From Doctor...to Daddy / When the Cowboy Said ''I Do'': From Doctor...to Daddy

“I traveled before college, backpacked through Europe that summer.”

“Your parents let you do that when you were so young?”

“Let’s just say I was a responsible eighteen-year-old, and at eighteen my mother and stepfather couldn’t really stop me. I needed to get away and that was the way I chose to do it.”

“I bet they worried about you the whole time you were gone.”

“My mother was busy managing my father’s company. Her marriage to my stepfather was still fairly new. I didn’t feel they’d miss me.”

“But they did.”

“I could tell my mother did by the way her face lit up and she hugged me when I got home. What about your parents? Do they live in Thunder Canyon?”

This was territory where she didn’t want to go, but she took a few footsteps in. “My mother does. She’s an elementary school teacher. But my father left when I was five and we never saw him again.”

“I’m sorry,” Dillon said sincerely. “I know how hard it is to lose a parent, no matter how that happens.”

She wanted to touch him now, the same way he had touched her. She longed to slip her fingers through the wave of hair on his forehead, or touch the line of his jaw that seemed so strong and determined. But she knew she should do neither. She knew she should back away.

She actually did take a step back. “I have to start my workout so I can get to the office on time.” “I won’t keep you, then. I’ll see you later.” “Later,” she agreed, then headed for the StairMaster. She needed more than a sedate yoga routine today. She needed to expend some real energy. That way she could forget how Dillon’s thumb had felt on her cheek. She could forget the way his body turned her on. She could forget the way she’d felt when he’d held her in his arms.

Late that afternoon, Erika studied the firmed-up details for Frontier Days. She found she accomplished more when Dillon wasn’t in his office. His presence distracted her no matter how she tried to focus. That was unusual. She was usually good at focusing.

She heard the light footsteps in the hall and looked up when Stacy Gillette strolled in.

Dillon’s “friend”—that’s how Erika thought of her—stopped at her desk. “Is Dillon in?”

“Not right now. He’s in a meeting upstairs. Would you like me to page him?”

Stacy didn’t seem perturbed. “No. I’ll see him soon enough.”

A dinner date tonight?

As Stacy left the reception area, Erika told herself once more she shouldn’t care what Stacy and Dillon meant to each other. But she did.

Time to focus again.

Turning to the computer, she printed out the schedule of events for Frontier Days. She was lifting the last page from the machine when she heard Dillon’s bootfalls and took a deep breath as he strode in. Right away she noticed the grim expression on his face. His gaze met hers when he stopped by her desk.

“Is something wrong?” She didn’t know why her voice wobbled a little but it did.

“We have a big problem. I had a meeting with Jeff’s father. I can’t talk him out of suing the resort. The whole situation is a mess. He’s already called his lawyer and the resort is going to have to do the same. I have a meeting with Grant tomorrow morning. He’s not going to be happy about this.”

“Will the resort really be in trouble?” She could be out of a job in a minute if it was.

“Legal fees add up. Guest numbers are down. The resort still has its main expenses. Grant might have to think about cutting guest perks.”

Erika suddenly heard noise in the hall—adult feet, the patter of little feet. Dillon turned toward the doorway just as Erika’s mother and daughter entered in a burst of activity. That activity was Emilia. She was doing a combination of hopping and running in place.

As soon as she saw Erika, she pulled away from her grandmother and practically flew to Erika calling, “Mommee! Mommee!”

Erika opened her arms as her daughter launched herself at her. She felt the joy she always felt when she held Emilia close to her heart. After a few moments of mother-daughter bonding, Erika peered over her daughter’s head at Dillon. His face showed surprise and then dawning understanding.

She had to say something. “Dillon, this is my mother, Constance Rodriguez, and my daughter, Emilia.”

Dillon first shook her mother’s hand. “It’s good to meet you.” Then he turned to Emilia, a bittersweet expression on his face. “Hi, there.”

Emilia turned into Erika’s shoulder shyly but peeked up at Dillon.

“Say hello, baby,” Erika encouraged her daughter.

Emilia opened one eye, rubbed her nose in Erika’s shoulder, then grinned at Dillon.

“I can tell you’re going to be a heartbreaker,” he said. “Are you around two years old?”

“Soon,” Erika offered. “In a few weeks.”

Constance crossed to Erika and her granddaughter protectively. “I hope we didn’t interrupt anything important. But I had a half day today and decided to pick up Emilia so we could have some quality time together. And speaking of time,” she said to Erika, “when will you be home?” She addressed Dillon. “Erika puts in such long hours. I hope someone appreciates it.”

“Mom!” Erika was embarrassed by her mother’s comment.

Dillon stepped in. “I think her hours are long because she’s taken on two jobs—being my receptionist as well as the coordinator for Frontier Days. I try not to keep her past five but I’ve noticed she tends to stay later.”

“You leave at five?” Erika’s mother asked.

“Usually. Unless I have a patient. But I’m on call in the evenings although I’m not in the office.”

“Do you live here?” her mother inquired and Erika wanted to crawl under the desk. She tried again in a warning tone, “Mom …”

Dillon glanced from mother to daughter. “I live in a suite upstairs. That seems to be the best way to keep me available to the guests.”

“I see.” Her mother was obviously absorbing it all.

Had she stopped in today to meet Dillon because Erika had gone to dinner with him?

Emilia squiggled to be let down. Erika didn’t want to let her daughter run free but there was little she could get into in the waiting area except magazines on the coffee table.

As Dillon watched the toddler, he commented to Constance, “Erika didn’t mention she had a daughter.”

“My daughter likes to keep her personal life to herself,” Constance answered.

Erika noticed Dillon’s gaze pass over her desk where no pictures or any personal effects were displayed and she could see the questions in his eyes, along with dark shadows she didn’t understand. But she couldn’t answer his questions here and now and didn’t even know if she wanted to. He’d probably run in the other direction if he knew her history. He was so polished, so confident, so sure of his place in life. In so many ways he reminded her of Scott. Yet when she was alone with him …

Her gaze collided with his. Everything seemed to go quiet except for the beating of her heart.

Suddenly Emilia tired of pushing magazines on the coffee table. She ran for Erika but at the last minute detoured and headed for Dillon instead. She ran into his leg and he caught her so she wouldn’t fall.

The toddler looked up at him and giggled as if what she’d done was great fun.