Читать книгу Kiss and Run - Barbara Daly, Barbara Daly - Страница 10

“I THOUGHT I’D LOST ALL MY hazardous driving skills,” Cecily marveled, “but they came right back to me, just like riding a bicycle.”

“You do excel at hazardous driving.”

She shot him a glance. He hadn’t fainted, apparently, but he did look stunned. “Now if only I could remember how to clean myself up, blow-dry my hair properly, do my nails, exfoliate and moisturize regularly….”

“I’m telling you, you look fine.”

“I used to look fine,” she corrected him. “I honestly think my mother kept me at home instead of sending me to boarding school so she could have a few more years of keeping my hair trimmed and buying my clothes, hoping it would sink in. But the minute I left home—Oh, look, Will, the hospital.” Her right turn might have been a little abrupt. Will paled again. “I’m so glad we’re finally here. I’m just sorry I didn’t get to pick your brains a little more about specifics—you know, the clothes and underwear.”

“Maybe we’ll find a spare minute to discuss…clothes and underwear.”

Nothing she’d love more than a spare minute with Will, but every minute that went by was more dangerous to her psyche. The sooner she was away from him, the better. She’d take a taxi back to the hotel, go to Sutherland’s downtown and use her own best judgment to change from ugly duckling to swan.

She looked at him again, worrying that she’d already overstepped the bounds by talking to him about something as personal as bras and panties. “I hope I haven’t embarrassed you.”

“No, no, not at all. I’m…I used to be an expert in the field of sexy women.”

She was glad she’d driven up an oak-lined drive and not up a tree when Will put her in the category of “sexy women.” He directed her into a parking lot with Glen Oaks Care Center signs plastered all over the place. The neighborhood looked familiar, very like the one in which the St. Andrews church was located. The hospital was a pleasant-looking red-brick structure with white trim and many wings and outbuildings.

Cecily felt that the moment of truth had arrived. She couldn’t lie anymore about being a veterinarian and she wanted to come clean with Will first, ask him if it would come as too great a shock to Muffy. “Will,” she said, “there’s something I really must tell you before we see Muffy.”

He was unbuckling his seat belt, pocketing his keys, reaching for the door handle. He turned to her, curiosity in his gaze but something else, too, something compelling that drew her toward a promise he could never keep.

Her heart sank. He thought she was going to confess that he’d turned her on, that she’d hoped to lead him astray, distract him from total concentration on Muffy and the baby, and that’s why she’d been talking about sex. He couldn’t be more wrong. Her confession would probably make him mad. Maybe he’d be so ugly-mad she’d never want to see him again—although Will ugly-mad wasn’t something she could conjure up in her mind. Mad, maybe. But ugly? Impossible.

But she would go straight home tomorrow and never see him again and everything would be all right.

Everything except her. He’d gotten out of the car, apparently figuring she could make her confession on the run. Or maybe he wasn’t all that curious after all. So she got out, too. “Will?”

“I’m listening.” He was walking too fast. She lengthened her stride to match his.

“Will, I’m not a doctor.”

That slowed him down. “I mean, I am a doctor, but I’m an animal doctor. A vet. It’s true that I’ve gotten rather adept at difficult deliveries, but my difficult deliveries aren’t human babies.”

He paused on the ball of one foot, carefully set down his heel and moved the other foot up to match. “You’re what?” To her amazement, his eyes were dancing and a smile curved his sensuous lower lip.

“I’m a veterinarian. A large-animal vet. My patients are cows and horses, sheep and pigs, your occasional goat—”

Laughter growled in his throat. “That explains why you don’t date any of them.”

“Yes,” she said, still waiting for the ax to fall.

“Hah!” Will yelled out the word and raised his arms high above his head in a V for victory.

“See,” Cecily hurried on, “that’s why rural Vermont is a good place for me to be. Lots of dairy farms, horse breeding, sheep raising. That’s where my big patient base is—”

“All those deliveries you bragged about were baby farm animals! Muffy’s gonna trip. Wow, oh, wow, I can’t wait to see her face!”

Cecily was astounded. Astounded and upset. “Will, you’re treating it like a good joke on Muffy. You should be on her side. You should be mad at me for misrepresenting myself. You should be threatening litigation. You should—”

“Muffy’s gonna blow a gasket,” he was chanting happily. “Muffy’s gonna—”

At the hospital doors he dropped his happy act and turned to her, a new man and a suddenly dangerous one. He brought his face very close to hers, apparently oblivious to the fact that the doors had opened automatically and the women at the reception desk were staring at them. “I’m going to get you for this,” he said, but he smiled.

CECILY SHRANK BACK WHILE HE spoke briskly to the receptionist. “Muffy’s in Twenty-Four East,” he said when he came back.

“Maybe I should take a taxi home and just let you visit with her,” Cecily said. Then Will could bear the burden of Muffy’s rage alone.

“No, she’ll want to thank you, I’m sure.” Will’s smile was positively evil. “Let me have a few minutes alone with her. I’ll tell her about your, um, true life’s work and get her calmed down, then you come up.”

“If you think it’s the right thing to do.”

“Definitely. Hang around down here for ten minutes, then follow me up.”

Right. Glumly Cecily sat down in the lobby and thought that if she had a choice between facing an angry bull or a hysterical, hormonal woman, she’d take el toro any day.

“WILL! YOU’RE HERE! I’M SO glad to see you. Come look at your niece. Isn’t she beautiful? You’re going to be the greatest uncle. She’ll adore you.”

The woman cradling a baby in the crook of her arm and beaming at him from the hospital bed looked like Muffy—except for the beaming and the baby—but she didn’t sound like Muffy. He was still standing in the doorway, so to make sure this was Muffy’s room, he leaned back into the hall to read the number on the door and then the name on the chart. “Margaret Murchison Tidwell.”

Yep, it was Muffy all right, but she’d been taken over by some alien force! Where had that sweet expression come from? That affectionate voice?

Still, those were his and Muffy’s parents coming toward him, smiling as though they knew her and him both. To get in touch with reality, he strode forward to grab them in a big hug.

“Good to see you, son,” his father said, sounding embarrassed.

“Does Muffy seem changed to you?” he muttered into his mother’s ear.

“Why, no, honey, she seems like the same sweetheart she’s always been,” his mother murmured back. “I knew she’d make a wonderful mother. Just as you’ll make a wonderful father someday.”

Will looked back at Muffy with narrowed eyes. He didn’t buy her new attitude for a minute. He did need her help, though.

He walked over to the bed and bent down to look at his niece. He had to admit it, this was one cute baby. He could actually feel himself swelling with pride, imagining himself taking her to the zoo, teaching her to ride a bike….

But that would come later. He had issues now. “Gator’s not here yet?”

“No.” Muffy smiled softly. “He calls every five minutes, though. He’s on his way from Love Field right now.”

“So he’ll be here any minute,” Will said brightly, raising his voice.

“Well…”

“Any minute,” Will said, and frowned at her. “Maybe Mom and Dad should go out and wait for him, bring him right up to the room. You know Gator. He’ll be so excited, he might get lost. He’d appreciate a welcoming committee.”

She raised an eyebrow and contemplated Will for a long, scary moment. “Oh, yes, I know he would. Mom, Daddy, would you go outside and wait for Gator? He can’t be more than a couple of minutes away.”

“Gator’s parents will be along pretty soon, too, I imagine,” Will said, knowing perfectly well they’d have to drive up from Waco, a good hour and a half from the hospital.

“And,” Muffy added, “I really need some body lotion from the gift shop. I forgot mine.”

The idea of body lotion seemed to pull their mother’s trigger. “Of course, darling,” Mrs. Murchison said warmly. “Nothing more important than body lotion right now. We don’t want stretch marks. I hope they have something nice. Come on, Bill, let’s look out for Gator and his parents. Back soon, angels.”

“What are you up to?” Muffy whispered when their parents were out the door.

“The doctor,” Will said tersely. “I know her. I’ve had the hots for her since I was at Exeter. But she got the idea you and I are married.”

“Oh, my God,” Muffy said, sounding much more like the old Muffy.

“I want to keep it that way for a while.”

“Why would you want to do that?”

Why? Because he’d just realized that as long as Cecily thought he was safely married, she’d let him advise her about sexy clothes and lingerie. He might even be able to con her into letting him come shopping with her.

The idea really turned him on.

He cleared his throat. “I have my reasons. You’ll go along, right?”

Muffy gave her little daughter a lingering, loving glance. “I do have other, more important things going on in my own life right now,” she began, then looked up at Will. “But twins have a sacred trust to lie for each other.” She sighed.

“I sure kept you out of a hell of a lot of trouble,” Will said and took another look at the baby. She was a doll. Now was the time to put Muffy through the acid test, find out how far her unprecedented loving mood stretched. “Incidentally, Muff, Cecily’s actually a—”

But the door opened and Cecily’s head poked tentatively into the room.

IN THE LOBBY, CECILY HAD KEPT one eye on her watch and the other on the steady stream of visitors, home-bound patients and medical personnel who flowed through the lobby. Friday must be a popular dismissal day. At last her ten minutes were up and she started for the elevator. When the doors opened, an attractive older couple stepped out. Cecily did a double take.

The woman was slim and pretty, her hair a pale shade of blonde that suggested dark hair gone gray. The man, though, was a dead ringer for Will, or the way Will would look twenty-five or thirty years from now. Either these were Will’s parents or Muffy was one of those women who’d married her father. She thought about coming right out and asking them, but considered the complications if she introduced herself as “the doctor who delivered the baby.” So she merely smiled, went up to Twenty-Four East and shyly stuck her head through the doorway.

“Oh, look, Will, it’s the doctor!” Muffy said. “You’re so sweet to come and check on me.”

Cecily stumbled forward, feeling stunned. Was this the same Muffy? Everything she’d told Will at the delivery scene, those things about women not being themselves during labor, had been true. There was nothing terrible about Muffy. She’d merely been having a baby.

Muffy grabbed Cecily’s hand. “You were great,” she said. Her voice was warm and soft. “I can’t thank you enough.”

“She did a good job, didn’t she?” Will said, his tone nearly as warm and soft as Muffy’s, but his voice did different things to Cecily than Muffy’s did. “Wasn’t it amazing, finding a top-notch doctor in the wedding party? You know what she told me in the car, Muff? She says she’s an expert in difficult deliveries!”

Cecily was startled. He was supposed to have told Muffy already that she was a vet.

“No kidding,” Muffy said, looking wide-eyed. “What a coincidence! Gosh,” she said, looking positively saintly, “I must have a guardian angel.”

Cecily saw the look Will gave Muffy—a slanty-eyed, teasing glance—before he said, “She’s an expert, all right, an expert at delivering calves, colts and piglets, not babies.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Your guardian angel sent you a vet. How about that, Muff?”

Cecily felt the tension in the air. Something was going on between Will and Muffy that had nothing to do with her or with her being a vet. Her stomach tightened.

Muffy stared wide-eyed at her for a moment, then at Will. Her face suddenly lit up in a gleeful smile. “That’s the funniest thing I ever heard.” She began laughing.

Will looked dumbfounded. “My God, she’s for real,” he murmured.

“What?” Muffy and Cecily said in unison.

“Uh, nothing, nothing. Come here, Cecily, and take a look at this baby.”

Cecily took a look, feeling her heart melt at the sight of the tiny hands, the long lashes, the wispy dark curls, the button nose. “She’s adorable,” she said. “She’s going to make you two so happy.” Will couldn’t be having any problems with this sweet, motherly version of Muffy, couldn’t be thinking about divorce. And he couldn’t under any circumstances be thinking of giving up this beautiful baby. Cecily was trying really hard to feel happy for both of them.

Muffy gave Will a smile that might even be called sappy. “We haven’t decided on a name yet, darling, but now I think I’d like to name her Cecily. Cecily,” Muffy said to the baby, “meet Cecily Connaught, the miracle woman who brought you into the world under the most terrible conditions—”

“Well, no,” Cecily interrupted, made intensely nervous by the conversation and the thought of Will having a baby Cecily. “Not all dairy farmers keep their barns in—oof!” Will had grabbed her in such a strenuous hug that it took the breath out of her.

“We sure will,” he said heartily. “We’ll name her Cecily. Maybe,” he continued as he released Cecily to give her a soulful look, “you would be her godmother.”

“Oh, yes,” Muffy cried. “It would mean so much to us.”

“I’m flattered,” Cecily said, her nervousness reaching the panic level, “but I—”

“Thank you,” Will and Muffy said together, giving her oddly similar grateful glances.

The telephone rang and Muffy reached for it. “Just a second,” she said, and put her hand over the mouthpiece. “It’s our friend Gator,” she said to Will.

“You talk to him,” Will said. “I’ll take Cecily home and be back as soon as possible, sweetheart.”

“Absolutely not,” Cecily said. She’d never felt as firm about anything in her life. She couldn’t stand another second in the confines of a car with Will. “I’ll call a taxi.”

“No way!” Muffy said with a quick glance at Will. “What kind of manners would that be? I insist that Will take you back to the hotel.” She went back briefly to the phone. “Hang on, Gator. We’re having a little argument here.” She smiled. “I know. What else is new?”

Cecily felt confused. Maybe they did argue a lot. Maybe Muffy was just being polite because Cecily was there. She stamped on the thought. She still couldn’t have Will. Period.

“One more thing,” Will said. “I need to buy cigars and Cecily needs to do a little shopping, and when I take Cecily to the hotel, I’ll go ahead and register. You won’t mind if I’m not back for a couple of hours.”

Now Cecily was having a full anxiety attack. “No, you don’t need to take me shopping—”

“Take all the time you need, darling. Mom and Daddy will be along soon.”

“And my mom and dad.”

“Right. Your mom and dad, too.”

Maybe that was the source of the tension, their parents.

“So we’ll say goodbye.” Will stepped up to the bed and gave Muffy a peck on the cheek, then leaned way down to give the child—who was apparently going to be baby Cecily—a soft, gentle kiss. “You and I are going to be best friends,” he whispered.

A tiny finger gripped his, and something intense gripped Cecily’s heart. She stepped up, too. “And I’m your godmother Cecily,” she said, wondering how the hell she was going to be a decent godmother to Will’s baby.