| |
The eyes were on her. She could feel them again. But only the security guards were visible. Finley Coulter tried to see into the cars surrounding her in the rear parking lot of Finley Creek General Hospital, but the sun was starting to set and the streetlights weren’t that good.
She was probably being ridiculous. No one would have a reason to stare at her.
Yet every day for the last four days she’d felt eyes on her. She should have waited for someone else to walk out to her car with her. It didn’t make her weak to do that. She could have waited for Izzie or Nikkie Jean—they usually left around the same time she did.
But she’d wanted to get home and regroup.
It had been a long day at the hospital.
And she still had things to do that evening that were going to keep her from having a moment of quiet time to herself. She shivered. The last thing she wanted to do tonight was dress up in a barely there dress and go powwow with her uncle’s uppity friends.
They thought that since she was an actual Coulter, she should be thrilled to be a part of their group.
The only one there tonight she’d have anything to say to would be her friend Mel.
Mel had only been a part of this group for a little while—since marrying Houghton Barratt, a distant cousin of Fin’s. Mel had a snotty wit that most of tonight’s attendees wouldn’t understand.
At least there would be Mel.
Wind picked up around her, sending rain right into her face. She wiped it away. When she opened her eyes, a shadow blocked her path.
Hands went around her. Fin didn’t think; she reacted. She screamed.
“Easy, Dr. Coulter, I didn’t mean to scare you,” a warm male voice said. One she recognized.
Some of the nerves lessened. “Dr. Patel, I’m sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going, and you just appeared out of nowhere.”
“It’s because I’m so small and insignificant.” He shot her a grin. A very handsome one. Heat hit her cheeks.
The last words she’d ever use to describe Virat Patel were small and insignificant.
The man was built like a god. He had to be at least fourteen inches taller than Fin’s five foot one. And his shoulders were almost a yard wide. His chest was hard and strong, and his arms were perfection. He had Indian ancestry, and it showed in his warm tan skin and in the straight black hair. He had a faint beard that disguised the boyish dimples a little.
It did little to hide how perfectly this man was put together. He practically oozed sex appeal.
Virile Virat—that’s what the idiot, doctor-obsessed, sex-crazed nurses inside called him when he wasn’t around.
As far as she knew, he hadn’t been involved with any of them. Rumor had it he had had a thing for her friend Dr. Lacy McGareth, until she’d nearly died and then gotten together with her now husband.
Rumor had it that Dr. Patel’s heart had been broken.
Rumors were everywhere at the hospital. Rumormongering was the main form of entertainment at Finley Creek Gen, after all.
“What has you so jumpy?”
Dr. Patel wasn’t a close friend. They were more like friendly colleagues. But he was someone safe. She doubted anyone would do anything to her with him around.
“Nothing...I...it can be a bit creepy out here. But it’s better than Doctors’ Row.” The back edge of the parking garage had been the sight of some seriously bad events in recent hospital history. Fin had refused to park there ever since, even though her boss was making strides to get it more secure. Fin wasn’t going to take those kinds of chances. She parked where the security guards could see her every minute between her car and the hospital.
“No kidding. I haven’t parked in the Row since Lanning damaged my car.”
He fell into step beside her. Fin forced herself to breathe deeply and relax.
She was safe. She wasn’t alone. And she could see her car in the distance.