“You call your patient a…” Wayne sputtered.
“Dad, you must have misunderstood. Eric isn’t a human doctor,” she tried to explain, her face getting hot.
“I’m human, but my patients aren’t,” he said, trying for humor, but striking out with Dad.
“He’s a vet…a veterinarian.” She said it so emphatically people for tables around stopped eating to eavesdrop.
“Hey, there’s a friend of mine.” Eric stood up and gestured wildly to a man and woman just entering the dining room.
As the couple made their way toward them, Mindy tried to gauge how her father was taking the vet news. He was stone-faced, fussily scraping beans away from the side of the pot.
A tall lanky man with a hawkish nose and a broad smile stopped by their table, a short strawberry blonde hanging on his arm.
“Wayne, this is Guy Dillard and Tammy Jamison. Wayne is Mindy’s father,” Eric said. “Guy is one of the first people I met after I moved here. He’s a pharmaceuticals rep.”
The three men did the hand squeezing thing, her father making it a contest.
“Where’ve you been keeping this gorgeous woman?” Guy asked, ignoring his pouting date.
“We’ve both been busy at work,” Eric said, valiantly trying to make it sound as though the couple already knew her. “The four of us will have to get together soon.”
“I’m hungry,” Tammy whined and pulled Guy toward the waiting hostess. They moved on after a quick nice-meeting-you routine. Mindy couldn’t tell what her father was thinking.
“How long have you two been seeing each other?” Wayne asked.
“Quite awhile,” Eric said.
“More than a year,” she could honestly say, thinking back to Peaches’s first appointment.
“I’m pretty sure you never mentioned Eric is a vet,” he doggedly insisted.
“I have my own practice. Specialize in small animals, especially dogs.”
“Good profession,” her father grudgingly admitted. “Now, about tomorrow. I thought the three of us could do some sight-seeing. I’d like to visit some ancient ruins.”
“I don’t think Eric’s free, but I’d love to take you north to Walnut Canyon or Montezuma’s Well,” Mindy said.
To Eric’s credit, he didn’t even blink.
“I’ll have to see how my patient does,” he said. “Well, I have to run and make sure everything’s okay at the clinic. I’ll call you, sweetheart.”
He stood, shook her father’s hand, thanked him for the dinner, and planted a warm, unexpected kiss on the corner of her mouth.
“Your leftovers…” she gasped.
“Take them to your place,” he said, then practically sprinted away.
He did turn and wave before he was out of sight. She couldn’t have asked for a better performance.
ERIC GOT IN LINE to claim his vehicle, a process slowed by a platinum blonde with a face as rigid as porcelain from too much plastic surgery. The woman insisted on giving detailed instructions to a red-jacketed kid on how to deliver her Mercedes. A rotund man beside her looked bored and gave a long-suffering sigh.
Eric would prefer to get the SUV himself, but even if he had the key, it was probably blocked by other cars in the tightly packed lot east of the restaurant. Unfortunately, people were leaving in droves, and four or five drivers were ahead of him. If the pair of attendants didn’t hustle, he’d have to say goodbye to Wayne all over again.
He could see why Mindy needed someone to palm off as a boyfriend. Her father had changed from a nice, normal guy to a fascist meddler when the subject of her relationships came up. No wonder she’d escaped to Arizona for college and stayed there. She certainly seemed like a woman who could run her own life.
A lead-footed valet delivered a sky-blue Cadillac, and Eric moved a couple of steps closer to the podium where they kept the keys. He rolled his claim slip and a five-dollar bill for the tip between his palms and remembered his tie.
He could go back for it and lose his turn, but he’d probably never wear it again anyway. He was way over Cassandra and knew he never should have gotten involved with her in the first place. They had met when she hit a dog that ran out into the road. He’d been driving behind her and stopped to help. He had saved the dog, got engaged to the horse fanatic and spent a frustrating six months trying to convince her he didn’t want to give up his practice and be her live-in horse-doctor.
He’d die a grizzled old bachelor before he let another woman try to make him over.
“Eric, glad I caught you!”
He turned to see Mindy hurrying toward him, the tie she’d insisted on retying for him dangling from her fingertips.
“Thanks,” he said with feigned enthusiasm as he accepted it.
“I wanted to thank you. Dad likes you.”
“Good. Where is he?”
“He went out on the back patio for a better look at the view while I get the van. I can never thank you enough. He grudgingly admitted you might be okay even if you are an animal doctor. Coming from him, that’s better than an Emmy, an Oscar and the Nobel Peace Prize wrapped into one. Well, I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate what you did.”
“My pleasure.”
“Oh, and sorry about your tie.”
“I probably won’t wear it again,” he admitted. “A little too cute for me.”
“No, I mean I’m sorry about straightening it. When I’m nervous…”
“I know. You fuss.”
“Well, I’ll see you again when Peaches needs to see a vet,” she said.
He smiled weakly, determined not to encourage her but hard-pressed not to respond eagerly. She was a patient’s owner, and he didn’t mix business with pleasure, not since that starry night when Cass had overwhelmed him with gratitude for saving her from a guilty conscience. The dog she hit turned out to be a cherished pet, and she hated to be in the wrong even when she was.
“It was a great dinner.” He had to say something since they were trapped together by slow valet service.
“Yes, enough food for a week. Are you sure you don’t want any leftovers? Dad has them.”
“No, no thanks.” He tried, but couldn’t think of any neutral conversation topic.
The big surprise of the evening was hearing about her abysmal record with men. Unless her father was a full-blown liar, she specialized in loonies and losers.
She was attracted to men she could make over, he realized, wishing she wasn’t so darn cute. Besides being dark-haired and adorable, she had perfect palm-size breasts, a slender waist that made him ache to take her in his arms and a butt that would nicely fit his lap.
“When you see him coming, tell me,” he said impulsively. “We should maybe, you know, kiss good-night.”
“He’s coming toward us now, but I don’t know if we should. All these people…”
She didn’t exactly say no, so he went for it anyway. He wrapped one arm around her shoulder and dropped his free hand low on her back, his fingers brushing the delectable little hollow at the end of her spine.
He’d have to be numb from the neck down to pass up the startled O of her mouth. Daddy wanted a man for his daughter? Let him mull over this on the way back to Pittsburgh.
He gave her a hard, noisy kiss that knocked her off balance on the spiky heels she was wearing and forced her to grab his arms to keep from tottering.
“Thank you,” she whispered breathlessly.
“Anytime.”
That was the most stupid thing he’d said since he proposed to Cass. He backed away feeling scorched and silly. Her father wasn’t the only one who’d noticed the robust kiss. He’d provided entertainment for the bored diners waiting for their vehicles and deserved their amused titters.
“Good night, Wayne. Thanks again for the dinner,” he called over to her father as he hurried to the podium where, thankfully, it was his turn.
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