“And you’d have a dog if you’d just get one.” Carrie’s eyes were huge and fairly puppy-like as she regarded him.
Natalie suspected Matthew’s big house would be filled with the sound of barking before long. Carrie seemed to have a way of getting people to do what she wanted with a flash of her big brown eyes and precious smile.
After all, Natalie was at Matthew’s house, and who would have ever thought that possible?
CHAPTER NINE
“HOW’S OUR GIRL this morning?”
Natalie jumped at the sound of Matthew’s voice behind her. Straightening from where she’d been examining the tiny baby in the special ICU bassinette, she faced him.
“So far, so good.”
“Her color is good.”
It was. The baby’s skin was a nice pink. If everything held course, they’d start removing some of the lines later today, and continue to monitor the baby’s progress closely over the next several days.
“Thank you for your help with her.”
He gave a half-smile. “You’d have gotten the valves to work if I hadn’t been there.”
He was right. She wouldn’t have stopped until she’d done all she could for the baby. He’d just made it easier.
And taught her a new technique.
Had they not had an affair, she might have liked him.
He smiled at her and her heart fluttered.
Ha. Part of her still liked him.
A lot.
Good thing there was that part of her that didn’t like him, else she might be in trouble for having inappropriate thoughts about her boss. Her boss whom she’d slept with before he was her boss, and before she’d known what he was doing for a little girl who could have easily ended up in foster care, as Natalie had.
Not wanting to have empathetic thoughts about him, she turned back to the baby, taking another listen to her tiny heart.
“Thank you for going with Carrie and me last night.”
“I shouldn’t have.” Her response was automatic, the truth, but a part of her didn’t regret having gone, having seen that uncertain part of him that wanted to do right by Carrie so desperately, yet didn’t seem to know quite how.
“I didn’t expect you to,” he admitted from where he stood next to the bassinette.
“She’s hard to say no to.”
He gave a low laugh. “Tell me about it. I’m going to have to learn, though, or I’ll have her spoiled rotten. It’s so difficult not to give her everything she wants to try to make up for all she’s dealing with.”
Natalie could only imagine. She barely knew the child and she’d found herself drifting off to sleep thinking about puppies.
“Including getting stuck with me.”
“She seems to be a good kid, overall,” Natalie mused.
“She is. The best. She’s...” His voice trailed off. “Sorry, I know you don’t want to hear about Carrie. Or anything to do with my personal life. Sorry she roped you into last night, but I do appreciate your going with us.”
Natalie swallowed the lump in her throat. Yeah, she shouldn’t want to hear anything about Carrie or his personal life, but part of her was sorely disappointed he’d stopped talking, that he’d felt the need to.
Which was ridiculous. She understood and embraced that need to halt anything even slightly personal between them. It was how it needed to be.