NYC Angels: Tempting Nurse Scarlet. Wendy S. Marcus

in his pants. Not good. Scarlet Miller was not the woman to slake his lust. He needed her to fix things between him and Jessie and would not risk anything interfering with his top priority. “Please accept my sincerest apologies.”

      “Accepted, but not necessary,” she said. “For the record, you could pass for sexy on the phone, too.”

      “You are not helping.”

      “Do you want to know what I’m wearing?” she taunted him.

      “Absolutely not,” he lied.

      “I could—”

      “Stop it.”

      “Fine,” she said. “But you started it.”

      “And I’m going to finish it.” Only because someone had to. “I called to talk about Jessie. To try to sweet talk you into sharing some more helpful hints on improving communication between us, because the direct approach is not working.”

      “Too bad. That’s the closest I’ve ever come to having phone sex.”

      Did he detect a hint of disappointment? “Oddly enough, me, too,” he admitted. And why did he feel so comfortable sharing that tidbit with a woman he hardly knew?

      “You know you’re putting me in a tough spot,” Scarlet said, her voice serious. “I can’t betray things Jessie has told me in confidence. She really needs a friend to talk to, and right now I’m it. It took me a long time to get her to open up.”

      He wanted to ask how she’d managed that, but decided to start with, “Would you at least tell me how you met?”

      She took so long to answer Lewis had started to worry she wouldn’t.

      “That I can do.” It sounded like she repositioned herself in bed. Again. “I work late on Tuesdays and Thursdays to spend some time with my night staff. So I take a break at three.”

      “Right around when I send Jessie down to get a snack after school.”

      “The cafeteria isn’t usually busy at that time so I noticed her, always sitting there by herself with that ‘don’t talk to me’ look.”

      Lewis hated that look.

      “I saw a lot of my thirteen-year-old self in Jessie. Mad at the world. Too much time alone and unsupervised. Do you honestly think she’s safe wandering around alone in a city hospital for hours waiting for you to get off work?”

      Lewis did not appreciate the censure in her tone. She had no idea how hard he’d tried. “That was her doing not mine. I told her what would happen if she made one more babysitter quit. And she’s not supposed to be wandering around alone,” he pointed out maybe a little too forcefully. Calm it down. “She’s supposed to be in my office doing her homework.” Except his little Houdini always managed to sneak out without anyone seeing then show up hours later when it was time to go home. “What do you suggest I do? Let her stay at my condo all alone until I get home, like she’d prefer? Maybe some thirteen-year-olds are ready for that. But in my opinion Jessie isn’t.” And his opinion was the one that mattered.

      “I agree,” Scarlet said, surprising him. “But it’s a moot point since I’ve got her spending her afternoons up in the NICU wing now.”

      “Where?” Why?

      “We have a family lounge. It’s geared towards the siblings of our babies who are often overlooked while their parents focus their attention on their sick infant. So we made them a special place with video games, toys, computers to do their homework, a television and a kid-friendly library that holds everything from picture books to young adult novels. Jessie comes up to read every afternoon.”

      Jessie liked to read? They actually had something in common? Yet in the nine months she’d been living with him he’d never seen her with a book.

      “I’m sorry. I assumed she told you.”

      “Aside from mostly no’s and the occasional yes, she hardly speaks to me. I do get a lot of shrugs, exasperated breaths and eye rolls, though. And when she does surprise me with a full sentence, it’s usually to tell me how much she hates me, that she knows I don’t want her, or that she wishes I’d died instead of her mother.” Then he’d rather she’d just stayed quiet.

      “She has a lot of anger.”

      Rightly so. But, “It’s been nine months. Shouldn’t it be dissipating a bit by now?”

      “If only time was all she needed.”

      “Tell me what she needs. I’ll do anything.”

      Silence.

      “Please,” Lewis said. “If you want me to beg, I will.” He slid to the edge of the recliner, fully prepared to drop to his knees. “I am that desperate.”

      Silence.

      Lewis started to lose hope that Scarlet would be the panacea he needed.

      Then she spoke. “If you can slip up to the NICU family lounge around four o’clock tomorrow you’ll see a different side of Jessie. One that I’m sure will make you proud.”

      An opportunity he would not miss. “I’ll be there.”

      “She can’t know I told you. Say you came up to check on baby Joey, and my staff told you where to find me.”

      “Will do.”

      “I’m giving you an opportunity for a positive interaction with your daughter, Lewis. Don’t screw it up.”