Page 30 of Bend Toward the Sun

“I’m checking you, whether you like it or not. Lyme disease is no joke.” She hesitated, then added again for emphasis,“Doctor.”

When he didn’t move away from her second advance, Rowan gingerly lifted the hem of his shirt. As she tugged the waistband of his jeans down, he grunted and wavered on his feet. The only thing there was a broad expanse of smooth, healthy skin and a band of navy-blue underwear.

She redirected to the nape of his neck, boosting on tiptoes to run fingers into the upturned curls there. Those waves were as soft as they looked—infinitely softer than the thick coils of her own hair.

Harrison shuddered.

“Ticklish?” She tried to keep her tone as clinical as possible.

“No.”

“Scared?” Rowan skimmed her fingertips along the fine hair on the back of his neck, and down a bit, dipping under his collar.

He made a sound that was part growl, part humorless laugh. “Definitely not.”

A bead of sweat raced down the small of her back. She hastily stepped away from him.

“You’re clear,” she said. “Find a seat, pull down your socks, check your calves and ankles.”

Harrison nodded.

“The little bastards can easily hitch a ride on fabric, so weshould get out of these clothes as soon as possible. You, I mean. You should get out of your clothes. I will, too. When we’re done here. Separately. From you.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t get out much,” she said, and squeezed the bridge of her nose. “Talking is hard.”

Harrison chuckled and sat heavily on a bench to check around his ankles. Then he leaned forward with elbows on thighs, staring at the floor between his feet.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Yep, fine. Thinking about baseball.” The tips of his ears were pink.

“Isn’t baseball in the spring?”

He breathed out another laugh. “Never mind. Do you know why I brought you out here?”

“Hide-and-seek?”

“Ah, no,” he chuckled, “I don’t need another black eye or more bruises on my legs.”

They shared a smile. He stood and plucked a delicate pink cosmos from a waist-high bunch of flowers sprouting from a basin of potting soil. He handed her the little blossom. “We could use your expertise in getting the vineyard and the grounds back into shape. Between you and me? I think my parents are in way over their heads.”

Rowan felt the unwelcome warmth of anxiety flood through her. She spun the cosmos in her fingertips like a pinwheel. “I have so much to get done on my manuscript.”

Weak.

“We’re not going to ask for all of your time,” Harrison said.

“I really can’t afford to lose momentum.”

He levered himself up to sit on a table. When he laced his fingers together in his lap, his cool exterior was betrayed by thewhite of his knuckles. “If you want to finish that paper, holing up in T.J.’s little apartment in the city isn’t what you need.”

Rowan had been flailing and failing, and somehow, he knew. She blinked. “You’ve known me for a few days, and now you’re an expert on what Ineed,Dr. Brady?”

“Harry. It’sHarry.”

She averted her eyes and touched the wildflower to her nose, even though she knew the petals had no fragrance.