Teresa Hill

by Luke’s Wish

  “That’s perfect,” Joe said. “I appreciate it. More than I can say.”

  “He’s a delightful little boy.”

  “Yeah, he is.”

  “Take good care of him. And call me if there’s anything else I can do,” she offered, wondering if he’d take her up on that, if she’d ever see either one of them again.

  Joe Morgan took her hand in both of his. Her entire arm started to tingle in an unsettling way. They stood there, staring at each other. She felt a strange sense of connection with him, something she didn’t want to lose. Which was crazy. She didn’t even know him. She didn’t know anything about him, except that he was too handsome for her own good, she felt a little charge of electricity when he touched her, and he had a great little boy.

  Samantha pulled away, because that was how it had to be. She had to look out for herself this time. She had to be smart, safe.

  “Thanks, Doc,” he said softly.

  “You’re welcome,” she said, fighting this odd urge to beg him to stay.

  He turned and walked to the door, was almost gone when she thought of something.

  “Joe?”

  He turned to face her again. “Yes?”

  “I may have convinced Luke to stop practicing dentistry, but he’s absolutely convinced I have magical powers. I’m afraid my little tricks with the coins and things just made it worse. He thinks I’m the tooth fairy.”

  Joe considered, then replied, “I’ll take care of it.”

  Samantha nodded, wondering what he’d say. That there was no such thing as magic? No wishes coming true? No miracles left in this world?

  She hoped not, even though she supposed it was true. But Samantha had seen children who’d stopped believing in magic, who’d been robbed of their illusions, and she didn’t want Luke to be one of them.

  Chapter Two

  It was much later that evening when Samantha shed her white coat, which she wore to guard her clothes but also for the deep pockets where she stored the tricks of her trade. She took out the glow-in-the-dark toothbrushes, the magic disappearing coins, the fat tongue depressor that turned into a bouquet of flowers and the magic set of teeth that chattered around on tabletops when she wound them up.

  Her last patient was long gone, as well as the office staff. There was nothing left to do but go back to the house she’d rented temporarily while she tried out this town, this practice. While she decided whether it was any easier to be here, far away from everyone she’d left behind, everyone she’d lost.

  She felt absolutely alone that night, absolutely lost.

  She had put the length of the country between her and everyone she knew, everything that was familiar, thinking to start over in a brand-new place. Brand-new house, if she ever got around to finding one. Brand-new practice, if she made up her mind and exercised her option to buy this one. Brand-new what else? she wondered.

  Man, came the answer, the image of a certain one coming into her head.

  Brand-new kid? She knew better. She did.

  So she swiveled around in her chair to face the window of the office that she’d occupied for all of six weeks now and that was starting to feel familiar, thanks to all of the things she’d brought. Her gaze eventually landed on the small glass cabinet in the corner. It had small framed drawings, porcelain figurines, carvings, even a sculpture her father had made, all of his favorite image, the tooth fairy. They always made her smile, always made her patients smile.

  It was mostly her father’s collection, one of his most prized possessions. He’d willed them to her, and now she displayed some of them in her office. It added an air of magic to the place, which her father had taught her to use to help get past the fear some children had of dentists.

  Little children should never be afraid, her father always said.

  She closed her eyes and thought, But I’m afraid, Daddy. I’m so afraid.

  Afraid that she would always feel this bad, this sad and alone, this lost, and there were no little magic tricks to make it better. No fairy dust raining down on her.

  Which made her think of Luke and Joe. They seemed afraid, too. Sad and lost and hurting. Maybe that was why she found herself so drawn to them, why she felt so bereft without them.

  She’d been happy today, just for a little bit. Happy with Luke and Joe. She’d felt what seemed to be a little spark of pure magic, and it had frightened her.

  So she had to remember all that she’d lost and the reason she had to stay away from them. It shouldn’t be that hard to remember, especially not here. There was a spot at the end of the credenza, just to the right by the droopy-looking potted fern she’d lugged all the way from Seattle, a spot where she’d always kept a favorite photograph of the girls.

  Maybe it had been a mistake to leave the photos behind. She’d debated that point with herself for what seemed like hours, and in the end, she’d left the photos, along with a big chunk of her heart.

  Samantha knew she had to safeguard that battered heart of hers now. She had to be careful and cautious and use her head.

  No men, she told herself even more sternly. Especially men with kids. If she’d learned anything else in the past four years, surely she’d learned that. No men and, please, no more falling in love with kids who didn’t belong to her.

  Dr. Carter let Luke keep the quarter and the spider ring. Best of all, she gave him a glow-in-the-dark toothbrush. When Joe brought him home, Luke hid in the closet with the toothbrush all evening watching it glow. He swore the toothbrush was magic, that Dr. Carter was magic and that she was really the tooth fairy in disguise.

  Dani wailed off and on all night after they picked her up from late-stay at school. Because she didn’t get to see the tooth fairy, because she still hadn’t lost a tooth and because she hadn’t gotten a quarter, a spider ring or a glow-in-the-dark toothbrush.

  Once he’d finally gotten them into bed, Joe put a hand to the back of his neck and tried to work out the tension in the muscles there. Somewhere he had to find another glow-in-the-dark toothbrush—a pink one, because that was Dani’s favorite color. And he had to find a way to talk his daughter out of a trip to the magic dentist, because he wasn’t sure if he could stand there and let Samantha Carter pull another silk scarf from his shirt pocket.

  He wondered what kind of magic she used to make that little jolt of awareness shoot through him when her fingertips flitted across his chest for all of half a second. Something from her bag of tricks? He wanted to ask but didn’t think it would be wise for him to see her again.

  Because he didn’t believe in magic, yet he was crazy enough to think he’d seen a shooting star on the ceiling in her office today. Joe had almost asked her about the special paint. But she’d think he was nuts, that it was no wonder his son pulled little girls’ teeth on the playground and kept them in a jelly jar in the top of his closet.

  Joe shook his head and indulged in the chance to swear out loud, because the kids were asleep.

  He was going to stay far, far away from Samantha Carter.

  Wandering through the house, he picked up things here and there. Dani’s shoes and dirty socks that made a trail from the hallway to the living room. As usual she’d kicked them off while she made her way from one room to the next. No amount of talking made the least bit of difference about that particular bad habit of hers.

  Luke’s book bag from school was on the kitchen table, and Joe dug the lunch box out of the book bag so he could discard whatever Luke hadn’t finished of his lunch. Too many times Joe had forgotten, and the mess that confronted him inside the lunch box on a Monday morning was something he could do without.

  Inside the book bag, he also found Luke’s jacket and two sheets of math problems due tomorrow, all of them wadded into a neat little ball. Maybe they could smooth out the math sheets enough that Luke could turn them in.

  As Joe picked up the book bag to put it away, he realized it weighed more than it should have. There was something else inside it.

  A rock? Tha
t was Joe’s first thought. Luke loved rocks. For some reason, he didn’t think they had enough of them here, so he collected them at school and brought them home with him.

  He unzipped pockets one by one until he hit on the one that held something long and thin and heavy. Joe’s fingers closed around it and drew it out of the book bag.

  “Luke,” he said, shaking his head.

  In his hand was the tooth-fairy figurine he’d found Luke admiring in the lobby of Samantha Carter’s office when Joe had gone to get him. She had long blond hair, a blue dress with stars and a magic wand with fairy dust streaming after it. Luke must have swiped the figurine while Joe was settling the bill.

  Which meant Joe would have to see Samantha again.

  He tested out his feelings on the subject. He was not happy. He refused to be. So what if the woman was gorgeous and somehow looked as vulnerable as a fairy who’d gotten her wings singed? So what if simply touching her had the power to make him tremble like an overeager teenage boy?

  He wasn’t going to do anything about it. He couldn’t. He had his kids to think about. Kids who’d cried themselves to sleep too many nights to count over a woman who was never coming back to them, one he suspected didn’t give them a second thought these days.

  No woman was ever going to hurt them again. Joe would see to it.

  That meant Samantha Carter was off-limits. He and Luke would take the fairy back and be done with the woman.

  Samantha didn’t even get a chance to catch her breath until well past noon. A member of the office staff was kind enough to make a run to the nearby sandwich shop and take orders, so Samantha had a turkey sandwich on whole wheat, a diet soda and all of five minutes to down both before her next patient would be ready for her.

  Leaning back into the big leather chair, she let the sandwich sit there on her desk, let the soda get warm and go flat. Feeling altogether out of sorts today, she swiveled around in her chair and gave in to the need to let herself think about Joe Morgan and his adorable son.

  They were all she’d heard about today. It seemed they’d charmed the entire office staff, and Samantha had given herself away half-a-dozen times when she’d been teased about Mr. Morgan, Sr. He was so polite. He had a delicious Texas drawl. He was not married anymore. He didn’t seem at all caught up in his own charms, an affliction that tended to absolutely ruin most truly good-looking men. She’d gotten those choice bits of gossip within the first five minutes of arriving in the office. By noon someone had started a pool that had grown to twenty-five dollars already. The bet—how long it would be before he called back.

  “Am I that transparent?” Samantha complained, when she was closeted in her office at twelve-thirty with her forty-something, normally no-nonsense office manager, Dixie, who’d just given her the latest update on the pool.

  “It’s the first time I’ve seen you really smile at anyone over twelve in six weeks. We’ve been worried about you, sweetie. Besides, he really is cute.”

  “Lots of men are cute,” she argued.

  “Not that cute. Besides, I think he’s nice, too. I liked the way he talked to his little boy. You can tell everything important about a man by the way he talks to his kids,” Dixie claimed.

  “If you catch him when no one’s listening,” Sam said. She’d found many parents who were totally different with their kids when they thought no one was listening. And she certainly hadn’t been listening when Richard talked to the girls. She’d missed a great deal there.

  “I liked him, and I’m no pushover.” Dixie pointed to the turkey on whole wheat and the soda. “And you owe me five and a quarter.”

  “I’ll buy tomorrow?” Sam suggested.

  “Fine by me. Unless I win the pot. Then we’ll hit that little French place around the corner for some serious take-out.”

  “Dixie! You got in on this?”

  “Of course. I don’t suppose you’d like to call him? The bet’s good either way. It doesn’t matter who makes the call, just as long as the two of you talk.”

  “No, I’m not going to call him.”

  “We have his number,” she offered. “We even have his address.”

  “No.”

  Dixie laughed and headed for the door. “I have to get back to work. My boss is a slave driver.”

  Samantha sighed and told herself to eat. She didn’t have much time. But now she couldn’t help herself. She was thinking about the Morgan men, despite all her intentions not to.

  Taken individually, either Joe or his son would have caught her interest. Together they were simply devastating. Luke was just too cute, too full of energy and exuberance and shyly given smiles. She’d felt like a great treasure had been bestowed upon her when Luke smiled. Samantha had done her best to put the fear of God into him when it came to working on other children’s teeth, but it had been hard to do with Luke practically dancing with excitement and begging her to admit to being the tooth fairy in disguise.

  Laughter bubbled up inside her. The tooth fairy?

  She wished she was, so she could conjure up whatever Luke wanted so badly. As hard as she’d tried, she hadn’t convinced Luke to tell her what that was. She hadn’t been able to bring herself to tell him that sometimes wishing simply wasn’t enough.

  Though she knew little about Luke’s situation, she understood quite clearly that Luke needed to believe the magic was real, and she suspected that need came from his wish to have his absent mother back.

  Samantha didn’t see a lot of dads bring children to her office. She suspected Joe was all Luke had, and that had her wondering if she’d see him again.

  And it had her thinking about how she’d made a fool of herself when she’d pulled a scarf out of his shirt pocket in an effort to make him smile. Joe Morgan looked as if he needed a reason to smile as badly as his son did, and Samantha’s first impulse had been to give him one, because she’d wanted to see him smile, too.

  Her face burned at the memory of being so foolish as to treat a grown man like a little boy.

  It wouldn’t have been so bad if Joe hadn’t been…well…

  Stop it, Samantha, she chastised herself.

  So he was good-looking. That didn’t mean anything, unless she wanted a man she could simply enjoy looking at from time to time. She couldn’t very well sit him in a corner, like a beautiful piece of furniture, or hang him on a wall like a painting and admire him.

  So he was charming, in that down-home, straight-off-the-ranch sort of way. Since when did she melt over a man with a Texas accent?

  She’d never thought twice about a cowboy in her life, but when she’d closed her eyes the night before, the first thing she saw was a grinning Joe Morgan in a cowboy hat, a dusty pair of jeans and well-worn boots.

  She smiled, unable to help herself for a second.

  She wasn’t even looking for a man. The last thing she wanted or needed was a man. And the absolute last thing she’d allow herself to want or need was a man with kids.

  “Samantha?” The voice came from the intercom system on the phone, startling Samantha as it always did when she suddenly found someone speaking to her when she was absolutely alone in the room.

  “Yes, Jess,” she said.

  “Sorry to bother you, but there’s a man on the line who said he needs to see you tonight after your last appointment. No emergency. Nothing to do with teeth. And I thought I’d better check with you first before giving him a time. Your last appointment should be over by six.”

  “Okay.” Puzzled, Samantha asked, “Who’s the man?”

  “Joe Morgan,” Jess said innocently. “The would-be dentist’s dad.”

  Samantha couldn’t stop a long, slow sigh from escaping her mouth.

  Obviously Jess heard it, too, because she laughed. “I thought that was him. Which means I win! If he called anytime before two-thirty today, I win!”

  “Jess—” she protested.

  “I’ll put him right through.”

  The phone buzzed at her, which meant the interco
m had been turned off. A light under the button labeled Line 3 started blinking, which meant Joe was there, right at her fingertips.

  Samantha closed her eyes and told herself to make up some socially acceptable little lie. She had plans, errands, some reason to get home tonight. But there was nothing. She couldn’t lie to herself. She was intrigued. The cute cowboy wanted to see her again. He’d seemed so reluctant to be here yesterday, although it may have been nothing but embarrassment over what his son had done.

  If only he knew, Samantha thought. Kids did the silliest things. Luke certainly wasn’t the first or the last to give his father fits.

  Samantha took a breath and reached for the receiver. Play it cool, she told herself. He’s just a man. Okay, a boyishly handsome man, but one with an adorable kid—definitely off-limits.

  She punched the button and said, “Hello? This is Dr. Carter.”

  “Hi. This is Joe Morgan,” he said. “From yesterday? My son—”

  “I remember you,” she jumped in. As if any woman forgot him. He hesitated then, and she wondered just how eager she’d sounded when she told him she remembered him. Trying to be the professional woman she was supposed to be, Samantha said, “Luke didn’t pull another tooth, did he?”

  “No. At least, not that anyone’s told me about. But the day’s still young.” Joe might have been smiling then. She couldn’t be sure. “I was wondering if Luke and I could come by your office this evening. He has something of yours that he needs to return.”

  “Oh?”

  “I’m afraid he swiped one of your ceramic tooth fairies, Doc.”

  “He did?” Samantha was surprised and more than a little disappointed now that she knew why he’d called. Despite what she’d told herself about becoming involved with a man like Joe Morgan, a part of her had still wanted him to call her today. Which was silly, she knew, but that was how she felt.

  “I can’t believe Luke did that,” Joe rushed on. “As far as I know, he’s never done anything like that before. I told him he has to return it to you himself so he can explain what he did and tell you how sorry he is. If you could make time for us, of course.”