Instant Dad. Raye Morgan

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СКАЧАТЬ this one a fuzzy soft baby blue. He glanced down. Sure enough, she’d put on baby blue socks to match. Concussion or not, she wasn’t going to get sloppy. Maybe he was getting to know all about her after all.

      “That’s a nasty bump you’ve got,” he told her with a direct look. “It’s a good thing the doctor is on his way.”

      Her eyes widened. She hadn’t wanted that. “What? You called the doctor?”

      “Yes, I did.”

      She stared at him, resentful of his high-handed attitude. This carpenter she’d hired didn’t seem to remember who the boss was. “I told you not to,” she reminded him.

      “Sorry about that.” His dark eyes were coolly unrepentant and he went on, telling her the truth. “I very seldom do what I’m told.”

      She wasn’t sure if she was angry or just amused. “What are you,” she asked him bluntly. “Some sort of control freak?”

      His mouth twisted into something that could almost be called a smile. “I like to call it being forceful and farsighted.”

      She was about to tell him what she called it when the doorbell chimed and she turned instead. “Oh drat, that will be the doctor.”

      “I’ll get it,” he said, starting for the door. “You sit down on the couch.”

      Outrage stiffened her back. It was pretty obvious this man was ready to take over everything if she let him. Cutting him off at the pass with an end run around the counter, she stood in his way, eyes narrowed.

      “Excuse me,” she said icily. “I believe this is my house. I’ll get the door, thank you just the same.”

      He shrugged, unconcerned, looking down at her without rancor. “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked.

      What was he trying to say, that he’d only been looking out for her welfare? She threw him a skeptical look and didn’t bother to answer, striding quickly into the foyer with Drey right behind her.

      She opened the door to find Dr. Bracken looking in anxiously, his huge gray eyes doleful as usual.

      “Sara, my dear,” he said, coming forward and taking her hand. “What happened?”

      She smiled and glanced at Drey. “Nothing much, Matthew. I fell into the pool.”

      His kindly face registered extreme shock and alarm. “Oh, my God.”

      “No, don’t get excited. There was water in it. Very cold water. And I bumped my head, which left a lump but not much else.” She gave Drey a defiant look. “I didn’t want you bothered with this. I’m perfectly fine.”

      “Well, that’s to be determined, isn’t it?” Dr. Bracken bustled in, shaking his head. “Come, my dear, you must sit down,” he urged, leading her to a seat on a damask-covered chair in the parlor. “Let me take a look at you.”

      She did as he told her, displaying her goose egg bump one more time and submitting to the tiny light he shone into her eyes and to a reading of her heart rate. Matthew Bracken had been a friend and golfing partner of her ex-husband’s ever since they’d moved to Denver three years before. Though she’d never taken him up on offers to get closer to his wife, she did like him.

      “Craig still in China?” he asked as he studied her eyes.

      “Yes,” Sara replied.

      “You know, I suddenly realized as I was driving over here that I haven’t seen him for over a year. He and I used to get together for a game of golf about once a month, weather permitting, but it has been since the fall before last that we’ve played, How does the time getaway from you like that?”

      “Isn’t that the truth?” Sara said evasively. “Maybe you can get him to play when he’s here next week. We’re having a lot of old friends from out of town to a baby shower and he promised to help me with it.”

      The doctor drew back and stared at her doubtfully. “So you’re going through with this adoption scheme of yours?”

      “Yes.” She nodded, her eyes shining. “Yes, definitely.”

      He shook his head as though he didn’t approve at all. “I don’t know, Sara. I guess I said my piece when you called me a few months ago and asked my advice. I say there’s no earthly reason you and Craig can’t have a child of your own. You’re both healthy and young enough. I’ve helped other couples, you know. There are ways. You never came in to see about—”

      “Believe me, Matthew, we explored all the possibilities,” she said hastily, glancing at Drey and hoping to stop the flow of the doctor’s chatter. “We both decided. This is the best way. It’s right for us.”

      “Well, that’s neither here nor there,” he muttered to himself as he began to put away his instruments. “You’ll have to do what you think is right. But you’ll need someone to watch you tonight. Better call in one of your friends.”

      Sara looked up at him, startled. “Why?”

      He glanced at Drey. “Because I don’t like the look of that knot on your head, and I’m not too sure about that pulse rate. It’s up. I just want you watched, that’s all. You might have a concussion.” He hesitated. “Is there someone you can call? Someone who would come and stay with you?”

      Sara shook her head slowly. She didn’t even have to think it over. “There’s no one. Matthew, you know I haven’t made many women friends here in Denver. I’ve been too busy setting up the business.”

      “Oh, come now. There must be someone. Women always have friends all over the place.”

      Sara shook her head, dismissing the entire issue. She didn’t want to bother Jenny, who had trouble getting around at this stage in her pregnancy. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”

      The doctor frowned down at her. “But I do worry about you, Sara. Tell you what. I’ll send Peggy, my wife, over. She’d be glad to—”

      “No.” Sara’s voice had a note of final command. Having the sweet but talkative Peggy in her hair would drive her nuts. “I couldn’t do that to your wife. Absolutely not.”

      “Now, Sara. Be reasonable. If not Peggy, there must be someone—”

      “There’s me.”

      They both turned and stared at Drey. Up to now, he’d been quietly standing in the background. The doctor had acknowledged his existence with a slight nod when he’d first come in, but other than that, he might as well have been invisible. And now he was offering to stay.

      Sara was speechless. This was the carpenter who’d come to put up some shelves. It was all very well that he’d pulled her out of a freezing pool, but that was no reason he should move in with her. The man had shown his high-handed attitude a few moments before. He had some nerve. But before she could bring those considerations to light, the doctor spoke.

      “Drey Angeli, isn’t it?” Dr. Bracken said, squinting at him. “You were a friend of my daughter Terry’s, weren’t you?”

      Drey СКАЧАТЬ