The Baby Jackpot Read Online Free PDF

the time she’d filled and sealed the bag, he was back,
carrying a stretch bandage. He’d changed into short, blue striped pajamas. Under
the circumstances, they seemed practical.
    He lay on the couch, one knee raised atop a small cushion. As
Stacy wrapped the bandage, being careful to maintain the tension, she
appreciated his willingness to let her do her job. Whereas some doctors would
have tried to direct every move, Cole simply observed her in silence.
    What exactly was he observing?
    Keenly aware of the quick rise and fall of his chest and of the
way his eyes remained fixed on her, Stacy hoped her blouse wasn’t gaping
again.
    “You have a light touch,” he murmured.
    “It comes with being a nurse,” she replied.
    “You’re more considerate than most,” Cole said. “I’ve noticed
that about you. You can be sharp with Rod, not that he doesn’t deserve it, and
even a little prickly with me, but you’re always kind to the patients.”
    “I’m prickly with you?” Stacy hadn’t been aware of that.
    “We all feel stressed at times.”
    The hormones she’d had to take as part of the egg donation
process had affected her moods. “I don’t ever want
to take it out on my coworkers.”
    “You don’t.” He winced as she laid the plastic bag over his
bandaged knee. “That’s cold.” He shook his head. “Of course it’s cold. It’s
ice.”
    Stacy chuckled. “You’re a good patient. Most doctors hate being
treated. They react like bears being poked with a sharp stick.”
    “We’re a snarly lot.” He shifted upward, propping himself
against the cushions at the far end of the sofa. His hair was mussed again,
Stacy noticed, and had to stop herself from smoothing it into place.
    Instead, she rattled off the standard warnings about injuries.
“Avoid anything that might increase the swelling. No hot showers, hot tubs or
alcoholic beverages, as if I needed to remind you. And keep the knee elevated as
much as possible.”
    “Maybe I’ll sleep out here,” he said.
    “Good idea.” She adjusted the cushion beneath his knee and
lifted a comforter from the back of the sofa. “Did your mother crochet
this?”
    “My mother wielded a scalpel like an artist, but I doubt she
had any idea what to do with a crochet hook,” Cole said. “It was a gift from one
of her nurses. Nurses often took pity on me as a child.”
    “They still do,” Stacy pointed out as she draped the comforter
over him.
    “A familiar behavioral pattern—but different in this case.”
Without pausing to explain what he meant, he continued, “Would you care to watch
a movie with me? I have a DVD in the player.”
    “I should be going.” She was curious, though. “What movie is
it?”
    “Notting Hill.”
    She loved the romantic comedy with Hugh Grant and Julia
Roberts. “It’s one of my favorites.”
    “Mine, too.”
    “You’re kidding.” She wouldn’t have pictured him enjoying
anything so sentimental.
    “The best romantic comedies provide real insight into
male-female relationships,” Cole said. “I also like action movies with crumbling
temples and toppling statues of gods.” He picked up the remote.
    Her cue to leave...or stay. “We never ate our ice cream,” Stacy
said.
    “And it’s your birthday.”
    “Hang on.”
    Ice cream and Hugh Grant went together nicely. After they
finished eating, unable to tear herself away, Stacy curled up beside Cole under
the comforter. The movie was longer than she’d remembered, and she was getting
sleepy.
    Oh, well, where was the harm? she mused as she drifted off. She
might be lying with her back pressed to Cole’s chest, her bottom nestled against
his groin and his arms around her, but nothing had happened.
    Not yet, anyway.

Chapter Four
    Cole awoke in the middle of an urgently thrilling
dream. He was making love to Stacy, his body suffused with a delicious tension
as he struggled to prolong the rapture of their contact.
    As he blinked into awareness, he felt disoriented. A