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meaning.”
    She did, and lost her footing and fell on her butt. “I think you should keep your libido out of this.” She struggled to stand, knowing those nurses would have the story all over the hospital by morning. This man was going down.
    He pushed the button to increase his speed. “I was referring to your stellar decorating taste. I saw what you did to Charlie’s house and thought you could decorate a room for me. But I think I like your idea better. Ready?”
    Furious at herself for falling into his trap, Kendall nodded. She needed to keep her concentration on her goal, to beat Cole at all costs. She pushed the controls for a run. “Yes.”
    Max stood between the two runners like a mom between two battling children. “Now guys, you type A personalities are too competitive. Remember that there are innocent people around here.”
    “Shut up!” Kendall and Cole said at once.
    * * *
    Thirty minutes later Kendall didn’t know if she could keep up the pace. For a man with a recent injury, Cole appeared to have the stamina of a seventeen-year-old. Any other time she wouldn’t have minded, but today she wanted this man to cry uncle first.
    That was a nice theory, but somehow it didn’t seem like it was going to happen. Every time she thought he was ready to give up, he got a spurt of energy.
    “If you want to quit,” he panted, “I won’t hold it against you. You just come over to my house ready to work.”
    “You’re older, you should really watch out for your heart,” Kendall shot back. “I wouldn’t want you to have a heart attack on hospital property.”
    “My heart, along with the rest of my body, is in perfect working order. I can show you later if you want. On a person-to-person level, of course.”
    Okay, that did it. One little not-so-harmless remark and she was thinking about his body in not such a medical way. Stay focused, Kendall, she chastised herself. He’s just trying to get to you. “No, thanks, I’ve had enough small things for one day,” she said, smiling as the barb hit its mark.
    It was just enough to knock him off balance on his very muscular butt. He stood gracefully and walked to Kendall and held out his hand. “Well, Doctor, looks like you got me.”
    Kendall tried her best not to smile as she took his hand. “Yes, I have.”
    “The bigger question is, what are you going to do with me once you have me where you want me?” He grabbed his towel from the treadmill handlebar and walked toward the dressing room.
    She should have felt victorious, but she didn’t. What was she feeling? She stopped the treadmill and stared at Max as he stared back at her, shaking his head in disgust.
    “Don’t you look at me like that.” Kendall wiped her face. “It was a fair race.”
    “Yeah, right. You know you can’t joke about a brother’s manhood. I’m white and I know that. You were fighting dirty.”
    “Not.”
    “Yes, you were. I knew that was going to happen, but I can’t cry over spilled egos. I’m going to go shower. As a measure of goodwill why don’t you join Cole and me for dinner?”
    “Avoiding your home life isn’t making it better.”
    “Said the woman with a dog.”
    * * *
    Said the woman with a dog .
    Max’s words haunted Kendall through her shower and as she dressed to go home. Was her life on the path to true boredom, with dog included? Even Jordan, the dog in question, had a main squeeze in the subdivision.
    Maybe she did need a date. Cole wasn’t the worst person in the world. He’d do in a pinch, which was where she was at that moment in her life.
    She sat on the bench and mentally ticked off Cole’s qualities. Rich, handsome, and he was a brother. Okay, so they didn’t have a lot more in common. He was a Mr. Will Do, not Mr. Right.
    A Mr. Right would cause too many problems in her well-ordered life. A Mr. Right would probably turn his nose up at a forty-year-old doctor who loved to in-line skate at night with her dog. A Mr. Right would expect her to