The Baby Who Stole the Doctor's Heart

Author:Dianne Drake
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-03-25T16:00:00+00:00

It was hard to believe that it had been a week since that night in the closet, but it had been a week, to the day, and neither of them had mentioned it. If he’d been a betting man, he’d have bet that the definite lack of Angela these past seven days had been by design. Her design. They’d passed in the hall, greeted each other cordially, spoken only when necessary, and usually when in a crowd.

It was for the best, he decided. Because he’d enjoyed the way she felt, sleeping in his arms. He’d listened to her breathe for quite a while, not sure if she’d been sleeping or awake, quite enjoying the feel of her, the scent of her. Subtle, earthy. He’d tried to identify the faint whiff of fragrance, and decided to call it Angela, because that was the lingering scent of her, and he’d noticed it before. Liked it. Found it oddly…arousing.

“I’ve got emergency duty in the hospital,” he said, as she whooshed by him in the corridor. “I’ll be back by early evening.”

She stopped abruptly. Paused a moment. Spun round. “But the children start arriving this afternoon.”

“Walt’s here, if you need him.”

Angela huffed out an impatient sigh. “You know how important this first day is, Mark. I’d hoped… No, never mind. If they need you in the emergency room, that’s where you’ve got to be. So, go!” She spun back round, started to sprint away. But Mark caught up to her, grabbed her by the arm, held onto her.

“What’s going on here, Angela? I thought we were doing better together. But we’re back to this…this separation. Only there’s no bickering. And if we’re not bickering, that means we’re having problems. Only thing is, I don’t know what those problems are. Don’t have a clue. Haven’t been able to ask because you’ve been avoiding me. Or approaching me only when you’re in a group. So, tell me. Did I mutter something indecent in my sleep? Or grope you without knowing it? Because you’ve been acting like I have.”

“Not here,” she muttered, looking up and down the hall at all the people who were stopping by to help with opening day. “Not now!”

“Then tell me when, because I want to get this settled between us. We’re going to be spending the next week living at pretty close quarters, and the prospect of spending that with an iceberg isn’t very appealing.” He wasn’t angry. Just perplexed. Especially as they hadn’t stepped over the line—a line that had stretched thinner by the minute that night in the pantry. A line that had almost snapped after she’d snuggled into him and had felt so good there he’d fought off sleep just so he could lie in the dark and enjoy the sensation.

“Look, Mark. It’s not you. It’s me. I’m just not…comfortable in an up-close and personal situation. Not anymore. I proved myself once. Proved just how bad I am at those kinds of decisions, and wasted a lot of years not learning my lessons, even though I was being slapped by them every time I turned round.

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