Excerpt of A Midwife Crisis by Lisa Cooke

“How’s it coming with the fiancé choosing?” John asked
in an attempt to slow Katie down a little. At this rate,
she would finish with her task of helping him with his
office before the locals had a chance to come to him for
medical care.
She set a stack of books on a table and frowned. “Not
well, I’m afraid.”
“What’s wrong?”
She turned toward him, her brows furrowed with
frustration. “I can’t seem to make a decision. They all
have good points and bad ones, and I don’t know what to do.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually.”
“Would you help me?”
Help her? Damn. He’d intended to distract her, not advise
her. “How could I possibly help you do that?”
She took a seat on a stack of books to expound on her
dilemma. “I’ve been thinking that maybe I need to make a
list of what’s important in a husband then I could use that
to sort them out.”
“Sounds like a good plan.” And not one that required
his help.
“But I’m not sure what a good husband should be like.
I’ve never had one.”
“Neither have I,” he reminded, hoping she’d leave him
out of this.
“No, but you’ve been married. What’s important in that
relationship?”
What’s important in a marriage? Love? Trust? Sex?
Hell, he couldn’t point out the last one. “I think that
changes according to the individual. You’ll have to decide
for yourself what’s important.” Then again, stopping to
make a list would take up considerable time. He knew he was
going to regret this. “But, I think making a list is a good
idea. I’ll help anyway I can.”
“Now,” he pulled a chair up to the desk and motioned
for her to sit, “shall we begin?”
Katie took a seat and wrote the names of her fiancés
down the side of a sheet of paper, starting with Randy and
ending with Freddie.
“I’m not sure where to start.”
He shrugged and scooted another chair up to the
opposite side of the desk to face her. “I guess you should
start with what you think you want in a husband.”
Tapping the pen against her chin, she stared off for a
second to think. “He’d have to be smart. Not too smart,
but I don’t want a man who can’t think or cipher.”
“Intelligence seems like a good quality.”
“I agree.” She wrote it on her list. He’d hoped by
giving her the task of actually doing the writing, it would
take a little longer, but her quick and fluid writing
dispelled that hope.
“How about money?” he asked.
“I want him to be willing to work, but he doesn’t have
to be rich, just not too poor. I want my kids to have
things if they need them.”
“So... not too smart. Not too dumb. Not too rich and
not too poor?”
She frowned. “I’m not doing very well, am I?”
“Not too.”
“Oh.”
“But maybe if you keep going, you’ll be able to narrow
it down a bit.”
Nodding, she looked off again before she said, “I think
he should be handsome.”
He remembered her telling him he was handsome, and his
heart picked up a beat. “And why should that matter?”
“If I’m going to look at a man for the next 50 years, I
want to enjoy it.”
“Fair enough. Does it matter if he’s too handsome?”
Her cheek dented with its dimple as she responded to
his teasing. “A man can’t be too handsome.”
“Ah.” The corner of his mouth lifted. “Just too dumb?”
“Some of them are.”
He chuckled. “I think I’ve met a few of those, myself.”
“Then you understand my concern.” She studied her
paper again then with a lift of her pen in an unspoken “ah
ha”, she added, “He has to be kind. I won’t tolerate a man
who isn’t kind to me or my children.”
“Nor should you.”
“And he should love me.”
“I thought you said love wasn’t important.”
“I said I didn’t have to love him. I didn’t say
anything about the other way around.”
John laughed and Katie’s beautiful eyes shined. For a
second, he got lost in them, but, enough of that nonsense.
Katie was a means to an end, nothing more.
Clearing his throat, he pulled his gaze away from hers and
asked, “Is that all you need on your list?”
“No,” she answered, unexpectedly turning serious. Her
voice was hesitant and intimate and if he had any sense,
he’d let her answer drop.
But the room was quiet and the woman intriguing, so he did a
stupid thing and asked, “What’s missing?”
She lowered her gaze to her paper, her cheeks suddenly
turning pink as she answered, “He has to be a good kisser.”
Kisser? His eyes riveted to her mouth as he thought of
kissing her full, soft lips. Her tongue darted out to
moisten the lower one, and he felt it in his gut...or maybe
a little lower. Would she like his kiss? He suspected he
would like hers very much. Squeezing his eyes shut, he
attempted to jerk his mind back from its sidetrack. He had
no business even thinking about kissing Katie Napier, but
for some reason he was incapable of thinking about anything
else.