with her still-soapy hair draped over her shoulders in long tight ringlets. Her long-lashed eyes peered at him with suspicion. “Todd, is that you? When did you cut your hair?”
In a short time all the misunderstandings were ironed out and the troopers left, although the younger man was still giving Todd the side eye. Emily had felt totally foolish when she realized that it was indeed Todd and not some random stranger who had invaded her home. She had thrown on clothes hastily as she was calling 911 and was now attired in faded denim shorts with frayed edges and an equally faded T-shirt, complete with holes from years of wear. Her feet were bare and she should have looked like a typical tomboy, but she didn’t. She looked quite sexy, as a matter of fact, but she wouldn’t have believed it for a minute. Emily was much too down-to-earth to categorize herself as any kind of femme fatale.
“Well, come on in,” she said. “You want some lemonade or sweet tea?”
“Sure.”
They went into the kitchen and she poured him a glass of lemonade, offering him some fat sugar cookies to go with it.
“I’m really sorry,” Todd said again. “I had no idea you were here, or I wouldn’t have come. In fact, if you tell me where there’s a hotel, I’ll get out of your hair.”
Emily ignored his comment and looked at him intently. “Speaking of hair, you never said why you cut yours,” she pointed out.
Todd ran his hand over his head, which was shorn down to his scalp. The last time she’d seen him, he’d had long braids that came way past his shoulders. Now he was almost bald with a shadow beard and moustache.
“I cut it because I met a patient who was starting chemo. She came into the emergency room during a crisis, and I treated her before she was admitted. Cutest little girl you ever saw,” he added. “Anyway, she knew she was going to lose all her hair, so I told her I’d shave my head so we’d match.”
Emily smiled. “That was really sweet of you. What did she think?”
Todd laughed. “I went to see her after I did it, and she said I looked better with braids and I wasn’t handsome anymore.”
Emily laughed, too. “You can’t beat kids for being honest.” She might be honest, but she’s wrong. You still look good to me, she thought.
Todd was looking around the kitchen as she was looking at him, examining every inch of his tall, muscular frame. She blushed as he had to repeat his question, since she was in her own little world when he spoke.
“I asked if there was a hotel nearby. I don’t want to get in your way,” Todd said.
“Todd, don’t be silly. There’s plenty of room here. Ayanna said you were welcome and you are. She thought the place would be empty because she’d been so busy with her family that she forgot that my camp was last week. We have four bedrooms and two and a half baths, so it doesn’t make sense for you to go to a hotel. Just go out to your car and get your things,” she said briskly.
“If I’d seen your car I wouldn’t have used the key to get in,” Todd said ruefully. “I probably just should have waited until I heard you come downstairs or something, instead of just coming in.”
“That’s because my car is in the barn. And if you hadn’t come in you wouldn’t have been able to see me in the bathtub, would you?”
Her tone was both casual and naturally seductive, so much so that Todd choked on his lemonade.
“Damn, I’m sorry. I didn’t think you heard me upstairs. How did you know I saw you?”
His face got red as she gave him a knowing smile and answered, “Because you just told me. Go get your stuff and I’ll take you to your room.”
Chapter 3
Alexis couldn’t take any more. “Wait a minute, wait a minute! You’re telling us that the man saw you naked? Butt naked? A strange man saw you with no clothes on, and he’s still living? Why didn’t you beat the crap out of him?”
Emily shrugged. “He’s not a strange man. He’s a good friend of my sister. He was a groomsman in her wedding. Don’t you remember me telling you about him?”
Sherri and Alexis looked at each other before looking back at her. “No,” they answered, once again speaking in unison.
“I must have said something about him,” Emily countered. “He’s a real nice guy, very handsome, a doctor. Very down-to-earth, too. Are you sure you don’t remember?”
“If he was all that, why didn’t you get with him when you were in Chicago?” Alexis asked pointedly.
“I don’t ‘get with’ guys, Alexis. That’s not my deal. Besides, he was with someone,” she answered just as pointedly.
Sherri was shaking her head. “I’m going to forget the naked part for a hot minute, but we’re going back to that. If you know the guy and you like him, why did you call the cops on him?”
“I told you, I didn’t recognize him! I knew him as having long braids, and they were gone, remember?”
Sherri got up and went to the drawer where Emily kept odds and ends and came back to the table with a notepad and a pen. “I’m going to have a lot of questions when you get through, so I’m taking notes. Alexis, try to hold it in, chick. We need to get the rest of this story before we react.”
Alexis moaned dramatically and made a horrible face. Sherri raised an eyebrow and stared her down. Alexis pouted, but the grimace melted away immediately. “That’s a good idea, Sherri. I’ll try, but I can’t promise anything. Okay, what happened next, Em?”
Emily looked totally composed as she watched Todd go out to his car to get his luggage, but nothing could have been further from the truth. After the morning she’d had, her heart was still going like a jackhammer. Her whole world had been turned upside down in the past hour, and she was trying desperately to look as if it was no big deal. But that was going to be really difficult. From the moment she’d met him, Emily had a secret passion for Todd. She’d never shared this information with anyone, especially not him. And now here he was live and in person under her roof. She should have pointed him to the nearest Marriott when he said he’d stay at a hotel, but no, she had to tell him to stay with her. Clearly, she wasn’t in her right mind; she was just still rattled from the events of the day.
The moment she’d realized there was someone in the house, she’d gone into panic mode. She’d been singing loudly while she was standing in the bathtub, but she’d caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye that scared the hell out of her. It was a man, a big bald man. She tried to remember if the rifle her father had kept was upstairs where she was or downstairs in the closet. Downstairs, it’s always downstairs, she muttered. Without bothering to dry off, she got out of the deep tub and tiptoed to her bedroom, leaving the water running so she wouldn’t alert the intruder that she’d left the bathroom. Throwing on an old pair of shorts as she reached for her cell phone, she hastily called an old friend of her dad’s who happened to be a state trooper in the area. Thankfully he’d been on duty and told her he’d be right there. By the time she’d tossed on a T-shirt, she could see him pull into the driveway behind the strange vehicle that was parked there.
After she tiptoed down the stairs and listened to the
