Diagnosis: Daddy (Doctors in Training 1)

She moistened her lips. “Um—Connor?”

“I hope you know how much I appreciate everything you do for Alexis. And for me,” he said, his fingers moving almost caressingly on hers. “I don’t blame her at all for being so partial to you. She’s crazy about you. And I—”

She held her breath.

The sound of the doorbell from the other room broke the spell between them. She started, pulling back from him with a confused mixture of relief and frustration. “That will be trick-or-treaters,” she said, her voice sounding odd to her own ears. “I’ll go take care of them while you carry this stuff into the other room.”

He nodded and turned to get a tray. Her heart still beating too rapidly, Mia hurried to answer the door.

Chapter Seven

As November crept along toward Thanksgiving, the Hayes/Doyle household settled into a comfortable routine. It was a busy time for Mia at school, with tests and programs and preparation for national testing. She brought work home with her nearly every night, settling onto the couch or at the kitchen table with her paperwork while Alexis entertained herself nearby. Once or twice a week she had plans outside the house for the evening, and Connor studied at home to watch Alexis. He’d been scrupulous about punctuality since the first time he’d run late, so she had no complaints about that.

Alexis was still clearly partial to Mia, but she seemed to be less reserved around Connor as the time passed. She still had nightmares occasionally. She still refused to talk about them, and only Mia could comfort her afterward, but they weren’t coming as often. Still attributing them to the upheaval in the child’s life, Mia hoped they’d be gone completely by Christmastime.

Alexis told them over dinner one evening that her best friend, McKenzie, was taking dance classes, making it clear that she would love to take lessons as we

ll. After she was in bed, Mia and Connor discussed it and decided to enroll her in dance classes. Mia offered to help pay for them, but Connor’s pride kicked in. He informed her in a somewhat prickly tone that he could pay for his daughter’s dance lessons. She hadn’t intended to insult him, but she didn’t argue, wisely deciding to let it go. He would never know if she purchased a few dance supplies for Alexis now and then, she decided privately.

So on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, she picked up Alexis from school and drove her straight to dance classes. Mia waited in the “mom’s lounge” with a book or some paperwork during the forty-minute lessons. She was getting to know the others who usually waited there during the lessons—several mothers of various ages, a couple of grandmothers, two nannies and a single dad. Even though she didn’t belong to any of those groups exactly, she was accepted among them easily enough.

“I wish you would tell me your secret for teaching Alexis such perfect manners,” one of the mothers said after the third week of lessons. “She is such a well-behaved little girl.”

“I can’t take credit for that,” Mia admitted, looking up from her book with a smile. “I’ve only been responsible for her for a couple of months. Before that, she was raised by her grandmother.”

“Well, someone certainly trained her right,” one of the grandmothers said. “As much as I love my Kimberly, she can really be a trial sometimes. Got a smart mouth on her. I keep telling my daughter that she’d better put a stop to it soon, before Kimberly turns into a wild teenager, but my daughter thinks it’s cute now. She’ll regret that soon enough,” she predicted darkly.

Connie Porterfield, McKenzie’s bubbly, red-haired mother, leaned closer to Mia. “I’m so glad Alexis and McKenzie have become such good friends. McKenzie has never been very difficult, but Alexis is still a good influence on her.”

“McKenzie has been a good friend to Alexis. She certainly made her feel welcome at her new school, from the very first day.”

“McKenzie’s birthday is next weekend and she’s begging to have a couple of her friends for a sleepover. I worry that they’re a little young. Do you think Alexis would be interested in spending the night at our house?”

“I don’t know, but I could ask her.” Mia wasn’t sure how Alexis would feel about that, especially in light of the nightmares that troubled her occasionally.

“I told McKenzie that her friends might be a little nervous about sleeping away from home for the first time, but she seems convinced that Alexis and Kayla will both be fine. McKenzie’s not exactly timid,” she added wryly.

Mia laughed. “I’ve noticed.”

“Well, anyway, ask Alexis how she feels about the sleepover and I’ll ask Kayla’s mom to do the same. We can always just have a regular party if the girls prefer.”

Obviously McKenzie and Alexis had already been discussing the sleepover, Mia realized when she broached the subject on the way home.

“We’re going to play dress up. And board games. And McKenzie has a dog named Sookie that she said we can play with.”

Mia glanced away from the road long enough to study Alexis’s face in the rearview mirror. “You want to have a sleepover with McKenzie?”

“Oh, yes. McKenzie said it would be the funnest birthday party ever.”

“You don’t think you’d be afraid, sleeping away from home?”

Alexis shrugged. “I’ve slept in lots of places. I think it would be fun.”

Mia kept forgetting just how much Alexis had experienced in such a short lifetime. “We’ll ask your dad. If it’s okay with him, then it’s fine with me. And you can always call if you want to come home early. Either one of us will be happy to come after you.”

“Okay. But McKenzie said we can have chocolate doughnuts with sprinkles for breakfast.”

Not the healthiest breakfast, but Mia supposed it would be okay for a special occasion. She suspected that Alexis would come home from the sleepover a bit sleep-deprived and on a sugar high, but that wasn’t so bad either. She had fond memories of a few silly sleepovers of her own. “I’ll let you borrow my camera, if you like, and you can take pictures.”