Kiss the Girl (8 page)

“I know.” 
Wanda chuckled.  “
You should ask him about it.  I’
d like to hear that
answer myself.  H
ere he comes now
.
  You
gonna
ask?
”

Nixi
e followed her gaze and found Erik
striding toward her
, a
white-coated
woman at his side
. 
She was no more than shoulder high on him
, but
matched
his pace with an ease that
suggested perhaps he was keeping up with her rather than the other way around
. 

Nixie frowned.  She knew that walk.  Determined, purposeful, way faster than those short little legs ought to be able to
go
.
  She knew that face, too.  Soft and
round on the surface,
solid steel resolve underneath. 
 

“Hi,” the woman
said, sticking out a hand
.  “I’m
--”

Nixie laughed, bypassed the hand and threw her arms around the woman.  “
Mary Jane
Riley
!  Oh my
God
, is that really you?  You’re a doctor?”

Mary Jane patted gingerly at Nixie’s shoulders.  “I can’t believe you remember me.”

“Of course I remember you!”  Nixie pulled back and grinned into the shorter woman’s face.  “I wouldn’t have
survived
chemistry without you
.
  Sister Charbonneau
hated
me.”
 

“Sister Charbonneau hated everybody.”

“Everybody but you.”  Nixie hugged her again, then let her go.  “
God
, I’m sorry. 
We haven’t seen each other for fifteen years and I’m squeezing you like a tube of toothpaste.  It’s just so good to see you.”  Nixie knew she was beaming at the woman like an idiot, but she couldn’t get hold of her cool.  Friends
--
real friends
--
had been so few and far between in her life.  Stumbling across one now, when she needed one so badly, was a gift.

No, Nixie realized in a moment of clarity.  It was more than a gift.  It was a sign.  Nixie hadn’t previously thought of
God
as the
quid pro quo
type, but there was an unmistakable whiff of karma
to
this meeting. 
This was destiny.
 

She was going to save Mary Jane’s clinic,
a cosmic reward for the chubby little blonde who’d braved hoards of pencil-thin, designer-dressed harpies to befriend a girl too rich, too well-traveled, and too notorious to be anything but a target
.

And maybe,
Nixie thought, maybe,
if she was very good and very lucky, she might
cement an old friendship at the same time.  Pu
t down a few tentative
roots in her new home town
.  She glanced at Erik, at the skeptica
l set of that super-hero
jaw.  Her stomach lightened with a bolt of
involuntary
feminine
appreciation, which she promptly squashed.  No, she told herself sternly.  No more falling for the clients.  This one’s for Mary Jane. 
   

“You two know each other?” 
Erik looked back and forth between the women, one
golden
brow arched.
  “You could’ve mentioned something, Mary Jane.”
 

“
How was I supposed to know she’d remember me?  We were freshman together for like two minutes at the
Holy Sisters of Unmerciful Discipline
and haven’t spoken since.
”

“
Every time my mom filmed a movie, I got dropped off at a new boarding school
for a couple months
,” Nixie told Erik.  “I don’t know if you remember what teenage girls are like, but let me
tell you, it was like being thrown to the lions.  Only
worse, ‘cause
l
ions just want to eat
you
.  Girls want you to bleed.” 

Nixie smiled warmly at Mary Jane.  “You were one of the few people to s
how me any genuine kindness
during those years
.
I’m in your debt
for that
.
”

Mary Jane shook her head, an uncomfortable flush climbing her cheeks.  “Oh for
God
’s sake.  You are not.”

“I am.”  Nixie clasped her hands and looked around the clinic wh
ile
a
lovely
, familiar
sense of purpose
washed over her
. 
“Being my friend in high school was like painting a huge
bull’s eye
on your backside
--”

Mary Jane snorted.  “
P
lenty
of real estate back there
.”

“--and just to prove to you that being brave and good
always pays
,
I’m going to raise you
r clinic
a boatload of money.
”

Mary Jane stared.  “What?”

“
What’s your funding like?”
  Nixie asked.

“
Private,” Erik said.

“Private?”  Nixie lifted a skeptical brow.  “What does that mean?”

Erik shook his head.  “It means we have a few loans and grants, but Mary Jane mostly operates out of her trust fund.
  Or did, until she blew through it.
”

“You
spent
your trust fund?” Nixie asked, shocked.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Mary Jane said, shoving her hands into her
lab coat
pockets.  “What was I going to do
with it
?  Buy another Benz?”

“Well, no,” Erik said.  “But you could have kept a
little
back for the occasional luxury item.  Like rent and groceries.”

Nixie shook her hea
d
and
said, “Never spend your principle, Mary Jane.  That’s rule number one
of the charity game. 
People don’t give money to people who can’t manage it.”

Mary Jane’s brows
came down ominously
. 
“I didn’t mismanage my money.  I spent it exactly as I saw fit.
”

“
I believe you.  But this isn’t about what you did, it’s about what it looks like.  See, p
oor people are poor because they can’t manage mone
y and don’t make good decisions,” Nixie said.
 
“Conversely, r
ich people are rich because they can and they do.
”
   

She held up a hand to stave off the heated protest she could see on Mary Jane’s face.  “Of course it isn’t true. You and I both know that.  But
it looks pretty darn true to Joe Average, trying not to waste his charity dollars
.  He wants to give his money to people who know how to use it, and use it well.”

“
Ergo, he gives it to the people who already have money
,
”
Erik
said to Mary Jane.
  “I told you that.”

Mary Jane frowned mutinously and
Nixie spread her hands.  “
I
t sucks, I know.  But I
don’t make the rules
.”

“And I don’t have to play by them,” Mary Jane said.  “Listen, I appreciate the offer but I don’t play the appearances game.  I don’t have the looks for it.”  She smiled grimly and Nixie exchanged a worried
glance
with the Viking doctor.  “I don’t have the stomach for it, either.  I never have.”

“Mary Jane,” Erik said, touching her elbow.  “This is an incredible opportunity
--”

“To
what?” she
asked.  “P
imp
an old friendship for the cash
?  The work should speak for itself
, Erik
.  If it takes a celebrity endorsement to keep the doors open, maybe they shouldn’t be open.”

“You don’t mean that,” Erik said.

Mary Jane made a
strangled noise and
shoved a
t the pale wisps of hair escaping
from her smooth ponytail.  “I don’t know what I mean,” she said.  “I know what we do
here
is important, I just can’t understand why nobody else thinks so.”

“
I think so
,” Nixie
said.
  “If you’re willing to let me, I’d love to
--”
 

“
I’m sorry, Nixie
,
but it’s not going to work, okay?  You know what you
r two months with the Sisters were
like?  My whole life
used to be
like that.”

Nixie blew out a breath.  “Ouch.”

“
Right.”  Mary Jane smiled tightly
.  “
Getting rid of
the trust fund was kind of a relief, to tell you the truth.  So, no offense, but as glad as I am to see you, I don’t want what you do in my life. 
Present company excepted, of course, I don’t like rich people. 
I didn’t like rich people when I
was
r
ich and I don’t like them now. 
I won’t pander to them any more, not
even for this place.  It costs too much.”

“
I see.”
 

Mary Jane shoved her hands
back
into her pockets.  “
God
, now I’ve hurt your feelings.”