Moonlight Road (Virgin River #11)(28)

“What about that great big knife?” she asked.

“If a mountain lion gets close enough for me to use this,” he said, hooking the machete to his belt, “I’m going to get scars. This is for weeds and shrubs blocking the trail, not for self-defense. Or homicide, as you originally assumed.”

“Wouldn’t a gun make more sense?”

“Probably,” he said with a shrug. “I don’t like guns so much. The boys—my brothers—they all hunt. I don’t hunt.”

“Hmm,” she said, standing. “Sure I can’t give you a lift?”

“No, you sit tight. I like to walk.”

“You’re sure?”

“Absolutely. Work on vacationing. I get the impression you’re not that good at it yet.”

“Yeah, that seems to be the case….”

“I put gardening tools in the shed and hooked up a hose with a spray nozzle. There’s also a sprinkler in the shed. If you think about it, give the tomatoes a drink.”

“Wow. You really went to a lot of trouble.”

“I didn’t even think about it, as a matter of fact. Just seemed what needed to be done at the time. You’re happy about it, though?”

“Sure. Of course. Really, thank you. Be careful, then.”

“Always careful, Erin.” He gave her a little salute and walked off.

So, the nurses hadn’t told Ms. Erin Elizabeth Foley he was a doctor, Aiden thought. Interesting. And he hadn’t learned what he had about her from digging through her purse and talking to the E.R. staff, but from reading her chart upside down as it sat open on the nurse’s desk.

She had made a lot of assumptions about him, which was very unlawyerly of Ms. Foley. But it worked for him. He wasn’t about to lie, but withholding was fair game. And not, as Noah had suggested, so that she’d feel really stupid. Rather, so she would be forced to know the man and not the credentials, if she was so inclined. Aiden was not self-deprecating—he knew very well what his assets were. He wasn’t bad-looking, at least when he was cleaned up and shaved. He was intelligent and articulate, and absolutely had to be sensitive in his line of work, dealing with the most personal parts of a woman’s anatomy for a living as he did.

And of course he thought he was fun, but that was so subjective. And yet, whenever he dated someone, ninety percent of the time he felt as though they weren’t comfortable just being themselves around him. Now, that was a double-edged sword. Not only did some women try to impress him because he was a doctor, sometimes covering up their good old natural charm, but there was the flip side—hiding their psychopathic tendencies, like his awful ex, Annalee. Aiden just wanted to be a boy getting to know a girl. How hard was that?

He was probably overthinking, especially where Erin was concerned. She was an attorney, after all. And clearly a successful one—he could tell not only by her classy cabin and clothes, but by her confidence. Make that overconfidence. She would not be intimidated by a mere physician; she would not start acting as if there were bonus points involved in catching one. And it was very likely they weren’t even going to be friends, much less anything more.

So why not just correct her misassumptions?

Because it would be fun, that’s why. Let her get attracted to a guy who couldn’t make in a year what she paid in taxes—fun. Uh-oh, he thought—he wanted her to get attracted to him? Well, she was hot. Gorgeous. That silky strawberry-blond hair, sweet complexion, incredible smile, beautiful long legs, tight butt…He had been struck by her physical assets the second he saw her, but then she had opened her mouth….

Today was better. She was just as hot, but when she opened her mouth she was actually a human being. So, a little cat and mouse didn’t really hurt anything. He wasn’t lying; yes, he’d been at one with the bedpan and worse. Obstetrics could be real messy work.

He thought about these things as he walked down her mile-long driveway to the road. Probably another reason he was a little overly cautious where women were concerned—he’d had that wife. Hmm. He’d risked court martial when he crawled between her legs. He was fresh off a boat when he was completely seduced by a sexy young navy corpsman who worked in the hospital. She was the twenty-one-year-old daughter of Russian immigrants who wanted to get out of the navy and saw Aiden as her ticket. She was a subordinate, enlisted personnel, and he was schtupping her. She was so young, but not only wasn’t she exactly naive, she was the most gifted lover he’d ever experienced.

And they were quickly found out. In retrospect, she obviously leaked it. Aiden’s commander suggested the quick fix of marriage and she would be discharged. Voilà, just what she was looking for. She dropped the placating behavior and turned on the shrew. It didn’t take him long to understand—she wanted to leave the navy with a little pocket change. The price of his quickie divorce, handled by a friend of a friend, was ten grand. And a lesson hard learned.

Annalee certainly hadn’t been in awe of him, the doctor. He had been exactly what she was looking for and she had used her many wiles to catch him, willing to do anything to please him, and please him she did. Right up until she started screaming and throwing things.

And that brought to mind the fact that she was now looking for him. Fat chance, Annalee. Never gonna happen.

He got to his car, threw his stuff in the back and took off for home. As he drove into the cabin compound, he passed Rosie and her mom fishing in the river and gave them a toot of the horn and a wave. As he pulled up to his cabin, he saw Luke and Art having a heart-to-heart on Luke’s porch, their facing chairs pulled close together. He gave another toot and wave. Then he went inside for a shower.