Free The Doctor's Christmas by Marta Perry Page B

He’d shown her a piece of Dr. Grant Hardesty that he probably didn’t often show to anyone.
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    Now how had that happened? Grant concentrated on pressing down the bell-shaped cookie cutter, because he didn’t want to look at Maggie.
    He didn’t let other people know what he was feeling. Ever. All his friends got from him was what was on the surface.
    If someone who’d known him since childhood was unwise enough to mention Jason, he ignored it. He had to. That was the only way he knew how to cope.
    Carefully he shut thoughts of his brother back into the secret corner of his mind. Maggie didn’t know about Jason, and she never would. As for that little piece of truth about his relationship with his mother—well, she could make of it anything she wanted.
    Still, he hadn’t expected to blurt that out. He could have deflected the child’s question. Maybe Button Gap was having an effect on him. Dr. Rawlins would probably be pleased at that. He wasn’t so sure that he was.
    â€œOkay.” Maggie transferred the last cookie sheet to the oven and dusted her hands on her jeans. Judging by the looks of those jeans, she’d been doing that all afternoon. “You guys go to the bathroom and wash up while I clean the table. Then you can have cookies.”
    That pronouncement resulted in a noisy stampede from the room. He could hear their feet thundering up the steps to the second floor.
    â€œWhat about me?” He held out sticky hands. “Do I get sent upstairs, too?”
    Maggie shook her head, smiling. “You can use the sink. I just wanted them out from underfoot while I clean up.” She glanced at the kitchen floor. “Although cleaning up might take more time than I have.”
    He turned on the tap. “You have your hands full with those three, don’t you?”
    â€œI’m doing all right.”
    The thread of defensiveness in her voice made him turn to face her, hands under the stream of water.
    â€œI wasn’t criticizing, Maggie. You’re a good person, to do so much for a friend.”
    She studied his face for a moment, as if measuring his meaning, then shrugged. “People around here take care of each other.” She bent to scrub the sticky table surface, her shiny dark hair swinging down to hide her face. “That’s just the way it is.”
    â€œI see that.” He leaned against the sink, drying his hands. Wondering. “Aunt Elly told me you lived with her for a time when you were a child.”
    Her slim figure stilled. Was she surprised Aunt Elly had told him? Or was she just trying to think of a way of saying it was none of his business?
    â€œThat’s right, I did.” She swung to face him. “My family needed some help. Aunt Elly was there for us.”
    The words had a ring of finality about them. She clearly didn’t intend to say more.
    He was surprised at how much that annoyed him. Apparently she didn’t feel that his small admission of family frailty warranted any similar confidence from her.
    She slid the cooled cookies onto a platter and set it on the table, then got out a pitcher of milk. She hesitated, her gaze fixed on the cookie plate for amoment, then glanced at him as if trying to decide something. The children’s feet thumped on the stairs.
    â€œAunt Elly took care of me,” she said. “I’m taking care of Nella’s children. I guess I’m doing what she taught me by her kindness. I wish—”
    The children came storming back into the room just then, and the fragile moment was gone. Whatever Maggie wished, he wouldn’t hear it now, not with three hungry children converging on the table.
    Joey grabbed for the cookie platter, his arm dangerously close to the milk pitcher. Robby bumped into him, the pitcher tipped, the milk sloshed and several cookies slid toward the floor.
    â€œJoey!” Grant swung to catch the pitcher before it landed on the floor,