Anyone but You (8 page)

Norma shook her head. "Too bad. He seemed very taken with you when he told me about you yesterday." She looked at Nina sharply. "An excellent young man, Alex. No bluster and a very good sense of humor. You could do a lot worse."

"He's ten years younger than I am," Nina blurted before she remembered that Norma had thirteen years on her Rich.

"Yes," Norma said. "Isn't that nice? He won't die and leave you a widow or run out of steam in bed while you're hitting your stride." She smiled at Nina, serene and lovely. "Don't let foolish assumptions about what's appropriate keep you from a good man. There are too few good men around to ignore one just because he's the perfect age for you." She patted Nina's arm. "But of course, it's your choice.

I'm so glad we've met. You must come out running with me someday. Bring Fred."

At the sound of his name, Fred stood up again and whined a little.

"There, see?" Norma smiled down at Fred. "He wants to run."

"I've never seen Fred run," Nina said.

"Then that will be something else new for you." Norma turned to the stairs. "Broaden your horizons.

They're the only ones you'll ever have, so make the suckers as wide as possible." And then, while Nina watched, Norma ran up the stairs, her quadriceps straining against her cashmere sweats. They were damn good quadriceps.

"Maybe if I had quadriceps like that," Nina told Fred. "And maybe if he was ten years older, maybe then I'd jump Alex. But with this body, no."

Fred sat down again.

"Come on, Fred," Nina said and dragged him toward the stairs. "We'll both run a couple of blocks.

Then we'll have an Oreo. One Oreo."

At the magic word, Fred rose to his feet and clambered down the stairs under the delusion that he was heading toward cookies. Nina didn't care; at least they were moving toward a new experience.

After meeting Norma, she was pretty sure she was going to feel guilty if she didn't turn up with a new experience on a regular basis from now on.

* * *

Later that evening, Alex had an old experience.

"It's time you made a decision, son," his father blustered at him over the phone, and Alex tried to listen while he put on his socks with one hand and checked his watch. He was due to pick up Tricia for dinner in fifteen minutes, and he still didn't have a tie on, not to mention a jacket or shoes. He hated ties and jackets. He wasn't too crazy about shoes, either.

"Alex?"

"I'm listening," Alex said, "but it's pretty much too late now." He stood up and rifled through his drawer looking for a tie. "All the slots are filled. I couldn't—"

"That's what I called about," his father broke in. "We have an opening in cardiology. Young Lutin dropped out of the program. Went to Tahiti to paint. Tahiti! What kind of fool would give up an important career to paint in Tahiti?"

"Gauguin." Alex stared sightlessly into his top drawer, envying Lutin who would never have to discuss cardiology with his father again.

"What?" his father said, and Alex said, "Nothing."

"It's yours, son," his father went on. "All you have to do is take it."

Oh, hell. "Dad, it's not a good idea to give your son the only opening in the unit. People will notice that you're playing favorites."

"Nonsense. The whole damn hospital knows about the work you do in the ER. You can go anywhere.

They know that."

I don't want to go anywhere, Alex thought. I like the ER, but his father rumbled on.

"It's time you built a life, Alex. Got married. Settled down. And a wife isn't going to put up with the ER as a career."

As if you'd know, Alex thought, and repressed the urge to point out that being a cardiologist hadn't done much for his father's three attempts at marital stability. "I'll think about it, Dad," he said. "But I've got to go now. I have a date."

"Debbie? Fine, fine girl. She'll make you a good wife, Alex. And a good mother for your children.

Don't screw up this time."

Alex picked up a tie and sank back onto the bed. "I already did," he said as he threaded it one-handed around his neck. "Debbie and I decided we'd be happier if we weren't dating. I'm taking Tricia Webster to dinner."

As usual, his father was fast on the recovery. "The little blonde in the business office? Seems very responsible. And sweet. Make you a good wife. And a good mother for your children."

Alex shook his head. His father wasn't going to rest until Alex was a married cardiologist with offspring.

At this point, he could introduce him to Fred and his father would say, "Seems very loyal. Make you a good wife. You can adopt."

Thoughts of Fred led to thoughts of Nina. Now, she would make a good wife. She was pretty and warm and kind and she kept Oreos and milk on hand and she had a great dog.

And a great body. The thought sprang to mind unbidden, and Alex stopped fighting with his tie and closed his eyes and thought of her, round and warm in her kitchen, laughing up at him with that soft pink mouth, and the memory fogged his mind and made his breath come quicker. He wanted to be taking Nina to dinner, not Tricia, but he knew better than to ask. She was used to older men, successful men like her ex-husband, the rich lawyer. She was used to big bucks and caviar, and he was med-school loans and Oreos.

Of course, if he became a cardiologist, he'd have big bucks and caviar.

His father's voice broke the thought. "Alex, are you listening to me?"

"Yeah," Alex said. "Believe it or not, I am." He must be losing his mind. He needed a better reason for becoming a cardiologist than trying to get a date. Then thoughts of Nina clouded his mind again, Nina sitting across her big oak table from him, her chin in her hand, shaking her head at him, arguing with him, leaning back and smiling lazily at him. He remembered how graceful her neck had been as it curved into the loose pajama top, and how he'd wanted to draw his finger down that curve and pop her pajama buttons, one by one...

There were worse reasons to become a cardiologist. "Alex?"

"Yeah, Dad. Let me think about this some more." "Well, don't take too long. I can't hold on to this appointment forever."

"Right," Alex said, bemused with visions of holding on to a naked Nina. "I really am going to think about it."

* * *

Ninas phone rang at ten that night while she was struggling with the final chapters of the upper-class twit's memoir.

"Uh, Nina?" Alex's voice sounded harried. "Could you come down here? I need some help."

"Help?" Nina swallowed. Alex's voice made her first grow tense and then grow warm, which wasn't good. She shouldn't see him. She thought about telling him she was busy, but there was panic in his voice, and if she could help, she should be neighborly...

Five minutes later, Nina was in Alex's apartment, sitting on the couch and patting his weeping date, a tiny blonde with an enormous capacity for loud sobbing, who made Nina feel fat and sloppy in her jeans and pink T-shirt.

"Meet Tricia," Alex said, and Tricia wailed louder, dripping tears onto her flowered slip dress no matter how fast Alex passed her Kleenexes.

"What did you do to her?" Nina asked him, trying not to notice how great he looked in dress pants and a tailored shirt again, even with his shirtsleeves rolled up and his tie loose. Really, he cleaned up very nicely.

Alex glared at her. "I didn't do anything to her. I took her to dinner. I showed her a video.'' Nina narrowed her eyes and he added, "Young Frankenstein. Get your mind out of the gutter. Then I kissed her. That's it. I swear to God." He crossed his arms in front of him, looking disgusted with her and Tricia, and his forearms flexed, and Nina lost her train of thought. He had great arms. He had great everything.

And all of it was too young for her.

"He's never going to marry me," Tricia wailed.

"Marry you?" Nina blinked at Alex. "How long have you been dating?"

Alex checked his watch. "We're at the three-hour mark now."

"This is your first date?" Nina stopped patting Tricia. "I'm missing something here."

Tricia looked up at her, her face a sodden mask of misery under her riot of blond curls. "It's all my fault. I told him I wanted to sleep with him. And now he'll never marry me."

Nina raised an eyebrow at Tricia, trying to ignore the spurt of dislike she felt for her. "Gee, I'd think that'd be a good line to take with him."

Tricia shook her head, snuffling. "He said no. He said no!"

Irrationally cheered, Nina looked at Alex who looked as if he wished he were dead. "Tricia enjoyed the wine at dinner," he said in a pathetic attempt at tact.

"And now he thinks I'm a drunk, too," Tricia wailed.

"Well," Nina said, patting faster as she tried to think of a way to convince Tricia to stop crying.

"And I really want to marry a doctor," Tricia finished quietly.

Nina stopped patting again and glared at her. How could anybody look at Alex and just see his medical degree? Even aside from the fact that he was gorgeous, he was also sweet and funny and... Shut up, she told herself. Don't do this to yourself. She stood up. "Well, I think it's time we all called it a night.

Alex is going to take you home now. Go get the car, Alex."

"We'll all go," Alex said. "Fred needs the fresh air."

"Who's Fred?" Tricia said. "Is he a doctor?"

Half an hour later, with Tricia deposited at her door, Nina was still fuming. "I can't believe she was going out with you because she wants to marry a doctor."

Alex grinned at her, relaxed behind the wheel now that Tricia was just a soggy memory. "Well, face it—

the women I date are not going out with me because of the fancy places I can take them to. I'm an ER specialist with about ten years of loans to pay off. I'm poor. So they plan for the future."

Nina frowned at him, trying not to appreciate the careless way his fingers draped over the wheel, and the way his long body lounged in the seat. Carelessly confident, that was Alex. Not a focused bone in his body. Don't think about his body. She tried to find her place in the conversation. "Women should be going out with you because you're terrific."

"Thank you," Alex said. "I'll tell them you said so."

In the back seat, his head hanging out the window, Fred snorted the wind out of his nose.

"Who asked you?" Alex said to him.

"I can't believe she'd be so mercenary," Nina fumed on, grateful to have something to distract her.

"Oh, come on," Alex said. "Why'dyou marry Guy the Stiff? Because he was a rich lawyer, right?"

"No, because he was the first man I ever slept with," Nina said. "I was raised strict."

Alex was silent for a moment. "So, how many guys have you slept with?"

"One. Guy." Nina laughed shortly, embarrassed by her lack of an interesting past.

"Okay, smartass, how many men have you slept with?"

"I told you," Nina said. "One. Guy. I met him in college and slept with him, and as far as I was concerned, that was it."

Alex turned to stare at her in the dim light of the front seat. "You're kidding."

"No." Nina frowned at his incredulity. He probably thought she was dull and frumpy. Well, the hell with him. So she didn't have much of a past. That didn't mean she wasn't going to have a terrific future. Don't make assumptions, Norma had said. Norma was right. She didn't need to give up men entirely; she just had to give up marrying them. "I was backward then, but I'm not anymore," she aid him and stuck her chin out. "I'm going to have an affair." It was a brand-new idea, but with Alex beside her, it sounded like a good one.

Alex didn't look impressed. Or happy, for that matter.

"With whom?"

"I have no idea." Nina leaned her head back as the cool ight air rushed in her window. She half closed her eyes and tried to look mature and depraved. "I'm still looking."

Alex grinned at her. "Well, put me on the shortlist."

Hello. Nina swallowed. He was kidding. If she took him seriously and made a pass at him, he'd be embarrassed. Look at how he'd been with Tricia. "Very funny," she said and changed the subject.

"I can't believe Tricia was dumb enough to think that offering to sleep with you would turn you off."

"No, she was right about that." Alex turned the car into lie alley behind the apartment house and backed it into his parking space.

"What?" Nina stared at him, disbelieving.

"I wouldn't want somebody who would sleep with me on the first date." Alex turned off the ignition.

"I have some standards."

"Oh." Nina tried to digest this. It was a damn good thing he'd decided not to make a pass at him.

Not only would he have thought she was too old, he'd have thought she was so easy. She regrouped.

"Well, that's good. I suppose it hows moral fiber on your part that you turned her down."

"I turned her down because she was drunk," Alex corrected her. "If she'd been sober, I'd have slept with her."

"But you just said—"

"I wouldn't have asked her out again, but I would have slept with her." Nina glared at him and he shrugged. "Hey, I did not seduce her. In fact, I was trying to sober her up. I have cups of coffee on my table upstairs to prove it. But if she's going to make an offer while of sound mind, I'm going to take her up on it, or I wouldn't be of sound mind."

"Did you ever think of showing some moral restraint?" she asked him icily.

"No," Alex said. "I'm male."

He certainly was. That was the problem. She was sitting next to him in a dark car, and he was the most masculine male she'd been with for a long time. Forever, actually. And she should be angry with him for saying he would have slept with Tricia if she'd been sober, but it was hard to be angry and turned on at the same time, and the fact was, whenever he came around, she got a nice little buzz going that didn't fade until he was long gone.

This was bad.

Get out of this car, Nina told herself and opened the door. "I'm going to let the next one cry all over you." She climbed out of the car and opened the back door for Fred. "Stay away from him, Fred. He's a bad influence on you."

Fred gathered himself together and leaped for the ground, staggering a little on impact.