by Grady, D. R.
“Tough day?” She attempted to radiate sympathy.
“Yeah, most of my team hasn’t shown yet.” He shoved a hand through his hair.
“What’s going to...” She didn’t get a chance to ask her question because another page with an emergency code blared from the intercom for Mark.
He took off. It left her speaking to empty air.
Chapter 4
When Mark entered the cafeteria, he selected a large sandwich, larger coffee, and some fruit. He circled tables until he found Trixi. She was already eating. A container nearly touched her elbow while she ate from a different one. He set his meal down.
“Hello,” he greeted.
“Hello,” she returned and by then Katy, followed by Leo, settled in beside them.
“Katy is getting transferred to my department,” Mark announced.
“What? When did that happen?” Trixi’s fork hovered over her container. “That’s what your emergency meeting was about right before lunch?”
“Yes, since I know nothing about neurosurgery, they decided I would be perfect to fill in there, starting this afternoon.” Katy eyed Trixi’s tea. She handed it over. Katy tossed back a belt before stealing a bite of roast beef.
“I’ve got three staff members out as of this morning.” Mark reflected on the nightmare he’d encountered upon entering work. The morning disintegrated from there.
“Three down?” Trixi’s eyes rounded. “That’s a major blow.”
“Yes. One has the flu, one was in a really bad car accident last evening, and the other is out on immediate maternity bed rest.” He stared at his sandwich, and wondered if he had the energy to actually eat it.
Leo dove into the first thing he picked up. Mark turned back to his own tray and finally picked up the coffee. He took several long draws.
“You’re drinking coffee at lunch?” Leo’s eyebrows met over his nose.
“It’s necessary.” Mark took another long swallow before he picked up his sandwich.
Katy opened the tea on her tray. She pried the lid off her salad and then stared at it like she didn’t know what to do next.
He could commiserate as he finally managed to tear the wrapper off his sandwich. Leo helped Katy and soon she made inroads into her salad.
After she finished eating, Trixi tugged the lid off the container at her elbow and Katy’s head turned so fast, she might suffer from whiplash pains later. “Your famous chocolate fudge cake.”
“We had some last evening.”
Even Leo stopped shoveling food in to stare in awe at the double-layered cake oozing rich chocolate frosting. It was covered with a thicker chocolate on the top and sides. Before Mark took full inventory, he was drooling.
Katy snapped her salad lid in front of Trixi. “Load her up.”
He liked how she thought. Mark set his own plate in front of Trixi after she settled a huge piece on Katy’s lid. Leo sampled Katy’s before shoving his plate close. By the time Trixi served him, Katy was busy moaning. Mark understood because this cake was unreal.
“You could make a fortune selling these.” Mark paused only long enough to say this before he dove back in.
“Then they wouldn’t be fun anymore.”
Mark paused, his next bite hovering between his mouth and plate. Katy eyed it with avarice while Leo stole some of her cake since his was gone already. She turned a censorious gaze on him. With a contented smile, Leo leaned back in his chair and sent Katy a cheerful wink in return.
Her lip curled up.
By this time, Mark regained his faculties since his cake was gone. “You bake these for fun?”
“Of course. She loves to cook and bake and she excels at both.” Katy shoved her empty lid close to Trixi again. Trixi took a moment to add another slice. Interested, Leo copied her motions and received a second serving as his reward. He dove right in, before Trixi could change her mind.
This was not the moment to be shy, so Mark presented his plate again. He received the remaining wedge.
“Where did you get purple eyes from?” Leo asked Katy randomly. It was a great question though, because he’d been wondering the same thing.
Katy paused in demolishing her second helping of cake. “They run in my family. Usually someone has them.”
Trixi swallowed a dainty bite of her first piece of cake. “Really? Why didn’t I know that?”
Katy grinned. “Because I was too busy nagging you to make this cake to talk about my family genetics.”
“I’ve met both of your aunts and neither of them have your eyes.”
“No, my paternal grandmother had them. They must run through her side of the family. From what the aunts tell me, my grandmother was thrilled when I ended up with her eyes.”
“Where’d the yellow hair come from?” Mark polished off his second slice of cake and downed more coffee.
Katy wrinkled her nose. “My mother. From what I learned from my aunts, all the women on her side end up with this hair color.”
“Isn’t it normally called blonde?” Trixi asked delicately. A smile flirted with her lips and he liked the affection between the two women.
“Yes, but her hair isn’t blonde. It’s yellow.” Mark used his chin to point at Katy.
Beside him, Leo also stared at Katy’s amazing hair. “It’s definitely yellow.”
Katy and Trixi’s eyes met. “Maybe they’re both color blind,” Katy ventured with a mischievous glint.
“Maybe.” Trixi’s smile was so sweet it rivaled the delicious cake. The woman was gorgeous.
Her expression shuttered when she turned to Katy. “Dad’s engaged.”
Katy choked on her iced tea. “What?”
“Yeah, I was surprised too.”
“To what’s-her-name? Chrissy?”
Trixi’s sigh was heartfelt. “Yes.” She snapped the lid back onto the empty cake container.
With a napkin she swiped from Leo, Katy wiped her mouth, purple eyes wide. “I can’t imagine him married to her.”
“I know. She was checking everything out in the house; mentally assessing items and determining their value.”
“I wouldn’t put it past her to sell the house out from under you.” Katy’s mouth turned wry.
“Yeah, unfortunately for her, I don’t think she knows that can’t happen.”
For a moment there, Mark thought Trixi’s eyes turned hard, but the emotion was gone so quickly he wasn’t certain.
“Gold digger?” He swirled the remaining coffee in his disposable cup.
“Yeah, his current girlfriend is a nasty piece of work. She’s beautiful with a gorgeous body and money signs in her eyes,” Katy said.
Leo stirred. “How do you know this?”
“I keep in touch.” She tried to poke Leo.
Trixi nodded in agreement. “Katy has tolerated their relationship with me.”
“It’s been painful to watch. He fell hard and fast. Meanwhile she’s calculating how to squeeze the very most out of him she possibly can.”
He nodded. “I’ve seen her type before.”
“So has Dad. He’s always been able to see through their guises in the past.” Trixi’s lower lip jutted out as her forehead crinkled. “I don’t get it.”
“I can’t imagine Dad falling into her trap in the first place. Now that he has, why don’t we ask them to wait a little while? Try to stall the wedding somehow until he comes to his senses.” Katy tapped the table.
“That’s a good idea. We can probably stall them for a little while.”
“What do Gran and Miriam think?”
More names he had never heard before. They must be Trixi’s family, but it was interesting Katy seemed to know them well.
“They recognized what she was the instant they met her last night, of course.”
Katy sat up straight in her chair. “Wait, why hasn’t Dad taken Chrissy to meet them before this?”
“I don’t know.” Trixi’s mouth flattened. “That’s why I didn’t think it was serious
. Plus they’ve only been together a few months.”
“But he told you they were engaged?”
“She kept flashing a massive diamond on her finger when they told me last night.”
“A cap on an already stressful day?” Katy sent a sympathetic look at Trixi, who nodded.
“Why do you think I needed to thaw this cake?”
“Right. Of course you needed a double infusion of chocolate. Sounds like a necessity.” Katy rubbed Trixi’s arm. Trixi leaned into her.
“How long have you two known each other?” he asked abruptly.
His question startled both women. “I don’t know.” Katy frowned.
“Since our second year of college when we decided to become roommates.”
“We found a cheap efficiency apartment. It provided decent housing.”
“Why did you share an efficiency apartment?” Leo finished off his tea.
“Mostly because it was affordable and bigger than a dorm room, which we both lived in during freshman year, and hated.” Katy shrugged as she gathered the remains of her lunch in preparation to leave the cafeteria.
“Both of us were eager to move off campus.”
“We met when we went to look at the apartment. The building manager made a mistake and gave us the same time to view the place. We decided living together would be fun.” Katy shared a smile with Trixi.
Trixi nodded. “We became sisters.”
“How long did you live there?” Mark asked, fascinated by the conversation. Beside him, Leo’s body language also read interested.
Again, Trixi and Katy looked at each other. “All through college, and then after graduation Katy got accepted into a nearby medical school. I wasn’t certain about continuing my education so I took a nursing job.”
Katy shook her head. “You know you wanted to keep going, but we couldn’t both afford to stay in school.” She turned to them. “Trixi got a job and supported us while I went to school. She worked any extra shifts she could to pay our bills.”
“It was only for a year. You can do anything for a short amount of time.” Trixi made this sound like it was no big deal.
“What happened after that?”
Katy toyed with a saltshaker. “My inheritance for school kicked in finally, since I started college a year earlier than my grandparents expected. I also graduated a year early, as did Trixi.”
“Once we had her inheritance, she demanded I go back to school.” Trixi smiled. “By then I knew I wanted neonatal and I only had one of the required two years so I waited another year before applying to become a nurse practitioner.”
“How long ago was this?” Mark couldn’t get the math to add up.
“The thing is, I liked my job, since getting one at a hospital like this is difficult. I knew I might not land another if I left, so I kept working while I went to school.”
“Nothing I said convinced her to give it up,” Katy said dryly. “But I paid for our expenses so Trixi could save every penny she made. I knew she’d need the money eventually.”
“By keeping my job, it took me longer to finish my schooling, but I finally did a couple months ago. I had to give up a bunch of hours to complete my clinicals for a short time but the Human Resources Department assured me I would have a job when I finished.”
“And now she’s a permanent nurse practitioner.” Katy beamed.
“Speaking of, I’ve got more paperwork and then a couple of meetings, so I better hurry.” Trixi glanced at the clock.
He and Katy had a brain tumor to remove at one.
“Glad it’s working out for you,” Leo told Trixi laconically.
“Thanks. Although I’m itching to actually get to the neonatal unit now.” Her reply came with a quicksilver grin Mark wanted to see more of. In fact, he wanted a copious amount of time with her.
The question was how to make it happen? He hadn’t been interested in the fair sex before because of all of his schooling, but this lack of knowledge put him at a disadvantage. How did a man ask out a woman he wanted a relationship with?
For the first time in ages, he had no idea what to do.
Chapter 5
When she got home that evening, Trixi was more than ready to be. After a boring day of filling out forms and listening to spiels about benefits and perks she was already enjoying, there was something soothing about arriving to this place of refuge. It was feeling more like hers now.
Her car lights blinked after she locked it and then she let herself into the kitchen. And nearly crashed into Chrissy. Rearing back, Trixi gawked at her. “What are you doing here?”
Chrissy’s eyebrow rose. “I am engaged to your father so I have a right to be here.”
“How did you get in?” Surely, her father wouldn’t have given this woman a key to their home.
“The cleaning lady was here. I wanted to make certain to direct her in her duties. After all, once I marry your father I’ll be the mistress of this house.”
Opening her mouth to refute this hilarious notion, Trixi paused when Chrissy turned toward Trixi’s beautiful range. “As soon as the honeymoon is over, that thing is going. It’s an eyesore.” She sniffed. “It looks like it was built back in the eighteen hundreds. I want a stainless steel commercial model.”
“Can you cook?” Trixi heard the doubt in her own voice.
“No. But we can easily hire a decent chef.”
Hmm, someone has her entire life mapped out.
Trixi leaned against the warm range Chrissy had already discarded in her mind. “Do you have any idea how much this cost?”
Chrissy cast a disparaging look at it. “I doubt if it was much.”
Just to see the idiot’s reaction, Trixi quoted what they paid. It was what a person could expect to pay for a car.
Her future stepmother’s eyes widened as her mouth dropped open. The surprised expression didn’t detract at all from her good looks. “What?”
Trixi stroked the enameled front and nodded. “Yes. It will set you back the price of a decent car. They’re handmade in England and are top-of-the-line in ranges. You can’t buy much better than these.”
Chrissy displayed as much shock as her face allowed. This expression also didn’t detract from her beauty. Trixi let out a silent sigh. She bet when the woman cried, she did that prettily, too.
With a breezy wave, as if none of this was important, Chrissy moved on. “You can take it with you.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Trixi stroked one of the gleaming handles. This cooker made the kitchen in her opinion. It warmed the space and added a cheerful ambiance she especially liked.
At her reply, Chrissy’s expression hardened. “Oh, but you are. You understand there can’t be two mistresses of this house. Once your father and I are wed, you’ll have to move out.”
Trixi was already shaking her head. “My father will be moving out, not me. Since you’re marrying him, you’ll never move in.”
“That’s not how it works. He’s going to give you this house?” Chrissy sounded scandalized.
“He can’t give me what isn’t his.”
The rumble of garage door opening halted the discussion. Chrissy hurtled across the space to await Rylan. As soon as he entered the kitchen, she flung herself into his arms to kiss him in a very private manner. Trixi grimaced and wandered over to the fridge.
She had spotted a frozen pizza in the freezer this morning. After removing the plastic, she slid the pie onto the bottom of the roasting oven. By the time she shut the door and straightened, Chrissy was speaking low and fast to Rylan.
Trixi wished her well, but the gold digger wasn’t getting this house. Rylan would explain it all to her. She hoped.
He said something to Chrissy before taking a set of keys from the rack hanging behind a framed portrait. “Hi, sweetheart. I’m taking Chrissy to see our new house. Do you want to go out for dinner?”
“Hi, Daddy. No, I just slid a pizza in the oven. I’ll make a salad to go with it. If you two have plans, do
n’t alter them on my account.”
“We’ll discuss it on the way.” He gazed at the woman seething at his side. Her eyes kept darting with belligerence around the spacious kitchen, as though she couldn’t believe this house didn’t come with the man.
They exited out the guest wing door and without a qualm, Trixi hurried into the conservatory where she cracked a window. She could hear them coming and without a smidgen of guilt, eavesdropped on their conversation.
“What do you mean we won’t be living here? This is your house.” Chrissy sounded indignant.
“No, it’s not. It was my wife’s, and now it belongs to Trixi. This place has passed down from mother to daughter nearly from the time it was built.”
“From mother to daughter?” Chrissy echoed weakly.
“Yes. I have lived here since I married Trixi’s mother. According to the trust I will always have a home here, but if I remarry, I then shift to the guesthouse, which is where you and I will live.”
Her father sounded perfectly reasonable. Trixi didn’t bother to hide her grin. She could practically smell the smoke Chrissy’s fuming generated.
They were too far away for Trixi to overhear now. She closed the window, made certain it and its companions were locked, and then meandered back into the kitchen. She tugged out the ingredients for her salad and was well on her way to finishing it when they returned.
Since she didn’t know if they planned to stay or not, she made plenty. This would provide a nice lunch for her tomorrow if they didn’t. Especially if she threw in some fruit, cheese, and leftover chicken.
“So, you see, Chrissy, the guesthouse is nice. It has those two bedrooms, a decent kitchen, and a spacious living room.”
That about summed up the guesthouse, two bedrooms, two full baths, a tiny laundry room, and the kitchen. An open concept downstairs while the bedrooms were located in the loft area, the place was bright and airy and would be great for her father.
There was no doubt in Trixi’s mind it wasn’t at all what Chrissy had in mind for her next home. “I’m sorry, Rylan, I didn’t care for it. It simply won’t do for us.”
