From Dare To Due Date

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She thought about the careless way he’d left them at the bar and his annoyance at his father’s idea of a gift, telling herself that GPM probably didn’t care about the things anyway. Sneaking away from the elevator, she decided that having such a small memento would help her remember that she was still a woman with passion and life left in her.

Even Prince Charming had kept a glass slipper. Of course, unlike the smitten royal, Mia had no intention of traipsing around the countryside trying to find its owner.

She traced her finger over the gold-embossed letters.

If she thought about the man she’d left naked and asleep in her hotel bed, or the way he’d made her body come alive, responding to his skillful touch and his adoring mouth, she would lose all rational thought and make a pathetic attempt to take Maxine up on her offer to have Chief Cooper perform some miracle and attempt to track him down.

No. Things would be better if she just forgot about him and their night of sensual lovemaking. She reached for the little wooden treasure chest Maxine’s son had given her for her birthday three years ago. She put the cuff link inside then snapped the box closed, along with her heart.

She doubted that a man like GPM would even want to be found. He’d seemed to have his own share of problems he’d been trying to escape from and probably wouldn’t appreciate having any long-lasting reminders of that night, let alone an unexpected paternal responsibility. In fact, he’d most likely been more than relieved to have found Mia long gone the morning after.

Really, she’d saved them both from an awkward situation.

She’d never been the type of woman who had casual sex with strangers she’d met in bars. Heck, she wasn’t even the kind of woman who went to bars, or slept with many men, for that matter. Her actions that night had been so out of character for her that her first instinct the next morning was to run and hide before pretending that it had never happened.

From the moment she’d driven her five-year-old Prius away from the hotel, she’d forbidden herself from ever thinking about GP again.

Yet she couldn’t help remembering how, as they’d walked down the deserted hallway, her plastic key card quivering in her hand, she’d known that she was making a conscious choice.

When they’d stood at her door she lifted her face toward his and saw the passion in his eyes, dimmed only slightly by a furrowed brow, as if his own set of second thoughts was playing out in his mind. Then and there she decided that maybe he needed her just as much as she needed him.

It had taken her two tries to get the key card inserted and she remembered letting out a breath when the little green light signaled that the lock had finally released, because for once in Mia’s life, she had followed her physical urges—and her heart.

But now it was time to return to reality.

Getting off her sofa, she walked across her tiny apartment and opened her patio doors looking out onto Snowflake Boulevard, the main street leading through Sugar Falls. This was her reality. This town was her safe haven and home now. She took a deep breath of the cool mountain air, wanting to inhale the familiar sights and scents as if she could absorb enough of the environment into her brain so that she could push aside all thought of her carefree and careless night in the anonymous big city.

Because that was the key. Anonymity. She’d thought about leaving her telephone number for him, or staying a couple more hours to share breakfast and possibly something more.

But no matter how much she might want to see her mystery lover again, or how guilty she might feel for keeping this baby a secret, she knew she wasn’t ready for that kind of intimacy. She was just now allowing herself to put down roots and come out of her shell. All it would take was one bad relationship to put her right back to square one.

And that was a chance she just wasn’t willing to take.

* * *

Garrett wasn’t quite sure what to make of Cessy Walker. The older socialite had kindly volunteered to fill in at the front desk until he hired a nursing staff, but she didn’t seem like the best fit for a small-town physician’s office. After all, she was dressed in a designer wool knit pantsuit—Garrett recognized it as a staple brand from his last stepmother’s closet—and enough pearls to sink a life raft.

“Have you ever worked in a doctor’s office before, Ms. Walker?”

“Please, call me Cessy. Not in an office per se, but I did chair the Boise Children’s Hospital black-tie gala back in eighty-nine and we raised over fifty thousand dollars for a new sports medicine wing.”

“And tell me again why you want to work here?”

“I figure I needed to be doing something a bit more stimulating with my time. I tried to do that volunteer patrol program with the police department, but Cooper got all bent out of shape when I played my Barry Manilow CD on the squad car’s loudspeaker.”

Garrett bit the inside of his cheek, all too familiar with the eccentric personalities of the bored elite. Apparently, even small towns such as Sugar Falls had their share of overprivileged do-gooders looking for something to spice up their daily routines. The woman was sincere enough and probably had good intentions, but he really didn’t need her help. If his first patient wasn’t coming this afternoon, he would’ve politely declined her offer to act as a quasi-receptionist. But before he could make a decision one way or the other, she continued talking.

“I can see by your expression that you’re a bit shocked at my resourcefulness when it comes to entertaining. My third husband used to look at me the same way. But just between the two of us, it didn’t take a party-planning whiz to realize that the Labor Day parade was going to be a major snoozefest with that Mae Johnston running the show. Personally, I think the townspeople enjoyed me adding some festive music and pepping things up. But afterward, the chief was concerned other townspeople might follow suit and utilize public resources in an unauthorized manner.” Ms. Walker made it sound as if her Fanilow utilization was completely authorized. “Anyhoo, Cooper suggested that you might need some temp help, and since I know everyone who’s anyone in town, I figured I would be an asset to you setting up shop and establishing yourself with the crème de la crème of our town.”

Hmm. It sounded to Garrett as if Cooper wanted his wife’s former mother-in-law out of his hair and had dumped her into his lap. He’d met her a couple of times when she’d brought her grandson to visit Cooper at Shadowview and had an idea that she was used to getting what she wanted. But he was new in Sugar Falls and, as much as he prided himself on his independence, it couldn’t hurt to have an established and well-connected member of the community give him her bedazzled seal of approval.

Plus, he was about to ask for a favor himself, so keeping Cessy Walker busy would make the chief of police indebted to him.

It had been over eight weeks since that night in the hotel, and he hadn’t been able to get the woman from the bar out of his mind. He’d tried everything he could think of to look for her—everything from calling the hotel the following day to try to find the guest who’d been staying in room 804 to researching dance performances in Boise hoping to come across her picture. He’d even spent a few evenings sitting in the hotel bar the following week, closely watching every brunette that walked through the door—but always ended up at a dead end. The more time that went by, the colder her trail would get. It was time to call in the big guns.

“All right, well I appreciate your helping me out just for the next couple of days.” He purposely paused to emphasize that her receptionist skills—or lack thereof—would only be temporary. “My first patient is a referral from a friend and she’s coming in an hour. Have her fill out these forms and get copies of her insurance card. Technically we’re not open for business yet, and I don’t expect many calls in the next few days, but if you could answer the phone and take down messages for me, that’d be great.”

“No problem, Doc. And keep in mind that I can only volunteer for the next two weeks. I go on my sabbatical after that.”

He couldn’t imagine what a woman like Cessy Walker needed a sabbatical from. But he wasn’t going to ask because he had a feeling she’d tell him.

He took a seat behind the battered desk he’d found online. Garrett wasn’t in the habit of using money he hadn’t earned himself, and he’d already dipped into his trust fund account to finance the building and splurge on his top-of-the-line medical equipment. While he wanted to make his patients comfortable, he didn’t really see the need for wasting money on decorations or frivolous extras when it was surgical equipment and state-of-the-art radiology machines that he needed most. But hiring a full-time professional staff just jumped to the top of his to-do list.

He probably should’ve made a telephone call, but he didn’t want his new “receptionist” to overhear his very personal conversation. So he fired off an email to Cooper, listing as much information as he could think of about the mystery woman from the hotel. He told himself that if she wanted to be found, she would’ve left her contact information. But the more time he spent recalling every little detail about that night, the more obsessed he became with locating her and seeing her again.

Maybe he was romanticizing it. Or maybe he didn’t like the lingering feeling of rejection. Although he’d grown up a pampered rich kid, it wasn’t as if he was some spoiled brat who only wanted things he couldn’t have. Most likely, it had been a one-time experience and, if he met her again in person, none of that sizzling spark would be there anymore.

But what if it was?

He clicked Send and then slammed his laptop closed. This whole search was probably the most futile endeavor he’d ever embarked upon. And it would probably only give Cooper extra ammunition for busting his chops. Garrett needed to focus and get back to work.

He was putting away supplies and arranging one of his exam rooms when he heard his first patient arrive. She was early and he wasn’t quite ready. Besides, he didn’t want to look too eager—as if he had nothing more important or doctoral to do with his time.

Cessy Walker’s voice carried back to him as she greeted the patient. “Mia, you’re going to just adore Dr. McCormick. He’s a family friend and is known to be the best orthopedic specialist in the state. He’ll have your knee all fixed up in no time.”

Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but his suddenly fragile ego could use the boost. Also, technically, he was a friend of the new husband to Cessy’s former daughter-in-law, but in a small town such as this, he figured everyone had some kind of connection with everyone else. The woman might not be experienced as a receptionist, but perhaps she’d been right in declaring herself an asset to his growing practice.

He looked at his stainless steel watch. It would probably take a few more minutes for the patient to complete the insurance paperwork, so he went back to puttering.

After about ten minutes, he heard murmuring, and then Ms. Walker’s voice again. “Great. Follow me on back to the exam room.”

Garrett was shoving his left arm into the sleeve of his white lab coat when his receptionist walked in and handed the file to him.

“Doctor, Mia Palinski is here to see you,” Cessy said then walked out, leaving Garrett face-to-face with his first patient.

But instead of sticking out his hand to introduce himself, he froze when he recognized the midnight-black hair, the pale blue eyes and the graceful body he could never forget.

Chapter Four (#ulink_0ff13913-a226-5c7a-9e00-0e4cfb0187ba)

No, Mia thought. No, no, no.

GPM was here in Sugar Falls? And he was her doctor? How had this happened?

“It’s you,” was all he said. She stood there, stiff and numb, drinking in the sight of him, at a complete loss of what to say without looking foolish.

“You live here in Sugar Falls?” he asked when she remained silent. His eyes hadn’t stopped their constant perusal of her. “How could this have happened?”

His words mirrored her own thoughts so exactly that the nervous giggle she’d been trying to swallow almost bubbled out. But then he smiled as though Santa had just delivered a long-sought-after Christmas gift to him and a familiar cold panic spread through her. Mia reached for the file, the one containing all her personal information, including the fact that she was now carrying this stranger’s child, and tried to yank it from his hands. The hands that had so skillfully brought her body to life just two months ago.

Judging by the way he was gripping the manila folder, she probably would’ve had better luck ripping a present away from a child. She dropped her arms instead, the instinctive response of flight winning over her urge to fight.

She inched backward, calculating an escape route in her mind. The exam room was in the farthest corner of the building and if her knee was in better shape, she could probably make it out of his office in less than three seconds.

But then she recalled that the self-appointed socialite of Sugar Falls was sitting right outside and had a penchant for spreading her unsolicited opinions around town. Of course, it wasn’t as if Mia was going to be able to hide her pregnancy much longer, but she would’ve at least liked to keep the baby’s paternity somewhat secret.

Which brought her back to the question: How had this happened? What in the world was he doing here? And how was she going to deal with the consequences of her actions?

“Miss,” he paused and looked down at the file still in his hands. “Palinski? It is miss, right? Not missus?”

His eyes seemed to be pleading with her to assure him that she wasn’t married. Was he hoping that if she was single, she’d be up for a repeat performance? She didn’t respond only because she didn’t want to feed his unrealistic expectations.

Of course, he’d find out the answer soon enough since he was still holding on to her medical history, which clearly listed her full name, insurance information and, unfortunately, her address. But that didn’t mean Mia had to show her hand just yet.

“Why don’t you step inside so we can talk—” he looked pointedly at her feet, which were now completely backed into in the hallway “—more privately.”

Being alone with this guy was the last thing she wanted. But it wasn’t as if she could hide from him if he was truly setting up shop in Sugar Falls.

At least, not yet. Plus, Mrs. Walker would be right outside the room, probably with a stethoscope pressed against the door, and could hopefully intervene if things took a bad turn.

Mia took a deep breath. Really, she knew better than to project her one bad experience onto other men. She needed to think logically. GP or Dr. McCormick or whatever his name was was a reputable surgeon. Her best friend’s husband—the chief of police, for crying out loud—had been one of his patients. Chances were he wasn’t some obsessed sociopath who, several weeks after meeting her, decided to uproot his whole life and move his medical practice to Sugar Falls, Idaho, in order to stalk her.

Besides, she’d already let down way more than her guard with him before.

Maybe that was what she was really afraid of. She’d already proved that she couldn’t trust herself alone in a room with him.

He put his hand on her elbow and Mia immediately flinched and pulled her arm away. He looked surprised and a bit offended by her response, and she felt so stupid for being there in the first place. She swallowed a gulp of air and entered the room, turning around quickly so that she wouldn’t have her back to him or be susceptible to a surprise attack.

Calm down. He isn’t Nick. He’s not going to hurt you. Even as Mia tried to reassure herself, she couldn’t help but take inventory of her surroundings. Old habits died hard when she was thrown into an uncomfortable environment. Plus, she had more than just herself to protect now.

There was an exam table, which she had absolutely no intention of lying down on, a stool and a hard plastic chair that looked like the kind her elementary school would’ve thrown out a couple of decades ago.

For a guy with impeccable taste in shoes and scotch, he really could benefit from hiring Cessy Walker as a decorator rather than a receptionist.

“Do you mind if I close this?” He was holding the heavy birch wood door and Mia was grateful he was at least giving her the option of escaping. She nodded after checking to ensure there were no internal locks on the knob.

The room was small and they stood inches away from each other. The only way to put some distance between them would be if one of them sat down, but she didn’t want to put herself at a disadvantage.

“Well, Mia Palinski, I didn’t expect to meet you again.”

“I didn’t expect to meet you the first time,” she said before thinking better of it. She was a natural peacemaker and hated confrontations. Plus, her mother had drilled politeness into her from a young age, warning her she never knew when she’d come across a potential talent scout or rich stepfather. “Sorry. This is all so unexpected and I’m not usually so flustered like this—not that you would know. We don’t really know each other at all.”