The M.D. Next Door

He wasn’t sure whether to be more intrigued or unnerved by the possibility.

“Did you hear me, Dad?” Alice asked with an exasperation that made him suspect he’d momentarily tuned her out.

“Sorry, Roo, I was concentrating on this delicious dinner you prepared. What were you saying?”

She rolled her eyes in response to both the childhood nickname and the blatant flattery. “I said I need you to take me shopping tomorrow. You know, for the class party tomorrow night? I tried on the dress I was planning to wear—the really pretty one Mom bought me before she left for Hong Kong—and it’s gotten too little. I guess I’ve grown a little taller in the past six months.”

He heard both pride and disappointment in her tone. She’d worried about being a “late bloomer,” shorter and less developed than some of her classmates, and he suspected she was relieved by the recent growth spurt but he knew she’d wanted to wear that fancy dress. She’d worn it only once, at a Christmas party with her maternal grandparents.

He’d thought when she’d first shown it to him that the expensive garment had been a frivolous purchase at her age. She didn’t attend that many dressy parties, and she was growing too fast to invest too much in clothes that wouldn’t fit her in another couple of months. Colleen wasn’t usually so impractical, but he suspected she’d been suffering from a guilty conscience at her impending move so far from her daughter. She’d given Alice several lavish gifts before her departure.

And speaking of guilt….

“I’m sorry, Alice. I have to work tomorrow. I’ll ask Nina to take you shopping in the morning.”

“But, Dad.”

Uh-oh. He knew this tone. “Alice—”

“Can’t you take just a couple of hours in the morning before you go to the office? I’ll choose fast, I promise.”

Wishing fervently that she’d waited until they were alone to start this particular argument, he shook his head in regret. “I’m sorry, I can’t. I have a meeting that starts at nine, before most of the shops even open. It will last most of the day, and that would be too late to find you a dress and get you to the party on time. You should have tried the dress on sooner, rather than waiting until the last minute. Surely you have something else you can wear. You went shopping with your grandmother just last month.”

“We bought new school uniforms and some weekend clothes. I just won’t go to the party,” Alice finished with a melodramatic sigh. “I’ll stay home and play with Waldo or something.”

He winced in response to her long-suffering, self-pitying tone. Great. Could she make him look like a worse parent in front of her new friend? “Okay, maybe I can—”

“I’d be happy to take you shopping, Alice,” Meagan volunteered unexpectedly—or had that been his daughter’s hope all along? “If it’s okay with your father, of course.”

Finding himself the focus of two pairs of feminine eyes, Seth reached for his tea glass to wash down a bite of enchilada that seemed to have caught in his throat. How was he to say anything but yes when his daughter and their pretty neighbor were both looking at him so expectantly?

Chapter Two

Meagan couldn’t help but take pity on Alice’s dad. Alice had certainly put him on the spot with her last-minute plea. Now a near stranger had offered to take his daughter shopping.

Meagan knew all about work obligations, and she didn’t blame Seth for not being able to change his plans on such short notice. As he’d pointed out, Alice should have tried on the dress earlier in the week. But Meagan could offer assistance this time. It wasn’t as if she had anything more pressing to do, she thought with an increasingly-familiar impatience to get back to her own busy life.

“We couldn’t ask you to do that,” Seth protested politely. “You’re still recovering from surgery.”

She figured he was remembering her momentary spell of weakness after she’d delivered Waldo, and it galled her that he’d seen that. She didn’t like being perceived as sickly or frail. “Chasing down Waldo and wrestling him over here was a little strenuous, but I’d be fine to watch Alice try on clothes. I’m cleared to drive now, no longer on any prescription pain meds. It would actually be good for me to get out and get some light exercise.”

“We won’t overdo it, Dad,” Alice added eagerly. “We can go to the mall, that’s not far. I’m sure I’ll find a dress really fast, so we won’t be gone long. I bet Meagan could help me pick the perfect outfit for the party. Please, Daddy?”

Meagan thought Seth still looked uncomfortable with the impromptu plan, but he was unable to resist his daughter’s hopeful expression. “Okay, if you’re sure you don’t mind, Meagan. I’ll give you my cell phone number. Feel free to call if you need anything, even if you have to interrupt my meeting.”

“We’ll be fine,” Meagan assured him.

She’d never taken a teenager shopping for clothes before, but she thought it might be fun. “Maybe I’ll call Madison and see if she wants to join us. She’s the fashion expert in our family and I think you and she would enjoy meeting, Alice. We could have lunch at the Chinese restaurant downstairs in the mall—do you like Chinese?”

“I love Chinese!” Alice almost bounced in her seat in excitement.

Laughing, Meagan nodded. “Then we’ll make it a girls’ day out. I’m not sure Madison can join us. She has a very busy schedule. If she can’t, we’ll have fun, just the two of us.”

“I’m sure we will,” Alice agreed with a grin that made her braces flash in the light of the dining room chandelier.

Seth cleared his throat, and Meagan wondered if he was feeling a bit left out. “Did you and Nina make any dessert to go with this meal, Alice?”

Alice jumped out of her chair. “We made flan! I’ll serve. Do you like flan, Meagan?”

“I love it,” she replied honestly.

Seth rose a bit more leisurely. “I put on a pot of decaf just before we sat down to eat. Would you like a cup with your dessert, Meagan?”

“Yes, thank you.”

Insisting she remain seated, he carried her plate and utensils into the kitchen with him. He was obviously handy around the house, she mused with a slight smile. She supposed that had developed from being a single dad. Alice had told her Nina worked weekdays until five and half days on Saturdays, taking care of the household duties and cooking, but Alice grumbled that she was expected to do quite a few chores, herself. Her dad, she’d said, took care of meals on Saturday evenings and Sundays. He was a pretty good cook, she’d added proudly, but sometimes they ate out when the hardworking attorney was too tired or busy to prepare meals.

Meagan had gotten the impression of a well-run, tightly scheduled household. Alice seemed generally satisfied with the routines, though perhaps a bit lonely at times. She was obviously crazy about her father, and seemed to have little resentment about her mother’s absence, though Meagan had heard occasional undertones of wistfulness in the girl’s voice when she’d spoken of her mom. All in all, Alice seemed to be a happy, well-adjusted girl, which spoke well of her busy father’s parenting skills.

Meagan studied Seth when he returned with two cups of steaming coffee, setting one in front of her before returning to his seat. She had been a little surprised when he had opened the door to her earlier. Alice had talked about him quite a bit, of course, but Meagan’s mental picture of him had been rather different from the reality. He was younger than she’d expected, for one thing. She wasn’t very good at guessing age, but he looked to be thirty-five, thirty-six, maybe—which meant he’d been young when Alice was born. Definitely nice looking, with wide-set green eyes, thick, slightly wavy brown hair and a firm, faintly indented chin. Alice had gotten her coloring and facial shape from him, apparently, though her brown eyes must have come from her mother.

He seemed quite nice. Amusing, thoughtful, devoted to his daughter. The latter quality was the one that precluded him from being someone she might have been interested in getting to know more intimately. Meagan didn’t have anything against dating divorcées, but she’d made it a rule to steer clear of men with kids. She liked children, for the most part, but with her crazy schedule and rather poor track record with relationships, kids were a complication she hadn’t wanted to deal with. She’d always thought she’d have one of her own someday, she mused, resisting an impulse to press a hand to her slightly throbbing surgical scar, but she’d never wanted to risk hurting anyone else’s children by being only a temporary part of their life.

Fortunately, that wasn’t an issue here, she assured herself, accepting a dessert plate from Alice with a smile and a murmured thanks. She and Alice were the friends, with Seth merely a bystander. She’d done her best to warn Alice that she’d have little free time once she returned to work, but maybe Alice could still drop by on the occasional weekend afternoon for a swim. Meagan would probably hardly see Seth at all.

Not that she minded seeing him, she thought, casting a glance at him over her coffee cup. He was certainly pleasant to look at.

She didn’t linger after dessert. Following her father’s instructions, Alice began to clear away the dishes. She and Meagan said their good nights at the table, agreeing to meet at ten the next morning for the shopping outing. Leaving Alice to her chores, Seth walked Meagan to the door.

“You’re sure you’re up to the shopping trip?”

She gave a firm nod. “Very sure. Actually, I’m looking forward to it. I’d find an excuse to get out tomorrow even if I hadn’t volunteered to take Alice.”

His deep, rich chuckle made her swallow rather hard, for some reason. “Getting a little stir crazy?”

“Getting a lot stir crazy,” she admitted with a wrinkle of her nose. “If I hadn’t had Alice’s visits to look forward to, I’d probably have been climbing the walls by now.”

“She said you work at River City Medical Center?”

She nodded. “Yes, I—”

“Dad! Waldo’s knocked over a whole pile of stuff in the garage. You’d better come help me.”

Alice’s distant shout sounded more exasperated than frantic. Seth sighed heavily. “I guess I’d better go help her with the disaster dog. I’ve still got to find out how he escaped the backyard. It was very nice meeting you, Meagan.”

“Nice meeting you, too. Thank you for dinner.”

“I hope you can join us again sometime.”