Cindy's Doctor Charming by Teresa Southwick

eyes as his gaze lazily drifted over her. “Then we can stay here.”
    â€œI’m not prepared to feed company.” Did her voice sound as breathless and needy to him as it did to her?
    â€œThat’s code for you’re broke, right?”
    â€œIt’s the week before payday.” Her whole life felt like the week before she got paid.
    â€œSo we’ll order pizza. I’ll buy,” he added.
    That was a really bad idea. The last time he’d been in her house they’d had sex and now she was pregnant. She wasn’t sure if something worse could happen, but she wasn’t willing to take the risk.
    Before she could figure out a way to turn him down, hesaid, “I can see the wheels in your head turning and before you use up any more mental energy, you should know that I’m not taking no for an answer. Just look at it as a meal you don’t have to pick up the tab for. My treat.”
    He was a treat, all right. That’s what worried her the most. But it didn’t look like he was going away without getting what he wanted. She wasn’t sure if his persistence was endearing or annoying, but at least she’d get a free meal out of it.
    â€œOkay. I’ll change my clothes and we’ll go out.”
    â€œWhile you’re at it, how about changing your attitude?” he called after her.
    She heard the humor in his voice and couldn’t help smiling. He wasn’t giving her much of a choice, so she might as well make the best of it. The prospect of not sitting home all by herself and fretting about how she was going to make this baby thing work did lift her spirits.
    Besides, what could happen in public?
    Â 
    Nathan sat across from Cindy in a diner near the hospital and watched her hide behind a large menu the waitress had delivered when taking their drink orders. If it wasn’t the week before payday, there was a better than even chance Cindy would have told him to stuff a sock in his dinner invitation. He hadn’t worked that hard for anything since his internship.
    Determination had served him well then, but he’d need more than that to deal with this woman. She had a chip on her shoulder as big as Nevada and somehow he had to separate her from it. The challenge got his juices going.
    Sooner or later she would figure out that he wasn’t going away.
    â€œHave you been here before?” he asked.
    â€œNo. Have you?”
    â€œYes.” It was handy when he was working.
    The restaurant had a black and white tiled floor, red Formica tables and matching upholstery on the chrome stools at the counter. Waitresses wore red and white pinstriped uniforms to go with the retro look. It wasn’t Capriotti’s, which was kind of the point. That romantic atmosphere had landed him in this complicated mess. Now that he thought about it, he’d worked pretty hard to get her to have dinner with him that night, too.
    And now she was pregnant.
    Wrapping his head around the reality wasn’t easy, especially when she looked as slender as the night he’d held her in his arms. She’d changed into a pair of denim capris, but he really missed the shorts that left her legs bare. And the short, knit top that let him have flashes of the naked flesh beneath. Neither outfit gave a clue about her condition, yet he didn’t doubt that she was telling the truth. Funny, but her prickly attitude and the order to back off landed squarely in the confirmation column. She wouldn’t do that if she were trying to pull a fast one.
    There was zero romance here in this diner, but he could still smell the intoxicating scent of her perfume, and that cranked up a yearning in his gut that had nothing to do with food.
    He blew out a long breath. “So, what are you going to have?”
    â€œI don’t see peanut butter and jelly,” she grumbled from behind the menu.
    â€œHow about a cobb salad?”
    She peeked around the tall plastic and met his