The Doctor's Dating Bargain

by Teresa Southwick

  “Care to share?”

  “Unlike me, Dr. McKnight is not putting pressure on you. He’s giving you space. You have to let him know it’s not what you want.”

  “But what if he doesn’t want me? What if he doesn’t want the baby?”

  “Then he’s not the man I think he is and I’ll throw more than vegetables at him.” His expression was hard. “But I’d bet everything I own that he cares about you very much. Don’t forget, I saw him in action.” He smiled. “I know it’s hard, but you have to try. You might get everything or nothing, but whatever happens, you’re not alone.”

  “Really?”

  “You’ve got your family and we’ll be there for you and the baby.” He grinned suddenly. “I’m going to be a grandfather.”

  “Yeah. How do you think Mom will feel about being a grandmother?”

  “Over the moon. She loves babies and she loves you.”

  “You’re going to make me cry again.”

  “Heaven forbid.” His smile turned tender. “But I’ve got one more thing to say. And this is something I learned the hard way. Life is too short not to grab happiness with both hands. Ben loves you and you’d be a fool to let him get away.”

  “Don’t sugarcoat it, Dad. Tell me how you really feel.”

  “Damn right.” He nodded emphatically. “I haven’t always been a good parent, but I’m not in the habit of fathering fools.”

  “Good to know. And speaking of how you really feel...” She met his gaze. “No matter what happens, I won’t be taking over for you.”

  “It’s okay.” He kissed her forehead. “I had a feeling. Then I had a long talk with your sister and she’d really like a shot at it.”

  “Good. Leighton will do a terrific job. Thanks for understanding, Dad.”

  “Don’t mention it. Just take care of my grandchild and go talk to that doctor.”

  That was her plan.

  * * *

  Cam drove through downtown Blackwater Lake and couldn’t look at everything hard enough. Tanya’s Treasures. The Grizzly Bear Diner. Al’s Dry Cleaning. Even the hardware store was a sight for sore eyes. Finally Blackwater Lake Lodge came into view, with the unbelievably beautiful mountains in the distance. She felt a swelling sensation inside and figured that was just her heart and soul filling up again. After her time away, she’d been several quarts low on scenic beauty and fresh air.

  And Ben.

  She kept one hand on the wheel and settled the other over her belly. “We’re going to see your daddy soon, little one. Hopefully he’ll be happy to see us.”

  It had been a month and he’d continued to text and leave voice mails that had a steadily increasing note of frustration. Once she’d caught him just as he was going into surgery and couldn’t talk, but the short back-and-forth made her heart ache.

  Except for her parents, no one knew she was coming home to Montana because she wanted to surprise Ben. She turned right into the Mercy Medical Clinic parking lot and noticed piles of lumber and other supplies that indicated construction on the expansion was imminent. Ben would be happy about that.

  She pulled her sporty little Mercedes to a stop beside his SUV. Never before had she felt such a rush of anticipation at the sight of a car. After shutting hers off, she grabbed her purse and the small covered dish beside her, then stepped out. Summer was coming and the air was warm and sweet with the scent of pine. A feeling of contentment joined scenic beauty and fresh air in her heart and soul.

  Her goal was to top it all off with a healthy dose of love.

  Clinic hours were over and since his was the only other vehicle in the lot, it looked like Ben was alone. Walking past his car, Cam glanced into the back and saw his backpack, obviously full. It was the one he’d brought when they camped out. Was he going into the mountains? With another woman? Judy?

  Cam’s chest squeezed tight as her conviction slipped. What if she was too late? Then she remembered her father’s words about fools. If the window of opportunity was that small, she never had a chance in the first place.

  Practicing the walk she’d planned to use, she moved to the front door and tried the knob. It was locked, so she rang the bell. She didn’t know if he was angry enough to leave her out here, but he’d never abandon a patient. Finally the door was opened and he stood there looking too wonderful for words.

  “Cam—”

  “Hi, Ben.”

  Surprise was evident in his expression as he studied her from head to toe like he couldn’t look hard enough. Then his gaze settled on what she was holding. “What’s in the dish?”

  “A casserole. Tuna. Cheese. Noodles. A little of this and that.”

  “Sounds yummy.”

  “So is it okay if I bring it inside?”

  “If you want to.” He pulled the door wide and let her pass in front of him.

  “Where should I put it?”

  “There’s a break room in the back. It’s past the reception desk. At the waiting area turn right. Go all the way down the hall. Last room on the left before the back door.”

  Cam had never been this nervous when she was pretending to be his main squeeze. Now she had a lot to lose. She’d missed his smile and the masculine scent of his skin. Her heart was beating so hard it was about to jump out of her chest and her legs were shaking. She wasn’t sure she could pull off what she wanted to, but she would give it her best shot.

  She moved in front of him and poured on an exaggerated, uneven walk down the long hall, trying to remember how it had felt after she’d kicked the railing on the second floor deck of the lodge.

  She turned into the room with a table in the middle and a refrigerator. Holding out the dish she asked, “Where do you want this?”

  “In the freezer.” There was amusement in his eyes.

  She opened the top door and saw quite a few other dishes there. “Wow.”

  “I’m a popular guy.”

  “I guess so.”

  He took the covered dish from her and set it inside, then closed the door and looked down at her. “Are things going well in Scottsdale?”

  “Why do you ask?”

  “I was sort of hoping you were having problems with the staff and came back for your serenity place.”

  “Arizona was fine.” Her chest was so tight she could hardly talk. “The employees are extraordinarily nice and cooperative.”

  “Oh.” He sounded disappointed.

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re limping.”

  She searched his eyes for a clue that he cared for her, that she wasn’t just a woman he needed a pretend girlfriend to avoid.

  “You noticed that. I heard a rumor that there’s a very good orthopedic doctor here who can fix what’s wrong with me.”

  “As it happens, I am a really good doctor. Top of my class in med school and a real hotshot during internship and residency.” He stared at her. “All that expertise tells me that there’s nothing wrong with your leg. In fact you’ve got great legs and you’re using them to get my attention.”

  “Is it working?”

  “Pretty much.” His eyes darkened. “Which makes me wonder why you brought food.”

  “You of all people should know that saying about the way to a man’s heart being through his stomach—”

  “Not true.”

  That gave her pause. Maybe she’d been wrong to hope. Maybe the calls and messages while she was away were only because of the baby. Maybe her father was right and she’d need to rely on her family’s support after all.

  “I noticed the full backpack in your car,” she said. “Are you going somewhere?”

  “To Scottsdale.”

  She could hardly believe it. “Really?”

  He nodded. “It’s been long enough. I gave you space, but I couldn’t stand it anymore. I had to see you.”

  “Really?” Happiness flooded her.

  “Yes. And if I couldn’t persuade you to come back here, I was fully prepared to move to Arizona and practice medicine t
here.”

  “You would give up Blackwater Lake for—” She hesitated, wanting to say for her, but couldn’t. “For the baby?”

  “I want the baby very much,” he said, his voice deep with emotion. “Never, ever doubt that. But I was coming after you.”

  “I see.” She tried to be cool, but the corners of her mouth curved up. “You do realize that I was throwing myself at you just now with the limp and the casserole.”

  “I got it.” He grinned, looking very pleased with himself.

  “So I guess I gave up all the power in the relationship.”

  He took her purse and set it on the table, then pulled her into his arms. “You didn’t give up anything because you always had the power and always will. I’m officially giving you notice that I’d like to change the terms of our bargain.”

  She snuggled into the warmth of him. Scottsdale had been lonely and cold, which was hard to do at this time of year in the desert Southwest. “Okay. I’m willing to negotiate.”

  “I’d like to propose something more permanent than our previous bargain.”

  “Oh?”

  “Instead of dating, I’d like you to be my wife. My bachelor days are over. All the fun times filled with creative casseroles and phony limps just don’t have the appeal they used to.”

  “I’m very glad to hear that.”

  “Good, because I’m not pretending. I love you. I think you should marry me and help me fill that big house with a family. Lots of kids and laughter. Make memories with me, Camille Halliday.”

  “That’s the best offer I’ve ever had.” Her eyes filled with tears of happiness. “And that means I’ll get to stay in Blackwater Lake, which I’ve come to love very much.”

  “What about me?”

  Her eyes locked with his and she willed him to see into her soul. “I love you with all my heart. Anywhere you are is home to me.”

  “Thank God.” He pulled her tight against him and let out a long breath that sounded a lot like relief. “I was such an idiot.”

  “Is that so? What about top of your class in med school?”

  “There I was the man. This condition called love is where I exhibited symptoms of stupid. I was so sure that dating you and having a beginning and end all planned out would control pesky emotions.”

  “You’re not the only one. I thought knowing what you wanted up front would protect me.” She pulled back a little. “Love is the last thing I expected or wanted.”

  “And now?”

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  Love and longing slid into his eyes. He lowered his head and whispered against her lips, “This is what I call the will-you-marry-me kiss.”

  His mouth settled on hers, warm and sweet in the best kiss she’d ever had. It promised love, happiness and the family she’d always longed for.

  She smiled. “I would love to marry you.”

  And she wasn’t pretending. The doctor’s dating bargain was the best deal she’d ever made.

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt of A Cold Creek Noel by RaeAnne Thayne!

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  Chapter One

  “Come on, Luke. Come on, buddy. Hang in there.”

  Her wipers beat back the sleet and snow as Caidy Bowman drove through the streets of Pine Gulch, Idaho, on a stormy December afternoon. Only a few inches had fallen but the roads were still dangerous, slick as spit. For only a moment, she risked lifting one hand off the steering wheel of her truck and patting the furry shape whimpering on the seat beside her.

  “We’re almost there. We’ll get you fixed up, I swear it. Just hang on, bud. A few more minutes. That’s all.”

  The young border collie looked at her with a trust she didn’t deserve in his black eyes and she frowned, her guilt as bitter and salty as the solution the snowplows had put down on the roads.

  Luke’s injuries were her fault. She should have been watching him. She knew the half-grown pup had a curious streak a mile wide—and a tendency not to listen to her when he had an itch to investigate something.

  She was working on that obedience issue and they had made good strides the past few weeks, but one moment of inattention could be disastrous, as the past hour had amply demonstrated. She didn’t know if it was arrogance on her part, thinking her training of him was enough, or just irresponsibility. Either way, she should have kept him far away from Festus’s pen. The bull was ornery as a rattlesnake on a hot skillet and didn’t take kindly to curious young border collies nosing around his turf.

  Alerted by Luke’s barking and then the bull’s angry snort, she had raced to old Festus’s pen just in time to watch Luke jig the wrong way and the bull stomp down hard on his haunches with a sickening crunch of bone.

  Her hands tightened on the steering wheel and she cursed under her breath as the last light before the vet’s office turned yellow when she was still too far away to gun through it. She was almost tempted to keep going. Even if she were nabbed for running a red light by Pine Gulch’s finest, she could probably talk her way out of a ticket, considering her brother was the police chief and would certainly understand this was an emergency. If she were pulled over, though, it would mean an inevitable delay and she just didn’t have time for that.

  The light finally changed and she took off fast, the back tires fishtailing on the icy road. She would just have to trust the salt bags she carried for traction in the bed of the pickup would do the job. Even the four-wheel drive of the truck was useless against black ice.

  Finally, she reached the small square building that held the Pine Gulch Veterinary Clinic and pulled the pickup to the side doors where she knew it was only a short transfer inside to the treatment area.

  She briefly considered carrying him in by herself, but it had taken the careful efforts of both her and her brother Ridge to slide a blanket under Luke and lift him into the seat of her pickup. They could bring out the stretcher and cart, she decided.

  She rubbed Luke’s white neck. “I’m going to go get some help, okay? You just hold tight.”

  He made a small whimper of pain and she bit down hard on her lip as her insides clenched with fear. She loved the little guy, even if he was nosy as a crow and even smarter, which was probably why his stubbornness was such a frustration.

  He trusted her to take care of him and she refused to let him die.

  She hurried to the front door, barely noticing the wind-driven sleet that gouged at her even under her Stetson.

  Warm air washed over her when she opened the door, familiar with the scent of animals and antiseptic mixed in a stomach-churning sort of way with new paint.

  “Hey, Caidy.” A woman in green scrubs rushed to the door. “You made good time from the River Bow.”

  “Hi, Joni. I may have broken a few traffic laws, but this is an emergency.”

  “After you called, I warned Ben you were on your way and what the situation was. He’s been getting ready for you. I’ll let him know you’ve arrived.”

  Caidy waited, feeling the weight of each second ticking away. The new vet had only been in town a few weeks and already he had made changes to the clinic. Maybe she was just being contrary, but she had liked things better when Doc Harris ran the place. The whole reception area looked different. The cheerful yellow walls had been painted over with a boring white and the weathered, comforta
ble, old eighties-era couch and chairs were gone, replaced by modern benches covered in a slate vinyl that probably deflected anything a veterinarian’s patients could leak on it. A display of Christmas gifts appropriate for pets, including a massive stocking filled to the top with toys and a giant rawhide bone that looked as if it came from a dinosaur, hung in one corner.

  Most significant, the reception area used to sit out in the open but it was now stuck behind a solid half wall topped with a glass partition.

  It made sense to modernize from an efficiency point of view, but she had found the comfortably worn look of the office before more appealing.

  Not that she cared about any of that right now, with Luke lying out in her truck, cold and hurt and probably afraid.

  She shifted impatiently. Where was the man? Trimming his blasted nails? Only a few moments had passed but every second delay was too much. Just when she was about call out to Joni to see what was taking so long, the door into the treatment area opened and the new vet appeared.

  “Where’s the dog?” he asked abruptly, and she had only a vague impression of a frowning dark-haired man in blue scrubs.

  “Still out in my truck.”

  He narrowed his gaze. “Why? I can’t treat him out there.”

  She wanted to take that giant rawhide bone out of that stocking and bean him with it. “Yes, I’m aware of that,” she said, fighting down her frustration. “I didn’t want to move him. I’m afraid something might be broken.”

  “I thought he was gored.”

  She wasn’t sure what, exactly, she had said in that frantic call to let Joni know she was on her way.

  “He did end up on the business end of a bull at some point. I’m not sure if that was before or after that bull stepped on him.”

  His mouth tightened. “A young dog has no business running wild in the same vicinity as a dangerous bull.”

  His criticism stung far too close to her own guilt for comfort. “We’re a working ranch at the River Bow, Dr. Caldwell. Accidents like this can happen.”

  “They shouldn’t,” he snapped before turning around and heading back through the treatment area. She followed him, heartily wishing for Doc Harris right now. The grizzled old vet had taken care of every dog she had ever owned, from her very first border collie and best friend, Sadie, whom she still had.