Kiss the Girl (27 page)

“You can
have five minutes,” she said
.  “Talk fast.”

“I talked with
Tyrese
today.”

She stared at him.  “You what?”

“You were kidnapped last night, Mary Jane.  I needed to make sure you were safe.” 

“I wasn’t kidnapped.  I told Nixie I was going, and that I’d be fine.  She watched me get in the car and buckle myself in.  Didn’t she give you the message?”

“Well, of course, but I didn’t think
--”

“Didn’t think what?  That I knew what I was talking about?  That I
was
fine?  That anybody besides you could possibly be right?”  Her hands were shaking with rage and humiliation.  “How could you have done that?”

“Those kids had
guns
,” he said calmly.  “People say lots of things at gunpoint.  How was I supposed to know you weren’t just trying to protect Nixie?”

“Because Nixie would have said
gosh, Erik, Mary Jane just sacrificed herself to some gun-toting thugs so I could get away and bring help
.  But I’m betting that’s not what she said.  I’m betting she said something more like
Mary Jane went with those kids.  She said she was fine and would be back later
.”  She glared at him.  “She’s not an idiot, you know.  No matter what you seem to think of her.”

He
stood
and pushed both hands through thick, wheat-colored hair.  “
This isn’t about Nixie
.”

“No?
  Then what is it about?
”

He studied her for a beat, just long enough for her nerves to start twitching, then he said, “You don’t have hay fever, Mary Jane.  You’ve been crying.  All
day
, from the looks of it.  Now I don’t know what’s going on between you and this Ty person, but it doesn’t take a genius to see that it’s not making you happy.  I can’t say I know what you’re feeling, but I do know what it is to want somebody wrong for you.”

“
You have a thing for criminals, too?  Now there’s
a
coincidence.”

Erik ignored her with his usual ease and went on.  “F
or a long time,
I kept thinking that life or the universe or something was going to put the right woman in my path eventually.” 
He gave her a smile,
a full on charmer.  “Turns out that my mom is the only one interested in throwing women into my path.”

Mary Jane was
surprised to find herself
unbending a little
.
  That was some powerful smile.
 
“Thus the debutante parade
?”

“Exactly
. 
I’ve thought a lot about the kind of life I want,
Mary Jane,
and the sort of woman who’d fit into that life.
  She’s starting to look an awful lot like you.
”

Mary Jane stared. 
“
M
e?” 

He laughed, a toothpaste commercial come to life and a tiny pang of regret tightened her throat.  Erik was a good-looking, charismatic man.  Normal women liked men like Erik.  Hell, they loved him.  Why couldn’t she be normal?  Why couldn’t she fall in love with him?

“Oh come on, Mary Jane.  It’s not like we’ve never talked about it before.”

“Yeah, but never serious
ly.  I mean, if I was single at
fifty and it was between dating you and getting a cat, I’d probably pick you, but I don’t think I’m quite there yet.” 

“
Why not?  You know me.  You know who I am, what I’m like.  You kn
ow that I think the world of you
. 
I know that you’re smart, driven and principled.  I know that you’re honest, that money’s not your biggest motivator and that if you ever appeared on the evening news, it would be completely unintentional. 
We both have careers that take up the bulk of our lives, and we both like it that way.  Lots of successful marriages are based on less. Why shouldn’t we go out a few times, see where it takes us?”

“Because
I don’t...”  Mary Jane flapped a mortified hand between them.  “We don’t...you know. 
Feel
that way about each other.”

“Feel what way?”

Her cheeks burned.  “
That
way.”

“The way you feel about
Tyrese
, you mean?”

Mary Jane thought about all the hours she hadn’t spent sleeping last night.  She thought about all the delicious aches and twinges and abrasions she’d collected as a result.  “Yes.”

“And how’s that working out for you?” he asked.  “Following your libido into a relationship.”

Mary Jane frowned, struck.  “Not so well.”

“There you go, then.”

She stared at him, a curious lightness
blooming
in her chest.  She thought it might be hope
, but she wasn’t sure
. 
She hadn’t hoped for anything in so long. 
“
You really think this could work?”

“Think about it, Mary Jane.  Our careers didn’t just happen.  We set goals.  We researched schools, hospitals, specialties.  Then we did what it took to get from there to here.  We expect to work like hell for all the other good things in our lives.  Why should
love
fall into our laps
?”

“I don’t know.”  She bit her lip.  Surely it wasn’t this
simple
.  But she couldn’t think at this particular moment of any reason not to at least try it.  “I guess we could go out sometime.”

His strong, square fac
e lit up with
that killer smile
again
.  “Great,” he said.  “But t
here’s
one more thing I need to know
.”

“What is it?”

“Be honest now.  A lot is riding on thi
s answer.”  He paused
, gave her a very serious look
.
“You don’t want to be First Lady, do you?”

She snorted. 
“I
can’t even look your mom in the eye she scares me so bad.  I’
d chew off my own arm before I dated a guy running for office.”

“
Yeah, I thought so
.
  But I had to make sure.
” 

He tucked his fingers into his pockets and smiled at her.  She smiled back
, but it felt like wearing somebody else’s jeans.  Even if the size was right, it was still awkward.  She forced
herself to focus on
this new idea, that she could choose a partner for the life she wanted rather than depend on her stupid heart.

It was actually kind of appealing.  She’d wasted
half
of her adult life
having sporadic sex with a guy who viewed
money-laundering
as a perfectly legitimate form of protest against institutionalized racism.  Was she really going to waste
the other half
, too?  Or was she going to get practical and stop expecting her wants and her needs to correspond so neatly?

Not that she had much of a choice. 
It was either that or resign herself to a future of conjugal visits.

She looked at Erik, standing a respectful distance away, those big hands tucked safely into the pockets of his jeans.  She couldn’t deny that it felt nice to have a guy like him thinking of her as wife material.  She noticed that he hadn’t spoken a single word about love or desire or need, though. 
It was an interesting omission
from a guy as inherently passionate as Erik.     

“
It’s Nixie, isn’t it
?” she asked. 

“What’s Nixie
?” 

“
The woman you don’t want to want.
”

He shook his head.  “
Why would I not want to want Nixie Leighton-Brace?  She’s hot.  Everybody in the world wants Nixie.
”

“Yeah, but she’s definitely First Lady material.”  Mary Jane’s smile morphed into a smirk that felt much more natural.  “Plus your mom picked her out for you.”

“Okay, fine.”  Erik pinched the bridge of his nose.  “
I’ll admit it.  I lust inappropriately, same as you.  But I grew up with a famous mom.  I know what that’s like, and I’m no
t going to do it to my own kids
.
”

“Nixie’s a whole different kind of famous than your mom.” 
Mary Jane
said.  “It’s not the same thing at all.”

“Listen, how about this?  You don’t hassle me about Nixie, I won’t ask you about Ty.  Let’s focus on each other for now, huh?”

Mary Jane considered this.  “Fair enough,” she said.  There was a pause that stretched clumsily into a silence.  Finally she said, “So, h
ow do you see this working?”
  She moved her shoulders uncomfortably.  “This dating business.”

“Let
’s just go out.”  He made it sound so easy.  “
A couple dates.  A movie.  Dinner.  Bowling.”

“Bowling?”

“You like mini golf better?”

“
Bowling’s
fine.”  She gave him a smile.  It was small, but by far the most genuine of the day.  An answering smile broke over his face, turning all those hard edges into something arresting and beautiful. 

“Have you eaten today?” Erik asked. 

She tried to remember when she’d last eaten and prayed her stomach wouldn’t mortify her with an almighty rumble.  “Um, no.”

“Come on. 
I’ll take you out to dinner and break my own rule about Nixie-talk
.”

Mary Jane frowned.  “
Uh-oh.  Is she
in trouble?”

“No, she
is
trouble.  She seems to think she’s our new Director of Outreach.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.  Get dressed.  I’ll fill you in.”

CHAPTER FIF
TEEN

“It’s a pretty simple set up,” Nixie said as she guided Karl through the clinic’s waiting room
on Monday
.  She
badged
them into the receptionist pen
where Wanda frowned at a computer screen and poked at a
keyboard with two-inch finger nails. 

“This is Wanda,” she told Karl.  “She sees all, knows all and punishes without mercy.  Try to stay on her good side.”