A Marriage Made in Texas (The Brothers Kincaid) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Christi Emergency Room. No more weekend calls, no more trauma. And he was able to spend time with his patients, to get to know them instead of moving them in and out as fast as humanly possible.
    He and his partner, Tim Kramer, worked together well. Tim had moved his practice from Corpus Christi, where many of his patients came from the outlying communities. He’d been wanting to open a clinic in Aransas City for some time, believing that given a choice, the locals would prefer a doctor nearby, rather than having to go to Corpus for all their medical needs. If the brisk business they’d been doingsince opening was any indication, Tim had been absolutely right.
    The first week Jay had been in town, Tim invited him over for a cookout to meet his family. Following the tradition found in small towns everywhere, Tim’s wife immediately tried to set him up with a friend. Never one for blind dates, he’d wiggled out of it without offending her, but it gave him a taste of things to come.
    It seemed as if everyone in Aransas City had a great idea of who to fix him up with. Too bad the one woman he wouldn’t mind seeing hadn’t shown any inclination to date him. While their talk had cleared the air, and Gail had been friendly enough when they’d closed on his house, she hadn’t shown any signs of wanting to get together. And for reasons Jay didn’t fully understand, he couldn’t seem to drum up much interest in other women.
    Closing the medical journal he’d been leafing through, he glanced out his window and smiled. The beige brick clinic surrounded a central courtyard with a small gazebo and a couple of benches. White clouds of seagulls circled overhead and hopped on the ground, hoping for a handout. He got up, deciding to break for an early lunch, then heard a commotion in the hallway. Just as he reached his office door, it burst open and his receptionist tumbled in.
    “Dr. Kincaid!” Normally cool and collected, she wheezed his name breathlessly. “I tried to stop her but she wouldn’t even let me buzz you.”
    “What is it, Bridget? Is it an emergency?”
    Bridget shook her head and stepped aside. “I don’t think so.”
    “It’s only me, darling,” a musical, feminine voice said as a woman stepped into view. “Surely you’re not going to have me barred from your office.”
    He stared at her, hoping she was a bad dream and knowing she wasn’t. “Carla? What are you doing here?”
    “Can we do this…alone?” She turned to Bridget with a conciliatory smile. “You’ll excuse us, won’t you? I need to talk to my fiancé in private.”
    His jaw tightened at the comment. Damn Carla for following him here. He might as well deal with her now, though, because his ex-girlfriend was as tenacious as a pit bull. A good quality in a lawyer, but a pain in the ass otherwise.
    “It’s all right, Bridget. You can go now. And for the record—” he glanced at Carla, then back to his receptionist “—Miss Burkett isn’t my fiancée.”
    He folded his arms and leaned back against his desk. “All right, Carla. Why are you here?”
    A moment before she’d been frowning, but the smile she now turned on him was all sweetness and light. “Jay, I’ve missed you so much. I couldn’t stay away any longer.” She crossed the few steps between them, put her arms around him and laid a kiss on him that once upon a time would have had them horizontal in a matter of seconds. With difficulty, he extracted himself from her clutches and pushed her away from him.
    Her eyes widened. He felt like a jerk until he remembered that Carla was very good at making a person believe what she wanted him to.
    Her hands clutched his shirt. “I thought—I hoped you’d had enough time to realize what a terrible mistake you’ve made. You can’t tell me it’s truly over. Not after what we meant to each other. Why don’t you come home, Jay?” She glanced around his office, obviously puzzled. “This place isn’t for you. You can’t be