Read Online Dr. Daddy by Elizabeth Bevarly - Free Book Online Page B

me,” she said. “All you did was clean up the dirty dishes—which, incidentally, were your own, anyway.”
    Zoey told herself that the only reason she didn’t bolt through the front door after that was because Jonas was standing between her and it. But really, she knew she was waiting for him to deny what she had said about all men being alike. She wanted him to assure her he was not like other men, wanted him to say something, anything, that would change her mind about the entire male half of the population. Worse than that, she realized suddenly, she wanted him to reach out to her. Wanted to feel him touch her again. And if that realization didn’t make her go racing in fear out of his house, she didn’t know what else would.
    Until Jonas reached over and opened the front door for her. The cold March wind whipped around them, but it was nothing compared to the chill in his eyes. “If that’s the way you feel,” he said quietly, “then you’re right. It would be better if you went home.”
    Zoey opened her mouth to object, started to voice her concern about how Juliana would fare without her. Then she reminded herself that Jonas and Juliana had been managing, however questionably, without her for two months now. Neither of them was her responsibility. If he wanted her to leave, then there was absolutely no reason for her to stay.
    Except for the fact that it didn’t feel right to leave the two of them alone. Something inside her balked at the thought of Jonas and Juliana not needing her. In spite of her assurances to the contrary only moments ago, Zoey wanted very badly to remain there with them. And it wasn’t, she realized much to her dismay, just the baby who roused such a desire in her.
    But Jonas still stood across from her with the door wide open, a clear indication that he didn’t share her feelings. So instead of saying all the things she wanted to say, instead of telling him that she hadn’t meant it when she’d lumped him into the same category as that creep, Jeff Pearson, instead of insisting that she wanted to help with Juliana, Zoey turned silently and crossed over the threshold of Jonas Tate’s front door.
    She listened helplessly as it immediately clicked shut behind her. And for some reason, as she stood there shivering in the icy cold wind, it occurred to Zoey that she’d never heard a more distressing sound.
    * * *
    “Hey, Red, why so glum?”
    Zoey looked up from a patient chart she had been studying for five minutes, still unable to recall why she had picked it up in the first place. The melancholy mood that had been dogging her for days, two to be exact—ever since she’d left Jonas’s house the Friday night before—lifted somewhat when she saw Cooper Dugan, one of the paramedics who made frequent deliveries to the hospital, leaning over the nurses’ station counter.
    “Hi, Coop,” she greeted him as she laid the chart aside. “I’m not glum, just a little distracted is all. Early Monday morning blahs, I guess. What are you doing here so late? Did you get stuck with third shift, too?”
    He nodded, his carelessly long, pale blond hair falling forward over clear green eyes. “Yeah, every now and then I get tagged with the graveyard shift. Just brought in a major coronary arrest. I’ve got twenty bucks that say the guy’s not going to make it till morning, so I thought I’d hang around for a while and see if I invested my money wisely.”
    “Cooper!” Zoey exclaimed. “Shame on you.”
    He shrugged off her chiding. “Hey, he looked like a wide-mouthed bass by the time we got there. ‘Course, I could be wrong,” he added with a negligent swipe of his hand over his cheek. “Wouldn’t be the first time. Anyway, I heard you were pulling night duty, too, and I thought maybe we could catch a bite to eat together. What do you say? You coming up for a break anytime soon?”
    She sighed and looked at her watch. “Not for another hour or so. Sorry.”
    Zoey and Cooper had