Harlequin Heartwarming March 21 Box Set

by Claire McEwen

  “I do use my hands to work, but this will be completely different than surgery.” Wade slapped on his gloves. He immediately wished he had the words back. There was only one thing worse than a pompous jerk and that was a stick-in-the-mud who liked to tell people about his important career.

  Carter whistled loud. “A surgeon painting on my gallery wall, that’s something.” He nodded. “Well, Doctor, I teach classes here and have students from all walks of life. It’s my building and you have my permission to do your worst. The number of coats of paint on this wall means no hurricane will ever bring it down. Now paint.”

  Mira shook the can and then painted a heart as big as her arms could reach. Wade wasn’t sure how they’d ever fill it in, but Carter stepped up and coached her through completing the first round. Then it was his turn. “Try orange.” Carter handed him the can and then stepped back.

  Wade experimented with the spray and the distance from the wall as he tried to make a clean line next to Mira’s. He lost control of the flow once or twice but when he stepped back, he’d made a thick, colorful orange line.

  “Not bad for a first time.” Carter smiled.

  Wade grunted, sure that Carter was only being kind to humor him. The kid was right. He deserved the teasing. “I never had much time for art classes, although my foster mom encouraged them. I was always into science.”

  “Is that right?” Carter asked.

  “Landed in a strict foster care home at fourteen. No chance to get into trouble there. If I had, my foster mom would have booted me, and I had plans that included staying put. After I survived high school, I joined the Navy. Any artistic talent or urges to wreak havoc were squashed by Miss Rose and Uncle Sam.”

  Carter ran a hand over his forehead. “I was in foster care for some time, too. More than one Miss Rose tried to keep me in line. Might have had a different experience than yours, but now I have art.”

  Wade studied him. “Yeah. I’m glad for you. I’m proud of what I did for myself, too. It’s not all bad, with the right people in your life, is it?”

  Their eyes met. It was impossible to sum up life in foster homes, but they didn’t really have to. Foster care could mean a lot of different experiences. He’d been lucky. Miss Rose had been tough. Hard. More about rules than mothering. Good preparation for life in the military. She’d had high expectations for all the kids who came through, but they were safe there. Wade had never bucked her system.

  Carter, whatever he’d been through, had come out stronger on the other side, too. He was starting his own journey now. According to Vi, he was making it count, too.

  The silence ended when Wade added, “I do have a preteen daughter who watched me paint her room and demanded crisp lines, so I channeled her voice.”

  They all laughed at that.

  Mira wrinkled her nose. “Oh, no, she’s tough. My baby sister is like that, forever giving me advice on how to improve my life. Three kids already and she’s not even thirty. The aunties always mention how happy Kamini is when we have family phone calls, so that I can be convinced to get married and give motherhood a try even as the biological clock alarm is ringing loudly, but I can’t figure out when Kamini sleeps. Since I like to sleep, that is a problem.” She flashed him a grin over her shoulder as she stepped forward to try yellow. Each line grew tighter and smaller as they worked toward the center. “What’s your daughter’s name?”

  “Thea,” Wade answered. “She’s too smart for me.”

  Mira grinned. “Yes, I have a total of five nephews. Can you even imagine? They surprise me all the time. At the last birthday party I attended for Jackson, who was turning five, I learned that kids need computers. Not a computer, but plural. I have no clue what he’s doing. Another tech genius in the making there.”

  “Are they all here in Miami?” Wade asked, grateful for easy conversation.

  “No, one sister is in Raleigh. My father was Air Force, too, but when he retired, he and my mother made Miami home. She grew up here. One by one, my sisters have moved closer. I expect Saashi will also end up here.” Mira closed her eyes. “My parents chose a house with an entire acre of land. We will need every bit of it when all the nephews converge for holidays. For us, there’s one of those almost every week. Every country we visited or lived in had a holiday my father adopted.”

  “That is a lot of celebrating,” Wade said as he tried to picture what a family gathering that size would look like, would sound like. Sprawling. Noisy. Like no holiday he’d ever celebrated, for sure. “Sounds amazing.”

  Mira snorted. “Until you all have to use the single bathroom. Then it’s dangerous.”

  They traded colors off until they completed the center. When he and Mira stepped back, Vi had returned. “Love it. Great students, huh, Carter?”

  Carter nodded. “Brisa said they would be. Both are military, used to following orders. Both are smart and like a challenge.” He took back the last can of paint Mira handed him. “Gotta trust Brisa. She knows people.”

  Wade shook Carter’s hand. “Thanks for the lesson.” Wade realized Carter’s words hit the nail on the head. Brisa was able to accomplish all she had, including setting up this perfect date for the guy she’d tricked and convincing him to trust his most important person to her for safekeeping, all because she knew people. She understood them because she took the time. Now he owed her so much, but if he was reading Brisa correctly, she’d never see it that way.

  “Painting was more fun than you expected, right?” Carter asked, one corner of his mouth curled up.

  Wade propped his hands on his hips. “For someone with no artistic talent? Yes.”

  Carter rolled his eyes. “Because you don’t look for it and build it up doesn’t mean you don’t have the skill, my man.” He shooed them back toward their bicycles. “Finish your date. Fall in love or don’t. I’ve heard that’s a talent, too, but what do I know about that? I like my freedom.”

  Wade enjoyed Mira’s laughter as they pedaled out of the busy lot. “I wonder if Carter knows what he’s talking about. Is falling in love a talent?” Mira asked as she kept looking ahead.

  “I have no good advice there, so we’ll have to trust Carter,” Wade answered. “He’s still young enough to know everything.”

  Mira nodded. “Yes, we used to be certain about everything, too.”

  Vi motioned them toward a small courtyard. It was the outdoor seating area to one of the restaurants they’d passed earlier. Tall trees provided enough shade that it was probably popular with the late afternoon crowd. Asphalt changed over to bricks, giving the place an old-world atmosphere. Large terra-cotta pots filled with orange and yellow flowers lined the alley’s edge. Had Brisa set up lunch for them, too? She was better than a fairy godmother.

  “This place serves the best sangria in the world, not that I’ve tasted all the sangria, but it’s really good here.” Vi pointed at a shaded table. “Brisa asked them to set up a quiet spot in case you wanted to talk. If you do, I’ll leave you here. Turn left at the end of the alley and then right at the next street to return to my gallery. If you don’t want to chat…” Vi paused as if she couldn’t figure out what came next.

  “Thanks, Vi, we’ll catch up with you,” Wade said as he put the bike’s kickstand down. “We can’t pass up the best sangria in the world.” Well, he would, but it was still a nice gesture.

  Vi waved and rode away.

  “Mira, I hope it was okay that I made the decision.” He hadn’t hesitated, either. “Brisa thinks of everything.”

  Mira shook her head as she took a seat at the little bistro table in the shade. Two icy pitchers were sweating in the center of the table, and a waiter brought out a small tray of sandwiches and fruit. “She does think of everything. I was worried when she and Reyna explained how they were going to change managers at Concord Court. Reyna’s tough and strong, the kind of leader that you understand why you’re
following. It’s natural. And the Court ran smoothly, even through construction, but it’s hard to argue with the ideas Brisa’s coming up with.” Mira picked up the dark red pitcher. “This business lab is going to take some time, but I’ve listened to Marcus Bryant talk about all his trouble getting his business off the ground, so I know it can make a lasting difference.” She motioned to his glass.

  “I’m going to have the other pitcher.” It was water. It was icy. It would hit the spot. “I’m sober. No sangria for me.”

  Mira pursed her lips before pouring her own glass and setting the pitcher down.

  “Sober, huh?” she asked before taking a sip and then sighing happily. “Want to get into that?”

  Wade twisted his glass on the table as he considered that. If this was leading somewhere, he should. He met her stare, studied her friendly, interested face and felt no desire to explain. “Not really. I don’t drink. Haven’t for almost two years, and I’m better for it.”

  Mira’s expression was serious as she accepted that. “Fair enough.”

  While Wade considered generic topics for discussion, like favorite books, movies, colors and sports teams, Mira chose a sandwich, took a bite and then said, “What I don’t get is why you have Brisa setting you up. You can’t have known her for long, so it’s not like you’re old friends who know each other so well.” She took another bite, her eyes serious as she studied him. “Brisa went to a lot of trouble. This was no simple introduction. She joined my running group at dawn to make a good impression, then she agreed to keep running with me in exchange for getting me here.” She plopped the last of the sandwich in her mouth and leaned back, as if she was prepared to wait however long it took for him to confess all his secrets.

  Mira was comfortable here. At some point, her nerves had gone. His had, too.

  Under other circumstances, that might be a good sign. Wade was almost sure it meant neither one of them was too worried about this working out well enough for a second date.

  He couldn’t confess all his secrets, because he’d promised Brisa, so he went for a piece of the truth. “Now that I’m settled here in Miami, I want to give marriage another try.” That was the absolute truth. “I liked having a family. My first wife couldn’t be happy with Navy life. I get that.” He cleared his throat. “I also have all this history, the places I’ve served, a demanding job with bad hours. It would be nice to find someone who understands those demands and isn’t intimidated by the challenge. I don’t want to fail again. When I explained that to Brisa, she decided to introduce me to you.” He skipped some details in the middle, sure, but it was basically true.

  Mira stared out across the small patio as she considered that. “History. It covers so much ground.” She straightened her shoulders. “I assume somewhere in there is the foster family and the sobriety that you don’t want to dig any deeper into today.”

  “Yes, the terror of surgery under terrible conditions, the life-or-death decisions required that don’t always go the right way, and the panic that hits without warning and sometimes feels as if it will never end. There are a lot of reasons why finding the right woman is a challenge.” Wade squeezed his sandwich to pieces. “That’s a lot to cover on the first date.”

  “And that’s why you wanted to meet someone with a military background. Right?” Mira raised an eyebrow. “Brisa explained how I was the perfect choice. Air Force medic for a Navy surgeon, science teacher for a doctor. If anyone can understand that history, it’s me.”

  Wade agreed. “You also like kids. Thea is a science geek who plans to revolutionize space someday.”

  “On paper, we are perfect.” Mira shook her head as she swirled her glass. “If only I was looking for a relationship of any kind or you were really looking for me.”

  Wade was confused. “Oh. Why did you agree to the date, then, if you aren’t looking, either?”

  “Nope. Not looking,” Mira muttered. “I didn’t tell Brisa that, so she’s innocent. I’m not available, not that anyone at Concord Court knows that. I have a husband. I don’t talk about him.” She wrinkled her nose. “I might have some history of my own.”

  Wade absorbed that. A secret husband. He had to laugh. Mira’s grin was sheepish. “I hope you aren’t disappointed. Brisa is so hard to say no to. And this was an amazing day.”

  After three of the tiny sandwiches, Wade laughed again. “I’m not disappointed at all. It was a fun morning and I needed one date with the training wheels on. I know a woman at the hospital was hitting on me, and the idea of it, on top of everything else, was almost too much for me to handle.” He waited for her to acknowledge his pun. “It’ll be easier the next time. Dating shouldn’t lead to panic attacks.”

  At least he would know what to wear.

  “Panic? How did you manage to get married the first time if random women give you anxiety?” Mira asked, her eyebrows sky-high.

  Wade decided it was a fair question. “Alcohol helps, Mira. It gives many men false confidence. Without it, I’m…” He held his hands out. He was on a blind date he’d extorted someone else to set up with a woman who was already married. This one date was an excellent representation of his dating skills.

  Her grimace was sympathetic. “That should make it so much easier to find the right one. Maybe. You meet her, you talk to her, and she’ll be the one who’ll get you, just you, no drinking.”

  Wade shrugged. It was a nice thought. Lots of women were easy to be with. That didn’t mean he wanted to kiss them.

  As soon as they stood, the waiter who’d been hovering in the shade came forward to clear the table. Wade and Mira walked their bikes back to Vi’s gallery.

  Mira said, “I don’t know much about your history. I only know about insomnia, and the fact that almost every condition we might have due to our history—” she hit the word hard “—can cause it. There’s an informal group that meets at the pool around midnight on those long nights if you ever need to talk or listen or not be alone. All veterans. All with history. Some of them will annoy you and there is always beer, but every person there will have your back.”

  Wade listened, but he wasn’t sure what his response should be. He’d done fine handling his own issues, hadn’t he?

  “Yes, you’ve been able to handle things alone but that doesn’t mean you have to.” Mira paused. “No, you didn’t say it aloud. I’ve got this particular script memorized.”

  Wade felt relief. “This is why I’d like to be with a woman who shares our background. It’s so much easier to talk when someone else helps fill in the blanks.”

  Mira pursed her lips. “I was going to let it go, but earlier you said ‘either,’ in an ‘I’m not available, either’ way. Now I’m curious who the first choice was.” She tapped her chin as she considered the problem.

  “It was always this hazy goal, that’s all. No one in particular,” Wade said easily and hoped it worked, because Mira was every bit as sharp as Reyna had been and if she pondered too long, she would come up with the right answer. It no longer bothered him, but he didn’t want Brisa to be embarrassed or have any trouble with her sister over something so small as the personal ad she’d posted with the best intentions.

  Mira kept walking. “Honestly, I thought finding someone who’d lived on an Air Force base would make life easier, too, but…” She crossed her arms over her chest. “That’s no guarantee you’ll be on the same page, Wade. It would be much better for you to find the woman who wants to know that history, who can listen and understand, one that you trust to carry it with you. Being with someone who has the same baggage is no use if they aren’t able to help carry it all.”

  Then she rolled her eyes. “Deep thoughts for a fun Saturday.”

  Since it was clear her words were tied to something very deep and very much personal, Wade laughed. That was what she expected. They’d landed back in front of the bike racks. Wade waved through the window at Vi so t
hat she could come lock them up.

  Mira wrapped her arms around his neck for a hug. “Come join us at the pool. Friends can help carry all that stuff, too. I wouldn’t trust a single one of those guys to set me up, so take any introductions they give you with a grain of salt. Sean Wakefield won over Reyna so he might have a bit of sense, but I wouldn’t trust it too far.”

  Wade grimaced. “He’s the one who suggested you to Brisa for this date.”

  Mira’s mouth dropped open, then she snapped it shut. “Guess I should have told them about my little husband problem but…” She sighed. “They’re going to give me such grief when I do tell them.” She covered her face with both hands. “You know how it is with secrets. Some of them grow sillier the longer you keep them.”

  Wade squeezed her shoulders. “Grief, yes, but Sean thinks the world of you. They’re your friends.” He nodded when she turned to him. “It’s your news to tell, not mine. As far as I’m concerned, we learned we’d make good friends. The end.”

  He had another secret to carry, but it didn’t bother him a bit.

  He walked her to her car and waited. “Brisa started running to get you to agree to this?” he asked.

  Mira nodded. “Yep. It surprised us all. Her, too. You must be pretty important to her.”

  Or smoothing over the wrinkle between them was.

  Mira started to get into her car but stopped. “I don’t want to tell you your business, Wade, but if you want a woman who understands people, who can listen and be there for you, and who we know is good with kids, especially after today… You might consider Brisa.” She raised her eyebrows at him but slid into her car before he could answer.

  What would he even say?

  Brisa was not in his world. She was in Reggie Beaumont’s world, the Montero world.

  Even if everything Mira had said about her was true. What would it take to convince himself that he was the man for Brisa Montero?

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN