Free The M.D.'s Surprise Family by Marie Ferrarella Page A

really are something else, aren’t you?”
    The trouble was, he was beginning to suspect that he didn’t know what that something else was. He didn’t like the unknown.
    Not answering him, Raven watched him for a long moment. “So,” she finally said, getting backto her original subject, “will you come to the house and tell Blue?”
    The light dawned. She’d tried to entice him. “Was that what the kiss was about? To make sure I’d come talk to your brother?”
    If he expected her to look guilty or embarrassed at being caught, he was disappointed. She appeared to be neither.
    â€œNo. That was strictly about you. And maybe a little about me,” she allowed. “You’re not some adolescent to be coerced into doing something because someone kissed you.” Raven paused for a second, as if weighing something in her mind. “If you don’t feel up to it, I’ll tell him myself. It’s just that I think he’d rather hear it coming from you.”
    Peter watched the wind ripple through her hair, playing with strands before moving on. She had let him off the hook. The woman knew just how to maneuver, he thought. She would have made a hell of a general. “Give me a few minutes to get to my car,” he told her. “Then you can go ahead and lead the way to your house.”
    Turning on his heel, he still didn’t miss the smile that came to her lips. It almost made the capitulation worth it.

Chapter Six
    O bviously not all neo-hippies took a vow of poverty, Peter thought as he approached the place where Raven lived. He’d seen smaller, less impressive castles. The driveway was comprised of countless tiny, colored rocks that were arranged to form the company’s logo—a white dove soaring through a crystal-blue sky. He almost hated parking his vehicle on it.
    She was out of her car and at his side before he had a chance to close his door. There was pleasure and more than a hint of surprise on her face.
    â€œI didn’t think you’d follow me all the way,” she confessed. “I kept looking in the rearview mirror to see if you’d suddenly decided to make good your escape.” She sounded as if she was only half kidding.
    â€œIt crossed my mind,” Peter conceded.
    Despite the nip in the air, she’d driven her car with the top down. He had to admit that the sight of her hair whipping around as she drove had been a compelling, enticing picture.
    But her hair wasn’t why he’d followed her. Once he said he would do something, he kept his word. Without a family to mark his passage, Peter felt that his word was all he had. His word and his work. He meant for both to stand for something.
    She flashed a grin. “Glad it was only passing through.”
    Taking his hand as if they were old friends instead of two people who didn’t know each other a few days ago, Raven led him to the front door. She glanced over her shoulder to see his reaction and nodded in silent agreement when she caught his eye.
    â€œIt’s a little over the top,” she allowed. “My father bought it for my mother the day she told him she was pregnant with Blue. He wanted to do something spectacular for her.” Fond memories left their mark upon her features as she remembered. “He cried when she first told him, he was so happy. Said there was no greater miracle than a baby.”
    â€œNo,” Peter agreed quietly, thinking of Becky,remembering how he’d felt the first time he’d held her in his hands, “there isn’t.”
    He was rewarded with a smile that went straight to his gut, as if fired from a high-powered rifle. He really wished she’d stop doing that, stop detonating all these small land mines inside of him. It was getting in the way of his thinking.
    â€œIsn’t he asleep?” Peter asked, realizing that while it was early for him, a child of seven might very well already be