Night Shifts with the Miami Doc
Page 17
“Then we’ll make it work, however we have to. Didn’t you tell me, a while back, that there’s nothing you set your mind to that you can’t achieve.”
“That’s true.”
“Then just set your mind to loving me, and we’ll take care of the details later.”
“I can definitely do that,” she said, cupping his face. And setting her mouth against his, she whispered, “Easily.”
EPILOGUE
“ARE YOU SURE?” Mateo sounded stunned.
He leaned across the table, as though getting closer and searching her expression would give him some information he was missing.
Regina smiled and reached for his hand. Twining her fingers around his, she gave them a squeeze.
“Perfectly,” she replied, her smile widening as she watched him try to process what she’d just said.
Outside the restaurant’s windows, lights gleamed on the dark waters of San Francisco Bay, and the trees undulated in the cool, salty breeze. They were at a secluded table for two, at her favorite high-end eatery. Mateo had flown in the day before, and she’d hugged her news to herself, wanting the setting to be perfect before she revealed it.
Although, with the way they’d made love, ravenous for each other after almost a month apart, nowhere could be as perfect as being in his arms, hearing him declare, over and over, his love for her.
“Which hospital?” He didn’t so much ask as fire the question at her—a true sign of his discombobulation.
Only once had he ever been that forceful when talking to her, and it was the night he’d gotten her to admit to loving him.
When she answered his question, his eyes widened.
“That’s a premier hospital. One of the best in the state, if not the best.”
She chuckled. “You sound surprised. Didn’t think they’d want me?”
“Darling, any hospital that gets you is lucky,” he replied, still sounding a little dazed. “But it’s a step back, isn’t it? I don’t want that for you.”
How could she have ever thought that a job, of any kind, could be more important than the love of a man as true, noble and supportive as Mateo?
“It really isn’t,” she reassured him. “Think of it this way—in the normal course of things, the position they’ve offered me is exactly what I was expecting to get here, and—” she held up her hand to stop him from butting in “—and, it’s at a more prestigious facility. I’ll be second in line for Chief of Medicine, and they already know that’s what I’m interested in, in the long run.”
He chewed on the side of his lip, looking so adorable doing so she wished she could kiss that spot, soothe the sting of his teeth. Then, as he pulled back his hand and she noticed the distant, faraway expression in his eyes, a little trickle of cold water ran down her spine.
Mateo had told her that once Serena was out of school, he’d be willing to move to be with her, and the enormity of his proposed sacrifice had driven straight through her heart.
Give up his home in Florida, and with it his post as linchpin for his family? And also give up, after only a few years, his dream job?
For her?
It didn’t seem right, even as she recognized it as proof positive of his love.
“We can travel back and forth,” he’d said. “As often as we can. Or meet somewhere in the middle, if that works better. I could buy a place in Texas, so we’d always have somewhere to go that’s halfway for each of us.”
When she’d thought about it, that didn’t sit right with her.
Oh, she had no doubt they’d both make the effort, but with his new position and its attendant unpredictability, and the duties she’d take up as Deputy Chief, they probably wouldn’t see that much of each other.
And she’d learned, perhaps far later in life than most, how important it was to be happy personally, as well as fulfilled professionally. There was no way she was waiting four years to be with Mateo on a permanent basis.
Regina had never been a halfway kind of woman. She was all or nothing.
Now, watching him wrestle with what she was saying, she wondered if she’d somehow got it all wrong. If he didn’t see this as the perfect solution.
She was willing to make the sacrifice instead, and take a job in Miami to be with him, but his reaction made her doubt herself, and him.
“I thought you’d be happy,” she said slowly. “That you’d see it as a good thing.”
His gaze snapped to hers, and before she realized what he was going to do, he was on his feet, and tugging her up, too, into his arms.
It was only then that she realized he was trembling; his hard, warm body was shaking with some undefinable emotion. And his eyes were anguished as he gazed deep into hers.
“Darling,” his voice was hoarse, choked, little more than a whisper. “My darling love. I would love nothing more than to wake up every morning for the rest of my life, and see you beside me. To go to bed and know you’re there. Reach for you. Make love to you. But I never, ever, want to hold you back. It would kill me if you ever looked at me with disdain and accused me of getting in the way of your dreams.”
Her heart soared then, as she lifted her hand to press the palm to his cheek.
“Mateo, I love you more than I ever thought I could love, and there’s nothing that’s going to keep me from your side. Not my job, or yours. Not even your family. This is my new dream. To be yours, and have you as mine, forever. Is this a dream we can share, and be happy with?”
He kissed her, uncaring of the appreciative audience around them, and she grew hot, melting into his body, as he ravished her mouth.
“You have just made me the happiest man in the world,” he said. “And there’s nothing more that I could ask for.”
“She said yes,” the woman at a nearby table stage-whispered to her companion. “Isn’t it romantic?”
Regina felt an unaccustomed wave of heat rising into her face, and turned toward the window, so no one would see her blush. Somehow that comment made her self-conscious and unsure.
Mateo dipped his mouth close to her ear and whispered, “I change my mind. There is one more thing that I would ask for. Will you marry me, Regina? I have this ridiculous urge to tie you to me in every possible way known to man, so you don’t stride off into the sunset without me.”
A bubble of laughter rose into her throat, but it got caught on the wave of love swelling in her chest.
“I will. I’m yours, my love,” she replied. Then a mischievous urge arose in her as she thought back to when they first met. “And I will be, for every shift hereafter.”
* * *
If you enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from Ann McIntosh
Christmas with Her Lost-and-Found Lover
Best Friend to Doctor Right
Awakened by Her Brooding Brazilian
The Nurse’s Christmas Temptation
All available now!
Keep reading for an excerpt from Falling Again for the Animal Whisperer by Becky Wicks.
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Falling Again for the Animal Whisperer
by Becky Wicks
CHAPTER ONE
‘TEMPERATURE, RESPIRATION—BOTH PERFECT. This is exactly the news we want this morning, little one.’ Jodie Everleigh set their four-legged patient as straight as she could on the table in front of them. Marlow was a lot wrigglier than he had been when his owner had brought him in yesterday, which was a good sign.
The poor little Labrador puppy had been in the West Bow Vet Hospital overnight on a drip, thanks to vomiting inexplicably on his owner’s kitchen floor for four days.
‘He’s finally eating well too,’ her partner Aileen told her, easing into the exam room with two cups of coffee.
Jodie took her caffeine fix, black as usual, and watched as Aileen ruffled the pup’s soft golden fur around his ears, prompting him to try and lick her face from the table.
‘Did I tell you how grateful I am that you’re as good at knowing when I need coffee as you are with the animals?’ she told her, noting the rain start up again over Edinburgh’s glum-looking streets out the window. Aileen gave her the thumbs up over the puppy and Jodie smiled, stifling a yawn. They’d built this practice together from the ground up, and their staff had become her second family.
‘If he keeps his breakfast down without any vomiting, we might get to send him home this afternoon,’ she said, checking the schedule quickly on the iPad on the wall. ‘I’ll check on our kitten Simba back there. Mark will be in at noon, so he’ll do the dog booster vaccinations and...’
‘Anika can do the rabbit nail clip if you have to pick Emmie up from the stables,’ Aileen finished.
‘She might have to,’ Jodie replied, thinking back in slight dismay to this morning’s argument with her daughter Emmie. She’d promised to go riding with her but she’d been so busy she’d forgotten, and Emmie had run to her father, citing her a bad mother. She knew Emmie didn’t mean it. She was just an impassioned pre-teen whose body was changing as fast as her opinion on who was the better parent.
Ethan probably had been, lately, she mused. Her ex-husband had a new girlfriend, Saskia, who seemed to have boundless energy as well as a love of horses. While Jodie was happy for her ex-husband, it didn’t escape her how she herself seemed to live for work and not much else lately—but what was she supposed to do? She was a single mother, and she’d worked damn hard to provide Emmie and herself with the life they both loved here.
Jodie’s phone buzzed. Her father. ‘Hey, Dad, sorry I’ve not called this week. I’ve been swamped—’
‘Jodie, I’m afraid it’s not good news. Are you sitting down?’
‘Oh, God, what?’ She dropped heavily to the swivel chair behind the desk and braced herself. ‘It’s not Mum, is it?’
Her dad sounded frazzled, tired. ‘Mum’s fine. It’s my brother...your uncle Casper.’
‘Casper?’
‘He died last night, Jodie. He had a heart attack on the estate at Everleigh...’ Her father trailed off, seemingly trying to compose himself. Her heart was thudding suddenly, like that of a rabbit kicking its way through her ribcage. Uncle Casper was dead?
Her palm turned sweaty around the phone. She hadn’t seen Casper in years, not since her wedding, but he’d been a staple in her life all through her childhood. She’d pretty much grown up on his estate around his veterinary practice and horses in Dorset. ‘Dad, I’m so sorry,’ she managed.
‘The funeral is on Friday. Cole called me with the news.’
Her head was spinning harder now, making it hard to breathe. ‘Cole Crawford called you?’
She felt glued to her swivel seat. ‘He didn’t call me,’ she found herself saying, and then wondered why she was surprised. Why the hell would Cole Crawford call her? He hadn’t called her in twelve years, not since he’d announced, right before they’d been due to leave for Edinburgh, together, that he wouldn’t be joining her there.
Her father relayed the funeral details and she only half heard them.
Already the memories were flooding her brain like tidal waves—her funny, witty, wealthy, horse-mad uncle Casper was dead, and Cole, her first love, her first everything, had called her father with the news, which meant he was probably still working at Casper’s estate.
She hung up, thoughts reeling.
She could still see Cole’s face as clear as day. The way it had changed from that of an eleven-year-old boy to a nineteen-year-old man over endless long summers in Dorset. She’d lived for them, the same way he’d seemed to live only for Casper’s horses when they’d first met. His compassion for the animals had rubbed off on her and led her to where she was today.
She could see the look in Cole’s brown, soulful eyes at fifteen years old, kissing her for the first time. Sixteen years old, telling her he loved her. And then...nineteen years old, telling her he wouldn’t be going to Edinburgh with her, to vet school, like they’d planned. Before that moment, when he’d destroyed all their future plans together, she’d assumed she’d met the love of her life.
She’d begged to know what had happened, why he was changing his mind about vet school, and Edinburgh, and her. She’d never got any answers.
The last thing she wanted to do, she realised, was see Cole Crawford again.
Copyright © 2021 by Becky Wicks
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ISBN-13: 9781488074875
Night Shifts with the Miami Doc
Copyright © 2021 by Ann McIntosh
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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