Father By Choice. M.J. Rodgers

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СКАЧАТЬ all you smashing women smashing now?” Ted Mission asked with a grin as he came rustling in the back door, keys and briefcase jangling by his side.

      Dorothy immediately stopped what she was doing and went to greet her husband.

      Ted and Dorothy Mission had been married more than twenty-five years, were past fifty and packed a dozen extra pounds of good living around their middles. But the embrace and kiss they shared were as hot as young lovers’.

      “They’re at it again,” Holly said, shaking her head, but wearing a smile.

      Emily watched her friends as she always did—with undisguised envy. Dorothy and Ted had it all—rewarding careers, a long-term love match and a brainy daughter headed for Harvard in the fall.

      Once Emily had dreamed of having it all. Now she knew that fulfilling work and a precious baby to love would be enough.

      For men might come and go. But a child was forever.

      ATTENDING PHYSICIAN Alec Giroux was going over charts when Brad walked by his office on his way out. He waved Brad over.

      “You certainly had your share of crazies today,” Alec said as he gestured to the stack of charts in front of him. “Nice save on that chest wound.”

      “We were lucky we didn’t lose anyone,” Brad said as he folded his arms and rested his leg against the desk.

      Alec leaned back in his chair, the expression on his face conveying the fact that he knew luck had nothing to do with it. “You’re going to ace those board exams next month.”

      Brad appreciated the vote of confidence. From the moment he’d begun his residency in emergency medicine at Courage Bay Hospital four years before, Alec had been far more friend and supporter than supervisor.

      “You going to take Guy up on his offer of a permanent position here when the exams are over?” Alec asked.

      Brad wanted to. In his first month on the job he’d learned more from Alec and his brother, Guy, their chief of emergency medicine, than he’d learned in all his years at medical school. They were the best.

      But the money at the community hospital was not. He hadn’t paid off all of his eight years of staggering school loans.

      “I’m giving it some thought,” he said, honestly.

      Alec nodded. As a single father, he probably knew how difficult it could be to catch up on bills and make ends meet.

      “I was reviewing Emily Barrett’s chart,” he said. “Surprised to see it among the bunch of wackos we had walking the halls today.”

      Even hearing her name was enough to get Brad to un-cross his arms and plant both feet firmly beneath him. “You know Emily Barrett?”

      “My sister, Natalie, says she’s a regular in the pediatric and geriatric wards upstairs.”

      Yeah, Brad figured knowing someone at this hospital was how Emily had really learned that personal stuff about him.

      “Emily brings flowers and potted plants to the patients who don’t get visitors,” Alec continued. “Nice lady.”

      “Certifiable kook,” Brad said beneath his breath.

      “I pulled her hospital records,” Alec went on, not having heard the comment. “I was hoping they might shed some light on her prolonged unconsciousness today, but no clues there. You were right to suggest more tests. Shame she refused them. All we can do is trust that she’ll follow up with her obstetrician.”

      Brad took a step forward. “She didn’t tell me she’d been admitted to this hospital.”

      “Outpatient in the OB-GYN clinic for her artificial insemination eight weeks ago,” Alec explained as he handed over the record. “Dr. Jill Crispin does all of her inseminations and deliveries here.”

      Brad started, not sure he’d heard right. “Are you telling me Jill Crispin from the Crispin Fertility Clinic is Emily Barrett’s doctor?”

      “You know Dr. Crispin?”

      “I’ve heard of her,” Brad said as he quickly read through the hospital record of Emily Barrett that he held in his hands. This had to be a coincidence. The transactions were absolutely confidential. No way either party could learn about the other.

      Except as his eyes fixed on Emily Barrett’s maiden name, he suddenly saw that there was one way.

      “Brad, is there something wrong? Brad?”

      CHAPTER TWO

      “WHY DID YOU DO IT?” Brad demanded, working hard to control the anger that seethed beneath his surface calm.

      Ed Corbin looked his friend squarely in the eye, took a sip of his beer and swallowed hard. “I didn’t have a choice.”

      “You damn well did have a choice.”

      Brad’s raised voice turned a lot of curious heads in his direction. Ed pulled some bills out of his pocket and slapped them on the bar. “You’re pissed. I don’t blame you. Give me a chance to explain outside, where we don’t have an audience.”

      Brad didn’t argue with the need for discretion. The Courage Bay Bar and Grill was the off-duty hangout for the community’s police, fire and medical personnel. Anything overheard here would be on the gossip hotline of every emergency team by morning.

      He quietly followed his friend out. A cool night breeze was coming off the ocean, the air filled with one of his favorite scents—the sea. But Brad wasn’t in an appreciative mood.

      “Is this why you suddenly came up with the suggestion that I donate sperm last year? So she could get it?”

      “No,” Ed said. “When I told you the Crispin Fertility Clinic was willing to pay top dollar for sperm from doctors, I did it because the director asked me to pass the word, and I knew you could use the money. Those were the only reasons. I swear.”

      Brad had met Detective Ed Corbin during his first year at Courage Bay Hospital. A burglar cut himself when he’d tried to escape capture by jumping through a plate-glass window. Ed brought him into the E.R. for treatment.

      While a nurse was seeing to his wounds, the guy grabbed a knife and took her hostage. Brad had kept the thief’s attention by enticing him with offers of drugs he could sell on the street in exchange for letting the nurse go—giving Ed time to circle behind the man and subdue him.

      They’d made a good team that day, and good friends ever since. Brad had never known Ed to lie. He didn’t believe he was doing so now.

      “What happened?” Brad asked.

      “I stopped by Emily’s place about three months ago and saw all these sperm-bank questionnaires spread out on her table. When I asked her what was going on, she told me she’d decided to have a kid by artificial insemination.”

      “You didn’t know before that?”

      Ed shook his head. “Nearly blew me СКАЧАТЬ