Penny had been up and dressed for half an hour when she heard the front door open and close. She walked to the end of the hallway and saw Dr. Evers leaning against the door, deep in thought. Her first thought was that he was so handsome with his mussed hair and shadowed jawline. Her second thought was that he looked exhausted but not unpleased.

"Would you like some coffee?" she softly asked so as not to disturb his guests sleeping upstairs.

He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, then nodded as he started towards the stairs. "I'll bring up your coffee. Would you like breakfast now or when the Eastons get up?"

"I have to go back to the hospital in about an hour, so breakfast now would be best."

Penny nodded, forcing herself to turn away from him and move towards the kitchen. She missed the glance over his shoulder that he gave her as if he was trying to figure out the answer to a puzzling question.

She had his coffee made in a matter of minutes and took it up to his study, noting that it looked precisely as it had the night before, which could only mean that he had been at the hospital all night. She had turned to leave when she heard his phone ring behind her. Frowning, she looked over her shoulder as she started to leave the room, thinking it was odd that he didn't have his phone. He always had his phone. No sooner had she had the thought than she walked right into a solid wall of muscle. She automatically put up her hand to brace herself and found it resting on a hair-covered chest.

Her first thought was how odd her hand looked on a man's naked chest, and her next thought was that it was a nicely broad and muscular chest with a strong heartbeat underneath, and her final thought was a jumbled mess as she quickly pulled her hand away from the bare chest. She allowed her gaze to dart upwards, where it encountered a pair of warm brown eyes that gave the impression that they were laughing at her.

Penny swallowed hard then stepped away. "Sorry, your phone distracted me, and I wasn't looking where I was going." She moved around him and headed for the stairs but not before she noted that he was only wearing a towel around his waist. "Breakfast will be ready in ten minutes," she softly said as she turned the corner of the stairs.

A few minutes later, she was in the process of removing the omelet from the pan when Dr. Evers walked in carrying his coffee cup. "I'll eat in here if that's all right. It'll save time."

The phone call he had received must have been important if he was in that big of a rush.

Without making a fuss, Penny handed him a fork and the plate with the omelet and then took his cup to refill it, noting that he looked refreshed as if he had gotten a nap as well as a shower. Perhaps he had gotten some good news. "Did everything turn out alright last night?" Penny asked as she carried his coffee back over to him. She had never asked him a question about his work before, but, somehow, all of a sudden, it seemed an acceptable thing to do.

"It did," he said in between huge bites of food.

Penny laid a few slices of toast in front of him, afraid that she hadn't made enough to eat. "Good, I said a prayer that it would." She smiled as she turned away, missing his shocked expression at her revelation.

"That was nice of you." He stood as he drank a few more sips of coffee. "Do you do that often?"

"What, pray?"

"Pray for my patients and me?" He set the mug down and reached for his suit jacket, which he had laid across one of the benches at the table.

"Now and then, when I know that's where you've gone."

He nodded, reaching for a piece of toast and walking over to her with a smile that reached his eyes for a change. Then he did the most astounding thing. He dropped a quick kiss on her lips. Just a little peck as one might give to greet a loved one. There was no romance, no drama, and just as quickly as he was in her space, he was out of it before Penny could even react.

"Keep it up. It must be working," he said with a nod, still smiling, probably at her stunned expression, as he left the kitchen.

Penny stood frozen, staring at the doorway he had just left through. Had he really just kissed her? Was it crazy that it hadn't seemed that odd? She heard the door close, and then his truck pull away from the house. She lifted her fingers to her lips; it hadn't meant anything. It had only been his way of thanking her for caring.

There was a large part of her that wanted it to mean more. What would it be like to have a real kiss from Sam Evers? She made her way over to the table and cleared away the dishes. She knew he dated, but he had never dated anyone seriously in the two years she had worked for him, and he had never brought a woman back to the house.

If he went out, he always came home alone. He was a handsome, relatively young man who was a highly regarded surgeon, well thought of in the community and had family money on top of an excellent salary. He was a prime catch, and having lived with him for two years; she couldn't think of anything that made him less than that. Sure, his chosen profession meant that he worked long hours and could be called away at a moment's notice, but it was not as if what he was doing was unimportant.

Realizing that she wasn't going to figure it out any time soon, she finished clearing up the dishes then moved up to his room to tidy it. When she had started working as his housekeeper, it had felt odd to do his laundry and make his bed, but she was so used to it that she no longer gave it a second thought. Instead, she thought about other matters as she finished her job there and moved back to the kitchen.

When the Eastons eventually awoke, they decided to have brunch at one of the local restaurants, making her job that much easier. She used the unexpected extra time to sneak away to the library and get in a bit of studying before her classes started.

*******

As she took her seat in class later that morning, she was quickly joined by Carla Pena, Carla had started school the same semester Penny had, and they had taken almost every class together. Carla was a beauty. Her Latin heritage was evident in her dark coloring.

"So, how did you do on the midterm last week?" Carla asked as she pulled out her notes and books.

"I passed." Penny had more than passed, she had aced it, but she didn't want to seem like she was bragging.

"Me too." Carla grinned at her. "Would it be possible to move our study sessions to your place? Linda has decided to drop out of our group, which means we need a new place."

"Why can't we use the library?" Penny was hesitant to have people over to study. It wasn't as if they were coming to her house. It was awkward having people in the place where she worked. She had explained this all to Carla before, but she had either forgotten it or didn't care.

"I went over to check for space when she told me yesterday, and all of their study rooms are booked until the end of the year. I put my name on the waiting list, but it's not likely that a group is going to break up this late into the semester." She shrugged. "I can't do it at my place. I have three roommates, and there's no room. I've asked Jason and Marie, but Marie has her kids and feels if we study there, they won't leave her alone, and Jason lives in a dorm room."

"I'll ask my boss if he minds, but don't get your hopes up. We might have to find a coffee shop somewhere." Penny frowned, knowing that a coffee shop might be too distracting and loud.

Penny didn't have long to worry about it because no sooner had her class started than her phone rang. It was odd; no one ever called her, so she pushed the ignore button, but it rang again, and on the third ring, she figured she had better answer it.

She grabbed her stuff and moved into the hallway as the phone rang a fourth time. "Hello?" she answered warily.

"Is this Penny Campbell?" a female voice asked.

"Yes." Penny's heart started to beat double time as she silently hoped nothing terrible had happened to Dr. Evers.

"This is Shelly Caine. I work at Georgia Regional Hospital. Is your father Edward Campbell?"

Penny's first thought was, thank goodness it wasn't Dr. Evers. Her second was how had her father had gotten her phone number? "Yes, that's my father's name."

"He was admitted about an hour ago, and you're listed as his emergency contact."

This floored Penny; her father hated her. A response must have been expected because the woman had to ask her if she was still there.

"I'm here," she assured her as she started walking towards the parking lot.

The woman couldn't give her any details but told her how to get where she needed to go and that her father was in serious condition. The drive to the hospital was a short one