In between those times, he muddled through, sometimes messing everything up without trying, more often than not simply neglecting them. He knew the piles on his desk drove her nuts. And he’d always enjoyed driving her nuts. She looked so pretty steamed.
But today felt different. She felt different. He felt her tension, her fear every bit as much as Gertie did. Whatever it came from, he wanted to assuage it. Not that she’d let him, but she needed something to distract her, then. Something more challenging then making appointments, and he could give her this. “I’m waving the white flag,” he said.
She just looked at him. He nearly smiled at having his own trick of loaded silence played against him. “If you have time,” he said, “my billing needs help.”
Her mouth opened, then closed. The spark that had been missing in her eyes didn’t come back, but much of her wariness vanished, and she at least finally spoke to him. “Did hell freeze over?”
“Not yet.”
“Did you forget your password to get into the system again?”
“Okay, one time.”
“Weekly.” She continued to study him, eyes narrowed. “Is this a pity offering?”
“If I were going to make a pity offering, it wouldn’t be in my office.”
She stared at him, then let out a low laugh. “In your dreams.”
“You keep saying that. Makes me think you’re the one having the dreams about me.”
She bent and scooped up Beans. “Are you getting a load of this?” she murmured to the kitten, then kissed her on the nose. “He thinks I’d dream of him over Nathan Fillion.”
“Mew.”
Jade tapped a finger on the schedule in Dell’s hands, pointing to one of his eight o’clocks. “Dixie’s in heat. We’re going to have to be careful that she doesn’t excite every male in the place.”
“What?”
“If we don’t rush her through, we’ll have a clinic full of boners. What’s wrong with your hearing this morning?”
“Nothing,” he said. “I just really like it when you say things like excite and boner.”
“Boner,” Peanut said.
“Oh, no,” Jade said to the parrot. “No, no, no… you can’t say-”
“Boner.”
“Oh God.” Jade panicked. “Peanut-”
“Pretty bird,” Del broke in, smiling at the parrot and speaking low and soft. “Such a pretty girl, Peanut.”
Peanut preened under his admiring tone. “Pretty Peanut.”
Jade shook her head in disbelief.
“It’s all about distractions.” Dell eyeballed the schedule. Jade was right, it was manageable. She always made sure of that. “So are you in on the books?” he asked casually.
She stared at him for a long, interminable beat, clearly attempting to see how much of this was because of her.
All of it… But if she hadn’t figured out that he’d do anything for her, he wasn’t about to tell her. He gave her his most harmless smile.
“Dell,” she said softly.
“Jade,” he said just as quietly. “Or should I say Goddess Jade?”
She closed her eyes. “Is this because we… kissed?”
“Is that what that was? I thought it was the Fourth of July.”
“Dell.” She grimaced. “Tell me this isn’t about last night. Because I’m not good with sympathy.”
“Noted. How are you with just some good old-fashioned caring?”
“Not so good with that, either.”
“Huh,” he said, and crouched to rub Gertie’s belly. “Maybe you should work on that.”
“My family’s been trying to drown me in it for a while now, but I just keep floating to the top.”
He straightened. “Keeping your head above water is good, Jade. In or out?”
She blew out a breath. “You know I’m in.”
“Good.” He smiled. “Don’t tell Adam-he’ll whine like a little girl because he actually thinks he’s good at the books. But he screwed up last month’s billing so badly that we might have to start completely over.”
Instead of looking nervous, she actually looked thrilled, and he shook his head. “You are one odd woman, you know that?”
She laughed, laughed, and he felt like he’d won the lotto. He turned to head into the back but she surprised him when she set her hand on his arm.
“Thanks,” she said. “For not pushing.”
He looked down at her fingers on his. “You’re safe here, you know that, right?”
She nodded, and for a second, neither of them moved as that something new zinged between them. Smarter than him, and also faster, Jade pulled free and stared at him.
“Boner,” Peanut said.
Six
As Dell walked away, Jade drew a deep breath and attempted to shrug off her tension. Only it didn’t shrug off. Her shoulders were so tense they felt like pins and needles were stabbing into them, and now there was something odd going on low in her belly as well.
You could be halfway to somewhere new by now, said a little voice in her head. She told the cowardly weasel to zip it and held her chin high.
She wasn’t going anywhere. So she’d had a minor setback yesterday, she could recover. She could go back to burying the past.
She could.
She would.
Her cell phone rang. Normally she’d ignore it at work, but she pounced on that sucker.
“Just looked at the calendar.” It was Sam, her cousin. “And guess what, J? It’s the first of October.”
“Happens every month,” Jade agreed, ignoring the significance. “What are you doing calling so early, is everything okay?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing.”
She glanced at her watch and added an hour for Chicago time. “Wow, so you no longer sleep late?”
“Haven’t slept more than five hours straight since med school. And then, to make it worse, a certain cousin of mine skipped out on her job and left us all in the lurch. I’m working my ass off.”
“Poor baby. And that fat paycheck doesn’t help at all?”
Sam blew out a breath and softened his voice. “Okay, truth, J. How are you doing really?”
“Fantastic.” But they’d grown up together and were as close as family got. She couldn’t bullshit him, she didn’t even try. “I’ve been better.”
“Goddammit,” he said quietly. “Tell me you’re still on track to be here by November first as promised. And if you say you need more time, I’m coming out there to drag you back here myself.”
“I’m on track.”
“Good,” he said. “Because your town house misses you.”
“My town house misses me?”
“Yeah. And the office misses you.”
“Now that I believe,” she said, thinking if all that missed her in Chicago was inanimate objects, why go back?
“Things are going downhill, Jade. Sandy’s not on top of everything like you always were. We’re suffering without you.”
Guilt washed over her. “That can’t be true.”
“Believe it. I hate to ask anything of you, but…”
“But you’re going to, anyway?” Jade asked dryly.
“Can you call in and talk to Sandy? She came from running just the Urgent Care, she’s not used to this. She’s got some computer problems and-”
“Sam, Sandy’s good. She knows what to do.” Jade had made sure of it.
“Yes but she’s not you. The office management has gone to hell. We’re losing patients, babe. People are tired of the long wait at the front desk. Phone calls are getting routed to our service in the middle of the day. We’re losing out on business.”
“You’re not-”
Sam laughed mirthlessly. “It’s a ‘we,’ Jade. We’re a ‘we,’ in business and in family. In everything.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m working on it, Sam.”