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“Can I come, too?” April asked.
Kyle turned to his daughter. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, sweetie. You better stay here.”
“Who’s going to look after me?” the child asked.
Kyle’s gaze shifted to where Piper stood by the desk. She’d watched the entire exchange, unaccountably touched by Kyle’s concern for his aunt.
“Piper’s here. She’ll look after you till I get back. Won’t you, Piper?”
“Well…yes, I—” Piper began, but the rest of her reply was drowned out by the wail of the siren as an ambulance, lights flashing, drove past the window and down the street.
Kyle turned to his aunt. “Get your things. I’ll meet you outside at the truck.”
Vera rose from the chair and hurried from the room.
“Can’t I come with you?” April asked her father again.
Kyle lifted his daughter into his arms. “I’ll be back before you know it. You stay with Piper and show her around the clinic. Put the dogs out back in their run. Okay?”
“Okay,” April reluctantly agreed.
“Atta girl.” He kissed her forehead before setting her down.
He glanced at his watch and turned to Piper. “I have a few appointments this morning, they’re marked down in the blue book,” he told her. “I shouldn’t be more than half an hour, but if anyone wants to reschedule that’s fine. And thanks, I really appreciate this.”
“I’m ready,” Vera said as she reappeared in the doorway. With a reassuring smile, Kyle ruffled April’s hair then joined his aunt.
Piper tried to quell the butterflies fluttering madly inside her. She’d never been left to look after a four-year-old child before. What if something happened?
Suddenly she felt a hand slip into hers and glanced down to see April staring up at her.
“Is Uncle Frank going to be all right?” April asked with a slight hitch in her voice.
Piper drew a steadying breath and managed to smile. “They’re taking him to the hospital where the doctors will take care of him,” she said, sounding more confident than she felt.
April frowned. “I was in the hospital once.”
“Really?” Piper commented, finding the conversation both interesting and distracting. April didn’t appear to be upset at having been left with her, and the fact that the child had confidence in her somehow dispelled her initial anxiety.
“Daddy told me. He said I was born too early, and I had to stay in a cubator for a little while, until I got bigger, then he took me home,” she explained solemnly.
Piper smiled. “Well, I’d say they must have taken good care of you.”
April nodded. “And they’ll take care of Uncle Frank, too.”
That she was a well-behaved, well-adjusted child was apparent, and Piper admired the wonderful job Kyle was obviously doing as a single parent.
Surely if Kyle Masters could do such a good job, there was hope for her.
Chapter Two
Half an hour later Piper glanced over at April who was sprawled on the floor flipping through a coloring book. As her father had instructed, April had taken the dogs outside and put them in their run.
Being around April was proving to be educational, and it helped that Martha Cummings and her cat Gypsy had arrived early for their appointment with Kyle.
“I think I saw Kyle’s truck pull in,” Martha Cummings said, cutting into Piper’s wandering thoughts.
Since arriving at the clinic ten minutes before nine, Martha had been casting disapproving glances at Piper.
When Kyle entered, Piper felt a mixture of relief and joy at the sight of him. His mouth curved into a polite smile, but she could see the lines of worry around his mouth.
“Daddy, you’re back!” April hopped up and ran to her father. “Is Uncle Frank all right?”
“Hi, sweetheart! I’m afraid I don’t know how Uncle Frank is. I’m sure Nana will call and let us know. Have you been a good girl?”
April nodded. “When is Nana coming back?”
“I told her we’d pick her up later. Right now I need to take care of things around here.” He turned to the small group of people seated with their pets. “I’m sorry I kept you all waiting. If you’ll give me a few minutes, we’ll get started.”
He crossed to where Piper sat at the desk. She held out a file folder. “Mrs. Cummings and Gypsy are first.”
“Thanks. How was April? No trouble, I hope.”
“None at all,” Piper replied.
“I see you managed to find your way around the filing system,” he said, waving the file at her. His smile this time reached his eyes, and Piper felt her heart kick into high gear.
“In a fashion,” Piper answered. From what she’d been able to determine as she sifted through the papers on the desk, major reorganizing was necessary.
“Thanks,” he said before turning away. “Mrs. Cummings, if you’d like to bring Gypsy into examination room one, please.”
“Daddy, can I come with you?” April asked.
“Sure,” Kyle replied easily. For the next hour Kyle, with his daughter’s help, took care of the pets brought in by their owners.
Relieved of her responsibility to watch over April, Piper turned to her task of sorting through mail and searching for pertinent files.
Without a computer to keep track of billing or an updated list of clients and their pets, his system seemed somewhat archaic. From what she could discern after a quick perusal of his filing cabinets, his previous receptionist had devised a system all her own.
And as for his financial records, his receptionist had had to run things the old-fashioned way, using ledgers. A search of the desk drawers had uncovered several years’ worth, along with a metal cash box with a key taped to its underside.
Each time Kyle emerged from an examination room, he dropped the departing patient’s file into the wire basket on Piper’s desk. Clipped to the outside was a sheet of paper with a breakdown of the reason for the visit and the charges.
“Okay, Mrs. Baxter,” Kyle said a little later as he escorted the middle-aged woman carrying a cat cage to the door. “Give Whiskers one pill with his food for the next five days. That should take care of the problem. Bring him back next week, and I’ll check him again.”
“Thank you, Dr. Masters. What do I owe you?” Mrs. Baxter asked.
Kyle shook his head. “There’s no charge.”
“Thank you…that’s very kind of you.”
From her vantage point behind the desk Piper watched the exchange, noting the look of relief that appeared in Marion Baxter’s eyes. She remembered the Baxter family. Their son, Ricky, had been a grade behind her in high school. Ricky had been the eldest of six children, and Piper remembered hearing some of the kids in school saying Ricky’s father liked to drink, and that he often drank his wages away before his wife had a chance to buy food for her family.
“Daddy, I’m hungry!” April announced when the door closed behind Mrs. Baxter.
“Me, too,” he replied. He glanced at his wristwatch. “It’s almost time for lunch. What shall we have?”
“Hot dogs!”
Piper heard Kyle sigh and tried not to smile. His rapport with his daughter was so relaxed, so natural and loving, she envied his easygoing manner.
“Hot dogs it is,” she heard Kyle say. “Just as long as you promise to drink all your milk.”
“I promise!” April ran up to Piper. “Wanna have a hot dog with us?” April stared at her expectantly.
Piper had planned to walk over to Main Street and grab a bite at one of the cafés before driving home.
“If you aren’t into hot dogs, I make a mean cheese-and-tomato sandwich.”
Kyle’s comment brought her gaze up to meet his. His gray eyes sparkled and Piper felt her pulse skip a beat. “It would be my way of saying thanks.”
Piper felt her face grow warm. “I’m glad I could help.”
“So, what do you say? Hot dog or sandwich?” he persisted, a hint of challenge in his voice.
“A sandwich, please.”
His smile flashed once more, and this time her heart slammed against her rib cage.
“Good! I’ll lock up here, and we can go upstairs.”
April was already off and running.
Piper hadn’t known what to expect as she climbed the stairs to the apartment, certainly not the spacious living area with windows stretching its entire length.
“What a lovely apartment,” she commented.
“Thank you. We like it,” Kyle responded. “April, bathroom please, and don’t forget to wash your hands,” her father ordered. “Make yourself at home, Piper. I’ll give you a shout when lunch is ready,” he said before following April down the hall.
Piper glanced around the room noting the old but well-cared-for sofa and easy chair, two small oak tables at either end of the sofa, and a matching coffee table.
Every surface was shiny and dust-free. The room was warm and welcoming with only a few toys scattered around, a gentle reminder that a child also occupied the space.
On top of the television set in the corner Piper spotted a row of photographs. Each picture was of April taken at various stages in her young life, from infancy up to a recent shot of her sitting on a grassy lawn with Mutt and Jeff.
She studied it more closely, deciding from the bad lighting and relatively poor color quality, it was an enlarged snapshot. Whoever had developed it hadn’t done a very good job. But even so, the photographer had captured the essence of the blue-eyed, golden-haired child whose smile was a replica of her father’s.
It had been a long time since she’d done any developing work, but Piper was sure that if she had access to the negative she could produce a better quality picture.
The only trouble was, she didn’t have any of her equipment with her. She’d packed everything, including her cameras, into a crate then arranged to have it shipped home.
Piper replaced the photo and crossed to the window. She’d forgotten that the property stretched as far back as it did, tapering off down a gentle grassy incline to a gully beyond.
On the left was a small vegetable and herb garden, and nearer the building a fenced area housed a row of kennels as well as a small dog run. Piper could see Mutt and Jeff lying in the shade of some blackberry bushes near the bottom of the garden.
“Wanna see my room?” April asked as she came running up to join her.
“Uh, sure, I’d love to,” Piper replied. “But, could you show me where the bathroom is first?”
“Okay!”
When Piper emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, she could hear Kyle talking to his daughter. She headed in the direction of his voice and found them in the kitchen, a small but decidedly modern room with cupboards painted white, a countertop in deep Wedgwood blue and walls the color of the sun.
A small pine table with four chairs already set for three, sat in a corner by the window overlooking the street. Kyle glanced up from the counter and flashed another of his killer smiles.
“Lunch is almost ready.”
“Can I do anything?” she asked, trying to ignore the leap her pulse had taken.
“You can put these on the table for me, and I’ll bring April’s hot dog.” He handed Piper two plates.
April had already scrambled into her chair and booster seat. Piper sat down next to April and Kyle joined them, placing a hot dog and bun in front of his daughter.
Piper bit into her sandwich surprised to discover she was starving. Kyle was right. The sandwich was delicious. He’d added crisp lettuce, slivers of sweet onion as well as a hint of Dijon mustard.
As she savored the tangy taste she studied Kyle from beneath lowered lashes. Two weeks ago she’d never have dreamed she’d be having lunch with Kyle Masters, the man she’d had a giant-size crush on eight years ago, the man who’d rejected her so coldly and completely.
He’d brought her crashing down to Earth, deliberately humiliated her, telling her he didn’t go in for eighteen-year-old virgins who thought sex was a game. With a few choice words and several cutting phrases, he’d sent her packing.
That he’d found her lacking was an understatement, and she could only speculate that blue-eyed brunettes were definitely not his type. Beautiful blondes like Elise had been much more to his liking.
But according to Spencer, Elise had walked out shortly after April was born. Did he still yearn for her? she wondered.
Kyle suddenly glanced up and caught her staring at him. For a heart-stopping moment their gazes locked and she felt her breath snag in her throat as his stormy gray eyes held her captive.
“Daddy, can I have some ketchup?” April asked, effectively breaking the spell.
“Sure!” Kyle rose and opened a cupboard nearby.
Piper let her breath out in a slow and silent exhale and took another bite of her sandwich. Her thoughts drifted back to the summer she’d first noticed the devilishly handsome Kyle Masters. She’d been sixteen and she and a few girlfriends had been hanging around the local hamburger stand when Kyle walked by carrying a stack of books. One of her friends shoved her, and she’d accidentally collided with him. The books had tumbled to the ground, and Piper herself would have fallen had it not been for Kyle’s quick action.
With lightning reflexes, he grabbed her and hauled her against him, knocking the breath out of her. Embarrassed, she’d started to apologize, but the words had fizzled and died in her throat when she found herself gazing at the most gorgeous male specimen she’d ever set eyes on.
She could have sworn her heart did a cartwheel, and when she’d glimpsed the twinkle of amusement in the depths of his silvery-gray eyes, she’d been a goner.
A shiver danced across Piper’s nerve endings at the memory.
“Want me to…” Kyle began as he returned to the table with the ketchup bottle.
