The Trophy Wife

“Yes.” She sounded breathless. “Do you see it? The one that looks like Smoky the Bear?”

He looked down at her, and forgot what he’d been doing. Her eyes were green, her lashes long. Her hair was mussed, a riot of golden tangles around her face and neck. Her mouth was pretty, her lips full and slightly pouty. Heat stirred inside him. He was tempted to kiss her, here and now. As a gust of wind fluttered her soft white beach cover-up, pressing it against her body, the heat moved lower.

“A bear?” He cleared his throat. What the hell had happened to his voice? Forcing his eyes back to the clouds, he said, “I don’t see any bear. Joe DiMaggio, maybe.”

He was vaguely aware that she’d eased closer. He misjudged just how close; the next time he moved, his arm brushed something incredibly soft. He glanced down again and stepped back as if he’d touched fire.

His beeper sounded and he jumped again. This time he swore under his breath, and reached for the pager. Reading the display, he said, “I need to call the hospital in Ukiah.”

She motioned to the cordless lying on a low table, then watched as he picked it up. After punching several numbers, he spoke in low tones. Replacing the phone to the table, he said, “I have to meet a patient at the hospital in Ukiah.”

He was halfway to the house when she called, “What do you want me to tell my father?”

He turned around. Amber wished she were close enough to get a good look at the expression in his dark brown eyes.

“Tell him I’ll call him later.”

“I’ll tell him. It was good to see you again, Tripp.”

“You, too.”

She smiled. As if it required a conscious effort, he broke eye contact and slowly resumed his retreat. Rather than leave via the house, he changed directions, veering toward the side yard. Less than a minute later, she heard his car start on the other side of the house.

What in the world had just happened?

She stared at her iced tea. Closing her eyes, she placed the cold glass against her forehead.

She’d reacted to the sight and sound and touch of Tripp Calhoun. And he’d reacted to her. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so breathless without doing a thing. Her entire body felt sensitized. If she were to jump in the pool right now, she would sizzle all over.

A door opened, and Inez bustled outside. “Your father is off the phone.” The other woman looked all around. “Where’s Tripp?”

Amber’s vision remained fixed on the path Tripp had taken. “Something came up. An emergency at the hospital. He had to leave.”

Inez made no reply.

Amber could feel Inez’s penetrating gaze. “What is it?” Amber asked.

Turning her hand over, Inez said, “He left his watch inside. Did he say when he will return?”

“No. I’m afraid he didn’t.” Amber reached for the watch. “I’ll be sure he gets it, Inez.”

“That is a good idea, I think.” Inez turned away before Amber could decide what to make of the dark-haired woman’s beaming smile.

Amber strode to the shaded side of the pool. Bending down, she gently shook her friend. “Claire, wake up.”

A pair of baby-blue eyes fluttered open. “I don’t want to wake up. I was dreaming about this amazing, ruggedly attractive, dark-haired man.”

Amber smiled. “It wasn’t a dream, Claire. Believe me. Come on. I have to go to Ukiah.”

Claire sat up languidly. “Ukiah, really?” she said, pushing her straight, coffee-colored hair away from her face. “Could you drop me off at the gallery first? You can fill me in on the way.”

Half an hour later Amber pulled her car into the alley behind Claire’s art gallery in Prosperino. Claire opened her door and climbed out, then leaned down to say goodbye through the open window. Behind her, Amber noticed a door opening on the second story of a building in the distance. Something about the woman descending the stairs seemed familiar. Very familiar.

“Amber, is something wrong?” Claire asked.

Amber didn’t take her eyes off the woman, whose hair was hidden beneath a scarf, her eyes behind dark glasses, until she’d disappeared around the corner. “I thought I just saw my mother.”

Claire turned to look behind her, but the woman was gone. “Your mother, here?” Claire asked incredulously.

“I know.” Amber couldn’t imagine her mother lowering herself enough to visit the art district of Prosperino. It must have been somebody else. For the sake of curiosity, she pointed to the building in the distance. “Is that a business or an apartment?”

Claire shuddered. “I guess you could call it a business. A shady private investigator rents the upstairs office. I can imagine your mother there as easily as I can imagine her strolling the streets in the red-light district.”

“Prosperino doesn’t have a red-light district.”

“I’m thinking about starting one.”

“Claire.”

Claire winked. “Now, don’t you have someplace to go and some ruggedly attractive man to see?”

Amber shook her head, nodded, and finally smiled. While Claire strolled into the second of the two art studios she’d opened a few months ago, Amber put her car in gear.

The engine purred like a contented tiger. Her mother had given her the shiny little sports car for her last birthday. It was red. She didn’t even like red. Before the car accident, Meredith Colton had known that.

What would her mother have been doing visiting a shady private investigator in Prosperino, when she’d made such a point these past ten years of finding fault with everything about the town? It must have been someone else.

Amber glanced at the sky. The clouds had thinned, forming a haze, the one shaped like Smoky the Bear blurring with all the others. Joe Dimaggio, indeed. Tripp’s smile, stark and white, shimmered across her mind.

What was it with men and baseball players?

Her last boyfriend had been a Giants fan. He’d enjoyed using baseball metaphors to describe their relationship. He’d spent the biggest share of their dates trying to get past first base. The night he’d presented her with a three-carat diamond, he’d expected a grand-slam home run. The ring had been pretty, but it wasn’t home run material. And neither was he. She’d turned down his proposal. Last she’d heard he was pursuing some other rich girl down in San Francisco.

Amber thought about Tripp. Until his arm had brushed the outer swell of her breast, she’d thought she was the only one aware of the attraction between them. Gracious, he probably wasn’t even admitting that he’d felt any such thing.

Whether he admitted it or not, she knew he had.

She touched the watch in her pocket and smiled. This was better than a vacation.

She wasn’t bored anymore.

Two

A blast of hot air hit Amber the moment she opened her car door. Taking a deep breath, she placed a steadying hand on her queasy stomach and climbed slowly to her feet. It had been cool and foggy along the coast when she’d left Prosperino, which just went to show that the locals were right. There really were three seasons in this part of California, often all in the same day.

She rotated a kink from between her shoulder blades then stepped away from her car. The drive to Ukiah seemed like forever. Though it was only forty-five miles, it was like her father always said: “Prosperino is near a lot of places, but you can’t get there from here.” Joe Colton compensated by flying whenever possible. Not Amber. She’d reached the brink of motion sickness negotiating the twenty-five mile stretch of Highway 101 that wound around cliffs and up and down hills over the coastal mountains. Flying would have done her in. Thank goodness the road that ran north and south on this side of the mountains was straighter and mostly four-lane.

She took a shaky step, popped a breath mint into her mouth and peeled off her jacket. So this, she thought as she looked around, her heels clicking over the paved parking lot, was where Tripp worked. He was going to be so surprised to see her.

The streets of Ukiah were lined with beautiful old Victorian houses. The sprawling hospital was old, too, but it looked as if it had been remodeled in recent years. Double doors slid open as she approached the building. Folding her jacket over one arm, she peered around the lobby trying to decide where to go from here.

Across the waiting room, a short, heavyset nurse with broad shoulders and a hairstyle that resembled an army helmet stood behind a high counter.

“Hello,” Amber said, sauntering closer.

Clutching a pen between thick fingers, the gray-haired nurse looked at Amber over the tops of the reading glasses perched low on her broad nose. “May I help you?”

Amber put on her friendliest smile. “I’d like to see Dr. Calhoun.”

The only things that moved on the stern-faced nurse were the brown eyes giving Amber a thorough once-over. “He isn’t taking appointments this afternoon.”

Amber eased closer and smiled conspiratorially. “That’s okay. I don’t have an appointment.”

She knew the blunder for what it was the second it was out. Nurse Proctor—that was what her name badge said—turned her attention back to the chart. Amber was dismissed.

Obviously, Nurse Proctor didn’t know that Amber wasn’t easily dismissed. “I won’t take up much of his time,” she said, trying on an even bigger smile.

The nurse’s eyes remained fixed on the chart.

Amber tried another tack. “I know he’s here because he told me he was coming here in answer to an emergency call.”

“In that case you’ll understand why he can’t be disturbed.”

Amber didn’t expect to pull him away from an emergency. That call had come hours ago. If he was still busy, fine. If not, what harm could there be in allowing her a moment or two to see him?

“Is Tripp still in the building?”

The nurse made a noncommittal reply without opening her mouth. Recognizing an impenetrable brick wall when she crashed into one, Amber moved away from the counter, as far out of range of Nurse Proctor’s peripheral vision as possible. She pretended a keen interest in her chipped manicure.

The elevator dinged. The door opened, and a young man clad in green scrubs ambled into the lobby.

“There you are, Fred!” The no-nonsense nurse motioned him to the desk. “They’re waiting for these charts up in OB.”

With the jaunty walk of a guy who knew he looked good both coming and going, Fred took the charts and started back toward the elevator. Just then, a woman ran in from outside, yelling, “Somebody, help. I think my daughter’s ankle is broken!”

Nurse Proctor rushed around the counter, grabbed a wheelchair and bustled toward the sliding doors. Amber slipped quietly into the elevator behind Fred.

He punched a button. Leaving his hand hovering over the panel, he asked, “What floor?”

She had no idea, but she said, “Three, I guess.”

Brown eyes twinkled as he looked her up and down. “Looks like you’re going my way.”

The door closed and the elevator slowly started to climb. Amber placed a hand to her stomach.

“Are you afraid of heights?” he asked.

She smiled wanly. “I get motion sick easily.”

With a lift of his sandy-blond eyebrows, he grinned, his smile white and just crooked enough to look beguiling. “My sister swears by the ear patch. You need someone to take your mind off it. Lucky for you I’m here.” He looked her in the eye and smiled again. “My shift is almost over. We could grab a cup of coffee or a bite to eat or whatever…” His voice trailed off suggestively.

The elevator continued to climb. “Look, Fred—”

“Fredrico.”

“But the nurse called you—”

“Proctor calls me a lot of things. Trust me.”

“Fredrico, I’m afraid there’s an age requirement any man I see must meet.”

He eased closer. For a boy, he certainly knew his moves. “How old would I have to be?”

“Old enough to vote.”

“Too bad. You’re missing a great opportunity. If it’s true that men reach their sexual prime at seventeen, I hit that mark a mere two years ago. I may not be old enough to vote, but I can personally guarantee you that I haven’t even started to go downhill.”

The elevator glided to a stop on the second floor. Leaning against the rail, Amber said, “You don’t say.”

“I could prove it, if you’d like.”

She held up one hand. “We’ll just consider it my loss. Could you tell me where I might find Dr. Calhoun?”

“If you’ll tell me your phone number, we’ll make it an even exchange.”

While Amber was chuckling, the door opened and a woman pushing a cumbersome cart got in. The door closed, taking the three occupants up to the next floor. The lady with the cart got off, and Fredrico said, “I know where Doc Calhoun is.”

“You do?”

“I’ll take you there, but you have to promise not to tell Proctor.”

Amber grinned up at the sandy-haired young man. She’d felt strangely carefree ever since she’d talked to Tripp out in the garden, and she just couldn’t help responding to the secrecy in Fredrico’s expression. “Okay. I promise.”

“He’s with a patient. This way.”

They got off the elevator and strode through doors bearing a sign for authorized personnel only.

At first, she couldn’t place the sound coming from someplace up ahead. Then it came again. Rounding a corner, she whispered, “Are dogs allowed in this hospital?”

With a shake of his head, Fredrico pointed to a room up ahead. “It’s a little unconventional. Proctor can’t find out. There’s Doc Calhoun. See the little kid he’s with? His name’s P.J.”

Amber crept closer on tiptoe. Tripp was sitting on the edge of a bed, in a room at the end of the hall. Nestled in one arm was a pudgy tan puppy. A little boy with curly brown hair, a bandage on the side of his head and a cast on one arm stared straight ahead.

“What’s wrong with him?” Amber whispered.

“He got banged up pretty bad, but mostly he’s mad. He’s four years old and he wants his mama.”

“Where is she?”

“She died in the accident.”

Both of Amber’s hands came up, covering her mouth. “What about his father?”

“Nobody knows where he is. P.J.’s been here a week. There’s a good chance he’ll be okay, but his arm got cut up, and he’s gonna have to work to get full use back. He hasn’t exactly been responsive or cooperative. Yesterday Doc Calhoun noticed him watching a television show about a dog. And my girlfriend’s dog had a litter of pups, and well…”

Amber’s eyebrows raised a fraction. “Your girlfriend?”

Fredrico started to nod. Realizing his faux pas, he simply shrugged.

The puppy yipped again. All at once it wiggled out of Tripp’s hands, landing in the boy’s lap. The little boy looked down dazedly. And then, as if in slow motion, he reached out, tentatively touching the puppy’s fur. It was all the invitation the dog needed. Tail wagging, the pudgy little puppy licked P.J.’s face. P.J. blinked, smiled and let loose a belly laugh.

“Folks sure are gonna miss that man around here.”

Amber cast a questioning look at Fredrico, but he was already starting to move away from her and didn’t see. “If I don’t get these charts over to OB, Proctor’ll send out a search party. If she hasn’t already.”

Amber whispered, “Goodbye, then, and thanks.” Her gaze returned to the man and child in the room up ahead. Tripp was so engrossed in the boy, he didn’t seem to know she was watching. Her breath caught just below the little hollow at the base of her throat. With his stubby ponytail and earring, he still looked like the street-smart kid he’d been years ago. She was beginning to realize that he was so much more than that.

His voice was a low murmur, his touch gentle as he showed P.J. how to pet the puppy. Mesmerized, Amber acknowledged the fact that this wasn’t simply a case of no longer being bored. This was something else, something she couldn’t name but wanted to explore.

Tripp chose that moment to glance into the hall. Their gazes locked, and awareness fluttered around the walls of her chest. He didn’t smile, but she felt the heat in his gaze just the same.

P.J. said something, and Tripp turned his attention back to the boy. Shaken, and touched, Amber smoothed her hands down her slacks, her fingers tracing the outline of the watch in her pocket. Her heart beat wildly. Unwilling to intrude on the doctor-patient moment, she wrenched herself away, and retraced her footsteps to the elevator.

What was happening to her?

She wanted more than ever to talk to Tripp. She considered waiting in the lobby, but the thought of being scrutinized by Nurse Proctor was less than appealing. If only she had something more constructive to do here.

She looked around. Some people hated hospitals. Not Amber. She dealt with them on a weekly basis in her work for the Hopechest Foundation, an organization her mother had founded years ago. Today, the foundation funded centers for children in need all across the country. Among them were day-care centers for children who were HIV positive, and after-school programs, and sporting events for city kids confined to housing projects.

Amber looked around again, recalling the children she’d seen working in the fields during her drive from Prosperino. Needy kids weren’t confined to housing projects or large cities. They were everywhere.

Striding to the nurse’s station she’d passed earlier, she introduced herself. At her mention of her affiliation with the Hopechest Foundation, the other woman was all ears.

“I was wondering if you might direct me to the person in charge of special programs to help children in need.”

The young nurse beamed her approval. “Directions won’t do. I’ll take you there myself.”

Now this, Amber thought, was more like it. By the time she left the hospital administrator’s office, the scent of hospital food wafted on the air. The meeting had taken longer than she’d expected. Wondering if Tripp was still in the building, she followed the exit signs through a labyrinth of hallways. She must have taken a wrong turn, because she didn’t recognize this wing. Sure enough, she came to the stairs, not the elevators.

Pausing to get her bearings, she turned and started back the way she’d come. She’d taken only three steps when the low murmur of voices carried to her ears from an open door a few feet away.

“People around here are going to miss you, Calhoun.”

She stopped in her tracks. People were going to miss Tripp? Now that she thought about it, Fredrico had implied the same thing. Where was Tripp going?

She turned again. Striding to the door, she raised her hand, prepared to knock. The voices started again, and Amber’s hand remained suspended in midair.

“But if you insist on leaving, I’m putting dibs on your office.”

Tripp looked at the man sitting on the other side of his desk. Aside from their chosen professions and their affiliation with this hospital, he and Gavin Cooper were complete opposites and unlikely friends. With his blond hair and blue eyes, Coop looked more like a beach bum than a brilliant doctor. He was laid-back and easygoing. Dubbed the Don Juan of County General, he wore the perpetual, slightly bedraggled, contented look of a man who’d recently crawled out of a woman’s bed. Even now, slouched in a chair, his arms folded, his feet on Tripp’s desk, ankles crossed, he made a science out of relaxing.

Not Tripp.

He shot out of his chair, slid his hands into his pockets and jangled his keys. “I haven’t gotten the position yet, Coop.”

He found himself standing at his window, his back to his friend. He had a great view of the mountains from here. It wasn’t the Mendocino Ridges that drew his gaze, but the parking lot below. The lot contained the usual assortment of vans and family sedans. The candy-apple-red Porsche stuck out like a sore thumb. He’d seen that vehicle parked in the driveway at Hacienda de Alegria that very afternoon.

It belonged to Amber Colton.

When he’d happened to glance into the hall outside P.J.’s room an hour ago, he’d thought he was seeing things. Amber had stood so still, she could have been a mirage, and he, a thirsty man in the desert.

Her hair had been long and loose around her tanned shoulders, her body, lean and svelte beneath formfitting slacks. A bolt of sexual attraction had come out of nowhere. If he hadn’t been sitting down, it would have knocked him off his feet. He couldn’t afford that kind of attraction. He’d already been down that road once: The poor street kid made good and the bored, rich heiress. It hadn’t been pretty.

“It’s only a matter of time. After all, who better than you…” Coop’s voice droned on in the background.

Tripp ran a hand down his face, scrubbing it over the stubble on his jaw and on down the front of his wrinkled shirt. That red sports car in the parking lot was no mirage. What was Amber doing at County General?

“Calhoun, are you even listening?”

“I heard you. It so happens I received a letter from Montgomery Perkins in Santa Rosa yesterday. The field has been narrowed to two.”

“Who’s your contender? Anybody I know?”

His back to Coop, Tripp said, “Does the name Spencer ring a bell?”

“First or last?”

“Last.”

“Spencer? As in, Derek Spencer?”

The next time Tripp looked, Coop was sitting up straighter.

“The one and only.”

A succinct and unbecoming but fitting word spewed out of Cooper’s mouth about the same time his feet hit the floor. “I still can’t believe he became a pediatrician. I always figured Spencer for the type to specialize in plastic surgery, not so he could repair cleft palates and facial scars, but so he could do nose jobs and boob implants for wannabe starlets down in Hollywood. What would he want with a position in a private practice in Santa Rosa?”

“It gets worse.”

“How could it get any worse than competing with your backstabbing rival from med school?”

“It seems Derek’s gotten himself engaged.”

“Who’s the unlucky woman?”

Any other time, Tripp would have appreciated his friend’s sarcasm. “Olivia.”

“Your Olivia?”

Tripp didn’t bother to remind Coop that Olivia wasn’t his anymore, if she ever had been. Olivia Babcock’s father was an influential man in the medical field, capable of pulling very impressive strings. It didn’t look good for Tripp. It didn’t look good at all.

“Does this mean I won’t be getting first dibs on this office?” Coop asked.

“I’m not giving up that easily.”

“Yeah? In that case, listen up. People don’t mind if an E.R. doctor is a player, but parents like their kids’ pediatricians to be family men, so if I were you, I’d find myself a woman with a couple of kids. Better yet, find one with relatives as influential as Olivia’s, too. Stat.”

Tripp was in the process of scowling when he heard a noise in the hallway outside his office door. He caught a whiff of expensive, exotic perfume a millisecond before Amber Colton breezed in. There wasn’t a wrinkle in her sage-green pantsuit. He didn’t know how rich people did that.

Tripp wasn’t surprised at the change that came over Coop. The man went on testosterone alert every time a woman came within ten yards of him. But Amber wasn’t paying him any attention. She was looking at Tripp.

“Hello,” she murmured, her voice just sultry enough to sound seductive. Reaching into her pocket, she drew out his watch. Easing closer, she said, “I thought you might want this back before tonight.”

She had to know how that sounded. Glancing over her shoulder, she smiled at Coop and said, “Does he leave his things lying around the hospital, too?”

Tripp had to force his gaping mouth shut.

Amber appeared completely nonplussed. With a flutter of eyelashes and the sureness that the rich seemed to be born with, she extended her hand toward Coop. “Hello. I’m Amber Colton.”

Coop’s voice lowered, softened, mellowed. “Gavin Cooper, head of E.R. Colton? Any relation to Joseph Colton?”

“You know my father?”