Read Online The Doctors' Baby by Marion Lennox - Free Book Online Page A

here.’
    â€˜You’d do this for anybody?’
    She stiffened. ‘You mean, I’d do it not just for your sister?’
    He gave a weary smile at that, and an apologetic shrug. ‘I guess you must. Anna is special to me, but to you she’s just a patient.’
    â€˜No one’s just a patient,’ Em said roundly. ‘And if I ever feel like that, I’ll walk away from medicine and never come back.’
    There was a sudden silence. A nurse walked by, carrying a tray of pathology specimens, but she was ignored. Jonas was watching Em, and he had eyes for nobody else.
    â€˜City GPs don’t do this for their patients,’ Jonas said slowly, and Em shook her head.
    â€˜That’s unfair. How many family doctors do you know?’
    â€˜It’s not unfair. It’s true.’
    â€˜Then your knowledge of family medicine is biased,’ she told him. She smiled then, determined to keep things light. ‘What a good thing you’re going to be one for a couple of months.’
    â€˜A couple of months…’
    â€˜Three,’ she said promptly. ‘That’s how long at least Anna will need you.’
    â€˜If she lets me.’
    â€˜She’ll let you. So you’re facing three months of trying to be a good brother and a good family doctor. It’s going to be quite a learning experience.’ She shook her head and glanced at her watch. ‘Jonas, I really need to go.’
    â€˜I know.’
    But she didn’t want to leave.
    And Jonas himself didn’t want her to go. She could feel it. There was a moment’s silence while Em looked at the floor and Jonas looked at Em. Wondering.
    And then, before she could stop him, he reached out and took her hands in his. Both her hands. He held them tightly, looking down at them with a twisted, self-mocking smile.
    They were good hands, he could see. Em’s hands bore the scars of too much use—of being washed a hundred times a day, every day of the week, for years and for years as she moved from patient to patient. These weren’t the hands of the women he normally mixed with, he thought, but they looked wonderful hands to him.
    â€˜Thank you, Emily,’ he said simply, and then he did the only thing he could think of to do—and he did it because he couldn’t bear not to.
    Right there and then, in the busy hospital corridor, with people striding by every few seconds, he pulled her into his arms and he kissed her.
    And by the time he’d let her go, Em’s life had changed for ever.
    Â 
    â€˜I do not care for Jonas Lunn!’
    Em said it to herself over and over, like a mantra, as she drove back to Bay Beach, and all afternoon and evening she worked with the same mantra ringing in her head. He’s a charismatic bachelor who’s drop-dead gorgeous. He kissed you out of gratitude, and it means absolutely nothing at all. And even if it did mean anything…even if he’s attracted to you like you are to him…he’s here for a short time while his sister is treated and then he’s off. He’s out of here, and you have to carry on with your life!
    But it wasn’t quite as simple as that. The mantra had flaws. Because…
    Because—‘He’s gorgeous!’ Lori said, as Em dropped by to treat her little burns patient that night. She was watching as Em changed dressings and made Robby’s small limbs do their exercises, but Lori’s mind wasn’t on Robby. It was definitely on Jonas. ‘He’s one of the best-looking men I’ve seen.’
    And then she watched with interest as her friend’s colour turned to a slow-burn crimson. Her eyebrows rose. ‘Hey, and you think so, too.’
    â€˜But, then, I’m sex-starved,’ Em retorted, and she managed a grin. She was trying desperately to keep it light. ‘Me and my old Bernard have a thing going, but I’ll admitthe relationship’s been rocky lately.