A Secret Shared...

by Marion Lennox

  Is a secret halved…?

  High-flying oncologist professor Jack Kincaid isn’t convinced by the treatment offered at Dolphin Bay Healing Resort. But if there’s the slightest possibility that dolphins can help his little nephew Harry, he needs to give it a chance! Especially when he recognizes beautiful therapist Dr. Kate Martin—the woman he once knew as Cathy!

  Jack can’t help but be intrigued, and he’s just as attracted to her as he always was. And when Kate reveals to him the devastating secret that she will do anything to escape, not only does she share her burden, but she starts to open up Jack’s locked-away heart, too….

  She turned to go, but then she hesitated, turning back.

  “Jack, thank you for reassuring me about my name change,” she said softly. “It means everything to me. And thank you also for entrusting Harry to my care. I will help. I promise.”

  “I know you will.”

  Where had that come from? But he knew it was true. From total distrust, he now had faith.

  Why? Because she told a good story? Because he’d known her as a student? Because she was forcing him to face something he’d been actively avoiding?

  Or maybe it was none of those things. Maybe it was because she was standing in the moonlight in her faded jeans and her bare feet.

  Maybe it was the freckles.

  Maybe it was the smile. She was smiling now, quizzically, waiting for him to say good-night and give her leave to go.

  “Won’t you have another drink?” he found himself saying.

  She looked at him then—really looked—and he was reminded of the looks she’d given him when he was fooling around in the lab at med school, when time was starting to run out, when she was reminding him that they were there to work. And he remembered suddenly how much he’d wanted to ask her out, and how frustrated he’d been when she’d knocked back his advances.

  But she wasn’t thinking about the past. This was all about now. This was all about Harry.

  Dear Reader,

  Right now my family is in the midst of restoring a fisherman’s cottage that’s protected by so many heritage restrictions it makes my eyes water. But when bureaucracy gets the better of me, I head to our local ferry, which takes me over the treacherous Rip to the entrance to Port Phillip Bay and Melbourne beyond. Why? Well, my favorite cake shop is on the other side of the Rip—though the trip does make for expensive cake! But as well as cake, I get to see dolphins. If I’m lucky they’ll surf in the ferry’s wake, leaping in and out of the water, joyously celebrating the fact that they can beat the boat twice over. They’re smart, they’re funny, and I defy anyone to watch them and not forget red tape and rotting roofing iron.

  So it was with interest that I read of a dolphin sanctuary in the U.S. where traumatized kids are offered time out swimming with these gorgeous creatures as a type of therapy. So what if…? I thought as I watched the dolphins surfing alongside the boat. What if…? are my two favorite words. They send me off on another book almost as soon as I think them. What if my heroine finds a way to reach wounded kids with the same dolphins that make me smile? But what if she’s hiding secrets? What if she’s wounded, too?

  My hero is truly heroic—isn’t he always? But in A Secret Shared… Jack needs all the help he can get to win his lady and to share the secrets that guard her heart.

  The dolphins are just the guys to help him!

  Marion

  A SECRET SHARED…

  Marion Lennox

  Recent titles by Marion Lennox:

  In Harlequin® Medical Romance™

  WAVES OF TEMPTATION

  GOLD COAST ANGELS: A DOCTOR’S REDEMPTION*

  MIRACLE ON KAIMOTU ISLAND‡

  THE SURGEON’S DOORSTEP BABY

  SYDNEY HARBOR HOSPITAL: LILY’S SCANDAL^

  DYNAMITE DOC OR CHRISTMAS DAD?

  THE DOCTOR & THE RUNAWAY HEIRESS

  *Gold Coast Angels

  ^Sydney Harbor Hospital

  ‡Earthquake!

  In Harlequin® Romance

  CHRISTMAS AT THE CASTLE

  SPARKS FLY WITH THE BILLIONAIRE

  A BRIDE FOR THE MAVERICK MILLIONAIRE*

  HER OUTBACK RESCUER*

  NIKKI AND THE LONE WOLF**

  MARDIE AND THE CITY SURGEON**

  *Journey Through the Outback

  **Banksia Bay

  These books are also available in ebook format from www.Harlequin.com.

  Dedication

  To Ray and Deb, with thanks for making our dream a reality.

  Praise for Marion Lennox:

  “Marion Lennox’s Rescue at Cradle Lake

  is simply magical, eliciting laughter and tears in equal measure. A keeper.”

  —RT Book Reviews

  “Best of 2010: a very rewarding read.

  The characters are believable, the setting is real, and the writing is terrific.”

  —Dear Author on Christmas with Her Boss

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER ONE

  ‘YOU WANT TO save your kid with mantra-chanting and dolphins that eat our fish, go ahead and waste your money. Dolphin Sanctuary plays you for a sucker, and you’re walking right in.’

  This was exactly what Dr Jack Kincaid didn’t want to hear. He glanced at the white-faced child in his passenger seat and hoped Harry wasn’t listening.

  The little boy’s face was blank and unresponsive, but then, it always was. Harry had hardly spoken since the car crash that had killed his parents.

  ‘The sanctuary seems to be building a good reputation,’ he said, which was all he could think of to say. He didn’t want to be here but he needed petrol. The pump attendant, fat, grubby and obviously bored, had wandered out to have a word.

  It was no wonder he looked bored. There’d be few cars along this road. Jack was three hundred miles from Perth, heading for one of the most remote parts of Australia. Dolphin Bay.

  Dolphins. Healing. He thought of the hundreds of schmaltzy, New Age healing-type posters he’d seen in his lifetime and he felt ill.

  What was he doing here?

  ‘So your kid’s crook?’ the attendant asked, and Jack flicked the remote. The car windows slid up soundlessly, ensuring Harry couldn’t hear.

  Harry didn’t react. He didn’t seem to notice he was being cut out of the conversation. He never seemed to notice.

  ‘He was injured in a road accident a while back,’ he said. The pump was snail slow and this guy was intent on an inquisition. He might as well accept it.

  ‘You’re his dad?’

  ‘His uncle. His parents were killed.’

  ‘Poor little tacker,’ the man said. ‘But why bring him to Dolphin Bay? What’s the point? You’re being conned, mate. Fishing used to be good round here, but not any more. New Age hippies have even got permission to feed them, encouraging them in from the wild.’

  ‘How long have they been using them for healing?’

  ‘Since that Doc Kate came. Before that it was just dolphin saving. The place’s full of animal do-gooders and weirdos who think meditation’s more useful than facing life straight on. If you want to know what I thin
k, the only good dolphin’s a dead dolphin. If they’d only let us shoot...’

  But, praise be, the fuel tank was full. Jack produced his wallet with relief. ‘Keep the change.’ He wanted to be out of here, fast. ‘Use it for fish bait.’

  ‘Thanks, mate,’ the man said. ‘But if I were you I’d book into the motel and take the kid fishing. Much better than messing with hippies.’

  That was so much what Jack was thinking that he had to agree. ‘I’d go fishing in a heartbeat,’ he admitted. ‘But I don’t have a choice.’

  ‘You look like a man who knows his own mind. What’s stopping you?’

  ‘Women,’ Jack said, before he could help himself. ‘Isn’t that what stops us all?’

  * * *

  Four-year-old Toby Linkler’s death was sudden, heartbreaking—and a deep and abiding blessing.

  One minute Kate was watching as Toby’s mother, Amy, stood in the shallows, holding her little son close. Together they’d watched Hobble, the youngest of the trained dolphins, swim around them in circles. The little boy’s face, gaunt from illness, racked from months of chemotherapy, was lit from within. He’d even chuckled.

  And then, as Hobble ducked underneath and almost propelled Toby out of the water with a nudge under his backside, Toby’s gaze suddenly turned inward.

  Kate was four feet away and she moved fast, but by the time she reached him, the little boy was gone.

  Toby’s mother sobbed with shock and horror, but she didn’t move. The dolphin’s circles grew wider, as if standing guard. How much did the creature know? Kate wondered. This moment couldn’t be intruded on and it wasn’t, even by the dolphins.

  ‘He’s...he’s gone,’ Amy sobbed at last. ‘Oh, Toby. The doctors said... They said he might...’

  They had. More than one doctor had predicted seizures with the possibility of sudden death. Kate had studied Toby’s notes as thoroughly as she read every patient’s history. Four years old. Brain tumour. Incomplete excision twelve months ago. Chemotherapy had shown some shrinkage but eventually the growth had outstripped treatment. The last note on the history said: ‘If tumour maintains its present growth rate, prognosis is weeks, not months. We suggest palliative care as required. Referral back to family doctor.’

  But Amy hadn’t taken Toby back to her family doctor. One of the other mums in the city hospital kids’ cancer ward had told her about Dolphin Bay Sanctuary’s therapy programme. Kate had had to squeeze to get them in.

  Thank heaven she had, she thought now, and her thoughts were indeed a prayer. Toby had spent most of the last few days ensconced in a tiny wetsuit, floating with the dolphins that had entranced him. Kate had four dolphins she’d trusted with this frail little boy and in the end all four had been allowed to play with him. They had played too, making him laugh, nudging his failing little body as he’d floated on water-wings, tossing balls high in the air so they’d landed near him, retrieving them themselves if he hadn’t been able to.

  He’d still needed painkillers, of course, and anti-seizure medication and drugs to try and stop the massive build-up of calcium leeching from the growing tumour, but for six glorious days he’d been a little boy again. He’d experienced fun and laughter, things that had had nothing to do with the illness and surgery he’d endured and endured and endured. At night he’d slept curled up with Maisie, Kate’s therapy dog. With his mum by his side, he’d seemed almost joyous.

  Today he’d woken quieter, pale, and his breathing had been shallow. Kate had known time was running out. In a normal hospital she might have ordered blood tests, checked the cancer wasn’t sending his calcium levels through the roof, maybe even sent him for another MRI to check how large the tumour had grown, but given his history there was little point. Toby’s mother had made her choice and, weak as he’d been, Toby had been clear on the one thing he’d wanted.

  ‘I want to swim with Hobble.’

  He had, and as his mother had cradled him Toby had felt the rush of the dolphin’s sleek, shining skin as he’d circled.

  ‘He’s my friend,’ he’d whispered.

  And now he was gone.

  There was nothing to be done. There was no call for heroics here, no desperate attempt at resuscitation. There was just the searing agony of a mother losing her child.

  It was gut-wrenching. Unbearable. A void never to be filled.

  But: ‘I’m so glad,’ Amy managed to whisper, as her racking sobs finally eased, as Kate stood waist deep in the water and gave her all the time she needed, and as Toby’s body settled deeper into death. ‘I’m so glad I brought him here. Oh, Kate, thank you.’

  ‘Don’t thank me,’ Kate said, hugging her close and drawing her gently out of the water. ‘Thank my dolphins.’

  * * *

  ‘Dr Kate’s running late.’ The pleasant-faced woman in Reception was welcoming, but apologetic. ‘I’m sorry, Harry,’ she said, and Jack felt a jolt of surprise. The woman was addressing his nephew instead of him. ‘This is Maisie,’ she told Harry, gesturing to a great bear of a golden-haired retriever snoozing under her desk. ‘Maisie, this is Harry.’ She prodded Maisie with her toe and Maisie looked up in polite enquiry. Me? You mean me?

  ‘Maisie,’ the receptionist said sternly, as one might chide a recalcitrant employee. ‘Say hello to Harry.’

  The dog rolled onto her back, stretched, sighed, then lumbered up, strode across the room, sat in front of Harry—and raised a paw.

  Harry stared. The dog sat patiently, paw outstretched, until finally, tentatively, Harry took it. Jack noticed, with quiet surprise, that his nephew almost managed a smile. It wasn’t quite, but it was close.

  ‘Dr Kate is in the water, doing therapy,’ the receptionist told Jack as dog and boy shook hand and paw for the second time. ‘She should be finishing now. Would you like to pop down to the beach? Please don’t disturb them but if you stay beyond the high-water mark you’re welcome to watch.’

  Jack would very much like to watch. Despite Harry’s instant relaxation—he was now solemnly shaking the big dog’s paw for the third time—Jack’s guard was still sky high.

  Why was he here? His home was in Sydney. Harry’s home was in Sydney. What Harry needed was continued therapy for healing leg fractures and a decent child psychiatrist who’d finally crack his wall of traumatised silence.

  But he’d found Harry some very good child psychiatrists, and none of them had made a dent in his misery. This was desperation. It had been his Aunt Helen’s idea, not his, but she had been prepared to relinquish Harry into Jack’s care if he agreed to bring him.

  Was it worth the risk?

  ‘Would you like to go to the beach or stay here with Maisie?’ the receptionist was asking Harry, and Harry looked at Maisie and nodded. This was a miracle all on its own. He’d been limp since the car crash, simply doing what the adults around him ordered. Three months ago he’d been a normal seven-year-old, maybe a little cosseted, maybe a little intense, but secure and loved and happy. Now, without his parents, he was simply...lost.

  ‘You’re sure?’ Jack asked, and of course there was no response. But Harry was kneeling on the floor with the dog and the dog was edging sideways. Jack could see what she was doing. There was a ball, three feet away, and Maisie was looking at it with more than a canine hint.

  Jack nudged it close and Maisie grabbed it and dropped it at Harry’s feet. Then she backed two feet away, crouching, quivering and staring straight at Harry with all the concentration a golden retriever could summon.

  Harry stared at Maisie. Maisie stared at Harry. The whole room held its breath.

  And then Harry very tentatively picked up the well-chewed ball—and tossed it about four feet.

  Maisie pounced with dramatic flourish, reaching it before it hit the floor, but she wasn’t content with a simple retrieval. She whirled three times, tossed the ball upwards
herself and caught it again—and then came back and dropped it at Harry’s feet again.

  And, unbelievably, Harry giggled.

  ‘I’ll buy the dog,’ Jack muttered, and the receptionist grinned.

  ‘She’s not for sale. Kate values her above diamonds. Go and watch her if you like. Harry and Maisie are safe with me.’

  They were. Jack watched the little boy a moment longer and felt himself relax, which was something he didn’t think he’d done once, not since his brother had died. The dog was taking care of Harry and the relief was immeasurable.

  ‘Go,’ the receptionist said gently, and her message was unmistakeable. It’s better if you’re not here. Let these two bond.

  She was right. Harry didn’t need him; since the accident he hadn’t seemed to need anyone.

  If one dog could make a difference...

  He’d tried a puppy; he’d tried almost everything. But now... Whatever this crazy dolphin-mantra place was, this dog was breaking through.

  Dr Jack Kincaid didn’t need to be told again.

  He went.

  * * *

  It was time to leave the water; time for the reality of death to hit home. As wonderful as this place was, it was simply time out. Toby was dead. His mother now had to start facing a world without him.

  Kate’s arm was around Amy’s waist as they made their way from the shallows. The world was waiting. Officialdom would move in and there was nothing Kate could do to protect Amy from it.

  But at least she’d had this time. At least the week before Toby’s death hadn’t been filled with hospitals, drips, rush. Her dolphins had helped.

  She turned for a moment as she reached the beach; they both did. Far out in the deep water, Hobble still seemed to be watching them. He was doing sweeping curves at the outer limits of the pool. At the far reaches of each curve he leaped from the water towards them, and then dived deep, again and again.

  ‘Thank you,’ Amy whispered toward him, and who knew if the dolphin could understand. But no matter what their level of understanding, the dolphins had helped ease one little boy’s passing.