at him. “It’s just nice to be outside in the fresh air. In the shade with the breeze blowing it’s still cool enough to come out here.”
“Pretty soon it won’t be.”
“I know.” She took the tangerine from her bag and started to peel it. “It’s probably a good thing that I won’t get too big while it’s hot.”
He nodded. “The first trimester will be over before fall. That will be easier on you.”
“Yeah.” That sounded like a concern more personally focused on her. He got points.
“You need to get in a lot of fluids. Water primarily. To flush the amniotic fluid.”
Again clinical. And cute. As they stretched out the topic of weather in Las Vegas she ate the segments of her fruit, grateful to have something to keep her hands busy. She was much more comfortable with him when he was in doctor mode or chastising her for something not her fault. When Nathan was nice and charming, it made her nervous.
She glanced at the watch on her wrist. “I have to get back to work.”
“Me, too.”
They walked back into the hospital and the coolness felt good.
“Where are you headed?” he asked.
“I have to get my cart, then the NICU is next on my assignment sheet.”
He fell into step beside her as she moved down the first-floor hall on the way to Central Supply. All equipment had to be put away during employee breaks. Besides the liability of leaving cleaning products out in the open, there was the problem of obstruction in the halls and impairing movement of equipment and patients on gurneys.
Environmental Services was located next to Central Supply on the first floor. Cindy opened the door, then turned to Nathan. “Thanks for checking up on me.”
“You’re welcome.” He pushed the door wider. “Which cart is yours?”
She pointed it out, then was surprised when he grabbed it for her. “What are you doing?”
“I’ll take it upstairs for you.”
“You don’t have to do that,” she protested.
“You’re going my way. I’ll drive.”
There it goes again, she thought when her heart skipped. Three times since he’d shown up in the garden. Could it be she was actually starting to like him?
The glow lasted until they entered the elevator. Two of the nurses from the NICU got in behind them and noticed Nathan helping her. Hostility, like an invisible force field, backed her up against the wall beside Nathan.
“Are you on your way to the unit, doctor?” Barbara Kelly asked. She was a slim blonde, very pretty.
“Yes,” he said, and the nurse pushed the appropriate button on the elevator’s control panel.
Cindy felt as if she’d been caught cheating with another woman’s husband, and it brought her down to earth with a thud. Lowly housekeepers didn’t mix with medical royalty.
Nathan tested the weight of the cleaning cart and said, “This thing is heavier than it looks.”
Cindy decided not answering would be best because she didn’t want to give the nursing staff any personal information. Gossip spread through the hospital faster than the flu and the facts of whatever story was spreading were usually wrong.
“You need to be careful while you’re pushing it,” the clueless doctor continued.
Apparently he didn’t get her “silence is golden” vibe. Fortunately, before he could say more, the elevator stopped at their floor.
The two nurses got off first. One whispered something to the other. Cindy couldn’t hear what was said, but she could definitely translate the bitchy looks both of the women lobbed in her direction. The message in the toxic glances said more clearly than words that she had a lot of nerve violating the unwritten hospital social code and consequences would follow quickly and without mercy.
Wrestling the cart off the elevator, Nathan missed the communication.
Before he could go any farther with her cleaning stuff, she put her hand on his arm. “I’ll take it from here.”
“We’re almost there. That’s okay.”
“It’s really not. Please, just let me do my job or I’m afraid I won’t have one.”
“What are you talking about?” He stared down at her, obviously confused.
Cindy glanced down the hall where the two nurses had disappeared. “By now it’s all over the hospital that you were slumming with one of the housekeepers.”
“What? Just because I gave you a hand?”
“And showed concern,” she agreed.
“For that they’re going to take me out back and shoot me?”
“Not you. Me,” she clarified.
“You’re joking.”
“If only.”
It wasn’t pretty, but that didn’t make the reality any less true. Bullies grew up but they didn’t always lose their pick-on-the-peons mentality.
“The thing is,” she said, “you can do anything and no one will say squat. But I have the audacity of letting you push my cleaning cart and the you-know-what is going to hit the fan.”
“I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen,” he said grimly.
The fact that he didn’t even attempt to convince her she was wrong proved that he understood the hospital’s insular social environment, at least on some level.
“If you really want to fix this, just back off.”
“That doesn’t work for me.” He shook his head. “Like I said, I’m going to be there for you.”
She put her hands on the cart and met his gaze. “I appreciate that you would want to, but please don’t. I’m serious. It could cost me my job.”
She walked away and felt his gaze on her back. Right this minute his attitude might be completely sincere. And that was extraordinarily sweet, but it wouldn’t last. She didn’t have the best judgment where men were concerned, which meant that he must have a flaw that would surface when she was most vulnerable. With a baby on the way she couldn’t afford to jeopardize her employment and medical insurance benefits.
She needed her own space, no matter how much she was tempted to take a chance that he was different from the last jerk.
Twenty-four hours later Cindy was sitting in her supervisor’s outer office. She’d been summoned and there was little doubt in her mind that it was somehow connected to her being sighted hanging out with Nathan—Dr. Steele—yesterday. There were so many rules, regulations
