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

leaning forward to refill her glass. She waved him away.
    “I should have warned you, I’m a real lightweight when it comes to alcohol. I can only have one glass if I’m going to drive home later.”
    “You could just spend the night here,” Taylor said. “In my room.”
    Melissa’s laughter was too loud, and Darcy felt her face heat. “That would be fun, but I need to get home.”
    The awkward silence stretched only a few moments before Taylor came to their rescue. “Next Saturday my mom is taking me to Disney On Ice.”
    “Is that the one with all the Disney princesses?” Darcy asked. “And the Olympic champions?”
    “Yes. I can’t wait. I always watch all the ice-skating at the Olympics. It’s so beautiful.”
    “I’m able to get tickets through the airline,” Melissa said. “It’s one of the perks of my job.”
    “I wanted to go last year, but Mom wasn’t in town,” Taylor said. “And Dad didn’t want to take me in such a big crowd—that germ thing.” She made a face. “He still doesn’t really want me to go, but now that they’re not married anymore, he can’t tell Mom what to do.”
    “I never told your mother what to do before,” Mike said.
    “Your father is not that dumb,” Melissa said. The words were complimentary, but her tone imbued them with a sting. Darcy cringed.
    “What will you wear to the show?” Darcy quickly asked Taylor.
    The rest of the meal was filled with talk of clothes, from the story of how Mike had come to own a Jonas Brothers–style shirt to Darcy’s various dance costumes.
    By the time Mike announced dessert, Darcy was feeling more relaxed. Melissa wasn’t the type of woman she’d normally have befriended—she was too brittle and self-centered—but she clearly loved her daughter and had the facile charm of someone used to navigating a variety of social situations.
    “What are we having for dessert?” Melissa asked as Mike cleared the table.
    “Strawberry tart.”
    “From Michelson’s? That was always my favorite.”
    “Taylor’s, too,” he said drily. He caught Darcy’s eye and she had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing.
    With dessert, Melissa had more wine—too much wine, Darcy thought. Her teasing tone with Mike took on a harder edge. “He’s a better cook than I was and he certainly makes more money,” she said at one point. “Taylor and I will have to put our heads together and see if we can’t find him some equally studious teacher or librarian, someone who will appreciate his good qualities.”
    “I’m sure plenty of women appreciate Mike,” Darcy murmured.
    “You, for instance?” Melissa laughed before Darcy could answer, as if the idea was ridiculous.
    Across the table, Mike looked ready to spit nails. Darcy rose. “Thank you for the lovely dinner,” she said. “I really should be going now.” She nodded to Melissa. “It was nice to meet you.”
    Mike made no protest. “Thank you for coming,” he said as he walked her to the door.
    “I had a nice time,” she said. “And it was nice to meet Taylor’s mother.”
    “I’ll make sure she takes a cab home,” he said. “She doesn’t always behave like this.”
    “It’s fine. You don’t have to apologize.”
    She hurried to her car, wanting nothing more than to be home in her pajamas, her hand wrapped around a mug of tea. She’d need more than flannel pj’s and tea to soothe her, though. The evening had shaken her—starting with Taylor dragging her into Mike’s bedroom. Yes, it was just a room, but seeing his books on the nightstand, his clothes on the floor and his razor on the edge of the sink had felt so intimate. It made him less intimidating, more accessible.
    When he’d joined them in the bedroom, she’d felt the attraction between them heating up.
    But that picture of Taylor in the hospital had been like a whole refrigerator truck of ice dumped on her. Seeing the child connected to all those machines—the way Riley had looked the