Chapter Fourteen
There was a mixture of relief and apprehension filling Roxie as she walked from the interview with the emergency department at the same hospital Kian worked at. She’d applied at three other places, and none were hiring, telling her to come back in six weeks. She didn’t have six weeks to find work. She had to do it yesterday. She had a little girl to take care of, and no matter what her sister’s will had said, she wasn’t planning on sharing her with Kian.
He was a doctor, for goodness’ sake, and busy all the time. She would calmly talk to him about Lily being raised by an aunt who adored her, or a nanny who didn’t have anything invested in her at all. Roxie would find a new job where she’d take as many night shifts as possible so she could be with Lily during the day.
Kian, on the other hand, worked a massive number of hours. If the man wouldn’t be reasonable, then maybe a judge would see it in Lily’s best interest to be with family versus nannies. If Roxie truly thought about it, she knew she had no rights, but she couldn’t think that way. It scared her too much.
Luckily, Roxie had gotten Eden to babysit for her while she’d done this job interview, so she hadn’t had to try to juggle her cranky niece while doing it. She wanted to seem more than capable of getting the job. She knew not working would look really bad for her if this did end up going to court. She was desperately hoping to avoid that.
Her entire life, Roxie had always been that girl to look on the positive side of things. She’d correct people when they only saw the bad in any situation, and now here she was fighting to find the positive. She vowed she wasn’t going to do that anymore. She would have a job and a bright future ahead of her. She wasn’t even going to think about the road bump in the way named Kian Forbes. Nope. He was just a blip on her radar. That was all. Nothing more and nothing less.
Roxie was on her way down the hallway when she stopped. Ahead of her, in his white coat that showed his shoulders to perfection, was Kian, walking quickly before he slipped into a room. Though she’d only seen him from the back, she would know that confident gait of his anywhere. He walked how he talked and how he faced life—with determination, as if there was nothing at all in his way. To be honest, it was slightly intimidating.
The two of them were scheduled to meet at the café in two hours, and what Roxie should do was quietly slip from the hospital and prepare herself for that meeting. She’d stayed up half the night making a case to present to him on why Lily was better off with her full-time and him part-time. She was quite proud of it.
But almost as if her legs were working outside of her control, she found herself moving down the hallway in the direction of the room Kian had just slipped into. It was so wrong for her to be following him, but even knowing this, she couldn’t quite get herself to stop her forward motion.
If he caught her, he’d think she was spying. What would that say to him about her? Certainly not that she could be a responsible parent to his daughter. That thought made her feet pause. It wasn’t something she was allowing herself to think of right now. She didn’t like thinking of Kian as a father, especially to Lily. But Lily was indeed Kian and Pamela’s child. They had shared a one-night stand, and Lily was the result. Those thoughts hurt her in so many ways, she wasn’t sure she would ever be able to heal from it. The pain it caused was devastating.
But she had no other choice but to move forward. She couldn’t hate him for having sex with another woman when they were broken up, and she couldn’t hate her sister for sleeping with him, because her sister had hated herself enough as it was. She certainly couldn’t hate her niece, who was the only light out of all this. That left her with no one to hate but herself, and she wasn’t going to do that, either.
Roxie knew she should turn around and leave the way she’d come into the hospital, but even as she had that thought, she found herself moving forward again as she heard the sound of Kian’s rich laughter travel down the hallway. Her steps quickened, as she wanted to see what was amusing him.
It truly was none of her business, but she couldn’t seem to convince herself of that. She was now too curious to turn away. She’d just take a quick peek and then be on her way, and he would never even know she was there. Mission accomplished.
The closer she got to the door he’d gone in, the more Roxie felt like some damn teenage stalker about to be busted by the mall police. She glanced guiltily around her as she looked to see if anyone was paying her the least bit of attention. Would the doctor who’d just interviewed her take away the potential job offer if he could see her now? Probably. She certainly would hesitate to hire a nurse who was prone to stalking doctors. Even with these chastisements running through her head, she still moved forward until she was right at the door Kian had walked through.
His rich voice sounded sweet as he spoke to the obviously elderly woman on the other side. The woman’s replies came out childishly in her sweet, high voice. Kian laughed as she told him not to suck all her blood like a vampire. Roxie felt her lips turning up as she decided to just peek inside. She wanted to see what the woman looked like now that she had an image in her head.
Roxie was a nurse, and she’d seen it all in her years of medical service. She liked to try to imagine what her patients would look like just from their charts or the sound of their voices. She rarely ever got it right. Once in a while, though, she was 100 percent correct.
She imagined this woman as a sweet, petite, white-haired granny with glasses. Her voice was just too sweet to be anything other than that. She probably had a dozen grandbabies and two dozen great-grandkids. Roxie didn’t even want to think about the fact that she’d be lucky to have her own child, let alone grandchildren. That was a thought to ponder on another day.
Finally, she peeked into the room and then had to cover her mouth before she let out a surprised gasp. The woman was absolutely nothing like she’d imagined. She was pretty petite, that much was clear, but she wore shoulder-length purple hair and had bright-pink lipstick on her lips, and blue eyelids she was batting flirtatiously at Kian.
He was sitting next to her as he held her hand and laughed at another joke. He seemed besotted with the woman, who was old enough to be his grandmother, and the woman was eating up every single moment of it.
“I’ve told you I used to dance over at the corner of Pearl and Seventieth Street, right?” the woman said in an attempt at a raspy voice, but she went too low and caused herself to cough. Kian turned her slightly and patted her back.
“Yes, Millie, you have, and I wish I would have seen you,” he said. “But you have to slow down a little bit,” he warned.
“Are you trying to tell me I’m old?” she asked, her lips forming into a pout.
“Not at all,” he insisted as he let go of her hand and held her chart, glancing at the numbers. “But you had a close call. It’s okay to listen to our bodies and slow down. I don’t want to see you in my ER again unless it’s to stop and say hello.” His voice was warm and firm at the same time. He commanded respect because he gave it. Roxie hated that she felt her guard slipping as she stood there gawking at the two of them.
“I will most definitely stop in for a visit. If you do a good job and get me out of here quick enough, I might even bring you a coffee,” she said, her practiced pout back in place.
Kian chuckled. “I wouldn’t turn down coffee at any hour of the day. I swear the stuff they serve here is truly just car wax with a little bit of flavor,” he told her.
She had a perfect little melodic laugh that had Roxie smiling again. She had a difficult time not joining the two of them in merriment. This patient right here was why Roxie loved being a nurse so much. Patients who were full of spirit and life and who didn’t allow age to be anything more than a number.
“When my knee isn’t acting up so much, I might have to show you one of my dances,” Millie told him.
Roxie knew not to be jealous of a patient even if she and Kian were in a relationship, which they weren’t, but even with that knowledge, she felt just the slightest stirring of that green-eyed monster light up inside her. It was so much better for her peace of mind to not see Kian at all, and certainly to not think about him at any club looking at dancers who were far younger than Millie and who liked to go home with men like Kian. It didn’t matter if he did that. He was his own man, and she was her own woman. That was the beauty of a breakup, she assured herself.
“I would love to see you dance,” Kian said, his voice still warm. “You were in a line, right?” A line? Roxie was confused.
“That’s right. We could dance all night. I did partner dance, too. I once danced a mean tango,” Millie assured him.
Roxie felt like even more of a fool now. The woman hadn’t been offering to strip for him. She really needed some coffee or something. She definitely needed to sneak away before she did something foolish and got caught gawking at Kian and Millie.
Roxie was getting ready to slip away when Millie’s surprisingly bright eyes looked over and caught her. Roxie grinned and tried to slip away quietly before Kian could turn around, but Millie wasn’t having any of that.
“Who are you, darling?” she asked, her voice just as childlike when she raised it. Roxie wondered if that was truly her voice or if the woman had perfected it over the years.
Kian turned, and now Roxie was certainly caught. If only she’d been able to tear herself away thirty seconds earlier, she could have been in and out without anyone being the wiser. But the old woman had mesmerized her and, unbelievably, caused the slightest bit of jealousy, and now she had to try to explain why she was standing in the doorway like some loony stalker.
She couldn’t figure out what to say, let alone come up with a reasonable excuse while they both looked at her waiting expectantly for a reasonable explanation. Kian’s gaze narrowed as he refused to look away, and that only made it worse. Roxie’s cheeks heated, and she looked guilty as she shifted on her feet, searching for an explanation she didn’t have ready.
“Um, I was just walking from the hospital and thought it might be your voice I heard, so I just glanced in for a moment and then heard Millie tell a story about dancing, and I . . . um . . . love dancing, and I paused too long,” she said in a hesitant voice. Roxie never had been a good liar, especially on the spot like this.
One time she’d been busted cheating and had actually said she’d seen a squirrel run across her classmate’s table and was looking at the desk to see if there were any scratches. The teacher had been so impressed with the creativity of her excuse, she hadn’t gotten busted that time, but she’d gotten a stern lecture to never cheat again. She hadn’t so much as turned her head a quarter of an inch during test time after that, afraid her teacher would be looking, and she’d end up blurting something out like The sky is falling.
“Dancing, huh?” Kian said, sounding utterly disbelieving.
“Yeah, dancing. I used to dance a lot,” she said defensively. In reality, she had two left feet and zero rhythm, but they’d never gone dancing together, so it wasn’t something he would know.
“Oh, you like to dance, huh? Show me your favorite one,” Millie said. She looked so excited, Roxie hated to disappoint the woman, but there was no way she was going to do a dance in front of them and show how very bad she was, proving herself a liar. Why couldn’t she have come up with a better lie?
“Yes, please show us,” Kian said, amusement now dripping from his voice. Millie didn’t seem aware at all.
“There’s no music. I have absolutely no rhythm without it. Maybe next time,” Roxie offered, thrilled with her excuse. That was until Kian pulled out his iPhone and smiled.
“Name the song and I can pull it up in three seconds,” he said, his voice utterly helpful. He was calling her bluff.
“Maybe the two of you can do the waltz for me. I know this room is small, but if you’re careful, it can be done,” Millie suggested.
That was the moment Roxie realized Millie hadn’t really been flirting with Kian at all, because the woman was certainly in matchmaker mode at the moment.
“This room is far too small, and I wouldn’t want to accidentally unplug something,” Roxie said. She moved into the room and came to stand beside Millie, hoping to distract the woman from her request. “Why don’t I fluff these pillows for you? They look quite lumpy.”
“That would be lovely, but then you dance,” Millie said firmly, her eyes surprisingly bright and alert. Roxie had a feeling she wasn’t getting out of this. She glanced from the corner of her eye to see Kian smugly sitting there.
“I’ll move my chair back to give you more room,” he offered. She gritted her teeth.
Roxie remembered she’d once taken a line-dance lesson just to get some socialization. Line dancing didn’t take a lot of rhythm for those beginning songs, if she remembered correctly. Some of the damn people there looked amazing, their hips and shoulders moving in sync to their feet, but there had been others like her who could barely manage to move their feet, let alone clap hands and swing hips.
“I don’t think it would be proper to play music in the hospital,” Roxie said.
“I’m the doctor in charge this afternoon. I’ll okay it,” Kian said. He was now leaning back as if he planned on getting real comfortable.
“Don’t you have patients who need you? I can do the dance for Millie. You don’t need to stay,” she said, almost begging him.
“Nope. I always make sure Millie is my last patient so I don’t have to rush away. She always tells me the best stories,” he said before looking down at Millie and winking. “I don’t know, Millie. Maybe she can’t dance, and she fibbed to us,” he said in a loud, conspiratorial voice. “What do you think?”
“Oh no, she definitely has the hips to dance. I think she’s just being shy,” Millie said.
Self-consciously, Roxie moved her hands across her hips as she thought about the conversation she’d had with Eden the other day. She wanted a mirror right now.
“Yes, she definitely has the hips,” Kian said. The hunger Roxie witnessed in Kian’s eyes as he said those words while his gaze moved steadily up and down her body sent any thoughts of being fat right out of her mind and made heat pool in her core. That wasn’t a good idea. She couldn’t even begin to have thoughts like that when it came to Kian.
And now, as Kian’s gaze took its time appraising her, she felt hunger that she’d managed to push down for years spring to life in a roaring manner that had no business consuming her.
Clenching her thighs together in fear that any movement might make things happen she really didn’t want happening in public, Roxie focused on Millie instead of Kian as she tried to calm her now-erratic breathing and rapidly beating heart.
“I haven’t danced in a while,” she said, pleading with the woman to let her off the hook.
“That’s okay; once a dancer, always a dancer,” Millie assured her. She pushed a button on her bed and sat up.
Again, Roxie wondered why she hadn’t run away when she’d had the chance. She either had to admit defeat or she had to dance. Roxie never had been one to give up, even if she knew she was going to be humiliated.
“Play ‘Watermelon Crawl,’” Roxie said through clenched teeth. She was flashing through her thankfully near-photographic memory as she tried to remember the dance. She could do this. It was just a few steps, a little side to side and front and back. She could do this, she assured herself. It had been two years, but she could do this. And she would do this without hurting the nice old woman.
Kian didn’t say a word as he pulled up the music and hit “Play.” His lips were turned up in a smug smile, and Roxie wasn’t going to allow that look to stay plastered on his face. So, she was about to humiliate herself. Wouldn’t it just be better to walk away? Nope, it wouldn’t, she assured herself.
She lined up as centered as she could in the room, then counted to eight and began the dance. Her eyes were closed as she tried to focus on the images in her head, and she felt as if she were actually doing it. She followed along with the images that felt like a television screen and danced away, and “Watermelon Crawl” played softly on Kian’s phone. She turned, did it again, turned, and did it once more.
Millie was clapping, calling out that Roxie was doing beautifully, and that gave Roxie the confidence to finish off with a little turn as the song drew to a close. Maybe she should have opened her eyes, because she did her turn and tripped on Kian’s foot, tumbling down straight into his lap.
Her eyes shot open, and her gaze was captured by his, his lips only inches from her own, her butt cushioned on his lap. Her breath caught in her throat as her eyes got trapped by his, and if she wasn’t mistaken, which she very well could be, there was a throbbing thickness beneath her butt that was making her core pulse with need, and making heat flood her body. Her nipples peaked, painfully rubbing against her bra, and for a moment, just a single moment, Roxie forgot she was in a hospital room with a patient watching them, forgot she’d left Kian with nothing more than an aloof note, forgot he wanted to take her niece away from her, forgot they’d been apart for four years.
Roxie began reaching for his lips, desperately hungry to close the small gap between them. She felt his fingers tighten on her hips where he held her and watched fire leap into his eyes. She thought of nothing but his touch . . .
That was until Millie clapped and called out, “Bravo.” Both she and Kian froze at the reminder that they weren’t alone. Roxie ripped her gaze away from Kian and gazed at Millie with a shocked expression.
“That was wonderful, darling. Please come back and do it again,” Millie said.
The old woman had to be blind, because Roxie knew she might have gotten the steps right, but even with getting them right, she had no rhythm and certainly had slaughtered the dance.
“Wonderful, just wonderful,” Millie repeated again.
“You need to take her to a proper place where she can really dance,” Millie told Kian.
“And you’ve had too much excitement for one afternoon. It’s time for rest,” Kian told her.
Roxie knew this was her only chance to escape. If she and Kian left that room together, she wasn’t sure what would happen. And right now, she was hormonal, and her head was fuzzy. She might make a wrong decision.
She didn’t even say goodbye to Millie, deciding she’d slip back in there later when she knew Kian wouldn’t be around. She liked the old woman and didn’t want to hurt her feelings. But more than that, at the moment she was fighting for her own survival, and that meant she had to get away from Kian, and she had to do it right now.
So, she rushed from the room, then speed-walked down the hallway. She was just passing the on-call rooms when a hand snagged her around the waist, and she was pulled inside the darkness.
Kian’s lips smashed against hers before she could even think of objecting. And protesting went out the window at the first touch of his familiar mouth.