Anything You Want (27 page)

“Wow, no kidding. That’s cool,” Steve said.

“It is,” she said with a smile. “It really is. I do miss performing, though.”

“You going to do anything like that here?”

She hadn’t thought about that, but Steve’s question made her wonder “Why not?”

“You’re a
teacher
?”

She swung to find that Marc had snuck up on her. “Um, hi.”

“You’re a
teacher
?”

She heard scuffling behind her and knew the guys were getting lost. As Steve moved past Marc he handed him a one hundred dollar bill. “I should be paying you, man,” he said, clapping Marc on the shoulder. “’Night.”

“’Night,” Marc answered, pocketing the money without breaking eye contact with Sabrina.

“You paid them like you paid the band in Laramie?”

“They told you?”

“Yeah.”

He shrugged. “I have yet to lose anything betting on you.”

She wanted to hug him. Instead, she narrowed her eyes. “Thanks.”

“So, you’re a teacher?”

“Sort of. I don’t have a degree, I just teach what I know. I got involved helping some kids as a volunteer with a pro bono music program and got hooked. When they got funding to pay someone part-time I applied and got the job.”

“Why have you let us all believe that you’re been living it up in the night clubs?” He looked sincerely perplexed.

“You assumed that, you never asked. And I still played in the clubs and hung out with bands from time to time. I still love that too.”

“But you’re making steady money and…you have a
real
job.”

“As opposed to the other things I did that were legal and gave me a paycheck,” she said dryly.

“You know what I mean.”

“What you mean is you’re shocked that I was doing something respectable and responsible.”

“No I—”

She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Fine, maybe that’s what I meant. Sorry. I guess I bought into the whole image of you as an up-all-night party girl who was barely getting by.”

“When the singing became a job and my creativity went out the window I decided that I needed to find a way to enjoy the music again.”

“How’d you get hooked up with the kids’ program?”

“The same roommate who taught me about gluten sensitivity.”

“You have a gluten sensitivity?”

“No. She did. But it’s pretty interesting stuff.”

Marc shook his head and chuckled. “You’re a surprising person, Seattle.”

“That might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“You like surprising?”

“It’s better than selfish and egocentric. Which are pretty much the same thing, by the way.”

“I called you selfish and egocentric?”

“Twice that I can recall at the moment.” She tipped her head to the side. “You don’t remember that?”

“I do. I was wondering why I was so redundant.”

Now it was her turn to shake her head. “You didn’t think much of me in high school and college.”

“One of those times was when you interrupted Luke’s first date with Kelsey because your purse was stolen.”

“Well, it was.”

“You were at the mall.”

“So?”

“It’s not like you were alone on a dark street corner in the hood.”

“I still needed a ride.”

“You had lots of friends.”

“Luke was closest.” She had no idea if that was true. He was simply always the one she called first.

“I was two blocks away at Starbucks.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Luke told you that.”

He had and she’d balked. “I figured you wouldn’t want to come.”

“I wouldn’t have wanted to. But I would have done it for Luke.”

“Like you did this time. And look where this has gotten you.” Before she said the words she thought she was teasing him. But as they came out of her mouth, she realized that she wanted to hear him say that he didn’t regret coming to pick her up. And that he also didn’t regret the things that had happened between them, that he was even glad about some—or all—of it.

“Yeah. Look.” He lifted a hand and dragged his thumb across her bottom lip. “But all I can do is wonder what would have happened if I’d picked you up then. Or stepped in at any point prior to Muddy Gap. Would all of this between us have happened earlier?”

She wondered the same thing. Had this chemistry, this draw, always been there?

“We didn’t feel any of this before,” she said softly.

“But there were lots of things in the way. We were almost never alone together, for one.”

“And Luke.”

Marc smiled and dropped his hand. “He was so sure he was in love with you that I wouldn’t have even imagined getting close enough to you to find out if I had feelings. And being around for all of your…interactions…with him frustrated me. I couldn’t see you as anything but this thorn in his side. That he kept pushing further under his own skin.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Not very complimentary.”

“But it’s true. He encouraged you. He liked being there for you. All the time. No matter what. Constantly.”

“Okay, okay,” she frowned. “I probably called him a lot in college.”

“All the time.”

“Daily,” she conceded.

“Four times a day. At least. And you ate at least one meal together.”

She opened her mouth to protest, then thought about it and admitted Marc was right. “We were friends,” she said. “Friends talk.”

“It makes it hard to get close to any other girl when there’s one calling you all the time, though. Most don’t put up with that.”

“If they liked him they would have hung in there.”

“How could they know if they liked him? He was always talking to you, leaving early to come see you, showing up late because he was doing something for you.”

“Fine,” she broke in. “I was a thorn in his side and I’ve prevented him from finding any happiness at all.”

Marc smiled at her. “That’s why I was so glad that you left and that Seattle is so far away.”

“And now?”

He shrugged. “He doesn’t know you anymore. It’s been a long time.” He paused.

Sabrina really wanted to know what he was thinking.

“It’ll go one of two ways,” he finally said. “He’ll either realize that you don’t need him like you used to and finally understand that it was never real love. Or he’ll fall in love with you for different reasons.”

She swallowed. Falling in love with Luke and vice versa would be perfect. If she truly wanted to be with him forever all of this would be so much easier.

If she was truly madly in love with someone there would be no decision to make—she’d want to be with him, wherever he was. But the fact that Marc was the one to make her realize that didn’t make things one bit easier.

Chapter Ten

“Did you know that the baby’s collar bone can
break
during delivery?” Marc asked as Kat came into her office. He removed his feet from the edge of her desk. Kat glanced at her name embroidered on the left breast of her white jacket and brushed nonexistent lint off of the M.D. after it. “Yep, I knew that.”

“And that the baby might have trouble breathing after it’s born?”

“Knew that too.” Kat laid her stethoscope on the desk and took a seat in the chair across her desk from him. “I even know how to handle that.”

“Did you know that it’s possible to
tear
a nerve going down into the baby’s arm?”

“You are aware that I spent a ton of money and time in school, right?”

“Twenty out of every hundred babies born in the U.S. are delivered by caesarean section.”

“I’ve assisted on two of those.”

He stared at her. She seemed pretty damned casual. He’d been surfing the net for information for the past three days and there was an overwhelming number of things that could go wrong with the pregnancy and delivery.

He’d started searching online for nannies in Nashville, had then moved to doctors, which had led to several links and websites that discussed everything from ear infections to Down syndrome.

“Are there any genetic defects in her history?”

“Whose?” Kat’s smile was clearly teasing. Still, she waited for him to answer.

“Come on.” He put the book, opened to the genetic disorder chapter, in front of her. “Have you done an amniocentesis?”

Kat’s eyes widened. “No.”

“Why not?”

“Good grief, what have you been reading?” She peered at the book. “Amnios are hardly routine. And there’s no indication so far.
And
it’s early, even if we were considering one. Which we’re not.”

“But something could go wrong.”

“Something could always go wrong. Everything can be perfect up to delivery and then things can happen. Things can also happen when baby turns six months, or three years or eleven.”

Marc tipped his head back and groaned. “You’re killing me.”

“What are you doing?” Kat asked. “Exactly?”

“I was researching nannies and doctors in Nashville. I got sucked into a bunch of websites and was clicking around and found—”

“A bunch of stuff you decided to research in real books?” she asked, indicating the textbook he’d pulled from her shelf.

“Yeah.”

“Remind me what this has to do with you anyway?”

That straightened him up. “I was thinking that she’s not so bad.”

Kat snorted. “Nice understatement.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve seen how you look at her. And vice versa.”

“How do I— Vice versa?” He changed directions mid-question as her words registered.

“Yeah, how you look at her. Like she’s a extra large chocolate-cherry malt.”

His favorite treat. Absolutely, hands down, the thing he would forsake all other sweets for.

“And vice versa?” he repeated after he’d swallowed the lump of
Oh, no
that lodged in his throat.

Kat grinned. “She’s looking at you like you’re a huge plate of cheddar chili fries.”

He shuddered. As a chef he was morally offended that
anyone
liked cheddar chili fries, especially the woman he—

He shut that thought down immediately. This was getting complicated.

“I thought you were doing everything just to keep her away from Luke,” Kat went on.

How much did Kat know, anyway? How much, and
what
, had Sabrina told her? He couldn’t tell and it was driving him nuts. “Everything like what?”

“Spending time with her, flirting, complimenting her.” Kat leaned forward and pinned him with a direct stare. “Proposing to her.”

“I didn’t exactly propose.” Though he couldn’t stop thinking about the idea ever since he’d said it.

“True, ‘I should probably marry you instead’ is a pretty pathetic excuse for a proposal. But I figured you were kidding. Until Luke told me about your weird reaction to her being on stage the other night.”

“What was weird about it?”

“He said you acted like you were pissed at him for not wanting her up there.”

He swallowed again. “He wasn’t being supportive.”

“Maybe. But the question is why do you care so much?”

He shifted uncomfortably. There was that nagging issue of how he felt about Sabrina again. It would be so much easier if he did just want to keep her away from Luke. Of course, he did want to keep Luke away, but where it had once been for Luke’s good, he was beginning to see how it would be good all the way around.

He wasn’t ready to talk to anyone about that yet.

Kat’s nose stud winked at him and her eye makeup was heavy and black. But within the dark eyeliner she looked at him with an unflinching, assessing gaze. “Did you say Nashville? And the word nannies?”

“Yeah.” But he was thinking maybe he shouldn’t have.

“Why?”

“She needs to be in Nashville, Kat. She’s never been settled because she hasn’t been in the place she’s supposed to be.”

“You think Nashville is where she’s supposed to be?”

“It makes sense,” he said firmly. “She’s incredibly talented, music is her passion and Nashville is the place those two things can turn into something.”

“Only Nashville?”

“Well, not Justice. If she’s going to go she should go big.”

“And you’re going to help her with that?”

“She just needs a boost,” he said, not meeting Kat’s knowing gaze.

“And a nanny?”

“Yes. It’s better than getting married because she thinks she needs help. You can fire a nanny if it doesn’t work out.” Though he was determined to find the perfect person.

“Good point,” Kat said with a shrug. “What’s she think of this? She hasn’t said a word to me about Nashville.”

“She made it into this big singing competition down there. But she thinks she’s not going.”

“And you apparently don’t agree.” Kat didn’t sound surprised. “You’re just going to put her on a plane with a one way ticket and a ‘good luck’?”

He shifted in his chair remembering the last time he’d tried to put her on a plane. “She’s been on stage with The Locals the past three nights.”

“I’ve noticed they’re playing there a little more often lately.”

Marc refused to feel bad about that. It was a good situation for everyone. The Locals were great, especially with Sabrina, so the restaurant patrons were enjoying it, the band always liked playing and Marc loved watching Sabrina on stage. Luke was a little annoyed, but he hadn’t said another word about it to Marc. He just slammed doors and stomped around more than usual.

“Anyway,” he went on. “The past three nights she’s been remembering how much she loves all of this. So when I tell her that I called and let the competition know she’ll be there, bought her a plane ticket and got her a hotel room, she won’t be upset. Or at least
as
upset.”

“Right, because if she’s upset she might not sleep with you again.”

His jaw dropped. “She told you?”

Kat crowed, tipping back in her chair back. “No, but I knew it!”

Marc opened his mouth to reply then shook his head. “You’re wicked.”

“You’re sleeping with her. I can’t believe she kept that secret. Must mean something.”

“Not sleeping with,” Marc corrected. “Had sex one time. Not even in a bed. What does it mean?”

“Not even in a bed? Then where?”

“My kitchen. What does it mean?”

Kat’s eyes widened. “I’m never coming to your house for dinner ever again. Yuck.”