“You kept...showing up. You kept coming back, doing things for me.”
“I couldn’t stay away. I tried, but—”
“That night...that first night, we...oh, God, I can’t believe I let...that we—” Her breathing was labored, as if she’d been running.
“Made love,” he said, reaching for her. “You can say it aloud. That’s what it was, Angelina. It was making love. That’s why I couldn’t stay away from you, and that’s why you chose me.”
“I was lonely,” she said. “I was...frustrated.”
He couldn’t stifle a grin. “Yes. You certainly were.”
“You were wearing a suit that night. Where had you been?”
“It doesn’t matter where I was. The only thing that matters is where I ended up.”
“You were with a woman, weren’t you? Was it Samantha?”
“How—” Then he remembered the notations on the list, the ratings he’d put there to remind himself what was important—before he’d realized what really was.
“Did you go from her bed into mine?”
“No. Yes, I was with Samantha. I thought—I wanted—but suddenly it was crystal clear to me who I should be with, so I drove to your house.”
He swallowed. “I swear, Angelina, I didn’t go to your house expecting...I just wanted to see you. I wanted to get to know you.”
A solitary tear slid down her cheek, and her chin quivered as she fought for composure. “You glued my bed!” she said. “You brought over a clamp and sandpaper and you fixed my bed.”
She spun away from him, out of his reach. “I’ve got to go home. I have to get Lily.”
“Don’t walk out on us,” Mike said.
“When my husband walked out, I swore I’d never become dependent on another man as long as I lived. I was doing just fine until I met you, but I was tired, and it was so...easy to let you take care of me.”
“And I swore I would never let a woman use me again. And I haven’t. That’s the difference—don’t you see it, Angelina? You weren’t using me. The things I did for you—it was because I wanted to help you. And letting someone help you doesn’t make you dependent. I didn’t do anything for you that you couldn’t have done yourself.” He took a stab at humor. “Except maybe turning off the water.”
She was not amused. She was...devastated. He could read it in every feature on her face. Part of him died when he realized that he had put that look on her face. “You’d have taken care of that, too, eventually.”
“Wouldn’t the dispatchers at 9-1-1 have loved that?” she said.
“We’re good together,” he said. “You helped me, too. With the wedding announcements, and then the pants.”
“I have to go.” This time, she backed up the words with action, pushing past him to the door. “Lily?” she called from the hallway.
Lily appeared in the hallway. “Are we going to eat pizza?”
“We’ll have a pizza delivered to the house,” Angelina said.
“Is Dr. Mike coming home with us?”
Mike felt a surge of hope when Angelina looked at him. “I could drive you home. You’re upset.”
“I’ll be fine once I get to the car,” she told him.
Once she gets away from me, Mike thought.
“Can I say goodbye to Wynken, Blynken and Nod?” Lily asked pitifully.
Mike’s eyes went to Angelina’s face as he held his breath waiting on her reply. If Lily was breaking his heart, he could only imagine how Angelina felt.
“Yes,” she said tautly. “But hurry.”
Lily returned to the boarding room to tell the raccoons goodbye.
This is what Angelina had feared the most. Her daughter was involved, hurt through no fault of her own. Angelina didn’t have to say the words. She had only to look at him with that wounded, helpless expression on her face and he could hear her accusations.
“I couldn’t let you walk out of here if I didn’t think that we’d get this worked out somehow,” he said. “Not now, when you’re so upset, but later, when you’ve had a chance to think about us.”
She twisted her head, refusing to look at him.
“That list doesn’t mean a thing, Angelina. Where I was before I got to your house a month ago doesn’t mean a thing, either. The only thing that matters is that I wound up where I was supposed to be that night.”
Her only response was a defiant thrust of her chin.
“For what it’s worth,” he persevered, “I love you. And as long as you’re going to be doing a little thinking, you might think about the fact that I love Lily, as well.”
“That’s not fair!” she cried, whipping her head around to glare at him.
He grinned. “All’s fair in love, Angel. And if you think that was unfair, chew on this—the whole time you were telling me about how badly you wanted a baby, the only thing I could think of was how badly I wanted a baby with you.”
Tears made her eyes too bright, but she held them in check. For Lily’s sake, Mike imagined.
“That was cruel,” she said, choking back a sob.
“It was the God’s truth,” he countered. “The offer’s officially on the table, Angel. A ring on your finger, a baby in your belly and a stepdaddy for your daughter. I’ll even throw in a typesetting machine so you can set up an office at home. All you have to do is say yes.”
“Lily!” she called, near panic.
“I forgot to mention all the sex you want for as long as I’m drawing breath,” he added in a low whisper just as Lily stepped into the hallway from the boarding room.
She didn’t look at him again as she herded her daughter out of his office. He could only hope that she wasn’t leaving his life for good.
He waited ten minutes, then drove past her house to make sure she’d gotten home all right, heaving a sigh of relief when he saw her car in the driveway and the interior lights on in the house.
There was nothing left for him to do now except wait.
13
LILY! Something had happened to Lily!
It was the first thought that crossed Angelina’s mind when she saw Thomas’s car in her driveway, and it swelled to unbearable proportions when she spied him trying to attach a note to her front door. In all the weekends that Lily had spent with her father, there had never been an occasion necessitating Thomas’s coming to her house.
Panic was gnawing like worms at her insides as she parked her car and dashed to him. “Thomas—what? Lily?”
“We’ve been trying to reach you.” Impatience transformed the statement into an accusation.
“I was at the store,” she said defensively. Buying groceries. Oh, God, had something had happened to Lily while she was at the store picking out toilet paper and breakfast cereals? “Lily? Is something—”
“Lily’s all right. It’s the dog.”
Angelina’s body went into a meltdown of relief. Lily was all right. She wasn’t hurt, wasn’t—
“We tried to tell you. Denise tried to tell you. It’s hard enough keeping tabs on four kids without having to worry about a dog.”
Lily had begged to take Princess with her on her weekend visit. Ordinarily, Angelina backed up Thomas and Denise’s wishes that the dog not be allowed to accompany her, but Lily had been so upset since the incident at Mike’s office earlier in the week that Angelina had pressured Denise into allowing Lily to bring Princess just this once.
“What happened?” she asked.
“The kids were playing in the front yard and the dog dashed away after a ball.” His features set in a disapproving scowl that made Angelina wonder how she could ever have loved him. “We can teach children never to run after a ball, but not a stupid dog.”
“What happened?” she prompted.
“Our neighbor was backing out of his driveway and—” His expression hardened into outrage. “If one of the kids had gone after her, it could easily have been one of them.”
“Is she—” She couldn’t bring herself to say the word as concern a
bout how Lily would react if Princess was gone swept through her.
“No. But she’s hurt. Bad. She was yelping and crying like a damn banshee. She nearly scared Denise to death.”
“Where’s Lily? How did she—”
“Lily’s hysterical. Denise looked in the phone book for a 24-hour vet clinic, but your daughter threw a hysterical fit—”
“Our daughter,” Angelina corrected, wondering if he’d somehow forgotten that Lily was as much his child as her own.
“She insisted that no one except this Dr. Mike could possibly treat her dog.”
“Mike?”
“Ah, yes. I thought as much.”
“What do you mean?”
“That love-struck mooning expression on your face confirms my suspicions. You have something going on with this guy, don’t you?”
“I don’t see that’s any business of yours.”
“It is if it affects our daughter.”
Oh, so she’s yours again! Angelina thought. But she didn’t want to fight with him. “Where’s Lily now? And Princess?”
“His clinic was closed, but she insisted on looking up his home number in the book.” His inflection turned ugly. “You must be really thick with this guy, because he agreed to meet us at the clinic.”
“He’s Princess’s veterinarian. He would have met any patient there,” she said, realizing as she said it that it was true. He was that kind of vet. That kind of person.
“Denise and the kids are there now. We tried several times to call you. Finally, I decided to come over and leave a note so we wouldn’t have to stay on the phone all day.”
You’re all heart, Angelina thought. “How’s Lily?”
“How do you think she is? You know how obsessed she is with that puppy.”
“I’d better get over there.”
“I think so,” came out sounding like, “It’s about time.”
The drive to Mike’s office was both the longest and the shortest trip she’d ever taken. Longest because she was anxious to get to Lily and soothe her; shortest because she dreaded the situation she faced. And she wasn’t prepared to see Mike again under any circumstances, but particularly when Lily’s puppy was hurt and he would be cast in the role of savior or ringer of the death knell.
She could hardly believe that only four days had passed since she’d stood in his office and he’d proposed to her. Not with candles and soft music and wine, of course. He wasn’t a man who planned that far ahead. No, he’d proposed in typical Mike fashion: a ring on her finger, a stepdaddy for her daughter, and a baby in her belly. Not to mention her own typesetting equipment and great sex for the rest of her life.
It wasn’t exactly the type of proposal that made the evening news features on Valentine Day. But it was Mike. And it was sincere, because Mike was sincere above all else.
She’d missed him more in the past four days than she’d ever missed anyone in her whole life. Was it any wonder her hand was trembling as she reached for the clinic door?
A maelstrom awaited her inside. Denise, cradling the baby in her arms, charged her. “This isn’t my fault.”
“No one’s blaming you,” Angelina said, hoping to appease the woman.
But Denise was beyond appeasement. “I told you I couldn’t be responsible for that damn dog, but you wouldn’t listen. Oh, no. Lily was so upset. Lily had to have her puppy with her.”
“We’re all upset,” Angelina said. “Let’s not say anything we’ll regret.”
That at least made Denise stop and think. “I’m not paying any vet bills,” she said at last.
Angelina had exhausted her patience. “No one’s asking you to, Denise. Just tell me where Lily is.”
“She went off to the back with your boyfriend. She wouldn’t let that dog out of her sight.”
“I’ve got to find her.”
“We’re leaving,” Denise said. “The boys are supposed to go to a birthday party. They’re already late.”
“I can handle it from here,” Angelina told her, suddenly confident that she could.
She could handle it all—her child, the emergency, her life. It was a liberating feeling, that self-confidence, that inner serenity, the self-knowledge that she was strong and competent. It filled her with largesse. “Thank you for calling the vet and bringing Princess in. I know how hectic your weekends are.”
Denise frowned, then spoke softly, “It wasn’t my fault.”
“It was an accident,” Angelina said.
Denise pointed toward the treatment room area. “They’re back there.”
“I know the way,” Angelina said, moving even as she spoke.
She never looked back.
She found Mike and Lily standing next to a treatment table. Princess was lying on the table, deathly still. Angelina knelt with open arms as Lily ran to her.
“Princess got run over by a car and she has a broken leg.”
“I know, sweetie. I’m so sorry your puppy is hurt.”
“She’s going to be okay,” Lily said, drawing out of the embrace. “Dr. Mike is going to put a metal pin in her leg so it’ll grow back good as new. And he’s going to let me help as long as I don’t faint.”
“If it’s all right with your mom,” Mike reminded.
He spoke to Lily, but his eyes were on Angelina.
She’d wondered how it would be, what it would be like to face him again. All the way to the clinic, she’d wondered. And now she knew: it was perfectly comfortable and wonderful. It was like being with Mike again.
And although she didn’t utter so much as a syllable, she told him yes at that moment. Yes to Lily helping with the surgery. To the wedding band on her finger. To his becoming Lily’s stepfather. To babies of their own. To...everything.
The hint of a smile on his mouth and the warmth in his eyes told her that he understood.
“Can I help, Mommy? I won’t faint,” Lily said.
“Yes,” Angelina said, still looking at Mike’s face. “You can help. I’ll help, too, as long as I don’t have to watch.”
“That should be interesting,” Mike observed wryly. “Surgery by braille.”
“She’s so still,” Angelina said, looking at the puppy.
“She’s sedated. I’ll use a local on the leg.”
“He shaved her leg!” Lily said, a chuckle in her voice. “He says now she can wear a bikini.”
“Dr. Mike is silly, sometimes,” Angelina said.
“Yeah,” Lily agreed, as though being silly was the highest accolade which could be attributed to her hero.
“I have to scrub now,” Mike said. “Nurse number one—that’s you, Lily—I want you to stand right here and make sure Princess doesn’t roll off the table. Nurse number two—” He looked at Angelina. “You can help me scrub.”
“This isn’t scrubbing,” Angelina said in the utility room a few seconds later.
Mike pulled her closer. “Hell of a lot more fun, though.”
The kiss linked them emotionally as well as physically, sealing unspoken promises between them. They were both breathless when Mike tore his mouth from hers and peered deeply into her eyes.
He smiled devilishly. “So, Angel—when’s the wedding?”
“We’ll discuss that after you tell me the whole story behind Mike Calder’s Minimum Requirements for a Woman,” she said.
“You mean that old piece of paper that used to be hanging on the wall above my sink?”
“That’s the one.”
“I threw it out days ago,” he said. “It was obsolete. Didn’t you notice that it had been updated?”
Apprehensively, Angelina followed his gaze to the wall she’d been avoiding. And there she saw:
Mike Calder’s Minimum Requirements for a Woman—Revised edition
1. Her name will be Angelina.
2. She will have a daughter named Lily.
3. She makes great turkey tetrazzini and serves it with vampire bread.
4. Designs beautiful wedding announcements a
nd sews tuxedo trousers on the spur of the moment.
5. Smiles like an angel.
6. Sexy.
”Those are just the bare minimums,” he said, hugging her tighter. “It would be nice if she loved me.”
“She does,” Angelina said, guiding his face to hers for a kiss.
Epilogue
“THANKS,” Tracy whispered into Mike’s ear as she gave him a hug of congratulations.
“Thanks for what?” he asked.
“For taking the pressure off!” Tracy said. She tilted her head in the direction of their mother, who had her arm draped over Lily’s shoulders like a mother hen protecting a chick. “She’s been driving me crazy with the grandkid hints ever since I told her I was getting married, but I want to wait a few years. Now you can take part of the heat.”
Her demeanor changed dramatically as Mrs. Calder and Lily approached. “I’m so happy for you, Mike.”
“Dr. Mike, did you really cut up a dead possum when you were my age?” Lily asked excitedly.
Mike looked from the earnestness in his new stepdaughter’s eyes to the sheepish guilt in his mother’s.
“I was performing an autopsy,” he replied defensively.
“On road kill,” Mrs. Calder said wryly. Then she told Lily, “When he brought that possum home, I knew he’d either turn out to be a veterinarian or a serial killer.”
“Mother!”
Mrs. Calder answered his scowl with a squaring of her shoulders. “One of the compensations of putting up with absurd situations with your children is being able to tell your grandchildren all about them.”
“I’m glad he’s a veterinarian instead of a killer,” Lily said.
“So am I!” Mrs. Calder agreed with a chuckle. “Guess all those books about animals and trips to the zoo paid off.” She brushed a speck of lint from the dark fabric of Mike’s coat, then stepped back to admire him. “I was right about the tuxedo. Even at a small informal wedding, the groom should look dashing. And with a bride as stunning as Angelina—”
“She is beautiful, isn’t she?” Mike said, his eyes following his mother’s to the woman at his side. Angelina was dressed in ivory lace, and her hair framed her face in loose curls.
Not This Guy! Page 16