She started to sob. She couldn’t help it, and Duc moved, wrapping one arm around her shoulders and pulling her close.
‘I love this place,’ she said between sniffs as she laid her hand on his chest. ‘But I love this place because it’s got you in it. It is you. Everywhere I look I’m reminded of you. I couldn’t be here if you weren’t. You drive me crazy, do you know that? You kissed me in the kitchen and then pulled away. Do you know what that did to me? What that did to my heart? I thought it might break in two.’
He kissed her head. ‘I’m sorry, Viv. I was mixed up. I thought I’d crossed a line and ruined everything between us. I thought you’d hate me.’
Her hand thumped against his chest. ‘How can I hate you when I love you, stupid? The guy who’s been my everything for the last ten years. The one person I’m honest with and tell all my dark family secrets.’ She fingered the chain at her throat.
‘The one man to buy me jewellery just because it matched my eyes. And when you kissed me...you turned my world upside down. A kiss between friends isn’t supposed to feel like that. Isn’t supposed to steal the breath from your throat and turn your legs to jelly. Isn’t supposed to leave your heart racing so much you can’t sleep at night.’ Her fingers were brushing the skin at the base of his neck. He looked down at her with those dark eyes. She could see the sparkle. Feel the sizzle in the air between them again.
She moved her fingers more slowly. ‘And this? This electricity that constantly buzzes between us? How are we ever supposed to get any work done in future? How will any patients ever get seen if we both work here?’
She couldn’t help the teasing tone in her voice. Her heart was so full she couldn’t breathe again. Duc loved her. He said he loved her. Could the world ever be this perfect?
He changed position, tilting her chin up to his. ‘So, this is us. This is really us.’
It was like he was just making sure.
She nodded.
But he kept going as a sexy smile appeared on his face. ‘No pulling back. No changing minds?’
‘No pulling back, no changing minds,’ she repeated with a smile on her face, then she sighed as he jumped off the bed and headed to the doorway. ‘Duc, are you ever going to kiss me? Or am I going to have to die waiting?’
‘Oh, I’m going to kiss you, I’m just making sure we’ll not be disturbed.’ He smiled as he turned the lock on the door and joined her back on the bed. He slid his arms around her waist. ‘Now, where were we?’
‘Right here,’ she said as her lips touched his.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Six months later
‘PUSH, LIEN. PUSH!’
It was the middle of the night. But no one at May Mắn hospital currently cared what time of day it was.
The corridor outside the delivery room was practically full. This was their first official May Mắn baby, created by two doctors who worked there, delivered by staff who loved them both.
Duc was pacing outside. Lien’s parents were sitting impatiently on two chairs, watching for every swing of the door. Several of the nurses had lined the corridor. Two of the visiting doctors who were officially on duty tonight were watching the whole scene with amusement.
They’d even started to serve snacks while they waited.
Every now and then Viv stuck her head outside with an instruction for someone and they all held their breaths, letting them go in frustration when she still didn’t bring the news they were all waiting for.
Ron was the most amused of all. There was a coloured chart at the nurses’ station with guesses for date, time, sex, birth weight and name. ‘Is it always going to be this much fun?’ he said as he walked past.
For a few minutes there was silence. Then came a loud cry.
* * *
A cheer erupted from outside as Baby Lennox announced her arrival to the world. Viv cleaned off her face, did a few quick checks and placed baby on Lien’s chest.
Lien wrinkled her nose as she lay back against the pillows, exhausted. ‘Tell me they aren’t high-fiving out there.’
Viv and Ron laughed together. ‘It’s been a closely fought contest. Three staff were watching the clock, hoping they’d win the bet.’
Lien shook her head as she stared at her brand-new daughter. ‘Wow,’ she breathed. Then she looked at Joe. He hadn’t taken his eyes off his daughter from the second she’d been born. ‘I’m not doing that again.’
Viv and Ron looked at each other. ‘That’s what they all say,’ they said in unison.
Lien smiled. ‘I mean it.’
Viv nodded. ‘So do they. It doesn’t mean that in two years’ time I won’t see you again.’
Ron grinned. ‘Well, I’m delighted. Do we have a name for our latest arrival?’
Joe sighed. ‘Nope. We both agreed we would give Regan the final say, and since we didn’t know if it was a boy or a girl, he said he was keeping his name a secret.’
Ron let out the biggest laugh of all. ‘Yes! I can’t wait.’ He stood up. ‘We were talking about his favourite superhero the other day so hold on, folks, who knows what we’ll get?’
Five minutes later Lien and the baby were settled, and Viv had cleaned up the room for visitors, meaning the rest of the hospital could visit.
Duc shook hands with Joe and gave Lien a kiss on the cheek after admiring the baby, and waved to Viv to come outside.
Viv left things in the hands of Melody, the other midwife, and walked outside with him to sit on the grass for five minutes.
It was cooler outside, and once he’d wrapped an arm around her shoulder she leaned against him.
‘Ooh, I’m knackered. You need to make me some tea.’
His breathing was slow and steady. She could actually stay in this position all night. They sometimes sat outside for a short spell at night, just to watch the stars.
It took her a few moments to notice something unusual. ‘Hey? What’s happened to the trees?’
‘What do you mean?’
She sat upright. ‘What’s with the twinkling lights?’
Someone had strung little white lights between the trees to the left of the bungalows. They’d put a memorial bench under the trees a few months ago for Khiem and Hoa.
‘Oh, those lights,’ said Duc, as he stood up and held his hand out towards her.
She smiled but wrinkled her brow in curiosity as he led her towards the bench. They watched as Joe crossed the grass behind them, ducking into his own bungalow to collect Regan and let him meet his new sister.
Viv sat down on the bench and looked up at the lights. ‘They really do add a little magic to the place, don’t they? We should have thought of these before. And maybe, at Christmastime, we can change them for another colour?’
She looked to her right, expecting Duc to be beside her, but he’d vanished.
‘Duc?’
‘Right here.’
He was kneeling on the grass in front of her.
She let out a little gasp and pulled both hands up to her mouth.
He smiled. ‘Timing is everything.’
He took her hands in his. ‘Viv, the last six months have been the best of my life. You’re my partner in crime and the love of my life. I can’t imagine spending a minute of this life without having you by my side. I can’t imagine a day when you don’t shout at me in your crazy Scottish accent or fight me for a bit of chocolate. Let’s not wait. It’s been too long already.’
He pulled out the glittering emerald-and-diamond ring that had belonged to his mother. ‘You know that my mum and dad loved you.’ He glanced upwards. ‘Somehow I know that right now they’re up there, smiling down on us and telling me to hurry up.’ He shot her a wary look. ‘If you want something else, I’ll buy you something else. But my mum always told me she hoped I’d find someone to love, like she loved Dad. And maybe she already knew who
that would be. So, what do you say, Vivienne Kerr, crazy Scot number one, will you be my wife, for ever and ever?’
Her hands were shaking, but that didn’t stop her holding out her finger so he could slip the emerald-and-diamond ring onto it. She touched his cheek. ‘Duc Nguyen, I got so lucky the day I met you. I can’t imagine what might have happened if you hadn’t been there to give me a hug in the sluice that day. You’ve stolen my heart, and you’ve given me something I couldn’t ever have found without you—a home. And the ring? I love it. I’m honoured. So, yes! Tell the world that, yes, I’ll be your wife.’
Duc swept her up into his arms and spun her around but when her feet touched the ground she took a step back for a second until she found his hand.
She linked their pinkies together and looked up into his eyes. ‘For ever,’ she whispered.
‘For ever,’ he repeated as he bent to kiss her.
* * *
If you missed the previous story in The Good Luck Hospital duet, look out for
Healing the Single Dad’s Heart
And if you enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from Scarlet Wilson
Tempted by the Hot Highland Doc
Island Doctor to Royal Bride?
Locked Down with the Army Doc
Resisting the Single Dad
All available now!
Keep reading for an excerpt from New York Doc, Thailand Proposal by Dianne Drake.
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New York Doc, Thailand Proposal
by Dianne Drake
CHAPTER ONE
“I KNOW WHAT we were, Mother. But two years deserves a better ending than what we had, and when this opportunity came...”
Dr. Oliver Benedict, Layla Morrison’s boss, mentor and, yes, Arlo’s grandfather, had three spots open for volunteers—specifically the three candidates he was looking at to be his new assistant chief of surgery.
“No, I don’t know if Arlo knows I’m the one Ollie picked for this assignment. It’s only been five days from the time he gave me the nod until now, and Ollie specifically said communication with Arlo wasn’t always available. So, yes, I might be a surprise.”
But the need was legitimate. According to Ollie, Arlo was alone right now. His medical assistant had gone home to India for a while and after living with Arlo for two years herself, and listening to him talk about the way he wanted to practice medicine here, in Thailand, Layla knew what she was getting herself into.
Jungle medicine. Nothing easy. Nothing convenient. It was hard work. Sometimes backbreaking. And it was so embedded in Arlo’s heart it had caused their break-up. Two years into their relationship and the call of the jungle had beaten her.
“NO, I don’t know if this will give me a lock on a promotion, but it will finally give me some closure. We didn’t have that. It was too difficult at the end and we were both hurt. So, I’m hoping that this will help me, maybe even Arlo, finally move on.”
Layla had had one disastrous attempt at a relationship after Arlo and had compared everything Brad did against the way Arlo had done it. Nothing could compare, though, and now it was time to fix that so she could finally move on with her personal life since the professional side was rolling along quite nicely.
Layla was one of the top general surgeons in Ollie’s practice, highly regarded for her skills, in line for a promotion. That part was just what she wanted and, finally, she had time to look beyond that, to having a life outside medicine. Except there was Arlo. She hadn’t been able to shake him off. Not in the physical sense, but in the emotional. All the what-ifs? They wouldn’t let go, so now it was time to purge them and move on.
Layla sighed loudly enough for her mother to hear. “Look, it’s only two months, then I’ll be home and hopefully in a new position. Ollie hinted that I’m the forerunner. So, please, just wish me luck here because working in a jungle hospital scares me a little bit.” But not as much as facing Arlo after all this time.
“Yes, Mother, I’ll be careful. And tell Daddy thanks for the SUV. The way these roads are turning out to be, it’s exactly what I needed.” Her dad had made a couple of phone calls and, just like magic, it had been waiting for her at the airport. But he had connections here in Thailand. In fact, he had connections everywhere so what he’d done for Layla had been easy. Everything her parents had ever done for her had made her life easier. Which was one of the reasons Arlo had always called her spoiled. She’d taken advantage of that from time to time. Until Arlo had pointed that out.
Still, her parents always supported her in what she wanted to do. Sometimes the support was a little grudging, since their ideas of what they wanted for her were entirely different from what Layla wanted for herself. But there hadn’t been a time since she was a little girl that she’d seen herself as anything other than a doctor, and now Layla was on her way to do some doctoring in the jungle with a man who’d been her partner for two years. Talk about an improbable situation.
“Two years,” she said out loud, as she swerved to miss a rut in the dirt road. Arlo Benedict had been at her level during their medical residency, and the arrangement to share an apartment had been a practical one. For Arlo, it had been about money. His grandfather, Ollie, had been supporting him through school, but just barely, since his own surgery was quite costly to operate. And Arlo’s parents—they were like Arlo was now. Jungle doctors, living on practically nothing.
When Layla had first met Arlo, he’d been struggling. Not complaining, though. But his life had been hard, and he hadn’t had many extras. No going out with friends for pizza and beer. Working an extra job when he’d really needed to be studying. He had been so dedicated—dedicated in a way she’d never seen in anyone, and she admired that. Plus, he was easy on the eye, and maybe she’d had a little crush.
She didn’t know for sure, but when she’d mentioned she had a bedroom to rent, he’d jumped at the chance. Layla had told herself that having someone there was simply a matter of practicality. But in the case of asking Arlo to be her roomie, it had possibly been something more. Certainly, she’d been open to suggestions at the time. He had been smart, drop-dead gorgeous and quite emphatic that he’d be gone once his residence was completed.
Arlo had come with everything she’d wanted, and something she hadn’t wanted—a long-term relationship. She hadn’t been about to tie herself up that way until she’d started climbing the ladder, and that had still been a long way off.
Well, she had been wrong about the relationship. Just being with Arlo had made her want to be with him all the more. No, he had not been a long-termer and, yes,
he had been clear he wouldn’t stay. But being with Arlo for two years had changed her. Made her want things she hadn’t known she wanted. Made her want Arlo in ways she’d known he hadn’t been available.
Had it been the challenge of him, or the allure? Probably some of both. But when her real feelings had started getting in the way, the allure had taken over in a big way. Not that it mattered because, in the end, he’d left her. It was always his plan, he’d told her. But she’d truly thought she could change his mind.
Unfortunately, Layla couldn’t. And their ending had been bad. Arguments they’d never had before. Shouting. Crying. Naturally, she’d blamed Arlo for everything but, deep down, she’d always known she couldn’t hang onto him. She’d just tried ignoring it.
Initially, Arlo’s resistance at accepting her offer, and he did resist, had been quelled by her declaration that theirs would be a friends-only situation. Sure, she’d wanted more. Which, as it had turned out, had been the case with Arlo as well. And within two weeks a cozy night when two weary surgical residents had shared a bottle of wine and a bowl of popcorn on the couch had turned into...
Of course, there’d been early morning promises that what they’d done was a one-time thing. Except it wasn’t. For two years. Now, nearly five years down the road, while Layla was perfectly on track with her career, Arlo was the loose end she needed to tie up because she didn’t want to be alone for the rest of her life. Because she was a total washout when it came to relationships—just ask Brad, her only attempt at another relationship after Arlo. Then there was the whole ticking of the biological clock thing going on. Yet she couldn’t take that step forward because—well, she was blaming it on their lack of closure, even though they’d both known, at the start, that Arlo would eventually go one way and she another.
It had seemed easy enough when they’d talked about it, but when the time had come, it wasn’t. Had Layla loved Arlo then? Yes, in a lot of different ways. But had she loved him enough to give up her dreams to follow his? No. Absolutely not. And neither had he been prepared to give up his dreams for her.
Just Friends to Just Married? Page 16