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for bathroom mirror time in the mornings with a man like that?
    “His teeth looked fine. But he has some bruising on the upper gum, so he must be sore.”
    Ben scribbled another note and then slapped the file shut. “I’ll make sure to ask about it in a few days. Thanks.”
    “It was the least I could do.” She started for the door. “I feel awful about this. I hope he takes his meds instead of trying to tough it out like most men.”
    Ben caught up and walked out beside her. “Casey will make him take the pills I had Joyce send along. They’ll knock him out for hours.”
    “Ryan doesn’t strike me as someone who likes to be told what to do.”
    Ben chuckled. “Nope. But Casey helped raise Meg and Ryan and is the one person besides our grandmother who those two stubborn mules will listen to.” He shot her a grin, showing off his movie-star white teeth again. “I hope your hand doesn’t pain you too much today.”
    “I’ll be fine, thanks.” The gleam in his eyes made her fear he’d ask her out again. After her awkward conversations with Ryan, maybe she wasn’t as ready to date again as she thought? Especially with a guy who wore more expensive shoes than she did.
    What had she been thinking when she’d accepted Ben’s earlier offer? He wasn’t her type at all. True, she vowed to never marry again, and though a confirmed bachelor like Ben would be just the ticket, the attraction just wasn’t there.
    She said, “Better go, I have patients in a few. Thanks for the ice pack and send me Ryan’s bill too, okay?” She started for home at a jog.
    Ben called out, “No charge. Take care.”

    Ryan’s face hurt too much to protest his sisters’ babying, so he just gave in. Arguing with them was futile.
    After they’d served him breakfast in bed and made him take the pills Ben had sent along, he considered pretending to be asleep so they’d leave. Then he’d go sit on the couch and read or something.
    When Meg popped her head inside his bedroom to check on him, he recalled the conversation Tara and Meg had in the exam room.
    “Do you know why Tara reacted so strongly today?”
    Meg blinked rapidly like she always did when she didn’t want to tell him something. Luckily, she never lied. “Maybe. She hasn’t told me where the scary-looking scars on her stomach and back came from, but when I mentioned them to Josh, he said he suspected she’d suffered some sort of attack by the way she reacts to men.”
    Josh was a former FBI agent whose specialty was extracting the truth from people, so his instincts were good. “She seemed fine with Ben earlier.”
    Meg nodded. “Josh thinks it was a larger man who hurt her. She gets nervous around Josh too, like she does around you.”
    Tara was nervous around him because of his size? It wasn’t that he was a cop and she had something to hide? Or maybe it wasn’t size at all. Maybe she was nervous around Josh because he could tell if she was lying?
    Meg added, “Don’t tell anyone else, okay? She’ll tell us when she’s ready.”
    “Fine.” But that just set off a dozen new questions about Tara he felt compelled to know the answers to. Mostly, where was the person who’d hurt her and was she safe?
    “Ryan, you have to give me your word you’ll leave this alone. I would’ve never told you, but I know you can keep a secret.”
    He couldn’t promise he wouldn’t look into it. It was his duty to be sure she wasn’t in danger. “I’ll keep whatever I find to myself.”
    Casey slipped inside behind Meg. “I called Mike and told him you wouldn’t be in today. He said he’s eating your breakfast burrito. And he wanted to know who hits harder, him or Tara?” She crossed her arms. “Can you be trusted to rest if we leave?”
    Tara hit ten times harder, and he’d be sure to rib Mike about that later. “I promise to stick around the house if that’ll get you two to go away.”
    “Okay.” Casey tugged Meg out with her. “But just know we may drop in