One at a time, she traced his fingers—slow caresses, whisper-light, that unkinked his tension stroke by stroke, slowly replacing one with another. He focused on that, not ready to accept her words now anymore than before.
He'd heard her just fine, could even see her logic. But she didn't understand how it felt for a man to realize there were things he couldn't control.
Linking her fingers with his, Kathleen squeezed gently. "You're not responsible for everyone."
Tanner didn't bother answering. She just didn't get it, and he wasn't in the mood to explain. He'd had enough maudlin confidences for one night. He wanted the lightheartedness back, the humor Kathleen had only just started to share with him. Thanks to his preparations while she'd slept, that was one thing about the whole insane day that he could control.
He was going to give Kathleen O'Connell one helluva Christmas to remember.
Kathleen stared up at the overbright stars beyond the hole in the roof and congratulated herself. She'd done it. She'd listened, comforted him and kept her lips off his.
Heaven knew it hadn't been easy to keep her arms from going around his neck and pulling that ruggedly beautiful face to her breast. She'd offered him her hand, instead.
Of course, there were a few too many nerve endings in her hand and every one of them was screaming on full alert at the moment.
But, by God, she hadn't kissed him.
A persistent beeping tickled her from her self-congratulatory musings. Tanner's alarm? He pulled his hand from hers and silenced the watch.
"I didn't fall asleep, did I?" she asked, worried about time fugues. She knew she'd hit her head hard, likely had a concussion, but she didn't want to consider there might be a more serious injury lurking.
"No, you didn't."
She sagged against the pew.
"I reset it for midnight so we wouldn't miss Christmas."
"Oh. All right." She smiled weakly even though she would have just as soon let the hour pass unmarked.
Tanner stood in front of her. "Close your eyes."
Kathleen sat upright. "What?"
"It's Christmas. While you were sleeping, I worked on a surprise. Now close 'em." The devilish twinkle in his eyes matched that dimple too perfectly.
"Yeah, right. Like I'm trusting you not to play some prank."
He palmed his chest in overplayed innocence. "Who me?"
"Yes, you. Something like gluing Lance's checklist pages together. Substituting the hard-boiled eggs in Tag's flight lunch with raw ones. Changing Cutter's mouse from right-handed to left."
"Hey, that was just a little joke to cheer up Cutter after he and Lori split last year. Apparently he didn't appreciate my meddling."
"Not that it stopped you."
"So I threw them together? What's the big deal? It wasn't like you wanted to hang out with me as the flight doc on that rescue mission to Sentavo. Cutter was happy to step in. If Lori just happened to be the relief worker accompanying us…"
Tanner shrugged, the most unlikely overgrown cupid Kathleen could imagine.
"And I fell right in line by jumping at the chance to get off that flight." Kathleen shook her head. "Geez, when did I get so predictable?"
"Predictable? You? Whatever." He tucked his thumbs in his back pockets. "You have to admit though, my plan worked. The Grayson Clark happy nuptials are just days away. Soon they'll all be settled in at Cutter's new assignment in Washington. As you can see, I only use my powers for good. Now close your eyes."
"All right. But you better be nice or don't bother coming to me for pain meds next time your back's a mess."
"So noted."
Warily she let her eyes drift shut. She heard his footsteps trek to the pew behind her, followed by a rustle and clank before he walked back in front of her. She waited, cautious, but oddly excited by his game.