Read Online The Very Thought of You by Angela Weaver - Free Book Online

said that he didn’t know how Caleb could function as a doctor, knowing that he held someone’s life in his hands. Well he could say the same thing back to his older brother. Hundreds of people depended upon his brother’s ability to manage their corporation. Not to mention that Blackfox Industries was also a privately held company that still continued to run as if it were a family-owned business. For Marius, work equated with family, and no matter the personal sacrifice he would place it first.
    Marius’s normally deep voice came through the airwaves raspy. “I’m not feeling so hot. I almost passed out before getting on the plane and threw up in the bed.”
    Caleb sat forward. “Did you call a doctor?”
    â€œDid I call a doctor?” Marius repeated. “Yeah, I’m on the phone with the wiseass right now.”
    â€œHey, hey.” Caleb laughed. “I’m your brother first and doctor second. What are your symptoms?”
    â€œChills, sore throat, headache, chest aches, sore muscles, stuffy nose and I have cayenne peppers for eyeballs.”
    Caleb frowned as his mind ran through the list of his symptoms in an attempt to narrow down the possible diagnosis.
    â€œAre you running a fever?”
    â€œHow the hell should I know?”
    â€œPull out a thermometer.”
    â€œWhy don’t you pick one up at the hospital?”
    â€œI’d be more than happy to grab you a couple of extra. I can get a three-for-one on the rectal kind.”
    â€œBro, did a patient throw up on you or something?”
    â€œIt’s not work.”
    â€œIf it’s not work, then what is it? Because I know it can’t be a woman.”
    For a moment Caleb remained silent. Marius was right. He was in a rotten mood because of a female. No, two females. Within the next twenty-four hours, he would find out whether or not he was a father and if the woman that he loved was lying to him.
    â€œI’ve just got some things on my mind.”
    â€œIt is a woman.” Marius’s announcement ended with a spurt of coughing. “What’s her name?”
    Caleb’s stomach growled, reminding him that he was coasting on the fumes of a sausage, biscuit and coffee breakfast. “I’ll be over in a half hour. Got food at your place? And I’m not talking about beer, milk and cereal.”
    â€œYeah, Marie dropped off some meals yesterday.”
    This time his stomach let out a howl that would have put any one of his littler brother’s canine patients to shame. Marie was their parents’ live-in cook and housekeeper. Caleb had tried every trick in the book, and then some that he’d made up, to get her to cook for him. Just the thought of her pot roast made him weak in the knees. It was a longstanding family mystery as to how Marius had convinced her to cook extra portions and deliver them to his older brother’s freezer.
    Cradling the phone between his ear and his shoulder, Caleb stood up and began to unbutton his white doctor’s coat. “Throw a couple of them in the oven. I’ll be over in fifteen minutes.”
    It took Caleb longer to make his way through the hospital and out the front doors than it took for him to drive to Marius’s place. As he confidently maneuvered the Lexus around the tight curves of the country roads, he eased back into the leather seat and smiled. The purr of the car’s engine and quick responsiveness justified all the grief his Ford-car-dealership uncle gave him at the family gatherings. If he’d wanted a truck, he would have gone to his uncle. But he’d needed a luxury car that was dependable as well as precise.
    He turned the last corner and passed through the ornate stone entranceway into the executive neighborhood. Like clockwork, he couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Caleb and Marius had overseen the construction of the mansion, and he could still remember the reactions of the neighborhood: