The Pregnancy Secret (Harlequin Romance Large Print) Read Online Free PDF Page A

started painting the walls of their spare room a pale shade of lavender the second time. “Please don’t.”
    But now she didn’t need his approval. She could do it all her way. She could finally, finally be happy. All the pieces were in place.
    Weren’t they? If they were, why did Jessica feel a sudden desire to weep? It was that crack on her head. It was the throbbing in her arm. It was her day gone so terribly wrong, nothing according to her plan.
    “Mr. and Mrs. Brennan?” the doctor asked, again, baffled by the lack of response.
    “Yes,” Kade said.
    “No,” Jessica said at the very same time.
    He looked stubborn, a look Jessica remembered well.
    She didn’t think she should admit a sudden urge to kill him in front of the doctor, so she shrugged. “We’re nearly divorced,” she informed the doctor. “He was just leaving.”
    Kade gave her a look, and then got to his feet and prowled around the small waiting area.
    “Well, if you could come with me.”
    Jessica stood up from the wheelchair to follow the doctor. She wobbled. Kade was instantly at her side.
    “Sit down,” he snapped.
    Really, she should not tolerate that tone of voice from him, that tendency to bossiness. But the sudden wooziness she felt left her with no choice.
    Kade pushed her down the hallway with the doctor, and they entered a small examining room. The doctor put the X-rays up on a light board.
    “It’s not a complicated break,” she said, showing them with the tip of her pen. “It’s what we call a complete fracture. I’m going to set it and cast it. I think you’ll be in the cast for about four weeks and then require some therapy after to get full mobility back.”
    Four weeks in a cast? But that barely registered. What registered was that this was her arm with the bone, showing white on the X-ray, clearly snapped in two. Her wooziness increased. She had to fight an urge to put her head between her knees.
    “Is it going to hurt?” Jessica whispered, still not wanting Kade to see any sign of weakness from her.
    “I wish I could tell you no, but even with the powerful painkiller I’m going to give you, yes, it’s going to hurt. Do you want your husband to come with you?”
    Yes
, part of Jessica whimpered. But that was the part she had to fight! Aware of Kade’s eyes on her, she tilted her chin. “No, I’m fine. Kade, you don’t have to wait.”

CHAPTER FOUR
    Y OU DON ’ T HAVE
to wait
was not quite as firm as
you can leave now
. Jessica forced herself not to look back at him as the doctor took her to a different room. But she had to admit she felt grateful that he did not appear to be leaving.
    A half hour later, her arm in a cast and immobilized in a sling, with some prescription painkillers and some instructions in her other hand, Jessica was pushed by a nurse back to the waiting area. Her feeling of wooziness had increased tenfold.
    Because she actually felt happy that Kade was still there. He sprang from a chair as soon as he saw her, and then shoved his hands into his pockets.
    “You didn’t have to wait,” Jessica said in stubborn defiance of the relief.
    “I’ll make sure you get home safely,” he said. “I had someone from the office drop off my car for me while I waited. I’ll bring it around to that door over there.”
    And then, before she could protest on a number of fronts—that she didn’t need him to drive her and that she was going back to work, not home—he was gone.
    She didn’t want to admit how good his take-charge attitude felt sometimes. By the time he’d arrived at the door, she’d realized there was no way she was going to work. She was also reluctant to concede how good it felt when he held open the door of his car for her and she slid from the wheelchair into its familiar luxury. Moments later, with the wheelchair returned, he put the car in gear and threaded through what was left of the morning rush with ease.
    Why did she feel glad that he didn’t have a different car? She