Hitched For The Holidays: Hitched For The Holidays / A Groom In Her Stocking

“I plan to. I called the airline and canceled my ticket. I’d rather wait for my ankle to heal before flying home. It’ll cost me fifty dollars to reschedule, but it’s worth it to get to know your boyfriend better.”

“Dad! I’d love to see more of you, but you’ll be bored silly sitting around here alone. I do have to work. It’s my busy season.”

This was very bad news. How could she continue the fantasy about having a boyfriend until Dad’s ankle healed?

“You do whatever you need to. Don’t worry about me. I can entertain myself. You’ve got a computer and a TV I can use, and there must be a bookstore somewhere in the area. I’ll give you a list of books I’ve been wanting to read.”

She couldn’t say, Dad, go home, you make me crazy. She loved him, but she couldn’t continue seeing Eric. It wasn’t fair to him, and she was embarrassed enough already.

“You’ll miss your only grandson’s birthday Wednesday,” she reminded him.

“Sam will only be three. He won’t care when I present my stack of presents, and I’ll get out of going to the party Carly has planned at Bucko’s Pizza Palace. Have you ever been to one of their birthday orgies? Corny clowns, noisy game machines, kids screaming and running.” He shuddered. “I went to Kim’s fifth-birthday party there. A sledge hammer couldn’t give me a worse headache.”

“You love sharing your grandchildren’s big events,” she said. “Cake, candles, hugs and kisses for Grandpa.”

“The nice thing about retirement,” he said, speaking from his weeks of experience, “is I have plenty of time for the grandkids plus time to get to know my future son-in-law better.”

“Dad, we’re not that serious!”

“I know chemistry when I see it,” he said smugly. He started leafing through the TV listings, and she dejectedly began her day.

BY MIDMORNING Mindy was the one with a headache. She had to check with the woman who was catering the Robinson family Thanksgiving reunion, twenty-two people and counting, then run to the party store outlet for orange napkins and table decorations. After that, she had to meet a new client at two and make sure the carpenter had come back to finish the shelves in Mrs. Konkle’s home office. People paid her to worry, and she was good at it.

Unfortunately, with her dad dropping his bomb on her head, she couldn’t concentrate anymore. How could she work with her father in the house? Even before she left to run errands, he was busily using her computer to e-mail everyone he knew, however slightly. She could bump him, of course, but then what would he do all day? She remembered his book list and tried to figure out a time for a library trip. No point in buying thirteen books unless they weren’t available to borrow.

“I have to talk to Eric,” she said resolutely to herself.

The bogus romance had to end. Telling her father it was a hoax was no longer an option, not when he’d be there with her day and night expressing his disappointment with sad, mournful pronouncements. He took her single status as a personal affront because she rejected his opinion of it. He refused to believe she was happy the way she was and in no hurry to rush into a relationship just to satisfy him.

She dialed Eric’s office on her cell phone while she waited her turn to drive through a construction area. How she loathed those two-sided signs carried by the bored workers who reduced a four-lane road to one lane. There seemed to be a rule that the busiest lane had to wait the longest.

“Kincaid Veterinary Practice,” Della answered. “How may I help you?”

“Della, it’s Mindy Ryder. I desperately need to talk to the doctor.”

“Sorry, honey, he’s in the middle of a procedure. I can have him call you when office hours are over.”

“No, I need to talk to him now.”

“Has something happened to Peaches?” Della remembered pet names better than most people remembered people names.

“No, she’s fine. What about lunch? When does he take a lunch break?”

Traffic in Mindy’s lane started inching forward.

“I never know for sure. Sometimes he runs upstairs for a bite. Other days he’s so busy he just skips it.”

“Can you work me in anytime today?” She’d pay for an office visit if that was the only to talk to him.

“It must be really important.”

Della was curious. This was good. No doubt she remembered giving Eric the directions to her house.

“It is.”

“Tell you what, if you come over right now, I’ll squeeze you in as soon as humanly possible.”

“Thank you, Della, thank you, thank you, thank you.”

WHEN SHE GOT to Eric’s office, the prospects for seeing him very soon seemed grim. Half a dozen people were crowded into the area with a Noah’s ark of pets. The biggest gray cat she’d ever seen was perched on an elderly lady’s lap, glaring at a Saint Bernard waiting with stoic resignation. Mindy eyed a square red cardboard box barely large enough to hold a teapot. It had holes punched in the top. Did Eric treat snakes? She shuddered and hoped the hidden creature was something soft and furry like a gerbil.

“Mindy Ryder.” Della solemnly announced her name after only a couple minutes of waiting, giving her a nod.

She self-consciously walked to the door of the examining room, not at all comfortable about cutting to the front of the line.

“The procedure took longer than expected,” Della explained. “Please be as quick as you can. We’re really backed up today.”

“Thanks, Della. I appreciate this so much.”

She went through the swinging door to Eric’s examining room. It was empty, but only seconds later he came through another door that led to his hospital wing. He made eye contact for a second or two, and her heart thumped as enthusiastically as her dog’s tail usually did at the sight of the vet.

“Mindy, I didn’t expect to see you today. Where’s Peaches?” He went to the sink and started scrubbing his hands with pink liquid soap from a wall dispenser.

“I won’t take much of your time, but I had to see you. We really should’ve broken up yesterday.”

“You know, Mindy, I’m overbooked today.” He dried his hands on a paper towel. “Exactly why are you here?”

He sounded pleasant enough, but she hated the feeling that she was only a nuisance to a man who could turn her on with a smile.

“Dad’s decided to stay.”

“How long?”

“He didn’t say, but he canceled his flight home. He wants to get to know you better.” She paused. “Hey, is there a snake in your waiting room?”

“Doubt it, unless one slithered in by itself. About your father…”

“Yes, what about my father? If I calmly announce that we’re no longer an item, he’ll probably try to get us to reconcile. He won’t let it rest unless you do something unforgivably mean.”

“What did you have in mind?”

His scowl wasn’t enough to mar his good looks, and she was filled with regret. She should’ve kept going to the big impersonal vet clinic even if they had muzzled Peaches on her last appointment there. Mindy wouldn’t mind seeing Eric a lot more often than twice a year at her dog’s checkups, but by now he probably thought she was nothing but a nuisance. And here she was again, trying to use him to solve her problem.

“I shouldn’t have come. You’re busy, and you’ve already done more than I had any right to expect.”

She started to leave, but he stepped in front of the door and put both hands on her shoulders.

“But you did come, and I’m glad.”

What did he mean by that? She met his eyes and was even more confused. She shrugged, but he didn’t remove his hands.

“I’ll fake a breakup on the phone. I should’ve thought of it before I barged in on you,” she said apologetically.

“You didn’t barge. I told Della to send you in as soon as you got here.”

“But your waiting room is full.”

“Happens sometimes. I try, but…” He dropped his arms and turned away from her. “So your dad’s not leaving as scheduled, and he expects to see me….”

“Often, I’m afraid.”

“Then you and I had better strike a deal,” he replied, facing her again.

“A deal?”

Her shoulders felt warm where his hands had rested on top of her silky cherry-red ruffled blouse. She’d worn it with dressy gray slacks and low-heeled black pumps in anticipation of meeting a new client, hoping she’d look businesslike but imaginative. She looked good in red and hoped what she saw in Eric’s eyes was at least a trace of admiration.

“Maybe we can help each other out,” he said slowly.

The last time she’d heard that, her date had been trying to wiggle his fingers between her thighs. She looked at Eric’s hand, strong but gentle and soothing with his patients, then at his face. Who knew eyes could actually twinkle? Maybe he was only teasing about a deal, although he seemed too busy for games.

“Helpful is nice,” she said wanting to kick herself for sounding so clueless.

“There is something you can do for me.”

She dropped her eyes to the apex of his legs, which was not quite covered by the lab coat, then realized what she’d done and was mortified. She hadn’t intended to check him out, certainly not in his examining room where the air was heavy with disinfectant and tension.

He reached out, the back of his wrist brushing against her breast, but all he did was flip over the cameo pendant she was wearing.

“The backside was showing,” he said, his grin reminding her of the way she’d straightened his tie.

“I’m in a bind myself.” He sighed. “You can see how busy I am, but my mother has involved me in a big charity event to raise money for pet adoptions. Of course, she had an ulterior motive. She’s hoping I’ll meet the future mother of her grandchildren among the single women working in the event. She put me on the committee and expects me to help bring the thing together, thinking I’d be thrilled to get involved. Party planning isn’t my forte even if I had time to kill. But you’re a professional organizer…”

“It’s what I do for a living,” she said cautiously.

“I don’t want to let Mom down in front of her friends, but my idea of organizing is putting everything in a pile to worry about later.”

“What’s your deal?” she asked.

Once, as a kid back home in Pennsylvania, she’d been sliding down a snow-covered hill on a plastic sled when she hit a bump and headed straight for a tree. This felt the same way, but she didn’t have the option of wiping out on purpose and landing on soft snow.

“I’ll play Dr. Boyfriend if you’ll help me out on Mom’s charity event. Quietly. She doesn’t need to know you’re involved. I’ll go to the committee meetings and volunteer for as little as possible. Naturally most of the planning was done months ago. I call my mom’s group the committee for last-minute disasters. It doesn’t matter how far in advance they plan, something inevitably goes wrong. You handle what I’m supposed to be doing, and in exchange, your dad and I will be best buddies. He’ll go home sure you’re in good hands.”

There was nothing wrong with Eric’s proposal, but she couldn’t believe two competent adults were scheming to hoodwink their parents.

“Maybe we should both fess up instead,” she suggested.

“Take our medicine, get the spanking over with?” he asked.

“At least insist we’re mature adults who want to run our own lives.”

“Well spoken,” he said solemnly, “but I can’t do it without hurting Mom’s feelings, a lot. That’s just the way she is.”

“I can’t, either,” she admitted. “Dad misses Mom so much, he doesn’t want me to end up lonely and alone. It’s just that he’s so—so insistent.”

“So do we have a deal?” Eric asked.

She knew it was the answer to both their problems, at least temporarily, but it was only a little over six weeks until Christmas. She had parties to plan, people to consult, lists to cross off….

On the other hand, she hadn’t seen her father so happy and animated in a long time, even with his bum ankle keeping him housebound.

“Okay.” She said it with deep reluctance, but he smiled broadly.

“Shake.”

She lifted her hand to meet his. Strong fingers pressed against hers, and his firm palm felt wonderful. When his fingers brushed against her wrist, she felt ripples of pleasure course up her arm. One part of this charade would be a snap. She wouldn’t have any trouble pretending Eric was sexy and appealing.

He dropped her hand, and she had a terrible thought.

“You’re not involved…that is, seeing anyone else, are you? I wouldn’t want to interfere….”

“They’re lined up ten-deep to be with me,” he said with a grin, “but they’re all four-footed and furry.”

“Oh, my gosh, I forgot all those people in your waiting room. They must be ready to lynch me by now.”

“I’ll see you safely out.”

He opened the door, let her step through, and put his arm around her shoulders.

“Glad you stopped by, sweetheart,” he said for the benefit of his crowded waiting room.

He walked her to the outer door, opened it for her and gave her shoulder a squeeze.

She could feel the hostility in the waiting room turn to curiosity. They forgave her line-jumping because they thought she was Dr. Eric’s love interest—or at least one of them.

“See you later,” he said.

He grinned broadly as a finale to his act just as she stepped outside. She stared after him as he walked back to the examining room. How sincere was he about this deal? Was it just a ploy to get rid of her? She’d hate the additional stress so much she’d bail? She couldn’t resist the sudden urge to test him.

“Eric!”

She held the door open as he turned to face her again.

“Dinner tonight at my house, seven o’clock?” she asked in an expectant tone.

He hesitated for an instant, then agreed. “Fine. I’ll be there.”

Whatever the cost, she had a boyfriend, at least for the duration of her dad’s visit.

There had to be a better word than boyfriend. Lover, partner, significant other? Nothing quite described their nonrelationship.

She drove away, behind schedule and seriously short of time, and wondered if she’d ever before seen eyes as blue as his.

ERIC RAN a couple of extra miles after work, but still felt as though his brain were full of cobwebs. He wanted to sidestep any little committee chores his mother had lined up for him, but was the price of Mindy’s help too high?

He wasn’t ready for a new relationship, but keeping Mindy at arm’s length was harder every time he saw her. The impulse to take her in his arms and let nature take its course got stronger all the time. But he’d felt that way about Cass not very long ago, and he’d been as wrong about her as a man could be.

Sure, sometimes bachelor life was lonely after working hours, but he had friends and interests to keep him occupied. He didn’t need a new best buddy who expected him to become a son-in-law.

If he’d been free earlier in his office when Mindy had called, he would’ve cheerfully helped her orchestrate a breakup her father would believe. But when she walked into his examining room, he hadn’t wanted an abrupt end to their tentative relationship. He’d had a flash of inspiration. They could trade favors and make both parents happy. It was a spur-of-the-moment idea but seemed reasonable. An “I help you, and you help me” kind of thing.

After the run he scrubbed himself hard under a tepid spray. He hadn’t moved away from frigid Iowa winters to shiver in a cold shower, but his body chemistry had a way of reacting to Mindy that was totally at odds with his intentions. He was usually indifferent to women whose pets he treated, but he’d gone beyond his normal professionalism with Mindy. She turned him on, and the lukewarm water didn’t do much to cool down his involuntary interest in her.

She’d already put him off his stride. After her un-scheduled appearance at his office, he’d called Mrs. O’Brien’s St. Bernard Bozo instead of Beau Geste. He’d forgotten what a foul disposition Sugar Baby had until the cat punctured his latex glove with her needle-sharp teeth.

He never gave more than ten seconds thought to what he wore, but this evening he stood in his walk-in closet in white briefs and couldn’t make up his mind. If he really were courting a woman—what a corny, old-fashioned word—he’d wear his navy blue blazer and gray dress slacks. That outfit was sure to be a father-pleaser, especially to a man who probably slept in his wing tips, but what message would it send to Mindy? What if she were interested in him, and this was her way of attracting his attention.

“Yeah, right,” he said skeptically.

He knew a come-on when he saw one, and he wasn’t getting any signals from her. Was that why he had this strange feeling about their deal? Was it because she was more immune to his dubious charms than he was to her very real attractions? Or maybe he should be flattered. He didn’t need enough reforming and reorganizing to interest her. Wayne might be biased, but Mindy apparently went for men she could make over. Cass had tried that with him, and he didn’t want Mindy or any other woman trying to change him.

He yanked an old pair of jeans and a black knit turtleneck off the hangers. Hopefully wearing them wouldn’t send any messages one way or the other.

He got to Mindy’s house twenty minutes late because he belatedly remembered to stop for a bottle of wine as an offering for Wayne.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said when Mindy opened the door.

“No problem. I’m doing lemon-pepper chicken and marinated vegetable kabobs on the grill, nothing very fancy.”

Since his usual bachelor fare ran to omelettes or salads and submarines from the supermarket deli, it sounded elaborate to him.

“I was expecting leftovers from Mountain Monty’s.”

She laughed lightly, an altogether pleasing sound. “Dad had steak and eggs for breakfast, then polished off the last of the leftovers for lunch. Apparently his low cholesterol diet is on vacation.”

“I heard that, young lady,” Wayne said from the couch where he was lounging with his foot resting on a mound of pillows. “I’ll go to the store with you tomorrow and cash some traveler’s checks so you can stock your kitchen.”

“Dad, you don’t have to buy groceries. I make a good living.”

This had the ring of an old argument. Eric presented the wine to Mindy and ambled into the living room to sit opposite the patriarch in a high-backed Boston rocker.

“How’s your ankle?”

“Fine as long as I treat it with RICE. That’s rest, ice, compression and elevation.”

Eric knew that. He’d done enough track and field sports even before he got to college to be familiar with trainer’s lingo, but he was here to be the deferential suitor. From where he sat, he could see Mindy in the kitchen struggling with the cork in his bottle of wine.

“Let me,” he offered, walking over to her.

The nice thing about having the living room and kitchen as one large room was being able to see her as she worked. The bad thing was Wayne had a front-row seat to watch them together. Eric remembered his deal and moved up to her intending to carry out his end.

“Something smells nice.”

He nuzzled the back of her neck, soft and fragrant under her short-cropped sable hair. It seemed natural to wrap one arm around her waist, which looked slender and sexy in a long black skirt with big splashy yellow, red and green flowers. Her midriff-baring yellow top rode up so his arm was circling warm silky flesh. He should’ve braved an icy cold shower.

“I need to put the chicken on,” she said, pulling away.

“I’ll help you.”

He picked up a tray of foil packets and followed her down the hallway between the back rooms. They walked out through sliding glass doors onto a small flagstone patio, where she had a propane gas grill and a round white-metal table with two matching chairs and umbrella.

“This is nice,” he said.

“Except for having neighbors so close I can’t use the grill without attracting people who want to give me cooking advice.”

She kept her eyes averted. So far she hadn’t looked directly at him, not even when she answered the door.

“You know,” he said softly, “if you want your father to buy our act, you’re going to have to gaze longingly into my eyes.”

They both laughed self-consciously.

“I’ve had some second thoughts,” she admitted as she carefully laid the packets of chicken on the barbecue, still not meeting his eyes.

“And?”

Was she going to let him off the hook? Did he want her to?

“This is terribly unfair of me, expecting you to give up your free time like this.”

“Can’t complain about the eats.”

“Really, Eric, we can call this off right now. I’ll still help as much as I can with your committee, but I can’t ask you to—”

“Mindy,” he interrupted, even though he didn’t know what he wanted to say.

“You’re so busy,” she went on.

“When I agree to a deal, I keep my word,” he said, trying to sound resolute and committed.

“But I feel like I’ve trapped you into this.”

She kept fussing with long kabobs of potato, onion, mushroom and colorful yellow, red and green peppers.

“Look at me.”

He wanted to talk to her face, not the back of her head.

She looked at him over her shoulder, just long enough for him to see miniature bolts of green lightning in her intriguing hazel eyes.

“Enough fussing,” he said. “The food is fine.”

She turned and faced him squarely, then reached up and straightened the collar on his turtleneck. One minute she was willing to let him back away from their bargain, and the next she was fixing his shirt. The woman just couldn’t leave him alone. He took her hands in his and stared so intently she dropped her eyes.

“Sorry,” she said meekly.

“I’m going to go inside and talk to your dad,” he said gruffly.

“I meant what I said. You don’t have to do this….”

He went into the house without answering.

5

DAD WAS ONLINE AGAIN when Mindy got home from work late Friday afternoon. She’d moved the patio table into the living room and set up the computer there so she had access when her father was sleeping in the spare bedroom. Still, the arrangement wasn’t working well from her point of view. She did all her planning, organizing and accounting on her computer, usually in the evening. But after being home alone all day, her father was more chatty then he’d ever been before.

“How was your day?” he asked in a hearty voice from his spot on the couch.

“Fine, Dad.” Except for a crabby caterer, a carpenter whose wife had been in labor for twenty-one hours and counting and a client whose check bounced. “Did you find things to keep you busy today?”

“I found a list of e-mail addresses from my class at Penn State. I connected with a guy who lived next to me our freshman year. Now he’s right here in Phoenix. We had a good online chat.”

“Sounds like fun.”

Peaches did her welcoming dance while Mindy kicked off her sandals and enjoyed the cool tiles on the soles of her feet.

“Don’t leave your shoes where I can trip over them,” her father warned.

No, I certainly don’t want you to fall again she thought. “Did you get to your doctor’s appointment all right?”

She still felt guilty about not driving him there herself, but the day had been impossibly busy.

“The cab was twenty minutes late, but I allowed an extra forty-five for the trip.”

When had her father ever been late for anything, unlike Dr. Eric Kincaid who made a specialty of keeping people waiting? And not calling the woman he was supposed to adore.

“I do have good news,” he said.

“What?”

“The doctor says my ankle is coming along fine. Apparently the emergency room handled it okay. I’ll be back on both feet sooner than I thought.”

“That’s great news, Dad.” No more worrying about a phantom boyfriend, not that her father asked about him more than twenty or so times a day.

“That’s not the good news.”

Whoops.