The Best Laid Plans (9 page)

Max got that smitten look on his face. “I definitely think so. I’m very lucky.”

“And her sister’s the nurse, isn’t she?” Pete asked Charlie. “You have good taste, my friend.”

Max’s expression changed to surprise. “Pete knows about Emma?”

“There’s no Emma,” Charlie said, wishing he had never told anyone about his interest in the unattainable. “I mean, there’s obviously an Emma. There’s no me and Emma. She’s dating someone else.”

“Bummer,” Pete said. “She’s cute, seems nice.”

“You sure she’s dating that guy?” Max asked.

“I’m sure. All she talked about the other day when we met to discuss the wedding was him.”

“The ice-cream date?” Pete was too good at putting two and two together.

Charlie’s face must have been redder than a tomato. “It wasn’t really a date. It was more of a meeting. She’s all about this doctor guy. I have no chance.”

Max gave Charlie’s shoulder a squeeze. “Sorry, man. I thought there was still hope. Kendall hasn’t said anything about it being serious between the two of them.”

Well, it was true, and Charlie needed to get over it. He had to forget about his feelings for Emma and move on. The sooner, the better.

Pete’s daughters climbed the front-porch steps. “Can you help us do jump rope?” Mia asked her dad.

“Jump rope is more of a Mommy thing. I can’t help, girls.”

“But we want to play Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear! We need one more person, and Sean won’t do it.”

Not many teenage boys wanted to play jump rope with their little sisters. Fortunately for these lovely ladies, Charlie was an expert jump-rope twirler.

“I can do it. My sisters used to jump rope all the time.” He grabbed the rope from Eva and led the two very excited girls back to the sidewalk.

“You don’t mind if I take some video to show the guys back at the station?” Pete shouted from the porch, cell phone in hand.

“No, as long as you don’t mind me whipping you with this jump rope later. Go right ahead,” Charlie replied.

Pete put his phone away. Charlie and Mia twirled the rope for Eva first. The little girl’s smile put one on Charlie’s face, as well. She was so proud of herself when she managed to turn around without tripping up the rope, but when she had to touch the ground, she forgot to keep jumping.

“Good try, Tinker Bell.” He put up a hand so she could give him a high five. She had to jump to reach his hand.

“If you’re still single when my girls are grown up, I bet they’d marry you for this!” Pete shouted.

Charlie took the ribbing, but he hoped it wouldn’t take that long for someone to fall in love with him. By then, his heart might have hardened into stone.

The front door opened and Emma stepped out onto the porch. Charlie’s heart picked up the pace the way it always did when she was around. It wasn’t made out of stone just yet.

“Gianna sent me to check on you guys. I’m supposed to make sure there are equal amounts of socializing and child watching going on. Looks like Charlie’s got you guys covered on the latter.” She rested her forearms on the railing and watched as Charlie twirled the rope for Mia this time. The eight-year-old was a little better at the Teddy Bear routine than her sister. She didn’t get caught in the rope until the teddy bear was headed up the stairs.

“You want to come jump, Nightingale?” He couldn’t stop himself from asking. Keeping his distance from her was not easy.

Surprisingly, she took him up on his offer immediately and kicked off her shoes. Holding on to her skirt so it didn’t fly up when she jumped, she stood facing Charlie. She smiled as they waited for Eva to give the handle to Mia. Emma was too tall for the little one to get it over her head.

Stop smiling at me like that
, he wanted to say. “Ready?” he asked instead.

Mia and Charlie counted down from three then swung the rope up and over. Emma jumped in time, and once she had a steady rhythm going, began singing the song.

“Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, turn around. Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, touch the ground. Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, touch your shoe. Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, that will do. Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, go upstairs. Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, say your prayers.”

Emma was the champ, making it all the way through the song. The girls giggled and cheered. Charlie could only stand there and stare.
Stop being so perfect
,
he wanted to shout
.
She had ruined him for all other women. He was sure of it.

CHAPTER NINE

I
T
HAD
BEEN
years since Emma had played jump rope. It brought back so many memories of making up rhymes with Kendall and Lucy. Lucy would come up with routines and Kendall and Emma would do whatever she told them to. They usually ended up failing again and again when they attempted all the impossible things their older sister thought up.

“Do another one!” little Eva begged.

Emma was tempted, but knew she’d hear it from Kendall if she didn’t return to the kitchen. “I better get back inside and help clean up. But thanks for letting me play for a couple minutes.”

“Charlie’s turn!” Mia managed to break the weird spell he was under. He had been staring at Emma so intently.

“My turn? You guys can’t get it over my head,” he said. Emma thought it was an attempt to get out of playing. Instead, he grabbed the entire rope and wrapped the ends around his hand until it was the correct length. “But I can do this.”

They had no idea he was about to put on a show like no other. Charlie started out with a boxer jump, fast without any real height. He quickly switched it up and crisscrossed the rope each time he jumped through it. The rope moved so quickly, whipping under his feet two, three times per jump. Then he inched closer to Emma, letting more and more rope out.

“I like coffee. I like tea. I like Emma and she likes me,” he chanted. “Jump in.”

Emma didn’t think, she just did. Ducking under the whizzing rope, she joined him in his game.

“Yes, no, maybe so,” Charlie repeated over and over in time with their jumps.

Emma held her skirt down and laughed as freely as the little girls watching. She tried to keep pace. This had to be one of the silliest things she’d ever done.

“Yes, no, maybe so, yes, no, maybe so, yes—” The rope caught on her foot and she found herself tipping forward. Her hand came up to brace her fall and landed in the center of Charlie’s chest. He was much taller than her, which meant he was close to giant status. Most guys were her height or an inch or so taller. Charlie had almost half a foot on her.

Strong and capable hands caught her and held on until she was steady on her feet. They were both giggling and out of breath.

“Nice job, Nightingale.”

Emma felt the heat creep up her neck and her stomach felt as if
it
were jumping rope. His body heat radiated through his shirt. Swallowing hard, she took a step back.

“I should get back to the ladies.” Her voice was shaky. He stirred up feelings she did not want to have, not with him.

“My turn. I want to like Charlie, too!” Eva shouted, squeezing in between the two of them as Emma slowly retreated to the house.

“Emma and Charlie sitting in a tree...” Max sang playfully.

She narrowed her eyes but didn’t give him the satisfaction of a response to his teasing. There was no Emma and Charlie. They were playing a game, having fun with the little girls. That was it.

Kendall was busy drying a large serving platter when Emma returned to the O’Reillys’ dream kitchen. It was the nicest room in the entire house. They had a double oven on one wall and a six-burner stove top on the island. The refrigerator was twice the size of the one in Emma’s place.

“I thought maybe you got lost out there or the guys put you to work,” Kendall said, trying hard to mask her annoyance.

“Actually, she thought you were trying to get out of the dishes,” Gianna said with a laugh.

Emma picked up the other dish towel and a handful of cutlery. “The girls and Charlie talked me into a couple jump-rope games.”

“Charlie’s playing jump rope with Mia and Eva?” Gianna set down her sponge. “I have to see that. He is the sweetest thing, isn’t he?”

“He is.” Kendall made a sad face, as if she had said Charlie lost his puppy.

“What?” Emma asked when Gianna was gone.

“Nothing.”

“She said Charlie is the sweetest and you made a face,” she challenged.

Kendall picked up another plate to dry. “Charlie
is
the sweetest. He’s a really, really good guy.”

That was why her reaction to the statement made no sense. “So why do you look sad for him? It was a compliment. You should have smiled.”

Kendall blew out a heavy breath and turned to face a confused Emma. “You are so blind sometimes.”

“Blind to what? That Charlie’s a sweet guy? That he’s adorable and funny and kind to everyone he meets and is extremely good-looking and really, really tall?” Emma had noticed. It was impossible not to notice.

“Don’t forget crazy about you. Have you noticed that he’s crazy about you?” Kendall’s head cocked to the side and she blinked exaggeratedly as she waited for an answer.

No, no, no, no.
That was not the plan. Charlie did not fit. He was a paramedic, not a doctor. His job was dangerous and unpredictable. Scott Spencer fit perfectly into her plan. As stupid as it all sounded, even to Emma, she couldn’t let Charlie fall for her when she couldn’t fall for him in return.

“Charlie is nice to everyone. He doesn’t like me any more than he likes anyone else.”

Kendall shook her head and set down the plate she’d been drying. “Whatever you say, Em. I’ve always been in awe of your ability to set goals for yourself and to see them through time and time again, but I worry someday you’re going to paint yourself into a corner. And we both know, nobody puts Baby in a corner,” she said.

Emma twisted her dish towel and whipped it in Kendall’s direction, fighting a smile. There was no corner. Scott was a great guy, and ending up with him wouldn’t be so terrible by any means.

Gianna came back in with her phone in hand. She swiped back and forth between the pictures she had taken outside. “He is so good with those girls. You don’t see their father out there jumping rope!”

She held up the phone so Emma could see the photo of Charlie and Mia jumping together. There was another one of the two girls on either side of him, posing for the camera. It was a heartwarming shot.

Kendall checked them out over Emma’s shoulder. “So cute.”

Emma didn’t say anything. She was too frustrated. Her sister didn’t understand how important it was to stick to the plan. Charlie was famous for saying, “Forget about this or that, let’s do this instead.” Someone like that would flip Emma’s world upside down. That could never work. No matter what her sister said or the stupid butterflies in her stomach did when he was near.

Everyone came back inside and the girls were thirsty after all that jump roping.

“Tinker Bell says you have some homemade lemonade hiding in here,” Charlie said, following them in.

“Why you call me Tinker Bell?” Eva asked, hands on her hips.

“Well, look at you,” he said. “You have blond hair. You’re this big.” He held his hands six inches apart. “You’re trouble, and those wings are a dead giveaway.”

Eva tried desperately to see if she had somehow sprouted wings when they were outside.

“I don’t have any wings!”

Mia giggled and joined in. “Her name is Eva, not Tinker Bell!”

“Yeah, right. The next thing you’ll tell me is your name isn’t Bean, as in Jumping Bean!” He picked Mia up and bounced her high enough to touch the ceiling. “You should have seen her out there, Special K. This one jumps so high she nearly touches the sky.”

Mia squealed and Eva pleaded for a turn. The battle for Charlie’s attention would be never ending.

Stop being so perfect
,
Emma wanted to say
.
He was ruining everything. The worst part was he wasn’t trying, he was simply being himself.

* * *

E
MMA
NEEDED
TO
act fast. Scott Spencer was a great catch and if she didn’t win him over, someone else would. From what she could tell, he had all the qualities she was looking for in a man. A relationship with him would fit right into the plan, and her life would be exactly the way she wanted it.

Only, as she’d lain in bed after the tasting, she’d realized that as much as she denied it, she had feelings for Charlie. She more than liked him. She knew he was
also
everything she wanted in a man. Except he was too spontaneous. More important, his job put him in danger. She had worked on a trauma case once where a couple of paramedics got split up from their police backup and ended up caught in the middle of a gang fight. Lincoln Park wasn’t known for its gang activity, but it happened. It could happen to someone like Charlie, who would seemingly do anything to help someone.

What Emma needed to do was stay focused. Her plan assured her happiness. It always had. That was why she had to take action. She’d decided that she was going to ask Scott out on a date the next time she saw him. Spending some time outside work would allow her to get to know more about him. It would help strengthen her resolve to stick to the plan.

He was on the schedule today, and Emma made sure she was the nurse working beside him. Their first patient was an older woman brought in by a kindly neighbor. Mrs. Yates had suffered a minor stroke a few years ago and still had some muscle weakness that often affected her balance. Last night, she had slipped and fallen and couldn’t find the strength to get to the phone to call for help. Luckily, her neighbor knew she lived alone and often checked on her in the mornings to see if she needed anything.

It was a good thing, because the X-ray showed there was a definite break in her hip that would require surgery. Emma came in to adjust the pain medication while Dr. Spencer explained that a surgeon would be coming down and meeting with Mrs. Yates soon. The older woman was having a hard time understanding why she needed to see more doctors. One was enough for her.

“Dr. Lang is the best orthopedic doctor in town. You’ll be in very good hands,” Scott said.

“You won’t be doing the surgery?”

“No, ma’am. You need someone who specializes in fixing your bones. I am an ER doctor. I stay in the emergency room.” He got Emma’s attention. “Can you make sure Mrs. Yates gets another blanket? She told me she was feeling a little cold before you came in.”

His compassion made her smile. He cared about little old ladies who were cold. That was good to know.
Charlie would have probably gotten the woman a blanket the moment she asked for it
. Emma kicked herself for letting thoughts of Charlie creep in.

Emma retrieved a blanket from the closet as Scott said his goodbyes to the patient. Emma covered her up. “How’s that?”

Tears welled in Mrs. Yates’s eyes. “Being old is no fun.”

Emma gave the woman’s hand a squeeze. “You aren’t the first person to feel that way. Do you want me to try to call your daughter again?” Mrs. Yates had one daughter who lived in Indiana. They hadn’t been able to reach her when she first arrived.

“She won’t want to make the drive. She hates this city. Lives on a big farm in her own world. My husband always said he was sure we took someone else’s baby home from the hospital. She’s never been like either one of us.”

“I have a sister like that.” Lucy wasn’t like anyone in the family. She’d always been her own person, while Emma was like their mom and Kendall was like their dad. Kendall thought Lucy was just better at hiding her family traits. Maybe that was true. The age difference between Lucy and Emma often made it hard for them to connect on the same level as Lucy and Kendall.

“I wish we had had more children. Don was a great father.”

“Has he been gone long?”

“A little over three years. Being widowed is even worse than being old.”

Emma grabbed the woman some tissues. “My sister lost her husband a few years ago, as well. It was hard enough watching her go through it, so I can’t imagine how tough it must be for you.”

“Are you married?” Mrs. Yates asked, dabbing her eyes dry.

“No, ma’am. Not yet.”

“I loved being married.” There was wistfulness in her tone. “I had friends who did nothing but complain about their husbands. ‘He didn’t help out around the house enough’ or ‘he didn’t pay attention to the kids.’ They didn’t like when their husbands went golfing or played cards. No one wanted to sleep in the same room with their husband because every one of those men snored too loud. I often wondered how any of them ever got together in the first place—they were so miserable.”

Emma felt sad for people like that, too. She’d heard some of the other nurses complain and complain. The women claimed their husbands could do no right and the men griped that their wives didn’t appreciate them. That wasn’t the kind of marriage Emma wanted.

“Not you, though? You were happy?” Emma asked.

The increased dosage of pain medication was making Mrs. Yates’s eyelids heavy. Emma thought she’d fallen asleep for a second, but she answered with her eyes closed. “I was very happy. Don was my best friend. He used to make me laugh, even when I was mad at him.”

Don Yates was good with children, had an excellent sense of humor and spent his life making his wife happy. True love at its finest. “He sounds perfect.”

“He was,” she whispered before dozing off.

Emma slipped out and let the poor woman sleep. The pain of her hip fracture had kept her up all night. She needed to rest every chance she got.

“Emma!” Dr. Huntley, the psych resident, called from down the hall. He jogged over. “Have you seen Tessa?”

“Have
you
seen Tessa?” Last Emma had heard, Dr. Gavin was still avoiding him at all costs.

Confusion creased his face. He had such boyish features. It made him seem so innocent. Emma didn’t understand why he risked his heart with Tessa. “Not today. Do you know where she is?”

“Why do you need her?”

“I have to talk to her about something.”

“I’ll let her know you’re looking for her if I see her,” she promised. Tessa would probably still dodge him every chance she got. God help the man who convinced Tessa to settle down. He would have his hands full.

* * *

I
T
TOOK
UNTIL
lunch to track Tessa down. Emma set her cafeteria tray on the table next to hers. Tessa was on her phone, playing some game that involved connecting a bunch of colored dots. Emma didn’t get it.