by Cindy Kirk
Kate wondered if Joel would be at the party tomorrow. She hadn’t seen or heard from him since she sat with him and Chloe at Perfect Pizza on Monday.
Not that she expected to, of course. He had no reason to contact her. Which is what she wanted, right? The thought was oddly depressing.
“Dr. McNeal.” Lydia stood in the doorway. “I realize you’ve finished for the day, but one of your patients just showed up. The father thinks she’ll need stitches.”
Kate hesitated. It had been a long week and she was ready to have it over. Still, if she didn’t see the child, the parent would be forced to take her to the E.R., which, depending on the girl’s age, could be traumatic.
“Take her to room three, Lydia.” Kate dropped her keys back into her purse and locked the drawer. Reaching for her lab coat she rose to her feet. “Who’s the patient?”
“Chloe Dennes,” Lydia said over her shoulder.
For a second Kate froze. Then she jumped to her feet and hurried down the hall, pulling on her lab coat as she ran. She arrived just as Lydia was ushering Joel and Chloe into the room decorated with dancing hippos in tutus. Chloe’s green Earth Day T-shirt was stained with blood, as was the hand towel she held tightly pressed to the left side of her forehead. Joel’s face was as white as his shirt.
“Kate.” He turned toward her and his eyes lit up. “Thank God you were still here.”
Lydia glanced curiously at the handsome widower before returning her attention to Kate. “I’ll lock the door on my way out. Unless there’s something else I can do for you?”
If the older woman had been a nurse or a medical assistant, Kate might have asked her to stay. But she was a front-office person who’d displayed a tendency to go woozy at the sight of blood. Thankfully the woman kept her gaze averted from Chloe.
“We’ll be fine, Lydia. Thanks for offering,” Kate told her. “Have a good weekend.”
Instead of immediately taking out any supplies, Kate wheeled a stool in front of where the child now sat. Joel had taken the chair next to his daughter, but Chloe had positioned herself in the seat as if to get as far away from him as possible. Kate also noticed the girl refused to look at him. Very odd.
Kate looked into the girl’s tear-filled eyes and her heart overflowed with love. Mitzi had been right. This wasn’t just another patient. Kate would do whatever necessary to help her daughter.
“I’m going to take good care of you, Chloe.” Kate kept her voice calm and soothing. “Understand?”
The little girl sniffled, then nodded.
With great gentleness, Kate removed the towel Chloe held against her head. In addition to a half-centimeter gash that had stopped bleeding, there was a nasty bruise beginning by her eye. A dark discoloration and swelling that Kate knew would look worse before it got better.
It was the type of injury often seen after a punch to the eye or a hard slap to the side of the face. A sense of unease crept up Kate’s spine. She didn’t want to be suspicious, but between the injury and Chloe’s behavior, something wasn’t right.
“Is she going to need stitches?” Joel’s eyes were filled with worry, his jaw tight with strain. Splatters of blood dotted his white shirtfront.
Kate forced a smile to her lips. “Joel, would you mind leaving Chloe and me alone for a few minutes?”
“Leave?” His brows slammed together. “Why would I leave? If you’re worried I’m going to faint I can assure you that—”
“Nothing like that.” Kate placed a hand on his arm and looked into his eyes. “I simply need to speak with Chloe for a few minutes.”
“’S okay, Daddy.” Chloe’s gaze remained on the doctor. “Dr. Kate will take care of me.”
Joel reluctantly pulled to his feet. “I’ll be right outside in the hall,” he said to his daughter, completely ignoring Kate.
Kate knew she’d made him angry but it couldn’t be helped. With the cut above Chloe’s eye and the surrounding skin starting to blacken, their office protocol—and the law—required she interview the child alone. As much as it pained her to do it, she had no choice.
Opening up an ice pack, Kate handed it to Chloe and had her press the coldness against her rapidly swelling eye. “I need you to tell me what happened.”
Chloe’s gaze dropped to her lap. “I lost my balance and hit the edge of the coffee table.”
That might explain the laceration. It didn’t explain the black eye and the way the child was acting.
“What about your eye?”
The child chewed on her lip. “I hit it on the floor when I fell?”
Kate noted Chloe had answered with a question, as if searching for an acceptable explanation. Red flags began popping up in her head.
“Is that what happened?”
Chloe nodded vigorously, then winced.
“What were you doing when you fell?”
The little girl’s shoulders lifted together in a shrug. “I dunno.”
A shiver of unease rippled through Kate. The fact that Chloe’s eyes refused to meet hers when she was answering told her the child was hiding something.
She clenched her hands into fists. If Joel had hurt her…
No, he wouldn’t hurt Chloe. There had to be another explanation. Kate drew in a deep, steadying breath. “Chloe, look at me.”
After several long heartbeats the child lifted her gaze. Tears shimmered in the hazel depths.
“Tell me how this happened.” Kate spoke slowly, her eyes never leaving the child’s. Her tone made it clear not answering wasn’t an option. “Don’t leave anything out.”
“Daddy was holding on to my arm. I pulled away. That’s when I fell.”
Kate kept her face expressionless. “Why did you pull away?”
Chloe’s dark eyes flashed. “He was yelling at me. I didn’t want to listen anymore.”
Kate waited.
“He’s mean.”
Kate’s heart stopped at the vehemence in Chloe’s tone. She leaned forward and took the child’s hand in hers. “Does your father hurt you?”
Confusion filled the girl’s eyes. “Huh?”
“Does he hit you? Push you?” Kate could barely get the questions past her suddenly stiff lips. “Slap you?”
“What? No.” Chloe looked shocked Kate would even make such a suggestion. “Daddy wouldn’t do that.”
“You said he was mean,” Kate pointed out.
“Not in that way. He doesn’t understand how important—” Chloe stopped and clamped her lips shut.
Kate expelled a frustrated breath. “I guess I’m going to have to ask your dad to come back in, so I can determine what went on.”
Chloe shifted her gaze out the window.
Kate rose and opened the closed door. As she’d anticipated, rather than taking a seat in the chair, Joel stood, hands jammed into his jeans pockets, rocking back on his heels.
“May I come in now?” The irritation in his voice said clearly what he thought about being relegated to the hall.
“It wasn’t personal.” Kate kept her tone professional. “Anytime a child comes in with her type of injury, we speak with them alone.”
Confusion blanketed Joel’s handsome face. “Why?”
Kate paused, knowing he wasn’t going to like her answer. “To make sure the injury was indeed an accident and not the result of…abuse.”
“Abuse?” His face turned red and he roared the word. “You thought I hurt Chloe?”
Kate lifted her chin. “It’s protocol.”
“You know me, Kate. Or I thought you did.” His tone turned cold, his eyes practically frosty. “May I comfort my daughter now? Or do you have a protocol for that, too?”
Kate flushed at the sarcasm.
Without waiting for an answer he brushed past her. She opened her mouth to say she was sorry, then shut it without saying a word. She had no reason to apologize. Even though her heart said he was incapable of hurting his child, logic said it was possible. As far as she was concerned he still hadn’t been clea
red. Which meant before she let Chloe walk out the door with him, all questions would be answered to her satisfaction.
“You haven’t even touched her cut,” Joel said accusingly. “Chloe lost all that blood and you’ve done nothing.”
“Cuts on the head and face always bleed more because of all the blood vessels in the skin,” Kate informed him. “The blood loss looks like a lot more than it is.”
“Oh,” was all he said.
“Chloe, I’m going to clean you up a bit. While I’m doing that, your daddy is going to tell me how you hurt yourself.”
Kate fixed her gaze on Joel.
“We were talking. She started to walk away. I grabbed her arm. She pulled away and fell. The gash game from the edge of our glass-topped coffee table. I’m not sure about the eye. It had to happen when she hit the hardwood floor.” Regret blanketed Joel’s face. “I should have just let her walk away.”
“What were you arguing about?” Kate asked.
“We weren’t arguing. We were discussing. Or rather, I was trying to discuss.”
“Okay, what were you discussing?” Kate asked, trying to keep the frustration from her voice.
“Don’t Daddy, don’t,” Chloe begged. “Please don’t tell her. She’ll hate me.”
Kate finished pulling on her gloves and paused. Why would Chloe think she would hate her? It didn’t make sense.
“She won’t hate you, honey,” Joel began.
“There is nothing you could do that would make me hate you,” Kate said with a fierceness that surprised them all.
Chloe’s eyes widened. “Really?”
“It’s true.” Kate began to gently clean the area around the wound, trying to regain her composure. While she’d loved this child when she was born, that feeling couldn’t compare to the depth of her love now. Or to the protective urge that made it hard to think rationally at a moment like this.
“Chloe has been after me to buy her lip gloss.” Joel cast a sideways glance at his daughter who kept her gaze averted. “While we were in the drugstore this afternoon picking up her allergy medicine, she asked again. I told her no. Apparently she didn’t like that answer because she put a tube in her pocket. The manager saw her and stopped us on the way out the door.”
A pained expression crossed his face and Kate sensed his confusion and his embarrassment.
“Thankfully Mr. Henderson didn’t press charges.” He glanced pointedly at his daughter and she flinched. “When we got home, I tried to discuss what had happened, but Chloe didn’t want to talk.” Frustration underscored the words. “I’m just glad her mother wasn’t around to see this.”
“Mommy would have understood,” Chloe cried out.
“Your mother would never have condoned thievery,” Joel roared.
Chloe pushed up from the chair.
“Relax, honey.” Kate put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “You need to sit and stay very still for me. Can you do that?”
With tears slipping down her cheeks, Chloe nodded.
“Why don’t you tell us why having lip gloss was so important to you.” Kate kept her tone light and nonjudgmental. “Your dad and I are going to listen because we really want to understand.”
Kate glanced at Joel and he reluctantly nodded.
“All the girls my age wear lip gloss,” Chloe began.
Joel opened his mouth, but Kate shot him a warning glance and he shut it without speaking.
“They think I’m ugly.” Chloe drew a shuddering breath. “I thought maybe if I had some lip gloss I might be pretty and they’d like me.”
“How could anyone think you’re ugly?” Joel looked shocked. “You’re beautiful.”
“You have to say that,” the child said in a dismissive tone. “You’re my dad.”
“Well, I don’t have to say it and I happen to agree with him.” Kate thought for a second. “I’m wondering if perhaps your father doesn’t realize what lip gloss looks like.”
The girl and her father exchanged confused glances. Kate wasn’t sure what she was doing either. She only knew she had to help these two find some common ground.
“Joel, would you reach into my pocket please?” Kate lifted her arm and gestured to the right side of her lab coat.
He hesitated for a second, then moved closer. The spicy scent of his cologne surrounded her. Her traitorous heart picked up speed, the way it always did around him. He leaned near, careful not to touch her. His tense shoulders and the tight set to his jaw told her that while he was willing to go along with this, he still hadn’t forgiven her for banishing him to the hall. Or for practically accusing him of child abuse.
After he’d pulled out the small tube of the neutral-colored lip gloss Kate used over her lipstick for extra shine, he held the small cylinder out to her. “What do you want me to do with this?”
“First I want you to look at my mouth.”
“This is ridiculous…” he hissed.
“Please, Daddy, do as she asks.”
His gaze dropped to Kate’s mouth and her body took on a warmth at odds with the room temperature. When her lips began to tingle, she knew she had to keep the illustration moving. For her sake as well as his.
“What do you see?”
Joel looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Lips.”
She smiled. Typical man.
“Put the lip gloss on me.”
Joel dropped his gaze to the tube, two lines forming between his brows.
“You unscrew the top, then pull the applicator thingy out,” Chloe instructed. “That’s what you smooth on her lips.”
“Shouldn’t you be stitching my daughter up?” Joel growled.
Kate smiled and waved a hand. “There’s no rush.”
With an irritated huff, Joel leaned forward, applying the gloss as if he was painting a fence board with a wide-bristle brush. Still, for several seconds, his face, his lips, were right.in.front.of.her.
Kate’s breath hitched. The answering flare of heat in his eyes told her his anger had changed to something a lot more dangerous. At least as far as she was concerned.
“Tell me,” she asked when he sat back, “what do you see now?”
“A pretty woman,” he said flatly.
Chloe giggled, easing some of the tension.
Kate rolled her eyes, but the truth was, she liked the unexpected compliment. “Focus,” she told Joel, “on the mouth. What word comes to mind?”
“Shiny.”
“Exactly,” Kate said triumphantly. “Shinier lips.”
She saw the moment he made the connection.
“This is your way of telling me—of showing me—that Chloe wearing lip gloss should be no big deal.” He smiled, a crooked boyish sort of smile that sent her stomach into flips and melted her heart. “Certainly not something worth arguing over.”
“Exactly right.” Kate shifted her gaze to Chloe. “But stealing, well, that is something worth discussing.”
“I know.” Chloe let out a beleaguered sigh, then with her bottom lip trembling, she turned to her father. “I’m sorry, Daddy. I promise I won’t take anything ever again.”
Joel looked as if he wanted to pull her into his arms, but settled for squeezing her closest hand instead.
“When we leave here, I think we should go back to the store,” Chloe said. “I want to apologize to Mr. Henderson.”
“He’d appreciate that,” Joel said. “And maybe we can buy you a tube of this stuff while we’re there.”
“Really, Daddy, really?”
Joel nodded. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you before when you tried to talk to me about the lip gloss.”
“It’s okay.” Chloe shifted her attention back to Kate. “Will the stitches hurt?”
“I have good news and bad news.” Kate smiled. “The good news is that now that I’ve had a chance to inspect and clean the wound, no stitches are needed. Instead, we’re going to glue the edges together.”
“Glue?” Joel looked surprised.
&n
bsp; Chloe looked pleased. “Superglue?”
Kate chuckled. “Actually I’ll be using a special skin glue that’s quite similar. It will keep the edges together until the laceration heals. And it dissolves by itself in seven to ten days, so you don’t have to come back.”
“What’s the bad news?” Chloe asked.
“You’re going to have one heck of a shiner.”
* * *
“You’re quite the party animal.” Mitzi stood back while Kate perused the dresses at a boutique in downtown Jackson.
“That’s me,” Kate said with a wry smile. “Wild and crazy.”
Moving to Jackson Hole had been quite an education. Kate hadn’t known what to expect from this part of the country. What she’d found were people who liked to work hard and play even harder. Tonight, she and Mitzi would attend a party celebrating the change of seasons.
“I’ve never been to a party heralding the arrival of the summer solstice,” Mitzi said. “Being from Los Angeles, I thought I’d seen everything.”
“For Mary Karen and Travis, any excuse will do. They love to entertain. Lexi and Nick are like that, too. Because most of their friends have children, kids are usually included.”
“Are you telling me there will be toddlers underfoot and babies screaming?” Mitzi wrinkled her nose. “On second thought I may have to stay home and wash my hair this evening.”
“Trust me, it’ll be fun.” Still, Kate couldn’t help but remember one event where she’d looked down and seen Connor—one of Mary Karen’s twins—dressed in camouflage and crawling commando-style under a coffee table with a toy hand grenade in his hand. But that had been during a book-club meeting, not a full-blown party like tonight. “For the bigger parties, they hire college girls to watch the children. The kids will have their own ‘party’ in another part of the house.”
Mitzi’s face brightened. “Okay, so maybe I don’t need to wash my hair tonight after all.”
With renewed enthusiasm, her friend shifted her focus back to the task at hand. Plunging her hand into a rack of clothes, Mitzi pulled out a dress. “How about this one?”
Oversize violet and yellow flowers decorated the bodice of the ugliest dress Kate had ever seen.
