Free Newborn Needs a Dad by Dianne Drake Page B

She deliberately avoided thinking about Neil, pushing those thoughts right out when they crept in. After a while, when she’d finally succeeded in not thinking about him every three minutes, a sharp knock on her cabin door brought all thoughts of him right back to the forefront of her mind. He was here now, bringing lunch. She’d almost forgotten his offer. Wished she’d called and told him not to come.
    But she hadn’t, so she had to face him. “We’re going to let the moment play itself out as it happens,” she told Bryce on her way to the door. As she passed the hall mirror she took a quick glance, saw that she was a little more tear-splotched than she wanted him to see, so she pulled open the cabin door, then ran immediately to the sink in the bathroom to blot water on her face.
    “You OK, Gabrielle?” Neil called from the hall.
    “Fine,” she called back, bent over the sink, cupping her hands under the water, then splashing it on her face. “Just washing my hands.” And trying to wash away so many thoughts. Another quick look in the mirror convinced her to run a brush through her hair and tint her lips with a little colored gloss. Hasty, but not so revealing now, she decided as she turned out the bathroom light and emerged into the hall, where Neil stood waiting for her, much closer than she’d expected him to be.
    “That was a long hand wash,” he said, his face full of concern. “Unless you’re scrubbing for surgery.”
    “I’m pregnant. I’m allowed to take longer doing things.”
    “Sure you’re OK?”
    She managed a smile, and a lie. “I’m OK.” Which she wasn’t. “And hungry.” Which she was, but not nearly so much as usual. “So, let’s eat.” Skip the chat, go straight to the food and hope conversation between them could be cut to a minimum, because she didn’t feel much like talking.
    “Gabrielle, you look… Have you been crying?”
    Neil reached out to take hold of her arm as she whisked by him, but as she slipped past, she grabbed the sack from his hands and hurried off toward the tiny cabin kitchen, anxious to get out of his gaze, lest he looked any deeper and discovered more. He was trying to diagnose her. She was sure of it, and if he thought he saw something, he wouldn’tlet her work, which would mean she had no reason to stay in White Elk. Leaving here might be the easiest solution, but it wasn’t the one that felt good to her. And right now she truly needed to be back in the hospital, seeing patients and not being one. “Of course I wasn’t crying. I just washed my face, got a little soap in my eyes. So, what did you hear back from the lab tests?”
    “Everything’s normal. Perfect.”
    She managed a wispy smile. “Just like I told you.”
    “You’re right about that. You did tell me. But what you didn’t tell me was why you fainted, and I think you know.”
    She glanced away from him, looked at the vegetable salad he’d brought for fear he could read the answer in her eyes. “You brought pastries, too?” she asked, pulling a cinnamon roll from the bag, breaking off a piece and immediately sticking it in her mouth so she wouldn’t have to answer him.
    “OK, I won’t ask again. But if you faint again, Gabrielle, I won’t be able to let you come back to work. In fact, I’ll admit you to the hospital for the rest of your pregnancy. I don’t like the way you’re evading my question, but I’ll respect your right to do it.”
    “I won’t faint again,” she said, once her mouth was empty.
    “I hope not.” He watched her go after another bite of cinnamon roll. “So, at least answer this question for me. Didn’t anybody ever tell you that dessert comes after the meal?”
    She licked the gooey icing off her fingers, then finally met him eye to eye. “My dad always told me to go after what I wanted and not to let anything get in my way, and right now I want the cinnamon roll.” She picked up another cinnamon roll and handed it to him. “Care to join