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mile marker and realized she was keeping better than an eight-minute-mile pace. She very rarely ran and she knew she’d pay for this tomorrow. No matter how in shape she was, jogging always made her hurt in places she’d forgotten she had muscles. She pressed on anyway.
    After she’d gone three miles, she dropped to a walk while she caught her breath. The running wasn’t making her feel much better at all.
    A giant boulder jutting out over the riverbank tempted her. She couldn’t resist climbing onto it to watch the lazy water. And breathe.
    The trail was mostly deserted this evening, which was fine by her.
    Katie fiddled with a pile of small stones that someone had left atop the boulder. She sat and watched as a pair of swallows swooped down to skim the water’s placid surface.
    Four miles and she still couldn’t get the loss of her mother’s home out of her mind. Her chest tightened and a lump formed in her throat. She’d been teetering between burning anger and deep sadness for the past twenty-four hours and the swing of emotions was exhausting.
    She reached for the pendant that hung against her collarbone, running her fingers over it lovingly.
    The sound of another person coming down the trail drifted into her consciousness. She straightened a bit, picked up one of the stones and skimmed it out onto the water as the jogger neared her spot.
    Something made her turn to look. Recognition reflected in his eyes at the same moment it hit her.
    “Katie?” He came to a stop at her rock.
    “Dr. Fletcher.” The T-shirt he wore—white, with a red Medical Missions emblem on the chest—revealed a set of biceps and pecs that up until now had been unseen. She would’ve noticed those, she thought distractedly.
    “Call me Noah,” he said, propping one foot on the far edge of her rock. He wasn’t even breathing hard. “You’re a ways from home.”
    The mere mention of home was enough to make his muscles cease to matter. “Home seems to be a relative term these days.” She couldn’t help the unfriendliness in her voice. Didn’t want to.
    He glanced down the trail, then looked back at her as if he were making a decision. “Mind if I join you for a minute? I could use a rest.”
    She shrugged and moved over on the rock. “You’re not even out of breath. I take it you run a lot,” she said, looking out over the water.
    “Every day. Sometimes twice.”
    That was fitting. “Weights?” She glanced at his arm muscles again, then dragged her gaze back to his face, noticing the angles of his jaw and his sandy five-o’clock shadow.
    “Some. You?”
    Katie shook her head.
    “Weights aren’t exciting enough?” There was a hint of disapproval in his voice.
    “Got something against excitement?”
    He looked directly into her eyes for the first time since he’d stopped. “It depends on the circumstances.”
    She skipped another stone before Noah helped himself to the pile between them and sent one of his own skimming—three jumps—after hers. She narrowed her eyes and concentrated, then skimmed another, frowning when it refused to go more than three skips.
    “You run much?” he asked.
    “Only when I can’t do something better.”
    “What would you rather do?”
    “Climb rocks.”
    “I can see why that wouldn’t work right now.” He glanced at her cast.
    “You going to buy our house?”
    “I’m thinking pretty hard about it. Is there any reason I shouldn’t?”
    “It’s too big for you.”
    “How do you know I don’t have a family?”
    “You don’t have that gets-along-well-with-others look about you. And also no ring.”
    Noah stared at her for several seconds, considering whether to argue, then deciding to ignore the insult. He couldn’t help noticing her profile was well-proportioned—full lips, dainty nose, thick lashes. A small but deep scar marred the left side of her forehead, the only imperfection in her smooth-looking skin. He was afraid to guess what had caused it. She needed to take