Just Believe by Anne Manning

slightly open and he snored.
    "I suppose you don't want the tea?"
Annabelle asked in a whisper.
    Lucas snored his answer.
    He looked so young, so innocent, she
couldn't find it in her heart to wake him or hassle him about his
mysterious comments hinting at danger for Erin because of their
relationship.
    She puffed a huff of
dismissal.
    "It's the twenty-first century, for
heaven's sake. People don't get arrested or beat up because of who
they love," she whispered, as she set the tea on the table and
pulled a spread from the back of the sofa and laid it over Lucas,
tucking it in at his shoulders.
    Explanations would have to wait until
morning.
    * * * *
    Mom took the morning shift with Erin.
After meeting her for lunch at the Carolina Inn, Annabelle arrived
at the hospital just after one, worn out from a lack of sleep and
freshly irritated by Lucas's unwillingness to explain. The last
thing Annabelle wanted to see when she arrived at Erin's hospital
room was his big brother with his perfect rear perched on the edge
of Erin's bed, and both of them apparently enjoying a wonderful
visit.
    "What happened then?" Erin asked,
between giggles.
    "Dad took Lucas into the yard and
filled a pipe and made him smoke the whole thing. Turned green as a
frog, he did, and puked his guts empty right there."
    "Oh, no," Erin covered her mouth with
her hand. "Was he all right? Oh, how stupid. Of course he was." She
giggled again. "I suppose he never touched your father's pipe
again?"
    "Never," Gaelen winked at her broadly,
"unless I kept watch for him."
    Erin's good spirits raised Annabelle's
own. Yet the presence of Gaelen Riley quickened a strange tension
that tightened her joints and twisted her stomach into twitchy
knots. Under other circumstances, she might have thought the
feeling pleasant.
    "Dr. Riley," she said, breaking up
story time. "You're here early."
    He squinted at her. "No need for
formality, Miss Tinker. The 'doctor' is purely an academic title.
'Gaelen' will do fine."
    "Gaelen came by hoping to run into
Lucas," Erin offered, "but unfortunately, Lucas seems to have
abandoned me again. We don't have any idea where he is, do
we?"
    Since Lucas was gone by the time she
got up this morning, Annabelle could answer honestly. "None at
all."
    "What a pity. I'm sure you'll relay my
message when you do see him. But I am glad of seeing you again."
Gaelen smiled.
    "Are you?" Annabelle said, just as the
door opened behind her with a scrape.
    "Well, well. Hello, Gaelen." Dr. Duncan
raised the metal cover from a hospital chart and started reading.
When she spoke it was to Gaelen. "I hadn't thought to see you here
again."
    With a devilish grin, Gaelen replied,
"Linette, my little songbird, how could I stay away from a gentle
creature like yourself?"
    Annabelle felt her forehead wrinkle.
The wordplay was that of people who knew each other well. Extremely
well. The diminutive Dr. Duncan hardly seemed like Gaelen's type,
though Annabelle quickly realized she didn't know what his type
was. Nor did she care.
    "You'll have to leave now, Gaelen. Miss
Tinker." Dr. Duncan, in her coolly efficient way, laid the chart on
the foot of Erin's bed and took them by an elbow each, herding them
toward the door. "Examination time, you know."
    Erin's startled expression made
Annabelle open her mouth to object, but she was out the door before
she could voice a word.
    "Pushy little pixie," Gaelen whispered
under his breath.
    "Excuse me?"
    "The doctor. Linette. She's a pushy,
opinionated-"
    "She's the doctor, Dr. Riley. She's got
the right to be authoritative if she feels she has to be."
Surprised as she was to be defending the overbearing little doctor,
Annabelle felt an unfamiliar impulse to lock horns with him. "You
don't have a problem with that, do you?"
    "What? With a pushy--"
    "You already said she was
pushy."
    "And so she is. And loud-mouthed and
irritable and..."
    She could see him editing his
comments.
    "Go ahead. Say it." Annabelle let her
temper rise, masking