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She laughed, a short, nervous burst of air.
“Don’t feel like you have to make up compliments so I’ll feel better,” Kate said teasingly, throwing his earlier words back at him. “I’m well aware of how I look in this outfit.”
“You look beautiful.” He leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. The gleam in his eyes sent blood flowing through her veins like warm honey. “Casual. Relaxed. Approachable.”
Kate didn’t know whether to be insulted or amused. “Are you saying I usually look uptight and unapproachable?”
“Not all the time,” he said, with a lopsided smile.
Kate firmly ignored the unsettling flutter in her mid-section.
“Your daughter seems like a remarkably well-adjusted little girl,” she said, with a studied nonchalance.
Joel didn’t smile as she expected.
“Her mother’s death hit her hard. And the move here, well, I’m not sure it was the best thing for Chloe.” His expression grew somber. “She had a lot of good friends back home. Kids she’d known since kindergarten.”
“But surely Chloe has made some new friends by now?”
Joel shook his head. “If she has, I’ve never seen them. I’ve noticed girls her age here seem to be much more into adult kinds of stuff than the ones in Montana. Perhaps that’s part of the problem.”
“You think so?” Kate thought of her patients. Coming from Los Angeles, the children here seemed like such innocents.
“I’ll give you an example. A couple of days ago, Chloe asked me for money to buy makeup.” The look of bewilderment on Joel’s face would have been funny at any other time. “She’s nine years old. Who wears makeup at that age?”
“That is really young,” Kate agreed. “How did she take it when you said no?”
“She just looked at me. There was this expression on her face that I can’t even describe.”
“Anger? Resentment?”
“Neither. Crushed would be more accurate. It would have been easier if she’d been angry.”
“Did you ask her why she thought she needed makeup?”
It suddenly hit Kate that they were talking about Chloe the way parents would discuss their child. It seemed so right and, at the same time, so very wrong.
“I didn’t think to ask,” Joel admitted. “I see now where that would have been a good thing to do.”
He looked at her and she felt the impact of his regard all the way down to her feet.
Time to change the subject. “By the way, did Chloe ever get a chance to talk to her friend Savannah?”
“Why don’t you ask her?”
“Ask me what?” Chloe asked, sliding into the booth when Kate rose to let her in.
“Did you speak with your friend in Montana yet?” Kate asked.
Chloe smiled broadly, showing her prominent canine teeth. “She was so excited to hear my voice she almost peed her pants.”
“Chloe,” Joel chided.
“That’s what she told me, Daddy.”
A half smile tugged at his lips.
Kate leaned forward, resting her arms on the table. “What else did she have to say?”
Chloe had just finished going through the entire conversation sentence by sentence when a red-haired girl with a Perfect Pizza T-shirt and an anxious expression stopped at the table.
“Did you order a large ham and pineapple with cream cheese?” the restaurant employee asked.
Kate smiled at the girl. “I did.”
“There was a problem.” The teen’s cheeks turned as red as her hair. “But the new pizza is in the oven now. It will be ready in about ten minutes. I’m sorry for the delay.”
“No worries,” Kate said, feeling guilty she wasn’t more distressed. “Just bring it out when it’s ready. And if you could put it in a to-go box that would be wonderful.”
“Guess you’re stuck with us a little while longer,” Joel said, not looking sorry at all.
Kate wasn’t sorry either. Even though she was still convinced keeping her distance would be best for all concerned, she was enjoying her time with Joel and Chloe. The conversation moved to braces and all things orthodontic. When her stomach growled—even more loudly—Kate finally gave in and accepted a piece of their hamburger pizza.
She’d finished her first piece and had been laughing about something Chloe said when she heard her name being called from across the room.
Sarabeth Brown, one of Kate’s patients, waved wildly.
Kate swallowed a groan and waved back. That was one thing she’d quickly discovered after moving to Jackson Hole. Her pediatric patients—and their parents—were everywhere. Restaurants. Grocery stores. Gas stations. It was one reason she always liked to look her best when she went out.
Not today, she thought with a rueful smile. Today she looked … approachable.
As Sarabeth and her mother crossed the dining room, Kate hurriedly wiped her lips with a paper napkin.
“We don’t want to interrupt your meal.” Mrs. Brown offered an apologetic smile. “Sarabeth saw you and insisted on coming over to say hello.”
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