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levels.
    “Wow.  I just… really don’t want to have this conversation.  Not while I’m standing here with the breeze off the bay blowing across my bare ass.”
    A scarlet flush crept up Josh’s cheeks, letting her know he was almost as uncomfortable with this as she was.
    “It was… interesting to see you, Josh. Take care.”
    “Sam, wait.” 
    She shook off his arm.  “Just let me go, Josh.”
    “Not until you –”
    “Samantha?”
    The new voice caught her off guard.  It was deep, and masculine and way too familiar.  She didn’t want to turn around and face the new arrival, but hey, could it really be that much worse than this little tete-a-tete with her good friend Josh?  She’d have to create a whole new standard for crappy when she ranked this suck-fest of a night.
    Sighing for the umpteenth time, she swiveled around and looked into the confused face of her brother’s surgeon, Justin Wellington.  Apparently, the hellish world she’d been unexpectedly thrown into was just small enough for every guy she’d ever thought highly of to know one another.  And they’d all decided to gather here tonight.  Justin peered up at her from his position at the bottom of the delivery ramp, his dark brows almost touching his hairline in a sort of facial question mark. And then his grey-eyed gaze slid over her shoulder to land like a blow on Josh Harding.
    “Josh.”  He acknowledged the other man.  Suspiciously.  Then he divided a hard stare between him and Samantha.  “Is there a problem here?”
    “Oh there’s a problem, but not the kind you think.”  Another half-laugh, because hell, it was either that or cry.  Sam could tell that Justin was on the verge of asking for an explanation, maybe offering to help, when the breeze kicked up, sending the edges of her trench coat airborne in a nifty little Marilyn Monroe.
    From Justin’s lower perspective, he most certainly caught an eyeful.
    After Sam clamped the damn thing around her knees and found the nerve to glance his direction, the look on Justin’s face left no doubt that he’d put it all together.
    Well, the man wasn’t a trauma surgeon because he was stupid.
    He looked at Josh, whose dark scowl suggested that he was not pleased with the little show the other man had been given, and then cleared his throat while he ascended the steps, pausing next to her before heading inside.  “I’m just… going up to say hi to Clay.  And my brothers.”
    His brothers. Well wasn’t that just perfect?  She’d just shaken her groove thing in front of Justin’s whole family.
    Sam felt his hand rest on her shoulder and she wanted to crawl in a hole.  “It was good to see you, Samantha.”
    Yeah.  Saw a lot more than you’d bargained for, huh Doc?
    This was like her own little personal nightmare.  All of those naked-and-can’t-find-my-high-school-locker scenarios had absolutely nothing on this night.
    The door shut with a soft click, and then it was just her and Josh on the stoop.  The salty breeze died down, leaving only the faintly putrid odor of rotting garbage wafting in from the nearby dumpster.   “You know Justin?” Josh asked from behind her.  There was definitely more than curiosity in his voice.  Maybe a note of accusation underneath.
    What?  Did he think she’d been turning tricks or something?  Maybe the doctor was a regular client?
    Or maybe he was jealous because…
    No.  Do not go there.
    Squeezing her eyes shut against the sudden ache in her heart, Sam ignored the question and opted not to turn around.  She didn’t need to see whatever emotion was on Josh’s face, because she couldn’t bear his disappointment. “I gotta go,” she said with finality, forcing her legs to carry her down the ramp.  “Take care, Josh.”
    This time, he didn’t follow her.
    And she figured it was just as well.
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FOUR
    THE hospital was blissfully quiet.  Aside from the usual blips and hum from the monitors and the