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“The what?”
The little girl pointed at the screen. “The skirt. It’s why you like that dress? My mommy’s wedding dress had a mermaid tail. It’s my favorite, too. I like clothes, especially mermaid tails.”
Her mommy’s wedding dress. Matthew had been married to the girl’s mother once upon a time. Where was she now?
“Um, yes. The mermaid tail.” Thinking her conversation with the child was getting more and more awkward, she stared at the computer screen. What she really wanted to do was get out of Dodge, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave the girl alone, so she resolved to stick around until Stephanie got back from the bathroom. Still, a subject change was overdue. “How does your game work? You design the clothes and then fill in the colors?”
Carrie happily demonstrated how to select and manipulate an item on the screen with a stylus pen. “You want to try?”
“I’d rather watch you. I’m not much on clothes or fashion.”
The girl studied her scrubs then nodded. “I can tell. Pretty boring.”
In spite of how awkward she felt, Natalie laughed. “We should send a memo to my new boss to up the appeal of our hospital wardrobe, eh? Maybe add some mermaid tail scrubs.”
Natalie’s boss thought her appeal was just fine as was. More than fine. Of course, Matthew wasn’t thinking of her hospital wardrobe, just the woman. Not that he should be allowing himself to think of her as anything except a fellow neonatal heart surgeon and colleague.
Why did he keep struggling with that? Of course, he knew. Miami. How was he supposed to relegate her to a mere coworker when he knew just how hot her fire burned?
When he’d finished with his meeting and returned to his office to collect Carrie, he’d expected to find the nursing assistant with her. Running the little girl to his mother’s place on his day off for the hour or less the meeting would take seemed unnecessary, but yet again it seemed he’d made a bad parenting judgment call, because Stephanie was nowhere to be seen.
Still, finding Natalie stooped next to Carrie was a pleasant surprise, especially since much of the meeting he’d just attended had involved Natalie and her role in the department.
“Oh, Dr. Coleman!” Stephanie gushed, hastening behind him. “Glad you’re back.”
“Speaking of being back...” he frowned at the nursing assistant he’d thought he could trust “...where have you been?”
The woman’s face reddened. “Sorry, sir, but I’ve developed an awful case of what I think is food poisoning. Now that you’re back, I’m checking in with my nurse manager, clocking out and heading home to the privacy of my own bathroom.”
“She has diarrhea,” Carrie piped up from where she sat at his desk, making the word four syllables.
The nursing assistant’s flush brightened even more.
“Yeah, well, glad you’re back,” the young woman said, then to Carrie, “Maybe next time we meet I won’t get sick. Dr. Sterling,” she acknowledged Natalie, then disappeared.
“Thank you for staying with Carrie while Stephanie was otherwise occupied.”
Looking uncomfortable, Natalie stood, smoothing her hands over her scrubs. “She was showing me her designs.”
“Carrie plans to take the fashion world by storm someday, don’t you, kiddo?”
Rather than answer his question, Carrie lifted big eyes to him and reminded him of something else he should have done prior to the meeting, but had run out of time when she’d not cooperated in his trying to get her dressed.
“Can we go eat now?”
Had he fed her breakfast? He thought so...
“Soon,” he told her guiltily, wondering if he had a protein bar in his desk he could give her to tide her over for another thirty minutes or so. “I need to finish a few things here, then we’ll go.” Was it wrong of him to make her wait while he finished? He couldn’t see leaving to eat and then having to drag her back by the hospital afterwards.
“Can Natalie go with us?”
Matthew watched Natalie’s expression tighten and started to come up with a reason why that wasn’t a good idea, because the last thing he needed was to spend time with her outside the hospital. But the color draining from her face and an onslaught of frustrated pride had him saying, “Of course she can go with us.”
Natalie’s eyes widened and she gave him a warning look. “Sorry, I’ve a dozen things to do before I leave for dinner.”
“We could wait on you,” Carrie offered, looking way too eager for Natalie to say yes, especially as Matthew knew she was hungry.
Natalie’s cheeks flushed. “I’d hate for you to have to do that.”
