by Tasha Jones
Dedicated
To All The Readers Who Are Making My Dreams Come True
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Copyright © 2015 Tasha Jones. All rights reserved. Including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the author.
WARNING: This book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language. It may be considered offensive to some readers. This book is for sale to adults ONLY.
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Other Titles By Tasha (Free on Kindle Unlimited)
Doctor Of My Dreams
Cowboy Love
Saving The Cowboy
African Attraction
My Caring Cowboy
Books By Friends (Free on Kindle Unlimited)
Violet Jackson
Loving The Doctor
Doctor's Baby
Doctor's Soul
The Nurse's Secret Love
Heart of Fire
Country Vibes
Doctor's Love
Falling For The Doctor
The Billionaire's Bodyguard
Jamaica, I Love You
City Vibes – Complete Series
About Tasha Jones
Hey,
I'm Tasha and thank you so much for taking the time to take a read through my book. I'm a young mother of one, with a loving husband, currently living in Jacksonville, and am a big reader. I've decided to turn my love for books into something more, and have started to passionately write more and more. I recently went on a trip to Africa with my fam, and got many ideas for stories on that trip. I also love traveling and cooking and hope it shows in my writing. I really hope you enjoy my writing and I can bring just a tiny bit of joy into your day.
Thanks,
Tasha
About This Book
Being a single mother with a sick child was always tough on Violet.
While she had big plans growing up in the projects to go to law school and make things better for herself, like many young women in her situation she got pregnant, and ended up married at a very young age.
Her marriage was out of necessity rather than love, but Violet and her husband Alex always respected each other and grew closer over the years. After all, he was the reason that she had Tanya, her little girl who she loved more than anything in the world.
While Violet did try to make the most of her situation, luck was definitely not on her side. A few years prior she was in a terrible car accident where she barely escaped with her life. Her husband wasn't so lucky though and she watched as the last glimmer of life left his eyes.
To add to all of this, Violet's daughter had a congenital heart defect which caused her to constantly get sick, and many doctors told her that the chances of her living a long life were slim.
Until the day she met him. After seeing doctor after doctor, she was finally able to get a referral to Dr. Jeremy Waterhouse, one of the premier cardiologists available. Jeremy was intrigued by her daughter's case and was willing to take a chance on a surgery.
Through a few more chance encounters, and through both pre and post surgery prep Violet and Jeremy became very close. It definitely also helped that Tanya's procedure was a huge success and she was on her way to becoming a fully healthy young girl.
But as time passed they found they were so different, and just from two different worlds. Until one day Jeremy broke it off with Violet and didn't explain why.
Will Violet and Jeremy get back together, and be one big happy family with Tanya?
This hot and steamy BWWM romance is for adult audiences 18+ only
CHAPTER ONE: Violet
Violet’s eyes kept straying anxiously to the big clock suspended on the wall at the far end of the waiting room. The bold, red numbers seemed to be changing rapidly, inching closer and closer to 11:30a.m. There was still no sign of the doctor or the nurse she had dealt with several hours earlier. A practiced hand gently touched the forehead of the sleeping figure curled up next to her in a tight ball. The burning fever from a few hours ago was gone, but Tanya’s forehead was still much too warm for comfort.
As if confirming her mother’s fears, the little girl coughed in her sleep, a dry, wracking cough, which made her whole body tremble and shake. Violet placed her ear close against Tanya’s chest and even though she knew it was impossible to hear without a stethoscope, she tried to catch the sounds of her little heart beating abnormally. Dr. Harrod had called it an abnormal heart murmur.
“Heart murmurs occur when the blood flows through your heart at a faster pace than is normal,” The pediatrician had patiently explained to her, “And the difference between an innocent and abnormal heart murmur is innocent heart murmurs can happen because of a fever or strenuous physical activity. It doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with your heart. But an abnormal one signals a more serious problem. So I’m going to send your daughter in for some further tests and make some appointments with doctors who specialize in heart problems.”
Numerous tests and doctors’ appointments later, Violet was told that her daughter had a congenital heart defect, an atrial septal defect, it was a fancy term to explain that Tanya was born with a hole in her heart. The doctors told her they caught it in good time, any later and it may have been too late for Tanya. But Violet didn’t see how it was any good timing; it ripped her own heart apart whenever she thought of her five-year-old girl running around all this time with a hole in her heart. She had always known in her heart that something must be wrong. Her baby was so small and tiny, her breathing always so ragged and harsh. As she thought back to how carelessly the doctors had waved away her concerns over Tanya’s health, Violet felt a bitterness wash over her; of course it was easy for them, it wasn’t their daughter who was in pain.
With tears filling her eyes, Violet leaned over and gently kissed the flushed face. My sweet, sweet baby, she thought. The firm set of her little jaw and the slight turn of the lips were an exact replica of her father’s.
Before the thought had time to form properly and take shape, Violet banished it from her head. She was already feeling stressed and emotional, now was not the time to be thinking about Alex. It had been just over three years since her husband’s passing but even now she couldn’t bear to think about him without experiencing an aching pain. But it gave her an immense amount of pleasure to see him in Tanya’s beautiful features that were a blend of both parents. She had inherited her mother’s heavily fringed soft honey colored eyes, full bee stung lips and delicious mocha skin but her wide forehead, the tightly curled kinky hair and firmly set chin were replicas of her father. Her small button nose had been a mystery to both parents.
Although fate had been far from kind to Violet, she greeted each day with a cheerful optimism especially when she was around Tanya. Violet had grown up in a rough neighborhood, facing one problem after another but it had never changed her naturally optimistic personality, in some
ways she was still the same little girl who use to believe in fairy tales and look for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But ever since Tanya’s heart problems had surfaced, she was plagued by a constant fear that her beloved daughter would be taken away from her just as suddenly as her father was. Even after all this time, getting into a car made her feel nervous, especially when she was around big trucks on the road. The image of the grey truck grinding to a halt and slamming into their car was imprinted in her head. When she closed her eyes and thought deeply, she could still hear the screech of the brakes and the twinkle of their windshield shattering into a million pieces. She could still smell the burned rubber and feel the wetness from Alex’s bleeding head against her fingers.
Everyone told her how lucky she was to have come out of the accident without so much as a scratch on her, they told her God had saved her for Tanya, but the days following Alex’s death, all she could wonder is why God hadn’t taken her too. She didn’t see how she could ever manage without his constant support and friendship. Because they both believed a stable family unit was an important element to raising children, they had gotten married when Violet found out she was pregnant.
But even though their marriage had been based more on a necessity than a great passionate love, it had been a happy one nonetheless based on solid respect for each other and a strong friendship. A world without Alex was unbearable and the thought of spending the rest of her life on her own was more painful than she could endure. But with time she had healed. She had come to realize the wisdom of everyone’s words and was even grateful to God for not leaving her daughter an orphan. With time she had managed to become self-reliant and independent, devoting her life entirely to keeping Tanya happy and building a secure future for her. Sighing deeply, Violet forced herself to think of something else and her eyes strayed to the clock on the wall again.
As the numbers on the clock flipped to 11:30a.m., Violet knew there was no help for it. She would be late for work again today. Wearily getting to her feet, she walked over to the reception desk and asked to use the phone. As always, Alysha was kind and sympathetic but Violet knew from the subtle inflection of her voice that her patience was nearing its breaking point. And she couldn’t even really blame her.
For the last few months, Violet had consistently either been late to work or had not shown up at all. It wouldn’t have mattered so much except Mama Cee’s was one of the more popular hair salons in Atlanta, specializing particularly in African-American hairstyles and cuts. And Violet, being one of the more seasoned and best hairdressers, was always very much in demand. Her funny sense of humor, playful spirit and knack for giving her customers exactly the right ‘do ensured she had a steady stream of devoted, loyal clients. As the owner of the salon, Alysha was well aware of how much revenue Violet brought in, that coupled with their long history was only a few of the reasons why she allowed Violet so much leeway.
Thinking of the salon brought a small smile to Violet’s face. She had worked in the salon in one form or another for as long as she could remember. It had always been a happy place for her and felt like a second home. Since her own mother used to work at Mama Cee’s, Violet had practically grown up in that small, cozy salon.
Some of her fondest and earliest childhood memories revolved around accompanying her own mother to the salon, watching her work magic on fussy, difficult hair, listening to the women gossip and swap outrageous stories. As she grew a little older, she ran errands for the women and was rewarded with candy and colorful ribbons for her hair.
After high school, she worked at the salon part time in order to pay for her tuition at the local college where she was studying literature. She had big dreams of law school and a life outside of the projects. But then, like so many girls before her, she made one silly mistake and Tanya came along, followed by a hasty marriage. Settling into married life and motherhood took care of any dreams of law school and yet she wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Violet’s eyes feasted hungrily on her daughter again; she was the best thing to have ever happened in her life, that one drunken night had been the best mistake of her life, she thought with a smile.
By the time Tanya’s number was called by the nurse, it was close to 2p.m. The doctor looked her over quickly, gave her some over-the-counter medicine for the fever and suggested she make an appointment with her regular physician to take a closer look. Violet was so angry she wanted to hit the woman. She tried to explain that Tanya was already scheduled to see her regular doctor in a few days but that she had suddenly taken ill the night before and now she was feeling worried. But the doctor just dismissed her worries.
“There’s nothing more we can do here, just give her some medicine for the fever and watch the coughing.”
“She has a hole in her heart, Doctor! And she’s having trouble breathing, shouldn’t she be admitted to the hospital to keep an eye on her overnight or something?”
“Look, she’s just having some coughing problems but that’s about it. There’s nothing else physically wrong with her at the moment. So there’s nothing else we can do. The best thing for her would be to go home and get some rest. You can bring this up with your regular doctor when you see him.”
Feeling utterly disgusted, Violet gave the doctor a scathing look filled with contempt,
“I thought doctors were supposed to care.”
Taking Tanya by the hand, she left the room without another backwards look at the doctor. The rest of the day, she kept an anxious eye on Violet, and although her fever didn’t spike up again, the ragged breathing and cough persisted. Violet sat next to her in bed until Tanya fell asleep; she felt the little chest heaving up and down as Tanya struggled to breathe normally and tears welled up in her eyes again. She knew in her heart that if Tanya didn’t get better soon, she wouldn’t make it to her next birthday.
***
That evening Violet knelt by her bedside, her hands clasped together like a child’s and prayed earnestly to God for a miracle. A miracle that would save her daughter’s life.
“Please, God,” she murmured silently, “please allow my baby to live. You already have Alex, please don’t take my baby away from me, I’ve had her for such a short time, such a short time…her time can’t be up yet. Please, please, God….”
CHAPTER TWO: Jeremy
Jeremy overheard Nurse Abigail talking to one of the patients about miracles and prayers in her sweetly kind way. He fought the urge to go back and tell them both to not waste time on such nonsense. As a man of science, he believed only in things which could be proven with facts, statistics and science. He took it as a personal insult whenever anyone prayed for or expected miracles. In his opinion, praying only led to false expectations and crushing blows when a patient inevitably succumbed to a disease or an illness.
He decided against having another talk with Nurse Abigail, since none of his previous rebukes had seemed to have any effect and he knew it would be a waste of breath. Putting aside his thoughts on miracles, he went back to the task at hand, deciding whether he should go home or stay at the office for a little while longer. The phone on his desk rang; it was the receptionist, Lynn.
“Dr. Waterhouse, your mother is on line 1.”He silently groaned to himself and closed the file he had just grabbed; phone calls from his mother during the week usually didn’t mean pleasant things and more often than not were mentally exhausting.
“Okay thank you, Lynn, I’ll get it.”
As the line disconnected, he picked up the receiver, trying not to sound impatient, “Hello, Mom.”
“Darling, how are you?”
“I’m good and yourself?”
“Oh wonderful, your father went out golfing hours ago and he’s still out, no doubt he won’t be back till late tonight. And I had some errands to run for the fundraiser the country club is hosting next month.”
“Hmm…sounds like a busy day. So what do you need from me?”
One thing he had to admire about his mother, she never pr
etended otherwise and got right to the point.
“There’s a charity gala on Saturday night, being hosted by the Weinmans and I would simply love it if you could come.”
“I’m sorry Mother, my schedule is absolutely jam packed for this weekend and I…”
His mother cut his excuses short, “I’m sure you can clear a few hours from your schedule for your dear mother, you won’t even have to stay long, just an hour or so.”
Jeremy sighed wearily, “Mother, why do you really want me to come to this thing?”
He could almost hear the wheels turning in her head as she debated on how much or how little to tell him. At last she said, “The Weinmans’ daughter is in town and I think it would be lovely for you to meet her.”
“Mother, not this again, I’m not interested.”
“How can you not be interested when you haven’t even met her?!”
“I just know I won’t be interested. I’ve told you this time and again, Mother, I don’t have time for relationships right now. So please just...”
“It’s been four years …”
It was his turn to interrupt her and he abruptly cut her off, “We’re not talking about this again, Mom and that’s not even what the issue is. I simply don’t have the time.”
“Well it’s not like I’m asking you to come for five hours, I don’t think it would kill you to simply show up at the gala for just a few minutes. All the kids your age are married now, do you know the Steinberg's’ son and his wife are expecting their second child? Their second, Jeremy! I want to be a proud grandma too, who can show off pictures of her grandchildren too, you know. How is that ever supposed to happen if you won’t even open yourself up to the idea of meeting someone?”