Prejudice Meets Pride by Rachael Anderson Page B

Emma’s stomach. Did this program automatically save everything? Were there now four Benjamin Carsons in the database, all in various stages of completion? If so, how did she find them?
    “Is there a problem?” Janice’s voice made Emma jump.
    She spun her chair around, hoping to block the computer screen from Janice’s view, and forced an overly bright smile. “Nope, I’m great.”
    A dark eyebrow raised above the dark frames as though Janice saw right through Emma’s bluff. “Good. Let me know when you finish or if you have any questions. I’ll be in my office.”
    “Will do.” Emma spun back around and held her breath until the clack of high heels receded. Why hadn’t that noise warned her that Janice was coming? she thought wryly. Or had Janice sneaked up on her?
    Now Emma was being ridiculous. Just because she hadn’t received the warmest of welcomes from Kevin’s office manager didn’t mean she should go accusing Janice of being sneaky. Emma was sure, underneath that piercing stare and rigid professionalism, that Janice was a nice person. She just had to get to know her better.
    Turning her attention back to the computer, Emma tried to find a list of all the patient files on record. Maybe it wouldn’t be a big deal to delete three of them, assuming they even existed, which she still wondered about. Unfortunately, the task turned out to be more difficult than she thought. Either a master patient list didn’t exist or it was buried under some hidden feature in this incredibly un-user friendly program. Who wrote the code for this anyway?
    Footsteps sounded behind Emma, and she quickly clicked on the New Patient Form option once again.
    “How’s it going?” Kevin asked.
    “Awesome.” Emma forced a smile to her face, glanced up to show it off, and went back to frowning at the screen.
    “It’s a great program, isn’t it?”
    “Awesome,” she said again, feeling the sudden urge to kick something. Knowing her luck, she’d probably just scheduled appointments that didn’t need to be scheduled or switched around crucial information, like insurance providers.
    “Since you have it up and running, mind if I check something really quick?”
    Emma slid her chair to the left and gestured at the stupid machine with the stupid program. “Check away.”
    Kevin leaned down, and his shoulder brushed hers, making her arm feel more sensitive than usual. Emma couldn’t decide if she wanted to stay put or slide farther away. Kevin was her neighbor and now her boss—someone who felt the need to step in and help her out at every opportunity because he seemed to think she couldn’t handle anything on her own. The last thing Emma wanted was to give him yet another reason to roll his handsome dark eyes at her—eyes that were now staring at a list of names on the computer screen.
    Emma sat up straighter and jabbed her finger at the monitor. “How did you do that?” she blurted.
    “Do what?” Those amazing dark eyes turned on Emma. He was so close. Too close. A slew of butterflies knocked against the wall of her stomach.
    What had he just said? Wait—what had she just said? Belatedly, Emma realized her slip. So much for playing it cool and figuring things out on her own. Why hadn’t she simply observed and paid closer attention to how he’d accessed that screen?
    Kevin lifted an eyebrow in question, and since Emma couldn’t think of a logical reason she’d asked the question, other than the truth, she gave up and nodded toward the monitor. “How did you find that list of all the patients in your database?”
    “Oh, easy.” Kevin clicked the ESC key, returning the screen to the main menu. “Just click on Members, then All. And voilà .” The beautiful screen appeared again, listing all of the patient names. Thank goodness there were a lot of A and B surnames, so if there were duplicate Carson, Benjamin entries, at least he couldn’t see them.
    Until he started scrolling down. His eyebrows knit together