“Fine, I’ll do what I need to do. But I wouldn’t be putting on that other gauntlet just yet.” To honor the deal, she extended a hand to him then had to bite her lower lip to keep from gasping when he took it, as the smooth feel of his skin on hers ignited a spark that arced all the way up her arm.
“So, about that IV...” he said, rather reluctantly. “Let me run over to the dorm for a minute then I’ll be right back. In the meantime, maybe you could check over supplies. I’ll start the IV as you don’t do kids and you could get everything ready.”
Backing his way down the steps, he only turned round when he’d reached ground. Or maybe he lingered. In her mind, the uncertainty she saw there most certainly had to be over his routine gone horribly wrong, but she wished it could have been more. And while she wasn’t open to a relationship of any lasting sort, a nice flirtation from time to time wasn’t off her list. Except this man ran a camp for kids, and he had kids of his own—a reality that slammed her back to earth in a fraction of a breath as she went looking for IV supplies.
But a little while later, after his round of goodnights had been said to his daughters, and as she watched him skillfully master the insertion of an IV catheter into such a tiny vein, she was almost changing her mind again. No flirting allowed! Admire the man, admire his skill. Every bit of this was trouble and if she was smart, she’d turn round, go home and hire him some temps.
But she wasn’t smart. Not about the kinds of things going through her mind, anyway.
* * *
“You don’t spend much time away from them, do you?” Keera asked, catching Reid staring out the door at the cabin where the girls were sleeping. Megan was tucked in for the night, resting as comfortably as she could under the circumstances.
“Try not to. I mean, I work, have to take call when it’s my turn. But I have fantastic friends who look after them at home, which makes life easier for me. And now, even when they’re here at camp, in the dorm, I can visit them when I want.”
“If you want to be free to go over there whenever, I can spend the night with Megan.”
“That’s not it. I know they’re safe, and just a few hundred yards away. But I’m over-protective. Can’t help it. Emmie had leukemia when I adopted them. She was a little over two and Allie was still a baby. Their mother...” He shrugged.
“I never really knew what happened. Apparently, she brought Allie into the world so her umbilical cord stem cells could be used in treating Emmie. They’re only half-sisters, but the match was perfect. Their mother—her name was Maria—stayed around long enough to see that Emmie was responding to treatment, and then one day she didn’t come to the hospital. I’d heard she’d come here seeking medical care for Emmie, and once she’d found it she’d gone home to Mexico, but I really don’t know.
“Anyway, after that...” He shrugged. “Emmie improved, Allie was placed in foster-care for a while, but there was always a thought that if the stem-cell therapy failed, there was still potential for a bone-marrow transplant, with a sibling donor. So, Allie was brought back to the hospital to stay, and that’s where I met the girls, actually. Allie wasn’t sick but she was put on my service to care for.”
“And you adopted them?”
“It became legal six months ago. But I’ve had them for nearly four years. Because they had to stay together, and because of Emmie’s leukemia, they weren’t considered highly adoptable. Then the restrictions for adopting parents were huge because of the medical considerations. One thing led to another and I took them. I don’t regret it.”
“And Emmie, is she in remission?”
“I like to think of it as full recovery because she’s so healthy now. But, yes, she’s in remission. We’ve got one more year left before we can celebrate her recovery.”
“Lucky girls,” Keera commented.
“Lucky me. They slowed me down, forced me to look at life differently. I was on a pretty self-destructive path, indulging in just about every unhealthy kind of lifestyle habit there was. Smoking, fast foods three times a day, little to no sleep, amphetamines when needed. But when you have kids, you have to be...better.” He smiled. “Or else they’ll beat you down to a bloody pulp and walk all over you.
“Anyway, we have some choices here. The camp doesn’t wake up for several more hours so, like I said earlier, you can go find the guest cabin and take advantage of the time while I stay here. Or you can stay with Megan while I take advantage of the next few hours. Your choice.”
“My choice would have to be the noble thing, wouldn’t it?” she said as she headed back into the clinic. “So save whatever’s left of the night, and I’ll be fine in one of the infirmary beds. Besides, I think it would be better if I stay closer to her because if she wakes up there’s a chance she’ll remember me.”
“No arguments here. So, there are clean scrubs in the supply closet. Feel free to use the kitchen in the back of the infirmary and help yourself to tea, coffee, anything you want. And if you need me...” He held up his cellphone. “Or lean out the window and shout. I sleep with my windows open, and I’m a light sleeper.”
“Literally?” she said, grabbing a pair of scrubs from the closet then pulling the curtain around the bed next to Megan’s to afford herself a little privacy while she changed.
“Dad training is good for a lot of things,” he said.
Megan’s response was to whimper then turn on her side. Keera’s response to that was to sit down on the edge of the bed next to Megan, lay her hand gently to her cheek to feel for a temperature then go immediately for a cold compress.
Reid, on the other hand, stood back and watched. Then decided that for someone who didn’t like children, and who claimed she didn’t have a way with them, Keera had a way with them. A very nice way, when her guard wasn’t up.
* * *
One o’clock, two o’clock, and now it was going on three and he hadn’t gone to sleep yet. In fact, he wasn’t even sleepy. Which was highly unusual, because most of the time he was worn out by the time his head hit the pillow. His head had hit the pillow at least twenty times in the past three hours, but hadn’t stayed there. All because Dr. Keera Murphy, the avowed child-hater, was next door, and she was all he could think about. Pretty, with her coppery long hair and her green eyes. Feisty with her opinions. But compassionate, in spite of her blustery no-kids-allowed attitude.
He’d seen the way she’d held Megan, and protected her. He’d heard the way she comforted her. Nothing about that showed any kind of dislike for the little girl, so he wondered why the attempt at an outward persuasion against children when he didn’t believe that was her inner feeling.
We all have our fears, he reminded himself, returning to the bedroom window for at least the tenth time to look over at the infirmary, to the single light shining inside it. Fear. Such an immense word. His biggest fears were for his daughters. Always. And specifically for Emmie’s health. What were Keera’s fears?
He wondered about that as he thought back over the years, back to a time when his own life had been fearless. Or, as some might describe it, stupid. Actually, as he might describe it now that he’d grown up. He’d been typically bachelor-selfish, making his various conquests along the way. Doing nothing so different from the majority of hotshot interns and residents. Bad life, bad attitude, all changed for the love of two little girls.
And out of that love had grown his fears. But he wouldn’t trade what he had now for anything from his old life because even now, thinking about the way he’d been made him shudder.
Or was he shuddering because he could see the silhouette of Keera in the infirmary? She was awake, like he was, and standing at the window, too. Looking over at him perhaps?