Dr Daddy's Perfect Christmas. Jules Bennett

Seriously, who wouldn’t want to get with that?

      She unlocked the door and let Eli pass in ahead of her. After she flipped on the lights in the living room and kitchen, she shrugged out of her coat.

      “Just throw the bags on the island,” she called over her shoulder as she went into the living room to plug in her Christmas tree. “I’ll put everything away.”

      “I can help put stuff away,” he offered.

      When she plugged in the tree, she spotted Kerfluffle lying on the red-and-white quilted tree skirt, napping. Her favorite spot this time of year.

      She returned to the kitchen and hung her coat on the peg by the back door. She’d just started to hang her purse over the other peg when it slipped from her grasp and fell to the tile, spilling its contents.

      She leveled her gaze across the room to Eli. “Really, I’ll get it all. But thanks for carrying those groceries in.”

      Ignoring her subtle dismissal, Eli circled the island and squatted down to help her pick up her purse explosion.

      “Eli, I can—”

      She froze as he picked up the row of pictures she’d had in her purse from today’s ultrasound. The way he stared at each image, the way he slowly straightened his body to come to his full height and the way his eyes finally came to meet hers, Nora knew he wasn’t leaving anytime soon.

Chapter Five

      Eli couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak.

      A baby? How the hell did he not know this? He’d been home for five days now and nothing had ever been mentioned. Of course, his father had had heart surgery and his mother was busy with his care, but seriously, he was a doctor—how did he not recognize the fact this woman was pregnant? And far enough along that she knew the sex.

      The sickness at his parents’, her always hiding beneath her coat, her pale, tired face...all the signs were there.

      His eyes traveled from the pictures to her eyes to her belly. With the boxy scrubs she wore at the clinic and her height, she was able to hide her bump.

      “Whatever you want to say, just say it,” she told him, taking the pictures from his hands and thrusting her chin up as if she dared him to say anything at all.