Wash (22 page)

She
shifted in her seat so she could watch her father leave. He walked
straight, smiled pleasantly at the hostess as he paid the bill, and
disappeared out the door, never turning back to wave or glance at
them. Her lips pressed tightly down. The next six months were going
to be a challenge. How her mother stayed happily married to the man
was beyond her understanding.

“
What is it with the two of you?” Elijah’s husky voice broke
through her thoughts.

Darn that accent is sexy. He’s gotta know it.
Charity picked up
her wine glass and took a sip. He’d probably prefer to talk about
himself than the un-comings and lack of goings between her father
and her. “You’re from Australia, right?”

“
New Zealand,” he corrected.

“
What made you decide to come to America?”

Elijah
settled back in his chair. “Scholarship. Opportunity. And maybe
just a little bit of running away from home.”

“
Running away?”
Interesting.

“
My mother’s very much into the society club, the yacht club,
and about any other club which exhibits social status. It seemed a
good time to try something new.”

Charity
smiled teasingly. “Sounds pretty prestigious. I hardly doubt you
needed a scholarship then.”

Elijah
grinned. “It fit the part back home and it looks good when you show
up in med-school as a foreigner on scholarship. You earn a bit of
respect before you start.”

“
Really?” She let her cheek rest against her hand and enjoyed
the guilty pleasure of letting her elbow rest on the table. Her
father would be cringing if he were still here. “I’d have thought
it would’ve made you work harder to get the respect.” She enjoyed
another sip of wine and realized she’d almost finished this glass.
She had better slow down or she wouldn’t be driving home. She moved
her head slightly so she could lean her chin against her palm. His
backstory sounded interesting. “What made you want to be a
doctor?”

It
didn’t seem possible, but Elijah’s eyes lit up even more. “I had no
idea what I wanted to do in high school.” He shrugged. “I mean, if
I asked my fifteen-year-old self what my plans where, I’d have said
sports. I played varsity cricket in university so I started in
kinesiology. My anatomy professor in first year talked me into
being on the cadaver team. The team consisted of about ten students
who cut open the Jane and John Does to teach the other students
during class time. I was the only first year, and after ten minutes
I knew it was where I wanted to be.”

“
Cutting up dead people?” She hoped her forced straight face
wouldn’t give her teasing away. “That’s a bit serial psychopath
sounding.”

“
Touché.” He laughed. “It’s weird, though, it just came
naturally. All of it – the dissecting, the anatomy and physiology,
like my brain knew it even though my subconscious did
not.”

“
And you still enjoy it?”

“
Every minute,” he said without hesitation.

“
That’s very cool. Natural talent in medicine and surgery isn’t
easy to find. No wonder my father picked you as chief.”

“
Dr. Thompson is a great doctor. I’m honoured he hired me. When
he said he was stepping down and wanted me to take over as chief,
I’d be stupid to say no. This hospital is easily one of the top ten
in the country. I get to do surgeries most hospitals would never
risk and surgeons can only dream of. The other thing about Scott
Thompson Hospital is the atmosphere. It’s great. Everyone loves
being here and that, in turn, helps the patients.” He picked up his
glass. “Sorry to ramble.”

“
Don’t apologize. It’s something you love.”

He
clinked his glass with hers. “Cheers to that.” His elegant fingers
rhythmically tapped against the rim of his glass. “I’ve been here
five years now and don’t recall seeing you around.”

For three months straight, six years ago, I never left the
place.
That
was before all the new construction and the renaming of the
hospital to honour her father. “I’ve been by. You just probably
never noticed me.”

“
I’d have definitely noticed.”

She raised her eyebrows but didn’t respond.
Was he flirting
with her?

“
How long have you been raising money for hospitals?” He shot
her an innocent look. “Not to sound clueless but… I have no clue
what you do or how you can make a living out of it.”

“
There’s money in this. Some for me, but the best part is that
I get to spend other people’s money to make more. I’ve been doing
this about five or six years now. In America, Canada, and England.
It’s all about the money.” She couldn’t resist bantering him.
“That’s my job: raising money to pay for all these new wings you
doctors want. So you guys can make loads and loads more money off
those one-of-a-kind freaky surgeries.”

He
pointed a mocking finger at her. “This from the girl driving a
Mustang.”

“
It’s a rental! They gave it to me because they rented out all
the cars from the size I reserved.”

“
Sure, that’s what your cover story is.” He chuckled, a husky,
throaty one which sent little wrinkles by the sides of his eyes. It
was very pleasant to watch and listen to.

“
You’re trouble.”

“
That depends…” His eyes locked with hers.

She
enjoyed the last bit of her wine. “On what?”

He also
took a sip of wine before answering. “On what kind of trouble
you’re looking for.”

Charity
watched him. Handsome, smooth, and so definitely a womanizer. He
had probably already broken strings of hearts. Should she answer
his question and open the doors to a chance of mischief? Did she
need that right now? Did she want it? She did but not tonight.
Flirting was a safe kind of fun. She had never done the one night
stand thing and setting this gala up for her father meant she’d be
back and forth here and constantly running into him at the
hospital. Things between her father and her were awkward enough;
she didn’t need to add more to it. She pretended to check her
watch.

“
I should actually get back to the hospital.” Elijah seemed to
have read her thoughts and knew what to say. “I want to check my
patients’ charts from the past two hours. Plus I eventually need to
get some sleep. I’ve had two nights on-call and another big surgery
going on first thing in the morning.”

“
Ouch.” She straightened and covered a yawn with her mouth.
“Sorry. Been a busy week on my end also.”

He
helped her slip into her coat, his fingers accidentally brushing
her neck. Her skin tingled on the spot where he had touched.
Charity rubbed her scarf to try to erase or at least dampen the
effect. She collected her briefcase and purse.

Elijah
pointed to the half full bottle of white. “Almost a sin to leave
unfinished.”

“
I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.”

“
Our little secret then?” He winked at her.

They
walked to the exit, Elijah leading the way, and then holding the
door for her. Outside they walked side by side. The brisk evening
sent little puffs of air out of their mouths and noses. Charity was
glad she’d brought her scarf. She stuffed her fingers deep inside
her pockets.

“
Where are you working now?” Elijah asked after a moment of
comfortable silence.

“
Atlanta. I just started a new contract this week.”

“
They don’t mind you are working with another hospital at the
same time?”

“
I haven’t mentioned anything because it’s not a conflict of
interest and I wasn’t exactly sure what my father had in mind.
It’ll be a bit busy, but I can do most of the work here on
weekends.”

“
So you’ll be up here quite regularly then?”

She
nodded. “I’ll be up next weekend, and then probably two weeks after
that I’ll come up again. Whatever it takes to set it
up.”

“
The Atlanta job, is it similar to this one?”

“
Not really. The contract we just signed is for two years. That
hospital needs a new wing and a lot of expensive updates. It’s not
in bad enough shape to tear it down and start over but their other
option—hiring me—figured out a way to get the place thriving
again.”

“
It’s interesting.”

“
Not really. My job is to basically find innovative ways to
fundraise. To get people to want to give away a lot of
money.”

“
Do you only work with hospitals?”

They
turned a corner and a gust had Charity catching her breath. “Wow,
it’s windy. And to answer your question, right now I’m booked with
just working with hospitals.”

“
So there’s a queue to see you.” He elbowed her lightly. “Why
am I not surprised? How far are you booked ahead? Three months?
Three years?”

She
blushed despite the cold. He was flirting with her again. “Actually
at the moment I don’t have anything confirmed after Atlanta. Two
years is a big commitment. Most places have their goal set for six
months, maybe a year tops. I keep saying I’m going to take a break
after I finish one project and before I jump into the next. It
still hasn’t happened. Maybe I’ll finally go on a trip somewhere or
a cruise or something.” She stared ahead and didn’t look at him.
She couldn’t believe she had just told him that she wanted a
vacation. Could she sound any nerdier?

“
I haven’t been out of America for about five years now. I’m
due for a holiday as well.”

“
You haven’t gone home?”

“
New Zealand? I planned on going last year but then got hired
as chief so I didn’t feel it was the right time to go.”

They
reached her car. “So you’re a procrastinator as well?”

“
I have my moments.”

They
both smiled and she fished around her purse for her keys. An
awkward moment ensued when she didn’t know what to say or do.
Should she get in the car? Shake his hand? Hug him? “Do you want a
lift to the hospital?” She unlocked the doors using the key chain
clicker.

He
watched her, his gaze moving left to right like a slow pendulum
intently staring into her eyes. “Tempting, but I should probably
walk. Then I’ll just catch the subway.” He held out his hand. “I
had a lovely time, Charity Thompson.”

Tempting? Weird. It’s just a ride.
She reached out and shook his hand,
part of her relieved, part of her extremely disappointed. “Me too.
Have a nice evening, Dr. Bennett.”

He
waited for her to get into the car and start it before he began
walking away.

Chapter 7

The
hospital ran on constant busy and seven o’clock in the morning
wasn’t any different. Charity carried a tray with two coffees. She
had debated about grabbing a third for Elijah but chickened
out.

The
elevator opened on the sixth floor. Charity walked by the nurses’
station and noticed they were going over shift change and the
patients’ charts. Her father would be in his office and she wasn’t
entirely surprised to see Elijah’s lights off and office door
closed, though she was a little disappointed.

She
straightened her shoulders and tapped on her father’s door before
walking in. “Good morning.”

Her
father looked up from his desk. “I didn’t know you were an early
riser.”

Did he
always have to find a way to make her feel just a little bit less?
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Dad.” She pulled her coffee
from the tray and dropped the tray and his cup on his desk,
purposely on a stack of papers but knowing it wouldn’t spill. “I
brought you a coffee. Decaf.”

His
brows shot up in surprise. He quickly moved the tray from the
papers but did open the coffee and take a few sips. “Thank you.
Your mother used to come every morning and bring me
one.”

“
I know,” Charity said as she sat down across from him. “It was
on the way to school. I always waited in the car.” She didn’t want
to share a special memory of her mom with him. He’d ruined that
years ago.

He took
another sip and stared down at the papers in front of him. They
both avoided looking at each as they drank from their cups. He
finally broke the silence when he cleared his throat. “I like the
venue and idea you came up with last night.”

“
Good.” She needed to take the sullen child act down a notch.
“I’m glad. I think it’s going to be a big success.”

“
Yes, that would be nice. I have no interest in throwing a
party for myself, but if it can make the hospital some money, I
guess I’ll just have to keep my head down and get on with
it.”

Interesting. She would have thought he’d love the attention.
“I’ll confirm the date for…” She pulled out her phone and skipped
to the calendar six months from now. “March twenty-sixth? That’s a
Saturday. It’s after Saint Patrick’s Day and spring break, which
will help. No conflicting parties.”

“
That’s fine.” He wrote the date on a piece of
paper.

“
I will probably need to be here again next weekend to check
caterers and a few other things.”