Diagnosis: Daddy (Doctors in Training 1)

Connor shook his head. “No, it’s not like that. She has her own room. She’s—well, she’s sort of a nanny for Alexis for the next year or so. Until Alexis is well settled in and I can make other arrangements. I think it’s going to work out fine. Alexis seems to be bonding with Mia very quickly.”

Anne frowned. “Won’t that be a problem when Mia moves out? I mean, if Alexis becomes too close to her?”

He didn’t want to think that far ahead just now. It was all he could do to make it through a day at a time. “We’ll deal with that when it comes. Besides, Mia and I are very close friends. She’ll always be a part of my life, and Alexis’s, too, now.”

“Hmm. You’ve never tried living together before, right?” James asked a bit cynically.

“Well, no. But we’ve known each other for three years. We’ve spent a lot of time together.”

James shook his dark head, his eyes world-weary, older than his years. “Not the same. Trust me.”

Connor thought uncomfortably of his broken marriage. Gretchen had become bored with the habits and routines they had fallen into after the honeymoon phase ended. Everything he did had seemed to annoy her toward the end, and they’d spent more and more time arguing or not speaking at all. Later he had wondered if her affair with her boss had been the cause of her dissatisfaction with him or the result, but whatever the reason, they’d clearly been unsuited.

He would hate to think that he and Mia would ever end up like that, resenting each other, avoiding each other’s company, impatient to be free of each other. Was James right? Had he and Mia made a mistake agreeing to spend so much time together?

“So, you’re a dad now.” Ron studied him thoughtfully. “How weird does that feel?”

“Very,” he admitted.

“The dad of a pretty little girl, no less. You’ll have boys sniffing around in six or seven years.”

He scowled. “She’s only six.”

“Have you seen how fast girls grow up these days?”

Connor felt a shiver of dread course down his spine. He didn’t even want to think about dealing with his daughter and boys.

“Leave him alone, Ron,” Haley ordered with a shake of her head. “You have plenty of time to worry about things like that, Connor.”

“But not so much time to worry about the gross anatomy exam Monday,” Anne fretted, typically already worrying about school again. “Maybe we should start going over the nerve charts?”

He didn’t want his family issues to interfere with his friends’ study time, so Connor quickly agreed. He resolved not to think about what was going on at his home for the next couple of hours, although he wasn’t sure how successful he would be with that.

The house was quiet when Connor entered at almost nine that evening. Setting his keys on the sparklingly clean kitchen counter, he walked into the living room, expecting to find Mia and Alexis there. He was only half-right. Mia sat alone on the couch, a stack of essays in her lap as she made notes on one with a red pen. The television was on, tuned to a news channel, but the volume was so low he could barely hear the commentary.

“Hi,” he said, not sure if she’d heard him come in.

She looked up with a smile. “Hi. Did your study session go well?”

“Yeah. We got through a lot of material. Sorry it took so long, we let the time get away from us.” He had at least remembered to call to tell her that his study group was ordering Chinese food, so there was no need for her to keep a plate warm for him.

“That’s okay. I’m glad you got a lot accomplished.” She set the papers aside and stretched as if she’d been sitting in the same position for too long.

The movement made her thin green sweater strain against her breasts and rise to show a peek of flat tummy above the waistband of her jeans. Realizing the direction his gaze had gone, Connor made himself look away quickly. If they were going to live together comfortably, he needed to take such intimate glimpses in stride. There was no reason at all for his heart rate to suddenly be uneven—so why was it?

“Where’s Alexis?” he asked a bit too abruptly.

Mia didn’t seem to notice anything out of the ordinary in his behavior, to his relief. “She’s in bed. You and I forgot to discuss it, but I think eight is a good bedtime for school nights. Is that okay with you?”

“Uh, yeah, sure. Whatever you think best.” He had no real idea what time a six-year-old should be in bed, but eight sounded about right.

“She didn’t argue with me. Not that she ever does. But I think she was tired. She was sound asleep fifteen minutes later when I peeked in at her.”

“She didn’t sleep all that well last night, I guess.”

“That’s certainly understandable, considering the upheaval in her life.”

“Yeah.” He pushed a hand through his hair. “Is there any coffee?”