Leave it to Addy to repeat that particular compliment. After Stephanie’s news from the night before, no doubt Dr T would be asking more questions about Oz’s relationship with Blair.
“Oh?” A frown furrowed Dr T’s pale face.
Embarrassment brightened Blair’s cheeks to a pretty shade of pink.
Damn, she did look sexy. Her feet were nestled in white sandals that revealed pink toenails. She wore a sunny yellow top and white capri pants that covered more than they revealed, but left Oz’s imagination running wild. Blair was the kind of sexy that reached out and caught a man unawares and left him panting to uncover every delectable morsel of her flesh.
Oz panted.
Not liking his thoughts, he shrugged. “I call things as I see them.”
Oz thought she was sexy.
Flustered by his admission, Blair walked to where Dr Talbot sat on the brown leather sofa with a white cotton blanket covering his lower half. The pillow at the end of the sofa had a fresh head imprint, suggesting he’d been resting when he’d heard their voices. She kissed his cheek, which was still wet from Addy’s kisses. Her daughter squirmed next to him.
Bony fingers grasped Blair’s hand, held her until she looked at him. “Oz said you were sexy?”
“Dr Manning thinks every woman is sexy,” she countered flippantly. Oz’s words hadn’t meant a thing. Just like that almost kiss hadn’t meant a thing. Hadn’t Dr Talbot been the one to tell her of Oz’s many escapades with women? How he changed women every few weeks, none able to hold his interest for long? Hadn’t she seen with her own eyes that he’d brought a different bombshell every visit he’d made to the Gulf?
“Blair?” Dr Talbot’s body might be frail, but his pale blue gaze was strong, piercing.
“Addy asked what he thought about my hair. That’s all.” Blair smiled brightly. “I’ll warn you, she’s already offered to do Dr Manning’s hair. Be careful what you say or she’ll be offering to style yours as well.”
Her little ears not missing a thing, Addy’s eyes lit. She looked at Dr Talbot’s shiny head, covered by only a few stray strands of white now that his once thick hair had fallen victim to his chemotherapy. She frowned.
“He doesn’t have hair, Mommy.” Apparently recalling their conversation in the hallway about hurting feelings, Addy’s mouth rounded with an uh-oh.
“Did you tell Dr T about Scott Richards’s spiky hair?” Oz yet again came to a Pendergrass female’s rescue. Perhaps, instead of jeans, he should be wearing armor and riding a white horse. Nah, more like a black horse and dressed in some heinous villain garb.
Oz was no white knight. Blair would do well to remember that.
He sat down in a recliner where he’d apparently been watching a baseball game with Dr Talbot prior to their arrival. The television’s wide flat-screen picture still played, but the volume had been muted. Probably by Dr Talbot when they’d been in the foyer discussing Blair’s hair.
Avoiding looking toward Oz, Blair sat on the sofa near Dr Talbot, her hand still ensconced in his bony one. She refused to look at him, too, knowing he knew her too well not to see how Oz affected her.
Fortunately, Addy launched into a tale about her schoolmate’s hair, running through a gamut of subjects, including her lost tooth, which she proudly pointed out, openmouthed, before glancing around the den. “Where is Boo-boo?”
Boo-boo, the inspiration for Addy’s virtual pet, was the stray puppy Dr Talbot had taken in when it had shown up on his doorstep half-starved and flea ridden. After several years of Dr Talbot’s care, Boo-boo flourished and adored visits from Addy almost as much as Addy loved playing with the rambunctious mutt that appeared part Labrador, part who knew what.
“He’s in the backyard, Pipsqueak,” Oz assured, looking restless. “You wanna go out and see if he’ll play fetch with us? I’ll go with you so your mom and Dr T can visit. If that’s okay with your mom?”
Blair cringed. She’d been wrong to try to throw Addy into their disagreement last night. She’d apologized, but Oz’s hesitation hit hard.
Addy squealed her delight. “Can I, Mommy? I like playing Boo-boo ball with Dr Oz.”
Playing Boo-boo ball was Addy and Oz’s thing and yet another reason Addy adored him. He never seemed to mind spending one-on-one time with her.
“You’re sure you don’t mind?” Surely his duties as Dr Talbot’s house guest didn’t include resident babysitter? Yet, each time they visited, Oz took Addy out to play with Boo-boo or to walk the dog so Blair could visit with Dr Talbot in private for at least a few minutes.
A man she’d judged as self-centered, his thoughtfulness never failed to surprise her. But she didn’t allow herself to consider it too closely. If she did, Oz might climb out of the neat box she’d stuffed him into. If she ever allowed him to, she was in trouble.
After that massage, that touch at the hospital, the way he kept looking at her, she was in trouble enough.
“She gets cuter every time I see her,” Dr Talbot praised.
Addy took Oz’s hand and led him out of the den. She skipped with excitement and talked a mile a minute.
“You know she’s going to be a total heartbreaker when she’s older.”