A Second Chance for the Single Dad

by Marie Ferrarella

  Turning down the light but not turning it off, she slipped out of the room. The second she did, her breath caught.

  “How long were you out here?” she asked, startled to find Luke standing just outside his daughter’s bedroom.

  “You were halfway through the first reading,” he admitted.

  She felt a little self-conscious. Was there a reason why he’d hung back? “Why didn’t you come in?”

  Luke shrugged. “You looked like you were getting along very well with Lily and I didn’t want to disturb you.”

  That made no sense to her. “You’re Lily’s father. You wouldn’t be disturbing anything if you came in,” she told him.

  Not wanting to pursue the subject, he changed it. “Were you really going to read that story to her a third time?” he asked, curious. The story was simplistic and she struck him as an intelligent woman. How could she have the patience to read that story out loud once, much less two and possibly three times?

  It didn’t seem like a big deal to Kayley. “If she wanted me to, I would have.”

  Luke shook his head in wonder. “You really do have a lot of patience, don’t you?” he marveled.

  The only thing she had ever been impatient with was cruelty. Everything else for her was just a matter of going with the flow.

  “Well, I have nowhere else I have to be—and to be honest, I’ve always liked that story.” She smiled as a fond memory came back to her. “I can remember my mom reading that to me.”

  He looked at her incredulously. “Identifying with a kid again?”

  The corners of her mouth curved in rather a compelling way. “Something like that.”

  “Well, I’m sure that Lily appreciated it. I haven’t seen her that animated since—” He gave the matter some consideration. “Well, I haven’t seen her that animated, period.”

  Kayley’s smile widened. “You have a great little girl there, Doctor.”

  Hearing her call him that in a personal setting just didn’t feel right. Wondering if he was starting a precedent, he still thought that he should change the rules. “I think that in view of the fact that you read that storybook to Lily twice and since we’re in my home, you can call me Luke.”

  Kayley eyed him uncertainly. She already referred to him that way, but only in the confines of her mind. This was taking it to another level completely. “Are you sure?”

  “Since I’ve come home, I haven’t been sure of anything outside of the operating room,” he told her in a moment of honesty. “But we’ll try this out. Unless it makes you uncomfortable,” he qualified. His intent was to make her more comfortable, not less.

  “No, it doesn’t make me uncomfortable,” she told him softly. “Does it make you uncomfortable?” she asked, knowing that he was not exactly the most easygoing man she had ever encountered.

  “I’ll tell you what makes me uncomfortable,” he heard himself saying to her even as he wondered where this was coming from. “You make me uncomfortable, but in a way that I can’t really put my finger on.”

  Kayley raised her head, her eyes meeting his. She felt an odd sensation in her stomach. Something akin to butterflies. But she pushed ahead anyway. “Good uncomfortable or bad uncomfortable?”

  “There’s a good uncomfortable?” he asked, wondering what her definition of that was. He was beginning to think of Kayley as a unique person.

  “Yes,” she told him, surprised that he had to ask. “Like when you challenge yourself to strive for newer heights. You’re not comfortable, because you’re forcing yourself to go out of your comfort zone—but you strive for it anyway.”

  He laughed shortly. “Well, I’ve got to admit that I’m definitely out of my comfort zone, talking to you like this.”

  She wouldn’t have known it. His expression hadn’t changed an iota. “Ah. If you want my opinion, I’d say you’re doing rather well.”

  Luke shifted slightly. He was really out of his element now. “Yes, well, I think we’d better go downstairs before Barbara sends out a search party, wondering what happened to us. It doesn’t take all that long to read a kid to sleep.”

  Kayley laughed. “You’d be surprised.”

  The sound of her laughter seemed to swirl directly into his stomach, and just for an instant, he felt this overwhelming desire come popping up out of left field. The desire to kiss this impossible woman who could so easily remember being a child.

  Where the hell had that come from? Luke silently demanded the next moment. Why was he thinking of something like that? He hadn’t been with a woman since Jill. And before Jill, everything was just a blur—as it should be.

  He was tired and thinking crazy, Luke told himself. Without a word, he led the way downstairs.

  Barbara was sitting in the living room, sipping a cup of chai tea. She looked up as they entered the room. “I was beginning to think maybe you got lost,” she told them, a hint of a smile playing on her lips.

  Luke thought of that fleeting moment he’d just experienced. He’d definitely gotten lost, but he was back now—and he had his bearings.

  “Almost,” he said, more to himself than to his mother-in-law.

  Barbara glanced from her son-in-law to the young woman who had managed to charm her granddaughter. She could sense something was going on and wondered if Luke was even aware of it. She’d loved her daughter dearly and was glad that Jill had loved Luke as much as she had. It was what every mother wished for her daughter, a good, decent man to love who loved her back.

  But Jill was gone and Luke needed to find his way back to the living.

  Barbara’s eyes shifted toward Kayley. “Would you like some chai tea, dear?” she asked.

  “No, thank you. It’s getting late and I should be getting home,” she told the woman. “Thank you for inviting me,” Kayley added warmly. “Dinner was wonderful and I loved meeting you and Lily.”

  “The feeling is mutual.” Barbara smiled. Then, thinking of her granddaughter, she said, “She is something special, isn’t she? She’s five going on thirty,” the older woman commented. “Only children tend to be older than their years. They grow up faster than children with siblings.”

  Kayley could relate to that. “I know. I was an only child. Can’t tell you how often I wished for a brother or sister. But Dad died when I was very young and Mom was too busy earning a living and raising me to date anyone. I didn’t realize that until I was older,” Kayley admitted ruefully.

  “I’m sorry to hear that. I have a feeling you would have made a wonderful big sister,” Barbara told her, patting her hand.

  Kayley felt moved. “You know, I think that’s probably one of the nicest things anyone ever said to me.” She hugged the woman.

  Stepping back, Barbara asked one more time, “Are you sure I can’t interest you in some tea?”

  But Kayley shook her head. Darting a glance at Luke, she suspected she was close to having overstayed her welcome.

  “No, thank you.”

  Undeterred, Barbara gave it one more try. “Coffee, perhaps?”

  Kayley laughed, touched that the woman would try so hard to get her to remain. She would have, but for the sake of her working relationship with Luke, she had to decline.

  “I really have to be getting home,” she said, glancing in Luke’s direction again. She could sense the man’s relief at hearing her refusal.

  “Well, much as I’d like you to stay a little longer, I certainly can’t tie you up and keep you prisoner,” Barbara said with a laugh. She eyed her son-in-law. Luke looked like he was ready to sit down again. The man had to be led, Barbara thought. “Lucas, why don’t you walk our guest to her car? I’ll stay here in case Lily suddenly wakes up.”

  He couldn’t very well protest or say that he’d stay behind while she walked Kayley to her car. That didn’t seem right.

 
; “That’s okay,” Kayley told both of them. “I can find my own way out. It’s not like my car is parked in a parking structure or down another street,” she said, deliberately giving Luke a way out.

  But because she did, it made him feel less than gallant about hanging back the way he actually would have preferred to.

  So instead, he said, “No problem. It’s dark outside.”

  Kayley laughed. “It’s not like I’ll lose my way in ten feet.”

  Barbara chose that moment to intervene, putting an end to the dispute. “Now, dear, let him feel chivalrous. These days that’s usually rather difficult to do. This might be Lucas’s only opportunity to act gallantly for weeks.”

  “Well, if you put it that way,” Kayley said. “I guess that I can’t deny letting a man feel chivalrous,” she agreed.

  Barbara patted her on the shoulder before she sat down again. “That’s the spirit.” Sitting down, she waved her son-in-law and Kayley out the door.

  Without thinking, Luke took her arm, guiding her out the door.

  “I’m sorry about that,” he said once they were on the front step. He closed the door behind them, making sure that his mother-in-law wasn’t listening in.

  Kayley’s eyes narrowed a little as she tried to understand what he was apologizing for. “Sorry about what?”

  Now he knew Kayley was just being polite. “Barbara tends to like to get her own way and she can be a little pushy.”

  That certainly didn’t bother her. Kayley smiled fondly.

  “She reminds me a little of my mother,” she told him. Then, in case he had any doubt about her meaning, she added, “And that’s a good thing.”

  The path that led down the driveway was well lit, both from the streetlight and from the lights coming from the front of his house.

  Just as she was about to turn toward her vehicle, which was parked across the street, Kayley glanced down. And that was when she saw it. There was a bright, shiny new penny right in her path.

  Without giving it a second thought, Kayley quickly bent down to pick it up. She’d stopped abruptly without giving Luke any warning, causing him to walk right into her as she stooped over the coin.

  The unexpected contact almost caused her to pitch forward and she would have done just that had Luke not grabbed for her, pulling her to her feet and throwing her off balance. Her body hit against his. Air whooshed out of her and she found herself looking right up at him with less than half an inch between them.

  Temptation, fast and furious, appeared out of nowhere, taking control while his brain went on temporary hiatus for about ten seconds.

  Before he realized what he was doing—and the consequences that would come with it—Luke found himself kissing Kayley.

  Lightning shot through his veins, reminding him that he was more than just a skilled surgeon, more than just a walking shell of a man who had trouble relating to the people around him.

  It took everything he had not to pull Kayley even closer to him and deepen what was already an electrifying kiss.

  She had no idea it was going to happen until it happened.

  But once it did, she had to admit that she was exceedingly happy that it had. It was almost as if destiny had taken over—and for this tiny moment in time, it was her destiny to be kissed by a man she both respected and found exceptionally attractive, if not exactly sympathetic.

  But sympathy, she knew, was something that could be worked on and developed. However, kisses that were able to shake her down to the very bottom of her feet and up to the roots of her hair were something that could not be developed or acquired. They came from something that was either there or not there.

  And in the case of Dr. Luke Dolan, it was most definitely there.

  So much so that it took her a moment to get her bearings when he drew away. She tried not to breathe as hard as she felt capable of doing.

  “I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I didn’t mean to—”

  The rest of his apology was silenced as she put her finger to his lips.

  “Don’t apologize,” she implored.

  Whether she said it to absolve him of any guilt or to prevent him from ruining the moment, she didn’t say.

  Kayley left him wondering about that as she crossed the street, got into her car and pulled away.

  He remained in the driveway, staring after her for a very long time.

  What the hell had just happened here?

  Chapter Eleven

  Luke had no idea just what to expect Monday morning. Since Saturday evening, he’d already gone through a dozen scenarios of how his first encounter with Kayley would play out.

  In half of them, he would stumble through some sort of an apology about kissing her, saying he had no idea what came over him. In the other half of the scenarios, he would just go on as if nothing had happened between them.

  Either way didn’t sit well with him.

  And then Monday morning came and, one way or another, he had to face the situation.

  Just as he was about to leave for work, anticipating yet also dreading getting his first encounter with Kayley over with, Lily called out to him from the top of the stairs.

  “Daddy, wait!”

  Her hair tousled from her night’s sleep, looking as if she’d just gotten out of bed, Lily was still wearing her nightgown. She was clutching an eight-by-ten sheet of paper in her hand and flew down the stairs in her bare feet, obviously determined to get to him before he left.

  “Lily, I’m in a hurry,” he told her, thinking that whatever she had to say would wait until he got home tonight.

  “I know—you’re always in a hurry,” Lily replied with a touch of adult-like weariness in her voice. “I just want you to give this to Kayley.”

  “This” was the paper she had brought down with her. She held it up for his benefit. He saw that it wasn’t just a piece of paper. It was a drawing that Lily was displaying proudly.

  “That’s Kayley and me,” she told him. “She’s reading the storybook about the tugboat to me and I’m in bed, falling asleep.”

  “That’s very nice, Lily,” he said, trying to hand the picture back to her. Giving the woman a drawing from his daughter represented far too much intimacy between his physician’s assistant and his family. “I’m not sure where she can put it, Lily.”

  Lily’s confidence never wavered. “She’ll find a place. Grandma puts the drawings I draw for her on the refrigerator,” she reminded her father. “Take it,” she urged, attempting to put the paper into his hands.

  He didn’t want to mislead his daughter, but this was a door he didn’t want to open. He certainly didn’t want to set a precedent, either. And he didn’t want Lily getting any closer to Kayley than she already felt she was.

  “Why don’t you put it in your briefcase, Lucas?” Barbara suggested, pulled to the living room by the sound of his discussion with Lily. “That way it won’t get bent or wrinkled.”

  Happy with the idea, Lily stepped over to her grandmother’s side and slipped her hand into the older woman’s. She smiled up at her, evidently grateful that at least someone understood her.

  “Right,” Luke murmured under his breath as he snapped open the two locks on his briefcase, laid the drawing right on top of the folders he had there and then closed the lid again.

  “Now you’d better get going. You don’t want to be late getting in early,” Barbara said to him, tongue in cheek.

  “I’ll see you two tonight,” Luke replied, opening the front door and stepping outside.

  “Tell Kayley I said hi!” Lily called after him.

  Barbara added her voice to her granddaughter’s. “Ditto!”

  Luke grunted, not really giving either of them a discernible answer.

  How had all this gotten so out of hand? Luke wond
ered as he drove to work. His life was unsettled and complicated enough as he merely came to grips with everything while conducting his practice. He didn’t need this extra layer on top of everything.

  * * *

  He found Kayley standing next to the main suite’s doors, waiting for him just as she had been the first day she’d interviewed for the position.

  Damn, he’d thought that he’d have some time to regroup.

  How much time do you need? You already had the weekend. You’re not cramming for your MCATs, he admonished, remembering the tests he’d had to go through when he was applying for medical school. You’re just talking to a woman. The woman who’s working for you. Why are you so worried? You’re in the driver’s seat here, not her.

  Somehow that didn’t seem to help make him feel in control.

  “Trying to avoid traffic again?” he asked, recalling the excuse she’d initially used to explain why she’d turned up so early.

  “The city’s doing some repaving,” she told him. “I swear we must have the best streets in the country. But since the crews are out, I thought I’d just take a precaution. They tend to block off small sections for hours before they start to work and traffic backs up for blocks.”

  Kayley waited for him to unlock the doors. When he did so and still hadn’t said anything, she had a feeling it was because he was uncomfortable about the kiss they had shared on Saturday. She had to admit that it had been on her mind ever since it happened, but she doubted that Luke thought of it in the same terms that she did.

  She sensed that broaching the subject would only make him even more uncomfortable, so she dived into another aspect of the evening she’d shared with his family and him.

  “How’s Lily?”

  He kept his back to her. He thought it was more prudent that way. “Awake.”

  Kayley laughed. “Well, I would hope so. I’ve been known to put people to sleep, but not into a two-day coma.”

  She was being upbeat. Maybe he was making too much of that kiss.