He glanced toward the house. “Yes, I lucked out as far as mothers-in-law go. She’s a very good woman,” he said gratefully. “Another woman might have held her daughter’s death against me.”
Kayley was convinced that had to be a slip on his part. He wouldn’t have willingly allowed something so personal to just come out like that. For a second, she thought of saying something noncommittal and dropping the subject.
But that just wasn’t in her nature.
“You had nothing to do with her daughter’s death,” she told him firmly.
He felt differently about that. “If I were here at the time, I would have been the one in the driver’s seat, not Jill. And the other car would have hit me instead of her,” he added emotionally.
With the wealth of information available on the internet, she’d done some research regarding the collision that had claimed his wife’s life. “The accident happened on a weekday in the middle of the day, didn’t it?” she asked, knowing it had.
“Yes, but that didn’t have anything to do with it,” he insisted.
“I don’t mean to argue with you, but it had everything to do with it. You would have been either in the office or at the hospital at the time, busy being a doctor. And as awful as it sounds, your wife still would have been in the driver’s seat.” Compassion filled her eyes. “You have to stop beating yourself up for your wife’s death,” she told him quietly. “It was not your fault. Barbara doesn’t blame you. Anyone can see that. It’s about time you stopped blaming you,” she said forcefully.
Luke felt something crack inside.
Torn, he didn’t trust his reaction just then, didn’t trust himself to not say something he would regret tomorrow morning. He needed to regroup, to rethink things before he did or said anything.
For now, Luke stepped back as he allowed her to slip into the driver’s seat. “I’ll see you Monday.”
“Monday,” she repeated with a nod, a small smile on her lips.
At least he hadn’t fired her for being outspoken, Kayley thought. Some would call that progress, she congratulated herself as she drove away.
* * *
“So?” Barbara asked her son-in-law the instant he walked back into the house.
“So?” he repeated, puzzled.
Barbara sighed. The man was a brilliant surgeon, but when it came to the business of living, not so much. “So did you ask her out?”
He stared at the woman as if that had come out of nowhere. “Why would you think I’d ask her out?”
“Oh, Lucas, Lucas, Lucas,” Barbara lamented, shaking her head. “Perfect strangers passing by your house can hear the chemistry that’s crackling between the two of you.”
“There is no such thing as perfect strangers,” he informed his mother-in-law. “And I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t you?” Barbara questioned, studying him closely. When he made no response, she threw her hands up in exasperation. “Life, Lucas. I am talking about life.”
“What about life?” he asked, daring her to continue along this line.
But he had forgotten just how strong willed his mother-in-law could be. And she wasn’t backing off.
“Get back in it, Lucas, before you completely forget how to do that. That young woman cares about you—you can see it in her eyes. More than that, she cares about Lily. And Lily needs a mother.”
Luke felt himself growing defensive. This was Jill’s mother. How could she be trying to pair him off with another woman? Didn’t she have any allegiance to her daughter or to the past?
“Lily has you,” he pointed out.
Barbara shook her head. “I am her grandmother, Lucas. There’s a difference.” She put her hands on Luke’s shoulders to keep him from walking away the way she could see that he wanted to. “My daughter fell in love with a dynamic young doctor who was willing to grab life with both hands—to save lives and live life.”
He sighed. It felt as if his mother-in-law were talking about an entirely different person. Someone he used to be. “That died with Jill.”
“But it shouldn’t have,” Barbara argued. “Lucas, I appreciate you grieving for my daughter, I do, but she would have wanted you to move on, to be the man she fell in love with—and to find happiness. You owe it to her, Lucas. You owe it to Lily, and most of all, you owe it to yourself.”
He inclined his head, knowing that arguing was a lost cause when it came to his mother-in-law. So he took the easy way out and told Barbara, “Okay, I’ll think about it.”
“Do more than just ‘think’ about it,” Barbara pleaded. “People like Kayley don’t come around often and they don’t linger indefinitely. Ask her out before someone else does,” she advised. “You have nothing to lose—although you will if you don’t ask her out,” she predicted.
“Like I said,” he told her as he started to go up the stairs, “I’ll think about it.”
Barbara sighed. “Lucas,” she called after him, “I love you like a son. Think fast,” she counseled. “Please.”
Luke just continued walking up the stairs.
Chapter Fifteen
“That was really a nice thing you did,” Luke said the following Monday morning as he walked into the small room that Kayley used as an office.
In the middle of updating and preparing Luke’s morning schedule for him—his regular scheduler, Justin, had called in sick this morning—Kayley looked up from her desk, slightly confused. She didn’t detect any sarcasm in his voice, so she assumed he was on the level.
“I’m sorry, I’m not fishing for a compliment—really—but you’re going to have to be a little more specific than that,” she told Luke, having no idea what he was referring to.
He supposed he had started in the middle of his thought. Regrouping, he said, “The leprechaun charm that you gave Lily. She hasn’t taken it off since you put it on her. I told her it would last longer if she took it off at night, but she just won’t part with it.”
“There’s no reason it shouldn’t last, on or off her neck.” And then she realized what he was really concerned about. “If you’re worried that it’ll turn her neck green or get discolored itself, it won’t,” she said. “The charm is fourteen-karat gold.”
He looked at her incredulously. “Gold?” Luke repeated, stunned. “Why would you buy Lily a gold charm? She’s only five.”
“A girl is never too young for good jewelry,” she quipped. “Besides, I was shopping in the department store when I happened to see it and I immediately thought of seeing Lily and you setting up that trap so she could ‘catch’ a leprechaun and give it to me as a gift. It really made me happy to be able to give her the charm as a token of our first meeting.”
“Well, I can assure you that it made her happy to get the charm.” He wanted to frown reprovingly, but he just couldn’t make himself do it. “But you really shouldn’t have.”
“That’s your opinion,” she conceded, and it was clear that it definitely wasn’t hers. “But I felt it was the least I could do since she was trying to catch that leprechaun to give to me as a present.”
It amazed him how quickly his physician’s assistant and his daughter had taken to each other. “She won’t stop talking about you.”
The corners of Kayley’s generous mouth crinkled in a fond smile. “Good. I might need a publicity agent someday.” She looked down at the notes she had made that needed to be input into the computer. “Especially if I don’t get this organized for you, because then I might have to be in the market for a new job.”
“Well then, I’d better leave you to your work,” Luke told her, withdrawing from the cubbyhole of an office and shutting the door behind him.
Luke might have left her presence, but Kayley vividly lingered with him in his mind.
The more he attempted not t
o think about Kayley, the more he found himself doing just that. Without being “in his face,” she had absolutely burrowed right into his head. So much so that thoughts of her would randomly pop up in his mind all day long, whether or not he actually saw Kayley.
Moreover, what also kept preying on his mind was Barbara urging him to ask Kayley out. Not just to a family dinner, but to an actual evening out.
A date.
The idea distracted him all that day and the following day, as well.
The day after, he finally surrendered.
It happened right after one of the orthopedic group associates, a spinal surgeon by the name of Jacob Larson, bumped into him between their offices and asked if he was considering attending Bedford Memorial’s annual fund-raiser.
The question had come out of the blue and Luke had no pat answer prepared, so the truth came out in small dribbles.
“I hadn’t thought about it,” he admitted to Larson. Since the other surgeon was looking at him, Luke heard himself asking, “Should I?”
“Oh, absolutely,” Larson said with enthusiasm. “It’s always good to show up at one of these things, at least for a couple of hours. The board takes it as a sign that you’re really interested in being part of the medical community.”
“I thought I did that by being a surgeon,” Luke said drolly.
“Man—or woman—does not live by surgical tools alone,” the young doctor replied. “Get with the program, man. Operating is only part of what we do. Turning up at one of these fund-raisers builds goodwill all around. You never know when you might need some of that sent your way,” he reminded Luke.
Other than going home, he had his evenings free. Luke shrugged, thinking, What the hell? “I guess I can put in a showing for a couple of hours.”
“That’s the spirit,” Jacob declared with approval. He started to walk away, then doubled back to add, “Oh, and don’t forget to bring someone.”
This was a wrinkle that Luke hadn’t considered. “I have to bring someone?”
Larson stared at him as if he were talking to someone who was extremely simpleminded. “Well, sure. You don’t want to come across as antisocial, do you?”
Being called that had never bothered him. But illogic did. “I’m turning up at a fund-raiser. Doesn’t that automatically mean I’m not antisocial?”
“Nothing is automatic,” Larson assured him. “Besides, a good-looking guy like you should have no trouble finding someone to take to this function.”
That wasn’t the point or the problem. “I didn’t say I’d have any trouble finding someone,” Luke began, a little irritated at the suggestion.
Larson immediately cut him off. “Then what’s the problem?” he asked.
The problem was that securing a date just might be opening himself up to things that were undoubtedly better left alone.
Luke felt himself warming as thoughts of Kayley surfaced. He quickly shut them down.
Oh hell, this was going to be in a public place, for heaven’s sakes. What could be safer than a hospital fund-raiser in a hotel ballroom? And if he asked her out, maybe he’d prove to himself that he was making himself crazy for no reason.
“No problem,” he told Larson briskly as he walked away from the spinal surgeon.
* * *
“Doctor, are you all right?” Kayley asked when she saw Luke walk by her on his way to his office. He had a strange expression on his face and he looked right past her.
The sound of her voice caused him to come to an abrupt stop. He hadn’t even seen her there. He did now. Doing his best not to sound self-conscious, he said, “Yes, why?”
“Well, to be honest, you look like you’re contemplating having a root canal done.” Even as she spoke to him, she saw that he was now making an effort to appear as if everything were all right. The man was not a very convincing actor. “You don’t have a patient for another half hour. Maybe you should take a break in your office and try thinking of some happy thoughts to relieve your stress before he gets here,” she suggested.
Instead of agreeing—or disagreeing, which she felt would have been more in keeping with his personality—he completely stunned her by asking, “Kayley, would you like to go to the hospital fund-raiser at the Bedford Plaza Hotel this Saturday?”
Kayley looked at him uncertainly, not sure exactly what he was asking her to do. “You mean to represent the orthopedic group?”
It was his turn to be puzzled. Why would she think that he wanted her to represent the entire orthopedic medical group?
“No,” he told her, “I mean with me.”
Her smile was wide and radiant, like someone who had stumbled across a Fourth of July celebration complete with fireworks totally by accident. “Well, if you put it that way, I’d love to. Will it just be the two of us?”
Again, her question caught him off guard. “And a ballroom full of doctors and their guests.”
Kayley shook her head. “No, I meant will Barbara and Lily be coming with us?”
He supposed he could see why she’d think that. Their last two get-togethers had been for dinner at his house with both his mother-in-law and his daughter in attendance.
“Barbara won’t be attending,” he told her, “And as for Lily, I think they have a minimum height requirement for attendees. Does that make a difference?” he asked. Maybe she felt uneasy without the two females present.
Kayley shook her head. “No, I just wanted to know if they’d be coming along with you.” She’d almost said us but she had a feeling that would have been far too intimate sounding a word for Luke. “Do you want me to meet you at the fund-raiser, or—”
“No, I’ll pick you up,” he said, cutting her off.
“Like a date?” she asked innocently, wanting to get everything perfectly clear.
“Like a fund-raiser,” he responded almost automatically.
He wasn’t comfortable enough to call it a date yet. Maybe by the time the evening arrived, he would be, but for now, he opted to keep the whole idea of a date at arm’s length.
“Then I had better give you my address,” she told him, taking out a piece of paper so she could write it down.
“That would be helpful, yes,” he agreed, catching her hand to keep her from writing. “Why don’t you give it to me on Friday?” he told her. “There’s less likelihood that I’ll lose it that way.”
“Understood,” she replied, trying not to grin from ear to ear.
* * *
Kayley was well aware that this was just an official function tonight. Undoubtedly something Luke felt obligated to attend—or maybe he was even told by one of his peers that he needed to make an appearance. Going to a function solo was uncomfortable and, she felt, left him open to being approached by women who would have welcomed spending an evening—and its aftermath—in the company of a good-looking doctor. In all likelihood, Luke saw her as his shield, someone who could run interference for him for the duration of the evening so that he could concentrate on whatever it was that he wanted to concentrate on at the event.
It didn’t matter why he was taking her, Kayley thought. What mattered was that he was taking her, she told herself cheerfully, going through her closet and searching for something that seemed special enough to wear to the fund-raiser.
Whatever the reason, Luke had asked her to attend the function with him. Her, not someone else. That meant that for several hours, she was going to be next to him and there wasn’t going to be any blood, any operating room or any surgical tools involved.
Just a whole bunch of other people, all dressed in their finest.
Any way she assessed the situation, it was a good deal.
Now all she had to do was find something to wear that wasn’t going to make him regret asking her to attend.
And then Kayley smiled to herself.
She knew just what filled the bill. It was a dark blue sequined long gown that was simple and tasteful, and once on, it hugged her body like an old loving friend. The gown came with a long slit along the left side for ease of movement as well as ease on the eye of the beholder.
She’d bought the dress on a whim almost a year ago. The sale was just too good for her to resist. She had purchased it telling herself that this was her “someday” gown, a gown she promised herself that she would wear “someday,” and apparently, “someday” had come—a lot sooner than she’d actually anticipated.
Now all she needed to complete the look, she thought, assessing the gown, were matching shoes and a purse.
Less than an hour of shopping that Friday allowed Kayley to accomplish her mission.
* * *
Anticipation raced through her veins Saturday evening. Wanting to get everything right, she’d been dressed and ready for at least an hour. She was just touching up her makeup when she heard the doorbell ring.
Kayley felt her stomach suddenly pulling itself into a hard knot.
She looked into the mirror. Would Luke like what he saw once she opened the door? Or would he think he’d made a mistake asking her?
“You’re going to have fun,” she told her reflection, nervously smoothing down her dress. “You haven’t been out since forever and it’s time that you enjoyed yourself. If Luke likes your gown, great, but this evening’s not about what you’re wearing. It’s about having a good time. Understand?” she all but ordered the woman peering back at her in the mirror.
The doorbell rang again, almost making her jump.
“Coming!” she called out.
Here goes nothing, Kayley thought.
She hurried to the front door and didn’t bother pausing to catch her breath before she opened it.
“Hi,” Kayley declared brightly, smiling up at the handsome man in the black tuxedo standing on her doorstep.
Luke said nothing for a moment. Words had suddenly become unavailable. The woman he was looking at on the other side of the doorsill all but completely took his breath away.
A Second Chance for the Single Dad Page 14
