“What else, daughter?” Her father pointed at the knot on his forehead. “I already have a headache. We might as well clear the air.”
So she held out her hand to show him she was on her fifth point. “I want you to be proud of me. You. Reyna. Marisol. I want you all to be proud of me. That’s it. The end. I might have tried to show you how little your disapproval hurt, but we’re going to change the whole conversation. I’m going to make Concord Court work. I’m going to make my big ideas work. I’m a Montero. I won’t stop until you’re proud to call me a Montero, too.”
Her father wrapped his hand around hers and pulled her to him. “I have always been proud of my beautiful girls. Always. Worried. You have worried me. Both of you. It’s unacceptable. If you would both settle down here, follow my direction, then things would go much more smoothly for us all.” He shook his head and grimaced. “You are on exactly the right track with Julius Stewart, the grant writer, Wade McNally, all of it. I had to drag you both here to get this going. I’m an old man. I wondered if you would both fight me to the end.”
Brisa stared at her sister across the bed and they shared a smile.
“Safe. Secure. Home. Together. That’s all I ask of you. From either one of you. Instead of demanding you be Monteros,” he said slowly, “I will ask you to be Brisa and Reyna first.” He lifted a shoulder in a careful shrug. “Let’s see if that is any less successful.”
Brisa was a little ticked off, and a lot relieved that her father was as Luis Montero as ever. His brilliant idea was to back off, something she and Reyna had been demanding since they could string words together.
And he was proud!
“Thank you for calling me, Daddy. I’m glad I had a chance to help.” Brisa stared down at him and tried not to let the fear of his injuries and how much older he seemed in a hospital bed swamp her. Their way forward was going to be bumpy, but they were all going to go together.
“You’re number two in my phone, Brisa. When I need help, only Marisol comes before you.” He smiled.
Reyna muttered, “If she’s number two, what number am I? Three?”
Her father shook his head. “Four. Sorry. You were a world away for so long and Trina has all my credit card information.”
Brisa knew her eyes were huge as she watched her sister, her perfect sister’s face, as she struggled to come to grips with the fact that their father would call his assistant before he called her. Eventually, Reyna said, “That’s fair. Unexpected, but fair.”
Sean wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her back to lean against him. “You’re number one on my speed dial.” Everyone laughed and Brisa finally believed that everything was going to be okay.
Better than okay. Perfect.
“If you have any questions or need my help, call me. I’ll be in my office for a bit, working on my benefit forms,” Wade muttered, “but call me whenever. Anytime. For whatever you need. I mean it.”
Sean drawled, “It sounds like you’re busy, Doc.”
Brisa intended to glare at Sean, but her sister already had it under control. “I want to walk out with you.”
Wade tangled their fingers together and led her away. When they were in the ER lobby, Brisa asked, “Which Reggie Beaumont fan do I need to watch out for?”
Wade bent his head closer to hers to answer. “Short brunette. You’ll find Reggie’s jersey number on her lanyard, but maybe she’s a Dr. Wade McNally fan. She smiled at me on the way out.” His low voice raised the shiver again and Brisa couldn’t stop it. Her eyes locked onto his.
“We need to talk, Dr. McNally. I have someone in mind for your second date, the one I owe you since Mira didn’t work out.” Brisa had every intention of being that second date. She’d stated her plan clearly. All Wade had to do was agree and surrender.
He tipped his head back and studied her face. “No more blind dates. I’m giving up on love. It’ll just be me and my gold medal–winning astronaut daughter.” His lips curled.
So he was going to be difficult. Fine. She deserved a little of that.
“Give it one more shot. Please. For me.” Brisa raised her eyebrows. She knew a hundred different flirting tricks, but none of them were right for Wade.
“Okay, but I’m planning the date. I want it to be impressive, something that could convince this woman, the only one in the world who might be right for me, that I’m her match.” Wade waited. “Do we have a deal?”
Brisa smiled and threw her arms around him. “I love a good negotiation. Count me in, Doc.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
WHEN WADE PARKED in front of The Amazing Space Race Escape, he glanced over at his daughter. Thea was still buckled in, but the urge to leap, run, slam, and all other things “Thea,” was easy to read in her expression. He hoped this worked out the way it did in his head.
“Are you sure this is a good date idea?” he asked her as she unbuckled her belt. He’d liked his first suggestion better, returning to the bar at the top of the Sandpiper Hotel, but Thea and Vanessa had agreed with Mira and the rest of the pool group: Thea was his number one secret weapon in the war for Brisa’s affection. No one else had another like her.
The Amazing Space Race Escape would display all of Thea’s beauty perfectly.
“Dad, we’ve been over this,” Thea said slowly. “Brisa likes me.” And that was it. That was the single most important argument any of them had made.
It was strong.
“Okay, let’s work out how we’re going to do this,” he said. “What are we going to say to win her over?”
Thea paused as if to give the question serious study. “I’m going to remind her that she doesn’t have a boyfriend anymore. You don’t have a girlfriend.” She held her hands out at both sides as if there was nothing else to add.
“You think that will do it?” Wade smiled as Thea shoved messy hair off her face. When he’d picked her up, Thea’s hair had been in a neat ponytail. He suspected this change was another of Thea’s tactics. Brisa did hair like it was second nature. Thea had a lot of hair. To remind her that he was also cool enough to attract a date sometimes, Wade held his hands out at his sides like Thea had.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Nothing.” He checked the parking lot. Still no Brisa.
“Relax. You look nice. We know Brisa approves.” Thea put her hand on his shoulder. He took that to mean reassurance. He could use reassurance. For some reason, this single date felt big. Really important. “I know Brisa will love this escape room. She enjoyed the planetarium, said it felt like she was flying through space. Here, we will be in a malfunctioning biodome racing against the clock to save our party from extinction.” She clasped her hands together. “What could be more romantic than that?”
Candlelight. Satiny pink dresses. Silky warm skin. Bare feet in an empty glass-bottomed pool.
All those things made Wade’s list ahead of escape room, but Brisa had turned into the parking lot.
“Don’t mess this up, Dad. Brisa is pretty enough to have lots of choices, even if she really likes me.” Thea met his stare to make sure he understood how important her advice was.
“Grab the flowers.” Wade pointed at the back seat and opened his door.
By the time Thea made it out of the SUV to stand next to him, Brisa had parked and gotten out of her car. She stopped in front of them. “Surprise. I’m your date.”
Wade smiled slowly. “Surprise. I know.” He motioned at Thea to hand Brisa the flowers. “I brought my good luck charm.”
He watched Thea wrap her arms around Brisa’s waist and hoped they weren’t making a huge, gigantic, child-crushing, heartbreaking mistake. A three-way love story between him, Brisa and Thea was dangerous, but there was no arguing that Brisa’s smile brightened at whatever Thea had whispered in her ear.
“Hold these for me,” Brisa said and turned Thea a
round. With some complicated, quick twist, she’d wrapped Thea’s hair up into a functional bun, and then held her hand out for her flowers. “I need to teach you how to do that on your own.”
“Or you could spend lots of time with me and do it yourself,” Thea said as she rapidly fluttered her eyelashes.
“Thea, take this inside and pay for the escape room, please. The reservation is under our last name.” Wade held out his credit card and shooed her toward the door. A minute to talk to Brisa alone. He had to have one.
After Thea was inside, he said, “I asked Thea for help planning the kind of date that would convince a woman to fall in love. I should have been more specific.” He crossed his arms over his chest and waited for Brisa to respond.
Her chuckle was sweet, but she stepped up beside him and pressed her lips against his. “Just needed one small improvement.” She relaxed against him when he wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her close and Wade relaxed for the first time since he’d seen Reggie Beaumont with a ring box.
Brisa was here.
Brisa was here with him.
“If you need time to get over Beaumont, I understand. We can go as slowly as Thea will allow us,” he said, content to stand forever on the sidewalk with her.
Brisa shrugged. “Reggie and I are friends. We were always only friends. He’s as much a plotter as I am, so this is just the latest Brisa Montero mess that has to blow over, but my heart was never involved. I don’t want it to splash all over you.”
“That guy is not smart. At all. I’m glad.” He smiled as she did.
“He never brought me to an escape room. I don’t know how this works.” Brisa pointed at a gnarly green alien who was clearly part of the reason people might want to escape.
“We’re on a malfunctioning Mars biodome and we have only an hour to solve all the puzzles required to restore it or we will die a ghastly, oxygenless death. That’s the main thrust of the story.” Wade shook his head. “Thea’s ghoulish excitement over dying on another planet took some adjustment this morning.”
Brisa pressed her forehead against his shoulder as she laughed. “I bet. It’s a good thing she’s here. Thea told me I was too old to be an astronaut. Have they relaxed the rules?”
Too old? Stunned, Wade had to remember to close his mouth. He’d ask for details but that sounded so much like something Thea would say that he really didn’t want to hear the ins and outs of that conversation. “I had to bring her. I’m not sure either one of us is smart enough to solve the puzzles and I don’t want to die on Mars, not before I kiss you once or twice or a thousand times.”
Brisa narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure? I have no military experience. I’m not a surgeon. Thea’s great, but we still don’t know if I like other children, kids who act their age. What about your ideal woman?”
Wade shook his head. “It’s the weirdest thing. Your father helped me understand how wrong I was. You may or may not remember that I had this idea that I was going to prepare Thea so she’d never be as lost as I was when she grew up.
“She’d learn to budget properly. She’d get a good education, a safe job, smart friends. It probably sounds a lot like your father’s list for you. We both had to face life alone to start with.” He enjoyed the way Brisa’s arms tightened around his waist. As if she would do what she could to make sure he didn’t feel that way again. “But as a dad, I realized that what I had to do first was love Thea, and that was the easiest piece of the whole puzzle. It didn’t have to make sense. I’ll listen to lectures about dark matter and swim coaches and spaceship engineering. No logic is required. Thea is Thea and I love her more than life. How in the world could I make a list of logical, reasonable characteristics and ever expect to experience the same kind of love? That makes no sense. I think that’s what it takes to get through this life. A love that means more than logic.”
“So you want a love that makes no sense?” Brisa asked, her lips pursed as she evaluated that.
“More than that, real love, the kind you and I want, it’s beyond understanding, beyond plotting and planning. It finds us,” he said.
“Are you kissing?” Thea asked in her loud stage whisper from the doorway to The Amazing Space Race Escape. “The Martian says she has to start our clock, or we’ll run over into the next reservation.”
Wade waved a hand. “One minute, Thea. We’ll be right there.”
She closed the door, but Wade knew her nose was still pressed against the glass. “Good. A ticking clock. Anyway, now I don’t have to rush into anything. Thea has the network she needs to be safe now and the future will always be a question mark, so I can take my time. Vanessa. Steve. You. Reyna. Sean. Your father. You’re a part of that foundation I want for me and for Thea. If falling in love takes a while, I’m okay.” Was he saying this correctly? He wanted Brisa. He’d prove they worked with enough time. He waited for her answer.
“No rush. I’m glad. But what if I’ve set you up with the right woman this time?” Brisa beamed. “What if falling in love only takes a minute? You okay with that?”
His smile grew. “Even better.”
* * *
If you missed Reyna and Sean’s romance, The Dalmatian Dilemma, and for other great novels in the Veterans’ Road miniseries, visit Harlequin Heartwarming at www.Harlequin.com today!
Keep reading for an excerpt from The Soldier’s Unexpected Family by Tanya Agler.
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The Soldier's Unexpected Family
by Tanya Agler
CHAPTER ONE
“THIS IS GOING to be so much fun.” Natalie Harrison flipped over the plans for the parade float and then twisted the papers one more time. Now the images were right side up, although she’d much prefer to toss the schematics in the park’s trash can and start with a new and exciting design. Something with pizazz and flair and...
“Aunt Natalie, are you lying?” Danny tugged on her floral sundress, the pleading in his voice stopping her in her tracks.
She laid the plans on a nearby picnic table. The summer breezes from the North Carolina mountains cooled the morning air and her bare arms. She glanced at her six-year-old ward and sent him a smile. “Of course I’m not.”
“My mom told me it isn’t nice to lie.”
Natalie brushed away a strand of her red hair, along with the wave of grief at the mere mention of Danny’s mom. Shelby Murphy had been her best friend since their college days.
Three months hadn’t dulled the ache left from Shelby’s sudden death from an undetected brain aneurysm. As long as Natalie lived, she’d never forget opening her front door and finding Danny there, out of breath, tears cascading down his cheeks, saying his mom wasn’t waking up.
With the Fourth of July fast approaching in two weeks, Natalie would do everything in her power to make it a great day for Danny.
Though bittersweet, what a day it was going to be for everyone, considering Hollydale was no longer the sleepy hamlet of her youth. Now it usually ranked in the top three “must visit” destinations this side of the Great Smoky Mountains. The downtown district’s renovation brought tourists flocking to the shops and businesses from now until the last leaf fell in October. The influx of dollars had led to more elaborate summer celebrations, with the parade attracting huge crowds that stayed for the famous, or infamous, pie baking contest and fireworks display.
Natalie ruffled Danny’s thick brown hair, the silver of her thin stacked bangle bracelets chiming in the soft breeze. “Your mom was right, but I’m telling the truth. We’re going to build the biggest and best float in Hollydale’s Boulevard of Stars Parade, and spending time with you is always fun.”
When Hollydale Elementary School Principal Marisa Garcia, her boss, had called and asked Natalie to supervise the construction of the float, she’d given every impression this project was further along than it actually was. Then again, with the original plans only calling for a stapled navy sheet to the wooden frame with Marisa dressing up as a woman suffragette, Natalie understood why more teachers hadn’t been called on to help with the project.
If Natalie followed the current schematics, there’d be no theme, no sparkle, nothing to stand out in the crowd. If she’d learned anything from her seven years of teaching, it was encouraging her students to reach for the stars. Marisa knew this and surely expected Natalie to take the float to the next level when an out-of-town emergency required the principal’s attention elsewhere.
Bright sunshine reflected upon the metallic red truck that would pull the float, which only had a few boards nailed together for a frame. After Marisa had emailed her the schematics, Natalie had taken a cursory glance at some websites, which had given her solid ideas of an eye-grabbing float with gold garland and a framed platform that would announce the theme of “Reaching for the Stars.” This project would require more elbow grease than she’d imagined. Her bright pink cowboy boots sunk into the ground, but she refused to let her spirit sink as well.
She’d bluffed her way out of other situations in the past. Why would she let a little detail like not knowing what she was doing stop her now? Confidence and bluster would go a long way, as would the pack of volunteers she planned to bribe and cajole with free barbecue and beer the weekend before the big event. Between the teachers who were still in town and her friends, this float would come together and the school would break away from its reputation as having the most boring display in the parade.
While that sole weekend was cutting it close, she didn’t have any choice because her parents’ summer bash was this coming Sunday. An annual event, this year’s had the added significance of doubling as their fortieth wedding anniversary.
The Doctor and the Matchmaker--A Clean Romance Page 21