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her, and she turned once to look back at him before she shook her head.
     

Chapter Four
     
    It took Eric’s brain all of one second before he realized that Debra was walking home on foot in the middle of the night. Shutting the door behind him, he ran out and caught up to her before she was at the end of his driveway.
     
    “Wait!”
     
    Debra turned and waited for Dr. Nelson to catch his breath before she asked him, “What now? Did I leave something behind?”
     
    Eric inhaled, then let his breath out, hands on his knees. Sure, he looked fit as a fiddle and in the nighttime atmosphere he must have looked like a carved statue come to life, but he was sadly out of shape. Finally able to breathe right, he said, “You can’t walk home in the dark.” He straightened. “I won’t let you.”
     
    Debra put her hands on her hips, feeling the spunky side of her personality emerge as if it had been summoned. “And just who do you think you are? I can take care of myself just fine, thank you. I have taken care of myself for many years now.”
     
    Eric ran a hand through his hair and wondered if he’d ever be able to avoid a fight with this woman. There were parts of him that loved to argue with her - it was the first time in months he’d felt alive - but there were other parts of him that were just too tired to want to keep up with her. He sighed, “Could you please, for my sanity, just let me take you home?”
     
    Debra shook her head. “You can’t leave those boys alone, even for the few minutes it would take you to drive me back to my place.” Debra eyed the perplexed-looking doctor. “I walk all the time. This town isn’t like a big city and the dangers in walking alone at night aren’t really the same.” She chuckled. “The most I have to worry about is an errant raccoon.”
     
    Eric folded his arms to his chest. He could tell, even by the light of the moon that illuminated his driveway, that Debra wasn’t going to easily bend to his way of thinking. It would have been painless to just let him protect her, even if she did make her own sort of sense. He huffed. “Well, if I can’t see you home, then the only solution is to let you stay the night. I’ll leave the house early and drop you and the boys off at your place.”
     
    Debra lifted an eyebrow. She liked the boys - really, if she was being honest, she sort of adored them - and it would warm her to cook breakfast for them. However, the other things that ran through her mind at the thought of spending the night in the good doctor’s home made her frown. What would people think?
     
    Eric sensed where her thoughts were leading. He’d seen that look on another woman’s face once upon a time. “I have a guest bedroom. It has a lock on the inside of the door. For your sake, I’d use it because when the boys wake up in the morning, they’ll bounce all over you.”
     
    Debra’s frown deepened. Was that him deciding for her? She looked around her, noted how dark it was, and even though she was quite right about it being perfectly safe to walk home on her own, there was a certain creepiness inherent in the surrounding blackness.
     
    Debra sighed. “Alright, but this is the first and last time I’m gonna go along with this.”
     
    Eric let a breath out. This was worse than trying to corral a patient that didn’t want a shot in the rear. Sometimes it was necessary to take the choice out of the situation. He was being honest about his sanity. He would have worried all night about her, and then half the day, wondering if she’d made it home.
     
    ~*~*~
     
    Eric set blankets out for her in the spare bedroom, apologizing for the fact the room hardly looked fit for human habitation. It had been the idea to have a place for the nanny when it was necessary for her to spend time at the house, but with the way things had gone with Julia, he was glad it never came up.
     
    “What in the world am I supposed to do with these?” Debra frowned, yet