Page 3 of Lovesick

Chapter 2

Blinking as if her brain had been short-circuited by the question, as if Dr. Love had been speaking some alien language, she put her hand to her stomach. An odd instinctive response to the word pregnant.

“Pregnant? Are you crazy? Me? At my age?”

He looked unimpressed with her response and waited patiently.

“You’re serious, aren’t you?”

He nodded.

“I don’t know—you’re the doctor. You tell me.”

“Is it a possibility?” He raised a brow, unabashed at the unseemly personal question.

A slow burn started in her chest and she could feel the color oozing up her neck. Could this be a more embarrassing, no-win Q and A? If she admitted that it was impossible for her to be pregnant, he’d think she was a pathetic woman, middle-aged before her time. If she said yes, it was a possibility, he’d think her a dimwitted woman who should know better.

She opted for tongue in cheek, her go-to difficult-situation-diffuser attitude.

“I’ll have to insist that we have at least two dates before I reveal my sex-life secrets, Doc. So even if you count this as the first date, you still owe me one. Any other questions?”

He nodded and lost his struggle to squash a smirk.

“Do you mind if I take a few drops of blood?”

“Knock yourself out—as long as you’re not a vampire.” She held out her arm.

“No vampire. Although I hear they’re all the rage for attracting women.” He busied himself with extracting a needle and vial from his bag.

“If you’re into teenyboppers.”

He laughed.

“Not even when I was a teen.”

“So you like the mature types, eh?”

He fastened a rubber strip around her arm and looked up at her. Gave her a cagey smile and returned to his business.

She closed her eyes to let another wave of dizziness pass. She was really and truly sick. Definitely not pregnant. Running her mind back over the past three months to be doubly sure, she found herself swaying.

Then strong hands clamped down on her upper arms and she snapped her eyes open.

“Dizzy?”

She nodded.

“I’ll make this quick.” He pricked her arm with a needle and plunged away.

Unfortunately, she forgot to look away. There was a reason she hadn’t gone into the medical field. Queasy in the extreme at the sight of blood, she turned her head and clamped her mouth shut, feeling her tummy roll and tumble. Don’t you dare be sick, Louise. Not here and now. Most definitely not in front of the sexiest doctor she’d ever laid eyes on. He ought to be named Dr. Love for real.

Holding a vision of him behind her closed lids, she managed to ride out the storm in her stomach.

“Louise?” His voice was gentle. The touch of his hand on her shoulder even gentler.

She snapped her eyes open and turned to him. His eyes were deep brown pools with gold flecks. His lips were trumpet player classics, plump and begging to be kissed. She wanted to do it. Again.

“Nauseated?”