Read Online Dance with the Doctor by Cindi Myers - Free Book Online

guess it’s not like you haven’t seen a man’s bedroom before.” He wanted to take the words back as soon as he’d said them. Did she think he was implying something risqué—that she’d seen a lot of men’s bedrooms?
    Had she?
    “Hmm.” She looked around the room, at the cherry bed and dresser Melissa had picked out, and the book case full of paperback thrillers and suspense novels that served as a nightstand. “It’s been a while.”
    It had been a while since a woman who wasn’t his housekeeper had been in this room, too. He felt the same way he had when he’d watched Darcy dance, that awareness of himself as a man without a woman in his life, and of her as a desirable, sexy woman. “Come on, Taylor, let’s go back into the living room,” he said. “Supper’s almost ready.”
    “I have one more thing to show Darcy,” Taylor said. “I almost forgot.” She ran to the dresser and picked up a framed photograph. “This is me, right after I got my new heart.”
    The picture had been taken only a few hours post-transplant. The girl in the hospital bed was dwarfed by the machines around her, tubes and wires trailing out of her. Despite all this, the image was precious to Mike because Taylor was pink cheeked and smiling, a marked contrast to the sad, blue-tinged girl she’d been only hours before.
    Darcy stared at the picture and all color left her face. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but no words came out. Alarmed, Mike took the picture from her. She swayed, and he put his arm around her to steady her. “Are you okay?” he asked.
    “Yes, I…” She tried to smile, but the expression was more of a grimace. “I didn’t recognize you, Taylor,” she said. “You look so…so healthy now.”
    “Taylor, put the picture back on the dresser.” Mike handed it to his daughter and steered Darcy toward the door, still supporting her with his arm. “Let’s go into the living room and sit down. There are a couple of glasses of wine on the counter in the kitchen. Taylor, why don’t you get those for us.”
    Taylor raced ahead while her father and Darcy made their way slowly down the hall. “I’m sorry,” Mike said. “I didn’t think about how much of a shock that picture can be. As a doctor I forget.”
    “No, it’s okay.” She was still very pale, but her voice was stronger. “I just…” She shook her head.
    They sat and Taylor brought the wine. After a few sips, Darcy’s color returned. “Thanks,” she said.
    “Are you okay?” Taylor asked, eyes wide, lower lip trembling.
    Darcy squeezed her hand. “Come sit here with me and tell me what you did today.”
    While the two talked, Mike returned to the kitchen to finish preparing dinner. It didn’t take much imagination to realize the kinds of memories that picture must have conjured—memories of her son in a similar hospital bed, hooked to similar machinery, before he died.
    It was also easy for him to imagine how the revelation of Taylor’s identity as the donation recipient had hurt her, as she’d been forced to relive the circumstances that had led to the donation.
    “Is everything okay?” he called. Maybe he should go back into the living room….
    “I’m fine,” Darcy answered. She sounded stronger. “What are you making?”
    “Steaks. How do you like yours cooked?”
    “Well-done.”
    “That’s the only way Daddy will let me eat mine,” Taylor said. “He says there could be germs or some thing in undercooked meat, but then he eats his steak all pink in the middle. Yuck.”
    Mike shook his head. He and Taylor were going to have to have a talk about boundaries and what constituted proper conversation with strangers.
    The doorbell rang again. Mike let Taylor answer it, and heard Melissa greeting her daughter. He wiped his hands on a napkin and went to begin what he hoped wouldn’t be another awkward evening balanced between the adoration of his daughter and the judgment of his ex-wife.

    T HE FORMER M RS . M IKE C