The Doctor She Always Dreamed Of Read Online Free PDF Page B

seat.”
    â€œYou could have tried harder to wake me up.”
    â€œOh, I tried,” he said. “For the record, you are very cranky when your sleep is disturbed.”
    That was true.
    â€œSo there I sat,” he repeated. “A drunk woman fast asleep in my front seat. No idea where she lived and unable to contact anyone on her phone while the minutes ticked by. I sat there for an hour, Kira. Then I tried to wake you again. You grumbled and complained in words I couldn’t understand. I asked where you lived. You refused to tell me. But you know what you did say, loud and clear?”
    Kira wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
    Too bad, because Derrick seemed intent on telling her. “You said, ‘Take me home with you. I want to go home with you.’ Over and over. So you know what? That’s exactly what I did. I brought you home with me.”
    Kira narrowed her eyes. “I don’t believe you.”
    He reached into the front pocket of his slacks and pulled out his cell phone, pressed a few buttons, then held out the screen for her to watch and listen to him trying to get her home address and her refusing to answer.
    â€œYou took a video of me?” And not a very flattering one. Yikes!
    He nodded. “You seemed like the kind of woman who’d want proof.”
    That she was. She’d glanced away from the screen but looked back in time to see and hear herself say, “I want to go home with you. Take me home with you.”
    Kira turned to face the window. “I’m never drinking alcohol out in public again.”
    Derrick walked up behind her. For some strange reason she didn’t feel at all threatened by his closeness. “I didn’t go down to the city planning to bring you up here. But I’d had every intention of heading up after I met with you. Family takes care of family. You were right. So I cleared my appointment schedule and got someone to cover for me so I could help my dad this weekend. I didn’t know what else to do with you. It was getting late. My dad was depending on me to be here this morning. So I brought you with me. As soon as I spend some time with my parents and help get Mom settled for the day, I’ll take you home.”
    Kira turned to face him. “Thank you.”
    â€œNow let’s go down and have some breakfast, then you can meet Mom, last I checked, she was still sleeping.”
    Go down and have breakfast, as in with his father? Kira would rather starve. “Your father hates me.”
    Derrick smiled. “He doesn’t hate you. As far as he knows you’re my friend Kira who wanted to come home with me this weekend.”
    â€œ Wanted? That’s a bit of a stretch, don’t you think?”
    â€œWe can go downstairs and tell him the truth if you want.” Derrick headed for the door. “Your call.”
    â€œWait. No.” Kira followed him. “Let’s not.”

CHAPTER FOUR
    â€œW HERE ’ S YOUR FRIEND ?” Dad asked when Derrick entered the kitchen.
    He looked old and worn-out in his standard at-home summer attire, a dingy white tank undershirt, his navy blue heavy-duty mechanic uniform pants cut off at the knee—because why waste money on shorts when you could cut up old pants?—and his black, steel toe work shoes with white socks.
    â€œShe freshening up,” Derrick answered, pulling out a chair and sitting down at one of the spots Dad had set at the kitchen table. “You didn’t have to go to all this trouble.” Mom’s sunny yellow tablecloth with matching placemats and napkins dressed up the usually bare round wooden table. And he’d put out the floral glasses Mom saved for company—because heaven forbid her rambunctious sons should break them.
    â€œThis is the first girl you’ve brought home since high school. It’s a big deal.”
    Kira Peniglatt was hardly a girl. She was a full grown, much too appealing woman.