Diagnosis: Daddy (Doctors in Training 1)

She hesitated, then shrugged. “Why not. Tomorrow’s Sunday. I can relax then.”

He poured a second cup for her. As he handed it to her, he thought back to the ice storm when a splashed cup of coffee had led to steaming kisses in the dark. He swallowed hard and turned half away. “We can take these into the living room.”

She seemed to be having a little trouble meeting his eyes, too. “Fine.”

He waited until she was seated o

n the couch, and then he settled beside her, placing his coffee cup on a coaster.

“How are you, really?” he asked, turning to face her. Studying the faint purple circles beneath her eyes, he wondered just how much rest she’d managed during the past week.

“I’m fine. A little tired, but just so glad Dad’s going to be okay. He’s only sixty-four. My family wasn’t prepared to lose him yet.”

“You’re never ready,” he murmured, thinking of his mother.

Shaking off the somber mood, she turned to look at him. “I felt terrible leaving you to deal with everything here on your own. I know you kept telling me everything was okay, but how did you manage?”

He smiled a little. “I’m not saying it was easy, but we got through it fine. Connie Porterfield was a great help. She took Alexis to dance classes and brought her home afterward. My study group met here several nights, so I didn’t fall behind. We ate a lot of takeout, I’m afraid, but I tried to make healthy choices. I had a little trouble learning to tie a bow in Alexis’s hair, but I’m getting pretty good at it, I think.”

Her eyebrows rose. “It sounds like you managed quite well without me.”

He gave a little shrug. “We got by.”

She started to say something, but stopped with a frown, turning her head toward the doorway. “Did I hear Alexis?”

“Yeah, maybe—”

She moved to rise. “I’ll go see what she—”

“Daddy!” The call came again, more clearly this time.

“Oh.” Mia sank back into the cushions. “She wants you.”

“I’ll be right back.”

He hurried toward Alexis’s room, wondering what the problem could be. She hadn’t been asleep long enough to have another nightmare, had she?

“What’s up, princess?” he asked, opening her door and crossing the room.

Although she sounded a little drowsy, she wasn’t asleep, and he didn’t think she had been as yet. “Would you check under my bed?”

Tilting his head, he planted his fists on his hips. “You aren’t afraid of anything under your bed,” he accused her. He might not have been a father long, but he knew a con when he heard one.

“There could be something under there,” she insisted, innocently batting her eyes.

“But there isn’t and you know it.” He reached down to tuck her covers more snugly beneath her chin, settling Pete and Bob beside her. “Go to sleep, princess. I’ll be close by if you really need anything.”

Maybe she had just wanted to hear that reassurance. Nestling into the pillow, she murmured, “Okay. ’Night, Daddy.”

With a bemused shake of his head, he left the room to return to Mia.

Because Connor was smiling when he returned, Mia allowed herself to relax. “It wasn’t a bad dream?”

He shook his head and sat beside her again. “Not this time. She was just stalling. A variation on the old can-I-have-a-drink-of-water routine.”

“Oh.” She thought about that a moment. “She’s never done that before.”

“No. I used to try every excuse in the book to keep my parents coming into my room at night.”