Working on a Full House (19 page)

"What?" Valerie stopped breathing. Drop by her office? Was the man mad? Nobody at the office knew about him, with the exception of Cherise, and Cherise thought Roy was old history. How was Valerie to explain who he was? "Uh, coming by my office...won't be necessary. You could leave the key inside the house."

"Mm. Not too easily. Your deadbolt requires a key to turn it from the outside. I wouldn't be able to lock up if I left the key inside."

He was correct. And the door was too tight against the threshold for him to stick the key under the door once it was locked. Valerie felt as if walls were closing in on her. "You don't need to throw the deadbolt. The house will be okay."

Roy set his spoon down on the table. "You're pregnant."

"Uh..." And this had to do with her key, how?

"In a few weeks you're not going to be able to hide it any more."

"Um..." Okay, that was true, but —

"It'll be a lot easier to explain the baby to people if it's established I'm in the picture beforehand."

Valerie sat and stared at him. This wasn't about her house key at all. "You want to be in the picture?" she blurted.

He looked at her like she was a particularly dense student in a remarkably easy class. "I
am
in the picture. Seems to me the earlier I'm seen in the frame, the better."

It didn't seem that way to Valerie. It seemed to her it would be a lot easier if no one ever knew of his existence. But looking at him with his bowl of cornflakes at her kitchen table, she realized that was probably not a realistic expectation. He intended to be around — a lot.

"Let the people you know see us as...together," Roy went on. "Then it won't be such a big deal when they find out about the baby, or that we're married."

Valerie drew in a sharp breath. People were going to find out she was married to Roy? Well...yes. Perhaps that was inevitable.

"But still — " she temporized. Having Roy come to the office... It seemed horribly deceitful, or at least grossly overstating the situation. They were married, but they weren't really
together
.

Roy raised his eyebrows. "They're going to find out about me and the baby sooner or later. For my money, it's better sooner."

He was right. Of course he was right, but still... Valerie mentally grimaced. There was no 'but still.' He was right. People
were
going to find out, and sooner
was
better than later. "Okay," she said out loud. "Meet me at my office. But we're not saying anything about the baby or being married. Not yet."

Roy's lashes lowered infinitesimally. Valerie wished she knew what that meant. Was he surprised by her capitulation?
Could
she have decided otherwise? "Okay," he said. "It's a deal.

Valerie met his bland gaze and wished like heck she didn't feel as if she'd just been out-played.

~~~

Oh, sure, Roy bought Valerie four bags' worth of groceries, and he put them all away for her, too. After that, he replaced the worn-out washer in the powder room, which turned out to be a trickier job than he'd anticipated, involving some sweat and a few inventive cuss words.

But these jobs were small potatoes. The big thing would be meeting her friends and co-workers.

When he'd woken up this morning he'd heard his brain talking instead of other parts of his anatomy. Yes, he wanted in to Valerie's bed, but some other matters had to come first. He needed to dig a foundation for the place he wanted in her life.

So he'd called Kenny to explain his plans for the day and to arrange a place to meet later. But Kenny had told Roy not to worry; he could hop a Greyhound back to Vegas so Roy could stay in Palmwood as long as he liked.

Roy didn't want to stay long, though, just long enough to accomplish his most important errand on this trend-setting visit to his wife's world: establishing himself as the man in her life.

It was his most vital errand, and the most nerve-wracking. As Roy walked under a watery spring sun to the double glass doors of Valley Pediatric that afternoon, he couldn't remember when he'd ever cared about making a good impression. When it came to poker, the worse an impression one made, the better. When it came to women, well, they usually approached Roy and not the other way around, particularly since his name and probable net worth had started showing up in books about poker.

"What's not to like?" he muttered to himself, pausing to take a deep breath before hauling open the thick glass door of the building. He was decently groomed and well mannered. He made a good living — an
awfully
good living. He planned on treating Valerie like a queen, once he made her understand she was his wife in deed as well as fact. There was nothing to criticize.

Nothing, that is, but the ever-present, underlying sense of inferiority that was his legacy from a harsh and judgmental father.

Roy sighed and strode into the building.

He was immediately enveloped in an atmosphere galaxies removed from the hedonistic aura of the casinos. The cold travertine floor, the unadorned walls, and the no-nonsense alphabetized directory all pointed to a place of deep seriousness.

Dr. This, Dr. That, a heart clinic, and a Center for Metabolic Research all vied for space on the directory with Valley Pediatric.

What I do is important, too
, Roy assured himself, though he couldn't think of how as he walked down the hall toward the ground floor clinic. It occurred to him that Valerie probably wasn't going to want to give up her job once the baby was born. Becoming a doctor had taken too long and doing the job was too important for her to walk away. They'd talked about her medical career once, on the Paris Hotel pool deck.

But her remaining a doctor would be okay, Roy decided, as he strode into the colorful waiting room. There were swing shift schedules and nannies. Hell,
he
could stay home with the baby, for that matter.

With that life decision taken care of, Roy looked around the room. Kids of various ages lounged on plastic sofas, glued themselves to the TV in one corner, or simply huddled sadly with haggard parents.

Roy gazed at one particularly bedraggled child, way too old to be sucking her thumb, and realized this was a glimpse into his future. One day he could be sitting here with some unhappy, sick kid. He tilted his head, considering that. Kinda scary but...hey, his wife was a pediatrician.

The thought made him grin. Now was that convenient, or what? Yes, it would definitely be okay if Valerie wanted to keep her job.

But he was getting ahead of himself. First he needed to make sure Valerie understood she really
was
his wife. Roy cleared his throat and toned down his smile as he walked up to the reception counter.

A gangly young man sat behind the counter while behind him, amid a library of patient charts, stood the model-tall African-American woman Kenny had gone running after the day before, probably Valerie's friend, Cherise.

"Hello there," Roy told the gangly young man. "I'm here to see Valerie — that is, Dr. Kendrick."

The young man blinked. The African-American woman stood very still. "Oh. Well, write your name on this list and we'll call you when we're ready," said the young man.

"What? Oh. No, I'm not here for an appointment. I'm, uh...a personal friend of Dr. Kendrick's." 'Personal friend.' Right, no point pissing Valerie off by making too much of their relationship — yet.

"A personal friend," repeated the gangly young man. He gave Roy a frowning look and picked up a telephone. Meanwhile, the probable Cherise turned to give Roy a penetrating stare. She seemed deeply suspicious. The gangly man told Roy, "I'll tell her you're here, Mr...?"

"Roy." Roy grinned. "She'll know who that is." No sense making too
little
of their relationship, either, he thought. He shifted to meet Cherise's gaze head-on, smiling pleasantly. She raised her eyebrows, cool as ice, and turned back to the charts. Somehow Roy doubted Kenny had made any time with her.

Meanwhile, the gangly young man spoke into the phone. "What? Dr. Kendrick, are you there? Oh. Yeah. There's a Roy to see you. Do you want me to send him in?"

As the receptionist listened on the telephone, his regard of Roy turned grudgingly accepting. "She says you can go on back." He pointed. "She's in the third office on the right."

"Thanks."

Under the scrutiny of the young man and Cherise, Roy went through the door and into a busy hallway. A child was stepping on a scale at one end, a toddler was walking with her hands clutching her mother's at the other end, and a tall blond guy in a doctor's white jacket was talking stridently to a woman in blue scrubs. The sound of intense, high-pitched wailing rose above the tableau.

Nerves of steel, Roy thought, as another child began to scream from vistas unknown. Working in a place like this day in and day out had to take nerves of solid, stainless steel. He knocked on the closed door of the third office down.

Thankfully, Valerie didn't take long to answer. The door opened and she stood there, looking frazzled. Roy didn't blame her.

"Come in," she said, and turned on her heel.

Roy didn't take umbrage at the curtness of this greeting. Considering the noise and chaos in the hall, he'd want to scurry back into his office, too. He made sure to close the door solidly behind himself. The wails were still audible, but not at head-splitting levels any more. He could almost tune them out enough to enjoy the sight of Valerie in a white lab coat, looking delightfully scientific.

"So, you found the place all right." At a large desk on the other side of the room, Valerie turned and gave Roy an approximation of a smile.

"It was no problem." It occurred to Roy, watching even the approximation of a smile fade, that what was bothering her might not be the kids wailing out in the hall.

Was it him?

Yeah, he wanted to make her nervous, he wanted her to be aware of him, sexually, but he didn't want to inspire dread.

Valerie's gaze flicked down to a file folder lying open on her desk before she looked back up at Roy. "I'm sure you bought ten times more groceries than I need."

"Oh, only about two or three times as much."

Her smile came back, and it was a little more genuine this time. "And the bathroom sink?"

"Fixed." Roy paused. "I think."

She snorted and walked around her desk. Roy saw her gaze flit down again to the papers fastened into the chart. She tried to look away, but whatever was in there obviously called to her.

"What is that?"

She looked up sharply. "Excuse me?"

He nodded toward the chart.

"Oh." Valerie reached to flip the thing closed. "Nothing."

"Nothing?" Roy laughed softly. "I play poker for a living, doll. Something about that chart has you upset. What's the problem?"

She looked down at her hand on top of the closed file folder.

Roy made a mental note never to let Valerie play poker. She had a face that told everything.

"I — Well, it's this patient." Her brows drew down. "Six weeks ago he came in, complaining of fatigue. I took a blood test — twice. Everything looked all right, or at least not alarming. But he just came in again today and — oh, boy." Valerie puffed out her cheeks.

"Not good."

"Not good at all." Valerie shook her head. "He was pale as a sheet, had all kinds of bruises, and his heart was going much too fast."

"Which means?"

"There are a few unpleasant possibilities." Valerie sighed. "I took another blood test. We'll know more tomorrow."

Roy tilted his head. "You like this kid."

Nodding, Valerie straightened from his position leaning on the chart. "Nicky's great. He was the very first patient I ever saw as a full-fledged doctor. Told me I was a natural." Valerie's smile crooked. "Imagine this skinny ten-year-old trying to make me feel comfortable. And when his little sister had to come in for her annual, he held her hand. Can you imagine? He is an absolute sweetheart."

So much for the famed physician objectivity, Roy thought, but with more tenderness than disapproval. In fact, he started to feel warm inside. "Oh, I'm sure you'll fix him up."

Her smile faded. "I certainly hope so."

"I'm sure of it. Hey." Physical affection did not come naturally to Roy, but it felt natural to walk up to Valerie and put a reassuring arm around her. She must have been even more upset than she looked, because she didn't pull away. If Roy wasn't mistaken, she even leaned into him.

At least, she leaned until she realized where she was. Then she tensed.

Roy lifted his arm, though he felt let down. She was attracted. Why was she fighting it?

"I better get back to work." She laughed a little. "I have a million more patients to see today."

"Sure, Val. I'll walk you out to the hall." Far be it from Roy to remind her he'd come to return her key.

When Valerie opened her office door, the sound of wails instantly swept back into the room. She would have walked nonchalantly back into that battle zone if a tall, blond fellow, the one Roy had seen earlier, hadn't suddenly appeared in the doorway. "Val?" he said.

Valerie skidded to a halt. "Peter."

Every male instinct Roy owned went into abrupt overdrive. The way the blond guy positioned himself, the way Valerie responded — Roy's competitive instincts screamed. He didn't know the guy's name, but he knew exactly who he was.

Valerie's ex-boyfriend.

"Val," the blond guy said. "Could you take a look at that — ? Oh." The blond man stopped when he caught sight of Roy, who'd begun moving toward them via some force larger than his self-control. No wonder Valerie hadn't wanted Roy to come by her office.

"Valerie?" Roy asked, in a tone he thought was heroically restrained.

The blond guy looked down at her, too.

She was going to have to introduce them. Roy saw the realization dawn unhappily across her face. "Uh, Peter, this is my...friend, Roy — "

"How do you do?" Roy interrupted, before she might spill his full name. For all he knew,
Peter
was a poker aficionado. Roy put a territory-claiming hand on Valerie's shoulder as he reached across to shake the ex-boyfriend's hand.