Prognosis: Romance (Doctors in Training 4)

“Won’t be home for several hours yet,” she assured him, reaching up to

wrap a hand around the back of his neck. Perhaps James was an expert at hiding his feelings, but she had never tried that hard to conceal her own. And what she was feeling now was a reluctance to waste any more of the little time she had left with James before their obligations—and probably their differences—drove them apart.

He hesitated only a moment, but then he lowered his head and covered her mouth with his. He made no effort to hide his response to the embrace. At least that was something.

James supposed turnabout was fair play. He had talked Shannon into attending a medical-school gathering with him Saturday night and she persuaded him to attend game night at her parents’ house Sunday evening. He had to admit she didn’t have to twist his arm. Her family fascinated him.

Stu and Karen and their three kids—Ginny, Caitlin and Jack—were there, though Stacy stayed home with her brood, including her recuperating son. There was food, laughter and general pandemonium as the adults played cards and board games while simultaneously supervising the energetic children, who were stationed on the carpeted den floor with games of their own.

As seemed to be the custom in the Gambill household, several conversations went on at one time, all at fairly high volume. Rules of the games were a bit fluid, arguments were heated but good-natured and generally a good time was had by all. James certainly enjoyed the evening.

He was even getting used to Virginia’s blatant matchmaking, finding her efforts more amusing than disconcerting now. She did everything but place her daughter’s hand in his, but because Shannon deflected the arch hints with indulgent humor, he was able to do the same.

“Sorry about Mom,” Shannon said late in the evening when she and James went into the kitchen to make a fresh pot of decaf. “She’s nuts, of course, but we love her, anyway.”

“I like your mother very much.”

Shannon dimpled, obviously approving his answer, despite her apologies. “She has a good heart. But she’s a compulsive matchmaker, especially where I’m concerned. Don’t know about you, but I’ve been hearing ‘Kiss the Girl’ playing in my mind all evening,” she added with a laugh.

He didn’t catch the reference. “‘Kiss the Girl?’”

“You know, the song the sea creatures sing in The Little Mermaid, when they’re trying to encourage the prince to kiss Ariel.”

He chuckled. “Never saw it, but I get the gist now.”

In a very pretty voice, she sang the chorus of the ditty, which seemed to be taunting a shy boy to kiss a girl or lose her.

Smiling, James reached out to tug her closer. “Well, since you put it that way…”

He lowered his head to steal a quick taste of her smiling lips.

“Oh.” From the kitchen doorway, Virginia smiled smugly when James and Shannon broke apart.

“I just came to see if you need helping finding anything in here,” she explained. “But I see you have everything under control.”

She left the echo of her giggle behind her when she turned and hurried away.

Shannon and James shared a wry look, then burst out laughing.

After another quick card game, the adults took a break to stretch and focus on the kids for a few minutes. While three-year-old Caitlin sang a preschool song for her adoring grandparents, Shannon engaged in some horseplay with Jack, pretending to engage in a ferocious lightsaber battle. He chased her out of the room and into the hallway. A few moments later, they rushed back in with Shannon doing the chasing this time while the giggling four-year-old evaded her.

“You come back here, Jedi Jack,” she threatened teasingly. “Vengeance will be mine!”

Something clicked in James’s mind. He very clearly pictured a pretty, intriguing redhead chasing a little boy named Jack across a crowded fairway. The image of that redhead’s brilliant smile had stayed in his mind for hours afterward, even though he’d been accompanied by another woman that evening. Elissa Copeland. Attractive, pleasant and just slightly avaricious, she hadn’t fit in at all well with his group of friends. That had been his last date with her.

“Did you take Jack to the fair last fall?” he blurted to Shannon as though he expected her to follow his line of thinking.

She blinked in response to the non sequitur, but nodded. “Yes. Why— Oh, my gosh! I remember you now.”

He grinned. “Jack got away from you and—”

“He ran across the fairway and you—”

“Caught him before he got lost in the crowd.”

It occurred to him only then that they’d fallen into the Gambill habit of talking over each other. “I kept thinking you looked familiar that day at the lake,” he said when she finished speaking.

She nodded. “So did I, but I didn’t figure out why until just now.”