“Your goals are divided. On one hand you want to save the world, on the other you want to find somebody to love.”
“Adam, you don’t know me. We had...what? A half-hour conversation?”
“And a half-hour make-out session. Do you think I can’t tell from that how a woman feels, what she might find important? We did talk, Kaitlyn. It wasn’t earth-shatteringly personal. But we talked. And believe it or not, I listened. You enjoy being part of a group practice, not only because you’re not always on call, but because you have camaraderie.”
He had been listening. He didn’t stop there. “Jase introduced us because he said you and his wife were good friends. He pointed to the wine you liked best and said I might like to try it, too. When we tasted it together, you said you like visiting Raintree, walking through the vineyards—”
She held up her hand, like the stop sign it was meant to be. “All right. You proved you listen.”
“Did you?” he asked.
Uh-oh. Her mind had been filled with regrets and recriminations that night, wanting to prove herself in a way she hadn’t in a long time. Just how much did she remember from before their kiss?
“Jase mentioned you met him in Kenya, that the famine wasn’t the only problem, that the water in the refugee camp was tainted and the children were getting sick from that, too. You were trying to find a good water supply and convinced the villagers that your team could engineer it.”
“Score one for you,” Adam said, as if he expected no less.
“You also said you were on layover for two weeks, and you didn’t mention you had a sister.”
“I had dinner with Tina on that trip back here, but it wasn’t high on my mind that night.”
“You weren’t wearing a ring.”
“You weren’t, either, but you had worn one at one time. The skin on that finger was lighter. It had been a wide gold band.”
Kaitlyn suddenly pushed her dish away. “I think we should stop with the questions now. If you want to get the crib put together, now’s probably a good time. I can watch Erica if she wakes up.”
“You’re running again,” he said.
“And you’re being too nosy. Just because I came to help you, doesn’t mean—”
“It doesn’t mean that you’ll kiss me,” Adam filled in, with a twinkle in his eye. Then he pushed his plate away, too. “You’re right. I’d better take advantage of the quiet time and get that crib put together. We can only hope that someone with a Ph.D. can figure it out.”
Thirty minutes later, the crib was assembled. Adam had seemed skilled at putting it together even though he’d never done it before. Kaitlyn helped by fitting the sheet onto the mattress. Then Adam laid Erica on it.
“Are we sure she’s okay?” Adam asked her.
“She’s just as worn-out as you are.”
“If she sleeps this much now, she’s going to be awake at midnight, isn’t she?”
Kaitlyn gave a small laugh. “Now you’re catching on.”
“I’m a quick study. I’ll have to make sure I set more than one alarm at intervals so I wake up to check on her. Maybe I should buy one of those baby monitors the next time I go shopping.”
“Are you going to wheel her into the bedroom?”
They both looked in that direction and then at each other.
“Would you like to see how I don’t have it decorated?” he asked, with his brows lifting and lowering.
She laughed. “Not unless you need help pushing the crib in.”
He shook his head. “No, I’ll crash on the sofa tonight. I want to be near the bottles and formula, the diapers and anything else she’ll need.”
He was putting the baby’s comfort before his, and Kaitlyn admired that. She thought again about her responsibilities with The Mommy Club—her responsibility to make sure Erica got the care she needed, and Adam got the help he needed. That his sister did, too, for that matter. Families were what The Mommy Club was all about.
She had office hours tomorrow morning and a meeting at the hospital in the afternoon. She’d already be in Sacramento. The question was—did she want to get more involved or didn’t she? Adam could still have a rough night with the baby and that wouldn’t make tomorrow any easier for him.
“I’m going to try to call Tina again,” he said. “It’s almost nine. Maybe she’ll pick up.”
“You think her guard will be down because it’s later in the day?”
“Maybe.” He took his phone from his belt and left another message for his sister.
That call, and the expression on Adam’s face—as if bracing for a storm—had Kaitlyn say, “If you’d like, I’ll go with you to Tina’s apartment tomorrow.”
He came around the side of the crib to where she was standing. “You want to see where Tina lives in case she comes back?”
“That’s partly my reason.”
He was closer now, towering above her, sex appeal oozing from him. “What’s the other part?”
“It’s not as if you’re a complete stranger, Adam. I care about what happens to you.”
“Well, that’s an admission. Did you think about me this past year?”
Oh, no. She wasn’t going to admit that. “I really should be going, and you should catch a nap if you can while Erica is still sleeping. You might need it later.”
He narrowed his eyes and studied her. “You know, when Jase first introduced me to you, you seemed cool and hid behind a polite reserve. But once we started talking and laughing and joking, Kaitlyn, I saw what was underneath it, and you know I did.”
“You’re not what you seem to be, either, Adam. I looked you up on Google. I found photos of you with beautiful women on your arm at community and charity functions. I knew about that track scholarship to UC Davis. But I also discovered you were in an accident when you were in college and you were charged with reckless driving. The girl in the car with you was pretty seriously hurt. The custom-made suit and the boy-next-door flirting hid all that.”
She thought Adam might defend himself, that he might tell her what had happened because she knew as well as anyone there was never just one side. But he didn’t. His jaw tightened, the nerve in it worked and he stayed silent.
Finally, he broke the stalemate. “So that’s why you don’t think I’m fit to take care of Erica.”
“I want to make sure your care is the right care.”
“And if you don’t think it is, you’ll call in someone more official.”
She was a doctor. She’d have no choice.
“Fine,” he snapped. “Do you want to meet me there or do you want me to pick you up?”
She retrieved her purse. “I have office hours in the morning and a meeting at the hospital in Sacramento in the afternoon, so I can meet you at your sister’s apartment around three if you give me the address.”
Without a comment, he went to the table by the sofa where a cordless phone sat along with a pad of paper. He jotted down an address and tore the paper from the pad with a swift jerking movement that told Kaitlyn he was angry. He handed it to her.
Kaitlyn went to the door but he didn’t follow her. He stood at Erica’s crib looking down at her.
Kaitlyn let herself out.