Harlequin Special Edition November 2014 - Box Set 2 of 2: The Maverick's Thanksgiving BabyA Celebration ChristmasDr. Daddy's Perfect Christmas

by Brenda Harlen

  “I do,” he called over his shoulder. “But I have to take care of something important first. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  As he sprinted toward the parking lot, he pulled his cell out of his pocket and redialed the number that had called. He didn’t waste time retrieving the messages. He knew what they’d say. Now he just needed to get ahold of someone who would let George know he was on his way.

  “Celebration Community Center. This is April.”

  “Hi, April. This is Cullen Dunlevy. I’m calling about George Thomas. He’s part of the holiday basketball camp. I goofed. I was supposed to pick him up at four, but I got tied up at work. I’m five minutes away. I’ll be right there.”

  “No worries, Dr. Dunlevy. Lily Palmer just picked him up. He’s safe and sound.”

  Cullen stopped running.

  Damn.

  Actually it was good that Lily had George. The poor kid must’ve been worried that they’d forgotten him or that something had happened. Cullen hated the thought of putting George through anything more than he’d already suffered in his young life.

  “Was he...okay?”

  There was a pause on the line.

  “Well, honestly, he was a little upset, but he was fine once Lily arrived.”

  An expletive formed at the back of his throat, but he managed to swallow it.

  “Thanks, April. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

  After he hung up, he stood in the parking lot debating what to do. He should go back inside. He’d be a few minutes late for the board meeting, but he wouldn’t have missed anything.

  Still, he couldn’t make his feet move.

  Instead, he dialed his assistant, Tracy. “Please give the board my apologies. I’ve had a family emergency and have to leave the hospital. I’ll be back as soon as I can, but they should start the meeting without me.”

  * * *

  Lily’s previous irritation at Cullen for not picking up George—for not calling or returning her call—pretty much faded the minute she saw his face. He looked so guilty as he speed-walked toward the Celebrations, Inc. booth at the holiday market.

  “Where’s George?” he asked. “April at the community center said you picked him up. Where is he?”

  Cullen looked panicked as his gaze swept the market.

  “Relax,” Lily said. “He and the girls are walking around and getting something to eat. He’s pretty hungry.”

  She couldn’t hide her annoyance.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I forgot.”

  “What do you mean you forgot?” Instantly she regretted her tone.

  Cullen shrugged, turning his palms up as if surrendering. “I forgot. There was a bad accident on Highway 43 and they took a lot of the injured to my E.R. Then it was just one thing after another. And the next thing I knew, it was almost five o’clock. I forgot to go get him.”

  Dismay punched Lily in the stomach. She knew Cullen was already suffering. There was no use making him feel worse. George was safe and sound. Cullen was beyond sorry. She should’ve never asked Cullen to pick up the boy in the first place. It was her job. She should’ve just asked Sydney if she could leave the girls with her and gotten him herself. But she would never say that to Cullen.

  She weighed her words. “I tried to call you. April said she tried to call you, too.”

  He cleared his throat. “I turned off the ringer when I was working in the emergency room and I forgot to turn it back on. I hate thinking about him sitting there waiting for me. I came straight over here to apologize to him—and you—after I learned you’d picked him up.”

  That was when Lily realized exactly how distraught he was over this.

  She reached out and put her hand on his arm. “Hey, it’s okay—”

  He pulled away. “It’s not okay. There’s no excuse for it. I need to apologize to him before I go back to the hospital.”

  “Cullen, really, it’s okay. Everything is fine.”

  “No, it’s not. I promised I’d pick him up. I forgot. What kind of an idiot forgets a kid?”

  “Come take a walk with me,” she said to Cullen. “Do you mind if I step away for a moment, Syd?”

  “Not a problem,” her friend said.

  They were about to take a dinner break anyway. Lily had planned on asking Cullen to join them, but now she wasn’t sure it was a good idea. “Please tell the girls and George I’ll be right back.”

  It was becoming a familiar trek, this walk to the parking lot with Cullen.

  She held the silence until they’d cleared the exit.

  It was cold outside, and she pulled the collar of her jacket up around her neck. She should’ve thought to grab her hat.

  “You said there was an emergency. You aren’t used to picking up a child. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

  “You don’t get it. I screwed up.”

  He braced one hand against the building’s wall and raked the other through his hair. He looked like a god, standing there in the golden late-afternoon light. A tortured, brooding god. She wanted to put her arms around him until he believed everything would be okay.

  “So, let me get this straight. You’re calling yourself a screwup because you forgot to pick him up?”

  Cullen gave a quick one-shoulder shrug.

  “So, if you’re a screwup for not picking him up, what does running out of gas make me?”

  He glared at her.

  “So, you’re just going to have to forgive yourself.” She closed the distance between them. “All parents slip up now and then. I’ll bet ninety percent of the parents of the kids I’ve taught over the years have been late or even forgotten to pick up their child at least once.”

  She put her hand on his arm as a show of solidarity, but he shrugged it off.

  “I’m not George’s parent and I think this proves how unfit I am to care for the kids. They deserve so much better.”

  “Is this discussion about what happened with George or is it because you regret kissing me this morning?”

  He couldn’t have looked more pain-stricken if she’d slapped him. “I don’t regret kissing you, but I do think it’s best that we keep our relationship platonic. It’s just easier that way.”

  Now she was the one who felt as if she’d been slapped. “Okay. That’s fine.”

  It wasn’t fine, but what else was she supposed to say?

  “I’d better go back inside.” She turned around and started walking away from him. Away from every ridiculous fantasy about him turning out different from the guy her friends had warned her he was.

  “Lily,” he said.

  She hated herself for the way her heart squeezed when he said her name. She stopped, but she didn’t turn around.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I really am.”

  So was she. She was nearly sick with regret that Sydney, Pepper and A.J. had been right about him. He wasn’t the type for anything long-term. Or maybe she simply wasn’t his type.

  “I need to tell you something before you go.”

  She turned around, careful to keep her face neutral.

  “Brenda is back. She stopped by my office today.”

  “Who is Brenda?”

  “My ex-wife.”

  So that was her name.

  Brenda.

  Brenda and Cullen.

  The Drs. Dunlevy or would that be Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Dunlevy?

  “Okay.” The word came out flat.

  She almost asked him if congratulations were in order. She thought about telling him that he was free to take Brenda to the Jingle Bell Ball, but she didn’t want to sound bitter.

  Damn it. She’d been looking forward to going to the ball. Now she’d have to tell Sydney that she didn’t need to borrow that beautiful dre
ss. And Sydney would get to say I told you so.

  Nah, Sydney has too much class to do that.

  But the I told you so would still go without saying, at least in her own head. She’d chosen, yet again, to ignore another truth.

  When will you learn?

  “I’m sorry,” he repeated.

  “Stop saying that, Cullen.” This time she wasn’t able to keep the edge out of her voice. “I have to go.”

  He nodded. “Tomorrow night, I may be a little later.”

  “That’s not a problem,” she answered coolly. “The kids and I will be working at the market. It closes at nine. After we clean up, I should have them home around ten.”

  “Would it be possible for you to stay a little later than that?”

  Oh.

  Oh, my God.

  He has a date.

  She stared at him, refusing to help him out of this awkward pickle. She didn’t want to believe that he would actually have the audacity to ask her to babysit while he went out on a date. Not after he’d kissed her and tossed her out like yesterday’s news.

  He cleared his throat. “Would you be able to stay with the kids until I get home?”

  Oh, and meet Brenda? That was rich. And really smooth. While she’d been sorry for him over his earlier anguish over George, it all fell away once she realized what else was on his agenda. Yes, this nanny had boundaries, and she was going to enforce them now.

  “Sorry, Charlie, no can do. We’ll see you when we get home at ten.”

  She turned and walked away.

  She wasn’t a femme fatale like Giselle or a world-class surgeon like Brenda.

  She was simply the convenient nanny with whom Cullen had briefly contemplated hanky-panky and then run as fast as he could.

  She would watch the kids during the hours they’d established because it was her job to do that, but she wasn’t hanging around late into the night while he went out on a date with his ex-wife.

  She burned more with each step she took, but she wasn’t going to cry. There was no way she was giving him the satisfaction of that.

  As she approached the booth, she took a deep breath and shoved her disappointment behind her wall.

  She was such an idiot for letting things get out of hand. How could she let herself fall for him?

  Well, that was then and this was now.

  Things were over with Cullen and she needed to get over it.

  And the first step toward that end was reminding herself that they couldn’t be over when they’d never really begun.

  Chapter Ten

  The following night, Cullen and Brenda agreed to meet at six-thirty in the bar at Café St. Germaine before their seven o’clock dinner reservation.

  They planned to have drinks before dinner and catch up on everything that had happened since their last real conversation four months ago.

  Brenda was late, as usual. So Cullen grabbed a seat at the bar and ordered a Scotch and water. From where he sat, he had a great view of Main Street. The city had decorated the old gaslight-style streetlights with giant glittering stars and strung garland from lamppost to lamppost high across the road.

  The storefronts had gone all out with their holiday window displays. On a Roll Bakery was even featuring loaves of Lily’s homemade stollen in the window.

  Lily.

  She was everywhere.

  Everywhere he looked he saw something that reminded him of her: her bread in the window; the farmers’ market (he’d passed it on the way to Café St. Germaine); the athletic-shoe shop where she’d tried to take George to get his shoes before she ran out of gas. He harrumphed to himself when he recalled how she’d turned the tables on him when he was brooding over forgetting to pick up the boy.

  He wasn’t excusing himself, but she was right. He knew he hadn’t purposely left the kid any more than she’d purposely run out of gas on the way to Dallas. None of the women he’d dated had been as forthright as Lily. Well, except for Brenda, and he’d married her.

  However, what Lily had that Brenda lacked—and Brenda had many fine attributes: she was intelligent, beautiful and driven—was heart. Lily had a huge heart, always thinking of others, often before herself.

  Sure, Lily challenged him at times—she certainly had a smart mouth to go along with that big heart. But it was her compassion that set her apart from the rest.

  A pang of regret twisted in his gut. He felt like a bastard for treating her the way he had yesterday. It was the only way he could make the emotional break from her. He was damn lucky that she hadn’t insisted on a clean break and left him and the kids high and dry to fend for themselves.

  He would’ve deserved it—the same way he deserved the cool greeting he’d received when she brought the kids home after the first long night at the holiday market. He’d also deserved the sleepless night that had him tossing and turning into the wee hours of the morning, thinking about what a jackass he’d been to kiss her and cut her loose. But she and the kids, they were just getting too close...

  He hated that about himself, that need to push people away when they got too close. That was the one thing he’d change if he could, but he was powerless. It was like asking an elephant to downsize. He certainly wasn’t proud of this disconnect, but he didn’t know how to change.

  The kids would be so much better off with two adoptive parents who would welcome them as part of their family. But he kept circling back to the reality that so far Cam Brady hadn’t had any luck finding a family that wanted to adopt four kids. With each passing day, hopes of that happening before the end of the year grew dimmer and slimmer.

  Thank God for Lily. He’d been grateful when she’d arrived right on schedule. She’d quietly busied herself while he’d poured himself a travel mug of coffee. But there’d been no fresh-baked cinnamon rolls, none of the personal niceties that she’d gone out of her way to provide in the past. He had definitely been left to fend for himself, and he deserved it.

  As Cullen took a long draw on his Scotch, Jake Lenox, an internist at Celebration Memorial, walked in with his girlfriend of the moment, a leggy brunette his coworkers had nicknamed Miss Texas. Jake was proudly showing her off like the trophy she was, but Cullen had to wonder if Jake was really happy.

  Of course, on the surface, who wouldn’t be happy to be with such a beautiful woman? Miss Texas was one of several beauties who had been in Jake’s life over the years. The guy tended to be a serial monogamist. But Miss Texas had been around longer than some of the others. Was his friend actually getting serious?

  Cullen knew he was guilty of similar romantic crimes. While Jake dated one woman for a few months before moving on, Cullen had an endless revolving door of short-term beautiful women. Funny how that door had stopped revolving once Lily and the kids had arrived. Had he given Lily the brush-off yesterday so he could reopen that sad process? Honestly, it didn’t even seem appealing right now. In fact, it felt like going backward.

  Since he didn’t know what he wanted right now, it was best not to do anything.

  Jake waved at Cullen and steered Miss Texas toward that end of the bar. Cullen knocked back the last of his Scotch.

  “Hey, buddy, are you alone?” Jake asked.

  “I’m waiting for someone.”

  “Let me buy you a drink while you wait,” said Jake. “Have you met Dorenda?”

  “Yes, we met at Quinn Vogler’s Labor Day party.”

  Dorenda simpered and offered Cullen her cheek. As any gentleman would, he kissed her. In the process he nearly choked on her perfume and almost lost an eye compliments of a shellacked curl.

  Jake left the two of them alone while he ordered the drinks.

  “Have you eaten here before?” Cullen asked.

  “No,” she said. “I’m from Dallas.”

  “What do you d
o in Dallas?”

  “I’m a model.”

  Not really in the mood for small talk, Cullen glanced at his watch. Was Brenda standing him up?

  Order placed, Jake rejoined the party and started talking shop. Forty-five minutes later, while Cullen was halfway through drinks with Jake, Brenda finally arrived.

  “So sorry I’m late. I had to go back to the hotel and freshen up. I spent the whole day at Celebration Pediatrics. Looks like it could be a good fit. Although, if I do come on board, several things will have to change.”

  Typical Brenda. No call. No text. It was still all about her. Cullen managed to commandeer the conversation long enough to introduce Brenda to his friends.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t think I caught your last name,” he said to Dorenda.

  “Parks,” she said. “Dorenda Parks.”

  “Dorenda Parks, this is Brenda Byrd. Brenda, this is Dorenda.”

  “Dorenda and Brenda,” Jake said. “You’re practically twins.”

  Brenda eyed Miss Texas dubiously. “Nice to meet you.” Her tone was cool.

  “What would you like to drink, Brenda?” Jake asked.

  “Nothing, thanks. I’m sure Cullen is starving. Why don’t we go see if our table is ready?”

  “She gets cranky when she’s hungry,” Cullen tried to joke, hoping to cover for her brusqueness.

  “I’m not cranky,” she said. “I was only thinking of you.”

  This was going nowhere fast. “I think we’d better go see if they’re still holding our reservation.”

  Brenda was busy checking her phone and didn’t seem to hear Cullen’s attempt to cover for her aloofness. Or maybe she did and just didn’t care. That was entirely possible. This detachment had been a factor in why they had divorced. She was a hell of a doctor, but she still lacked charm and bedside manner unless she chose to turn it on.

  Since they were so late, they’d lost the reservation, but after Cullen primed the hostess with a twenty, she remembered she had a table in the back and seated them immediately.

  “How did your emergency turn out yesterday?” Brenda asked once they were settled at the table.

  Cullen glanced at her over the top of the wine list. “Everything is fine. Do you want red or white?” Everything wasn’t fine, but he didn’t want to talk about it.