Prejudice Meets Pride (19 page)

Later that night, after he’d spent the entire day with Emma, Kajsa, and Adelynn, Kevin gazed at his reflection in the mirror. He looked different. Better. The stress lines around his mouth had become smile lines, and his eyes appeared happy. Even his hair looked thicker and richer.

Was that Emma’s doing?

His phone vibrated, and Kevin pulled it from his pocket. When Nicole’s name appeared on the screen, he felt the stress lines return to his face. After the night of babysitting, he’d promised to call, and he hadn’t. Instead, he’d taken Emma out. He’d kissed Emma. He’d spent the day with Emma. And he wanted to spend tomorrow with Emma.

Kevin sighed and answered. “Hey, Nicole.”

“Hey,” she said, her voice quiet and hesitant. “How are you?”

“I’m good. And you?”

“Great, thanks.” A long, awkward pause followed, and Kevin couldn’t think of a way to end it. Finally, she said, “Is it okay if I get right to the point?”

“Yes.”

“You never called.”

“I know, and I’m really sorry.” Kevin felt like the jerk he was. Nicole deserved better.

“I know you’re busy. So am I,” she said. “But other than that, is there a reason you haven’t called? Did I do something?”

Kevin turned his back to the mirror and leaned against his bathroom counter. “No,” he said. “You didn’t do anything.”

“Then… why?”

Kevin grimaced, then pinched the bridge of his nose as he racked his mind for a way to word the truth without hurting her feelings. But that was the problem. The truth
would
hurt her feelings regardless. And she deserved the truth.

“I’ve been meaning to call,” said Kevin. “I just…” Again, the words failed him. Nicole was too nice of a person.

“Is there someone else?” she guessed.

“Yes,” he said, forcing the word out. “I’m dating Emma.”

A long pause. “Emma? As in your
sister
?”

Kevin bit back a groan. Why had he said her name? Why? Why? Why? One little slip, and he’d just made a bad situation ten times worse. Sir Walter Scott’s words entered his mind:
Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.

And that tangled web was all Emma’s doing.

Emma drummed her fingers against the counter and glanced over her shoulder, waiting for Janice’s door to open, signaling the end of her lunch meeting with Kevin. It had taken several weeks, but Emma was now an expert on data entry and could input a patient’s file in her sleep—a feat which should have excited her if not for the fact that she was now completely bored. She’d already inputted the two new files that Janice had given her, cleaned her workstation, and reorganized her drawers. Now she was left with nothing to do but continually glance over her shoulder at a closed door.

Not for the first time, Emma wondered what she was doing here or why Kevin had even offered her a job in the first place. Janice didn’t really seem to need an extra set of hands. Then again, maybe she was simply easing Emma in slowly, one step at a time.

Emma’s fingers drummed again, more than ready for the next step.

The door finally opened, and Emma grabbed the new patient files. She spun around in her chair and stood, waiting as Janice and Kevin emerged from her office.

“Oh, hey, Emma,” Kevin said as she approached.

“Hey back.” Her smile became genuine as she met Kevin’s eyes. But when he said nothing more, and Emma couldn’t think of anything else to say either, especially not in front of Janice, the silence quickly turned awkward. Kevin cleared his throat, said something about looking over a patient’s file, and left.

Emma’s gaze was drawn to his confident stride, broad shoulders, and nice lines before she remembered the files in her hands. She turned quickly back to Janice and held them out. “All finished,” she said, a little too brightly.

Janice looked from Kevin’s retreating back to Emma. “Something going on between you two?” The words were tinged with a hint of disapproval.

Was it that obvious? Emma needed to work on her subtlety. “No,” she said quickly.

Janice nodded, then gestured for Emma to follow her into her office. “Have a nice weekend?” she asked as she straightened a large stack of papers on her desk. It was the first personal question Janice had ever asked Emma, which gave her reason to hope. Maybe they could actually be friends someday.

“Yes,” said Emma. “I went to a really nice art gallery opening in Denver, featuring a bunch of local artists. It was wonderful.”

The papers stopped shuffling, and Janice’s eyes seemed to zero in on her like they would a target. “Did you go alone?”

Emma wasn’t sure how to answer. “No. I, uh… got invited to go.” That didn’t sound like she was trying to hide something, did it? Emma rushed on to say, “Are you into art at all?”

“No. Which is why I turned down the tickets when the sales rep offered them to me.”

“Oh.” Emma’s gaze shifted to the papers. Stupid her. She should have known the tickets had been some sort of business perk. Why had she opened her big mouth and jabbered about the art gallery anyway?

“Kevin said he was going to pass them off to someone who’d be interested. I didn’t realize he meant you.”

Pass them off? Is that what he’d intended to do? The way Janice watched her made Emma suddenly feel like she was under a magnifying glass, and Janice didn’t like what she saw. She turned her palms up and tried to sound flippant. “Well, I am an artist.”

“Which leads me to wonder what you’re doing here.” The comment didn’t sound accusing or cruel, merely curious, but her words still made Emma squirm. “Wouldn’t you rather be doing something you love?”

“Of course, but what I want to do isn’t an option right now, so I took the next best thing that came along.”

“Working in a dental office is the next best thing?” said Janice. “Or is it a certain someone that
makes
it the next best thing?”

Emma’s fingers clenched around the armrests of her chair. Is that what Janice thought of her? That she was some sort of opportunist intent on snagging the rich dentist? Is that what everyone thought? If so, they were wrong. Dead wrong. Emma’s shoulders stiffened as she met Janice’s gaze with a hard stare. “I accepted this job because Kevin said he needed an extra set of hands and because I needed the money. That’s the only reason.”

“He might need an extra set of hands, but I don’t,” Janice muttered under her breath.

A chill swept through Emma. At the back of her mind, she’d always feared this job had been “created” for her, but hearing it voiced aloud made it real. And painful.

But she wasn’t about to give Janice the satisfaction of seeing how much her comments had hurt. Emma stood, trying to keep her back straight, her gaze unflinching. “Like I said before, I’m all caught up with the patient files. Is there something else you’d like me to do?”

Janice pushed the stack of papers in her hand toward Emma. “I need these filed.”

“Sure, I’ll get right on that.” She scooped them up, spun on her heel, and left the office behind, trembling all the way to the filing cabinet. Janice had no right to treat her that way. Emma hadn’t asked Kevin to invent a job for her. She hadn’t asked for anything—at least not at first—and yet Janice had made her feel like this entire humiliating scene was all her fault. When it wasn’t her fault at all. It was Kevin’s.

Emma jerked the drawer open and started shoving pages into the files, taking her anger out on something that didn’t feel or couldn’t lash back. She shoved until her eyes began to sting with unshed tears. She wasn’t being fair. Neither Kevin nor Janice deserved her anger—not really. Emma was the one to blame. This wasn’t where she belonged, and she should never have accepted this job. The air was too stale, the walls too drab, and the work too uncreative. Emma wanted more. She needed more.

But where would she find it?

Raised voices sounded, and Emma became aware of a commotion happening in one of the exam rooms. The cries of a hysterical child and a woman speaking rapid Spanish echoed down the short hallway, getting louder and louder. Typically, Kevin didn’t get flustered, but as he tried to communicate with both mother and daughter in incredibly broken Spanish, his voice began to escalate as well.

Without a second thought, Emma dropped the stack of papers on top of the filing cabinet, wiped her eyes, and walked into the exam room, not caring that she wasn’t supposed to be there.

“
Hola! Cuál es la problema?
” she asked, molding her lips into what she hoped appeared to be a bright smile.

The girl stopped crying and gaped at Emma in surprise, while the mother appeared relieved. “
Habla español?
”

“
Sí
.”

The woman started rattling off the situation in Spanish. It had been awhile since Emma had spoken the language, so she didn’t catch everything, but she heard enough to get the gist of the problem.

Emma placed her hand on the little girl’s arm. “
Habla inglés?
” she asked, hoping the child would be bilingual so she wouldn’t have to translate the entire conversation to Kevin.

The girl nodded, casting a worried look Kevin’s way as though scared he’d try to hurt her again.

“The reason your face feels funny is because Dr. Grantham put some medicine on it to make it numb. That means it won’t hurt when he fixes the cavity.”

“It hurt,” was all she said, holding her hand to her cheek.

Kevin let out a sigh. “I’m so sorry, Isabella. You jerked your head when I was giving you the medicine, which is why it hurt. Normally, it doesn’t. I promise.”

Emma nodded and leaned in closer. “Does it hurt right now, sweetie?”

Her head shook. “It just feels funny.”

“I know,” said Emma. “I’ve had that medicine too. But it will only feel funny for a little while, I promise. By dinnertime, it will be all better and back to normal.”

Isabella bit her lip, still looking anxious.

Emma searched her mind for something that might help. “What if I were to draw a picture of you while Dr. Grantham fixes your cavity? Would you like that?”

“What kind of picture?” At least she didn’t say no. That had to be a good sign.

Emma rested her hand on Isabella’s and gave it a slight squeeze. “You tell me. Do you want to be a princess, a cowgirl, a doctor, an astronaut, a—”

“A princess.” She smiled, or at least tried to. The right half of her mouth wouldn’t obey.

Emma smiled back. “Okay. Princess it is.”

“On a unicorn?” the little girl added tentatively.

“Well of course on a unicorn,” Emma said. “What else would a beautiful princess like you ride?” That earned her an even bigger half smile from Isabella.

“Why don’t you rest your head right here and let Dr. Grantham fix that cavity? If it starts hurting, I want you to squeeze your mom’s hand, and she’ll tell him to stop. Okay? And by the time he’s finished, I’ll have your picture all ready for you.”

Fear returned to her eyes, but she finally nodded and grabbed a hold of her mom’s hand in a tight grip.

Using Spanish, Emma quickly filled the mother in before going to the reception area to grab some paper and a marker. She’d create a black line drawing so Isabella could color it in herself at home.

Back in the exam room, Emma held the paper above the little girl’s face and said, “I’m going to sit over here and work on your drawing, okay? You’re doing awesome.”

Isabella nodded, and less than fifteen minutes later, Kevin pushed the tool tray aside and stripped off his gloves, then patted Isabella on the shoulder. “All done. You did wonderful.” He held his hand out for a fist-bump, which Isabella returned.

As the chair raised to a sitting position, Emma held up the line drawing of Isabella dressed in a beautiful dress, riding a unicorn. “I’m all done, too. What do you think?”

She grabbed the picture and smiled broadly. “That’s me on a unicorn!” She held it out for her mom to see. “
Mira Mamá!
”

“
Sí, sí, muy hermosa!
”

The mother thanked Emma and Kevin, then left with her happy little girl. When Emma’s attention returned to Kevin, she found him watching her with an expression she couldn’t quite read. He rose from his chair and pulled her into a hug, right in front of one of his surprised assistants, who ducked her head and quickly left the room.

“Thank you, Emma,” Kevin said quietly in her ear.

For a moment, it was easy to get lost in his embrace and forget Janice’s earlier words, but when Janice walked by seconds later, the hard look in her eyes immediately rekindled Emma’s earlier feelings. She felt the tears begin to well up again and quickly pulled free. “No problem,” she said, before returning to the stack of filing awaiting her on the desk outside the office. She would get through this day if it was the last thing she did.