by Diana Palmer
“I’ll keep a close check on her,” Drew promised.
“She could use one,” Jeb replied grimly. “Kitty’s had no fun at all. That’s why I suggested that you might bring her along tonight,” he added with a rueful grin. “I wasn’t trying to match-make. She works for you and I like her, that’s all.”
“I’m sorry,” Drew said, and genuinely was, now. “If I’d realized that…”
“We know better than to try to pair you off with anyone,” Lou affirmed, smiling. “Least of all, Kitty.”
He frowned slightly. “Why do you say that?” he murmured curiously.
“Well, she’s not your type, is she?” Lou asked, averting her eyes to the table. “She’s unsophisticated and unworldly. She’d rather tend her garden than go to a cocktail party, and she doesn’t have a clue how to dress properly.”
He wondered for a minute if Lou was making digs at his receptionist, but he realized almost at once that she wasn’t. She seemed to genuinely like Kitty.
“She’ll never get a boyfriend, the way she looks,” Lou continued sadly. “Drew, couldn’t you do something, point her to right sort of clothes, get her to a hairdresser? Guy Fenton is still interested in her, but she’s just not the sort of girl a man wants to show off. You know what I mean?”
“You mean that she doesn’t dress like a young and attractive woman looking for a soul mate,” he translated.
“That’s exactly what I mean.”
“Why don’t you take her in hand?” he asked Lou.
“How would I go about it, without making her look stupid?” she asked honestly. “She doesn’t really know me.”
“She only works for me,” Drew replied.
“But she looks up to you. You know, sort of as a father figure.” She looked down so that her eyes wouldn’t reflect her delight at the way that remark made Drew tauten and look irritated.
“I’m not old enough to be her father,” he said shortly.
Coltrain cleared his throat to choke back helpless laughter. “Lou didn’t mean it that way. But she does look up to you. What would it hurt to help her change her image? Married receptionists never quit their jobs.”
“She can do better than Guy Fenton,” he said, remembering vividly how Fenton had already treated her. “As I recall, she dressed up for him, and he ditched her in the middle of a date.”
“Her idea of dressing up is a new shirtwaist dress,” Lou muttered. “And she never lets that hair down.”
Drew tried not to think about all that hair. He had frequent longings to start tearing pins out of it, just to see how it looked when it was loose.
“She needs someone besides Guy Fenton,” Jeb remarked coolly. “Guy keeps dark secrets, and he drinks too much. But there are plenty of eligible men in town. Matt Caldwell, for instance.”
Matt was rugged and outlandish, but he was also single and well-to-do. Drew didn’t like the idea of him. He didn’t like the idea of any man, actually. And because he didn’t, he agreed to Lou’s proposal. He wasn’t going to get involved with Kitty. Getting her involved with another man was the ideal way to protect himself.
“Jeb and I are on the orphanage committee here in town,” Lou reminded him, “and we’re hosting a Summer Charity Ball to raise money to build a new wing onto the orphanage. I’d like you to come. You could bring Kitty—and then I can introduce her to the eligible men.”
Drew frowned.
“All you have to do is bring her, Drew,” Lou persisted, “not propose to her. You can have her meet you there if you don’t want to be seen with her.”
“Oh, for God’s sake, I don’t mind asking her,” he grumbled.
“Good,” Lou replied, smiling at him. “And if you can get her refurbished in time, there’s no telling what might happen.”
“Matt likes her—” Jeb put his two cents worth in “—and they’ve got a lot in common.”
“Was he afraid of her father?” Drew asked curiously.
“Not at all,” Jeb mused, grinning so that his freckles stood out. “In fact, they came to blows over Operation Desert Storm—Matt’s reserve unit was called up during it, you know. He laid the colonel out in the middle of the local McDonald’s and poured a milkshake over him. I don’t think the colonel ever got over it.”
Drew chuckled. “What did Kitty say?”
“Nothing. She didn’t dare. But you used to be able to just say the word milkshake to her, and she’d collapse laughing.”
Drew found the idea amusing. He’d have to try that one day. He toyed with his fork. “All right, I’ll take her to the ball. When is it?”
She told him. “And it’s formal. Very formal.”
“I’ll wear a dinner jacket,” he said reluctantly. “I guess Kitty can come up with a dress.”
“Help her find one,” Lou suggested. “And you might point her toward the cosmetic counter and a hairstylist and contact lenses. She’d be pretty if she worked at it.”
* * *
He waited until she came to work the following Monday, and when Nurse Turner went out to lunch, he asked Kitty to come into his office.
She’d spent an uneasy weekend remembering what they’d done together and her lack of sleep was evident in the dark circles under her eyes. She noticed that he looked tired as well, but considering how hard he worked, she couldn’t attribute it to anything other than his job. She didn’t know that he’d spent his share of sleepless nights trying to decide how to put the experience out of his mind.
“Are you still sweet on Guy Fenton?” he asked bluntly.
She didn’t ask why he was probing into her private life. She moved restlessly in the chair. “I used to like him. I still do. But I don’t want to go out with him anymore.”
“I don’t blame you. How about Matt Caldwell, then?”
“Matt doesn’t know me from a peanut,” she informed him. “He and my father never got along at all.”
“Neither do he and I from time to time, but he’s coming to the Summer Charity Ball at the country club and I thought you might like to go with me,” he added, not looking at her.
She looked at the wall and wondered if she was having delusions. Perhaps that glass of wine she’d consumed with her dinner Saturday night had had a delayed reaction…
“Could you repeat that?” she asked. “I think I may be in the midst of a drunken stupor.”
“On what, coffee?” he asked, diverted.
“I had a glass of wine Saturday night,” she volunteered.
His mouth curled up. “Did I drive you to drink?” he chided, and then felt guilty when she blushed. “Never mind. I asked you to go to the Summer Charity Ball with me. Lou’s hosting it with Jeb, and they’re inviting all the single men and women in town, including Matt and Guy.” He glanced at his hands. “The Coltrains particularly wanted you to come.”
Kitty studied his face uncertainly. He sounded as if he hated the idea of asking her at all, and she knew without being told that it was the Coltrains who’d put him up to this. Funny how disappointing that was, although she couldn’t deny that she knew how he still felt about his late wife. She must have been temporarily out of her mind to think that he’d asked her for his own sake; or to allow herself to build one kiss into a future.
“I don’t really think I want to…” she began politely.
He looked up, his dark eyes so intent that they stopped her protest before she could get it out of her mouth. “I want you to come,” he said deliberately.
Of course he didn’t. But her stubborn refusal irritated him. She was young and sweet and she had a lot to offer. Matt or Guy would be lucky to have such a woman find them attractive. She deserved a little happiness.
She misunderstood his determination, and she smiled warmly. “Really?” she asked breathlessly.
He turned away from that bright-eyed surprise. “Sure.”
“Well, I guess I could.”
“You’ll need a dress,” he continued, toying with a sheet of paper on the desk. “Something
pretty and formal.”
“I’ll…I’ll have to buy one,” she faltered.
“And you could have your hair done.”
She touched the bun defensively. “Cut it?”
“No!” He caught himself before he sounded even more of a fool. “I meant, you could have it put in one of those complicated styles. Cut it?” He looked absolutely shocked. “It would be a crime to cut hair like that.” His eyes reluctantly slid over it, confined as usual in a huge bun behind her nape. “It must fall all the way to your waist when it’s down.”
She smiled self-consciously. “A little farther than that,” she confided. “I don’t ever wear it down anymore.”
“Why?”
She shrugged. “My father said I looked like ‘Alice in Wonderland.’”
“Bull,” he muttered.
“Anyway, it gets in my way when I’m working.”
“You could braid it,” he suggested.
She laughed. “I can’t do it myself.”
He had to bite his tongue to keep from offering to help. For a long time now, he’d wondered how Kitty’s hair would look when it was loosened. It was a lovely dark shade of brown. She had just a faintly olive complexion and those soft green eyes dominated her delicate oval face. Despite the glasses she insisted on wearing instead of contact lenses, she was very attractive. Her figure was as good as any he’d ever seen. If only she took advantage of her assets and didn’t downplay them so drastically. On the other hand, that might be a good thing. He could see himself trying to diagnose and treat illnesses with Kitty running around the office looking like a nymph.
“Never mind,” he murmured. “Do what you like with it. But get a pretty dress to wear.”
“Which one of them are you planning to throw me at?” she asked.
He straightened. “I beg your pardon?”
“Who’s being sacrificed for me, Guy or Matt?” she persisted. “I gather that you and the Coltrains are determined to save me from spinsterhood?”
His face grew stern. “I thought, as they do, that you deserved a little fun. We aren’t throwing you at anyone. We only want to…improve you.”
“I see.”
“Like hell you see!” he burst out, irritated by his own thoughts as well as her resistance to having people remodel her for her own good. “You can’t see anything! You dress like a bag lady, you screw your hair up into those god-awful buns, you walk around in a permanent daze and then you probably wonder why men never come on to you!”
She wasn’t just shocked; she was downright hurt. She hadn’t thought he had such a low opinion of her. Apparently nothing about her appealed to him at all. She wasn’t sure if he was genuinely trying to help her find a man, or if he had plans to marry her off so that he could get her out of his office for good.
She lowered her eyes to the floor, hiding rage and shock. “I didn’t realize I had so little to offer.”
“It isn’t that,” he grumbled. “You have plenty to offer, that’s why I hate to see you waste it! You’re very attractive, but you could be a lot more appealing if you just worked at it. Your father isn’t around to chase away prospective suitors anymore, Kitty. You don’t have to downplay your looks. It’s all right to dress up and make the most of your assets.”
She sighed angrily. “Okay,” she said tightly. “I’ll just do that little thing.”
Her eyes sparkled like emeralds in a pale face. He hated what he’d said to her, but if it woke her up to the possibilities, it was for the best.
“Get something dark green,” he said out of the blue. “Tight in the waist and low-cut. It will do wonders for those eyes. They’re incredible,” he added softly. “Like living emeralds.”
Her heart jumped. “I beg your pardon?”
He cleared his throat and glanced quickly at his watch. “I have a meeting with the hospital board of directors in thirty minutes,” he said abruptly. “We’re going to try to convince them to hire a full-time physician for the emergency room so that the rest of us can have a little peace after hours.”
“Good luck,” she said, and meant it, because she knew how hard the local doctors had to work to keep that emergency room going.
“We’ll need it. Indigent care is killing the budget.”
“A lot of people can’t get insurance,” she reminded him, glad to be off the subject of her own physical shortcomings. “And some people can’t afford it.”
He agreed. “It’s a sad world in some ways, isn’t it, Kitty?” he murmured. “Money shouldn’t be the determining factor in a life or death situation. It isn’t, here in Jacobsville, despite the budget. But hospitals can’t operate on goodwill and hope.”
“I know that.” She shrugged. “I guess it’s more complicated than it seems to a layperson.”
He nodded. “It’s complicated even to the professionals.”
She moved toward her desk.
“What about the ball?” he asked curtly. “Are you going with me?”
She didn’t look at him, but at her computer. “I’ll go,” she said, but without real enthusiasm. She knew, even if he wasn’t admitting it, that he was only taking her so that she could be offered up to Guy and Matt. It hurt her as nothing had in recent years. That, too, was disturbing.
“Good,” he said. He couldn’t think of anything else to say, so he went back to get his jacket and soon afterward, he left the office.
* * *
Kitty went shopping all by herself. Thinking that he’d made suggestions and shouldn’t push his luck by offering to accompany her, Drew never said another word about the dress or the hair-styling.
She went all the way to Houston, in the end, to look for a dress, leaving very early on Saturday morning in her little car. The drive was nice, even though it was drizzling rain. Tree colors were so varied and pretty, hazes of green, hundreds of shades of it, in the trees that grew along streams and near houses in the distance. There were calves in the pastures, too, because it was that time of year, as well. In summer, everything seemed to come alive on the earth. She thought about a young man’s fancy turning to thoughts of love and laughed out loud. Drew was neither young nor interested in her, so she’d do well to ignore these strange feelings he engendered in her. Despite his collusion with the Coltrains, she had to remember that he wasn’t interested in dolling her up for himself. He only wanted to sacrifice her to Guy or Matt.
Well, she thought, she might as well let him. If he thought she had potential, perhaps she did. All her life, she’d deferred to her father as far as the opposite sex was concerned. It hadn’t ever occurred to her how alone her father was or how much he depended on her at home. Perhaps the thought of losing her was really terrifying to him and he had too much pride to admit it. That would explain his reluctance to let her get involved with men, or to think of marriage. He seemed very self-reliant and domineering, but underneath, he had many insecurities, all of which had grown much worse with the death of her mother.
She remembered her mother sometimes, marveling at the way the seemingly gentle and unassuming little woman had handled her father’s moods and demands. Only someone close to them would have ever realized that Martha was her husband’s strength, and when she died, he collapsed. From that day on, Kitty became his strength, and he depended on her more and more. Despite her frequent asthma attacks, he clung. When he had the stroke, the dependence became complete. Only then was his fear visible, because he no longer had the strength of will to conceal it. Kitty had learned to use her medicines conscientiously for her father’s sake. It was crucial that she keep well to look after him. Even so, there were times when she had to depend on kind coworkers to get her to the emergency room. She didn’t even tell her father about the attacks that precipitated more and more medicine changes. Finally a preventative added to her regular regimen made trips to the emergency room almost a thing of the past.
Kitty became the colonel’s substitute mother for the last few pitiful years of his proud life. But at the end, he had enough c
onsciousness to call her mother’s name, once, achingly…
She blinked away sudden tears. Her parents had been married for thirty years when Kitty’s mother, Martha, had died. Perhaps that was how Drew had been after his Eve died, lost and alone and afraid. But he hadn’t even a daughter to console him. No wonder he was impatient and ill-tempered and overworked. His job had probably been all that stood between him and madness just after his wife’s untimely death.
Houston loomed ahead, its familiar skyline bringing back the present. She couldn’t live in the past, although Drew seemed determined to do just that. She had to look toward the future. Marriage had seemed like an impossible dream, but now it might be accessible. If she worked at her appearance and tried to be outgoing, the possibilities were unlimited. Her asthma was under tight control and she could look nice if she worked at it. Who knows, she might actually interest a man enough to turn his thoughts to marriage. It would be nice to have a home of her own, someone to share her spare time with, children.
She sighed. It was going to take a lot more than a new dress to inspire anyone to marry her. But they did say that fine feathers made fine birds. It was worth a try.
* * *
She looked through several stores before she came across a dress very much like the one Drew had described—dark green taffeta with a low neckline and short, puffy pale green chiffon sleeves. It was ankle-length and when she tried it on, she was astonished at the change it made. The cut emphasized her firm breasts and narrow waist subtly, and there was a wispy chiffon scarf that matched the sleeves to go over her hair. It was like something out of the forties, a glimpse of bygone elegance that took her breath. She couldn’t really afford it, but she bought it anyway, and white satin pumps and a white satin evening bag to go with it.
The hairdresser’s was next, where she had her exquisite locks trimmed but not altered in length. The beautician enthused over the length and texture of her hair and talked her into a wavy style much seen on television and in movies. She was hesitant, but hours later when the curlers were removed, she was shocked at the face that looked back at her, surrounded by exquisite flowing waves. She went right to the optometrist and got herself fitted for contact lenses. They would be in long before the ball. She was going to make it a night to remember.