might be a good thing, Raina said, “Roy’s and Joey’s adoptions are final now, aren’t they?”
“Yes, they are.”
“And Manuel’s?”
“I’ll be his dad in a few months, if all goes well.”
“I admire what you’re doing, Mr. McGraw.”
“Shep,” he reminded her again, suspecting she used his surname to distance herself. Why would she need to distance herself? Could she be as interested in him as he was in her? It had been a long time since he’d wanted to pursue a woman….
“Shep,” she repeated, her cheeks coloring a little. “Giving these boys a home is so important. And you obviously care about them a great deal.”
“I wouldn’t have decided to adopt them if I didn’t. The foster-care system—” He shook his head. “It’s not like it once was, but it’s hard for children to feel loved when they don’t know where they’ll be sleeping the next night.”
After being abandoned by his mother, a series of foster homes, as well as a chief of police, had convinced Shep he wasn’t worthy of anyone’s love…until a kind rancher named Matt Forester had proven differently. Matt had been Shep’s role model and he was determined to give Roy, Joey and Manuel the same leg up in life that Matt had given him and his friend Cruz.
Raina was looking at him thoughtfully, as if there were more to him than she’d ever realized. Her intense gaze made his interest in her reach a new level, and he had to tamp down a sudden urge to touch her face.
He felt warm and uncomfortable, and now just wanted to get the prescription for Manuel and leave.
The doctor cut through the awkwardness between them by suddenly pulling a pamphlet from a stack on the counter and a pad from her pocket. She wrote out the prescription, then handed the papers to him. “Go home and think about the procedure. Look at the pamphlet I’ve given you. I’ll be in my office tomorrow. Call me if you have any questions.”
Someone knocked on the door.
Raina went to it and opened it, then returned with a few papers. “You need to sign these before you leave.”
As he signed the forms, he tried to make conversation—anything to distract himself from her quiet beauty. “Did you come in just for Manuel, or have you been here all day?”
She gave a shrug. “This has been an exceptionally long day. I had office hours this morning, surgeries this afternoon and a complication that kept me here.” At his look, she was quick to assure him, “Not for anyone who had tubes inserted in their ears.”
Shep smiled the first smile that had come naturally since he’d entered the emergency room. “You knew I was going to ask.”
“You’re the type who would.”
“Type?”
“You care, Mr. McGraw. You ask questions and you want answers. That’s a good type to be when you’re a parent.” There was admiration in her voice.
“You’re going to have to practice using my given name.”
Another blush stained her cheeks. “Maybe I will. I’ll walk you out.”
As they strode side-by-side to the reception area once more, Manuel stilled on Shep’s shoulder. He could tell the little boy was almost falling asleep. His crying had exhausted him.
Raina must have seen that, because as they stopped at the entrance to the hallway leading to the pharmacy, she peered around Shep’s shoulder at Manuel’s face, and then gently patted him on the back. “I imagine he’ll get more sleep tonight than you will.”
“You probably imagine right.”
Standing there like that, staring down into her eyes, Shep felt totally unsettled. His gut tightened, his collar felt tight and he was overcome by a desire to kiss her.
He was absolutely crazy.
A woman like Raina Greystone Gibson wouldn’t give a man like him a second look. Her husband had been a hero.
And Shep?
He was no hero…and because of his past, he never would be.
The following Wednesday, Raina hurried to the day-surgery waiting room. Manuel had been her last surgery of the day, and she was eager to bring his father good news. However, when she reached the doorway to the waiting room she stopped cold as her gaze went immediately to an obviously nervous Shep McGraw.
To her dismay, she felt flustered, knowing she was going to have to talk to him again. That was ridiculous! She didn’t fluster easily. But something about this tall, lean cowboy got to her, and she couldn’t figure out why. Since Clark had died, no man had made her feel much of anything. But then, the way Clark had died probably had something to do with that.
Closing her mind to memories she didn’t revisit often, she watched Shep McGraw for a few seconds. He sat alone, away from the others in the waiting room, staring at the cable-channel news on the TV. But she could tell he wasn’t really absorbing what he was watching. He’d checked his watch twice since she’d stood in the doorway.
Why did he get to her? Because he was such a concerned dad? Shep had had such a difficult time stepping away from Manuel to let the baby be taken to surgery. Still, she’d seen concerned fathers before. Maybe he got to her because he was a single dad doing the best he could with the boys he was adopting?
That had to be it. After all, she knew Manuel’s story because Shep had given her the baby’s history the first time she’d treated him. Manuel had gone into foster care malnourished and sickly when he was almost seventeen months old. A month after that, Shep had received a call from a contact working in the system who’d told him about the boy, asked if he was interested in adopting a third child. Shep had gone to see Manuel and made the decision on the spot. Thank goodness the toddler’s mother had finally cared enough to sign away her parental rights. Manuel’s father was nowhere to be found.
Raina suspected some particular motivation drove Shep to save children from the system. She was becoming more and more curious as to what that motivation could be. Not for the first time, Raina reminded herself her interest couldn’t have anything to do with Shep’s six-foot height, dark brown hair, the very blue eyes that reminded her of a Texas sky on a clear summer day. He could probably crook his finger at a multitude of women and they’d come running. But he wasn’t crooking his finger, and she wondered why.
She’d heard he was well off. He’d bought a huge ranch on the outskirts of Sagebrush, invested in a barnful of horses, remodeled the house and refurbished the barn. He’d also purchased a business—a lumberyard. He might look like a cowboy on the outside, but inside she got the feeling he was a shrewd businessman. He’d supposedly made a bundle selling commercial real estate in California before moving to Sagebrush. Yet he didn’t flaunt his wealth. In fact, the locals said he spent a good bit of time at the lumberyard as well as working his ranch.
He glanced at the doorway. Spotting her, he was on his feet in an instant.
She stepped a few paces to the side of the doorway for a little privacy, faced him and smiled. “Manuel came through the procedure with flying
