“Yes, I know,” he said quietly.
“Will you please go?” she said in a defeated tone, refusing to look at him again. “My life is none of your business now. Nothing I do concerns you.”
“Do you want him?” he asked.
She went and opened the kitchen door. “Goodbye. Sorry you have to leave so suddenly,” she said with a bright, empty smile.
“I thought I was invited to lunch.”
“Do you really like arsenic?” she asked with raised eyebrows. “Because I’ve never been more tempted in my life.”
“Neither have I,” he agreed, but he was studying her slender, pretty figure with narrowed, blue-black eyes. “You’re exquisite, Eleanor. You always were, but maturity has done amazing things to your body.”
“I am more than a body,” she said curtly. “I’m a human being with thoughts and feelings and a few minor talents.”
“I know that, too…. Do you fancy a guardian angel, Eleanor?”
She blinked. “I don’t understand.”
“You will,” he said with a grim smile. “At least keep away from his apartment, can’t you? I hear he has a bed that begins at the doorway.”
She had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing, and his twinkling eyes very nearly threw her off balance.
“Well, that surely beats the backseat of a luxury car, wouldn’t you think…?” she asked with blatant mockery.
He sighed. “You won’t quit, will you? I don’t suppose you’d believe me if I told you I was so out of my head at the time that I wasn’t even thinking about anyone but you?”
“Right the first time,” she said, grinning carelessly. “Do you want a ham sandwich or don’t you?”
He pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and took his time lighting it. “I’m going to get around that wall you’ve built, one way or the other. You can make change on that.”
“Better buy a rocket launcher and a couple of grenades,” she told him. “You’re going to need them.”
“You may, if Romeo gets a foot in the door,” he said grimly. “Don’t worry your father, will you? He broods.”
“He’ll have to give me up one day,” she remarked.
“You aren’t thinking that Granger might propose, for God’s sake?” he burst out, laughing coldly. “Marry a sweet little nobody like you? Fat chance, honey.”
“I’m not your honey,” she shot back.
“You were,” he said, his voice rough and soft all at once, his eyes intent. “You were the sweetest honey I ever tasted.”
“The beehive is out of order,” she replied stiffly. “You’ll have to appease your appetite elsewhere.”
“There isn’t anywhere else,” he said absently, watching her as the cigarette smoldered in his hand, its glowing tip as red as his waving hair. “There hasn’t been for a long time.”
“I don’t believe in fairy tales,” she said. “If you’re quite through, I have things to do.”
He shrugged. “Turned out into the cold,” he said, watching her. “Heartless woman.”
“It’s spring, and it isn’t cold. And you’re one to be accusing someone of not having a heart.”
“You don’t think I have one, Eleanor?” He laughed. “You might be surprised at the bruises on it.”
“I would, if there were any.”
“Nurses are supposed to have compassion,” he reminded her.
“I have, for those who deserve it. I have dishes to wash, sandwiches to make….”
“Wash your damned dishes, and forget making any sandwiches for me,” he muttered, turning to go. “The way my luck’s running lately, you’d probably make mine with a live pig.”
She heard the door close and went back to her soapy water. It took a long time for her heart to calm down, and she thanked providence for removing his disturbing presence. She didn’t want to remember that night. Why couldn’t he go away and let her forget it? Just the sight of him was a constant reminder, an eternal opening of the wound. She closed her eyes and went quickly about her tasks.
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