He rolled his eyes, said, ‘Enjoy!’ and went back into Resus.
* * *
They got married two months later, in early July, and it was a glorious day, warm and sunny but not too hot, with a light breeze to cool them and the scent of roses in the air.
The wedding was held in the grounds of the hotel where Tom had stayed on the night of the interview. It seemed an appropriate choice, and it also came recommended by Livvy as she and Matt had got married there two years ago.
It was a simple ceremony, held under the shelter of a delicately pretty white wrought-iron gazebo, and their few, carefully chosen guests were seated on chairs on the lawn in front of them.
His parents Katherine and Mike were there, of course, still coming to terms with his diagnosis but thrilled about the wedding and the baby, and Livvy and Matt, James and Connie, and Ryan and Beth, who was holding their little son Raoul, and after the ceremony they had a champagne afternoon tea, with alcohol-free sparkling wine for Laura and Livvy, and it was perfect.
They’d decided not to have any speeches, but then Tom suddenly got to his feet and tapped his wine glass with a spoon.
‘You thought you’d got away with that, didn’t you?’ he said, and they all laughed. ‘I just couldn’t let today go by without a few thank-yous. First and foremost, to my parents, who’ve put up with a lot from me for very many years now, and are probably more than happy to pass the baton to Laura. I wouldn’t be here without you and your unfailing support, so thank you both, from the bottom of my heart.’
Katherine was welling up, and Mike coughed and nodded and handed her a tissue, and Tom went on.
‘So—James. This is actually your fault. If you hadn’t interviewed me for the job, I wouldn’t have seen Laura again, and if you hadn’t kept her on as a locum as long as you have, we wouldn’t have worked together, which gave us a chance to build bridges and reconnect with each other. So thank you, for inadvertently throwing us together. We owe you.’
He looked down at Laura, and her heart turned over.
‘And then there’s Laura, the only woman I’ve ever really loved. Laura, who turned me down so many times while we were at uni, who so nearly changed her mind but then didn’t, who really didn’t want me here at first. I stole her job, then I stole her heart—although apparently I’d already done that and she’d failed to tell me.’
That caused a chuckle, as it was meant to, and then he got serious.
‘It’s only fair, she stole mine years ago, and now I can’t get rid of her, even though I tried, because she’s got guts, this wife of mine. I don’t know how many of you know this, but at some point in the future, I’m going to start to lose my sight. Any woman in her right mind would run a mile from that, but not my Laura, oh, no. She stayed, she became my rock. She taught me not to be afraid, and in her own inimitable way she told me, and I quote, “Looking on the bright side, at least you won’t be able to see my wrinkles.”’
He waited for the ripple of laughter to die down, and then went on with a smile, ‘With a love like that to see me through, I know we’ll make it, and no matter how old we grow together, whatever that brings, I’ll always have the memory of how beautiful she looks today. Thank you, my love, with all my heart, for everything.’
His voice cracked a little, and he reached out a hand and drew her up into his arms and kissed her, and she rested her head on his shoulder and blinked away the tears.
‘I love you,’ she murmured. ‘It’s going to be wonderful bringing up our family and growing old with you by my side, whatever it throws at us. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and our baby’s going to be the luckiest child in the world.’
She went up on tiptoe and kissed him, and then laughed as the others clustered round them and they were showered with rose petals.
She picked a rose petal off his eyelashes and met his eyes. ‘Time to go home to Millie?’
He smiled. ‘I think so.’
* * *
They walked home—to her home, because they’d decided to keep it for themselves and let his cottage once it was done up—and Katherine and Mike walked back with them and then parted company at the gate. They were staying in his cottage, and he said he’d call them in the morning and maybe they could have breakfast together, and then he paused at her front door after they’d waved them off, unlocked the door and scooped Laura up in his arms.
‘Are you carrying me over the threshold?’ she said with a little giggle, and he grinned.
‘Absolutely. Got to do these things properly.’
‘Like your speech?’ she said as he put her down and gave Millie a cuddle.
He looked up and smiled. ‘I had to say something. I meant every word, by the way.’
‘What, even the suggestion that I’m not in my right mind?’
He laughed and pulled her into his arms, and she rested her head on his chest with a quiet sigh. ‘We’ll be all right,’ he said softly. ‘You, me, the baby.’
‘Don’t forget Millie.’
He looked down at the dog, sitting at their feet and wagging her tail hopefully, and he smiled.
‘As if I could ever forget Millie...’
* * *
If you enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from Caroline Anderson
Tempted by the Single Mom
From Heartache to Forever
A Single Dad to Heal Her Heart
One Night, One Unexpected Miracle
All available now!
Keep reading for an excerpt from A Baby to Rescue Their Hearts by Louisa Heaton.
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A Baby to Rescue Their Hearts
by Louisa Heaton
CHAPTER ONE
SOPHIE FIGURED THERE were three different types of men in the world.
The first kind she knew very well. Those men told you that they loved you, that you were the centre of their world, their beating heart—but then they left you because you’d become ‘complicated’ or ‘needed more’ or they thought they’d found someone ‘easier’.
The second kind were the nice guys. Those were rare—in short supply. In fact, she wasn’t sure they truly existed, having never met one herself, but she’d heard her friends talk about them. The boys next door, who never seemed to be anything special at first, but were always snapped up by other, luckier women, before you realised who’d been living under your nose all that time.
And then there was the third kind. The kind who were often seen posing as half-naked firefighters for calendars, holding a cute puppy whilst their biceps, pecs and six-packs gleamed with oil. All square jaws and designer stubble, with perfect white teeth and a sexually charged smoulder.
And one of those was currently walking into her ambulance station.
‘Wowser...’ she breathed, trying to hide her stare, pretending to check the equipment in the back of her rapid response vehicle, occasionally peeking over the roof as if to confirm that he was actually real and not a hallucination.
His green paramedic uniform fitted him very well. A little too well, in fact. Surely it was against the law to look that good? Or maybe it just fitted him perfectly but her pregnancy-induced hormones, which had been starved of male attention for months and months, were transforming what she could actually see. Sex-starved goggles, rather than beer goggles...
He was the big three—tall, dark and handsome—with a killer smile that did strange things to her insides as, from behind her car, she watched him conversing with her boss over by his office.
She couldn’t hear their conversation and she was curious. She was expecting a student paramedic to join h
er for a couple of weeks—but there was no way this guy was the student she was expecting! In her experience students were younger, fresh out of the lecture hall, their faces filled with eagerness and apprehension. Nervous. Anxious.
This guy was sure of himself, confident and more mature, and possibly in his thirties. The prime of his life. No doubt he was virile and physical and...
Taken. He’s taken—obviously! I mean, come on, look at the guy!
She blew out a calming breath. Probably he was someone from higher up the chain who’d suddenly decided to do an inspection, or something. Nothing to do with her. Nothing that—
Her boss, Pete, laughed at something the guy said and nodded in Sophie’s direction.
She dipped down beneath the roof of the car, cursing silently. Had they noticed her staring?
That would be embarrassing.
She yanked open the drawer that held the adult masks and counted them once again, her mind racing at what was going on as her cheeks bloomed with heat and desire. She’d expected a lot of things from pregnancy, like a huge belly and puffy ankles and weird food cravings, but these sexual feelings all the time... It was typical that she turned out to be one of those, when there was no bloke around to sort them out for her!
Was the new guy from head office or something?
Was he here to tell her she’d have to go on maternity leave early?
Because she refused to! She would work for as long as she could. Now that she was on her own she couldn’t afford to take time off for longer than she needed to—and besides, she still felt fit. She could lift, she could run, she could do CPR...all the things required of a rapid response paramedic. It would be madness to take someone with her skills off the road and tell her to go and knit bootees or something.
‘Hi.’
She jumped, and banged her head on the roof of the car, wincing and feeling her cheeks colour. Rubbing at her head, she peered over the top. ‘Hey.’
Firefighter Calendar Guy stood by the driver’s door, smiling at her. ‘You okay?’
‘I’m fine, thank you.” She rubbed hard at her bruised scalp. “Can I help you?’
‘I’m Theo Finch.’
Theo. Of course. A guy like him would have a beautiful name. Something that rolled off the tongue...that would sound perfect as she breathed it out, her lips caressing the name as they brushed against his neck...
Sophie cleared her throat. ‘Pleased to meet you, Theo. What can I do for you?’
She could think of many things he could do for her, and her brain thoughtfully provided the imagery for all of those and more as she tried to appear nonchalant and carefree and as innocent as a nun.
‘I’m your student. I’m shadowing you for the next month?’
She almost laughed. A nervous, hysterical laugh that would have sounded as if she deserved to be assessed by a mental health clinician. But she managed to hold it in.
This guy was her student? How the hell was she supposed to concentrate and do her job with him around?
‘My student? I’m sorry,’ she said with a laugh, ‘I was expecting someone more...’
‘Green-looking?’
She smiled. They all looked green. It was the uniform. But she didn’t want to look at his uniform. Moulded as it was to his masculine, muscled form. Because all that made her think about was what lay beneath it...
She tried to work out how she would cope with this new development in her life. Realised she would just have to deal with it. Besides, he wouldn’t be interested in her in that way. She looked like a beached whale, and men like him dated sylph-like girls with big hair, big boobs, talon-sharp fake nails and no real eyelashes of their own.
And, for the record, she wasn’t really interested in him, either!
I’ve sworn off men. My life is just going to be me and my daughter. That’s it. Nothing else needed. Except maybe one hot night occasionally, because why not?
She was a grown woman. She had needs.
She looked at him more intently, her gaze taking in his dark-lashed blue-green eyes, the beautiful curve of his lips, the fine dark hair covering his muscled forearms.
I need to get a grip. That’s what I need.
‘Hi, I’m Sophie Westbrook.’
* * *
Theo had been waiting for this day for a long time. He’d always been one of those guys who’d never quite thought about what he wanted from life, growing up. There’d never seemed time to be worrying about career choices—not when he’d had to be the man in his family and help look after his ailing mother and three younger sisters.
A career had seemed like something other people talked about, and when he’d had to meet with the careers advisor at his secondary school he’d told the softly spoken woman behind the large glasses that he’d probably just look for some menial work to fit in around helping run the house.
The advisor had told him that he was something called ‘a carer’, and that he was entitled to support, but somehow none of that had actually panned out. His mother had not been a woman to accept charity, so Theo had simply carried on carrying on—until his mother had died and his sisters had flown the nest and he’d gone to an army recruiting office and signed up.
But his time in the army, following in his father’s footsteps, had not been what he’d hoped it would be. He’d thought he would find routine and rules—something that would take care of him for a change. Instead he’d found himself caring intensely for his new family—the other soldiers in his battalion. Losing some of them in Afghanistan had been brutal—totally unexpected—and he’d left before he could lose any more.
You’re a carer.
Those were the words he kept hearing, over and over in his skull, and he knew them to be right. It was all he’d done. But how to do that in life, without getting attached to people?
He’d considered becoming a doctor, but the training lasted years and years and he wasn’t sure he had that in him. Being a nurse was something he was familiar with, but the idea of being on a ward and getting to know his patients over time, caring for them, worrying about them, seemed too much.
He’d had enough of sitting by someone’s bedside watching them die, trying to convince them to take their medicine and holding their hands through nights of pain and discomfort. It hurt too much. He’d known he needed something different. Something less attachment-forming. So he’d decided on being a paramedic.
He’d get the drama, the adrenaline rush that he was used to from being in the army, and he would get to care for people, to try and make them better, and then he could walk away. No long-term commitment needed. No getting to know someone before watching them die. No having to deal with that loss. If a patient died on him? Yes, it would be sad, but not as upsetting as losing someone he’d come to care for deeply.
The first few weeks of university had been fascinating, and now he was here on his very first placement—and it was with a rapid response paramedic. Just the kind of thing he imagined doing himself. Working solo in a vehicle like this, or maybe being a paramedic on a motorbike?
And he’d been placed with Sophie.
She was cute. In fact, she was more than that. His first thought had been that she was strikingly beautiful. Dark blonde hair that fell in waves to her shoulders, large blue eyes, a slightly wonky smile that was wide and caused her eyes to gleam, and...
Sophie came out from behind the vehicle and the first thing he saw—couldn’t help but see—was her enormous abdomen, swollen with a baby.
‘You’re pregnant.’ Then he coloured at stating the obvious!
She smiled. ‘And you’ve just made your first assessment and diagnosis. We’ll make a paramedic of you yet.’
He laughed. ‘I’m sorry, I—’
‘Is my being pregnant a problem for you?’ She was looking at him curiously, her head tilted to one side in a challenge.
‘No!’
‘Good.”
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to blurt that out. I just wasn’t expecting—’
‘To be lumbered with an elephant?’ She smiled.
Theo let out a breath and then laughed, holding out his hand once again. ‘Can we start over? Hi, I’m Theo.’
She reached out to take his hand and laughed. ‘Sophie. Pleased to meet you, Theo. Now, shall I show you how we check the vehicle to make sure it’s roadworthy before we go out on shift?’
He was very relieved that she’d allowed him her grace. He couldn’t believe he’d been so clumsy to start with. He was lucky that she was as kind as she was. ‘Yes, please.’
He let go of her hand reluctantly, noticing she wore no ring on either hand, before following her to the rear of the vehicle.
‘First we do a stock check and make sure the oxygen and Entonox tanks are full and any medications are well within their use-by date. There’s a checklist here that we work through.’ She pulled out a clipboard and gave it to him. ‘I’ve already gone through it, but we’ll go through it again as it will be good for you to check with me and familiarise yourself with the whereabouts of each item, in case I need you to find something for me when we’re out on a shout. Okay?’
He nodded and pulled his pen from his sleeve pocket, feeling happier now that they were getting down to business, after the awkwardness of before.
* * *
Sophie had barely pulled out of the station and signed on for duty with the control room when a call came through. A young girl had been thrown from her horse.
‘Six zero two, responding,’ said Sophie.
‘Thank you, six zero two. HEMS seven four eight also en route,’ said the calm voice over the system.
‘You see that button there?’ Sophie pointed at a switch on the dashboard.
‘Yes.’
Healing Her Emergency Doc Page 17