Family Merger - By Leigh Greenwood Page 0,30

wasn't intimidated by him in any way.

It was obvious she was sensitive to people's needs or she wouldn't have made a success of the shelter. Even more telling, the girls wouldn't have confided in her, believed she could keep them safe. Yet she was vulnerable. Beneath her list, hidden behind her toughness and competence, was a vulnerability. Partly what he suspected was a rich feminine tenderness, and partly what he was sure was very real fear. Kathryn Roper was not a happy woman. And for some reason that wasn't okay with him. He didn't know what he'd do when he found out what she feared, what had hurt her so badly, but he meant to find out. Then he meant to see what he could do about it.

Kathryn was about to close her book when the phone rang. She looked at the clock. It was 12:33 a.m. Too late to take the call. She shouldn't even have been up this late, but she was keyed up. Too keyed up to pay real attention to the romance she'd been reading.

That's because you haven't stopped thinking about Ron Egan all day.

She had tried to put him out of her mind, but it seemed everything that happened reminded her of him. There had even been a story on the news about some trouble in the trailer park where he'd grown up. She probably wouldn't have remembered it, but she recognized Ron's trailer as the TV camera panned for a view of the park.

After five rings, her voice came on the answering machine. She hated the sound of her own voice on tape. It sounded too soft and feathery, as if she were some kind of helpless female. Then the message...

"This is Ron Egan. I don't want to wake you up, but I just got back from Geneva. I'm a little tired right now - "

She snatched up the phone. "You didn't wake me. I was reading."

"You shouldn't be up so late. You'll have bags under your eyes tomorrow."

It was probably just polite conversation, but no one had given a thought to her being up late since high school.

"The girls won't care."

"Look, it's too late to talk about it now, but I've got an idea for something that might start those girls and their families talking again. I've got to catch a few hours' sleep or I won't know what I'm saying, but I'll be there at about eight-thirty. Is that too early?"

"No." It was. The girls would just be starting their lessons. Their regular teacher had called in sick. If she couldn't find a substitute in the morning, she'd have to try to supervise their studies.

"Good. Tell Cynthia I missed her. I missed you, too."

Her heart fluttered. She told herself not to be foolish, that this was what she got for reading a romance late at night. "Like a thorn in you finger, I imagine," she said. She heard Ron chuckle softly.

"Not quite that bad. If you're interested, maybe I'll tell you about the two real thorns in my side. I won't keep you up."

"Are you driving?" she asked.

"No. My car is at the house. I had a limousine pick me up."

"Good. I don't imagine you've had much sleep since you left. I wouldn't want you to fall asleep at the wheel."

Why was she babbling on? It was no more than a twenty-minute drive from the airport to the section of town where he lived. Even a man suffering from severe sleep deprivation could stay awake that long.

"I intend to fall asleep as soon as I hang up."

"Won't that make it harder to get to sleep later?"

It might, but talking on the phone with a foolish female who couldn't tell when to hang up probably wouldn't help, either.

"I can sleep any time, any place. Now I'm keeping you up. Go to sleep. I'll be there before you know it."

"You don't have to be here so early. You need to sleep more than you need to talk to me."

"That's what I told myself when I was debating whether to call you this late, but I was wrong."

There was no point in trying to deny it. Ron Egan was interested in her, and whether she wanted to admit it or not, she was pleased. And excited.

"You're tired," she said. "We'll talk tomorrow."

"Eight-thirty."

"Good night."

"Good night."

She fumbled the phone back into its cradle, too preoccupied to care. Ron Egan was interested in her. What was she going to do about it? More to the point, what was