Part 15 (1/2)
”It'll be my pleasure. A thank-you for all the good care you're giving Dad.”
Casey wasn't at all sure he liked the sound of that, and then he caught himself. Dr. Wagner was a grandpa, for crying out loud. A kind old man who'd known his father forever. Yet...Lois had the same d.a.m.n thought, given her spiteful expression. She smiled, but it was a smile of malicious intent.
Casey wondered how much Emma would let him help. Considering what he'd learned, he knew it wouldn't be easy for her to be home with both her parents. Yet her father's health dictated that she do just that.
He wanted to do what was best for her, and if that meant helping her with Dell... He and her father were not on great terms a not since the night Dell accused him of getting Emma pregnant a but Emma would have cleared that up with her father by now. Dell would certainly have realized that he wasn't a grandfather, and Casey wasn't a father.
Not that he didn't want to be. Someday. With the right woman.
He looked at Emma again and felt a strange warmth spread through his chest. Emma was such a gentle, affectionate, sensitive woman, she'd make a wonderful mother.
And if she knew your thoughts, Casey told himself, she'd probably head directly back to Chicago. h.e.l.l, he scared himself, so he could only imagine how Emma would react.
”You'll be hearing from me.” Dr. Wagner shook her hand, then clapped Casey on the shoulder. ”I'm off to see the rest of my patients.”
He went out, yet Lois lingered. She looked Emma up and down with a sullen sneer. ”A ma.s.sage therapist? Is that what they're calling it these days?”
Casey felt like strangling the little witch for her insinuation, yet Emma only smiled. ”Far as I know, Lois, that's what they've always called it. You didn't know that? I'm surprised, since the field of ma.s.sage therapy has become an integral part of health care, and you are a nurse, after all.”
Stung, Lois pursed her mouth. ”It sounds like a shady front to me. I remember you too well. I can just imagine what you do while ma.s.saging someone.”
Emma leaned toward her, taunting, egging her on. ”It is scandalous. Why, I light scented candles and play erotic, relaxing music. But I'm good, Lois, so good, that I get a lot of repeat customers.” She held up her hands. ”I'm told I have magic fingers and that I can work the tension out of any muscle.”
Red-faced, Lois said, ”It's an excuse to get naked and get...rubbed.”
”You make that sound so dirty!” Emma laughed. ”Actually, people with real physical ailments come to me. Strained muscles, stress, rehab after an injury...”
Lois sputtered in outrage. ”You should encourage people to see real professionals.”
”Oh? You mean like the ma.s.sage therapists employed by the hospital? I noticed their offices downstairs. They're not quite as well equipped as I am, but they're still adequate.”
”They're accredited.”
”Me too.” Emma fas.h.i.+oned a look of haughtiness. ”I'm certified with the AMTA and licensed by the city of Chicago. You know, you look so puckered up, you should really try a little ma.s.sage. All that frowning ages a person and gives her wrinkles.”
”I do see a few frown lines, Lois,” Casey managed to say with a straight face. It was strange, but seeing Emma so confident, even c.o.c.ky, turned him on. ”Maybe the folks downstairs will give you an employee discount.”
Clearly knowing she'd lost that round, Lois stalked out in a snit.
Unwilling to let Emma leave the same way, Casey caught her elbow. She'd put up a good front for Lois, but he could see that she was miffed over his interference with the doctor. ”Do you want to visit with your father some more before we head off?”
She considered it, and finally nodded. ”Maybe just to smooth things over before I leave.”
Casey hated for her to face him alone again, but he already knew he wasn't welcome. ”Hey.” He touched her chin and resisted the urge to kiss her. ”Don't let him get you down, okay? He's bound to be a little grouchy, all things considered.”
”It's not that.” She started out of the room. ”There are some things my father and I will never agree on, that's all. But I don't want to argue with him here, not while he's hurt and sick.”
This time Casey waited for her in the hall, but he could hear them speaking. The words were indistinct, but the tone was clear: Emma calmly insistent, Dell complaining, even whining. Casey winced for her. Under the circ.u.mstances, being Dell's caretaker wasn't going to be easy.
When she emerged ten minutes later, looking more agitated than ever, he slipped his arm around her waist. They walked down the hallway to the elevator in silence, but once inside, Casey pulled her into a hug. ”Ms. Clark, I'm noticing a few frown lines on you, too.”
A reluctant smile curled her lips, but her eyes remained dark with worry. ”Is that right? Think I should stop for a ma.s.sage?”
”What I think is that you should talk me through it. Maybe I have magic fingers too.”
The smile turned into a grin. ”I never doubted it for a second.”
”But first, a day on the lake with the sun in your face will work wonders.”
To his surprise, Emma sighed. ”Oh, that does sound like heaven.”
Aware of a slow, heated thrumming in his blood, Casey urged her off the elevator and through the lobby. Already he visualized her in a bikini, her skin warmed by the sun, dewy with the humidity... He had to swallow his groan to keep from alerting her to his intent. He'd have her alone in the boat, on the lake, with no way to escape. Touching her, kissing her, was a priority.
But first he intended to discover all her secrets. Something had happened to her, something bad enough to make her leave her home. Bad enough to make her leave him.
He wasn't letting her off the boat until he knew it all.
CHAPTER NINE.
B.B.'S HOT BREATH pelted Casey's right ear as he drove. The dog, like Emma, enjoyed having the top down, his face in the wind.
Emma's long hair whipped out behind her and she constantly had to shove it from her face. In something akin to awe, she breathed, ”It's so beautiful out here.”
Glancing at her, Casey agreed. Now that they'd hit the back roads leading toward the lake, the foliage was thicker, greener, lush. Blue cornflowers mixed with black-eyed Susans all along the roadway. Cows bawled in sprawling pastures, goats chewed on tall weeds grown along crooked fence posts. Blue-black crows as fat as ducks spread their wings and cawed as the car went past.
The narrow roads forced Casey to slow his speed, but he didn't mind. Watching Emma reacquaint herself with her hometown made every second enjoyable. She waved to farmers in coveralls who tipped their straw hats to her and then lazily waved back. She strained to see tobacco huts and tomato stands and moss-covered ponds. She embraced the wind in her face and the sun in her eyes.
She laughed with the sheer joy of it all.
And Casey felt positively frenetic with l.u.s.t. It burned his stomach and tightened his throat and kept him uncomfortably edgy.
If, as he'd first a.s.sumed, he had only l.u.s.t to deal with, he'd have already pulled over to the side of the road and taken Emma beneath a tree on the sweet gra.s.s. She claimed to be willing and there was plenty of privacy here once you got far enough from the road that no cars would notice you. Making love to Emma with the hot sun on his back and the birds overhead would be downright decadent, something straight out of his dreams.
But he was afraid what he felt for her was more than mere l.u.s.t. He wasn't sure how much more and he wasn't sure how hard it'd be to convince her of it. Emma seemed h.e.l.l-bent on remembering how he'd once rejected her, instead of giving them both a chance to get reacquainted as adults. Not that he blamed her. Looking at her now, he couldn't understand how he'd ever turned her down.
Emma was as earthy and s.e.xual and appealing as a woman could be. And she was in her element here.
She belonged in Buckhorn. Did she belong with him?
They'd stopped at the motel where Emma had changed into her suit and a zippered terry-cloth cover-up. Snowy-white and sleeveless, it hung to midthigh, showing off the shapely length of her legs. She'd raised the zipper high enough to rest between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Casey could see the top of her beige, crocheted bathing-suit bra, which made him nuts wanting to know if it was a bikini or a one-piece.
She wore dark sungla.s.ses and brown slip-on sandals, and she had a large cotton satchel stuffed with a colorful beach towel, sunscreen, a bottle of water and her cell phone. She commented that she wanted the hospital to be able to reach her if they needed to.
Before they'd left the motel she'd also taken the time to call Damon on his phone, and discovered that the car was repaired and he was touring the area. Emma had promised him that she'd be back for dinner. Luckily, to Casey's way of thinking, Damon had explained that he had a date, so Emma should take her time visiting.
Emma hadn't seemed at all surprised or concerned with how fast Damon had gotten acquainted. Apparently he had a way with women, given the fond smile Emma wore while rolling her eyes.