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Actually, what he’d brought her wasn’t exactly a gift—unless she wanted to keep it, which, he guessed, would be okay.
He glanced down at the cardboard box with the airholes he’d poked in the lid. He was in a bind, and the first person he’d thought about was Simone, who had a soft spot for animals.
After all, she’d not only opened her heart and home to Woofer, a brown, mop-haired dog who stood a slam-dunk chance to win an ugly-pet contest, but she also treated him as though he had a pedigree and was destined for nobility.
The night Mike had driven Simone home from the cocktail party, she’d invited him in and introduced him to the oversize, gangly mutt that couldn’t walk across the floor without his hind end doing a hokeypokey shake to the right.
“That’s got to be the ugliest dog I’ve ever seen,” Mike had said.
“I know,” she’d responded with a pride-tinged voice. “That’s exactly why I adopted him. He needed a home more than any of the other dogs. Besides, he’s a real sweetheart.”
At that point, Simone had turned to Woofer and given him a big hug, which had caused the hem of her dress to hike up and reveal a lovely expanse of her upper thigh.
A smile had stretched across Mike’s face, but not just because of the sexy flash of skin. It was the glimpse he’d gotten of the real Simone Garner that evening that had turned his heart on end. A fun-loving, brown-haired beauty that the no-nonsense nurse kept locked away.
Most of the medical staff at Walnut River General, as well as a lot of the guys at the department, thought Simone was cold and distant, but Mike knew the dedicated E.R. nurse better than anyone and saw things in her no one else did.
Sure, she could be aloof at times, but Mike suspected she’d been hurt by someone in the past—and badly. He also believed that if anyone could help her heal and forget about the pain, it was him.
When he first met her a few years ago, it was on a professional level. He and his partner had brought in a teenage girl who’d been the victim of a hit-and-run. The seriously injured teen had been in severe pain and was screaming for her mom, who’d yet to be identified or notified.
Simone had begun talking softly to her at first, soothing the teen’s fears, while doing her job and getting a name and number for the mother.
Mike had walked away from the E.R. that night with a great deal of respect for her. Repect had given way to admiration, and over the course of the year, Mike had taken a long, hard fall for her.
There’d even been a time or two when he’d caught her looking at him, passion clearly brewing in those soulful brown eyes. A guy didn’t misread something like that.
Yet even though he knew she felt something for him too, she’d turned down each of his attempts to date her.
Then came the cocktail party that Dr. Peter Wilder had hosted.
Simone had been a warm and sexy woman that night, her walls and her legion of defense mechanisms down for the count.
But she’d soon grown distant, claiming it had all been a mistake and referring to what they’d experienced as a one-night stand.
As soft footsteps sounded, he glanced up and smiled.
But she didn’t return the friendly greeting. Instead, she seemed nervous, agitated and slightly unbalanced.
Of course, she’d been acting that way around him ever since they’d slept together. So maybe he shouldn’t read too much into it.
She nodded at the box he held. “What do you have in there?”
He untucked the lid and pulled out a sleepy puppy, its black-and-white coat soft and curly. It didn’t take a blood test to determine that it had various quantities of cocker spaniel, poodle and terrier DNA.
“Oh my gosh. He’s darling.” Simone started toward Mike, then stiffened and froze. “Wait a minute. You said you brought me something. I hope you’re not thinking that I’d consider taking in another dog.”
“Well, I didn’t exactly plan to give little Wags to you permanently, but he and I really do need your help.”
She tilted her head slightly to the side. “What’s going on?”
He held the puppy close, and it nuzzled against him, then gave him a lick. “I was out jogging yesterday and found this poor little guy wandering on the dirt trail near the river. He’s too young to be alone like that. And since we weren’t near any neighborhoods, it was obvious that he’d been abandoned. So I couldn’t just leave him there.”
Her stance softened—just a bit.
“I ended my run right there, then took him home. I even checked with the animal shelter, but so far, no one has reported him missing.”
She looked at the puppy, which was squirming to get down and start checking out its new surroundings.
“Poor little guy.” Simone reached out and scratched its head. “I wonder who would abandon him like that.”
“That’s why I decided to keep him,” Mike admitted.
She looked up and caught his gaze. “Then why is he here?”
“Because right now, I’m sharing a house with Leif, and when I took Wags home, I found out that Leif is allergic to pet dander. So if I’m going to keep him, I’ll have to find another place to live sooner than I anticipated. I’ll also need someone to keep him for me until then.”
“And that someone is me?” She stroked one of the puppy’s ears.
Good, she was beginning to warm and, hopefully, to bond. “Leif’s sister is a real estate agent, and she’s going to search the MLS listing for something in my price range.”
Of course, even if the agent found something that Mike liked, escrows took time. So he was hoping Simone wouldn’t mind puppy-sitting for quite a while.
“Here.” Mike handed Wags to Simone. “What do you think? My options are limited, and I can’t just dump him at a pet-boarding place when he’s so young.”
Okay, so that wasn’t entirely true. Mike did have other options. He could find the puppy another home, maybe with one of the firefighters at the department. Surely someone would want him. After all, a puppy as cute as Wags stood a heck of a lot better chance at being adopted than Woofer. But there was no need to mention that to Simone. Not when Mike was hoping she’d take the fluffy, black-and-white pup and allow him to visit her regularly.
Wags gave Simone a wet, loving lick on the chin, softening her even more.
“All right,” she finally said. “He can stay. But only until you find another place. I have no idea how Woofer is going to feel about having him here, and I could be making a big mistake.”
“You said Woofer doesn’t even know that he’s a dog,” Mike said. “He thinks he’s human. And all kids need a pet. Woofer will probably love having this little guy to pal around with.”
“I hope so.”
Mike knew so. Finding Wags hadn’t been an accident. Fate had stepped in to give him and Simone another helping hand.
“Where are his things?” Simone asked.
“His things?”
“You know, puppy food, toys…”
Simone’s pretty brown eyes grew large and luminous. “All you brought is a puppy and an empty cardboard box?”
Oops. He’d been in such a hurry to bring Wags to Simone that he hadn’t thought about her not having everything the puppy would need. Last night, he’d knotted up an old sock for him to chew on, although he’d left it at home. And then he’d fed him some leftover steak that had been chopped up. This morning, he’d given Wags scrambled eggs and bacon. So it wasn’t as if he’d neglected to take care of him. But a shopping trip was definitely in order.
He could do it on his own, but maybe it would be in his best interests to feign ignorance. “I’ll be happy to purchase whatever he needs, but you’d better come with me. I’m not sure what to buy.”
She looked at him in disbelief, and he suspected she might decline to go with him.
But then again, fate seemed to be working in his favor when she handed Wags back to him. “All right. You take the puppy to the car and I’ll meet you there.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I need to go to the bathroom and grab my purse.”
“Your purse is in the bathroom?”
She shot him a frown that suggested she didn’t find his joke funny. “Just give me a minute, will you?”
Sure. He’d give her all the time she needed.
At thirty-two, he was ready to get married. And if it took her a bit longer to get used to the idea, then so be it.
Her arguments would soon go by the wayside.
So what if she was older than he was? Or if she wasn’t used to big, happy families?
And so what if she wasn’t ready to settle down?
Mike was a focused competitor and believed that there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do or have—once he set his mind to it.
And he’d set his mind—and his heart—on Simone.
Chapter Two
Simone handed little Wags back to Mike. She hoped and prayed he wouldn’t ask to use her bathroom before she got rid of the testing apparatus. If he did, she’d have to race him there.
She crossed her arms and waited for him to head for his Jeep, yet he merely stood in the living room, studying her with expressive green eyes and a dimpled grin.
“I really appreciate this,” he said.
She supposed he did, but she wasn’t keen on taking care of Wags for him, no matter how cute either Mike or the puppy was.
Nor was she up for a shopping trip.
But agreeing to go with him seemed to be the quickest way to get him out of her house. And the sooner he went outside, the better.
“I won’t be long,” she said. “You can even go out to the car and start the engine, if you’d like to.”
“That’s all right. I’ll just wait for you here.” Mike glanced at Wags. “We don’t mind, do we, buddy?”
The longer her one-night lover remained in her house, the more uneasy she became.
She doubted that he suspected anything, though.
How could he?
“Okay,” she finally said. Then she turned and hurried to the bathroom, where she locked herself inside.
With her secret safe for the time being, she rested her back against the door and blew out a ragged sigh. Then, feeling only slightly relieved, she quickly scooped up the plastic apparatus that still displayed evidence of the baby they’d created and shoved it into the back of the cupboard, behind a stack of towels.
As soon as she returned home, and Mike was no longer around, she would double-bag the test kit in two plastic grocery sacks and throw it away.
Of course, she’d have to level with him sometime and tell him she was pregnant, but she was still processing the news herself.
So, some other day, when the time was right, she’d let him know that it was her problem, not his. And that she wouldn’t need anything from him. She would also tell him she’d decided to give up the baby for adoption, which was the best thing she could do for everyone involved, especially her child.
Adoption was the decision she’d wished her mother had made when she’d been pregnant with Simone. Instead, her mom had botched up the whole mother/daughter thing, something that continued to plague them both to this day.
Simone flushed the toilet, just to make Mike think she’d had the usual reasons for locking herself in the bathroom, then washed her hands and dried them on a white, fluffy towel reserved for guests.
Not that she and Woofer had many of them.
Dr. Ella Wilder stopped by sometimes. So did Isobel Suarez, the hospital social worker who’d become a friend.
Of course, Mike was here now—and waiting for her.
She looked in the mirror, caught the frumpy, pale image looking back at her.
Her hair, which had been put into a just-hanging-out-at-home ponytail earlier, had come loose. And she wasn’t wearing any makeup whatsoever.
Dressed in her favorite pair of well-worn jeans and a Rosie the Riveter T-shirt, she was a mind-boggling contrast to the chic, sexy woman who’d invited Mike into her house and into her bed five weeks ago.
But she didn’t feel like putting on makeup or a happy face. Nor did she want to draw attention to herself in a feminine sense.
After all, look what had happened when she’d dressed up for that cocktail party and had pretended to be someone she wasn’t.
But she couldn’t very well go out looking like a total frump, although she wouldn’t change her clothes. How could she when she wore a shirt with Rosie the Riveter rolling up a sleeve and proclaiming, “We can do it!”
So trying to draw upon Rosie’s confidence and determination, she removed the rubber band and ran a brush through her hair, leaving it down. Then she dug into her makeup drawer and pulled out a tube of lipstick. But after taking off the cap, she paused.
She really didn’t want Mike to think she was getting dolled up for his benefit. Of course, the sexy paramedic didn’t need that kind of encouragement.
The first time he’d come on to her—more than a year ago—had been in the hospital doctors’ lounge, where she’d been pouring herself a cup of overbrewed coffee. She was wearing a pair of blue scrubs and was close to finishing up a long, grueling twelve-hour shift.
“Hey,” he’d said. “I’ve got tickets to a concert at the Stardust Theater on Thursday. And I’ve asked around. We’re both off that night.”
She’d caught him looking at her several times in the past, and the intensity in his gaze had always spiked her pulse. Mike O’Rourke was a handsome man, and any woman would be flattered to know she’d caught his eye.
But Simone hadn’t expected his interest in her to take a romantic turn, and her senses had reeled.
“I…uh…I’ve already got plans,” she’d lied, scrambling to come up with an excuse.
And she’d been putting him off ever since, even though he told her he was prepared to wait until she was ready to give “them” a try.
He’d never been pushy, but now that they’d slept together, his determination seemed to have grown stronger.
