“I don’t have any suggestions on who to recommend to you,” she finally said, carefully measuring her words.
“I already have someone in mind,” he told her with a wink.
“Then why are you talking to me about it?” she said, a bit of venom in her tone.
“Come on, Lins. You know you’d be perfect. You won’t be alone. I’ll be there every step of the way.”
She was sure that he meant those words to be reassuring, but they had the complete opposite effect. She was back into her fight or flight mode, and every instinct in her body was telling her to run as far away from this man as possible.
“Thanks for the offer, but I’ll have to decline,” she firmly told him.
He gave her that signature smile that made her grateful she was already sitting down. She had to get away from him, and she had to do it fast.
Maverick finished up his sandwich and then stood up.
“I’ll give you time to think about it. Don’t worry, though. I’ll be around for a while so we can talk and talk and talk.”
She now knew for sure that he was threatening her. Was he going to just keep on bugging her until she went insane? That might be his newest strategy.
“I’m working, Mav. I really don’t have time to do a charity,” she said, not wanting to admit to him how much panic the idea brought her.
“You’re back to work part time, only two days a week right now. And I’m out of work until this arm is all better,” he said.
How in the world did he know her schedule? He was much more aware of what was going on in her life than she was comfortable with him knowing.
“I’m going to get out of here. Think about it.”
With that, he turned and strode off, not bothering to go back inside the cabin, just taking off down the trail that would lead him up to the main house. Lindsey wanted to chase him down until he was convinced she wasn’t helping him with the dang charity, but she knew it would be a losing battle again.
The man was stronger than her. That was for dang sure. She decided her best and only option was avoidance. Even with him staying so close to her, she could avoid him. She was very good at that.
Grabbing their dishes, Lindsey took them inside, then shut and locked her back door. Next, she went and checked that the front was securely chained. She loved sitting outside in the afternoons and evenings, but not on this day.
No. She was in full-on evacuation mode right now.
Maverick was just too dangerous and smart for her to win any battle. Retreat was the only option.
CHAPTER SIX
The next day at work, Lindsey was dragging. She’d been right. Sleep hadn’t come easy to her knowing how close Maverick was to her place. And then she’d woken up too many times when she had finally managed to shut her mind off long enough to catch a bit of rest.
So when she rolled into the hospital, at what felt like far too early an hour, she had hoped the other staff members wouldn’t comment on the dark circles beneath her eyes. Of course, they were sort of used to those, since she’d sported them for months after the attack.
It also didn’t help that life in the ER wasn’t something a person could do at half-attention. ERs were full of hard-headed, controlling, stubborn egomaniacs and it took a lot of energy and patience to do her job. Maverick had once made a point about pilots having attitude because they could do something most of the world couldn’t. Doctors weren’t far behind them in that same way of thinking. Lindsey looked around the area that had been her home for years. There were so many stories she could tell, and some she did, leaving out patients’ names of course. But some instances were just too dang absurd not to share with a best friend. Sometimes she didn’t believe something had happened until she told another nonmedical friend about it.
There were the patients you knew on a first-name basis, who always seemed to have a menial problem of some sort, but in actuality were looking for drugs or for a familiar face and someone to be kind to them.
A good medical person learned the difference really quick between someone truly needing help and someone who wanted a fix.
Lindsey’s favorite patients were the seniors whom she’d grown attached to because they spent more time in the ER than she did. Some of them had nobody who cared about them but the medical personnel. She’d had many honorary grandparents in her years of nursing.
At one time, Lindsey had thrived in the hospital. Now, it brought her too much fear each time the doors opened. The charge nurse had put her on day shift, knowing she would need other staff members around her. But still, the hospital wasn’t the safety net it had once been.
There was a time she’d thought of no other place safer. It was where death was pushed back and lives that were tossed aside as a lost cause were miraculously saved. The hospital was comfort and love, open arms and escape.
But now, that feeling was gone. Now it was a place where attacks could turn deadly.
None of that should matter. She’d been back for months and she refused to let her fears keep kicking her back down. She refused to live her life in fear. She was a grown up, and having a career was what responsible people did. They didn’t quit when the going got rough.
Making it through the hard times and coming out a better person was what defined a human being. She wouldn’t be defined as a quitter, though tucking her tail and running had become a thing for her for too long. She certainly was running from Maverick—but that wasn’t something she would feel guilty about.