Healing His Heart by Carol Rose

What else is supposed to change?"
    "You, maybe," Caleb said. "Maybe you wouldn't want to keep doing what you do, having people die on you, crying yourself sick over them."
    "You quit because a patient died," Julia said, the sudden conviction hitting her.
    "Never mind," Caleb said shortly. "What you do with your life is none of my business. I'm just here to finish your house. Unless you're interested in a mindless fling, just ignore me."
    *
    The pay phone stood sentinel on an empty corner of the convenience store parking lot. Of all the crummy times for her car to self-destruct, this was the worst. Seven o'clock in the evening at her building site with only Caleb there to rescue her.
    If she'd tried to start her car half an hour earlier, one of the other workers would have still been there. She'd have much rather asked her favor of them, knowing how distressing her job was to Caleb.
    Julia punched in the number displayed on her pager, aware of Caleb's eyes boring into her back through the windshield of his truck. Her fingers fumbled awkwardly with the buttons.
    Damn him, she fumed. His talk about meaningless sex distracted her, but she knew it wouldn't be enough. Still, being around him made her restless.
    Waiting to be connected, Julia leaned her head against the pay phone. She was tired of needing to be rescued by Caleb.
    She didn't have a problem relying on people occasionally, but a determinedly footloose hunk of sex appeal wouldn't have been her first pick.
    Minutes l ater, she hung up the phone and went back to the truck where Caleb waited. His face was granite-jawed.
    Julia slid into the seat.
    She'd have understood his attitude if it had started with her needing him as a taxi service. But it hadn't. He'd been a jerk from the minute she'd walked in.
    Pulling the truck door shut, she told him, "It was a midwife that I back up. She's having a little difficulty with a delivery about forty miles from here."
    Caleb stared ahead through the windshield.
    "And I guess you need a ride there?" he asked dryly.
    “Yes."
    A humorless smile twisted Caleb's lips. "Don't you know a doctor needs a reliable car?"
    He started the engine and shoved it into reverse.
    ''I'm sorry to inconvenience you." The words were out of her mouth before she knew it.
    "Forget it, Julia," he said flatly.
    She subsided into silence, remembering the last time she'd ridden beside him like this. The night she'd found out about his medical training. The night she'd thrown herself at him... and he'd walked out on her.
    So much had changed between them since that night.
    She couldn't even begin to understand all the emotions he roused in her. Although the steady, aching hunger was all too clear.
    The sun sat on the western horizon like an orange wedge, vibrant and blazing with power as the truck flew down the farm-to-market road. Caleb's hands were relaxed on the steering wheel and his eyes steady on the road. He looked like he wanted to kill someone. She'd clearly triggered painful memories, driving him even this close to medicine again.
    Glancing again at his rigid countenance, she wondered why he held his secrets locked in like a greedy man's gold. In the first few weeks that she'd known him he hadn't betrayed his past with a single word or gesture. She hadn't known of his medical career until he chose for her to know.
    The questions lurked still. What had happened to him to make him give up something he'd struggled so hard for?
    He'd comforted her so tenderly when she was coping with her patient's death. A lot could be forgiven him simply for that. Still, it was dawning on her that any situation connected with medicine brought out rage in Caleb.
    The dusky light of evening faded everything around them. The narrow asphalt road they traveled was a gray strip through deserted fields and every revolution of the tires took them farther into the country Julia stared into the twilight.
    "Did you say left on 37?" Caleb asked.
    "Yes, then take the first