Not This Guy!

by Glenda Sanders

  Angelina shrugged away his gratitude. “It really wasn’t a lot of work. Or trouble.”

  “I suppose someone in the wedding party could have done something with a needle and thread tomorrow, but you know how weddings are. It would have been adding chaos to mayhem.”

  “Do you have time for a cup of spiced tea?”

  “A glass of milk?” he countered hopefully.

  “Easier still,” Angelina said, opening the cupboard for glasses. She took the milk from the refrigerator. As she poured, she asked, “Do you like the man your sister’s marrying?”

  “Yes,” Mike replied. “Everyone in the family likes him. He and Tracy are great together. She’s...intense sometimes, and he helps her keep things in perspective.”

  “I thought maybe you were afraid she was making a mistake.”

  He cocked his head inquisitively. “What gave you that impression?”

  “You seem, well, it’s obvious you’re not looking forward to the wedding.”

  The comment drew a frown. “Weddings aren’t my favorite form of weekend entertainment,” he said.

  “I don’t think I have to ask what is,” Angelina said with a sly smile. To say they’d spent the previous weekend making love was not strictly accurate. They’d taken time out for meals and catnaps, even a rented movie, which they’d watched while cuddled up on the sofa. But when Angelina thought of the day and a half they’d spent together, it was the lovemaking she remembered, the tender touches and whispered endearments.

  “I’ve missed you all week,” he said.

  The mere sound of his voice was enough to send warmth radiating through her.

  “I’ve thought of you, too,” she confessed softly, taking the lid from a cookie jar shaped like a cow and offering him the contents. “Vanilla wafer?”

  Mike took a cookie and leaned against the counter as he ate it.

  “Why don’t you like weddings?” Angelina asked.

  “Besides having to wear a tuxedo?” he quipped, dipping his hand into the cookie jar for another vanilla wafer.

  “I’m surprised they didn’t have the rehearsal tonight, if the wedding’s tomorrow,” Angelina said.

  “The minister performing the ceremony has two weddings back-to-back tonight, so they’re having the rehearsal tomorrow morning—without the groom, of course. The best man will take notes and steer the groom through the ceremony.”

  His gaze settled on Angelina’s face, and it seemed to Angelina that the silence that followed lasted an eternity. “Come with me,” he said at last.

  “To your sister’s wedding?”

  “Lily, too.”

  “Lily and I don’t belong there, Mike. We’ve never even met your sister.”

  He grasped her upper arms. “You’d be my guests. I promise, you’d be welcome.”

  Releasing a sigh, she bowed her head until her forehead pressed into his sternum. “All this discussion is irrelevant, anyway, Mike. Even assuming I had a suitable dress hanging in the closet all cleaned and pressed and the right color stockings to wear with it, it’s impossible. This is Lily’s weekend at home. Her friends are spending the night. I’m not going to kick them out at the crack of dawn.”

  Mike’s arms slid around her, pulling her into a loose hug. “I should have thought of it earlier.”

  Yes, Angelina thought. You should have.

  “I just suddenly realized how much it would mean to have you with me. This wedding... The fact is, I was engaged last year and—”

  He took a breath and started over. She felt the tension come into his body as he spoke. “It ended just days before the wedding, so everyone’s going to be watching me to make sure I’m up to the whole thing.”

  “Are you?” Angelina asked softly. The question was a gamble; she wasn’t certain she wanted to hear about it if he was still nursing a broken heart over the woman he’d almost married.

  “Yes!” he said as though suddenly realizing it himself. Nodding incredulously, he said, “Yes. I’m okay with it. I’m happy for Tracy. I don’t even mind my baby sister beating me to the altar.”

  Looking straight into her eyes, he smiled. “I wish you were going. I’m sorry I didn’t think of it in time.”

  “It wouldn’t have been a good idea, anyway,” Angelina said. “Weddings are a family thing. What would your family think if you showed up with a total stranger and a child?”

  “They’d think—no, they’d know—that you were important to me.”

  “It’s way too soon for that kind of—”

  Easing her away from him slightly, he cradled her chin and guided her face up until their eyes met. “You’re important to me, Angelina. That’s a fact. And Lily is important to me because she’s part of you. Please don’t try to pretend that I’m imagining what’s going on between us.”

  She couldn’t pretend in front of him, not when her feelings were so close to the surface. She could not even deny him—despite the four children in the next room—the kiss that suddenly seemed to her as inevitable as the ebb and flow of the ocean.

  12

  MIKE STOOD with his sister and mother in the church anteroom where brides waited for the cue to go down the aisle.

  His mother shook an imaginary crimp from the sheer fabric of Tracy’s veil, then sighed as she gave her daughter an affectionate inspection. “I just wish your father were still alive to see how pretty you are,” she said.

  “He’s probably watching,” Tracy said. “If I know Daddy, he’d find a way.”

  Mrs. Calder grinned wryly. “You’re probably right.”

  She turned her attention to Mike. “And I was right about the tuxedos, wasn’t I? Look how stunning Mike is.”

  “I could take numbers from the girls on campus who’d be willing to go out with him,” Tracy said.

  Mrs. Calder’s face turned tragic as she patted Mike’s arm. “It’s just too bad your own plans didn’t work out, or we’d have seen you in a tux sooner. It’s not too painful for you, is it, being here with all these wedding trappings?”

  “No,” he said as Tracy sent him a sympathetic look through her veil. “I’m over the whole thing now, Mother. In fact, it was probably for the best. Beth Ann wasn’t the woman for me.”

  Tracy’s jaw dropped as she caught his involuntary grin. But just as she opened her mouth to speak, there was a knock at the door. It was the groomsman assigned to escort the mother of the bride to the proper seat. “It’s time, Mrs. Calder,” he said. “Whenever you’re ready.”

  Mrs. Calder nodded to the young man, then hugged both her children before placing her gloved hand on the groomsman’s folded arm and allowing him to lead her away.

  Tracy turned to Mike. “What gives?”

  “What do you mean, what gives?”

  “That goofy grin when you said Beth Ann wasn’t for you. You’ve found another woman, haven’t you?”

  Mike’s face confirmed it, but he hedged. “Aren’t we supposed to be going out to listen for our cue?”

  “Yes,” Tracy said. “But don’t think you’re off the hook. I want details during the reception.”

  “How about a hug for your big brother before I have to give you to what’s-his-name?”

  “You know his name as well as I do,” Tracy said, hugging him. “And I still want details!”

  “Women!” Mike said.

  “I’m just so happy for you!” she said. “Now I don’t have to feel so guilty about being so happy myself.”

  “You always did talk too much,” Mike teased. “Come on. What’s-his-name is waiting.”

  Later, at the reception, he found he didn’t mind talking about Angelina at all. Or Lily.

  “You should have brought them to the wedding,” Mrs. Calder said after hearing him speak so fondly of them.

  “You’re right, Mother,” he replied. “I should have.” Then, with a mischievous smile, he added, “Maybe I’ll bring them to the next wedding I go to.”

  * * *

  LILY WAS ABOUT to wiggle out f
rom under the seat belt, she was so excited. “What kind of surprise?”

  “I don’t know, sweetie,” Angelina said. “Dr. Mike just said that I should bring you to his office on our way home because he had a very special surprise for you.”

  Lily was thoughtful a moment. “Do you think it’s a kitten?”

  If Dr. Mike Calder values his life, it won’t be a kitten! Angelina thought. “Dr. Mike knows you have a puppy, Lily. He knows you don’t need a kitten.”

  “Ashley has a kitten and she has two dogs.”

  Good for Ashley! Angelina thought, her chest tightening with the irrational sense of inadequacy mothers sometimes suffer when children make unreasonable demands. She let the comment about the menagerie at Ashley’s house slide by.

  Upon their arrival at Mike’s office, Lily was out of the car the instant Angelina turned off the engine. Angelina could only shake her head in awe as she watched her daughter sprint to the building.

  Lily was conferring with Suzie at the reception counter when Angelina entered the office. Suzie greeted Angelina. “I was just telling Lily that Dr. Calder is expecting you, but he’s with a patient. He said you could come on back and see what’s in his boarding room.”

  “Is it something alive?” Lily asked as Suzie led them into a room lined on one side with wire crates, on the other by two chain-link pens, a small sink and cabinet area.

  “Come see,” Suzie said, kneeling beside a cardboard box.

  Lily peered into the box and gasped. “Raccoons! Look, Mommy! Little bitty raccoons!”

  The babies were curled into little balls, sleeping, on an old towel. “Can we hold them?” Lily asked.

  Suzie raised a stern eyebrow. “You’ll have to talk to Dr. Mike about that. They can’t be handled much. They shouldn’t be without their mother yet, but their mommy was hit by a car. A man dropped them off this morning. They lived behind his house. When he saw the mother get hit, he went out looking for the babies and brought them to us hoping we could take care of them.”

  She looked at Angelina. “I’d better get back to the desk. Mike will be in as soon as he finishes with his last patient.”

  “Aren’t they sweet, Mommy?” Lily said, turning to Angelina with a beatific smile.

  “Yes,” she said, her throat tight as she looked at her daughter’s sweet face. The haunted seriousness that had marred Lily’s young features just a few weeks earlier had been replaced by the natural curiosity and innocence of youth.

  Mike was partially responsible for the change. It made Angelina’s heart swell with gratitude. And it terrified her.

  “What do you think of my babies?” Mike asked, entering the room. He was wearing his work uniform—jeans, a T-shirt with the clinic logo and a lab coat.

  Lily dashed to him. “They’re so-o-o little,” she said excitedly. “And they’re so-o-o sweet. Can I hold them?”

  “It just so happens,” Mike replied, “that they have to be bottle-fed, and I could use some assistance.”

  He winked at Angelina above Lily’s head, and Angelina’s breath caught. Such a simple gesture, that wink. Yet it was so intimate.

  He sat Lily down in a chair and put the raccoons, nestled in the towel, into her lap. After warming the bottle, he showed her how to hold it at the proper angle.

  “Are you going to keep them?” she asked.

  “Only until tomorrow,” he said. “There’s a society that takes care of orphaned animals and then finds homes for them in the forest somewhere.”

  Lily’s eyes didn’t leave the little raccoons in her lap as she sighed. “Oh.”

  “What you’re doing right now is very, very important,” he told her. “By feeding them this formula, you’re helping to keep them healthy until they’re big enough to survive on their own.”

  “I’m going to tell Miss Thornton about this,” Lily said.

  “I’ve got my camera in the van. I’ll take some pictures so you can take them to school.”

  By the time he’d finished off the roll of film, the raccoons had finished their formula and gone back to sleep.

  “Is it okay if we name them?” Lily asked as Mike transferred the babies, one by one, to the original box.

  “I think that would be all right,” he said. “What do you want to call them?”

  “Wynken, Blynken and Nod,” she said. “Because they sleep so much.”

  “Those are perfect names for them,” Mike said. “Wynken, Blynken and Nod.” Having settled them into the box, he rose and looked from Lily to Angelina. “Now that they’re all fat and happy, why don’t I take my two favorite girls out for some pizza?”

  “Yeah!” Lily sighed, her face a portrait of delighted surprise.

  Mike looked at Angelina. “That’s two votes for pizza. What do you say—is it unanimous?”

  “I never cook if I can eat pizza instead,” Angelina said lightly.

  “Just let me get rid of this lab coat,” Mike said.

  “Lily can wash her hands while you’re doing that,” Angelina suggested.

  “Sure,” Mike said, draping his arm across Lily’s shoulders. “Come on. You can wash up at my big sink, like a real assistant.”

  He took her into the utility room, adjusted the water for her and showed her how to pump the liquid soap. As she lathered her hands, he glanced up to see Angelina standing in the doorway, watching him with her daughter. Her eyes were filled with emotion as she smiled approvingly.

  Mike returned the smile, thinking how right it felt for her to be in the place he spent the bulk of his time; for her daughter to be here, learning what he could teach her; for the three of them to be together this way, relaxed and looking forward to a casual outing.

  “Are those skeletons?” Lily asked, her interest piqued by a poster featuring several side-by-side photographs of small animals and their skeletal systems.

  “Yes,” he said, pulling a paper towel from the dispenser and giving it to her. “Dry your hands and I’ll show you on the chart how you could tell a cat’s bones from a dog’s.”

  He explained the differences, pointing to key areas that differentiated the two. Lily hung on every morsel of information. Her interest in animals delighted him.

  He could love this child as easily as he would love one of his own, he thought. Perhaps he already did.

  While Mike was busy showing Lily the skeletons, Angelina ventured into the room. The walls were lined with charts and posters, most of which had been produced by pharmaceutical companies. She skimmed the headlines of several before her eyes fell on a sheet of stationery from the manufacturer of a worm capsule. Beneath the logo was a handwritten list of some kind.

  Mike Calder’s Minimum Requirements for a Woman? Good job...pays well...no children? Men scourge upon the earth...new car! sexy! Angelina Winters, one point five? Samantha, six! She could have cried, but she was too furious. She could have screamed, but she was too disappointed.

  Mike remembered his drunken manifesto just in time to catch the sudden stiffening of Angelina’s spine, a split second before a shudder racked her shoulders and the rhythm of her breathing changed, draining the color from her cheeks.

  “I can explain about that,” he said, wondering if any explanation would be adequate.

  “I don’t think I’m up for pizza tonight,” she said after an excruciating pause.

  “Mommy!”

  “Angelina—” Lily and Mike spoke simultaneously.

  “I’m not feeling well,” Angelina said, jutting out her chin defiantly.

  “You should sit down,” Mike said, reaching for her. “You look pale.”

  She jerked her elbow out of his reach. “I just—” She dug into her purse and pulled out her car keys. “I need to go home.”

  “Lily,” Mike said with calm authority, “I think your mommy needs to rest. I’m going to take her into my office and let her sit in the big chair behind my desk.”

  “Aren’t we going to eat pizza?”

  “No!” Angelina said.

 
“There’s a kitty in one of the crates in the boarding room where the baby raccoons are. Did you notice her?”

  Lily shook her head somberly.

  “She’s a nice kitty, but she’s old and has to have medication every day. We’re boarding her for a couple of weeks. She’s pretty lonely. Why don’t you go talk to her while I take care of your mommy? Her name is Socks.”

  “Okay,” Lily said.

  She left the room, and Mike and Angelina stared silently at each other for a moment. “Let’s go into my office,” he said.

  “I don’t want to go anywhere with you,” she replied coldly.

  “You need to sit down.”

  “I need to go home.”

  “We have to talk about that stupid list.”

  “It explains so much,” she said, almost as though talking to herself.

  “Yes,” he said. “But it’s not what you’re thinking.” He grabbed her hand and spoke in a tense whisper. “Maybe you don’t want to sit down, but I want some privacy. We have to talk, and I want it between you and me, and not between you, me and your daughter.”

  She capitulated, and went with him to his office. He shut the door and, once more, they stared mutely at each other.

  “When I wrote that list—” He broke off, not knowing where to start.

  “I kept thinking you’d call me, but you never did,” she said, then gave a bark of hysterical laughter. “Of course you didn’t. You didn’t want a woman with a child, and—” she sucked in a lungful of air and released it “—and bald tires and a worn-out washing machine.”

  “The woman I’d been engaged to—”

  “Why?” she asked, imbuing the word with misery as her eyes met his accusingly. “Why did you keep doing things for me? I never asked...I never wanted you to do anything for me.”

  “I was drunk when I made out that stupid list. It was supposed to have been my wedding day, and I’d been...I’d been a bad judge of character, and I was...hurting. I didn’t want—”

  “You didn’t want me! Or anyone like me.”

  “I didn’t want anyone like Beth Ann, the woman I’d been engaged to. And you’re not like her. Not at all. Once I realized that—”