“Thanks, Meagan. I’ll owe you big time for this.”

She laughed. “Don’t think I won’t collect someday.”

He shifted his weight, and she realized suddenly how closely they stood.

“You can collect any time,” he said, his voice a little lower now, his gaze locked with hers. His smile deepened at the corners, and her heart rate sped a little faster. Seth was a nice enough looking guy, but when he smiled …like this …wow.

Still looking into her eyes, he lowered his head a little more. Very slowly, giving her plenty of time to draw back or turn her cheek, if she wanted. She tilted her face upward, instead.

His lips brushed hers lightly. It was a friendly kiss, neither demanding nor tentative. Yet when it ended, and he drew back to smile at her again, she felt very much as if they’d just stepped over an invisible line between friendly neighbors and something a little more …intimate.

About the Author

GINA WILKINS is a bestselling and award-winning author who has written more than seventy novels. She credits her successful career in romance to her long, happy marriage and her three “extraordinary” children.

A lifelong resident of central Arkansas, Ms Wilkins sold her first book in 1987 and has been writing full-time since.

The M.D.

Next Door

Gina Wilkins

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Dear Reader,

I was recently asked if I have a recurring “theme” in my writing. So many of my books are set in series about close-knit families. The question made me ponder what family means to me. Security? Companionship? Validation? The theme I finally selected was “Sanctuary.” Family, to me, is a safe place to take refuge from an unpredictable, sometimes scary world. A place to find reassurance and acceptance—not idyllic or conflict-free, but filled with love. I’ve been blessed that this has always been my experience with family—the one I was born into, the one I married into, and the one my husband and I created together during the past thirty plus years.

In this new series, DOCTORS IN THE FAMILY, you’ll meet three siblings who all happen to be doctors, but who face many of the same family issues as those in any profession. Too many responsibilities, too little time, worrisome illnesses, loss of loved ones, step-parenting and adapting to the inevitable changes that come with passing time. And always love. I hope you enjoy reading about Meagan, Mitch and Madison—and the families they encounter in their stories!

Visit me any time at ginawilkins.com.

Gina Wilkins

For my wonderful family, near and far.

Chapter One

Dressed in a long-sleeved purple T-shirt and comfortable black yoga pants, Meagan Baker reclined in a padded chaise lounge. She had a white cashmere shawl draped over her shoulders, cold soda by her hand, good book in her lap. The chair was one of several arranged in a companionable grouping on the rock patio surrounding her smallish, in-ground pool, which sparkled in the afternoon sun. A spreading oak tree canopied with early spring leaves shaded her chair. Birds played among the branches, singing cheerily. A pleasant, floral-fragrant breeze brushed her cheeks and rustled the new leaves above her, harmonizing sweetly with the birdsongs.

Glumly, she studied her feet clad in flirty purple ballet flats. Most people would think she was crazy for wishing she were in an operating room in scrubs, paper gown, cap and mask, and arch-supporting shoes.

“Can I get you anything else, sweetie?” She forced a smile as she looked up at her mother, who hovered nearby. “I’m fine, thanks. You should go home and take care of Meemaw.”

“You’re sure?” Her mom, LaDonna Baker, looked torn between caring for her convalescing daughter and returning home to tend to her own ailing mother, who lived with her. “I could warm a pot of soup before I go.”

“I can warm my own soup. You’ve filled my fridge and freezer with meals I can pop into the microwave. I won’t go hungry.” Meagan hated the feeling that she was adding to her mother’s already sizeable load of responsibilities. As the eldest of three children and a surgeon by trade, Meagan was much more accustomed to being a caretaker than having one.

Only a couple of days out of the hospital after undergoing emergency surgery, she still felt annoyingly weak and achy. She had pain pills if she needed them, but she limited herself to over-the-counter meds as much as possible. Having declined an invitation to recuperate at her mother’s house, Meagan preferred to keep her head clear. She lived alone, but she had promised her concerned family she would keep a cell phone always close at hand. Her mother and two physician siblings all lived within a ten-minute drive, so she had no fears about being on her own.

“Go home, Mom,” she repeated gently. “You’ve been here most of the day. I know you have things to do at home.”

Torn by her responsibilities, her mother finally, reluctantly left, though she made Meagan promise to call if she needed anything. Anything at all.

Alone at last, Meagan rested her head against the back of her chair and closed her eyes. She hadn’t wanted to display her weakness in front of her worried mother, but now she could relax and moan, unheard by anyone but herself. She remembered patients complaining they felt as though they’d been hit by a truck; she now knew exactly what they meant. Every inch of her seemed to ache or throb, not just the healing incision in her abdomen. She’d always tried to be sympathetic to her patients’ discomfort, but she thought she’d be even more so now that she’d actually experienced post-surgical pain, herself.

As much as she appreciated her mother’s loving care, it felt good to be alone for a while and outside in the fresh air. Ever since she’d been hospitalized six days ago for emergency surgery to repair an ovarian torsion, she’d been pent up and poked at and hovered over and treated like a …well, like a patient. She had quickly realized that she much preferred being the doctor.

She rested a hand lightly on the incision site, from force of habit, feeling for excessive heat or swelling. Despite her discomfort, she was healing just fine. She wished fleetingly that the surgery could have been performed laparoscopically, which would have resulted in a much shorter recovery period, but her condition had been too severe. Her left ovary had been twisted to the point of necrosis, and the surgeon had been unable to salvage it.

She might have saved the ovary if she’d caught the condition earlier, Meagan thought regretfully. She had mistaken the symptomatic pain for her usual menstrual cramping, popping OTC pain relievers and staying too busy taking care of other people to pay attention to her own well-being—a common failing among physicians. Only when she’d been incapacitated by sudden, severe pain, nausea and fever had she sought emergency care. She’d been rushed into an O.R. by a surgeon she worked with and trusted implicitly. If anyone could have salvaged the ovary, it would have been Meilin Liu, but no such luck.

It still surprised her how shaken she had been by the crisis. Meagan had spent the past ten years in the medical field, but seeing it from a hospital bed had been a completely different experience. She had been fortunate not to have had any health crises during her first thirty-two years, having been hospitalized only once for a tonsillectomy when she was nine. She had decided then that she wanted to be a doctor, but she had been so young she hardly remembered the hospital experience itself.

This had been different. She’d been forced during the past week to face both her mortality and her fertility, and she had been taken aback by her reactions.

Meilin had assured her the loss of an ovary would not prevent her from conceiving a child. But Meagan was thirty-two and not even dating anyone in particular. She had maybe another decade, more or less, to have a child should she decide to do so.

As for mortality—she had always thought there would be plenty of time for the things she had neglected in her single-minded pursuit of her career. Hobbies. Travel. Marriage. Children. Now she was suddenly aware of how quickly time had passed. Her twenties had sped by in a blur of medical school studying, long, sleepless residency hours, then establishing her practice as a surgeon in a Little Rock, Arkansas teaching hospital. The people she loved were growing older. Her mother was nearing sixty, her grandmother was in her eighties. Her younger brother had just turned thirty and their little sister wasn’t far behind.

She remembered as a child hearing older people talk about how quickly time flew. Back then she hadn’t understood; now she identified all too well with that sentiment.

“Oof!” Her wistful musings ended abruptly when a solid, wiggling weight landed directly on her stomach, only inches from her still-healing incision.

“What the—?”

Warm breath bathed her face while an eager pink tongue tried to do the same. Her hands were filled with a squirming, panting yellow puppy—a good-sized one at that, with paws as big as her fists and a smiling, wet-nosed face. The dog wasn’t still long enough for her to read the red metal tag dangling from his collar. Every time one of his big feet landed on her abdomen, she groaned.

“Waldo!”

A girl with a fresh, freckled face almost hidden behind round glasses and an unruly mop of brown curls rushed to rescue Meagan from the friendly assault. She grabbed the pup and wrestled him into a firm clench in her skinny arms. “Be still, Waldo. I’m so sorry, ma’am. I hope he didn’t scare you. He’s really friendly.”

Apparently, Meagan’s mom had accidentally left the backyard gate open when she left. Pressing one hand to her throbbing scar and wiping her damp cheek with the other, Meagan managed to smile at the girl. “He is definitely friendly. You called him Waldo?”

The girl nodded shyly. “My dad named him that because we’re always asking where’s Waldo?”

Meagan laughed, which only made her incision hurt worse. “Cute. You’d better keep him on a leash, though. I’d hate for him to run out in the street and get hit.”

“He got away from me when I was trying to untangle his leash.” Juggling the dog, the girl managed to snap a sturdy leather leash onto his collar. Only then did she set him down, clinging to the strap with both hands when he immediately tried to dash away from her. He almost tugged her off her feet before she braced herself. “Be still, Waldo. We’re taking him to obedience classes.”

Meagan eyed the bounding pup skeptically. “Um—how’s that going?”

“We just signed him up for six classes. They start a week from Saturday.”

The dog pounced on the only errant dandelion sprouting from Meagan’s immaculate backyard and enthusiastically ripped the puff from the top, shaking his head, play-growling and scattering seeds everywhere. Meagan thought the obedience class teacher would have quite a challenge with this particular student.

“I’m Alice Llewellyn,” the girl volunteered, still clinging to the leash. “I live in the red brick house on the other side of the street, two houses down.”

Though she had never met the inhabitants, Meagan knew the house. She nodded. “Hi, Alice. I’m Meagan Baker.”

“We just moved here a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t met many of the neighbors yet.”

Meagan had lived in this upscale, young-professionals neighborhood for almost two years and hadn’t met many of her neighbors either. It wasn’t that she was unfriendly, she assured herself. She simply wasn’t home much. Her working hours started very early, so she rarely saw any neighbors when headed for the hospital. She usually returned home tired and hungry, drove straight into the garage and put the door down behind her, then walked directly into her kitchen. Because of her busy schedule, she paid someone to keep up her lawn and pool. She did her walking and weight training at the hospital gym. And while she enjoyed swimming laps in her solar-heated pool, she usually did so after dark within the privacy of her tall redwood fence—the gate of which was now swinging open.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Alice. Welcome to the neighborhood.”

The dandelion conquered and demolished, Waldo moved on to sniff the base of an azalea bush covered in pink blooms. Fortunately Alice tugged him away from it before he could destroy that, too.

“When we moved here, I hoped there would be some other kids my age in one of the houses close to ours,” Alice confided. “My best friends from school live in other parts of town, so someone has to drive me to their houses. We’re on spring break from school, but there aren’t any other teenagers to hang out with on this street. A few little kids, but no one my age. I turned thirteen last week.”

Alice was quite obviously proud to call herself a teenager now, Meagan thought with a smothered smile. “Happy belated birthday.”

Alice grinned, showing a quick flash of braces. “Thanks. Waldo was my birthday present. But now my dad says he wishes he’d bought me something less destructive. Like a chainsaw.”

Alice’s dad seemed to have quite the sense of humor. Because the girl seemed lonely, Meagan motioned toward another outdoor chair. “Would you like to have a seat? I can get you a soda or some lemonade.”

“No, thank you, my nan—um, the housekeeper is probably wondering where I am.”

Meagan deliberately gave no indication that she’d noticed the young teen’s quick substitute of the word housekeeper for nanny. Teenagers, of course, would never admit to having or needing a nanny.

“I like your pool,” Alice added with a glance around the backyard. “Dad says maybe we’ll get one when he gets time to think about it. He’s a lawyer and he’s been real busy at work lately. There was a pool at the condo where he used to live, but he decided he needed a real house now that I live with him and this one didn’t come with a pool. It has room for one in the backyard, though, so he said he’ll think about it because I love to swim.”

Charmed by the artless chatter, even though she was bemused by how much personal information the girl had crammed into a few sentences, Meagan motioned toward her small, but functional pool. “You’d be welcome to swim in mine during your spring break. I’m home every day for the next few weeks to recover from a surgical procedure, and I’d enjoy the company if it’s okay with your dad and your, um, housekeeper. The pool is heated, so you’d be warm enough as long as you bring a cover-up for when you get out of the water. As warm as it has been this month, it’s still a little too cool to stand around in a wet bathing suit.”

Alice’s face lit up with her smile, making Meagan realize the girl was actually quite pretty beneath the glasses and wild hair. “That would be so cool. I really love to swim. I’ll ask my dad. I’m sure he’ll say it’s okay. Thanks, Miss Baker.”

“You can just call me Meagan.” She’d never been one to insist on being called “doctor,” like some of her more pretentious colleagues.

“Thanks, Meagan. I’ll see you later, okay? Come on, Waldo, let’s go home.”

“Would you mind closing the gate behind you?”

“Sure. See you later.”

Meagan watched in amusement as Alice tugged at the leash to get the rambunctious pup headed in the right direction, then was nearly pulled off her feet when the dog dashed away. Obedience classes were definitely going to be interesting with Waldo in them.

“So then Waldo took a big jump right into the pool. Water sprayed everywhere and he yelped like he was surprised he got wet. Then he started swimming and splashing and shaking his ears and he had the best time. Me and Meagan—”

“Meagan and I.”

Setting a plate on the dining room table for Friday evening’s dinner, Alice continued with barely a pause for her father’s correction. “Meagan and I were laughing so hard at him, and that just made him act sillier. She said she didn’t mind letting him into her pool because she has someone who cleans it for her. Waldo loves going swimming, Dad. We really should get a pool.”

“If we get a pool,” Seth Llewellyn replied firmly, laying napkins beside the two place settings on their table, “it will be for our use, not for Waldo’s.”

Alice gave him an innocent look. “Of course. But we can let Waldo swim with us, too, can’t we?”

“We’ll see how he does in obedience classes.”

“He’ll ace them, you’ll see,” Alice said confidently. “He’s really very intelligent.”

Seth was still reserving judgment on that call.

At least they could eat in peace. The rowdy dog was safe in the fenced backyard. He had a cozy, overpriced dog house to keep him warm and dry, and more toys than any one dog should own. Within the course of the past ten days, Waldo had gone from shelter pup to pampered pet and he was adjusting quite happily to the transition.

When Seth had taken Alice to the Humane Society to rescue a dog for her birthday present, he’d given her the choice of adopting a small, indoor dog or a larger dog that would live outside. She’d chosen the latter, though she’d hinted broadly that one of the homeless cats in the shelter would do quite well inside their house. Seth had told her hastily that they would concentrate on one pet at a time for now.

“Meagan said she thinks Waldo will be the greatest dog ever once he graduates from obedience school.” Alice shook out her napkin and laid it across her lap without pausing to breathe. “She thinks he’ll be sitting and staying by the end of the first lesson and heeling and fetching by the third. Maybe I can even teach him some fun tricks—you know, like roll over and play dead and …”

“And wash the dishes and take out the trash and scrub the toilets.”

Alice laughed musically. “Daddy, he’s just a dog.”

“Mmm. Tell your friend Meagan that.”

“She knows. She calls him my wild child now, but she says she’s being an optimist about obedience classes.”

Seth had yet to catch a glimpse of his daughter’s new friend, though Nina, the sixty-two-year-old housekeeper who doubled as a caretaker for his young daughter, had discreetly checked her out. When Alice had asked permission to go swimming at the neighbor’s house during her spring break, he’d agreed only on the condition that Nina would first meet the woman and confirm that Alice was a welcome guest. Nina had reported back that there was no reason for concern about the situation.

Nina had apparently liked Meagan Baker immediately. She had confirmed Alice’s explanation that the woman was home from work on a medical leave and seemed to enjoy Alice’s company during the afternoons. Neither Alice nor Nina had mentioned what Meagan did for a living, though Alice had said vaguely that she believed Meagan worked at the local teaching hospital. Seth had formed a hazy image of a middle-aged secretary or insurance clerk recuperating from a hysterectomy or some such female ailment.

Alice was certainly taken with Meagan. During the past three days, all Seth had heard from her during the dinners they shared was “Meagan said this” and “Meagan said that.”

He was aware that Alice missed her mother. His ex-wife had moved to Hong Kong six months ago to accept an impressive position with an American law firm there. Though she called Alice almost every day, the distance between them was hard on them. Seth knew how Colleen had agonized before accepting that job she had wanted so desperately. Her long hours and freely acknowledged ambition had ruled out Alice joining her there, even if Seth would have agreed—which he would not have, not without a battle.

Though he, too, was an attorney with a busy schedule, Seth had always been the one to scale back his hours to allow time for Alice even if he risked forfeiting career advancements at times. He and Colleen had shared custody while Colleen lived in the same country, but Seth had always been the primary caregiver. Colleen loved their daughter as much as he did, but ambition had always come first for her.

She would be the first to admit that family had been sacrificed on the altar of career in her case, ending their ill-fated marriage and affecting her relationship with her only child. More than once Colleen had confessed to Seth that she simply wasn’t the maternal type. Had she not accidentally become pregnant with Alice while she and Seth were dating in law school, she probably would never have had a child. There would be no others for her.

They’d both been twenty-three and in their first year of law school when Alice was conceived in a spontaneous interlude during what was to have been a study session. After taking a couple of weeks to consider her options, Colleen had suggested it was actually the ideal time to start a family, before they graduated and leapt into the race for career advancement. She’d been a bit concerned that having a child would be counted against her in job interviews, but there was always the appearance of settled respectability to balance that, she’d concluded. If she could demonstrate that she could graduate at the top of her class after pregnancy and childbirth, then she could surely convince any potential employers that she was prepared for all challenges.

Encouraged by their youthful infatuation and confident determination, they had married, thinking they had enough in common to sustain a long-term partnership. They were both fascinated by the law, though Seth’s interests ran to local corporate practice while Colleen’s sights had been set on more far-reaching and international goals. They got along well, and were great together in bed. Both came from successful, overachieving families and would be able to afford housekeepers and nannies to help them run their household. They figured marriage and parenthood would be easy compared to their other achievements.

Their common grounds had not been enough to overcome the other obstacles between them. The divorce had been reasonably amicable, the division of property and terms of custody settled with only a few heated battles in the process. The past six years had passed quickly and relatively quietly. Seth had risen into a junior partnership at a prestigious Little Rock law firm while Colleen traveled extensively in her skyrocketing international law career, leaving Alice more and more in Seth’s care. He and Colleen had remained on distantly friendly terms. After all, they would be bound for the rest of their lives by the daughter they both loved, so they might as well make it as pleasant as possible for everyone involved.

Was Alice subconsciously searching for another female role model in her new friendship with Meagan, or was she simply a bit lonely in her new neighborhood and looking for entertainment? With an all-too-familiar pinch of parental guilt, Seth wondered if he should have done more to provide activities for her during this week off. He’d thought spending time with her new puppy and her beloved books and art supplies would have kept her entertained for a few days out of classes.

Unfortunately, he was involved in an important and convoluted case with one of his most influential clients and it simply hadn’t been possible for him to get away from work now. He’d have to work quite a bit this weekend, too, but the case should be resolved by the middle of next week. There would be other cases, of course, and piles of other career responsibilities but he was going to take his full two weeks of vacation this summer to spend with Alice, whatever it took to accomplish that feat.

He’d have a whole month this summer—the last two weeks of June and the first two weeks of July—to devote to clearing his schedule. Alice would be spending those four weeks in Europe with her mother, who was combining some vacation time with a few business obligations in France, Switzerland and Belgium. Colleen had arranged her schedule so Alice would join her in London, then accompany her on her travels during the following month, along with a responsible au pair to entertain Alice when Colleen was busy.

Seth dreaded those weeks. He would miss Alice horribly. He would also worry about her safety the entire time, though he knew Colleen would be as obsessively conscientious about that as she was with all the other details in her minutely-organized life.

“This dinner looks good,” he said, slicing into the chicken enchilada on his plate. “I’m starving.”

Alice smiled smugly. “I helped Nina make the enchiladas. She’s teaching me to cook. And she’s going to teach me to knit. We were talking while we made the enchiladas and I said I wished I knew how to knit and she said she used to knit all the time before her arthritis made it hard for her to hold the needles for too long, but she said she was sure she could teach me if I really want to learn. She’s bringing needles and yarn Monday. Cool, huh?”

“Very cool.” He loved that his daughter had an almost insatiable thirst for knowledge. She wanted to learn about everything. She’d been taking piano lessons since she was eight, and played clarinet in school band. She was an avid reader and enjoyed visiting museums and science exhibits. Yet he made sure she took some time just to relax and play, something neither he nor Colleen had been encouraged to do as children.

Seth’s father was still a workaholic architect and his late mother had worked for the state government in a high-pressure, supervisory position in the family services department. His mother had dropped dead at fifty-one of a massive heart attack; she’d been in the middle of a conference call when it had happened. That had been ten years ago. Seth had vowed then that he wouldn’t let his job work him to death.

Playtime and vacations had been very rare in his own overly scheduled and often-lonely childhood; he had tried very hard to make Alice’s different despite his career obligations. And if there were times when he felt like he neglected his own needs in favor of hers and his job’s—well, that was a choice he’d made when he’d become a single dad. All too soon, she would be eighteen and leaving for college. He’d have plenty of time for himself then, he thought with a ripple of anticipatory melancholy.

He had just swallowed his first spicy bite of chicken enchilada when the doorbell rang. With a frown, he set down his fork. He wasn’t expecting company. It was a little late for deliveries. Casting a wistful glance at his cooling meal, he rose. “I’ll be right back.”

Anxious to get back to his dinner, he opened the front door without checking to see who stood on the other side. He blinked a few times when he recognized Waldo, wiggling and yapping like the idiot mutt he was. And then his gaze lifted to the face of the slender blonde woman awkwardly juggling the squirming pup in her arms.

“Are you missing someone?” she asked in a pleasant, amused voice.

The dog barked happily, twisting his head to lick his companion’s chin.

“Waldo!” Having heard the commotion, Alice rushed forward to rescue the caller from the dog. “How did you get out?”

“He came to my door,” the woman explained, rather eagerly surrendering her burden. “I heard scratching and when I went to investigate, he bounded right inside as if he’d come for dinner. I told him he was out of luck because I haven’t cooked anything yet. I figured you didn’t know he was out.”

“No, we didn’t.” Seth glanced at Alice. “Obviously he’s found a break somewhere in the fence. He’ll have to stay in the garage until I can find where he got out. I’ll look as soon as we’ve finished eating.”

“Bad boy, Waldo,” Alice scolded. “You could have been hit by a car! You’re just lucky Meagan rescued you before you got hurt.”

“Put him in the garage and wash your hands, Alice. We’ll take care of him after dinner.” He knew they would never be able to eat in peace if they left the boisterous pup in the house. He certainly hoped the obedience classes would be as worthwhile as Alice predicted.

He turned back to their caller when Alice hauled the dog away. “Thanks for bringing him home. I guess.”

She smiled. “You’re welcome. You’re Alice’s dad?”

“Yes, I’m Seth Llewellyn. And you must be Meagan Baker. Alice talks about you all the time.”

Alice hadn’t mentioned, though, that their neighbor was in her early thirties and quite attractive. Her just-above-shoulder-length hair looked soft and slightly wavy, probably salon-lightened to a pretty honey blond. Her eyes were blue, her gaze direct and confident. She didn’t appear to be wearing much makeup, but then she didn’t need any. Her skin was smooth and clear, a little pale, and her nicely-shaped mouth was a soft, natural pink. Very nice.

They shook hands, and he noticed her grip was firm, her skin smooth and warm.

“Alice is such a sweet girl. I’ve enjoyed visiting with her.” She smiled as she spoke, making him believe her.

“She enjoyed spending time with you this week.” He grimaced ruefully. “I wish I could have spent more time with her during her break but I couldn’t get away from work. I hoped her new pup would entertain her for a few days, but having you to visit and being able to swim in your pool has really added to her enjoyment of the days off from school.”

“I’m glad. She’s made my week pass more quickly, too. I’m not used to being at home with nothing much to do.”

Seth studied her face more closely. Her skin was naturally fair, but was she just a bit too pale?

“Are you okay?” he asked tentatively. “You look a little—”

She pushed a strand of hair from her face and he noted her hand wasn’t quite steady.

“I had surgery two weeks ago,” she admitted, and he thought he detected just a hint of frustration in her tone. “I guess Waldo was a little heavier than I realized.”

He recalled that he’d been ordered not to lift anything heavy for a few weeks after an emergency appendectomy back in college, the only time he’d had surgery. Waldo was not only rather heavy, he’d probably wiggled and squirmed all the way from Meagan’s house.

“You should have called us to come get him. Please, come in and sit down for a minute. Let me get you a glass of water.”

“I didn’t have your number. And I’ll be fine, really. I don’t want to disturb your dinner.”

“You said you haven’t made anything for yourself yet. Why don’t you join us? There’s plenty of food.”

Returning just in time to hear the offer, Alice added her own appeal. “Oh, yes, join us, Meagan. We just started eating. I helped Nina cook, and she said we made way too much for just two people.”

Looking a little flustered, Meagan demurred at first, but Alice was hard to resist. Mere minutes later, the three of them sat at the dining table where Alice served Meagan a heaping plate of chicken enchiladas and Spanish rice while Seth poured their guest a glass of raspberry iced tea.

She seemed to be catching her breath, he noted in satisfaction as she sipped the tea. Her cheeks were a healthy pink now, and the faint lines of pain around her mouth had eased. It had been very thoughtful of her to return Alice’s fugitive mutt despite the discomfort it had caused her.

They didn’t have to worry about making conversation. Alice took care of that for them, chattering almost without stopping while they ate. She told them all the latest news from her school friends, gleaned from phone calls and internet friend sites. She babbled about her hopes for Waldo’s training, and all the tricks she wanted to teach him once he’d mastered basic obedience. She shared a funny story her mom had told her in their daily phone call about a reckless cab driver in Hong Kong.

“I’m going to Europe in June, did I tell you, Meagan?” she asked, using the anecdote as a segue.

“Yes, you’ve told me.”

Judging from Meagan’s tone, Seth suspected Alice had mentioned the upcoming trip several times, but Meagan still sounded encouraging when she added, “I know you’re really looking forward to the adventure.”

Alice nodded with the eagerness and trace of hesitation she always displayed when they talked about her trip. “It’ll be great to be with Mom and see all those countries. But I guess I’m a little nervous about the flight to London. I’ve never been on a flight that long by myself before.”

“You’ll be fine. My younger sister Madison went to France when she wasn’t much older than you to visit a school friend whose family had moved there. She was fifteen, I think, which would have made it about twelve years ago. Our parents were nervous about letting her go, but they knew it was a great opportunity for her. The flight attendants took very good care of her and escorted her straight to her hosts when they reached their destination. She had a fabulous time.”

Alice seemed to find reassurance in Meagan’s story. Seth tried to find some measure of encouragement, himself, though he couldn’t help thinking the world had changed in those past twelve years. He dreaded the day he put Alice on that plane, though he was doing his best to keep her from seeing the extent of his reluctance.

“I didn’t know you have a sister, Meagan,” Alice said, already skipping to the next topic.

“I have a sister and a brother, both younger. Madison and Mitchell. My parents had a thing for the letter M, apparently,” Meagan added with a wrinkle of her nose that Seth found enchanting.

“Are you close to them?”

The faintest hint of wistfulness in Alice’s question made Seth frown. Alice had a few weapons in her arsenal for making-dad-feel-guilty. A couple of times she had pulled out the I’m-an-only-child-from-a-broken-home lament, just to see how far it would take her in an argument. She had learned quickly enough that it didn’t take her far at all, but he knew he would hear versions of the grievance again.

As well behaved as she was, Alice was a normal kid just coming into the hormonal teen years. He suspected there would be conflicts ahead in which she would not hesitate to pull out whatever tool she deemed most useful for manipulating Dad. He’d been warned about it by several friends and coworkers with teenagers, and he thought he was as prepared as he could possibly be. At least, he hoped so, he thought with a swallow.

“I am close to my siblings,” Meagan replied lightly. “As much as we can be, at least, with all of us so busy in our careers. We try to get together at least once a month and to call each other several times a week. Our mom is the one who keeps us all informed about what’s going on with the others.”

“We don’t have a big family,” Alice confided. “Dad’s an only child and his mom died when I was too little to remember her. Grampa Llewellyn lives in Dallas, and we only see him a few times a year. My mom has a sister who lives in Denver. She has two kids, but they’re older than me and I don’t know them very well. I see my mom’s parents, though. They live in Heber Springs and I spend one weekend a month with them.”

Seth wondered what it was about Meagan that turned his normally somewhat-reserved-with-outsiders daughter into such a chatterbox. Even if Alice were looking for someone to fill in for her absent mother, Meagan bore little resemblance to Colleen, either physically or in mannerisms.

Colleen’s appearance was a bit more striking than Meagan’s, a slightly exotic attractiveness she played up deliberately with makeup and fashions. Meagan was more girl-next-door pretty, a look he found more appealing these days. Colleen spoke in a mile-a-minute, no-nonsense tone, all traces of the South deliberately scrubbed from her accent. Meagan’s voice was softer, her speech slower, the slight hint of Southern drawl soothing and charming, in his opinion.

Both women projected intelligence, competence and independence—at least, from what little he’d seen of Meagan—but Meagan was less …well, stressful was the first word that popped into his mind. Maybe Alice focused more on the few qualities her mother and her neighbor shared rather than the differences. Or maybe she just enjoyed having the attention of any encouraging adult, he thought with another little ripple of guilt.

He could sort of understand Alice’s fascination. As the meal progressed, he realized he wouldn’t mind having Meagan Baker’s attention, himself. Granted, it had been a while since he’d spent an intimate evening with an attractive woman, considering how busy he’d been with work and his daughter. But he thought it was more than that, that drew him to his appealing neighbor. Maybe he was falling under the same spell that seemed to have affected his daughter.

He wasn’t sure whether to be more intrigued or unnerved by the possibility.

“Did you hear me, Dad?” Alice asked with an exasperation that made him suspect he’d momentarily tuned her out.

“Sorry, Roo, I was concentrating on this delicious dinner you prepared. What were you saying?”

She rolled her eyes in response to both the childhood nickname and the blatant flattery. “I said I need you to take me shopping tomorrow. You know, for the class party tomorrow night? I tried on the dress I was planning to wear—the really pretty one Mom bought me before she left for Hong Kong—and it’s gotten too little. I guess I’ve grown a little taller in the past six months.”

He heard both pride and disappointment in her tone. She’d worried about being a “late bloomer,” shorter and less developed than some of her classmates, and he suspected she was relieved by the recent growth spurt but he knew she’d wanted to wear that fancy dress. She’d worn it only once, at a Christmas party with her maternal grandparents.

He’d thought when she’d first shown it to him that the expensive garment had been a frivolous purchase at her age. She didn’t attend that many dressy parties, and she was growing too fast to invest too much in clothes that wouldn’t fit her in another couple of months. Colleen wasn’t usually so impractical, but he suspected she’d been suffering from a guilty conscience at her impending move so far from her daughter. She’d given Alice several lavish gifts before her departure.

And speaking of guilt….

“I’m sorry, Alice. I have to work tomorrow. I’ll ask Nina to take you shopping in the morning.”

“But, Dad.”

Uh-oh. He knew this tone. “Alice—”

“Can’t you take just a couple of hours in the morning before you go to the office? I’ll choose fast, I promise.”

Wishing fervently that she’d waited until they were alone to start this particular argument, he shook his head in regret. “I’m sorry, I can’t. I have a meeting that starts at nine, before most of the shops even open. It will last most of the day, and that would be too late to find you a dress and get you to the party on time. You should have tried the dress on sooner, rather than waiting until the last minute. Surely you have something else you can wear. You went shopping with your grandmother just last month.”

“We bought new school uniforms and some weekend clothes. I just won’t go to the party,” Alice finished with a melodramatic sigh. “I’ll stay home and play with Waldo or something.”

He winced in response to her long-suffering, self-pitying tone. Great. Could she make him look like a worse parent in front of her new friend? “Okay, maybe I can—”

“I’d be happy to take you shopping, Alice,” Meagan volunteered unexpectedly—or had that been his daughter’s hope all along? “If it’s okay with your father, of course.”

Finding himself the focus of two pairs of feminine eyes, Seth reached for his tea glass to wash down a bite of enchilada that seemed to have caught in his throat. How was he to say anything but yes when his daughter and their pretty neighbor were both looking at him so expectantly?

Chapter Two

Meagan couldn’t help but take pity on Alice’s dad. Alice had certainly put him on the spot with her last-minute plea. Now a near stranger had offered to take his daughter shopping.

Meagan knew all about work obligations, and she didn’t blame Seth for not being able to change his plans on such short notice. As he’d pointed out, Alice should have tried on the dress earlier in the week. But Meagan could offer assistance this time. It wasn’t as if she had anything more pressing to do, she thought with an increasingly-familiar impatience to get back to her own busy life.

“We couldn’t ask you to do that,” Seth protested politely. “You’re still recovering from surgery.”

She figured he was remembering her momentary spell of weakness after she’d delivered Waldo, and it galled her that he’d seen that. She didn’t like being perceived as sickly or frail. “Chasing down Waldo and wrestling him over here was a little strenuous, but I’d be fine to watch Alice try on clothes. I’m cleared to drive now, no longer on any prescription pain meds. It would actually be good for me to get out and get some light exercise.”

“We won’t overdo it, Dad,” Alice added eagerly. “We can go to the mall, that’s not far. I’m sure I’ll find a dress really fast, so we won’t be gone long. I bet Meagan could help me pick the perfect outfit for the party. Please, Daddy?”

Meagan thought Seth still looked uncomfortable with the impromptu plan, but he was unable to resist his daughter’s hopeful expression. “Okay, if you’re sure you don’t mind, Meagan. I’ll give you my cell phone number. Feel free to call if you need anything, even if you have to interrupt my meeting.”

“We’ll be fine,” Meagan assured him.

She’d never taken a teenager shopping for clothes before, but she thought it might be fun. “Maybe I’ll call Madison and see if she wants to join us. She’s the fashion expert in our family and I think you and she would enjoy meeting, Alice. We could have lunch at the Chinese restaurant downstairs in the mall—do you like Chinese?”

“I love Chinese!” Alice almost bounced in her seat in excitement.

Laughing, Meagan nodded. “Then we’ll make it a girls’ day out. I’m not sure Madison can join us. She has a very busy schedule. If she can’t, we’ll have fun, just the two of us.”

“I’m sure we will,” Alice agreed with a grin that made her braces flash in the light of the dining room chandelier.

Seth cleared his throat, and Meagan wondered if he was feeling a bit left out. “Did you and Nina make any dessert to go with this meal, Alice?”

Alice jumped out of her chair. “We made flan! I’ll serve. Do you like flan, Meagan?”

“I love it,” she replied honestly.

Seth rose a bit more leisurely. “I put on a pot of decaf just before we sat down to eat. Would you like a cup with your dessert, Meagan?”

“Yes, thank you.”

Insisting she remain seated, he carried her plate and utensils into the kitchen with him. He was obviously handy around the house, she mused with a slight smile. She supposed that had developed from being a single dad. Alice had told her Nina worked weekdays until five and half days on Saturdays, taking care of the household duties and cooking, but Alice grumbled that she was expected to do quite a few chores, herself. Her dad, she’d said, took care of meals on Saturday evenings and Sundays. He was a pretty good cook, she’d added proudly, but sometimes they ate out when the hardworking attorney was too tired or busy to prepare meals.

Meagan had gotten the impression of a well-run, tightly scheduled household. Alice seemed generally satisfied with the routines, though perhaps a bit lonely at times. She was obviously crazy about her father, and seemed to have little resentment about her mother’s absence, though Meagan had heard occasional undertones of wistfulness in the girl’s voice when she’d spoken of her mom. All in all, Alice seemed to be a happy, well-adjusted girl, which spoke well of her busy father’s parenting skills.

Meagan studied Seth when he returned with two cups of steaming coffee, setting one in front of her before returning to his seat. She had been a little surprised when he had opened the door to her earlier. Alice had talked about him quite a bit, of course, but Meagan’s mental picture of him had been rather different from the reality. He was younger than she’d expected, for one thing. She wasn’t very good at guessing age, but he looked to be thirty-five, thirty-six, maybe—which meant he’d been young when Alice was born. Definitely nice looking, with wide-set green eyes, thick, slightly wavy brown hair and a firm, faintly indented chin. Alice had gotten her coloring and facial shape from him, apparently, though her brown eyes must have come from her mother.

He seemed quite nice. Amusing, thoughtful, devoted to his daughter. The latter quality was the one that precluded him from being someone she might have been interested in getting to know more intimately. Meagan didn’t have anything against dating divorcées, but she’d made it a rule to steer clear of men with kids. She liked children, for the most part, but with her crazy schedule and rather poor track record with relationships, kids were a complication she hadn’t wanted to deal with. She’d always thought she’d have one of her own someday, she mused, resisting an impulse to press a hand to her slightly throbbing surgical scar, but she’d never wanted to risk hurting anyone else’s children by being only a temporary part of their life.

Fortunately, that wasn’t an issue here, she assured herself, accepting a dessert plate from Alice with a smile and a murmured thanks. She and Alice were the friends, with Seth merely a bystander. She’d done her best to warn Alice that she’d have little free time once she returned to work, but maybe Alice could still drop by on the occasional weekend afternoon for a swim. Meagan would probably hardly see Seth at all.

Not that she minded seeing him, she thought, casting a glance at him over her coffee cup. He was certainly pleasant to look at.

She didn’t linger after dessert. Following her father’s instructions, Alice began to clear away the dishes. She and Meagan said their good nights at the table, agreeing to meet at ten the next morning for the shopping outing. Leaving Alice to her chores, Seth walked Meagan to the door.

“You’re sure you’re up to the shopping trip?”

She gave a firm nod. “Very sure. Actually, I’m looking forward to it. I’d find an excuse to get out tomorrow even if I hadn’t volunteered to take Alice.”

His deep, rich chuckle made her swallow rather hard, for some reason. “Getting a little stir crazy?”

“Getting a lot stir crazy,” she admitted with a wrinkle of her nose. “If I hadn’t had Alice’s visits to look forward to, I’d probably have been climbing the walls by now.”

“She said you work at River City Medical Center?”

She nodded. “Yes, I—”

“Dad! Waldo’s knocked over a whole pile of stuff in the garage. You’d better come help me.”

Alice’s distant shout sounded more exasperated than frantic. Seth sighed heavily. “I guess I’d better go help her with the disaster dog. I’ve still got to find out how he escaped the backyard. It was very nice meeting you, Meagan.”

“Nice meeting you, too. Thank you for dinner.”

“I hope you can join us again sometime.”

He was probably just being polite. She smiled and replied vaguely, “That would be lovely. Good night, Seth.”

“Good night, Mea—”

“Dad!”

“I’m coming, Alice.” Giving Meagan a rueful smile, he closed the front door behind her when she stepped outside.

The short walk to her house was much easier without a squirming mutt in her arms. The air was cooling and deepening dusk cast purple shadows on the street around her. She had enjoyed the spontaneous dinner party, she thought as she pulled her keys from her jeans pocket to unlock her front door. She really had been suffering from cabin fever lately. The only time she’d left home this past week was for a couple hours that morning to see her doctor and then visit briefly with her mom and grandmother. She could hardly even remember the last time she’d spent an evening with an attractive, amusing man.

But no, that didn’t sound right. She’d shared a meal with Alice and her dad, hardly with Seth alone.

Maybe it had been too long since she’d been out for an adult evening, considering the little tingle still lingering inside her as a result of Seth’s parting smile.

“Honey, we have to do something with that hair! “

Alice lifted a hand self-consciously to her riotous mass of curls in response to Madison’s blunt assessment. “I guess it needs a trim.”

Madison laughed softly and patted Alice’s shoulder. “Sweetie, you need more than a trim. You need a good cut and style. The walk-in place upstairs is hit-and-miss, but I know which stylists there can be trusted. Let’s get up and see how long the waiting list is.”

Frowning, Meagan followed in her younger sister’s wake, as she usually did when Madison took charge. “Um, Maddie? I’m not sure we should get her hair cut without her father’s permission.”

Alice looked over her shoulder with a frown. “I’m not a baby, Meagan. Dad lets me choose how to wear my own hair—well, as long as I don’t get a mohawk or dye it purple or anything,” she added with a little laugh.

Because Meagan had no intention of sanctioning either of those options, she decided maybe a simple haircut wouldn’t be so bad.

As she had expected, Madison and Alice hit it off immediately. No surprise. Everyone liked Madison, with her ebullient warmth and contagious laugh. A second year psychiatry resident, Madison wanted to specialize in adolescents. Their brother said it was because Madison had never really grown up, herself, an accusation with which Madison cheerfully agreed.

Slim and animated, Madison had shoulder length hair that was naturally the same rather mousy brown as Meagan’s. Like Meagan, she dyed it a more interesting shade, though Madison had gone even blonder than Meagan’s honey color. Madison’s eyes were a shade lighter blue and her features, at least in Meagan’s opinion, were a little more classically pretty. Madison never seemed to run out of energy or enthusiasm, which had come in handy during medical school and her first year of residency.

They were lucky enough to arrive at the walk-in salon at a lull in business. One of the stylists Madison knew and trusted just happened to be available. Madison and the stylist, Kiera, put their heads together for a lengthy and serious-looking consultation while glancing sideways at Alice, who shifted her feet self-consciously.

“You know you don’t have to let them do anything you don’t want,” Meagan reminded the girl.

Alice nodded resolutely. “Madison’s so pretty. She’ll know what I should do.”

And then she added quickly, “I’d trust you, too, of course. You’re pretty, too.”

Meagan laughed, patting Alice’s arm to show there’d been no offense taken. Meagan, too, thought her younger sister was beautiful. “Thank you, but Madison’s the one who knows all the latest styles and fashions. That’s why I asked her to join us today.”

They both looked at Madison, who had dressed in a trendy top and skinny jeans with wedge-heeled sandals for their shopping excursion. Typically, Meagan’s look was more classic—a crisp white shirt with jeans and comfortable loafers. The traditional style worked for her, but Alice needed a guide for younger fashion.

Leaving Alice in Kiera’s capable hands, Meagan and Madison sat side by side in the waiting area.

“So, how good-looking is Alice’s dad?” Madison asked with a grin.

Meagan lifted an eyebrow. “Why?”

Madison laughed. “He must be cute for you to agree to spend a morning shopping with his teenage daughter. You’ve never really liked shopping.”

“I was glad to have an excuse to get out of the house for a few hours, but mostly I just wanted to help Alice. She’s a very sweet girl. This has nothing to do with Seth.”

“Oh. He’s very cute.”

Meagan studied her sister in exasperation. “What brought you to that conclusion?”

Her expression mischievous, Madison replied, “I could tell by the way you said his name. Seth. My guess is that he’s quite the catch.”

Meagan sighed. “If you’re interested, I’ll arrange an introduction.”

“I’ve got no time for a fella right now, but there’s nothing holding you back. Go for it, sis.”

Meagan couldn’t help smiling in return. It was hard not to be amused when Madison teased so good-naturedly. “He’s just a neighbor. A busy single father, at that. You know how I feel about dating guys with children. Too many potential complications in my schedule that’s already hectic enough.”

“Chicken.”

“Cluck, cluck.”

“You’re hopeless, Meagan. What’s it going to take to make you pay a little attention to your own needs, for a change?” Madison’s smile disappeared abruptly. “You nearly let yourself die because you wouldn’t stop long enough to take care of your own health.”

Because she knew her illness had frightened her sister, Meagan replied patiently. “I didn’t almost die, Maddie. I went to Meilin as soon as I realized I needed attention.”

“It took you too long to reach that realization. Because you were so busy taking care of everyone else.”

“Look who’s talking, Dr. Baker. Who’s training to spend the rest of her life taking care of troubled kids?”

“A job,” Madison said with a wave of her hand. “I don’t plan to spend my every waking moment doing it. That was one reason I chose psychiatry over surgery, remember? Better hours.”

Knowing career demands had much less to do with her sister’s choice than the calling of her heart, Meagan didn’t even bother to argue that point. “This is an academic conversation, anyway. Seth and I spent all of an hour together, and that hour was mostly focused on Alice. It’s not as though he asked me out or anything.”

“And if he should?”

Meagan shrugged, trying to hide the little ripple of nerves that coursed through her at the suggestion. “I doubt he will. I’m Alice’s friend, not Seth’s.”

“Mmm.”

She didn’t even ask what her sister meant by that enigmatic murmur. Instead, she glanced toward the chair where Alice was being worked on. “Ouch. That looks like a lot of hair falling.”

Madison shrugged dismissively. “She needed a good cut. She has pretty hair, but you couldn’t even see her face in that mop of curls. Wonder how her dad feels about contact lenses.”

“We’re not getting her contact lenses today.”

Laughing, Madison shook her head. “I’m not sure we could arrange that on such short notice, anyway. Just saying.”

Meagan was relieved that the conversation had drifted away from her dating life—or lack of one. Maybe she privately agreed that it was time for her to get back into the social scene, and had thought about doing so quite a bit during the past few days but that didn’t mean she regarded every single man she met as a viable partner. No matter how intriguing Alice’s father might be.

Seth arrived home just over half an hour before he was scheduled to drive Alice to her party. He was rather proud of himself for concluding his work early enough that he didn’t have to make a mad rush to get her there. He had time to change and have a cold glass of tea before they walked out the door.

“Alice?” he called out as he walked into the kitchen from the garage, dropping his car keys on the counter and setting his brief case on the kitchen table. “I’m home.”

“Hi, Dad,” she called from another room. “Just a sec, I’m almost ready.”

He could hear Waldo barking from out in the backyard. The dog must have heard Seth’s car. Seth decided to spend a little time with the mutt while Alice was at her party. It wouldn’t hurt to get a head start on those obedience lessons, he figured, and he knew the dog would enjoy the extra attention, though Alice had probably played with him all afternoon after her shopping excursion. She sure loved that dopey—

His thoughts drifted off to stunned silence when his daughter walked through the kitchen door.

She made a slow rotation in front of him, her smile self-conscious and satisfied. “How do I look?”

“You look …like a teenager.” His voice sounded a bit husky even to him.

Her smile flashed even brighter, braces gleaming. “Sweet.”

He couldn’t decide at first exactly what was different about her. There seemed to be several changes. Her hair, for example. The wild mop she had always bemoaned but he’d thought impishly cute had been shortened, layered and tamed into softer curls framing her face and just brushing her nape. While still youthful, the new style was a little more sophisticated than before.

She was wearing makeup. Not enough for him to object to—just a touch of glitter on her eyelids and a little clear gloss on her pretty pink mouth.

Her new dress was a halter style, baring her slender shoulders and arms, but still modestly styled. A yellow satin cummerbund with a jaunty bow separated the black surplice top from the flared white skirt with three rows of narrow black ribbon at the hem. Her shoes were black, with lots of straps and low platform bottoms that gave the illusion of heels even though they weren’t too high for her age. All in all, a very pretty and appropriate outfit—for a teenager, he thought again, swallowing hard.

Her smile wavered a little. “Don’t you like it, Dad?”

“You look beautiful,” he told her simply.

She beamed again. “Really?”

“Yes. Uh—you couldn’t find a ruffled pink dress with puffy sleeves and a lace pinafore?”

“Daddy.”

He laughed wryly. “Just teasing, sweetheart. It’s not easy for a dad to admit his little girl is growing up. I guess we’ll have to see about an appointment for those contact lenses you’ve been begging for. We’ll get you some as soon as school’s out for the summer, which will give you plenty of time to get used to them before fall semester starts.”

She almost bounced in pleasure, pushing her glasses up on her nose as if in eagerness to be rid of them. “I was going to remind you about that. Madison said I have pretty brown eyes and it’s a shame to hide them behind glasses.”

“Madison is right.” He opened the fridge and pulled out a canned drink. “So you had a good time on your girls’ outing?”

He’d already talked with her since she’d returned; he’d made her promise she would call as soon as she was home safely. She’d chattered excitedly about the shopping excursion until he’d had to disconnect the call and return to his client.

“I had a great time. Madison is really fun and cool and she knows everything about fashion. And Meagan always makes me laugh with her little comments about stuff. I got my hair cut and then I tried on a lot of dresses and then we had Chinese for lunch—Meagan treated us—and then Madison bought me this bracelet from a little booth out in the center of the mall.”

She showed off a band of small black stones tied with a yellow ribbon to match her dress. “I paid for the dress and shoes and haircut with my debit card, like you told me. And I stayed on the budget you gave me. The dress was on sale! Twenty percent off. Madison says she never pays full price when she can find a sale.”

“Well, that’s—”

“And Meagan said she’ll take me shopping again sometime if I want her to. I said a lot of my clothes are getting too little because I’m getting taller and I’m going to need some new shirts and shorts and stuff for summer.”

“Nina can take you shopping whenever you need to go,” he reminded her, hoping she wasn’t expecting Meagan and Madison to be her personal shoppers now. “I’ll talk to her about giving you more leeway in choosing your own clothes. Or I can take you, though I’ve got to admit I don’t know a lot about what’s in style for girls your age.”

She waved a hand, looking unenthused by either prospect. “Anyway, at lunch we were talking and I said some of my friends think you’re hot, which is, you know, kind of gross, and Madison laughed and said she’d already heard you were cute. And then she looked at Meagan and laughed some more, so I think Meagan told her you’re cute. Which you are, for a dad, I guess.”

Seth had gotten totally lost in that rush of words, but he pulled one phrase out of the babble. Meagan told her you’re cute.

Seriously? He sipped his cold soda thoughtfully, a nice feeling expanding inside his chest. Meagan thought he was …?

Scowling, he set the can on the counter with a thump that made drops of cola spray from the opening. He wiped up the spill with a sponge, berating himself for acting like a teenager, himself.

“I’ll run up and change into jeans, then I’ll drive you to the party,” he said, concentrating on the business at hand. “Don’t forget to take your cell phone in case you need to reach me for any reason before I’m supposed to pick you up.”

She rolled her eyes a little—the long-suffering teen expression more marked now that he could see her face better. “I’ll be fine, Daddy. We’ll have plenty of chaperones.”

He trusted in that. He sent his daughter to a highly-respected private school with strict rules of behavior and an outstanding academic record. The administrators approved parties and social activities for the students, but they were well supervised. Uniforms were required for classes. The dress code for parties was more lenient, but attendees were still expected to dress tastefully whether for one of the casual jeans-and-tees events or a dressier affair like tonight’s.

He was doing his best to make sure his daughter made it safely through these risky years, he thought wryly on his way to his bedroom. Which didn’t guarantee, of course, that she wouldn’t go wild or get into the wrong crowd or all those other possibilities that would keep him awake nights if he dwelled on them.

He was relieved that Meagan and her sister had helped Alice choose an appropriate outfit. Not that he’d worried too much that they wouldn’t. Judging from Nina’s initial assessment and his own impressions of Meagan so far, she was rather conservative, herself, and could be trusted to serve as a good role model for Alice. At least, he hoped he was right about that.

And she thought he was—

He sighed heavily.

Apparently, it had been much too long since he’d been with a woman.

Meagan felt a bit self-conscious entering the school auditorium Tuesday evening. She figured most parents and students at the private academy knew each other, and would probably wonder about this stranger who had wandered in to attend the junior high choir concert. The turnout was certainly good. She had arrived almost twenty minutes before the program was to begin and the parking lot was already almost full.

Accepting a program printed on a folded sheet of red paper, she entered the auditorium. Rows of fold-down wooden seats arranged on a sloping concrete floor faced an elevated stage draped in black and burgundy velvet. Most of the seats were filled. The noise level was quite high, with people talking and laughing, children chattering, a few toddlers shrieking, almost drowning out the generic recorded music playing from surrounding speakers. She was glad she’d decided not to dress too formally; her green knit top and casual khaki pants fit in very nicely with the other attendees.

She had deliberated for quite a while before she’d decided to attend this event. Alice had mentioned at lunch Saturday that she would be singing in a choir concert this evening. She’d said she would have to wear her required choir dress but she would wear her new shoes with it. Rather wistfully, she had added that her father wouldn’t be able to attend this end-of-the-year concert.

“He’s only missed a couple of my school programs before,” she said quickly, in case Meagan or Madison formed a poor opinion of her beloved father. “He hates having to miss them, but he said he’ll be in a big meeting in Hot Springs Tuesday and he doesn’t think he’ll be back in time for the concert. They always start at six because the teachers want to get home early. Sometimes my grandparents from Heber Springs come to my concerts and things, but they can’t come this time. But Nina’s going to be there. She said she loves to hear me sing.”

Meagan had told herself there was no need for her to attend the concert. Alice would probably be perfectly happy with Nina there to appreciate her performance; she seemed very fond of the housekeeper who’d been employed by Seth for several years. Would it really mean much to the girl to have her neighbor—a woman she’d known for only a week—applauding in the audience?

But somehow Meagan had found herself in her car that evening, headed for the school. As hard as Alice had tried to hide it, she was obviously disappointed that her dad wouldn’t be there. Meagan doubted that she made a suitable replacement, but maybe Alice would appreciate having another friend in the audience, anyway. Besides, it was another excuse to get out of the house for an evening. And how bored was she getting that a junior high choir concert sounded more interesting than another night of reading and TV?

She really needed to get back to work soon.

Thinking she might sit with the housekeeper during the concert, Meagan had looked for Nina when she’d arrived, but couldn’t find her in the crowd. She assumed Nina had taken a seat close to the front.

Because she hadn’t wanted to wander up and down the aisles searching for Nina, she chose a seat closer to the door instead. She thought she’d be able to see well from there, though a child a few rows ahead of her kept standing up in his seat. Other than the empty seat next to her, the section was full. People around her laughed and talked and waved at acquaintances across the auditorium. Feeling a bit like an imposter among all the friends and family members waiting for the concert to begin, Meagan smiled and nodded to the older woman sitting beside her, who murmured a greeting in return then turned away to chat with her companions.

“Excuse me, ma’am, is this seat taken?”

In response to the polite question only minutes before the concert was to begin, she glanced up automatically from the program she’d been studying to assure the speaker that the seat was free. The words died when she saw who stood in the aisle, smiling down at her.

Seth’s hair was a little tousled, she noticed, and he looked just a bit disheveled, as if he’d rushed to get there. He wore a beautifully tailored gray suit, more formal than most of the more casually garbed audience, but he’d loosened the blue-and-silver tie at the collar.

Definitely cute, she thought, remembering the teasing conversation with her sister. And when he took her up on her gestured invitation and dropped into the seat beside her, he was close enough that their arms brushed when he shifted his weight.

The concert had just gotten even more interesting.

Chapter Three

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” Meagan and Seth said at almost exactly the same time.

They laughed, then she said, “Alice said you had to work late tonight.”

“I was able to get away a little earlier than I expected. I might have driven a little too fast to make it here on time. I saw you when I walked in just now and I had to look twice to make sure it really was you.”

“Alice told me about the concert during our outing Saturday. She invited me to come and it sounded like fun.”

“You must be getting cabin fever if this sounded like fun.”

The unwitting repetition of her own earlier thoughts made her laugh again. “You could be right.”

He wasn’t smiling now. “Or maybe you were being nice. You didn’t think I’d be here, so you wanted to make sure Alice had more than our housekeeper supporting her in the audience.”

She didn’t want him to think Alice had said anything at all critical of him, or had deliberately played on Meagan’s sympathies. “Alice made it very clear you wanted to be here, Seth. She said you almost never miss any of her programs or performances. I didn’t come because I felt sorry for her or anything like that.”

His lips quirked a little, as though he were almost amused by her reassurances. “I appreciate that. I can’t help feeling guilty when work threatens to interfere with Alice’s plans.”

“I’m sure every working parent, married or single, struggles with that guilt.” Which was why she wasn’t entirely sure she should ever take on that responsibility, she mused as the overhead lights blinked to notify the noisy audience that the program was about to begin. Had she been back at work, it would have been very difficult for her to attend a six o’clock school program—not without reshuffling her usual work schedule, anyway.

The velvet curtains parted on stage and an expectant hush fell over the audience—except for one toddler who wanted to “go pee pee right now!” A few giggles broke out in response to the vocal demand, but most eyes were focused on the stage when the performers filed out from the wings to encouraging applause. The boys wore white shirts, black pants and black vests, and the girls were in long black dresses with three-quarter sleeves and white satin waist sashes. They all looked very much alike, Meagan thought with a frown, but then she smiled when she saw Alice on the second row.

Squirming a little in the not-particularly-comfortable auditorium seat, Seth propped his elbow on the wooden armrest between them just as Meagan leaned a bit that way. Their shoulders bumped, hands brushing on the armrest. Both straightened quickly, murmuring apologies and looking intently toward the stage. Meagan moistened her lips, a little shaken by that momentary contact. It had been a long time since a man’s fleeting touch had made her pulse rate trip. She had to admit it was a nice feeling—even though she wasn’t at all sure she should be reacting that way to this particular man. Didn’t she have enough complications in her busy life?

She focused intently on the reason she was there, rather than the imagined warmth emanating from the man sitting so close to her. It was an interesting concert. The choir performed a mix of classical pieces, oldies and more recent pop numbers—whatever the director had been able to afford to license for performance, Meagan figured in amusement. The kids were pretty good overall, though occasionally a note escaped that should not have been made by human vocal cords. The doting parents and grandparents in attendance didn’t seem to mind; they clapped as enthusiastically for the bad notes as the good.

“Alice has a very pretty voice,” she commented to Seth after one of the numbers. Alice had sung a couple of solo lines, and though nerves shook her voice a little, she still had a very nice tone.

“She got that from her mother,” Seth admitted ruefully. “I can’t sing a lick.”

Meagan spent the time during the next number wondering how Seth felt about his ex-wife. She’d heard little animosity in his voice on the few occasions he’d spoken of her. Had the split been amicable or was he hiding bitterness for his daughter’s sake? Had his heart been broken or hardened or relatively unscathed? Did he still love his wife? Had he ever, really?

Realizing she was indulging in idle speculation—a game of solitaire gossip—she told herself those questions were absolutely none of her business. She concentrated intently on the remainder of the concert, making a rather futile effort to keep her attention from wandering …elsewhere.

“To Alice. The star of the Pulaski Preparatory Academy junior high choir.” Seth lifted his plastic tumbler of fountain soda as he made the teasing toast a half hour after the concert’s end.

Brushed by the curls of her saucy new haircut, Alice’s cheeks reddened with embarrassed pleasure. She pushed her glasses up on her nose and muttered, “I’m not the star, Daddy. I only had two solo lines. Andrea Merchant is like the star of the choir. She always gets the long solos.”

“I like your voice better than hers,” Meagan asserted loyally as she dipped a french fry in ketchup. “She leans too heavily on melisma for my taste. I know it’s the style these days, but I think it’s overused.”

“Melisma?” Seth wasn’t sure he’d heard that term before.

“Stretching a single syllable with several notes,” Alice supplied quickly, her reciting tone suggesting it was a definition she’d learned in class. “You know, like ba-a-a-a-a-by.”

She warbled the word in illustration, hitting several notes in the process.

Seth nodded to indicate he understood. “That technique is overused these days. I didn’t know what it was called, but I often wish the singer would just pick a note and stick with it.”

Meagan and Alice launched into a discussion of current music stars and their singing styles, and Meagan proved to be quite up-to-date on contemporary music, though she admitted she didn’t follow the younger musical acts as much. Alice, whose taste in music had always been eclectic, made a snide comment about the teen-idol performers most popular with her classmates. Watching her, Seth tried to hide his amusement at her obvious attempt to appear more mature than the other young teens in front of Meagan.

His smile faded when he noted that Alice seemed to be imitating some of Meagan’s mannerisms, following the older woman’s example in cutting her cheeseburger into neat quarters before eating it, dabbing her napkin tidily at the corners of her mouth after each bite. He really didn’t mind that Alice had befriended the nice neighbor, but he hoped she wasn’t getting too attached. For all he knew, Meagan could lose interest in the kid once her sick leave ended and she returned to her former schedule. Not many single women Meagan’s age wanted to spend time with a thirteen-year-old—not even one as clever and sweet as his daughter, he thought, well aware of his bias.

It had been his idea to invite Meagan to join them for dinner after the concert. He’d figured she hadn’t eaten that early, and she’d confirmed his guess. He’d told her he’d promised Alice cheeseburgers and fries at her favorite burger joint after the concert—a rare treat, since he tried to promote healthy eating most evenings. At the time he’d offered, he hadn’t been sure he’d even be at the concert, but he’d promised to take her to dinner as soon as he could get there afterward. He was relieved he’d been able to make it to the event, though it had required almost superhuman effort to make it there on time.

Meagan had hesitated when he’d extended the invitation to her, but once again Alice had persuaded her to accept. He figured the least he could do was buy Meagan a burger since she had been nice enough to attend Alice’s concert. As kind as her intention had been, it still grated that it had been partially motivated by pity because poor Alice had a busy, working dad. Even though Meagan had assured him she understood the demands of single parenthood, she’d still felt obliged to fill in for him tonight, apparently. He was doubly glad he’d been able to get there, both for Alice’s sake and to prove to Meagan that he really did put his daughter above all his other responsibilities. He couldn’t say why it was so important for her, in particular, to see that.

He’d invited Nina to dinner, too, but Nina declined, saying her favorite television program was on that evening and she didn’t want to miss it. Seth hadn’t missed Nina’s little nod of approval when he’d included Meagan in the outing. Nina had dropped a couple of little hints about what a nice woman Meagan seemed to be and how well she and Alice got along and wasn’t it interesting that such a pretty single woman—emphasis on single—lived so close to his new house?

Seth was more amused than annoyed by his longtime housekeeper’s blatant matchmaking. Meagan seemed to be exactly the type of woman he should date, actually. Attractive, intelligent, and she liked his daughter. He had to admit he had quite a physical reaction to her warm smiles, and he enjoyed watching the emotions dancing through her expressive blue eyes. He’d been keenly aware of her sitting so close to him in the darkened auditorium, her arm bumping his when they applauded, her eyes meeting his in the shadows when they found something mutually amusing.

He’d been aware of the curious glances they’d gotten from his acquaintances among the other parents. They had probably assumed he and Meagan had arranged to meet there. Had that been true, it would have been the first time he’d attended one of his daughter’s school activities with anyone other than his housekeeper or, occasionally, Alice’s maternal grandparents.

He wouldn’t mind getting to know Meagan better—on a one-to-one basis—but what if it didn’t work out? Would Alice be disappointed yet again? Or, equally worrisome, what if it did work out? Was Alice really prepared to share her father’s attention, when he had to ration his time with her as it was? And speaking of time, did he really have enough of it to divide between his daughter and a more adult relationship?

“I felt so sorry for Jeffrey when his voice cracked in the middle of his solo line,” Alice said, calling Seth’s attention abruptly back to the conversation. “Jeffrey was so embarrassed. He’s really nice, in a shy sort of way.”

Something about her self-conscious tone caught Seth’s notice. Did his daughter have a crush on a boy in her choir? Was she old enough to have crushes already? Did he have to start worrying about that now? She wasn’t anywhere near old enough to have a boyfriend, and if she thought she was going to date at thirteen she had another think coming!

And hadn’t he just been sitting there worrying about the consequences of a relationship with a woman he hardly knew? One who might not even be interested in going out with him anyway?

They were quite a pair, he and his daughter. For now, it was probably best for them both to stay single.

“I had a good time tonight, Dad. Thanks for the burger. And for letting me have the hot fudge sundae for dessert. It was so good!”

Tossing his keys on the counter as they walked into the house a while later, Seth ruffled his daughter’s hair affectionately. “You’re welcome, Roo. You deserved it after that great concert.”

She wrapped her arms around his waist for a big hug. “I’m glad you could be there.”

“So am I, kiddo. Though there will still be times when my work will interfere with other things,” he warned her candidly. “I have to make a living for us.”

“I know, Dad,” she said, rolling her eyes a little as she stepped back. “I’m not a little kid, I understand about work commitments. But I’m glad you could come tonight, anyway.”

“Me, too.” He picked up a stack of mail Nina had left on the counter for him and flipped through the envelopes. Bills, mostly. Credit card and insurance offers. A postcard from his favorite men’s clothing store announcing an annual sale on suits. He’d have to check that out, he could use a new suit for summer.

Slitting open a small, square, cream-colored envelope, he drew out a folded card and scanned it quickly. He groaned.

Alice looked around from the sink, where she was cleaning Waldo’s water dish and filling it with fresh water for the night while the dog whined impatiently from the other side of the back door. “What is it, Dad?”

“It’s a reminder for a fancy charity thing I’m supposed to attend. It’s a week from Friday. Clever of DeAnna to send out reminders ten days ahead, this thing’s been scheduled for months and I’d forgotten all about it.”

“You hate fancy charity things,” Alice said sympathetically.

She knew him well. He nodded grimly. “I do. But I’ve got to go to this one. DeAnna is the managing partner’s new wife. He’s going to be checking who supports her at this.”

“Then I guess you have to go.”

“Yeah,” he grumbled. “I guess I do.”

She glanced at the Norman Rockwell calendar attached to the side of the refrigerator with a heavy-duty magnet, the calendar Nina used to keep track of the family’s schedule. “It’s already written down. You just haven’t looked.”

“Yeah, I’m sure it’s on my personal calendar, too. Just been too busy lately to look that far ahead. I’d have seen it eventually.”

“That’s the night of my sleepover party at Gayla’s house for her thirteenth birthday. Her mom’s hiring a party planner and we’re going to learn how to decorate cupcakes all fancy like they do on the food channel shows. We’re going to do piping and everything.”

“Sounds like fun. Don’t eat too many sweets,” he said automatically, still scanning the party reminder.

A gusty sigh was her response as she carried the bowl of water to the door. He reached out to open the storm door for her, using his body to block Waldo’s eager attempt to dash inside to cause chaos. Seth was still skeptical that obedience classes would work any miracles with this particular dog. But the instructor had assured him when he’d signed up Waldo for the classes that Labradors were usually quick to learn. Waldo appeared to be mostly yellow Lab, though Seth suspected a slightly more rambunctious breed might be mixed into the bloodlines.

“So, Dad, have you asked anyone to go with you to the fancy thing yet?” Alice inquired when she came back inside a short while later. “You know, a date?”

“Well, no. I told you, I forgot all about it.”

“You can’t go without a date,” she scolded, shaking her head. “That would make you look all pathetic, like you don’t have a social life.”

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