Read Online The Doctor Claims His Bride by Fiona Lowe - Free Book Online Page A

‘Perhaps they’ve been there before you and have learned the value.’
    Her gaze flicked over him. ‘You’re not going to leave until I tell you, are you?’
    He grinned, trying to take the edge off the tense situation. ‘No.’
    She pushed her chair back, the legs screeching against the lino. ‘What can I say? It’s been a bad twelve months.’
    ‘I’m sorry to hear it. Some years are better than others.’ He knew that only too well.
    ‘Yeah.’ She stood up and took the bowls into the kitchen.
    Every part of him wanted to stand up and follow her but he stayed put. She needed some space. You need the space .
    He also needed to understand. ‘And this bad year makes you believe that life is just directed by fate?’
    She stilled at the sink and then turned slowly, her eyes chillingly empty of emotion. ‘Why not believe that? Who has control over what happens? I sure don’t.’
    The harshness of her words tinged with her pain hit him like a blow to the chest. He spoke quietly, trying to be the voice of reason in an emotional whirlpool. ‘We all have some control. We have choices, we make decisions that—’
    Her strained voice cut across his. ‘My mother and brother died this year. I sure as hell didn’t choose for that to happen.’ She reached for a packet of chocolate biscuits, ripping the package open and slamming it onto the bench. ‘Just like I didn’t choose for my father to drop dead of a heart attack when I was sixteen. If I could control things, then none of that would have happened and I would still have a family.’
    Defiantly, she crossed her arms and tilted her chin. ‘So, yes, sue me for not being scientific like you but I think fate plays a big role in my life.’
    Her words rained down on him like a flood of pain and circled his heart, lapping at his professional distance. He gripped the edge of the table to keep himself seated. To keep him from going to her and hauling her back into his arms, and stroking away her grief.
    To keep himself safe.
    Safe from making the same mistake again with a woman.
    Mia bit her lip and stared at Flynn, her heart thudding hard against her ribs. Would he stop there? Would he accept her explanation and not ask how or why her mother and Michael had died? Accept that grief had made her act so foolishly today? She hardly dared breathe.
    ‘Mia, you’re right, you’ve had a bad year and I’m sorry. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.’ He rose slowlyto his feet, his face full of empathy but tinged with steely determination. ‘But…’
    The tiny word hung in the air, its sound always ominous. She swallowed hard and kept her gaze on him, as if staring him down would stop him asking any more questions.
    He cleared his throat. ‘But as much as you miss them, you have your life to live. They’d want you to grab hold of every day and live it to the full, without taking stupid risks that could end it all too early.’
    It’s going to end up that way no matter what I do . She bit off the words that roared in her head and pushed them down, refusing to think about them. ‘Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind.’
    A muscle twitched in his neck as his forehead creased in a frown. She glimpsed a flash of something in his eyes that said her laid-back doctor wasn’t so at peace with the world as he wanted everyone to believe.
    He opened his mouth to speak but the shrill ring of his phone interrupted.
    She spoke first. ‘That’s Robbo, right?’
    He checked the display and nodded. ‘I have to go.’ His eyes, full of concern, caught hers. ‘Will you be OK?’
    Please, stop being so caring, it’s all too hard to resist . She walked him to the door. ‘I’m fine.’
    He hesitated at the threshold. ‘Mia…’
    She put her hand on his back, her fingers meeting taut muscle and corded tendons. ‘Go.’ She pushed him gently out the door, her fingers wanting desperately to grip his shoulder and haul him back.
    *
    Mia pulled into the clinic car park half an hour later