- -
- 100%
- +
Which made no sense.
Likely the strain of caring for Dr T, of seeing his friend suffer, was getting to him and explained his weakness with Blair.
“I need to get Addy.” She turned, picked up her purse from where she’d set the leather bag after they’d arrived, then moved to where Addy had left her satchel of goodies to keep her entertained.
“I’ll walk you to your car.” He should just let her go. Should take a leaf from her book and pretend nothing had happened. Surely that would be for the best?
So, why couldn’t he? Why did he want to kiss her until she admitted that she’d been as affected as he had?
Blair slid the pink hand-held video game player into Addy’s bag. “There’s no need.”
“I’ll walk you to your car,” he repeated, irritated that she insisted upon pushing him away at every turn. “This neighborhood isn’t the best at night.”
This time Blair nodded without looking at him.
When she said it was time to go, Addy proudly pointed to the box filled with stuffed envelopes.
“See what I did, Mommy? Miss Stephanie says I’m a great ’lope stuffer and she hopes I’ll come back.” Addy looked at Stephanie for reassurance and the director nodded. “Can I, Mommy?”
“We’ll see.”
Oz wondered if he was the only one who noticed the break in Blair’s voice, the tremble of her hand, the way she looked anywhere in the room but at him.
“Dr Oz said I was a good helper, too, didn’t you, Dr Oz?” Addy bestowed him with the smile of an angel.
“I did, Pipsqueak.” Giving her an indulgent look, Oz touched Addy’s curly blond ponytail, letting a ringlet wrap around his finger.
Tight-lipped, Blair reached for Addy’s hand, effectively moving the girl away from him. He let her, hating how his rib cage crushed his internal organs to the point he could barely breathe.
Blair had told him to stay away from her and Addy.
Hell, no! The thought rushed through his heart. But if that was what Blair wanted, he’d honor her wishes. At least as much as he could, given their circumstances.
“Thanks for letting her help.” Blair hugged Stephanie. She smiled down at her daughter, who’d taken her Hello Kitty bag and slung it over her tiny shoulders. “Let’s go check on Aunt Reesee to see if she got lots of studying done.”
“Aunt Reesee?” Oz followed them out of the building. Dr T had mentioned Blair’s younger sister lived with her and Addy. Despite the twice-a-year trips Oz made to the Gulf, he knew very little about Blair outside of what Dr T had volunteered. He’d purposely never asked questions.
“My nineteen-year-old sister.” Blair kept her gaze locked on Addy, kept her tone even, probably for her daughter’s sake, because he suspected she’d like to lash out at him. “She’s in school at University of Alabama in Birmingham, but is taking several of her general study classes online to cut down on commuting and to help with Addy.”
“Aunt Reesee is cool,” Addy piped up, bouncing along beside them. “She lets me watch SpongeBob and drink soda pop after dark.”
Blair’s brow lifted. “Oh, really?”
Realizing her mistake, Addy faked a yawn and skipped ahead to Blair’s mid-size four-door sedan. When Blair punched the remote entry, unlocking the door, Addy climbed in and began buckling herself into a child safety seat.
“Blair, about earlier,” he began, speaking quietly in deference to the little girl who’d taken her video game out of her bag and chatted to her virtual pet.
Blair stepped back, not looking at him. “It was no big deal. Forget it happened.”
Despite having just told himself the same thing, he didn’t like Blair’s quick denial. She was treating him as if he were a lecherous creep and her disdain annoyed him.
“Wasn’t it?” he challenged.
Her teeth sank into her lower lip. “We both know you’re an incurable flirt. What happened didn’t mean a thing. Like I said, no big deal.” She glanced toward where Addy played her game. “I need to go.”
An incurable flirt? Blair’s words stung. She made it sound as if he were diseased and condemned. Maybe he was. After all, wasn’t that exactly how his mother had thought of his father? Like father, like son. Wasn’t that what she always said?
“Fine,” he bit out, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Not if I see you first,” she muttered under her breath.
She moved to Addy and checked to make sure the seat’s safety catches were properly latched.
“Bye, Dr Oz.” Addy waved, fighting back a yawn.
Oz’s diseased and condemned heart squeezed. “Bye, Pipsqueak.”
Blair closed the door, climbed into her car and drove away.
He raked his fingers through his hair, watching the taillights disappear into the night.
If he lived to a hundred, he wouldn’t forget the feel of Blair’s warm skin beneath his fingers, wouldn’t forget the softness, the fullness, the way she’d stared into his eyes while he’d cupped her face.
Deep down he’d always wondered what touching Blair would feel like.
Now he knew and wished like hell he didn’t.
Chapter Three
“TELL me again that I’m imagining something between you and Dr Manning,” Kanesha insisted the next morning. “Because I was at lunch yesterday and saw how you two looked at each other. The way you two always look at each other.”
“You’re imagining that there’s something between Dr Manning and me.” Blair didn’t glance up at the cardiac unit’s nursing director. Why should she when Kanesha might see guilt in her eyes?
“Yes, I am.” Kanesha fanned her face. “And my thoughts are hot, hot, hot. You go, girl.”
“There’s nothing between us except a mutual love for Dr Talbot.” Her friend was going to think what she wanted, regardless of anything Blair said. There wasn’t anything between her and Oz. An almost kiss from the night before most certainly didn’t count.
Kenesha glanced down the hallway. “Speaking of hot.”
Don’t look up. Don’t look up.
Blair looked up.
And clashed gazes with Oz.
Her heart pounded against her rib cage. Why was he looking at her like that? That almost kiss hadn’t meant anything.
“Uh-huh. It’s all in my imagination,” Kanesha snorted. “Nothing at all going on between the two of you. That’s why he’s looking at you like you’re the sweetest lollipop he’s ever seen and he wants to see how many licks it takes to get to the center of Blair Pendergrass.”
“Shh.” Cheeks blazing at the images Kanesha’s words elicited, Blair frowned at the nursing director. It wasn’t as if she needed her friend putting ideas in her head. Hadn’t her own dreams betrayed her the night before? Filling her sleep with images of Oz? Of his magical fingers? Of that almost kiss? Thank God Stephanie had interrupted. Too bad her alarm clock hadn’t followed suit. “He’ll hear you.”
“Hear what?” Oz asked, stepping up to the nurses’ station, his gaze still locked onto Blair.
Kanesha’s dark eyes glittered. “That Blair is hoping you’ll change your mind about being in the auction so she can bid on you.”
Along with her stomach, Blair’s jaw dropped. “I didn’t say that.”
“Didn’t have to.” Snickering, Kanesha walked off while mumbling something about checking the patient schedule and leaving them alone.
Why was everyone purposely leaving them alone? She didn’t want to be alone with Oz.
“I didn’t say that,” she repeated, fighting to catch her breath. Did she sound like a broken record? No matter. “I did not say I wanted to bid on you.”
“I didn’t think you did.” Oz gave her a thoughtful look. “You’re still short on bachelors?”
“Nothing’s changed since last night,” she snapped, then realized she was being rude. Regardless of what had happened, regardless of the personal distance she wanted between them, they worked together.
Forcing herself to relax, she started over. “Latham Duke’s son agreed to the auction. We need one more to even out the numbers between bachelors and bachelorettes,” she said in an even tone, glad to focus on something other than the man standing so close to her.
“I’m the prime candidate?” Oz stepped closer to her, so close she could feel his body heat, was swamped with the fresh scent of his soap and spicy aftershave.
She gulped. “I didn’t say that.”
His gaze bored into her. “But initially, you signed me up to do the auction. If I had been agreeable you wouldn’t be short a bachelor?”
“True, but…” She took a step back, surprised to realize she didn’t want him in the auction, didn’t want to watch women haggling over him. When had that happened? She’d been the one to initially put his name on the list and hadn’t thought twice about doing so.
“I’ll think about it.”
“You will?” Blair blinked in surprise. He’d been so adamant about not being auctioned off, had seemed upset that she’d added him onto the list. What had changed his mind? Surely he hadn’t believed Kanesha? Even if he had, so what? It wasn’t as if Oz wanted her to bid on his date.
Did he?
“Why not?” He shrugged. “It’s for Dr T. Like I said, I’ll think about it.”
Relief filled her. His reconsidering had nothing to do with the night before, had only to do with his love for Dr Talbot. “How is he this morning? I called, but Stephanie said the physical therapist came early to work with him.”
“Grouchy—the therapist came early.”
Blair smiled. That was her Dr T. “Did he sleep okay?”
“Like a baby.” Oz leaned against the nurses’ station desk. “He only woke once during the night.”
“Thank goodness.”
Silence loomed between them for several torturous seconds.
“Mr Duke has an appointment this morning, doesn’t he?”
Grateful for the subject change, Blair nodded. “I put him in room one. He plans to proceed with the mitral valve repair.”
“Good,” Oz said. “We’ll get him on the schedule. What else do we have this morning?”
“Several consults and follow-up appointments. The lady Dr Majors spoke with you about yesterday is also here. He asked if you’d call him to let him know how you plan to proceed with Georgia Donelson’s care. He had a few questions about his being auctioned off, too.” Blair drew her brows into a vee. “He did really say yes, right?”
Oz laughed. “Why? Did you think I coerced him into volunteering?”
“He just sounded a little flustered when he asked me about the auction. I wondered why he’d agreed.” Blair picked up her stethoscope from the nurses’ desk and followed Oz toward the patient rooms. “It’s no secret that he’s involved with the nurse practitioner from his office.”
“When I mentioned you needed more bachelors for the auction, Will volunteered. Maybe he just wants to help Dr T. Or maybe he’s hoping Leslie will bid on him.” Oz turned, gave Blair an intense look. “Maybe that’s why I’m thinking about agreeing, too.”
Blair’s heart skipped a beat. “So Will’s girlfriend can bid on you?”
“So you can bid on me.” Oz’s eyes twinkled with mischief. “You would bid on me if I volunteered, right?”
“I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.”
Oz watched Blair review what Mr Duke would need for his pre-surgical workup. She moved in precise, skilled movements, just as she always did. But she was distracted, aware of him watching her.
Why had he said he’d think about agreeing to the auction? That he wanted Blair to bid on him?
Hadn’t he decided the night before that the best thing to do was to forget about that massage?
If only he could.
Except for following Kanesha’s joke, Blair had purposely kept her gaze averted from Oz’s, sending a strong message. She really planned to pretend nothing had happened between them. Damn it. Why wasn’t he grateful that she wasn’t demanding more of him? That she wasn’t asking what right he’d had to touch her?
In his dreams last night he’d done much more. He’d made love to Blair, over and over, until their bodies had been slick with sweat and he could no longer tell where he ended and she began.
He bit back a groan.
After Blair finished going over needed pre-surgical tests, Mr Duke turned to her. “My son is a little nervous about the auction. He asked me to find out if his date plans were okay or if he needed to come up with something more elaborate.”
“His date package sounds fine to me.” Blair stepped back so Oz could examine him. “Just so long as he’s a skilled pilot.”
“He is,” Mr Duke assured in the proud tone he used when discussing his son. “He’s been flying since he was a small boy. The Cessna is mine, but he takes her up more than I do these days.”
“You should make time in the future.” Oz placed the stethoscope diaphragm against Mr Duke’s hairy chest. “Enjoy life more rather than spending all your time at the bank.”
“From your mouth to God’s ears.” The man gave a self-derisive smile. “Actually, my wife is pushing me to retire so I can do just that.”
“Good for her,” Oz praised and meant it. Life was short. Each moment should be lived to the fullest. Something else he’d figured out since Dr T had gotten so ill.
His gaze went to Blair. She bit her lower lip, staring at him with a confused look.
Life was short. Too short.
More than anything, in that moment Oz wanted to touch her face, to feel her heartbeat next to his. He very quickly denied the unfamiliar emotion and buried it deep.
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