Reunited with Her Secret Prince

by Susanne Hampton

  But she’d asked him to go to Alaska—No, Milo corrected his heart, Quinn had joked about finding a place somewhere else if her home turned to ashes. She’d just thrown him in—probably without thinking. After all, her cheeks had burned as soon as the question had left her lips.

  He’d teased her about her tendency to blush for years and when her cheeks lit up, he’d wanted to lean forward and rub his hands over them. To pull her close.

  Instead, his tongue had refused to mutter even a basic response. And then she’d confirmed that it was only a joke.

  Which he’d known...

  So why was his heart still wishing she’d meant it—even if he never planned to leave?

  Pushing a hand through his hair, Milo tried to rope in his wayward emotions. An offhand comment when Quinn was stressed didn’t mean anything.

  But what if it did? What if it was a sign she wanted more from him too? The loose plan he’d thought of for asking Quinn out formed at the back of his brain again.

  Why was it refusing to stay buried?

  “Molly’s crowning and the baby won’t drop!” Rhonda shouted from behind him. She was gone before the lounge door slammed shut, giving him the perfect excuse to bury the lingering questions and thoughts, and focus on his work instead.

  * * *

  “I can’t,” Molly sighed and leaned her head back.

  “You can. Just breathe. And when the next contraction comes, I need you to push with all your might.” Quinn kept her voice level as Molly let out another low cry.

  She’d been pushing for over an hour and was growing tired and frustrated. Quinn dropped her eyes to the baby’s heart rate monitor. It was still holding steady, but the longer Molly’s son refused to enter this world, the greater her chance of needing an emergency cesarean.

  “I’m tired.” Molly’s voice ached with exhaustion.

  “I know,” Quinn commiserated, but only for a minute. Her nursing mentor, a former army medic, had taught each of his students that sometimes a patient needed a command. Meeting Molly’s gaze, Quinn channeled her inner drill sergeant. “Your job isn’t done,” she reminded her. “So, Julian, help Molly sit up a bit. And Molly, get ready to bear down.”

  Molly’s partner helped her up and rubbed her back. He whispered something in her ear, low enough that Quinn couldn’t hear him. Whatever the words were, Molly set her lips and nodded at Quinn.

  Good. She needed Molly focused. Bringing life into this world was hard work, but Molly could do it.

  The monitor started to beep and Molly’s face screwed tight. “Oh, God.”

  “Here we go. Push!” Quinn ordered.

  Molly let out a scream as she held on to Julian’s hands, but she didn’t stop pushing.

  And Quinn breathed a sigh. Finally. His little nose and lips were perfect. “Good job, Momma. One or two more pushes, and we should have him.”

  The air shifted next to her and Quinn knew Milo had joined them, but she didn’t look up. She’d asked Rhonda to grab Milo after they’d passed the forty-minute mark of pushing. If the baby hadn’t descended... Quinn swallowed. The baby had—that was all that mattered now.

  Quinn was pleased that Milo’s presence wasn’t needed, but she knew he wouldn’t leave now. Not because he didn’t trust her ability to safely deliver a child, but because he cared for each of his patients. And Milo tried to be present for as many births as possible. Quinn liked to joke that he lived a block from the birthing center so that he could welcome as many little ones into this world as possible.

  “Looks like I got dressed in my fancy scrubs for nothing.”

  Quinn could hear the smile in Milo’s voice as she focused on Molly’s little one. This was the part they all loved. The reason every midwife and ob-gyn entered the profession. There was no better joy than to watch new life enter this world. Sharing a few minutes with loving partners becoming first-time or fifth-time parents... It never got old.

  The monitor beeping picked up and Quinn offered Molly a quick smile. “One more time, Momma.”

  Molly’s eyes were a bit watery, but she gripped Julian’s hands and pushed as the next contraction cascaded through her. “Fine!” Molly bit out. “But I am definitely telling his first date about how much trouble he put me through.”

  “That is every parent’s right. I think it’s in a handbook somewhere,” Milo agreed.

  Quinn laughed and then smiled as the tiny guy slid into her arms. He was perfect. Ten little toes and fingers, and a set of very healthy lungs, as evidenced by the fact he immediately erupted in a screech.

  Perfect.

  For just a moment, Quinn wished the child was hers. It was a need that she was having trouble ignoring lately. But it encompassed so much more. A desire to find someone. To walk through life with another, someone who’d try to keep a straight face while she crushed his hands and brought their child into this world.

  Someone who would choose her, just as she was...

  As she laid the still-screeching little one on his mother’s chest, Quinn grinned at her patient. “Congratulations, Molly. You’re a mom—again.”

  Molly and Julian were good people, a loving family. Surely their hearts were big enough to include the new baby and their adopted son, even if he didn’t share their DNA. Unlike her own parents...

  The placenta was delivered with no complications as Molly and Julian bonded with their newborn—each counting his toes and fingers—before letting Milo take the baby to check him over while Quinn took care of Molly.

  A few minutes later, Quinn watched as an exhausted Molly kissed the top of her son’s head and then kissed her husband.

  “He’s beautiful,” Quinn said with a smile. It was true. Their little man was adorable—like all new babies.

  Molly let out a sigh. “He is. So beautiful. He looks a bit like Owen. I know technically people would say that’s not possible, but look at his little nose.” Molly’s fingers traced a line down the boy’s nose and laughed. “Such a cute nose.”

  Julian kissed his wife. “I agree. Though maybe that is because all baby boys seem to look like little old men when they’re first born.” Julian laughed and pulled out his cell phone.

  A small boy appeared on the screen a few seconds later. “Am I a big brother? Am I?” Owen beamed at the baby on his mother’s chest.

  “Yes,” Molly whispered. “This is Adam—your little brother.” She let out a yawn and waved to her oldest.

  Julian took over, his smile wide as he looked at Owen. “Mommy is tired, but Grandma is going to bring you to visit in a little while.”

  “Promise?” Owen queried.

  Quinn wondered if the small boy was worried. At four, a bit of sibling jealousy was to be expected, and he was likely too young to understand that his world had altered forever. Please... Quinn sent out a silent prayer to the universe that it was altering for the better.

  “Promise.” Julian gave him a thumbs-up. “I love you, big brother.”

  Quinn sucked in a breath as her heart clenched. She needed to leave—now. Molly was fine, and the family needed some bonding time, anyway. She wanted to believe that was why she was ducking out. But Quinn had never been good at lying—particularly to herself.

  The echoes of her past chased her as she exited the birthing room.

  This wasn’t her life. The reminder did little to calm her racing heart. Molly wasn’t her mother and Julian wasn’t her father. These parents would love both their children equally.

  They would.

  She’d wanted to return to California, had felt drawn here. Working with Milo had been the biggest draw, but LA was also her hometown. Where she’d been raised. She had hoped that maybe enough time had passed. But in the short time she’d been home, she’d realized the pain of her childhood refused to bury itself in the hole in her soul.

  Rolling her shoulders, she tried to find
a wave of calm, but it eluded her. Her parents had struggled to conceive, too. After years of trying, they’d adopted Quinn—a newborn abandoned at a fire station.

  If they’d loved her then, Quinn had been too young to remember. Her brother, Asher—the miracle child they’d always wanted—had been born when she was not quite two. Overnight, Quinn had become an interloper. If they could have returned her...

  Leaning against the wall, Quinn inhaled a deep breath, trying to fend off the past. Today had been too emotional. But the tiny part of her heart that wasn’t happy on the road, that craved permanence, that got louder with every move... And screamed loudest when she was near Milo—

  “She looks just like my mother.” The soft coo of a new mom walking past with her newborn sent Quinn spiraling further.

  Every time someone had commented on how her jet-black hair and dark eyes were so different from her family’s blond hair and baby blues, she’d wish her mother would laugh it off. Make up a great-grandfather. Or say that she was her daughter by choice instead of by birth—other adoptive families believed that. But no matter how hard Quinn had tried to follow the family’s strict rules, to abide by her parents’ wants and desires, it hadn’t been enough.

  Instead, Carolyn Davis would calmly explain that Quinn wasn’t really hers.

  Not hers...not a full member of the family.

  When her parents had died in a car crash right after she became a nurse, she found out that they’d left everything to her brother. She hadn’t even been mentioned in the will.

  Though they’d never been close, her brother had tried to make it right. Asher had divided the estate evenly. Quinn hadn’t cared about the money or the real estate—her parents had stopped supporting her financially the day she’d declared that she didn’t want to be a lawyer. She’d realized that that wouldn’t have gained her acceptance, so why give up her dreams of being a nurse?

  It wasn’t his fault, but Asher had gotten the things that mattered. The letters. The keepsakes. The acknowledgment. Quinn shouldn’t have expected anything. Still, part of her had hoped that one day she might be welcomed into her own family. With her parents’ passing, that dream became impossible. And to not even be mentioned in the documents they’d meticulously prepared in case they died unexpectedly, was a wound she still didn’t know how to mend.

  Then she’d lost her brother, too. Not physically. At least, she didn’t think so. But Asher had stopped returning her phone calls and picked up the reins at their parents’ law firm. Their lives had always been separate, but without their parents between them, she’d hoped they might be friends, or at best, not competitors. She’d been disappointed—again.

  But she’d found her place—at least professionally. Nursing was her calling and she’d never regretted choosing it. She’d carved her own path, focusing only on the step right in front of her. But nursing didn’t take away her desire to be accepted, to be loved, to have a family that wanted her—just as she was.

  “Molly and Julian are going to be excellent parents, and their boys are going to keep them busy.” Milo’s words floated over her.

  “Of course they are.” Quinn opened her eyes and looked toward the door where Rhonda was hanging the welcome stork. The spindle-legged creature was hung on all the doors, and Quinn’s heart ached with the worry that she might never experience that joy. She was less likely to find it if she moved every year—or sooner. “I’m fine.”

  Maybe if she repeated the phrase, it would bloom into truth.

  “I didn’t ask.” Milo leaned against the wall and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

  At least he hadn’t directly called out her lie. Pushing away from the wall, Quinn offered him a smile, doing her best to make it seem unforced. “You were going to.” She tapped her head. “Best friend telepathy.”

  Milo grinned. The dimple in his cheek sent a tiny thrill through her. Between working with him and hanging out with him, it was getting harder to keep the lines of friendship from blurring.

  Particularly when she didn’t want to.

  Hurrying on before he could add any commentary, Quinn knocked a finger against her watch. “I’m off duty. So, I’m going to—” Her words died as she remembered that she couldn’t go home.

  “You want to crash at my place? I’m off, too.”

  His heat warmed the cold that refused to leave her. But if she said yes when her emotions were so close to the surface, it could be a disaster. “No.” The rushed word was clipped, and her heart sank as Milo’s nose scrunched.

  He was worried and hurt, and there wasn’t a good way to walk her tone back. She hadn’t meant to hurt his feelings.

  Trying to sound bright and cheery, Quinn offered, “I’ll crash here, and one of the on-call midwives can have a date night!”

  Someone should.

  Bumping his hip, she ignored the gibe and added, “I’ll certainly be on time for my next shift. Maybe even early, given the commute.”

  Milo nodded, but the ghost of hurt still hovered on his face. “The commute will certainly be quick.”

  Pursing her lips, Quinn watched him go. Longing pushed at her chest, ordered her to chase after him, to tell him she’d love to go home with him. In so many different ways...

  But that was why she couldn’t do it. He was her friend. If their dynamic changed, she could lose so much.

  But what if she gained everything?

  Until she could quash her heart’s cry, she needed to keep a bit of distance between them. No matter how much it hurt.

  Copyright © 2021 by Juliette Hyland

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  ISBN-13: 9781488074813

  Reunited with Her Secret Prince

  Copyright © 2021 by Susanne Panagaris

  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.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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