Читать книгу Nyc Angels & Gold Coast Angels Collection - Lynne Marshall - Страница 28

ELEANOR AUSCULTATED ROCHELLE’S tiny chest, distinguishing each sound and praying the baby’s lungs remained clear of fluid or pneumonia despite her many risk factors.

“Hey, you.”

Eleanor jumped, startling the baby. Talking softly to Rochelle and stroking her finger over the baby’s tiny hand, she mentally gathered her wits. What she needed was someone to talk softly to her and calm her nerves before she acknowledged who’d surprised her.

“Don’t do that,” she ordered, spinning to face the man she wasn’t quite sure what to think of. Not that she hadn’t thought of him. She’d thought of little else since yesterday morning when she hadn’t been able to take any more of her father bargaining a date for her.

That she understood.

What she couldn’t understand was why Ty had agreed, why he’d even suggested her going to Texas with him.

That made absolutely no sense at all to her. No matter how many times she’d tried to work out his reasons, she kept coming up blank.

Looking as gorgeous as ever, Ty grinned that sexy Southern grin that, along with his Texan drawl, had all the NICU nurses swooning over him. Eleanor’s body did a little swooning of its own, too.

“Sorry, darlin’.” His eyes twinkled. “Didn’t mean to startle you or the babe. How’s our girl doing?”

At his “our girl” Eleanor’s throat clogged shut. Why, she didn’t know because it was the silliest of phrases and she knew he meant their patient and … Oh, what was she prattling on in her mind for? Just answer the man and be done with it.

“She’s holding her own.” A complete sentence and no stutter—yeah! If nothing else, spending time with him at the ribbon-cutting and reception seemed to have cured her of that habit around him.

He nodded his understanding. “A babe’s fighting spirit makes all the difference.”

“Speaking of fighting spirit, why did you agree to my father’s crazy suggestion that you go to his fund-raiser ball?” She tried to keep her voice light, as if his answer was no big deal. “They aren’t that much fun.”

He shrugged. “Maybe good ole country boy me just wanted to see what it’s like to hang with the big city-slicker politicians.”

Eleanor rolled her eyes. “You can cut the good-ole-country-boy act. The big city-slicker politician ran a background check and obviously liked what he found. He could probably tell me what type of baby formula you were raised on.”

“I wasn’t.”

She stared at him in confusion. “You weren’t what?”

“Raised on formula.” He puffed his chest out. “My momma breast-fed me and my brother.”

“I didn’t need to know that.” Actually, she had a hard time envisioning Ty as a baby, as anything other than the gorgeous man he was.

“Sure you do,” he countered. “Can’t have you showing up in Texas as my date and not knowing a thing about me.”

As his date?

“That’s another thing.” Her brows pulled tightly together. “Why on earth would you want me to go to Texas with you?”

He didn’t seem concerned, just pulled his stethoscope out of his scrub pocket then met her gaze. “Why not? We had a nice time together at the ribbon-cutting reception and you’d be doing me a favor.”

“Just as you’re doing me a favor by going to my father’s campaign ball?”

Ty’s gaze cut to hers. “He really wasn’t going to take no for an answer. I just worked a Texas travel buddy into the bargain.”

“A travel buddy? If you think I’m going to—”

He held up his hand. “Stop right there. I’m not thinking any such thing, but am quite shocked at how quickly your mind went to the gutter, Eleanor.” He tsked, his eyes full of naughtiness.

As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t hold back her smile. “Try selling your innocence to one of your many fan clubs, Dr. Donaldson. I’m sure they’d be impressed.”

His brow arched. “Not much impresses you?”

Tired of fidgeting nervously with her stethoscope, she put the tubing around her neck and shoved her hands into her lab-coat pockets. “Lots of things impress me, but not your innocence. I’ve seen snakes with more saintly backgrounds.”

“As in the background check your father did? He couldn’t have turned up anything too bad or he wouldn’t have been rolling out the red carpet.” His grin took on a mischievous little-boy gleam. “Sure, I tipped a few cows in my younger days, but—”

“Tipped a few cows?” She hadn’t read her father’s report. He’d offered, but she’d refused on principle. Perhaps she shouldn’t have been so haughty.

“You should see what we did to the sheep.” Ty’s brows waggled.

His outlandish comment had Eleanor smothering a laugh and a few of the nurses looking their way.

“Quit distracting me from the real issue,” she warned. “Why do you want me to go with you to Texas?”

This time he was the one fidgeting with his stethoscope. “I like you.”

Her cheeks grew hotter than asphalt on a midsummer day. “You like me? What’s that supposed to mean?”

He liked her? Not meeting Eleanor’s eyes, Ty stalled by checking out Rochelle, listening to her tiny heart, lungs and surgically repaired belly, which still had various tubes and drains in place.

Very unlike him to hesitate to give an answer.

Usually he was smooth with the lines with the ladies. Usually.

Maybe it was because he wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted with Eleanor that he was thrown.

That was exactly what was throwing him.

He’d decided not to pursue a relationship with her but had ended up with a date to her father’s campaign ball and with her going home for the weekend with him. Not exactly consistent with staying away from her and avoiding the attraction he felt toward her.

He glanced up, studied her slightly flustered expression, uptight hairstyle, thick-framed glasses and tried to go back to seeing her as just Dr. Aston and not the intriguing woman he’d spent an evening with.

But he couldn’t.

He couldn’t look at her and not see beneath the surface to the woman she hid below. Couldn’t not want to peel away the layers to let that woman out, to free her, and to sit back and watch the explosion.

More than watch, he wanted to experience that explosion in every shape, form and fashion.

“What are you thinking?” She licked her lips nervously.

That he wanted to lick those soft pink lips, to taste her mouth, to take his time and kiss her all night long.

He cleared his throat. “That our girl is going to make it.”

After frowning at him a moment, Eleanor took his bait and cut her gaze to the baby. “I hope so. She’s such a sweetheart.”

“They all are.”

Surprise flickered in her gaze. “You really like babies, don’t you?”

The question seemed a no-brainer to him, but he understood what she meant. A big macho Texan like him choosing to take care of babies. Could a man choose a more emasculating profession? Not according to his father. In Harold Donaldson’s eyes a man might as well chop off his big boys as to “play with babies all day.”

Ty didn’t quite see things the way his dad did and hadn’t from the point he’d realized he wanted to be a doctor. During his early academic career he’d discovered he specifically wanted to be a neonatologist. Despite his father’s hee-hawing and ho-humming about the “shame of having a son who played with babies,” not once had Ty felt less of a man because of his profession.

He liked what he did at Angel’s, liked making a difference in his tiny patients’ lives and their families’ lives. He’d been blessed with a God-given talent and he was where he was supposed to be in life.

Only he had no choice but to go home for the rodeo. His mother had threatened to have the entire crew converge on him in New York if he didn’t. Of course, seeing his father in downtown Manhattan might be worth it.

Then again, those skyscrapers might bow in the presence of his giant of a father.

“Ty?”

He blinked, realizing he’d totally blanked out on Eleanor. “Sorry. I got lost in my thoughts.”

“I noticed.” She smiled tentatively and the gesture tugged at something in his chest.

She was pretty. Why had it taken him seeing her all decked out for him to notice those eyes, that generous mouth, that porcelain skin? That phenomenal body?

“Would it help to talk about it?” she gently offered.

“Hell, no.” His mother had talked about the problems between him and his father till Ty was blue in the face. Nothing was going to make his family understand his need to be a doctor.

He sure didn’t want to talk about his reaction to her since the ribbon-cutting. How could he explain to her what he didn’t understand himself?

“I didn’t mean to pry.” Obviously embarrassed, Eleanor’s eyes dropped. Her chest rose and fell with a deep breath.

Ty knew his gaze shouldn’t drop to watch the shifting of the material across her body, but it did. A crying shame when a grown man was jealous of a cotton scrub top, but he was.

Guilt hit him on several counts.

“Offering to listen isn’t prying,” he countered, smiling at her and hoping she took his peace offering. “Besides, if you’re the little darlin’ doing the listening, I’d be happy to give talking a whirl.”

Her gaze lifted and she stared at him in confusion. A slow smile curved her lips. “You would?”

“Oh, yeah.” Which surprised him, but for some reason he enjoyed talking to Eleanor, enjoyed seeing the uninhibited emotions play across her lovely face. “Go to dinner with me tonight?”

Hands digging deeper into her pockets, she eyed him suspiciously. “Is my father paying you to be nice to me? To take me out?”

Ty laughed, put his hand on her lower back and led her away from Rochelle’s incubator. “Is that how your sister has a new beau every week?”

Eleanor’s face lost some of its sparkle. “If you have to ask that, you obviously left my father’s place without having met my sister.”

Brooke hadn’t made an appearance during the few minutes Ty had remained after Eleanor had disappeared.

“If she’s anything like you, she’s a knockout.”

Eleanor’s eyes rolled behind her thick-framed glasses. “Right.”

“Definitely.”

When had they fallen into step together? Where were they even headed? To the new wing, he realized. More and more of the neonatal unit was being transferred to the area.

“Seriously, if it means going to dinner with you, I’d spill my guts on all the reasons why I want you to come to Texas with me.”

She considered him a moment, then nodded. “Okay, Ty, you have a deal. You get to feed me and I get to listen.”

“I get the better end of that deal.”

Her brow lifted and she grinned with an almost flirty gleam in her dark eyes. “You haven’t seen me eat.”

Watching Eleanor eat should be X-rated.

Ty was positive he’d never seen a woman take so much delight in food. Most of the women he knew barely picked at the few scraps of lettuce put on their plate, much less actually enjoyed each bite with such unabashed pleasure.

He was also positive that he’d never been turned on at watching a woman eat, but he was turned on.

Majorly turned on.

Each and every time Eleanor’s mouth closed around her fork, her eyes closed and joy lit up her face. Had she moaned with her delight in the food he wouldn’t have been surprised.

She opened her eyes, caught him watching and pink splashed her cheeks. “Sorry.”

“For?”

“Making a glutton of myself. I like to eat. I did warn you.”

“Enjoying your dinner isn’t making a glutton of yourself.”

She pushed her plate back, eyeing the remaining food with regret. “Yeah, but if I want to fit into my dress for my dad’s campaign fund-raiser, I’d best stop.”

Immediately his mind was brought back to the tight red dress that had wrapped around her body so delectably at the ribbon-cutting.

“You fill a dress out just fine.”

“Yeah, that’s the problem.” She sighed a bit self-derisively. “I fill it out.”

“Why is that a problem? Admittedly, I’ve only seen you in one dress, but you looked great.” More than great. She’d been hot. “Ever since then I’ve been considering requesting a change to hospital policy just so I can see you in a dress on a regular basis.”

Snorting softly, she toyed with the napkin in her lap. “You can’t help yourself, can you?”

“Hmm?” he asked innocently, knowing he hadn’t been innocent since his sixteenth birthday when he and seventeen-year-old cheerleader Casey Thompson had made out after a football game.

She folded the napkin and placed it neatly in her lap. “Whenever there’s a woman around you just have to spew out compliments.”

“Is it wrong to tell a woman she looks beautiful with her glasses off so that I can see those amazing eyes?”

Those amazing eyes lowered. “I wear my contacts for sports. I just didn’t change back to my glasses afterward, that’s all. Thank you for the compliment, but you don’t have to say things like that. I don’t expect you to.”

Ty considered all she’d said, trying to decide which subject he wanted to tackle. The fact that she wasn’t used to compliments was the one that bugged him most, but for now he opted to go with one that would hopefully have her relaxing again. He wanted her relaxed, wanted her to enjoy their dinner as much as he was.

“What sport do you play?”

Her relief was palpable and he was glad he’d not pushed. He’d liked the easy camaraderie between them, the easy flow of conversation as they discussed everything from the new hospital wing to the New York Knicks, who, to his surprise, Eleanor loved.

“Tennis and racquetball mostly. I was on the swim team and ran track during my high-school years. I still do both, but only for the exercise.”

He picked up her fork, loaded it with food and held it out to her. “Then I’d say you’re allowed to finish your dinner.”

Eyeing the fork of North Atlantic salmon with longing, she shook her head. “I can’t.”

“You can,” he said temptingly, moving the fork toward her mouth.

“Really, I shouldn’t.” But her eyes said she wanted to.

“You should, darlin’.” He brought the food to her lips and they parted. He barely bit back his groan when her eyes closed and she savored the melt-in-the-mouth entrée.

He convinced her to have dessert under the pretense of them sharing it. He enjoyed immensely having the excuse to feed her bite after bite, watching her reaction as the cheesecake hit her tongue.

Watching Eleanor Aston eat could quickly become an obsession.

“You promised me an explanation about why you wanted me to come to Texas with you,” she reminded him, dabbing her mouth with her napkin.

“That I did.” Somehow in the course of their dinner and the enjoyable company he’d forgotten all about the trip to Texas. That alone was testament to how wrapped up in watching Eleanor, in talking with her, he’d been. “My family is hosting the local rodeo this year. I need a date.”

Her gaze narrowed suspiciously. “You’re never short on dates, Ty. Why would you choose me?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because we’re not dating.”

“One could argue that technically we’re on a date at this very moment.”

She seemed to consider that a moment, then met his gaze again. “I’m not your usual fare.”

“Exactly.”

She frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He laughed at her expression, quite enjoying how her every thought was broadcast so plainly in her eyes. “Quit looking so perturbed, Ellie. I meant it as a compliment.”

If anything, her frown deepened. “Don’t call me that.”

“What? Ellie? It fits.” He spooned another bite of the cheesecake, but she wouldn’t even look at it, just shook her head, practically wincing.

“I don’t want any more and, no, that name doesn’t fit.”

He started to tempt her, knew he could, but realized there was more going on than she was telling him, something profound.

“I’ll make a deal with you,” he offered, watching every emotion flicker across her lovely face.

“What’s that?”

Had her voice broken? Her eyes were sparkling and not from looking at him but as if she was fighting back tears.

Ty reached across the table, took her hand in his and laced their fingers. “I’ll only call you Ellie when you steal my breath with your beauty.”

Not looking at him, she snorted. “That’s a deal I’ll gladly make, because I don’t want to be called that.” She took a deep breath, pulled her hand free of his and slipped on what he supposed was her game face. “Now, tell me more about this trip to Texas.”

Ty wanted to dig, wanted to know what made Eleanor tick, to know what had upset her, but now wasn’t the time for digging for details. At least, not into Eleanor’s life. His was another story altogether as he’d promised her the goods.

Eyeing Eleanor’s quiet expression, he couldn’t resist saying, “For the record, I wouldn’t count on not hearing me call you Ellie again. You’re a very beautiful woman. On the inside and the outside.”

She ignored his implication and his compliment. “So the trip’s for an entire weekend?”

“We’ll fly up on Thursday morning and can safely sneak out on Sunday afternoon under the need to get back to our patients. Should be a breeze, right?”

Four days with Ty Donaldson. Could she survive it? Because the man was a natural-born charmer and she really wasn’t equipped to deal with the likes of him. It would be so easy to believe in his quick lines.

To believe in the way he looked at her.

Because he looked at her as if he found her attractive. If she’d thought she’d imagined it the night of the ribbon-cutting, she’d been wrong. He was looking at her the same way right this minute. As if he found her interesting, desirable, beautiful—inside and out.

When he’d fed her, she’d almost died. No man had ever fed her, ever taken pleasure in doing such a simple act, but Ty had. When she’d opened her eyes after that first bite, she’d seen the pleasure in his eyes. He’d enjoyed feeding her every bit as much as she’d enjoyed him doing so.

Don’t read anything into it. You’ve seen how he’s gone through women at the hospital. You’re just this week’s flavor.

“Where I come from,” Ty continued, “the local rodeo is a very big deal. My brother and I grew up wanting to be rodeo stars, but we’re too tall.”

“Is that like one of those carnival rides where you have to be this tall to ride, only in reverse?” she teased, trying to picture Ty as a young boy.

He grinned. “You’re funny. Actually, most cowboys on the rodeo circuit are under five and a half feet tall.”

Her eyes widened. “That’s pretty short for a man.”

“But just right if you’re going to ride a bronco.”

If he said so. In her mind, she preferred thinking of cowboys as tall, dark, ruggedly handsome. Like Ty, actually. Which set off a whole slew of cowboy fantasies. Not good.

She could see Ty in worn jeans that fit just so, in a Stetson that sat upon his head just so, with no shirt on, of course, because in her mind he was all six-pack-and-muscle bound. And feeding her some light and flaky calorie-free delicacy that only paled in comparison to him.

She picked up her napkin, started to fan her face with it, realized what she was doing and dropped the cloth back into her lap.

“My father said you grew up on a ranch so I imagine you do ride, even if you are too tall to be a rodeo star,” she said, taking a sip of her water in the hope of moistening her dry mouth and cooling her libido, which was in overdrive.

“I was riding a horse before I could walk.” His grin widened, making her wonder if he could somehow read her thoughts and knew exactly the effect he was having on her body.

“Well,” he continued, his eyes twinkling, “not alone, but I’ve seen the pictures of me sitting on a horse in one person or another’s lap. Donaldsons pretty much go from birth to horse.”

“What about cows?”

“Nah, we don’t ride cows until we hit at least elementary-school age.” His lips twisted with amusement. “My nephew’s competing in the sheep-riding competition.”

“Sheep-riding? How old is he?” For the life of her, Eleanor couldn’t picture a wild bucking sheep trying to throw someone off its back. But what did she know about ranch life or rodeos?

“Don’t look so horrified. William is four. Feel sorry for the sheep. That kid is hell on wheels.”

The love in Ty’s words was strong, making Eleanor wonder yet again why he’d stayed away from Texas so long. “Takes after his uncle Ty?”

“Nah, that would make him the black sheep of the family.”

His answer startled Eleanor.

“I can’t imagine any family not being proud of your accomplishments.” Then again, didn’t her own parents look at her as if she was demented for working for a living?

“I should prepare you. My father and I had a disagreement, shall we say, about my career choice and where I chose to work.”

“Because he wanted you to practice in Texas?”

Ty’s face lost its playful edge. “Something like that. Quite frankly, darlin’, the man scares the daylight out of me.”

He said it jokingly, but there was no humor in his voice.

“Because you’re easily scared?” Her fingers toyed with the napkin in her lap, twisting one end back and forth.

“There’s a reason I work with babies.” Although his tone was teasing, something told her there was more to what Ty said than his actual words.

“I’m glad you work with babies, Ty. You’re an excellent doctor and your patients are very blessed to have you overseeing their first few months in this world.”

His smile was genuine and her compliment softened his eyes. “Ditto, Ellie.”

She frowned at his use of the nickname, but his grin held and he shrugged as if to say he couldn’t help himself.

“A deal’s a deal,” he reminded her.

Right. Because he’d looked across the table at her and she’d stolen his breath by her beauty and had felt the need to let her know.

“Tell me about your brother,” she rushed forward, not wanting to let her mind go down the “Ellie” path. They’d been there once too often that evening already.

“Harry is great. The spitting image of my father and the golden boy of Swallow Creek. All his life, he’s excelled at everything he’s done, especially bowing to my father’s whims. On paper, he runs the ranch, but I’ve no doubt my father still pulls the strings.”

His words held no sarcasm, no malice. She could tell that he genuinely loved his brother, yet so easily his words could be taken as sibling rivalry. Or worse.

“He’s older?”

Ty nodded. “By three years.”

She considered her next words carefully. “Must’ve been tough growing up in the shadow of such a successful sibling.”

Ty shrugged. “I never was much for standing in the shadows.”

At the thought of a younger Ty daring twice as much to keep up with his gifted older brother, Eleanor smiled. “I thought that about you.”

The corner of Ty’s mouth lifted. “What about you? Must never have been boring growing up with Senator Cole Aston as a father.”

“No, I can’t say I was ever bored.” Just never quite part of the family. “He is constantly into something.”

“Like donating the money to open the new hospital wing?”

“That’s one of the few things he’s done that makes me very proud to be an Aston.”

“The few?”

She shrugged. “He’s a politician. He does what he needs to do to get votes. My whole life was planned around what would help Daddy most in the polls.”

Ty regarded her for long enough that Eleanor wanted to squirm, but didn’t.

He leaned back in his chair, eyed her curiously with a glimmer of bedevilment dancing in his eyes. “Tell me, Eleanor. Come election day, do you vote for dear old dad?”

Her jaw dropped. Never had anyone asked her that. They just assumed …

“I’d answer that,” she began, keeping her tone even, “but then I’d have to kill you. So I’m just going to plead the Fifth.”

Ty burst out laughing. “Like I said, you’re funny. I like you, Ellie.”

Yeah, she liked him, too.

Except for the nickname, which she could do without, although there was something about the way it rolled off his tongue that was starting to get to her.

She only hoped that later down the road liking Ty didn’t come back to haunt her.