An oversight Brad hadn’t even attempted to rectify. There was something about the surgeon that made his hackles rise. In all honesty, it was probably because they were both stubborn and opinionated and used to being in charge. Tensions had been high ever since he’d joined the team, but Brad had figured as long as they each stuck to his own job and didn’t get in the way of the other, they’d be able to coexist peacefully. Not if Chloe’s well-being was at stake, however.
“Chloe?”
She shrugged, her hands clasped on top of the desk. “Like he said, we were just getting to know each other.”
Brad’s jaw tightened further. Definitely no hair-twirling going on when she spoke to him. But there was a whole lot of guilt in her eyes.
What the hell was she playing at?
Before he could say anything further, Cade rapped his knuckles lightly on the desk, making Chloe jump. “Well, now that we’ve become a little better acquainted, I’ll let you get back to it. I have a few patients to see. I’ll talk to you later.”
With a brusque nod in Brad’s direction he headed for the elevators across from the nurses’ station.
“So?” His attention went back to Chloe.
“Can we please talk about this later?”
His brows went up. “If I knew what the hell ‘this’ was, I’d feel a whole lot better.”
“It’s nothing. I just don’t know how to...” She shook her head and looked away.
Sliding his fingers under her chin, he coaxed her gaze back to his. “You don’t know how to what?”
She licked her lips. “Flirt.”
The word was so low he wasn’t sure he’d heard it correctly. “I’m sorry, did you say flirt?”
The word set his teeth on edge. And sent his thoughts racing.
Tugging from his grip, she wrapped her arms around her waist, eyes flashing. “I know it must seem stupid to you, but it was one of the reasons...”
One of the other nurses came to the station and settled into a chair, smiling at both of them, obviously unaware of the tense undercurrents.
But at least that angry bubbling sensation inside Brad’s chest had eased. Chloe wasn’t really interested in Cade. At least, he didn’t think she was.
“When does your shift end?”
Ginny, the other nurse, spoke up. “I’ve been trying to get her to leave for the last half-hour.”
“You’re already off duty?”
“I feel funny just...leaving.”
The pause before “leaving” was telling. She didn’t want anyone to know where she was staying. Kind of hard since the address she’d given to Human Resources was his. For the second time in a week he wondered if housing Chloe was a good idea. But he was already committed to this course, and Jason was counting on him.
Tread carefully, bud. If she wanted to keep their living arrangements secret, then he’d better honor that decision.
“I have one other patient to see, and then I’m off as well.”
Chloe nodded. “I’ll see you later, then.”
“Sounds good.”
Walking away from the station, he tried to get his head screwed back on straight. But it was tough, because Chloe and Cade weren’t his only worries right now. Katrina hadn’t quite dropped out of the picture, like he’d hoped she would. She’d not only called and spoken to Chloe, she’d left an angry message on his voice mail. She’d also stopped in at the hospital and had been none too pleased—according to Ginny—to find they’d already replaced her.
It reaffirmed his decision to keep personal and business relationships in two separate compartments. Which made things with Chloe even more complicated. Because the contents of those particular compartments were oozing from minuscule cracks, mingling with each other.
Unlike Katrina, who’d begun on the business end of the spectrum and moved over to the personal, Chloe was the opposite. And if he wasn’t careful he’d mess things up not only with her but with her whole family. That was the last thing he wanted to do. He cared about the Jenkins clan. And he and Jason went even further back.
They were the one steady thing in his life. The only relationship he hadn’t somehow screwed up.
Yet.
“HOW ARE YOU FEELING TODAY?”
Chloe checked Melanie Roberts’s IV drip. About six months pregnant, with pink cheeks and a glowing complexion, she seemed the picture of health. Looks could be deceiving, though, because hidden deep within her there’d been a serious problem that had needed to be fixed.
Just like Chloe.
With Melanie’s unborn baby afflicted with spina bifida, Cade had been forced to operate on her a few days ago and all had gone well, according to reports. She’d need to stay in the hospital for a few more days to make sure she didn’t go into premature labor, and then she’d have to continue on meds to keep her uterus from reacting to the trauma of surgery. Bed rest for the next couple of months. But so far so good. Although they wouldn’t know for sure until after she delivered, the baby’s prognosis for a normal life was excellent.
Melanie glanced at the IV. “Are you sure the pain medication isn’t going to hurt the baby?”
Putting her hand on the woman’s shoulder, she gave her a smile. “I’m sure your doctor is being extremely careful. Have you seen him today?”
“Dr. Coleman came in to check on me. And my regular obstetrician is supposed to come by this afternoon.”
Chloe busied herself with fluffing pillows and tucking blankets to hide the warmth in her cheeks as Cade’s name was mentioned. She’d thought Brad would burst a blood vessel when he’d seen her at the desk yesterday with the surgeon. It had been then that she’d realized that instead of charming Cade with her attempts at flirting she’d been making a fool of herself. Again. When Brad had got her to confess, his brows had drawn together. She’d thought he was going to say something more, but then Ginny had come back to the nurses’ station and conversation had fizzled before dying completely.
He’d met her after work, but instead of riding home on his motorcycle he’d put her in a cab and said he’d see her at the apartment. He hadn’t. Because as soon as she’d arrived, she’d gone straight to the guest room. Brad hadn’t knocked on the door, although she’d known he’d arrived as well. A half-hour later, though, she’d heard the front door open and close. He’d gone out and stayed out until the wee hours of the morning.
Had he been with the nurse who’d called her the other day? It was none of her business if he had. Still, a tiny bloom of hurt had come to life.
She forced her attention back to her patient. “Did you ask Dr. Coleman about your medication?”
“He said it was fine, that the baby shouldn’t be affected. It’s just that...” she twisted the blankets “...it’s just been such a shock. I took the prenatal vitamins just like I was told to. Weren’t they supposed to prevent this?”
“Sometimes these things happen, no matter what you do.”
Like her impending divorce? If she’d tried harder, done more of what she knew Travis liked in bed, could she have prevented him from getting it elsewhere?
That had been the problem. She had tried. But being coerced to perform had meant she had never been given the chance to try new things of her