Crossing the Line

The baby kicked and she almost dropped him. Elle tightened her grip on the fawn and told her silly heart to stop beating so fast. The look Dante was giving her meant absolutely nothing.

Chapter 3

HALF AN HOUR LATER, the animal control people came to haul away the mother deer’s carcass, while Elle’s sister-in-law, Charlotte, arrived in a van to pick up the fawn.

Elle stood at the back entrance to the hospital cradling the trembling animal in her arms, Dante at her side. She wondered why he was sticking around, but she didn’t ask.

“Ooh, Elle,” said her sister-in-law’s assistant, Linda when she spied the baby. Linda was a middle-aged woman with a welcoming smile, dimples in both cheeks and dog hair all over her lab jacket. “Look what you’ve got there.”

The receptionist looked from the fawn to Elle and then to Dante, and then an appreciative gleam came into her eyes. The look on Linda’s face proved Elle’s suspicion that the man attracted feminine attention wherever he went.

Charlotte came around to the front of the van where Elle, Dante and Linda were standing. Elle’s sister-in-law wore her dark-brown hair in a short, stylish cut that accentuated her gamine features. Underneath her lab jacket she wore jeans, a yellow T-shirt and scuffed cowboy boots. She was wiry and petite. Elle had a hard time imagining her wrangling large farm animals.

Charlotte immediately zeroed in on the fawn. “What happened?”

“His mom got hit by a car. Animal control came for her.”

Charlotte sighed. “Poor little guy.” She turned to Dante. “Hi.” She stuck out a hand. “My name’s Charlotte. I’m married to Elle’s younger brother, Tom.”

“Dante Nash,” he said and shook Charlotte’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Dante’s the new surgeon at Confidential Rejuvenations,” Elle explained. “He was with me when I found the fawn.”

“Oh really?” Charlotte got that matchmaking look in her eyes. Ever since she’d married Tom, Charlotte was relentless about trying to hook up her single friends and family members. She was still in the starry-eyed honeymoon phase, convinced that marriage was the solution to everyone’s problems. “So tell me, are you married, Dr. Nash?”

“I’m not.”

“No?” Charlotte glanced at Elle and wriggled her eyebrows suggestively.

“Dante was Mark’s best friend in college,” Elle said and sent Charlotte a look that said forget about fixing me up.

“Not best friends,” Dante corrected. “Mark and I were just roommates and football teammates.”

“There you go,” Charlotte said. “Clearly he knows Mark’s true colors if he’s not claiming him as a friend. Score one for Dante.”

“Char,” Elle said through gritted teeth. “This fawn is getting heavy.”

“Oh yeah, sorry. Right this way.” She led them to the back of the van where she opened up the double doors, and Elle settled the fawn down on the floor.

Dante stood behind Elle, silently watching the proceedings. Elle felt weird having him hang out with her, especially after what Charlotte had just said, and she wondered what on earth he must be thinking.

“I gave him some baby formula from the hospital nursery,” Elle said.

Charlotte looked up, a serious expression on her face, the matchmaking temporarily forgotten. “Good thing you found him when you did. If he’d been out in the cold overnight without his mom, I hate to think what would have happened. Either coyotes or bobcats would probably have gotten him. You saved his life, Elle.”

Warmth spread from the center of her heart outward in a sweet glow. Elle smiled and softly scratched the fawn behind one ear. She’d saved a life. Nothing made her feel happier than that.

“I’ll keep him at the office for a while, make sure he’s going to be okay and then we’ll take him to Dr. Levy’s sanctuary.” Dr. Levy was the vet Charlotte was training under and he had donated several hundred acres along the Colorado River as an animal sanctuary.

“Thanks. I knew you’d know what to do.”

Charlotte looked over at her assistant. “Hop in the back with the baby, Linda. I’ll drive.”

“Will do.”

Linda climbed inside the back of the van. Elle gave the little buck one last parting look and sighed wistfully as Charlotte shut the door.

“Elle’s going to make a great mother someday,” Charlotte said to Dante. “She’s so good with babies, whatever the species.”

“No doubt,” Dante said.

Elle sneaked a glance over at him, but she couldn’t read a thing from his impassive face.

Sorry for my matchmaking sister-in-law, she telegraphed him with her eyes.

He gave her an enigmatic smile and a slight shrug as if to say: Family, what are you going to do?

“Are you still planning on coming to the family softball tournament? It’s three weeks from Saturday,” Charlotte asked Elle. “Tom’s ordering this year’s jerseys and I need a head count.”

“As if I could skip out. Dad would never let me hear the end of it if I didn’t show.” Elle said. The first weekend in May the Kingstons staged an annual family reunion centered around a weekend-long softball tournament. It had been a family tradition long before Elle was born.

Charlotte tucked her fingers into the back pockets of her jeans and sized up Dante. “Why don’t you come, too?” she asked. “Our team is short a catcher since Mark divorced Elle. If you don’t come we’ll be forced to play Aunt Gertie.”

Mortified at her sister-in-law’s forwardness, Elle couldn’t bring herself to look at Dante. “Char, for heaven’s sake, let it be. Dante has no interest in playing softball with the Kingston clan.”

“Maybe not,” Char said. “But he might have interest in spending some time with you.”

Kill me now, Elle thought.

“Thank you for the invitation,” Dante said. “It sounds like a lot of fun, but I have to check and see if I’m scheduled to be on call that weekend.”

“Just know that we’d love to have you,” Charlotte said. “Aunt Gertie can’t catch to save her life.”

“We’ve gotta go now. Thanks for looking after the deer.” Elle said, and then lowered her voice so only Charlotte could hear her. “You are so dead.”

Her sister-in-law laughed. “You’ll thank me on your golden anniversary.”

“I gotta get back to work,” Elle said, turned on her heel and hurried back inside the hospital before her matchmaking sister-in-law found yet another way to embarrass her.

AFTER ELLE WENT BACK inside the hospital, Dante returned to the office to find Mark waiting for him.

Mark took one look at the damp, muddy suit that would have cost Dante half a month’s salary if he’d been the one to pay for it and shook his head. “Hell, man, what happened to you?”

“Got lost in the forest.”

“Huh? What were you doing in the woods?”

“Never mind.” Dante shook his head. “Where could I get a set of scrubs to change into?”