The Daddy Secret by Judy Duarte

Author:Judy Duarte
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-09-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

As Rick watched Mallory leave the clinic, he wondered if he should have refused to give her the extra time to tell Lucas—not that he’d actually come out and agreed. But once the secret was out, the two of them would be facing each other on a regular basis, and then where would that leave him?

Just look where his dinner suggestion had gotten him.

What in the hell had he been thinking? Of course she wouldn’t want to celebrate with him. Yet for some dumb reason, he’d asked her, anyway, and the question had just popped out the way his invitation to the Lazaros’ house had done last week.

Sure, he still felt a powerful attraction to her. And he knew she felt it, too. But she’d torn the heart out of him once upon a time, and he wasn’t about to let her do it again.

She’d passed on his dinner suggestion, which was just as well. Rick had things to do, too. He’d been planning to open up his practice to both large and small animals, which meant he would have to find another vet to work with him. The time hadn’t been right when he’d first taken over for Doc Grimes, but things had really picked up lately.

So he’d would stick to his original plan to avoid Mallory for a while, which ought to be easy. With Lucas in school now, he wouldn’t be springing any surprise visits at the clinic. And Mallory would be tied up with her new job and her obligations to her grandfather.

All Rick had to do was mind his own business, and the distance he wanted to create wouldn’t take any effort on his part. In fact, it would happen as naturally as a rooster’s crow at sunrise.

But on Wednesday afternoon, at a quarter to four, Rick learned that when kids were involved, nature didn’t always run a predictable course.

He’d just left the rescue yard, where he’d taken a lab-mix named Roscoe to the dog run next to Buddy’s, when Kara met him at the back door of the clinic.

“Dr. Martinez? Mallory Dickinson is on the phone. She’d like to speak to you.”

He couldn’t imagine why. “Thanks, Kara. I’ll take the call in my office.”

Rick stopped by the sink and washed his hands, then he proceeded to the telephone on his desk. Once he settled into his seat, he pushed the lighted button indicating which line was on hold.

“Hey, Mallory. What’s up?”

“I’m sorry to bother you, but there’s a problem with Lucas, and I thought... Well...”

Rick sat up straight. “What’s wrong? Is he okay?”

“Oh, he’s not hurt or sick. But I just got back from meeting with the principal and with Mrs. Privett, his teacher. Apparently he was involved in a fight.”

“Already? He’s only been in school three days. What happened?”

“I wish I knew, but he refuses to give us any details. He has a split lip and a puffy eye—not exactly a shiner, but someone definitely hit him.”

“And it happened at

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.