window again, he decided, “I think I would like to go for that walk.”
A few minutes later, they passed through sliding glass doors outside into the August evening. A breeze tossed the edges of Emily’s collar. She and Jared turned simultaneously toward the sidewalk that led past a row of live oaks. Lampposts illuminated their way.
Suddenly Jared stopped and took her arm. “Thank you for coming by. I was getting really wound up and this is helping.”
His fingers were hot on her skin. His touch sent a deliciously warm thrill through her. She felt breathless, her pulse quickening as she looked up at him and their gazes held.
The green of his eyes darkened and he blew out a breath. “I keep telling myself we’re going to have a professional relationship and then you look at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re thinking about whatever happens whenever we get too close.”
Jared meant physically, but she knew the chemistry happened when they got close emotionally, too. She and Richard hadn’t really connected emotionally. But she and Jared…
A bond was growing between them that she couldn’t deny. He released her arm. Emily missed the physical contact but she could think more clearly. They started walking again.
“I had a talk with Chloie,” she offered.
Jared sent her a sharp glance. “About?”
“Amy told her I was there when Courtney had her night terror. Chloie just said she knew how frightening they could be and that she learned from you how to handle them.”
His tone was strained as he asked, “Was she questioning why you were there?”
“Oh, no. Why would you think that?”
He walked in silence for a few steps. “I got the impression when Valerie and I divorced that Chloie thought we hadn’t tried hard enough.”
“What did you think?”
He grew pensive. “I think we hit a stone wall. I couldn’t change my practice or my dedication to my patients. Valerie was a new mom with twins and I couldn’t be there as much as she wanted me to be there to help her. I wanted her to hire someone to help, but she didn’t want to do that. She made up her mind about the divorce without much discussion. Once Valerie decided something, there was no convincing her to change her mind.”
He sounded bitter about that. Just because of the divorce? She couldn’t ask more questions without prying, and she didn’t want to do that. “Richard asked for our divorce and he’d made up his mind, too. But by that time, I knew we didn’t have much left.”
“Marriage is an ideal most couples can’t live up to.”
Darkness was gathering around them, creating intimacy even though they walked on the public sidewalk. Emily found herself adding in a lower voice, “If two people have the same values and goals and outlook, I think it can work. My parents were happily married. I thought I would be. But I think I wanted somebody to love more than I wanted to look at who I was and who Richard was and how we could fit together.”
“You’ve given this a lot of thought,” he observed.
“I didn’t like failing. I had to figure out what went wrong, why we couldn’t stick it out through…” She stopped, then finished with “the hard times.”
He looked as if he might want to question her about what those times were, but he didn’t and she was glad. This wasn’t the time or place to go into what she was hiding from him.
“Chloie told me you used to play together when you were kids, but then you were out of touch for a long time.”
“Yes, we were. We reconnected at my stepfather’s funeral. She was his brother’s daughter. We aren’t blood cousins.”
As they walked farther away from the hospital, the quiet night surrounded them. The wind picked up, whipping by them. That morning Emily had fastened her recalcitrant curls into a bun. Now the longer they walked, the more strands the breeze pulled free. She stopped for a moment to refasten a few.
Jared stopped, too, watching her. “Don’t. Just let it free.” He turned toward her just as she looked up at him.
“Damn,” he muttered but reached down anyway and fingered a loose tendril. “Your hair is so touchable.”
The compliment reached down inside her and warmed all of the cold places where Richard’s put-downs had hurt most. She hadn’t been admired for being a woman for a long time. And Jared’s words felt good, but they also warned her that chemistry between them couldn’t be stifled easily, maybe couldn’t be stifled at all.
He proved that when he slowly ran his thumb over her cheek. She could have stood there all night letting him touch her and he looked as if he wouldn’t mind doing it.
“Maybe we’d better get back,” she said softly, knowing that was the safer thing to do.
“Maybe we should,” he agreed almost reluctantly.
“I want to stop in and see Leanne and her baby,” she reminded him.
He nodded and they turned around to return the same way they’d come. This time they walked in silence, the current that Jared’s touch had created zinging back and forth between them.
What was it about this man that made her feel wild and passionate and free? How long had it been since she really felt free? Yet it was more than the sexual current between them she was attracted to. There was a gentleness about him when he dealt with his daughters. That was as sexy as his tall Texan look, his broad shoulders and his hungry kisses. Yet she could tell by his restraint when he’d ended them that he didn’t intend to get more involved with her.
Why was she so drawn toward him when her marriage had turned out badly? Didn’t she remember Richard’s concern for his own reputation rather than what she was going through? She’d felt so raw when he hadn’t comforted her. She’d felt so separate when he’d gone to cocktail parties and left her with the stress of the lawsuit. She’d felt so alone during much of her marriage. When her divorce had been finalized, she knew she’d rather be alone than risk being abandoned again.
But then she’d met Jared. He’d awakened every sensation she’d thought she’d put to sleep.
As they rose in the elevator to the maternity and nursery floor, he admitted, “Courtney and Amy miss you.”
“I miss them.” Amy’s smile, Courtney’s hug had made her feel as if her heart was expanding. Before her interaction with them, she hadn’t realized how much she wanted to be a mom.
“Any luck with the nanny search?”
“I don’t want just anyone. I want someone who can take care of the twins as if they were her own.”
Emily knew exactly what he meant. It was obvious when adults were pretending to like children and when they really liked them. She and Francesca and Tessa really liked kids. They could all spend an afternoon with Vince and Tessa’s little boy, Sean, and their little girl, Natalie, and have a roaring good time. And Emily loved stopping by the toy store to buy them gifts.
Jared led her to the nursery, first checking in with the chief nurse at the desk. They used their security cards to access the nursery. After they donned sterile gowns, masks and caps, they walked past the little cribs, some fitted with blue bedding, some with pink. Emily wanted to pause at each one of them to just stare and appreciate each miracle of life. That’s what these babies were—miracles—each and every one of them.
“Do you stop in here often?” Jared asked her as he waited for her in front of a baby girl’s crib. Leanne and her husband, John, had named their little girl Olivia. He picked up the sleeping baby and cuddled her in his long arm.
“Every time one of our patients has a baby.”
He