Kiss the Girl (6 page)

“No, it’s weird.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

“She’s hoping we’ll fall in love, marry, and produce gorgeous children that will be an asset to our good name when I run for president.”

Nixie’s hand rose to her throat.  “Oh.”

“Yeah, but don’t worry. 
I have no intention of reproducing at my mother’s behest, nor in running for public office.  You’re safe with me
.”

“Well that’s a relief.”

“Yeah.”  He tucked big hands into his pockets and studied her.  “Listen, are you interested in a job?”

“A job?”

“I know you said you were retired, and from what I’ve seen on
the news
, it’s for good reason.
”

Nixie closed her eyes and pushed a thumb into the headache
starting to bu
rrow
between her brows.  “
Glad you approve
.”

“So here you are, hunkered down in DC, trying to put a life back together, am I right?”

Nixie opened her eyes and gazed at him.  He was a train wreck.  Pitching was not this man’s strong suit.  But what he lacked in finesse, he clearly made up for in tenacity, because he was still going.

“I have just the project to get you back on your feet
, philanthropically speaking
.”  He grinned broadly, and that beautiful,
buzzy
energy was back
.  It filled
the air around him,
reached out and wrapped itself around Nixie, pulling at her
in spite of her efforts to resist. 

“I
volunteer at
a
little clinic in Anacostia,” he said.  “We provide free medical care for anybody who can’t afford it, of course, but our focus is on poor
kids
.  We’re managing to keep the lights on, but barely.  Nobody in this city wants to acknowledge kids going witho
ut basic medical care barely three
miles from the Capitol Building.  We need to raise our profile, really put our kids on the map
, but it’s political suicide
for an incumbent
to touch something like this in an election year, even midterms.”

Nixie stared at him, her skin going abruptly cold.  “You’re a doctor?” she asked.  “Cripes.”

He frowned.  “Is that a bad thing?”

“No.”  What was
wrong
with her? 
Hadn’t
James
taught her anything about being seduced by
doctors with political ambitions
? 
Maybe
James
had been a smoother talker,
and maybe he’d been a little
more generically handsome,
b
ut he was the same
type
. 

“Oh.  I was just checking, because it sounded like you were kind of down on doctors.”

“No,” Nixie said again.  “It’s just...
” 
It’s just that I recently built a clinic with a hot doctor who had a crush on my mom.  I’m not interested in an instant replay
.
 
She said, “My last project was very similar
.  A children’s clinic in Kenya.  I’m not really looking to do another medical thing so soon.  If you had an orphanage or something, maybe I’d be your girl.  It sounds like a worthy project, though. 
Isn’t your mother interested?
”

His face went stony.  “
I
prefer to keep the personal and the professional separate
.”

“Oh.”  Nixie would bet her trust fund there was a story worth hearing behind that small, terse answer.  Not her b
usiness, she reminded herself. 
“Well surely somebody will come along
--”

“Yeah, I doubt that.  We’re looking at a financial crisis in the
next
month, if not the next week.  What do you think the chances
are
that another superstar humanitarian with a little time on her hands will drop into the neighborhood in time to do us any good?”

Guilt rushed over her like high tide.  “Not so
h
ot, huh?”

“Not so hot.”  He shrugged.  “But listen, I understand.  This is small potatoes compared to what you usually deal with.  These kids aren’t
starving
or anything.  Not for food, at least.”

“Poverty is poverty,” Nixie said, stung.  “It comes in all shapes and sizes.  I don’t judge whose need is greater.”

“No? 
Somebody has to. 
Who does
it for you
?”

Nixie blinked.  She’d never thought of it just that way before.  “
I guess that would be Karl.
  He’
s our...my...  He’s Leighton-Brace’s COO of Charitable Giving.”
 

“I see.  And now that you’re on your own?”

On her own.  Loneliness crept up and tightened her throat.  “I don’t know.  I haven’t thought about it.”

“Well think about it now.”  He stepped tow
ard her, stopped barely
short of crowding her.  “Just come see the place.  Our clinic.  Come see what you’re saying no to.  Give us at least that much.”

She thought about another long weekend in her anonymous apartment
and she heard herself say, “Fine
.
  I’ll have a look.
” 

He
smiled at her, and it transformed his face.  The hard edges and sharp bones disappeared into a delighted grin that warmed something in her Nixie hadn’t even realized was cold.  He
checked his watch and winced.  “We have to go.
  You’ll want shoes.
”

“
You want me to come with you?  Right
now?”

“Sure.  Time is of the essence and all that.”

Nixie thought of her empty apartment.  She didn’t have to go back there tonight. 
Not yet. 
That cold space in her soul warmed a few more degrees.  “Okay.  Your call
, Dr. Larsen,” she said.

“Erik.”
  He stuck out his hand.

“Nixie,” she said
and
gave his hand
a quick shake.  It was like squeezing a brick.  His patients must love that.  “Pleased to meet you.  I’ll go get my shoes.”

CHAPTER
FOUR

Erik inched his way east on Constitution until the White House was a pale, rectangular smear through the slush on his window.  The Washington Monument speared up into the hovering clouds on Nixi
e’s side, and she turned to him.
 

“So where’s this clinic of yours
again
?” she asked
, her eyes large and green and interested
. 

“Anacostia.”

“Oh. 
Tough neighborhood?
”

“
One of the worst in the country
.  Almost half the adults don’t have jobs and more kids get shot or killed than graduate from high school
.
Three miles from the Capitol B
uilding
, if you can believe it
.
”

“
And Karl
thinks I have to fly around the wo
rld to do my job
.”  She turned back to the view out her window.  “My old job, I mean.”

She
shook her head as if to reorder her thoug
hts and the scent of her hair
crept across the car to him. 
He pressed his lips together.  He didn’t want Nixie Leighton-Brace to smell so good.  So real.  So vibrant and tangy and sweet.  Like lemons or something, with a little bit of char thrown in, as if she’d burned something recently.  It made her far too human for his comfort.  He’d rather she stayed two-dimensional,
t
he answer to a pressing problem, nothing more.

“
Y
our old job,” he said.  “
Yeah, what happened there?
  I mean besides what played out in the press.
”

“I quit.”  She stared out her window, treating him to a profile that had probably inspired sculptors the world over.

“Why?
  Seems like that asshole you were dating should have gone first.
”

She was quiet
for a minute, and Erik’s hands fisted on the wheel
. 
He’d gone too far, as usual.  He’d wanted to dial her down a
little in his head, get some
distance from that unsettling surge of physical awareness.  He hadn’t meant to needle her into quitting before she
’d
even sig
ned on.  Now she’d probably
get out at the next red light, catch a cab home
and tell his mother that he was pushy and rude and that she’d rather not see him again. 

W
hich would be great in one sense
, because
God
knew he didn’t want to
date
a woman like Nixie Leighton-Brace
.
  That was the Senator’s dream come true, not his.  But
he didn’t want to kiss the
clinic goodbye
, either
. 
He was going to have to walk a very fine line here,
he realized.  He’d have to balance
on the
knife edge between providing the fawning attention she required as a celebrity without
encouraging her
on a more personal level.  At least
until she was hooked on
their mission.  On their kids.  Then he could relax.

In the meantime, he’d have to be very careful.
 
For a woman who’d been to every armpit the world had to offer,
she had the
most improbable air of innocence about her.  It was like she’d been hermetically sealed and inserted into pictures of horrible suffering, so she could emerge fresh and clean and smelling like lemons.  He doubted she’d ever been without a team of handlers in her life, and here he was, ready to take her across the Anacostia River and into the kind of poverty and hopelessness she’d probably only ever viewed from inside the sterile bubble of her fame. 

“Why did I quit?” she asked.

“Yeah
.
”