“I thought you agreed that we needed to keep things professional between us?”
“Dr. Luiz thinks you don’t like me, that there is animosity between us. If he’s picked up on it, then others may have. We need to put on a united front. For the department,” he added when she readied to argue. “Besides, we danced together in Miami, so this really isn’t that big of a deal.”
Touching Matthew, dancing with him, would be a very big deal.
“Dancing in Miami was different.”
“Everything in Miami was different.”
She nodded, forced herself to look away. Everything had been different. He’d been a stranger, someone she was free to be silly with, someone she was never supposed to see again, someone who wouldn’t interfere with her life or her career goals.
Now he was her boss, had a child, and was someone she saw almost daily.
“Dr. Luiz suspects something happened between us.”
She thought so, too. “Probably.”
“You don’t sound upset. Did you say something to him?”
She gave a horrified look. “Why would I do that? Besides, why does it have to be me who said something? Maybe it was something you said.”
“Maybe,” he admitted, his gaze going off to where Jonathan had rejoined the woman he’d come with.
Poor girl.
“I wanted to punch him when he kissed your hand.”
Shocked, Natalie shot her gaze to Matthew. “You’re too talented a surgeon to risk anything that stupid. He’s not worth messing up your hands. It’d be a shame if you couldn’t operate.”
The dark color to Matthew’s face morphed into a full-blown smile. “Always thinking work, Natalie?”
She didn’t respond.
“I was saying I wanted to defend your honor, admitting to being jealous, and your response is that I should protect my surgeon hands at all cost?”
Warmth at his admission spread through Natalie and she fought melting against him.
Monica’s and Suzie’s comments about making him jealous popped into her mind. She hadn’t been trying to do that, especially not with Jonathan. They’d have a field day with that one.
Still, she needed to keep focused on what was important, on what her real goals were.
“Admitting to jealousy is personal, Matthew. We only have a professional relationship, remember?”
“I keep forgetting.”
Needing to put a sharp halt to that line of thinking, Natalie asked, “Where’s Carrie?”
“Spending the night at my sister’s. I’m a single man tonight. Home alone. You could come over, keep me from getting lonely.”
Natalie ignored the single man part, the being home alone part, the coming over part, the keeping him from getting lonely part, because she couldn’t let herself think about why he’d tell her those things. She just couldn’t.
Even not allowing herself to think on those things had her heart-rate kicking up several notches.
“You have a sister?” He’d mentioned her before, but focusing in on that comment seemed the safest route.
He laughed. “You make it sound as if I must have come from a test tube. You mentioned
your parents were killed in an automobile accident, but don’t you have other family?”