Single Dad, Nurse Bride. Lynne Marshall

to make sure her car continued to run. She made an illegal U-turn in the middle of the road and drove off in the other direction.

      He shook his head. Women!

      The light changed to green. Something sparkly in the passenger bucket seat caught his attention. Damn, a reminder of the woman who’d managed to confuse him—a short strand of Rikki’s fluorescent blue beads.

      CHAPTER THREE

      AT WORK mid-Sunday morning, Rikki’s radar warned her that Dane was in the vicinity of the orthopedic ward. She’d lain awake half the night trying to figure out why she’d gotten so skittish with him. He’d been kind, attentive, even entertaining, but the restaurant had been completely outside her comfort zone.

      Her lifetime of being carted from one foster-home to another had taught her to never get too comfortable anywhere. With the few families she’d cared about, she’d had to quickly learn how to let go. After a while it had gotten easy, especially if she never let herself get involved in the first place.

      And Dane’s kiss had struck like lightning, setting fire to her soul. Just the thought of it made her palms tingle. Out of self-defense she’d never allow herself to get comfortable with a man like him. She couldn’t trust where it might lead.

      Hearing his footsteps approaching, she dashed into one of her patients’ rooms.

      How could she ever face Dane again after last night? It wasn’t anything he’d said. It was more what he hadn’t said—the look he’d given when he’d first seen her in the restaurant lobby had told half of the story. The other half had come through when he hadn’t bothered to tell her she looked great or even good, but she had sure read that approving gaze he’d given when Dr. Young had shown up. Just once in her life she’d like to be accepted for who she was inside, a person of value, not how she was wrapped.

      “Nurse?”

      She quickly realized she’d been hovering at the patient’s door, watching and listening. “Oh! Hi, Mr. Tanaka.”