Prima Donna (10 page)

A moment’s hesitation before Rossick groaned.

“Shiiiiit.” He tossed the papers on the desk and tipped back farther in his chair. “You’re sleeping with her, aren’t you?”

“Rossick!” Jules choked, but Carter knew she’d been wondering the same thing.

“If she’s applying for a job here, it’s a legit question.” Rossick sighed and lifted his hands palms up. “So are you?”

Carter rubbed his hands over his eyes, then leaned over, resting his elbows on his knees. “Not at the moment, but, uh, yeah, I did.”

“Jesus, Carter.” Julia shoved off the corner of Rossick’s desk and paced in front of the window. “Can we even consider her if she’s in a relationship with you?”

“It’s not a relationship.”

“Then what is it?”

“Nothing.” It wasn’t even a lie, though the idea of his name tattooed across Regan’s butt made him grin. “It was one night.”

“Figures,” Jules mumbled. “But are you sure it was only one night? You could barely take your eyes off her.”

“Well, yeah,” he laughed. “She’s hot.”

While part of him wished Rossick would back him up on that, a bigger part was relieved that apparently there was something down at the bottom of Rossick’s takeout box that was more interesting to him than how hot Regan was.

“Oh, come on, Jules, what do you want me to say?” Carter forced a chuckle and leaned back in his chair. “We’re not in a ‘relationship’ and even if we were, she made it damn good and clear that if it came down to a choice between me and this job, she won’t even remember my name tomorrow. Hell, you should’ve heard the list of reasons she had for kicking my ass to the curb.”

“Hire her.” Rossick barked out a harsh laugh. “I love this girl—hire her right now.”

Julia set her hands on her hips, ignored Rossick, and sighed. “I don’t know.”

It wasn’t that Carter didn’t understand her hesitation, it was just that he’d hate to be the reason Regan got the short end of the stick.

“Look,” he said. “You’ve got her résumé and you’ve seen firsthand what kind of worker she is. If the only reason you won’t hire her is because you don’t think I can keep it in my pants or you think there’s going to be some kind of implosion here, you’re wrong. I wouldn’t let that happen, Jules.”

“I’d like to believe that, Carter, but I’ve met some of the other women you’ve been with, and if she’s even half as batshit crazy as they were, it won’t matter how tightly you keep it zipped. We can’t afford to have some starry-eyed Carter-groupie running the office.”

“Does she seem batshit crazy to you?”

“Nnnooo.”

“And I can promise you she’s not the type to turn into a starry-eyed groupie for anyone, least of all some stupid schmuck like me.”

Rossick didn’t say a word, just sat there nodding slowly. After a while, Jules sighed.

“How can you be so sure?”

Carter tipped his head toward the phone on the desk. “Ask her.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Jules pulled Regan’s résumé closer, scanned for her phone number, and dialed. Regan answered on the second ring, her smooth voice instantly easing some of the tightness in Carter’s brain.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Regan, it’s Julia. You’re on speaker.”

“Uh, okay. Hi.”

Jules leaned her hip against the side of the desk and crossed her arms, her gaze fixed squarely on Carter.

“We just have a couple questions. Is that okay?”

“Sure.”

“Okay.” Jules cleared her throat slowly. “Sorry, this is a little awkward, but I’m sure you understand we need to keep things professional here, right?”

“Of course.”

“Good. Okay. Wellll…it’s about you and Carter…”

“Carter who?”

“Told you.” Carter grinned, then laughed when Rossick choked on a piece of sweet-and-sour chicken. Jules laughed, too, and eventually so did Regan.

“We just need to know where you honestly both stand on this whole thing. I mean, if things go sideways and Carter ticks you off, as he’s prone to do…” Jules winked at him before he could protest. “What I’m trying to say is that we can’t let your relationship affect our business.”

There was a brief moment of silence before Regan cleared her throat on the other end of the line.

“Look,” she said. “Without going into too much detail, I think Carter would agree that what we had wasn’t—
isn’t
—a relationship, and I’ve made it pretty clear to him that my focus is on getting a job, period. I understand your concern, Julia, and while I can’t promise Carter and I won’t see each other socially outside the office, because of our connections to Jayne and Nick, I can promise you that there’ll be no problems on my end.”

When Jules quirked her brow at Carter, he snorted softly. “See? No one’s going to go all
Fatal Attraction
here. We’re good.”

“Regan?” Jules kept her gaze fixed on Carter as she waited for a response.

“Oh yeah, we’re good.” Even though Carter couldn’t see her, the smirk sounded in her voice, making him grin, too. “Trust me, I’ve never cooked a rabbit over any guy.”

“Hmm.” Jules twisted her mouth to the side, then bobbed her head toward Rossick. “What about you? Got any questions?”

“Damn right I do.” He pushed his food away and leaned over the desk so he was closer to the phone speaker. “Straight up, Regan, are you going to be nicer to his patients than you’ll be to mine?”

Regan grunted over a laugh. “No, but you understand his patients are children, so they might need a little more attention, right?”

“All patients are children,” he grunted, “but that’s another story. Are you going to make him coffee and not me?”

A loud snort sounded through the phone. “I’m not making either one of you coffee. Julia, maybe, but you two are on your own.”

“Excellent answer!” Jules laughed as she pushed off the desk and paced. “Okay, seriously now, you two are sure there won’t be any problems?”

“None.” Regan’s voice and Carter’s nod seemed to finally appease her.

“Okay, then, does anyone have any objections? Questions?” She didn’t actually give anyone time to object before she nodded. “Good. Regan, we’d like you to sign a confidentiality agreement. Are you okay with that?”

“Of course.”

“Great. I’ll email you a bunch of documents, including what we
think
the job description is, though that might change as we go along, salary, benefits, yada yada yada, and if you have any questions, just let me know. Otherwise, we’ll see you first thing Monday morning.”

“Thank you.” There was a slight hesitation in Regan’s voice, but neither Jules nor Rossick seemed to notice. “Really, thank you.”

When the call ended, the three of them were silent for a while before Jules smiled pathetically and ruffled Carter’s hair.

“Don’t look so bummed. She’s not your type, anyway.”

“I don’t have a—” He was cut off by his phone ringing in his pocket. “Hey, Katie, what’s up?”

He leaned his elbows on his knees and stared at the floor as Katie half talked, half cried into the phone. After reassuring her that he was on his way, he ended the call and tucked the phone back in his pocket.

“Gotta go.”

“She okay?” Jules frowned slightly.

“Yeah. The baby’s got a bit of temp is all.”

“First child.”

Carter nodded and grinned. “First child, first fever, and first time Ben’s been out of town since the baby was born.”

“Oooh,” Rossick laughed. “Good luck with that.”

“Are you guys going back to the city?” He pushed out of the chair and headed for the door.

“Yeah. You coming down later?”

“Depends on Katie.”

“Whatever, man,” Rossick scoffed. “You’re just pulling the sick-baby card to get out of packing, but don’t you worry—I’ll make sure there’s lots left for you to do.”

The last thing Carter heard before he closed the door was Jules’s long groan. “I wonder if it’s too late to hire movers.”

Katie and the baby were both crying when Carter arrived.

“I’m sorry,” she sniffed. “I don’t know why I’m like this.”

“It’s fine.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and steered her back to the nursery. “Lay her on the changing table and we’ll have a look.”

He checked her ears, gently probed around her neck, then warmed his stethoscope and pressed it against her chest. Her cheeks were a little dry, and a little red, but other than a slight temperature, she was fine.

“Ninety-nine point two.” He held the thermometer up for Katie to see. “Already lower than when you called.”

“She’s just so little,” Katie sniffed. “And she’s never been sick before.”

“Still nursing?” Carter wrapped Sophia in the pink receiving blanket, cradled her in the crook of his left arm, then wrapped his right around Katie’s shoulders and gave her a squeeze. “She’ll be fine. D’you have a medicine dropper?”

When she pulled one out of the cupboard, Carter traded the baby for the dropper and sent Katie to the living room while he washed the dropper out and filled a glass with cool water. “Try to keep her hydrated as much as you can.”

He filled the dropper, eased the tip inside the baby’s mouth and squeezed the bulb gently. She pushed her tongue against it at first but eventually got the hang of it and managed to swallow a little bit.

The worry lines on Katie’s face eased a little, but didn’t vanish completely.

“Want me to stay?”

“Would you mind?” She hiccupped over a sniffle and swiped her sleeve across her eyes. “I know I’m being stupid, but I can’t help it, and with Ben out of town…don’t you dare tell Nick about this!”

“Doctor-patient confidentiality.” Carter grinned, made himself comfortable in one of the big armchairs, and held his arms up until Katie gave him back the baby.

“Coffee?”

“Sure, thanks.” He settled Sophia in the crook of his arm, flicked on the TV, and called over his shoulder to Katie. “And I wouldn’t say no to a sandwich!”

A soft snort was his only answer. He surfed channels until he found the hockey game, then set the remote down and crossed his feet on top of the coffee table with Sophie tucked up against him.

With her pudgy little fist wrapped around his pinkie finger, he continued to ease the dropper into her mouth little bits at a time, all the while explaining in a low voice the finer points of hockey, which he was pretty sure neither Ben nor Katie had bothered to explain yet. The kid was five months old and had probably never even heard the word
puck
before.

So wrong.

“Want me to take her?” Katie asked, setting his coffee and sandwich on the side table.

“Nope, we’re good.” He tugged his finger out of her grip only long enough to give her some more water and to wolf back his sandwich, then he let her have it again, not minding one little bit that his coffee went cold. For such a tiny little thing, she could sure hold on tight. Amazing.

“So,” Katie drawled out. “You and Regan? How’s that going?”

“There is no ‘me and Regan.’ ” He shrugged slowly, keeping his gaze fixed on the game until Katie’s snort made him and the baby start.

“What’s the matter—you losing your magic touch or something?”

There’d never been anything magic about his touch, at least not until the other night when he’d touched Regan for the first time. Just thinking about how she’d shivered, how it started at the top of her head and rippled down her spine, how she’d tried to hide it and couldn’t…
whew
. It was the exact same thing he’d felt sitting under that stupid cape while she cut his hair, running her soft cool fingers along the back of his neck and against his ears.

Rock-hard that fast; it was like he was sixteen all over again, but Katie sure as hell didn’t need to know that, especially since there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

“Rossick and Jules hired her at the clinic.” He moved his finger back and forth slowly, smiling down at little Sophia when she stuck her tongue out.

“Which means hands off?”

“Something like that.”

“Hmm. That’s too bad.” The teasing in her voice slipped away. “But maybe it’s for the best.”

“Meaning?”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I like Regan, but sometimes I wonder if maybe Ben’s right about her. I mean, take Leon for example. Perfectly nice guy and she turns her nose up at him—and he’s not the first one she’s done that to.”

“Yeah, but she was right about him; he does seem like a guy out looking for a wife, and if she’s not looking for that, why bother?”

“Maybe,” Katie sniffed absently. “But what about her salon closing? There’s no reason she couldn’t go work at one of those other places but she refuses. And why is that? Does she think she’s too good to work in someone else’s salon?”

“She told me she and the owner of the other place didn’t see eye to eye on a few things.”

“Yeah, I can just imagine what those things might be. And what was the deal with her leaving on New Year’s Eve? It’s not the first time she and Ben have gone a round or two, but she up and leaves so everyone thinks her poor little feelings are so hurt she can’t possibly stay another minute? Please.” Collecting Carter’s plate and still-full mug, Katie shrugged as she headed to the kitchen. “I’m not saying I think she’s the prima donna Ben does, but I do think she’s a little…I don’t know…prima donna–
ish
.”

Carter lifted the baby’s hand and blew a raspberry against her palm.

“I don’t know, Soph,” he murmured. “Regan seems okay to me. What do you think?”

In the wise way babies have, Sophia just stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry back at him.

By the time the hockey game ended, Katie was snoozing on the couch and Sophia was fast asleep on his chest with her forehead pushed up against the side of his neck. Carter shut off the TV and eased out of the chair, but Katie was awake before he could take a step.

“Here,” Katie whispered. “I’ll feed her first and put her to bed.”

“Yeah, okay.” He rubbed his eyes and stretched as long as he could. If it wasn’t too late, he’d head over to Reg—
wrong,
he’d head into the city. “What time is it?”

“Almost eleven. Why don’t you go crash in the spare room?”

Not exactly where he’d hoped to spend the night, but it’s not like he could go to Regan’s and he sure as hell didn’t feel like driving all the way back to the apartment in Vancouver, so his only other option was going over to Nick and Jayne’s, and since he’d already interrupted them once this week, he opted for the too-short single bed with the thin pillow and pink overstuffed quilt.