Coltrain's Proposal Read online

  “Rounds!” Todd exclaimed. “On your honeymoon?”

  “We’re doctors,” Lou reminded him, grinning. “It goes with the job description. I’ll probably be trying to examine patients on the way into the delivery room eventually.”

  Jane clung to her husband’s hand and sighed. “I can’t wait for that to happen. Cherry’s over the moon, too. She’ll be such a good older sister. She works so hard at school. She’s studying to be a surgeon, you know,” she added.

  “I wouldn’t know,” Copper muttered, “having already had four letters from her begging for an hour of my time to go over what she needs to study most during her last few years in school.”

  Jane chuckled. “That’s my fault. I encouraged her to talk to you.”

  “It’s all right,” he said, cuddling Lou closer. “I’ll make time for her.”

  “I see that everything finally worked out for you two,” Todd said a little sheepishly. “Sorry about the last time we met.”

  “Oh, you weren’t the only wild-eyed lunatic around, Mr. Burke,” Lou said reminiscently. “I did my share of conclusion jumping and very nearly ruined my life because of it.” She looked up at Coltrain adoringly. “I’m glad doctors are persistent.”

  “Yes.” Coltrain chuckled. “So am I. There were times when I despaired. But Lionel saved us.”

  They frowned. “What?”

  “Electric trains,” Coltrain replied. “Don’t you people know anything?”

  “Not about trains. Those are kids’ toys, for God’s sake,” Burke said.

  “No, they are not,” Lou said. “They’re adult toys. People buy them for their children so they’ll have an excuse to play with them. Not having children, we have no excuses.”

  “That’s why we want to start a family right away,” Coltrain said with a wicked glance at Lou. “So that we have excuses. You should see her layout,” he added admiringly. “My God, it’s bigger than mine!”

  Todd and Jane tried not to look at each other, failed and burst into outrageous laughter.

  Coltrain glared at them. “Obviously,” he told his new wife, “some people have no class, no breeding and no respect for the institution of marriage.”

  “What are you two laughing at?” Drew asked curiously, having returned to town just in time for the party, if not the wedding.

  Jane bit her lower lip before she spoke. “Hers is bigger than his.” She choked.

  “Oh, for God’s sake, come and dance!” Coltrain told Lou, shaking his head as he dragged her away. The others, behind them, were still howling.

  Coltrain pulled Lou close and smiled against her hair as they moved to the slow beat of the music. There was a live band. Jane had pulled out all the stops, even if it wasn’t going to be a goodbye party.

  “Nice band,” Dana remarked from beside them. “Congratulations, by the way,” she added.

  “Thanks,” they echoed.

  “Nickie didn’t come,” she added, tongue-in-cheek. “I believe she’s just accepted a job in a Victoria hospital as a nurse trainee.”

  “Good for her,” Coltrain said.

  Dana chuckled. “Sure. See you.”

  She wandered away toward one of the hospital staff.

  “She’s a good loser, at least,” Lou said drowsily.

  “I wouldn’t have been,” he mused.

  “You’ve got a new partner coming,” she remembered suddenly, having overlooked it in the frantic pace of the past few days.

  “Actually,” he replied, “I don’t know any doctors from Johns Hopkins who would want to come to Jacobsville to practice in a small partnership. The minute I do, of course, I’ll hire him on the…oof!”

  She’d stepped on his toe, hard.

  “Well, I had to say something,” he replied, wincing as he stood on his foot. “You were holding all the aces. A man has his pride.”

  “You could have said you loved me,” she said pointedly.

  “I did. I do.” He smiled slowly. “In a few hours, I’ll take you home and prove it and prove it and prove it.”

  She flushed and pressed closer into his arms. “What a delicious idea.”

  “I thought so, too. Dance. At least while we’re dancing I can hold you in public.”

  “So you can!”

  Drew waltzed by with a partner. “Why don’t you two go home?” he asked.

  They laughed. “Time enough for private celebrations.”

  “I hope you have enough champagne,” Drew said dryly, and danced on.

  As it happened, they had a magnum of champagne between them before Coltrain coaxed his wife back into bed and made up for her first time in ways that left her gasping and trembling in the aftermath.

  “That,” she gasped, “wasn’t in any medical book I ever read!”

  “Darlin’, you’ve been reading the wrong books,” he whispered, biting her lower lip softly. “And don’t go to sleep. I haven’t finished yet.”

  “What?”

  He laughed at her expression. “Did you think that was all?”

  Her eyes widened as he moved over her and slid between her long legs. “But, it hasn’t been five minutes, you can’t, you can’t…!”

  He not only could. He did.

  Two months later, on Valentine Day, Copper Col train gave his bride of six weeks a ruby necklace in the shape of a heart. She gave him the results of the test she’d had the day before. He told her later that the “valentine” she’d given him was the best one he’d ever had.

  Nine months later, Lou’s little valentine was delivered in Jacobsville’s hospital; and he was christened Joshua Jebediah Coltrain.

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-0877-3

  COLTRAIN’S PROPOSAL

  Copyright © 1995 by Diana Palmer

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario M3B 3K9, Canada.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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