The Doctor's Baby. Cindy Kirk

lifted a shoulder in an unconcerned shrug. “Foster care.”

      Just when he thought he was beginning to get a handle on her, she’d surprised him again. Without waiting for an invitation, David dropped to sit on the edge of her bed. “You never told me you grew up in foster care.”

      “If you remember, once we got to your room we didn’t do much talking.”

      David thought back. She was right. Once that hotel door had clicked shut and they’d hit the bed there hadn’t been much conversation. Lots of moaning but not much intelligible communication. But had she forgotten how they’d sat in the hotel bar for hours doing nothing but talking?

      “We discussed all sorts of things before that,” David insisted. “Triathlon training. Best Indie Horror movies. Food favorites.”

      “We talked about our likes and dislikes,” July reminded him. “But we shared very little about our personal lives.”

      He paused for a moment and realized she was right. She hadn’t mentioned anything about her childhood. And he hadn’t mentioned he’d had a wife who’d died. “Foster care couldn’t have been easy.”

      An unreadable look filled her eyes. “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.”

      Those horrible days after the car accident flashed before him. Though David didn’t feel stronger, at least he no longer dwelled on something that couldn’t be changed. “I’m surprised you weren’t adopted.”

      Instead of a quick comeback, she paused, her green eyes dark. “It was … complicated.”

      “Tell me,” he urged when she didn’t continue.

      She shook her head. When the bulldog set to her jaw returned he knew she’d shared all she was going to on the matter.

      “How did you end up here anyway?” Her gaze narrowed. “When we met, you were supposedly living in Minneapolis and planning to move to Chicago.”

      “No supposedly about it. I was working at Hennepin but had accepted the position at Rush when you and I talked.” David shifted his gaze out the window and let it linger on the snowy mountain peaks in the distance.

      He’d felt so lost after Celeste’s death. So alone. Unable to shake the sadness, he’d moved to the Twin Cities, hoping a change of scene would help. It hadn’t. He’d been planning another move, this time to Chicago, the night he’d met July.

      “What happened?” she asked.

      “I had lunch with an old friend the day after we … were together. We’d known each other a long time. He knew my—” David paused “—situation. After talking to him I realized that being in Jackson—with my family—was where I belonged.”

      “Please, don’t let me keep you from your family,” she said, her green eyes as cool as her tone.

      “I still have a few minutes.” David needed to get to his nephew’s party but just like the last time they were together, he found himself reluctant to leave her. “How did your friend Adam respond when you called and gave him the good news?”

      “I haven’t been able to reach him,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

      The announcement over the PA system advised visitors it was time to leave. David glanced at the clock on the wall. Ten minutes to get to his sister’s house. Ten minutes or he was in the doghouse for life. He rose to his feet. “I’d better go.”

      She didn’t say another word, merely gave him a polite smile, the kind you’d give a casual acquaintance you didn’t plan to see again.

      “I’ll check on you tomorrow,” he promised even as he edged closer to the door, still reluctant to leave. “See how you’re feeling, make sure you’re up to going home.”

      “There’s no need—”

      The door swung open and an older staff nurse, who’d worked for the hospital since David had been a baby, stepped into the room, a blue-wrapped bundle in her arms. “Mrs. Greer, you have a visitor.”

      David saw July flinch at the “Mrs.” but she didn’t correct the woman. Instead her green eyes widened and her gaze remained riveted on the baby.

      The gray-haired nurse stopped when she saw David. “Dr. Wahl. I didn’t mean to interrupt. I didn’t realize you were still here.”

      “It’s fine. I was on my way out.” David knew his sister and family were waiting. Knew his nephews would refuse to start the party until he got there. Even so, he took an extra second to linger and admire the baby that very easily could be his.

      “Thanks for coming tonight.” Mary Karen Vaughn stood beside David on the porch of the large two-story white clapboard she shared with her three sons, their maternal grandmother, Fern, and supersized cockapoo, Henry. “Logan was so excited to see you.”

      “Three little boys throwing cake at each other.” David winked. “Wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

      Actually, this evening the terrible trio had been fairly well-behaved. And the war-whoop the twins and Logan had let loose when he’d walked through the door had warmed his heart. Of course, with his parents on a European cruise, his only competition was Granny Fern. And while the boys loved their great-grandmother, they’d stuck tight to his side all evening.

      After the spaghetti had been eaten and the two candles blown out on the cake, Granny had gone to her room for some well-needed “shut-eye.” Last week she’d tripped over the dog and cracked a rib.

      Though Granny loved helping with the boys and watching them while Mary Karen worked an occasional shift at the hospital, David worried about her. The older woman needed more rest than she was able to get in this busy household. That was one of the reasons he’d stayed and helped Mary Karen get the boys bathed and in bed. But that wasn’t the only reason. Keeping busy kept thoughts of July at bay.

      “You’re so good with the boys.” Mary Karen turned to the rail and stared out into the darkness. Far off in the distance, a coyote wailed. She pulled her coat tight around her. “You and Celeste should have had children.”

      Celeste had liked Mary Karen as much as she’d liked anyone in Jackson, but David knew his sister had hoped more closeness would come when they had children in common.

      David wasn’t sure it would have made a difference. Celeste had been so different from his down-to-earth sister. Different than most of the women in Jackson. He smiled. His wife had been a hothouse rose in a field of wildflowers.

      It wasn’t an exaggeration to say Celeste had been the most beautiful woman in Jackson. Men would stop on the street and stare when she walked by. She’d been a city girl to the core, a woman who’d loved shopping, travel and him. When they’d left California and moved to Jackson, she’d kept her job as a marketing rep for a company based in Los Angeles. He’d worried about her being on the road so much, but accepted the fact that she loved her job too much to quit.

      Then two years ago, on her way to the airport for a business trip, her sports car had been broadsided by a drunk driver. She’d been killed instantly. When he’d heard the news, a part of him had died with her.

      At the time Mary Karen had just delivered Logan. Connor and Caleb, the twins, had just turned two. While his sister’s household had always been chaotic, to add to her stress, her husband of three years had started making noises that he’d rather be single.

      “I wish we’d had a baby, too,” David murmured into the quiet stillness. “But we wanted to wait for just the right moment. We thought we had all the time in the world.”

      The darkness surrounding them made it easier to speak of the past.

      “I think we’ve both learned there are no guarantees. Life can be going along just fine then poof … everything changes.” The pain in her voice made David long to slam a fist into his ex-brother-in-law’s