A Heart Worth Mending
Amanda Canham
www.escapepublishing.com.au
A Heart Worth Mending
Amanda Canham
Delve back into the exciting world of St Mary’s hospital in this new contemporary romance from Amanda Canham that introduces two sleep-medicine doctors, one sexy beach interlude and a workplace romance that’s sure to leave you feeling a whole lot better.
Crippled by guilt, Sleep Physician Doctor Kelli Maloney is only going through the motions of her life each day. A startling encounter with a sexy stranger jolts her back into the present, but brings all the pain she’s been trying to forget to the fore.
Doctor Travis Reed is struggling to maintain an interstate relationship with his son when he meets Kelli, a woman so beautiful, but so wounded. He knows he can help, if only she would let him in.
As doctors, they spend their days caring for others, but it seems impossible that they will ever get past their individual pain and start caring for themselves. A chance at love and happiness is right in front of them, if only they can both take the chance to heal each other’s hearts.
About the Author
Always the straightest arrow in a creative family, Amanda left her imagination in the hands of the very skilled authors she grew up reading. After completing a degree in psychology, she moved to Brisbane, Queensland, where she focused on a career as a Sleep Scientist. Two children later, she turned her hand to writing her first romance and was more surprised than anyone to discover she had a very active imagination. Now she splits her time between writing, working as a scientist & mothering her two young children. You can check out Amanda’s online home at www.amandacanham.com and follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AmandaCanhamNovels.
Acknowledgements
This book would not be here today without the help of some very special people.
Thank you Mum (Marianne Curley), for all your support, encouragement, baby-sitting and most especially your critiques.
To Danielle Curley, Brenda Canham and Vanessa Wolfe, thank you for looking after the little people so I could write for the big people.
To the wonderful Kate Cuthbert, Kirsten Delaney and all the lovely staff at Escape Publishing, thank you for welcoming me into the fold and giving me this fabulous opportunity (again!).
And to my own little family: Chris, Zachary & Josephine, thank you for making this all possible.
To the guy who always gets my jokes.
Love you, Babe
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Contents
About the Author
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Bestselling Titles by Escape Publishing…
Chapter 1
Kelli Maloney reached behind her neck and gathered up the unruly waves of her sun-bleached hair, tying it in a high ponytail. She tugged it once to make sure it was secure before beginning a few light stretches.
The endless blue of the Pacific Ocean stretched out in front of her, glistening in the hot afternoon sun and a little zing of anticipation shot down her spine. There was nothing she loved more than an afternoon run along the beach.
It was their thing, their ritual.
Or, at least, it had been.
Now it was just her thing.
A hard lump formed in her chest, a ball of unshed tears that had been building for weeks. Kelli refused to give in to it. If she did, she wasn’t sure she’d ever stop crying. It was better to never start, than never stop. It was the only way she knew to keep going.
So instead of crying, she bounced from one foot to the other, stretching her muscles, warming up the joints. Once, twice, three times and she took off along the shoreline, her joggers squishing into the wet sand.
She pounded along the ground, getting faster with each step, pushing past the pain of the last few weeks. Within moments she found her rhythm.
Breathe, step, push.
Breathe, step, push.
She started to feel better almost immediately, the briny ocean scent clearing her mind and awakening her senses. It was exactly what she needed.
If only she could find time to get down here during the week. It was next to impossible though, since she’d taken up a position as a respiratory and sleep physician at St Mary’s Hospital in Brisbane. Between the long hours at work and the commute from her home on the Gold Coast, she barely had time to breathe before dropping in to bed most nights.
Sweat began to bead across her forehead and trickle down her chest. Kelli pushed herself, harder and faster, as though she could outrun her pain on this deserted beach.
Or maybe not so deserted...
Up ahead, it looked like a body lying along the water’s edge. For a minute her mind flashed back to Condamine Gorge, to Jimmy. Kelli’s breath hitched in her chest and she missed the next step. She stumbled, almost falling into the sand before recovering in time to see a small wave wash over the body not far ahead, on this beach on the Gold Coast. The unresponsive body, she realised, as there was not even a twitch in response to the splash of water.
Oh. No.
This couldn’t be happening. Not again.
Heart in her throat Kelli flew across the sand, covering the distance in a matter of seconds. Sliding to a halt, Kelli ran her eyes over the body in a split-second assessment. Male, mid to late thirties, no obvious signs of trauma, face creased in pain.
Jimmy had looked like that just before… No! She wouldn’t let the same thing happen to this man. If she could save him, maybe it would make up in some small way for Jimmy.
‘Hello, can you hear me?’ Kelli nudged the man’s foot with the back of her hand, slipping straight into the first aid protocols she’d been drilled in every year since she’d become a doctor.
‘Can you tell me your name?’ she continued, moving up to shake his shoulders when she got no response from the first nudge.
When he failed to respond again, her eyes flew up and down his body, looking for any sign of life. Firm, muscular legs lay still, with no perceptible movement in the taut, well-defined torso. Kelli shifted her hand to the flat of his chest, her cheek hovering above his mouth, and a sigh of relief escaped her lips as she felt his warm breath wash across her face.
The stranger’s eyes fluttered open and Kelli found herself staring into a pair of deep blue eyes perfectly framed by two sets of long dark lashes.
‘What are you doing?’ A husky voice queried from beneath her, his eyes staring back at her, unblinking despite their proximity.
‘Oh…’ Kelli jerked backwards in surprise. ‘Thank goodness you’re alive.’
‘Of course I’m alive,’ the man said, dislodging Kelli as he tried to push up into a sitting position.
‘No! Don’t move!’ Kelli pushed at his shoulders, trying to force him back down. She needed to examine him, to check for further injuries.
‘Why on earth not?’ the man asked from his position pinned to the ground beneath her.
‘I need to examine you. To check for injuries,’ Kelli answered, already moving her hands down his torso, checking for any swelling or tenderness. She wouldn’t miss the problem. Not this time. ‘Can you tell me where it hurts?’
‘I’m not in pain,’ he told her. ‘Look, I don’t know what you thought was happening but you’ve made a mistake. I—’
‘You must be in shock,’ Kelli dismissed quickly, her hands moving further down his body.
‘I’m not,’ he said, pushing back up to a sitting p
osition.
‘But you were in pain.’ She’d seen it, clear as day, etched across his face.
‘I was just lying here, trying to enjoy the sun and the surf—’
‘No you weren’t,’ Kelli insisted, moving her eyes back up to his. She wasn’t wrong. Not about this. ‘That wasn’t enjoyment.’
‘And what, you’re the expert on enjoyment?’ He challenged.
‘No. But I do know pain.’
Something shifted in his gaze; an understanding, an empathy that pierced straight through the fog inside her and shot deep into her heart. But then shutters came down, and the understanding changed to cold dismissal in an instant.
‘Whatever you thought, you’re wrong,’ he insisted. ‘And I strongly recommend you take your hands off me.’
‘Wha—?’ Kelli followed his line of sight down to where her hands rested against his hips and saw her breasts hovering a hair’s breadth above his crotch. She hadn’t even been aware of their proximity, but now that she was…She froze, her eyes caught by the bulge that seemed to be growing by the second.
‘Unless, maybe you want to?’ His eyebrow arched towards her, a suggestive query in his eyes.
‘No! I don’t!’ Kelli dropped her hands instantly, swinging upright, her eyes flying to his.
He held her gaze for an instant before drifting down, seeming to linger on the thin white cotton shirt over the modest black gym top. At least she’d thought it was modest, but the way his eyes fixated on the swell of her breasts peeking through the v-neckline begged to differ.
Kelli’s body became electrified under his exploration, her skin tingling everywhere his eyes landed.
His gaze roamed back up until it locked with hers, and there was no hiding his appreciation now. Desire flared in the deep blue depths, lighting a matching fire in Kelli’s. Her body grew weak with need. Her eyes dropped to his lips, her own grew parched with desire, her tongue flicking out to moisten them.
‘Are you sure?’ The husky voice vibrated through her, pulling on strings of desire that hadn’t been touched in a long, long time.
She flicked her glance back to his; the desire in her eyes all the answer he seemed to need. As if in slow motion he pushed up from the sand, closing the gap between them, his intention unmistakable.
He was going to kiss her.
Even worse—she wanted him to kiss her. Her lips tingled with anticipation.
This is insane.
She had to stop him. She couldn’t let a stranger kiss her. But she couldn’t move. It was like she was frozen, mesmerised by the desire in his eyes.
No. She couldn’t do this so soon after Jimmy had—
It would be wrong!
‘I have to go.’ Kelli managed to pull away from him, stumbling across the sand until she found her footing.
‘Wait, don’t leave,’ she heard the man call out, but she turned and ran back the way she’d come. He called after her again, but she picked up her pace and didn’t turn back. She powered off the beach, through the parkland and into the concrete jungle of streets, her desire twisting into anger the more distance she put between them.
She wasn’t sure what was more infuriating though— the man and his audacity or the way her own body had betrayed her.
Travis Reed unlocked his consulting room door and pushed it open with his hip. He dumped his backpack on the hardwood desk and booted up the computer. Moving to the window, he twisted open the wooden blinds, filling the room with bright, early morning sunshine. The false cheer of the cloudless morning did little to lighten his mood as he sank into his black leather chair.
Back to the grind, he grimaced as email after email arrived in his inbox. It was to be expected after four weeks away. Hell, it was the reason he’d come in to work two hours before his first scheduled consult. He’d wanted to catch up on what had happened to his patients while he’d been away. At least, that’s what he’d told himself.
But still, the sight of all those emails was enough to put off even the most enthusiastic intentions.
Usually he loved his work as a respiratory and sleep physician. To see genuine improvement in a patient’s quality of life once their sleep apnoea was well-treated, or giving them the tools to help breathe adequately, allowing them to live and function fully in life, was truly rewarding. But lately, his work hadn’t been enough to sustain him.
It wasn’t really fair to blame his work, though. It was his life that was unsatisfying. It had been for almost a year, ever since he’d let Ashlee move his son interstate. It was expected, after having spent the last four weeks having fun in the sun with Sean, that he would feel it more than usual today.
‘Hiya!’
Travis turned towards the familiar, cheerful voice, a smile of genuine pleasure lighting his face as he saw his baby sister lounging in the doorway, her blue checked shirt and navy pant nurse’s uniform crinkled after her ten-hour night shift. Despite the length of her shift, her dark brown eyes were alert, her cropped dyed-black hair scarily perfect.
‘Hey Gorgeous, how are you?’ he asked, rising from his seat to embrace her warmly.
‘Oh, you know, as good as can be coming off a night shift,’ she shrugged, returning the embrace. His sister worked four nights a week as a sleep medicine nurse, here at St Mary’s Hospital, setting-up and monitoring patients with suspected sleep disorders.
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked.
‘I work here,’ Travis answered with a mocking grin as he sat back down in his office chair.
‘Well, duh!’ She laughed, perching on his desk corner. ‘But why so early? Hate being away that much?’
‘Yeah, that’s it,’ his mouth twisted with the sarcasm. ‘No, I thought I’d get a leg up on the day.’
She tilted her head, her thoughtful eyes probing him. ‘Was the house too quiet?’
He sighed and stared at his feet, stretching his legs beneath the desk before looking back to her.
‘Something like that,’ he shrugged, unable to hide from the truth any longer. To be honest, it was the reason he’d gone down to the Gold Coast yesterday. Going home to an empty house after four weeks with his little boy had crushed him. Unable to bear the loneliness, he’d gone to chill out on the beach, to try and get his head back together before starting work.
Talk about an epic fail, he shuddered. Instead of unwinding, he’d gone and made a fool of himself over a woman. The image came to him again—two stunningly bright emerald eyes, a deeper hue than any gem he had seen, alight with an enchanting mix of concern and desire.
He knew he should have thanked her for rushing over, so desperate to save him. She’d caught him when he’d been most vulnerable and she’d slipped past his defences for a minute, the pain in her eyes reminding him of a time he tried to forget.
But then her hands started moving down his body and his hormones took over. The sight of her breasts, swelling with each breath, putting pressure on the fabric trying to restrain them…Even now, all he wanted to do was roll with her in the sand, to take her in a way he’d never taken a woman before. Not even Ashlee.
No wonder she’d run away. He’d scared her off. It wasn’t like him to be so forward. There’d just been something about her, something about them, some connection…
Hell, maybe Pierce was right. Maybe he did just need to get laid.
‘Well, I can help you,’ Ana said.
‘You can?’ His eyes flicked to her in something akin to horror, his train of thought still caught in yesterday. Surely he was mistaken. ‘With what?’
‘The empty house, duh!’ She said, poking him in the arm.
‘True, sorry,’ he apologised, reining his thoughts back in. As he turned to focus on his sister he caught a flash of golden curls flying past his open door.
Surely not...
In the blink of an eye the curls were gone.
Had he imagined it? He must have because there was no one here with golden corkscrew curls and no patients were due in the consulting suite for a co
uple of hours.
Fuck!
He really did need to get laid if he was having hallucinations of strange women in the hallowed hallways of St Mary’s.
‘Travis! I’m trying to tell you something important here. A little attention would be good.’
‘Sorry,’ he apologised again, blinking away the memory of emerald eyes and focusing on his sister. ‘What’s your grand plan?’
‘Well, I was thinking…maybe I could move in with you.’
‘What? Now?’ Travis’ eyes widened in surprise. ‘I thought you were moving in with Carl?’
‘Didn’t work out,’ she said with a carefree shrug, but he knew her too well to believe the easy dismissal. Carl was the last in a long line of serious relationships that never seemed to work out for her.
‘Shit. I’m sorry, sweetheart. Of course you can move in. Stay as long as you want. You know you’re always welcome.’ He reached out to grab her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. She squeezed it back before pulling it from his grasp and shooting him a winning smile.
‘Thanks. I’m glad you said that bro, ‘cos I kind of moved all my stuff in last week.’
Travis’ jaw slackened in surprise, his eyebrows shooting up somewhere close to his hairline. ‘Seriously? You couldn’t have called me first?’
‘I didn’t want to interrupt your time with Sean. I know how precious it is to you. And if I’d told you, you probably would have flown back early to help.’
He went to protest, but she held up a hand to stop him ‘You know I’m right. You can’t help yourself. You’ve been like this ever since Mum died. Anyway, you’ve said yes, so I don’t see what the big deal is.’
Travis thought about arguing the point, but it wasn’t worth it.
‘All right, fine. Just tell me next time, yeah? It doesn’t matter what I’m doing, okay?’
‘I’m not planning on there being a next time. I’m done with guys,’ she said vehemently, her eyes fierce.
‘Uh-huh and where have I heard that before?’
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