“Is Doctor Jake really coming here and bringing me a puppy?” Joci’s bright blue eyes lit up. That didn’t surprise Meghan, because her daughter loved animals almost as much as she loved Dr. Levinson and the others on the transplant team who’d taken care of her and made her “all better.”
Yesterday Dr. Levinson had called Meghan, gently coercing her to let him give the pup to Joci. “Patches found me,” he’d told her, explaining how he had found the black-and-white puppy shivering and abandoned, underneath the stairway to his condo. “It isn’t fair for me to keep the puppy, with me being away from home such long hours every day.” Meghan loved the sound of his deep, reassuring voice. A sexy voice that made her think of bedrooms and slow loving, now that she thought about it. Not that she wasn’t petrified every time one of the team members called her that something bad was going on with Joci.
Meghan loved dogs as much as Joci did, and it had touched her that Dr. Levinson remembered how crazy her daughter was about animals. “Yes, Joci, he’s really bringing you a puppy. You’d better find Tigerlily and put her in her carrier. We’ll need to be careful and introduce her gradually to Patches. That’s the puppy’s name.”
The crunch of tires on her gravel driveway was as good as a barking dog to announce that they had a visitor. Meghan smoothed her hair as she stepped onto the porch and waved. No wonder her daughter had fallen in love with the tall, dark-haired surgeon. If she hadn’t been totally focused on Joci during her hospitalization, Meghan would undoubtedly have been attracted to the hot young doctor whose team had saved her daughter’s life.
Even when her mind had been fully focused on worrying about Joci, she’d noticed how handsome he was, even wearing those scary, green scrubs she associated with her daughter’s illness. He’d registered on her radar then, when the last thing on her mind had been a man. Today Meghan rated Jake Levinson as a bona fide chick magnet. His smile lit up the shady yard as he got out of a silver BMW convertible wearing khaki shorts and a dark-green golf shirt, and coaxed the small, wiggly pup to follow him. Joci burst outside, stopped in front of the dog and held out her hand in greeting. “I love him, Dr. Jake.”
For a moment Meghan was tongue-tied. She was too old to be calling him Dr. Jake the way his little patients did, but it seemed too formal to be calling him Dr. Levinson now, when he was here not as a doctor but as Joci’s friend. “I think they’re going to be soulmates,” she commented, thinking when she smiled up into his dark eyes that this was not just a caring doctor but a man she wanted very much to know better.
He grinned. “From the way Patches is wiggling, I think he likes both of you.” Bending, he picked up the excited pup and lifted him onto the porch. “How about it, Mom? May he stay?”
“I think so. Let’s take him inside and see if he and Tigerlily will get along. Once we get inside, Joci, you can bring her out to meet Patches.”
Meghan hoped the two animals would bond with each other. Tigerlily had lived with a dog friend when she was a kitten, but when Joci had become so sick, Meghan had given the chocolate Lab to her sister up in Brooksville. It had been over two years since the yellow tabby had seen a dog up close. She watched while the two animals approached each other, very carefully, each sizing up the other. When Joci talked to Tigerlily, urging her in a serious tone to be nice to their new puppy, Meghan and Dr. Levinson exchanged amused glances. Pretty soon the growls and hisses stopped and the cat and pup settled down, both apparently glad to have four-legged company.
“Looks to me as if they’re going to get along just fine. I thought, since I was out here already, I’d see if I could talk you two ladies into joining me for a pizza. I know a great place not far from the University.” The doctor ruffled Joci’s auburn curls then shot Meghan a hundred-watt grin.
“We’d love to go, wouldn’t we, Mommy?” Joci met Meghan’s gaze, a pleading look in her big blue eyes.
What could a mother say? “Yes, we would, if Dr. Levinson’s serious.” She couldn’t help wondering—hoping—if Joci’s doctor might be as interested in her as in her little girl.
“Dead serious. I’m off call until tomorrow night, and I can’t think of anything I’d rather do than enjoy a pizza with two beautiful women.” The way he looked at Meghan made her cheeks grow warm, her heart beat faster. She’d pretty much given up on men after the way Bruce had dumped her in favor of bimbos and booze as soon as her pregnancy had become obvious, but most of that pain had subsided in the years since he’d died.
She might not be quite ready to dive head-first into the social fish pond, but an evening out with her daughter and the young surgeon who’d saved her life—well, she could handle that. The more time she spent with him, the more she thought she might just plunge right in—if he gave her half a chance.