The Doctors' Baby Read Online Free PDF Page B

interest, but the tension was all between Jonas and Em.
    â€˜Probably. He has more skin grafts to go,’ Em told him, once more gathering the little boy to her breast and cradling him like her own. ‘But he was becoming institutionalised. I couldn’t bear it.’
    â€˜And Lori’s a good house mother?’
    â€˜The best,’ Em said warmly, and looked over Robby’s fuzzy head at her friend. ‘We’ve had some wonderful housemothers here. Wendy. Erin. The most committed women… And Lori’s the absolute best.’
    â€˜I’m glad to hear it,’ Jonas said simply. ‘I suspected as much, and I’m grateful. I persuaded Lori to look after Anna’s kids today on a temporary basis—I gather she’s the only home mother without a full house—but if there’s a major problem and Anna needs an operation then they’ll need to come here for a while.’
    Em frowned, thinking it through. ‘Is that possible, Lori?’
    â€˜It is,’ Lori told her. ‘I’ve just got off the phone from the powers that be. We can juggle it. Jonas wants something concrete to tell his sister tonight. She needs to know that, no matter what, her kids will be safe.’
    â€˜She’s having second thoughts,’ Jonas told Em. ‘About having the tests. She says there’s no one to look after the children if she has to have an operation, so why bother having the tests at all?’
    â€˜She’s badly frightened,’ Em said, and he nodded.
    â€˜I know. That’s why everything has to be settled and easy.’
    â€˜You don’t think you could assure her you’d take care of the kids yourself?’
    â€˜Even if Anna would agree—which she probably wouldn’t—I don’t think I could,’ he admitted honestly, his engaging smile flashing back again. ‘They’re four, six and eight years old respectively, and I’m a bachelor, born and bred. My childminding skills are about nil. It’d be much easier to work for you and pay Lori to do it.’
    â€˜Coward.’
    He chuckled out loud. ‘Rather be a chicken than a dead hen.’ Then he paused. Robby had snuggled into Em’s shoulder and was falling asleep before their eyes.
    Institutionalised? Maybe not, he thought as he watched. This wasn’t a baby who was turning away from the world. The little one was bonding with the adult who’d become permanent. With Em.
    And Em knew it. The bonding was a state Em mistrusted, and it was the real reason the little boy was no longer in hospital. She couldn’t handle her increasing feelings for him, but she had to keep treating him. Apart from being the only doctor in the place, she couldn’t bear not to.
    She held him now, and the same familiar longing flooded through her. The longing to hold him for ever had hit unexpectedly when she’d treated him the night his parents had died—the night of the accident—and it had never faded. And, quite simply, she didn’t have a clue what to do about it.
    â€˜Em, you know Lori and you’re great with Anna. I have an idea.’ Jonas was speaking to her, and she had to force her attention away from her baby—no, her patient —and back to Jonas. He glanced at his watch. ‘Have you eaten?’
    Eaten? He had to be joking. When did she get dinner before nine at night?
    â€˜No,’ she said shortly, and he nodded.
    â€˜Then can I ask you to eat and then do a house call?’he said. ‘With me? I’ll prepay you for the house call with fish and chips on the beach.’
    â€˜Fish and chips…’
    â€˜You do eat fish and chips?’ Once more came his resigned tone that told her he thought she was a dope, and she had to chuckle. OK, she was acting like one. Maybe she even deserved to be treated as such.
    â€˜Sure I eat fish and chips,’ she told him. ‘You show me a resident of Bay Beach who