Falling for the Pregnant GP

by Lucy Clark

  ‘The obstetrician won’t be here?’

  ‘If she’s here, then well and good but both Donna and I hold diplomas in obstetrics.’ CJ forked in another mouthful.

  ‘So you’re happy for Donna, your friend and colleague, to deliver your baby?’

  ‘Women in country towns usually rely on a friend or a grandmother or an old aunt to help them through deliveries, especially if it takes for ever for the doctor to arrive. Why is this any different? Except in my case, my experienced friend is also a well-trained doctor.’

  ‘What about midwives? Are there any in the district?’

  She shook her head. ‘It would be good, though. We have two part-time district nurses, one from each hospital, but a midwife would definitely be helpful. However, the government believes that with two district hospitals and two GPs this area is well provided for...and I guess we’re much better off than some other districts.’

  * * *

  He pondered her words as he fixed himself a coffee. ‘Can I get you a drink? I see you have some decaffeinated coffee here. Or would you like some herbal tea?’

  CJ shook her head. ‘I’m fine for now, but thank you.’ As she continued to eat, he hunted around the kitchen for the sugar and took the milk from the fridge.

  He was glad she was receiving regular check-ups with Donna. With everything that had happened to Abigail, it had made his doctorly instincts almost over-cautious with all pregnant women. He would also need to get used to not working with the latest equipment and specialists on demand. He’d had no idea that Pridham would only have visiting specialists who came this way once a month, sometimes less, leaving the overworked GPs to pick up any slack. Perhaps this job was going to be more interesting than he’d thought.

  Ethan glanced across at her, watching her devour those pancakes, secretly delighted that she was enjoying his cooking. He usually had little time to prepare balanced meals, preferring to grab something relatively healthy from the hospital cafeteria. Now that he was in Pridham, he would have the time to exercise more, do more cooking and drive his car. Sure, he’d be working but the stress would be different. Consulting in clinics and doing house calls would be very different from all-day operating lists, overbooked outpatient appointments, departmental administration work and research projects.

  As he sat down to drink his coffee, he thought more about the conversation they’d had earlier that morning. It had unnerved him a little to discover that CJ knew Melody. Had Mel told CJ about Ethan’s mild heart attack? Had she told CJ the reason why he’d almost worked himself into an early grave? He sipped his coffee, glancing at her over the rim of his cup. Even if Melody hadn’t said anything to CJ, had any of the other people she’d spoken to revealed gossip about Abigail? About the baby?

  If she knew all about him, perhaps he should learn more about her? He’d called her trusting to take a stranger into her home but, likewise, he’d accepted a job and accommodation and had, for all intents and purposes, spent last night in a stranger’s home.

  What did he really know about the pregnant woman opposite him? She was a local in Pridham, ran a busy practice, held a diploma in obstetrics and was a pregnant widow. It made him wonder about her, made him want to ask more questions, to get to know her better, and that, in itself, was uncommon for him. He usually wanted to know as little about his colleagues as possible, other than they were competent and skilled enough to do their work.

  Clearing his throat, he put his cup down on the table. ‘Uh... CJ, if you don’t mind me asking, how did your husband die?’

  ‘Quinten died in a car crash almost nine months ago. It was six weeks after he’d passed away that I found out I was pregnant.’ CJ sighed, shaking her head sadly. ‘Quinten had never wanted children, anyway, so, regardless of the situation, I would have been raising this child on my own.’

  ‘He would have left you in the lurch?’ Clearly, from what she’d told him last night, her marriage hadn’t been a happy one—at least near the end of it. He could relate to that far more than she probably realised. He and Abigail had been very happy in the beginning, but near the end...

  She shrugged one shoulder. ‘Who’s to say? Perhaps he would have done the right thing and at least financially provided for the baby.’ CJ put her knife and fork together on her plate, then leaned back and rubbed a hand over her stomach, smiling at her baby bump. ‘Did you enjoy that, my sweetheart? Because Mummy certainly did.’

  ‘How long were you married?’

  ‘Five years, but we’d grown apart, as I mentioned last night.’ She shrugged the words off with feigned nonchalance. ‘That was my old life. I now have a new one I need to concentrate on.’ She smiled brightly—a little too brightly, he thought as she levered herself up. ‘Thanks so much for breakfast. Donna’s doing morning clinic so we don’t need to bother with that, although you will be rostered on once a fortnight to work a Saturday morning.’

  Ethan nodded. ‘I re-read all the paperwork last night.’

  ‘Right, well, how about I slip on some shoes and then we can head off to Whitecorn District Hospital.’

  ‘That’s the other district hospital where I’ll be doing a clinic once a month?’

  ‘Correct.’ She cleaned up the mess she’d made, wiping down the benches before heading into her part of the house. When she returned, she’d tied her hair back into low pigtails and added a scarf. ‘Mind if we take your car?’ She batted her eyelashes at him pleadingly and smiled sweetly. He couldn’t help but grin at her efforts.

  ‘Subtle.’ They headed outside into the April sunshine.

  ‘Well, I did warn you that I’d beg a ride.’

  ‘Yes, yes, you did.’ Ethan held the passenger door open for her.

  ‘There’ll be more traffic on the road today, being a weekend.’

  ‘Tourists?’

  ‘In droves, but it’s great for the area.’

  ‘Bad for the doctors?’

  ‘No. We’re only called in when necessary and poor Donna’s been covering any emergencies for the past few weekends anyway. I told her it was no trouble for me to be rostered on but she likes to mother me.’ CJ sank down into the comfortable, upholstered leather. ‘Nice.’ She drawled the word out on a sigh. ‘Oh, this is very nice. How much of the internal restoration did you do yourself?’

  ‘I didn’t do the seats or the dash but I certainly banged out a lot of dints and hunted through old junk yards until I found just the thing I needed.’

  CJ nodded. ‘You’ve got to take your time. Restoring a car isn’t something to be rushed.’

  ‘I completely agree.’ Ethan was astonished to hear the words coming out of her mouth as they were the same words he’d said to Abigail. However, his wife really hadn’t understood his passion, much as he would have liked her to. ‘You’re the first woman I’ve ever known to enthuse to the point of obsession over a car.’

  ‘What do you mean, to the point of obsession? I am obsessed. Just as you are.’ She laughed and closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of the wind on her face. As they drove along, Ethan once again found himself breathing a little more deeply than before. His cardiologist would be pleased.

  ‘You’re not filling your lungs all the way,’ Leo had told him when Ethan had insisted the results of his physical examination be repeated. ‘You need to slow down and—’

  ‘If you say smell the roses, I’ll punch you in the nose, mate.’

  Leo’s answer had been to laugh. ‘Ethan, we’ve known each other for decades. I respect you as a medical professional and as a friend, and it’s because you’re my friend that these test results concern me so much.’ Leo had shaken his head.

  ‘It’s just a hiccup. I’ll slow down. I promise.’

  ‘But you won’t. I know you and this “hiccup”, as you call it, may have been a mild heart attack but it means others will follow if you don’t change your lifestyle. To lose you to
a massive heart attack that could easily be prevented—it’s a no-brainer. My recommendation to the CEO that you take an imposed sabbatical for six months stands. Smell those blooming roses. Breathe the fresh air. Get out of the city. Get out of your comfort zone. Meet new people and learn to appreciate life again.’

  ‘I appreciate life,’ he’d growled, completely furious with his friend. ‘It’s why I’m a surgeon.’

  ‘Appreciate your life,’ Leo had clarified. ‘Fill your lungs—all the way. Breathe as deeply as you can and enjoy the exhalations as your stress ebbs away.’ And for some reason, since his arrival in CJ Nicholls’s life, Ethan had breathed more deeply than he had during the past six years.

  Perhaps he was jumping the gun a bit, saying he wanted to look around for somewhere else to stay? He decided to put a mental pin in the thought and just see what else unfolded. For the moment, the drive through the beautiful countryside, surrounded by the early changing of the autumn leaves on the rows of grapevines, was very relaxing.

  ‘How does the tourism impact the hospitals and clinics?’ he asked CJ after he’d negotiated the car out of the main road of town.

  She lifted her head and glanced across at him, her sunglasses in place, a scarf covering her hair. She looked very...nineteen-twenties chic. ‘We have the odd emergency—burst appendix, perforated ulcers, that sort of thing. Food poisoning pops up every now and then. Of course there are coughs and colds and general ailments people don’t think of during the week because they’re so busy running around. Then they go away for the weekend, their bodies start to relax from the daily grind and they pick up the slightest bug or virus.

  ‘Sometimes we have people involved in car accidents, primarily because they’ve been stupid enough to drink and drive, but thankfully we haven’t had anything for a few years.’ She pointed to the road ahead. ‘Go left at the T-intersection. The hospital’s just down the road there.’

  As he indicated to turn, he saw the Whitecorn District Hospital and soon they were pulling into the car park. When he brought the car to a stop, she turned and grinned wildly at him, slowly removing the scarf and sunglasses.

  ‘That was...exhilarating. Thank you.’ Her smile was so genuine, as though she didn’t have a care in the world. How could she be like that when she was heavily pregnant and facing single parenthood? He stared at her for a long moment, astonished how her smile seemed to light up the darkness around his heart. He didn’t want to be moved by her. It was one of the reasons he not only wanted to keep his distance but seemed to need it as well. CJ Nicholls was...an enigma and one he didn’t want to discover—or so he told himself.

  Ethan opened his door and climbed from the car before walking around to help her out. He took both her hands in his and after she’d swung her legs around, she carefully eased herself from the convertible. ‘Getting in is much more graceful than getting out.’ She laughed, staring up into his eyes. And it was there, in that moment, that it felt as though the earth had stopped rotating, that time seemed to freeze, locking the two of them in a strange bubble of awareness.

  Was it the curve of her lips or the brightness of her eyes that was capturing his attention? He still held her hands, and they felt small and vulnerable inside his own. How was she going to give birth and raise a child alone? Didn’t she know that so many things could go wrong? He knew. He’d experienced all those things and the pain had been acute. For that split second he wanted to haul her into his arms, to offer protection, to let her know that she had to be sensible, to formulate a plan and account for all possibilities. Why he felt so determined to protect her, he had absolutely no clue.

  He glanced at her lips, his gaze hovering there for a long moment...long enough for her lips to part, allowing pent-up air to escape. What was this...thing, this...awareness that seemed to encompass them? Her lips were so perfectly sculpted, as though they’d been made for him...just for him. How was this possible? How could he be so drawn to a woman who, up until a month ago, he hadn’t even known existed?

  ‘Are you all right, Ethan?’ Her words were soft and filled with concern and he immediately flicked his gaze back up to meet hers. He saw her look down at their hands and it was only then he realised his grip on her hands had tightened.

  ‘Sorry.’ He let go and took a step back, shoving his hands into his pockets. He didn’t want to have any emotions, protective, caring or otherwise, towards his colleague. She was worried about him? ‘I’m fine. Just...er...wanted to make sure you were steady on your feet.’

  ‘I’m good.’ CJ gestured to the main entrance of the hospital. ‘Shall we?’ As she walked on unsteady legs towards the hospital, leaving him to secure the car, CJ tried to understand what had just happened. Apart from being completely mesmerised by his spicy scent and having tingles of delight shooting up her arms from where he’d held her hands, she’d also seen a powerful emotion cross Ethan’s face—one of primal protection.

  Why would Ethan—a man who barely knew her—want to protect her? Want to keep her safe? It wasn’t just his protective instincts she’d sensed. The way he’d stared at her mouth had caused the tingles already flooding her body to re-ignite and burst into a thousand stars of awareness. There was no denying that Ethan Janeway was an exceptionally good-looking man but the fact remained that they were colleagues. Besides, this was hardly the most opportune time in her life to be considering any sort of romantic involvement. The only person she needed to fall in love with was her unborn child. No one else.

  With her pep talk done, CJ pulled on an air of professionalism and introduced Ethan to the hospital staff. She introduced him to everyone they came across, even the domestic staff, which was something he found a little strange. In a large hospital, it was impossible to find the time to get to know everyone, yet here it appeared CJ not only knew everyone, she knew what was going on in their lives—and they in hers. He shook his head. The intimacies of small, rural towns were not for him.

  ‘Was I right?’ she asked Toby, one of the male cleaners, who was swinging a polisher over the floors. They had finally finished a very long tour of the twenty-six-bed hospital, CJ bringing Ethan up to date on every single patient, and were on their way out.

  ‘Yes, you were, CJ. Molly bought some of that manuka honey you suggested, swirled it around her gums and, sure enough, the ulcers started disappearing.’

  ‘I’m glad.’

  Toby turned the polisher off, then pressed his hand to her stomach. ‘How’s our baby doing?’

  CJ grinned widely. ‘Just fine.’

  ‘Not long now.’

  ‘No. Not long now.’ She waited patiently for him to remove his hand before continuing down the corridor. At the main entrance, Andrea, the clinical nurse consultant who had accompanied them on the round, met them.

  ‘Now, you go get off your feet. I don’t want those ankles swelling,’ Andrea instructed sternly, then she turned her attention to Ethan. ‘Make sure she rests.’

  ‘I will.’

  ‘Oh, no,’ CJ groaned. ‘Have you joined the over-protection brigade as well?’ she asked Ethan.

  ‘Leave him alone. We’re all here to look after you,’ Andrea stated. ‘That’s what family do.’

  ‘OK.’ CJ smiled and waved. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ she threw over her shoulder as she headed towards the door.

  ‘Tomorrow!’ Andrea’s tone made CJ stop. ‘Claudia-Jean Nicholls, you are not picking grapes in your condition. Does Donna know?’

  ‘That I’m planning to go, like I do every year? Yes.’

  ‘This year’s a little different, CJ. You’re in no condition to pick grapes.’ Andrea waggled a finger at her.

  ‘I doubt there’s any risk of me overdoing things. I have so many of you watchdogs around, guarding my every move.’ She compassed Ethan in her words and Andrea nodded.

  ‘True.’ Then Andrea placed a hand on CJ’s baby. ‘I’m positive it’s a boy.’


  ‘Donna has a betting pool under way. Make sure you register your vote. Date, time, gender and weight.’ CJ yawned, then waved. ‘See you tomorrow,’ she said again, before heading out to Ethan’s car. She secured her scarf and sunglasses and gratefully accepted his help with buckling the seat belt. It wasn’t until they were on the main road heading back to her house that he started asking questions.

  ‘You’re going grape picking tomorrow?’

  ‘Sure. Have you ever done it before?’

  He shook his head. ‘Can’t say that I have. I prefer to drink the wine from a bottle once the entire process has been finished.’

  ‘Leaving it up to the experts?’

  ‘Something like that.’

  ‘Doesn’t take an expert to snip off a bunch of grapes. Besides, it can actually be a lot of fun. I think you’ll enjoy it.’

  ‘Pardon?’

  ‘I said I think you’ll—’

  ‘I heard what you said, but why did you say it?’

  ‘Because you’re invited.’

  ‘To where?’

  ‘To the vineyard tomorrow.’

  ‘What vineyard?’

  ‘Donna and her husband have a few acres of vines. Quite small, compared to the large companies around here. Every year we all go and help pick the grapes.’

  ‘Isn’t it a bit late? It’s April. I thought the grapes were usually picked in February and March?’

  ‘It depends on the vintage, when it was planted, the weather—lots of things. The grapes on Donna’s property are ready now.’

  ‘They don’t have machines?’

  ‘No. It’s not set up for machines, so we pick by hand.’ CJ yawned again. ‘It’ll be fun...and a good way for you to get to know Donna away from the practice. I was sure you wouldn’t mind but if you really don’t want to come...’ Another yawn, her words starting to get more sluggish as exhaustion began to set in. ‘And want to look around for other accommodation, then that’s fine, too.’ She paused before saying softly, ‘I guess.’

  Was it his imagination or had she sounded a little disappointed if he decided not to come and help with the grape picking? She did make a valid point, though. Networking in a less formal atmosphere would help him to build relationships with his new colleagues. Donna was a partner in the medical practice and it sounded as though several of the staff from both hospitals would be there. Ethan knew the importance of networking and reluctantly admitted CJ had been right to suggest he attend.