Melinda Curtis - Kissed By The Country Doc

“Nope. I’m Roy.” The old man kept pumping. “Harlan was my—”

“I’m Mitch.” The mayor got out of his chair and introduced himself, shaking Shane’s hand in a classy one-and-done.

Something crashed into Noah’s thigh.

The toddler wiped her nose on Noah’s black ski pants and then looked up at him with a mischievous grin and said, “Hi,” before fleeing with a squeal and a giggle across the diner.

“Penny.” The girl next door snatched a napkin from the holder on the table and wiped at the streak of snot on Noah’s ski pants. And then she froze, her hands inches from Noah’s thigh.

Noah’s ears filled with white noise, not caused by any head cold or sinus infection. This was one of those surreal moments where a beauty had unwittingly touched a beast. Noah’s heart went out of rhythm. He felt light-headed.

Heart attack? Negative.

Low blood sugar? Negative.

High-altitude dehydration? Likely.

Despite his diagnosis, Noah reached for his dehydrating coffee. But his eyes... His eyes couldn’t turn away from her.

“My apologies. That was inappropriate.” The woman’s cheeks bloomed with color. Her bright blue gaze bounced to Noah’s and away before she, too, made a run for it. “Penelope Arlene, you come back here.”

Penny’s laughter drowned out the white noise in Noah’s head, and sent others in the room chuckling, breaking the tension that the arrival of the Monroes had caused. Noah breathed easier.

“We thought we’d come down and stay a few days,” Shane Monroe was saying, still on his high horse.

Not that Noah was one to judge. As an orthopedic surgeon, he’d taken many a ride on a high horse.

And look where that’s gotten me.

Noah clenched his gloved fists, his left hand more than his right.

The pale redhead emerged from the bathroom and collapsed on a stool at the counter with a croak for water.

Ivy was quick to serve her, looking slightly out of her element. “Are you Ashley?”

Ashley Monroe? The actress? Was that why she looked familiar?

“She’s my twin.”

“Oh.” Ivy sounded disappointed, but not as disappointed as the redhead.

“You wanna stay here? Now?” That was Roy. Unfiltered. “In Second Chance?”

Mitch tried to hide a laugh behind a cough. “What Roy means is, there’s a storm coming. Many storms, in fact. We usually get snowed in five to ten days during the winter. Passes close. No getting in or out.” He gave Shane the kind of look a New York doorman gives a tenant while explaining it’s impossible to get a taxi on New Year’s Eve. “You might be better off heading down to Hailey, or the other way, to Boise.”

“Better off?” Shane’s dark eyes narrowed. “Is there something you don’t want us to see?”

“Three to five feet of snow,” Roy answered, smacking his gums. “It’s a-comin’ tonight. Six or more a day after. And so on.”

Penny was playing keep-away-from-mama, running on chubby legs between tables in the middle of the room. Not that the girl next door was trying hard to catch her. More likely, she was trying to keep Penny from wiping her nose on another unsuspecting Second Chance resident.

“All we’re saying is—” Mitch was a former lawyer and proficient at clarifying an issue “—you might be more comfortable in a place with accommodations you’re used to because the passes might close.”

Shane was just as tall as Mitch but managed to look down his nose at him. “You have beds?” At his nod, Shane added, “Then we’ll be fine.”

So much for the five-star expectations of Mitch’s bet.

“You like snow, do you?” Roy asked.

“We’ll be fine,” Shane repeated.

Based on the thinness of Shane’s coat and his fine leather loafers, Noah highly doubted he’d be fine. You could get away with thin jackets in cities like Chicago or New York, because you were only in the elements for a few blocks between the subway and whatever building you were darting into. In the mountains of Idaho, cold penetrated layers of clothing quicker than heat melted ice cream on a hot summer day.

The toddler boys raced into the dining room and joined Penny. The three of them ran around a table as if they were playing musical chairs or training to be track stars.

“Someone.” Shane waved toward the spectacle. “Please.”

The girl next door and the harried mom of twins moved in.

Sensing her freedom was about to end, Penny veered and crashed into Noah, giggling nonstop. She gave a wet snuffle and turned her face to Noah’s knee.

This time, Noah was ready for her and swiped her nose with a napkin. “Gotcha.”

She looked up at him, aghast, lower lip trembling.

“Come here, Penny.” The girl next door crouched in front of Noah and held out her hands, just far enough away that she couldn’t touch him again.

“No-o-o.” Penny wasn’t just an athlete in the making. She was also a bit of a drama queen. She clutched Noah’s calf and shook her blond curls. “No-o-o.”

Penny’s mom raised those blue eyes to Noah’s once more, causing a heart-stuttering, equilibrium-shaking, white-noise-in-the-ears relapse.

“Given the way my daughter clings to you, we should be on a first-name basis. I’m Ella.” Her glance caught on Noah’s black gloves.

And just like that, Noah was reminded why he didn’t want a woman’s interest.

The world self-corrected. Stabilized.

“Mom.” Penny made a raspberry noise against Noah’s knee, negating her mother having any name other than... “Mom. Mom. Mom.”

“I’m Noah.” He ruffled Penny’s blond curls with his left hand. “Your daughter is what? Two?”

“I two,” Penny confirmed, holding up four fingers.

The twins ran by, followed by their mother, who said, “No one told me the terrible twos lasted long after the age of four.” She snatched a boy in each arm and gave them a playful growl as she stood, glasses sliding down her thin nose. “Only boys who behave get French fries.”

The boys stopped struggling and allowed their mother to carry them to the lunch counter, where she deposited each on a stool and ordered French fries from Ivy.

“Fesh fies?” Penny toddled forward into Ella’s arms.

“Apple fries?” Ella countered, then whispered conspiratorially to Noah, “So much healthier, and in my bag.”

His mother would have said, “She’s as adorable as her daughter.”

I’ve never liked adorable.

His sister would have said, “She’s not wearing a wedding ring.”

A fact I noticed completely by accident.

“Fesh fies!” Penny cried, pointing at the boys.

“But apple fries just aren’t the same,” Noah murmured. He caught Ella’s eye. “You should head back down the mountain before the storm hits. At Penny’s age, a case of the sniffles can turn serious overnight.” There. Spoken like a country doctor who only had a little girl’s best interests at heart.

Mitch gave Noah an approving nod, the kind of gesture that said, You’re one of us.

Noah clenched his teeth.

I have nothing in common with these people.

Worry flashed in Ella’s eyes. She’d no doubt weathered illnesses with her daughter before. Little kids picked up every germ.

“It’s just a cold.” Shane made light of Noah’s concern.

Ella’s gaze shuttered. She gave Noah a small smile. “Thanks, but it looks like we’re staying.”

“That’s too bad,” Noah murmured, staring at his gloved right hand and wishing Ella Monroe would leave town quickly.

A woman like Ella made a man remember he’d once had lofty dreams, made him think he could still be somebody important, made him try to regain ground when the odds were embarrassingly, impossibly stacked against him.