Cindy's Doctor Charming by Teresa Southwick Page B

her life had actually worked.
    What she hadn’t expected was relief and disappointment in equal parts. Then she did the pregnancy test and shock pushed out every other emotion.
    She’d just gotten off work and was waiting in the hall outside the NICU for Nathan to be finished with hospital rounds. This wasn’t the best place to talk, but she didn’t know what else to do. Thanks to her, no phone numbers had been exchanged. And it seemed like forever before he came out of the unit, but that was probably normal when your life was falling apart.
    Nathan stopped short when he saw her leaning against the far wall. There was an expression on his face that she couldn’t decipher. And it didn’t matter anyway.
    â€œWe need to talk.” Her fingers twisted together as she looked to her left and right, making sure that employees moving in the hall were too far away to hear.
    â€œHello to you, too.”
    â€œSorry. I’m a little freaked out.”
    â€œAh. So we should go somewhere private?” he asked.
    â€œThat would probably be best.”
    He rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. “How about the Revello Lounge. It’s at the M Resort. Do you know it?”
    â€œI’ll meet you there.”
    The one-year-old hotel was on the corner of Mercy Medical Center Parkway and Las Vegas Blvd. Fifteen minutesafter leaving the hospital she turned left into the resort lot and found a parking place close to the lobby entrance. She walked inside and took the escalator up, stepping off onto the shiny marble floor. To her right was the gift shop, a café and a pastry place called Baby Cakes. Fate was having a laugh at her expense.
    She found the lounge, which was all glass, amber lights and modern glitz. Nathan was waiting in a quiet corner and she took the leather barrel-backed chair across the chrome table from him. They each ordered club soda with lime. She would have preferred something stronger. There was no way to soften the news and she didn’t try.
    â€œI’m pregnant.”
    He was all brooding silence before saying, “I figured.”
    â€œI’m pretty sure when you promised me a good surprise at dinner you didn’t mean a baby.”
    â€œI never planned for anything to happen.”
    She believed that, and yet he carried a condom. A faulty one.
    Just then the cocktail waitress appeared with their drinks and set them down on napkins. “Can I get you anything else?”
    Cindy figured she had about all she could stand and shook her head.
    â€œWe’re good,” Nathan said and the woman drifted away.
    â€œYou might be good, but I’m pregnant.” Cindy picked up her drink and played with the straw. “This is Las Vegas and odds are fickle at best. But I can’t believe my luck is this bad.”
    â€œYours?” He was still in his scrubs and checked the pager on his waistband. “What about mine? It appears the planets aligned just right and you were fertile.”
    â€œRight back at you, buster,” she said.
    â€œI was hoping you were on an alternative method of birth control.”
    â€œSince I’m not seeing anyone, there was no reason.” She glared at him. “And can we talk about the condom? That was yours so don’t even try to make this my fault.”
    â€œThat’s not what I meant. Look, Cindy, I take full responsibility—”
    â€œDon’t.” She couldn’t handle an apology right now.
    She’d been a willing participant as soon as his lips touched hers. For God’s sake, she’d thought about him naked when he’d picked her up. All through dinner something had been sizzling between them. They’d had sex. Then nothing.
    One minute he’d been pestering her for a phone number, the next he completely disappeared. Yet again she’d been fooled. He really was just one of those guys who refused to give up until he got what he wanted. This time he got more