by Becky Wicks
All night he’d lain awake, his heart pounding as he’d healed. Visions of her smiling, laughing, floating in the lake had messed with his senses. He had almost smelled her, tasted her. Every movement she’d made in his arms, every molecule of Madeline, had seemed imprinted on his brain like a tattoo.
He’d wanted to get up and follow her, to catch her before she flew away, but as strong as his emotions were, and—dare he say it?—as strong as his love...his body was weak.
He loved Madeline, too. Of course he did. What was not to love? And who cared about a stupid memoir or what anyone else might think?
The people he was so concerned about were all just skin and blood and bones, living in the same jungle as him. He was just like everyone else in the world—doing his best to survive. Some survived longer than others, that was all. Josephine had run into trouble, but ultimately her death was not his fault—just as Toby’s wasn’t Madeline’s.
He also knew he couldn’t have forced love to exist where it hadn’t back then. He’d been young and confused, of course, chasing adventure and fun. Josephine had made him happy in that moment—and perhaps he had been selfish. But what he’d felt for Josephine was nothing compared to what he’d grown to feel for Madeline.
Why should he deny himself happiness now? Why shouldn’t he be allowed to say I love you to someone, and mean it?
He’d known even as he’d boarded the flight what he wanted to do.
Now minutes passed like hours as he searched the waiting room, the mini-cafeteria, the playroom.
Please, God, just don’t let her tell me where to shove it.
Then...
It was the back of her head he saw first. He stopped and peeked through a window into the last in a long row of rooms leading off the corridor. He’d have recognised her anywhere. The soft slope of her shoulders in her blue scrubs...the knot of hair pinned to the top of her head.
He looked around him, then back into the room. There was one bed with a kid in it—no older than eleven or twelve. Madeline was talking to her, sitting on the bed, facing away from him. He could hear the TV on the wall, the faint, jovial preposterousness of a cartoon.
He put his hand on the door handle and before he could chicken out walked inside.
The little girl’s head was bald, making her big blue eyes appear even wider as she gasped.
‘Dr Ryan Tobias?’ she exclaimed in disbelief.
Madeline froze. On the TV a cartoon mouse screamed with perfect timing.
‘Is it really you?’ the little girl asked, blinking and sitting up straighter in the bed.
He saw a card on the dresser that read Get well soon, Camille.
Madeline still didn’t turn around.
His heart was thudding now. ‘Yes, Camille, it’s really me,’ he said, letting his eyes fall on Madeline as he shut the door behind him.
‘What are you doing here? Is this a dream?’
He smiled at her. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Madeline’s face had turned pale, and she’d closed her eyes, lowered her head to her chest.
‘It’s not a dream,’ he said softly, walking to the side of her bed. He was opposite Madeline now. ‘I’m here to see your friend, and to tell her I’ve been really, really stupid.’
The girl giggled, seeming younger than eleven or twelve. ‘You’re not stupid! I’ve seen you on the telly!’
‘Well, sometimes, Camille, I do stupid things that you don’t see on the telly,’ he said.
‘Like what?’
He paused for a moment, then reached his hand across the bed to rest it on Madeline’s shoulder. ‘Like letting this amazing woman fly away on a plane without me.’
Madeline opened her eyes. She brought her hand up slowly to cover his and he swore he saw a tear trickle down her nose.
‘Oh, my God, do you love Nurse Madeline?’ Camille asked, eyes wide in excitement.
‘Yes, I do,’ he replied, conscious now of a group of people crowding at the window, looking at them from behind the glass. ‘Very much. Nurse Madeline is a very special woman.’
‘Yes, she is,’ Camille replied quickly. ‘But I can’t believe it’s really you.’
Madeline stood up and clocked all the people watching them. For a moment he wanted to yank the blind down, but then he figured, What the hell?
He met her at the end of the bed and took her hands. They were warm and slightly clammy. She had tears streaming down her cheeks now.
‘What are you doing here?’ she choked.
‘Don’t cry,’ he whispered, wiping her tears away with his thumbs.
‘I don’t know what to say...’
‘Don’t say anything.’
He dropped to his knees, fumbling in his pocket on the way to the cold floor. He heard her gasp audibly. So did Camille, and the noise levels behind the window went up a notch.
‘I love you, Madeline, that’s all I came to say...and as well to ask you one important question.’
‘Ryan, what are you...?’
‘I knew I was in love with you the minute I almost lost you—when I thought that dead body was you. Probably even before that...’
‘Ryan...’
‘I can’t live without you. I really can’t. In fact, I refuse to. I want you to marry me. Will you marry me, Madeline Savoia?’
Madeline let out a sudden laugh as tears continued to stream down her face.
‘Are you serious?’
He smiled up at her. ‘Serious as a snakebite.’
‘In that case I say yes!’ She clutched at his hands holding hers. ‘Yes!’
He got up, took her hand in his, and she stared in disbelief at the ring he was sliding on her finger, its stunning diamond catching the light.
‘Oh, my God—my friends will never believe this.’ Camille was reaching for her phone, taking a photo.
Ryan didn’t care. Let her Tweet about it.
‘Ryan? Is this what you want?’
Madeline was looking from the ring to him, as if she might at any moment see a camera sweep in and pronounce her ‘punked’.
He let out a laugh that felt like a dead weight falling from his shoulders and dropped another kiss on her lips—which she returned until they were kissing passionately in the middle of the room and everyone outside was whooping and cheering.
When he pulled away, holding a hand up at the window, he heard Camille clapping enthusiastically behind them.
‘You know, I didn’t exactly want to be in here,’ she blurted from the bed, ‘but I wouldn’t have missed this moment for anything. So you’re marrying the Dr Ryan Tobias, Nurse Madeline?’
Madeline shook her head for a second. ‘I guess I am...’ she said.
Ryan pulled her against him, once again breathing in the scent he’d missed. ‘I hope that’s true—because the second I walk out of this room I’ll be mobbed, and I’ll probably need my fiancée to save me.’
The words sounded strange coming from his mouth. He was planning a real future with Madeline and he was actually excited about it. There was so much he wanted to say, and even more he wanted to do... But not with Camille in the same room.
He cleared his throat. ‘When do you finish your shift?’
‘Not till seven...’
‘Meet me at the Shangri La. We need to talk about things. We also need to talk about this memoir.’
‘Ryan, I got pretty far, but then I stopped writing it...’
‘Well, you need to start again,’ he said, letting her go and putting his hand on the doorknob. He could hear more people outside gathering, talking, gossiping, gasping. ‘I need you to get that story out there for the good of both of us. I’ll call your editor and tell her why the manuscript is late. I’ll explain that I wouldn’t give you an ending, but now I’m going to write that part myself and send it to you. I want my memoir to have a
happy ending—you hear?’
She shook her head, confused.
He kissed her lips, pressed his forehead to hers. ‘I’m going to say that, thanks to an irritating, relentless but irresistible nurse, who saved his life in the Amazon, Ryan Tobias met the love of his life. And maybe a little bit more than that. But you can’t edit that bit, OK?’
‘OK...’
‘Good. Now, I’m heading out there. If you hear a desperate scream it’s just me.’
‘I’ll come and save you—I promise,’ she said, smiling through her tears.
‘That’s what you do best,’ he replied, and grinned.
EPILOGUE
Afterword from Flying High,
a memoir by Dr Ryan Tobias.
AS I TYPE my way towards the end of this book—a book I urge you to remember I didn’t even want written—I’m feeling a sense of peace I never expected to feel.
I’ve thought a lot about why this is, and I think it’s because when you acknowledge why you don’t want to do something...when you really face that demon head on...you realise that what is really bothering you is yourself—and yourself is something you can change in a heartbeat.
You just have to want to.
I’m making some big changes in my life, and I’m not afraid to say that falling in love has helped me make them. The wonderful woman you’ve probably seen me out with has changed the way I see myself and consequently the way I see the world! There was a time when I didn’t dare think I deserved such a love, or such a wedding, filled with so many friends, colleagues and people I love. Maybe you saw the photos? Then you’ll know I’m a lucky man indeed.
Oh, and if you didn’t think it was possible for this flying doctor’s life to get any more adventurous, believe me, you’re not alone. Let’s just say we’ve been busy painting one of our rooms a lovely shade of blue, and my wife has recently commented that she can no longer fit into her favourite jeans.
It’s a beautiful thing, knowing a whole new life is about to begin, and I sincerely hope you’ll come along with us for the ride.
Till the next adventure!
Yours,
Ryan Tobias.
PS Please note: all proceeds from this book’s sales are to be split between St David’s Hospital Elephant and Giraffe Wards and the Ryan Tobias Foundation. Thank you for your support.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from THE DOCTORS’ BABY MIRACLE by Tina Beckett.
Join Harlequin My Rewards today and earn a FREE ebook!
Click here to Join Harlequin My Rewards
http://www.harlequin.com/myrewards.html?mt=loyalty&cmpid=EBOOBPBPA201602010003
Did you know that Harlequin My Rewards members earn FREE books and more?
Join
www.HarlequinMyRewards.com
today to start earning your FREE books!
* * *
Connect with us on Harlequin.com for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers, free online reads and much more!
Other ways to keep in touch:
Harlequin.com/newsletters
Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks
Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks
HarlequinBlog.com
Join Harlequin My Rewards and reward the book lover in you!
Earn points for every Harlequin print and ebook you buy, wherever and whenever you shop.
Turn your points into FREE BOOKS of your choice
OR
EXCLUSIVE GIFTS from your favorite authors or series.
Click here to join for FREE
Or visit us online to register at
www.HarlequinMyRewards.com
Harlequin My Rewards is a free program (no fees) without any commitments or obligations.
The Doctor’s Baby Miracle
by Tina Beckett
PROLOGUE
Two years ago
TUCKER STEVENSON WALKED out of the clinic a new man.
Only he didn’t feel new. He felt old and cynical and very, very tired. But at least he’d severed himself from his past, in more ways than one. What was that old Grimm’s fairy tale he’d read as a child? Seven at One Blow? Well, he hadn’t struck down seven, but two was enough: a vasectomy and a divorce. It did seem kind of ironic that his test for “swimmers” should be scheduled for the very same day his divorce became final.
He’d never in his worst nightmares suspected he and Kady would end this way. Theirs had been the stuff dreams were made of. Or so he’d thought. Yet here he was, making sure what had happened to them would never happen again.
He glanced back at the clinic before pulling his sunglasses off his head and dropping them onto his nose, dimming the view around him as he made his way to the subway station.
It was done. There was no going back.
His doctor, while arguing against the procedure, saying Tucker was too young to make that kind of decision, had finally acquiesced and given him the old snip-snip eight weeks ago. He would not make another woman pregnant, or cause her to go through the horrors and heartache he and Kady had lived through. She’d tried to talk him out of it, saying they were through if he went through with it. But it hadn’t changed his mind.
It hadn’t changed hers either. Four years of marriage gone, in the blink of an eye.
He bumped shoulders with someone with a muttered apology as he stepped into the crowded station. On his way back to the hospital, a twelve-hour shift stared him in the face. But at least work kept him from thinking. And the change in venue from Atlanta to New York had meant a fresh start, even if it hadn’t dulled the heartache of the past. Bracing his feet apart and wrapping his fingers around the grab bar over his head, he closed his eyes and let the steady whooshing of the metro keep the painful memories at bay.
If only they’d known when they’d met, things might have been different.
No, they wouldn’t. Because while the pregnancy—a year into their relationship—had come as a shock, the tearful yearning in Kady’s eyes as she’d shown him the pregnancy test had won Tucker over. She’d desperately wanted that child. Had wanted him to be happy about it. And in the end he had been. A hurried elopement and whirlwind honeymoon had been just like the rest of their relationship, full of explosive passion that left him breathless. It had been that way the moment they’d laid eyes on each other. The rest was history.
“No regrets,” she’d said, lifting her glass of sparkling cider and clinking it against his with a laugh. And when Grace had been born... Magic. Pure magic. The perfect world they’d created had seemed complete. Their love unbreakable.
And yet look at them now.
He opened his eyes and hardened his heart. This solved nothing and only put him in a bad place. His patients needed him. And he needed them.
So that’s what he would focus on, and leave all the other stuff behind.
At least until he hit his bed tonight and fell into an exhausted sleep.
The subway lurched to a stop, the doors peeled apart, and Tucker joined the throng of people vying for the exit. Seconds later he was headed up the escalator where a shaft of sunlight beckoned, promising a brighter day.
And, with a little luck, a less painful future.
Copyright © 2018 by Tina Beckett
ISBN-13: 9781488079627
Tempted by Her Hot-Shot Doc
First North American Publication 2018
Copyright © 2018 by Becky Wicks
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without th
e express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 22 Adelaide St. West, 40th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5H 4E3, 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. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.
www.Harlequin.com