for to strip down for this,” he assured her.
Ushering her into the room where various types of medical examination machines stood around like alert soldiers, he glanced at the way she was hugging her clothes around herself.
“But tell me—do you usually bundle up as though expecting snow when you’re preparing to be examined by a doctor?”
“Not with my real doctor,” she said archly.
“What do you think I am?” he asked as he motioned for her to take a seat on the end of the table. “A phony doctor?”
“That remains to be seen.”
Sliding the blood pressure cuff up her arm, he gave her a sardonic look. “So who is your real doctor?” he asked.
“Dr. Marin.”
He nodded, adjusting the tester and inflating the cuff, then listening as he watched it count down.
“Ah yes, Raul Marin,” he said as he released her again. “His son was a friend of mine in high school.” He jotted down her blood pressure reading and turned to get the fetal monitor set up. “Well, if you prefer, I can take you over to his office. It’s after office hours, but—”
“But that’s just the point. I don’t need a doctor. I need to go home.”
She frowned. How had she let him talk her into coming here, anyway? What she said was true. She needed to go home, get into bed, pull the covers up…and wait for all this to end.
But her argument didn’t seem to be swaying him at all.
“I think we can get a few tests in right now. Enough to reassure me that you and this baby are doing okay.”
“Oh, well, as long as you’re reassured, the world can rest easy tonight.”
Her sarcasm fell on deaf ears. He jotted down some figures on a chart, then turned and motioned for her to lie back on the table.
“Let’s see how that little guy is,” he said.
“Little guy.” She liked that. She’d purposefully avoided finding out the gender of her baby, and resisted the temptation to name the child. If she was going to give the baby up for adoption, becoming too close and intimate would just make things that much harder. But when he said “little guy,” her heart skipped a beat and she felt a sudden surge of warmth that almost brought tears to her eyes. He was obviously ready to feel an easy affection for this new life she was carrying. She had to blink hard to keep from letting him see how that touched her.
“Okay, Doctor.”
He glanced into her eyes. “Call me Matt.”
She bit her lip. “How about Mr. Allman?”
A muscle twitched at his jaw. She was finally needling him just a little too much, and when he responded, there was a thread of annoyance in his tone.
“Whatever, Annie. Call me Dumbo if that makes you feel safer.” He moved closer, freeing some cords that had become tangled. “Now just relax and we’ll get this over with.”
She put a hand over her belly, automatically protective. The baby was doing just fine. She was sure of it—as sure as she could be. She was taking all the right vitamins and appearing regularly for her checkups, even though it was difficult to pay for them. She might be seriously considering giving her baby up to someone else to raise, but that was because of how much she loved him…or her. She’d never felt so close to anything in her life as she felt to this baby.
“How much do you charge?” she asked warily as she watched him prepare the monitor. She had some money saved and she didn’t want him to think she was expecting a handout.
He waved the question away. “First exams are freebies.”
For some reason, that irritated her. She wasn’t a charity case. She could pay her own way, even if it was hard sometimes.
“If you’re giving people freebies all over the place,” she said crisply, “I don’t see how you’re going to make enough to keep any sort of staff for long.”
He looked up after strapping her up to the monitor and laughed aloud. “My God, I’m hiring someone who actually understands how things work. Keep this up and I’ll have to make you office manager.”
It was humiliating how those half-mocking words of praise made her glow with satisfaction. She had to cover that up quickly.
“You can’t make me into anything.”
He didn’t bother to respond. He’d caught on long ago to the fact that most of her words didn’t mean a thing and were just a way to keep him at arm’s length. That was okay. Although he understood her need to protect herself, he just wanted to make sure that she didn’t lose sight of what was important—the welfare of this baby she was carrying.
He’d noticed her over the last few weeks, whenever he’d stopped by Millie’s for a quick bite. He’d been keeping an eye on the evidence of her baby’s progress, though he’d never said anything to her until she’d dropped into a faint at his feet. She had a bright, intelligent look to her that he’d liked and he’d wondered about her. He’d noticed that there was no wedding ring and it reminded him of his own unsettling situation….
It had only been a few weeks since an old friend passing through the area had called and innocently asked him what had ever happened to Penny Hagar, a young woman Matt had dated in Dallas a couple of years before. And then he’d asked about the baby.
“Baby?” Matt had responded, startled. “What baby?”
That was the first hint he’d ever had that Penny had become pregnant during their relationship. Since that day, searching for Penny and her baby had begun to consume more and more of his time and energy. He’d hired a private investigator once his own efforts had come up dry. So far, even the professional wasn’t having any luck. But the whole affair had made him much more aware of the babies around him. The world seemed to be full of them. Including the one Annie was carrying. And considering giving away.
“So what kind of staff do you have, anyway?” Annie asked, assuming she would be working right alongside them soon.
“Here in this office? There are two of us family practice physicians. We’ve got a combination receptionist-bookkeeper, a practical nurse and an RN. We’re thinking of hiring a physician’s assistant, too.”
She blinked, taking all that in. “So where exactly will I fit in?”
Turning, he looked at her. “I guess I didn’t make myself clear. You won’t be working here. I’ve also got an office at Allman Industries. That’s where I’m going to need you.”
“Allman Industries.” She said the words slowly, thinking it over. There had been no such thing as Allman Industries when she’d lived here off and on as a child, but she’d heard it mentioned since she’d come back. As she remembered, it was housed in a big old building just off Main Street, one of those structures with gargoyles at the corners, looking like something that came from times gone by.
“Does that meet with your approval?” he asked her,
