Practice Makes Perfect Read Online Free PDF Page A

keep that in mind.” Then, as if he couldn’t help himself, he added, “However, Ian Chandler thinks I’m doing a fine job. He’s already talked to me about his new care center.”
    Most kids from the projects are troublemakers
. “Did he offer you the job?”
    “Not yet. But he will. I’ll probably do that for a few months, until I can find something better. Something more like your practice.” Rob angled his head and gave her his best charming look. “You don’t want a junior partner, by chance, do you?”
    Not in a million years
. “No.” She didn’t want to work with Rob. She didn’t want to work with Ian, either. Damn these men.
    o0o
    TWO DAYS LATER, Paige headed for Ian Chandler’s offices in the doctors’ building attached to the hospital. He’d called and asked to talk to her today. Since she had a patient in the neonatal care unit, she’d agreed to stop by his office. It was six o’clock and the receptionist had gone for the day. She made her way into the back rooms, hoping Ian hadn’t left yet. And in some ways, hoping he had. She suspected he’d hatched some new ploy to try to entice her into his center.
    When she reached his office, she found the door open. Ian was on the phone, his back to her. His feet were propped on his desk, and he leaned precariously back in his padded chair. He wore knife-creased slacks and a steel gray shirt to match. “Hi, Sal. I was wondering if you had Martha Jones’s results yet.” Ian laughed, a deep chuckle. “I know. But I couldn’t wait.”
    Something from the other end of the line.
    “Oh, no.” Ian dropped his feet to the floor, sat forward and listened. His shirt pulled across his shoulders as he tensed. “Damn it.”
    A response.
    “Yeah, it sucks.” He ran a hand through his collar-length hair, mussing it. “I know. Thanks.” Hanging up the phone, Ian stared at it a moment; then he shocked Paige by hurling the file in front of him across the room.
    “Ian?”
    He whirled around. His classic features were drawn, and his gray eyes were the color of storm clouds. “I didn’t know you were here.”
    “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.” She nodded to the file. “Problem?”
    Again the sadness. He was always in such a good mood, flirty, smiling, that she was surprised to see this side of him. “An older patient. The mother of a friend.” He glanced down to where he’d thrown the file. “She has uterine cancer.”
    “I’m sorry.” Paige stepped inside. “I know how hard this kind of thing can be.”
    He studied her, making her uncomfortable. She’d thought about him this week, wondered about the things he’d told her. Why didn’t he have the same surname as his parents? And why was he so interested in starting the care center? Combined with how he was looking at her...
    She straightened. “You wanted to talk to me about something?”
    “Why do you do that?”
    “What?”
    “Withdraw? Shut down?”
    Because it’s safer to withdraw
. “You don’t know me well enough to ask that.”
    “Maybe we could fix that.” The flirt was back.
    “No, thanks.” She sat in an adjacent chair and crossed her legs, pulling down the shantung skirt she wore with a tailored silk blouse. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
    “Dr. Cold and Calculating.”
    “Who?”
    “Your resident.”
    When she realized what he meant, she couldn’t keep from smiling. She had no idea Ian used nicknames, too. Like she did. “If you think that, why are you asking him to join your center?”
    “I haven’t asked him yet.”
    “He’s sure you’re going to.”
    “The boy should really work on his self-confidence.”
    Again she smiled. “Seriously, can’t you find someone else?”
    “I had a lead on two other doctors. Both fell through.” He gave her a lush grin. “That’s, of course, after the best of the best refused me.”
    She sighed. “Cut the charm.”
    “Fine. Since you recommended Roberts, I thought maybe you could give me an indication of