Jealousy.
And it knotted in his stomach when he saw Ryleigh come around the corner and weave through the tables following behind the other doctor. Clearly they were planning to eat together. When they put their green plastic trays down on either side of his, there was no denying they were going to join him without asking if he even wanted them to join him.
And the Monday hits just kept on coming.
“Hi, Nick.” Ryleigh smiled. “I ran into Carlton in the hall. He was here at the hospital most of the night with the family of a sick little patient so I took pity and invited him to lunch.”
Gallagher reeked of good humor, even though he looked like he’d been run over by a truck. “You don’t mind if we join you.”
“Nope.” A lie, but he was literally between a rock and a hard place. Gallagher was wearing the hero hat. It didn’t matter that hanging out for hours handholding with the patient and family made no medical difference. Nick’s philosophy was to figure out the best medical treatment for a patient, then get out of the way and let it work. He was in the business of practicing medicine, not emotion.
Nick wanted to ask Ry why she hadn’t made coffee that morning, but didn’t want to “out” her in their living arrangement if she didn’t want to be outted. If she brought the subject up, he wouldn’t mind. All the better to give the impression she was taken.
“Busy weekend.” Gallagher took the plastic wrap off his ham sandwich. There were dark circles under his eyes and deep lines on either side of his nose and mouth.
“Yeah.” And that reminded him. His office manager had called a little while ago, coming down on Nick with a series of problems. It was time to spread the joy. “About Margo—”
“Your office manager.” Ryleigh took a sip of her vegetable soup. “I always liked her.”
“Yeah. The feeling’s mutual.” The tiny terror had run his office for the last five years. Fresh out of college with her business degree, she’d impressed him not only with her intelligence, but also the fact that she wasn’t afraid of him. “The thing is, Margo’s not happy.”
“Margo raises ‘not happy’ to an art form. I think she likes not being happy.” Gallagher didn’t look intimidated. “Can we talk about the fact that her name, Margo, conjures an image of statuesque elegance and sophistication.”
“I see what you mean.” Ryleigh laughed.
“And yet there’s nothing statuesque or sophisticated about her. She barely comes up to my shoulder and has the personality of a pit bull. She’s like a rose—pretty to look at, but if you get on her bad side, she’ll jab you with a thorn when you least expect it.”
Nick couldn’t fault his description. “Well, heads-up. She’s ready to jab you big time.”
“What have I done now?”
“You’re obstructing the office work flow.”
“How?”
“So many reasons…” Nick was enjoying this way too much and felt a little guilty because the other guy was at a disadvantage from lack of sleep. “Here are the top three in random order. You were on call this weekend and she needs the super bills for all the work you did here at the hospital.”
“The paperwork is in the car. I didn’t have appointments this morning and was here with a very sick two-year-old.”
“Boy or girl?” Ryleigh asked.
“Boy. He’s doing a lot better.” Gallagher met his gaze. “The plan was to turn the billing over to her when I get to the office after lunch.” He took a bite of his sandwich. “Next Margo issue.”
Nick knew he should back off, but couldn’t make himself do it. “She needs your dictation notes for your patients. The transcriptionist, and I’m quoting here, ‘had her panties in a twist’ when she called.”
“I talked to Connie and promised to drop the information off at her office,” Gallagher calmly said. “I’ll smooth it over when I swing by.”
He was probably good at charming women and had an answer for everything, but Nick tended to believe him. He’d had his own issues with the transcriptionist. “I saved the best for last.”
“Okay.”
“Margo said she made it perfectly clear to you that charts are not to be taken out of the office.”
“Yeah. I got the message loud and clear.”
“Not according to Margo. She did five straight minutes on wasting too much time and energy on the great chart hunt before concluding that you’d broken her cardinal rule and had them with you.”
“As the physician on call, I needed the history on your patients. Why didn’t she check with me?”
“You’d have to ask her about it.”
“I will.”
“Good luck with that.” Nick almost felt sorry for him. “She isn’t easy.”
“Neither am I. But provoking her on purpose can be pretty interesting.” There was a gleam in his eyes when he looked at Ryleigh. “Looks like I’ve got loose ends to tie up and the rest of my afternoon is going to get more interesting.”
“Margo is a teddy bear,” she told him. “You’ll be fine.”
“Want to come with me and run interference?”
Ryleigh laughed and shook her head. “Margo might be little, but she could take me down.”
“Okay. See you later.” Gallagher stood, then picked up his tray and emptied the trash into a container before threading his way through the tables and out of the cafeteria.
When they were alone, Ryleigh met Nick’s gaze. “Margo certainly runs a tight ship. Maybe she gets that from you, Nick.”
“Me?”
“You set that office up. You choreographed the work flow the way you wanted it. One would have to conclude that prolonged exposure to your charm and easygoing style have rubbed off on her.” She struggled unsuccessfully to twist off the cap on her bottle of water.
Nick turned it for her and handed back the bottle. “Was that sarcasm?”
“What was your first clue?” Her brown eyes twinkled with humor.
“Let me guess. You don’t really think I’m good-natured and charming?”
“You can be,” she qualified. “But both qualities were missing in action while Carlton was here.”
He was kind of hoping she hadn’t noticed that. And since when did she call the guy by his first name? There was no way Nick planned to explain that seeing her with another man had seriously depleted his stockpile of charm. “I was just passing on Margo’s message. In fact, believe it or not, my translation took a lot of the sting out of what she said, which makes me pretty darn charming. All in all, I’m a prince of a guy.”
“I think you’re in a bad mood and taking it out on him.”
Maybe. The hell of it was, now that they were alone he could almost feel the haze of darkness lifting as he soaked in her fresh-faced beauty, her humor and the sweet sound of her voice.
“What was your first clue?” he asked, echoing her question.
“You mean besides the fact that you were taking far too much pleasure in passing on Margo’s message?”
“Yeah,” he said, suppressing a grin. “Besides that.”
He realized she knew him pretty well. That wasn’t something he’d thought about when they were married, but he did now. Apparently she could see right through his crap. Part of him felt good about that. Part of him—not so much.
“You’re packing quite the attitude today, Doctor.”
“Thank you. I take a great deal of pride in that.”
She grinned. “Is this the hell everyone pays when you don’t get coffee at home first thing in the morning?”
“Maybe.” This time he couldn’t stop the smile that turned up the corners of his mouth. Nick had lost the will to fight almost immediately after the other man left. That’s what happened when he was alone with Ryleigh.
He’d forgotten how she could always manage to lift his spirits like this. Something warm and vital shifted in him as he realized how much he’d missed that.
Instantly amusement faded. She was right about him not getting what he wanted
to start his day. But it wasn’t caffeine that gave him a jolt. Seeing her first thing in the morning fed something gnawing and hungry in his soul.
If he didn’t find a way to stop craving it, he would waste away inside when she was gone. He would be everything he’d vowed never to be.
To thank Nick for his hospitality at the house, Ryleigh had fallen into the habit of handling the evening meal. She cut up lettuce for a salad and washed two potatoes to microwave while a whole chicken roasted in the oven. Just before leaving him in the cafeteria after lunch this afternoon, he’d told her to plan on him for dinner. But she’d learned while being married to him that his plans almost always changed.
She tried not to let the memories hurt because their lives were separate now; that’s what divorce did. But the sting somehow got through her shield. That would go away once she was in a place of her own: another thing she’d learned when they were no longer married. In the meantime, she was grateful to be in his house, as opposed to the hideous hospital-subsidized apartment.
The arrangement wouldn’t last much longer. Soon she’d do a pregnancy test and if—no, when—it was positive, there wouldn’t be any reason to stay.
That thought stung a little, too, but she chalked it up to how much she still loved this house. It wasn’t about the owner. As far as real estate, this place set a high bar and so far nothing she’d seen had compelled her to make an offer, not even the one Nick had urged her to make an offer on. But she wasn’t giving up.
Before she turned thirty, she would have a baby and a house. Her life would be complete.
When the front door opened and closed, her heart gave that familiar, excited little skip and she made a vow that when she had a baby and house of her own, it would be enough without the heart skipping.
Nick walked into the kitchen. “Hi.”
“Hey. You’re home.” She looked up from the cutting board and smiled.
“You sound surprised.”
“Wasted food is collateral damage to your occupation.” She shrugged. “Being a doctor means that the cook doesn’t know whether or not you’ll be home for dinner even if told to plan on you.”
Frowning, he walked to the refrigerator and grabbed a beer. “Would you like me to open a bottle of wine?”
“That would be nice.” Again her heart skipped.
She wondered if a bottle of wine would always remind her of the night Nick Damian had pulled out all the stops to set a romantic mood for making a baby. It had been a good night.
Really good.
And a part of her wished it had been real, not just a by-product of his promise to help her have a baby.
Nick quickly and efficiently removed the cork from a bottle of chardonnay, then retrieved a glass and poured the golden liquid into it. The wineglass was decorated with logo from a winery in Pahrump, just an hour drive over the hill from Las Vegas. More memories rolled through her of going there with him, but thinking about the past was just a gigantic waste of mental energy. And it bothered her a little that she was making new memories of her and Nick even though she and Nick weren’t a couple.
He set the glass down beside the chopping board on the island where she was slicing cucumbers. “How was your day?” he asked.
“I spent it with my computer and a stack of proposals for funds from Children’s Medical Charities.”
“When you weren’t running into Dr. Gallagher.”
“And you,” she reminded him. “All the paperwork is a necessary evil, but it’s still paperwork and has to be done. Not unlike Carlton.”
“It scares me that I understand what you just said. You think I think my prospective partner is a necessary evil.” Nick’s eyes narrowed. “And you’re on a first-name basis with him.”
“It was his idea.”
“There’s a surprise.” His voice had an edge to it.
Was he jealous?
Ryleigh put oil and vinegar on the salad greens and tossed them. Cool, calm, collected Nick was jealous? Dedicated, daring, dark and dangerous Doctor Damian wasn’t happy that his possible partner was on a first-name basis with his ex-wife?
Oh, it was a heady thought. It was delicious to think that the man who had once barely remembered she was alive might actually regret that behavior. And more heady and delicious, that there was a possibility he wanted her the way he once had before reality intruded.
Surely she was getting the signs all wrong. Jealousy was powered by emotion and Nick didn’t do feelings. But she was too intrigued to let the subject drop.
She put the salad by the two place settings at the island bar. “Why do you dislike Carlton?”
Nick looked up from the beer bottle he’d been studying so intently. “I like him fine. Why would you think I don’t?”
“Just a feeling.”
“What do you think of him?” Interest and irritation sparked in his eyes.
“He seems like a devoted doctor. Nice. Charming. Good looking.” She watched him closely for a reaction and saw his mouth tighten.
“That’s all superficial.”
“True. And I don’t know him very well. Yet,” she added.
“Meaning you’d like to? Know him, I mean.”
“Why not?”
“Because he’s not a good risk.”
She rested her hands on the granite island. “In what way? He seems like a terrific guy.”
“A guy who’s a doctor. That didn’t work out so well for you.”
Hmm. This tone and attitude reminded her a lot of house-hunting Nick from yesterday. This was the same one who’d found something wrong with every single property she’d looked at. What was up with him? He didn’t want her but didn’t want anyone else to have her, either? That didn’t really seem like the Nick she knew, and it felt a lot like he was cutting off his nose to spite his face.
“You know, Nick, I’m really not looking for another relationship.”
“Did I say you were?”
“Not in so many words. But you’re just a tiny bit hostile to Carlton and I think you should be nicer.”
“Why?”
He was standing by the stove, and she brushed by him to get the chicken out. The oven wasn’t all that was giving off heat.
“If he joins your practice, you’ll have more free time.” After removing the roasting pan, she set it on the stove burner, then pulled off the oven mitts and tossed them on the counter. “Think about it. He was on call this week and you had an actual life.” She stopped before adding that they’d been able to have actual sex because of Carlton. Nick might not want to thank the guy, but she did.
The thing was, Nick had brought the other doctor into the practice on a trial basis even before she’d returned to Las Vegas. Maybe he’d made the decision to scale back and have more time to himself. It was just possible that he was different from the workaholic she’d married.
“The only reason I was thinking about adding Gallagher to the practice is that there’s an acute need for doctors in this valley. It has nothing to do with making my life easier. It’s simply about helping kids. Some don’t get time and attention if I’m the only one around who does what I do.”
“You said was. You’ve decided against bringing him in as a partner?”
“Not yet. But he still has to convince me he’ll be a good fit.”
“Why wouldn’t he be?”
Nick took a pull on his beer, then set it on the island. “Take last night for example.”
“What about it? He was at Mercy Medical Center with a patient.”
“Actually, he’d already evaluated the boy and prescribed meds and respiratory therapy treatment. He’d ordered all the lab work.”
“That’s not what you’d have done?” she asked. “I remember a lot of times you spent the night at the hospital because of a sick child. You don’t become a legend by standing around twiddling your thumbs.”
He shook his head. “If the patient needed me I was there. But Gallagher gets too emotionally involved with the family, with
every case. It takes a toll and you have to pace yourself. Burnout is a big concern. Not to mention that if you get too close, that can skew your focus in a crisis. Especially with children.”
“Well, I hope it works out. Even if Carlton doesn’t pass your emotional scrutiny, you should keep looking for another doctor to share the practice.” She met his gaze. “For your sake. Whether or not your motivation was about you or readily available care for children with life-threatening diseases, or both, a partner in the practice could mean you’d have an actual life.”
Maybe with her?
The thought was there before she could stop it. And how stupid was that? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
She wasn’t foolish enough to go down the same road again.
Chapter Eight
Not quite awake, Nick ran his palm over the sheet beside him and was disappointed. It wasn’t filled with a soft, sexy woman. Ryleigh wasn’t there. He opened one eye just to make sure. More than once since they’d split he’d imagined her in his bed. He’d almost conquered that, but the inclination had returned with a vengeance. Because she was back under his roof. But not back with him.
And it was as if two years of actively working to forget her had never happened, as if he was back to square one. If there was someone other than himself to blame, he would be very happy to blame them, but that wasn’t the case. There was no choice except to grit his teeth and get through it.
On the bright side, today was Saturday and he didn’t have patients. Ryleigh didn’t have to go to work. Not only that, Gallagher had asked to take call. He was keeping a close eye on a really sick kid and would be around anyway. He’d said there was no point in both of them being tied up for the weekend. Nick had to admit, if only to himself, that having Ryleigh around with two days off in front of him had more appeal than was wise. He couldn’t seem to stop finding her appealing.
To Have the Doctor's Baby Page 9
