He figured whoever was outside his door would give up eventually. Minutes later the door rattled on its hinges as the pounding increased in intensity.

  “Hello?” a female voice shouted over the noise from the storm. “I’m not going away. I know you’re in there. I can see the light from the TV. Hello! I need help. Please.”

  Resignation snaked along his spine as he straightened from the worn chair with a grunt. The please had been a nice touch. Feigning deafness to the knocking was one thing. Outright ignoring a plea for assistance was more than he could manage, even if he wanted to.

  He eyed the cane that sat propped against the coffee table, then turned his gaze to the front door. Seven feet max. He could make it that far on his own.

  By the time his hand grasped the doorknob, pinpricks of pain radiated up from his calf to make his entire left leg burn. Gritting his teeth, he pulled the door open, unsure of what he expected to find on the other side.

  “You’re a doctor, right?” the woman asked, and it took Ryan a few seconds to process the question as he looked her over from head to toe.

  All five-foot-nothing inches of her, soaking wet with dark, chin-length hair tucked under a faded baseball cap and mossy-green eyes that were almost cartoonishly round. Raindrops clung to her cheeks and lashes, giving her an ethereal sort of look, but the spark in her eyes told him she was no shrinking violet.

  He recognized her as his nearest neighbor, even though they hadn’t spoken in the week since he arrived to finish his leave of absence in the beach cottage belonging to the hospital chief’s family. This was Meredith Ventner, the woman who operated some sort of wayward-animal rescue from the property next door.

  Ryan hadn’t come to this small town to make friends, and there was enough acreage between the houses that he’d had no reason to introduce himself to her.

  Until now.

  “Yeah,” he said. “I’m here on vacation.”

  Not exactly the truth but close enough that she’d hopefully get the message he wasn’t on duty. Jerk move, but Ryan was in no shape to make a difference to anyone at this point.

  Her green eyes narrowed. “Sorry to bother you,” she said, not sounding sorry at all. “But I need you to come with me. There’s an injured man at my house.”

  Panic threatened to choke Ryan, and he forced himself not to flinch away from her request.

  “I understand Magnolia has a hospital and regular doctors.”

  “The road leading to town is a mess. Pretty sure it’s washed out in some places.” She gestured to the deluge coming down past the cover of his front porch. “Plus Joey might need stitches. I don’t want to wait.”

  Stitches. Okay, then. Ryan could probably handle stitches without losing his composure.

  “What happened to him?”

  She threw up her hands like he’d just asked the dumbest question in the world. “Does it matter? He’s hurt. You’re a doctor. I learned about the Hippocratic oath on Grey’s Anatomy. You might want to stop dillydallying because the storm’s supposed to get worse before it lets up.”

  “You do realize you’re the one asking for a favor?”

  “I already said please,” she countered.

  So she had.

  Every self-preservation instinct inside Ryan told him not to get involved with this woman or her injured friend. If it wasn’t that serious she could...

  Damn it. Who was he fooling?

  “I’ll get my medical bag,” he told her. “But I want more details on the ride over.”

  “Fine.”

  She started to step into his house, then paused when he didn’t move. “Fine,” she repeated. “I’ll wait in the truck.”

  Her tone communicated quite clearly that she thought he was a royal jerk, and he didn’t disabuse her of that notion.

  Instead he closed the door as she turned away, preferring to be labeled an ass than to have a complete stranger witness the agonizing walk to his cane.

  Gritting his teeth against the pain, he collected it and then pulled his medical bag from the hall closet and grabbed a waterproof jacket from the coat hook. It had been raining off and on for his entire stay, suiting his mood to a T. Unfortunately, the conditions also made the wood porch and steps slick, and Ryan had to take it slow to ensure he didn’t end up falling on his butt in front of his neighbor.

  Insult to injury and all that.

  She drove a behemoth of a truck and looked almost comical behind the wheel, like she should be sitting on a stack of phone books to see over the dash.

  As soon as he climbed in, after stashing the supplies and cane in the back, she hit the gas. The truck fishtailed for a few seconds, then lumbered down the gravel drive.

  So much for a quiet evening with the hockey game.

  “I’m Meredith,” she told him as she drove, her gaze steady out the front window. The rain made visibility almost nonexistent, but she handled the hulking vehicle like a pro.

  “Ryan Sorensen.”

  “David Parthen emailed me that one of his friends would be staying in the cottage for a few weeks. He mentioned that you’re an ER doc.”

  “Tell me about the man’s who’s hurt.”

  “Joey Granger,” she said, almost reluctantly. “He came out tonight to look at a cat he wanted to adopt. Or at least that’s what I thought. I guess he had other plans, as well. Stupid ones.”

  “And he got injured in the process of these stupid plans?”

  “Something knocked him off balance, and he fell.”

  “And...”

  “Hit his head on the corner of a table.”

  Ryan let out a breath. It was like prying a clamshell apart to get the story. There was something more Meredith wasn’t telling him, but he decided to concentrate on the part that involved him. “Did he lose consciousness?”

  “No,” she answered immediately, then added under her breath, “unfortunately.”

  “Um...”

  “I’m sure he’s fine. He just got a little woozy with all the blood.”

  “‘All the blood,’” he murmured. “That’s encouraging.”

  The truck hit a rut, jostling both of them.

  “You’re distracting me,” Meredith told him, and something about the accusation in her tone made him want to smile.

  In the wake of the quiet routine of his first week at the beach house, the past several minutes felt like walking into the sunlight after hours in a darkened room. He couldn’t quite make sense of the situation, and his equilibrium felt shattered.

  “We’re almost there.” She’d gentled her tone, purposely he imagined, and Ryan decided not to question her anymore. The light from her two-story farmhouse glowed ahead of them as the windshield wipers swish-swished a rapid pattern, filling the silence that stretched between them.

  She parked at the base of the front-porch steps, five of them. Ryan hated dealing with stairs, but he wasn’t about to admit that.

  Instead he got out, took his bag and cane from the back seat and followed her as quickly as he was able.

  Meredith took the steps two at a time. Bounding up them as he would have done three weeks earlier. Now he went slowly, working to keep his features neutral as pain shot up his leg again.

  At least she didn’t ask about the cane, although he could tell she wanted to. The stupid stick was like a giant arrow pointing out to everyone that he wasn’t right. If only his issues were just physical. What a blessing that would be.

  He gave himself a mental shake. This moment wasn’t about him. He could fake normal for as long as it took to deal with her friend and his fall or whatever had really happened. Ryan had quickly become a master of faking it.

  As he followed Meredith out of the storm and into her house, he tried not to think about anything else. About what the next few minutes might bring and how somehow he knew everything in his world was about to change. Again.

  * * *

  “JOEY, I’M BACK,” Meredith called as she headed toward the back of the house, Ryan Sorensen’s cane thumping on the hardwood floor as he followed her. Plaintive whines came from behind her closed bedroom door, but she ignored them. She’d put away the dogs and the two cats she could find when she’d left to get Ryan. They were well trained, but since the same couldn’t be said for Joey, she figured leaving him on his own was better than inviting him to get comfortable with her overly friendly menagerie of adopted pets.

  David Parthen hadn’t mentioned in the email about someone staying at the cottage that his friend was injured or unfriendly or hot as all get-out.

  She’d nearly forgotten the disaster waiting at her house when he’d opened the door. Heck, she’d nearly forgotten her own name.

  Ryan was well over six feet, with broad shoulders and muscled arms under the faded Georgetown T-shirt he wore. He had sandy-blond hair that was long enough to make him look more like a surfer than the big-city physician she’d expected to meet.

  Weren’t doctors only supposed to be movie-star good-looking on television?

  He clearly hadn’t wanted to come with her tonight, which had been another shock. Being healthy most of her twenty-seven years, Meredith hadn’t had much interaction with doctors. Again, if Hollywood could be relied upon for accuracy, doctors loved jumping in to save the day.

  Ryan had needed more than a little prodding.

  But he was here now and—

  “Did you bring whiskey?” Joey called from where he sat on her couch, still holding the ice pack she’d given him against his head. At least he didn’t look any worse than he had when she’d left to retrieve the doctor.

  “No alcohol,” she said. “You’re trouble when you’re sober, Joey. I’ve seen you drunk enough times to know we’re not going there tonight.”

  “Apparently, we’re not going anywhere,” he muttered. “I feel like you led me on, Mer.”

  “You said you were coming out for a kitten,” she reminded him through clenched teeth.

  “I said a kitty,” he told her, removing the ice pack. “It was a eudanisn.”

  She winced at the dried blood that matted his hair around the edges of the bandage she’d done her best to apply to the wound.

  “I think he means a euphemism,” Ryan said at her shoulder, his tone both bewildered and amused. “Instead of a kitty, he might be talking about—”

  “I know what he’s talking about.” Meredith focused on her irritation with the fellow townie she’d known since elementary school and tried to ignore the heat she could feel from the doctor standing so close. “That’s what led to this whole fiasco.”

  “She tried to kill me,” Joey told Ryan.

  “The women of Magnolia should be so lucky,” Meredith shot back.

  “I could have you arrested.” He held up a hand. “Wait. You aren’t going to tell Tanya about this, right? She and me aren’t exclusive, but she’s got a jealous streak a mile wide. Now that I think about things, it was a simple misunderstanding.”

  “Involving attempted murder?” Ryan asked as he stepped forward.

  “Not exactly murder, I guess,” Joey admitted. “I forgot about Meredith’s temper, which was my bad. After the article last month, I figured I was doing her a favor coming out here. She’s lonely, you know?”

  Meredith gave a tight shake of her head when Ryan glanced over his shoulder at her. She should have given Joey a Band-Aid and sent him on his way, washed-out road be damned. As Ryan arched a thick eyebrow, she felt color rush to her cheeks.

  “Don’t ask,” she told him, hoping it didn’t sound like she was begging. Although she’d beg, borrow and plead to have tonight a distant memory.

  “You the doc?” Joey asked when Ryan turned to face him again.

  “Yes.” Ryan crouched down in front of Joey. “Tell me about your head. You can leave out the lonely bits.”

  Joey looked around Ryan’s broad frame toward Meredith. “Can I at least get a beer?”

  She counted to ten in her head, then asked, “How about a glass of orange juice?”

  “Close enough,” he grumbled.

  “Doc?” she added.

  “Nothing for me.”

  She went around the corner to the kitchen and poured Joey a glass of OJ, then stood by the counter for several minutes, trying to convince herself that her reaction had been a normal one. Didn’t most women haul off and deck a man who tried to kiss them? Joey had taken a step back, lost his balance and fallen, cutting the skin above his right eye on the corner of a shelf in the barn.

  Now that the moment was over, she couldn’t help but think she’d been slightly irrational. Joey had acted like an idiot, but he wasn’t a predator or some kind of bad guy. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer, either. But was he really to blame?

  The article about Furever Friends that had appeared in the local paper last month was meant as free publicity for a Valentine’s Day adoption fair she’d been holding. She’d talked to the reporter, Kate Crane, about the unconditional love of a pet and how animals could help people who didn’t have other close relationships in their lives. Meredith had made a few awkward jokes about dogs being better company than men. Still, she hadn’t expected the article’s focus to turn to her modern-day spinsterhood and how sweet and pathetic it was that she devoted her life to animals in need while she pined for the right man to appear.

  Since that time, every red-blooded bachelor in Magnolia seemed to show up at her doorstep ready to sweep her off her feet. As if she were hard up for a date. Okay, that might be true, and she’d possibly tried a few online dating sites, but advertising her singleton status in the news was too much.

  A yelp from the family room brought her thoughts back to the present, and she grabbed the glass from the counter.

  Joey hissed out a pained breath as she reentered room. “That hurts like a mother.”

  “A few more seconds,” Ryan answered. “The sting will subside as the liquid stitches dry. If you have any problems, your regular doctor will know how to handle them.”

  “I don’t got a regular doctor. I appreciate all your help, but I’m gonna be just fine. Takes more than a little scrape to the head to keep Joey Granger down.”

  Meredith handed Joey the orange juice as Ryan straightened. “I’ll give you my number, then,” he told the other man. “Call me if you need anything.”

  “I need a beer,” Joey said after downing the juice. His phone dinged, and he fished it out of his back pocket. “Nice.” He pumped his fist after reading the text. “Jack got around the washout. He’ll be here to pick me up in a few. I’ll make it to Murphy’s Pub tonight after all.”

  “No one should be out in this,” Meredith told him. “Not even your nutty brother.”

  “Come on, Mer. You know a little rain isn’t going to stop Jack. Is it cool if I leave my car here overnight? I can pick it up tomorrow.”

  “Fine,” Meredith said. In all honesty, she owed Jack, Joey’s twin brother, a debt of gratitude. Joey’s lowrider Nissan would never make it back to town tonight. While her moment of panic was gone, she didn’t relish a houseguest for the night.

  Joey placed the empty glass on the coffee table. “Maybe I’ll take another look at the kittens,” he told her with a grin. “Now that I understand how things are with you, I won’t be so distracted.”

  No way in hell would Meredith allow Joey to adopt one of her animals at this point. She liked to give people the benefit of the doubt, but he was as immature now as he’d been when he and his brother used to pull the fire alarm in elementary school.

  “Be safe tonight, Joey. Both you and Jack need to get a ride home from the bar later.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said with a wink, clearly feeling much better now that the doctor had patched him up. The rain died down enough to hear the roar of a modified truck pulling up in front of the house.

  Joey stood. “Thanks again,” he said to Ryan.

  “You should go home and get some rest,” Ryan answered.

  “I can rest when I’m dead,” Joey answered, chuckling to himself. He turned to Meredith. “Sorry about the miscommunication tonight. I know you weren’t trying to kill me.” He leaned in. “Even if you wanted to.”

  “Sorry about your head,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. Meredith didn’t like to apologize but felt she owed Joey a little something, despite the fact that he’d been an idiot earlier. “Remember to confirm a woman’s interest before you try putting any moves on her.”

  “But I got moves like a jaguar,” Joey said, forming his hand into the shape of a claw.

  Meredith stepped more fully in front of him and held up a hand. “Joey, stop.”

  He had the good sense to look embarrassed. “I got it, Mer. There are plenty of willing women interested in what I’ve got to offer, you know?”

  “I know,” she agreed, even though she couldn’t imagine it. Definitely didn’t want to. “Be safe.”

  He held up a hand. “See ya. Thanks again, Doc.”

  Meredith blew out a breath as he walked away. A moment later she heard the front door open and shut. Gracie gave an insistent bark from the bedroom.

  “Are you okay with dogs?” she asked Ryan, unable to meet his gaze now that they were alone. There was so much about tonight she had no desire to revisit.

  “Sure,” he said slowly, leaning on his cane. “I still don’t understand what just happened.”

  “Give me a quick second, and then I’ll clear things up while I take you home.”

  She didn’t want to talk about Joey or try to explain what had led to her medical nonemergency.

  Ignoring the anxiety that pushed at the lid of the box where she kept it trapped, Meredith opened her bedroom door. Three excited dogs tumbled out.

  Buster, the Labrador retriever alpha of her small pack despite having only three legs, was the first to run forward to investigate their visitor.

  After receiving the requisite loving from Meredith, Gracie and Marlin followed. Her ragtag trio of mutts could be a lot, but Ryan gave them a genuine smile as he lowered himself to the sofa so he could pet each of them.