His Touch

by Patty Blount

  “We got time yet.” He smiled at her. She was tall, almost as tall as he was. He glanced down and discovered why.

  She’d worn six-inch spiked heels to a CPR class. He managed to stop the eye roll just in time.

  The blond held out her hand. “I’m Candace. But you can call me Candy.”

  God help him, if she said Candi with an I, he was going to lose it. Another eye roll threatened but he manned up and smiled wider. “Reid Bennett.”

  Behind him, he could hear the rest of the class getting a bit restless. The sounds of Tsks of annoyance, huffs of indignation, and drumming fingers could be heard plain as day. He cleared his throat to call the class to order, but his attention was diverted by the distinctly disgusted look on the face of a beautiful blond in the back of the room. Her hair was a mess of waves that just skimmed her jaw. A pair of sunglasses perched on top of her head. In one hand, she had a cup of coffee and in the other, a cell phone. She wore pants and holy crap—flat shoes. It had been so long so he’d come across a woman who didn’t dress to impress and he had to admit, it was nice imagining what the curves under that outfit looked like.

  She caught his gaze, held it. And smiled. His lips twitched in response. “Good morning. I’m Reid Bennett, paramedic. Please silence your cell phones.” That was a pet peeve of his… people interrupting his class to take calls, or worse, wasting half of it sending texts. “Today, we’re going to learn proper CPR techniques for infants—” he indicated one dummy. “And for older kids.” He put his hand over the other, gulping hard when his voice cracked.

  “Hi, Reid,” the trio said in unison and laughed.

  He paid them no attention. The stunning blond in the back rolled her eyes. And then to his surprise, she whipped a gold chain out of her pocket and slipped it around her neck. Suddenly, he wanted one thing—to learn this quirky blond woman’s name.

  He continued on with his lesson, explaining the ABCs of CPR, under what circumstances to perform it, and then launched into the differences in anatomy that made learning on different size dummies so important. Every time he glanced back, he noted the pretty blond paying careful attention and on at least one occasion, checking out his butt.

  Finally, it was time for the demonstration. Reid stepped over to the infant dummy. “Okay. This is Trevor. We walk in, discover baby Trevor isn’t breathing. The first thing we should do is try to rouse him. Tap his feet and shout. Even a sleeping baby should show a startle reflex by this.”

  Reid tapped Trevor’s feet. “Trevor! Wake up, Trevor!” He shouted. “If there’s no response, go through your ABCs. Airway, Breathing, Compressions. Trevor is an infant under a year old. You’ll put one hand here and the other here,” he said, demonstrating with a hand on the dummy’s head and just under its chin. “This opens the airway. Look and listen. Do you see the chest rising and falling?”

  “My chest is rising and falling,” Triplet Two stage-whispered to her cohorts.

  Reid ignored her. “Do you hear or feel breath on your face? If not, you’ll move to Breathing. Give the baby two rescue breaths by covering his mouth and nose with your mouth and gently blowing in only enough air to make the chest rise.”

  Reid blew two quick breaths into Trevor the dummy.

  “Oo. Blowing can make other things rise,” Candy said.

  Reid shot her a glare. Why couldn’t she be more like the woman in the back of the room? Still glaring, he continued. “Next, you’ll start compressions. You want to do about thirty compressions. Because Trevor’s so little, under a year old, you’re going to use two fingers, not your entire hand. You’ll put those two fingers right here, on the breast bone, just under his nipples.” Reid put his two fingers on the spot indicated. “Press down only about this far,” he said, demonstrating on the dummy’s chest. “Compress fast. It helps to think of the song Staying Alive and do compressions to that beat.”

  This time, whatever one of the triplets said had all three of them dissolving into bawdy laughter. Reid snapped up straight, but before he could say anything, the blond in the back stood up. “Excuse me but some of us would actually like to learn how to save a child’s life today.”

  Reid’s heart almost stopped. The woman was pretty enough as it was, but when she was all riled up like she was now, she was breathtaking.

  “Oh, okay there, Buffy.” Candy sneered.

  To Reid’s astonishment, the blond charged down the aisle with fire in her eyes. He managed to quickly step between the little spitfire and the three Weird Sisters before first blood was drawn. Gene came to his rescue. “Ladies, ladies, I have an idea. Since this class doesn’t seem to be what you expected, maybe you’d like to take a tour of the fire house with me, meet some of the crew?”

  Predictably, all three pairs of eyes lit up at the prospect of fresh man meat. Gene grinned at Reid as he escorted the women out of the conference room. The pregnant woman fanned her face. “Thank God.”

  “I’m sorry for that. Let’s start again.” Reid attempted to redirect everyone’s attention, but an eardrum-shattering scream pierced the air and for a moment, he thought they were under attack. Then, he discovered the source.

  It was the tiny occupant of a baby stroller that had just been pushed into the room.

  Reid’s spit dried up.

  He stared at the baby’s round blue eyes and light brown curls, his vision fading and his throat constricting. Erin. His heart said. She’s gone, his brain reminded his heart a second before it twisted inside his chest. The pretty blond was suddenly in front of him and he nearly grabbed her to steady his cracked and splintered heart, but his arms were weighted with lead.

  “Beth? What’s wrong?” She addressed the girl pushing the stroller. He was only dimly aware that the girl called Beth was upset. He heard bits and pieces of their conversation. “Tried to call you” and “My mother” and that was it before the two women hugged tightly and the girl was gone, leaving the baby in the stroller behind.

  Reid shook his head. He heard words, but they just weren’t penetrating the scream in his mind. Slowly, he shook his head. “No kids. You need to leave. No kids.” His voice was a croak.

  The baby’s mother looked up at him with enormous brown eyes filled with frustration. “Do you have any idea what kind of schedule juggling I had to do to be here today? She stays. I’ll remove her if she acts up.” When the baby grinned and leaned forward to snatch the teething biscuit her mother handed her, Reid’s heart twisted behind his ribs.

  Okay. Okay, he had to do this. He spun on his heel and barked out an order. “Gather around Trevor. Each of you needs to demonstrate proper CPR technique to earn your certificate. Then, we’ll move on to…” He paused to gulp down the lump in his throat, glanced at the older dummy. “To Travis.”

  *

  Kara stalked down the street, steam pouring from her ears. What a colossal waste of time and effort. Life-saving skills for parents, indeed! She had a good mind to write to the FDNY and the governor to report that paramedic for the deplorable way he conducted that class. Flirting with those three shameless women who only wanted to slide down a firefighter’s pole and then having the nerve, the unmitigated gall to ask her to leave only because of Nadia?

  It was despicable.

  Unconscionable.

  It was—it was—oh, she was too mad to think up more words.

  “Ma,” Nadia said with a pout.

  “I know, honey,” Kara told her. “He was awful, wasn’t he?” Resolutely, she put the rude paramedic out of her mind. She had more important things to worry about, like how she was going re-juggle her already juggled schedule. She bit her lip and said a quick prayer for good news for Beth, whose mom had called her from a doctor’s office, begging her to come. The word cancer was mentioned and Kara’s stomach clutched at the thought. Her own mom had passed in the September 11th attacks and not a day went by that Kara didn’t wish she was still with her.

  Her phone pinged, a text message from her three-thirty client asking to reschedule. Kara
sighed in relief. That certainly made things easier. Okay, then. Thinking fast, Kara went through her mental back-up plan. She would take Nadia to her office and then call Elena. If her sister could rearrange her schedule, Kara would still be able to meet Mrs. Brewer at two. And if not, she’d ask Mrs. Brewer to come downtown, and pray that one of her coworkers would kindly mind Nadia while Kara helped Mrs. Brewer plan her estate.

  A sudden fear swept through Kara. She had no supplies for her daughter. She quickly checked the bag that hung from the stroller’s handle. Cup, diapers, wipes, Cheerios container. No lunch.

  Damn it. Okay, she’d have to stop at a market on her way to the office, pick up a few jars of Gerber, some yogurt—Nadia adored yogurt and some animal crackers. Kara picked up her pace and began walking downtown. It wouldn’t take long, maybe fifteen minutes or so.

  Good thing she’d worn those flats today.

  She darted into the first market she found, picked up lunch for both of them and continued her trek, happy the weather was cooperative, at least. The sun shone brightly, but the city’s infamous humidity wouldn’t reach its peak until July. It was a day for playing in the park and for a moment, she considered calling in sick so they could do just that.

  But they were here now.

  She negotiated Nadia’s stroller through the heavy glass doors to One Chase Manhattan Plaza and headed for the elevator bank. The offices of Gordon Brothers Financial Services were located on the twenty-first floor.

  “Kara?” The receptionist smiled at Nadia. “Uh oh. Nanny problems?”

  Kara nodded. “Beth’s mother had a medical emergency.”

  Tracy, the receptionist, frowned. “Oh, no. Okay, well, I can mind her for you while you meet with Jonathan.”

  Kara squeezed Tracy’s hand in gratitude. “Thank you so much. I’m going to get her settled first. See you in a bit.”

  Kara turned down the corridor and then went east to her office. She quickly powered up her computer system, slid her laptop from its bag and connected it to the desktop. She noted the pile of messages on her desk—all of which she’d already seen on her cell phone and handled.

  So far so good.

  She reached into her desk drawer, grabbed the cosmetic case stowed inside and quickly reapplied deodorant. Next, she unpacked the food she’d bought on the way in. She tapped her sister’s cell phone number and put the phone on speaker while it connected.

  “Hey, Kara, what’s up?”

  “Beth had some bad news today and can’t watch Nadia. Do you have any time you can take this afternoon?”

  “Sure. I can take a long lunch. Where are you?”

  “My office.”

  “Perfect. I’m at mine, so I’ll see you in about ten minutes.”

  That was a stroke of good luck. Elena frequently worked from home, which was Hoboken, New Jersey since her wedding to Lucas Adair last Christmas. But her corporate office wasn’t far from Kara’s and the sisters often met for lunch.

  “You are a life saver, Laney!”

  She ended the call and scooped Nadia out of the stroller. “Nadia, want to see Aunt Laney?”

  Nadia clapped her hands and Kara smiled. “Okay, she’ll be here soon. Let’s get you into a new diaper, okay?”

  She kicked off her shoes and knelt on the floor, a fresh diaper and the package of wipes at her side. She unfastened Nadia’s diaper and just as she began cleaning the mess inside, a knock on her door sounded.

  “Hey, Kara, are you—whoa.”

  She looked up, found her boss standing there, his nose wrinkled in disgust. “Hi, Mr. Drew. Be done in a minute.” Her face on fire, she cleaned Nadia’s bottom in record time, making sure it was spotless before fastening the new diaper in place. She tucked the wipes inside the dirty diaper, wrapped it tightly into a ball and put it into a plastic bag she dropped into the trash bin under her desk. A quick squirt of antibacterial lotion on her desk and she was ready to face the world again.

  “Aren’t we meeting?” Mr. Drew looked at his watch.

  “Yes. My nanny had a family emergency this morning.”

  “I see. So Mrs. Brewer’s estate planning…any progress?”

  “Yes.” Kara slipped back into her shoes and sat Nadia on the floor beside her desk with a board book from the bag on the back of the stroller. That should occupy her for about sixty seconds. “I’ve discussed potential courses of action with Mrs. Brewer and based on her feedback, believe we’ve got a direction. We’ll discuss it further this afternoon.”

  “Aren’t you meeting her today?”

  “Yes, at two.”

  “Why not have her sign papers then?”

  “She said she wants to discuss the plan in person before we do that.”

  “I see,” Mr. Drew said and stepped forward, his crisp dark suit barely moving. He sat in her visitor’s chair and Nadia decided that was an open invitation. She toddled to him and held out her book.

  “Up.”

  Kara’s face burst into flames but Mr. Drew just lifted her daughter to his knee without so much as a stutter in the directions she only just noticed he was giving her.

  “…think we should consider some high-risk investments, as well.”

  “Yes, uh, of course.” Kara made a note while he spoke. After they’d discussed every one of her clients, he shifted Nadia to his other knee and cleared his throat.

  “I have a new client for you.”

  Kara’s eyes widened. Of all the things he could have said, she hadn’t expected that. Since Nadia was born, she’d cut back her hours even though she knew that risked career growth, but right now, time with her daughter was more important than bonuses and promotions.

  “What do you know about Ronald T. Saxon?”

  Kara’s eyes went even wider. “Of Saxony House?” The Saxon family owned a string of high-end department stores, not to mention a variety of properties up and down the east coast.

  “The same. Ronald T. asked for you personally. He’d like to meet you today.”

  She almost winced. “Today’s not good, Mr. Drew. I have to arrange alternative care for Nadia.”

  “See what you can do. He’s interested in wealth management and establishing a charitable foundation.” He stood up, put Nadia on the floor and grinned. “Any questions?”

  Oh, boy. Oh, wow. Kara was practically dancing in her chair. “Yes, one. How does Mr. Saxon feel about kids?”

  Mr. Drew grinned. “That’s what the charitable foundation is for.” He took out his cell phone, tapped the screen. “I’ll have the file sent to you.”

  Kara nodded, knowing his assistant would do so in moments.

  “Keep me posted,” he said with a nod and left her office.

  “Oh! Excuse me.”

  Kara bit back a curse when her sister, Elena, collided with Mr. Drew at the door. “Mr. Drew, this is my sister, Elena.”

  “Miss Larsen,” he extended a hand. “Nice to meet you. I take it you’re called in on babysitting detail?”

  Elena flicked a glance at her sister, who nodded. “Yes. The nanny had a medical emergency today.”

  “Well, thank you for your fast response. I’m glad Kara has you to help.”

  “Wow.” Elena shot her a sly grin after the office door shut behind Mr. Drew. “He’s quite the hottie.”

  Kara rolled her eyes. “Is that why you neglected to mention you’re Mrs. Adair now?” She asked, with a pointed look at the rings on her sister’s left hand.

  “Oh, please. I only said he’s cute in that Wall Street wolf kind of way. I never said I was ready to leave Lucas for him.”

  Kara considered that. Jonathan Drew was a handsome man but… aside from the fact that he was her boss and therefore, off-limits, she’d never thought of him as such.

  Elena angled her head. “There’s no spark. No look.”

  Yes! Kara nodded. That was it exactly. He was just another human in the same orbit. They didn’t have any connection beyond that. Since Nadia was born, Kara hadn’t felt that spark with a
nyone and sometimes wondered if it was gone for good.

  Suddenly, Elena gasped and her face split into a wide grin. “There’s my girl!” She bent over and snatched a squealing Nadia from the floor, pressing loud kisses to her chubby cheeks. “So how’s Beth?”

  “Beth’s fine, it’s her mom. She’d been having some pain in her abdomen and went to see the doctor. They suspect cancer.”

  “Oh, God, no.” Elena’s eyes shut and she held Nadia just a little bit closer. It had been years—more than a decade—since they’d lost their own mother, but the wound still ached.

  “Laney.” Kara moved closer, squeezed her sister’s hand. “I am so glad you’re home.”

  Elena’s eyes filled at that. Elena had come back to New York for the first time since their mother’s death when Kara was expecting Nadia. Kara hadn’t known it at the time, but her sister felt responsible for Marie Larsen’s death, had been blaming herself for it since 2001. They’d had a huge argument, a loud and bitter fight that ended when a teenaged Elena had spitefully screamed, “I hate you! I hope you drop dead!” to her mother.

  That had happened on September 10th. And on September 11th, Marie Larsen went to work early that morning…and never made it home.

  It had taken a lot of effort to convince Elena that Kara needed her. The day she’d arrived in Manhattan—in fact, merely a minute or so after she’d stepped out of the car in front of Kara’s building, Elena had met Lucas Adair, a man she was convinced her mother had sent to punish her. It took even more effort to convince Elena that Luke wasn’t her penance, but her forgiveness.

  That Christmas had been good to all of the friends in their circle. Sabrina, Cassandra, and Jade—the sisters of her heart. Besides Nadia’s birth just a few days before the holiday, Sabrina reunited with her first love, Jake Killen, her daughter’s father. Cass reunited with her Irish musician, Sean McKinnon. And Jade found love with the boy who had once been her best friend, Ben Stephens and would be marrying him this summer.