to add the extra patient visit to his schedule, in order to charge for it, but the numbers game had never mattered to him. As long as Mrs. Peters got the medical attention she needed he’d be satisfied.
Hunter glanced at his watch. He was already a half hour behind schedule and he had only just started his clinic. It would be a long afternoon.
He rushed back into his office to find Sophie sound asleep in her portable bed. She looked so vulnerable, and she deserved better than this, but his sister had insisted he was the only person she trusted with her baby. For the life of him he couldn’t understand why.
Maria appeared at his door, handing him another chart. Starting tomorrow, to make life easier for Sophie, he might have to find somewhere closer to Serena Vista to stay. Maybe one of those extended-stay hotels during the week, and then he could go home on the weekends. Didn’t nine-month-old babies need to crawl and explore, not sit in a car half the day? If it was just him making the commute, he could handle it, but guilt over his sorely lacking parenting skills had him promising he wouldn’t let little Sophie suffer another day.
* * *
The next morning Amanda lifted her gaze from the EKG she’d been analyzing at her desk. She quickly scribbled NSR by the patient’s name on the list. Normal sinus rhythm.
Hunter appeared in the office doorway thirty minutes late. Again. Sophie gnawed on his chin as he held her in his arms. “I have an idea,” he said.
“You’re late,” Amanda replied with a no-nonsense glance.
He briskly entered the room and unloaded Sophie’s belongings onto his desk. “Sorry. Traffic’s a nightmare.”
She felt a guilty twinge about being annoyed, but refused to let on.
“Sophie’s been a grump all morning, too,” he said.
Mandy bristled at his underhanded comment on her mood, but again didn’t react.
The sturdy baby sucked on two fingers and looked innocently up at him. “You’ve been grumpy, haven’t you, kid?” He crossed his eyes and made a muffled elephant sound with his lips, which got a giggle out of her. She swatted at his mouth with her slippery fingers. He repeated the goofy process several more times, nibbling her fingertips in between, until she latched onto his chin again and gummed him up something fierce. “I don’t have a clue why she likes this, but I’ve discovered she does, and if it keeps her from crying, my chin is hers.”
Amanda fought off a pang of regret for giving him such a hard time. Being a stand-in father had to be a shock for him. But from the looks of things it was becoming second nature, whether he realized it or not.
“You said you had an idea?” she asked.
He plopped Sophie down into her playpen and wiped the drool off his face and jacket. “Music therapy.”
“Music what?”
“You know—soothing music to help our patients release stress.”
Our patients? He’d definitely come on board with her project. “You mean like with meditation?”
“Exactly. We could assign them ten to fifteen minutes of quiet music meditation every morning. It might help bring down their blood pressure.”
She thought for a moment. “It wouldn’t hurt.”
“Great,” he said, practically straightening his collar and preening. “I’ll put together a list of composers and burn twenty CDs.”
“Sounds good.”
Sophie glanced up from her playpen and squealed a hello, obviously glad to see Mandy.
“What’s up, Soph?” The baby made a series of gurgles, blew some bubbles, and ended by giving Amanda a raspberry.
“I think she wants you to pick her up,” Hunter said with a smile.
She didn’t take the challenge.
There he was, standing too close again, looking handsome in his white doctor’s coat and a piercing silver-blue tie. He’d styled his thick brown hair so that it stood up on the top of his head. It gave him a whimsical appeal—until she glanced into his dark, sexy eyes and suddenly remembered he could also be dangerous. She didn’t linger there. She couldn’t.
He’d shaved close, except for a small patch just beneath his lower lip—had she noticed that before? She had an unwanted desire to touch it. What would he think if he knew she’d resorted to all but wearing his brand of cologne after he’d moved out to help her feel less lonely?
He inclined his head the slightest bit, studying her, sizing her up, as he’d used to when they were married. He lifted a brow. “Am I making you nervous?” A look of satisfaction stretched across his face.
She brushed him off. When had he become an expert at reading body language? “Not at all.” She turned and flipped the desk calendar to today’s date—once again all business. “All we have to do today is collect the halter monitor data and analyze it.”
She couldn’t even glance at him. Instead she pretended to be completely engrossed in the preplanned schedule. “Oh, and don’t forget to collect their daily diet journals when you remove the halter monitors.”
“Will do.” He strolled back to his desk, picked up a piece of paper, returned and handed it to her. “Here’s mine. Where’s yours? I want to make sure you’re getting enough calories.”
She pushed his list away. “You don’t have to report to me.”
“The syllabus says everyone will participate in the activities. Hand yours over.” He motioned with his fingers.
“I… I don’t have it.”
He raised a playful brow. “Naughty, naughty.”
Too young to have hot flashes, she was swiftly burning up. Why was he tormenting her?
“Mandy’s not playing fair, Sophie,” he teased, picking up the baby, who had now pulled herself to stand in the playpen. Sophie smothered his mouth with her hands. He kept talking, but Amanda couldn’t make out one single syllable.
“Okay, okay, I’ll start keeping track like everyone else.” She had a sudden overwhelming urge to bite the hangnail on her finger, but resisted.
Rather than look at Amanda, he made a clown face for the baby. “There you go.” Sophie giggled. “The playing part’s kind of fun, but the rest—” He made another face and the baby laughed more.
His frivolity was driving Amanda nuts. She picked up a chart and studied it, determined not to let Hunter lighten her mood. “I’ll tell them about the music meditation later, after we go over their EKG results at the group meeting this afternoon.”
She tapped her finger on her upper lip. There was no time like the present. “I have a few ideas, too,” she said.
“Yeah?” he said over his shoulder, putting Sophie in her jump seat, which he’d just attached to the door frame. The baby automatically started bouncing up and down, making a wide, gummy grin.
