*
Evan smiled as he spied his gorgeous wife talking to Claire. “Should you be running around the hospital, Dr. Sinclair?” He sauntered over to her and kissed her on the cheek.
“Uh, I’ll leave you guys to it then.” Claire waved her fingers and headed off to her own office.
“Evan, we need to talk.” Her eyes were stormy rolls of dark gray waves and he frowned.
“You feeling okay?”
“I’m angry, in case you haven’t noticed. Can we go somewhere and talk uninterrupted?”
“Sure.” He took her arm and led her into the room he’d just come out of. He urged her to sit on the chair while he leant against the bed. “What’s going on, Denver?”
She wrung her hands together and her knuckles were white. “You know I put that proposal to the board for us to share joint directorship?” He nodded his head. “I had a visit just now from Dr. Dunlop. He did a check on you.” Her face paled and he suffered a twinge of panic.
“Are you feeling okay, honestly? Tell me, Denver.” He stepped closer to her and reached to hold her hand when she slid bonelessly to the floor in a dead faint. “Shit.” He opened the door and then reached down to pick her up in his arms. Evan carried her to the emergency room and walked into the first empty cubical he could find.
The doctor on duty was Frank and he quickly appeared by Evan’s side. “What happened?”
“She went pale and passed out. No pain that she told me about. I know she was upset, but I really haven’t got any idea what the heck happened.”
“I suspect she’s doing more than she should be. It can happen easily enough. I think we both know how much of a workload she has.” Frank took her blood pressure and she started to come around. When she tried to sit up, Evan put his hand on her shoulder and pushed her back on the bed.
“You need to relax for a moment. You passed out.”
She lifted a hand to her face and moaned. “Sorry. I don’t know what happened.”
“You’re doing too much. Admit it, Denver.” Frank undid the blood pressure cuff and wrote down the figures. “Your pressure is up. Any pain?”
She shook her head. “No, I feel fine that way. My head is a little off though, kind of foggy.”
“It’s back to bed rest for you and this time you’re staying here where I can keep an eye on you for forty eight hours, then if all is well I might let you go home.” She tried to protest. “It’s not an option this time, Denver. I’ll get the girls to organize a bed for you.” He walked away, leaving a frustrated Denver and a worried husband behind.
“I wish you’d tell me what’s wrong.” Evan gripped her hand. “I know there’s something going on and it’s not good if this is what it does to you.”
“My father told Dr. Dunlop that you were taking up the position of director of the ER in Seattle when it came due shortly. I want to know why you didn’t think to tell me this.” She lay pale on the white sheets and Evan stared, momentarily stunned.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He was rejected for the job he thought was his dream, told to reapply the following year, but he had no intention of doing so. His place was here, with Denver and their baby and the rest of his family.
“Perhaps you need to think things over for a while. Or have a talk with my father because he thinks you’re going to work for him again in the near future. A future that won’t include me or our child.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Denver lay still in the bed ignoring the activity surrounding her. The nurses came in to check her blood pressure every hour and she let them do it without a fuss while she zoned out, her thoughts churning over and over as she tried to make sense of the last few days. Evan visited her and tried to plead his case, but she wasn’t in the mood to listen. It felt as though her father was winning again, organizing her life for her, taking control as he always had. One moment she and Evan were fine, the next they were on opposite sides of the fence.
For a time there after her hurried marriage, she’d thought things would work out well for her and Evan. He wasn’t the type to be bought by promises and glitter. He was a down-to-earth country boy with a good heart and an easygoing nature. Perhaps she’d judged him wrong. The directorship of the ER was what he’d wanted before she’d met him. Before they’d moved to the tiny town that was his family home.
She closed her eyes and tried to sleep. The staff moving around the hospital became a low drone that she pushed out of her mind. Her peace shattered as footsteps came thudding down the hallway, an angry voice boomed at the nursing station and her heart pounded in her chest. It can’t be, surely?
“Denver, what is going on here?” She opened her eyes and saw her father looming in the doorway, his face a mask of dismay.
“Father, what are you doing in Marietta?” She propped herself up in bed as he stepped into the room. His glance around the tiny space made her wince. She knew what he was thinking and it annoyed her. Nothing was ever as good as the hospital he ruled with an iron fist.
“I heard you were unwell, so of course I came. I’m going to arrange for you to come home. You need better care than you can get here.” He stepped over and picked up her chart.
She would have loved a hug from her father, but that was never going to happen.
“Why didn’t you call me when you found out you were pregnant? I had to find out about it from Dr. Dunlop when he called about your husband. You know I only want the best for you?” He flicked over a page and frowned. “They aren’t equipped to deal with this here. I want you at my hospital until the doctors decide you can go home, and then you’re coming back to the mansion. Your old suite will be ready for you and the child.”
“No. I’m not going anywhere. This is my home now and this is where I’m staying.”
He glanced over the clipboard at her, annoyance showing in his face. “Even when your husband takes up his new job?” He hooked the report on the end of her bed again and looked down at her.
“Evan has a job here, as do I.” Her heart beat wildly in her chest and she pushed the call button. She wanted her husband by her side, even if he hadn’t told her he wanted to stay in Marietta.
Her father smiled, a secretive nasty little smile that she knew bode no good will. He always had the ability to make her feel small and inconsequential and she could never bring up the reserves to fight him. “For now. Since you are pregnant, Denver, he will be given the job he wanted. It is what I promised him if he got you with child and it looks as though he’s delivered.”
“I heard that, Daddy, and you judged him wrong.”
“I think not, Denver. I’m a good judge of character and Evan will be taking over the position when it comes available.”
The stars swirled in her peripheral vision and she fought against the dizziness swamping her. “No. He wouldn’t do that to me, not now. He wanted a baby for us, not for you or the job. Evan wouldn’t do that, no matter what you try to say. I know him better than you ever will.”
Her father laughed and she could see the face of a worried nurse at the doorway before she ran back to the nurse’s station.
“You would be surprised how many people would put their own needs on hold to get what they want. Your husband is no different to many other young doctors with stars in his eyes, eager to do whatever it takes to curry favor from me. I thought you might have been easier to manipulate but if I can get to you through your husband, so be it.” He leaned on the foot of the bed, staring her down. “You will move back home if you know what’s good for you.”
*
Evan ran down the hallway toward Denver’s room and heard the threatening tone in his father-in-law’s voice. He brushed past the elder man and hurried to his wife’s side. Her face was pale and she trembled, her pale fingers gripping the top sheet.
“Shh, it’s okay, I’m here.” He kissed the top of her head and held her against his chest, worried about her state of mind.
“Daddy said…”
“H
e’s wrong. I’m not going anywhere and neither are you. We’re going to stay right here and raise our child in this town surrounded by family that love us. Don’t you ever doubt that, Denver.”
“Sentimental bullshit. You have a brilliant career ahead of you, Evan. Wasted in this small backwater of a town. My daughter was only doing this for you. She’s used to much better than what you have here. I’ve made the arrangements. You’ll take up the job at the end of your stint here, three or four months, isn’t it? You and Denver can move into her suite of rooms at home and she will be taken care of around the clock.” He gave the room a cursory glance and looked back at them. “This place is lacking as far as I’m concerned. I’ll make the arrangements.”
Evan stood up but kept a hold of his wife’s hand, feeling her grip tighten. “I think not. I’m not taking you up on your offer as ill timed as it is. You might think this is a little backwater hospital, but it’s where we both want to be.”
“Evan, I did promise you if Denver got pregnant, the job was yours, and I have to say you’ve produced earlier than I hoped. Surely you’re not reneging on the deal?”
“Funnily enough I don’t remember a deal being made. You made the offer and I was too shocked that you would bargain with your daughter’s life and that of an unborn baby to make any sensible reply. I would never take up an offer like that regardless of what you thought.” The grip on his hand relaxed. “Denver and I will be staying and raising our child amongst family that love us.”
“You can have the job of your dreams if you come back. You can’t turn that down.” Her father looked horrified and it gave Evan a small twinge of satisfaction.
“I can and I have. The board decided to take up Denver’s idea of us doing shared duties as director even after the baby arrives. That’s if she still wants to do it that way.” He looked down at his wife. “What do you think, honey? Care to share with me so we can take turns looking after the little one when it’s born?”
“Yes. I’d love to. Thanks for visiting, Father. If that’s all you came for, you may as well leave. I’m not going anywhere.”
They watched as he mouthed quiet words, swallowed, and turn on his heel leaving them alone.
“Oh baby, I’m sorry about that. I didn’t realize he was here until the nurse called for me. The sleazy overbearing bastard. Fancy trying to get his own way like that.” Evan sat down on the edge of the bed and held Denver into his chest.
“I heard him offer you the job before we left the city.”
He looked down at her pale face. “Is that the reason you didn’t tell me about the baby? You thought I was going to do that to you?”
She tensed in his arms. “He has a way of getting what he wants; always has.”
“Denver, there’s no way I’d stoop that low. I thought you’d know that.” What could he do to make her see that?
“I do, but I was so scared he would win. It wasn’t that I was unsure of you and your love for me, Evan. It was more like I know how ruthless he can be.”
“Don’t ever doubt me again, honey. I’ll always be there for you and our baby. I want you to know that.” He leaned back on her pillows and pulled her across his chest. “Don’t worry about your father, he can’t hurt you while I’ve got you.”
She sighed and snuggled closer. “I know. I love you, Evan.”
“Love you too.”
The End
If you enjoyed The Doctor’s Husband, you’ll love the next book in…
The Watson Brother series
Book 1: Chance for Love
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Book 2: The Sheriff’s Mail-Order Bride
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Book 3: The Doctor’s Husband
View the series here
Book 4: Her Favorite Cowboy
Coming Soon!
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About the Author
After moving to the lush green wine region of Australia’s Hunter Valley, Ann has the perfect surrounding to let her imagination to run wild. She alternates her time between writing western romances, women’s fiction romantic and playing in her garden.
Two kinds of hero make Ann to a mass of nerves. The hot cowboy with a slow sexy drawl (she used to live out in the desert and enjoyed every minute) and a man in a kilt. (Imagine Jamie Fraser) She can’t wait to visit Scotland where she can get her fill of the tartan clad hotties for, um research purposes, of course.
In the meantime, her dear husband puts up with her talking to her characters and getting lost in worlds only she can imagine as she battles to bring stories to the page for everyone to enjoy.
Visit her website at AnnBHarrisonRomance.com
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The Doctor's Husband (The Watson Brothers #3) Page 16
