vitals and settle her in, start to get to know her. Then we’ll go from there.”
The towering marine agreed with an outward jut of his chin. “Brace yourself, she’s not a warm and fuzzy little old lady,” he warned.
“She’s the colonel—got it,” Kinsey said.
“And you think you’re a Camden,” he mused.
“It’s what I’m told,” Kinsey countered, heading for the door with him following behind.
“So how does this work hour-wise?” he asked along the way.
Her fee had been discussed when they’d initially arranged this meeting, but her hours hadn’t.
“The colonel is my only patient so I can be here as needed—morning till night. Unless you don’t want me around that much.”
“No, that’s good. I’m glad you’re all mine—”
All his?
“Not all mine,” he said in a hurry. “I’m glad there isn’t anyone but the colonel on your to-do list because you’ll have your hands full with just her.”
“With her and your shoulder rehab,” Kinsey reminded.
“Yeah, sure, that, too,” he conceded.
Was he just the slightest bit flustered?
It amused Kinsey to think so but she tried not to let it show.
He opened the door and followed her onto the landing.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said. “And you, too, Jack,” she told the dog, petting his head and inadvertently brushing Sutter’s arm.
Then she headed for her car, wondering why that bare hint of contact had made her skin tingle.
Another chill? she wondered.
That had to be it.
Certainly it couldn’t have been Sutter Knightlinger.
Because no matter how attractive he was, a marine was still a marine to her.
And towering and muscular and handsome-as-all-get-out or not, there was no place in her life for another one of those.
As a career marine, Sutter had long ago become accustomed to rising early. But not quite as early as the following morning. By sunrise, he was already showered, shaved and dressed and had had breakfast, fed Jack and was on his second cup of coffee.
Now Jack was in the backyard and Sutter was standing at the sliding glass door in the kitchen, watching him.
Sutter had had a restless, nearly sleepless night.
Kinsey Madison had better be the marvel Livi thought she was, otherwise he was worried that the nurse wouldn’t be able do what he needed done. Especially in the small amount of time before his shoulder was usable again and he was sent back overseas, leaving his mother to her own devices.
The colonel was a tough nut to crack and Kinsey was going to have to damn near work a miracle to effect any change in her.
But he didn’t know what else to do. His father had had a way with the colonel. He’d been able to finesse her into socializing and keeping up a healthy routine. Sutter didn’t have that same knack with her. Every suggestion, every recommendation he made, just set off her temper.
But letting her have her own way was no solution. Merely looking out at the condition of the backyard was a testament to that.
The accident that had ultimately cost his father his life had happened at the start of August and the lawn hadn’t been mowed since. Amos Knightlinger’s prized raspberry bushes were laden with unpicked fruit that had withered on the branches.
The sight of that twisted something up inside of Sutter.
He and his father had been close.
“If I’d known what was going on, Dad, I would have busted my ass to get home. To see you...” he said, looking at those bushes, remembering how happy his father had been when the colonel had retired and they could finally settle in a place they could really call home. A place where his father could watch something grow year after year. His father had babied those bushes and reveled in the berries they’d produced every summer, eating them as if they were a great delicacy.
If I had been here, I would have picked them for you and brought them to you in the hospital...
But picking his father raspberries and bringing them to him was hardly the only thing that Sutter hadn’t been able to do one last time. And all because of the way his mother had handled things. There was a lot he would have—should have—had the chance to do, to say, in those last weeks and days.
Instead he hadn’t even known his father was at the end of his life. And it pissed Sutter off something fierce.
Maybe that was part of why he and the colonel were at odds. Maybe he wasn’t hiding his feelings, his frustrations, as well as he thought he was.
But he couldn’t help resenting that the colonel had robbed him of any opportunity to say goodbye to his father. After all the years that his father had been there for him while the colonel was halfway across the world or just busy with one case or another; after all the years that his father had bent over backward to make every move, every transition, every new school as easy as possible for him; after so much time that he and his father had spent together, just the guys, the colonel had kept him from being there for his dad.
“Not the right call, Colonel,” he grumbled.
But what was done was done and now he had to deal with things the way they were. With the colonel the way she was. He had a mission here at home.
He and Kinsey Madison had a mission.
Kinsey Madison—also part of what had kept him up most of the night.
Her agenda.
Should he have agreed to help her get closer to the Camdens?
His gut said no.
He counted his cousin Beau as his best friend—more like the brother he’d never had. It had been that way since they were kids. But not only were Beau, Seth, Jani and Cade family, Sutter had strong feelings for all of the Camdens. GiGi had always treated him like her eleventh grandchild. They’d been good to him and he wouldn’t do anything that might cause them any harm.
But it was Livi who had recommended Kinsey, so they did already know her, he reasoned. And the way Livi had talked about Kinsey made it clear that Livi thought highly of Kinsey, so any overtures she made on her own would likely pan out with or without him.
He just didn’t like that, because of this deal he’d struck with her, he could be playing a part in anything that might bite them in the ass.
On the other hand, he thought, this did
