But he wouldn’t have to perform another intervention for her anytime soon.
After losing herself and getting burned so badly, Anna wasn’t in any hurry to get involved again.
For now, she was happy to serve as Jake’s intervener.
Sprinkler-two-three-four, cotton-swab-two-three-four, Running Man-two-three... She was just getting into a groove, ready to transition from the Running Man back to the robot when, in the middle of possibly the best sequence yet, her foot hit an uneven plank on the dock, causing her to lose her balance.
She saw the fall coming in slow motion and she would have face-planted if not for Jake’s quick reflexes. Instead of kissing the dock, she found herself safe in the strength of his strong arms, looking up into his gorgeous blue eyes.
* * *
Anna smelled good.
The kind of natural good that made him want to pull her closer, bury his face in her neck and breathe in deeply.
But this was Anna, for God’s sake.
He couldn’t do that.
He respected her too much and owed her so much more than that.
Especially after she’d gone to such crazy lengths to cheer him up. Did he dare tell her that he really didn’t need cheering up? Not in the way she thought he did. Sure, Dorenda had ended things, but the breakup had come as more of a relief than anything.
Before he did something stupid that would be awkward for both Anna and him, he set her upright and took a step back, allowing both of them to reclaim their personal space.
“That was graceful,” he said, hoping humor would help him regain his equilibrium.
“You know me,” Anna said. “Grace is my middle name.” Actually, it really was. “I aim to please. How are you doing, Jake? You okay?”
Her long auburn hair hung at her shoulders in loose waves. Her clear, ivory skin was virtually makeup-free. She had this look in her blue eyes that warmed him from the inside out.
He tried not to think about the strange impulse he’d had just a minute ago, an impulse that lingered even if he was trying not to acknowledge it.
“I’m great,” he said. “Want a beer? I’d like to toast your latest choreography. You’re getting really good at it. I’ll give your Running Man a nine-point-five. I have to take off a half point since you didn’t stick the landing.”
She swatted him and quickly crossed her arms in front of her.
“Yes, I’d love a beer. Thank you. I need one after that.”
He smiled. “Come on. Let’s go back up to the house. I have five of a six-pack in the fridge.”
She was eyeing him again. “Well, good. I was afraid that maybe you’d been at home all day drowning your sorrows.”
“I was seeing patients all day. In case you haven’t noticed, I usually don’t take off midweek to go on a bender.”
He and Anna both worked at Celebration Memorial Hospital, but she was an OB nurse on the third-floor maternity ward and he was a hospitalist on the general medical-surgical floors. Unless they sought each other out, their paths usually didn’t cross at work.
“I must say, you’re taking this awfully well,” she said.
“What?”
“The breakup. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear that you were fine.”
“Do I act like I’m not fine?”
“Well, no. That’s what I just said. You seem remarkably unfazed by Miss Texas’s departure. Sorry, by Dorenda’s breaking up with you.”
He pulled open the back door for her and stepped aside so she could enter the house first.
“Dorenda was a great woman, but our relationship had run its course. I’ll miss her, but it was time to move on.”
He shrugged and stepped inside behind her.
“Are you telling me that you broke up with her?”
Throwing her a glance over his shoulder as he walked toward the kitchen, he said, “No, she’s the one who dropped the bomb. Actually, it was more of an exploding ultimatum. I saw it coming a mile away.”
He reached into the fridge, grabbed a beer and twisted off the bottle cap.
“She gave you an ultimatum? Really? Well, but then again, how long were the two of you together?”
“Four or five months or so. Do you want a mug? I have some in the freezer.”
“Yes, please. Had it really been five months? I mean, I’ve only been back a month.”
He nodded as he poured the beer down the inside of the mug, careful to create just the right amount of foam on top. “She reminded me of that more than a few times last night. She was talking five-year plans that involved marriage and kids and bigger houses. She kept saying she needed some assurance about our future, needed to know where we were going. I’m not going to lie to her. I enjoyed her company, but I wasn’t going to marry her.”
He handed the beer to Anna.
“Why not?” Anna asked. “She was beautiful. You seemed like you were really into her.”
Jake nodded. “She was nice. Pretty. But...I couldn’t see myself spending the rest of my life with her. That’s the bottom line.”
Anna squinted at him, her brows drawn together, as she sipped her beer.
“What’s wrong? Is the beer not good? You don’t have to drink it if you don’t like it.”
She set down the mug on the kitchen counter. “No, I like it. But I have two questions for you.”
“Okay. Shoot.”
“First question. If you’re fine with everything, how come you let me keep dancing and make a fool of myself?”
Her voice was stern.
He laughed out loud. He couldn’t help it. “Are you kidding? Watching you was the most fun I’ve had in months. No way was I going to stop you. For the record, you didn’t make a fool of yourself. You’re adorable. In fact, you’d been away so long down there in San Antonio, I’d almost forgotten how adorable you are.”
She rolled her eyes, but then smiled.
“So happy to have cheered you up,” she said.
“What’s the second question?” he asked.
She looked at him thoughtfully for a long moment.
“Why, Jake? Why do you keep dating the same type
