Thinking about the possibility that gorgeous Kate Macintyre might be interested in him as more than just a friend made him feel foolish and presumptuous. That was enough proof that the dating game was way out of his league. He’d be better off simply donating a little extra to the cause.
“I realize my colleagues will be paying for a date,” he said. “I understand that the money they spend on the night out will not go directly to the hospital—the guys will spend it on the women who win them in the auction. Since I won’t be paying for a date, I’m happy to donate the money I would have spent. It will go to the cause rather than be wasted on an evening on the town.”
That hadn’t come out quite right. His trepidation about dating sounded so ridiculous when he voiced it, but that embarrassment was at odds with the betrayal of Joy that pierced his heart when he thought of going through the motions of a date. Even if said date was contrived and a woman was bidding on a prize package—not really the time spent with him so much—the winning bidder still deserved to have a good time. Enthusiasm and interest were not something he could promise to deliver.
“What I’m trying to say is that I’m happy to donate more if you think that’s appropriate. Especially since I’m obviously being a colossal pain in the... Well, I’ve created more work for you, and I’m sorry about that.”
She laughed. “You’re not a colossal pain in the... Just get over that, okay?”
She caught her bottom lip between her teeth. She did that a lot. There was something kind of innocently sexy about it. She had nice lips; the kind that he imagined could be described as bee-stung.
“As I said,” she continued. “I wouldn’t have offered this alternative if I didn’t think it was a win-win situation for all involved. We’re good, right?”
She was so gracious. She obviously had a natural talent that put people at ease. Not to mention a pretty face to go along with the nice personality.
His gaze dropped back to the bottom lip that had just a moment ago been caught between her teeth.
“So, this new plan—you bidding on me—isn’t going to cause problems with a boyfriend? I don’t want to put you in an uncomfortable position....”
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’m absolutely single. No jealous guys will be hulking around threatening to beat you up. Rest assured.”
She winked at him, and there was something in the gesture that made the blood course through his veins in a way that hadn’t happened in ages.
“Really? Have you ever been married?” He surprised himself by uttering the words out loud. “And that’s really personal. You don’t have to answer that question if you’d rather not.”
She had a serene smile on her face, as if his inquiry hadn’t fazed her.
“I don’t mind answering,” she said. “As long as you’ll answer a question for me.”
Liam was vaguely aware of the muted background chatter of other customers, silverware clattering on plates, coffee cups clanking on saucers. Background music to their conversation.
“Fair enough,” he said.
“I’ve never been married. I came close once, but...nope. Lately I’ve been too busy with work to date much. I figure I’m sort of married to my career right now. Kind of like a doctor, huh?”
“Is that the question you wanted me to answer? Because, if so, it’s a lot easier than I expected.”
She laughed. “Are you kidding? That’s a rhetorical question, and you know it. What I want to know is why, if your daughters are okay with you doing the auction, do you still want to go through with the charade of me bidding on you? Which I’m perfectly willing to do. But, again, I’m curious.
“Because it’s just a night out. You really don’t even have to call it a date. It’s not like you’re obligated to see her again. How painful could one night out with a woman be?”
Liam shook his head. “I don’t know how to say this without sounding like a pompous ass, but I’ll do my best. There might be women or, should I say, one woman in particular, who would be tempted to bid on me just to put me in an uncomfortable situation.”
Kate didn’t say anything, but the corner of her mouth quirked up as if she thought the possibility utterly ridiculous. “Would you care to elaborate?”
“Shortly after Joy died—Joy was my wife...” His voice cracked, and he wondered if he would really be better off not venturing into this territory.
Kate’s expression softened. “I think everyone in Celebration knew and loved your wife, Liam. She was an amazing woman.”
He cleared his throat. “She was an amazing woman. I think that’s part of the problem. Some women think a man like me, who is left to raise two teenage girls alone, needs or wants help.”
“And you’re speaking from experience?”
Liam felt himself sliding down a slippery slope. “Nah, never mind.” He didn’t need to unload his baggage on Kate. He should be telling her how grateful he was for her willingness to make his part in this fund-raiser as easy and comfortable as possible. But he’d already said too much. It was best to quit while he was ahead.
“No, wait, this sounds good. So you’re in demand? Throngs of females throwing themselves at you?” Her eyes were sparkling, and her tone was teasing.
He was sure she was just trying to lighten the mood, but it wasn’t something he wanted to joke about.
“And you need me to fight off the hordes of women that will turn out to bid on you?”
He crossed his arms. “I wouldn’t put it that way.”
She pressed a finger to her chin and narrowed her eyes as if she were thinking. “Maybe I shouldn’t bid on you. Maybe I should be quiet and watch as the bidding war ensues.”
“There won’t be a bidding war,” Liam said. “And you already offered to bid on me. No reneging on the deal.”
“You realize that me bidding on you won’t preempt a bidding war. That’s all on you, and if it happens, there isn’t a thing I can do to stop it. We’ll all just sit back and watch Dr. Thayer bring sexy back.”
He laughed, unsure whether the burning sensation he felt was the blood rushing to or draining from his face. He reached up and ran his hand over his chin as if he could rub away the evidence of his embarrassment.
“Maybe this is a bad idea,” he said.
She reached out and touched his arm again. “I’m just teasing, Liam. I know you’ve been through a lot, but I was hoping this might be a chance for you to have some fun. We have a deal, and I fully intend to uphold my end of the bargain.”
She opened her mouth as if she were going to say something, but closed it and sat back in her chair.
“What?” he asked, wondering why he was encouraging her.
She put both of her palms flat on the table. “Okay, I’m just going to say it. You’re a young man. You have a lot of life ahead of you. I didn’t know Joy very well. We only met once in passing, but the little I did know of her was that she was a sweet, kind woman. I can’t imagine that she would want you to put yourself on a shelf for the rest of your life.”
The truth hung between them as acrid as the smell of something burning. Kate was right, as much as he hated to admit it. Joy probably would’ve wanted him to move on, to meet someone wonderful, who would love the girls like Joy did and for him to fall in love again.
There were two things wrong with that. First, he and Joy had never had the chance to discuss whether or not she wanted him to remarry should anything happen to her—or vice versa for that matter. He hadn’t expected his thirty-five-year-old wife to run out to the store for vanilla ice cream and never come back. Second, nobody would ever love their girls the way Joy did. And unfortunately he’d had firsthand experience with that, compliments of Kimela Herring.
He cleared his throat. “I’m working on that. Sort of. I’m going to grief counseling, but I can’t say it’s helping. In fact I don’t know how long I’ll continue. But after Joy died, I had a bad experience. One of her friends started coming around. At first she seemed to have good i
ntentions, but then she started moving a little too fast, pushing a little too hard. She did a lot of damage because she didn’t always tell the truth, and she lied because she didn’t have the girls’ best interests at heart.
“I really don’t want to talk about the details, but it didn’t end well. It probably wasn’t her fault. I was still too numb from losing Joy to know what I was doing, much less what Kimela was up to. But that’s no excuse. I had no business getting involved with anyone. For that reason I’ve decided I won’t date until the girls go off to college. That’s just five years.”
“Is this the woman you’re afraid might bid on you?”
Liam nodded, then shrugged. “She probably won’t. It sounds egotistical for me to even say such a thing. I made her pretty mad, and she hasn’t spoken to me since. Really I don’t even know why I brought it up.”
Kate stared at her hands, which, Liam noticed, were long and slender and nicely manicured. “I’m sorry you and the girls had to go through that on top of the pain and grief you suffered after losing Joy. That must’ve been difficult.”
“It was. Still is.” Liam shrugged again. “I hope I don’t sound conceited acting like all the women in Dallas will be lined up to bid on me. It’s just that I don’t want to give anyone the wrong idea like I did with Kimela. And I do want you to know how much I appreciate your kindness.”
“I’m sorry if I sounded like I was making light of the situation earlier.” They looked at each other and something passed between them.
She smiled her kind smile, then arched her brow in that way that was beginning to make him smile.
“Please know I would never throw you to the wolf—or the wolves.”
They both laughed at this. It was nice how it lightened the mood.
“Well, then I’ll owe you big-time,” he said.
She shook her head. “You being in the auction is payment enough. But if you really feel beholden, what you can do is help me come up with the date package that we can say you’re offering.”
“Ah, the old fake prize package,” he said. He studied her for a moment as he tried to figure out what kind of date would appeal to a woman like Kate Macintyre. An elegant woman of class and style who seemed to have it all together... What would she like? Where would she like to go?
“Since you’ll be the recipient of this pretend date, where would you like to go? A weekend at a vineyard? An excursion on a private yacht?”
“Hold on there, sailor, you’re talking a little extravagant. You might want to rein it in a bit. Women are already lining up to bid on you.”
“No, we don’t want that,” he said.
He grinned and shook his head. He liked her quick wit and sharp sense of humor. She had an ease about her that helped him to not take himself so seriously and relax more than he’d been able to in a long time.
“What kind of bachelor auction dream-date package would you bid on?”
“My dream date would be a little more low-key. I’m not a froufrou kind of gal.”
“Really? No froufrou? You look like the kind of woman who would enjoy a nice night on the town.”
“At the risk of sounding completely boring, give me no-nonsense back-to-nature time, where I can enjoy some peace and quiet and the person I’m with. That’s my idea of a good day. Maybe throw in some wine or champagne. I could go for that.”
“Sounds perfect.”
“The only other thing besides the date write-up that I’ll need from you is a short bio with a photo for the program and publicity. I can send over a photographer to get the shot if you don’t have one.”
The last formal pic he’d had taken was a family portrait that Joy had arranged where the two of them and the girls were wearing jeans and white shirts. They were all barefoot, which he didn’t understand, but it was what Joy had wanted. They were in the Main Street Park and the bougainvillea had been flourishing that day, brimming over with hot pink blossoms. Joy had been so excited about the explosion of color that she had insisted they had to go right then, before the blooms were off the bushes. The thought made him smile to himself.
That was the thing about Joy; she’d always seized the moment. She didn’t put things off for another day.
Sadness eclipsed the smile in his heart. Had she somehow known on some mysterious, subconscious level that she had to get things done as fast as she could...because she wouldn’t have much time in this world?
“Are you okay?” Kate asked. “Seems like I lost you there for a minute. The picture? Do you have one we can use?”
He shrugged. “I’ll look, but the only pictures of myself that come to mind are the ones that scream family man. That definitely seems at odds with this cause.”
“I don’t know. Being a family man is a good quality. You don’t have to hide it.”
“The main photo I’m thinking of is a family portrait. Joy and the girls are in it with me. I guess I should clarify up front that I want to leave my daughters out of this and Joy, too, for that matter. I don’t want any mention of them in the bio or other auction material. Deal?”
“Absolutely. In fact, we’ll make your bio as bare-bones as possible to discourage the voting.”
He wished he could be as confident as she was.
She smiled. “Don’t worry, okay? This is going to turn out fine.”
It was strange, but the earnest look in her eyes gave him the spark of hope he had thought he would never feel again.
Chapter Five
When Liam walked up to check in at the nurses’ station to let the crew know he was back from lunch, Cullen Dunlevy was standing there reading over something. Liam had managed to avoid the man all morning. Good thing, too. If Cullen had jumped on him about the auction this morning before Liam had had a chance to meet with Kate, Liam would have been singing a completely different tune. Now he was armed and ready.
“Cullen,” Liam greeted his boss, as he walked past him to move the magnet on the master On Duty board hanging on the wall.
“Liam.” Cullen’s voice had an edge, and he wore a determined look that suggested he was in the mood to argue. “Have you given any more thought to what we talked about yesterday?”
Liam grimaced at a Win a Date with a Doctor flyer advertising the pediatric wing benefit; it was taped to the bottom of the in/out board. He was really going through with this stunt. Well, sort of. Thanks to Kate and her brilliance. The woman was not only beautiful, she was intelligent. And funny and compassionate.
She was racing against the clock to pull together all the pieces of this auction so it could take place in just a little over a week. Yet she had time to accommodate his special needs. He might’ve felt guilty if he hadn’t been so grateful to her.
As he slid the small black circle from the out square to the one that indicated he was in and back to work, Liam couldn’t resist the urge to yank Cullen’s chain a little. He wouldn’t give in to the guy that easily. “And which conversation would that be, Cullen?” He picked up a clipboard off the desk and started making notes, taking care to keep his eyes down and his voice dispassionate.
“The fund-raiser,” Cullen replied flatly.
“Fund-raiser?”
“Yes, the fund-raiser. You know what I’m talking about, Dr. Thayer.” The subtext was Don’t be an ass. “The bachelor auction that’s happening a week from tomorrow at the Regency Cypress Plantation.”
“Oh, that fund-raiser.” Liam turned and started walking away. “Yeah. I’m in,” he said over his shoulder.
“You are?” Cullen asked.
When Liam turned back around to revel in the look on his boss’s face, he saw that the two nurses behind the desk were gaping at them as if they were watching two players volley in the last game of a tennis match.
“Sure,” Liam returned. “Unless you’ve decided you don’t need me.”
“And were you going to inform me of this decision, or were you just going to surprise me and show up?”
“Sometimes surprises are a good thin
g, Dr. Dunlevy. Don’t knock them. They keep life interesting.”
Kate’s “clandestine bid” plan had surprised him. Thanks to her, he could “represent” his department—as Cullen had put it—without the pressures that came from the aftermath of the auction. What had once seemed like a very sharp thorn in his side was turning out to be an interesting exercise in “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” And he loved the way Kate’s mind worked. He appreciated the way she hadn’t gotten frustrated with him or simply written him off. Hell, he’d been such a pain in the ass that he would’ve written himself off.
He owed Kate much more than the five-thousand-dollar check he’d promised to write and deliver within the next couple days; apparently that was the going rate for auctioned bachelors.
Now he owed her a huge debt of gratitude for this stroke of genius. Or at least another lunch at Luigi’s...or perhaps dinner. But they’d cross that bridge when they came to it.
Right now he had patients to see, and Kate had left him with two assignments: he had to find a picture of himself for the website and program, and he had to come up with a description of the faux date he was offering. Something similar to the write-ups his colleagues had already penned and posted, detailing what they were offering.
What if the prize package he offered was a simple dinner for two? He appreciated Kate’s advice.
Don’t make the night out sound too exciting. The object is not to make yourself too tempting and irresistible. If you think you can manage that.
He liked her sense of humor, how she didn’t take herself too seriously. Even thinking about this made him smile as he started his afternoon rounds.
* * *
Kate’s phone rang at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. When she saw Liam’s name pop up on her cell phone’s caller ID, her heart lurched, and for a split second, her breath caught under her ribs.
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