Escaping the Past

“Do you have nightmares like that a lot?” he asked gently.

“Is this Dr. Wester asking me or is this Brody?” she asked with a smirk on her face, one eyebrow raised.

“Both,” was his only response.

Lou took a deep breath. “I used to have them all the time. I haven’t had one in a really long time. I don’t know if it was the stress of your mom being in the hospital or something else causing it. Let’s both hope that was the last one for a while.”

“I can give you something to help you sleep if you need it,” Brody said. He didn’t like to use medication to ease fears, and he had a sneaking suspicion that’s what this was about.

“No!” Lou snapped, sitting forward in her chair. Then she sighed heavily and replied, “I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I don’t take drugs. I can get through this without any medication. But thanks for the offer.”

“Is that because of your mother?” he asked gently.

Lou shook her head as she sat forward. “Boy, I’ve known you for all of twenty-four hours, and you’re talking to me like you’re my best friend. What gives?” Her eyebrows drew together, making a cute little check mark at the top of her nose.

“It’s the doctor in me, I guess. I have to figure everything out before I can diagnose.”

“Well, I’m not one of your patients, so be sure and keep that in mind.” She must have rrealized the harshness of her tone, since her next comment was softer. “I need to talk to you about something else, while we are on this subject.” She paused briefly, as though steeling herself for what was to come. She winced and spoke with her eyes closed. “I’m very sorry for slapping you today. Those interactions we had earlier today…I don’t usually do that.”

“I deserved the slap,” he admitted, rubbing his jaw absently. “And I could tell you don’t do that often,” he replied as he tried to bite back a grin.

“What?” The checkmark at the top of her nose grew deeper.

“I could tell you don’t normally do that. You didn’t kiss like someone who does it very often.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Her voice raised an octave with outrage. Or embarrassment. He wasn’t sure which.

“It means there are a lot of women out there who will wrap themselves around you and not let go until you are both done. You’re not one of them. I could tell that the first time I kissed you.” He was amazed to find that he wouldn’t mind having her wrapped around him. Not a bit. Brody sat forward, his fingers tracing a circle on her arm. He felt the immediately need to touch her. Particularly since she seemed discomfited by his choice of words. He was an idiot. He let his finger trail up toward her elbow, until she grabbed it in a tight fist. A fist that shot straight to his groin.

She gently moved it off of her arm before she released his finger. “Just so you know. I don’t do casual,” Lou stated succinctly, her brown eyes meeting his steely grey.

“Casual?” What the hell did that mean? “I don’t understand.”

“You’re the doctor. Figure it out,” she tossed out flippantly as she rose from the chair and walked in her room. Brody watched the door close firmly and heard the bolt shoot home as she locked the door behind her.

Chapter Five

As usual, Lou woke early the following day and rose to help Sadie prepare breakfast. She put on her normal attire of T-shirt and shorts, socks and running shoes. She checked the mirror and noticed the dark smudges beneath her eyes, but shrugged them off as she splashed some cold water on her face. She put her long, dark hair in a ponytail, brushed her teeth and walked downstairs. She stopped short when she saw Brody standing at the stove, stirring a pan of scrambled eggs like a mad scientist might stir petri dish of germs.

“What’s going on?” Lou asked, her eyebrows drawn together. She stopped on the bottom step, her gaze sweeping the room.

Brody dropped the spatula into the eggs. He reached to grab it and swore softly as he burned his thumb on the side of the pan. He lifted it to his mouth and spoke around it. “I thought you might be tired so I wanted to help.”

Lou stepped around him and cautiously removed the spatula from the yellow egg mess he was scrambling. She scraped the bottom of the pan, removing what was stuck. “Oh, dear,” she sighed.

“Did I mess it up?” he asked. He reminded her of Sarah when she tried to take on tasks well beyond her skill level.

Lou smiled gently and stood on tiptoe. She mockingly patted the top of his head just like she would Sarah. “Not at all,” she replied. “Grab me some cheese and some salsa from the fridge.”

Brody turned and gathered the items from the refrigerator and presented them to her. “What are you going to do with these?”

“Some of the eggs stuck so I’m going to scramble these in to cover up the taste. Otherwise, the whole pan will be ruined.” She poured the contents of the salsa into the skillet and stirred again.

“I guess you never burn the eggs, do you?” he grumbled.

“Never,” she replied stoically.

Brody grunted in return.