The Doctors' Baby Read Online Free PDF

of Charlie, but now she blinked back unexpected tears. Damn, she had to give herself time to mourn.
    When would she fit that in? Tuesday week, eleven to twelve?
    â€˜I… Maybe I won’t have that tea. I’ll just see Robby and then I’ll go,’ she told Lori. Robby was the reason she’d come. Whatever Jonas was here for, she had to concentrate on her work.
    Which was Robby.
    And he needed concentration. Robby was eight months old. He’d been orphaned in a car crash two months ago. Badly burned, he’d only recently been transferred from hospital to the Bay Beach Home.
    Robby still really needed city medical facilities—physiotherapy, occupational therapy and the associated bevy of health-care services—but his aunt lived in Bay Beach and she wouldn’t hear of him going anywhere else.
    Neither would she take him in herself—or allow the thought of someone else adopting him. So Robby was being cared for by Lori at the home, with Em providing daily medical care.
    There were worse fates, Em thought. Lori offered no long-term solution for the little boy, but she loved him to bits.
    As did Em. Robby had spent two weeks in hospital in Sydney and then, at his aunt’s insistence, had spent six weeks at Bay Beach General Hospital. In that time he’d twisted himself around Em’s heart like a hairy worm, so much so that when she entered his bedroom now and the little boy reached up his arms, she pulled him to her and hugged as hard as his burned little body would allow.
    He was tiny, underweight for his age, with scarring, healing wounds and skin grafts still covering his left side. He’d been burned right up to his chin. The only parts of him that seemed unhurt were his bright little brown eyes, his snub nose and his mop of silver blond curls.
    Yes, Em loved him. She’d unashamedly lost her professional detachment, and she’d lost her heart completely.
    â€˜Have you been waiting for me?’ she whispered. ‘I thought you’d be asleep, you ragamuffin!’
    â€˜He’s supposed to be.’ Lori had followed her friend into the room. ‘He’s been down for half an hour. But he’s soaccustomed to seeing you in the evenings that I can’t get him to sleep until you come.’
    â€˜What’s the problem?’ Em started at the sound of the deep tones. Jonas also had followed them in and was leaning against the door, watching them.
    Em and baby were quite a pair, he thought, and if Em could have known what he was thinking she would have blushed to her socks.
    She was a strikingly good-looking woman, tall and dark and beautiful, and now, with the child pressed against her breast, she looked stunningly maternal. Robby was still heavily bandaged. He wore a smooth elastic skin to stop his grafts from scarring, and his white dressings were in stark contrast to Em’s smooth and darker skin.
    The sight set Jonas back more than he cared to admit. He shifted against the door and rephrased his question. ‘What happened to the baby?’
    And Lori told him, while he watched Em’s skilful hands lift away dressings and elastic to check the healing wounds.
    He could have helped, he thought—it took several minutes and Lori assisted, but with Jonas’s help it would have been quicker—but he was content, for the moment, to watch.
    He was getting to know Emily Mainwaring, and the more he saw, the more he approved.
    â€˜What?’ Em said crossly, as she taped the last dressing, and he started at her tone.
    â€˜I beg your pardon?’
    â€˜You’ve been staring at me for ten minutes. I suppose you have seen burns dressed before.’
    â€˜I have,’ He smiled at her, defusing her crossness. ‘Many times.’
    â€˜There’s nothing different here.’
    â€˜By the look of those burns, he should still be in hospital,’ Jonas said cautiously, feeling his way. Lori was watching both of them with