took a step back.
“Are you addressing that assessment to me in general or just to the back of me?” she asked, an amused smile on her lips.
She could still fluster him, Dave thought. He’d assumed that reaction was years behind him. After all, he’d graduated at the top of his class, been voted into all sorts of positions of honor and had, in general, become confident in not just his abilities but in himself, as well.
Five minutes around Kara and he turned into that gangly, tongue-tied geek whose physique was all but concave the last summer their families had vacationed together.
“Let me think about it,” he said evasively.
She nodded. “Thought so.”
As she walked out, Gary rose to his feet. “Thank you,” he called after her.
She spared the boy a wide smile. This made everything worthwhile. “My pleasure, Gary. All my pleasure.”
With that, she was gone.
But not, Dave thought as he turned away to see the patient in room one, forgotten.
Chapter Three
Kara barely had time to run to the sandwich shop to purchase another roast beef sandwich for herself and get back to her desk before her lunch hour was officially over. Just when she’d managed to finally catch her breath, the phone on her desk rang.
Picking it up, she cradled it against her neck and ear. She needed her hands free for the control pad. The newest version of the game still had the pesky Black Knight’s horse water surfing.
“Hello?” Kara said absently, guiding the horse and rider over the water to see just how far this glitch extended.
The voice on the other end of the line responded with a single word. “So?”
Kara came to attention as she recognized her mother’s voice. The Black Knight and his horse were temporarily forgotten.
“So?” she repeated, having no clue what her mother was asking or saying.
She heard her mother sigh on the other end of the line, then carefully enunciate her question. “Did you bring the game to Dave?”
The question irritated her. Why wouldn’t she take the game if she’d already told her mother that she would? “I said I would.” She picked up the control pad again. The horse resumed galloping erratically. “Yes, I brought the game to Dave.”
“And?”
Kara frowned. Just what was that supposed to mean? “And what?”
A note of frustration entered her mother’s voice. “How did he look?”
Damn, the horse just rode off the edge of the earth. This was not good. “Like a maniacal serial killer. What do you mean, how did he look? He looked like Dave. Only taller.” She paused for a moment, then added, “And handsomer.”
“Aha.”
“Aha?” Kara repeated, confused. Okay, just where was this conversation headed?
“Never mind,” her mother said quickly. “Sorry, I need to go.”
Her mother definitely had too much time on her hands. “What you need, Mom, is a hobby.” Other than me, she added silently. Kara paused to make a notation about the game on the pad she kept by the computer.
“Agreed. Maybe someday you’ll give me one,” she thought she heard her mother say. The next moment, the line went dead.
Kara looked thoughtfully at the receiver in her hand. Maybe someday you’ll give me one. Under ordinary circumstances the most logical “hobby” would be one involving playing on a gaming system. But she had a feeling that her mother was not referring to anything as run of the mill as a video game.
And then, just like that, that strange, unsettling feeling that the universe was tilting began to come into focus for her.
The “hobby” her mother was referring to was a grandchild. Her mother wanted a grandchild. And the only way to get one of those, according to her mother, was to get her married and pregnant.
The woman was actually trying to play matchmaker. Damn. Ordinarily, her radar was better than this. How had she missed it?
For the time being, the black stallion was on its own. His aquatic adventures were definitely the last thing on her mind now.
Kara looked at the framed photo on her desk of her mother, her late father and her, taken when she was seventeen. It was the last family photo she had. Looking at her mother now, she shook her head.
“Why, you little sneak. I know what you’ve been up to. I’m really disappointed in you, Mom,” she murmured.
Jake Storm, the man occupying the cubicle next to her, rolled his chair back a little in order to catch a glimpse of her. He had hair and eyebrows that made him look like an affable sheepdog. One shaggy eyebrow arched in amusement now.
“Talking to yourself, Kara?”
She glanced to her right. “No,” she told him. “To my mother.”
Jake rolled his chair out a little farther, allowing him a clearer view of her space, which was, due to her position in the hierarchy, twice the size of his.
“That would be your invisible mother?” he asked.
“No,” she answered. “That would be the meddling mother on the other end of this now defunct phone call.” Putting the receiver down, she pushed the offending instrument back on her desk.
“Ah, meddling mothers. Tell me about it. Mine isn’t going to be happy until I chuck this game-testing job to the winds, get a degree in something she can brag about, marry the perfect girl and give her three and a half grandchildren—none of which is really doable,” he said with a heartfelt sigh, then brightened as he looked at her again. “Unless you’re free tonight to drive to Vegas and become Mrs. Jake Storm.”
She knew he was kidding. They were friends—without benefits. “And the three and a half kids?” she asked, mildly curious.
“We could rent them.” He grinned. “I think a month of endless babysitting might teach my mother a valuable lesson, as in ‘careful what you wish for.’ Might even be worth the effort,” he said wistfully.
However unintentionally, Jake had just given her an idea. A very good idea. She looked at him sharply. “Jake, that’s brilliant.”
“Clever, maybe,” he allowed, “but not brilliant. By the way—” he leaned in closer “—what clever thing did I just say?”
“Something,” Kara told him as she shifted over to the other monitor on her desk, the one directly hooked up to the internet, “that just might get my beloved mother to back off.”
“Well, I’m all for that,” Jake declared with feeling. Anyone who knew him knew that to be true. His mother was forever trying to
