insisted, shaking her head. “I’ll be fine.” In her opinion, she’d already spent quite enough time with Thomas Jarrod for one trip. For a lifetime, in fact. The further they stayed away from one another, the better. Besides, she needed to see the hospital alone. To get a feel for the place before being thrust into tomorrow’s grand tour and the dozens of introductions and meetings that were sure to follow.
“What time did you get up this morning?” Tom questioned over his shoulder.
Pam followed, trying to catch up. He still kept her keys!
“Early.” She stifled a yawn. “The flight from Boston left at six, but…”
He’d reached his truck and now waited for her. “So, you’re tired, hungry, it’s dark, and you haven’t driven these country roads for what? Fourteen years?”
Approaching him, she nodded. She started to say she felt fine, but he cut her off.
“And now you’re going to find the hospital all by yourself?” He gave her a challenging grin. “That makes total sense. Why accept a ride from someone who knows exactly where the place is, and who can then get you some good food, and after you eat, take you to your hotel? I guess that’s just too easy. I understand completely.”
Pam scratched an itch on her nose and frowned. Of course he made sense.
Which annoyed her to no end.
So he thinks he’s got everything figured out, hmm? She released a deep breath. Well, that’s just great.
“I know what your problem is.”
“What problem?” Pam retorted, thrown off balance again. His grin was entirely too annoying.
“It’s my boots.”
Totally confused, she looked at his feet, barely visible in the dark night. “What about them?”
“It’s the cow poop stuck to them. I was out in the fields when the alarm came in. I didn’t get a chance to change.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Pam automatically countered. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t hold back a smile. “I just thought…”
“Oh. I see.” Tom lowered his voice to a seductive tone. “You don’t want to be alone with me. And them.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
He nodded. “That’s right. You remember what happened the last time we were together. Steamy truck windows, cumbersome buttons and zippers, my work boots making us both gag. You’re afraid all those feelings will come rushing back and you wouldn’t be able to keep your hands off me.”
Pam tried to stifle her laughter. Of course none of that really happened. It was just like all those years ago when he’d tease her nonstop about anything and everything. When her innocent heart ached to be noticed by him. As a woman. Not just the teenage girl he drove back and forth to school each day along with twenty other kids on the bus.
It hadn’t mattered to her that Tom was seven years older. She liked the idea that he was her bus driver and the coach of the high school football team. He also volunteered for the town’s rescue services and tended his family’s huge dairy farm. Yes, they did come from two different worlds, but she’d been hooked the moment he gave her that first smile.
“The poor little rich girl,” he’d said and then added in an exaggerated New England accent, “from Boston forced to live amongst us ignorant country folk.”
But Thomas Jarrod, Pam suspected, was neither poor nor ignorant. And with each passing day, her suspicions proved accurate.
“Well?” he insisted. “What do you say?”
Pam blinked back to the present. Sure she could take a joke. She could even dish one out, but he was always so quick. “Wait! I’m out of practice,” she insisted. “Give me a second!”
Again, she saw that twinkling glint in his eyes. In the moon’s light, she noticed that the smile lines around his mouth and eyes had deepened over the years. And yes, his blond hair looked a bit thin on top, now that she could see it. Or maybe it was just flattened by his baseball hat. Who cared? His intense gaze turned her insides to jelly when he looked at her. He was still such a flirt! So determined to get her tongue tied. Just like the old days.
On impulse, Pam glanced down at Tom’s left hand. No wedding ring. But that meant…
She corrected herself. That didn’t mean anything. Lots of married men didn’t wear a ring. And why should it matter? That was a long time ago. Afterward, they each went their separate ways. And lived their separate lives.
“Come on,” he urged. “It’s about a twenty-minute drive. Afterward, we can