The Doctor's Not-So-Little Secret (6 page)

“We sure did, princess.” Joel thought back over the evening. It certainly hadn’t gone as he’d expected. He thought they’d eat quickly and head straight home. Then Kate had arrived and rushing through the meal was suddenly the furthest thing from his mind.

Before the past couple of days, he hadn’t really known Kate. Nothing beyond the fact that she was a good and caring doctor. Even though they’d attended many of the same parties, she’d always seemed cool and unapproachable outside of her office. In fact, whenever they
had
spoken, Kate had appeared to have little to say. Of course, she’d usually had a man at her side.

After spending some time alone with her, he realized she wasn’t aloof; she was shy. And she was good with Chloe.

Joel couldn’t remember the last time his daughter had smiled so much. He knew her joy this evening had been due in large part to Kate McNeal. The doctor had kept the conversation focused on his child. Chloe had blossomed under all the attention.

“I’m glad Dr. Kate ate with us.” Chloe relaxed against her pillow, a smile of contentment on her face.

“That was nice,” he said, still disturbed by his attraction to the pretty doctor.

Chloe’s lips turned upward. “I liked Dr. Kate’s ponytail.”

“Uh-huh,” Joel murmured.

Normally he’d have been thrilled to have his daughter so talkative, but not when all conversational roads seemed to lead to Kate McNeal. “So how’s day camp been going?”

It was the wrong thing to say. The happiness spurted from Chloe’s face quicker than water flowing from a just-opened dam. “It’s…okay.”

Joel remembered Kate asking him if his daughter had any friends. He recalled how embarrassed he’d felt when he had to admit he couldn’t say for sure one way or the other. What kind of father didn’t know something like that?

“You and Sarabeth seemed to hit it off tonight.” He hesitated, feeling as uncertain as a soldier navigating a minefield. “Perhaps you could invite her over to the house to play sometime?”

Chloe turned her face toward the wall. Even without speaking, the defeated slump to her shoulders gave him an answer he didn’t want to hear.

“She—they—all think I’m ugly.”

Her answer was so soft that Joel didn’t understand what she’d said. He thought at first she’d said they all thought she was ugly. But that couldn’t be. His precious little girl was beautiful.

“I’m sorry, princess,” he said. “I didn’t hear what you said.”

With great reluctance, Chloe shifted to face him and propped herself up on her elbows. “Can I have money to buy some lip gloss?”

The “no” had already started to form on Joel’s lips but he stopped himself.

Did you ask her why she thought she needed makeup?
Kate’s voice, whisper soft in his memory, helped him refrain.

“Why is it so important to you to have this lipstick?”

“Lip
gloss,
Daddy, not lipstick.” Her irritated huff made him want to simply say no immediately, but he silently counted to ten and waited.

“Because
all
the girls wear lip gloss,” she said finally. “It makes them look pretty.”

While Joel certainly didn’t consider himself wise to the ways of nine-year-old girls, he felt very certain that not
all
of the other girls her age were wearing makeup. He had to believe there were still a few sensible parents out there. And it disturbed him that his bright daughter seemed to be such a follower.

“If everyone was jumping off a bridge, would you do it?” The second the words left his mouth, Joel realized it was the same phrase his father had used on him. And he’d always hated it.

“You don’t understand.” Chloe’s eyes flashed. “You don’t care about me. All you care about is that stupid job. If Mommy was here,
she’d
understand.”

Joel felt as if he’d been shoved to the ground and kicked in the side with a steel-toed boot. Anger rumbled through him. Didn’t she realize how hard this had been for him? Didn’t she realize she wasn’t the only one hurting?

He opened his mouth to tell her that but came to his senses just in time.

She was the child.

He was the adult.

Chloe’s hands clenched into tiny fists. Every part of her body spewed defiance, from her stiffened shoulders to her eyes flashing amber fire.

In that moment, he couldn’t see a trace—not even a glimpse—of the sweet little girl who’d insisted he come to her tea parties. The one who’d told him over and over how much she loved him.

But Joel knew, behind all that bravado, that little girl had to be in there someplace. He had to find a way to reach her.

“How ’bout we talk more about this tomorrow, when we’re not so tired?” he said with a conciliatory smile.

Chloe thought for a long moment, then nodded, her body relaxing again. In a few minutes her eyes fluttered shut. “I like Dr. Kate,” she murmured before falling asleep.

“I do, too,” Joel muttered under his breath, the admission only adding to his frustration.

While he’d enjoyed the evening immensely, the unfairness still rankled. It should have been Amy sitting next to Chloe and making her laugh. It should have been Amy casting teasing glances his way.

And it should have been Amy he was trying to impress, not Kate.

Joel let his gaze linger on his sleeping daughter for a couple more heartbeats before jerking to his feet, his odd mood tinged with an even more disturbing realization. Tonight, for the first time since Amy had passed away, his wife hadn’t been front and center in his thoughts.

Instead of thinking about her, instead of remembering all the good times they’d had, he’d been fully in the moment with Kate. Her intellect and wry sense of humor had intrigued, her body had tantalized.

Although slender as a willow branch, she had curves in all the right places. The biker shorts had shown off her slender legs to full advantage and her curves had sent his mind careening down a road he had no intention of traveling. He couldn’t be interested in Kate. Not in that way. She was Chloe’s doctor, for Christ’s sake.

Casting one last look at his daughter, Joel stepped into the hall and quietly closed her door. The yearnings he’d experienced hadn’t been about Kate, he told himself; he’d simply been without a woman for too long. If he wasn’t careful, Widow Dombrowski at the Food Mart was going to start looking good.

He smiled, wishing his attraction to the pretty, young doctor could be so easily dismissed. The truth of the matter was, he liked Kate. He enjoyed her company. And God help him, he found her extremely sexy.

But it had been only two years since Amy’s passing, and he and Chloe were still mourning her loss. It was much too soon to get involved with another woman. No matter how attracted he was to her.

Chapter Six

K
ate let her hair fall loose from the clip it had been in all day and fluffed it with her fingers before pulling the keys from her purse. Since Mitzi was having dinner tonight with the doctors at her new practice, Kate planned to stop at the store on her way home and do her weekly grocery shopping.

Grocery shopping on a Friday night? Even though it sounded pathetic, it would free up the weekend, which promised to be a busy one. Tomorrow she and Mitzi were shopping during the day and attending Travis and Mary Karen Fisher’s summer solstice party that evening. Then Sunday would be church and ice skating in the afternoon. At least if Mitzi got her way.

Kate wondered if Joel would be at the party tomorrow. She hadn’t seen or heard from him since she sat with him and Chloe at Perfect Pizza on Monday.

Not that she expected to, of course. He had no reason to contact her. Which is what she wanted, right? The thought was oddly depressing.

“Dr. McNeal.” Lydia stood in the doorway. “I realize you’ve finished for the day, but one of your patients just showed up. The father thinks she’ll need stitches.”

Kate hesitated. It had been a long week and she was ready to have it over. Still, if she didn’t see the child, the parent would be forced to take her to the E.R., which, depending on the girl’s age, could be traumatic.

“Take her to room three, Lydia.” Kate dropped her keys back into her purse and locked the drawer. Reaching for her lab coat she rose to her feet. “Who’s the patient?”

“Chloe Dennes,” Lydia said over her shoulder.

For a second Kate froze. Then she jumped to her feet and hurried down the hall, pulling on her lab coat as she ran. She arrived just as Lydia was ushering Joel and Chloe into the room decorated with dancing hippos in tutus. Chloe’s green Earth Day T-shirt was stained with blood, as was the hand towel she held tightly pressed to the left side of her forehead. Joel’s face was as white as his shirt.

“Kate.” He turned toward her and his eyes lit up. “Thank God you were still here.”

Lydia glanced curiously at the handsome widower before returning her attention to Kate. “I’ll lock the door on my way out. Unless there’s something else I can do for you?”

If the older woman had been a nurse or a medical assistant, Kate might have asked her to stay. But she was a front-office person who’d displayed a tendency to go woozy at the sight of blood. Thankfully the woman kept her gaze averted from Chloe.

“We’ll be fine, Lydia. Thanks for offering,” Kate told her. “Have a good weekend.”

Instead of immediately taking out any supplies, Kate wheeled a stool in front of where the child now sat. Joel had taken the chair next to his daughter, but Chloe had positioned herself in the seat as if to get as far away from him as possible. Kate also noticed the girl refused to look at him. Very odd.

Kate looked into the girl’s tear-filled eyes and her heart overflowed with love. Mitzi had been right. This wasn’t just another patient. Kate would do whatever necessary to help her daughter.

“I’m going to take good care of you, Chloe.” Kate kept her voice calm and soothing. “Understand?”

The little girl sniffled, then nodded.

With great gentleness, Kate removed the towel Chloe held against her head. In addition to a half-centimeter gash that had stopped bleeding, there was a nasty bruise beginning by her eye. A dark discoloration and swelling that Kate knew would look worse before it got better.

It was the type of injury often seen after a punch to the eye or a hard slap to the side of the face. A sense of unease crept up Kate’s spine. She didn’t want to be suspicious, but between the injury and Chloe’s behavior, something wasn’t right.

“Is she going to need stitches?” Joel’s eyes were filled with worry, his jaw tight with strain. Splatters of blood dotted his white shirtfront.

Kate forced a smile to her lips. “Joel, would you mind leaving Chloe and me alone for a few minutes?”

“Leave?” His brows slammed together. “Why would I leave? If you’re worried I’m going to faint I can assure you that—”

“Nothing like that.” Kate placed a hand on his arm and looked into his eyes. “I simply need to speak with Chloe for a few minutes.”

“’S okay, Daddy.” Chloe’s gaze remained on the doctor. “Dr. Kate will take care of me.”

Joel reluctantly pulled to his feet. “I’ll be right outside in the hall,” he said to his daughter, completely ignoring Kate.

Kate knew she’d made him angry but it couldn’t be helped. With the cut above Chloe’s eye and the surrounding skin starting to blacken, their office protocol—and the law—required she interview the child alone. As much as it pained her to do it, she had no choice.

Opening up an ice pack, Kate handed it to Chloe and had her press the coldness against her rapidly swelling eye. “I need you to tell me what happened.”

Chloe’s gaze dropped to her lap. “I lost my balance and hit the edge of the coffee table.”

That might explain the laceration. It didn’t explain the black eye and the way the child was acting.

“What about your eye?”

The child chewed on her lip. “I hit it on the floor when I fell?”

Kate noted Chloe had answered with a question, as if searching for an acceptable explanation. Red flags began popping up in her head.

“Is that what happened?”

Chloe nodded vigorously, then winced.

“What were you doing when you fell?”

The little girl’s shoulders lifted together in a shrug. “I dunno.”

A shiver of unease rippled through Kate. The fact that Chloe’s eyes refused to meet hers when she was answering told her the child was hiding something.

She clenched her hands into fists. If Joel had hurt her…

No, he wouldn’t hurt Chloe. There had to be another explanation. Kate drew in a deep, steadying breath. “Chloe, look at me.”

After several long heartbeats the child lifted her gaze. Tears shimmered in the hazel depths.

“Tell me how this happened.” Kate spoke slowly, her eyes never leaving the child’s. Her tone made it clear not answering wasn’t an option. “Don’t leave anything out.”

“Daddy was holding on to my arm. I pulled away. That’s when I fell.”

Kate kept her face expressionless. “Why did you pull away?”

Chloe’s dark eyes flashed. “He was yelling at me. I didn’t want to listen anymore.”

Kate waited.

“He’s mean.”

Kate’s heart stopped at the vehemence in Chloe’s tone. She leaned forward and took the child’s hand in hers. “Does your father hurt you?”

Confusion filled the girl’s eyes. “Huh?”

“Does he hit you? Push you?” Kate could barely get the questions past her suddenly stiff lips. “Slap you?”

“What? No.” Chloe looked shocked Kate would even make such a suggestion. “Daddy wouldn’t do that.”

“You said he was mean,” Kate pointed out.

“Not in
that way
. He doesn’t understand how important—” Chloe stopped and clamped her lips shut.

Kate expelled a frustrated breath. “I guess I’m going to have to ask your dad to come back in, so I can determine what went on.”

Chloe shifted her gaze out the window.

Kate rose and opened the closed door. As she’d anticipated, rather than taking a seat in the chair, Joel stood, hands jammed into his jeans pockets, rocking back on his heels.

“May I come in now?” The irritation in his voice said clearly what he thought about being relegated to the hall.

“It wasn’t personal.” Kate kept her tone professional. “Anytime a child comes in with her type of injury, we speak with them alone.”

Confusion blanketed Joel’s handsome face. “Why?”

Kate paused, knowing he wasn’t going to like her answer. “To make sure the injury was indeed an accident and not the result of…abuse.”

“Abuse?” His face turned red and he roared the word. “You thought I hurt Chloe?”

Kate lifted her chin. “It’s protocol.”

“You know me, Kate. Or I thought you did.” His tone turned cold, his eyes practically frosty. “May I comfort my daughter now? Or do you have a protocol for that, too?”

Kate flushed at the sarcasm.

Without waiting for an answer he brushed past her. She opened her mouth to say she was sorry, then shut it without saying a word. She had no reason to apologize. Even though her heart said he was incapable of hurting his child, logic said it was possible. As far as she was concerned he still hadn’t been cleared. Which meant before she let Chloe walk out the door with him, all questions would be answered to her satisfaction.

“You haven’t even touched her cut,” Joel said accusingly. “Chloe lost all that blood and you’ve done
nothing
.”

“Cuts on the head and face always bleed more because of all the blood vessels in the skin,” Kate informed him. “The blood loss looks like a lot more than it is.”

“Oh,” was all he said.

“Chloe, I’m going to clean you up a bit. While I’m doing that, your daddy is going to tell me how you hurt yourself.”

Kate fixed her gaze on Joel.

“We were talking. She started to walk away. I grabbed her arm. She pulled away and fell. The gash game from the edge of our glass-topped coffee table. I’m not sure about the eye. It had to happen when she hit the hardwood floor.” Regret blanketed Joel’s face. “I should have just let her walk away.”

“What were you arguing about?” Kate asked.

“We weren’t
arguing
. We were
discussing
. Or rather, I was trying to discuss.”

“Okay, what were you discussing?” Kate asked, trying to keep the frustration from her voice.

“Don’t Daddy, don’t,” Chloe begged. “Please don’t tell her. She’ll hate me.”

Kate finished pulling on her gloves and paused. Why would Chloe think she would hate her? It didn’t make sense.

“She won’t hate you, honey,” Joel began.

“There is
nothing
you could do that would make me hate you,” Kate said with a fierceness that surprised them all.

Chloe’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“It’s true.” Kate began to gently clean the area around the wound, trying to regain her composure. While she’d loved this child when she was born, that feeling couldn’t compare to the depth of her love now. Or to the protective urge that made it hard to think rationally at a moment like this.

“Chloe has been after me to buy her lip gloss.” Joel cast a sideways glance at his daughter who kept her gaze averted. “While we were in the drugstore this afternoon picking up her allergy medicine, she asked again. I told her no. Apparently she didn’t like that answer because she put a tube in her pocket. The manager saw her and stopped us on the way out the door.”

A pained expression crossed his face and Kate sensed his confusion and his embarrassment.

“Thankfully Mr. Henderson didn’t press charges.” He glanced pointedly at his daughter and she flinched. “When we got home, I tried to discuss what had happened, but Chloe didn’t want to talk.” Frustration underscored the words. “I’m just glad her mother wasn’t around to see this.”

“Mommy would have understood,” Chloe cried out.

“Your mother would never have condoned thievery,” Joel roared.

Chloe pushed up from the chair.

“Relax, honey.” Kate put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “You need to sit and stay very still for me. Can you do that?”

With tears slipping down her cheeks, Chloe nodded.

“Why don’t you tell us why having lip gloss was so important to you.” Kate kept her tone light and nonjudgmental. “Your dad and I are going to listen because we really want to understand.”

Kate glanced at Joel and he reluctantly nodded.

“All the girls my age wear lip gloss,” Chloe began.

Joel opened his mouth, but Kate shot him a warning glance and he shut it without speaking.

“They think I’m ugly.” Chloe drew a shuddering breath. “I thought maybe if I had some lip gloss I might be pretty and they’d like me.”

“How could anyone think you’re ugly?” Joel looked shocked. “You’re beautiful.”

“You have to say that,” the child said in a dismissive tone. “You’re my dad.”

“Well,
I
don’t have to say it and I happen to agree with him.” Kate thought for a second. “I’m wondering if perhaps your father doesn’t realize what lip gloss looks like.”

The girl and her father exchanged confused glances. Kate wasn’t sure what she was doing either. She only knew she had to help these two find some common ground.

“Joel, would you reach into my pocket please?” Kate lifted her arm and gestured to the right side of her lab coat.

He hesitated for a second, then moved closer. The spicy scent of his cologne surrounded her. Her traitorous heart picked up speed, the way it always did around him. He leaned near, careful not to touch her. His tense shoulders and the tight set to his jaw told her that while he was willing to go along with this, he still hadn’t forgiven her for banishing him to the hall. Or for practically accusing him of child abuse.