Читать книгу Medical Romance September 2016 Books 1-6 - Tina Beckett - Страница 16

CHAPTER FIVE

“WE ARE GRATEFUL to all of our staff who have agreed to participate in next week’s event.” The hospital CEO’s voice had a soothing quality to it. So much so that it was beginning to lull Maddy to sleep. She jammed her fist beneath her chin and pushed down hard to help chase away the feeling. “The winner of the best-kite award will receive tickets for four to the city’s Space Needle and a voucher to dine in the restaurant.”

That perked her up. Chloe would love going up to the observation platform. Her daughter had always been an adventurer, climbing, running, jumping. So much so that a year ago, she’d somehow found her way to the top of the refrigerator, much to Maddy’s horror. A stern talking-to hadn’t even fazed the little girl. And since the kite festival fell on her own birthday, it would be the perfect way to celebrate.

She chanced a glance at Kaleb, who was sitting two rows to the left of her in the hospital’s large assembly room, which served not only as a staffing area in case of a city-wide emergency, but also a convenient place to hold meetings. Not everyone could attend at once, for obvious reasons, but the informational gatherings were taped so that staff who were on duty would know what was discussed.

Kaleb was looking at Dr. Druthers as if fascinated by every word that came out of the man’s mouth. She wasn’t fooled, though. She’d caught his attention shifting toward her more than once.

He had to regret this whole kite-making fiasco. She hadn’t talked to him since that day in the park almost a week ago, but she had seen him from time to time in the hospital corridors or striding back and forth between their building and the hotel. She’d forced herself to stay busy so she didn’t stare out of her office window at the road below. Still, she’d noticed him walking across the street toward the hospital more than once as his shift was ending. Watching for him had become almost a ritual. One she didn’t like, but couldn’t seem to break.

Before Maddy had time to avert her eyes, his head swung slightly to the right, and he caught her gaze. Again. This time one side of his mouth went up in that crazy sexy smile that made her squirm inside. She didn’t want to react. Tried to school her features into a completely neutral mask. But the corners of her own lips tipped. And not down, either. Nope, they went up as surely as that kite Kaleb had made.

She should be avoiding the man like the plague. And she’d tried to. It was obvious they were going to have to communicate on some level, because this kite was for Chloe. He was designing it, but surely he expected the little girl’s help in decorating it. Her smile widened slightly at that thought. She hoped the man liked froufrou, because her daughter loved ribbons and pastel colors.

But he was going to make it purr. She could not wait to see Chloe’s face when the little girl heard it. Her eyes stung, blurring her vision a little bit. And she couldn’t stop herself from mouthing “Thank you” to the man who was going to make her daughter a very happy girl. On Maddy’s birthday, no less.

His smile faded, his response a curt nod.

Maddy’s eyes widened. What was that all about?

Dr. Druthers started getting into the particulars about how the yearly festival at Fountain Park was going to benefit the hospital. The children’s cancer wing would be receiving the bulk of the incoming donations. The man motioned to someone and the lights went dim. On the screen toward the front of the room, images of children appeared one by one. Children who’d been through the cancer ward. The kids were in various stages of disease. Some had their hair. Some didn’t. Some were clutching stuffed animals or hugging Embry the Clown, the official mascot of the wing. Her eyes sought out Kaleb again, only he was no longer looking at her. Nor was his attention focused on the presentation. He was staring down at the floor instead.

Weird. She could understand doing that when the speech was going on. It had been rather dry. But to not look at the difference the festival was going to make in the lives of some very special children? That seemed rather callous.

Maybe he was just tired. Or maybe the sight of the kids in their “battle gear”—consisting of bald heads and IV ports—made him uncomfortable. She knew it did her. But she liked to put faces to the cancer fight. It made working with Kaleb worth all of the discomfort. Surely they could survive each other’s company for another week until this was all over with? Especially for a cause like this one.

A few minutes later, the slide show was over, and the lights came back up. But when she looked to see if Kaleb was still gazing at his shoes, the concierge doctor was nowhere to be seen. He’d evidently slipped out sometime between the discussion of childhood brain tumors and leukemia. Oh, well, it didn’t matter. She’d been inspired, even if Kaleb hadn’t. If he couldn’t bring himself to do his damnedest for the kids on that screen, then Maddy would have to have enough enthusiasm for the both of them.

When the meeting was over, she was one of the first people out of the room. She rounded the corner to find Kaleb standing over by the nurses’ desk, making small talk with a blonde bombshell. So that was why he’d left. He probably had a date with her and came out to close the deal. Only he wasn’t wearing his normal flirtatious grin. He’d sent Maddy more meaningful glances than he was giving that woman. Then the nurse came around the desk and caught him up in a hug.

Shock rolled through her system. Followed by disbelief.

Well, great. She wasn’t going to stand here and watch him pick up someone to pass the night with. Although the fact that he could kiss her as he had less than a week ago and then jump into the arms of another woman was a kick to her ego. He’d said there would be no more kissing between them, and he certainly seemed anxious to stick to his side of that bargain.

Well, fine.

She forced herself to walk past the desk, unable to watch them a second longer. When she got to the elevator, though, he was right behind her. She ignored him, stepping into the car with ten other passengers—all leaving the meeting. When he moved to stand next to her, she made it a point to stare at the numbers overhead. If she could just get through three more floors, she would get off and Kaleb would continue on his way down. And she wouldn’t have to see that damned hug replaying through her skull time and time again.

Her floor came and off she got. She pulled in a deep breath and was just getting ready to let it hiss back through her teeth when something touched her arm.

“Can I talk to you for a minute?”

Was he kidding? Had the blonde turned him down or something? Well, if he expected her to step into the woman’s shoes, he was going to be sorely disappointed. “Of course. About what?”

“I know this competition thing could get awkward, and I thought we should clear the air.”

Oh...he was not! “Competition? I’m not competing with anyone.”

“Yes, you are. The kite festival?”

It took her a second to change tracks. “Oh. The kite festival. Of course.”

“What did you think I was talking about?”

Wow, she really was an idiot. And a pitiful one at that.

“It’s not important.”

“I would like to do good by Chloe for that contest—make the best kite we can.” He paused. “Unless you think the Space Needle isn’t something she would be interested in.”

Her icy heart thawed. “It would be the highlight of her year. Do you really think you can pull off winning?”

“No.”

The wind went right out of her sails. “Oh, of course, I don’t expect you to—”

His hand came out as if he was going to brush a strand of hair out of her face, but he put it back down. “I don’t want to win it on my own. I’ve been thinking. I really want Chloe to feel she’s had a part in making the kite. It would make me feel...I would like her to feel included. Are you okay with that?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well, after that business at the park, I wondered if...” He paused again. “If you’d tell me to forget the whole thing.”

If she were smart, she might do exactly that, but Chloe was looking forward to working with Kaleb on it. “It doesn’t matter what I want or don’t want. Chloe would be devastated if I tried to keep her from that kite. I told her about it purring, and she can’t wait to hear it for herself. And to see it fly. So, yes, I’m happy to keep working together, until the festival is done. Then we can go our separate ways.”

“I’ll try not to make it any more uncomfortable than it has to be.”

“I’ve been uncomfortable before and survived with barely a nick.”

Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Matthew had given her more than one nick. Some worse than others. No, this would be nothing compared to that. And if she could make it through the stuff in her past, she could make it through anything.

Kaleb studied her for a moment or two. “I think you have. Survived, that is.”

“We all have, or we wouldn’t be here.” She shook her head. “What do you want Chloe and me to do?”

“I want to know what her favorite colors are. And to know if we’re going for a realistic representation of a cat or an abstract fun version. Can you ask your daughter which she’d prefer?”

“I can already tell you that. She adores Jetta. She would probably love it if the kite could look very similar to him. Right down to his different-colored eyes.”

“I didn’t notice the cat having two different eyes.”

“Really? Most people see it right away. He has one bright green and one amber.”

“My mind wasn’t exactly on your cat’s eyes.”

That sardonic sense of humor was back in full force.

Well, she wasn’t going to touch that last comment. Not if she knew what was good for her. Although that was debatable at the moment. “Well, they’re one of his best features.”

“I thought his best feature was his purr. It was loud. Really loud.”

“Jetta does have quite a motor on him. Is that why you decided to make the kite version of him purr?”

“It seemed fitting. Although if Chloe had decided on a unicorn cat, I was going to have a little trouble figuring out that aspect of it.”

“I’ll ask her, just to make sure, but I’m pretty sure she would love having Jetta immortalized in kite form. Without the horn.”

“You got it.” He pushed the button to get back into the elevator. It was then that she noticed her department was bustling just as much as it normally was with nurses running here and there as they went about their tasks. It was strange that she hadn’t been aware of any of that until just now. No, she’d only had eyes for the man with the kite. And it looked as if he was aiming to win.

He already had, as far as she was concerned. That worried her. But she could think about that later.

“Thank you again, Kaleb, for doing this for her.”

“My pleasure.” This time when his hand came out, he didn’t stop midmotion. Instead, he pressed his fingers to hers for several seconds until the elevator door dinged its arrival. Only then did he move away. But the feel of his skin against hers followed her long after the doors had closed behind him.

* * *

Kaleb woke with a start. Staring up at the dark ceiling, he tried to figure out where he was. His room.

He untangled himself from the sheets and hung his legs over the side of the bed, propping himself up with his hands. He was drenched in sweat.

Again.

Dammit.

He dragged shaky fingers through his hair, trying to slow his breathing.

Those dreams were now following him from sleep to sleep. He shifted his head from one side to the other, letting the crack of his cervical vertebrae anchor him back to reality.

His daughter was not trapped in a bottomless well. Nor had he been trying everything in his power to reach her: ropes, life preservers, scaling the walls with his bare hands. He lifted his fingers to look at them. No bloody stumps.

“It was a dream.”

A never-ending nightmare was more like it.

Because the reality was that Grace had never been trapped in a well. Instead the vision always morphed to something closer to reality. His daughter, splayed on a hospital bed, her face paler than pale. Only in his dream, he reached for her chart to see what treatment her doctors recommended only to find the first page stamped with the words Too Late. As was the next. Page after page held the same terrible phrase. He flipped faster and faster, looking for some sign of hope. There had to be something. Something the doctors—something that he—could do. Panic engulfed him, along with a horrible premonition. He slowly turned back toward the bed.

This was where he’d woken up each night. With the horror that it was no longer Grace’s lifeless form lying on that bed, but Chloe’s. And on the other side of her was Maddy. And in her face an accusation he’d lobbed at himself.

Too Late.

Hell! He climbed out of bed and pulled on a pair of sweatpants. Maybe if he burned some calories, he’d feel better. But thirty minutes in his weight room only left him tired and sweaty. It did nothing to erase what he’d seen in his dream.

Grace had been dead for five years. He hadn’t had nightmares about her in ages. Was it because of Chloe and Maddy? Were they dredging up old regrets and flaying them open all over again?

Chloe was a normal healthy girl. She and Grace had nothing in common. Not their age, not their appearance.

Going into his drawing room, he sat at the drafting table to look at the designs for the kite. It was almost done. Almost ready for Chloe and Maddy to come over and...

Was that what it was? He was worried about them coming into his space and upsetting his equilibrium?

It was much more likely that Maddy would do that than Chloe. She’d already upset him in more ways than one.

Like that kiss? The one he couldn’t seem to forget?

Why couldn’t he dream about that? About laying her softly down on his bed and...

Dammit. This was no better than his nightmares. Yes, actually it was. Because at least this was something he could comprehend. The man-wants-woman thing was much easier to understand and accept.

All of a sudden, being a winner didn’t sound like such a great idea.

He pushed the kite a little to the left on the table. Maybe he should purposely sabotage the design and lose. Handing Maddy a promise that they could win the prize wasn’t one of his brighter decisions. Because if they won, Kaleb would not get to walk away as he’d told himself a few minutes ago. Winning had consequences. Like the trip up the Space Needle. He could tell Maddy to give his ticket to someone else. But then he’d have to explain why he didn’t want to go. A talk he didn’t want to have. Not with her. Not with anyone on the committee who might also wonder.

And Roxy, Maddy’s sister, who’d asked him to figure out if she could add fur to a kite and still get lift off, or if it would be too heavy to move.

Kind of like Kaleb’s life nowadays.

He sighed and pushed back from the table.

Maybe he was going about this all wrong. Maybe he shouldn’t be trying to avoid the inevitable. He was attracted to Maddy, and he was pretty sure from that kiss that the attraction was mutual. If he couldn’t get her out of his head one way, maybe he should go at it from a completely different angle. How about if he approached it as he did any other woman? Spend a quick night together at his place. Maybe then he could walk away from that night the way he always did. No strings. No promises. Just a single night of pleasure.

His gut churned at the thought. Maddy wasn’t like all those other women. And for years, he’d avoided being with women who had children.

Could it be that that tactic had backfired, though? Had made him dig a rut that just got deeper and deeper with each new person?

He had no idea. But maybe it was time to test that theory. And working together with Maddy gave him the perfect opportunity to do just that: see if he could get past this particular roadblock. And he could think of no person he’d rather experiment with than her.

Kaleb yawned, the muscles in his body finally relaxing, probably wondering what had taken him so long to figure this whole thing out.

Well, tough luck, buddy. You wanted to wake me up, well, now you can just stay awake. Because we have a kite-making contest to enter. And to win.

* * *

Chloe pasted the last of the glittery claw stickers onto the body of the kite. Maddy had to admit her sister had done a great job painting the kite, solid black with various areas of shadow and light. Kaleb had warned them against adding too many layers of color to the kite, saying it would make it too heavy. She was amazed. He’d calculated the weight down to the gram, had even weighed the faux claws and the two custom eye stickers—one green and one amber—that Roxy had designed herself. They’d made the smaller demo model that would hang over their table look identical. Only it wouldn’t need to fly.

This one did.

They wouldn’t get a chance to test it, as they had its prototype. She would have to trust that Kaleb had got it right. Besides, if they tried and it crashed and burned as the last one had, they wouldn’t have time to start over.

That disastrous flight hadn’t been Kaleb’s fault. It had been hers for letting go of the string.

But the result of her goof up? Well, that had been pretty spectacular. She could only thank her lucky stars that a police officer had retrieved the string and set her and Kaleb back on their feet.

But watching him as he painstakingly checked the new kite after each addition, she had to admit he was pretty damned hot. And not just in the looks department. He’d been kind to Chloe, even as he looked uncomfortable whenever he had to work directly with her.

Some men just didn’t like children.

But he’d been married. So what had happened between him and his wife? Had they disagreed over whether or not to have kids?

Or maybe they’d had some and Kaleb, for whatever reason, hadn’t got visitation rights. He’d never mentioned having children, though.

Kaleb picked up a foam roller and went over each of the claw stickers one by one, making sure they were tightly adhered to the body of the kite.

“Did you really make the last one purr?” Roxy asked.

He sent her a quick grin. “I know right where the purr buttons are, so yes.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her sister’s eyebrows shoot up. Roxy jabbed a thumb toward Chloe. “Little pitchers, big ears.”

“I’m talking about the kite, Roxy. Those cutouts you grumbled about earlier? They’ll vibrate in the wind and make a kind of purring sound.”

When she looked skeptical, Maddy pointed out one of the gill-like slits that lined the cat’s torso. “It works. I heard it when we flew the unpainted version.”

Kaleb nodded. “It’s one of the reasons the paint had to be lighter in those areas. The plastic has to be able to flutter in order to make the sound.”

“Well, I’ll be.” Her sister looked at the kite again.

Chloe’s feet got dangerously close to the edge of the chair as she tried to see what they were talking about. Kaleb scooped her up, one arm under the backs of her legs, making her squeal with laughter before he turned her so she had a clear view of Jetta’s twin. “Pretty, pretty kitty!” she declared.

Maybe the purring was overkill. Chloe seemed more taken with the way the kite looked than with its functionality. Maybe if it survived its maiden flight, Maddy could buy it off Kaleb and put it on her daughter’s wall. A sweet memory of a fun event.

These were the kinds of memories normal fathers made with their children.

Maddy gritted her teeth. Kaleb was not Chloe’s father, and he never would be. She needed to get that notion out of her head immediately. Not that it had ever been there in the first place, but she needed to be careful. Chloe had taken a liking to this man. So had Roxy.

So had she. It was time to dial back on the Dr. McBride fan club. She held out her arms for her daughter, only to have Chloe nestle closer to Kaleb’s chest, wrapping her tiny arms around his neck.

Maybe he sensed her unease, because he knelt on the floor next to the table. “What do you say we go to work on Roxy’s kite next? We still have some more fur to glue to it.”

This time her daughter willingly let go of him. “Can I help glue?”

Roxy stepped forward and took Chloe by the hand. “Oh, most definitely. We’re about to make ourselves a flying unicorn. How does that sound?”

“Not too much glue,” Kaleb warned. But when he acted as if he was going to follow them, Maddy touched his arm.

“Hey. Can I talk to you for a minute?”

He tucked his fingers into the pockets of his jeans, hooking his thumbs over the tops of them. “Sure. What’s up?”

Now that she had made her mind up to say something, she wondered if she was doing the right thing. She glanced over to where her daughter and Roxy were busy working. “Chloe is young...and...” Taking a deep breath, she tossed the rest of the sentence out before she could back out. “She seems to be developing a tiny bit of a crush on you. If you could keep that in mind when you’re around her, I would appreciate it.”

His eyes narrowed slightly. “As in you want me to watch my p’s and q’s.”

“Or maybe maintain a little distance between you and her.”

“Between me and her.” His head tilted. “And what about you? Should I keep my distance there as well?”

Maddy’s mouth watered. That hadn’t been exactly what she’d been trying to say. “I’m a big girl. I think I can handle myself.”

“Can you?”

Okay, the man was playing word games, and she had no idea what he meant by that. But if he wanted to lob a few serves her way, she could match him stroke for stroke. “You can bet on it.”

“I might like to take you up on that wager.” Rubbing his chin with his thumb, he paused, something dark flashing in his eyes. But before she could look closer, it winked back out.

“Don’t worry, Maddy. I’ll keep my distance from your daughter.” He took a step closer, reaching out to take a strand of her hair and sliding it over her temple. “But I have no intention of keeping my distance from you.”