He was lying to her. Staring right into her eyes and lying. Incensed, she hit him across the face before she even knew she was going to do it.
Tina squared her shoulders, glaring angrily at him. “Just how stupid do you think I am?”
He rubbed his cheek. For a small thing, she had quite a wallop. “Not stupid at all.”
“Then why are you insulting me like that?” she demanded.
He didn’t understand why she’d think that. “I’m not insulting you at all.”
“What would you call it, then?” she asked. “What would you call thinking that I would believe a lie like that after what I heard in your office today?”
She had to be reasonable. She was reasonable. He had to believe that. Because he had nothing else to hang on to and winning her back was now the most important thing in his life. The only thing in his life that mattered.
“I’m not sure what you heard or how much of it you heard,” he began, “but if you listened, you had to have heard that I told Knox I didn’t agree with him. That I told him to shut up.”
Each step he took toward her, she took a step back. Her hands were on her hips as she looked at him defiantly. “Then you don’t think I’m a ‘hottie’?” she asked in an accusing voice.
“Of course I think you are. I mean no—” He shut his mouth, realizing that he was tripping over his tongue. Dan tried again. “You are extremely hot, Tina. But not in the cheap sort of sense that Knox was making it sound.”
“An expensive ‘hottie,’” Tina said mockingly. “Is that supposed to be better?”
He tried one more time, knowing he had a great deal to atone for. Not just with Tina, but for his cavalier past, as well. He could have been doing a lot of good so much sooner.
“You are a gorgeous woman, Tina, and in that sense you could be described with that ridiculous term. But all that kind of talk belongs to another world. A world I was part of, yes,” he allowed, “but a world I don’t belong in anymore.”
She could feel herself wavering and tried desperately to stand firm. “Okay, let’s just say I believe you—which I don’t,” she quickly and sharply qualified, “just where is it that you think you do belong?”
There wasn’t a moment’s hesitation. He knew. “Here. With you.”
She wasn’t falling for this, she wasn’t. “Until they send another doctor.”
“No,” he contradicted, making her a promise whether she knew it or not, “until I die.”
She tore her eyes away from his. He wasn’t going to get to her. She’d promised herself that less than an hour ago, hadn’t she? “Which might be very soon if you don’t stop lying to me.”
“I’m not lying, Tina,” he told her as sincerely as he could. He didn’t know what else to do. “Yes, I came here thinking it was only for a few months. I gave myself nine at the most. A nine-month sentence,” he acknowledged since that was the way he’d viewed it. “But I felt I owed it to Warren to come.”
She picked up on the fact that he was using past tense. “And now?” she asked.
“And now I owe it to me to stay,” he told her simply. “I never realized what making a difference felt like or really meant,” he confessed. “To the people who come into the clinic. To see me because they think I can help them.” His voice took on depth and feeling as he continued. “I like making a difference. I like that people think I make a difference. None of that factored into my life before,” he admitted.
Tina blew out a breath, afraid to believe him. Wanting to believe him more than she wanted to breathe. She felt so torn.
“So you’re staying because you want to be Albert Schweitzer.” The mocking tone was not quite harsh.
That was one way to put it, he supposed. Dan smiled for the first time since he’d banged on her door. “I’m staying because I want to be Albert Schweitzer—and I’m staying because this is where you are.”
Her eyes narrowed. He would cajole her now, she thought. “And what do I have to do with it?”
He took a chance. Standing in front of her, he threaded his arms around her waist and took a chance that she wouldn’t push him away. That she’d hear him out. All she had to do was listen to one word. It said it all.
“Everything,” he answered softly.
She braced her hands on top of his arms as if to push him away.
Except that she didn’t.
She left her hands there as she looked up into his eyes, telling herself that she’d know if he was lying. That she’d see a spark of hesitation there. Except that she didn’t. What she saw in his eyes, she realized, was herself. She was what was reflected back at her.
“Go on,” she told him quietly.
Dan pressed his lips together, choosing his words carefully. Knowing that he had just one shot at this and he couldn’t mess it up.
“I love you.” There it was, simple and unadorned. Dan shook his head and said disparagingly, “They used to say I could sweet-talk the feathers off a dove, but I seem to have lost the knack.”
He’d just told her he loved her, without any fanfare. He’d snared her heart with those three words, there was no point in pretending to herself that he hadn’t.
“You’re doing fine,” she murmured.
He felt as if he was standing on a tightrope, using only one leg to balance himself. Feeling very, very uncertain. “Then you believe me?”
“Are you lying?” she asked quietly.
“No,” he answered with feeling.
She struggled to keep her smile under wraps. If she let it burst through, it would ruin a good moment. He deserved to be on pins and needles for a couple more seconds at the very least. “Then I believe you. Anything else?”
“Yes.” The relief was enormous. He almost couldn’t process its effect. “Whether you like it or not, I plan to go on loving you for the rest of my life.”
“Why?” She needed an answer to that before she felt secure. Didn’t matter what kind or how extensive, so long as he had a reason. Because then she knew that Dan really would stay.
“Because you make me happy. Because you make me realize I wasn’t whole before and I am now. Because I want us to be a family, you, Bobby and me. Because—”
Laughing now, she put her finger to his lips, stopping the flow. “Shhh. Stop talking,” she coaxed, rising up on her toes to kiss him.
Taking hold of her shoulders, he stopped her at the last second. She looked at him quizzically. “Do you love me?”
Her eyes, so solemn, so hurt only minutes ago, were full of mischief as Tina regarded him. “What do you think?”
He was about to say “yes,” but he didn’t get the chance. Her lips had sealed his and he suddenly had far more important things to do than talk.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8843-4
THE DOCTOR’S FOREVER FAMILY
Copyright © 2011 by Marie Rydzynski-Ferrarella
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@Forever, Texas
‡‡Kate’s Boys
¤The Baby Chase
¤¤Matchmaking Mamas
*Cavanaugh Justice
**The Doctors Pulaski
§The Fortunes of Texas: Return to Red Rock
The Doctor's Forever Family Page 17