She glanced at the tables again before answering him. “I don’t see anything particularly filling here, but I can recommend the strawberries. The one I had was delicious.”
He reached past her to pluck one of the chocolate-dipped berries from a serving platter. His arm almost, but not quite, brushed against her with the movement. Close enough to make her pulse trip a bit, in a very pleasant way. She couldn’t help watching as he took a bite of the fruit, and she found herself moistening her own lips with the tip of her tongue.
Goodness, but this was one fine-looking man.
“You’re right,” he told her, his voice low and intimate, as if they were the only ones present in this crowded room. “This is good. Want a bite?”
The blatant entendre earned him a look of reprimand, and then a smile she made no effort to repress. “Thanks, but I’ve already had one.”
“A woman of great willpower, I see.”
Cecilia gave him a look from beneath her eyelashes. “When I choose to be.”
His left eyebrow rose. “So…”
“Geoff. Hey, Geoff, good to see you.” A balding man whose suit hung loosely on his bony physique peered over the tops of half glasses as he spoke, seemingly unaware of Cecilia’s presence.
Recognizing the newcomer as a prominent local business owner, and guessing Geoff was there specifically to mingle with potential investors in Mari’s planned biomedical research center, Cecilia tactfully slipped away. She was still smiling when she joined a group of her co-workers in another corner of the room.
“Was that Geoff Bingham you were flirting with over there?” Vanessa Harris, a registered nurse, instructor, and Cecilia’s closest friend in the clinic, asked.
“Unless you know some other rich, movie-star-gorgeous guy that might have made an appearance here today,” Cecilia quipped in return.
“Well, did you slip him your phone number?”
“Gee, I would have, but you know my policy. I never date men who are prettier than I am.”
Vanessa laughed, and, after a moment, Cecilia joined in. As much as she had dreaded this reception, it was surprisingly enjoyable. Amazing what a few minutes of flirting with a handsome man and laughing with a friend could do to turn around a trying day.
“Have you met the new PR director yet?” Vanessa asked in a low voice.
Cecilia stopped casting what she hoped were discreet looks toward the man still standing near the food tables and turned back to her friend. “No. Have you?”
Vanessa’s nod made her trademark large hoop earrings sway against her cheeks. “This afternoon.”
Tall and lushly rounded, Vanessa was a striking woman who would stand out in any crowd, even if it weren’t for her penchant for brightly colored clothing. She wore her black hair cropped close to her head. Her nearly black eyes glittered with a sharp wit and avid interest in her surroundings, and her flawless, chocolate-toned skin was taut and smooth. Having noted the faintest hint of developing laugh lines around her own brown eyes and full mouth, Cecilia could only hope she would look as good when she was forty-five.
Vanessa’s attractiveness wasn’t all Cecilia envied. Her friend was also the mother of four delightful children—two boys and twin girls, all under twelve. Vanessa was even lucky enough to have found one of those rare men who was deeply committed to his family and would probably stay with them through thick and thin, unlike so many of the men Cecilia had encountered.
“What did you think of Lillith Cunningham?” she asked, trying to put her growing obsession with children and motherhood out of her mind for the remainder of the evening—or at least until she got home.
“She’s interesting,” Vanessa replied. “Kind of artsy looking, you know? Flowing clothes in bright colors, jingling jewelry. No doubt she comes from money, but she’s got a nice smile, so maybe the wealth hasn’t gone to her head.”
“Mari wouldn’t hire a snob to promote the clinic,” Cecilia said, confident that she was right. Dr. Mari Bingham certainly fit the description of a woman who had been raised in wealth and privilege, but she still knew how to work hard and mingle comfortably with people of all circumstances. Anyone who wanted to adequately represent the Foster Midwifery Clinic, with its huge diversity of patients and associates, would have to possess the same qualities.
“You’re probably right. Mari’s a good judge of character—most of the time,” Vanessa added in a mutter.
Their conversation was interrupted when Milla Johnson, a young midwifery student, greeted them quietly. Pretty and competent, Milla was one of the shining stars of the midwifery school, and Cecilia had grown quite fond of her. She couldn’t help noticing that Milla looked a bit tired this evening, despite what appeared to be a fresh application of blusher and lipstick.
Milla was definitely showing the effects of the strain of her demanding job, in addition to the worry of a malpractice lawsuit that Cecilia considered little more than an unfair nuisance by a couple determined to blame their own shortcomings on someone else. Milla, in this case.
“Have you had anything to eat lately?” she asked the younger woman in rather maternal concern. “You look a little pale.”
“I’m fine,” Milla replied, trying to smile. “It’s just been a long day.”
“Tell me about it,” Cecilia agreed with a crooked grin, pressing a hand to her back to indicate her own weariness. “We’re well into a Merlyn County baby boom, aren’t we?”
Milla chuckled wearily. “I think the population of Binghamton almost doubled in the past week alone.”
“We’ve sure got a boatload of Binghams represented here tonight,” Vanessa murmured in a bit of a non sequitur as she surveyed the crowded room. “There’s dear Miss Myrtle and Mr. Ron. And Mari and Geoff. You know this event’s a big deal if they brought him home for it. Then there’s Hannah, of course, I suppose she counts as a Bingham. Don’t she and your brother look happy, Cecilia?”
Cecilia smiled mistily across the room to where her handsome and utterly adored younger brother, Eric, stood attentively next to a lovely, and very pregnant, Hannah. The couple were so visibly in love—and so excited about the child they would soon welcome into their lives.
Eric was another exception to Cecilia’s general theory that most men weren’t interested in long-term family obligations. There was no question in her mind that Eric’s commitment to Hannah and her baby would last a lifetime.
And as happy as she was for her brother, she couldn’t help envying…
“Oops. Almost missed a Bingham,” Vanessa added cheerily. “Dr. Kyle is posed broodingly on the other side of the atrium, looking like he stepped off a GQ cover. He is one fine-looking young man, isn’t he?”
Cecilia’s smile deepened. “If you happen to appreciate blond hair, blue eyes, a pretty face and a perfect body. And who doesn’t, right, Milla?”
Her formerly pale face now bright pink, Milla murmured an answer, then made an excuse to move away. Something about seeing someone she needed to speak to.
With a slight frown, Cecilia watched Milla hurry away. Like others who worked closely with them, she hadn’t missed the sparks between the young nurse and Dr. Kyle Bingham. But something other than a possibly complicated attraction seemed to be haunting Milla, and, worrier that she was, it concerned her. “Does it seem to you that Milla’s been acting oddly lately, Van?”
“Who