Hot-Shot Doc, Secret Dad: A Single Dad Romance

“I’ve delivered a hundred or so babies over the last five years. Handled my share of difficult births.”

“That’s great, Julie. We’ll need those skills, too.” He laced his fingers and rested his elbows on the desk. “You’re probably wondering why I’m hiring.”

“Business is booming?”

He gave an obligatory smile. “Not quite. The reason is my father has had some health issues lately, and I need to be more help on the ranch. Some days, if you get the job, you’ll be running the clinic all by yourself. Would you be okay with that?”

“I would.” And she meant it. She’d been expected to pull her load in the last two clinics where she’d worked in Los Angeles, even when she’d protested that they were treating her as if she were a doctor, but not paying her the same wages. Fact was, she knew how to handle hard work.

“Some days it’s deader than the prairie around here, then all of a sudden everyone gets sick. You just never know. And with winter almost over, people come out in droves. But I need to know my patients are in good hands when I’m doing my ranch chores.”

“If you hire me, I’ll give this job one hundred percent effort. I promise.”

“You need the job?”

This was no time to play coy. Of course I do! “I do. That military school is pricey, and, last I looked, you’re the only game in town.”

“Fair enough.” He sat straighter, reached for a pad of paper and a pen. “Then I need to do an extensive interview to gauge your medical experience, if you don’t mind.”

Great, now they’d play twenty questions—medical tricks, and treatment of the day—and she’d better come through. At least her jitters had settled down, thinking about medicine. “Fire away, Dr. Montgomery.”

Twenty minutes later, after the most thorough and difficult medical interview in her life, Julie realized her palms were clammy. What if, after all of this, she didn’t get the job? What would she do now that James was already enrolled at the military academy?

“If I hire you, I won’t throw you in the fire. I promise to give you a couple of weeks’ orientation, where you can shadow me and my patients, and learn the system. Or as long as you need. I’m proud to say I’m the only doctor outside of Cheyenne that uses computerized charting. It takes a bit of getting used to, but in the long run—”

“I’m familiar with that, depending on the system you’re using.” County Hospital had been late to implement the charting system, and the one they’d used had been clunky, but she’d figured it out well enough.

“Great. So do you have any questions for me?”

Are you married? Do you have children? “Is there a benefits package, and how soon will it kick in—that is, if you hire me.” How desperate could she sound?

“As soon as the paperwork is processed, and you’ve completed your orientation, you’ll be covered.” Trevor pressed the intercom then pushed back from his desk.

“Yes, Doctor?” Rita’s chirpy voice was loud and clear and maybe a little too fawning.

“Could you bring in the new-employee paperwork?”

Julie inhaled, realizing she’d held her breath since her last question. “I’ve got the job?”

“It’s yours if you want it.” Trevor offered a far more genuine smile this time.

“Thank you.” Now Julie smiled, too, anxiety streaming out of her body.

Rita arrived with a packet of paperwork, and handed it to Julie, assessing her more closely as she did.

“You probably want to have your lunch before your afternoon patients, maybe call your wife, so I can fill this out in the waiting room, if you’d prefer.”

“No need. The clinic is closed on Tuesday afternoons. Otherwise, I’d introduce you to Charlotte, my nurse. I’ve got to finish up on Mr. Waverly’s chart anyway. Feel free to stay right there.” He went back to work but said as an aside, “Oh, and there isn’t a Mrs. Montgomery. Just my old man, and, to be honest, having dinner with him every night is enough.” He gave that charming smile over his laptop, slyly forgiving her for her none-too-subtle probing into his personal life. She pretended to be completely focused on the paperwork.

Though he did seem easy and open about still being a bachelor. She wondered if it had to do with being stuck in this small town taking care of his father while his brother lived the good life traveling and keeping two homes.

For the next several minutes, Julie filled in all the blanks about her personal information, but sneaked surreptitious glances at Trevor as she did. His mahogany-colored hair was still thick and wavy, covering the tips of his ears. After all this time, she remembered how she’d run her fingers through it the one night they’d been together, probably because she’d dreamed about touching that hair all that summer long. His square jaw was set while he typed away at his keyboard. He knit his brows and seemed very concerned about whatever it was he entered about poor Mr. Waverly’s condition.

Once, he glanced up at the exact moment Julie did and their eyes met then skipped away from each other quicker than water on a hot griddle. Even so, the visual contact slid through her center, further jangling her nerves.

The man deserved to know.

But she needed the job. No way would she tell him! Not now anyway. Oh, man, why had she even considered coming home?

Round and round her thoughts chased each other. She was at the end of her rope and James needed … well, a father.

With her mouth dry and her hands clammier than ever, she finished her employment paperwork and handed the packet to Trevor. His lips torqued in a rigid manner as he took them, as if they were something sacred, then he used the intercom and asked Rita to process everything before she left for the day.

“Want to start tomorrow?” he asked, without looking at one iota of Julie’s personal information, while handing everything over to Rita—who must have been standing right outside in order to get there so fast.

“The sooner the better,” Julie said, relieved she’d have a new job before her final paycheck from her prior job was due.

He smiled tensely, and once Rita had left with the paperwork, Trevor shot Julie an anxious glance. Was he changing his mind? He followed Rita to the door, closing it behind her, further raising Julie’s curiosity. What did he have up his sleeve?

“Listen,” he said, stretching his lower lip and biting on it, as if the words were stuck just behind his teeth. Instead of walking back around his desk, he sat next to her. She’d been right about his wearing boots—black gator belly-patterned boots, to be exact. She stared at them rather than look at Trevor. “I’d like to ask you to forgive me.”

What? She was unable to hide her reaction; her chin pulled in, brows shot up and she was quite sure her eyes bugged out—at least that was how it felt. She had a dreaded hunch about what he referred to, and for the record he did look contrite, yet she still couldn’t quite make her brain believe it. “Seriously?” Did she say that out loud?

He made the wise decision of not attempting to touch her or even get too close. Though he leaned in and sincerity flowed from his gaze. “Completely. I messed up that night. There was nothing honorable about what I did. I took advantage of—”

“Wait a second, I may have been tipsy—well, we both were—but I still knew what I was doing. I had a choice in the matter. Made a bad one, but nevertheless.”

Now he was the one studying his boots. “That’s not the way it should be, the first time, you know?” He looked back up and nailed her. “A lady deserves some romance and wooing that first time. And I never even had the decency to apologize.”

Oh, my gosh, he was going all chivalrous on her. Too late, buddy. She’d waited and waited for his call, which had never come. He’d had his chance to be honorable, but had never bothered. Even so, she decided to take the practical route.

“Now that I’m thirty-one, I can say with certainty that life isn’t always the way it should be. That’s just how it is sometimes.” Without thinking, she reached for his forearm and squeezed. “We were both slightly inebriated, as I recall, and I’ll let you in on a little secret—I went to that party hoping to see you. I couldn’t believe it when you were interested in me, too. So—”

How naive could she have been? Any male would be interested in a willing woman at that age. Yeah, she’d learned that lesson the hard way.

“That still doesn’t make it right,” he said. “It’s not like losing your virginity can happen more than once.”

True, but how often did a girl get bells and whistles and romance with her first time? At least that had seemed to be the consensus among her friends back then, and, crazy as it sounded, it had helped ease her broken heart.

“It’s weighed on my mind and I just wanted to set things straight since you’re going to be working for me.” He glanced down at her hand, still grasping his forearm, and her ringless finger. “I messed up that night, didn’t have a clue you weren’t like the girls at college. I took advantage of you, plain and simple. Please forgive me.”

The remorseful expression, coupled with those dark, pleading eyes, painted a gentlemanly and heartfelt apology. It warmed Julie’s cynical heart by a few degrees, and brought out the forgiver in her. She let up on the tight clutch on his arm.

Truth was she’d packed away that chapter of her life years ago. What were the odds of getting knocked up your first time? Lucky her, right? Once the thrill of being with the guy of her dreams had worn off, he’d never called again, and the couple of missed periods had finally clicked in—better late than never, right? Julie had forgotten about that party and Trevor, who had already been long gone—she didn’t forget about him that quickly—and she’d faced the tough reality that she’d soon be a single mother at the ripe old age of eighteen.

But today was about a job, not about losing her virginity and getting pregnant. “Apology accepted.”

To be honest, many things weighed on her mind, too, about that night and the aftermath.