A Doctor for Keeps Read online

  “You’re always starving.” He leaned against the counter.

  “I should get to watch an hour of TV ’cause I already practiced piano, too.”

  “He did really well.” Amanda seemed as surprised as Kent had been at first. Piano practice wasn’t something the boy had ever been consistent about.

  “I’m all ready for my lesson tomorrow.” Pride puffed out his chest as he stood and headed for the TV room. “I’ll play my song for you later, Dad.”

  “Good job, bud.”

  Kent walked Amanda out front, already hearing the TV loud and clear on Steven’s favorite kid sitcom. The past couple of days had warmed up considerably, and he’d missed all the sunshine being stuck inside at work, and since a certain someone happened to be sitting outside earlier, he thought…

  Amanda waved and drove off. Kent glanced to Gerda’s porch but couldn’t see Desdemona anymore. Blast it, his timing stank. He moved a little closer and searched the porch. Two wine-barrel planters stocked with summer blooms marked each end of it. A large fern hung from the arch over the railing, blocking the entire view from this vantage point.

  His gaze drifted to the far corner. Boots rested on the railing and they were connected to Desi. She sat in the rocking chair, staring straight at him. Damn. Busted.

  Surveillance was Gunnar’s talent, not his. He waved at her in the shadows and approached with a sudden rush of excitement coursing through him.

  “Nice night, huh?” he said.

  “Actually feels like summer’s coming. In L.A. we’d already be using air-conditioning.” She held something in her hand. “Hey, now that you’re off duty, maybe you’d like to join me for a wine cooler? My own secret concoction.”

  Surprisingly, he liked the idea. “Sounds good. Where’s Gerda?”

  Desi stood, and Kent got treated to an up-close view of that sexy multicolored scarf dress she seemed to like to lounge around in. Something about the clunky boots beneath made her look edgy and he liked the effect.

  “She had to go to some hush-hush meeting with the city council.”

  Knowing Steven was set for at least the next half hour, he followed her inside. The screen door creaked and flapped behind them. Walking quickly across the large living area, they were soon in the kitchen. Desi mixed Japanese plum wine with club soda over ice, then refreshed her tall glass and handed him both of the drinks. She stopped at the couch and picked up a large, long pillow, carrying it outside and placing it on the top porch step so they could both sit on it together. Out here he could keep an eye on his house in case Steven needed him.

  Desdemona sat first and patted the spot next to her. He’d never been this close to her before and didn’t need to be asked twice.

  He took a drink. It was bubbly, tart, yet with a sweet aftertaste. “This is very good.”

  “Tell me about it. Problem is, they sneak up on you.” Desi seemed more relaxed than he’d ever seen her, and after his long, stressful day he had some catching up to do.

  They sat in silence, enjoying the drinks, and he studied the clear starlit sky, the Columbia River sparkling in the distance. Wind rustled through the front-yard trees and breezed over his face. He could smell the pine trees all the way from the hills behind town. He took another drink and relaxed a bit more. A sudden gust of wind kicked up some leaves, lifting Desdemona’s hair every which way. He turned to watch the show.

  Had he ever seen such soft-looking skin before? It would be so easy to reach over and kiss her. Instead he moved a lock of windblown hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear.

  Desdemona gave a bashful, endearing smile. “Thank you.”

  Thump. It went right to Kent’s heart. He fantasized tracing his finger along her back and kissing her neck—her long, beautiful neck.

  The wind stopped and the air between them went thick, expectant.

  She shivered.

  He looked away, afraid she might notice the sex-starved thoughts written all over his face. Just because he was intensely drawn to her, he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable.

  “How’s Steven?”

  Safe topic. Okay, we’ll keep things safe. “Great. He’s all ready for his lesson tomorrow, which is a first.”

  “I love it.” She drank several swallows of her wine cooler. Kent almost finished his.

  “Yeah, dangle a pretty lady in front of any warm-blooded male and that’s what you get.”

  Desdemona hitched her head, pulled in her chin and studied him. There was amusement in her expression, with a raised eyebrow of disbelief tossed in to balance things out. “Was that a compliment?”

  “You don’t know you’re hot?”

  She blurted a laugh. “I didn’t know you thought I was hot.”

  “Am I alive?” He finished off his drink, staring straight ahead, hoping she wouldn’t notice he’d felt about as awkward as a teenager.

  She tapped his shoulder. He turned to find a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “Want another?” She’d noticed.

  He didn’t want to break up the moment, so he shook his head, though the easy-down-the-hatch drink had already tweaked his outlook. This going-with-the-flow stuff wasn’t half-bad.

  “Since we talked the other day, I’ve really been wondering about all those other jobs you’ve had,” he said, thinking, by habit, he’d already put a stop to the go-with-the-flow bit. Maybe she had office experience and he could get her a job at his Urgent Care.

  “The odds-and-ends jobs?”

  Did he really want to know or was he just making stuff up so that now he’d finished his drink he could stick around and look at her more? “Yeah, those.”

  “I’m a calligrapher and have some pretty good accounts. I know computers can do that stuff these days, but there’s nothing like the real thing. Plenty of people still want it, and it brings in decent money.” She scratched her chin. “And the last job I had before I came here was at the senior center in L.A. where my mother and I lived.”

  “That’s nice. What did you do there?”

  “I posed for the Life Art classes.”

  “Hmm. Did they dress you in different costumes when you posed?”

  “No.” She acted blasé and moved her large-eyed glance toward Kent’s face in a lazy fashion. “I posed nude.” She used her straw to take a long draw on her drink, eyes unwavering from his.

  He almost choked. “You what?”

  “Pose naked.” She blew a puff of air from between her lips, pulled at the seams of the pillow and punched the fluffy filling down a tad, then relaxed into the cushion. “Hey, there isn’t anyone under sixty in the class and they’re mostly women. Besides, it’s for art.”

  “Aren’t you self-conscious about people staring at you naked?”

  “Maybe at first, but it’s artistic and I feel a little daring doing it. You know, out of the ordinary.”

  So she didn’t do ordinary, which was all Kent and Steven were. Diana had gotten tired of ordinary, too.

  Still, that daring part she’d mentioned got his full attention and he let himself look her over head to booted toes, stuttering over her chest. How had he not noticed before now that she was braless again? He quickly diverted his gaze to his hands, making a fist with one and butting it against the other palm.

  “Don’t go getting any weird notions about me. The first time I posed I nearly puked, but I’m not uptight about my body.”

  “Good to know.” Okay, he was feeling his drink but things still seemed awkward. Maybe because he’d been transported back in time to a horny teenager.

  “Maybe we should keep this between us. I wouldn’t want to cause my mayor grandma any scandals. She’s only just getting to know me.” There was a touch of sassy in her grin, and he made a snap decision that he really liked Desi’s brand of sassy.

  “My, my, my.” Kent grinned back his own version of a sassy smile and leaned on his elbows, happy to finally find the relaxation he’d needed, compliments of the plum wine and Ms. Desdemona Rask.

  She lea
ned back on her elbows, too. Her hair fell below her shoulders as she scanned the night sky. The curve of her throat and soft full breasts below demanded his attention. He swallowed. Damn, he should never have come over here.

  On impulse he lifted the mahogany-colored hair off the shoulder closest to him, feeling the thick, wavy texture.

  She closed her eyes.

  Crazy vibes whizzed up his arm and across his shoulders.

  He either needed to kiss her or leave. Some deep, honorable part of his subconscious put on the brakes, but the urge to test out her inviting lips, just a few inches away, overrode that hesitation.

  Kent reached across her chest to her shoulder and turned her toward him. Their eyes met—hers with a knowing, warm and welcoming glance. He locked into her dark, sexy gaze until his lips made contact with hers and his lids closed.

  Soft. Plump. Warm. Her lips were everything he’d thought and more. He tasted the plum wine as he deepened the kiss, and her fingers delved into his hair.

  The kiss set off sensations and desires he’d buried since Diana had left. Hot-blooded desire. He wanted Desdemona, and he wasn’t sure what to do about it. From the way she kissed him back, he was positive she was on board, too.

  When his tongue crossed the seams of her lips and he touched the tip of hers, he quit thinking. He let his mind wander with the zero-to-ninety rush of making out with this beautiful woman.

  Desdemona ended it. She pulled away and stared into his eyes. It took him a moment to focus. “That was nice.” Her voice was breathy. Sexy. Oozing sincerity.

  Only nice? Hell. He feigned a smile, fighting off the lance to his ego. “I can blame the plum wine if that makes things easier to explain.”

  “What would you blame it on otherwise?”

  Tell her the truth. “Your irresistibleness.”

  A whispery laugh parted her lips. “Is that even a word?” Her sweet, questioning expression proved she liked his attention.

  “It is if it’s true.”

  She gazed dreamily at him, those dark topaz eyes so warm and inviting, like the night. She’d liked it. Definitely. Should he kiss her again?

  Desi relaxed back on the step, staring in the direction of the river. Kent rested his elbows on his knees and gave her space.

  “You know, part of the reason I came to Oregon was to find my biological father.”

  They’d broken the ice with the intimate kiss, and he liked how she was opening up with him. “Is he from around here?”

  “No. I believe he lives in Portland. My mother only told me about him when she was dying. I feel like I’ve got to find him. Sort of like finding the other half of me.”

  Kent’s jaw went tight. “What about Gerda?”

  “Oh, I plan to stay long enough to get to know her. I’ll keep her in my life for sure, yet…”

  And there you go, Larson—the reason you shouldn’t get involved with her.

  “Dad?” A distant voice cut further into Kent’s suddenly aborted trip to pleasantville. “Are you out here? It’s time for my bath.”

  Kent stood. Even now, after the realization his attraction to Desi couldn’t go anywhere, his natural and red-blooded reaction to that kiss proved embarrassing. Good thing it was getting dark out.

  “Well, I gotta go. Kid’s calling,” he said, sounding husky, maybe a little frustrated, and way out of practice when it came to women.

  Desi stood on the steps, watching him leave, looking like a booted, scarf-covered goddess, the kind that should pose for a painting. Light from the house outlined her figure through the thin, almost transparent material of her dress. A new gust of wind rustled the hem of her skirt as she waved good-night with a smoldering smile. The sight almost made his knees buckle.

  “Dad!”

  “Co—” He needed to clear his throat. “Coming.”

  Going to see Desdemona had been a wonderfully terrible idea. He backed away from the porch, rubbing his neck. Why did everything in life have to be so complicated?

  “Hi, Ms. Desi!”

  “Hey there, Steven.”

  With a final wave good-night, Kent made his getaway…quick.

  Chapter Four

  On Tuesday, Steven trotted across Gerda’s lawn with his babysitter hot on his heels. Desi saw them through the front window and hopped off the piano bench, leaving her current student fumbling through a song.

  “Keep playing, Dagney.” She opened the door before he could knock. “You’re early.”

  “I know!” He stood there in his summer-day-camp clothes, mud on the knees of his jeans and face grimy with sweat and dirt streaks.

  “I tried to distract him by taking him to the park, but he’s been chomping at the bit to get here for the last half hour,” said the young woman she’d seen come and go as the babysitter.

  Seeing Steven set off all kinds of thoughts, mainly about his father and their amazing kiss, but also what a sweet boy he was to get so excited about his lesson. She’d hardly been able to keep Kent out of her thoughts today and was thankful for the piano-teaching distractions. Seeing Steven set her progress in reverse.

  “Why don’t you wait right here on the porch—” she pointed to the wicker love seat “—and I’ll get to you as soon as Dagney is finished.”

  The pent-up excitement leaked from his face, his expression going flat. “Okay.”

  “It’ll only be a few more minutes.” She ruffled his damp hair and closed the door then sat beside Dagney, who’d stopped playing to watch what was going on.

  “Sorry about the interruption. Let’s start right here.” Desi pointed to the middle of the page.

  Ten minutes later, Desi sent Dagney home and let Steven in. He ran for the piano bench, slipping on a braided area rug on the way, almost hitting the floor on his knees. Using quick reflexes, Desi grabbed him by the elbow before he went down. They smiled at each other and after he’d calmed down they sat side by side on the piano bench.

  After the warm-ups and some theory talk, they got down to the lesson.

  “Wow, you even did your theory homework,” she said, thumbing through the workbook.

  Pride could not adequately describe the joy on his face when she put gold stickers on all of the pages. Knowing he was practically blowing a gasket trying to be patient, she pushed ahead. “Okay, play your new song for me.”

  The boy sat tall, placing his fingers on the keyboard, wrists straight and slightly lifted, then began the blues song. A few notes in, Desi realized he was playing from memory, and the improvement over last week was amazing. Gerda had asked Desi to light a fire under the boy’s feet for music, and she definitely felt as though that mission had been accomplished.

  She called her grandmother to come and witness the miracle. Gerda clapped her hands in delight. “He deserves two candies this week,” she said, before giving him a hug and retreating to the back of the house to make more work-related phone calls. It didn’t go unnoticed that she’d given Desi freedom to teach in her own style.

  Steven gave his all to the rest of the lesson, too, and when Desi added a few new notes and chords to his music, he paid unwavering attention. Night and day from last week. By the end of the hour, Desi had introduced another short bluesy song for him to try on his own.

  “This one’s even cooler than the last one,” he said, after her demonstration.

  “I can’t wait to see how you do.” After putting bright stickers on his music pages, she handed him an extra-special candy, a small bag of SweeTarts, the tropical kind. She’d had a hunch he was going to nail the lesson today and decided to be prepared. “Now that I know how much you like SweeTarts, I bought some for the really great lessons.”

  His bright sky-blue eyes shone with pure delight, and he hugged her, giving it his all, just like he’d given to the piano lesson. The doorbell rang and, not wanting to break up the hug by answering the door, she called out, “Come in!”

  In came Kent, nearly stunning her with his classic masculine looks. He wore charcoal slacks and a yell
ow button-down shirt, cuffs rolled to his forearms displaying strength and sophistication. His dark blond hair was slicked back with hair product, except the slightly longer hair on his neck curled out a tiny bit. Normally she’d make a guy out to be more than he actually was in her memory, and would inevitably be disappointed the next time she saw him, but not so with Kent. Every time they came face-to-face he only got better looking. The man had to be related to the Nordic gods, and his near perfection proved it.

  Don’t be so superficial. He’s a great father, too. And a doctor for the town.

  “Hi,” he said, looking tentative and withdrawn, totally different from the last time she’d seen him.

  What was she supposed to make of Kent’s spine-melting kiss? She’d stood on the steps watching him go home last night, hardly able to believe the guy had made a pass at her. No one should let his bland white house fool them, because the man gave smokin’-hot kisses. Yet right now he seemed reserved, maybe even unhappy. Why? Was he sorry he’d kissed her?

  “Hi.” She gave him a bright smile, hoping to lighten the serious look on Kent’s face. “Steven had a stellar lesson.”

  “Good to know.” He nodded and smiled at his son.

  Steven shot her a look as if he couldn’t wait to crow about how well he’d done. “She said I did everything perfect, Dad!”

  “Fantastic.” Kent’s smile didn’t reach anywhere near his eyes. He didn’t venture beyond the doorframe, either.

  Steven let go of Desi, breaking up their hug, then rushed toward his dad, music books long forgotten. Kent gave him a jock’s pat on the butt as he barreled straight out the door.

  “I want to try the new song all by myself. See you, Ms. Desi!” From the sound of his voice he’d already cleared the porch and was halfway across the yard.

  Desi cupped her hands around her mouth. “You won’t get far without your music books.”

  In he ran, retrieving the music primers, and he sped right back out the door again.

  “Call me if you need any help,” she said as he disappeared again.

  That left Kent and Desi alone, quietly staring at each other. Warmth edged up her throat to her jaw. She smiled, even though her right cheek felt a little twitchy.