The Doctor's Baby. Cindy Kirk

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СКАЧАТЬ her name on the medical record and had seen her swollen belly. If she was due the middle of April she’d had to have gotten pregnant around the time they’d been together in Chicago. Though he thought he was doing a good job at keeping his emotions from his face, he knew he’d failed when her gaze narrowed.

      “Don’t worry.” She waved a hand. “He’s not your baby.”

      “How can you be sure he’s not mine?” The second the question shot from his lips David wondered if he’d lost his mind. She’d just handed him a free pass and he was arguing? But a man didn’t walk away from his responsibilities. “The dates match.”

      “We used a condom,” she reminded him. “Every time.”

      “Are you telling me you had unprotected sex with someone else around that time?”

      “Look.” She shoved the tray table out of the way and leaned forward. “The Sir Galahad act is unnecessary. Adam is not your son.”

      She sounded sincere. What she said made sense. But he remembered that night as if it were yesterday. There had been nothing practiced in her responses, which told him she hadn’t been with a man in a while. Yet now she expected him to believe she’d spent the night with him then promptly went out and had sex with another guy? It was possible, but something in his gut told him she was lying.

      He didn’t like doubting her. She’d impressed him from the onset as being one of those people who told it as she saw it. He’d liked that about her.

      David opened his mouth to ask one of half a dozen questions poised on the tip of his tongue, but shut it without speaking. The set of her jaw told him he wasn’t going to get anything more from her. At least not by going the direct route.

      He rocked back on his heels. “Are you really going to call him Adam?”

      “What’s wrong with it?”

      David hid a smile at the challenge in her tone. Feisty. That was another of the qualities that had drawn him to her in that hotel bar. “When I was a boy our next door neighbors had two bulldogs. One named Adam. The other, Eve.”

      “Well, I have a good friend named Adam and he’s definitely not a dog.”

      A good friend? By the caring in her tone … definitely. But more? David fought an unexpected surge of jealousy, before remembering she hadn’t even given this guy’s name as an emergency contact. “How’d you meet? Neighbors?”

      July lifted a shoulder in an unconcerned shrug. “Foster care.”

      Just when he thought he was beginning to get a handle on her, she’d surprised him again. Without waiting for an invitation, David dropped to sit on the edge of her bed. “You never told me you grew up in foster care.”

      “If you remember, once we got to your room we didn’t do much talking.”

      David thought back. She was right. Once that hotel door had clicked shut and they’d hit the bed there hadn’t been much conversation. Lots of moaning but not much intelligible communication. But had she forgotten how they’d sat in the hotel bar for hours doing nothing but talking?

      “We discussed all sorts of things before that,” David insisted. “Triathlon training. Best Indie Horror movies. Food favorites.”

      “We talked about our likes and dislikes,” July reminded him. “But we shared very little about our personal lives.”

      He paused for a moment and realized she was right. She hadn’t mentioned anything about her childhood. And he hadn’t mentioned he’d had a wife who’d died. “Foster care couldn’t have been easy.”

      An unreadable look filled her eyes. “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.”

      Those horrible days after the car accident flashed before him. Though David didn’t feel stronger, at least he no longer dwelled on something that couldn’t be changed. “I’m surprised you weren’t adopted.”

      Instead of a quick comeback, she paused, her green eyes dark. “It was … complicated.”

      “Tell me,” he urged when she didn’t continue.

      She shook her head. When the bulldog set to her jaw returned he knew she’d shared all she was going to on the matter.

      “How did you end up here anyway?” Her gaze narrowed. “When we met, you were supposedly living in Minneapolis and planning to move to Chicago.”

      “No supposedly about it. I was working at Hennepin but had accepted the position at Rush when you and I talked.” David shifted his gaze out the window and let it linger on the snowy mountain peaks in the distance.

      He’d felt so lost after Celeste’s death. So alone. Unable to shake the sadness, he’d moved to the Twin Cities, hoping a change of scene would help. It hadn’t. He’d been planning another move, this time to Chicago, the night he’d met July.

      “What happened?” she asked.

      “I had lunch with an old friend the day after we … were together. We’d known each other a long time. He knew my—” David paused “—situation. After talking to him I realized that being in Jackson—with my family—was where I belonged.”

      “Please, don’t let me keep you from your family,” she said, her green eyes as cool as her tone.

      “I still have a few minutes.” David needed to get to his nephew’s party but just like the last time they were together, he found himself reluctant to leave her. “How did your friend Adam respond when you called and gave him the good news?”

      “I haven’t been able to reach him,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

      The announcement over the PA system advised visitors it was time to leave. David glanced at the clock on the wall. Ten minutes to get to his sister’s house. Ten minutes or he was in the doghouse for life. He rose to his feet. “I’d better go.”

      She didn’t say another word, merely gave him a polite smile, the kind you’d give a casual acquaintance you didn’t plan to see again.

      “I’ll check on you tomorrow,” he promised even as he edged closer to the door, still reluctant to leave. “See how you’re feeling, make sure you’re up to going home.”

      “There’s no need—”

      The door swung open and an older staff nurse, who’d worked for the hospital since David had been a baby, stepped into the room, a blue-wrapped bundle in her arms. “Mrs. Greer, you have a visitor.”

      David saw July flinch at the “Mrs.” but she didn’t correct the woman. Instead her green eyes widened and her gaze remained riveted on the baby.

      The gray-haired nurse stopped when she saw David. “Dr. Wahl. I didn’t mean to interrupt. I didn’t realize you were still here.”

      “It’s fine. I was on my way out.” David knew his sister and family were waiting. Knew his nephews would refuse to start the party until he got there. Even so, he took an extra second to linger and admire the baby that very easily could be his.

      “Thanks СКАЧАТЬ