“Does it need to be a paramedic? Kerry Humphrey has shown an interest in the interagency stuff.”
Owen scowled. It was the safest expression he could manage, and everyone read it as a grumpy anyway. That reputation didn’t hurt him. “I’d rather keep it in house. We have unique concerns. It’s fine, I’ll go myself.”
He went back to his desk, replied to the email, and moved on with his day, the moment forgotten until two weeks later when his door swung open and someone started yelling at him.
“Do you have a problem with me?”
He lifted his head and found Kerry glaring at him. That was a complicated question. Yeah, he kind of did, but it was the type of problem a man should keep to himself because it was really his issue, not hers. Lord help him if she ever found out. So he did the smart thing and kept his trap shut.
She threw her hands in the air.
“What?”
“Whatwhat?” She howled, echoing his word back at him. “You never say anything!”
“I don’t know what we’re doing here.”
“You nixed my involvement in an interagency working group?”
He was going to kill Matt. “Not exactly.”
“Whoa.” She raised her hands in the air. “Notexactly? Don’t play dumb.”
Every fibre of his being wanted to stand up and tower over her, tell her to get out of his face and give him a minute to think. He couldn’t keep his head straight around her, and she’d caught him off guard. Yeah, that was a stupid thing for him to have said to Matt, but he’d had his reasons. Not great ones. But he’d had reasons. Or at least one reason, and in the four months since he’d met her, he thought he’d done a pretty good job of burying the way she affected him, the way she scrambled his thoughts.
Maybe he hadn’t.
Instead of surging to his feet, he rocked back in his chair and let her glare at him some more. “How’d you hear about the interagency working group?”
“Probably the same way you did. The health unit email loop. My senior partner forwarded the call for a representative from the middle of the peninsula, suggested we get a midwife in there because our client base is a vulnerable population, and affected by drug use in their homes, too. I rang them up and they saidyou’dbe representing Pine Harbour and Lion’s Head. I asked to sit on it as well, they called you, and you said no. Which I don’t really think is your role, because who made you king? So here I am, demanding an answer.”
Ah, so it wasn’t Matt Foster he had to kill. That was a relief. Shame it was himself that was actually to blame. “Here’s the thing…”
She waited.
He didn’t elaborate. God damn it. Hehadblocked her. He hadn’t meant that to be the impact, but—
Before he could fix his thoughts in any organized apology, she huffed and leaned in. “Look, I know you don’t like me. That’s fine. But this is my community now, too, and I want to be a part of things.”
What?
No.
He meant, yes, of course it was her community too. God damn it. His mouth fell open, then snapped shut again. He could see her anger amping up, it was in her eyes, and her body language, and he needed to fix it.
* * *
Kerry was soforking close to storming out of his office and following up with an email, because oh boy, was she steamed, and getting madder by the second. A paper trail would be smarter than a one-sided screaming match.
Why was he just staring at her?
His jaw worked, and then he leaned forward, his gaze guarded and careful. “I never said I didn’t like you.”
She laughed. That was the part he grabbed on to? “You don’t need to say it. It’s clear.”
“Wait.” He reached out and caught her hand, his fingers hot against her skin. As quickly as he grabbed her, his grip released and he dropped her arm. His eyes flared wide, his attention locked on her face. “I like you just fine, Kerry. There’s a lot going on, that’s all. And I didn’t know it was you. The other person. I didn’t know it was you when they called.”
I like you just fine.Heaven help his friends and family if this was how he treated people he liked just fine. She was tempted to point that out. But she didn’t, and he didn’t elaborate. He didn’t need to.
