What the Doctor Didn't Tell Her Read Free

with
her.
    They might as well talk. This morning had
broken the ice, and besides, they had to function as colleagues.
Not to mention that dodging him at her house was wearing
thin.
    She selected a pastrami sandwich with a side
salad and joined him at the table. “Good job this morning.” It
seemed a safe topic.
    “ I’m glad to be here,” he said
earnestly. “Listen, I didn’t mean to be rude when you asked why I
moved to a small town in Arizona.”
    “ It really isn’t my business.”
Sarah tackled her sandwich hungrily.
    “ The truth is….” He paused. “Let’s
start with part of the truth. Neither of us has all
day.”
    “ Fair enough,” she
mumbled.
    Daniel leaned back, his long legs bumping
Sarah’s. With his dramatic dark coloring and soulful air, he was
almost painfully handsome, she thought, and shifted so they were no
longer touching.
    “ Shortly after Nina’s birth, my
brother Fred got laid off his job,” he began.
    What did that have to do with moving to
Arizona? Sarah wondered, but kept quiet. No doubt he’d make the
connection soon.
    “ He started binge drinking,” he
went on. “When he got a job managing a motel in northern Arizona,
Misty—my sister-in-law—wasn’t thrilled, but she went
along.”
    A couple of nurses carried their trays to a
table that gave them a good view of Daniel. He didn’t appear to
notice.
    “ When I learned that the local
clinic had an opening for an obstetrician, I decided to take the
post for a year to keep an eye on things,” he went on. “I hoped my
brother would stay sober now that he had a job and a
baby,”
    “ Did he?”
    Daniel gave a resigned headshake. “He and
Misty quarreled frequently, and then she started drinking heavily,
too. I took care of Nina as much as I could.”
    All these years, he’d been sacrificing for his
niece? “She’s a sweetheart. But that must have been hard on you and her.”
    “ I encouraged them to join
Alcoholics Anonymous, but it was a lost cause,” he said. “They
wouldn’t even acknowledge the problem. Then one night there was a
fire.” He broke off, breathing hard.
    They’d died in a fire, Sarah recalled. “What
happened, exactly?”
    “ One of the motel guests heard
Nina screaming and pulled her out of the manager’s apartment before
the firefighters arrived.” He clenched his hands on the table.
“Fred and Misty died from smoke inhalation.”
    “ That’s awful.” And horrifying,
especially for the little girl. “What caused the fire, if you don’t
mind my asking?”
    “ The investigator said it started
in the kitchen. Possibly unattended cooking equipment.” Daniel’s
chest rose and fell rapidly. “My niece has blocked that whole
night. She doesn’t remember any specifics. I hired a therapist,
hoping to help Nina face what happened so she can heal, but it
hasn’t worked.”
    “ You stayed there another
year?”
    “ Until the adoption was final.
Then I heard about this job and it was perfect.”
    He still hadn’t said why he’d withdrawn from
their relationship. If it had to do with his brother’s problems,
there’d be no reason to keep it secret.
    Yet Sarah wondered if she’d been too hard on
him. Or was his magnetic pull clouding her judgment?
    If so, she’d better get over it.
Soon.
     
     
     

Chapter Three
     
     
    That afternoon, Luke
Van Dam called Sarah’s name as she walked past his private office.
When she stopped in the doorway, he said, “Thanks for supervising
Daniel today. My wife tells me you two had some issues from the
past. If I’d been aware of that, I wouldn’t have volunteered
you.”
    “ No
problem.” Since he didn’t appear reassured, Sarah added, “We’ve put
that behind us.”
    “ Glad to
hear it. And it’s great that your mom’s able to watch his little
girl.” Luke was a striking man in his own right, despite a slightly
crooked nose from an old football injury. “I remember how hard it
was when Zoey was a kid, after the divorce. My