by J. R. Ward
Her eyes shifted to him. There was a pause. Then she said into the receiver, “Sorry, yes, I’m still here. But…ah, I don’t need the cab. Thank you.” She hung up. “You look like you’re about to leave, though.”
“I am. Right after I take you to work.”
“I’m going to Roxbury.”
“Then so am I.”
“Okay…thank you. I just need to call the garage.” She was quick and to the point with the mechanics, and after she hung up, she grabbed her purse and keys. “They’re going to send a tow for it. They’re used to me.”
Damn it, he hated that her ride was unreliable. But as he followed her outside, he kept his yap shut. It wasn’t as if she needed to hear that right now because she was no doubt thinking the same thing.
Without saying a word, they both paused on the shallow porch. The sun was a golden yellow, the sky a brilliant robin’s-egg-blue, the trees as green as emeralds. It was as if the world had been colored by children’s crayons.
“Beautiful day,” he said.
“Yes.” She looked around. “Like a cartoon almost. Reminds you of when you were young, doesn’t it? So simple and clear and beautiful.” She made an awkward sound. “Guess that’s silly.”
“Actually, it was just what I was thinking.”
Her eyes shifted over, and for a split second, the connection was there between them again, as invisible as the air that separated them, but as warm and real as the sunshine on their faces.
“Lizzie,” he breathed.
“We…better go.” Except she didn’t look away. And neither did he.
Sean leaned down and put his lips on hers. There was so much he wanted to say, but he kept it simple and clear as the day. “I’m glad I’m taking you to work.”
He took her hand and they walked to the rental in silence. After he opened her door for her, he waited until she was settled, then went around to the driver’s side.
As they headed off for Roxbury, she said, “I wanted to let you to know I’m moving out.”
Sean’s hands cranked down hard on the wheel and he had to force them to relax. “You don’t have to.”
“I want to leave.”
“Why?” Even though he knew.
“Too many memories.” Then she quickly added, “Besides, if I end up working downtown during the day, it would be better if I lived closer to a T-stop.”
He frowned. “How is the job search going?”
“It’s going. Just started, really.”
He glanced across the seat. Her eyes were trained out the side window, but they were unfocused, as if she were reviewing her situation in her head.
Sean thought about her mother. Her broken-down car. The fact that she was working nights in a rough part of town.
“Listen, you can forget about the rent,” he said. “I mean, until I sell the place.”
She looked at him in surprise then shook her head. “Oh, no. That’s okay. I’ll be fine, but thanks.”
Man…First time he could remember a woman turning him down for money. But then Lizzie wasn’t fitting the pattern in any manner, was she?
“Well, the offer stands,” he said. God, he was a bastard to have ever doubted her for a moment. No way she’d been after his father for cash. No. Way.
After hitting all the red lights in Boston and getting slowed up by some sewer work, they eventually made it to Roxbury.
“It’s on the next block.” Lizzie pointed out the windshield. “Right here.”
The community health center was set up in a two-story building constructed of concrete bricks and marked with windows that had chicken wire in the glass. But it wasn’t dour. There were flowers in pots in front of the door and a lovely maple on the front lawn. And everything was neat as a pin: the grass between the sidewalk and the foundation was trimmed, and the juniper bushes were clipped nice and tight and the entryway was swept clean. Sun glinted off the front doors and made the brass sign that read Roxbury Community Health Initiative glow.
There were some people milling around, two of whom were in white coats and obviously doctors or nurses. The others seemed like a family: the woman with a baby in her arms and a toddler latched onto one leg, the man with a five-year-old up on his shoulders.
“Nice-looking place,” Sean said.
“It is. The people who work here are so committed. And the patients we treat are very special. I’ve been lucky to be a part of it.”
“Even with the cuts in funding, it’ll still stay open, right?”
“The question is for how long. We’re—they’re close to the bone already, working with equipment that needs to be upgraded in a facility that’s really too small. The thing that scares me is, I don’t know what this community would do without these services. So many folks aren’t able to get downtown to the big medical centers, either because they don’t have the money to travel that far or there are child-care issues or they can’t take off the time from work to spend all afternoon in a doctor’s office that’s miles away.” She shook her head and put her hand on the door. “Anyway…thanks for the ride.”
“Wait, how long have you worked here?”
“Two years.” Her eyes shifted back to the center. “Two years and two months. Like I said, I was right out of nursing school when I came onboard. Hard to believe it’s my last day. I’m going to miss this place.”
As Lizzie got out, the folks around the front door called her by name and she greeted them as one would friends, not patients or colleagues.
She leaned down into the rental car. “Thanks again, Sean.”
“Lizzie?”
“Yes?”
“When do you get off?”
“Late today because they’re throwing me a goodbye party. So not until sevenish. Why?”
“Just wondering. Take care.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“So who was he, Lizzie?”
As the little conference room went silent, Lizzie looked up from her slice of We’ll Miss You cake. The question had been popped by one of the other nurses, and with all the attention on her, Lizzie figured she had few options for response: Just a friend. No one special. Son of her landlord.
Or she could go with the truth: Wall Street tycoon with whom she’d had a very short-lived affair. Who was kind of still hanging around.
Ugh.
“Who are we talking about?” someone else asked.
“The guy who dropped off Lizzie today. The very handsome guy.”
Keep it simple, stupid, Lizzie thought. “He’s just a friend. My car died again.”
“Well, from what I saw,” a third person cut in, “a friend like him would be good to have.”
Everyone smiled at her and piled on with good-natured ribbing. Which naturally caused Lizzie to turn as red as a stop sign.
Thank heavens the conversation was cut off by Denisha. The hollow sound of a plastic fork tapping on a plastic cup shifted the focus to the director. “I just want to take a minute to thank Lizzie for everything she’s done.”
“Hear! Hear!” came the chorus.
As people said a lot of really nice things, Lizzie looked down and pushed a wedge of frosting around her plate. She couldn’t meet the eyes of her colleagues. Not with the tears that were threatening to spill at any minute.
“Lizzie?” Denisha said. “We have something for you.”
Lizzie glanced up. “Really, that’s not—”
The director held out an envelope. “This is for you.”
Lizzie put her little plate down and took it. After working the flap free, she pulled out a homemade card with…oh, God…hundreds of signatures on it: patients and colleagues and the cleaning staff and the lawn men she’d helped with the flowers and the UPS guy and the medical reps who visited regularly.
She blinked fast so that only one tear escaped and hit the card. “You have no idea…what this means to me.” She put her present up to her chest as if she could embrace at once all the people who had cared enough to sign it. “I will miss you
so much.”
A group hug bloomed all around her, people sniffling and smiling and holding on.
It was a sweet, sweet moment, proving that one person could make a difference to others. And it reminded her of why she’d become a nurse. There was great satisfaction in being a part of something like this, part of a place that cared about a community and healed the ill and infirm. She only hoped she could find something half as fulfilling somewhere else.
When the party broke up, she tidied the conference room with the others, grabbed her purse and her card of signatures and went out to the front desk to call a cab.
She was dialing when one of the nurses said, “He’s back.”
Lizzie didn’t pay much attention as her call was answered by the taxi company. “Hi, I’d like a cab—”
“You don’t need one, Lizzie. Your friend’s back. And…wow is all I can say.”
Lizzie frowned then leaned over the desk and looked out the double doors. A rental car was parked in front and Sean was lounging against the side of it, facing the community center. Wearing jeans and a New England Patriots T-shirt, he looked sexy as hell with his thick arms crossed over his chest and his sunglasses on.
Lizzie mumbled something to the cab folks, put the phone down and walked over to the door. “He isn’t supposed to be here.”
“Honey, man like that shows up for you, I’d say he’s supposed to be here. And that you won the lottery.”
As Sean lifted his hand and waved to her, she realized she was just staring at him like an idiot. Shaking herself into focus, she gave a quick hug to her colleague then gathered her things and pushed open the door. The evening was a balmy benediction as she stepped outside.
“Um…I thought you were going back to New York.”
“I did. Flew in for the meeting I had and came back. I figured I’d stop by here on the way home from Logan. How’s your car?”
“Still getting worked on. I…I can’t believe you came back.”
“I have an ulterior motive.”
She swallowed. “You do?”
“Yeah, can you give me a tour?” He nodded at the center. “Or is it too late at night?”
He wanted to see the center? “Ah…of course. The director is still here. I can introduce you to her and she can—”
“No, I want you to take me around. I want to see it through your eyes.”
“Okay. But…Sean, why?”
“I’m always interested in businesses, but in this case, I might be able to help. The governor of this fine state happens to have been my college roommate and I’m not above hard-core lobbying for the right cause.”
As Sean smiled, she found herself returning the expression. And tried not to let her heart soar. “Anything you could do would be appreciated, but I don’t think it’s the governor, actually. The legislature has been blocking his bid to get more funding to us. That’s where the bottleneck is.”
“Well, I’m glad to know your fine governor is already onboard. It will make things so much easier on him when I start hammering him about your statehouse.” Sean stepped out of the car. “Shall we?”
Lizzie took him inside and led the way to Denisha’s office so they could make sure the tour was okay. When Denisha gave her approval, Lizzie showed Sean around the exam rooms and talked to him about some of the patients they treated.
On the way to the lab facilities, she stopped in the doorway of the radiology room. “We really need better equipment. We have to send some patients out to other facilities to get certain films done and that is a hassle for them—more expensive, too. The advantage to us being in the community is that folks don’t have to travel when they’re sick. We’re right here. And because we’re user-friendly, important health screens for breast cancer and diabetes and high blood pressure are more likely to be conducted because patients adhere to their yearly checkups more often. If this center closes, or has to outsource too much, I really worry about the people we serve.”
Sean frowned. “How tight is your budget?”
“Reimbursements from Medicaid and Medicare are not what they once were and our expenses are always higher so it’s a thousand small cuts. If this continues, we’re not going to be able to meet the standard of patient care because we’ll be too understaffed and technologically compromised. And we aren’t the only clinic in this situation. There are a number of facilities just like this, serving at-risk populations as we do. I mean…they.”
Sean shook his head as the two of them came back to the front desk. “Does this place have an endowment? I mean, what kind of philanthropic support do you get?”
“Some. Not enough. And no, we don’t have an endowment.”
Denisha came out of her office. “Did you enjoy your tour?”
Sean offered his hand and they shook. “You’re doing really wonderful work here.”
“Thanks.” Denisha glanced over. “And Lizzie is one of our best. We’re really going to miss her.”
Lizzie looked away, not wanting to get emotional in front of Sean. “But I’m going to volunteer. So I’ll be back.”
“Good.”
A few more things were said, but Lizzie wasn’t really following. She was too busy looking at the crayon drawings that some of the kids had done while in the waiting room. The white papers with rainbow marks were taped up on the hallway’s wall, a quilt of exuberance and life drawn by the community’s future leaders.
“Lizzie? You ready?” Sean said.
“Yes.” Though she wasn’t.
She hugged Denisha tightly, but didn’t lose it, and was proud of herself for getting to the car without a lot of drama.
Sean opened the passenger-side door for her. “You got any plans tonight?”
“I’m moonlighting.”
“Okay, I’ll be your taxi.”
“Really, Sean, you’ve already done too much. Besides, I have the home trip covered. I’m catching a ride back with a friend of mine who’s pulling a double shift tonight.”
“Then at least let me take you there, okay?”
As he shut the door and walked around the hood of the car, she watched him move. All that lithe male grace was something to see and she couldn’t believe she’d been with him. Naked. In her bed.
She was so in trouble with this man.
“Why are you doing this?” she blurted as he got behind the wheel. “I mean…going to all this effort?”
He turned the key in the ignition and glanced at her as the engine flared to life. His deep-set hazel eyes were so serious that she was taken aback.
“You said it best. People make time for what they want. And I want you.” Sean hit the gas and pulled away from the curb, resuming a more normal expression. “So when do you go to work? You want dinner?”
“Are you seeing anyone else?” she blurted. “I mean, down in the city?”
He shook his head. “It’s just you. Only you, Lizzie.”
Oh crap. That was so the right answer.
She rubbed her temples, thinking that this felt a lot like a relationship. It really did. Part of her wanted to fight falling into it. Part of her couldn’t stop herself.
“I—ah, I usually eat something at the hospital around midnight. But there isn’t time. I’m due in at eight.”
“Okay, so are you free tomorrow night? My brother’s in town for a preseason game. You want to come with me? We usually go out for a bite after he plays.”
She loved football. “I don’t know.”
As Sean looked back over at her, his eyes were serious again. “Yeah, you do. But you don’t trust me. Look, I’m hoping that we can spend some time together so that maybe…yeah, maybe you’ll get to trusting me again.”
“Sean, I’m not interested in getting my heart broken.”
“Then we have something in common. I’m not interested in breaking your heart. I made a mistake. I’m sorry. And I want to keep seeing you.”
She was about to ask him why when she realized that sounded pathetic. She was a good person. A sm
art person. She might not have millions in the bank or a flashy lifestyle, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t worthy of him.
“So what do you say, Lizzie? Little football in the afternoon. Little bite afterward. You know, real regular date stuff.”
She took a deep breath. “Okay. It sounds…great.”
He reached across the seat and took her hand. Then melted her by bringing it to his lips and whispering, “Thank you for the second chance.”
* * *
When they got back to the duplex, Sean opened her door for her then hung back against one of the jambs as she went inside.
Man, he was tired.
He’d killed himself to get back to Boston tonight in time to pick her up and that was on top of a long day. After he’d raced down to Manhattan this morning, he’d had the meeting with the Condi-Foods board chair, a video conference conducted with investors in Tokyo and a drawn-out argument with one of his partners. Then he’d hightailed it back here.
The whole time he’d been en route, whether in limos or on the plane, he’d been working on his laptop, processing the hundreds of details and decisions that went along with a complex acquisition like Condi-Foods. When he’d waited for Lizzie at the health center, he’d made an effort to appear casual so she didn’t feel pressured or stalked, but it had cost him a lot to haul ass up and down the coast.
Why had he made the effort? He’d had to come back to her. He’d made the time.
“I won’t be long,” Lizzie said as she went over to her computer and checked her e-mail.
“Don’t rush on my account.” When she made a frustrated sound, he asked, “What’s the matter?”
“Oh, nothing.” She blew out her breath. “Well, actually, I applied for four jobs last night. Two have already been filled, one was mis-listed and another I’ve been told I’m overqualified for. Usually there are a lot of nursing jobs available, but the class that graduated over this summer has taken some of the opportunities I could have used. But, whatever. At least I have the night work at the emergency department. And I put in some other applications on my lunch break today. Maybe one of them will come through….” She let the sentence drift, then headed off down the hall. “I’ll be right back.”