From Doctor...to Daddy (3 page)

“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.

Erika stooped and caught Emilia again, lifting her high in the air. Emilia raised her arms and waved them. “Mommee, Mommee. Fwy!”

Erika explained, “She likes when I lift her up high so she can pretend she's flying.” Instead of giving her daughter her way, Erika shook her head. “Not here. We'll fly at home.”

The phone on Dillon's belt chimed. “Excuse me,” he said, watching Erika with Emilia. He glanced at the caller ID. “I have to take this.” He spoke into the phone. “Just a minute, Grant.” Turning to Erika's mother, he smiled. “It was good to meet you, Mrs. Rodriguez.”

“It was good to meet you, too, Dr. Traub.”

Then Dillon came very close to Erika and gently ran his hand over Emilia's hair. “It was a pleasure meeting you, too, little one.” His gaze was so tender yet filled with a deep emotion Erika couldn't read.

“I'll see you in the morning,” he said to Erika. “Go ahead and leave. You were here early and put in a long day. Ruthann can handle any calls coming in now.”

With a last wave for Emilia, he disappeared down the hall and into his office.

“You like him,” her mother whispered to her. “That's dangerous.”

“Don't worry, Mom. I learned my lesson the last time.”

“I hope so.” Her mother still looked worried.

Erika knew liking Dillon Traub was not going anywhere. She had even more to lose now than she had three years ago. She would not let a man ruin her life again.

 

At D.J.'s Rib Shack that evening, Stacy tilted her head and asked Dillon, “How often can you get away from the lodge?”

They'd been catching up over a dinner of ribs and corn bread. “I'm not chained here,” he joked. “But I
was
hired to treat the guests so I don't like to go too far. If I do want to go out for an evening, I can give Dr. Babchek a call. He's retired and can back me up if Ruthann needs him.”

The restaurant wasn't far from the main lodge. The
Rib Shack was nestled in among boutiques that stretched from the lodge through the resort.

Dillon glanced at the mural on the wall of the restaurant, the one D.J.'s wife, Allaire, had painted. For some reason, thinking about D.J. and Allaire and their two-year-old turned Dillon's thoughts to Erika and Emilia. The little girl was a miniature replica of her mother, glossy wavy hair, big dark eyes. She was a beautiful child—and Erika was a beautiful woman. Dillon sensed there was a lot more to his receptionist than met the eye. She seemed mature beyond her years, unless he was just trying to fool himself.

“Dillon?” he heard Stacy say.

“Yes.”

“I asked if you've seen D.J. and Allaire since you've been back this time.”

“Not yet. But soon, I hope.”

“What were you thinking about?” the perceptive social director asked. “You seemed miles away.”

“Not so many miles.” Studying Stacy, he said, “I was thinking about my receptionist, Erika Rodriguez. Before I left the office tonight, her mother came in with her little girl. I didn't know she had a child and I wondered why she kept her a secret.”

“Emilia's not a secret,” Stacy muttered.

It was the way Stacy said it that made Dillon take notice. “Is there a hidden meaning there?”

Stacy hesitated and Dillon suspected why. She wasn't the type of woman who liked to gossip, but he wanted to know more about Erika and he wasn't sure she'd tell him herself. “I don't want you to reveal anything you shouldn't,” he assured her.

“Can I ask why you want to know?”

Should he say that he was interested in her, when he
was trying to deny that fact himself? “We'll be working together this month. I'd feel better knowing something about her background.”

Toying with a morsel of corn bread still on her plate, Stacy finally shrugged. “I suppose it won't hurt to tell you. Most of Thunder Canyon knows her story.”

“Her story?”

“Oh, Dillon, you know how gossip spreads in small towns, especially here in Thunder Canyon. I'm sure tomorrow at the resort several people will ask me about
my
dinner with
you
.”

“You're kidding.”

She shook her head. “Think about the feud between Dax and D.J. and how that was all over town for years, especially after Dax and Allaire got a divorce and then D.J. started seeing her.”

“Water under the bridge,” Dillon muttered, knowing both of his cousins were extremely happy now. They'd settled their feud and actually become brothers. Not only that, but each had found the right woman to make them happy.

“Yeah, but that water has a lot of debris in it.” Stacy pushed back her plate and propped her chin on her hand. “Erika was run through the gossip mill from one end of town to the other. After high school she waitressed for a while and took a couple of business classes in Bozeman. She'd settled into a job as a receptionist for a real-estate agency in Thunder Canyon when the boom took off. I think she intended to get her real-estate license eventually and start moving up. Then a businessman named Scott Spencerman came to town. He found a condo through Erika's agency, one here at the resort. Erika was only twenty-three. He was older, but she caught his eye. He flattered her and charmed her, gave her presents,
but didn't particularly take her out in public much, if you know what I mean.”

“No, I don't know what you mean. If he cared about her—”

“
She
cared about
him.
She thought she was in love with him. He was a businessman who traveled a lot and only wanted the condo here for skiing in the winter, and maybe some hiking in the summer. He didn't want a life here. He wanted entertainment while he was here.”

“Stacy—”

“You asked,” she drawled.

After a long pause, he asked, “So what was the gossip about?” He felt annoyed that people couldn't keep their noses where they belonged.

“The rumor was that Erika was a gold digger who took up with Spencerman for what he could give her.”

“Is he still around?”

“God, no. When Erika found herself pregnant, he sublet his condo and disappeared. I don't know what really happened. I don't know if anyone does. But Erika was out of work after Emilia was born and I think things got pretty rough. Now she barely talks to anyone while she works and leads a very private life. No one really knows if the rumors about her were true or not. Many people thought she got what she deserved.”

“A child and heartache?” Dillon asked. “Just what kind of people live here?” Dillon had met women who wanted to date him because of what he had rather than who he was. Erika didn't seem like that type at all. Could a whole town be wrong?

He thought about his mother and stepfather. Could a whole
family
be wrong?

“Are you interested in Erika?” Stacy asked, surprised.
He supposed that was because she knew he hadn't dated since he and Megan divorced.

“Will you tell me she's after my money if I say I am?”

“No. But I'll tell you to watch your back and your heart.” She reached across the table and clasped his hand. “I know what you've been through—losing Toby and then your divorce. We're friends, Dillon. We have been since we were kids. I don't want to see you get hurt.”

He smiled and shrugged off her concern. “How can I possibly get hurt? I'm only going to be here a month and then I'll be returning to Texas.”

“A lot can happen in a month,” Stacy prophesied.

Part of him hoped her prediction was wrong. The other part of him hoped she was right. He felt as if he'd been living in a bunker since Toby died…since Megan had left. In his group practice with three other doctors, he'd seen patients and dealt with insurance companies until he was too tired to see straight. Each night he'd gone home and collapsed, many nights falling asleep on the couch with the television blaring so it overrode his thoughts. Perhaps a casual relationship was the antidote he so desperately needed.