Sweets to the Sweet Read Free Page B

planned for the afternoon other than chauffeuring two strangers to their pediatrician.”
    True. Particularly when the pink-cheeked, happily sleeping infant on her shoulder couldn’t possibly need a doctor—but Laura, Owen was discovering, was a stubborn woman. Also, she was determined to let him know that a man wasn’t welcome in her life.
    “And another thing…” Laura said quietly.
    At a red light, Owen turned to study her, having no interest in hearing yet “another thing.” She was sitting as close to the door as possible and wearing a smile like a shield. What the hell did she think he was going to do, attack her?
    Actually, that was partly the cause of his headache. He wanted to. Not attack her, exactly, but definitely touch. The impulse was embarrassing, and offended every grain of integrity Owen possessed. He was hardly in the habit of picking up married women, much less young mothers with their offspring in tow. Laura had clearly recovered from the accident; the color was back in her face and her voice was calm. He didn’t have the slightest excuse for continuing to hang around.
    Except that every instinct told him something was wrong. She shouldn’t be alone, not this soon after having a baby, with no one to call. He was concerned about the circles under her eyes, and she ought to be several pounds heavier…and her coral mouth was as naturally kissable as any he’d seen in thirty-three years. Where was her husband?
    “And another thing,” Laura repeated. “I have good insurance coverage. It’ll pay for the repairs to your car. And if there’s anything that isn’t covered, I promise you I’ll take care of it.”
    “Yes.” He looked straight ahead. Insurance was the last thing on his mind, but it gave him an opening. “Would you prefer I call your husband if there’s any problem?”
    “That won’t be necessary. The policy’s in my name.”
    Which answered nothing. The woman’s quiet-voiced replies were gradually reducing him to insanity. He was left with little choice but to be straightforward and blunt. “If I were your husband, I would want to know you’d been in an accident.”
    Those turquoise eyes flickered briefly over his face. Her cucumber-cool smile didn’t falter. “I’m not married—actually, my divorce was final a month ago. Is that what you’ve been trying to ask?”
    It wasn’t pleasant, having his own straightforward and blunt manner turned back on him. “Yes.”
    At his disgruntled expression, Laura chuckled. “Relax, I didn’t think you were prying. You were just being kind. Thank you,” she added warmly as he parked in front of the doctor’s office. “I’ll take a taxi home.”
    “I’ll see you in.”
    “There’s no need.”
    The woman could give lessons on destroying a man’s ego, but he took her inside anyway.
    In the waiting room, Owen collapsed in a chair and tried to figure out what on earth he thought he was doing there. He had plenty to do this afternoon besides sit in a roomful of toddlers. The only reading material was on child-rearing, breast-feeding and potty-training. The six women in the room kept looking at him, and he felt distinctly out of place. Shifting, he glanced at his watch.
    She’d been in with the doctor for two minutes. Already it seemed like two hours.
    After a quick trip to the car, he settled down with Forbes. A detailed article charted the previous year’s patterns in commodities and predicted heavy bidding in cocoa futures, which would affect chocolate prices over the next six months. Chocolate was Owen’s livelihood; he could have been engrossed, if a sticky-handed one-year-old hadn’t used his pant leg to pull himself up and then stand there, wiggle-bottomed, asking, “Da? Da? ”
    The boy’s mother rushed over, all blushes and flushes, to grab the urchin. Owen heard a brunette whispering to her neighbor about how her sex life had ceased after the baby was born. He sighed, raising his Forbes to eye level.
    He was