Dancing in the Moonlight - Harlequin.com

RAEANNE THAYNE
39
“Oh, the poor thing.” Caroline’s eyes melted with
compassion.
“Maggie left town for college a few years after her
dad died. She studied to become a nurse and along the
way she joined the Army National Guard,” Jake went
on. “The few times she’s been back over the years, she
usually tries to avoid anything having to do with the
Cold Creek like a bad case of halitosis.”
Unless one of the Daltons happens to stumble on her
in the middle of the night, he thought.
“Hate to break it to you, Carrie, but you might as well
take her right off your matchmaking radar.” Seth grinned
around a cookie he’d filched from the jar on the counter.
Caroline looked disappointed, though still thoughtful.
“Too bad. From all her mother says, Lieutenant
Cruz sounds like quite a woman.”
Oh, she was that, Jake thought a short time later as
he drove away from the ranch. Their conversation
seemed to have opened a door in his mind and now he
couldn’t stop thinking about Maggie.
He was quite certain she had no idea her impact in
his life had been so profound.
If not for her, he wasn’t sure he would even have
become a doctor. Though sometimes it seemed his
decision to pursue medicine had been blooming inside
him all his life, he could pinpoint three incidences that
had cemented it.
Oddly enough, all three of them involved Maggie
in some way.
Though the Rancho de la Luna was next door, he
hadn’t noticed Maggie much through most of his youth.