“Higher than I can reach,” she answered.
Taking the decoration from her, he reached up to the branch that she’d obviously targeted and easily hung the ornament on it.
“That looks very nice,” she told him, somewhat surprised that he had willingly volunteered to help.
“I wasn’t exactly performing brain surgery.”
“No,” she agreed. “You were performing a service.” And then she grinned as she held out another ornament. “You up for another one?”
“Yeah, sure. Why not,” he said carelessly, taking the decoration from her and hanging it on the next branch over. Turning to face her, he saw the huge smile on Miranda’s face. “You’re grinning like a little kid,” he pointed out.
“Why shouldn’t I?” she asked. “I’ve just witnessed a Christmas miracle.”
Colin snorted. “Let’s not get carried away here.”
Her smile only grew; he didn’t think that was possible, but it obviously was.
“Getting carried away is fun,” she told him. “You should try it sometime.”
The thought of doing just that—of getting carried away—popped into his head out of nowhere. It had nothing to do with hanging up decorations or anything even remotely along those lines. In his case getting carried away involved the sudden desire to find out what those smiling lips tasted like.
The thought zipped through his brain like a lightning bolt, daring him to follow through.
Okay, time to go, Colin thought sternly. He didn’t know where that thought had come from, but he wasn’t about to stick around and risk acting on it.
Turning his back on the tree and the miscellaneous ornaments that still needed to be hung up, he said, “Thanks for the beer—again.”
Miranda looked at him in surprise. “You’re leaving?”
“Yeah, I shouldn’t have stayed this long,” he told her. “I just wanted to find out how the kid’s mother was doing.”
They both knew that was just an excuse, but Miranda nodded as if she wholeheartedly believed what he was saying.
“Thanks for coming by,” she said, walking alongside him to the door.
Colin stopped in his tracks. He didn’t need an escort. Putting space between himself and the woman was the whole point of his leaving.
“I know my way out,” he protested.
“I know that,” Miranda answered.
Her tone of voice was friendly but firm, as if to let him know that she wanted to walk him to the door and wasn’t about to be talked out of it.
As they approached the front door, Miranda began to broach another subject. “Since you’re being in such a generous mood...”
Instantly on his guard, Colin looked at her warily. The woman seemed to know just how to get to him. He knew coming here had been a mistake on his part.
“Yeah?”
“The kids at the hospital would still love to see you,” she told him.
“You just never give up, do you?”
Rather than be insulted or put off by his sharp tone and his question, she smiled as if she’d thought over what he’d asked. “What’s the fun in that?”
He scowled. Maybe she thought of this as fun, but he certainly didn’t.
He answered her seriously—and hopefully, once and for all. “I can’t come to the hospital. We work the same hours.”
“That’s okay, I’ll wait,” she answered breezily. “Just tell me what time you can get there.”
“Not until my shift is over,” he snapped. “By then you’re on your way to one or the other of those two shelters where you volunteer.” And that was that.
The next moment, he realized that he really should have known better.
“You know, the good thing about volunteering,” Miranda told him cheerfully, “is that it’s extremely flexible. There are no hard-and-fast hours for me to maintain.”
Colin read between the lines. “I can’t get out of this easily, can I?”
“You can.” She certainly couldn’t force him to come to the hospital. If nothing else, the man was a lot bigger than she was. “But between you and me, I don’t think you really want to.”
“So you’ve added mind reading to your list of talents, is that it?” he asked.
“No, no mind reading,” she answered. “But as I said before, I can read people pretty well, and despite your bluster and your ‘Big Bad Wolf’ attitude, I think you’re a good guy under all that.”
Colin laughed wryly. “I guess it’s a good thing you’re not trying to earn your money as a mind reader. You’d wind up starving to death.”
Her eyes met his—and then she gave him that soul-melting smile of hers. “So then it’s a yes?” she asked innocently.
Every fiber of his being was geared up to shout “no” at her, that he wasn’t about to be corralled or bullied into agreeing to turn up at a hospital ward like some sort of living, breathing show-and-tell object. He had absolutely nothing to say to one kid, much less an entire ward full of them.
But she was looking up at him with those eyes of hers, those eyes that despite all his attempts to shut them out seemed to get past all his safeguards and burrow right into him, giving him no peace.
“We’ll see,” he finally growled.
Miranda caught her lower lip between her teeth as if debating what to say next. “So that’s a yes?” she asked again.
“No,” Colin corrected, holding his ground. “That’s a ‘we’ll see.’”
“Almost as good,” she told him with more enthusiasm than he felt the phrase merited. The woman was incredible. She found optimism where absolutely none existed.
The next moment, she joyfully told him, “Thank you!”
With one hand on his arm to steady herself, Miranda rose up on her toes to kiss his cheek in gratitude.
That was the exact moment he turned his head to tell her that he hadn’t done anything yet and most likely would not.
He never got the chance to say it, because when he turned his head, her lips made direct contact with his.
And just like that, an unexpected, harmless kiss on the cheek turned into something else.
It turned into an actual kiss, and what had started out as fleeting evolved into a great deal more.
Surprised, Miranda began to pull back, but then paused as their contact blossomed into something far more intense than just a kiss between friends.
Before she knew it, Miranda had her arms around his neck and he had his wrapped around her waist, drawing her closer as the kiss deepened.
He was making her breathless, which in turn was making her head spin.
What was going on here?
And how did she get it to continue?
Chapter Eleven
Colin had no idea what came over him. He had never been one of those men who would size up a woman, biding his time until he could seduce her. It wasn’t that he was immune to attractive women. He just felt maintaining any sort of a relationship with one was too complicated, and one-night stands could prove to be troublesome.
He found it easier just to steer clear.
But there was something incredibly compelling about this particular woman that just reeled him in. There was no other explanation as to why he’d sought her out tonight when he didn’t have to.
And why else was he even considering showing up at that hospital ward of hers? He’d never thought of himself as someone to take up causes or go that extra mile. Yes, he’d been in the Marines, and yes, he’d become a police officer, but neither had come about out of some compulsive need to help his fellow man. He’d joined the Marines and later the police force because it just seemed like the thing to do at the time. The situations suited him; it was as simple as that.
But although Miranda Steele presented her
self as straightforward, there was nothing simple about this woman. And right now, he had an uneasy feeling he was in way over his head. Though he wasn’t someone who was ruled by desire, Colin had a feeling there would be no turning back for him if he stayed here a minute longer. And he wasn’t all that certain that the road ahead was one he should be venturing onto.
The sound of Lola barking in the background was what finally broke apart the moment—and forced him back to his senses.
Taking a step away from her, he looked at Miranda. Her lipstick was blurred from the imprint of his lips and she looked as dazed as he felt.
He was shaken up inside and it was a struggle not to show it. “Did you do that so that I’d come down to your children’s ward?”
That hurt, Miranda thought. Did he really believe she was that kind of person? The kind who physically manipulated people?
“No,” she answered, her voice low as she tried to collect herself. “I was just trying to kiss your cheek. You were the one who turned his head.”
His expression remained stoic and unyielding. “So you’re not trying to seduce me into seeing things your way?”
“No, I’m not,” Miranda cried, stunned. The moment had shattered and what had seemed so wonderful a second ago no longer was. “Forget I asked you,” she told him stiffly.
Damn it, those were tears filling her eyes. He hadn’t meant for any of that to happen. He wasn’t accustomed to dealing with a woman who didn’t have some ulterior motive—except for his aunt.
Hell, he wasn’t really used to dealing with women at all, Colin thought, feeling helpless and annoyed at the same time.
Unable to find the right words to express his regret for having hurt her, he marched to the front door, opened it and stepped outside.
He heard the door close behind him. Heard the lock being flipped into place. For just a split second, he considered turning around and knocking on the panel, to apologize.
But words didn’t come to him now any more than they had before.
If he tried to say anything, he’d only make things worse, he knew. Communication was not his forte, so instead he walked away.
* * *
Numb, confused, Miranda wiped away the tears sliding down her cheeks with the back of her hand. She wasn’t all that sure what had just happened here. All she knew was that Colin had taken off like a man who had been ambushed and then suddenly given the chance for a clean getaway.
She heard a car starting up and then taking off.
His car.
She didn’t understand. He had given off mixed signals. Why had he bothered coming over in the first place?
Turning away from the door, she sighed. “I really do wish I was a mind reader, Colin. Then maybe I could understand what’s going on here.”
She realized that she was absently running her fingertips along her lips. She could almost swear she could still feel his lips against hers.
Taste his lips against hers.
She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to focus her brain. She’d never been the type to let a guy throw her, or mess with her mind. But she’d never felt what she had felt this evening when he’d kissed her.
“C’mon, Miranda, this isn’t like you. Get a grip.” Opening her eyes, she saw that Lola was looking at her as if she understood what was going on here.
“You’re right, Lola. I don’t have time to waste like this. We have a tree to decorate and we don’t need anybody’s help, right, girl?”
Lola yipped, making her laugh.
“Of course right. So let’s get started. I’ll hang, you supervise. Deal?”
Lola barked again.
“Deal,” Miranda agreed, grinning.
With that, she went to the garage to get the ladder she was going to need in order to reach the higher branches.
* * *
Colin did his best to talk himself out of it and he succeeded.
For a day.
But the following day, he did something he had never done before. He called in and told his sergeant that he was taking half of one of his many accumulated vacation days.
The man sounded rather surprised. “Just a half day?”
“That’s all,” Colin answered.
If he took the whole day, he knew he’d wind up getting roped into spending the entire time visiting sick kids—kids who didn’t have the odds in their favor. He didn’t like admitting that he wasn’t strong enough to face something like that for more than a short amount of time.
It was obvious that Miranda was made of stronger stuff than he was, which was why he was going to the oncology ward as she’d wanted him to. He owed her an apology for the way he’d behaved the other night, and this was the only way he knew how to apologize.
He was probably going to regret this, Colin thought, not for the first time. But if nothing else, he was a man who always paid his debts. It was part of his code.
* * *
Miranda peered into one of the few private rooms that were located on the floor. Jason Greeley still appeared to be asleep. His mom had been here with the little boy all night. But the single mother had to go to work, so had left an hour ago. Since then Miranda had been checking on the five-year-old every few minutes. She didn’t want him waking up by himself.
Moving closer to the boy, she adjusted his covers. “You usually don’t sleep this long after a treatment, Jason,” she said, deliberately sounding cheerful. Cheer begot cheer, in her opinion. “Don’t turn lazy on me now. Your mama was here all night. She hates leaving you, but she had to go to work. But don’t worry, she’ll be back soon. And I’ll be here all day until she gets here,” Miranda promised.
The boy stirred a little, but didn’t open his eyes. His even breathing told her that he was still sleeping.
Miranda went on talking as if he could hear every word she said. “I’ve got cherry Jell-O waiting for you the second you open your eyes. You told me that was your favorite, so I made sure there’s plenty. All you have to do to get some is open your eyes. C’mon, baby, it’s not that hard.”
When he didn’t, Miranda sighed. “Okay, play hard to get. But you’re going to have to open them sometime. No sense in letting all that cherry Jell-O go to waste, you know.”
“How do you do it? How do you deal with this without falling apart?”
Startled, pressing one hand against her chest to contain the heart that had all but leaped out, nearly cracking her rib cage, she swung around to see Colin, all 6’2” and broad-shouldered, standing just inside the room. He was wearing his police uniform.
It took her a second to find her voice. “What are you doing here?”
“I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d drop by,” he quipped. And then his voice lowered. “Besides, I figured after the other evening, I kind of owed it to you.”
She wasn’t sure if he was referring to the kiss they’d shared or his walking out on her, but felt it best not to pursue the question. He was here, and right now, that was all that mattered.
“You don’t owe me anything,” she told him. “But these kids will get a big kick out of seeing a real police officer.” And then she glanced at her watch. It was early. “Speaking of which, aren’t you supposed to be out there, handing out tickets right now?”
“I took half a vacation day.” He expected her to ask him why he hadn’t taken a full day, followed by a whole bunch of other questions. Instead she just smiled at him, looking pleased.
“That’s great,” she enthused. “But if you’re only here for a little while, we’ll have to make the most of it.”
He wasn’t sure exactly what she had in mind, but he’d come to expect the unexpected with Miranda. “And exactly how are we going to do that?”
Her mind was already racing. “We’ve got a big recreation room where the kids pla
y games and where we hold their birthday parties. Right now, it’s where we put up the ward’s Christmas tree.”
“But all the kids aren’t—”
She knew what he was going to say—that there were more holidays than just Christmas this season. She answered his question before he had a chance to voice it. “That’s all right. All kids like bright lights and presents. It helps to cheer them up a little.”
“And feel normal?” he guessed. That had to be what she was shooting for.
“They are normal,” Miranda told him calmly. She had to make him understand. “They just have more than their share of health issues, but you’d be surprised how they bear up to that. It makes me ashamed when I let everyday, mundane problems overwhelm me.”
“You? Overwhelmed?” he asked, teasing her. “I don’t believe it. Joan of Arc would probably see you as a role model.”
That was his idea of a joke, she realized. Her smile widened.
“Mama?” Jason opened his eyes and looked around the room, disoriented, obviously expecting to see his mother there instead of his nurse and a strange policeman.
“Hey, I didn’t mean to wake him up.” Colin looked contrite as he addressed Miranda. “I’m sorry,” he murmured.
She put her hand on his arm to keep him from leaving. “No, this is a good thing,” she assured him. “We were waiting for him to wake up.” She turned her attention back to the boy. “Jason, guess what? Remember that police officer I told you about?”
“The one who wouldn’t give you a ticket,” Jason answered. “I remember.”
“That’s right, he didn’t give me a ticket,” she repeated, raising her eyes to Colin’s for a moment before shifting them back to the boy. Colin looked surprised. “Well, this is him—and he’s here to visit,” Miranda announced.
“Cool,” the little boy said, with as much enthusiasm as he was able to muster, given that he was still trying to come around. Shifting in his bed, he looked to Miranda for help. “I want to sit up.”
Colin was about to press a button on the remote control attached to the guardrail on the boy’s bed when he saw Miranda slowly shake her head at him.
Christmastime Courtship Page 10