Instant Dad

“Sara, my dear,” he said, coming forward and taking her hand. “What happened?”

She smiled and glanced at Drey. “Nothing much, Matthew. I fell into the pool.”

His kindly face registered extreme shock and alarm. “Oh, my God.”

“No, don’t get excited. There was water in it. Very cold water. And I bumped my head, which left a lump but not much else.” She gave Drey a defiant look. “I didn’t want you bothered with this. I’m perfectly fine.”

“Well, that’s to be determined, isn’t it?” Dr. Bracken bustled in, shaking his head. “Come, my dear, you must sit down,” he urged, leading her to a seat on a damask-covered chair in the parlor. “Let me take a look at you.”

She did as he told her, displaying her goose egg bump one more time and submitting to the tiny light he shone into her eyes and to a reading of her heart rate. Matthew Bracken had been a friend and golfing partner of her ex-husband’s ever since they’d moved to Denver three years before. Though she’d never taken him up on offers to get closer to his wife, she did like him.

“Craig still in China?” he asked as he studied her eyes.

“Yes,” Sara replied.

“You know, I suddenly realized as I was driving over here that I haven’t seen him for over a year. He and I used to get together for a game of golf about once a month, weather permitting, but it has been since the fall before last that we’ve played, How does the time getaway from you like that?”

“Isn’t that the truth?” Sara said evasively. “Maybe you can get him to play when he’s here next week. We’re having a lot of old friends from out of town to a baby shower and he promised to help me with it.”

The doctor drew back and stared at her doubtfully. “So you’re going through with this adoption scheme of yours?”

“Yes.” She nodded, her eyes shining. “Yes, definitely.”

He shook his head as though he didn’t approve at all. “I don’t know, Sara. I guess I said my piece when you called me a few months ago and asked my advice. I say there’s no earthly reason you and Craig can’t have a child of your own. You’re both healthy and young enough. I’ve helped other couples, you know. There are ways. You never came in to see about—”

“Believe me, Matthew, we explored all the possibilities,” she said hastily, glancing at Drey and hoping to stop the flow of the doctor’s chatter. “We both decided. This is the best way. It’s right for us.”

“Well, that’s neither here nor there,” he muttered to himself as he began to put away his instruments. “You’ll have to do what you think is right. But you’ll need someone to watch you tonight. Better call in one of your friends.”

Sara looked up at him, startled. “Why?”

He glanced at Drey. “Because I don’t like the look of that knot on your head, and I’m not too sure about that pulse rate. It’s up. I just want you watched, that’s all. You might have a concussion.” He hesitated. “Is there someone you can call? Someone who would come and stay with you?”

Sara shook her head slowly. She didn’t even have to think it over. “There’s no one. Matthew, you know I haven’t made many women friends here in Denver. I’ve been too busy setting up the business.”

“Oh, come now. There must be someone. Women always have friends all over the place.”

Sara shook her head, dismissing the entire issue. She didn’t want to bother Jenny, who had trouble getting around at this stage in her pregnancy. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”

The doctor frowned down at her. “But I do worry about you, Sara. Tell you what. I’ll send Peggy, my wife, over. She’d be glad to—”

“No.” Sara’s voice had a note of final command. Having the sweet but talkative Peggy in her hair would drive her nuts. “I couldn’t do that to your wife. Absolutely not.”

“Now, Sara. Be reasonable. If not Peggy, there must be someone—”

“There’s me.”

They both turned and stared at Drey. Up to now, he’d been quietly standing in the background. The doctor had acknowledged his existence with a slight nod when he’d first come in, but other than that, he might as well have been invisible. And now he was offering to stay.

Sara was speechless. This was the carpenter who’d come to put up some shelves. It was all very well that he’d pulled her out of a freezing pool, but that was no reason he should move in with her. The man had shown his high-handed attitude a few moments before. He had some nerve. But before she could bring those considerations to light, the doctor spoke.

“Drey Angeli, isn’t it?” Dr. Bracken said, squinting at him. “You were a friend of my daughter Terry’s, weren’t you?”

Drey nodded. “That was a long time ago,” he noted. “Way back in high school.”

“Ah yes. High school.” The doctor gave a crunching laugh that shook his sturdy frame. “Terry was a wild one in those days. She’s settled down now, you know. Got herself a degree in psychology and she’s giving tests to employees at one of the mining companies. Lives in Aspen. Skis her heart out.”

Drey’s stern demeanor softened into a slight smile. “Great. She always did love the snow.”

“That she did.” The doctor studied Drey for a moment, taking in his untamed hair and casual appearance, then glanced at Sara, his forehead scrunched in a puzzled look. Suddenly his eyebrows rose as though he’d realized something, and he cleared his throat.

“Well. Well now, okay, Sara. Drey is going to keep his eye on you. That ought to do the trick. I guess I’ll stop by tomorrow and see how you’re doing.”

He started toward the foyer and Sara didn’t budge. She sat right where she was, watching him go and wondering why she wasn’t saying anything, why she wasn’t telling him Drey was not a friend, or whatever it was he assumed Drey was, that he was here to do a job and was not going to be staying. She knew she should tell him, that the situation cried out for her to say the words. But she also knew, if she told him that, it would start an argument. He would have Peggy over here in a flash. She decided to leave well enough alone and let him think what he wanted to think.

Drey noted Sara’s reaction with amusement and took over, walking Dr. Bracken to the door and opening it for him. The doctor turned and nodded at him companionably, man to man.

“Look, I don’t know what you’re doing here,” he said, leaning close. “And I don’t ask questions. I do know Craig isn’t the most attentive husband a woman could have. Still, people’s lives are their own affairs. So to speak.” He gave a quick cough of laughter. “But you treat that lady gently. She deserves it. And keep a look out for signs of seizure. You sometimes get that with a bad head trauma. You give me a call if anything worrisome shows up.”

Drey nodded, leashing his smile. He didn’t want to appear to take the doctor’s words lightly. “I’ll do that, sir. You can count on me.”

“Good.” He shook hands with the younger man. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Drey watched him go, still suppressing a grin. The man thought he and Sara were lovers, and Sara had done nothing to disabuse him of that notion. Funny. He had no idea why she would let that theory fly, but he didn’t much care, either. She had her own reasons, no doubt.

In the meantime, this was really a lucky break. It had fallen right into his lap. He was going to get an opportunity to see what Sara Parker was really like. And that was the whole reason he’d come.

Three (#ulink_b99f156d-cedf-569b-8756-a45d5468d6ea)

Drey retraced his steps into the parlor, but Sara was no longer sitting in the chair. Following the sounds of cabinets being opened, he found her in the kitchen, putting away clean dishes from the dishwasher. She barely glanced up at him as he entered the room.

“That’s all a bunch of nonsense, of course,” she said quickly. “I’m perfectly all right. You don’t have to stay.”

He slid onto a bar stool and leaned on the counter, watching her move. She had a glide to her movements, a grace that appealed to him. The image of her as a ballet dancer came to him again. She seemed to give the impression of being on her toes, even when her feet were flat on the ground.

“That’s okay,” he said smoothly. “I have nothing better to do.”

Putting down the large pot she’d just pulled out of the washer, she turned to face him.

“Look,” she said, her gaze frank and open. “I don’t need you here. In fact, I really don’t want you here. I have things to do and I want to be alone. When you come back in the morning—”

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to stay,” he told her, breaking in with a certain arrogance. “I can’t leave you alone after what happened.”

She stared at him, trying to read what was going on in the depths of his smoky eyes. What exactly did he mean by that? What did he think had happened? Just because she’d fallen in the pool didn’t mean she needed to be watched at all times. She wasn’t likely to take a tumble into the hedgerow if he wasn’t there to stop her.

Or was he talking about the nakedness? Did he think being with her in that state gave him some special right to her? If so, he might as well think again.

“I’m going to be perfectly frank with you here,” she said at last. “You have done me a nice turn by saving my life, but when you come right down to it, I only met you today. I hardly know you. Why in the world would I let you stay overnight in my house?”