CHAPTER ONE

      “I’M TELLING YOU, that man has the hots for you.”

      At her co-worker’s words, the corners of nurse Carly Evans’ lips inched upward. Still, she shrugged as if the comment was no big deal. She needed to fight the excitement Rosalyn’s claim incited, not give her heart free rein to jump up and down with joy.

      Jump up and down? Ha. More like her heart was somersaulting worthy of a world-class medal.

      The same flip-flopping routine her heart went into any time she thought of the hospital’s newest general surgeon.

      Not that she had a right to feel that way. Not when she couldn’t do one thing about her heart’s acrobatics or any hots Dr. Stone Parker might have for her.

      Stone.

      Just thinking his name, how his eyes, his mouth had immediately crinkled with a smile when they’d met hers on this morning’s rounds, had her blood pounding. The erratic rhythm practically demanded a giddy schoolgirl dance with fists thrust into the air.

      Maybe her friend should be saying Carly had the hots for Stone.

      She did.

      For all the good it would do her.

      Which was the problem.

      She’d have been better off if she’d never met Stone, never felt the way he made every nerve cell inside her hum with life.

      That she wasn’t free hadn’t been a problem, until she’d met him. Now...now, she was torn and hated herself for it.

      Closing the medicine cart and nearly dropping the medications she’d just taken out, Carly took a long, steadying breath, and grimaced.

      “Uh-huh, I saw that so don’t go pretending you’re immune to the man.” Rosalyn’s dark brown eyes glowed with eagerness at Carly’s tell-tale motion. “I’ve seen you two talking, the sparks that fly back and forth. You like him, too. Admit it.”

      Wasn’t that the same as saying she liked to breathe? How could any sane, straight woman not like Stone? The man was gorgeous and the total package.

      Just over six feet tall, dark brown hair with the slightest hint of curl, green eyes that twinkled when he smiled, and a face that had inspired numerous fantasies... Yeah, Stone was ‘likable’.

      Just a tad.

      “He seems to be a great doctor and, of course, he’s a good-looking man.” Understatements of the year. “I can appreciate that, just as most females, including yourself, can,” Carly pointed out, using all her willpower to keep her voice level, cool, and as unaffected as possible. “But that does not mean I ‘like him’ like him.”

      Like liking Stone was a waste of emotions she didn’t have to spare.

      “Honey, you’re protesting too much.” Chuckling, Rosalyn practically rubbed her hands with glee. “Admit it. He makes you all hot beneath your nursing uniform.”

      Carly rolled her eyes at the nurse she’d worked side by side with for the past five years. Rosalyn was a big-hearted African American woman raising four teenagers with her mechanic husband. There was no one Carly would rather work with than the long-time med-surg nurse.

      Except maybe for this moment. None of her other co-workers would initiate this particular conversation.

      Squaring her shoulders, Carly stared straight into her friend’s dark eyes.

      “I’m sure Dr. Parker is a very nice man.” He was. “I enjoy our conversations very much.” She did. “But whether or not he has the hots for me is totally irrelevant.” Sadly, the truth. “I’m not interested in a relationship with him, or anyone else, outside these hallowed walls.” Also, sadly, the truth.

      Inside the hospital walls Carly was a very different person from who she was outside them.

      Inside these walls she could focus on being a shining light to her patients and cling to the shadows of the Carly she’d once been.

      Part of her worried that Carly was shriveling into nothingness to disappear forever. Which might be why she enjoyed time around Stone so much. He gave her glimpses of a younger, carefree version of herself.

      Made her insides spark as if trying to relight a fire that used to brightly burn. In her fantasies, it still did.

      In the real world, that fire couldn’t be relit. Unfortunately.

      “Why is that?”

      Carly jumped at the question that came from behind her. Literally and figuratively. What? How?

      She’d been expecting Rosalyn to respond, not the familiar masculine voice that had the effect of morphing her insides to melted butter.

      When had he walked up behind her?

      Why hadn’t Rosalyn told her?

      Or at least given some indication he was on the medical floor and within earshot? She had to have seen him behind Carly.

      Rosalyn had set her up, playing matchmaker.

      Slowly, Carly turned to face the man she’d just been talking about.

      Insides quaking, she stared into the most beautiful green eyes she’d ever encountered. So green she could almost be convinced the color was the result of contact lenses. If she’d had any doubts, he was now close enough to put that question to rest. All she could see was gorgeous bright green eyes, the color of spring bringing life back after a long cold spell.

      Dark, long lashes fringed his eyes, giving them a surreal look that only added to his already handsome face. No doubt about it. Stone was easy to look at.

      She opened her mouth, meaning to tell him something, anything, but not the truth.

      The truth was something she kept private. Something she didn’t talk about with her co-workers because she needed to keep her life compartmentalized. At the hospital, she worked hard, was free to laugh with her co-workers and patients, to just feel normal and pretend life was grand.

      She wouldn’t let home creep into work.

      She couldn’t.

      Not if any part of her was to survive.

      Compartmentalization was her friend and kept her sane.

      “Yeah,” Rosalyn added, her amused gaze bouncing back and forth between Stone and Carly.

      Her co-worker was definitely having Cupid inclinations. In another lifetime, Carly would have welcomed her help, would have welcomed a man like Stone being interested. Welcomed and been over the moon. But that wasn’t where she was and probably wouldn’t be for years.

      Lord, she hoped it would be years.

      The alternative was unthinkable.

      Stone’s gaze cut to the grinning nurse who was watching them with the eagerness of a movie-goer. All she needed was a seat and some popcorn.

      “Rosalyn, would you mind getting a warm blanket for Room 207?” he asked. “That’s what I stepped out to do, but fortunately I ran into you lovely ladies.”

      Carly was one hundred percent sure “fortunately” was not what she’d call him