Stepping out of his car, he thumbed the button to lock the doors and set the alarm, then headed for the sidewalk.
He hated to admit it, but his plan had been to take Annabel someplace outside of Thunder Canyon where the walls didn’t have ears and the gossip didn’t travel at the speed of light.
Things at the hospital were finally quieting down, but to be seen together here tonight… Who knew what kind of rumors would fly?
Asking her out in the first place had been crazy enough. Agreeing to meet her here? That he blamed squarely on the fact she’d surprised him by not being angry at being stood up.
And the fact he wanted to see her again as soon as possible.
He started for the front door then realized the place was completely dark.
Geez, how late was it?
He glanced at his watch and then noticed the sign stuck in the front window. Closed for Renovation. What the heck was going on—
“Hey there!”
He turned and found Annabel standing on the corner, cradling two large paper bags in her arms. She was dressed casually in jeans and a distressed leather jacket, her hair in loose golden waves.
Thomas again felt that familiar zing at the sight of her. “Hey, yourself. Looks like this place is shut down.”
“Oh, I knew it was closed. At least temporarily. My uncle Frank and my cousin Matt have been overseeing the renovation for Jason Traub and his new wife, Joss, who are the new owners. I only named it as a meeting place.”
Meeting place for what? He must be more tired that he thought. “What’s with the paper sacks?”
“Dinner!” Annabel beamed. “A care package chock-full of ribs, chicken and steak fries from DJ’s Rib Shack. Come on, I’ve got the perfect place for us to eat.”
He joined her, not knowing what smelled better, the food or that sexy floral scent he’d noticed the first time they met.
“Here, let me take those,” he offered.
Annabel handed over one of her parcels. The heat from the cooked food warmed his hands. They headed up the street and Thomas was curious as to where they were going. His first thought had been her place, but she’d given him an address that was on the southeast side of town.
At the end of the next block she crossed the street and walked toward a large two-story stone building.
“The Thunder Canyon Library?” He read the sign as they walked past the front steps. “We’re eating here?”
“My second favorite place in town.”
“Pardon my ignorance, but isn’t it closed, too?”
“Don’t worry. I have a key.” Annabel smiled and led him around the corner to a tall wooden fence. He followed her directions to open the gate. “Latch that behind us, okay?”
Thomas did as she asked and they entered a shadowed courtyard. Thanks to a full moon, he could see a grassy area to one side with trees and benches and a wooden jungle gym on the other. Straight ahead was a wall of glass doors covered with blinds.
“This is the back way into the children’s section. Don’t worry, a security light should come on—” A bright spotlight shined down on them, illuminating the area. “And there it is. Come on, this way.”
Annabel punched a code into a hidden keypad and pushed open the closest door. She held the blinds to one side and Thomas followed her, watching as she then did the same thing with another keypad on an inside wall. “The outside light will go off in a few minutes.”
“Are you sure it’s okay for us to be here?”
“What’s the matter, doc?” She turned, that same saucy smile on her face. “Haven’t you ever broken a few rules?”
Yeah, an unwritten one about dating a coworker’s ex-wife.
Not good, especially when he found out the lady hadn’t yet told her husband she’d filed for divorce. The fact that the man had been a senior surgeon while Thomas was fresh out of his residency only added to the mess.
“It’s not something I make a habit of.”
“Well, you’re not doing it now, either. This is my domain, remember? I’m allowed to be here anytime I want and I often work after hours.” Annabel hit a light switch, bathing the large room in a soft glow. “Ah, almost like candlelight. No need to go with all the lights just for dinner.”
It wasn’t the intimate setting like a private corner booth at Antonio’s, but Thomas had to admit it was close.
“This used to be a storage area before I took it over three years ago,” Annabel continued. “I had the place completely gutted and rebuilt from the ground up, including the wall of glass to the outside area. Now the kids have a place to come where they don’t have to be quiet like upstairs. Well, not as quiet.”
Thomas looked around, taking in the floor-to-ceiling bookcases, the scattered tables and chairs, most sized for patrons under four feet tall, as well as several large pillows, comfy armchairs and knit rugs covered hardwood floors.
Posters of children’s authors and book covers decorated the walls. A curved wooden desk that must be original to the building stood against one wall, and above it hung a framed headshot of a grinning golden retriever that had to be Annabel’s dog, with a placard that read Honorary Mascot.
“Come on, grab a piece of floor.”
He turned to find Annabel kneeling at a child-size table, removing a couple of water bottles from the paper bag. She paused to peel off her jacket, revealing a faded Johnny Cash 1967 concert T-shirt that hugged her curves in all the right places.
Thomas had to swallow the lump in his throat before he asked, “You plan on eating right here?”
“Of course.” She pushed aside a couple of miniature chairs and grabbed two large character-decorated pillows. “Here, you can have Dr. Seuss, in honor of your profession. I’ll take Winnie-the-Pooh.”
Shaking his head, he joined her on the carpet, their hips bumping as they worked to empty the bags of their dinner. Thomas edged away, determined to keep this night light and easy. “So, how did you become a librarian?”
“Freshman-year biology.”
That got his attention. “Excuse me?”
Annabel opened one of the containers and the spicy tang of barbecue filled the air. “As a kid I was always the one bringing home stray cats or injured birds. I even stole a horse from a rancher who was using inhumane training techniques on the poor animal. My family thought I’d grow up to be a veterinarian or maybe even a doctor. But when I got to high school and was told I had to dissect a defenseless little frog…” Her voice trailed off as she shuddered. “I just couldn’t do it.”
Thomas grinned. “You do know the frog was already dead, right?”
“Yes, I knew that, but I still didn’t understand why we couldn’t learn what we needed without killing…cutting—anyway, I organized a protest which pretty much ended my science career. So I got my bachelor’s degree in English from San Jose State University, stayed on to get my master’s in Library Sciences and here I am.”
He was surprised to hear she’d gone to school out of state. “You went to college in California?”
“With the size of my family a full scholarship made it an easy decision.” Annabel filled two plates with ribs, chicken and fries. “I loved it. The bay area is so beautiful.”
“And yet you came back here afterward?”
“Of course, Thunder Canyon is my home.” She pushed a plate in his direction. “This smells heavenly! Let’s eat!”
It was a far cry from the refined dinner he’d originally envisioned, but the food was terrific. They ate picnic style with Thomas trying his best to work with the plastic silverware and keep his meal out of his lap.
“You know, messy is the only way to go.” Annabel took a barbecued chicken leg in her fingers and attacked it with a large bite. “Mmm, so good.”
Thomas smiled. Her lack of pretense impresse
d him. Most of the women he’d dated seemed to refrain from eating altogether. Annabel approached her meal the same way she approached the rest of her life—with gusto.
Messy gusto.
“And you do know the caveman method to dining will always result in more sauce on your face and hands than in your mouth, right?” Thomas asked, then smiled even wider at the exaggerated indignation on her face. “You’ve got a large dollop on your cheek.”
His breath caught the moment her tongue snaked out, trying to capture the evidence. It should look comical, but Thomas was captivated. “Ah, other side.”
She repeated the motion, but still missed.
“Here, let me help…”
He leaned closer, brushing at the side of her mouth with his thumb the same moment Annabel tried again, and was stunned when the quick lick against his skin sent shock waves through his body.
Her blue eyes widened and he couldn’t stop himself from dragging the moist digit over her full bottom lip.
Three dates in the past two years, longer than that since he’d even wanted to feel a woman’s mouth beneath his, but right here, right now, there was nothing Thomas wanted more in the world than to kiss Annabel.
And damn the consequences.
Chapter Four
For the second time in two days, Dr. Thomas North had left her utterly speechless. Breathless, too. Heck, the only way Annabel knew she was alive was the hot flush burning across her skin and the way her heart was about to jump out of her chest.
Then again, her heart had been rocking and rolling to its own crazy beat from the moment he’d agreed to her spontaneous dinner invitation earlier tonight.
Less than an hour ago, she’d skidded to a stop in her favorite black ballet flats as he’d eased out of his shiny sports car, looking relaxed despite hours spent in surgery, and especially yummy.
His white dress shirt and khaki pants were still fresh and polished. The only concession to his long day were the shirtsleeves folded halfway to his elbows. Even the loafers on his feet gleamed in the streetlights.
She’d used the few moments it’d taken him to notice The Hitching Post was closed to reassure herself that her idea of a take-out meal at her home away from home was a good idea.
Especially after he’d joined her and she’d seen the deep lines of fatigue bracketing his eyes.
Now, however, those icy blue eyes were bright and alive, the exhaustion replaced with longing as they stayed locked on her mouth. The heavenly back and forth friction of his thumb against her bottom lip had her wondering just how amazing it would be to kiss this man.
Should she or shouldn’t she?
Despite her flirty and confident attitude, Annabel had no idea how Thomas would react if she threw caution to the wind, closed the short distance between them and pressed her mouth to his.
The barest taste of him lingering on her tongue from where she’d licked his thumb wasn’t nearly enough. She wanted more. Did he? The way he continued to touch her, his fingers brushing her neck—
“I’m sorry.” Thomas jerked his hand away. Grabbing a napkin, he thrust it at her while managing to effectively put space between them without moving an inch. “That was— I’m sorry.”
“No need to apologize.” Annabel wiped her mouth, dropping her gaze to the alphabet-patterned rug. Was he sorry about touching her? Almost kissing her? Not wanting to know, she purposely misunderstood his regret. “Messy eating and barbecue go hand in hand, I guess.”
“No, I mean I’m sorry about tonight. This isn’t exactly the meal I had planned when I asked you to dinner.”
“Plans change.” Annabel put the chicken leg back on her plate while offering what she hoped was a casual shrug of one shoulder. “Besides, sometimes the best things happen when we least expect it.”
“Maybe so, but I’m the kind of guy who likes to have everything fall neatly into place.”
That didn’t surprise her. He seemed the type who liked to have every i dotted and t crossed, as her father often said.
Her?
Not so much. Most of Annabel’s life had been a crazy, mixed-up mess of spontaneous opportunities and gut decisions that either worked out better than she hoped or provided a much-needed life lesson.
Hoping for the former, she decided to steer the conversation to a safer topic. “I guess your surgery today didn’t go as planned either, huh?”
“No, that was another surprise.” He took a long draw on his water. “What should’ve been a simple lumbar spinal fusion went totally out of whack when we discovered more damage to the spinal cord than we originally believed. Then the allograft was rejected even though a positive match had been achieved beforehand, resulting in us having to take bone from the patient’s pelvis—”
Thomas suddenly stopped speaking, the self-conscious grin on his face making his chiseled cheekbones even more pronounced. “I’m sorry. Again.” He braced an arm on a bent knee and waved his hand in the air as if to erase his words. “I tend to get carried away when I talk about work.”
The change in him was amazing. He’d grown relaxed and animated at the same time. “Oh, please, tell me more.” Annabel tucked her legs to one side. “I think it’s fascinating.”
He did as she asked, going into great detail about the remarkable work he and his surgical team had accomplished today and the more he talked, the more those amazing dimples appeared. Most of the technical stuff went right over her head, but it was fun to listen anyways.
“I’m guessing you didn’t have any problem with slicing and dicing back in high school?” Annabel asked.
Thomas’s featured softened. “Never even hesitated.”
“So how did you end up here in our little corner of paradise?”
“Thunder Canyon is my home, too.”
Now that surprised her. She guessed him to be in his early thirties, which would’ve put him a few years ahead of her in school, but she found it hard to believe someone as good-looking as Thomas had missed being caught on the radar of her older sisters. “Really?”
“Born and raised. Well, born anyway. I started attending private schools when I was around ten. After that it was summer camps or trips abroad until I went to college at seventeen.”
“Considering who I’m talking to, I’m going to assume you skipped a year or two in high school and not the more common late-year birthday?”
“I completed high school, college and med school in nine years. Most people take the standard twelve.”
Wow, she was impressed. “So did you follow the family business?”
“No, my parents are lawyers. They have a law firm here in town.” He looked away, but not before she saw a muscle jump in his cheek. “They probably expected their only child to follow in their footsteps, but I’ve known what I wanted to do with my life since I was seven years old.”
“That young? I was still undecided between being a princess or the presidency.” Annabel read the seriousness in his gaze when he turned back to her. “What happened to create such a deep conviction?”
“My grandfather lost both his legs in a car accident that year.” Thomas paused, pressing his lips into a hard line. When he continued his voice held a quiet intensity. “He changed after that. Sank into a deep depression that as a little boy I didn’t understand. Even though Grandpa Joe lived almost another twenty years, he was never the same man I knew and loved.”
A warm, protective feeling came over her. She blinked hard to erase the stinging in her eyes. “Oh, Thomas.”
“I remember telling my parents if I was a doctor I could have saved my grandfather’s legs. After that, there wasn’t any question about what I planned to do with my life.”
“And from what I’ve heard, you do your job very well.”
His gaze flew back to hers. “What you’ve heard?”
> “From you. Tonight. When you talked about that surgery I could tell how much you love your work and how good you are.”
“Ah, yeah…thanks.” Thomas glanced at his watch. “Wow, look at the time. It’s almost midnight.”
Okay, she could take a hint. “And you’ve been at the hospital since before dawn.”
One brow arched in inquiry.
“You know what a small town Thunder Canyon is.” Annabel shrugged and started to clear up the remains of their meal. “I’ve heard your name bantered about. Nothing but good things, of course. Like your tendency to work very long days.”
“Yes, well, I’ve heard a few things about you, too.” He joined her, collecting the empty containers. “You and your dog are a popular topic at the hospital.”
“It’s all Smiley. He makes an impression everywhere he goes.”
“How did you two get involved in that line of volunteer work?”
“I had a guest speaker here at the library earlier this year who spoke about the special work dogs do, from assistance for the blind and physically challenged to the therapy dog program. I knew right then my sweet little bundle of fur would be great at it.”
“That dog isn’t so little.”
Annabel laughed and headed for her desk. She was glad they were talking about Smiley. Until now she hadn’t even thought about her plan to use this time to persuade Thomas to give the go-ahead for her idea. “But he is sweet, gentle and kind. He also instinctively knows when someone is in pain or needs a good dose of unconditional love.”
“What my patients need is excellent health care, which comes from scientifically proven methods and top-of-the-line medicines.”
“I agree.” She ducked behind her desk and, hidden from his view for the moment, stuck out her tongue at his lofty tone. Not mature, but it felt good just the same. “But sometimes they need someone who will listen when they talk and love them without expectations.”
“Annabel, I don’t want you to think I’m a total jerk—”
“I don’t think that.” Rising, she found Thomas standing in the middle of the room, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. He should’ve looked out of place, surrounded by miniature furniture and bright colors, but his serious expression made her want to bring back the relaxed one from earlier. “Not totally. At least not yet.”
Puppy Love in Thunder Canyon Page 4