Teresa Southwick: The Doctor's Secret Baby

Emily had tried to forget him, but never quite managed to pull that off. Maybe because he’d fathered her baby.

The fact was they were both responsible for this child and he was determined to be a father, so she needed to find a path to peaceful coexistence. But moving in with him, relying on him, leaning on him—that was a path she wouldn’t go down.

Cal smiled at Annie, who looked more curious than wary. “Is that a truce?”

“I think a cease-fire is an excellent idea,” Em agreed.

She hoped she wouldn’t regret those words. It would be so easy to fall in love with him….

Dear Reader,

When asked to participate in Special Edition’s FAMOUS FAMILIES project, I was truly honored. It was fun to bring back characters from the MEN OF MERCY MEDICAL series, and it started me thinking about the meaning of family.

I’m one of six children, and my only sister passed away from melanoma, making my brothers and me appreciate each other even more. It’s the family I was born into, but losing my sister makes me treasure my female friends, who are the sisters of my heart. People at the office or in the neighborhood become an extension of home. In hospitals, the personnel work as a unit to save lives.

The editorial staff at Silhouette Books have come to mean so much to me, as have the readers with whom I share a love of romance. It’s a connection that makes us family and we rock.

I sincerely hope you enjoy Cal and Emily’s story as they fall in love and make a family with their little girl.

All the best,

Teresa Southwick

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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lives with her husband in Las Vegas, the city that reinvents itself every day. An avid fan of romance novels, she is delighted to be living out her dream of writing for Silhouette Books.

To Gail Chasan and Charles Griemsman,

my Silhouette Special Edition family. You make it a joy

to work at what I love best, writing romance.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Telling an old boyfriend he had a daughter he didn’t know about was a crappy way to start the day.

And the emergency room at Mercy Medical Center where he was working was a crappy place to tell him, but Emily Summers knew for sure she could find him there. Dr. Cal Westen was a pediatric emergency specialist and would be on duty shortly. He always stopped in the E.R. break room for a cup of coffee about thirty minutes before the start of his shift. At least he used to. She didn’t know squat about his routine since they’d split up more than a year ago.

Emily opened the door and her heart skipped and skidded when she saw him. Some things didn’t change, including her profound physical reaction to this charismatic, charming doctor.

“Hi,” she said, lifting a hand in greeting.

His grin when he saw her was instantaneous. “Emily Summers, as I live and breathe.”

“Guilty.” In so many ways, she thought. She moved farther into the room, just beside the rectangular, metal-framed folding table in the center of the room. It was littered with the daily newspaper. The flat-screen TV was tuned to a news channel with the ticker scrolling across the bottom. “How are you, Cal?”

“Good.”

He looked good. But then he always had—tall, tan, muscular. The man even made his shapeless blue scrubs look as sexy as sin. Her past had a history of attraction to tall, dark and handsome guys, but two years ago Cal had made her rethink that. His sandy hair was short and gel-rumpled in a calculated Hollywood-heartthrob way, but had probably cost him about thirty seconds. A deep dimple softened his square jaw.

“It’s good to see you.” Dark blue eyes twinkled with genuine pleasure, but after she told him what she had to say, he’d rethink that. He straightened away from the counter and set his paper cup on the table still separating them. “Can I buy you a cup of coffee?”

“No, thanks.” She was already jittery enough. And what with the adrenaline surging through her, caffeine might just implode her heart. Maybe the E.R. was the right place to deliver her news after all.

“How long has it been?” he asked.

Because she’d been four weeks into her first trimester the last time she’d seen him and her life since then had passed in a blur of pregnancy and baby months, she knew exactly how long ago it was since she’d last seen him. “Just shy of two years.”

“Seems like yesterday,” he said, shaking his head.

For her, it hardly seemed like that, because her life had been altered so profoundly in their time apart. From the first moment the infant had moved inside her, she’d felt a love bigger than anything she’d ever felt before. And when she’d held her baby for the first time, she knew that giving up her life to protect her child wouldn’t be too big a sacrifice.

Her little girl was the only reason she’d come here today because seeing Cal again was the last thing she wanted to do. She’d broken things off after he broke her heart.

He looked her over from head to toe and smiled. “Your hair is shorter.”

“I cut it. Easier this way,” she said, touching a hand to her short, shiny bob. A typical guy, he’d always liked her brown hair long.

“Looks good. Really good.” There was approval in his eyes. “Have you lost weight?”

“Always the charmer,” she said. During her first trimester, morning sickness had taken a toll and the rest of the pregnancy had been only marginally better. Life since giving birth had kept her busy and she hadn’t regained the twelve pounds lost from her five-feet-two-inch height. The denim capris she had on were several sizes smaller than anything he’d seen her in—or out of. “I might have dropped a little weight.”

“Seriously, there’s something different.”

She’d had a baby—his baby—but didn’t want to blurt that out. Although why she should be concerned about his feelings when he’d decimated hers was a mystery. “I’m still the same.”

Studying her, he folded his arms over his chest, drawing her attention to the broad contour of muscle. It seemed like yesterday that she’d run her hands over the coarse dusting of hair that she remembered being darker than what grew on his head, more reddish brown. The memory made her heart kick up again like it had so many times before when they’d been together.

He moved around the table and stopped in front of her, close enough to feel the heat from his body. “You look great, Em. What’s your secret?”