Chad cursed himself for the flippant response because that clearly hadn’t been what her ex had wanted. At least not with her. So, he ate more pie and gave her question the serious answer it deserved. “I’m thirty-four. Most of the years my fr
iends were getting married, I was buried in school or residency. Some of my classmates married during all of that, but they barely saw their spouses or kids, if they had them. I didn’t want that. I grew up with that in my own family. My dad was a virtual stranger, who always put his practice ahead of us.”
“I remember you saying your dad was a doctor, too.”
“He’s a cardio-thoracic surgeon. A brilliant one, who’s saved a lot of lives. But he neglected his family to do it. I didn’t want to be that guy. It’s why I took a position as head of emergency medicine here instead of being a full-time trauma surgeon at a bigger hospital. I wanted time for an actual life. I want to be able to put my eventual wife and family first.”
Mary Alice put the fork down. She shifted her gaze to the plate and wiped her mouth with a napkin, but Chad saw the faint tremble of her lip. He set his own fork aside and reached for her hand. “What is it? What did I say wrong?”
She swallowed, and when she met his gaze again, those big baby blues were suspiciously shiny. “Nothing. You didn’t say anything wrong. You said everything right, in fact.”
He felt a little like he was walking a minefield. “And that…upsets you?”
She sucked in a breath and looked at the ceiling. “I just spent the last two years taking a backseat to a job and someone else’s needs. And I think I’m only just realizing exactly how much I short-changed myself for sticking with it. With him. I deserved better.”
Chad hauled her into his lap and wrapped his arms around her. “I’ll give you better. As long as you’re with me. That’s a promise.”
She framed his face between her palms and laid her lips over his in a kiss that said thank you as much as any words. “You are a very good man, Chad Phillips. And I suppose I’ll have to thank Finn for making herself sick as three dogs so we had a chance to meet.”
“I’ll buy her a dartboard for her very own.” He thought about taking her back to bed, making use of the rest of that pie, but he sensed she needed to take things down a notch and do something easy. “Why don’t we get started on the tree?”
He knew it was the right move when she slid off his lap and moved back to the seemingly endless bag of surprises. “I brought something for you.”
“Yeah? In addition to dinner, dessert, and you? Because I’m not sure even I’ve been that good this year.”
Mary Alice replaced her elf hat, which inspired a whole new set of fantasies, as she stood there, bare-legged and naked beneath his shirt. “I think there’s an entirely acceptable level of naughty. But no.” She pulled something out and brought it over. “The ornament you made in my class. I know you weren’t there the day we painted, so I finished it for you.”
The wreath he’d made had turned out really well. She’d run a red ribbon through a hole at the top to hang it and carved the year in the back. He liked that it was something they’d sort of made together. “Well, obviously that should go front and center.”
“And—” She went back to the bag and pulled out a zip top bag full of candy canes made of beads. “My class made you these. They had such fun working with you, they wanted to do something for you for Christmas, so we did these on Friday.”
Chad found himself absurdly touched that a bunch of third-graders had liked him that much. “That is awesome.” He wondered what it would feel like when someday his own kids made ornaments for the tree. Looking at the kitchen table, with their dessert plates and napkins, he could imagine a couple of kids there making macaroni angels and popsicle stick reindeer. Kids with snaggletoothed grins and big blue eyes. Yeah, that was a good dream.
He drew Mary Alice in for another kiss. “I’ll get the lights.”
Chapter 7
SCHOOL WAS OFFICIALLY OUT for Christmas break and not a moment too soon. Donations were pouring in for Fountain of Hope and that meant Mary Alice and her team were about to be exceptionally busy. They had three days to get everything picked up from the donation sites, wrapped, and delivered to each family. She’d appointed herself to swing by the hospital, on the off-chance Chad had a few minutes to grab some coffee.
It seemed ridiculous to miss him. She’d just seen him last night. And while there hadn’t been time for a reprisal of Sunday—or execution of his most excellent suggestion of what to do with the last of that pie—she was wearing a turtleneck sweater today to cover up the beard burn on her throat. She, Mary Alice Reed, was dating one of Wishful’s most eligible bachelors, and it felt fantastic.
She had a spring in her step as she strode through the automatic doors and headed for the elevator up to the second-floor nurse’s station. Corinne had said everything was gathered and stored in a locked closet upstairs. Not too convenient for off-loading, but she’d promised to round up a few pairs of extra hands to help haul everything out to Mary Alice’s car. She’d just touch base, then swing by the ER.
Mary Alice took the elevator up, humming to herself. She hadn’t planned on having a new boyfriend this close to Christmas, which put her at something of a disadvantage on the gift-giving front. It was hard to know what was appropriate, given the newness of their relationship. Maybe something for his house? He’d seemed to like the idea of homey touches, and certainly he could use some. But that seemed like she was making a claim on his space, and despite the giddy sense that they were definitely headed in that direction, it was way too soon to do that. Maybe something baked. He had really liked the pie.
Flipping through her mental index of recipes, Mary Alice stepped off the elevator and right into a broad chest. “Oh!”
Big, familiar hands came up to cup her shoulders and steady her. “Sorry about that.”
Mary Alice’s stomach clenched as she looked up—way up—into Judd’s familiar blue eyes. “Hey. What are you doing here?” He hated hospitals with a vengeance.
Autumn stepped out from behind him and offered a little wave. “Hi.”
Seeing the other woman, Mary Alice expected to feel anger or jealousy—something. But seeing her here, it wasn’t any of those emotions at the forefront. It was concern. Autumn had a congenital heart defect. She’d had surgery back in high school and had been under strict medical supervision ever since. No matter what had passed between them, she didn’t wish the other woman ill. “Is everything okay?”
Neither of them were throwing off worried vibes. In fact, they both seemed to be trying to repress a bubbling excitement.
Autumn’s fair cheeks flushed. “I’m fine. Great, in fact.” She shifted, but not before Mary Alice’s gaze dropped to the glossy black and white photo in her hand. An ultrasound.