day she saw moms and dads bring new babies into the world. Some of them had other children who came to visit and welcome a new brother or sister into the family. She recalled that Joe had several brothers. The Marchettis seemed to be a large and loving clan. That didn’t necessarily mean the sons were one-woman men. If nothing else, his looks made him a babe magnet. The attention he must get from women would be hard to ignore.
Not for a minute did she believe his spin from the other night. She would give anything to be able to dump her skepticism. But her childhood had been a front row seat in watching how imperfect marriage was. His parents may have stayed together for thirty-five years, but she would bet they weren’t happy about it. He was just doing what playboys did. Charm a roomful of women with what he thought they wanted to hear.
She wanted to accept that he had volunteered for the reasons he’d told her the other night. But the doubting Thomas in her believed that women were nurturers who derived pleasure from holding a baby. A man who was there ostensibly for that reason had to have an ulterior motive. Either he planned to milk the experience for publicity for the family restaurant chain, or he was there to meet women. Whatever his motivation, she would do what was necessary to protect the program.
“Anything else you want to know about Rosie?” he asked.
“No. I think you’ve embellished sufficiently,” she said sweetly.
“Good. Have you covered everything? About my orientation?”
She nodded. “Except which shift you want.”
Just then, the nursery door opened. Samantha Taylor walked in. She was an obstetrics nurse, and a tall redhead.
“Hi, Sam,” Liz said.
“Hey, boss.” She glanced at Joe as if she were trying to place him, then back to Liz. “What are you doing here?”
“This is Joe Marchetti,” Liz said as if that answered the question.
“Hi.” Sam held out her hand. “You look familiar.”
“We met about a year ago,” he said shaking her hand. “My sister had her baby here.”
“Yes,” Sam said nodding. “Now I remember. We talked that night. I told you about the cuddlers program.”
“That’s right,” he said, smiling that charming, orthodontia-ad smile of his.
Liz wouldn’t be surprised if she’d just come face to face with the Marchetti motivation. But had Sam heard about how badly he’d used one of the other nurses? Liz wondered if she should warn her friend that he was the love ’em and leave ’em type. She couldn’t blame Joe for wanting to get to know Sam better. Although signing up for the cuddlers program seemed a little extreme. Because pretty much all he had to do was stand there to make an impression on a woman.
Correction, Liz told herself, any woman but her.
Was it possible that she was wrong about him? Joining the cuddlers seemed like an awful lot of trouble to go through to meet a woman.
She smiled at Sam. “It seems your pitch made a profound impression on Mr. Marchetti. He’s decided to be a cuddler. I’m orienting him to the nursery.”
“Ah, that explains what you’re doing here on your day off,” the other woman said. “I refuse to waste my breath reminding you what the word delegate means. Or explaining the downside of employee burnout. I just came to get some money out of my purse for lunch.”
Joe looked at his watch. “Is it that time already?”
Sam laughed. “I don’t need a clock. My growling stomach say it’s time to take a trip to the cafeteria.”
“Now that you mention it, I’m hungry too,” he said.
Liz had to give him credit. He’d just given himself the perfect playboy lead-in to join Sam for lunch and cast his line, work his magic, lay the groundwork for his conquest. Sam was a big girl. She could handle him. They would actually make a very attractive couple. Part of her rebelled at that thought. The other part was glad that he would show his true colors and be out of there before anyone learned to depend on him.
“Good,” Liz said. “Sam can give you an impromptu tour of the hospital on the way.”
“On the way where?” he asked, looking puzzled.
“To the cafeteria.”
“You in a hurry to get rid of me?” One dark eyebrow rose questioningly.
Sam cleared her throat. “If she’s not, she should be.”
Joe looked at her a moment, then chuckled. “I’m going to assume you didn’t mean that the way it came out.”
“I didn’t.” She looked sheepish. “What I meant was that this woman spends too much time here—six days a week on average. Last I heard she wasn’t supposed to come in today.”
“A workaholic dedicated to showing one volunteer the ropes,” Joe said, shaking his head. “This is all my fault.”
“No. There’s always something,” Liz said. “So I’ll leave you two to the rest of the tour—” She gasped when Joe took her elbow and headed her toward the door.
He looked over his shoulder and said to a grinning Sam, “Nice to meet you. Don’t let me keep you from your lunch. I’m sure I can find out where you hide the cafeteria another time. After ruining her day off, I owe this lady some R and R. Bye.”
Thirty minutes after leaving the Encino hospital Joe parked his convertible in a beach lot overlooking the Pacific Ocean. There were picnic tables scattered in the sand nearby. He half turned to look at Liz. Her hair curled charmingly around her small face. A becoming pink colored her cheeks. Sunglasses hid the keen intelligence in her eyes. But what really drew his attention was her smile. A rare phenomenon he was beginning to realize. And that was a shame. Because it was very attractive and incredibly appealing.
He was only slightly miffed that driving with the top down had produced the occurrence and not his own witty repartee. No matter. He planned to bring it out more frequently. Everyone needed a challenge. Even a confirmed bachelor like himself.
“This is the spot I was telling you about,” he said.
She sighed. “I can’t remember the last time I drove to the beach.”
He grabbed the brown bag with the sandwiches he’d bought at a stand on Pacific Coast Highway and got out of the car. Rounding it, he opened the passenger door and took the cardboard container of drinks that Liz had been holding on her lap.
“Let’s sit on one of those benches over there,” he said pointing. “Great scenery.”
She nodded and slid out. They walked to the picnic table and she clambered over the bench, settling herself to face the ocean. Joe never missed a chance at that view. This time it was a perfect excuse to sit beside her, his arm brushing her shoulder. She shivered slightly, then shifted a bit to the side.
“You cold?” he asked.
“Nope.” She shook her head. “Not after Mr. Toad’s
