Dr. Dad by Judith Arnold Read Free Book Online

Lindsey’s special nickname for me.”
    â€œShe’s a wonderful girl,” Susannah said, wishing she could bring Lindsey back into the dining room and make things right with her.
    â€œWhen she’s not being a pain in the butt.” He lowered his glass. “Would you like a brownie?”
    â€œThey’re not that good,” she confessed, then laughed. “I made them from a mix. I’m a terrible cook.”
    â€œLindsey will love them. She’ll probably pig out on them later tonight.”
    He trailed his index finger around the rim of hisglass. His wrists were bony, his hands large yet surprisingly elegant. She imagined him patting the shoulder of his young patient with asthma and soothing that child. She imagined him wiping a tear from his daughter’s cheek or writing her a note, signing it “Dr. Dad” in a smooth, sleek script. She’d seen him loosen his tie, and she imagined his nimble fingers tugging the tie completely free of his collar, moving down the front of his shirt to undo the buttons, gliding over a woman’s skin, lifting her hair from the nape of her neck so he could plant a kiss there….
    She blinked to rid herself of the vision. “I should probably be going,” she said, externally calm, giving no hint of what she’d been thinking, or how those thoughts had made her feel. She was warm inside, tense, restless in a disturbing way. Tobias Cole was an easy man to like, but she didn’t want to like him.
    He glanced at her refilled wineglass, then lifted his gaze to meet hers. His smile faded and he nodded. Apparently, he recognized that she needed to leave. She only hoped he didn’t understand why.
    â€œI really enjoyed dinner,” she added.
    â€œMaybe we’ll do it again sometime.” He stood as she did, and his smile seemed slightly rueful. She wanted to assure him that yes, they definitely would do it again sometime. Lots of times, if he wished. She would love to have dinner with him—and his daughter, too. She’d love just to observe a normal family, the affection between a father and his daughter, the simple rhythms of ordinary life.
    She wanted him to know she was sorry she had to go—but she couldn’t stay if merely glancing at his hands filled her with erotic ideas.
    But she had to stop feeling sorry about everythingshe did. Smiling, she let him usher her through the kitchen to the hall that led to his front door. “Thanks for coming,” he said, opening the heavy oak door and letting the cool evening spill in.
    So formal, so stilted. Straight from the book of etiquette. But his gaze wasn’t formal. It wasn’t even polite. It was dark and bold, reaching inside her, searching, touching places she’d thought she’d sealed up tight, places that had been wounded and not yet healed. He was a doctor. Did he know how to heal her? Could those profoundly dark eyes of his perform a miracle cure?
    She didn’t want to know. But when she returned his steady, probing gaze, she couldn’t help wondering.

CHAPTER THREE
    F ROM HER BEDROOM window, Lindsey had a view of the whole side of Susannah Dawson’s house. Susannah hadn’t hung any curtains yet, and glaring light filled most of the windows. Perched on her bed, Lindsey could see inside the living room—a couch, a few chairs, a colorful area rug on the hardwood floor—and the dining room—a circular table and matching chairs, the light a little less bright in there. On the second floor she could see into the bedroom that used to be Cathy’s.
    She and Cathy used to communicate between their windows at night, after their parents had sent them to bed. They’d worked out their own secret system using flashlights. They’d tried Morse Code, but that was too complicated, so they’d invented a code of their own: moving the beam up and down meant yes, moving it from side to side meant no, swinging it in a