To Have the Doctor's Baby by Teresa Southwick Read Free Book Online

about all the cardio equipment he wants to buy for Mercy Medical Center?”
    â€œAlways,” her friend said.
    â€œIf he was a pediatric cardiologist I might be able to help you out. But he’s a big-people doctor.”
    â€œYes, he is. And likes to brag that he fixes broken hearts.”
    â€œHe does.”
    â€œAnd he’s good at it,” Avery admitted grudgingly. “If he weren’t it would be a lot easier to dislike him.”
    â€œBut you manage?”
    Her friend shrugged. “He hits on women like crash dummies hit windshields.”
    â€œAnd that’s a problem?”
    â€œNot for me. I can handle him.”
    Ryleigh didn’t doubt that. She might look small, blonde, fragile and defenseless, but Avery was not an air-head, didn’t take any crap and could handle pretty much anything.
    She pulled two paper plates out of the pantry and scooped a piece of pepperoni pizza onto each one. Then she carried the food into the adjacent family room and set it on the glass-topped table sitting between the green and coral floral sofa and the fireplace with wall-mounted flat-screen TV above.
    â€œWell, I like your new look. It’s adorable and becoming. Fresh and new since I last saw you.”
    â€œBarely four months ago when I visited you in Baltimore.”
    â€œI know that tone.” Ryleigh followed her and sat on the couch. “You’re annoyed.”
    â€œYes, I am.” After filling two glasses with red wine, Avery sat beside her.
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œLet me count the ways.” Avery held up her index finger. “First, you moved away.”
    Ryleigh finished chewing a bite of pizza, but it tasted like cardboard. She knew where this conversation was headed. “You know why I had to leave.”
    â€œI know you believed it would save your marriage, but I think we can all see how well that turned out.”
    â€œSounds stupid when you say it like that, but distance seemed like a good idea at the time.” She sipped her wine, but it didn’t dull the memory of how much it had hurt toleave Nick. “I know now that I was hoping he would beg me not to go. Even after I’d started the job, I had a fantasy that he’d come after me, bring me back. It was immature and naive.”
    â€œNope. I completely get it.” There was sympathy in her friend’s blue eyes. “I just didn’t like it.”
    â€œThat’s why I love you.”
    â€œReally?” The annoyed tone was back. “If that were true, you’d have said something about moving back to Las Vegas. No?”
    â€œNo. When you visited, I’d just applied for the job and you know how that goes. Contact followed by weeks of waiting. An interview and more waiting. Another interview, then the field is narrowed to two and you’re on pins and needles while they try to decide, even though we all know they’re probably going to flip a coin. Heads it’s John Doe, tails it’s Ryleigh Evans.”
    â€œI know how it works, but best friends tell each other everything.”
    Ryleigh wanted to remind her that there was a big chunk of her life that Avery wouldn’t talk about, but decided not to go there. There must be a damn good reason why she didn’t talk about it, and the best friend bond respected that.
    â€œAnd sometimes,” Ryleigh said, “a friend tries to spare her best friend pain. I didn’t want to get your hopes up and then have it all fall apart.”
    â€œOkay. Totally understandable. Because my hopes would have gone stratosphere high. And I remember how hard it was to let you go. I still haven’t forgiven you for leaving.”
    â€œYou just said you understood.”
    â€œI did and I do. But that’s different from letting you off the hook for abandoning me.”
    â€œWell, I’m back now.”
    â€œYes, you are and about darn time. But why is that?” Annoyance was gone, replaced by