Her medium-blond hair was “carelessly” piled up on her head in a manner he recalled someone had once referred to as “flirty.” The long-sleeved floor-length navy gown she had on shimmered and sparkled, effectively drawing his attention to every single curve she had—and she definitely had just the right number of them.
He’d been aware that Kayley had a good figure, but the word spectacular had never been involved before. It was now.
In capital letters.
“Kayley?” Her name came out like a hesitant question.
“Yes,” she responded. Seeing the rather stunned expression on Luke’s face, she asked him, “Is something wrong?”
“What?” he mumbled, preoccupied with absorbing the vision that was standing in front of him. Then, coming to, Luke played back her question and murmured, “Oh, no, no, nothing’s wrong. I just never realized before that the lab coat you wear in the office actually hid that much of you.”
“Is that good or bad?” she asked, not certain where he was going with this. Was he telling her that he thought she was heavy? Or did he find that the gown was too revealing?
“Good,” he told her, then realized that she might take that as a criticism. “I mean bad.” But that didn’t sound as if it had come out right, either. “I mean—”
Luke decided he had no recourse but to take both feet out of his mouth and begin over again. “What I mean to say is that you look very nice tonight.”
“I’ll take answer number three, please,” she told him, the corners of her lips curving with pleasure. “Thank you.”
Luke made what amounted to an unintelligible noise that sounded like a half grunt.
This was as close to tongue-tied as he could ever remember being since before he reached puberty.
Given his field of expertise, the female form wasn’t exactly a mystery to him. He had no idea why seeing Kayley in her formfitting gown would render him a blithering idiot who had suddenly lost the use of his brain as well as his ability to form even simple sentences.
“If you don’t like this, I could change into something else,” she offered.
“Don’t you dare!” The words had slipped out before he could stop them. Realizing how they must have sounded, Luke immediately cleared his throat and tried to backtrack. “I mean—”
Laughing, Kayley came to his rescue. “I know what you mean,” she told him without acting coy or fishing for some sort of a compliment. “And thank you.” She reached for her white shawl that she’d draped on the back of a chair, handed it to him, then presented her back to him. “Would you mind?”
“I don’t think it’ll look good on me,” Luke deadpanned.
Her smile over her shoulder utterly warmed every square inch of him as she said, “No, I mean helping me put it on.”
He nodded. “I know what you mean.”
Luke slipped the fringed shawl on her shoulders, and for some reason, even that slightest of contact telegraphed a very strong bolt of electricity between them.
He knew that at least he felt it.
Maybe Barbara hadn’t been all that far off in her comment about there being electricity between them, Luke thought.
The next moment, he shut the thought as well as his reaction to Kayley down and murmured, “Let’s go. I don’t want to be late.”
She spared him a kind, understanding look before going out the door first. “Neither do I,” she assured him.
Chapter Sixteen
Kayley had to admit that she felt a little like Cinderella walking into the ball.
Other than on the pages of a fashion magazine, she couldn’t recall ever seeing so many beautifully dressed women gathered together in one place before. The men were all well dressed, as well, but the women were in a category all their own.
Definitely Cinderella, she thought.
Entering the main ballroom where the fund-raiser was being held, Luke noticed the way Kayley was looking at the other women in the room, as well as the expression on her face. He’d grown accustomed to seeing a smile there, not this somber look.
“Something wrong?” he asked.
She hadn’t realized that she was being that transparent.
“I feel a little underdressed,” Kayley answered honestly. “If you’re embarrassed to be seen with me, I understand. I’ll just slip off into the crowd,” she offered.
Luke looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Embarrassed?” he echoed. His eyes slid over her from head to toe as if to check that his initial impression had been correct. It was. “What are you talking about? You look perfect.”
He said it with such feeling he left her utterly speechless.
But only for a second. Regaining her ability to speak, she decided Luke was only being kind—he’d come a long way in a short time.
“But all these women, they’re dressed in such gorgeous gowns—” she protested.
“It’s not clothes that make the man—or the woman,” he reminded her. “Besides, with most of these women, it’s a competition as to who has the more exclusive designer and who is wearing the more expensive gown,” Luke told her matter-of-factly. And then his voice lowered. “You never struck me as being that shallow.”
“I’m not,” she began, but again, she wasn’t able to get any further.
“Well then, case closed,” he told her. “No reason to discuss it any longer—or to waste time thinking that you don’t measure up just because you don’t have a year’s salary to blow on a dress you can’t wear very often. By the way,” he said, thinking that perhaps he needed to say something to reinforce her self-esteem, “if I didn’t mention it before, you do look exceptionally attractive in that dress.”
He had used the word nice when he’d picked her up earlier. But this had taken the compliment up to a whole new level. Given that Luke wasn’t the type to offer empty platitudes, his admiration meant a great deal to her and warmed her heart.
“No,” Kayley murmured, struggling not to let the deep red color she felt rising inside her stamp itself on her face, “you didn’t mention it.” Her eyes met his. “Thank you.”
Kayley was fairly glowing, Luke observed. It seemed somehow intimate to have that sort of an effect on a woman by giving her what he considered to be a factual compliment. It made Luke feel far less removed from her and perhaps even just a little protective toward Kayley.
Don’t make too much of this, Luke, he warned himself gruffly.
“Just making an honest observation,” he told Kayley. But it was hard to stay gruff, looking at her looking like that. “If Lily had seen you in that, she would have said that her magic leprechaun had turned you into a fairy princess.” Hearing himself, he cleared his throat, somewhat embarrassed for saying what he’d just said. “Or words to that effect,” he added, vainly attempting to cover up what he saw as his error.
He noticed that Kayley was beaming again.
“They’re lovely words,” she told him with genuine emotion.
He shifted his gaze away from her and pretended to scan the tables in the ballroom. “Why don’t we see where they have us seated?” he suggested.
“You’re calling the shots tonight,” she told him amicably.
It was just a phrase, he told himself, but for a second, it felt as if she were giving him carte blanche and it started him thinking about what he might want to do if it were truly a case of “anything goes.”
Luke found himself entertaining thoughts he had honestly believed he would never think again.
Never feel again.
The next moment, Luke forced himself to mentally retreat from where he had gone. He was here to put in an appearance, not to have fantasies about a woman he was finding himself more and more attracted to. Attracted to both her mind and her skills—and now, he realized, to her, as well.
Clearing his throat again—as if that might in some way help him to clear his mind—Luke placed his hand against the small of her back and guided her over to where he vaguely assumed their place cards were set.
He saw that he and Kayley had been seated at a large table with the rest of the orthopedic specialists. No one had taken their seats yet. They were early.
“Looks like they’re going to have us mingling before feeding us,” he commented.
Kayley smiled. “I don’t mind. I like mingling.”
Luke inclined his head. “Then I’ll follow your lead,” he told her, then confessed, “I don’t much care for mingling.”
She was well aware of that, which was why his invitation to come here with him had been such a surprise. “We don’t have to stay here long,” she told Luke. “Just long enough for some of the people on the hospital board to see you. And then we can go.”
“You’d be satisfied with that?” he asked.
“I’m satisfied now,” she told Luke with a smile. “I got to play dress-up and received a few very nice compliments in the bargain.” She looked at him pointedly. “I’m good.”
“You certainly are,” he heard himself saying. The next moment, Luke attempted to backpedal, just in case Kayley misunderstood what he was trying to convey. “I mean—”
Kayley placed her hand over his in a gesture of camaraderie.
“I understand,” she told him. “You don’t need to explain. I’m not about to read anything into that,” she assured him.
Again, the room was fairly crowded with people, yet he couldn’t help thinking that it felt as if they were sharing an intimate moment.
“Would you care for a drink?” a slender young uniformed server asked, intruding into the moment as he held up a tray filled with glasses of sparkling champagne.
Time to regroup. “I certainly would,” Luke told the server, plucking two glasses from the tray and offering one to Kayley. When the server withdrew, Luke asked, “Should we toast anything?”
Kayley thought for a second, then said, “How about our work?”
It was definitely not what he’d been expecting. “You’re certainly an unusual young woman,” he told her. Raising his glass slightly, Luke said, “To orthopedic surgery.”
“That needs a little work,” she told him. “To successful orthopedic surgery,” Kayley amended.
Luke suppressed a laugh. Laughter had made a comeback in his life lately, it occurred to him.
“I stand corrected,” Luke said just before he took a sip from his glass.
He saw her smile behind her glass and felt something hot and demanding springing up in his gut, stirring it. It was a sensation he hadn’t experienced in a long time.
Feeling it now exhilarated him as much as it worried him.
After that, for the rest of the evening, he stayed clear of the champagne, afraid that the alcohol might have simply intensified what he was feeling. He didn’t want to take any chances.
* * *
Kayley was surprised that they stayed at the fund-raiser as long as they did.
She’d thought, once she’d mentioned that they could leave at any time, that Luke would take her up on that, if not quickly, then at least within the hour.
But he hadn’t.
They were not the last ones to leave, but they were in the last third. This was after a three-course meal that turned out to be, surprisingly, quite good and then sitting through the fund-raiser. The latter was centered around bidding for a wide variety of prizes that had been donated to the cause by local businesses. The prizes included, among other things, family packages of tickets and added perks to several of the amusement parks in Southern California, three-day stays on the Queen Mary 2 and trips to Catalina Island.
When a family package to Disneyland that was near and dear to her heart came up for bid, she surprised Luke by getting caught up in the bidding. She was even more animated than usual, going out of her way to top each new bid made on the tickets.
The bidding was heated for several minutes, until it came down to just two bidders. And finally, Kayley outlasted the other opponent, who gave up and dropped out. The family package was hers.
“You do realize that you wound up paying more than the tickets actually cost, right?” Luke asked her after the dust had settled. He was about to point out that she could have easily gone to the amusement-park box office and paid less than what she’d just bid, but he didn’t get the opportunity.
“You can’t put a price tag on having one of the princesses as your personal guide through the park,” Kayley told him after she had written out a check payable to the hospital and collected her prize.
“You’re actually saying that with a straight face,” he marveled, shaking his head.
“That’s because I’m serious,” she told Luke. “Here.” She held the envelope with the tickets out to him. When Luke didn’t make a move to take it, she grabbed his hand and placed the envelope into it, saying, “Lily is going to love this.”
The full implication of what Kayley had just done hit him. “You did this for Lily?”
“Well, everyone is young at heart in that place,” she quipped, “but yes, I did it for Lily—and for you,” Kayley added.
“But why?” He could have easily afforded to get tickets for himself and his daughter—if it had occurred to him.
It was as if she could read his mind, he thought when she said, “Because Lily needs some time with her daddy, and where better to spend that time than in a place where magic happens on a regular basis?”
Kayley could see that she was running up against some resistance on his part, so she tried again.
“She’s the little girl who came up with the plan to catch a leprechaun, but you’re the one who went along with it, so I think there’s just enough of the little boy in you to enjoy this ‘magical kingdom,’ as well.”
“I see.” He opened the envelope, confirming what he already knew to be the case. “There’re four tickets in here.”
“That means you can take Barbara with you. That way you won’t get completely overwhelmed by Lily.” She grinned. “You’ll take turns.”
The one who would really not be overwhelmed by Lily was the woman he was looking at. Kayley struck him as having more stamina than any three people he knew.
“Would you be willing to come along?” he asked her.
Willing? She would love to, but she wasn’t one to presume anything. Kayley wanted to be very, very sure Luke was saying what she thought he was saying. “Are you asking me to come?”
He didn’t see where the confusion came from. “They’re your tickets.”
“No,” she corrected him, “they’re yours. Or rather, they’re Lily’s.” Because Lily was the person she had done all that bidding for in the first place.
“Well then, there’s no need for any further discussion,” Luke concluded. “Lily would rather have you come along than me and we have enough tickets for all four of us.”
Kayley looked at him, upset. He couldn’t possibly believe that.
“That’s not true,” she insisted. “The only reason she reacts to me the way she does is because I can get down to her level more easily.” Her eyes shone as she teased, “But you’re getting there, Leprechaun Catcher.”
“I don’t know why we’re going around and around about this, Kayley,” he said honestly. “Unless you don’t want to go.”
She didn’t want him misunderstanding—nor did she want to miss out on going. She was just trying to get him to understand how important he was to Lily.
“Of course I want to go,” she assured him. “I could never resist going back to that wonderful amusement park. They had a lot less princesses the last time I went. I have to admit that it would be fun to see how things have changed there—but still stayed the same.�
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“The magic of childhood,” Luke declared. And then he looked at Kayley, pleased at the ultimate outcome. “Lily’s going to be thrilled,” he predicted.
That made two of them, Kayley thought. And then she looked at her watch. “It’s almost midnight,” she realized. She looked at the envelope she’d won.
“I guess it’s way too late to give those tickets to her tonight.”
He hadn’t realized that it had gotten this late. And that he’d had this much fun being here—but that was on Kayley, he thought. And her “magic.”
“I guess we need to get you home before you turn into a pumpkin,” he told her.
Kayley looked at him, clearly impressed. “You remember your Cinderella,” she cried. “I would have never thought that of you.” A smile split her face. “Looks like I’m not the only one full of surprises.”
“Some things stay with you,” he said as if to shrug off any undue credit for recalling anything about a fairy tale.
* * *
The lights of the houses in the development where Kayley lived were dark when they drove by them.
“Looks like everyone turns in early around here,” Luke commented.
“Well, it is after midnight,” Kayley reminded him as they pulled up to her driveway.
He countered her reminder with one of his own. “But it’s a Saturday night.”
“The people who are taking advantage of that fact,” Kayley said as she turned the passenger-side door handle and got out of the car, “aren’t home. They’re out partying or at the movies.”
“You have a point,” he agreed. He began to follow her to her front door.
Kayley looked over her shoulder and stopped walking for a moment. “If you want to go home, it’s okay. You don’t have to walk me to my door and wait for me to open it. This is a very quiet, safe neighborhood,” she said.
He pretended to give her a scrutinizing look. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”
“Oh no, quite the opposite.” Embarrassed, she turned away and unlocked her door. “I mean, if you’d like to come in for a nightcap, I’ve got a little beer and some wine in the refrigerator,” she offered, remembering she’d pushed both bottles to the rear of the fridge. “I don’t really care for either,” she admitted.
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