Cherished Beginnings by Pamela Browning Read Free Book Online Page A

him, halting her rhythmic and expressive flow of words.
    "I think," he said abruptly, standing up and pulling his wallet out of his pocket, "that we'd better get you home."
    Maura stopped eating and blotted her mouth with a paper napkin. What was happening? She was barely through eating, and Xan was so gruff, and his expression had gone all stony and unreadable. He'd hardly eaten anything on his plate even though the food was delicious.
    "Xan?" she said, staring up at him. Suddenly she knew what had gone wrong. No matter how admiring he had been of her expertise in delivering Annie's baby, and despite his kindness, he was like all the rest of the doctors she'd ever known. He felt threatened. She'd been a fool to talk on and on. She was even more of a fool to entertain the notion that he'd be willing to be her supervising physician.
    His expression softened when he read the impact of her disappointment on her pale face. He couldn't bear to look at her. "I'll pay the check," he said, and he strode away from her toward the cash register.
    Maura slid across the slick red plastic seat and followed Xan to the door. He held it open for her, avoiding her eyes, and she followed him as he stalked to the Harley. "Here," he said, thrusting the helmet at her. "Put this on."
    She looked mutely up at him, and the confusion in her eyes stopped him cold. He didn't like acting this way. He'd loved her earnestness and the way she had so vivaciously shared with him the things that were important to her.
    But there wasn't any way he could fit her into his life if she insisted upon this folly. And he, who had never wanted to arrange his life around any serious relationship with a woman, whose emotions were bound up in his dedication to his profession, had set his heart on having her in his life. He hadn't known how much until he'd realized it was impossible.
    "If you'd rather not take me home, I could possibly track down Scott or Kathleen to come and get me." She gazed up at him with those velvet-brown eyes, and more than anything he wanted to burrow into them and be enfolded in their softness.
    Xan ran a hand through his hair, wishing he were running it through hers. He shook his head. "Don't be ridiculous," he said. "Let's go home."
    He held the bike steady as she swung one long leg over the seat. This time she felt too constrained to wrap her arms around him as he gunned the engine and they swooped out of the parking lot. Instead she balanced herself by settling one hand on either side of his waist above his trim hips. Thank goodness there wasn't any way for him to know the way she reacted to him. She wasn't used to being around men, she thought tremulously. And it showed.
    After a ride remarkable only for the tension stretched between them so tautly that Maura dared not speak, Xan braked to a halt in front of Scott and Kathleen's house. The Teoway Island home of the O'Malleys was magnificent, all weathered wood and soaring angles, with wide smoked-glass windows overlooking the marsh. Architecturally, the structure was at one with its surroundings, looking not at all out of place amid the pines and hickories and sweet gums, which hadn't been cut down to make room for a lawn but were allowed to grow unimpeded in their natural state.
    Xan switched off the engine. The night immediately seemed too quiet. They sat for a moment in silence until they began to hear the sounds of a giant bullfrog in the marsh and then the soft cacophony of the other night creatures of wetlands and forest as they joined in. It was obvious to both of them that each was waiting for the other to make the first move.
    Maura slid from her seat. Xan did, too. "Looks like no one is home," commented Xan. His words sounded empty, and they both knew that it was a hollow remark uttered to fill up the space between them.
    "Scott and Kathleen often go out at night," Maura said, knowing even as she spoke the words that this was nothing Xan didn't already know.
    Xan made no move to