Smooth Irish (Book 2 of the Weldon Series) (8 page)

“
Monday?” Nan, repeated,
searching through her feelings. She wasn’t sure she was ready for a
second date with Mr. Perfect so soon.

“
Perfect,” Brad said
smiling. He then offered a stiff arm to Bella Barracuda. The woman
snuggled against Brad and shot Nan a he’s-all-mine look. Apparently
Dr. Barra wanted more from Brad than consulting on an emergency
case at the hospital.

Walking toward the ballroom, Nan felt
the room swirl and she turned to the ladies room, deciding to
rest.

“
Where are you off to,
sexy?” X-ray Eyes from dinner stood before her. His fleshy smile,
shiny head, and ample belly invaded her personal space.

“
Personal business and my
name is Ms. Miller.” Colleague of Brad’s or not, she didn’t like
the man and wouldn’t pretend otherwise. She stepped back and he
grabbed her arm, brushing her breast in a pretense of helping her
catch her balance.

Shocked, Nan angled away from the
man’s grip, but he held on. An uneasy panic swelled inside
her.

“
Wait. You look pale,” the
doctor said.

The conversational voices surrounding
her receded, as if coming at her from a long distance. The lights
dimmed and her skin turned cold, almost numb. She desperately
looked for the ladies room.

“
Nan! I’ve been looking
for you everywhere.”

Nan whipped toward Alexi’s voice,
seeking the familiar in a world abruptly foreign. She saw Alexi
coming toward her, registered that Jackson was there, too. She
lunged from the man’s grasp, stepped back, and the world went
black.

CHAPTER FIVE

Jackson scooped Nan up into his arms
before her head hit the floor. Pulling her close, he glowered at
the man she obviously had been trying to escape. “What in the hell
is going on?”

The man held up both hands innocently.
“Dr. Knapp, head of radiology. The lady stumbled and seems to have
fainted.”

Jackson didn’t think it had been so
simple. He’d seen panic on Nan’s face before she
fainted.

“
Come with me,” Alexi
said, her pregnant body cutting a wide path through the
crowd.

Jackson sent Dr. Knapp a look that
said the man would be taking his life in his hands if he followed.
The seconds it took him to get to a private room ticked too slowly.
While common sense told him Nan had fainted, he couldn’t help but
remember another time and his failure.

“
What do you think is
wrong?” Alexi asked even as Nan stirred in his arms.

“
I don’t know.” Jackson
settled her on the sofa and assessed Nan’s condition. Her pulse and
respiration, though slightly rapid, were steady, and still within
normal range. Her skin worried him; cool and clammy to his touch
and her dress was still damp in places. He ran his fingers up from
the pulse at her throat to her forehead. Only then did he notice
Nan watching him.

“
What happened?” he
demanded.

Her brow furrowed.

“
Did that
jerk—”

“
Calm down and give her a
chance to talk,” Alexi said, laying a hand on his shoulder and
angling closer to Nan.

Jackson stamped on the emotion
threatening to escape. This is why he didn't get involved. This is
why he kept his distance. He released Nan’s shoulders and stood up
to put space between them, but kept his eyes trained on
her.

Nan swallowed hard then spoke. “I’m
not sure what happened. All of a sudden I became dizzy and
cold.”

“
Are you allergic to
anything? Any other symptoms? Nausea? Pain? Difficulty breathing?”
Jackson fell back into a mode he’d thought he’d left behind years
ago. He paced as he spoke.

“
No.” Nan sneezed. “Though
I must be more addled than I thought. You’re beginning to sound
like a doctor.”

“
Just normal questions
anybody would ask,” Jackson said, interrupting Alexi. The past
wasn’t anybody else’s business but his. “You probably fainted
because you sat in a freezing room in a wet dress instead of going
home and changing like a sensible woman.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw
Alexi soothe her hand over the blue dress elegantly adorning her
eight-month girth. His body broke out into a sweat.

Alexi felt Nan’s forehead. “I know the
feeling you described. I became dizzy and cold when I first became
preg—” She clamped her hand over her mouth, suddenly realizing what
she’d almost inferred.

Nan sat up quickly. “Well that’s one
problem I can definitely rule out.” Her laugh sounded forced.
“Unless Superman slept in my bed and then zapped my
memory.”

Her gaze met his, and she blushed.
Guiltily? But why? Unless she lied. Brad Swanson? He didn’t want to
think of her with someone else. It wasn't acceptable.

Well fool, what did you expect when
you pushed her away? He could admit to himself now that was what
he'd done New Year's Eve in Salty's Bar, why he'd turned down a
recording deal with a music producer. He’d been weighing the pros
and cons of signing on the dotted line all day, until Nan had
started talking about all the wonderful opportunities he’d have.
The overwhelming feeling that the mill of success was about to pull
him under its grinding wheel again descended on him and he’d torn
the contract up. Then asked Nan if she was ready to rent a hotel
room for the night. Nan had walked.

Nan slumped back. “It was probably the
effects of white wine on an empty stomach and too little
rest.”

If she was sleeping with Swanson then
it was his own fault. He shouldn’t have pushed so hard.

“
Fool,” Jackson muttered,
speaking to himself again.

Alexi and Nan looked at him, telling
him he spoke aloud. He scrambled to explain. “You should take
better care of yourself. Are you sure you’re not having any other
problems besides dizziness?”

“
Positive. I just needed
to rest a minute and then I’ll go home.” Nan stood.

“
Sit down,” Jackson
ordered. “You’ve just fainted and you think that I’m going to let
you drive home? He checked his watch. “As soon as I finish this
last set, I’ll drive you both home.”

Nan blinked and sat. Jackson had been
more emphatic than the situation called for, but she could see his
point. She was still a bit dizzy, but wasn’t about to admit it.
“That isn’t necessary. I’m sure I’ll be fine after a few more
minutes rest.”

Jackson drew a deep breath and Nan
braced herself for his argument. Instead she heard him exhale,
before he finally said, “Please.”

A battle the size of WWII launched
itself in her stomach and the tinges of a migraine headache that
she hadn’t had for years intruded. How could she resist him?
Letting him take her home wouldn’t be like going out with him
again. “I’ll call a cab,” she said, making one last ploy to save
herself.

Jackson scowled. “You’d trust an
absolute stranger to drive you home more than you’d trust me?” His
eyes glittered.

“
Not wanting to impose
doesn’t suggest I don’t trust you.” It was herself she didn't
trust.

“
Then wait for me,”
Jackson said and left the room.

* * *

The door slammed shut behind him with
the finality of a trap snapping closed.

“
Curiouser and curiouser,”
Alexi said from across the room.

Nan glared. “A lot of help you were.
What happened to women’s independence? Sisterhood and all that
rot.”

“
Too busy watching the
fireworks. You and Jackson spark like a match to dry
tinder.”

“
Yeah, well I grew up
listening to Smoky the Bear. Forest fires kill.” Nan rolled the
tension from her shoulders. The man was as touchy as a hound after
a porcupine encounter. “I sense some heavy emotions running hot
beneath his way-too-casually-cool surface. He’s never shown them
before.”

“
He’s a hard man to get to
know. He keeps everyone at a distance. Even Jesse.” She leaned her
head back to rest against the chair’s ample cushion. “You know when
you first met Jackson, even a blind man could see the sparks fly
between you two. I told Jesse that if any woman could reach his
brother, it would be you. I still think he’s one man you shouldn’t
have let go.” Alexi eyed her with a determined angle to her
chin.

Nan bit her lip. How did she tell
Alexi, a woman who’d always had everything, that no matter how much
appeal Jackson held, if he didn’t want to move forward and share
goals in life, she couldn’t afford to involve herself with
him?

She wanted to own her own home. She
wanted to travel. She wanted to send her children to good schools.
She wanted success, and she wanted the hope that came with working
every day toward a brighter future. A man like Brad could help her
in that direction. A man like Jackson would only drag her back to
what she had left behind.

“
Things between us just
didn’t work out. We aren’t going the same direction in
life.”

“
Moving in opposite
directions can make for explosive collisions, like me and Jesse for
example. While parallel motion can get pretty dull. From the hot
and heavy looks between you two, I bet your paths are destined to
intercourse, uh, I mean, intersect. Why avoid it?”

“
Cute,” Nan said dryly.
“Jackson isn’t the man for me.”

“
Hmm,” Alexi said, clearly
not believing. She rolled to her feet. “I’m going after some
crackers, decaf, and water. You sure you’re feeling
better?”

Nan waved Alexi away. “I’m
sure.”

Alexi left and images of
“intersecting” with Jackson filled Nan’s thoughts. She had no idea
geometry could be so interesting. . .

An Indiana Jones-like
Jackson, visiting professor in mathematics, walked into her
classroom. She stood, precariously balanced on a stool, reaching
for an overhead-projecting screen that stubbornly refused to lower.
She froze, her heart fluttering dangerously. In the three months
he’d been at the university, her hemline had risen three inches in
hopes of catching his eye. She could tell by the look he leveled
over the rim of his sexy glasses that she finally had his
attention.

“
I like your line
segments, Professor Miller,” he said.

She wanted him, had wanted
him from the moment she’d seen him. “And I ‘love’ the way you work
a problem, Professor Weldon.”

He locked her classroom
door before he crossed the room. She stayed on the stool, frozen
with anticipation. He slipped off his glasses as he
approached.

“
You say
that as if you have a problem for me to solve, Professor Miller.”
He slid his hand up her leg, then pressed the
inside of the back of her knee, making her fall into his
arms.

“
I do, though it’s more
like a puzzle than a problem,” she said, breathless with the feel
of his hard chest against her.

“
Puzzles require more time
and ingenuity than simple problems. You’ve intrigued me. Do
tell.”

She licked her lips,
readying her mouth for his kiss. “Can two objects on a horizontal
plane be both parallel and perpendicular to each other,
Professor?”

“
Let’s
see if we can find out.” He cleared her desk as he laid her upon
it. Papers, books, and tests flew, but she didn’t care. She knew
the highest-grade possible was about to be made in
her classroom.

“
Top grade coffee and a
pitcher of ice water, coming right up.” Alexi plowed into the
room.

Top grade? Coming? Nan blinked back to
reality, then slumped back onto the couch muttering, “He was and I
was.”

“
Did you say
something?”

“
No. I’ll take the ice
water first.”

“
I thought you were
cold.”

“
That was before.” Before
the Jackson invasion.

* * *

Wrapped in the warmth and scents of
Jackson’s jacket, Nan watched him slide back into the car after
seeing Alexi inside her door. His movements fit his demeanor, terse
and tense.

Before he started his pick-up, she
placed her hand on his arm. “How does Alexi look to
you?”

“
Tired. Why?”

Nan shrugged, dropped her hand from
his arm, and breathed. Something she had a hard time remembering to
do around him. “She’d shoot me for mentioning it, but her ankles
were pretty swollen tonight. I don’t think it’s anything to
immediately worry about, but I told her to lay off the salt and
increase her protein. She promised to go in early for a check up. I
don't like the idea of her being alone this late in her pregnancy.
Anything can happen.”

Jackson expelled a heavy breath and
ran his hand through his hair, mussing the raven-wing layers. “You
think she’s showing signs of preeclampsia?”

Nan’s brow stretched with surprise.
“How did you know that?” Jackson had astutely picked up on a
possible complication few people outside the medical profession
would know about unless they personally knew someone stricken with
it.