"I doubt that," he said.
"Rainbow came to the door with Tigger. I think she wanted to introduce her cat to the kittens, and I told her that it wouldn"t be a good idea because Tigger has an active herpes infection, and we don"t want the kitties exposed. I"m not sure Rainbow understood my concern, but I could have sworn that the cat did. No sooner had I tried to explain than the cat jumped off Rainbow"s shoulders and took off. And Rainbow followed her. I"m so sorry, Mike. I was being careless, and I-"
"You have nothing to apologize for. It"s no biggie."
Rainbow took that moment to look up at him with a frown. That frown said it all. It might not be a biggie for him. But it sure was a biggie for Rainbow.
Mike had obviously not inherited the animal lover gene. But that didn"t mean he couldn"t prove his manly worth by recovering the wayward cat. "You guys just hang tight. I"ll get the cat."
He marched across the parking lot to the bush where the cat had taken refuge. He got down on his knees and peered through the thicket of branches.
Yup, Tigger was there, with her back up against the main branch of the shrub. Was it his imagination or was the cat trying to look friendly? Not that he was about to be suckered by a cat trying to look adorable. The cat had almost caused a major disaster. So he frowned at it. "Look, Tigger, I know you don"t like me. And I"m not exactly fond of you. But for Rainbow"s sake, we can"t have you running across busy parking lots. I don"t know what Rainbow would do without you"
A strange knot lodged in his throat. And for an instant, all he could think about was the look in Angie"s eyes the day he"d walked out of Mom"s apartment.
A guilty tear leaked from his eye, and he backhanded it. Angie might have had a chance if he hadn"t abandoned her. She might not have been in the path of the bullet that took her life. And she might not have used drugs to numb the pain of what she"d gone through as a kid. Someone should have protected Angie. But n.o.body had.
"You need help?" Charlene called.
He looked over his shoulder. The doc stood across the blacktop with her hand casually on Rainbow"s shoulders, as if that were the most natural thing in the world.
He decided right there that he would move heaven and earth to make sure Charlene became Rainbow"s mother.
He waved. "I"ve got it handled," he said.
He turned back to the cat. "Don"t prove me wrong, cat. You know d.a.m.n well that Rainbow needs you. So no games. Understand?"
He reached in to nab the cat by the scruff of her neck. He halfway expected to earn himself another battle scar, but the cat seemed unusually docile. He had no problem hauling the wayward feline from under the bush. And for some goofy reason, he felt like a conquering hero when he walked across the blacktop with Tigger in his arms. Strangely, the cat had stopped hissing and clawing and had settled into his arms like a loving lap cat, which she wasn"t.
Before he handed Tigger over to her owner, he squatted down and looked Rainbow right in the eye.
"Don"t you ever leave the house without permission again. Is that clear? You could have gotten hurt, and I wouldn"t have known where you were. I can"t keep you safe if you don"t tell me where you are all the time. And it"s my job to keep you safe." By the end of the speech he seemed strangely out of breath.
And then Rainbow nearly undid him altogether when her bottom lip started trembling and she turned away from him and buried her head in Charlene"s middle.
And the demon cat started to purr.
Charlene"s heart wrenched in her chest. She didn"t hesitate. She gave the child the hug she"d wanted to bestow from the first moment she"d clapped eyes on her.
Rainbow needed hugs. In the worst way.
And she wasn"t alone.
Charlene gazed down at Mike. His poker face had shattered. His deep-set blue eyes shimmered with unshed guy tears-the kind a man would never confess to having.
Those tears seduced her.
Mike had told her right up front that he didn"t know anything about love. But that had to be a big, fat lie. Maybe he"d been hurt by love. Maybe she could heal what ailed him. Maybe he could be persuaded to commit, long term, to the child. And maybe she was a fool.
Mike stood up. He had the grace of an athlete, even if he was a poker player. The man-tears had disappeared, and he was safely tucked behind his mask again.
"Could I interest you guys in some pizza? It"s probably cold, but at least it came from Pizza Hut instead of the frozen food section of your local grocery store." His voice seemed falsely bright.
Rainbow let Charlene go and looked up at her uncle. She reached out for the cat. Mike gently pa.s.sed the feline off, and Tigger settled herself into Rainbow"s arms.
They all walked toward the shared stairway, but Rainbow stopped and turned toward Mike. "Can we eat pizza with the kittens?"
"If you take Tigger home first. You remember what Dr. Polk said about how it"s not a good idea for the kitties to spend too much time with a grown-up cat."
"Tigger wouldn"t ever hurt kitties," Rainbow said, giving Charlene a long sober look. "Miss Mary would be mad if she did."
This was the second time Rainbow had mentioned someone by that name. "Have you figured out who this Miss Mary person is?" Charlene asked.
Mike shook his head. "The caseworker in Chicago is working on it."
"It sounds like Miss Mary was an important person in Rainbow"s life."
"Yeah, I guess."
They headed up the stairs together, Charlene still wondering about the Miss Mary mystery. It wasn"t until she reached the landing that she realized she had consented to play host to her handsome neighbor wearing her sock monkey PJs and matching slippers.
"Uh, can y"all give me a moment to change my clothes?"
Mike smirked. "Why? You look perfectly fine to me."
What could she say to that? Especially since Mike"s gaze fixed on her face, not her chest. Their gazes almost collided, and a rush of hormones swept through her.
"I"d feel better if I put on some clothes." Wow, had she ever come up with a bigger understatement?
"Okay, we"ll be over in five," he said, bounding up the left side of the stairway to his own door. He stopped and looked back. "But you don"t have to get dressed up for me. I"m a pretty informal kind of guy."
Informal. Right. But be that as it may, Charlene hurried to her bedroom and found herself contemplating four pairs of jeans, none of which fit precisely right. There were the fat jeans, which were too big now that she had been working out semiregularly. And the skinny jeans, which were still too tight-by a long shot. Either way she was screwed.
So she threw up her hands and gave a mini primal scream. She refused to obsess over jeans. She refused to obsess over Mike Taggart.
So when Mike and Rainbow arrived, less than five minutes later, she answered the door wearing her baggy University of North Carolina sweatshirt and sweat pants, with her hair pulled back into a ponytail. She"d ditched the monkey slippers for a pair of athletic socks.
No one could accuse her of dressing to impress. Or seduce.
Rainbow brushed past her the moment the door opened, making a beeline for the basket of kittens, who were all awake and making lots of noise, as if they missed their mommy. The kittens looked on the tiny side. She hoped they"d been fully weaned.
"Have cold pizza, will travel," Mike said as he crossed her threshold bearing the Pizza Hut box. "Point me in the direction of the microwave, and I"ll try to remedy the situation. Although I think Rainbow is so excited about the kittens that she"s unlikely to eat even hot pizza."
Charlene led him to the kitchen, a tiny room that seemed to get smaller the moment Mike entered it. Two people trying to microwave pizza and get out the paper plates and napkins had to get kind of chummy. Charlene kept brushing past Mike, and every touch seemed to spark like static electricity.
Or maybe she had reached the desperate-spinster phase of her existence where she was guaranteed to have hot flashes merely because an unmarried man had entered her kitchen.
She needed to put distance between them-if not physically, at least mentally. "So," she said, "I realize pizza is easy for a bachelor to make, but you know it"s loaded with carbohydrates and fat. It"s okay for once in a while, but every day? Really?"
Yep, that did it. Mike turned toward her with an annoyed glance. "Okay, I give up." He plopped down into one of the ice-cream parlor chairs that she kept in the kitchen. He folded his arms. "You got something better to feed her?"
"Right now? All I"ve got in my pantry at the moment are some olives, pimentos, and canned okra. The refrigerator is kind of empty at the moment."
"But you have olives and pimentos? Really?"
How embarra.s.sing. "I have a girlfriend who likes her martinis dirty."
"And the pimentos?"
"Left over from the last time I made pimento and cheese spread."
"What?"
"It"s a southern thing."
"I see."
She rolled her eyes like an adorable teenager. "Okay, okay. You win. I eat out a lot."
"Pizza?"
"Sometimes. But I"m not trying to raise a child, either."
"Neither am I. I"m trying to find a family for a child. There"s a huge difference."
"Right."
"And Rainbow won"t eat anything other than pizza," he said.
"So you"ve said. What have you tried?"
"McDonald"s. Burger King. Chick-fil-A. I also took her to the Pig Place, and she turned up her nose at their barbecue sandwich."
"Right. Have you tried vegetables?"
He gave her an a.s.sessing stare. "Yeah. We went to an Applebees, and I ordered her a grilled chicken sandwich with some string beans on the side. She didn"t eat any of it."
"You know, she"d eat good food if you stopped filling her up with pizza. It"s not a good idea to let her have her way on this."
"Is that so? And clearly you have experience in this?"
Her face went hot. "No. But you have to admit that pizza for every meal isn"t healthy."
"Okay. I admit it. But here"s the challenge. Do you think you can get her to eat something better?"
"I don"t know."
"You have my permission to try." His gaze narrowed. "In fact, I"ll bet you can"t get her to eat anything other than pizza."
"You bet me?"
"Yeah. I do. And just to make it interesting, let"s agree that, if you win, then you have to buy my brother at the upcoming auction."
"What? Pastor Tim hasn"t even signed up, and no one is trying to get him to do that. It would be crazy to have a minister partic.i.p.ate in the auction."
He chuckled. "If that"s the case, then you"re home free, right? But if I can get him to partic.i.p.ate in the auction, and you lose this bet, you have to buy him and take him to dinner."
He had that I"m-up-to-no-good twinkle in his eye again. "Mike, are you trying to match me up with Tim Lake?"
His eyes widened into a "who, me?" expression that didn"t fool her for one instant.
She folded her arms across her chest.
"Okay, it has occurred to me," he said in a light tone, "that you"d be a perfect mother for Rainbow." He held up his hand before she could explode with outrage. "And before you scream at me, I just want you to know that I spoke with Miriam Randall about this, and she seems to think that you and Tim might be good together. She told me point-blank that Tim would marry a doctor, and that we should use the bachelor auction to make that happen."
"You"re joking."
He shook his head. "Nope."
"I can"t buy Tim Lake. I"m not sure I like him all that much. And I"ve heard his sermons are kind of boring."
"I don"t know if a man"s sermons are a gauge of his suitability as a husband and father. But okay. You don"t have to take the bet."
"Wait one second. What do you have to do if I win this bet?"
He snorted a laugh. "You think you can actually get Rainbow to eat vegetables?"
"Yeah. I think I can."
"Okay, which vegetable are we talking about here?"
"Name one."
"Broccoli. I hate broccoli."
"Okay, then, if I can get Rainbow to eat broccoli, then you have to enter the auction."
"Me?"
"Yeah, you. You"re kind of cute, you know. And we"re perilously short on bachelors. I"ll bet there are lots of women who"d like to buy you for a few laughs."
"A few laughs? I would hope I"d fetch more than that."
"Ha, very funny. So have we got a deal?"
He chuckled. And his blue eyes lit up. When he laughed like that, his face changed. He was unbelievably handsome. And he reeked s.e.x appeal. He would definitely go for more than a few laughs. He leaned forward, bracing his elbows on her tiny kitchen table. The little ice-cream shop chair seemed undersized for him.
"So, let me review what"s on the table," he said. "I"m betting you that you can"t get Rainbow to eat broccoli. And if I win, then you will purchase Timmy in the auction, a.s.suming that Tim partic.i.p.ates. And if you win by getting Rainbow to eat broccoli, then I will partic.i.p.ate in the auction and allow myself to be bought and sold."