Читать книгу Dreams & Desires - Kat Cantrell - Страница 10
ОглавлениеHer arms loaded with bags of donated clothes, Clare trudged through the brisk February wind to her car in the staff lot. It had gotten so cold the puddles of rain from earlier that day had turned to patches of ice. All she wanted now was to go home, take a long hot shower, crawl into bed and forget today ever happened. Although mostly she just wanted to forget the part with Parker.
Janey had begun to show very slight signs of improvement over the course of the day, but she was nowhere close to being out of the woods. Fragile as she was, her condition could turn on a dime. Until they could figure out what was wrong, they were treating the symptoms, not the cause.
Clare left the night staff very strict instructions to contact her if Janey went into distress again. She wasn’t obligated to come in on her off hours, but this wasn’t about obligation. And hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.
Shivering, Clare popped the trunk, dropped the bags inside and then unlocked her car with the key fob and slid onto the icy-cold seat. Shivering, she stuck the key into the ignition and turned...
Nothing happened.
“Are you kidding me?” she grumbled.
She tried again, and again, but the engine was dead.
She got out, pulling her collar up to shield her face from the icy wind. She popped the hood and looked at the engine for anything obvious, like a loose battery wire. She’d watched her brothers work on cars her entire childhood and she had learned a thing or two. Her car was almost fifteen years old and malfunctioned from regular wear and tear. She had been planning to look for a new one next month when the weather was better, but it looked as if she might have to do it sooner.
With her aunt away for a week she really had no one to pick her up. She would just have to call a tow truck and wait around. Hopefully it wouldn’t take long.
She dialed the garage and was informed that they would be there ASAP. Which meant no more than an hour.
“I’m supposed to wait in the freezing cold for an hour?”
“Just leave your keys in the glove box.”
Grumbling to herself, she hung up. Now she would have to call a cab to get home. But she would do it inside the hospital where it was warm.
She put her keys in the glove box and shut the door.
She was getting ready to close the hood when she heard a vehicle pull up behind her car. She knew before she even heard him call out to her who it was. Because that was the kind of day she was having.
“Looks like you could use some help, angel face.”
There he was, in his sporty import, grinning at her. She wanted to be exasperated but she couldn’t work up the will.
“Car’s dead. I called for a tow.”
“Need a lift?”
It sure beat waiting for a cab, though she knew she was asking for trouble. But she was exhausted and frustrated and she just wanted to get home. “If it’s no trouble.”
Oh, that smile. “Hop in.”
“Can I put something in your trunk?”
“Is it a dead body?”
She opened her trunk. “Well, not the whole thing.”
He grinned and popped his trunk. “In that case, absolutely.”
She tossed the bags inside, closed the trunk and climbed in the passenger’s side. The interior was soft black leather and her seat was toasty warm.
She took off her gloves and held her hands in front of the heat vent.
“Where to?”
She told him her address, and how to get there, but as he pulled out of the lot he went in the opposite direction. “Hey, genius, my house is the other way.”
“I know. But dinner is this way.”
She blinked. “Who said anything about dinner?”
“I just did. If I don’t eat something soon I’ll go into hypoglycemic shock.”
“You really think I’m going to fall for that?”
His grin said that she didn’t have a whole lot of choice.
Damn it. She should have known better than to get in his car. But she was too exhausted to argue. She let her head fall back against the seat rest.
“You can’t tell me that you’re not hungry. I know for a fact that you didn’t get to eat your lunch.”
Of course she was hungry. She was starving, but he was the last person she wanted to be seen with in a social setting. The way gossip traveled in the town of Royal, people would have them engaged by the end of the week.
“No offense, but I really prefer that we not be seen together outside of work.”
“So, not only do you not date coworkers, but you don’t dine with them either? Is that why you always eat lunch alone?”
“That’s not why I eat alone, and no, I have nothing against dining with coworkers. It’s just something I don’t do often.”
“So then having a meal with me shouldn’t be a big deal, right?”
She was pretty sure he already knew the answer to that question. And as he pulled into the parking lot of the Royal Diner, the number one worst place to go when trying to avoid the prying eyes of the town gossips, she found herself wishing that she’d called a cab instead.
“I can’t risk someone seeing us and getting the wrong idea.”
“We’re just two colleagues sharing a meal while you wait for a tow. Not to mention that I’d like to talk about Janey. Bounce a few ideas off of you. Think of it as an offsite work meeting.”
Well, if it was a work meeting...
“Just this one time,” she said. “And I mean that.”
He grinned, shut the engine off and said, “Let’s go.”
Since he was the type of guy who would insist on opening a car door for a woman, she hopped out before he could get the chance. And when he reached past her to open the diner door, she grabbed it first. She didn’t want anyone getting even the slightest impression that this was a date.
The hostess showed them to a booth near the back. It was after eight so most of the dinner rush had already cleared out. Which could only be a good thing. “What would you two like to drink?”
“Decaf coffee,” Clare said.
“Make that two,” Parker told her.
“Enjoy your meal,” the hostess said, laying their menus on the table.
As they sat down Parker said, “See, it’s not so bad. There’s hardly anyone here.”
He was right. The subfreezing temperatures must have kept people inside tonight. But it would take only one nosy person to see them together and draw the wrong conclusion.
Their waitress, Emily, was someone Clare knew well. She often brought her autistic daughter to the free clinic on the weekends when Clare was volunteering, and her husband worked at the auto-repair shop. She set their coffees down and Clare didn’t miss the curious look as she said, “Hey, Clare, Dr. Reese. Looks cold out there.”
“So cold Clare’s car wouldn’t start,” Parker told her.
“Are you still driving that old thing?” Emily asked her.
“I know I need to get a new one,” she said, warming her hands with her coffee cup. “I just haven’t had time.”
“Do you know what you’d like to order or would you need a minute to look at the menu?”
“I know what I want,” Parker said, eyes on Clare. From his mischievous grin, Clare knew he wasn’t talking about the food.
“Caesar salad with the dressing on the side,” she told Emily.
“Would you like chicken on that?”
Would she ever, but she was only five pounds away from her high school weight and she wanted to hit that number by swimsuit season. “No chicken.”
“My usual,” Parker told Emily.
“One Caesar, one bacon cheeseburger and fries, comin’ right up.”
When she was gone Parker said, “She knows what car you drive?”
“Everyone around here knows what everyone drives.”
His brows knit together. “That’s weird.”
Not for Royal it wasn’t. “You’ve never lived in a small town, have you?”
“Nope. I’ve always lived in the city, but I like the slower pace. Though it has taken some getting used to.”
“You must eat here often if you have a usual,” Clare said.
“Several times a week at least, and sometimes I come in for breakfast.”
“You eat a burger and fries several times a week?”
“I’m a carnivore. I eat meat.”
“There’s this thing called vegetables...”
He shrugged, sipping his coffee. “Sometimes I order a side salad.”
He was a doctor, for God’s sake. He should have known better. “What do you have the other four days?”
“That depends on who I’m with,” he said, and his cheeky smile said that once again they were no longer talking about food. But she’d sort of walked into that one, hadn’t she?
Why did he have to be so damned adorable, with his stubbled chin and dark, rumpled hair? The soft waves begged to be combed back by her willing fingers and his hazel eyes smoldered, though they looked more whiskey-colored in this light. He’d loosened his lopsided tie and opened the top button on his dress shirt...
“Have you lived in Royal your whole life?” he asked her.
Jarred by the sudden change of subject, she realized she was staring at his chest and lifted her gaze to his handsome face instead. Which was just as bad, if not worse. Sometimes when she was sitting at the nurses’ station and he was nearby she would watch him in her peripheral vision. He had such a nice face to look at.
“I moved here to live with my aunt about a year after nursing school,” she told him.
“Where are you from originally?”
“My parents own a horse farm about an hour from here. Five of my siblings work there.”
He blinked. “Five? How many siblings do you have?”
“Seven. All older. Three boys, four girls.”
“Wow.” He shook his head in disbelief. “That’s a lot of kids.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Catholic?”
“No, just very traditional. My mom has six siblings and my dad has four. They both grew up on farms.”
“What about your siblings. Do they have kids?”
“As of last month I have twenty-two nieces and nephews, and two great-nieces on the way.”
“Wow. That is a big family. And you’re the baby?”
There was nothing more annoying than being referred to as the baby by her family. It was their way of pushing her down and keeping her in her place. But when Parker said it, with that teasing smile, it wasn’t demeaning at all.
“I’m the youngest, yes.”
“Were you spoiled?”
As if. “My parents were pretty burned out by the time I came along. As long as I did my chores and kept my grades up they pretty much left me alone. I would rather be invisible than get sucked into all the family drama.”
“I used to wish that I had a big family.”
“Do you have siblings?” she asked him.
“Only child.”
“I had a friend in school who was an only child and I was always so envious.”
Emily returned to the table with their food and Clare’s stomach howled. Though getting a salad had been the responsible thing to do, Parker’s juicy burger and greasy fries beckoned her.
“Well, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” he said, popping a fry in his mouth, and when he offered her one, she couldn’t resist. Her mouth watered as the greasy, salty goodness sent her taste buds into overload.
She looked at her plate, then his, and thought, Man, I should have ordered a burger.
“Growing up I always wanted siblings,” Parker said, pushing his plate toward her, gesturing to her to take more.
“I had to share a room with three of my sisters. I had no privacy whatsoever.” There hadn’t even been anyone who’d keep things in confidence. If one sibling knew, they all knew. Because of that it had always been difficult for her to trust people to keep her secrets. Her aunt was the only person in her life she could be totally honest with.
“For what it’s worth, I didn’t either,” he said, and she watched his lips move. She loved looking at his lips. It was always the first place her eyes landed.
“My father was very strict throughout my entire childhood,” Parker said. “He controlled pretty much every aspect of my life, like which friends I was allowed to have, what books I was allowed to read. He even chose the classes I took in high school. He was grooming me to take over his business. I always thought that if he had another child he might not be so focused on my every move.”
“What does he do?”
“He was a financial tycoon. He passed away last year.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“We had a very tenuous relationship. I had no interest in finance, and he considered practicing medicine beneath me. He agreed to pay for medical school, but only if I studied to be a cosmetic surgeon. He even set up a job for me with his own cosmetic surgeon when I graduated.”
As amazing as he was with children, that would have been a terrible waste. “Clearly you changed his mind.”
“It was Luc Wakefield who talked me into standing up to my father.”
“How did that go over?”
“There was a lot of shouting and threats. He said he would disown and disinherit me. I said go for it. At that point I was so sick of being controlled I honestly didn’t care.”
Her family may have been a ginormous pain, but his father sounded a million times worse. “What did your mom have to say about it?”
“Not much,” he said, and his casual reply belied the flash of something dark and sad in his eyes. But as soon as it was there, it was gone again. “She wasn’t around.”
For whatever reason, she had just assumed that someone as successful as Parker would come from a well-adjusted and happy home. She imagined him as the golden child, probably captain of the football team, valedictorian and loved by all.
It would appear that she was wrong. Again. That’s what she got for drawing conclusions without facts.
“Have I got something between my teeth?” Parker asked suddenly.
She blinked. “No. Why?”
“Are you sure? Because you haven’t stopped staring at my mouth.”
Her cheeks went hot with embarrassment. Was she really doing that?
“It’s either that, or you’re thinking about kissing me.”
She was almost always thinking about kissing him. She really had to be more careful in the future where she let her eyes wander. And her thoughts.
* * *
“I don’t suppose you played football in high school?” Clare asked, and Parker laughed.
“No, I didn’t. But if I had, boy, my father would have loved that.” The only thing that would have pleased his dad more than Parker taking over the family business was if he’d become a professional athlete. But it had been obvious from a very early age that Parker had no interest, and more important, no natural talent.
He was barely out of diapers when his father began pushing him into various sports. First soccer, then T-ball, but he’d sucked at them both. He’d been more interested in sitting on the sidelines, searching the grass for bugs and snakes.
His dad had enrolled him in tag football when Parker was six, and had forced him to stay for the entire season. Luckily Parker had had a sympathetic coach who’d let him spend most of his time on the bench. Because as fanatical as his father had been about his son’s physical abilities, he’d never once made it to a practice or even a game.
Swimming lessons had come next, but Parker got so many ear infections as a result that the doctor told his father the lessons had to stop. Parker’s equestrian training was probably the least horrible thing he’d been forced into, and though being so high up on the horse’s back had always made him nervous, he loved animals. Until his horse was spooked and threw him, and nearly trampled him to death. That was the last time he’d ever gone near a horse.
“My father played ball in college,” Parker told her. “I guess he just assumed that I would want to play, too. He was real big on me following in his footsteps. He wanted a mini me, and I seriously didn’t fit the bill. I was skinny and scrawny and kind of a geek.”
“You were not,” she said, taking another fry, eyeing his burger with a look of longing. She had barely touched her salad, but she’d already eaten half his fries.
“I’m serious. I was a total nerd. Remind me and I’ll dig out some old pictures.” He slid his plate closer. “Take a bite.”
She blinked. “Of what?”
“My burger. You haven’t taken your eyes off of it, and I think I see a little drool in the corner of your mouth.”
She hesitated, looking a little embarrassed, but her stomach won the battle. “Well, maybe a little bite...”
There was nothing little about the bite she took.
“I didn’t start to really fill out until my third year of college,” he said. “When I started weight training.”
“So you were what, like, twenty-one?”
“Eighteen. I graduated high school when I was fifteen.”
“Wow, you really were a geek. But your dad must have been happy about that.”
“My dad was never happy about anything. He was a tyrant. Thankfully I saw more of the nanny and the house staff than him.”
“I went through sort of the same thing when I was a kid. Although not the tyrant part. Everyone assumed I would work on the ranch after high school, but I wanted to be a nurse. I knew from the time I got my first play doctor kit as a kid that I wanted to work in medicine. I wanted to help people.”
“Did you ever tell your family that?”
“Probably a million times, but I was more or less invisible. No one ever listened to what I had to say. Hell, they still don’t. If it isn’t ranch business, or my various nieces’ and nephews’ academic accomplishments, they don’t discuss it. So I worked my butt off in school and got a scholarship to a college far away from home and haven’t looked back since. My parents were not very happy with me.”
In what universe did that make even a lick of sense? “Aren’t most parents proud when their kids go to college?”
“Like I said, they’re very traditional. Nothing was more important to them than their children ‘paying their debt to the family,’” she said, making air quotes with her fingers. “Whatever the hell that meant. I didn’t ask to be born. I never felt as if I owed my family anything.”
It amazed him that despite their very different upbringings, their childhoods weren’t really all that different. “I felt the same way about my father. He had my entire life planned out before I was out of diapers. With no regard whatsoever to what I might want. But that was just who he was. People were terrified of him and he used that to manipulate. No one dared deny him anything.”
“Stubborn as I am, my parents’ archaic thinking probably only pushed me further from the fold. The thought of staying on the farm and working with my family for the rest of my life gives me hives. And they have no respect for what I do. To this day I still hear snide remarks about going into medicine just to snag—” She stopped abruptly, but it was already too late. He knew exactly what she’d been about to say.
“A wealthy doctor?” he said.
Her cheeks flushed a deep red and she lowered her eyes to her salad, her juicy bottom lip wedged adorably between her perfect teeth. He’d never seen her blush, but damn, she sure was pretty when she did. But then, she always looked good to him. And suddenly her attitude toward him made a whole lot more sense.
“I didn’t mean to tell you that,” she said, looking mortified.
“At least now I know why you spend so much time pretending you don’t like me.”
She lifted her chin, getting all indignant on him. “Who says I was pretending?”
He laughed. “Sweetheart, I’ve dated a lot of women. I know the signals.”
She opened her mouth to argue—because she always argued when he was trying to make a point—then must have had a change of heart and closed it again. “Okay, yes, that is part of the reason I can’t see you. But there are other factors, as well, things I’m not comfortable getting into right now.”
“So you do like me,” he said.
“I respect you as a physician and peer, and you seem like a good person. I could even see us eventually becoming friends, but it can never be more than that.”
