With a Little Help (16 page)

“Only passable?”

“Way better. I might try you on the spinach roulade I'm preparing as part of an order for tonight.”

His eyes sparkled. “I might surprise you.”

Surprising her was becoming routine. She had to be careful he didn't surprise her into making an admission he didn't want to hear. That she was falling in love with him. Shock made the fork slip, landing with a crash onto the plate.

He was beside her in seconds, his cool fingers dropping to her wrist. “I'm okay,” she insisted, his touch vibrating through her.

“Are you sure? You went pale and your pulse is a little fast.”

Realizing you were in love would do that.

 

S
OPHIE HAD GONE TO PICK UP
some ingredients they needed. Emma was well into preparations for the cocktail party they were catering when Nate's doorbell chimed. Not close enough to the video monitor to see who the caller was, she tensed at the sound of her father's voice as Joanna showed him in.

She washed her hands and untied her apron, then went into the den. Nate stood beside the fireplace and Greg Jarrett sat beside her mother on the sofa. A tall, rangy man who looked more like a farmer than a senior obstetrician, he seemed ill at ease. Which made two of them, she thought as she took a straight-backed chair. “What's this about, Ma?”

“Nate told us what happened yesterday. We wanted to be sure you're all right.”

She flashed a look at Nate. “He should have told you I'm fine. So is Doug Armstrong.” She'd called
the hospital earlier, relieved to be told the builder was expected to fully recover.

“Thanks to you,” her father observed. Then he frowned. “Nate said you had a phobic response to being in the cellar.”

Again she glanced at Nate, this time in annoyance. “Nate fusses.”

“With good cause,” Cherie contributed. “Tell her, Greg.”

Her father gathered himself with an effort. “It's my fault that you have a problem.”

This was news. “This morning I remembered falling into the hole left by a tree at Gramma's place. Or I thought I had.”

Her father linked his hands together. “Your memory is accurate. I planted the idea that you'd been playing by the creek, so you wouldn't tell your mother you'd been half-buried in that hole.”

A memory of soil raining down on her flashed through her mind and she shuddered. “Why didn't you want me to remember?”

Her mother's face had gone pale. “He did it for my sake. You know that my parents met in a war zone?”

None of this was making much sense. “Yes. But what does that have to do with me?”

Her mother balked but Emma's father clasped her hand. “It's time she heard the whole story, Cherie. I'll tell her if you'd rather not.”

Cherie shook her head. “My parents went through some really rough times in Vietnam. I was only thirteen when they took me to Ho Chi Minh City to show me where they'd met. We went on a tour into the countryside outside the city to see the networks of tunnels my parents said the Vietcong had used for surprise attacks.”

Emma nodded. “I've heard of them. Grandma and Grandpa Kenner had to treat soldiers who'd gone into the tunnels and been maimed by booby traps or bitten by snakes and scorpions.”

“Must have been disturbing for you as a teenager, Cherie,” Nate contributed.

Greg looked down. “Worse than that. The ground was damp and she slipped and fell into one of the hidden air vents servicing the tunnels. She was trapped for hours before she could be freed.”

Cherie nodded. “Your father didn't want to remind me of the horror of that day by telling me what had happened to you, Emma.”

Greg lifted his gaze to Emma. “I owe you an apology for putting your mother's welfare before yours. Encouraging you to talk about what happened would have helped you process your fears and perhaps headed off a phobia.”

“If I'd known, I might have been able to help you in some way,” Cherie said.

When Emma sat in stunned silence, her father added, “Sorry is inadequate now, but it's all I can say,
and I am truly sorry I let my career come between us. I thought you were doing okay, but I see now your experience did more harm than I realized.”

More than he could imagine, she thought. She didn't kid herself he would change, or that her mother and brother would be less career focused. But she felt relieved at knowing what had happened. And her father's apology put them on a more even footing than she'd ever experienced.

Greg stood. “I'm glad Cherie knows the truth at last.” He made a wry face. “When she told me about Nate's call and your reaction to being in the cellar, I told her everything.”

“And I gave him hell for keeping it from me,” Cherie said. “I'm a pediatrician. I should have been able to help my own daughter.”

Compassion gripped Emma as her mother's voice cracked. She'd never heard Cherie sounding less than calm and capable. “I survived,” Emma assured her shakily. Contrarily, she wanted her old mother back, and acknowledged how much comfort she had always drawn from Cherie's confidence. “You didn't know.”

“I suspected something might be troubling you, but we were always too busy to delve. I hope you'll come to dinner tonight so we can start making amends.”

“I'm working tonight.” Seeing her father's face fall, she added, “But I'm free tomorrow. Nate might have
other plans.” She cursed the yearning she couldn't keep out of her voice.

She'd long thought of her father as a big man, but Nate was bigger, stronger, more masculine as he came to stand beside her. “Before you go, I have something to ask you.”

A medical question about her, she supposed. Her stomach knotted in protest. “You don't have to, Nate.”

His gaze swept over her, his expression unreadable. “I think I do. It might be old-fashioned, but I want to ask your parents for their blessing so we can get married.”

“What?” Her knees weakened and he put his arm around her. “What did you say?”

Something like gratitude came into her father's face as he looked at Nate and smiled. “Patient's hearing is affected. Might be worth looking into.”

“I'm not your patient, either of you,” Emma protested. “And my hearing's fine.”

Nate shrugged. “Emma thinks I meddle.”

She struggled free and planted her hands on her hips. “What do you call this? Asking my parents if I want to marry you before you've asked me.”

“Do you?”

“Of course I do.” The admission slipped out. “I mean, I need to think about this. My business will be affected.”
Not to mention the rest of her life.

“So will mine,” Nate said easily. “I can cope if you can.”

Everything she'd seen so far suggested he could. But could she?

Her father moved toward her awkwardly, as if he wasn't sure what to do next. She made it easy for him by holding out her arms and he came into them. Forgiveness would take time, but Emma didn't believe in holding on to past grudges. Not when the future was so bright with promise. “What do you think, Dad?”

She saw something she'd never expected to see in her reserved father's eyes. A wet glimmer. “You're old enough to know your own mind, but for myself, I'm delighted.”

“Me, too,” Cherie agreed, sounding a little more like herself.

Nate stepped forward. “Thanks, Greg and Cherie. I'll take good care of your daughter.”

Emma was tempted to stamp her foot, but she resisted. “I don't need taking care of, thank you very much.”

Greg's hold tightened then he released her, looking older than she had ever seen him. “We'd better leave you two to work out the details.”

“Yes.” No sense fighting the inevitable. Emma saw her parents to the door and returned to find Nate looking so smug she wanted to smack him. “You realize you'll have to marry me after this? Knowing
my mother, the news will be all over the hospital by lunchtime.”

“Saves us telling everyone.”

Already suspecting the answer, Emma asked anyway. “What happened to not wanting to put me through the same heartache your mother had with your father?”

“I still don't, and I won't. Spending the night watching you sleep, and holding you when you woke from the nightmare made me realize I can't let you go, so it's up to me to make sure my work never comes between us. My father never learned that lesson, but I will.”

By now she knew him well enough to trust he meant what he said. “About the meddling in my life,” she began.

“I can't promise not to meddle. It's inbred. But I'll try and remember to ask first.”

She lifted a hand to his face. “As long as you try.”

He released his breath. “It's all any of us can do, Emma. Mistakes are human and humans are often mistaken.”

“Sounds like something Sophie would credit to Confucius.”

“She's a smart woman.”

Before Emma could agree, she found her words stolen by the pressure of his mouth.

None of this made any sense. All her life she'd
promised herself never to get involved with a doctor. But this was different. This was Nate.

“I can hear you thinking again,” he said, his lips moving over her hairline and sending shivers of sensation down her spine.

“There's a lot to think about. This morning I woke up with no plans except organizing tonight's job, and now I'm discussing marriage with you.”

“What else is there to discuss?”

“You haven't even asked me properly.”

He held her a little away from him. “You want me to do the bended knee thing?”

With his injured hand, he'd have trouble. “No,” she conceded. “You asked and I answered, however indirect it was. I guess it's a proposal to tell our children about in the future.”

“Do you want children, Emma?”

She knew a second of concern. “Don't you?”

“They could turn out like Luke, lost and troubled.”

“Or like you, brilliant and reliable to a fault.”

He nodded. “Or some mix of us both we can't imagine yet.”

A recipe for the future, she thought, banding her hands around the strong column of his neck. The day she'd stepped into his kitchen, she knew her life had changed. Now it was going to change again, in ways she couldn't fathom. She only knew she wanted this, wanted him, as she'd never wanted anything in her life. A sigh slipped between her lips.

He held her close. “Happy, Emma?”

“I think so. Yes. Happy and a little scared of what we're getting into.”

“No need to be. We can handle whatever comes up.”

She let the mischief shine in her eyes. “I can't wait till you get full use of your hand back.”

He grinned. “Is sex going to be our main meeting point?”

“No doubt about it.” She glanced at the leather sofa where they'd made such glorious love a few nights before. “And it won't always be in bed.”

“I'd say you were a woman after my own heart, if you didn't already possess it,” he ventured. “Although that's hardly sound medical thinking.”

“You're not my doctor,” she reminded him hoarsely.

“But I am your lover, and soon to be your husband. I don't want to wait too long for us to be together. “

“You don't have to. If my mother starts on about a lavish wedding, we'll threaten to elope.” Lightness flooded her being, and a desire so strong she felt the floor shift under her feet. “Remember, she told me if I can't be a doctor, I might as well marry one.”

His laughter made her toes curl. “And if I can't be a chef, I might as well marry one, too.”

Having him put it that way touched her deeply. “I love you, Nate. I love how you see strengths in me I don't see in myself. How you appreciate my cooking…”

“Not to mention your sexy body,” he cut in. “Do you really have to work today?”

About to remind him of tonight's commission, she made a decision. Start as you mean to go on. “Sophie can take it from here. I'm all yours.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Emma knew it was the truest thing she'd ever said.