A Match Made by Baby

“Kaitlyn, why did you run out on me that night at the winery?”

Back to that. “Because we didn’t know each other. Because we’d just met.”

“Did I read the signals wrong? You were flirting back. When I kissed you, you responded.”

She’d more than responded. Somehow, he’d lit the wick of passion that had been extinguished for two years. Her divorce had become final the week before.

Yes, she’d realized that Tom would never forgive her for losing their baby. She’d had no doubt the marriage was over. The night she’d gone to the wine tasting, she’d been trying to resurrect her own self-confidence. Whatever her goal that night, she hadn’t expected to meet Adam. She hadn’t expected that kind of chemistry. She hadn’t expected to go up in flames when he touched her.

But now she could see why he wanted to have this conversation. A dented male ego, maybe, but something deeper, too. He was afraid he’d taken advantage of her.

“You didn’t read the signals wrong, Adam. I thought I could flirt and have a good time. I didn’t expect everything that happened when you kissed me. After we ended up undressing and I realized what we were doing, I knew I wasn’t ready.”

Of course, that’s the word he latched on to. “Ready?”

“That’s all I really want to say about it. You didn’t take advantage of me. I never should have let you kiss me the second time.”

He cocked his head and studied her hard. “You don’t go to many parties, do you?”

“No.”

“You don’t usually flirt with men.”

“No.”

“So why that night? Why me?”

Wasn’t that a very good question? She knew why she’d done it that night, but why she’d done it with Adam was still a puzzle.

“Maybe it was because Jase introduced us. I’m not sure.”

“Something happened,” he guessed.

“Adam, that’s enough. I don’t want to talk about it. If I could have gotten another doctor to come this morning, I would have.”

“To avoid an awkward situation.” He was trying out that statement to see if it sounded true.

“Yes.”

“Or...to avoid the idea you might still be attracted to me if you saw me again.”

“No.”

“You answered that one much too quickly. Maybe you need to think about it a little more.”

She pushed her food around on her plate. “I don’t need to think about it at all. I’m not looking for a relationship. And if I were, it wouldn’t be with someone like you,” she said honestly.

“Someone like me, meaning what?”

“Someone who’s never around. You said yourself you don’t believe in commitment, that family life isn’t something you even know. We’d be incompatible, from start to finish.”

“It depends on what we’d be starting, and what we’d be finishing.”

His words on their own weren’t seductive, but they made her blush, because the underlying message was clear. He was thinking about sex.

“Tell me your fondest dream for five years from now,” he suggested.

She never thought that far ahead anymore, not in her personal life. “I don’t have that dream worked out.”

“I think you do. Close your eyes.”

“Adam.”

“Do as I say. Close your eyes.”

So she did.

“Five years from now, where are you living?”

That stopped her for a few seconds, and then she realized this was a dream. “Somewhere outside of town where I’d have some open space. I want a fireplace for cold nights that I can sit in front of with someone I love, and a porch that would be large enough for a very nice swing that my kids could enjoy, too.”

“How can that ever happen if you’re too busy with your practice and The Mommy Club doesn’t leave much time for parties or a social life?”

Her eyes popped open.

“Your goals are divided. On one hand you want to save the world, on the other you want to find somebody to love.”

“Adam, you don’t know me. We had...what? A half-hour conversation?”

“And a half-hour make-out session. Do you think I can’t tell from that how a woman feels, what she might find important? We did talk, Kaitlyn. It wasn’t earth-shatteringly personal. But we talked. And believe it or not, I listened. You enjoy being part of a group practice, not only because you’re not always on call, but because you have camaraderie.”

He had been listening. He didn’t stop there. “Jase introduced us because he said you and his wife were good friends. He pointed to the wine you liked best and said I might like to try it, too. When we tasted it together, you said you like visiting Raintree, walking through the vineyards—”

She held up her hand, like the stop sign it was meant to be. “All right. You proved you listen.”

“Did you?” he asked.

Uh-oh. Her mind had been filled with regrets and recriminations that night, wanting to prove herself in a way she hadn’t in a long time. Just how much did she remember from before their kiss?

“Jase mentioned you met him in Kenya, that the famine wasn’t the only problem, that the water in the refugee camp was tainted and the children were getting sick from that, too. You were trying to find a good water supply and convinced the villagers that your team could engineer it.”

“Score one for you,” Adam said, as if he expected no less.

“You also said you were on layover for two weeks, and you didn’t mention you had a sister.”

“I had dinner with Tina on that trip back here, but it wasn’t high on my mind that night.”

“You weren’t wearing a ring.”