Wilder Hearts. Karen Rose Smith

do just about anything—electrical, plumbing, drywall, painting—skills that could turn an old house into something special.

      A lot of people might prefer to buy newer homes, but Mike was drawn to the quaint, nostalgic ambience of this particular neighborhood. In fact, he’d told his Realtor that he was looking for a fixer-upper but wouldn’t mind purchasing anything in Riverdale, should one of the properties become available.

      “Did you have to do a lot of work after you moved in?” he asked, thinking about the cozy, two-bedroom brick structure she’d purchased.

      “Yes, but it was actually fun to roll up my sleeves and watch things change before my eyes. I even took some of those home-improvement classes they offer at Hadley’s Hardware Store. I couldn’t afford to do everything at once, but I started by working on one room at a time. The first thing I did was to tear up the carpeting and refinish the original hardwood flooring. Then I painted.”

      Overall, he had to say he liked what she’d done to the place, although his focus had been on more than beige walls and white crown molding the night he’d taken her home.

      In fact, as they’d left the cocktail party, he’d stolen a kiss while the two of them stood next to his Jeep, and his hormones hadn’t given him or his brain cells a free moment until dawn.

      He’d known their lovemaking would be good, but it had been better than either of them could have imagined, and they’d awakened like a pair of spoons, completely spent and sated.

      Yet one night hadn’t been enough.

      He slid a sidelong glance across the seat and saw that she was staring straight ahead and biting her bottom lip. Then she glanced at him, lips parting.

      Had her thoughts gone in a sexual direction, too? Was she thinking about the pleasure they’d given each other in the antique bed in her candlelit room?

      He suspected so, because her words seemed to have dissipated in the cab of the Jeep.

      But he didn’t let the silence get to him. “I told Karen, Leif’s sister, that I’d be interested in buying something in this part of town, especially if it needed some work.”

      She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’ll keep my eyes and ears open. Mark Griffith, who lives with his wife and son on Ash, might have to be transferred to another office out of state. If so, he might be interested in selling.”

      “That would work out great for me.” Since Simone didn’t comment either way about the possibility of them being neighbors, he let it drop.

      Minutes later, he pulled the Jeep into a parking spot on Lexington, two spaces down from the pet shop, and turned off the ignition.

      “How’d you know about this place?” he asked.

      “Originally, Ella Wilder mentioned it to me.”

      “She has animals?”

      “Yes, a cat named Molly. She found the poor little thing injured and lying on the side of the road. A lot of people might have put her to sleep since she lost a leg, but Ella nursed her back to health.”

      Mike never figured the young orthopedic surgeon as an animal lover, but then again, he hadn’t suspected Simone to be one, either. Not until he’d seen her with Woofer.

      “One day, after shopping, I stopped at Prudy’s Menu to place a take-home order, and I noticed it across the street. Ella had said it was a mom-and-pop–type store and that it could almost be entertaining at times. So I decided to check it out. And that’s the day I met Woofer.”

      “You’ve gotta be kidding. I thought pet stores only sold animals with pedigrees.”

      “Actually, the Baxters allow several different pet-rescue organizations to hold adoption days at the store on weekends. And that’s exactly what was going on the first time I stopped in to visit.”

      “Wait a minute.” Mike slid her a crooked grin. “You mean that you make a point of visiting the pet store even when you don’t have anything to buy?”

      “Yes, I do that every once in a while. Millie and Fred Baxter are nice people. I first met them a year or so ago when Fred was brought into the E.R. after suffering chest pains.”

      “Oh, yeah?”

      Simone had always told him that she tried not to get attached to her patients, which is why she enjoyed working in the E.R. Most of the patients were just passing through. But obviously, she got attached to some of them.

      “Fred had suffered a major heart attack,” she said.

      “Obviously, he pulled through.”

      Simone nodded. “Millie was trying to be tough for his sake, but I could see the fear in her eyes. They were pretty young to be going through something like that, and for some reason, I was drawn to her. So when I was off duty that evening, I picked up a cup of coffee in the doctors’ lounge, then offered it to her. I sat with her for a few minutes, and we started chatting.”

      Mike had seen Simone with her patients, and while she was good to all of them when they were in her care, she was able to detach when they were either admitted or discharged.

      And she didn’t normally spend her free time visiting with them.

      “What was so special about Millie?” he asked. There had to have been something that appealed to Simone, and he was curious to know what it was. To know what drew her to certain people.

      Simone shrugged, then focused her attention on the puppy in her lap, her thoughts appearing to drift somewhere else.

      When she glanced up, her gaze snagged his, tugging at his heart in that way only Simone could do. “I’m really not a romantic person, so you’ll probably think this is weird coming from me, but I think Fred and Millie are soul mates—if there is such a thing.”

      There was. Mike suspected he and Simone were, too, but she hadn’t quite figured it out yet.

      “Anyway,” Simone continued, “Millie was worried about losing Fred, which was understandable. But she mentioned they’d been trying to…” Simone paused and glanced out the passenger side of the window, as though distracted and drifting off topic.

      “Trying to what?” Mike asked, steering her back to the conversation they’d been having.

      She cleared her throat. “They’d been trying to have a baby for years and had finally given up. In vitro and other expensive fertility treatments are out of the question, since they’re new business owners and have poured their savings into the store. They’d just started the adoption process when Fred was brought into the E.R. However, Millie realized that his heart condition might make it more difficult for them to adopt.”

      Again, Simone glanced out into the distance, but Mike could see the cogs turning, her mind drifting, and he wished she’d share those thoughts with him.

      He couldn’t imagine his future without kids. He adored his nieces and nephews and looked forward to the day he could give them a couple of cousins to play with.

      She obviously felt badly that Millie couldn’t have the family she’d dreamed of. Maybe that was because Simone harbored some secret maternal urges, too. And if so, that would play right into Mike’s hands.

      Unless, of course, Simone had reason to believe that she couldn’t have children. Maybe that’s why she took such a strong stance against marriage or even a relationship.

      “Adopting a child is a good option,” Mike said, just in case he’d touched on a sore subject. He wanted her to know that he’d be okay if she was infertile—disappointed, but okay. “And there’s always a need for good foster parents. So even if a person can’t have kids of their own, there are plenty of opportunities to be parents.”

      “Yes, you’re right.” Her voice came out soft, burdened. “Millie’s the kind of woman who would make a great mother. And if I were a kid, I would have loved to have