“Hey, that’s life. I’ve had my share of women tell me the same thing. That is, until Linda and I hooked up.”
Leif was dating a kindergarten teacher he’d met when her class had come to the fire station for a field trip. Leif didn’t kiss and tell, either, but Mike knew that they’d been sleeping together.
One morning about a month ago, Leif hadn’t come home the night before. He’d apparently left his head-lamps on and couldn’t get his car to start. So he’d had to call Mike and ask for a ride to work.
Linda seemed like a nice woman, and Mike hoped they’d be happy.
“So what’s the problem?” Leif asked. “Just cut bait and run.”
“I would, but I can’t help believing that Simone and I are meant for each other. But she’s so…” Mike didn’t want to go into too much personal detail. “So damn set in her ways.”
Leif placed a hand on Mike’s back. “I know it hurts, man. But you can’t chase after a woman who clearly isn’t interested. There are stalking laws and all that.”
Mike clucked his tongue. “I’m not a stalker. And I know when a woman isn’t interested. If I truly believed it, I’d back way off.”
“So she’s given you reason to believe there’s hope?”
“Yeah.” She’d admitted that she cared for him. And he couldn’t help believing her, especially when he remembered the way she’d looked at him when they’d made love—talk about someone wearing their heart on their sleeve.
At three in the morning, she’d lost that tipsy glow, and it had been replaced by something else. Something laden with an emotion a man couldn’t mistake for friendship or simple desire.
But maybe he’d read her wrong.
Maybe she didn’t have the right kind of feelings for him, and he’d been pushing her too hard.
“Chasing after her just isn’t cool,” Leif added. “It makes you look needy.”
His partner had a point. Mike had made himself too available. It might be best if he backed off.
“Linda has a couple of friends. They’re both single and hot. Without a doubt, either of them would drop everything to go out on a date with you.”
The trouble was, Mike didn’t want to go out with anyone other than Simone. And he sure as hell didn’t want to go out with anyone when Simone was having his baby.
Damn.
His baby.
Their baby.
“What you need is a diversion,” Leif said. “And have I got the woman for you. Her name is Christy, and she’s about five-two. She’s a school librarian, but don’t think that means she’s prim and proper. She’s bright, well read and funny.”
Mike needed to get his mind off Simone, all right. But not by dating another woman. “I may back off with Simone. But I’m not ready to go out with anyone else.”
“Why not?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Suit yourself,” Leif said. “But promise me you’ll stop pining for a woman who doesn’t want you.”
While Mike could see the value in that advice, he couldn’t completely give up on Simone.
Not just yet.
But how could a woman be so stubborn?
Mike still hoped to change her mind, but he was beginning to have his doubts. He suspected that was why the seed of a plan B began to form. A plan that he’d implement if backed into a corner.
A move that could end any dream Mike had of him and Simone creating a family together.
Chapter Ten
After Mike left Simone’s house, she’d cleaned up the dinner mess. It had been quick and easy; she’d just packed up the leftovers in plastic ware before refrigerating them, then thrown away the take-out bags and cartons.
But she suspected she’d made a mess out of her friendship with Mike. And if she chose to do something about that, it wouldn’t be as easy to straighten up.
She’d shut him out by suggesting he go home, which she was prone to do whenever things got emotionally involved. But for once in her life, she hadn’t been especially happy about being left alone.
After feeding the dogs and getting them situated in the kitchen for the night, she’d showered and put on her favorite pink flannel gown, then climbed into bed. The sheets had been laundered earlier that day, which, under normal conditions, meant she could expect a good night’s sleep.
Instead, her mind refused to shut down and continued to go over their dinnertime conversation again and again. She’d kept trying to figure out a better way she could have handled it, but hadn’t been able to.
Mike had a different spin on the pregnancy situation than she had. And he had a different solution, too.
Unfortunately, she’d had to work the next day, and as a result, had arrived at the hospital a bit distracted by lack of sleep and thoughts of Mike and the baby. Of course, she’d tried to shake them off the best that she could.
Now she sat behind the desk at the nurses’ station in the E.R., reading the orders one of the residents had written on a patient’s chart.
There’d been a traffic accident on the interstate about an hour earlier, and a seventeen-year-old passenger in one of the cars had been sent to X-ray with a possible broken arm and collarbone.
“Is that the Stephens chart?” Ella asked.
“Yes, it is.” Simone handed her the paperwork, pleased Ella had been the orthopedic surgeon who’d been called in to treat the teen’s injury.
Ella looked the chart over, then asked, “When is he due back from radiology?”
“It shouldn’t be much longer.”
Ella nodded. When she finished perusing the chart, she glanced across the desk at Simone. “Did you hear that the state attorney general’s office is sending an investigator to do a preliminary investigation about possible insurance fraud?”
“When?”
“Within the next few days, I’ve heard.” Ella set the chart aside.
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Neither do I.”
“It’s so unfair,” Simone added. “Walnut River General might keep its patients longer than most hospitals, but it’s not an attempt to defraud insurance companies. It’s because we don’t believe in sending patients home early just to keep the costs down.”
