The Nurse's One Night to Forever

When Justin stooped to pet Daisy she realized his eyes appeared tired, his face strained—and, despite his words that he’d missed her, he’d stopped just inside the gate rather than come over to her for a welcome kiss.

Did he think she was going to tackle him and lick him crazily, as Daisy was now doing?

“I missed you, too,” she admitted, wiping her hands over her shorts and immediately regretting it.

He was clean and crisp in his light blue shirt and khakis, but she was a far cry from it. Other than grabbing a drink, she’d gone straight out to start gardening. She rarely wore gloves while digging around in her flowerbeds, as she preferred the feel of earth against her skin. No doubt dirt streaked her clothes.

“Where were you?” As the question slipped from her mouth she regretted the accusatory tone she heard.

Yes, she’d spent the past twenty-four hours tormenting herself with doubts, but taking that out on him wasn’t fair and nor was it what she wanted to do.

“I left the office early and had dinner with my family.”

Justin went to his parents every week or so for a meal, usually on the alternate weekend from when he did something with the Wilderness Group. He’d asked her to go several times in the past, but she never had. She usually spent the time catching up on her laundry and housework.

Why had he taken off work early to go today? Had it been a special occasion?

“That’s nice. You had a good visit?” She purposely made her tone as pleasant as she could, when her nerve-endings felt as if they’d been scraped with sandpaper.

Justin bent to pet Daisy at last, calming the dog’s yapping and eliciting a happy panting. “It was a nice visit.”

Ugh. Was she jealous of her dog? It wasn’t like she wanted to roll on her back and have him scratch her belly.

Well, no, but...

“My parents are doing well. My sister stopped by with her kids.”

He did some more of his looking at Daisy rather than her. Made more small talk.

Looking down at her dirty fingernails, she kept up the awkward trend with a pleasant, “That’s good.”

“Spending time with family is good.” Now his voice was coated with accusation.

She ignored his jab and went on the offensive. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“I didn’t think you’d want to come,” he parried, looking up from where he knelt with Daisy. “You never have in the past.”

Riley frowned at his comment, but also at the distance between them. Why was he so far away? Why had he stopped at the gate? Usually he couldn’t wait to take her into his arms for a hello kiss when he arrived.

But usually they hadn’t disagreed over kids and he hadn’t gotten a text message, then shut her out.

“A guy gets tired of hearing no after a while,” he added.

Riley flinched. She didn’t tell him no often—and never with sex. Just with his attempts to put them into a more traditional relationship box.

Picking up Daisy, he straightened, stroking the dog’s fluffy white fur as he said, “Dinner with family usually means a relationship is moving toward certain things. Things that you claim not to want. You’ve made it clear you don’t want them.”

Oh, yeah, there was accusation in his tone. Loads of it. And despite his calm petting of Daisy, tension emanated from him.

Riley’s knees liquefied, and all she could manage was a muffled, “Oh...”

Moving closer to her, his expression somber, he asked, “That is still what you want, Riley?” His narrowed gaze pinned her. “Or, more aptly, don’t want?”

Feeling a bit woozy, she said, “I—You mean, marriage?”

His eyes not wavering away from hers, he nodded.

What was this? Riley wondered. Was Justin telling her he wanted marriage with her? Or was this his way of pushing her away?