She motioned to the trucks parked along the side road by the lake. “They’re setting up for the Fourth of July celebration. Fool’s Gold is known for its festivals. I don’t know how many we have every year. A lot. There’s the Book Festival and the Waterskiing Festival. The Fall Festival, which is before the Halloween party.” She glanced at him. “It’s fun.”
“An active community.”
She couldn’t tell if he meant that in a good way or a bad way, and decided not to ask.
She led him back to the main street and started pointing out various businesses before continuing her discussion of the town. “Mayor Marsha is the longest serving mayor in the state of California. The festivals are run by my friend Pia. It’s a big job and, now that she’s pregnant, it’s even more difficult. Although she has a new assistant, which is helping.” She searched her mind for some other factoids. “My family was one of the founding families, on my dad’s side. Not counting the matriarchal tribe, of course. There’s Morgan’s Books.”
She led him to the store and showed him the window display of Liz Sutton, their resident mystery writer.
“Have you read her?” she asked.
Simon shook his head and shifted so he was on her other side. “Is she any good?”
“Of course. She’s fabulous. She’s married to my brother, Ethan. They have one son together and are raising her two nieces. It’s complicated.”
“Most family relationships are.”
“Tell me about it.” She started walking again and Simon fell into step beside her. “My dad passed away eleven years ago, so it’s not surprising my mom has started dating. It really would have been okay, only she seemed fine alone and now we have to get used to this and it’s strange. I want her to be happy, but it’s the whole parental thing. She talks about her dates and we want to be supportive, but then she talks about kissing with tongue and I just want to cover my ears and hum.”
She came to a stop. “You’re a medical professional. Why is hearing about parents having sex so creepy? Okay, not creepy exactly, but strange.”
“I don’t have an answer to that.”
“Didn’t you go to medical school? Don’t they have a class on this?”
And then it happened. Simon smiled at her. His lips curved, there was a flash of white teeth and a surprising dimple on his unscarred cheek.
Montana felt a sudden rush of sensation in her midsection. Not attraction exactly, but not disinterest either. The smile was unexpected and very appealing. It made her want to hear his laugh and maybe even make him smile again.
“I must’ve missed that day,” he told her. “Sorry.”
“You work at a hospital. You could ask around.”
“Is it really that important to you?”
“I don’t like feeling uncomfortable. Especially around my mother. I love her and we’re really close. And I feel like a really good daughter would be able to talk about her mother’s dating life.”
“Not even a good daughter is expected to discuss tongue.”
She laughed and saw he was smiling again. Suddenly the morning seemed a little brighter, the sky a little bluer.
They came to a stop at the corner. Montana walked over to push the Walk button, then returned to Simon’s side. “Where were you before you came to Fool’s Gold? I heard you travel around a lot.”
The pedestrian signal changed and she and Simon started across the street. As they reached the other side, he stepped around her.
“I was in India.”
“That counts as travel,” she admitted. “You go all around the world?”
“I go where I’m needed. I operate on whomever needs my help the most. Mostly children. But adults as well. After I leave here, I’m set to go to Peru.”
That sounded very altruistic. “So you’re a giver?”
“No.”
She waited, but he didn’t say anything else. There was no sign of the smile and she wondered if she’d annoyed him, or crossed some invisible line.
“Burns are my specialty,” he said.
“You must get lonely, always being in a different place. What about family?”
“I have my work. That’s enough.”
It couldn’t possibly be enough, she thought. He was a difficult man to understand. Obviously he was very gifted. His work was demanding and, from what she had seen, he was relentless when it came to taking care of his patients. But who took care of him?
No, no. Don’t go there, she told herself. No rescuing. Simon was perfectly capable of taking care of himself. He’d been all over the world, doing amazing things. He didn’t need her and she didn’t need to make this assignment more than it was.
She’d had three serious boyfriends in her life. A guy back in high school, one in college and one shortly after. All three of them had ended things after making it clear she wasn’t good enough. She hadn’t been pretty enough or smart enough or ambitious enough. Was she really looking for an instant replay on emotional pain?
“Do you have a home base anywhere?” she asked.
“Los Angeles.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I lived there for a while.” With guy number three.
Simon glanced at her. “You don’t sound as if you liked it very much.”
“I didn’t. I couldn’t fit in—my boyfriend was a disaster.” She stopped in front of the Fox and Hound restaurant and faced Simon. “He was a doctor, too. Or he was going to be. He was still in medical school.”
“What happened?”
A reasonable question. She’d set it up herself, so she had no one to blame. Thinking before speaking was an excellent characteristic, she reminded herself. One she was going to have to take up.
“We didn’t want the same things.”
Which was sort of true. The more important issue, which she wouldn’t talk about, was that he’d destroyed what little self-confidence she’d had left. She believed no one could take that away without her permission, so she knew she was also at fault.
“His loss.”
The words surprised her.
“Thank you.” She tilted her head. “You’re different from how you were before.”
“Less stick-up-the-ass?”
She winced. “I’m sorry I said that. It was mean. You weren’t out of line. Fluffy really could have done some damage.”
“But she didn’t. Sometimes I get a little intense.”
Montana bit the inside of her mouth to keep from smiling. “I hadn’t noticed. Thank you for understanding about Fluffy. It wasn’t her fault, it was mine. Max warned me. He said she wouldn’t make it as a therapy dog, but I was determined.”
“To fulfill her therapy-dog destiny?”
Humor sparkled in Simon’s eyes. She felt herself getting a little breathless. The man could be devastating when he tried.
“I can’t save the world, so my passion is a little smaller than yours.”
“Not smaller. Different.”
There was something about the way he stared at her. As if he was hungry. She shook her head. Talk about delusions of grandeur. Simon hungry for her? On what planet? He wasn’t looking at her mouth. She must have a smudge or something.
As