A Home for the M.D.. GINA WILKINS

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СКАЧАТЬ rental places, no,” she agreed, thinking of the one-year lease she’d recently renewed on her no-frills apartment. It was the first time ever that she’d stayed in one place long enough to actually renew a lease.

      Recalling that Mitch had recently completed his surgical residency, she asked, “Will you buy a house now?”

      He shrugged. “Haven’t had time to think about it. I’m not sure I want to commit to buying right now. I’ve considered working another year or so here in Little Rock and then maybe going somewhere else for a while.”

      “Really?” She recognized the restless look in his eyes all too well, having seen that same wanderlust in her father throughout her first seventeen years. Still, she was a little startled that one of the seemingly tightly knit Baker clan was considering a move away.

      “Because of school and family obligations, I’ve never lived anywhere else,” he admitted, scooping the last of his eggs onto his fork. “I’m not saying I will move, but it’s nice to have options.”

      He’d leave. In her experience, once a man got an itch to roam, there wasn’t much that would hold him in one place. As for herself, if she made the kind of money surgeons and lawyers made, she would buy a nice house with a tidy yard and settle down contentedly for the rest of her life. She’d had more than enough of drifting from place to place.

      “Can I get you anything else?” she asked, nodding toward his nearly empty plate. “Another muffin? More coffee?”

      He grinned, and she almost blinked in response to the brightness of that smile. Here was a man who never lacked for female companionship, she’d bet. He wasn’t handsome, exactly, but definitely appealing. A single doctor with a killer smile—women probably lined up in hopes of catching his attention. She was surprised he was still single, but maybe he liked keeping his options open in that respect. Not that it was any of her business, of course.

      “Didn’t I just tell you I don’t expect you to wait on me?” he asked teasingly.

      She spread her hands and said matter-of-factly, “It’s my job.”

      He studied her face a bit curiously but said merely, “Thanks, but I don’t need anything else. I have some things to do at my office this morning. But breakfast was very good, thank you.”

      “I’ll be doing some shopping later today. If you’ll make a list before you leave, I can pick up any particular foods you like and whatever else you lack in the way of personal-care items. If you need anything—clothes, toiletries, whatever—I’ve picked up things like that for Seth when he was too busy to shop for himself.”

      His brow rose a little higher. “You really do make yourself useful, don’t you? No wonder the family seems to think the house would collapse without you running it.”

      “I take pride in my work,” she said a little stiffly, not entirely sure whether he was teasing or mocking her.

      “That’s the way I was raised, too. If you’re going to do something, do it well.”

      It wasn’t exactly the way she’d been raised—more a philosophy she’d adopted for herself—but there was no need to go into that. “There’s a magnetic board on the side of the fridge. The Llewellyns usually leave a note there if they’ll be home for dinner so I’ll know to have something ready for them before I leave each evening. Sometimes they prefer to do their own cooking, but I usually cook two or three nights a week. You can write anything you need there and I’ll take care of it.”

      Was she babbling? She did that sometimes when she felt uncomfortable.

      Standing, Mitch carried his dishes to the sink, rinsed them and set them in the dishwasher without waiting for her to clear away after him. She could see this man was accustomed to taking care of himself.

      “I’m not a picky eater, but I like to have fresh fruit on hand—any fruit, I like them all. I’ll leave some cash for you to add to the tab. Neither you nor Meagan should have to pay for my food while I’m here. As for anything else, I’ll have to make a mall run eventually and pick up some things—like shoes,” he added with a wry glance at his sneakers. “I don’t even know what else I need yet.”

      Despite her tendency to accumulate relatively few personal belongings, the thought of losing everything she owned was daunting. She was sure Mitch had lost things that were important to him in the fire. Sympathy made her speak a bit more warmly. “All right. But if you think of anything, just jot it on the list. Really, it’s no trouble at all.”

      He gave her another one of those smiles that made her pulse trip a little. “That’s very kind of you, Jacqui. Thanks.”

      Hiding her reaction to him behind a rather brusque tone, she turned away to rinse her own breakfast dishes. “You’re welcome.”

      “I think we’ll work out just fine as housemates,” he said as he moved toward the doorway toward the stairs. “No reason at all to be concerned.”

      Housemates. Just the word made her mouth go dry. Which certainly seemed to her like a reason for concern.

      Chapter Two

      Later that morning, Jacqui finished making her grocery list. She had a generous household account to cover anything they needed, but Mitch had insisted on chipping in toward his food. She had intended to leave for the store more than an hour ago, but she kept getting delayed by things around the house that needed her attention—houseplants to water, furniture to dust, floors to vacuum, beds to change, laundry to do.

      She knew every inch of this house like the back of her hand. It might belong to Seth and Meagan and young Alice, but she was the one who kept it running like a well-oiled machine, just as she had the house Seth and Alice had lived in previously. She was the one who’d done most of the packing, unpacking and arranging when the busy family had combined their households. They had decided which furnishings to keep and which to store, sell or give away, but Jacqui had supervised that process while the Llewellyns were tied up with their demanding schedules.

      She had been greatly relieved that there’d never been any question of whether she would continue working for them after the wedding. With Meagan’s hectic schedule as a general surgeon and attending physician in the teaching hospital, Jacqui’s help was needed with the housework and with Alice.

      They had established a routine that worked well for all of them. When the family was in town, Jacqui reported to work at around 9:00 a.m., after the senior Llewellyns had left for their jobs. During the school year, Alice had already been dropped off at school by that time; Jacqui picked her up every afternoon. Now that Alice was on summer break, the teen spent the days here at home or being chauffeured by Jacqui to various activities. Every day, Jacqui did the daily cleaning and laundry, ran family errands such as shopping and dry cleaning, then cooked dinner before leaving unless they’d notified her they had other plans for dinner.

      Some people might have found her daily schedule boring, but she enjoyed it. She liked the family very much, and they paid her well for her services. Most of her weekends were free and she had time during her workdays to read and knit while doing laundry or waiting for the oven timer to buzz.

      She was lucky to have found this family when she’d been looking for a full-time housekeeping job just more than a year ago. Her last employer had moved into a nursing facility and she’d needed a new position quickly. Only twenty-eight years old then, she hadn’t been the typical housekeeper applicant. СКАЧАТЬ