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“Because I take so long,” he agreed, then tried to lighten the mood. “And because the hospital isn’t the place for high fashion. She’d much rather I take her to the mall.”
Natalie found herself wanting to defend Matthew, to help Carrie see how difficult it must have been for him to have had a child thrust into his busy life.
“You could use your hospital trips as research to design us new scrubs with the mermaid tail like we talked about earlier,” Natalie suggested, trying to ease the underlying tension between Matthew and the child.
The girl’s nose wrinkled. “Scrubs are boring clothes.”
Natalie glanced down at the blue ones she wore. “Completely boring.”
Yet they were her preferred wardrobe and what she had on more often than not.
“Which is why doctors and nurses around the world need you to come up with something stylish for us. Help us be more fashionable.”
Carrie seemed intrigued by that idea, and she and Natalie carried on a quite lengthy conversation about hospital fashion.
The conversation jumped from one topic to another and before Natalie knew it she was at Matthew’s house. How had that happened? She’d had no intention of going to his house. Or spending one second more with him and his daughter than was absolutely necessary.
Only Carrie had wanted to show off her new bedroom, something she was excited about and super-proud of. Natalie hadn’t had the heart to say no, and when she’d looked at Matthew for guidance he’d just shrugged as if to say he didn’t care one way or the other.
She supposed he didn’t.
Since his Memphis arrival, he’d been professional and nothing more. He’d probably forgotten all about Miami. It was what she needed to do. What she wanted to do.
For most of dinner, he’d listened to her and Carrie’s conversation, throwing in a comment here and there, but almost seeming as if he was studying their interactions.
His house was in an upscale neighborhood on Mud Island not too far from where she lived, and just ten minutes from the hospital. A modern brick monstrosity within a gated community with a circle drive and a fenced back yard. It was a house for a family, not two people.
“Excuse the lack of furniture. I sold most of what I had in Boston, rather than move it. Carrie and I are working on buying furniture as time allows. It’s our weekend project to put our home together piece by piece.”
“Let me show you my room!” Carrie grabbed Natalie’s hand and led her through the mostly empty house.
When she pushed open a door, Natalie expected little more than a bare room with a bed, or perhaps a cot. Instead, it was as if she’d stepped into a fantasy.
The opposite wall from the door housed a painted wooden floor-to-ceiling castle with a stairwell leading up to a tower with only a small peek hole. The walls were painted in a fairyland motif, complete with another far, far away castle, unicorns and other friendly-looking animals, puffy white clouds, blue skies and rainbows, and even a waterfall.
“Wow,” Natalie breathed, taking in the room. “Just wow.”
“I know,” Carrie agreed, sounding a bit breathless herself.
Natalie walked over to the bed, with its pink comforter and sheer white drapes that gave it a mystical tent appearance.
“Don’t you just love it?” Carrie whispered, clasping her hands together.
“I want to move in here.” She turned to Matthew. “You did this?”
“Carrie found photos of what she wanted. We picked out the key pieces of furniture and I hired a decorating firm to make it happen. My mother oversaw the work while Carrie and I were wrapping up in Boston.”
“Is the decorator doing the rest of the house?”
“We may enlist her help again,” he admitted, “but for now I had her to do my room, Carrie’s room and the kitchen.”
“You have castles in your bedroom, too?”
He shook his head. “No castles or unicorns. Not even a princess.”
“You have me,” Carrie reminded. “I’m a princess.”
“That I do,” Matthew agreed, touching the top of the girl’s head. “And that you are.”
