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Heather rolled her eyes. “I knew it was a mistake to bring you. Calm down. This is a well-baby visit. Diane’s going to get weighed and measured and the pediatrician will make sure everything is okay with her. Nothing else.”

“But he’s giving her a shot,” he said in the same tone of voice reserved for discussing serial murderers. “She’ll cry. It will be horrible.”

“She probably will cry,” Heather agreed. “And guess what? We’ll all survive it. Well, except possibly you.”

Heather glanced down at her daughter who was perfectly content to play with her bright plastic set of baby keys, then at the other woman sitting in the waiting room. She had a one-month-old in a carrier.

The woman met her gaze and smiled. “It’s nice that your husband was able to take time off work to come with you and your daughter.”

Heather had given up ever trying to explain her relationship with Jim. “I agree. Although if I’d known what he was going to be like, I would’ve left him behind.”

He glared at her, then slumped into the seat next to her. “Fine. Kick me when I’m down. Can I help the fact that I’m worried about Diane? Is that so horrible?” He leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes. “I’m going to be sick,” he announced.

The other women giggled softly and Heather had to bite back a smile. The real humor of the situation was that Jim wasn’t kidding. While he’d been perfectly calm and capable during her emergency delivery in the elevator, when faced with a well-baby visit that involved getting Diane vaccinated, he fell apart.

Still, she had to admit she was happy to have him along. Even with his melodrama, he was company and another pair of ears to listen to the doctor’s instructions. Sometimes she got so caught up in remembering all her questions that she had trouble remembering the answers.

They were a good team. Everyone around them assumed they were married—from Rick’s grandmother at the wedding the previous month to the young mother in the waiting room here in the pediatrician’s office. She’d teased Jim that it was a sign from God, but now she wasn’t so sure it was a joke.

She drew in a deep breath and reminded herself that she’d tried the relationship thing three times in the past ten years and ended up hurt in a big way every time. Jim was a wonderful man even though he had a few issues from his past. She liked him and got along with him and they had a chemistry that she’d never experienced before, but they weren’t going to have a romantic relationship together. They couldn’t.

At first she’d resisted because of her three-strikes rule. But now she wasn’t willing to take the chance and risk losing the friendship she’d come to count on. Jim had become a part of her life and she didn’t want him to leave. As long as they were friends, she was reasonably confident that he would be there for her. But if they stirred sex and love into the mix, there was no telling what might happen. Better for both of them to keep the status quo.

* * *

“Feeling better?” Heather asked later that evening as Jim drank a beer.

“I told you, I’m fine.”

“No way. I thought you were about to pass out when you saw the needle. You screamed louder than Diane.”

Jim looked insulted. “I did not scream. I exhaled loudly.”

Heather laughed. “You made a shrieky noise that could wake the dead. Poor Dr. Miller nearly jumped out of his skin.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he grumbled, but she could see the faint red tingeing his cheeks.

Heather couldn’t resist leaning over and patting his arm. “It’s okay. Your secret is safe with me. I’ll never let on that you can’t handle watching Diane get vaccinated.”

“It wasn’t that,” he said. “It was…” He paused.

“Yes?”

“Something else. I don’t remember.”

“Oh. Of course. Something else made you cry out like a woman.”

Blue eyes turned icy and she half expected to see frost forming in the corners of her living room. “What was that?” he asked.

Heather knew she’d crossed the line. Jim might be a great guy, but he wasn’t above a tickling attack that would leave her gasping and crying uncle. She cleared her throat. “I didn’t say anything. Really.” She batted her eyes for effect.

“I thought so.”

He shifted so that he was facing her. They sat on the sofa in her living room. Dinner was long over and the dishwasher had nearly completed its cycle.

“Thanks for letting me stay,” he said. “I enjoyed watching Diane taste her first solid food.”

Heather thought about the mess and the tiny amount her daughter had actually swallowed. “I don’t think it was a complete failure, but I don’t know that we can call it a roaring success, either. I’ll do what the doctor suggested and try it every couple of days until she gets the idea. I guess I should go look at high chairs this weekend.”