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The One And Only
Laurie Paige
SHE WAS A ROCK IN HIS CONTROLLED PONDEverything came easily to Dr. Beau Dalton–until she walked in. Medical assistant Shelby Wheeling had secrets–big secrets. But that didn't ease the attraction that sizzled between them. Still, why was she refusing to open up to him? And why was she so intrigued by old medical records?Shelby couldn't put her past away until she accomplished one mission: find her birth parents. And no matter how much the sexy doctor made her heart race, she couldn't risk being sidetracked. But Beau's wicked loving ways seduced her from her determination to stay alone….
“That’s better,” he said in a lower tone.
“A real smile rather than a polite one.”
Their eyes locked. Time became suspended between one heartbeat and the next. For a moment, caught in those incredibly blue eyes that seemed to open clear to his soul, she relaxed her vigil. Warmth swept through her.
It was such an odd sensation that it took her a moment to recognize what it was and even longer to realize what had caused the acute stir of blood inside her.
An attraction. One that promised to be intense.
Her smile wavered. She wasn’t here for either a fling or something more lasting. Her search for the truth of her past took precedence over everything else. Knowing that, she would leave and start a new life in a new place.
At least, those were her plans….
Dear Reader,
Welcome to more juicy reads from Silhouette Special Edition. I’d like to highlight Silhouette veteran and RITA
Award finalist Teresa Hill, who has written over ten Silhouette books under the pseudonym Sally Tyler Hayes. Her second story for us, Heard It Through the Grapevine, has all the ingredients for a fast-paced read—marriage of convenience, a pregnant preacher’s daughter and a handsome hero to save the day. Teresa Hill writes, “I love this heroine because she takes a tremendous leap of faith. She hopes that her love will break down the hero’s walls, and she never holds back.” Don’t miss this touching story!
USA TODAY bestselling and award-winning author Susan Mallery returns to her popular miniseries HOMETOWN HEARTBREAKERS with One in a Million. Here, a sassy single mom falls for a drop-dead-gorgeous FBI agent, but sets a few ground rules—a little romance, no strings attached. Of course, we know rules are meant to be broken! Victoria Pade delights us with The Baby Surprise, the last in her BABY TIMES THREE miniseries, in which a confirmed bachelor discovers he may be a father. With encouragement from a beautiful heroine, he feels ready to be a parent…and a husband.
The next book in Laurie Paige’s SEVEN DEVILS miniseries, The One and Only features a desirable medical assistant with a secret past who snags the attention of a very charming doctor. Judith Lyons brings us Alaskan Nights, which involves two opposites who find each other irritating, yet totally irresistible! Can these two survive a little engine trouble in the wilderness? In A Mother’s Secret, Pat Warren tells of a mother in search of her secret child and the discovery of the man of her dreams.
This month is all about love against the odds and finding that special someone when you least expect it. As you lounge in your favorite chair, lose yourself in one of these gems!
Sincerely,
Karen Taylor Richman
Senior Editor
The One and Only
Laurie Paige
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
For Russell, who, while not of the Dalton gang of Seven Devils Mountains, was a true hero when I needed one. Thanks for your help.
Laurie
LAURIE PAIGE
Along with her writing adventures, Laurie has been a NASA engineer, a past president of the Romance Writers of America, a mother and a grandmother. She was twice a Romance Writers of America RITA
Award finalist for Best Traditional Romance and has won awards from Romantic Times for Best Silhouette Special Edition and Best Silhouette. She has resettled in Northern California.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter One
S helby Wheeling smiled with the youngster as the doctor made a funny face at him, told him to say, “Ah,” then checked his throat.
Dr. Dalton tossed the tongue depressor in the trash can. “For an old guy, you look pretty good to me. Don’t forget to pick up a book on your way out,” he said.
“To keep?” the boy asked.
“To keep,” the doctor assured him.
The free checkup for all children entering kindergarten was a new program for the school, sponsored by the state, to see if it could nip problems in the bud and result in fewer absences for the new students.
“Tonsils,” Dr. Dalton said to her after the child left the room. “Make a note to keep an eye out for strep infections and sore throats.”
Shelby quickly wrote the observations on the boy’s chart and filed the chart in the special box provided by the state of Idaho for the Lost Valley School District. As the school nurse, it would be her duty to follow up on the doctor’s orders.
New to the area, Shelby was still enthralled by the “Wild West,” as her parents back in the Low Country of South Carolina called the area. The Seven Devils Mountains arched spiny peaks into the blue bowl of the sky to the west of the valley. The Lost Valley reservoir eventually drained into the Salmon River, which ran into the Hells Canyon of the Snake River dividing Idaho from Oregon.
Rugged, mountainous land.
She glanced at the doctor as he helped a little girl up on the stool. Dr. Nicholas Boudreaux Dalton was handsome as sin, a beguiling devil with nearly black hair and eyes the color of the western sky. He’d asked her to call him by his nickname, Beau.
According to her landlady at the B and B, there were several other Daltons just as deadly gorgeous.
This particular one was very good with children, kind and teasing with the little ones, but all serious business with her. That suited her just fine.
She wasn’t in town for romance. Far from it. She wanted to find her birth parents and to discover if any genetic disorders ran in the family. Her adoptive mom and dad worried about her getting hurt. They urged her to put the past behind her and to make a new life, but she needed to know this one thing for her own peace of mind.
“Say ‘ah,’” the doctor told the girl.
“Ah,” she mimicked, then she stuck her tongue out at him and crossed her eyes.
“Hold it,” Dr. Dalton said, and pretended to take a picture. “We need to run a photo on the front page of the paper. ‘Monster on the loose in Lost Valley. Can’t see well, but may be dangerous. Tickling makes it disappear,’” he said as if quoting headlines.
The five-year-old giggled when he proceeded to give her a gentle tickle under her ear.
The childish laughter caused an instant flash of pain along Shelby’s nerves, and with it, the regret and the terrible sense of loss.
Like now, the memories came at odd moments. She’d be fine, then some little thing—the delighted gurgle of a baby, the happy squeal of a child in a park, the closeness of a family having dinner in a restaurant—would throw her into the tangled web of the past.
The helplessness of watching her own child slip away from life returned like a hammer blow to her chest. Nine months of carrying the baby, a year of watching her slowly fade due to a metabolic disorder until she went into a coma for a day, then…then it was over, and Shelby was left with only the memories. And the regret.
“Okay, Kenisha, I think you’ll be fine in school,” Dr. Dalton said. “Try not to give your teacher a heart attack with the monster face.”
The girl scrambled down from the stool and dashed into the reception room to pick out a book, her mother rushing to keep up with her.
“Her weight is low, off the bottom of the chart for her age and height,” he said. “I want her on a daily vitamin program. Put her down for recall in three months.”
Shelby heard the words, but they didn’t register. She knew she should be writing something, but her hand didn’t move across the page of the girl’s chart.
“Shelby?”
She stared into the blue eyes, the handsome, serious face, but she didn’t respond to the question. Locked someplace between the past and the present, it was as if she didn’t exist in either time.
“Hold the fort,” Beau said, sticking his head around the door frame and speaking to the volunteer who was directing the flow of children into the examining room of the clinic. “Give us ten minutes to catch up.”
He closed the door, then poured two cups of coffee. “Here. Drink this.”
He watched the new school nurse as he held the plastic cup out toward her. She blinked, looked from him to the cup, then accepted it. Her fingers trembled slightly.
“Did you eat breakfast?” he asked.
She shook her head. A ghost of an apologetic smile appeared and disappeared, flashing over her mouth so rapidly he wasn’t sure he’d seen it. “I was running late. The alarm didn’t go off. Fortunately, Amelia woke me.”
Amelia was the owner of the local B and B. A thoughtful person, she’d sent some muffins to the clinic that morning for the staff. From Shelby’s remarks, he assumed she was staying at the grand old Victorian.
“Low blood sugar,” he diagnosed, although he was sure it was more than that. He made a point of not prying into other people’s problems. Unless the person was a patient, of course, which she wasn’t. “We’ll take a break. Sit down for a few minutes.”
“Yes, thank you,” she said. She took a seat and sipped the steaming coffee.
Beau went into the staff room, snagged two muffins and two cartons of nonfat milk and returned. His assistant was sitting where he’d left her, her gaze on the peaks visible from the window.
She glanced his way. Her eyes were as blue as his own, but her hair was a flaming auburn, as straight and fine as silk thread. Caught with a blue band at the nape, it cascaded down her back like a flow of hot lava.
He’d wanted to touch it since meeting her last week for the preschool consultation with the state and county officials about the new program. Interest of a physical nature hummed through him. He mentally took a step back to observe his own reaction.
Yeah, he was interested. But he wouldn’t act on it.
Inhaling deeply as he put the treat on the counter behind her, he caught the subtle scent of shampoo and soap and talc, but no added cologne or perfume.
Her face, with its hint of golden freckles, was free of makeup. Its shape was a classic oval, like those in pictures depicting saints and such. He wanted to run his fingers along her cheek to see if her skin was as soft and smooth as it looked. Normally flushed a healthy pink, she looked pale now. “Peaked,” his uncle Nick would say.
“Eat,” he said.
She did as told. He let the silence linger between them while they finished the snack. Slowly the color returned to her face. Serenity seemed to enclose her in a protective aura, a thing he’d noticed at their first meeting, as if she existed in a clear shell that the world couldn’t penetrate.
Again, he felt the tug of interest, only this time it was centered on her character. Was she reserved by nature, or had life shaped her that way?
None of his business, he reminded the curious part of him. Theirs was a business relationship.
“Thank you. That was delicious.” She wiped the corners of her mouth, smiled and stood. “Sorry, but what was I supposed to put on Kenisha’s chart?”
“Her weight is rather low. That in itself isn’t necessarily a problem, but I want to keep an eye on her. She’s to get a daily vitamin. Let’s see her again in three months.”
“Right.” She wrote the information and flagged the chart, all business again now that she’d eaten.
Beau decided his original diagnosis had been correct—she’d needed a break and something to eat. After tossing the plastic cup into the trash, he told the receptionist to continue sending the kids in.
Normally on a Wednesday he’d be helping Zack over at the resort they were building at the lake. Instead he’d spent the time in the office. He and several local citizens were donating their services through the clinic he’d opened in July, a month ago today, to the cause of children’s health before they started school in a couple of weeks.
Restlessness assailed him. Another two hours and they would be finished for the day. Then he’d head for the lake.
Shelby, the new part-time school nurse, stored the file in the box and selected the next one. Her smile was all gentle welcome as the next child came through the door.
His heart kicked into gear with a hard, steady th-thump that added to the hum of sexual energy running through him.
Cool it, he advised his libido. He didn’t mix business and pleasure, never had, never would. However he did have a proposition to put to her. He’d already decided to invite her out to lunch when they finished.
It was after twelve before the last of the youngsters in the new program were checked and pronounced fit. The kids were also going through a battery of tests to determine their readiness for school. Welcome to the exciting world of learning!
“How about some lunch?” he said to Shelby.
She shook her head and closed the file box provided by the state. “I, uh—”
It was obvious she couldn’t come up with a reasonable lie fast enough to account for a refusal. Her reluctance was a challenge. It wasn’t often a Dalton was refused by a woman. However this wasn’t the two-step of courtship.
“It’s business,” he assured her.
“Business?” she repeated, looking dubious.
