Free Searching for Cate by Marie Ferrarella

outside Joan’s door. The impact was sudden and startling.
    He had close to a foot on her and nearly knocked her to the floor. Instinct had Christian’s hand shooting out to grabbed her and keep the woman from falling. Pulling too hard, he wound up pulling her into him. He was vaguely aware of soft breasts brushing against him a second before he stepped back.
    He was also mildly aware of the buzz of electricity just before contact was broken.
    â€œSorry.”
    The woman, blond, twenty-ish and dressed for business, shrugged and forced a smile to her lips. “My fault.”
    He could feel her eyes sweeping over him, as if she was trying to place him. Did he know her? No, he was fairly confident he would have remembered a woman who looked like her.
    Christian sank his hands deep into the pockets of his lab coat. The almost pleasant hum throughout his body had yet to cease, even though he willed it to. “Are you looking for someone?”
    Still staring at him, she appeared to hesitate before finally answering. “An outpatient here.”
    Only two of the patients on the floor were his. The others were in the maternity ward two floors up. The woman with the soft smile would do best to ask for her friend’s room number where the names were listed.
    â€œThe nurses’ station is right over there.” He pointed it out to her.
    Cate had already been there. It was her first stop off the elevator, despite the fact that she had asked for Joan Cunningham’s room number at the information desk on the ground floor. “I know. They sent me here.”
    He had a full schedule even without assisting at Joan’s lumpectomy this afternoon. But he noticed that the young woman was looking at the door behind him as if that was her intended goal. The small bit of curiosity he still retained got the better of him. “Who is it you’re looking for?”
    â€œJoan,” she told him. “Cunningham,” the woman added after a moment, as if the surname was difficult for her to work her tongue around.
    Moving slightly for a better light, he looked at her more closely. And realized that, despite the different hair color, there was a resemblance between the two women, especially around the mouth and eyes. Younger, fixed up, Joan Cunningham must have been a very pretty woman.
    This woman, however, was beautiful. Even in the muted lavender suit, with her silver-blond hair pulled back and away from her face, she was more than just striking. With very little effort, she could have been—what was it that his brother John called it?—drop-dead gorgeous.
    He’d never met any of Joan’s relatives. Was this her daughter? A younger sister? They seemed to be too far apart for the latter, too close for the former. But then, anything was possible these days.
    â€œAre you related to Joan?”
    As he watched, the woman straightened her shoulders, pulling them back as if she was bracing herself for something.
    â€œYes.”
    At least, that was what she thought, Cate added silently. If the woman in the room behind this doorturned out to really be the Joan Cunningham, nee Haywood, that she was looking for.
    Nerves danced through her. Taunting her. She hadn’t felt this unsettled even on her very first day out of Quantico, facing her first real boss. But she’d had confidence in herself then.
    This was different.
    The more he looked at the woman, the more he was certain that she was related to Joan. And if she was a relative, she couldn’t have timed her appearance better. Joan looked ready to fold when he’d talked to her. There was no doubt in his mind that she was going to need all the support she could get. Even with all the positive feedback he’d given her before she’d gone in for her test, and despite the fact that the numbers were increasing every day regarding survival rate, this news had to be devastating for Joan.
    â€œShe’s on the phone right