Forever and a Day (Lucky Harbor) Read online

  “I’m not getting in the ring,” Josh said, and stood. He dropped cash on the table. “I’ve got to get back.”

  His waiting room was calm and quiet. The front desk was calm and quiet. Everything was calm and quiet.

  “There’s no one waiting for me?” he asked Michelle.

  “Tessa’s got it moving along pretty good.”

  He eyed the schedule. “What about Mrs. B?”

  “Oh, she’s already been seen. She had some arthritic flare-up.”

  Josh was stunned. Mrs. B. had never been willing to see anyone else before. “And Lisa Boyles? She was bringing in her three kids for sports physicals.”

  “Tessa finished early and offered to see them, and Lisa took her up on it. That’s who she’s with right now.”

  “Okay…” He felt a little off center. “I’ll go get some charting done.”

  “Sure.”

  But when he got to his office and sat down, the charting didn’t appeal. Where was a fast-paced ER emergency when he needed one? Anderson couldn’t fall off the pier now?

  He saw patients that afternoon but it remained quiet and sedate. Not at all what he was used to.

  But what you wanted…

  Except suddenly he wasn’t keeping the world going around. It was going around without him, all on its own.

  And he didn’t know if he liked it.

  That night for the first time in months, Josh got home in time for dinner. He walked into his house and blinked. His living room had been turned into a fort. Blankets and sheets had been stretched across the couches, tucked into the entertainment center, into shelves, anywhere and everywhere. He crouched down, and yep, it was filled with what appeared to be every single toy Toby owned.

  He entered the kitchen to find Toby and Grace sitting on the counter, eating chocolate cupcakes. Josh met Grace’s gaze, and the air did that unique crackle thing while her slow smile brought back memories of the night before.

  Slow hands. Deep, wet, unending kisses. Bodies hot and damp and meshed together. Heady, erotic pleasures…

  “Daddy, cupcakes!” Toby said.

  “I’m sorry.” Josh pretended to scrub out his ear. “Was that English?”

  Toby grinned.

  Josh pulled him up for a hug and came away a little sticky. “You’re supposed to eat the dessert, not bathe in it.”

  This earned him another grin. “Try it!” Toby demanded, holding out his cupcake.

  Josh took a bite, and he had to admit that the soft, spongy chocolate cupcake was pretty damn amazing. He took another bite, pretending to go for Toby’s fingers, earning him a belly laugh.

  Best sound ever. He started laughing as well when he turned and found Grace watching them with a smile. “Hope you don’t mind,” she said. “It’s a backward dinner.”

  “We love backward dinners!” Toby said.

  They’d never had a backward dinner.

  Tank was sitting on the floor at Toby’s feet. He let out a loud “arf!” followed by a pathetically sad whine.

  “He’s sad ’cause Grace said he can’t have chocolate,” Toby said. “Chocolate’s bad for dogs. They go like this…” He mimed choking on his own tongue, complete with bugging-out eyes and the sound effects to go with it, before dramatically falling off the stool to the floor. There he kicked once, twice, and then “died.”

  “Nice,” Josh said.

  Toby smiled proudly and sat back up as Tank climbed into his lap, licking his face.

  “We don’t feel sorry for Tank,” Grace told Josh. “He got his dessert.”

  “He ate a bag of powdered sugar,” Toby said.

  Josh looked at the tiny Tank. “When you say bag of powdered sugar…”

  “The entire bag, including the paper.” Grace shook her head. “He has an eating disorder.”

  They all looked at Tank, who snorted, then burped, emitting a little puff of white.

  “You gonna eat with us, Daddy?” Toby asked. “We’re having mac and cheese!”

  “My favorite,” Josh said dryly.

  Toby grinned. “No, it’s my favorite.”

  Josh thought about the nutritional content of the unopened box of mac and cheese on the counter, which probably was about as healthy as eating the actual box, and grimaced. “Where’s Nina?”

  “On a date!” Toby said.

  Now that Toby had regained his mastery of the English language, apparently he felt the need to speak in exclamation points.

  “You should join us,” Grace said, her voice sounding a little husky now, reminding him of how she sounded the night before, when he’d been buried deep. Oh, please, Josh, she’d said in that same voice. Pretty sure he had pleased, he cleared his throat and looked at the box again.

  “Afraid?” she asked.

  “Yes. For my arteries.”

  She pointed to the counter and the half-empty bag of baby carrots there. “We’re combating it with veggies.”

  “Toby doesn’t eat carrots.”

  “I do so!” Toby claimed, and shocked Josh to the core by picking up a carrot. Of course he dipped it in a bowl of what looked like salad dressing until there was no carrot to be seen before jamming it into his mouth, dripping dressing everywhere.

  Josh let out a breath.

  Grace was looking at him, amused. “It’s nonfat vanilla yogurt.”

  Josh shuddered at that combination but had to admit he couldn’t object. “Where’s Anna?”

  Grace’s smile faded some. “Out. Not sure where. How was work?”

  In the past, the answer to this question would have been “crazy.” But that didn’t apply today. “Manageable.”

  “You sound surprised. Dr. McGinley not doing a good job?”

  “She’s doing a great job.” So great that Josh still felt discombobulated at how easily his world had gone on without him. He looked at the box of mac and cheese and decided he just couldn’t do it. He went to the freezer and pulled out a couple of steaks. While he defrosted them in the microwave, he headed out the back door and started the barbeque. The thing was brand spanking new and huge. He’d bought it two years ago and had never used it, not once, but it started right up with a big, satisfactory whoomph, not so unlike Toby’s lightsaber.

  Grace was standing in the open door watching him. “Feeling manly?”

  He took in her pretty little sundress as she stepped outside. It had spaghetti straps and tiny buttons down the front and came to midthigh. “I’m feeling something.”

  She smiled. “What is it with men and big toys that turns them into Neanderthals?”

  “It’s not the toys. It’s the ‘big.’ We like everything big.”

  “Well you have no worries there.”

  He wasn’t touching that one with a ten-foot pole. Or a nine-inch one… “Are we playing?”

  She looked him over from head to toe and back again. It wasn’t the first time Josh had been undressed by a woman’s eyes, but it was the first time it’d given him a hard-on. And he knew she liked what she saw because the pulse at the base of her throat kicked into gear.

  Liking that, he took a step toward her, planning on showing her more of his “Neanderthal” side.

  “Arf, arf!” Tank came barreling out the back door, chased by Toby with his lightsaber, both heading right for Grace full speed ahead.

  Josh stepped in front of her to bear the brunt of the inevitable impact, bending low to grab for Tank just as Toby swung the lightsaber—

  And accidentally collided with Josh’s head. Josh staggered back and tripped over Tank. The puppy yelped, and Josh shifted his weight, but the damn dog wound his way between Josh’s legs. To avoid killing him, Josh shifted again, and this time lost his balance. He fell, hitting with teeth-jarring impact, smacking his head on the concrete. Stars burst behind his eyeballs, and then…

  Nothing.

  Chapter 21

  Always have chocolate on the To Do list to make sure you get at least one thing done.

  Josh?”

  He