Kiss the Girl (9 page)

“No, of course not.” 
Nixie thought about Mama Mel and her babies who didn’t breathe right.  She thought about a waiting room full of
pukers
.  She thought about orphans and homes and kid
s the laws didn’t provide for.
  About her cold, generic apartment and the dazzling promise
of a life rich with connections and purpose she’d glimpsed just a few moments before.
 
God
forgive her, she wasn’t going to give up so easily.
  Not even for Mary Jane.

“I
was just trying to think of some way to ask you for a favor
,” she said.

“
You
want a favor from
me
?”  Mary Jane’s eyes were wide and blue and disbelieving.

“Yeah.  I recently broke up with Leighton-Brace Charitable Giving.  You might’ve read about it in the papers?”

“I think everybody in the free world read about it in the papers, Nixie.”

She nodded.  “Yeah.  So I’ve got some time on my hands.  Turns out I suck at being lazy.  I need something to do.  I don’t suppose you have anything here that would keep me busy while
I’m
reinventing myself
?”

Mary Jane stared at her, mouth open.  “You want a job?”

“
I don’t want you to pay me
,” she said quickly.  “I just need something to do.  To stay busy.” 
To work on you until you see reason about this fundraising thing
. 

Erik
nodded slowly,
as if he could see the wheels turning inside her head and liked her direction.  He turned to Mary Jane and said, “We
are
looking for an evening receptionist.”

Mary Jane
looked doubtfully at Nixie.  “I don’t think--”

“
Yeah, you’re probably right,” he said, cutting
her off and sliding Nixie a dismissive look
.  “
I’m sure
Nixie Leighton-Brace
is way
too important to
pull desk duty at a free clinic.
  Isn’t she?
”

CHAPTER FIVE

As
Erik
expected, Nixie’s cheeks pinked and those green eyes went sharp.  “
If I ta
ke the job, will you stop speaking about me in the third person
?”

“Sure thing.”  He smiled at her, and she glared back.  Pe
rfect.  She was pissed at him, but not enough to reject the job
. 
He was going to save
the clinic without sacrificing himself on the altar of his mother’s ambition.
 

“
Super
,” Mary Jane said.  “
You’re hired.
  Wait here, okay?
” 
She
turned to Erik
.  “Can I see you a moment?”
 
Erik
followed her to her tiny office
,
pull
ing
the door shut behind them. 

“What
was that all about
, there at the end
?” she asked, her shiny head bent over the desk.  She was double and triple tasking, as usual.  Scanning patient files, signing
off on forms, talking to him
.
 
“
Nixie
tried to do us a favor
--
a big one
--
and I threw it back in her face.  She has every right to be pissed, but she offered to man the desk instead.  Why on earth are you antagonizing her
?”
   

“It’s kind of a long story.”

“Bottom line it for me.  What’s
the
deal?”

“Nixie Leighton-Brace is my mom’s latest pick for my First Lady.”

Mary Jane glanced up, gave him a mischievous grin.  “She’s right, you know.”

“My mom?”

“No, Nixie.  You do
sound snotty when you say her name like that
.”

“Good.  I don’t want her to get any ideas.  Can you imagine her and my mom on the same team?
”

“I’d rather not
.”  Mary Jane shuddered, then
went back to her forms.
 
He smiled at her impeccably straight part.
  The Senator was Mary Jane’s worst nightmare.
 
Monied
and
powerful, with a taste for publicity. 
And unless he missed his guess, Nixie caused her
some
anxiety, too. 

“She was right about you, too,” he said.

“Who, Nixie?”

“Yeah.  You get hives just thinking about
celebrities
.  Being Nixie Leighton-Brace’s best friend must’ve been an act of supreme courage.  Especially in high school.”

“
You saw her out there.  You think she gave me a choice?”

Erik rolled his eyes.  “Yeah, right.  You don’t do anything you don’t want to.”

“So I’m a sucker for the underdog.”  She scribbled her name across one last sheet. “Why do you think I gave her the receptionist job?
”

“Bec
ause you want her to raise you that
boatload of money
she offered
and save this clinic.” 

Her pen
froze for
an instant before continuing.  “I do not,” she said without looking up.

Erik leaned forward, hands on the desk
.  “
Come on, Mary Jane.  That woman is nobody’s receptionist and you know it.  You let her squeeze one pretty foot in the door and she’s going to do whatever the hell she pleases.  Thank Christ it seems to please her to throw us a fundraiser.”  He plucked the pen from her fingers, forcing her to meet his gaze.  “A badly needed fundraiser.”

Mary Jane snatched her pen back.  “Oh, all right.  So I might’ve overstated my objections a few minutes back.  But that doesn’t mean they weren’t true.  If there’s any way to get the money without all the hoopla, she’ll find it now.”  She smiled.  “She owes me, remember?”

Erik snorted.  “Good luck with that.  I don’t care what she owes you.  Nixie Leighton-Brace
is
hoopla.”

Mary Jane gazed at him shrewdly.  “You really don’t like her, do you?”

“It doesn’t matter if I like her or not,” he said,
as much to himself as to Mary Jane
.  “She’s going to raise us that money.  Then she’ll make up with her crazy mom and fly off to save the world. 
If
I’m lucky it’ll be
before my mom convinces her I’
m some kind of JF
K Jr./
Prince Charming
hybrid.
”

Mary Jane winced on his behalf. 
“
Yeah, that would be bad.  Your mom’s kind of...intense
.”

“I know.  Believe me, I know.  And the fact that we’re in harmony on that point makes me love you even more.  When are you going to give in and admit we were meant for each other?”

She shook her head.  “You’v
e been going on about that for five years
,” she said.  “Isn’t it time to admit that I’m out of your league?  Too much woman for you?”

He laughed.  “Never.  Determination is the hallmark of my personality.”

“Tell you what.”  She
scooped up a sheaf of papers
and dropped the pen into her lab coat pocket.  “If I’m still single at, say, forty, I’ll think it over.”  She squinted at him.  “Better make it fifty.”

“Sweet talker.”

“You know it, bro.  Now
go introduce Wanda to her new receptionist
.”

Wanda plunked Nixie into the receptionist’s chair.  Nixie sank so far into the divot Wanda’s butt had left there that her feet dangled like a little kid’s. 

“Ninety-nine percent of the folks who drag their sorry asses here on a Friday or Saturday night will be one of the five Ds,” Wanda said.  She counted them off on long red nails.  “Drunk, drugged, disturbed, dinged up or diseased.  There’s a pending file for each one on the back counter.  All you have to do is fill out a registration form for each patient, stick it in the right file.  The docs will take it from there.”

Nixie eyed the pile of blank registration forms on the desk.  “Sounds doable.”

“
Mmm
-hmmm.”  Wanda’s tone made it clear she was reserving judgment.  “Keep an eye on the waiting room, too.  You don’t want people fighting or puking in there.  Flu’s going around.  Barf buckets are in the closet, right beside the mop.  Get ‘
em
one, or you’ll be using the other.  I am not going to clean up your mess in the morning, you understand?”

She gave Nixie a steely look.  Nixie nodded.  “I understand.”

“All right then.  Have fun.”  She sashayed toward the door with a two-packs-a-day chuckle that had Nixie
frown
ing suspiciously at her back.

Then she was gone and for the next two hours, Nixie didn’t have time to think about it.  She was too busy handing out buckets and figuring out which D each patient most closely resembled. 

She’d just handed out her fourth puke bucket when a woman staggered up to the receptionist’s station.  Her plaid shirt was buttoned crookedly and flapped around skinny thighs.  She gripped the desk with fingers like wires and slumped into a folding chair.  Nixie gave her a professionally concerned smile and said, “Welcome to the Anacostia Health Center.  What can we help you with tonight?”

“Oh, honey, I got me the flu, bad.”

Nixie nodded.  “It’s going around.”  She drew a registration form out of the pile.  “Let’s get you signed in.”

“I don’t need signing in
.  I need a doctor.  I’m dying.” 

“The doctor will see you as soon as I get you into the system.  So I’ll just--”

“Oh lord
, the room’s moving
.
”  She leaned in, propped an elbow on the counter and frowned at Nixie.
  “Is the room moving
, sugar
?”

“No, ma’am.”

She closed her eyes and laid her cheek on the counter.  Nixie could see a single pink curler dangling behind her ear.
“Lord B
aby Jesus, just take me on home,” she moaned.  “
I
done
suffered enough.”