by Tina Beckett
She forced her mind back to where the man in question was carefully listening to Renato’s heart. “He has a slight murmur.”
“Yes. He has a prolapsed mitral valve. And his breathing isn’t quite where we want it to be yet, although it seemed fine right after birth.”
“All Zika-related?” Rafe glanced up from the exam table.
“We’re not sure. The mitral valve issue is common enough in the general population that we have no idea if it’s due to the virus or if his valve would have been that way anyway.”
“Any of the other cases include heart valves?”
What could seem like random anomalies, if taken on a case-by-case basis, could actually be part of a disease process if they occurred in clusters.
“Neither of the other two infants had heart involvement at all. But then again Renato doesn’t have clubbed fingers or a cleft palate like one of the other patients.” She hesitated. “And, honestly, if we don’t see any more suspicious cases of birth defects, I will be ecstatic.”
“So will the CDC. But we can’t operate under that assumption.”
“Any advances on the vaccine front?”
Rafe, who had handed her back her stethoscope, went to test the baby’s grip reflex. Renato’s fingers curled around the epidemiologist’s thumb and held on.
A strange quiver went through her stomach when he didn’t immediately tug free and move on to the other hand, but rather stood there, looking down at the baby. When he glanced up again, his eyes were dark, pupils large. “There are a couple of promising trials coming up. Hopefully we won’t have very many more Renatos before a breakthrough is discovered.”
Her throat tightened. “It’s so terrible, isn’t it? He had his whole life in front of him, and now...”
“I know.”
Somehow, Cassie sensed Rafe really did know. She’d never found out exactly why he’d been drinking that night. He’d figured her reasons out by watching her take off her ring. But once they’d left the bar he hadn’t been all that interested in holding lengthy conversations. He’d been too busy kissing her.
And more.
There it was again. That stream of heat that started in her head and rushed rapidly to the outer reaches of her body. If this was what hot flashes felt like, she wanted no part of them.
“Do you need anything else?”
“I think I have enough for this visit.”
This visit? As in there would be more? She had been counting on this being a chance meeting. A fluke. Kind of like Mad Ron’s had been.
Rafe eased his thumb from the baby’s grip and carefully picked him up, tucking him under his chin and holding him close for a moment.
The warm flush grew despite her best efforts. Some woman was going to be lucky to get him. He was drop-dead gorgeous, and she could tell babies held a special place in his heart.
Except she had a feeling she wasn’t the first woman he’d picked up in Mad Ron’s. And she probably wouldn’t be the last. That should tell her right there that he wasn’t a one-woman kind of man.
Well, neither was her ex.
Yes, and it was a good thing she’d thought of Darrin, because it was enough to put her back on the straight and narrow. Maybe she could find a convent that would take her in.
As ridiculous as that was, the thought made her stop. She didn’t want to join an actual cloister or abandon the human race entirely, but couldn’t she turn her heart into one? She’d let one man in and it had been a disaster. One she didn’t want to repeat. If she could figure out how to fashion her life into an impenetrable fortress, she could stand in its turret and rain arrows down on any man who ventured too close.
Like Rafe?
No, he’d been a one-night stand, a fling, nothing more, nothing less.
Liar, liar...
Rafe’s amused words during their meeting in the conference room came back to haunt her.
She may have been lying about her name, but she wasn’t lying about the one-night-stand part. This man was dangerous. The less she had to do with him, the better.
Maybe she should make things as plain as she could for him—and for her—to make sure his references to “next time” were just idle talk. Especially if the Zika thing was actually a “thing” and they really did need to work together more than this one time.
She hesitated.
Come on, Cassie. Embarrassment is a small price to pay to make sure things don’t get more awkward than they already are.
“Can I say something?”
He glanced up, the baby still tucked close. “Of course.”
“That night at the bar was... Well, I wasn’t myself. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I’m not looking for a relationship.”
A frown appeared. “You made that pretty obvious when you came in with an engagement ring and handed me a fake name. But, just for the record, I agree with you. It was a one-time thing. Not to be repeated.”
The quick stab of pain was unexpected, but necessary. So were her next words. “As long as we’re both clear. And I’d appreciate your keeping what happened between us.”
“I wasn’t planning on writing any journal articles or using you as a reference on my résumé, if that’s what you’re worried about.” This time his voice was a little harder than it had been. She ignored it.
“Great. It sounds like we’re on the same page. Now, I’ll take the baby, if you’re done examining him.”
As he handed Renato back to her, Cassie breathed an inner oath to herself. As of this moment she was going to stay true to her word and watch her Ps and Qs with this man.
Although, if she were very, very lucky, there would be no more Zika cases at her hospital, and no reason to see a certain epidemiologist ever, ever again.
CHAPTER TWO
BONNIE CORNERED CASSIE in the cafeteria a few hours later, dropping into the seat across from her. “So what was that all about?”
Her friend was everything she wasn’t. With untamed red hair and a personality to match, they were about as opposite as they could be. And yet they’d been friends since elementary school—their friendship the only stable thing in an unstable childhood. Bonnie had dared her to do some outrageous stunts during the course of their lives, most of which had been turned down with a shocked “Are you insane?” Her friend was the one, though, who had talked her into going to medical school, saying she had the “smarts.” Working at the same hospital with her was both fun and, at times, extremely scary. Like right now.
She decided to play it cool. “What was what, Bon?”
“Um...that CDC man thinking I was you? He may have said my name, but he was staring right at you.”
“Was he?” Hadn’t she just asked Rafe not to mention their little tryst? She gulped. Well, he probably didn’t have someone like Bonnie grilling him. He seemed like a loner.
Her friend propped her arms on the table, leaning forward and giving her a dark glare. “If you could have seen the look on your face when he said he’d already met ‘Bonnie’ you wouldn’t bother using that innocent act on me. I can see right through it. What happened?”
“I picked him up at a bar.” Yep. She would just keep what had happened to herself. She gave an internal eye-roll.
“You...what?”
Cassie couldn’t prevent a laugh. “Okay, so if your face looks anything like you say mine did, then I’m in big trouble. Close your mouth, silly.”
Bonnie obliged with an audible click of her teeth. “Okay, just let me wrap my head around this for a second. I cannot imagine you picking up anyone. Especially so soon after Darrin. Where did you go?”
“Mad Ron’s. And it was the same night as the break-up actually. I yanked the ring off on the way through the door.”
“Wow. Just wow.” Her friend snagged a grape from C
assie’s plate and looked at her with something akin to envy. “This is probably the only impulsive thing you’ll do in your entire life, and I didn’t even get an invitation. Or a video.”
“Um... I don’t think you would have wanted an invitation, and certainly not a video, for part of it.” Most of it, actually. Her friend knew how to keep a secret so there was no harm in letting her in on it. Right?
Bonnie popped the fruit into her mouth, chewing for a few seconds. “Maybe not. But I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall. That still doesn’t answer my question, though. Why did he think I was—” She stopped, eyes widening. “Oh, wait. You gave him my name. You...you impersonated me.”
“I didn’t impersonate you. I would have had to wear a wig and get a personality transplant to do that. I just didn’t think I’d ever see the man again. And if he turned out to be some kind of weird stalker...”
“Oh, I see. You’d rather sic the crazed stalker on your best friend. Although, after looking at him, I might not have minded. As long as he offered sex. And lots of it.”
“Bonnie! I meant the psychopath kind of stalker.” Cassie laughed again, partly to cover her embarrassment. Because he had offered sex. Lots of it, as her friend had said. “If he’d turned out to be some kind of weirdo, I knew you’d make short work of him with that jujitsu stuff you do.”
Bonnie had actually had to get them out of a tricky situation a few years back—a carjacker had tried to come through her open window. The result had been a concussion for the jerk when her friend had somehow managed to turn her body enough to land a sharp kick to his head. Through the window!
She hadn’t really thought Rafe would turn out to be a psychopath, she just hadn’t wanted him to try calling her for another date, if he’d gotten the wrong impression about what she’d wanted from him.
Not that she was proud of herself for going the hot-sex-and-nothing-else route, but she’d been livid and crushed and horrified when she’d discovered Darrin’s infidelity. She’d wanted revenge. And to forget.
Rafe had helped her to forget that night, that was for sure. Except she couldn’t quite scrub him from her mind as easily as she’d thought she’d be able to, despite her words to the contrary. And the image of him holding Renato’s tiny form to his chest...
Her food suddenly looked very unappetizing. Queasy-making, actually. She shoved her tray over to Bonnie when the nurse picked up another grape. “You can have it. I’m not hungry all of a sudden.”
Bonnie tilted her head, concern coming into her eyes. “Hey, don’t get upset. I hereby give you permission to use my name anytime you want. I think it’s kind of funny, actually. And if Dr. Tall, Dark and Sexy ever wants a threesome...”
Before Cassie could express her shock or deny that she was ever going to sleep with the man again, her friend held up a hand. “I’m kidding. Are you sure you’re okay? You normally get my cracked sense of humor.”
Yes she did, and Cassie wasn’t sure why it was striking such a weird chord today. “Sorry, it’s just been a hard month.”
“Maybe we should go out and do something fun. Take your mind off of things.”
The oily sensation in her tummy grew, forcing her to swallow. Bonnie had a point, though. She’d let herself dwell on her troubles for far too long. Maybe that was the source of her sour stomach and even sourer disposition. “Maybe we should. When is your next day off?”
“I’m off on Friday.”
“Hmm... I have to work the morning shift, but I get off at three—would that work?”
“Absolutely.” Bonnie wiggled her eyebrows. “What I have in mind is a night-time activity, anyway.”
“Bonnie...” The note of warning she’d injected into her voice did nothing to deter her friend.
“What? Don’t most people eat dinner at night?”
“You’re impossible.”
“Yep. That’s why you lubs me.” She picked up Cassie’s fork and dug into the tuna salad over lettuce. “Thanks for lunch, by the way.”
“Not a problem. So Friday dinner?”
“Yep. Maybe we could swap names for the night and pick up some hotties. Do a little role-playing and compare notes.”
Cassie crumpled up her napkin and threw it at her friend. “Forget it. Once has been more than enough. I’ll leave the pickup lines to you.” Not that Bonnie did anything too risky. She just liked to have a good time.
Friday was two days away, so that should give her time to throw off whatever weirdness was going on with her system and get back to being her normal perky self.
Well, perky probably wasn’t a word she’d use to describe herself—that was Bonnie’s domain. But she could at least start getting back some of her equilibrium. Between Darrin and that night with Rafe, she had been off balance for weeks. It was time to move forward and forget about all of that.
“See you on Friday, then.”
She stood and then stopped when Bonnie pointed the knife she was using at her. “By the way, if that hunky epidemiologist contacts you again, I want to be the first to know.”
* * *
Well, Rafe had contacted her again, but Cassie could wait until her dinner date with Bonnie to tell her about it. Cynthia Porter had requested that she pay a visit to Buena Vista Hospital on the other side of town. Cassie, with her big mouth, had mentioned her colleague over there, and Ms. Porter had taken that as a willingness to go over there after her shift. And guess who she got to go with.
None other than the epidemiologist himself. It should have been a piece of cake, right?
Wrong. Because she was now trapped in a car with him, and that yummy, totally manly scent was surrounding her and threatening to cut off her breathing altogether. It also triggered a memory of a very different time when she’d shared a space with him. A very intimate space.
A shiver went through her.
“Too cool?” He’d evidently seen her reaction, because his fingers moved to the climate-control system of the vehicle.
Pull yourself together, Cassie. You had a brief interlude with the man. It meant absolutely nothing.
So why was sitting next to him doing a number on her?
“I’m fine. I’m not exactly sure how I can help you.”
“I’d like to compare notes with some of the folks at Buena Vista and see if there are any similarities between your cases and theirs. You know your patients better than anyone.”
Which was why she had three sets of case files perched on her lap. She’d had to call the parents of each of the affected babies and ask if they could share information with the other hospital. All of them had agreed, Renato’s mom saying she wanted to do anything she could to make sure this didn’t happen to anyone else’s child.
And that had been the deciding factor in Cassie going. She too was willing to do anything she could to help prevent Zika from harming any more babies. Spending a few additional hours in Rafe’s company was a small price to pay.
That didn’t make it any less uncomfortable, though.
“Did you find out if there are any cases over there?”
“I checked with my brother...” he glanced over at her, his brown eyes skimming her face “...and he made a few calls. The prenatal and maternity departments came up with a couple of red flags.”
“Really?” That surprised her a little. She would have expected more cases at Seaside, since it was a public hospital. Immigrants, both papered and unpapered, tended to favor her hospital, since it made more provisions as far as translators and government resources went. Neighborhoods in Miami tended to form based on language and culture, which was how places like little Havana had come into being. It helped make the transition to the United States a little less painful for newcomers.
“Is it my imagination or am I’m hearing something behind that ‘really?’”
“We just tend to get more of the patients who might have come from affected regions than Buena Vista.”
“My family is from Heliconia. California has reported two cases of Zika-related microcephaly in newborns whose mothers recently emigrated from my home country.”
His home country. The low murmur of Spanish from a month ago trickled through her memory and sent heat sloshing through her belly. She did her best to stem the tide.
“Do your parents live nearby?”
There was a pause and Rafe’s hands tightened on the wheel, before loosening his grip. “My three brothers do.”
That was weird. She hadn’t asked about his brothers. “So you came to the States as adults?” He didn’t have an accent that she could detect, but his Spanish had been flawless.
“Dante and I were children when we arrived here. My other two brothers were born in this country.”
So his parents had emigrated from Heliconia. And yet he still hadn’t mentioned them. Not once. Had they moved back home?
“Are you hearing anything about Zika from relatives in Heliconia?” She shouldn’t be asking, and she knew that her digging was not entirely professional. She was curious about him and his brothers and their reasons for moving to the States.
“No.”
And that short answer put her in her place. He didn’t want any more personal questions. Okay, that was fine.
He stared at the road for several more seconds and then took a deep breath, blowing it out. “Sorry. My parents are both dead. They’ve been gone since Dante and I were eighteen.”
Both of them? Shock wheeled through her. They must have been killed in a car accident or something.
“I’m so sorry. They died here in Miami?”
“Yes. My father passed away at Buena Vista, in fact.”
There was a terrible note in his voice that she couldn’t decipher. She swallowed, not wanting to think about what he and his brothers must have gone through. And, really, it was none of her business. She decided to change to a less intrusive topic.
