Chapter 14
Fourteen
As she brushed her teeth, Georgie could see Nathan stretched out in her bed and had to admit that she had liked waking up with him.
Ugh! Despite her best efforts to stay aloof and uninvolved, he had an annoying way of ingratiating himself.
If only he wasn’t so nice and funny. And hot.
So hot! Why couldn’t he have been just a little bit ugly?
Or self-absorbed? Humorless would have helped, too.
Anything to give her a reason to resist him, to stay away from him, to dislike him!
All at once he was with her in the bathroom, reaching out to shut off the water she had left running while she brushed her teeth. Startled, she stared at him.
“Gallons of wasted water,” he said with a sheepish grin.
Georgie turned the water back on and spit out the toothpaste. “Do you mind?”
“What?” He scratched his chest and stretched. “The door was open.”
“You might want to put some clothes on. I don’t live alone.”
“They saw the goods last night when you and Tess stripped me. Speaking of which, I’d like to request a do-over when I’m not delirious with a fever. I didn’t get to adequately enjoy it.”
“In your dreams.”
He wiggled his eyebrows at her.
Rattled by his close presence, Georgie pushed past him and crossed the hall to her room.
“I need my nurse to give me a sponge bath.”
She spun around to discover he had followed her. “Not in your wildest dreams.”
“A shower, then?”
“Feel free. Towels are in the closet.”
“My nurse should accompany me. In my weakened state, I could fall or reopen my wound. You wouldn’t want that to happen on your watch, would you?”
“You’re seriously pushing your luck, and it’s only eight thirty. Your nurse is going to quit if you keep up this sexual harassment.”
“Can’t blame a guy for trying,” he said with a cheerful smile. “I’ll be in the shower if you need me.” He grabbed his jeans and T-shirt and headed across the hall. “Are you sure you won’t join me?”
“Positive.”
“Your bedside manner could use some work,” he said as he closed the door to the bathroom.
Georgie couldn’t resist a giggle. Why does he have to be so funny?
And cute? And all but irresistible? Why couldn’t he be a typical guy and turn into a jerk as soon as he got what he wanted?
He’d already had it all and was still hanging in there just the same.
What was wrong with him? Was he some sort of masochist or something?
She headed downstairs hoping Cat or Tess had made coffee. Her head buzzed from the lack of sleep, her worries about Gus, and her turmoil over Nathan. In the kitchen, she discovered a party going on.
Tess and Cat, still in pajamas, as well as Ben, Ian, and Rosie, were sitting around the kitchen table drinking coffee and orange juice.
When Georgie walked in, Ian had the good grace to look away from her skimpy attire, but Ben took a full, measuring look.
As she crossed her arms over her breasts, she wished she had taken the time to get dressed. “What’s going on?”
“We were worried when Nate didn’t come home last night,” Ben said. “That’s not like him, so we were hoping he was here.”
“We filled them in,” Tess said.
“How is he today?” Ian asked.
“Full of beans,” Georgie said as she reached behind the pantry door for a zip-up sweatshirt her mother had kept there. She put it on and brought a cup of coffee with her when she joined the others at the table.
“That’s a good sign,” Tess said, wiping up a splash of Rosie’s juice.
“He’s in the shower,” Georgie added.
Rosie worked her way onto Tess’s lap.
“Rosie,” Ian admonished. “Tess is trying to drink her coffee.”
“She’s fine,” Tess said, wrapping an arm around the child. As she nuzzled Rosie’s golden curls, a wave of pure longing crossed Tess’s face. If Georgie hadn’t been looking right at her when it happened, she might have missed it.
Georgie noticed that Ben, who was monitoring Tess’s every move, hadn’t missed it, either. On the other hand, Cat and Ian seemed to be having trouble looking at each other. Very interesting.
Rosie snuggled with Tess for a few minutes before she got up and went over to Cat.
“Can I sit with you now?”
Cat, who always seemed so composed, looked nothing short of panicked. “Um, well, I guess so.”
Rosie climbed up onto Cat’s lap, oblivious to the fact that Cat didn’t want her there. While Tess had wrapped her arms around the child, Cat let hers hang at her sides almost as if she were hoping Rosie would take the hint and choose another lap.
Cat was saved when Nathan walked into the room, his hair wet from the shower.
Rosie bolted off Cat’s lap and ran to her uncle.
He scooped her up with his good arm and kissed her noisily on her pretty lips. “What’s up, buttercup?”
“After a while, crocodile.”
As the other adults laughed, Nathan said, “We’ll get it straight one of these days.”
“What’s the matter with your eyes?” Rosie asked.
“I don’t know. Why?”
“They look funny. Are you sick?”
“I have a fever from the boo-boo on my arm.”
Rosie rested her hand on his forehead. “You should go back to bed. My daddy makes me stay in bed when I have a fever.”
“Don’t worry, Georgie is going to take care of me today.”
Rosie turned to Georgie. “Do you know what you’re doing?”
Tess snorted under her breath.
Georgie shot her a glare before she looked up at Rosie. “I’ll do my very best.”
Rosie wrapped her chubby arms around Nathan’s neck and squeezed. “I hope you feel better.”
“Thanks, baby.”
“Uncle Nate!”
“Oh! Sorry. Can’t call you that anymore. I forgot.”
“That’s okay. I forgive you.”
Georgie’s throat tightened with emotion as she watched him interact with the child.
Cat got up from the table, and with a muttered “excuse me,” she went out to the front porch.
“Do you have her for a minute?” Ian asked Nathan.
Nathan bounced the girl up and down, and she squealed with laughter. “Sure do.”
Ian followed Cat to the porch.
Nathan’s face was stiff with pain he was working hard to hide from Rosie, so Georgie directed him to a chair and got him a cup of coffee.
“Thanks,” he said with a warm smile.
“What’s up with those two?” Ben asked, nodding toward the door.
“She likes my daddy but not me,” Rosie said with a frown.
The others stared at her in disbelief.
Ian found Cat sitting on the wicker sofa, vibrating with tension.
“Nice day,” he said. Great opening, Caldwell. Brilliant, in fact.
She glanced over at him. “Uh-huh.”
Ian sat down next to her. “Something wrong?”
“No,” she said quickly. “Why?”
He shrugged. “You can’t seem to look at me today.”
“That’s not true!” She turned to meet his steady gaze. “There. Are you happy?”
“It was just a kiss, Cat.”
“Except that it wasn’t. If it had been ‘just a kiss,’ I wouldn’t be having such a hard time looking at you.”
Struck by her honesty, he reached for her hand. “It was quite a kiss, huh?”
She shook off his hand. “This isn’t going to happen, Ian.”
“Why not? We’re both single, at least I hope you are—”
“I am.”
“So then what’s the problem?”
“You’re a nice guy—”
“Thanks. Have dinner with me tonight.”
“If you’d let me finish—”
“Only if you’re going to say yes.”
She uttered an exasperated growl. “I have to work.”
“You also have to eat.”
“What about . . . what about Rosie?”
“I have people who help me out since I work a lot of nights.”
“Where’s her mother?”
“Out of the picture.”
“So you’re a . . .”
“Single dad? Yes.”
“Oh.”
“Is that a problem?”
Cat gnawed on her bottom lip for a moment.
As he watched her, he had an overwhelming urge to loop her brow ring around his tongue.
She looked up at him with vulnerable brown eyes that belied her tough exterior. “I’m not much of a kid person.”
“I’m not asking you to be.”
“But she’s, you know, a factor.”
“I’m asking you to have dinner with me, not marry me and raise my child.”
She blanched, which made him laugh.
He leaned in closer to her and was amused by her sharp inhale. She was not as tough as she looked, not by a long shot. “I haven’t done much dating since she came along. Since we’re talking dinner, not marriage, it shouldn’t be an issue.”
“As long as it’s just dinner, and as long as you know I’m not interested in an insta-family, then I’ll go.”
“Fair enough.”
“What should I wear?”
“What do you want to wear?”
“Something like what I had on last night.”
“Do you have another one of those tank tops?”
“Lots of them.”
“That ought to do it.”
“Just dinner,” she said warily. “And it has to be early. I need to be at the club by eight.”
“I’ll pick you up at six.”
“Why do you think Cat doesn’t like you, honey?” Nathan asked Rosie.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Cuz.”
“Well, it’s not true,” Tess said. “So you shouldn’t give it another thought.”
Rosie’s eyes shifted toward the door. “He likes her.”
“Maybe,” Nathan said, “but he wouldn’t be friends with someone who doesn’t love you as much as he does, as much as we all do.”
“That’s right,” Ben said. “We won’t let him.”
Rosie smiled at her uncle.
“Did you have breakfast, Rosie?” Tess asked.
She nodded. “I had cereal with my daddy at six thirty.”
Ben winced. “Give the guy a break, will ya, kid?”
“Daddy says I get up with the chickens.”
Nathan laughed and smoothed a hand over her hair. “It’s a wonder he doesn’t fall asleep on the microphone on the nights he has to work.”
Smiling at the visual, Georgie stood up. “I’m going to take a shower. I want to get to the hospital.”
“Who’s going to take care of me while you’re gone?” Nathan asked with a petulant pout.
Georgie rolled her eyes. “Rosie, will you keep an eye on Uncle Nate for a few minutes? Make sure he doesn’t get into any trouble?”
“Okay, Georgie,” Rosie said, her expression solemn.
“Rosie’s in charge,” Georgie said to Nathan on her way out of the room.
“Let’s go check out the garden,” Nathan said, holding out his hand to his niece.
When they were alone, Ben turned to Tess, and before he could lose his nerve, he said, “You’re very beautiful in the morning.”
She stared at him.
“I’ve been sitting here all this time hoping I’d get the chance to tell you that.”
“Thank you,” she said, flustered, as she stood up and got busy clearing the cups and mugs from the table. When she reached for his mug, he took her hand.
“Do I make you nervous, Tess?”
Looking down at him, she contemplated him for a long moment. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Is it me? Or all men?”
“A little of both.”
Pleased that she trusted him enough to make that confession, he closed his hand tighter around hers. “You have nothing to fear from me.”
“That’s good to know.”
“I enjoyed being with you last night.”
“I did, too. With you, that is.”
Charmed by the color that flooded her cheeks, Ben said, “You know, this was the first morning since everything happened that I’ve woken up thinking about something other than my own litany of complaints.”
“Is that so?”
He nodded.
Without releasing his hand, she sat down next to him. “I was thinking about something you said last night, about your friend Greg.” She paused. “But if you’d rather not talk about it . . .”
“Tell me.”
She glanced down at their joined hands and then raised her lovely gray-blue eyes to meet his.
The muscles in his belly quivered, and for the first time in longer than he could remember, he felt a surge of desire.
He wanted her. The realization would have knocked him off his feet if he had been standing on them.
“What you said about the guilt you feel because he died and you didn’t?”
A muscle in his cheek tightened with tension. He didn’t talk about this. Ever. But there’d been something about her that had compelled him to share it with her the night before. “Yes.”
“Well, I wondered if maybe you found a way to tell his parents and girlfriend about what he said to you before . . . the accident—”
“You mean before he was murdered,” Ben murmured.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know the right way to say it.”
“You’re doing fine. Don’t mind me or the huge chip on my shoulder.”
Tess smiled. “Do you think it’s possible that if you told them his last thoughts were of them, if you could somehow tell them that, then maybe it might help you, too?” Her words poured out in a rush, as if she were afraid she would lose her courage if she didn’t get it out fast.
With his free hand, Ben rubbed at the stubble on his cheek and fought to swallow the huge lump in his throat.
She tilted her head as she studied him. “Ben? Are you all right?”
“Do you think they’d want to see me? Wouldn’t I be a reminder that their son died and I lived?”
“If I had a son who died the way theirs did, I’d want to know that in his last moments he was thinking of me and the life we’d shared.” She took his other hand and held on tight. “I’d want to know, Ben. Any mother would.”
Without taking even a second to debate the implications, he released one of her hands and caressed her cheek as he leaned in to kiss her.
When she didn’t protest or push him away, he let his hand slide around her neck.
Though he brought her closer, he kept the kiss chaste, despite the grinding need that pulsed through him.
“Does that mean you like my idea?” she asked with a small, private smile that warmed his heart. Her eyes, he noticed, were still focused on his lips—better there than on his lap, where she would find proof of just how badly he wanted her.
He nodded. “I like your idea. I like you.”
“I have to get ready for work now.”
“Can I see you later?” he asked, keeping his firm hold on her hand.
“I’m usually pretty tired after my shift, and I was up really late last night.”
“We don’t have to do anything special. Takeout and a movie?”
She hesitated but only for a moment. “All right.”
“There’s just one thing,” he said, looking away from her when embarrassment threatened to derail him. He brought his eyes back to meet hers. “I can’t pick you up, because I can’t drive yet. In fact, I might never be able to drive again.”
“Well, in that case, you’re in luck. See, I have a car, and since I drove you home last night, I know where you live.”
He smiled. “I like the way you say that.”
“So I’ll come by around eight?”
“I’ll be waiting.”