. If I suspect it’s anything more serious—”
“You’ll call me,” Nick said. He dug in his jeans pocket for his wallet. “Do me a favor and call me either way. I’d like to know how she’s doing. Here’s my number.” Colleen looked taken aback but accepted his card.
“I’m sure it’s just exhaustion,” Colleen said, “but I’ll keep you updated.”
“Thanks,” Nick said before he headed for the door.
He wasn’t sure what exactly had hit him as he’d stared down at Deidre as she lay on that bed, but he knew one thing for sure: he wanted her too much to control it, regardless of the strange circumstances...no matter the possible consequences.
* * *
Deidre awoke three and a half hours later to the smell of chicken broth. She sat up, feeling disoriented when she noticed she was just wearing her bra and pants. The vision of Nick’s fierce stare as he’d looked down as she lay in the bed flashed across her mind’s eye in vivid detail.
Other memories stampeded across her brain. Nick talking so coolly on the phone about her to John Kellerman. As for the rest, I’m not certain right now, she remembered him saying. She’d been moved deeply by Nick’s desperate entreaty to understand his position, but it hurt to know firsthand he still had his doubts about her.
She clamped her eyes shut in regret as she recalled the rest of their charged encounter. She’d fainted. Well, almost fainted anyway. She’d never fainted in her life. And Nick had taken her to bed and partially undressed her.
Once again, she thought of the way he’d looked when he’d stared down at her, his desire naked and exposed, a clear reflection of what must have been in her own eyes.
She placed her hand over her heart when it gave a strange throb.
After a moment, she sighed and drew on her sweater. She ran a comb through her hair and exited the bedroom.
“Are you all right?” Colleen asked anxiously when she walked into the kitchen. Her sister was standing at the stove, stirring the contents of a pot. Eric lowered the newspaper he’d been reading as he sat in the breakfast nook.
“I’m fine,” Deidre said, embarrassed. “I’m sorry to have interrupted your day. You haven’t been here the whole time I slept, have you?”
Colleen waved her hand dismissively and reached for a bowl. “Never mind that. How are you feeling?”
“Still dizzy?” Eric asked, standing and coming toward her.
Deidre shook her head, pausing when Eric reached to touch her brow. “I haven’t got a fever,” she said, embarrassed. “I feel fine now. It was my blood sugar. I didn’t have an appetite this morning.”
“I’ll willing to bet you haven’t had an appetite for weeks. Stress,” Eric mumbled as he stared at the clock on the wall while he took her pulse.
“This has all been too much for you. And you haven’t been sleeping well,” Colleen fretted as she ladled some soup into a bowl. “Sit down and eat this.”
“Yes, Mother,” Deidre teased with a smile. When Eric finished taking her pulse, however, she went and ate her soup like a perfect patient. She hated being perceived as weak. Seeing the concerned expression on Colleen’s face was enough to make her mend her ways and take better care of herself.
“I’m good as new,” she declared as she pushed back her empty bowl. She’d wolfed down two and a half helpings, much to her shock. Colleen’s cooking always had that effect on her, just like her mother’s used to when she was a girl.
“The soup was delicious, thank you.”
“You still need to take it easy and get plenty of rest,” Eric said. “You know as well as I do the way people can run themselves down after the death of a family member.”
“I might have slacked off a little bit on taking care of myself in the past few months, but I promise I’ll get strict again,” Deidre said quickly when she saw Colleen’s brow furrow. “I’ve been so preoccupied with Lincoln. It all caught up with me this afternoon, I guess,” she admitted as she watched Eric walk up behind the back of Colleen’s chair and stroke her sister’s shoulders. She grinned, happiness surging through her at the sight of Eric and Colleen’s tangible love for one another.
“Now that you two made up at the rehearsal dinner, I can see I’m going to have trouble prying you apart, aren’t I?” she asked the couple.
“That’s the plan,” Eric murmured silkily before he leaned down and gave Colleen a kiss. Deidre had liked Eric from the moment she’d met him a few nights ago. He was handsome, yes, but also aware of other people’s feelings and at the top of the bell curve of intelligence. She’d known enough doctors and surgeons over the years to judge that with confidence. The main reason she liked Eric, however, was that the man was clearly crazy for Colleen.
She cleared her throat as she toyed with her soupspoon. Eric and Colleen broke apart. “Did...did Nick leave after I fell asleep?” she asked, trying to sound casual.
Colleen nodded, suddenly serious.
