They got the bleeding under control as soon as they got his spleen out, repaired the liver laceration, and put his small bowel back together. Somehow, he’d managed not to break his neck or fracture his spine, and he was young enough he’d likely survive the multiple trauma and insult to his major systems without too much in the way of long-term side effects. He’d still be looking at a week in the intensive care unit and six times that in rehab if he was lucky. But then, he was damn lucky.

Flann stepped back from the table as Glenn carefully applied the dressings and secured his chest tube and other lines for the transfer to the gurney. Flann pulled off her mask, shed her gown and gloves, and called thanks to the anesthesiologist and the nurses on her way out of the room. Her legs were rubbery and her head muzzy. She contemplated taking herself off emergency call, but chances were another one wouldn’t come in anyhow. If it did, she could always punt or transfer if she couldn’t handle it. Once in the locker room she stripped, stumbled like a zombie back to the shower stalls, and stepped under the spray.

“Cripes,” she gasped, when the cold water doused her head. While she fought with the dial to regulate the temperature, her mind cleared and she got her second wind. She’d be good for another half a day at least. And the day stretched ahead of her like a long, empty hallway. Not knowing how long she’d be tied up with the trauma, she’d left a message with her answering service halfway through the case to reschedule her morning hours. Barring emergencies, her time was her own. She didn’t really have anything to do with it—work was her recreation as well as her profession. Other than playing softball four nights a week in the spring and summer, she didn’t do much else except work, take a woman out to dinner or a movie a few times a month, and find reasons not to leave the hospital. The hospital was the core of her social life. Like a lot of single doctors, or those who weren’t single but weren’t in any hurry to get home, she spent a fair amount of time hanging around, talking to other staff in the cafeteria or the OR lounge or the ER.

Unfortunately, the only person she really wanted to talk to was Abby, and she’d been avoiding her. She hadn’t seen her since the morning she’d left Presley’s while Abby was asleep. Abby hadn’t been on call the night before when the trauma came in, and she’d managed not to see her the day before either. Avoiding her turned out to be a lot easier than not thinking about her. When she wasn’t completely focused on an operation or patient evaluation, like now, memories of those few moments in Abby’s room replayed in vivid detail. Who knew her body had perfect recall? She didn’t usually dwell on a physical encounter, but she couldn’t get those few moments with Abby out of her head. Every second seemed imprinted on her skin—when Abby had been pressed so close against her even air couldn’t find room between them, when Abby’s arms had wrapped around her neck and her fingers drove into her hair, pulling her head down for a deeper kiss, urging her to plunder and claim.

Flann’s clitoris twitched. “God damn it.”

She was too damn old to get riled up from just a kiss, and definitely not from only thinking about a kiss. She slid her palm down her belly and pressed the swelling between her thighs with her fingertips. She caught her breath. She wasn’t too old for jerking off in the shower, but not in the locker room. And not while she was thinking about a woman she’d already moved past.

She twisted off the dial, stepped out, and grabbed one of the skimpy towels housekeeping provided for staff use. She’d taken the dressing off her leg the day before, and she carefully dried the area around the sutures before cursorily mopping up the rest of the water on her skin and hair. The leg looked fine. Abby had done a good job. As she patted the sutures, the image of Abby kneeling before her, wrapping a bandage around her thigh, jumped into her consciousness and the faint throb between her legs became a piercing ache.

She’d seen herself then, could see herself now, sliding her hand into the hair at the nape of Abby’s neck and guiding her face upward until her mouth closed over her. Her thighs suddenly weakened and she shot out her arm to brace herself against the wall. Her belly tightened, the need a fist twisting in the pit of her stomach. She blew out a long breath and forced her mind to blank.

Glenn came in as she was pulling on jeans and a plain white T-shirt, and gave her the diversion she needed. “Everything quiet?”

“Looks like it.” Glenn opened her locker and pulled out her street clothes and a motorcycle helmet. “I’ll have my beeper if you need me.”

“Aren’t you off today?”

Glenn grinned as she changed and tossed her scrubs. “Yeah, but it’s more fun being here.”

Flann laughed, but the sound rang hollowly in her ears. “True.”

“See you,” Glenn said on her way out the door.

“Ride safe.” Flann dialed the recovery room from the phone by the door. When the clerk answered, she said, “This is Rivers. Can I talk to George Baker’s nurse?”

“Hold on.”

“Hi, Flann,” another woman said a moment later.

Flann recognized the voice. Becky McAllister. Twenty-five, blond, bright, great breasts, and dynamite in bed. They’d had a few breathless weeks half a year ago before Becky decided she’d rather settle down with her old high-school boyfriend. No hard feelings on Flann’s part. She’d known Becky was experimenting, but that didn’t bother her. In fact, it made things a lot easier. Becky was looking for a good time in bed, and Flann knew just how to deliver that.

Abby, now, she wasn’t looking for a bedmate. She wasn’t looking for anything at all, at least she didn’t think she was. Flann wasn’t sure she agreed. Abby was passionate, intelligent, sensitive, and giving. She wasn’t the kind of woman to spend her life alone, if she’d look past all her responsibilities and see she deserved a life. What was it Abby had said? A couple of kids, a house with a yard, a dog or two. Yeah, she could see Abby there. Abby was born for family.

“Flann?”

“Hey, Becky,” Flann said with a start. “How’s Baker doing?”

“He’s good. Vitals are stable. The last blood gas was normal,” Becky said. “How are you?”

“Great. You?”

“Oh, sure, great.” Becky paused. “You know, no law says we couldn’t get together for a drink sometime. Talk about old times.”

Flann laughed. “Talk about them?”

Becky’s laughter pealed, and Flann flashed on Becky straddling her, her blond hair flying about her shoulders, her breasts rose-tipped and bouncing gently as she rocked on Flann’s hand. A nice image that did nothing for her.

“Well, you know…I miss…some things,” Becky said.

“Be surprised how much fun you could have giving lessons. You should try it,” Flann said lightly. “Call me if there’s any problems with my patient.”

“Of course,” Becky said, a distinct chill in her voice.

Smiling wryly, Flann hung up the phone. She didn’t have any strict rules against dating married women in general, but she preferred they not be actually living with their husbands when she did. Besides, Becky was way too close to home. She didn’t care to advertise her bedroom activities to the world. And all that aside, the idea of climbing into bed with her just didn’t appeal. She might think differently after a good night’s sleep, but she doubted it.

Halfway back to her apartment on the outskirts of town, Flann changed her mind and reversed course. No way could she sleep yet, and sitting around in her apartment was the last thing she wanted to do. Ten minutes later she turned down the drive to the homestead, but instead of pulling under the porte cochere where she usually parked, she followed a winding dirt road past acres of cornfield down to the main barn. The big doors were open and the clank of cows at the milking station rang like bells as she stepped from the Jeep. The Rivers family had leased their land for crops and dairy cows for as long as she could remember to a farming family who owned the adjoining land a mile or so downriver. Melanie Cochran, the oldest daughter, was supervising the morning’s milking. She waved to Flann. “Come to help out?”

Flann laughed. “Those electronic robot milkers are way too high-tech for me. The cows are safer with you.”

“Chicken.”

“How’s the summer going?”

“Great,” Melanie said with obvious pride. Her older brother had opted for a teaching job in the city, and Melanie appeared to be the heir apparent to follow in her father’s footsteps. “We got a good round of heifers this spring, rain’s been good, temperature’s been high.” She grinned and shrugged a shoulder. “It’s a good season if you don’t mind a tornado now and then.”

“Everything okay over at your place?”

“We lost half a field of soybeans, but we’ve got time to replant. All our stock are fine. We were lucky.”

“You know it. The whole village was pretty lucky.”

“I hear Harper’s new place got torn up a little bit.”

“The barn took a hit, but it’s repairable.”

Melanie adjusted one of the suction tubes on a cow’s udder and dusted off her hand. “I heard there’s going to be a barn raising. You gonna be there?”

“I didn’t get an invitation,” Flann said with a grin, “but I haven’t talked to Harper since yesterday. When?”

“This weekend.”

“Barring emergencies, I’ll be there.”

Melanie cocked a hip and sent Flann a slow grin. She was a good ten years younger than Flann, but more than a few above legal age. She was strong, sunburned, and pretty in a wholesome way. “Well then, I’ll see you. There’ll be dancing, I hear.”

“Wouldn’t miss it.” Flann walked toward the tack room, shaking her head. Must be the day for invitations. Nothing to complain about, but the usual thrill of the hunt eluded her. She pulled down one of the bikes that looked about Blake’s size from hooks along one wall. The tires were in good shape and she dug out a foot pump and filled them to make sure they held up before she gave it to him. She wheeled it back out of the barn and wrestled it into the back of her Jeep. As she made the turn into the drive, her mother came out onto the back porch, set her hands on her hips, and fixed Flann with a stare she could feel through the windshield. She pulled over, cut the engine, and climbed out. “Morning, Mama.”

“You were thinking to leave without stopping by, I take it?”

“Ah—”

“Come on in the kitchen. I imagine you haven’t had breakfast.”

“I could do with some food.”

Ida laughed. “When can’t you?”

Flann stepped into the kitchen and was immediately enfolded in the scent of warm bread, fresh ham, and sweet strawberries. The smell of home stirred an ache in her depths, and she settled at the table with a sigh.

Her mother set a cup of coffee in front of her. “Long night?”

Flann rubbed her face with both hands. “Long couple of nights. How are things with Dad?”

“He finally got a break last night and didn’t get a call out until after breakfast this morning. He’s fine.”

Flann nodded and swallowed some coffee. “Good.”

“What were you looking for down at the barn?”

“Oh, I was getting one of my old bikes out for Blake.”

“That’s nice of you.”

“Well, he and Margie are planning on looking after the chicks over at Presley’s, so he needs some transportation since neither of them drives.”

“I imagine the two of them will be getting their licenses at about the same time.”

Flann winced. “Don’t remind me.”

Ida sat with her own coffee and studied Flann unhurriedly. “You and your sisters survived, they will too. We’ll all keep an eye on them.”

“I’m not worried about them—it’s the rest of the idiots out there.”

“We’ll see that they know what they’re about.”

“I know.”

“Blake seems like a nice boy.”

“He is.”

“He and Margie hit it off.”

Flann searched for any sign that her mother had concerns and didn’t find any. The idea that Blake wouldn’t immediately be accepted for the great kid he was bothered her and she could only imagine how Abby must feel. “Margie is teaching him the wonders of farming.”

Ida smiled. “Abby is quite remarkable too.”

Flann flushed and stared at her coffee. “Uh-huh.”

“I admire her, being a single mother. It doesn’t much matter if it’s one child or five, it’s always easier when there’s two people sharing the raising.”

“You managed.”

“That’s not fair, Flannery,” her mother said gently.

“I know, I’m sorry.”

“It’s not me deserving the apology.” Ida stroked her arm to signal she was forgiven. “And if anybody ought to be complaining, it would be me.”