At Home in Stone Creek (Silhouette Special Edition) Read Online Free PDF

off-season.”
    Jeff and Tanner half dragged, half carried him toward the house.
    Ashley hesitated on the snowy sidewalk.
    First the cat.
    Now Jack.
    Evidently, it was her day to be dumped on.

Chapter Two
    â€œW hat happened to him?” Ashley whispered to Tanner, in the hallway outside the second-best room in the house, a small suite at the opposite end of the corridor from her own quarters. Jeff and Tanner had already put the patient to bed, fully dressed except for his boots, and Jeff had gone downstairs to make a call on his cell phone.
    Jack, meanwhile, had sunk into an instant and all-consuming sleep—or into a coma. It was a crapshoot, guessing which.
    Tanner looked grim; didn’t seem to notice that Mrs. Wiggins was busily climbing his right pant leg, her infinitesimal claws snagging the denim as she scaled his knee and started up his thigh with a deliberation that would have been funny under any other circumstances.
    â€œAll I know is,” Tanner replied, “I got a call from Jack this afternoon, just as Livie and I were leaving theclinic after her checkup. He said he was a little under the weather and wanted to know if I’d meet him at the airstrip and bring him here.” He paused, cupped the kitten in one hand, raised the little creature to nose level, and peered quizzically into its mismatched eyes before lowering it gently to the floor. Straightening from a crouch, he added, “I offered to put him up at our place, but he insisted on coming to yours.”
    â€œYou might have called me,” Ashley fretted, still keeping her voice down. “Given me some warning, at least.”
    â€œCheck your voice mail,” Tanner countered, sounding mildly exasperated. “I left at least four messages.”
    â€œI was out,” Ashley said, defensive, “buying kitty litter and kibble. Because your wife decided I needed a cat.”
    Tanner grinned at the mention of Olivia, and something eased in him, gentling the expression in his eyes. “If you’d carry a cell phone, like any normal human being, you’d have been up to speed, situationwise.” He paused, with a mischievous twinkle. “You might even have had time to bake a welcome-back-Jack cake.”
    â€œAs if,” Ashley breathed, but as rattled as she was over having Jack McCall land in the middle of her life like the flaming chunks of a latter-day Hindenburg, there was something else she needed to know. “What did the doctor say? About Olivia, I mean?”
    Tanner sighed. “She’s a couple of weeks overdue—Dr. Pentland wants to induce labor tomorrow morning.”
    Worry made Ashley peevish. “And you’re just telling me this now?”
    â€œAs I said,” Tanner replied, “get a cell phone.”
    Before Ashley could come up with a reply, the front door banged open downstairs, and a youthful female voice called her name, sounding alarmed.
    Ashley went to the upstairs railing, leaned a little, and saw Tanner’s daughter, Sophie, standing in the living room, her face upturned and so pale that her freckles stood out, even from that distance. Sixteen-year-old Carly, blond and blue-eyed like her sister, Meg, appeared beside her.
    â€œThere’s an ambulance outside,” Sophie said. “What’s happening?”
    Tanner started down the stairs. “Everything’s all right,” he told the frightened girl.
    Carly glanced from Tanner to Ashley, descending behind him. “We meant to get here sooner, to set up your computer,” Carly said, “but Mr. Gilvine kept the whole Drama Club after school to rehearse the second act of the new play.”
    â€œHow come there’s an ambulance outside,” Sophie persisted, gazing up at her father’s face, “if nobody’s sick?”
    â€œI didn’t say nobody was sick,” Tanner told her quietly, setting his hands on her shoulders. “Jack’s upstairs,