by Amy Andrews
Yes...love.
God, he’d been fooling himself.
This hadn’t been about protection or charity. She’d had an impact on him from that very first day they’d met but he’d ignored it. And she’d been under his skin ever since.
He didn’t just like her. He loved her.
In a couple of months she—and Oscar—had come to mean everything to him.
Reid put a hand on the mattress to support legs suddenly not that steady. He should have known when the usual disquiet over staying in one place died down that something was up. But he’d been too busy trying to put her into the friend zone. Too busy mitigating his feelings because of the power imbalance in their relationship. Too busy trying not to have feelings for her to really listen to what his body had been telling him.
What his heart had been telling him.
He was in love with her.
Pure and simple. Although, not, if she didn’t feel the same way.
He knew she was attracted to him. But that wasn’t love. And he didn’t want to settle for anything less with her. He’d been aware of his feelings for ten seconds but already he knew he wanted the whole shebang. A relationship. A chance to be a father to Oscar. A chance to make them a family.
But whatever he felt at the moment was moot. He couldn’t tell her now. It all had to go on ice until Oscar was well again and Trinity had space in her head for something other than Oscar’s illness.
And, more than that, right now, she needed to go and have a proper sleep so she woke up refreshed and not with a kink in her neck.
He crouched beside her chair, one hand sliding on top of her thigh. ‘Trinity,’ he murmured, pressing a kiss to her cheek.
She stirred, lifted her head, looked quickly at Oscar and the monitor to assure herself he was okay then at him, her brows beetled together. ‘Reid?’
‘Hey, sleepyhead,’ he teased, keeping his voice low.
‘I’m sorry.’ She wiped a hand across her eyes. ‘I must have drifted off.’
‘Of course you did. You’re exhausted, Trinity.’ Neither of them had got much sleep the night before after all...
‘What are you doing back here?’ she said, ignoring his observation. ‘You should be with Eddie.’
‘He’s pushing out Z’s. Just like you.’
‘I’m fine.’ She shook her head as if clearing a fog. ‘It was just a catnap.’
‘Trinity.’ Reid squeezed her leg gently and she glanced down at it. At his hand on her leg. She stared at it for long moments and he thought he heard her breath hitch before she locked her gaze with his. ‘You. Are. Exhausted. Go to the parents’ lounge and have a proper sleep.’ She started to protest but he cut her off. ‘I will stay right here with Oscar. I promise I will not leave this seat.’
She shook her head. ‘But if he wakes up he’s going to expect to see me. He’ll want me.’
‘I know.’ Reid nodded. ‘And if he wakes, I will get them to get you straight away.’
The indecision on her face was nearly his undoing. She was clearly torn between a mother’s need to be with her child and the needs of her fatigued body. He wanted to drag her into his arms, tell her that he loved her and that everything was going to be okay. That he was here for Oscar as well as her.
But it wasn’t the right time for that.
‘You don’t have to do this all by yourself any more, Trinity,’ he whispered. ‘I’m here for you. I’m here. Let me do this. Please?’
A tear rolled down her face. ‘You’ll get them to fetch me if he wakes?’
Reid slid a palm onto her cheek, smearing the tear in its track, his heart bursting with love. This was big. She was trusting him with Oscar. ‘I promise.’
Then he leaned in and kissed her again. As he had this morning. As he hoped he’d be able to do a lot more.
She seemed less startled this time, which was heartening but probably spoke more about her exhaustion than anything else. He stood and stepped back so she could ease out of the chair, sitting in her place as soon as she’d vacated it, sliding his hand over the top of Oscar’s as soon as she withdrew hers.
The weight of her trust was a precious gift and he wouldn’t let her down.
* * *
Trinity couldn’t believe how quickly Oscar improved. Five days later he was off all oxygen and they were on a normal hospital ward. He’d hovered on the verge of needing further assistance for two days, but then he’d turned a corner and started to pick up and had recovered so quickly. They were even talking about discharge for him tomorrow.
His respiratory specialist was very happy. And she was over the moon. Being dragged back into the abyss of hospitalisation again had been scary and disheartening, but seeing how much stronger his lungs were now gave Trinity great hope for the future.
Of course he was ultra-clingy now, which was normal for him after being so sick. Trinity didn’t mind, nor did she blame him. Not even at ten o’clock when he was squirming restlessly in his sleep on her lap in the small recliner beside his bed instead of in his roomy hospital bed.
The curtain she’d pulled around their bed space earlier so Oscar wouldn’t keep getting distracted by the goings-on flicked back a little. She glanced up to find Reid grinning at her.
‘Hey,’ he said, voice low.
She smiled back. She couldn’t help it. Her heart did a funny little giddy-up. He’d visited twice every day. Once with Eddie and then later at night, just him. ‘Hey.’
Strictly speaking, now they were out of HDU, it was after visiting hours but being a doctor—and a hottie—got him certain privileges with the nurses. And Trinity looked forward to his night visits with all the stupidity of a lovesick teenager.
Ever since he’d told her she didn’t have to do it by herself any more, she’d been spinning hopeless fantasies about their future.
‘Is he asleep?’ he asked, navigating between the end of the bed and the curtain until he reached the hard plastic chair beside the recliner.
‘Yes.’ She glanced at Oscar’s face, relaxed in slumber. ‘Mostly.’
He chuckled as he pulled the seat around, so it was facing the recliner, his thighs wedged either side of the arm, the denim of his jeans pulling taut across his quads.
‘You want me to switch with you so you can go and have a shower?’
The last few nights, Trinity had used Reid’s visits to have a shower, entrusting Oscar to Reid’s care. ‘I actually had a shower earlier this afternoon when Oscar was asleep.’
The look of surprise on Reid’s face was comical. ‘He must be better,’ Reid teased.
Trinity took it good-naturedly. ‘Yes. Thank goodness.’
It was also good to not be her usual bedraggled mess. Reid always turned up fresh and clean and smelling wonderful whereas she was all rumpled and smelled like hospital food and disinfectant.
But not tonight. She was in jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt—the least baggy one she owned—and she was wearing one of those fancy spray deodorants that someone had left behind in the parent showers.
She smelled like vanilla and pop rocks.
They chatted about Oscar and their respective days and the weather and Christmas and a bunch of other things.
‘There was a message on the answering machine for you,’ Reid said, after they’d run out of their usual topics. ‘From a Wendy someone...wanting you to ring her back.’
Trinity frowned. Wendy?
‘Wendy Argos, maybe?’ Reid said, his brow scrunched as he tried to remember the name.
‘Oh. Argent.’ Trinity nodded. ‘She’s a real-estate agent. It must be about one of the apartments I had my name down for.’
With everything else on her plate Trinity hadn’t given a thought to her housing situation all week. She’d resigned herself to Christmas with Reid and Ed
die a few weeks ago and, if she was honest, she’d been looking forward to it.
It didn’t seem to bring Reid any joy either if his, ‘Oh,’ was anything to go by.
‘It’s a good thing,’ she told him. And herself. Because it was.
He opened his mouth to say something but shut it again and said, ‘Yes. Of course.’
But he didn’t sound very convinced.
‘Well, we can’t...stay with you for ever, Reid,’ she said even as the idea fluttered seductively like a sugar-coated butterfly just out of her reach.
He looked at her for long moments, his gaze searching and assessing. ‘Why not?’ he asked finally, leaning forward on his elbows, his gaze earnest. He’d kept his voice low but the frustration in it was barely disguised.
Trinity blinked. ‘Because...’
Because they came from different worlds. Because he had itchy feet and she needed roots. Because she couldn’t live with him and pretend not to love him.
‘Don’t go,’ he said. ‘Stay.’
‘Reid?’ Trinity’s heart all but stopped in her chest. It wasn’t fair of him to dangle something so seductive in front of her. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘I’m talking about being in love with you.’
Trinity stared at him. He was in love with her? But...? Her pulse quickened. ‘You love me?’
‘Yes.’
She shook her head, dazed by the admission. He looked serious but she dared not even hope he was telling the truth. ‘I...don’t understand. Why?’
Why would he love someone like her?
He leaned forward in the chair and grabbed the hand that wasn’t wrapped around Oscar. ‘Because of your pluck and your gumption and how fiercely you love Oscar. And how you are with Eddie and how much Ginger adores you. And how nice you are to everyone despite how bad things have been for you and... God.’ He shoved a hand through his hair. ‘Because of your mouth.’
Trinity couldn’t believe what she was hearing. ‘My...mouth?’
‘Yes.’ He gave a half-laugh and kissed the hand he’d enclosed in both of his. ‘I stood here that first night looking down at you when you’d fallen asleep at Oscar’s bedside and I just...knew. I’d been telling myself it was just like I felt and that I had to forget what we’d done in bed and be your friend, especially now, but then I realised you’d been under my skin since that first day. When you rescued Pops. And how you would have started that damn car through pride alone if it had been remotely possible. And it just flooded in and it keeps flooding in and I can’t bear the thought of you and Oscar being anywhere else but with me and Pops.’
‘Reid...’ She searched his face, his gorgeous lumberjack face. He looked one hundred per cent serious. Her heart banged in her chest—slow and loud. Her blood poured thick and sluggish through her veins. ‘I thought you wanted to move on. Not settle down.’
He buried his face in his hands again, kissing her fingers once, twice, three times. ‘I did. And then I fell in love with you and I realise nothing else matters.’
Trinity shook her head, too overwhelmed to believe it. ‘I...don’t know what to say.’
‘God, Trinity... I love you too would be really nice about now.’
Trinity smiled as she let everything go inside her and let her love flood in too. ‘Of course I love you. I realised that night in bed with you. I realised I hadn’t just let you into my body but into my heart. I’m pretty sure it would have made me miserable in the weeks to come but I’ve been kinda—’
She glanced at a stirring Oscar. ‘Preoccupied.’
He dropped his forehead to their clasped hands and dragged in some deep breaths. ‘Thank God,’ he finally said, glancing up at her, a broad grin lighting his whole face.
‘So you’ll stay. You and Oscar?’
Trinity wanted to cherish the moment. Her son was getting better, Reid loved her and he wanted them to stay. But...she needed to be sure. She needed Reid to be sure. Because she wasn’t the only person in this equation.
‘Are you sure, Reid? Are you sure this isn’t some misplaced sense of honour or duty or some weird ex-army need to protect me? I love you and nothing would make me happier than to be with you but only if you love me.’
He shook his head emphatically. ‘This is not about honour or protection, Trinity. I know what that feels like. This is something I’ve never felt before. I am in love with you.’
Sincerity shone in his eyes and his voice rang with conviction. She believed him. But still she pressed. ‘I have a child. I can’t just enter into relationships lightly. My parents did that. Your parents did that. And it screws kids up. If you take me on, you gotta take on Oscar.’
‘You think I don’t know you guys come as a team? You think I don’t love Oscar as much as I love you?’ His tone was full of reproach. ‘Because I do, Trinity. And besides, you take me on you gotta take on Eddie. And that might get really rough.’
Trinity knew how much Reid was already dreading that time.
‘We both come with dependants,’ he said, kissing her hand again. ‘It just...’ he shrugged ‘...makes us a bigger, happier family.’
A bigger, happier family. The one thing Trinity had always craved.
‘That sounds wonderful,’ she whispered, her vision blurring with tears, her heart singing in her chest.
He leaned forward then, careful not to disturb Oscar as he kissed the tears from her cheek then pressed his lips to hers. Trinity sighed against his mouth, lapping up the gentle kiss full of love and compassion and all the years to come.
‘Why are you kissing Reid, Mummy?’
Startled, they broke apart to find Oscar staring at them. Trinity, her mind blank, her cheeks heating, groped around for something to say. God, how did she explain to a five-year-old what was happening with her and Reid?
And how much was too much information?
‘Because she loves me,’ Reid said simply, smiling at Oscar then at her.
Trinity blushed some more. ‘Yeah.’ She smiled. ‘Because I love him.’
Oscar reached out and patted Reid’s beard. ‘I love you too, Reid.’
And Trinity’s heart overflowed.
* * * * *
Read on for an extract from REUNITED WITH HER SURGEON PRINCE by Marion Lennox.
EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT
Dr Hayley Clark and Sam Price’s holiday romance was unforgettable – and unrepeatable! Then risk-taking doc Sam arrives at her hospital… Could their fling become something more?
Read on for a sneak preview of
CHRISTMAS WITH HER DAREDEVIL DOC
the first book in the MIRACLES AT MUSWELL HILL HOSPITAL duet
‘Hayley, meet your replacement, Samuel Price. Sam, Hayley’s just been promoted to senior registrar and you’ve taken over from her. You’ll be working together.’
Of all the places…
Sam hadn’t told Hayley that he was about to start a new job in London, and she hadn’t told him where she worked. London was a massive city with quite a few hospitals. What were the chances that they’d end up working together? The way her pupils expanded momentarily told him that she was just as shocked and surprised as he was.
This was going to make things awkward. They’d had a fling in Iceland, agreeing that it would be nothing more than that, and they’d said goodbye. What now? Would she want to see if their fling could be something more, something deeper? Or had he just been her transition person, the one who’d helped her to move on after her partner’s death, so she wouldn’t want to pick up where they’d left off?
The problem was, he didn’t know what he wanted, either. He’d really liked the woman he’d started to get to know in Iceland. But then again he’d liked Lynda, too—and his ex-fiancée had let him down so badly. Could he even trust his judgement any more? Would he be making a huge mistake if he started see
ing Hayley?
She recovered first, holding her hand out. ‘Welcome to Muswell Hill Hospital, Dr Price.’
Don’t miss
MIRACLES AT MUSWELL HILL HOSPITAL:
CHRISTMAS WITH HER DAREDEVIL DOC
THEIR PREGNANCY GIFT
by Kate Hardy
Available November 2017
PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY
www.millsandboon.co.uk
Copyright ©2017 Kate Hardy
ISBN: 978-1-474-05178-1
A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE
© 2017 Amy Andrews
Published in Great Britain 2017
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
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