He studied me, and I could see another piece of his self-defense slip away. “Why does it matter?”
“I want you to trust me.”
A question tilted his brow. “Why?”
“So we can be friends.”
The elevator stopped on the third floor with a ding, and the doors opened.
Dr. Philips indicated that I should precede him out of the elevator. “This way,” he said, motioning me down the hallway.
The smell of floor polish and cleaning products burned my nose as we walked through the maze of linoleum. Several moments passed, and I was convinced he was going to ignore my comment, but then he said, “I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to be friends.”
“Why?” It was my turn to ask this simple question.
Dr. Philips stopped and turned to me. “I don’t have friends, Nurse Hollingsworth—especially female friends who are ... are—”
“Beguiling?” The word slipped out, and I instantly wanted to take it back. My cheeks warmed.
He stared at me, and I wondered if I had embarrassed him. But slowly, ever so slowly, a smile tilted his lips, transforming his entire demeanor.
He was handsome.
“Beguiling?” he repeated.
I wanted the floor to swallow me, but instead I tilted my head and smiled, forcing myself not to feel awkward. “Isn’t that what you said? That I should go to the dance and let the others be beguiled by my brilliance?”
“You remember that?”
“It isn’t every day that someone suggests I’m beguiling.”
He finally looked away, seeming to pull himself back together, and when he returned his gaze to me, he’d hidden his smile away. “I was going to say that I don’t have female friends, especially ones who are so headstrong and exasperating.”
“I’m exasperating?”
“It’s difficult to keep up with you.”
“What does that mean?”
He tore off his surgical hat and ran his hand through his hair.“You’re constantly one step ahead of me, and it’s exasperating. I’m usually the one in full command of my operating room, and now many of the nurses and orderlies look to you.”
I crossed my arms. “I cannot help what I know. Besides, that’s not a good reason to keep me at a distance.”
The look on his face shifted again, and this time, his gaze slipped to my lips before coming up to meet my eyes with an intensity that I felt all the way to my toes.
“Believe me,” he said, his voice a bit gruff, “there are many good reasons to keep you at a distance, Nurse Hollingsworth.”
With that, he turned and strode down the hall.
I had to race to catch up to him—trying to catch my breath.
It was an hour before I was able to return to my dorm room. Anna was lying on her bed, looking through aLifemagazine with a picture of an army nurse on the cover. On her record player, Frank Sinatra was crooning, “Oh! Look at me now.”
As soon as I entered our room and closed the door, she sat up and set aside her magazine. “Well?”
“Well, what?” I took off my nursing cap and set it on my desk.
“You know what. Why did Dr. Philips ask for you?”
