curled up on her chest eyeing her expectantly.
A sudden sense that something wasn’t quite right niggled at her muddled mind. Then she remembered. Brendan’s kiss. The no-big-deal kiss. What a joke. Even though she’d said otherwise, it had been a big deal. It still was.
She rested one hand on the cat’s head and the other over her eyes. While she scratched the tabby behind his ears, she relived every moment of the kiss in feature-film clarity—the soft feel of Brendan’s lips, the silken glide of his tongue, the strong yet careful way he had held her. She shouldn’t be surprised that he’d kissed her with the same gentleness he practiced with his tiny patients. She should be surprised that she had so actively participated and so willingly enjoyed it.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t fathom what had happened between her and Brendan. A momentary lapse in sanity? A glimmer of chemistry? A mutual need?
All of the above?
She couldn’t let that happen. Long ago she had learned that intimacy did not lead to love. At one time she had made that mistake only to learn that giving in to physical needs only led to heartache. Giving all of yourself to someone didn’t mean that that someone would give themselves emotionally to you.
Cassie uncovered her eyes and checked the bedside clock. Although it wasn’t quite time for her to get up, she might as well since the hungry cat and thoughts of Brendan’s kiss wouldn’t let her go back to sleep.
‘‘Okay, Mister. Time for tuna.’’
She picked up the cat, who gave a meow of protest and a nice love scratch down Cassie’s neck as she carried him into the kitchen to feed him. She opted for a diet soda instead of coffee after doling out disgusting kitty tuna. Then she went into the bathroom and began applying her makeup only to poke herself in the eye with the mascara wand when she couldn’t keep her mind on what she was doing.
Now she was an absolute mess—bloodshot eyes, a red welt compliments of the kitty, and too-fine hair that refused to do anything but lie flat against her head.
She added drops to her eyes before applying her contacts, tried to hide the unsightly scratch with a turtleneck and twisted her uncooperative coif up into a plastic clip, sprigs of hair sticking out on top of her head like random wheat.
Cassie feared this was only the beginning of a daylong battle for control with Brendan invading her brain. How was she going to face him? Like a mature adult, of course. The spontaneous kiss would ruin the relationship only if she let it. She wouldn’t do that. Brendan’s friendship meant too much to her. Neither of them wanted to take the relationship to another level. Or did they?
As Cassie climbed into her car and headed for the hospital, she wondered whether that kiss was only the beginning of something more. Something unexpected and maybe even welcome. Maybe even something wonderful.
‘‘Cassie, you’ve got to come see him!’’
Cassie turned from the In box on her file cabinet and regarded her unexpected visitor. Michelle Lewis Kempner stood at the office door, all smiles and elation, not a strand of shimmering dark hair out of place, her makeup applied to perfection.
Cassie felt like road kill in Michelle’s presence. ‘‘I’ve already seen your husband. Passed him twice this morning as a matter of fact.’’
Michelle rolled her blue eyes. ‘‘Not him, silly. My new nephew. He’s all dressed and ready to go home. Hurry before Jared and Brooke leave.’’
Cassie suddenly remembered Brendan telling her that the Granger baby was going home. Not surprising she had forgotten that bit of welcome news considering the events from last night. She certainly didn’t want to miss seeing the family off. But if she followed Michelle up to the fifth floor neonatology ICU, chances were she would run into Brendan. Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. After all, the entire Lewis clan would be there, the attention focused on the Granger baby. A good place to get lost in the crowd. Besides, she enjoyed being around the close-knit family even if the matriarch, Jeanie Lewis, was a bit on the flighty side. At least Michelle and Brooke had a mother, despite her flaws.
Cassie did want to see little Matthew Granger finally free from the constraints of IVs and other equipment that had brought him to this moment. If Brendan happened to be there, she would simply deal with it.
‘‘Okay, give me a second.’’ For some reason Cassie felt the need to do a quick touch-up. She pulled a mirror and a tube of lipstick from her desk drawer. Unfortunately, her hair looked like the product of a screwdriver rammed into an electrical outlet. Not much she could do about it now.
‘‘Hurry up, Cassie.’’
Cassie shoved the drawer closed on the reminders of her bad-hair day and followed Michelle out the door. Michelle’s husband, Dr. Nick Kempner, joined them on the elevator along with two teenage girls.
‘‘Hey, where have you been all my life, beautiful?’’ Nick gave his smile and a kiss to Michelle. The girls giggled; Cassie grinned. She couldn’t help it. The couple’s joy over seeing each other was contagious, serving as fuel for Cassie’s fantasy that someday she might be as lucky as Michelle.
The elevator seemed too small to contain Michelle’s overt enthusiasm. She rocked back and forth on her heels and muttered, ‘‘This thing is so slow.’’
‘‘They’ll wait for you, Auntie Michelle,’’ Nick teased.
‘‘I know. But I can’t wait to get my hands on him.’’
After the teens exited on the second floor, leaving only Cassie and the Kempners, Cassie regarded Michelle with a curious stare. ‘‘Are you getting some maternal urges, Michelle?’’
Michelle and Nick exchanged a look. ‘‘I have some urges all right,’’ Nick said. ‘‘Cassie, mind getting off on three and walking up to five? I was thinking maybe I’d take advantage of my wife in this empty elevator.’’
Michelle sent him a playful look. ‘‘Nick, we just got back from our honeymoon yesterday.’’ She turned her grin on Cassie. ‘‘The man is greedy.’’
A bite of envy mixed with embarrassment fired up Cassie’s face. She felt like an intruder horning in on two lovers’ private moment.
‘‘Cut it out, you guys,’’ Cassie said when Nick buried his face in his wife’s neck. ‘‘This isn’t a nice thing to do to a single woman with no prospects.’’ She immediately thought about Brendan and fought back a rush of excitement and apprehension about seeing him again.
Nick looked at her with surprise. ‘‘Hey, Cassie, I happen to know more than a few guys—’’
The elevator pinged and the doors slid open, saving Cassie from Nick Kempner’s offer to rescue her from the cesspool of self-imposed celibacy by finding her ‘‘a man.’’ They traveled down the hall and pushed through the double doors and into the area immediately outside the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. In the nearby waiting room they found Dr. Jared Granger standing over his wife, Brooke, who was seated in a chair holding a bundle of soft blue blanket. Next to Jared stood Jeanie and Howard Lewis, proud-grandparent smiles plastered on their faces.
Cassie released a breath of relief when she noted that Brendan wasn’t anywhere around. That fact also brought about disappointment. Just as well, she supposed.
Michelle
