A Single Dad at Heathermere

by Abigail Gordon

  Since Abby had been born no woman had caught his imagination.

  The practice and his role of bachelor father had kept him fully occupied. But now, amazingly, Laura was back in his life, and all the time he was remembering what they’d said and done together. How they’d laughed at the same things, liked the same things, looked forward to roaming the fields together, playing down by the river, and then moved into adolescence together. It had all been so uncomplicated until they’d gone to university…

  The yearning to see the old Laura back again was consuming him. The Laura with hair gold as the corn at harvest time. Who’d saved all her smiles for him.

  Dear Reader

  Romances old, romances new—for a hundred years we’ve brought them to you, dear reader, and now, in this our centenary year, we meet again on the pages of another love story from Harlequin Mills & Boon.

  I do hope that at this very special time in the history of a publisher renowned worldwide, you will find once again the magic of romance.

  Abigail Gordon

  A SINGLE DAD AT HEATHERMERE

  BY

  ABIGAIL GORDON

  BACHELOR DADS

  Single Doctor…Single Father!

  At work they are skilled medical

  professionals, but at home, as soon as they

  walk in the door, these eligible bachelors are

  on full-time fatherhood duty!

  These devoted dads still find room in their lives for love…

  It takes very special women to win the hearts

  of these dedicated doctors, and a very special

  kind of caring to make these single fathers

  full-time husbands!

  Abigail Gordon loves to write about the fascinating combination of medicine and romance from her home in a Cheshire village. She is active in local affairs, and is even called upon to write the script for the annual village pantomime! Her eldest son is a hospital manager, and helps with all her medical research. As part of a close-knit family, she treasures having two of her sons living close by, and the third one not too far away. This also gives her the added pleasure of being able to watch her delightful grandchildren growing up.

  Recent titles by the same author:

  A WEDDING IN THE VILLAGE

  CITY DOCTOR, COUNTRY BRIDE

  THE VILLAGE DOCTOR’S MARRIAGE

  COMING BACK FOR HIS BRIDE

  A FRENCH DOCTOR AT ABBEYFIELDS

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ONE

  DRIVING home from the airport, Jon Emmerson had no idea that the past was about to catch up with him. He and Abby had spent the last three weeks with his sister and her family in Australia and now, invigorated and relaxed, he was about to once more take up the reins of the country practice where he was senior partner.

  As his glance rested on his eight-year-old daughter sitting beside him, Jon was remembering the pleasure of watching her get to know her cousins in a far-away country. He wished that Abby wasn’t an only child, but he was a man who took his responsibilities seriously.

  Bringing her up on his own, at the same time as being in charge of the medical practice in Heathermere, the village where he’d been brought up, left little time for becoming involved in new relationships, and if he did have the time he would have to have the taste for them first.

  As he drove through the leafy lanes of Cheshire, the pleasure of coming home increased. His mother would be waiting to greet them, bursting to know all there was to know about her daughter, son-in-law, and their children in Australia, and ready with a big hug for the granddaughter that she usually saw every day.

  They had reached the village and as they drove past the back garden of elderly Harry Hewitt’s house, Jon’s attention was caught by a small, fair-haired boy kicking a ball about there. Washing hung from the clothesline, but instead of Harry’s sensible smalls wafting in the breeze, there were boys’ shorts and T-shirts, and women’s wear.

  Abby was delighted to see her beloved grandmother, and after a delicious lunch was soon rediscovering her toys. Jon had given his mother all his news and, as they sat enjoying a cup of tea, he asked about the little boy he’d seen earlier in the village. ‘What’s going on at Harry’s place, Mum? There was a child playing in his garden,’ he asked.

  In her late sixties, with hair still as dark and glossy as her son’s, Marjorie Emmerson had two great loves in her life—her family, and the village where she lived. But the pleasure of having her son and granddaughter back home was diminishing with his question.

  ‘We’ve had a funeral in the village while you’ve been gone,’ she replied.

  ‘Not Harry!’

  ‘I’m afraid so.’

  ‘How? When?’ he asked.

  ‘The day after you flew out. He fell off the roof of the outhouse and was badly injured. I took the liberty of rummaging through his desk and found Laura’s contact details. When I phoned her she came straight away. He never recovered, but she was able to spend some time with him after so many years apart, and I feel that maybe some sort of a reconciliation followed before he died. Harry had been a poor sort of father and as the years have gone by we both know that he’d almost become a recluse.

  ‘He never got over losing her mother when Laura was only small and always saw her as an encumbrance rather than a comfort. But you already know that, don’t you? It was why Laura was always round at our place. The little one you saw in the garden would be her son, Liam.’

  ‘So she has a child.’

  ‘Yes. He’s five years old.’

  ‘I see, and so where was she living when you phoned her?’

  ‘Cornwall.’ Marjorie sighed. ‘She’s changed, Jon. If I hadn’t known she was coming, I wouldn’t have recognised her.’

  ‘Haven’t we all,’ he said wryly. ‘And what about Freddie? Is he with her?’

  Marjorie shook her head. ‘No. There’s been no mention of him. Maybe he couldn’t get away.’

  Jon frowned as he thought about the girl who had been his childhood friend. He and Laura had been brought up together in the rural paradise that was still his home. They’d both decided to go into medicine and had been accepted by the same university, but they’d soon drifted apart.

  He had taken to their new life like a duck to water. In the excitement of studying for what had always been his chosen career he had become involved with different friends and different agendas as his dark good looks and outgoing personality had drawn others to him.

  Whenever he thought back to those days he was reminded of how he’d left Laura to find her own niche. Being of a quieter nature than him, it had taken her some time, and he was ashamed that he’d been so selfish. Instead of being there for his friend, he’d been too engrossed in his own affairs.

  She’d settled in eventually and they’d been pleasant enough to each other when they met back home on vacations, but he’d always had somewhere that he’d been dashing off to, and gradually she’d retreated into the background of his life and had found friends of her own. Then she’d gone on to marry Freddie, moving out of the area and out of Jon’s life once and for all.

  As she watched her son romping around the garden that had been her own childhood escape place, Laura’s mind was made up. She was going back to Cornwall at the first opportunity. Her father’s house was rented until the end of the month, which gave her a couple of weeks to sort out his affairs and then someone else would be moving in. They�
�d already paid the deposit, and in any case the last thing she wanted was to live there.

  All her happy childhood memories were of the time she’d spent with the Emmersons, and Jon in particular. She’d discovered since coming back to the village for her father’s funeral that he had never married and had been amazed that in the eight years since he’d broken up with Kezia Carter he hadn’t met anyone else. She’d also found out that he was in charge of the medical practice…and that his mother helped to look after the child that had put an end to her own hopes and dreams.

  It was odd that they were each bringing up a child on their own. It had a feeling of affinity about it. Yet any closeness they’d had was long gone. When she’d discovered that Jon and his daughter had been on holiday in Australia she’d felt relieved.

  Coming back to Heathermere had brought back a lot of old memories, and a few times she’d felt the urge to stay. Marjorie Emmerson had been kind and supportive all the time she’d been coping with her father’s accident and his subsequent death, and so had other people. But the person who had been most in her thoughts since she’d come back had been Jon, who had been far away and known nothing of what had been going on in his absence.

  It was better that she return to Cornwall before he came home. That way they would avoid the embarrassment of meeting again as strangers.

  It was a warm summer night. Liam was fast asleep, tucked up in the bed that used to be hers, and as Laura stood in the open kitchen doorway, looking out aimlessly, she saw him coming. Striding towards her across the field at the back of the house. He was home, she thought. She hadn’t been quick enough in her intention to return to where she’d come from.

  The face that she hadn’t seen for many a long year was set in sombre lines, so Marjorie must have told him about her father, she thought, and he had come to offer his condolences.

  ‘Laura,’ he said quietly when he came to a halt in front of her. ‘It’s been a long time.’ She was hoping there might be regret in his voice, but there was only flat politeness as he went on to say, ‘I’m sorry to hear about your father. My mother told me what had happened when I arrived back from Australia just a few hours ago.’

  ‘Yes. It was very sudden,’ she told him stiffly.

  ‘Is there anything I can do?’

  She was taking in every detail of him. It had been over eight years since she’d last looked on the dark appeal of him, and with a glint of silver in his hair and a few lines beneath the hazel eyes fixed on hers, he was still something to look at.

  And what was she? Too thin. Salt-blown and sunbleached, with fashion a word that women with money to throw around used.

  She stepped back to let him in, thinking that this unexpected meeting would be best conducted inside, but he shook his head.

  ‘No, thanks. I’m due back at the surgery tomorrow and haven’t unpacked yet. I just felt that I must have a quick word.’ He looked around him. ‘Isn’t Freddie with you?’

  She shook her head. ‘Freddie was drowned shortly after Liam was born. He was caught in a fast current while we were having a beach picnic in Cornwall.’

  He was staring at her, aghast. ‘That is dreadful! I had no idea! You were left to bring up your son on your own?’

  She nodded stiffly. ‘Yes. I still live in Cornwall, in the same house, and work part time at the local surgery.’

  ‘So we’re both GPs.’

  ‘Mmm. I guess so.’ She managed a faint smile. ‘Though I never imagined you ending up here.’

  Jon shrugged. ‘Circumstances alter cases. I had a child to bring up. I decided that village life with a loving grandma in the background would give her a better chance than crèches and childminders in a city environment. She’s called Abby. She’s eight years old, and she lights up my life.’

  Laura nodded, hearing the love in his voice. ‘And what about Kezia?’

  ‘Gone.’ His tone instantly changed. ‘Haven’t heard anything of her since she made a quick getaway after Abby’s birth. She gave me full custody. Anything to shed the responsibility.’

  ‘I see.’

  ‘Well, that’s enough of the past. What about the future, Laura? If you decide to sell this place, it will soon go and you’ll get plenty for it. Properties in the Cheshire countryside are in big demand.’

  ‘I won’t be doing that. You’ve probably forgotten that this is a rented cottage,’ she told him woodenly, and wished she could turn the clock back to the days when they’d shared every thought with each other.

  He frowned. ‘Yes, of course. I had forgotten. So what are you going to do? Go back to Cornwall?’

  ‘I haven’t decided. Everything happened so suddenly,’ she told him in the same flat tone, but she knew that wasn’t true. Her mind had been made up until he’d come striding back into her life a few moments ago.

  ‘Yes, I can understand that,’ he said gravely, and as he turned to go, he added, ‘Can I just say that if there is anything I can do to make this sad time in your life any easier, you have only to ask.’

  ‘Thank you.’ She nodded coolly and watched him depart, tall, straight-backed and nothing like the impetuous medical student who’d fallen for another student and had found out that she didn’t want to be tied down by a child.

  Laura had looked pale and low in spirits, Jon thought as he walked back to his mother’s house, and it wasn’t surprising if she’d just laid her father to rest in the graveyard beside the village church. Not to mention losing her husband in such a tragic way.

  He’d been dumbstruck when she’d told him about Freddie. It seemed that after all this time they still had something in common. They were both single parents, as poor Freddie hadn’t been around for long after they’d got married.

  It was weird that Laura had never come back to the place where she had been born. He regretted the years of non-communication and it was his fault. He’d had his first taste of freedom and had pushed her to one side, treating all that they’d been to each other when they’d been young as nothing compared to the excitement of college life.

  He’d been amazed when she’d married Freddie Cavendish, another medical student, shortly after they’d all qualified. Steady Freddie, he’d called him when she’d told him her news, reliable, agreeable and…

  She’d flared up at that and said, ‘How about minding your own business? I don’t interfere in your life.’

  There had been times since when he’d wished she had. But at least there had been blessings from their respective relationships. Blessings in abundance, in the form of a small dark-haired girl who held his heart, and the sturdy, golden-haired boy he’d seen kicking a ball around in old Harry’s garden.

  Kezia had become pregnant in his last term at college, and their relationship had foundered. She’d made no bones about telling him she didn’t want that kind of responsibility. When she’d talked about a termination their passion had soured.

  He’d been feeling miserable and guilty and had insisted that it was his child, too. He’d wanted it and had told her he would bring it up alone if she felt so strongly. It seemed that she did. Abby’s arrival hadn’t caused her to change her mind. So he’d taken over. Gone as a locum at the village surgery and with his mother’s help had begun to care for the tiny person who had turned his life around.

  There had been times when money had been short and he had been exhausted, but he had no regrets. Whenever he looked at Abby he knew he’d made the right decision.

  Had Laura made the right decision about marrying Freddie? he wondered. It sounded as if she hadn’t had much time to find out. It was awful what had happened to the poor guy.

  Only now had he discovered her situation. Had her father known? he wondered, but decided that he couldn’t have done. Surely Harry would have said something. Yet he and Laura had never been close. She’d had a miserable childhood.

  He wanted to go back and explain that what he’d said about selling the house had been merely something to say. There had been no hidden meaning in it, but it had
sounded as if he didn’t want her to stay. She may have looked dejected, he thought, but Laura had a mind of her own. He hadn’t always got his own way when they’d been young, and she would take a dim view of him telling her what to do now.

  ‘That is terrible!’ his mother exclaimed when Jon told her about Freddie. ‘Some of us wondered where he was at such a time, but we didn’t like to pry, and Laura never explained his absence. She should have come back home to be with the people who knew and loved her when she lost her husband.’

  ‘Obviously she didn’t want to,’ he remarked dryly. ‘But the past is past and a certain young lady should be going home to bed. Where is she?’

  His mother smiled. ‘Still playing.’

  ‘So I’ll go and have a cuddle and then I’ll take her home,’ he said, anxious to get back to normality after those uncomfortable moments on the back doorstep of Harry Hewitt’s house, and as he and Abby laughed and played Jon began to relax.

  But he wasn’t relaxed during the midnight hours when Abby was asleep in the apartment above the surgery where they lived. In recent years he’d achieved a degree of contentment in his life. The practice meant a lot to him, but even more than that his daughter was the centre of his existence, and he had a great love for his mother who so often put her affairs on hold for their sakes.

  He’d had no taste for relationships since he’d last seen Laura. He’d made one mistake with Kezia and was not going to make another. But seeing Laura again had shaken him. She’d been part of the fabric of his life before he’d stepped onto shifting sands, and he could kick himself for waffling on about house prices like some pushy estate agent. But she’d soon reminded him that the house wasn’t hers to sell.

  He would like to see her back where she belonged. Not for his sake, but for hers and her son’s. She was a GP and he and Tim Gosforth, his junior partner, had room for a part-time doctor to help with their steadily growing list of patients.

  Jon had intended specialising in paediatrics when he’d got his degree, but with a child to care for he’d gone into general practice on his own patch to give Abby a stable home life. He’d worked first as a locum, then as junior partner in the village practice. Now he was in charge, and he wondered what she would say if he offered her a position there. She’d looked so drained and stressed out, it was the least he could do if she intended staying.