A Tricky Proposition(5)
Images paraded through his head. Ming’s mysterious smile as she placed his hand on her round belly. Her eyes sparkling as she settled the baby in his arms for the first time. The way the pictures appealed to him triggered alarm bells. After his father’s suicide attempt, he’d closed himself off to being a husband and a father. Not once in the years since had he questioned his decision.
Ming glanced at the silver watch on her delicate wrist. “I’ve got seven minutes to get upstairs or I’ll be late for my next appointment.”
“We need to talk about this more.”
“It’ll have to be later.” She gathered Muffin and exited the car.
“When later?”
But she’d shut the door and was heading away, sleek and sexy in form-fitting black pants and a sleeveless knit top that showed off her toned arms.
Appreciation slammed into his gut.
Uninvited.
Unnerving.
Cursing beneath his breath, Jason shut off the engine, got out of the car and headed for the front door, but he wasn’t fast enough to catch her before she crossed the building’s threshold.
Four-inch heels clicking on the tile lobby floor, she headed toward the elevator. With his longer legs, Jason had little trouble keeping pace. He reached the elevator ahead of her and put his hand over the up button to keep her from hitting it.
“The Camaro will get towed if you leave it there.”
He barely registered her words. “Let’s have dinner.”
A ding sounded and the doors before them opened. She barely waited for the elevator to empty before stepping forward.
“I already have plans.”
“With whom?”
She shook her head. “Since when are you so curious about my social life?”
Since her engagement had broken off.
On the third floor, they passed a door marked Dr. Terrance Kincaid, DDS, and Dr. Ming Campbell, DDS. Another ten feet and they came to an unmarked door that she unlocked and breezed through.
One of the dental assistants hovered outside Ming’s office. “Oh, good, you’re here. I’ll get your next patient.”
Ming set down Muffin, and the Yorkie bounded through the hallway toward the waiting room. She headed into her office and returned wearing a white lab coat. When she started past him, Jason caught her arm.
“You can’t do this alone.” Whether he meant get pregnant or raise a child, he wasn’t sure.
Her gentle smile was meant to relieve him of all obligations. “I’ll be fine.”
“I don’t doubt that.” But he couldn’t shake the sense that she needed him.
A thirteen-year-old boy appeared in the hallway and waved to her.
“Hello, Billy,” she called. “How did your baseball tournament go last month?”
“Great. Our team won every game.”
“I’d expect nothing else with a fabulous pitcher like you on the mound. I’ll see you in a couple minutes.”
As often as Jason had seen her at work, he never stopped being amazed that she could summon a detail for any of her two hundred clients that made the child feel less like a patient and more like a friend.
“I’ll call you tomorrow.” Without waiting for him to respond, she followed Billy to the treatment area.
Reluctant to leave, Jason stared after her until she disappeared. Impatience and concern urged him to hound her until he was satisfied he knew all her plans, but he knew how he’d feel if she’d cornered him at work.
Instead, he returned to the parking lot. The Camaro remained at the curb where he’d left it. Donning his shades, he slid behind the wheel and started the powerful engine.
Two
When Ming returned to her office after her last appointment, she found her sister sitting cross-legged on the floor, a laptop balanced on her thighs.
“There are three chairs in the room. You should use one.”
“I like sitting on the ground.” With her short, spiky hair and fondness for natural fibers and loose-fitting clothes, Lily looked more than an environmental activist than a top software engineer. “It lets me feel connected to the earth.”
“We’re three stories up in a concrete building.”
Lily gave her a “whatever” shoulder shrug and closed the laptop. “I stopped by to tell you I’m heading out really early tomorrow morning.”
“Where to this time?”
For the past five years, her sister had been leading a team of consultants involved with transitioning their company’s various divisions to a single software system. Since the branches were all over the country, she traveled forty weeks out of the year. The rest of the time, she stayed rent-free in Ming’s spare bedroom.
“Portland.”
“How long?”