Read Online From Brooding Boss to Adoring Dad by Dianne Drake - Free Book Online Page B

can get to know him in due course?”
    “You sound just like my father,” she said, swatting playfully at his arm. “He’d turn himself into a doting old matchmaker if I ever gave him the least little bit of encouragement.”
    “Because your father is worried he won’t get grandchildren. And I’m worried I won’t get grand-godchildren. We’re turning into old men, child. And old men need children around them to keep them young. You wouldn’t deprive us of that, would you? ”
    “I’ll have plenty of children for you at the hospital. And right now I’m really just interested in getting it going. No entanglements.”
    “Even if they’re handsome?”
    “Especially
if they’re handsome.” As they strolled through the tiny emergency department, Erin was impressed by what she saw. Emergency was full to overflowing, but people were patiently awaiting their turns to be seen. “And I especially don’t want an entanglement if it comes in the form of a.” Pushing through the curtain in cubicle number three, where Serek’s patient waited, Erin stopped dead in her tracks. “In the form of
him!
“
    Adam turned round, didn’t smile at her, but definitely looked surprised to see her. “Are you following me?” he asked.
    Serek looked first at Adam then at Erin as a sly grin spread across his face. “So you two know each other?”
    “It’s his hospital I bought,” she explained.
    “You own a hospital, Adam?” Serek asked. “You never told me that.”
    “Used to own one. Not operational. Sold it to …” He nodded toward Erin.
    “It’s what I bought for the children’s hospital. And he thinks I won’t be able to make it work.”
    “Well, I had no idea that’s where you lived, Adam. But it’s certainly a small world, isn’t it, with you working here and Erin buying your hospital? You two have quite a connection.”
    “Then
you two
know each other?” Adam asked.
    “I’m trying to convince Erin to come and moonlight for me.” Serek grinned. “And since you two seem to be living in the same area, maybe you could ride in together. It’s a long drive, and you can keep each other company. And, Erin, child. Alvinnia’s going to be so excited by all this.”
    “Alvinnia?” Coulson questioned, clearly confused.
    “My wife,” Serek replied.
    “My godmother,” Erin added. “And Serek is my godfather, by the way.” She latched onto the older man’s arm. “He’s also one of the volunteer doctors who’ll be coming to my hospital. Along with Aunt Alvinnia … she’s a surgeon.”
    “Well, I’ll be damned. You’re actually getting a surgeon?” Coulson looked first at Serek then at Erin and it wasn’t her imagination that made her think she heard a loud, discouraging sigh escape his lips. She did, and she saw the look of disappointment on his face. Rather thanthe satisfaction she’d expected to feel, she actually felt sad for him. Another best-laid scheme
gang agley.
He couldn’t even hide the disappointment. Of course he’d thought she would fail and go away. Of course he’d thought he would swoop in then and pick up the pieces and be all the better for her defeat. Yet there wasn’t great triumph in this victory and she did feel bad for him.
    Not bad enough to give up her hospital, though. “Yep, I’m getting a surgeon.” Which meant Erin was one step closer to her dream while Coulson was one step further from his. What concerned her about this situation, however, was that she cared that he was a step further away. She wasn’t sure why she cared, but she did. And it was unsettling.

CHAPTER FOUR
    T HE one thing that was for certain with a good boat—the hull didn’t give way. That’s what his grandfather had said the day he’d decided to sink the boat and let it spend its eternity on the ocean floor, building up a coral reef and habitat for little sea creatures. The
Stella,
as his grandfather had named it, had almost given way with a hole so large in its hull that the expert boat