For a moment, Hannah was confused. While he thought he was describing himself, he could have been describing her just, as well. She had left him because she had been too scared that he would turn away from her if she told him how she felt.
“When I told Maria that I didn’t need anyone else, I was lying,” he said as he moved closer and brushed his fingers down her face. “I do need you, Hannah. I need both you and Lindsey.”
Hannah froze in place. She’d prepared herself to never feel his touch again and now he was offering her so much more. She had to make a decision. She could put herself out there with William and risk getting hurt. Or she could let fear keep her from what she wanted the most.
“I love—”
“No—” he sealed her lips with his before raising his head to look her in the eyes “—I want to say it first. I love you, Hannah. I love you with every beat of my heart.”
“And that family you swore you’d never want? You seemed pretty adament that family life wasn’t for you,” she said.
“What did I know? I’m just a simple brain surgeon who found out that, sometimes, if you’re lucky, some unexpected miracle comes along that changes your whole life.”
He brushed his lips against hers again. “That’s what you are to me. You are my unexpected family.”
EPILOGUE
HANNAH PUSHED THE side door from the garage open and placed the stack of books on the kitchen counter. The house was quiet and some of the excitement she had felt on her drive home disappeared. She’d known that William had planned to take Lindsey to her riding lesson with Sarah after work, but when she had called to tell him her good news, she’d hoped that he would cancel Lindsey’s lesson so they all could celebrate together tonight.
Taking a bottle out of the refrigerator, she’d started to head upstairs to change when she heard a giggle she would recognize anywhere. It was coming from the door that led outside. Stepping through it, she was stunned to see the group of people gathered in their backyard.
“What are you doing?” Hannah asked as she rubbed the small, round bump of her abdomen and watched Avery chase Lindsey across the yard.
“We’re having a celebration, of course,” William said, turning the steaks he was cooking on the grill.
“You did all this for me?” she asked, stunned he’d pulled this together so quickly. It had only been this morning that she’d gotten the call that she had been accepted into Houston University’s medical school program.
Suddenly, she was surrounded by her friends—some from work and others from her college classes—all wanting to congratulate her. She couldn’t ever remember having a party planned just for her. Except for her wedding reception, of course.
“So, William tells me the plan is for you two to have a joint practice,” Sarah said when the others had moved on to where William was passing out the steaks. “I’m not going to lie. It takes a lot to coordinate your work life with your family life when you’re in the healthcare field, but I know you can do it.”
“William’s been very supportive. And Lindsey, too, of course. She can’t wait to take care of a little brother. With those two behind me, I know it will all work out,” Hannah told Sarah as they joined the others at the picnic table. As her friend went to join David, Hannah stopped to look across the backyard.
“What are you thinking?” William asked as he came up behind her and pulled her back against him.
“Just that I was right. This home was definitely meant for a family,” she said, leaning into him and thinking about the man who had sworn he hadn’t needed anyone in his life.
He had changed so much since that day.
They had both changed as they’d learned to trust each other, that depending on one another didn’t make them weak. It made them stronger.
“No, this home wasn’t meant for a family.” William he rested his hands over their growing child. “It was meant for ours.”
* * *
If you enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from Deanne Anders
Sarah and the Single Dad
Stolen Kiss with the Single Mom
The Surgeon’s Baby Bombshell
From Midwife to Mommy
All available now!
Keep reading for an excerpt from Nurse’s One-Night Baby Surprise by Louisa George.
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Nurse’s One-Night Baby Surprise
by Louisa George
CHAPTER ONE
‘PLEASE, DON’T MAKE me go to school. Please.’ Fraser blinked fast at the woman in the passenger seat next to him as she stared out at the whitewashed stone buildings with their grey-blue slate roofs and the sign ‘Welcome to Bowness High School’. ‘I’ve got a tummy ache.’ He moaned and rubbed his belly, looking for sympathy.
But she clearly wasn’t doling any out today. She frowned, rolled her heavily mascaraed eyes and pulled her ponytail tight. ‘No, you haven’t. You’re fine.’
‘Please, don’t make me go. Please, Lily.’ He tugged on her arm and made sad eyes at her. ‘Can you write me a sick note?’
She glared at him. ‘Isn’t that supposed to be your job?’
‘I need a responsible person to do it for me,’ he teased. ‘Know any?’
‘Stop it, Dad.’ A reluctant smile finally... finally curved her lips and she play-punched his arm. ‘Honestly, you’re worse than me. You have to go. It’s work. You’ve signed a contract and everything. Stop messing about.’
‘Made you smile, though.’ That would be enough to see him through what he knew were going to be difficult days ahead. Just as the last few months...years, really, had been.
She threw him a look that would have frozen hell. ‘Only out of pity.’
‘You used to laugh at my jokes.’
‘Back when they were funny. Like, when I was six or something.’
Now she was fifteen going on twenty-five. Wearing non-regulation mascara and lip gloss that he’d refused to fight about this morning and a skirt that he was sure hadn’t been so short when they’d bought it a couple of weeks ago. He’d decided to let it go for today. Pick your battles. First day, new term, new school.
New start.
He remembered her first smile, her first tooth, her first day at nursery as if it were all yesterday. Where had that time gone? How had he ended up with this stroppy, beautiful, fierce teenager when only minutes ago she had been a tiny scrap that had fitted into the crook of his arm?
They’d always been a team and he’d always made her laugh. She’d loved his jokes almost as much as he loved her, but now she blamed him for everything that made her unhappy. He met her eyes—so dark like her mother’s—and saw the pain there. And the fear too. He had to make sure she was going to be okay. That was his job.
Until five years ago he’d shared that job with his ex. They’d co-parented as best they could with shared custody, living just streets apart, short-term lovers who’d become long-term friends. He’d been the bad cop to Ellen’s good cop. Funny, sweet, warm-hearted Ellen who had died, leaving both him and Lily bereft and him to parent on his own, clumsily navigating first their daughter’s deep grief and then teenage hormones. And now, in his daughter’s eyes, he was just all round bad.
He patted her hand. ‘Seriously, Lily, are you okay with this?’
She looked out at the sleet melting on contact with the heated windscreen, her smile dissolving into the sulky expression that had been ever-present on her lips since that icy five-hour drive north had brought them here to the Lake District, where her mother had grown up, leaving their London life behind. That expression had remained all through Christmas and
New Year, particularly when they’d been to buy the uniform she was wearing now. Lily didn’t want to try. She didn’t want a new life, she’d been perfectly content with the old one.
And that was why they’d had to move.
She slid her hand from under his and twisted the handles of her expensive new backpack. If he was honest, she looked about as fed up as he’d ever seen her.
‘No.’ She shrugged. ‘I’m not okay about it and you know that already. But here we are anyway. I don’t really get a say in it, do I?’
His heart squeezed. If only Ellen were here, she’d know how to do this. But, then, if Ellen were here, he wouldn’t have upped sticks and moved away from all Lily knew. Out of desperation he’d thought of this place. Grasping at flimsy straws, he’d also wondered whether Lily’s godmother might have moved back here at some point too...cavalry to enlist to help him. Although he wasn’t sure she’d want to help after their last meeting five years ago.
Guilt rattled again. Had it been wise to move Lily so far from everything she knew? From the place where she had memories of her mother?
‘It’s going to be fun, Lily-Bee, if we just try. A fresh start for us both. It’s what we need. Trust me.’
Another dark look. This one said, I did trust you. Once. But now? Not so much. ‘A freezing start, more like. And boring. B-o-oring.’
‘Not once you’ve made friends.’
‘Duh. I have friends, Dad. Lots of them. Back in Clapham.’
They hadn’t been friends, they’d been...the only word to describe them was delinquents. He knew that made him sound a lot older than his thirty-four years. He’d watched helplessly as she’d changed from a happy little girl into a tearaway teenager who had refused to listen, refused to meet him halfway and refused to conform to even the lightest of rules. He’d been at a total loss as to what to do. So much for being the cool outreach doctor who understood teenagers.
But only a few moments ago he’d finally managed to get a smile from her and he wasn’t going to spoil it by raking over those old arguments again. ‘With your winning personality and the amazing talents you inherited from me, you’ll soon make lots more.’
Just one. One nice one. One that isn’t into drugs and drinking. One who actually attends school. Please.
He laughed, trying to show her he was joking, about the talents anyway.
She rolled her eyes. ‘Yeah, Dad. Whatever.’
‘They have an excellent drama programme.’
‘I stopped wanting to be an actress in year three.’
‘The science programme has won national awards.’
‘I don’t want to be a scientist either.’
‘What do you want, Lily-Bee?’
‘Not to be here.’ Her nostrils flared and she glared at him. He wasn’t sure if it was because he’d called her by her childhood nickname or because she was here in the car, staring at her future...or both.
‘You never know, you might change your mind. Give it a chance.’
Give us a chance.
They’d been all out of chances in London. Next stop for her had been the juvenile detention centre. The local police had had his number on speed dial.
Silence.
He dredged up another smile and his cheerful sing-song Dad voice. ‘Right, best get going. I’ll see you this afternoon and we can drive home together after my clinic’s finished.’
Her eyes narrowed. ‘I can walk.’
‘It’s January. The forecast’s for snow. It’ll be cold and you’re not wearing walking clothes.’ He held back the criticism as he looked at the short skirt and school shirt open one button too many, unsure how his city girl would fit into the country school. But it was too late now. They were here and he was determined they’d make the best of it. ‘Anyway, it’ll be a good chance to chat about our first day at school.’
‘You’re only going to be here for a couple of hours later. I have to put up with it all day. Every day. Until I die of total boredom.’
‘Or you could embrace the delights of rural living in a beautiful place.’ Behind the school buildings rugged snow-topped mountains provided a breathtaking backdrop. Or would have, if visibility hadn’t been impeded by the low-hanging clouds heavy with sleet. He cleared his throat, deepened his voice and threw his arm out as if he was on stage, delivering an important soliloquy. ‘“I wandered lonely as a cloud...”’
‘Stop it, Dad. Maybe you should be the one doing drama, not me.’ Another eye-roll, followed by a tut. ‘Promise you won’t be embarrassing at school? Like, if you see me in the corridor, don’t even acknowledge you know me?’
‘Is there no end to the ways you can spear my heart?’ he said, trying to put a smile in his voice but remembering how everything his mum had said and done had almost killed him with embarrassment when he’d been Lily’s age. It didn’t mean her words didn’t hurt, though. ‘Everyone’s going to know eventually, Lily. It’s a small school. We have the same surnames. It won’t take a genius to work out we’re related.’
‘Please, just let me have a few precious hours where I’m not the “hot” doctor’s daughter?’
She made quotation marks with her fingers and pulled an I can’t believe I just said that about my dad face, and he tried hard not to laugh.
Hot? To a bunch of teenagers? Great. No wonder she was embarrassed. ‘Okay. You won’t know I’m there. I promise, I’ll keep a very low profile.’
‘Good. See you later, yeah?’
‘Absolutely.’ He leaned in to ruffle her hair the way he’d always done, but she was opening the door and swivelling out of her seat, completely oblivious. Out of reach. ‘Good luck for your first day, Lily-Bee.’
A bitter laugh came from her throat. ‘Believe me, I’m going to need it.’
Me too, he thought. More than you’ll ever know.
* * *
‘He hit me first.’ The boy pressed an ice pack to his swollen jaw and shivered. He was holding back tears, trying so hard to be the tough guy. ‘It was self-defence, miss. Honest.’
‘Hey, I wasn’t there and I’m not going to judge, Alfie. You don’t have to explain anything to me. Save that for your interview with the head teacher.’ Briana made her voice as soothing as possible. She had other ways of finding out what had happened without asking direct questions he could avoid. She needed to gain his trust first, which was going to take gentle handling and a bit of time, but she didn’t have that luxury right now with a queue of kids waiting and a doctor gone AWOL right on clinic opening. Typical. They couldn’t seem to get anyone to staff this clinic for longer than a term.
She gave Alfie a smile. ‘I just need to know what kind of injury you have, where it hurts and if you need an X-ray and painkillers.’
Having ascertained his bruised jaw wasn’t fractured, she did a quick assessment of the rest of him. His hair was matted with mud, his black uniform trousers were torn and ragged at the knee, his school bag looked as if it had been dragged through cow dung. His hands were red and raw, fingernails ingrained with dirt, no doubt from where he’d landed after the punch to his chin. Great start to the term for this poor lad. He shrugged a scraggy shoulder. ‘I’m fine.’
He wasn’t fine, and his bottom lip was starting to wobble as the shock of the fight wore off.
Briana looked at the boy’s reddened knuckles. ‘Any pain in your hands?’
He made a sound she thought might be ‘yes’, then said, ‘He said I was stupid. He said my sister’s stupid too and told me what he was going to do with her down by the lake.’ His face creased into an expression of pure disgust. ‘I told him she’s not a slut. That I’d punch his lights out if he said any more.’
‘She must be proud to have a brother like you to stick up for her.’
No eye contact, head down, he spoke into his chest. ‘She thinks I’m stupid too.’
‘I bet she do
esn’t.’
‘They both do. Just because they’re two years older than me. That’s not my fault, is it? Worse thing is, she loves him.’ The boy shook his head in disbelief. ‘How can she love someone who says things like that about her and hits her kid brother?’
Oh. Briana hadn’t been expecting that.
‘She doesn’t know any better, Alfie. She’s far too young and doesn’t know what real love is. She thinks she does, but she’s got a lot of growing up to do.’
You get drawn in, you fall too hard and too quickly, get taken in by their manipulation and before you know it, you’re trapped.
Briana shoved her memories back. This was not the time to relive her own mistakes. ‘Do you want me to have a word with her?’
He rolled his eyes. ‘Tell her not to go out with Lewis Parker? Good luck with that, miss. She won’t listen.’
‘I won’t actually say that, because you’re right, she’s not going to want to hear that from me. But I can have a gentle chat about relationship boundaries and expectations.’ She smiled. ‘Of course, I won’t put it like that either. Lecturing people tends to put them off, right?’
‘Right.’ He nodded and his shoulders seemed to relax a little.
She tried a different tack. ‘Lewis sounds like an annoying toddler. All that carrying on, trying to get attention.’
‘Yeah.’ His eyes brightened. ‘Like my little sister. She won’t shut up sometimes. She just makes a noise to get what she wants.’
‘And how do you get her to stop?’
‘Mum says if we ignore her, she’ll just get bored.’
‘And does she?’
‘Yeah. I s’pose.’ His expression became serious. ‘You think I should do that with Lewis? Like, ignore him?’
‘Do you think you can? It might help avoid a fight if you don’t let him get to you.’ Because they both knew Alfie was the one who’d hit out first. Trying to defend his sister, playing the tough guy. Saving face and family honour, even though he’d been provoked, because why else would a thirteen-year-old try his luck with someone two years older and a whole lot bigger? ‘Often, ignoring them is the first thing you can do. But there are lots of other things too.’
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