“I love all you guys,” she said, getting into her car. “Now scoot!”
Thoughts and feelings careened through her mind during the short drive to the shelter. They had been directing her life behind the scenes, but for the right reasons. Loving reasons. They’d saved her from heartbreak, checking up on those men and discouraging them from showing up again. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know exactly how they’d accomplished that. Probably not.
It was both endearing and annoying as all get out.
Adopting Elmo—she’d have to call him that now—wasn’t the impulsive decision it seemed to be. She’d been thinking about it, pondering it. All the while, hoping Barrett would adopt him and show her that he could get over his dog and baby fears and make a commitment. The two-year study was the big obstacle. How could she convince him he couldn’t live without her and Elmo if he wasn’t around?
She couldn’t, she decided with a heavy heart as she pulled into the shelter’s parking lot. Having a baby on her own had seemed like a much better idea before she’d gone and fallen for Barrett.
As soon as she walked in, RJ waved her into his office. “Hey, I’m glad you came back. Coreen said you’d gone for the day.”
“I thought I had. What’s up?”
“I fired Naomi this morning.”
Stacy sank into the chair in front of his desk. “Why?”
“You know she hasn’t been doing a great job, but she had been better since I had a talk with her. The incident with the woman’s dogs this weekend was the final factor.”
“It wasn’t very nice of her to rent out Elmo’s cage just so the shelter could get a donation.”
“There’s more to it than that. According to the woman who boarded the dogs, Naomi got a little payoff herself. And that’s what I can’t tolerate. She admitted it after I accused her of taking the money. So…would you like the job? I can’t think of a better person for it.”
It was a good thing she was already sitting. “I’d…love it.”
“Great.” He glanced at the window behind her. “My fund-raiser is here for an appointment, so we’ll talk money and benefits tomorrow morning, okay?” He shook her hand. “I’d like to officially welcome you to the staff.”
Stacy was in a daze as she walked toward the door. A sense of foreboding made her turn and ask, “What was the lady’s name who boarded the dogs? Just so I know what to expect if she ever comes back.”
“Elvira Presley, can you believe it? And get this—she had three poodles named Blue, Suede and Shoes. And they were blue!”
Stacy forced a laugh before pushing herself to the lobby. Arlene had boarded her dogs, something she said she’d never do, to get rid of Naomi. Considering the way she adored those dogs, it was a big, big sacrifice. Arlene must have borrowed Killer and Teeny, two of the other residents’ dogs, as well. They were meddlesome, well-intentioned as they were. She’d have to take that up with RJ tomorrow when they had their meeting. Still, she couldn’t help the warm glow that flowed through her at the trouble they’d gone to. They adored her, she thought with a sigh.
Coreen was busy helping a woman fill out the paperwork to adopt a cat, so Stacy went to the dog area to get Elmo. Wouldn’t Coreen be surprised to see her adopting a dog? And it was about time, really. She could give Elmo a home and still spread her love to the other animals. She’d buy him a new bed first thing, and a bunch of toys, and—
The cage was empty.
She checked the name on the gate. It still read Elmo, but all his paperwork was gone. Whoever had adopted him had taken him right away. The pink Adopted! sign wasn’t even in place yet. She was happy he’d gotten a home so suddenly. Wasn’t she? Sure she was. If she had a baby coming, she’d be busy enough.
She said hello to each of the dogs before heading to the lobby, where Coreen was verifying that someone’s apartment allowed them to have a cat. RJ was in his meeting. She waved to Coreen and RJ and headed into the sunshine, wishing she could feel as cheery as the day felt.
That’s when she saw Barrett sitting in the passenger seat of her car. It was a mirage, of course, a manifestation of her overwhelming desire to see him there. She walked to her car and opened the door. The mirage remained, and in fact it added Elmo sitting in Barrett’s lap.
“Hi, Stacy.”
It even spoke! Visual and audio. Her imagination was more vivid than she’d ever given it credit for. When she slid into the driver’s seat, she could smell his aftershave. The breeze rustled through his blond hair, washing a bit of it over his forehead.
She held onto the steering wheel, took a deep breath and turned to him. “If you’re a figment of my imagination, stop teasing me and disappear already.”
“I’m not a figment.”
She touched his arm. He was real, all warm from the sun. She laughed. “I had to make sure. It’s just that I’ve been thinking about you a lot, and I thought I might have imagined you or something.”
“I’ve been thinking about you, too,” he said, leaning against the seat and resting his cheek against his hand.
She looked at Elmo, who was looking at her from Barrett’s lap. “You adopted him?”
“Yep.” He reached out and pushed a lock of her hair behind her ear. “I readjusted my life goal, too. You set a good example.”
Her heart jumped into overdrive, and she could hardly speak, “I did?”
“Yeah, except that you axed the husband part of your goal. I added a wife and family.”
“You did?” It came out as a squeak. “What about spreading your seed in the rain forest?”
He winced. “I wasn’t going to spread my seed—ah, never mind. It’s not important. I’m working on getting someone to take over the project. I might have to head down for a week or two to get things going, but I’ve already got some calls in. It’s a lucrative project. I won’t have any trouble finding someone to take it over.” He took her hand in his. “Will I have any trouble convincing the lady I’m in love with to re-readjust her life goal? Uhoh. I’m not boring you, am I? You’ve got that glazed look with your mouth hanging open—”
She rushed forward and kissed him. Elmo scooted out of the way just in time for her to land in Barrett’s lap. When she had thoroughly kissed him, she said, “Does that answer your question?”
“I believe so.”
At that moment, RJ and the fund-raiser walked out. RJ stopped when he saw her. Then he steered the woman away, muttering, “I’m going to have to have a talk with my new assistant director about showing gratitude toward people who adopt a pet from us.”
She and Barrett laughed, and he held her tight against him. She looked at him. “Did you say you were in love with me?”
“Well, I’m no expert on romance, you understand, but I believe so. In fact, there’s a ninety-nine percent chance that I adore you. I’m undoubtedly going to have to do more research—a lot more research—to be sure.”
Her voice sounded quivery when she said, “Would that include graphs and charts?”
He touched her lower lip. “No, that’d be boring. I’m talking fieldwork here—kissing, touching, holding hands, that kind of thing.”
“I’m pretty sure that I adore you, too. Shall we compare notes?”
“Good idea. When I’m around you, my heartbeat increases at least thirty percent. This phenomenon even happens when I’m just thinking about you.”
“Me, too. And I love kissing you. I could do that all day long.”
“Me, too. I notice a definite increase in dopamine and norepinephrine levels in my brain.”
She rolled her eyes. “Does that mean that when we’re together, you feel kind of high and dizzy and even a little bit giddy?”
“Exactly.” He shifted beneath her. “And then there’s the arousal factor.”
She could feel hard evidence of that. “Oh, yes, there’s definitely an arousal factor.”
“I think we should do a study on this.” At her raised eyebrow he added, “Just the two of us, working side by si
de, exploring all the various levels and feelings of arousal, romance.” He took her hand and turned her palm up. Then he ran the tip of his tongue across the surface. “I’m scientifically sure we’ll be experts in, say, about nine or so months.”
“Dr. Barrett Wheeler, I’m inclined to agree.”
Epilogue
One year later
AS IT TURNED OUT, they had a few extra months to get that study done. Stacy hadn’t gotten pregnant during that wild and crazy weekend. It was, in fact, on their wedding night three months later that they conceived. Two days ago she delivered a healthy baby girl, and today Barrett’s ladies had both come home.
Stacy was snuggled into the various pillows he had propped on the couch. Megan lay in the crook of his arms, sound asleep, her tiny hand clutching his finger. Elmo lay in Stacy’s lap, glad to have his mistress home again. The dog’s loyalties had shifted big-time when Stacy became pregnant. As though the dog knew she was in a special state, he had become her biggest fan.
“Looks just like her mother,” Barrett’s sister, Kim, said, gazing at the baby.
Nita shook her head. “No, I think she looks like Barrett. Look at her hair, thick and blond.”
Ernie said, “I think she looks like a prune.”
“Ernie!” several of the women in the living room said, but only gave the man a second’s worth of attention before turning back to the baby.
Stacy looked tired, but never more beautiful. Barrett wanted all these people out of there so he could spend some quiet time alone with his wife and daughter. It was a brief, selfish thought that vanished as quickly as it had come. After all, these people were his family. He’d have her to himself soon enough. Well, not quite soon enough, but soon.
She took in her husband and her baby and gave him a glowing smile, renewing that selfish thought. “I think she looks like both of us.”
He had arranged for a month off between the projects he was working on at the University of Miami. Interesting that, since falling in love with Stacy, he didn’t feel the restlessness or the need to keep going from project to project. He was happy staying right there in Sunset City. Happy working in one place. Very, very happy with Stacy.
Oh, they’d talked about moving to his condominium—no yard for the kid—or buying another place, but the Sunset folks wouldn’t hear of it. Since they liked to take credit for their part in getting Stacy and Barrett together, by golly, they wanted to be close by so they could gloat. So they’d stayed in the condominium while renovating Stacy’s house by adding a second floor for their bedroom, the nursery and a playroom. The baby and the house had been nearly done at the same time.
Megan shifted, yawned and settled back into sleep. Her tiny pink mouth was puckered like a cupid’s bow. Maybe he didn’t see angels in clouds, but he sure saw an angel in his daughter.
“I want one,” Ricky whined, leaning over to stroke the baby’s arm.
“Your time will come,” Arlene said, patting his arm. “You and Tanya seem to be getting along just fine.”
Ricky smiled. “Yeah, we are. Thanks for the intro.”
“Just behave yourself, you hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Ricky sounded so contrite, everyone laughed. Barrett was grateful that Ricky had never parted with Stacy’s intention to get a sperm donor. Turned out he wasn’t such a bad guy after all.
“Good thing you got over your fear of babies,” Arlene said to Barrett with a nod. “That’d be darn inconvenient, wouldn’t you think?”
Stacy said, “He’s been practicing with his sister’s babies.”
Gene and Judy scooted close to them. “All this because we took that cruise, Gene,” she said. “Best cruise we ever took.”
Barrett couldn’t imagine them not taking that cruise, not letting him use their place next door, him not meeting Stacy. “I’m going to send you two on another one in thanks.”
Kim said, “Hey, I want a cruise, too! If our pipes hadn’t burst, you wouldn’t have stayed here.”
“Okay, I’ll send your pipes on a cruise,” Barrett said.
Kim made a shocked sound. “Barrett made a funny. Oh, my, gosh, I can’t believe it.”
Barrett winced. “I’ll send you on a cruise if you’ll stop teasing me.”
“That’s a deal.”
She sat next to Stacy. “Maybe in a couple of years, we can all go on one together. If we could only find babysitters…”
“Me!”
“I’ll do it!”
“We can do it!” A chorus of offers filled the room.
Barrett pulled Stacy toward him and started rubbing her neck. What she had done, delivering his baby girl, still filled him with such awe, he couldn’t even put it into words. But he’d work on that. For now, he couldn’t stop touching Stacy, couldn’t keep his eyes off her.
Kim said, “Barrett, I don’t think you knew this, but Dad came by the hospital this morning. He was looking at Megan through the nursery window, just looking at her. He didn’t stay long. But you know, he actually said hello to me when I walked up to him. I said, ‘Congratulations, Grandpop.”’
“What did he say?”
“He smiled. Maybe he’s coming around. He even said a whole sentence worth of words to Mom before she left. I think she’s going to settle in Miami for a while. Said she missed us, missed her grandkids. She seems happy at her new job at the restaurant. Barrett, remember how she and Dad danced together at your wedding? Maybe there’s hope for them, too.”
Arlene whispered, “Look, Stacy’s asleep. Let’s leave the little family alone for a bit, shall we?”
Barrett sighed in relief, but thanked everyone for coming by. They all filed out silently, but he didn’t even see the last of them leave. He was watching his wife sleep, her head tucked against his chest. He was content to sit there for the rest of the night and watch her. Or maybe he’d carry her upstairs to the renovated bedroom and connected nursery. He could put Megan in her bassinet, lay Stacy on the bed and watch her there.
Except she wasn’t asleep. She opened one eye, then the other. “Are they gone?”
“You faked?”
She nodded, a wicked grin on her face. “I just wanted to be alone with my hubby. Can you blame me?”
“No way.”
She looked at the baby, sound asleep and not even near to faking it. “We could put her to bed and do some interesting things to your body. You’ve been kind of neglected these past couple of months.”
He gathered Megan and stood, then helped Stacy to her feet. “Interesting like Tater Tot casserole interesting?”
“Oh, much more interesting than that.”
Winging It
Candy Halliday
“I was here first!” “No, you weren’t, I was!”
The shrill female voices echoing down the hallway brought Mackenzie to a dead stop. “Now, ladies, let’s be rational about this,” a familiar voice pleaded. Mackenzie realized there was no way she could avoid the quarrelsome trio. She pretended to ignore them as she searched for her keys.
A buxom blonde was facing off with a leggy redhead, and blocking the doorway like a sentry on duty was Alec, his hair damp and his bare chest glistening from his interrupted shower. Mackenzie’s eyes dropped to the towel he was clutching tightly around his waist, then back to the panicked look on his handsome face.
“Ladies,” Alec lied confidently, “I really appreciate your thoughtfulness, but I already have a date tonight. Right, Mackenzie?”
Oh no, you don’t, not this time, Mackenzie decided. “Gee, Alec, our date’s for tomorrow, remember?” She sent him a sweet smile just as Alec lost his grip on the towel.
Mackenzie gasped and quickly scurried into her condo. She stood listening to the voices, and tried to convince herself the incredible specimen of manhood she had just seen hadn’t affected her in the least.
Dear Reader,
I’ve often thought of love as a wild roller-coaster ride. It can have you flying high one minute, only to
plunge you downward when you hit the first curve. It can make you laugh and scream and sick to your stomach all at the same time. Love can also make a liar out of you. I should know—it made one of me. I vowed I’d never get involved with a man like my father, who traveled for a living. The man for me would be a man who wanted to put down roots, who wanted a normal life and the standard thirty-year mortgage. Yet what did I do? I married a man with the same wanderlust my father had, who has kept me on the move for most of our married life.
In Winging It, my heroine, Mackenzie Malone, makes a similar vow about the type of man she’ll never get involved with. A man like her father. Sound familiar? A man who is too handsome for his own good and who has women falling at his feet from every direction. I feel rather guilty for not warning Mackenzie that the word never just loves to sneak up behind you and bite you directly on the hiney. Of course, she soon learns that lesson for herself when Alec Southerland, a handsome pilot with a faithful troop of female admirers, moves directly across the hall from Mackenzie and enlightens her to the fact that despite your best laid plans, the heart usually has a mind of its own.
Hope you enjoy,
Candy Halliday
Books by Candy Halliday
HARLEQUIN DUETS
58—LADY AND THE SCAMP
I give special thanks to my talented agent, Jenny Bent, for being my guardian angel, and to my gifted editor, Susan Pezzack, for bringing out the best in me.
This book is for Blue, my real-life hero in every sense of the word.
1
“SEX ON THE BEACH?”
Mackenzie Malone looked down at the mysterious drink her best friend and business partner, Angie Crane, placed before her. “I hope you’re referring to this blue concoction with the paper umbrella.”
Driven to Distraction & Winging It Page 16