Harlequin Special Edition September 2014 - Bundle 1 of 2: Maverick for HireA Match Made by BabyOnce Upon a Bride

by Leanne Banks

  Kaitlyn stiffened as Carla approached them, all sunshine, blond hair, blue eyes and pretty baby.

  Somehow, despite holding her diaper bag and her daughter, she touched Adam’s arm again. “We’ll have to have a playdate for the kids. We can compare notes.”

  Kaitlyn expected some kind of flirtatious response, but Adam politely said, “I’m not going to be in town long. As I mentioned in the group, I’m just taking care of Erica for my sister.”

  Carla looked disappointed, but then she returned with, “Will we see you here next week?”

  Adam nodded. “Yes, you will. Unless my sister is back.”

  After a warm goodbye, Carla left the room.

  Kaitlyn suddenly realized why Adam might not be interested. Carla had a baby. Wasn’t that what he was trying to leave behind?

  Not knowing exactly what had gotten into her, Kaitlyn asked, “Not a dating prospect?”

  He arched a brow. “As you reminded me more than once, not when I’m leaving for Thailand in a month.”

  “And a baby isn’t in your plans,” she murmured.

  Looking a little annoyed, he responded, “Not when one is already disrupting my life.”

  She’d asked for it, and she’d gotten it. Adam and babies weren’t a permanent combination. It really was time to make her exit.

  Acting as a doctor would with any patient, she smiled, said, “I’m glad the workshop was helpful,” and left him standing there with a group of new moms.

  * * *

  Kaitlyn’s breath caught as she saw Adam come into the winery’s community hall Friday evening. He was imposingly masculine in a tuxedo. He was also unbelievably sexy. However, she hadn’t been able to forget what he’d said about Erica being a disruption in his life. Kaitlyn could never look at a child that way...not ever.

  Before she and Adam made eye contact, Jase approached her. “I have some exciting news.”

  “What news would that be?”

  “Your article in the paper and on our website was popular and caught lots of attention.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Have you checked the comments section?”

  “No, I haven’t had time.”

  “Spoken like a busy physician.” He shook his head. “A TV station in L.A. wants to do an interview with you. They think you’d make the perfect human interest piece.”

  “I don’t want to be a human interest piece.”

  “I know you don’t. But think about what this interview can do for other women if they identify with your story. Think about what this interview could do for The Mommy Club. Think of other towns that might set up similar organizations.”

  “How long do I have to think about it?”

  “Twenty-four hours. You strike when the iron is hot with publicity.”

  “Would I have to go to L.A.?”

  “No. They’d come here. I think they want the small-town feel. Local shots of the town...you in your hometown setting. That kind of thing.”

  “Do you know the interviewer?”

  “Boy, you know the right questions to ask. I know her by reputation. She’s honest and direct. Actually, I think Tanya Edwards is a divorced single mom herself. My guess is that’s why she wanted to do this.”

  Adam was approaching them now, and Kaitlyn felt her heart begin to race. This wasn’t a matter of willpower. Her body just responded to him.

  After Jase and Adam exchanged greetings, Jase said to Kaitlyn, “We’ll talk about it again later,” and went to the table where Kaitlyn would be sitting, too. The room was beautifully equipped with round tables and white linens, a buffet layout and a wine-tasting bar. Instead of a runway for the bachelors, Marissa had simply set up a dais with two mikes. A bachelor could introduce himself and then Marissa would auction him off. Kaitlyn wondered who would bid on Adam and what kind of price he’d bring. Mentally, she kicked herself. She really shouldn’t care.

  “Can you give me a couple of minutes?” Adam asked as he nodded toward a quiet corner.

  The compelling intent in his eyes urged her to take a breath and then nod. He steered her to a table where a flower arrangement towered. Brochures about The Mommy Club fanned around it.

  “I gave you the wrong impression on Wednesday.”

  When she just waited, he blew out a breath. “I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t admit Erica has been a surprising disruption in my life. But she hasn’t been an altogether unwelcome one.”

  At that, Kaitlyn knew her surprise must have shown.

  “I never realized how much responsibility, let alone logistics, goes into being a single parent. Just carrying a diaper bag and a baby can be a challenge. And all the questions the new mothers had at the workshop made me worry about Tina even more. I know what you said about trusting Tina to come back on her own, but I know a private investigator in one of the companies my firm contracts with. He’s discreet and he’s good. I have to do something, Kaitlyn.”

  “You have to do something because you want to leave in a few weeks?”

  “I have a contractual responsibility in a few weeks. Certainly you can understand that.”

  Yes, she could. If she suddenly couldn’t see patients, the other doctors in the practice would have to take over for her. Adam didn’t have anyone to take over for him.

  “But my main reason for wanting to find her is simply to find her, to reunite her with Erica, to figure out what she needs to be a mom. Jade was a good mother to her. She didn’t neglect her even after she married Dad. Maybe that’s one of the reasons her marriage didn’t work out. Tina still came first. So Tina knows how to be a good mom. She just needs a chance to do it.”

  Kaitlyn felt her heart melting. Everything he was saying made sense, and the truth was, she didn’t have the experience of being a single parent, so she could only imagine his frustration.

  “Are you saying you might even enjoy taking care of Erica...a little?”

  He chuckled. “I’m saying we’re actually communicating. She looks at me with those big blue eyes and I talk to her. But afterward I wonder why am I talking to a two-month-old baby.”

  “Because she’s growing into a little person. Did you leave her with someone on my list?”

  “Mary Garcia’s watching her. After you left the workshop, I spoke to her for a while. I told her about tonight and that I didn’t like the idea of a stranger watching Erica. So she offered. She has a nursing degree, so Erica’s in good hands.”

  Kaitlyn had known that about Mary, but was surprised Adam had taken the time to find out. He was acting more and more like a dad every day, even if he might be reluctant to be one.

  “You and Jase seemed pretty intense. I hope I didn’t interrupt anything,” he said.

  “You didn’t.”

  Adam waited as if he expected her to confide in him. Is that what intimacy did? Made expectations more real? And if he expected that of her, what did she expect of him? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. That way she couldn’t get her heart broken.

  “Jase wants me to do a TV interview with someone from L.A. It would focus on my background and how I got involved in The Mommy Club.”

  “I meant it when I said your article was good. And as for TV...” He paused and gave her a wicked grin. “You’re very photogenic.”

  She felt herself blushing and didn’t know what to say to that.

  He laughed. “Sometimes I think you forget you’re a beautiful woman as well as a pediatrician.” He hooked his arm in hers. “Come on. Let’s take our seats. I think they’re about to start the program.”

  Marissa was headed for the dais. As the hostess, as well as auctioneer for the evening, she looked the part in a beaded green cocktail dress with her curly black hair piled high on her head. After being Jase’s assistant at the winery, she’d fallen into this
job of planning the events. She was so good at it Jase had said he was afraid someone else would steal her away.

  But Kaitlyn’s attention soon went from Marissa to the feel of Adam’s hand on her waist as he guided her toward their table. She wished she could be immune to his touch, but she simply wasn’t. All she could do was not let it show. No matter which way she turned the situation, she knew Adam would be leaving, not just this once but again and again. If she could settle for an affair—

  Even in the worst days of her marriage, an affair wasn’t something she’d ever wanted.

  After Marissa gave an introduction, she thanked Jase and Sara for hosting the event and explained a little bit about The Mommy Club. Then she invited everyone to enjoy the food. In addition to the buffet setup, waiters brought around hors d’oeuvres and glasses of wine or sparkling cider. During the preauction social time, Kaitlyn was terrifically aware of Adam beside her, of his elbow brushing hers, of his deep voice as he conversed with Sara, Jase and the other people around them. Marissa fluttered here and there like a sparkling bird once food was being served, and Kaitlyn thought about Marissa’s history, the father of her baby and how far her friend had come.

  An hour later, the auction began. One of the doctors in Kaitlyn’s practice was up first. When he went up to the dais, she gave him a thumbs-up sign. He grinned back and eventually went for a bid of two thousand dollars.

  She had to decide whether or not she was going to bid on Adam. One little voice in her head told her she should, another little voice in her head told her she shouldn’t. She was going to babysit for him if he went out on a date with someone else. Wouldn’t that be awkward?

  Still, that wasn’t a good reason to bid on him. She didn’t want him to think she wanted to continue what had happened between them.

  It was a dilemma, and one she had to solve quickly because Marissa, at the mike, said, “Our next bachelor up for auction is Adam Preston. Adam, come on up and tell us about yourself.”

  Once on the dais, he said into the mike, “I’m Adam Preston, an environmental geologist, and an eligible bachelor.”

  Kaitlyn crossed her arms over her breasts. She was not going to bid.

  Chapter Seven

  Adam stood in front of the crowd feeling altogether foolish. Yes, he was used to wearing a tuxedo. Yes, he was used to giving lectures in front of an auditorium full of college students. Yes, he walked teams through procedures when they approached a job site. But he’d never stood in front of a group like this, mostly women, waiting for one of them to bid on him.

  Barbaric. That’s what it was.

  However, when his gaze fell on Kaitlyn, he knew it was for a worthy cause, so he smiled broadly and turned toward Marissa.

  “And what is an environmental geologist, Adam?” Marissa asked so the crowd could get to know him a little more.

  “I try to bring water to drought-ravaged areas of the world. But in my everyday life, I’m just an ordinary guy from Fawn Grove who’d be glad to take someone out to dinner and a movie and have a fun evening for a good cause.”

  “How old are you?” a woman shouted out.

  He laughed. “I’m thirty-two and counting.”

  With a smile, Marissa added, “He’s six-two, has green eyes, and I think those shoulders probably fill out a forty-six jacket.”

  Everybody laughed this time.

  Marissa winked at him and Adam knew this was all in good fun. Suddenly he felt more comfortable.

  His gaze met Kaitlyn’s. Would she bid on him?

  He doubted it. That would be making some kind of public statement. He couldn’t forget making love with her no matter how hard he tried. She seemed to be in his thoughts day and night, when he wasn’t worrying about Tina. Even when he took care of Erica, he remembered how Kaitlyn had held her, how she’d cooed to her, had rocked her. How she’d clung to him...

  For the past week, he’d felt as if he’d been under some kind of spell, either a baby spell or a Kaitlyn Foster spell. He wasn’t sure which was worse.

  Marissa called for bids. Standing in the spotlight, he couldn’t see everyone who was bidding. Entering into the fun of the auction, Marissa said, “Maybe Adam could unbutton his jacket.”

  The audience clapped and he shook his head. All in good fun, he reminded himself, unbuttoning his tux, slipping off the jacket, and hooking it over his shoulder.

  There was applause again and a few more bids.

  “We’re at two thousand dollars, and I’m sure someone wants to go a little higher. Come on, ladies.”

  There was a shout from a back corner, “Twenty-five hundred.”

  Adam thought the voice sounded a little familiar, but seeing into the crowd was difficult.

  When Marissa announced, “Going once, going twice, sold to paddle number fifty-two,” Adam didn’t know who had bought the evening with him. He just knew it wasn’t Kaitlyn. There was a sharp stab of disappointment, but he smiled and waved and slipped on his jacket once more. Then he went down the stairs to the table where the settling up was done to meet the winning bidder.

  To his surprise, he realized he had recognized that voice—a voice from his past—Sherry Conniff. Eleven years had changed her, but he still recognized the beautiful girl she’d been, the one who’d stolen his heart and trampled on it so completely way back when. Her black-as-night hair was braided about her head in a coronet. Her model-perfect posture straightened her shoulders. She was dressed to kill in a siren-red dress, but her hazel eyes were serious as she studied him warily.

  He couldn’t say he was glad to see her. There was bitterness and resentment there that he’d tried to erase but hadn’t been able to.

  Without preliminaries he asked, “Why did you bid on me?”

  She hesitated a moment. “Because I thought our conversation was long overdue. I’ve wanted to apologize all these years, Adam, but the truth is, I didn’t know how. I saw your bio and photo in the Sacramento paper and that’s why I came to bid on you. I know this is no place to talk. I thought we could save that for tomorrow night, if you’ll go out with me.”

  He had once loved her as a young man could love, and those feelings tugged at him. “How are you doing?”

  “I suppose you heard I got my law degree?”

  “The grapevine mentioned it. You’ve been practicing in Sacramento, haven’t you?”

  “I have. I’m with a great firm specializing in international law. I’m on the partner track, which is just what I’ve always wanted. Most weeks, I work sixty hours or more. But this is what I’ve wanted since I was twelve, Adam, and you knew that.”

  “I knew you wanted to please your father.”

  She took his hand and just held it gently. “Let’s not get into any of that now. Can we wait until tomorrow night?”

  “So you don’t expect me to escort you to your seat and spend tonight with you, too?”

  “Of course not. You came with people tonight, didn’t you?”

  At first he found he wanted to say no, that he’d come alone. But then he remembered Jase and Sara and the way she’d convinced him to do this. He remembered Kaitlyn offering to babysit, and Marissa trying every way she could to make the night easy on him.

  “Where are you living?” he asked. “I’ll have to know where to pick you up. Around 7:00 p.m.?”

  Sherry gave him her card, a Sacramento address. He wasn’t looking forward to an evening with her. Not at all. But maybe it was time for this. Maybe it was time he closed the door on resentment and bitterness and made peace with his past.

  * * *

  As he returned to the table, Kaitlyn turned a questioning gaze on him. How awkward was this?

  Awkward or not, he thought he owed Kaitlyn some explanation.

  However, Sara was the one who broke the sudden, stifling silence between them.
“You set the bar high for all the guys coming after you. Liam’s going to be nervous now.”

  Adam shrugged. “It could be that the donation bids will go up after each bachelor.”

  Although he wanted to leave, although what he really wanted to do was to take Kaitlyn back to his condo and make love to her all over again, he sat down beside her.

  “That was an experience,” he said to Kaitlyn as she sipped her water, appearing unconcerned about what had happened.

  “You looked comfortable up there.”

  “Well, I wasn’t. We all pretend when we have to.”

  Now she gave him a curious regard. “You don’t have to pretend to be handsome and debonair and charming. You just are.”

  That statement completely took him aback. “You make it sound like a bad thing. Or are you upset because you seem to think those qualities are attractive?” How could she deny that when she’d responded to him the way she had?

  “Any woman in here would give her eyeteeth to be seen on your arm in a nice restaurant.”

  “Including you?”

  “I’m not impressed by expensive restaurants.”

  “Is that why you didn’t bid?”

  “I didn’t bid because...” She shrugged and shook her head, looking more vulnerable than he’d ever seen her.

  He leaned close and practically murmured in her ear, “Kaitlyn, what happened between us was special. Maybe you don’t want to admit that, but I can. You don’t have to bid on me to go out with me. I’d take you anywhere, anytime.”

  And if she thought those words had a double meaning, she was probably right.

  She blushed and leaned away slightly. “How can you be thinking about taking me out when you just made a date with someone else?”

  “You’re the woman I’d like to go out with, but I have an obligation now and I’ll keep it.”

  “Do you know her?”

  There it was. She’d been watching and she’d seen the tension or connection or whatever it was between him and Sherry.