Surrender Your Heart Read online

  Surrender Your Heart

  Cindy Kirk

  Copyright © Cynthia Rutledge 2021

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN: 9798697928677

  First published in 2003 as LOVING GRACE by Silhouette Books

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Epilogue

  Sneak Peek of With Just One Kiss

  Also by Cindy Kirk

  Chapter One

  Dr. Nicholas Tucci shrugged off his lab coat with a tired groan. Though he enjoyed the one evening a month he volunteered at the free clinic, he’d started the day with an emergency surgery at 6:00 a.m. and it was now almost midnight.

  “How many patients do you think we saw tonight?” Dr. Larry Fowler collapsed on the wooden bench in front of the row of lockers that made up the doctor’s lounge. “A hundred?”

  “Felt like it,” Nick said. “I’m sure ready for some downtime.”

  “Know what you’re doing for Thanksgiving yet?” Larry asked, casting Nick a sideways glance.

  “As a matter of fact, I’ve decided to go home with what’s-her-name for Thanksgiving.” For some reason, saying the words out loud solidified Nick’s impulsive decision. “I’m in the mood for something different this year.”

  Actually going off for a weekend with a woman he barely knew was more crazy than different, but Nick didn’t care. The way he saw it he had two choices: fight off his sister’s friend all weekend or spend the holiday with a virtual stranger.

  “Who are you talking about?” Larry tilted his head and stared as if Nick were speaking a foreign language.

  Nick couldn’t figure out why Larry was being so obtuse. After all, his friend was the one who’d told him earlier in the evening that the woman desperately needed a fill-in boyfriend for the weekend. Nick frowned and tried to recall her name. Kathy kept popping into his head but that didn’t sound right. “You know very well who I mean. The redhead at the front desk.”

  “Grace Comstock?” Larry lifted a sandy-colored brow. “The clinic director?”

  Grace. Nick smiled. The name had a classic elegance and rolled easily off his tongue.

  “That’s the one,” Nick said. “I’ve decided to help her out and go home with her this weekend.”

  Larry laughed out loud, the sound echoing all the way to the exposed rafters. “Let me get this straight. You don’t even know her name, but you’re willing to pose as her boyfriend for four days?”

  “I do know her name,” Nick said matter-of-factly, hanging his lab coat in the locker. “It’s Grace Connors.”

  “Comstock.”

  “Whatever.” Nick grabbed his jacket and shut the locker door. He fastened the combination lock and gave it a spin.

  “It doesn’t make sense.” Larry’s brows drew together in a puzzled frown. “Why would you want to spend your four days off with a stranger when you have a perfectly nice family right here in St. Louis?”

  Nick had to concede that point. He did have a perfectly nice family, and Thanksgiving had always been one of his favorite holidays. Even now, thinking about his mother’s turkey and stuffing, candied yams and pumpkin pie made his mouth water. And after they were all nice and full, he and his brothers would play some football before settling down in front of the tube to watch a few games.

  But this year would be different. He’d known it the minute his brother Sal had told him what their sister had planned. “Because this year Raven is bringing one of her sorority sisters. She seems to think this woman would be a perfect fit for me. It’s supposed to be a surprise, but my brother thought he should warn me.”

  “Is she in the medical field?”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Nick raked a hand through his hair. “I don’t want to date one my sister’s friends.”

  “Why not?” Larry stared curiously at Nick. “I’ve seen your sister. She’s gorgeous. Chances are her friend is going to be hot.”

  “I don’t want to date anyone remotely associated with my sister,” Nick repeated, more forcefully since it appeared Larry was having difficulty getting the message.

  “Hmm. That is a problem.” Larry thought for a moment. “I’ve got a radical idea. Tell her you’re not interested.”

  Nick smiled. He supposed it did sound ridiculous…to someone who didn’t know his sister. “That wouldn’t stop Raven. She’d be convinced that, given time, I’d change my mind.”

  “But it’s Thanksgiving. You don’t want to be with a stranger,” Larry said. “Why don’t you call up Alicia or Melanie or one of the others you’ve dated recently? I’m sure they’d be thrilled to cook you dinner or take you home to meet Mom and Dad.”

  Nick could spend the next ten years explaining to Larry that it wasn’t much fun dating women like Alicia, who’d already decided she loved him before she knew him, or Melanie, who’d started talking about rings after the third date. But Larry would never understand. Although Larry was a good guy, women never seemed to find him attractive.

  “What can I say?” Nick shrugged. “I’m in the mood for something different. And it sounds like this woman, this Grace, is desperate.”

  “Not desperate enough to take you.”

  Nick thought he might have heard Larry wrong. But the hint of satisfaction in Larry’s eyes told Nick, he’d gotten it right. “What do you mean by that?”

  “She told me she doesn’t like you,” Larry said.

  Nick raised a brow and briefly considered the thought. “That’s because she doesn’t know me.”

  Larry laughed. “I bet she says no.”

  “She’ll agree,” Nick said with a confident smile.

  “Maybe so,” Larry said after a long moment. “But ten bucks says you won’t get so much as a single kiss from her this weekend.”

  Nick shook his head. Larry still didn’t get it.

  He wasn’t looking for kisses.

  All he wanted was a nice weekend with some turkey and pumpkin pie.

  Nothing more.

  * * *

  “Do you have a minute?”

  Grace Comstock’s heart skipped a beat at the sound of the deep voice. She’d often thought that with such a smooth, rich baritone, Nick Tucci could have had a successful career in radio. She raised her gaze from the evening’s schedule and amended her thoughts. Sticking such a man behind a microphone would have been a waste. “Dr. Nick”—as the children who visited the clinic called him—was too handsome not to be seen. Even now, with lines of fatigue edging his eyes and the five o’clock stubble darkening his cheeks, the sight of him made her pulse quicken.

  Dressed casually in a gray sweater that accented his broad shoulders and navy pants that emphasized his lean hips, Nick looked more like a GQ model than a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. It was easy to see why he’d been named one of St. Louis’s top ten most eligible bachelors.

  Though Grace acknowledged his good looks, she wasn’t impressed. She didn’t like handsome men. It had been her experience that attractive men tended to be arrogant and proud instead of praising God for the blessing of physical beauty. From what she’d
seen of Nick Tucci, he fit the mold.

  “What can I do for you, Doctor?” Grace used her most professional voice.

  He shot her a smile and the dimple in his cheek flashed. “You can start by calling me Nick.”

  “O-kay.” Despite her resolve to keep him at arm’s length, she found herself wanting to smile back. Instead she lifted a brow. “What can I do for you, Nick?”

  Nick hesitated, and for a moment a hint of uncertainty crept in his gaze. But then the dimple flashed in his cheek once again and he gestured to the chair next to her desk. “Mind if I sit?”

  “Of course not.” Grace grabbed the pile of charts off the seat and set them on top of the stack on her desk. “Have a seat.”

  This time she made her tone more approachable. After all, part of her job as director of the free clinic was to keep the physician volunteers happy. It wasn’t always easy to find doctors willing to lengthen their already-overextended workday by several hours. Specialists were especially hard to find. Most tried it a couple of times and never came back. But Dr. Nick had been volunteering once a month at the specialty clinic for almost a year.

  Though Grace had been the clinic director for the entire time, she couldn’t say she really knew him. Unlike Larry Fowler and some of the other doctors who’d hang around after clinic hours to talk, Nick Tucci always arrived right before his shift began and left immediately after seeing the last patient.

  Once, when he’d raced by her yet again without even a hello, she casually mentioned his aloofness to Larry. Of course, Larry stood up for his colleague, mumbling something about Nick hating to keep patients waiting. Grace didn’t buy that phony excuse for a minute. She knew if she looked like Cindy Crawford, he’d have found time to stop and talk. But a skinny redheaded thirty-year-old didn’t rate a second glance.

  “Busy evening,” he said conversationally, his broad hands folded loosely in his lap.

  Grace nodded. Every appointment slot had been filled this evening and most had been double-booked to cover the no-shows. Unfortunately every patient had shown up, which meant the staff were all getting out a lot later than usual.

  Though Nick had never complained about working late before, she’d overheard him tell one of the nurses he’d been in surgery all morning. Her blood ran cold.

  What if he wants to quit? What if that was why he’d stopped to talk?

  “I’m sorry about the patient volume, but there’s so much need in this neighborhood.” Grace leaned forward, fear making the words tumble out one after the other. “You’re doing a great job. And we appreciate it. I don’t ever want you to think we take you for granted.”

  He sat back in his chair and stared at her for a long moment. Grace realized for the first time that his eyes weren’t hazel as she’d thought, but a mesmerizing blue-green color with flecks of gold. Feeling the need for some air, Grace took a deep breath and inhaled the spicy scent of his cologne.

  “…giving back.”

  Grace widened her eyes and realized that while she’d been staring at him, he’d been talking. Heat rose up her neck and she mentally kicked herself. No wonder handsome guys were arrogant, with women like her hanging on their every word. Or in her case, too busy gawking to hear anything at all. It was almost laughable. She, who’d always insisted she didn’t like handsome men, was acting like a hormone-charged sixteen-year-old. Her lips twitched.

  “You find that amusing?”

  “Yes,” she said. “I mean no.”

  Grace groaned to herself. Could she come across as any more of a blithering idiot than she did at this very moment? It hardly seemed possible. She brushed a piece of hair back from her face and tried to regain her composure.

  Grace forced the disturbing images from her thoughts.

  “I hear you’re looking for a boyfriend.”

  She tilted her head, sure she’d misunderstood. “What did you say?”

  “Larry told me you need a date for Thanksgiving weekend,” he said. “Is that true?”

  By now Grace’s head was spinning. The doctor’s ability to change the subject had her totally perplexed. “That’s right. What about it?”

  “Have you found anyone yet?”

  She shook her head. Last month when she’d decided to bite the bullet and go home for the holiday, she’d started looking for a date. At the time she didn’t think she’d have any trouble finding someone. After all, she had a lot of guy friends and she didn’t care who came with her.

  Unfortunately, one by one, the men she’d had in mind turned her down. Oh, they’d all had good reasons, but the fact was she was stuck. She’d told her family she’d be bringing her new boyfriend. How could she say she was coming alone? Again.

  Turning thirty was bad enough. But to show up all by herself when her little sister, Holly, would be there with her husband and new baby? No way.

  Grace knew she was being silly and immature. She had so many things to be grateful for: good health, good friends and a rewarding job. Not having a boyfriend was such a minor thing in the grand scheme of life. So many people had so much less. She saw it at her job every day.

  But still, all she’d ever wanted was to be a wife and mother. And she couldn’t understand how her sister had ended up with her dream life. It was as if God had gotten the two sisters’ prayers mixed up. Holly had been determined to have a career. But she’d fallen in love while she was still in college and married shortly after graduation. Anna had been born on Holly’s fifth wedding anniversary.

  Grace, meanwhile, had a career, but no husband or family. And last month she’d hit the big three-oh with no Mr. Right in sight.

  “Grace?”

  Once again the deep voice beckoned her back to the present.

  “I apologize,” she said, rapidly collecting her thoughts. “Where were we?”

  “I asked if you’d found someone to go home with you for Thanksgiving,” he said with an indulgent smile. “You said you hadn’t.”

  Grace raised a brow.

  “The point is, I’ve found someone to go with you,” he said.

  Grace tried to still her excitement. Thanksgiving was only two days away and she’d almost given up hope. Grace leaned forward, resting her forearms on the table. “Who is he?”

  “Me.” Nick sat back and smiled. “I’ll go with you.”

  Grace’s cheeks burned like she’d just been slapped. Hard. She tried to stem her embarrassment, but when she spoke, humiliation made her voice harsh and tight. “What kind of game are you playing? Did Larry put you up to this?”

  Nick met her gaze with a puzzled look. “I’m not playing any game.”

  “You want to go with me?” Grace shook her head. “I don’t get it.”

  “It’s true,” Nick said lightly. “I’m at loose ends this weekend, and getting away from it all sounds like just what the doctor ordered.”

  Grace stared, wondering what kind of bet he had with Larry. She could just imagine the two laughing their heads off in the back room, thinking she’d be stupid enough to snap up the bogus offer.

  She pressed her lips together to still the trembling. She’d never had someone play such a cruel trick on her before.

  Nick’s smile faded. He pushed back the chair and slowly rose to his feet, staring at her for a long moment. “If you don’t want me to go with you, just say so.”

  He met her gaze head-on and his tone was so sincere Grace wondered if she’d been mistaken. After all, though he’d been aloof, she’d never known him to be mean. She took a chance and offered him a tiny smile. “It’s not that. It’s just it’s hard for me to understand why you would give up your Thanksgiving to come to Iowa with me.”

  “My sister is playing matchmaker again,” he said, resuming his seat. “I’m not in the mood. It’s been a hectic couple of months and I just want to relax. Eat some turkey, have some pie…” He stopped suddenly and frowned. “Your parents aren’t vegetarian, are they?”

  Grace had to laugh. Vegetarian? Her father wouldn’t allow tofu in
the house, and the only kind of beans he liked were baked with lots of bacon fat. “They’re Iowa farmers. Real meat-and-potatoes kind of people.”

  “Meat and potatoes are good.” Nick nodded approvingly. “What about pie?”

  “Pumpkin, mince, pecan and cherry.” Grace counted them off on her fingers. “With real whipped cream, of course.”

  “I love whipped cream,” Nick said in a deliciously deep voice.

  “I do, too.” Grace returned his smile. And as she was pulled into the azure depths of his eyes, Grace realized she was about to do something incredibly stupid.

  She was going to accept Nick Tucci’s offer.

  Chapter Two

  The farmyard was filled with cars but Nick was able to find a spot for his Land Rover just east of the barn. Grace waited for Nick to open her car door. It hadn’t taken her long to realize that the handsome Dr. Tucci was a rarity in today’s modern world, a true gentleman. He’d insisted on carrying her overnight bag to the car and on opening the door. Though Grace could have easily handled either task, she had to admit she liked the pampering.

  As they walked toward the house Grace slanted him a sideways glance. How a guy could look so good in a sweatshirt and blue jeans boggled her mind. The jeans were nothing special but the way they hugged his muscular legs did crazy things to Grace’s pulse.

  Of course she blamed her reaction on the fact that she’d rarely seen him in anything other than dress pants and a white lab coat. When he’d asked her what he should wear, she’d hesitated for a second before telling him honestly that holidays in the Comstock family were extremely casual and that most of the men would probably be wearing jeans and sweatshirts.

  To his credit, he didn’t act surprised but merely smiled and said something about it sounding good. She knew he was just being polite. His family was quite prominent in the St. Louis social scene and Grace had no doubt that Thanksgiving dinner in the Tucci household would include china, crystal and candlelight. Why, she wouldn’t be surprised if they wore ties to the table.