Mother, Please! - By Brenda Novak & Jill Shalvis & Alison Kent Page 0,42

city rat, not so unlike herself. “I set my own hours.”

Melissa gave him a long look, then silently checked out the parrot. “She appears to be fine. And if you stop antagonizing her, she’ll relax.”

“Me antagonize her?” He laughed. “Oh, baby, have you got that wrong. Check out my poor ear.” Before he could think about what he was doing, he’d shrugged his hair away from his face and turned toward her, exposing his ear. And his scar. He remembered almost instantly, and stiffened, but before he could move back, Melissa put her free hand on his shoulder, holding him still. Her soft, warm breath fluttered over his skin and he was torn between mortification and an age-old stirring of his body.

“I have good and bad news,” she said.

Lifting his head, he managed to look her in the eyes.

“The bad news is that she did indeed get a good chunk out of you. The good news is that you have another ear.”

He stared at her, waiting for the inevitable, for her to mention his scar, to ask questions….

Instead, she lifted her eyebrows in a royal gesture. “Is that all? Because I probably have more patients waiting. And you probably have to get to work.”

“Maybe I’ll find another animal that needs you.”

Her pretty, glossy lips quirked. “I’m going to charge you every time you do. Is it really worth it?”

She thought he was coming here to flirt with her. Did she think he wanted a date? Wanted to kiss her?

Unexpectedly it hit him. He really did.

But his being here wasn’t about him. It was about Rose, and suddenly that put a sharp twist of guilt in his gut. He’d been concentrating on just being alive, living day to day, enjoying every single second. But not only had he begun a deception he didn’t know how to get out of, he did actually want what Melissa thought he wanted.

A date.

A kiss.

“Goodbye, Jason,” Melissa said quietly, with a finality to her voice that made him blink.

Goodbye. Damn. He’d had a lot of goodbyes in his life. His parents had died five years ago. His brothers, both in the army, had been overseas for the past six years.

He hated goodbyes. “See ya,” he said lightly, and felt a grim smile cross his face.

Because like it or not, he would be seeing her.

Knowing Rose, he’d be seeing a lot of Melissa.

CHAPTER THREE

THE NEXT DAY, Melissa carefully locked up the clinic at exactly six o’clock in the evening, just as she always did. She took a moment on the steps of the clinic to breathe in the clear air and to look around. The sparse landscape was punctuated by gentle, rolling hills dotted with the occasional tree or cow. So much…land. It definitely took getting used to.

Her usual routine was to head down the street to get her mail from the post office, and then to grab dinner. More often than not, this meant something to microwave from the freezer section of the grocery store. Once in a while, she’d grab something to go from the café. Either way, dinner usually came from a box.

She just didn’t have the time, nor the inclination, to cook. Maybe if there’d been a family waiting for her…

Nope. She couldn’t imagine herself a success in the kitchen even if a family was waiting for her.

But every so often, she wondered what it’d be like to have dinner with people who loved her, who depended on her, who craved her company.

Then she remembered she wasn’t a people person. She was an animal person.

She went into the post office and unlocked her mailbox. Another pink envelope fell out.

With a sigh, she opened it right there on the spot. This way she could read it and toss it into the trash can at the end of the aisle, avoiding all tendencies to dwell, which she’d definitely do if she brought the letter home.

Dear Melissa,

I’m not going to give up. Please let me come see you. I just want to get to know you, and hopefully, have you get to know me.

There are two sides to every story, and I’d love to have you hear mine. It won’t take away your pain, but maybe we can come to a place where it’s the now that matters.

Love,

Rose (still your mother)

Mel read it again, and then again, evaluating her emotions. Maybe Rose could concentrate on the here and now, it certainly suited her to do that, but Mel wasn’t ready. She held the letter over the