“She’s about to pop at any time,” Arden said.
“It’s unreal how much is changing in such a short period,” Kian remarked. “Now there will be two grandkids for our parents to lavish attention on. You know they’ll be hungry for more.”
A shudder went through Arden as a light of panic entered his eyes. He laughed, as if pushing it aside.
“They have four other children to give them all the kiddos they want. I will focus on the overgrown toddlers in this high school,” Arden finally said.
“I don’t think they will see it that way,” Kian argued.
They reached Arden’s classroom, and Kian propped himself up on one of the kids’ desks as he faced his brother.
“My students aren’t going to like your ass print on their desk,” Arden pointed out.
“I have a great ass. They won’t mind.” Kian winked.
Arden laughed as he sat in his chair and pulled out some papers to be graded.
“Want some help?” Kian asked.
“You’d just give them all As and call it good,” Arden told him.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t actually read that crap. I’ve been through enough schooling to last a lifetime.”
“You’re the one who wanted to go to medical school,” Arden pointed out.
“And every single day, I’m still happy about the decision.” He flashed through the night he’d lost Pamela in his ER and thought he might not be so grateful every day. But he didn’t need to say that out loud.
He chatted with his brother a few more minutes before making a hasty retreat. He definitely wanted to be out of that school before the next bell rang and the halls filled with obnoxious kids. He’d leave the teaching and counseling to his brother.
Right now Kian had one thing on his mind, and only one thing. He had to figure out a way to make things right with Roxie, and he had to do it before he lost too much more time with his beautiful daughter. Just knowing he had a little girl had brought a new optimism to his life he hadn’t felt in a long time.
Kian smiled as he jogged out to his car. Arden really had helped improve his mood.
Chapter Fourteen
There was a mixture of relief and apprehension filling Roxie as she walked from the interview with the emergency department at the same hospital Kian worked at. She’d applied at three other places, and none were hiring, telling her to come back in six weeks. She didn’t have six weeks to find work. She had to do it yesterday. She had a little girl to take care of, and no matter what her sister’s will had said, she wasn’t planning on sharing her with Kian.
He was a doctor, for goodness’ sake, and busy all the time. She would calmly talk to him about Lily being raised by an aunt who adored her, or a nanny who didn’t have anything invested in her at all. Roxie would find a new job where she’d take as many night shifts as possible so she could be with Lily during the day.
Kian, on the other hand, worked a massive number of hours. If the man wouldn’t be reasonable, then maybe a judge would see it in Lily’s best interest to be with family versus nannies. If Roxie truly thought about it, she knew she had no rights, but she couldn’t think that way. It scared her too much.
Luckily, Roxie had gotten Eden to babysit for her while she’d done this job interview, so she hadn’t had to try to juggle her cranky niece while doing it. She wanted to seem more than capable of getting the job. She knew not working would look really bad for her if this did end up going to court. She was desperately hoping to avoid that.
Her entire life, Roxie had always been that girl to look on the positive side of things. She’d correct people when they only saw the bad in any situation, and now here she was fighting to find the positive. She vowed she wasn’t going to do that anymore. She would have a job and a bright future ahead of her. She wasn’t even going to think about the road bump in the way named Kian Forbes. Nope. He was just a blip on her radar. That was all. Nothing more and nothing less.
Roxie was on her way down the hallway when she stopped. Ahead of her, in his white coat that showed his shoulders to perfection, was Kian, walking quickly before he slipped into a room. Though she’d only seen him from the back, she would know that confident gait of his anywhere. He walked how he talked and how he faced life—with determination, as if there was nothing at all in his way. To be honest, it was slightly intimidating.
The two of them were scheduled to meet at the café in two hours, and what Roxie should do was quietly slip from the hospital and prepare herself for that meeting. She’d stayed up half the night making a case to present to him on why Lily was better off with her full-time and him part-time. She was quite proud of it.
But almost as if her legs were working outside of her control, she found herself moving down the hallway in the direction of the room Kian had just slipped into. It was so wrong for her to be following him, but even knowing this, she couldn’t quite get herself to stop her forward motion.
If he caught her, he’d think she was spying. What would that say to him about her? Certainly not that she could be a responsible parent to his daughter. That thought made her feet pause. It wasn’t something she was allowing herself to think of right now. She didn’t like thinking of Kian as a father, especially to Lily. But Lily was indeed Kian and Pamela’s child. They had shared a one-night stand, and Lily was the result. Those thoughts hurt her in so many ways, she wasn’t sure she would ever be able to heal from it. The pain it caused was devastating.
But she had no other choice but to move forward. She couldn’t hate him for having sex with another woman when they were broken up, and she couldn’t hate her sister for sleeping with him, because her sister had hated herself enough as it was. She certainly couldn’t hate her niece, who was the only light out of all this. That left her with no one to hate but herself, and she wasn’t going to do that, either.
Roxie knew she should turn around and leave the way she’d come into the hospital, but even as she had that thought, she found herself moving forward again as she heard the sound of Kian’s rich laughter travel down the hallway. Her steps quickened, as she wanted to see what was amusing him.
It truly was none of her business, but she couldn’t seem to convince herself of that. She was now too curious to turn away. She’d just take a quick peek and then be on her way, and he would never even know she was there. Mission accomplished.
The closer she got to the door he’d gone in, the more Roxie felt like some damn teenage stalker about to be busted by the mall police. She glanced guiltily around her as she looked to see if anyone was paying her the least bit of attention. Would the doctor who’d just interviewed her take away the potential job offer if he could see her now? Probably. She certainly would hesitate to hire a nurse who was prone to stalking doctors. Even with these chastisements running through her head, she still moved forward until she was right at the door Kian had walked through.
His rich voice sounded sweet as he spoke to the obviously elderly woman on the other side. The woman’s replies came out childishly in her sweet, high voice. Kian laughed as she told him not to suck all her blood like a vampire. Roxie felt her lips turning up as she decided to just peek inside. She wanted to see what the woman looked like now that she had an image in her head.