CHAPTER 8
Claire
“What’s taking so long?”
Claire looked at her mother and shook her head. The moment she’d showed up with the outfit, Mom ditched her hospital gown and changed right into it.
Even at fifty and underweight, Nora Nilsen was beautiful, with gorgeous blonde hair, a willowy figure, and delicate Nordic features.
She was intelligent, strong, and Claire’s hero.
As a little girl, she couldn’t wait to grow up and look just like her mom.
As the years passed, and she realized she would never look like her but would, unfortunately, be a female clone of her father instead, Claire vowed to at least try to be who her mother was.
That was why whenever her father came home drunk after working an all-nighter case at his law office, Claire helped put him to bed, lovingly lifting his legs and covering him.
But then, the episodes became more frequent, and the muffled fights between her parents became a constant.
Her mother said Daddy was just stressed, except that Claire heard the arguing at night.
This continued for a while, with her mother smiling and telling Claire everything was fine.
Until one night, when Mom hurriedly packed a suitcase, awakened Claire out of a sound sleep, and ushered her into the car, still in her Hot Wheels pajamas.
Long story short, her father, the attorney, abandoned them and made sure they received nothing. No alimony, no child support. She’d never heard from her father again.
Claire had gone to law school to become a divorce attorney. She never wanted any client of hers to end up like her mother, left to live in a single-wide trailer after eight years of marriage.
A knock came on the door.
“Finally,” Nora muttered. But she quickly brightened as she saw Dr. Jake stride in, a small glass vase in his hands. Claire smiled at the sight of the happy little arrangement of sunflowers and orange tulips.
Jake set the vase on the overbed table and grinned at Mom. “Ready to go home?”
“So ready.” She gave him a huge smile. “So nice of you to bring me flowers.”
Jake nodded but, for some reason, quickly averted his gaze.
“Dr. Dawson will be in shortly to discuss the findings.”
This didn’t sound promising. Claire tried to read Jake’s face, but it was impassive. “What did they find?” she pressed.
His smile was stiff. “Dr. Dawson will go over everything with you. I came by to check on you before you left. And”—he gave Nora a very disarming smile— “to ask your permission to take your daughter to an event tonight.”
“An event!” Nora didn’t hide her enthusiasm.
“A bunch of us are celebrating the opening of a new medical office downtown. We’re going to Capa. And I couldn’t think of anyone I’d rather have accompany me than your lovely daughter.”
“Capa, at the Four Seasons?”
Jake nodded. “Yes.”
Claire frowned slightly. Why go through her mother? He could have just asked her.
“I’m sure she’d love to go! Wouldn’t you, Claire?”
Unease stirred in the pit of Claire’s stomach, but looking at her mother’s eager face, she quashed it back and forced a smile. “Of course.”
·
Claire soaped her hands, staring unseeingly at the water running from the elongated spout. She’d excused herself from the table and retreated to the ladies’ room, needing a break from the mental gymnastics required to make small talk when something else weighed heavily on her mind.
Leukemia.
The word still sent ice through her veins.
After she’d heard Dr. Dawson utter it, the whining noise in her ears and the dizziness barely allowed her to concentrate.
Her mother now had a secondary cancer. AML, they called it, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, which sometimes occurred in patients who had previously undergone radiation and chemotherapy.
Mom had listened with typical stoicism, nodding as she was informed of the treatments she would have to undergo. First, they would try chemotherapy, and she would have to be in the hospital for it. If that didn’t work, then she would have to have a bone marrow transplant.
That’s where it got complicated: the donor had to be a match. Claire immediately asked to be tested to see if she was compatible. Then, she did her best to stay cheerful and optimistic throughout the drive home, smiling even as she wanted to break down.
All her mother wanted to talk about was the date with Dr. Jake. She had helped Claire get ready, loaning her a beautiful emerald-green dress and gold chandelier earrings. The dress was a bit too small, making it cling to her curves in a decidedly sexy way but not so tight as to appear trashy.
“This will blow him away,” Nora had said to Claire, styling her hair into an elegant chignon, pinning it in place with a simple gold clip. “Look how beautiful you are. You look like an angel.”
How this woman could still see her as beautiful despite her being the spitting image of the man who’d done her so wrong, Claire could not understand.
“Well, if it isn’t Dr. Jake’s new honey,” a voice came from behind her.
Claire turned, recognizing one of the girlfriends from the group. “Hey, Brittany.”
“Hey.” Brittany tossed her ash-blonde hair and unzipped her shoulder bag, retrieving a fuchsia lipstick.
“The minute you left the table, all the girls could talk about was you. How did you manage to hook up with him? Gotta admit I’m jealous.
” A smile curved her lips, and she lowered her voice conspiratorially.
“Is what they say about him true? That he’s a freak in bed? ”
“I wouldn’t know. We’re just friends.”
“Really?” Brittany carefully applied the striking color to her lips.
“Huh. Interesting. He doesn’t bring women to the group unless he’s really into them, and he’s not exactly known for being patient.
” She blotted her lips with a tissue. “No pun intended.” A sly smile spread across her face.
“Get it? Into her? Patient?” She laughed at her own joke.
“Maybe he respects you enough not to hook up right away? Hey, you’re lucky.
He’s the total package. Tall, a doctor …
A surgeon with a lot of money! And he’s hot.
If I were single, I’d have gone after him myself. ”
Claire pulled a paper towel from the dispenser and dried her hands, forcing herself to return the smile while meeting the woman’s wide brown eyes in the mirror. She cleared her throat. “Your boyfriend isn’t too bad either.”
“Yeah. Logan is great.” Brittany capped her lipstick with a sharp snap.
“Been trying to get a ring for a while now.” Her fuchsia lips pursed.
“You know, I’ve been planning my wedding since I was eight.
All this waiting right at the finish line is killing me.
I was almost tempted to sleep with Jake just to make Logan jealous, but …
” She gave Claire a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
Wow. Claire wondered if the woman realized it wasn’t the wedding that mattered but the long-term relationship that followed. If she had to do someone else to force a proposal … Oddly, she found she didn’t care if Brittany slept with Jake. The thought of it left her indifferent.
She forced a smile. “Well, good luck with everything.”
“Thanks! I’ve got to get back,” Brittany said. “If I stay too long, he gets mad.”
Claire smoothed her hair and took one last critical look at herself before turning away from the mirror. Then, she followed Brittany out the door, down the long corridor, and around the corner to the dining room.
During the short time she had been in the restroom, the entire place had filled, and now it was packed, chattering mixed with the clink of knives and forks and sizzling noises coming from the open kitchen.
Following Brittany, she wended her way between the tables and suddenly had that weird feeling one gets when being watched. Brow furrowing, she let her gaze roam over the diners, the prickle at her neck becoming more pronounced.
At first, she didn’t see anyone looking her way. But then, her gaze snapped to the tables by the window, attracted by some inexorable force.
And that was where she spotted him.
Oh my God.
Ian. Again.
The man was everywhere. How was he here? And why was she so relieved to see he was dining with his brother and not a woman?
Her gaze locked on his for a few seconds, and what she saw there, smoldering, as he looked her up and down, made her shudder. The last rays of the afternoon sun shone through the window, gilding his bright hair as if spotlighting the fact that he was, unarguably, the hottest man in the room.
Her breathing quickened. Somehow, she made her feet keep going, even as she realized with a surge of alarm that she would have to walk right past him to reach her table. She looked around for another way. None. Packed restaurant, tables crowded together.
Crap.
She also tried to look away. Impossible.
He didn’t need to undress her with his eyes because he had already seen all of her, and she knew exactly what he was remembering.
Claire raised her chin, squared her shoulders, and lengthened her stride, and as she passed him, she swore she heard a low hum of approval.
Parts of her tingled that shouldn’t in a public place. Getting past him didn’t help because she felt his gaze boring between her shoulder blades. She realized that her seat was precisely in his line of vision, and she would face him the entire time they were there if he didn’t leave first.
He wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. They were looking at their menus, and no drinks were on the table. And dinners at this place, she knew, stretched to around two hours.
“Ah, there they are!” Jake smiled broadly at Claire. “Sit down. Your food is getting cold.”
He motioned to the octopus and potato appetizer now sitting at her place. She hadn’t ordered that. She hated octopus.
As she and Brittany retook their seats, Claire glanced around at the other nine people and forced herself to smile, noting that Jake was the only other person with the dreaded tentacled legs on his plate.