From Dare To Due Date

He looked at his stainless steel watch. It would probably take a few more minutes for the patient to complete the insurance paperwork, so he went back to puttering.

After about ten minutes, he heard murmuring, and then Ms. Walker’s voice again. “Great. Follow me on back to the exam room.”

Garrett was shoving his left arm into the sleeve of his white lab coat when his receptionist walked in and handed the file to him.

“Doctor, Mia Palinski is here to see you,” Cessy said then walked out, leaving Garrett face-to-face with his first patient.

But instead of sticking out his hand to introduce himself, he froze when he recognized the midnight-black hair, the pale blue eyes and the graceful body he could never forget.

Chapter Four

No, Mia thought. No, no, no.

GPM was here in Sugar Falls? And he was her doctor? How had this happened?

“It’s you,” was all he said. She stood there, stiff and numb, drinking in the sight of him, at a complete loss of what to say without looking foolish.

“You live here in Sugar Falls?” he asked when she remained silent. His eyes hadn’t stopped their constant perusal of her. “How could this have happened?”

His words mirrored her own thoughts so exactly that the nervous giggle she’d been trying to swallow almost bubbled out. But then he smiled as though Santa had just delivered a long-sought-after Christmas gift to him and a familiar cold panic spread through her. Mia reached for the file, the one containing all her personal information, including the fact that she was now carrying this stranger’s child, and tried to yank it from his hands. The hands that had so skillfully brought her body to life just two months ago.

Judging by the way he was gripping the manila folder, she probably would’ve had better luck ripping a present away from a child. She dropped her arms instead, the instinctive response of flight winning over her urge to fight.

She inched backward, calculating an escape route in her mind. The exam room was in the farthest corner of the building and if her knee was in better shape, she could probably make it out of his office in less than three seconds.

But then she recalled that the self-appointed socialite of Sugar Falls was sitting right outside and had a penchant for spreading her unsolicited opinions around town. Of course, it wasn’t as if Mia was going to be able to hide her pregnancy much longer, but she would’ve at least liked to keep the baby’s paternity somewhat secret.

Which brought her back to the question: How had this happened? What in the world was he doing here? And how was she going to deal with the consequences of her actions?

“Miss,” he paused and looked down at the file still in his hands. “Palinski? It is miss, right? Not missus?”

His eyes seemed to be pleading with her to assure him that she wasn’t married. Was he hoping that if she was single, she’d be up for a repeat performance? She didn’t respond only because she didn’t want to feed his unrealistic expectations.

Of course, he’d find out the answer soon enough since he was still holding on to her medical history, which clearly listed her full name, insurance information and, unfortunately, her address. But that didn’t mean Mia had to show her hand just yet.

“Why don’t you step inside so we can talk—” he looked pointedly at her feet, which were now completely backed into in the hallway “—more privately.”

Being alone with this guy was the last thing she wanted. But it wasn’t as if she could hide from him if he was truly setting up shop in Sugar Falls.

At least, not yet. Plus, Mrs. Walker would be right outside the room, probably with a stethoscope pressed against the door, and could hopefully intervene if things took a bad turn.

Mia took a deep breath. Really, she knew better than to project her one bad experience onto other men. She needed to think logically. GP or Dr. McCormick or whatever his name was was a reputable surgeon. Her best friend’s husband—the chief of police, for crying out loud—had been one of his patients. Chances were he wasn’t some obsessed sociopath who, several weeks after meeting her, decided to uproot his whole life and move his medical practice to Sugar Falls, Idaho, in order to stalk her.

Besides, she’d already let down way more than her guard with him before.

Maybe that was what she was really afraid of. She’d already proved that she couldn’t trust herself alone in a room with him.

He put his hand on her elbow and Mia immediately flinched and pulled her arm away. He looked surprised and a bit offended by her response, and she felt so stupid for being there in the first place. She swallowed a gulp of air and entered the room, turning around quickly so that she wouldn’t have her back to him or be susceptible to a surprise attack.

Calm down. He isn’t Nick. He’s not going to hurt you. Even as Mia tried to reassure herself, she couldn’t help but take inventory of her surroundings. Old habits died hard when she was thrown into an uncomfortable environment. Plus, she had more than just herself to protect now.

There was an exam table, which she had absolutely no intention of lying down on, a stool and a hard plastic chair that looked like the kind her elementary school would’ve thrown out a couple of decades ago.

For a guy with impeccable taste in shoes and scotch, he really could benefit from hiring Cessy Walker as a decorator rather than a receptionist.

“Do you mind if I close this?” He was holding the heavy birch wood door and Mia was grateful he was at least giving her the option of escaping. She nodded after checking to ensure there were no internal locks on the knob.

The room was small and they stood inches away from each other. The only way to put some distance between them would be if one of them sat down, but she didn’t want to put herself at a disadvantage.

“Well, Mia Palinski, I didn’t expect to meet you again.”

“I didn’t expect to meet you the first time,” she said before thinking better of it. She was a natural peacemaker and hated confrontations. Plus, her mother had drilled politeness into her from a young age, warning her she never knew when she’d come across a potential talent scout or rich stepfather. “Sorry. This is all so unexpected and I’m not usually so flustered like this—not that you would know. We don’t really know each other at all.”