Starting Over with the Single Dad, page 1
He swallowed.
Damn.
Her hair was different, which was why he hadn’t recognized her from behind, but it was definitely her. A ghost from his past.
His distant past. He had to remind himself of that fact as his feet began moving again. What the hell was she doing here?
She’d sworn she was shaking the dust of Forgotten Point off her feet and never coming back. The last he’d heard from her mom was that she was a military doctor stationed somewhere in the Middle East.
Mysti looked just as shocked as he was as Tom made the introductions.
She nodded. “Yes. We’ve met.”
He stared at her. Her voice was the same. The slight rough huskiness hit him in the gut, just like it had that night. But, like her hair, the tone was different. Tighter. Chillier.
“Yes,” he agreed. “We have. We were in high school together, but it’s been, what? Fifteen years?”
Dear Reader,
Have you ever felt the need to get away from a situation? To run as far and as fast as you can without looking back? Well, Mysti North finds herself in just such a situation. And she does exactly that: she runs. But sometimes the past has a funny way of catching up with you when you least expect it.
Thank you for joining Mysti and Jesse Grove as they unravel the decisions they made when they were younger versions of themselves and try to figure out where to go from there. And maybe, just maybe they can find what they lost all those years ago.
I hope you enjoy reading about their journey as much as I loved writing it.
Love,
Tina Beckett
Starting Over with the Single Dad
Tina Beckett
Three-times Golden Heart® Award finalist Tina Beckett learned to pack her suitcases almost before she learned to read. Born to a military family, she has lived in the United States, Puerto Rico, Portugal and Brazil. In addition to traveling, Tina loves to cuddle with her pug, Alex, spend time with her family and hit the trails on her horse. Learn more about Tina from her website or friend her on Facebook.
Books by Tina Beckett
Harlequin Medical Romance
The Island Clinic collection
How to Win the Surgeon’s Heart
New York Bachelor’s Club
Consequences of Their New York Night
The Trouble with the Tempting Doc
A Summer in São Paulo
One Hot Night with Dr. Cardoza
A Family to Heal His Heart
A Christmas Kiss with Her Ex-Army Doc
Miracle Baby for the Midwife
Risking It All for the Children’s Doc
It Started with a Winter Kiss
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
To my husband. I’m so glad that chance brought us together.
Praise for Tina Beckett
“Tina Beckett definitely followed through on the premise and managed to infuse just the right amount of angst and passion to keep me glued to the pages of Miracle Baby for the Midwife from beginning to end.”
—Harlequin Junkie
Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
EPILOGUE
EXCERPT FROM FALLING FOR HIS RUNAWAY NURSE BY AMY RUTTAN
PROLOGUE
Fifteen years ago
THE KISS CAME out of nowhere. And Lord, it was so incredibly heady. Decadent, even. Her lips clung to his warm mouth in desperation, her heart pounding in her chest. And Mysti North couldn’t get enough.
She’d never dreamed her goodbye news would get this kind of a reaction from her childhood friend. But things had changed between them recently, and she couldn’t stay in town with the way things were now.
The rain pounded down on the car and thunder cracked around them, but it couldn’t reach inside and stop what was happening.
Mysti’s arms slid around his neck, and a tiny sound emerged from her throat before she could stop it. Jesse’s reaction was immediate. He pulled her even closer, tongue edging forward to meet hers and tangle with it. Her world changed colors for several heart-stopping seconds.
The boy next door had morphed into a hunky high school quarterback four years ago, and suddenly girls had flocked around him. Including her best friend, Kandid. And Kandid was everything Mysti wasn’t. Beautiful, poised, a cheerleader and confident in her own feminine powers of attraction, she’d set her sights on Jesse almost immediately after Mysti had confided in her friend about her own crush on him, and of course she’d emerged the victor. He and Kandid had been dating for several months now, her friend regaling Mysti with stories of their intimate talks about the future. Which included children.
Mysti had never even dreamed she might have a chance with him herself. Until this very moment.
Jesse had had to stop the car when the rain turned torrential, the weather reports of flash floods holding true as water rushed across the small bridge that led into their hometown. He’d said he didn’t dare cross that line and risk the consequences.
But he had dared to cross another kind of line—by kissing her. And it had brought the smoldering spark of hope inside her blazing back to life.
He’d offered to give her a ride home from the last game of their high school careers to save her mom from making the trip in the rain. And as she’d thrown her clarinet into the back seat, she’d decided that this was her chance to say a private goodbye to him. In person. Without the crowd that normally revolved around him. She’d already talked to a local army recruiter about her options and they, at least, seemed eager to have her.
So when he’d pulled over, she’d turned to him, clutching her hands in her lap and willing herself to make this final break. To give herself permission to walk away from her role of standing on the sidelines with the rest of Jesse’s adoring public and find out what life held for her outside this town. Life without Jesse.
What she hadn’t expected was the look that had crossed his face when she’d told him about her decision to join the army. “You’re leaving Forgotten Point?”
“I am. I don’t think this town holds much in the way of a future for me.”
Especially not when all she could foresee was Jesse marrying Kandid and then forever having to meet him with a band on his finger that marked him as someone else’s. Her friend’s husband. But, God, how could she move away and leave him behind? He’d been a constant in her childhood, and to imagine him with anyone else hurt her beyond all imagining...
Except she’d never even dreamed of him staring at her like he had after she’d told him of her decision. But when he’d suddenly reached for her, she’d responded immediately, all of her repressed feelings flaring to life in an instant. She could call that recruiter and tell him she was no longer interested, couldn’t she?
His fingers toyed with top button on her white shirt, and she sensed more than felt his hesitation. As if he were contemplating what going any further than this might mean.
Do it, Jesse. Please! Choose me.
Just then something seared the backs of her eyelids and she jerked them open, finding that another car had pulled up beside them, blue lights flashing. Jesse reeled back in his seat, shock and horror clearly written across his face.
Had he forgotten who he was kissing? Had he pictured Kandid sitting here with him, instead of her?
She recognized one of the town’s patrol cars. The door opened and out stepped Andy McGee, a flashlight in his hand. He came around to Jesse’s window and used the torch to tap on it, rain streaming over the plastic that covered his hat and plopping onto his rainproof slicker. Jesse’s eyes closed for a second before he seemed to straighten in his seat.
As he rolled down his window, bile crawled up Mysti’s throat, and she waited for the lecture she was sure was coming. All she wanted to do right now was get out of this car and run into her bedroom. So much for hoping that Jesse had finally understood he was supposed to be with her, rather than Kandid.
“You kids aren’t thinking of drivin’ ’cross that bridge, now, are you?”
“No sir. I was just waiting for the rain to slow.”
Andy leaned down farther to peer in at Mysti, and she wrapped her arms around her middle, suddenly freezing cold, although it had to be close to eighty degrees outside. Her eyes met Andy’s for a second before skipping away again.
“Your folks know where you are, Mysti?”
“Yes, sir. Jess was just giving me a ride home. Then the rain struck and...”
“Got it.” He tapped the side of the car. “It’s dangerous sitting here like this, and the rain is only just starting to let up. I’ll lead you back to Forgotten Point another way and get you home safe.”
Home. She suddenly realized this was not her home. Not anymore.
“Okay, thanks.”
Jesse waited until Andy got back into his vehicle, and then turned and pulled out behind the patrol car.
“Don’t say it.” She forced herself to stop him as an almost overwhelming pain burst through her. Jesse’s dad had cheated on his mom over and over, then abandoned his family, leaving his son to do his best to hold things together. The fact that he could even think he was anything like that horrible man...
She forced herself to continue, the shakiness of her words making her close her eyes briefly to try to pull herself together. “You are nothing like your father, Jess. Let’s just pretend none of this ever happened, okay?”
Easier said than done. She had a feeling she was going to relive this kiss for many years to come. It had been good. So very good. The kind of kiss she’d dreamed of happening between her and Jesse. Had often prayed for. But not like this. Not with the feelings of guilt it would carry with it. As much as she’d hated that Kandid was dating Jesse, her friend couldn’t help who she fell in love with. Everyone loved Jesse.
Everyone...including Mysti.
But no more. She wasn’t going to sit around this small town and let her sadness fester until she became a bitter shell of a person. If she could do some good in this world she was going to take the opportunity. And right now, the army seemed like the perfect place to do that.
Her stomach clenched hard as she braced herself for what she knew was coming as they wound their way through country roads that led into Forgotten Point. Jesse didn’t say anything else until he pulled up in front of Mysti’s house.
She didn’t want him to try to apologize again, so she yanked on the door handle, and the mechanism made a snapping sound that jarred her to the core. Then, before she opened the door, she heaved down a breath and prayed for the courage to make this final break. Turning to look at him, his haunted gaze made her throat ache with unshed tears.
“Bye, Jess.”
She forced a finality into those two words that she didn’t want to contemplate. Didn’t want to accept.
But right here, right now, she was drawing her own line in the sand. Jesse belonged to someone else. He was on one side of that line, and she was on the other.
He wasn’t, and nor would he ever be...hers.
CHAPTER ONE
Present day
MYSTI TOOK ONE last look at the gray building as she tossed her duffel bag into the taxi and climbed in after it. After six months of getting counseling for what was deemed PTSD, she’d finally graduated back to real life. She guessed she should have bought an actual suitcase as her time in the military came to an end, but who knew where life would take her next. For right now, though, she was going home. A place she’d always sworn she’d never go back to.
But a long time had passed since she’d made that vow. And what she’d endured in Joronha made the silliness of her first crush and her first-ever kiss seem like something out of a romantic comedy. Except none of it had been funny, and she hadn’t gotten her happy ending. Just the ending.
So why go back to Forgotten Point?
Because she needed to. At least for this next phase of her life. She required the stable routine that Forgotten Point had always managed to give her. She smiled. She’d once been so contemptuous of that stability. The lack of surprises. She’d wanted so badly to do things that were reckless...see the bigger world outside her small town. Well, the first of those two wishes had happened in the front seat of Jesse Grove’s car. And the second had happened on a series of foreign battlefields. Neither of those experiences had turned out quite the way she’d envisioned they might. So right now, Forgotten Point, Kentucky, looked very attractive. And safe. Far from the trauma of exploding helicopters and lost friends. The offer to take over for a surgeon who was on maternity leave at a hospital on the other side of the bridge from Forgotten Point had come at the perfect time for Mysti. And the fact that it wasn’t a “forever” job made it that much more attractive to her. She didn’t know yet how she would feel about the town once she got home.
The taxi driver glanced in the rearview mirror. “Where to?”
She managed a smile that was a lot less shaky than it had been when she’d first landed back on American soil. “To the airport, please.”
“You’ve got it.”
As the cab pulled away from the building, she turned around and took one last look at it. So many years of her life had been spent following orders, she wasn’t quite sure what to do now that she could choose for herself exactly where she went and how long she stayed.
Jesse would probably still be living in her hometown, although her mom had never once mentioned him during their texts. It was as if she’d known that her daughter had cared deeply about him and had somehow been hurt because of it, and hadn’t wanted to add to that sorrow.
She shook her head and leaned back against the seat, closing her eyes. That part of her life was over. The last she’d heard—by means of Kandid’s fancy hand-addressed wedding invitation—was that she and Jesse had indeed gotten married. But Mysti had never RSVP’d, and she and Kandid had soon lost touch. The same way she’d purposely lost touch with all her other childhood friends. They were all reminders of what could have been.
Kandid and Jesse were probably still happily living their lives together.
Well, it was time that Mysti finally started living hers. Her mom was so excited that she was coming home. Mysti had asked her to keep it quiet for now. She needed a few days to get her bearings and hopefully find a temporary place to live before people started dropping off pies and coming over to welcome her back. She could stay with her mom, but really, she needed her own space to continue to heal from the trauma of losing her friend in the field a year ago.
And she needed to brace herself for the time when she would eventually run into Jesse and his wife. She wished she’d gotten more closure on that whole childhood crush thing. Because right now there was a rock in the pit of her belly that was the size of a boulder.
Hell, he might not even recognize her. She’d lost weight over the ensuing years due to the busy hours spent operating on injured soldiers and the trauma she’d endured at the end of her last tour. Her mom would fuss over her, and she’d gain everything back, and probably more in short order.
Well, there was time enough to think of all of that once she got on the ground and started work. Until then, she needed to do what her counselor had told her. Take one day at a time. Focus on moving forward a little bit each day.
Until the past year was a distant blur she could no longer see so clearly in her mind’s eye.
* * *
Jesse helped his patient sit upright on the table, noting her wince as she did so. She hadn’t mentioned her previous L2 compression fracture as her reason for visiting today, but he could see it was still bothering her. “How’s your back doing, Mrs. Evans?”
Gertrude Evans had been one of his teachers in high school. Now well into her seventies, she was retired and living alone at home, her husband having passed away last year.
“The pain is still there, but as long as I don’t try to stay bent over for too long, we get by.” Despite the arthritis pain that sometimes plagued her, she was surprisingly healthy. Healthy enough to still get out and tend to her animals and small farm with some help from her sons. The compression fracture had been the result of a fall from a ladder while adjusting a gutter on her house, which she’d insisted could happen to anyone. And she was right.
Although Jesse’s real love was caring for elderly patients like Mrs. Evans, he was glad that med school had required him to specialize in internal medicine before he went on to his fellowship in geriatric medicine.
When his grandmother had been struck down by a mystery illness, there’d been no one at the hospital who’d specialized in geriatrics. Oh, her medical care had been above reproach, but it had been hard to get to the root of the problem, since her early dementia had made it hard for her to sort her symptoms in the order they’d appeared.
