Free A Match for the Doctor by Marie Ferrarella

into the house. “You can use them until we start outfitting your kitchen.”
    Hearing her voice, Madelyn came hurrying into the foyer to join her sister. Both girls wiggled in ahead of him, Simon noted, in their efforts to get closer to thiswoman who was obviously some sort of modern-day female Pied Piper.
    Either that or she’d cast some kind of hypnotic spell over his daughters. He’d never seen them take to anyone so quickly. Or so eagerly.
    â€œYou came back!” Meghan cried happily, her eyes shining.
    Kennon grinned at her and tousled the girl’s dark hair affectionately. “Yes, I did.”
    â€œAre you going to come in?” Madelyn asked in a sophisticated tone, though it didn’t hide her feelings about Kennon’s return.
    Kennon looked up at the girls’ father. He appeared almost stoic, standing there with the box of pots in his hands.
    â€œI don’t know. Am I, Dr. Sheffield?” she asked the man.
    He feigned surprise. “You’re actually asking my permission?”
    Her expression said that was a given—he had no idea if she was sincere or merely putting him on. He had a feeling that his decorator got her way a lot.
    â€œIt is your house, Dr. Sheffield. You can invite anyone you want, or bar them from your property just as easily.”
    He supposed, all things considered, it could be that easy—if he weren’t dealing with wistful, turned-up little faces.
    â€œLucky me.” And then he stepped back, giving her some room. “Come on in. The girls have already invited you. Who am I to stand in your way?”
    As if it were that easy, Kennon thought. If the good doctor didn’t want her here, she’d be gone in a heartbeat and they both knew it.
    Even as he invited her in, he saw her turn toward her vehicle. Now what?
    â€œJust let me get the rest of the pots and pans out of the car,” she told him.
    There were more? Who did she expect Edna to be cooking for? A reserve branch of the marines?
    â€œCan we help?” Meghan asked eagerly.
    Kennon paused. “That’s up to your dad, but I would love some help if he says it’s all right.”
    How had she done that? Simon wondered. How had she lobbed the ball back onto his court and stolen his team at the same time? He wondered if that was part of her business training or if executing sleights of hand like that just came naturally to her. In either case, this was not the simple, fluffy-looking woman she appeared to be at first encounter.
    â€œFine.”
    Balancing the box she’d given him and shifting it to one side against his hip, he silently gestured for his daughters to go ahead and help the woman retrieve whatever else she’d decided to bring along to “lend” him.
    For once, neither Madelyn nor Meghan needed to be told twice.

Chapter Six
    T he next half hour was a whirl of activity. Aided and abetted by her two pint-size assistants, Kennon took over the kitchen and within exactly twenty-eight minutes produced a small pork loin that tantalized with an aroma that whispered of Italian herbs and various grated cheeses. There was a side dish of brown rice, initially cooked in chicken broth, that had been mixed with shredded asparagus, shredded carrots and shredded zucchini, to mention only the three main vegetables that had been added to it.
    His daughters, avowed vegetable haters both, couldn’t dig in fast enough.
    Simon began to think he’d opened up his house to a sorceress. She had definitely charmed his daughters and his housekeeper within an inch of their lives. Edna was still in the living room, eating the same dinner that was being served in the kitchen. Kennon had seen to that,bringing out a full plate for the woman before finally sitting down at the table herself.
    There was conversation at the table, something that had been seriously lacking in the last year. Both girls were eager to snare the sorceress’s attention. For her