Finally Satisfied (6 page)

“Yeah. They’re my ride home.”

He knelt beside her and started packing the
lights into their cases. “I could take you home. If you want me to,
that is. No sense in them waiting around for you.”

Angel rocked back on her heels so she could
look at him. “Why?”

Mitch shrugged. “Damned if I know. I swore I
wasn’t going to have anything more to do with you. Then you started
taking control of your life and, I don’t know, I like what I’m
seeing. I’d like to spend a little time with you without the crowd.
Like maybe dinner?”

“Any strings attached to that
invitation?”

“Not a single one.”

“Carino’s?” For some reason, her appetite
roared to life and her stomach growled.

Mitch laughed. “Carino’s works for me, though
from the sound of that rumble, we’d better hurry.”

“Deal. Go check the gazebo, make sure we got
everything. I’ll be packed in a jiff.” As soon as he walked away,
she flashed her cell phone twice in the direction of Cara’s car and
the engine roared to life. They waited another minute or two before
they drove away, and Angel prayed she hadn’t just made the second
biggest mistake of her life.

***

“So there I was, standing outside the dorm
wearing nothing but boxers, and my frat brothers were hanging out
the windows, laughing hysterically and taking pictures. And who
should walk by but the Dean of the medical school. I thought my
education was finished right then.” Mitch dipped a piece of crusty
bread into the plate of oil and took a bite.

“Seriously? I thought hazing had been
outlawed. That was so mean of them.” Angel propped her chin on her
hand and watched him chew the bread, her gaze following the long
line of his throat as he swallowed.
Who knew a throat could be
sexy?

“Nah,” he said. “They were just having fun. I
got most of them back at one time or another. So how about you? How
did you end up doing photography?”

As many times as she’d steered the
conversation away from herself, he’d steered it right back. “I kind
of fell into by accident. Mom was desperate to find a way to get me
out of the house after everything happened. I was depressed and
barely got dressed, much less outside. She found her father’s old
35mm and gave it to me, along with a couple of rolls of film. I let
it sit on my dresser for a few weeks, until one day we had a freak
snowstorm. Everything was so beautiful outside I couldn’t resist
snapping some shots from my bedroom window. Then I saw a cardinal,
brilliant red against the snow, and I took the camera outside for a
better shot. The picture turned out so good I had it enlarged and
framed and gave it to mom for Christmas. From that moment on, I was
hooked.”

“How did you go from that to taking
professional photos?”

“Classes at the community college, a stint as
a school photographer, then I snared an intern job at a studio. The
photographer was wonderful and he taught me so much. As soon as he
thought I was ready, he gave me some business pointers and tossed
me out of the nest. I’ve been doing it ever since.” She snagged the
last piece of bread and scooped up the last of the oil. “Now, it’s
your turn again. What made you choose medicine?”

He thought for a moment. “You.”

She leaned back against the seat. “Me?
Why?”

“I wanted to help you and I couldn’t. You
wouldn’t let me. So I decided to help other people until I could
win you over.”

The waitress stopped by their table to refill
their drinks and leave the check. When she left, Mitch pulled out a
credit card and slipped it into the leather holder.

“That’s the simple answer. The longer answer
is that I’ve always wanted to fix things, especially people. It
probably came from wanting to fix my family and knowing I couldn’t.
They didn’t want to be fixed. Mom and Dad had a barely civil
marriage where they stayed together for the kids. Truth is, we’d
have all been better off if they’d just split and saved us the
drama.”

“God, how I envied Gray his family. I spent
as much time at his house as I could. Even now, I go there for
Thanksgiving and Christmas, instead of home.”

“That’s so sad. I don’t know what I’d do if I
couldn’t be home for Christmas.”

Mitch shrugged. “I stop by for breakfast,
hand out the presents, spend a few minutes with my nieces and
nephews, and then I leave before the fighting starts. Works for
me.”

He signed the receipt left by the waitress,
drained the last of his iced tea, and picked up his jacket. “Are
you ready?” he asked.

Now
that
was a loaded
question
.

***

Mitch wasn’t ready for the evening to end. In
spite of his earlier determination to leave Angel alone, he enjoyed
her company now that she didn’t bite his head off at every turn, or
run at the first sight of him. He didn’t know if she actually liked
him yet, but at least she seemed to tolerate him.

He drove slowly back to the park, trying to
think of a way to keep her with him for a while longer. As they
passed a toy store decorated for Christmas, he had an idea. “Hey,
do you have anything planned for tonight?”

“Not really. What did you have in mind?”

“I haven’t bought Christmas presents yet.
Want to help me pick out stuff for the kids?”

She was quiet for so long, he wondered if
he’d really messed up. He hadn’t thought it out. Christmas was
probably really hard for her. And buying presents for kids? What
had he been thinking?”

Angel took a deep breath, and then another.
He could almost see her practicing what she’d learned from Vanessa.
Relax. Breathe. Act.

“Sure. I don’t know how much help I’ll be
since I’ve never bought kid gifts before, but I’ll tag along.”

It was his turn to breathe a sigh of relief.
Sometimes being with Angel was like walking a minefield. You never
knew when you were going to step in it and blow your last chance.
“Great.” He made a U-turn and headed back to the toy store. “Might
as well start here.”

The store was crowded with holiday shoppers.
Angel hated crowds. Crowds were filled with happy families,
teenagers she couldn’t stop staring at, mothers she couldn’t help
but envy. She thought about leaving, but the one thing Vanessa had
challenged her to do this week was to face the things that made her
want to run. She’d already faced Mitch and triumphed over the urge
to run. She had to face this hurdle, too.

With renewed determination, she smiled and
said, “Lead the way.”

She was relieved when he bypassed the aisles
filled with baby items. She’d known from the time she was six
months pregnant that she had to give her baby up, so she’d made a
point of never, ever allowing herself to shop for baby items, or
even be caught in the baby aisle. Not hard at all when she did all
her shopping online. And if a friend had a baby and a gift was
needed, she’d found gift cards were the easiest way to avoid
thinking about it for long.

“I know Eric has two kids, but what about
your sisters?” She needed to keep him focused and on task. She
didn’t know how long her bravery would last.

“Susannah has three girls, Erin has a girl
and a boy, and Jessica doesn’t have any yet. Their ages range
between five and twelve years old.” He turned down an aisle filled
with bright pink boxes. “Barbie stuff is a safe bet for the two
younger girls . The twelve year old, Beth, has outgrown them.
She’ll be the hardest to buy for.”

“Not necessarily. Clothes always work for
that age. Have you checked their wish lists?”

He stopped and looked at her. “What wish
list? You mean, like, letters to Santa? “

Angel laughed. “You don’t spend much time
online, do you?”

“Other than work-related stuff, no.”

“Most people these days have wish lists on
Amazon. We should check their lists to see what they want.” She
pulled out her phone, punched a few keys, then asked, “Okay, their
lists are probably embedded under their mothers’ names, so what are
those?”

He gave her the info and in another minute
she handed him the phone. “Looks like Susannah’s girls still like
Barbie, so let’s get those first.” She turned to the shelves and
scanned the multitude of choices. “How much do you want to
spend?”

Once they’d filled the cart with pink boxes,
they moved to the video game section for the oldest girl. Mitch
looked uncertain. “Are you sure this is what she wants?”

“Look at her list. The games are all listed
as high priority, the other stuff is marked low, so I suspect those
were her mother’s idea.”

It only took a minute to pick out a couple of
games for Beth. Mitch checked for a wish list for Eric’s kids as
well and sure enough, they both had one. Which made the rest of the
shopping a breeze. With the addition of a bicycle for Erin’s boy,
they were finished way before he was ready. He’d figured the
shopping would take several hours. It always did when he went by
himself.

Though Angel seemed anxious to get out of the
store, she didn’t seem anxious to go home, so he suggested they go
to his house, where she could help him wrap the gifts and he could
ply her with hot chocolate. To his surprise, she agreed.

She’d made a lot more progress than he’d
realized.

CHAPTER FIVE

Angel was more impressed than she wanted to
be. Mitch had grown up with several siblings in a small frame house
in a working class neighborhood, so she’d expected him to go for a
big, flashy house up in the hills now that he was a doctor.
Instead, he’d chosen a log house on several acres east of the city.
The rugged home surrounded by trees suited him. Private, reserved,
peaceful.

It was situated at the end of a long
driveway, out of view of the road. Accent lights on the trees
illuminated the drive with soft beams, and more lined the walk
leading to the house. He hadn’t gone overboard with Christmas
decorations, but had just enough to pay tribute to the
holidays.

He turned on the lights as they stepped
inside, showing a large, open floor plan with an impressive
stairway on one side. She immediately imagined a bride descending
that stairway as the guests below watched and cameras snapped.

“Let me show you around, then I’ll go get the
presents out of the car.”

Mitch’s voice snapped her out of her
daydream. What a fool she was. She would neither be that bride, nor
would she be the photographer who captured the moment. “Sure,” she
said, following Mitch into the large kitchen. Black granite
countertops and stainless steel appliances were softened by area
lighting and a large Indian rug.

He opened the fridge and pulled out two beers
and offered her one. She shook her head. “Medications.”

He nodded and put the bottle back in the
fridge. “We’ll do the hot chocolate, then. Come on, I’ll show you
the media room.”

Where the rest of the house had log walls and
rustic furniture, the media room was as modern as any high-tech
theater. Acoustical tiles covered the walls and ceiling, the floor
was made of cork, the furnishings covered in butter-soft leather.
Theater seating would hold twelve people, and each seat had its own
drink holder. When he hit a button on the wall, a curtain at the
far end of the room slid back to reveal a wall-sized screen.

“Wow. This is pretty impressive.” She sat in
one of the seats and leaned it back, looking up at the screen. “I
may never be content to watch movies at the mall again.”

“That was my main motivation for this room. A
couple of times taking the girls to the movies and I swore never
again. Now they come here to watch new releases and old favorites,
and I don’t have to worry about them catching some terrible skin
infection.”

“I’ll bet you have a pretty impressive movie
collection.”

He shook his head. “Not really. I use a
subscription service most of the time. I don’t like a lot of
clutter.”

He turned off the light and continued down
the hallway, where he opened the door to the master bedroom. “The
rest of the bedrooms are upstairs. They mostly go unused unless the
girls spend the night.”

Angel stepped inside. The room seemed to wrap
itself around her like a warm, fuzzy blanket and drew her in. The
peace and tranquility of the room was almost palpable. There was no
television, no computer--no electronics at all as far as she could
see. Blackout curtains over the windows blocked all outside light.
Small, muted lights highlighted various areas of the room--the bed,
the dressing area, a reading chair.

Mitch crossed the room and drew back the
curtains. He opened the French doors and stepped out onto a
balcony. The back of the house was several feet above the ground as
the land fell away toward a creek. A short stairway at one end led
down to the patio.

“This is where I spend most of my time when
the weather cooperates,” he said. “All of the stress seems to melt
away out here under the stars.”

She joined him and looked up. Without the
city lights, stars exploded across the sky. “I never knew there
were so many.”

“You never get out of town to see the
stars?”

“No. I spend most of my time at home, at my
computer. Other than photo shoots and weddings, I never go
anywhere.” And for the first time, she realized what she’d been
missing. Regretted letting her life get so rigid and isolated.
She’d missed out on so much.

“You’ll love the mountains, then. The stars
feel close enough to reach up and touch.”

She looked out over the backyard, where the
stone patio seemed to merge directly into a swimming pool. Lights
in the pool made the water look so inviting, even though she knew
it would be cold. “The pool is beautiful. I love to swim. It’s one
of the things I miss the most about growing up.”

“It’s heated. Want to go for a swim?”