Daddy 101 (American Romance)

by Leigh, Jo

  She turned on the light and led him into the inner sanctum. Her unhurried pace from just a moment ago was gone, and in its place was purpose. She moved quickly and easily, in command of her space. He’d been right to leave Pete in her care.

  They got to the back room, and she switched on the light. Pete was on his feet in the big cage. Alex could already see that the old guy was a little better. Pete’s whole body wagged, not quite as enthusiastically as normal, but still pretty good. Alex smiled as he heard the familiar greeting whine, and he went over and put his hand through the wide cage and grabbed the old boy.

  DANI WATCHED ALEX greet his pet. He crouched down, and let Pete lick his face. Pete looked better. The liquids and the medication were working, although he wasn’t ready to leave yet. She’d still have to keep her eyes on him for a couple of days. A dog his age was liable to take a sudden turn.

  But for now, Pete looked comfortable. Before they left, she would give him a brief exam and listen to his lungs. Now, though, she would leave the man and his pet alone for their moment, and take a look at her other patients.

  She went first to the bulldog with the broken leg. As she comforted the big guy she heard Pete’s cage door open. Glancing back, she watched as Alex crawled inside. He sat Indian-style on the big pillow, and Pete curled up in his lap like a pup.

  She felt a lump rise in her throat and turned away. What a ridiculous response. But then, her responses to Alex Bradley had all been pretty ridiculous.

  She’d known him for only a few hours. Yet he’d made her think of things she had no business thinking. Brought up memories best left undisturbed. She had treated him unfairly, and it rankled that she could be so petty. Especially when he’d been so open with his own story.

  The bulldog was doing well, and after a few minutes of petting him, listening to the soft, unintelligible conversation Alex was having with Pete, she turned to a young tabby kitten who’d been caught in some barbed wire. The little one mewled at her pitifully, but Dani saw that she’d eaten her food and had plenty of water. Her wounds were on the mend. The cat really just needed attention. All of the creatures she cared for did. No matter what medicines and surgical techniques she used to heal the wounded pets, the one thing she believed in most was a loving hand. A gentle touch.

  She lifted the cat to her chest, and turned to watch Alex. He had quieted, and now she saw why. He was still petting Pete, but his gaze was on her. He looked at her the way she knew she looked at her charges. With concern, with patience, with care. Why? She’d been nothing but snarly with him. Yet his look was genuine.

  He really did care. About her. A stranger, not someone in her huge ever-expanding family, or the town that had helped raise her. This was a sophisticated, intelligent man. Someone who owed her nothing, needed nothing back.

  “He’s better,” Alex said.

  “I can see that. I’d like to check him out before we go.”

  “You want me to come out?”

  She shook her bead. “I have a few more patients to tend to first.”

  He smiled. “I don’t think that one’s going to let you.”

  She looked down at the kitten. Her small gray head was burrowed against her chin, and the little claws were kneading her chest in a rhythmic motion that all children, no matter what species, seemed to know. Her purr was loud for such a teeny thing. “You’re right.”

  “Is that one a stray?”

  “No. She’s got a home. A good one. She’s just used to a lot of attention.”

  “Yeah, that’s how it is, I guess. You get spoiled.” He turned to the third cage down from Pete’s. Inside was a white mutt, the only dog who hadn’t moved or barked since they’d arrived. “What’s his story?”

  “The other side of the coin,” Dani said. “He’s not had it very easy, from what I could see. He’d been beaten up pretty badly. Lost a lot of blood.”

  “A stray?”

  “Worse. We took him from his owner. The jerk had mistreated him for years. The poor thing doesn’t know what a loving touch is.”

  She looked at the dog, alone, scared, wounded. When Alex spoke, it took her a minute to register his words.

  “Do you?”

  “What do you mean?” she asked, although she knew.

  “I keep thinking you want to be like that kitten, but you’re afraid, like that white dog.”

  “Bold assessment for a man I’ve known only a few hours.”

  “I haven’t known the critters here for five minutes, but it’s not hard to tell who’s who and what’s what.”

  She put the kitten back in the small cage, cringing at the distressed sounds the little one made. Walking slowly, carefully, she approached the wounded dog. As she neared he stood up on shaky legs, his hackles rose and he bared his teeth. She waited patiently, letting the dog get her scent. She’d avoided a muzzle this morning, and she wanted to again now. While she gave the dog time to calm down, she thought about Alex’s comment. Was it true?

  “Hey, Dani?”

  She nodded.

  “Forget it. I’m sorry. I don’t know you well enough to be spouting off like that.”

  “No, you don’t. But it’s okay. Who knows. Maybe there’s even some truth to it.”

  “Aw, what do I know?”

  She turned to meet his gaze. “Too much, I think.”

  He looked at her for a long while. “I know one other thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “It would be a damn shame.”

  “What?”

  “For you to stay in that cage.”

  DANI LOCKED THE DOOR behind them. She’d finished checking all the animals, including Pete, who was indeed doing a lot better, and now she wanted to get home. Things had certainly shifted on this innocent little trip. Suddenly Alex wasn’t just some rich stranger she felt vaguely annoyed about. And vaguely turned on by. Now he was a person, flesh and blood and three dimensional, which was a much more serious problem.

  Who would have thought this man would have been so insightful? Could have seen her so clearly? Not that he was a hundred percent accurate about her, but there was some truth to his words. He’d given her something to think about. But she wasn’t going to do that now. Not with him. He’d leave in a day or so, and then she’d take some time and think it over.

  She pocketed her key and they headed home. The street was quieter now. A few places were still open. The ice-cream parlor, the drugstore. But by nine, the town would be bedded down for the night.

  As they neared the ice-cream shop, she felt Alex’s hand touch her gently on the small of the back. His hand only made contact with her jacket, and still it was enough to shake her out of her reverie. This was something entirely new. Even Randy’s touch hadn’t made her so physically aware. But Alex... All he had to do was brush her gently, and sparks flew.

  “How about some ice cream?” he asked.

  She debated for a moment. But only a moment. “Sure, I’d like that.”

  “Great.” He walked a little quicker, and his tentative touch on her back grew stronger. She felt the heat through her jacket, and wondered if he noticed it.

  At the parlor, Alex took his hand away, and opened the door for her. She walked in, suddenly very thirsty for something very cold.

  Janet Colby, a local high school senior, was behind the counter. Dani almost laughed at the girl’s reaction to Alex. Her face, normally very pale, got quite red. Her hand went immediately to her hair, and the little white paper hat she wore. Her gaze swung wildly, but always came back to Alex.

  Dani could relate. He did have a way of flustering a person.

  “Dr. Jacobson,” the girl said, finally. “Um...”

  “Hi, Janet. This is Mr. Bradley. We’d like to get some ice cream.”

  “Uh-huh,” Janet said, nodding, staring now.

  “Nice to meet you, Janet,” Alex said.

  Dani was struck by the gentleness of his tone. The interest behind it. She doubted very much that he wanted to become friends w
ith the girl behind the counter, but he made it sound as if it was a real possibility.

  “Can you excuse me for a second?” Janet said.

  Before Dani could answer, the girl was gone, ducked into the back room.

  “I’ll bet that happens a lot.”

  Alex smiled. “More than I’d like.”

  “It’s kinda sweet.”

  “No, it’s kind of embarrassing. I am not cut out for this sort of thing.”

  “On the contrary,” she said as she examined the flavors in the freezer case, “you are remarkably adept at it.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Damn, they don’t have mint chocolate chip.”

  “Don’t change the subject.”

  “I meant,” she said, “that you handle yourself very well. A lot of people in your situation wouldn’t.”

  “What, because I say hello to people?”

  “Yes. That’s exactly right.”

  “That’s nothing.”

  She turned from the ice cream to face him. “No, it’s not nothing. I’ve seen people like you behave quite badly to people like her. Just because they can.”

  “Well, then, some people you might think are like me, aren’t like me at all.”

  Just then, before she could think how to respond to this latest little jolt to her ego, the door to the ice-cream parlor opened. A group of girls, seven of them, walked in. They all looked flushed, as if they’d been running. They probably had. Dani groaned. It was going to be another replay of this afternoon at the coffee shop. Janet hadn’t gone to compose herself in the back room; she’d gone to set the jungle drums in motion.

  “I think you’re in for some company,” she whispered.

  “Uh-oh.”

  “Yeah. Wanna make a break for it?”

  He shook his head, then looked fixedly at the Chocolate Chocolate Chip. “Not yet.”

  “It’s up to you.”

  The bell above the door jingled again, and Dani watched another three high school kids come in. The place wasn’t all that big, and now there were a lot of people here. Yet it was awfully quiet. No one needed to speak. They just needed to stare. At the Sexiest Man in the World.

  Suddenly Dani felt sorry for Alex. She’d seen he was a person, not the picture on the magazine cover. This couldn’t be easy for him.

  Janet came out from the back, and flushed again as she saw her friends lining the back wall. She tried to smile, but it wasn’t very convincing.

  Dani ordered quickly, her tone a little accusatory. But when Alex asked for his double scoop of chocolate chip and jamoca, his voice held no bitterness.

  Janet worked with shaky hands, and the cones were less than masterpieces. Dani was getting jumpy. More kids entered the parlor, but no one said one word. It was eerie and uncomfortable, and all she wanted to do was get out and apologize profusely to her guest. What were these kids thinking?

  Alex took his cone, and grabbed a few napkins. “How much is it?” he asked.

  “Four-twenty,” Janet said, her voice cracking a little at the end.

  He gave her a five, and while they waited for the change, someone coughed. Not a big cough, but a “I’m going to say something” cough.

  “Mr. Bradley?”

  The voice came from a girl Dani didn’t know. She was the smallest one there. Cute, dark haired, wearing an “X-Files” T-shirt and very tight jeans.

  Alex turned to face her. “Yes?”

  “Could I have your autograph, you think?”

  He nodded, smiling. “Sure. You have some paper?”

  The girl shook her head. “Not on paper.” She held out her arm as she walked closer. “On here.”

  Dani nearly dropped her ice cream.

  Alex merely nodded. “Got a pen?”

  The girl handed him a permanent marker. Blue. Dani watched in amazement as Alex put his ice cream in the holder on the counter, calmly uncapped the pen, took the teenager’s arm and wrote his name boldly.

  He smiled at the girl, and she giggled. Then another girl, this one taller and blond, came to take her place. She held out her arm. “Me, too?”

  Alex nodded. Smiled. Signed.

  Dani licked her cone as she watched every one of the young women stand and wait their turn. He was patient, pleasant and even made some conversation with the starstruck girls.

  She was truly amazed. Why anyone would want an autograph like this was beyond her, but she’d been a kid once, and remembered she’d done some crazy things. But more amazing was watching Alex. He simply couldn’t have surprised her more.

  Finally the last girl stood in front of him. He reached for her arm, but she shook her head. Instead she pulled up her little crop-top T-shirt, baring a very slender, very tanned midriff.

  Alex immediately turned to look at Dani, smiled and winked. It was a conspiratorial smile, meant just for her. A shared moment that sent a little shiver up her spine. It wasn’t because he was famous. It was because he was Alex.

  Chapter Six

  “So, it’s not the first time you’ve written on someone’s tummy?”

  Alex shook his head. As he and Dani crossed the last street toward home he slowed down a bit. He didn’t want this walk to end. The hell with the walk, he didn’t want Dani’s laughter to end. “No, this was my second tummy.”

  “What other body parts have you written on?”

  “Well,” he said, licking the ice-cream cone that had replaced the melted one. “I wrote the secret lyrics to ‘Louie, Louie’ on my hand in high school.”

  “Secret lyrics?”

  “Yeah, you know. The ones after ‘We gotta go now.”’

  “I thought those were, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.’”

  He shrugged. “I guess they weren’t so secret.”

  She laughed again. God, that sound! It made his chest swell, not to mention another key appendage. She was in the light of the street lamp now so he could really see her smile. Damn, but she was appealing. It would be nice to see her face, with that smile, last thing before he went to sleep. Or the first thing when he woke up. If only...

  If only, what? If she were living in New York instead of New Mexico? If he was the kind of man who could live in a place like Carlson’s Gap?

  “Doesn’t it make you feel awkward, though? All the attention, I mean.”

  He shook his head. “It’s temporary. I’m the flavor of the month, that’s all. Very soon, I’ll be that guy that was in the magazine, and right after that I’ll be someone who might have been someone, once. What’s the harm in playing it out?”

  “The lack of privacy, for one.”

  “I have the kind of privacy that matters.”

  “Oh?”

  “They might know the face, but they don’t know the man.”

  “Pity for them.”

  He stopped. “That’s quite a compliment, coming from you. I’m going to have to buy you a lot more ice cream.”

  “Ice cream had nothing to do with it.”

  “Then what?”

  She started walking again and he fell in beside her. They were much closer than they had been on the way to the clinic. And nobody’s hands were in pockets. As a matter of fact, her hand was enticingly close to his. Close enough to hold, which is just what he did.

  She looked first at their joined hands, then up at him. He wondered if she was going to pull away, but she didn’t, even though she frowned. He’d have to watch his step.

  “Okay, so I jumped to some wrong conclusions before,” she said. “I’m sorry. You’re not just some pretty rich guy—” She stopped speaking, and when he looked at her, she was studying the ground.

  He frowned. “Go ahead. Finish the sentence. I can take it.”

  She sighed as she looked up at him. “Some pretty rich guy with an ego the size of Detroit.”

  “You shouldn’t be so sure about that. I’ve got an ego all right.”

  “An ego is permissible. An ego that feeds on making other people feel small, isn’t
.”

  “I see. And as far as the pretty and rich part?”

  “Also permissible. Although it is disconcerting to realize just how much prettier you are than me.”

  “Are you kidding?”

  “Come on. It’s true. You know you’re gorgeous.”

  He tugged her to a stop, tossed his cone into a trash barrel in the driveway and turned her so he could look right at her. “Because we’re such good friends, and because I’ve known you such a long time, I’m going to be very bold and tell you something, Dr. Jacobson.”

  “I don’t think I want to hear it.”

  “Too bad. You’re going to hear it anyway.”

  She sighed again. “You don’t have to tell me I’m pretty. I wasn’t fishing.”

  “I’m not going to tell you that.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  “You’re not pretty. Well, not just pretty. You’re beautiful. And sexy. And intelligent. And desirable. But that’s not the problem.”

  She didn’t respond immediately. He watched her gaze sweep over his face, study his eyes. Her mouth opened slightly, as if she needed a little more breath. He was sure, if it had been daylight, he’d have seen color tint her cheeks. “What is?” she whispered.

  “You don’t know that you’re beautiful. Sexy. Intelligent. And oh, so desirable,” he whispered right back. Then he leaned down, slowly, and finally took the kiss that had been promised all those hours before.

  The first touch of her lips was something he’d remember for the rest of his life. And never be able to describe. “Softness” wasn’t adequate. “Sweet” didn’t say it at all. The only thing close was heaven. His groin told him to crush her incredible lips with his, but he held back, wanting the torment to last. He tasted first, sipped. Licked her bottom lip. Teased her with the pressure, first soft, then harder, then soft again.

  It was her moan that changed his mind. The dark, throaty sound made him move closer, wrap his arms around her back. Bring her tight against his body so they touched from lips to thighs. He felt the tip of her tongue on his and then there was no more teasing. He let go, letting his body lead him. His tongue met hers and his thoughts turned primitive with raw hunger.