Page 30 of After You

He looked at Bailey and said, “I’ll be right down.” And then he put his plan into motion when he said to Alice, “It’s up to Hannah how this all goes. Don’t forgetthat.”

Bailey nodded and descended the stairs in front ofhim.

Kyle started afterher.

“Well, just be yourself, honey,” Alice said. “Follow yourgut—”

“Follow your heart,” he heard in the background from his own grandmother.

“Yes,” Alice agreed, “just follow your heart.”

“Girls, that is not—” Kyle started, but just then he stepped off the bottom step and looked into the waiting room. Hannah’s eyes were the first ones he met, and his ankle wobbled.

She was lying on her back on the floor, her feet on the wall beside the tall potted plant that occupied the corner by the window, with Albert and Bailey lookingon.

And he realized a very important fact: He was screwed.

“Following your heart is not what?” Alice asked in hisear.

Kyle took a deep breath. “Not going to be a problem.”

Totally. Screwed.

* * *

Hannah couldn’t,for the life of her, remember what she’d been telling Albert in the first few seconds after Kyle walked into the room. She was instructing him on something having to do with the back pain he was coming in to see Kyle about. And it had occurred to her that one of the things she’d learned in her last continuing education class might help. So she’d explained it. And he hadn’t understood. So she’d gotten on the floor to showhim.

Okay, whew. That’s what she was doing.

“Morning, Albert,” Kyle said, coming into theroom.

“Mornin’, Doc.”

But Kyle hadn’t taken his eyes off of Hannah as he crossed to where she still lay on the floor. He stopped and looked down at her with a small smile. He didn’t greet her specifically, but he held out hishand.

She wasn’t sure touching him was a good idea, but she didn’t really see any reasonable way around it. At least not with an audience. And as she slipped her hand into his, she thought, for just a second, that maybe that was part of Kyle’s plan. To only touch her when there were people watching so that she couldn’t avoid it or pullaway.

As he hauled her to her feet, she also realized that didn’t make complete sense either, though. In her grandma’s driveway, he’d told her to push him away and act pissedoff.

What was goingon?

Kyle gave her hand a little tug, and she took the step that brought her nearly up against him. Hannah sucked in her breath, then pressed her lips together. But Kyle heard it. She knew because his gaze dropped to her lips. And Hannah was interested to find that Kyle looking at her lips could also make her nipples tingle. They stood staring at each other for a very long moment that was full of…expectation. Or memories. Or something.

Dammit.

Then it got worse.

“Hey, Albert?” Kyle asked, still looking at Hannah. “You think we could reschedule? I think this pretty lady needs some of Dottie’s hash browns. It’s been three years, youknow.”

“Oh, yeah, I can definitely come back later,” Albert said quickly.

Hannah managed to look away from Kyle and over at the older man. He was watching them with wideeyes.

Oh, crap.

Hannah stepped back quickly. What was Kyle thinking? Looking at her like that? Saying they were going to breakfast together? Rescheduling appointments? And with one of the biggest gossips in town? Albert was one of the older men who met for coffee every morning at six a.m. at Dottie’s Diner. Nothing happened in Sapphire Falls that they didn’t know about. And talk about. And speculate about. And exaggerate.

There were a few things about Kyle Ames that were obvious within about five minutes of knowing him—he loved schedules, he hated change, and he planned everything. Albert had known Kyle longer than five minutes. So had all of the people Albert was going to tell that Kyle had changed his schedule around to spend time with Hannah.

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