Dreaming Of You (6 page)

Her lips curled up into a sneer. “They are my sister’s kids, too, and I’ll not have you degrading them.”

“Those poor kids have already been damaged because of your mind games,” he snapped, then turned and left.

After climbing into his truck, he grasped the steering wheel. That woman didn’t believe he could do anything right. She was so much like Amber. Well, he’d show Tori. He’d find the best preschool in San Diego.

Chapter Four

“Sorry I’m late.” Katelyn stepped into her brother’s house and handed her jacket to her sister-in-law. “My jeep is giving me problems again.”

Katelyn’s brother, Mike, walked into the front room from the kitchen and gave her a quick hug. “Is it the starter again?”

She shrugged. “I think so, but sometimes it acts like there’s not enough juice coming from the battery.”

“Maybe it’s the alternator.”

“Guess I’ll just have to accept I need a new car. I’ve been spending so much money just keeping this piece of junk running, I can’t afford to do it anymore.”

“Nah, I’ll fix it.” Mike moved beside his wife, Beverly, and put his arm around her waist. “Is dinner ready, honey? I’m starving.”

Three little boys rushed down the stairs and into Katelyn’s arms. Steven, the oldest at age ten, looked just like his father with his blond hair and blue eyes. Luke, age six, and Xavier, age two, resembled their mother with the darker brown hair. Katelyn loved her nephews dearly, and spoiled them beyond belief.

During dinner the boys related stories from school, even Xavier who went to daycare. She laughed and enjoyed the evening with her extended family. It sure made up for the lonely nights at home.

After dinner, Mike checked Katelyn’s jeep and adjusted a few things, informing her that she’d have to baby the vehicle. Of course, what else could she do? She didn’t believe in taking out loans—or heaven forbid, getting a credit card—since that would just put her into debt. For her last royalty check, she had decided to pay off her mortgage. Now she wished she had purchased a vehicle instead. So she would have to wait for her next royalty check from her publisher before she purchased another means of transportation.

She kissed her nephews goodbye, then drove home. When she entered and set her keys on the table, she stood in the kitchen and listened to the emptiness consuming her house. Times like these she wished for a normal life, a husband and kids. She shook her head. Funny how her boyfriends were never good enough to think about marriage. She’d always thought of her writing career first. Now look at her, a successful Christian romance writer who wrote about how families enrich people’s lives, and yet she was without a husband and children.
How pathetic.

Fighting back the self-pity, she hurried into her bedroom, changed into her jogging outfit, and then pulled her hair back in a ponytail. It was still early in the evening and she hadn’t run for almost a week because she’d devoted her time to making the manuscript deadline.

Before leaving the house, she stretched her legs, arms, and back, then climbed in her old jeep and drove to the nearby high school. It was always better to measure her running distance if she used the track. As she neared the blacktop, she noticed she was the only person running tonight. Of course, the weather had turned a little chilly, and she was sure the small rainstorm earlier this morning hadn’t helped. But she’d run no matter what the weather.

Starting out slow, she kept her pace. Her athletic shoes slapped against the blacktop as she made her first round around the track. On the third time around, a lone figure caught her attention and she wondered why she hadn’t seen him before now. The man rested on the bleachers, but she didn’t look up long enough to see who it was. She didn’t come running to gain a social life.

A social life?
She laughed to herself. Did she even have one? Her best friends, Jennifer and Alisha, were always hounding her to let them set Katelyn up on a date. She couldn’t. First off, she didn’t have time to date, and secondly—she shuddered—she hated blind dates! The guys were always too desperate. The other day, Alisha suggested that Katelyn join the Western swing club she and her newly acquired boyfriend were attending, but for some reason that didn’t interest Katelyn, either.

The steady rhythm of her shoes on the blacktop and her breathing lulled her into the dark recess of her mind—a place she enjoyed going whenever she plotted her next story, or needed to create the scene of her next book. The sounds around her took on a different story in her head as a new idea came. A murder mystery in a hospital.

The heart monitor beeped in the hospital room as Doctor Katie Lovejoy assisted with her first surgery. The very handsome doctor standing next to her made it almost impossible to concentrate. But she must. Being the best doctor meant she’d become successful. Her parents were too poor to put her through medical school, especially since they had ten children to care for, so Katie worked three part-time jobs while she attended college full time just to get where she wanted to be.

Doctor Shane Hunter asked for another surgical instrument, and within seconds the nurse slapped one against his palm. Katie lifted her gaze and briefly met his huge brown eyes before he looked away. Although he focused intently on the surgery, Katie’s thoughts drifted. Nurse Lauren had been murdered exactly one week ago in this very room just before Doctor Hunter was scheduled for surgery. The bone chisel had been lodged in the woman’s skull by a man, Katie surmised. Only someone with large, strong hands could have done it.

As Katie studied Shane’s large, capable hands, she shivered. Was it him? Could she be standing across the table from the murderer?

She tried to push away the thoughts, but the blood on his white latex-gloved hands as he stitched the patient on the table had Katie’s imagination running wild. When he gazed at her, she saw a flicker of uncertainty.

Once the operation was over, Shane stepped away from the table. “Doctor Lovejoy? May I speak with you for a few minutes?”

The deepness of his voice caused fright to rush through her. He couldn’t possibly have read her mind. He didn’t know she suspected him of killing Nurse Lauren.

She followed him into the scrub room as they shucked off their blood-splattered clothes and gloves. “I must admit, Doctor Hunter, I couldn’t have been given a better surgeon to learn from. You are truly the best I’ve ever worked with.”

Cautiously, he waited for the others to leave the room before zeroing his eyes on her. “If I give you any kind of advice that you will remember, let it be this—no matter what, you must stay focused on the surgery.” He stepped away from his sink and over to hers. His now-clean fingers traced her chin. “Katie, you were watching me in there, but it had nothing to do with the surgery.” His voice lowered.

She gulped hard. Did he know her thoughts? Then again, she had somehow fallen in love with him since working with him these past several weeks. She didn’t want to believe that the man who stirred emotion into her heart could be a murderer. Perhaps she’d been wrong to suspect him.

“I—I—” No, she couldn’t confess her feelings for him. “Forgive me if I gave you the wrong impression, Doctor, but I really was focusing on the surgery.”

He grasped her wrists and pulled her up against him. The color of his eyes darkened, and for a moment, she could see another person staring back at her—a person who wouldn’t think twice about being violent.

The rhythm of her heart quickened, sounding nearly as loud as the heart monitor had done during surgery.

“You suspect, don’t you?” he asked softly.

“Suspect… what?” Indeed, she knew what he was referring to. The murder. But they were alone in the room. Who would save her from being the next person killed?

“Don’t try to deny it, Katie. I can see it in your eyes. You know I killed Lauren.”

Her heart broke into tiny pieces. No! This couldn’t be real. Not him. Yet, now that he knew she knew, would she be his next target?

“Are you ignoring me, Katelyn Palmer?”

Another pair of shoes smacked the ground behind Katelyn and brought her out of the daydream. She couldn’t have possibly heard right, could she? Did the man behind her really say her name? And why did his voice sound like the doctor in her dream? She rubbed her ear, knowing she must be hearing things.

She quickened her speed, but the stranger followed. After a few seconds without passing her, she had the urge to turn and look, but refrained. By the sound of the other runner’s shoes, he was closer than before, so she slowed her pace, hoping the man would soon pass, but nothing happened. Finally, she couldn’t stand the curiosity and glanced behind her. In the second it took, a familiar figure shaped in her mind, but she refused to believe it.

Why am I thinking about Shane Hunter again?

From behind her the man cleared his throat. “Hey, Katelyn Palmer? How long are you going to ignore me?”

Shane?
She took another look. Although the track wasn’t lit very well, the face and body of the man behind her was most assuredly Shane’s. The realization startled her. She stubbed her toe and tumbled to the blacktop. Her knee scraped the ground, ripping a tear in her jogging pants, and her palms slapped on the blacktop, holding her face from hitting it as well.

Shane stopped and crouched beside her. “Are you all right?”

Her heart hammered out of control as she looked into his eyes.

Katelyn rolled to her bottom and sat up, taking the pain off her knee and sore hands. Too stunned to answer right away, she stared at him as he touched the small rip in her sweats. “Are you bleeding?”

She glanced at her knee. “It doesn’t feel like it.”

His large hand took hold of her ankle while the other hand slid up her pant leg. The warmth of his palm upon her skin startled her. When the injury was in sight, he bent his head, peering closer at the wound. His warm breath gently caressed her exposed knee and she felt like melting wax. Good grief! What was wrong with her?

Lightly, he brushed his finger by the sore. “It looks like your knee was just scratched.” He met her gaze and smiled. “Sorry I made you trip.”

She let out a gush of air. “You just took me by surprise, that’s all.”

Carefully, he pulled the material back down her leg before standing. He held out his hands to her. Although she didn’t want to touch him, she went ahead and slipped her palms against his, letting him pull her up. She wished her heart wouldn’t beat crazily, and she wished it wouldn’t feel so nice to have his large hands surround her fingers.

“Thank you.” She withdrew.

He winked at her. “It’s the least I can do after making you fall.”

She laughed softly. “I’m surprised to see you again.”

“Yes, it is a little weird, isn’t it?”

She shrugged. “I run here a lot. How about you?”

“I’ve recently moved into town, so I had to find some place to run. I hope you don’t mind if I barge in on your space.”

“It’s a free country. You can barge in anywhere you want.” She grinned, feeling like a complete idiot, again. No matter how badly she wanted him to leave—or wishing she could disappear—she must be nice.

“Can you still run?”

“Yes, I think I’m all right.”

He turned slowly and waited for her, and together they jogged. He glanced at her a few times, and she couldn’t quite read his expression. Sometimes it looked as if he were still upset with her like he’d been at the pancake house, but then other times his grimace was gone.

“Hey, Katelyn.” She turned her gaze back to him. “I want to apologize for the other morning at the diner. I hope you’re not still upset at me for those accusations.”

Her heart beat overtime now, for entirely different reasons. “Of course not. In fact, I’ve forgotten about it.”

“Good, because if we’re going to keep running into each other like this, I don’t want any hard feelings between us.”

She smiled. “Same here.”

Silence lagged between them and she quickened her speed. Memories from that morning poured through her head, especially what her friend, Melissa, had said. Dare Katelyn become friends with him? If it meant saving her hide and her reputation, she’d do anything.

Inwardly, she sighed with relief knowing she’d never get close to him like this. He may not remember her from college, but those memories were still fresh in her mind. She recalled how often she had dreamed of being the woman he loved, knowing it would never happen.

Regardless of how handsome he was—even more so now than in college—she must keep in mind the stories she’d heard from Tori. Katelyn wondered what had happened to him to make him do a one-hundred-eighty-degree turnaround. He hadn’t seemed that heartless when she knew him in college. Then again, she didn’t know him at all.

She couldn’t be rude. It wasn’t in her nature. She needed to be sociable instead of the frightened mouse she felt like right now. She glanced at him. “So, Shane?” He turned and looked at her, but she snapped her focus back to the path ahead. “Are you from around these parts?” Inwardly, she groaned. Her question sounded more like a pick-up line.

“Actually, I grew up here, but since I married, I have lived in Montana.”

“Really?” She snuck another peek at him. “Why are you back?”

“I’m back to clear up some unfinished business. Two months ago, my ex-wife died. Because of all the legalities, I had to return to straighten them out.” He looked straight ahead. “Besides, the change in scenery is good. It feels different being back home again.”

“That’s understandable.” She paused for a brief moment, trying to think of what else to say. Keeping the conversation flowing was essential if she didn’t want him becoming suspicious. “During our last conversation, you mentioned you had twins. How old are they?”

He looked at her and she thought she saw anger in his eyes, but just as quickly as the expression came, it was gone. “I told you I had twins?”