Cindy Kirk – The M.D.'s Unexpected Family (страница 3)
The young doctor’s face remained calm but Cassidy wasn’t fooled. He was nowhere as relaxed and confident as he appeared. Her fingers tightened on the numbered paddle in her hand. She’d made a promise and was ready to do her duty.
Nick, Lexi’s husband and well-known family law attorney, was serving as the event’s guest auctioneer. He took the microphone from his wife and his gaze scanned the audience. “Do I hear a bid of one hundred?”
For a second the room was silent. One hundred was the lowest acceptable bid. From what she’d overheard while she waited, the lowest winning bid so far had been three hundred, while eleven hundred was the night’s record. Most had come in around five hundred.
Cassidy was just lifting her paddle when she saw a redhead off to her right raise hers.
She recognized the woman in the sexy black dress that hugged a taut body and emphasized ample breasts. Leila Daltry was a customer at Clippity Do Dah. She stopped by regularly to get her hair cut and for an occasional color boost. A registered nurse, the striking redhead worked in the obstetrics department at the hospital. Though she wasn’t the right woman for Tim, Cassidy liked her well enough.
Nick asked for a two-hundred-dollar bid. When none was forthcoming he moved into his going once, twice speech. Cassidy stopped him by lifting her number. No way was she letting Leila get Tim that cheap.
Leila turned slowly and her cat-green eyes narrowed. Though the RN had always been friendly enough, Cassidy absorbed the feral gleam directed her way and grinned back.
If Leila thought a hostile glance could intimidate her, she was mistaken. Cassidy Kaye ate feral cats for breakfast.
“Three hundred,” Nick confirmed when Leila waved her paddle as he upped the bid.
The curious gazes of the well-dressed men and women in the room were now shifting between her and Leila. Once again, Nick upped the bid. Without even thinking, Cassidy lifted her number.
“Four hundred is the bid,” Nick called out. “Do I hear five?”
The redhead hesitated now, her gaze shifting from Tim’s impassive expression to Cassidy’s cool gaze. Though nurses were paid well, the cost of living in Jackson Hole was through the roof. Five hundred dollars was a lot of money.
Leila tossed her head and raised her paddle.
“We’re at five hundred dollars,” Nick pronounced. “Will someone give us six?”
“Going twice,” she heard Nick say.
Without taking a second to talk herself out of it, Cassidy shot her hand into the air.
“We have six hundred.”
Leila’s head snapped around and the satisfied smirk on her face vanished. If looks could kill, Cassidy would be six feet under.
“Going once, going twice. Six hundred dollars to number ninety-eight.”
It was a charitable donation, Cassidy told herself as she wrote out the check. Though she had to admit dropping that amount of money in a single night hurt.
Or rather it did until she turned and found Tim standing. Right. There.
“I’m sorry you got stuck,” he said.
Normally never at a loss of words, for a second Cassidy could only stare. Her heart gave a painful twist.
“I mean, I know you were only trying to increase the bid. I can give you the money to—”
She shot out a hand, stopping him before he could say more. “You’re not getting out of our date that easily. I bought you fair and square, mister.”
He smiled then, a warm easy lifting of his lips that did strange things to her insides. And when he took her arm, she realized he was worth every penny.
They strolled into the ballroom, where they both enjoyed a glass of champagne. After handing the empty glasses to a passing waiter, they wandered out onto the veranda, where the conversation shifted from mutual friends and future events to their upcoming “date.”
“I’ll pay for the evening.” Tim’s tone brooked no argument. “You pick where we go. Fair?”
Cassidy considered for a moment then nodded.
The moon bathed his face in a golden glow and a light breeze tousled his hair. He really was a great-looking guy. Not only did he have a fabulous face, his lips were firm and perfectly sculpted.
As she stared, she wondered what they would feel like, taste like...
“Sounds like we’ve got a deal.” He stuck his hand out but she ignored it, keeping her gaze focused on his lips.
Cassidy firmly believed hesitating or second-guessing was for wimps. Stepping close, she wrapped her hands around his neck and covered his mouth with hers.
That smoking-hot kiss was still at the forefront of Tim’s mind two weeks later when he pulled into his parents’ driveway. Probably because this afternoon would be the first time he and Cassidy would be alone together since she’d surprised him so thoroughly after the bachelor auction.
Over the past four years, his friend Jayne had brushed several kisses across his cheek. Nothing that came close to the sensual feel of Cassidy’s warm full lips plastered against his mouth. Before he could get his rioting emotions under control, he’d kissed her back. And it had taken all of his willpower not to continue kissing her.
He wondered if that was how they’d end this evening, too...
“Yippee, we’re here,” one of his daughters called out from the backseat as he eased the car to a stop in front of the two-story white clapboard that had been his home as a child.
Large leafy trees protected the house and the lush green lawn from the late-afternoon sun. A variety of perfectly groomed bushes added to the home’s well-tended appearance.
By the time Tim pushed open his car door, the twins had already hopped out and sprinted up the sidewalk to his parents’ front porch.
Esther and Ellyn loved spending time with their grandma and grandpa. But this afternoon, Tim had found himself wishing Finley Davis, the teenage daughter of friends, was available. He knew his mother’s feelings about this date with Cassidy and he wasn’t in the mood to hear her tell him again that Cassidy was clearly out to snare herself a wealthy doctor.
Stepping out of his hybrid SUV, Tim expelled a resigned breath. Suzanne Duggan, retired grade-school teacher and A-plus grandmother, was a wonderful woman. But there was no denying she could be a trifle opinionated.
Thankfully, it wasn’t Suzanne, but his father who sauntered around the side of the house just as the screen door slammed shut and the girls disappeared from sight. His father waved a greeting, his gloved hand gripping a wicked-looking pair of garden shears.
Though in his mid-sixties, Steve Duggan could pass for a man ten years younger. The recently retired engineer was tall, topping Tim’s six-foot frame by a good three inches. His sandy hair still held the red all three of his children had inherited, although in recent years more and more silver strands had been added to the mix.
Tim met his father’s warm hazel eyes and realized, not for the first time, how fortunate he’d been to grow up in a home with two loving, supportive parents. From the moment his daughters had been born, he’d been determined to give them that same experience. Except now, with Caro gone, he had to be both father and mother.
Tim ignored the voice inside his head and the accompanying fear that gripped him, fear that he was somehow shortchanging the girls by choosing to remain single. But his situation was different than most widowers. His practice was challenging. At the end of the day, there was no time left for the demands of a wife. He’d already failed one woman. He wouldn’t make that mistake again.
At ease with his decision, Tim gestured with his head toward the shears. “Looks like Mom is keeping you busy.”
His father smiled ruefully. “The woman’s honey-do projects will keep my free time occupied into the next millennium.”
The two men laughed, both aware that was no exaggeration.
As his father fell into step beside him, Tim sensed his curious gaze. Steve paused at the bottom of the porch steps.
“I was surprised when Suz mentioned you’d be dropping off the girls at four. That seems a bit early for a date.”
It seemed early to Tim, too. But Cassidy had paid six hundred dollars. Six hours or so of his time didn’t seem much to ask.
“Cass has a full evening planned,” he told his dad. “Beginning with grabbing some pizza, then checking out Brew Fest.”
When Tim had stopped by Cassidy’s salon earlier in the week to find out what she had in mind for their “date,” she’d asked if he had plans for Old West Days, a popular yearly event held the last Saturday of May. Other than taking the girls to watch the parade in the morning, Tim had been available.
“I’m surprised the woman could take time off today,” his mother said in lieu of a greeting as she stepped out onto the porch. Suzanne was a slim, attractive woman with a sleek bob of light brown hair and bright blue eyes. “If you’re a beautician, Saturday is a big day.”
“It’s her salon. I imagine she sets her own schedule.” Tim deliberately kept his tone mild, refusing to get drawn into a pointless discussion. He glanced around. “Where’d the twins disappear to?”