Cindy's Doctor Charming Read Free Page A

me.”
    â€œDon’t tell me,” he said. “Your car turns into a pumpkin at midnight.”
    â€œSomething like that.” She did an about-face, then slipped away through the crush of bodies still on the dance floor.
    â€œWait.” He knew she heard, because she lifted her hand in a wave as she kept going.
    The crowd was thinner than when he’d first arrived tonight, but he had trouble maintaining a visual of her. She kept disappearing because almost everyone was taller. Outside the ballroom in the wide, carpeted hall people milled around. Nathan looked left, then right and couldn’t see her.
    Instinct had him hurrying toward the bank of escalators leading to the ground level. When he reached the bottom, the crush of bodies parted and there she was, one foot bare and holding a high-heeled pump in her hand. The heel dangled at a dangerous angle. Literally a lucky break for him.
    â€œLooks like you could use some help.”
    She looked up, her expression rueful. “Not unless you can surgically reattach this.”
    â€œI could carry you,” he suggested.
    She made a great show of assessing him from the chest up. “You probably could. And that would be very gallant. But I wouldn’t try it if I were you.” Despite the spunky words, she put her hand on his arm for balance as she removed the other shoe.
    â€œSo you’re determined to go?”
    â€œEven more now.” The look she turned on him was wry. “I have no shoes.”
    â€œNot a problem for me.”
    â€œThat makes one of us,” she said.
    â€œOkay. I’ll let you go quietly if you give me your phone number.”
    She blinked up at him, and for a split second the ideaseemed to tempt her. Then she shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”
    â€œYou don’t want me to call you?”
    â€œGive the man a gold star.” Regret flickered in her eyes although she probably didn’t know it was there. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate the interest, but women like me don’t date men like you.”
    â€œI have no idea what that means.”
    â€œOkay, how about this? My parents aren’t in the south of France or even north Las Vegas for that matter. It was the truth when I told you there’s no money in my family.”
    â€œI believe you. That’s not why—”
    â€œLook Dr. Can’t-take-no-for-an-answer. I don’t want you to call me. You’re a jerk at work. You yell at the help. You have a terrible reputation and no one likes you, including me. And everyone thinks you’re inflexible.”
    He laughed. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”
    â€œNo, I really don’t.”
    â€œIf it’s not already clear, I’d like to see you again.”
    Something flashed in her eyes when she said “Yeah, well, we all want things we can’t have.”
    Before he could stop her, she turned and vanished in the crowd, ending his lucky streak. The most interesting woman he’d ever met had just shut him down.
    At least he knew her name. It was a place to start.

Chapter Two
    T ired and cranky the morning after her big night, Cindy and her “clean cart” rode the elevator to Mercy Medical Center’s second floor. If she’d known her raffle ticket to the ball included a sleepless night because of Dr. Charming, spending the evening at home in her slippers and sweats would have won out over borrowed finery and broken heels. She still couldn’t believe that Nathan Steele, the legendary NICU doc, had asked for her phone number. If he’d known she worked in housekeeping at the hospital, the fairy tale would certainly have ended differently.
    The elevator arrived at her stop and the doors whispered open. She pushed the cart, holding a mop, trash receptacle and trigger bottles filled with antiseptic spray, down the hall. After rounding the corner, she came