Shirley Hailstock - Healing The Doctor's Heart

He’s a great doctor

Will she make him a better man?

When pediatrician Lauren Peterson becomes a live-in companion to Jake Masters, a reclusive surgeon with an arm injury and attitude problem, she knows it’ll be tough going. Jake is totally disillusioned with the medical profession, so Lauren can’t tell him she’s a doctor. The deception’s easyuntil she falls for the unexpectedly kind heart beneath Jake’s unfriendly exterior. Can the truth give them both a fresh start?

SHIRLEY HAILSTOCKbegan her writing life as a lover of reading. She likes nothing better than to find a quiet corner where she can get lost in a book, explore new worlds and visit places she never expected to see. As an author, she can not only visit those places, but she can be the heroine of her own stories. The author of forty novels and novellas, Shirley has received numerous awards, including a National Readers’ Choice Award, a Romance Writers of America’s Emma Merritt Award and an RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award. Shirley’s books have appeared on several bestseller lists, including the Glamour , Essence and Library Journal lists. She is a past president of Romance Writers of America.

Also By Shirley Hailstock

Summer on Kendall Farm

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Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

Healing the Doctor’s Heart

Shirley Hailstock

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-0-008-90093-9

HEALING THE DOCTOR’S HEART

© 2020 Shirley Hailstock

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

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Text to speech

Jake’s heart thumped.

He realized he didn’t want her to go. He’d become used to her being there. He even enjoyed their arguments. Sometimes he looked forward to them. But she had to be thinking of returning to work. And why wouldn’t she? He’d taken her suggestions and he was better for them.

“Lauren, if you can postpone going until Cal returns, I’d like that.”

Jake wanted to see Lauren, but he was driving and could only glance at her. She appeared at a loss for words. He didn’t know if she expected him to say what he had. He hadn’t intended to, but he liked talking to her. He liked her more than as a friend, but he couldn’t let it go further than that. He remembered her first day, when she walked into the apartment and had to pry him out of bed. Now here he was asking her not to leave.

Dear Reader,

I’ve always loved masquerade parties, and writing Healing the Doctor’s Heart gave me the opportunity to revisit that game. Lauren had to find a way of cracking the glass Jake had around his heart and her method proved unconventional to say the least.

New York City is also one of my favorite places to visit and I’m blessed to live so close to it. Setting the story there among the varied cultures and street figures that garner tourists’ attention was perfect. But the characters of Lauren Peterson and Jake Masters warmed my heart. They are part of my growing family of people I want to talk to time and time again. I want to know what happens to them next. Do they have children? How does Lauren handle a new baby? The book could go on and on and on, but there are other stories to write.

I’m working on another one right now and hopefully you’ll be ready to read the story of Jake’s brother soon.

Thanks for going on the adventure with Jake and Lauren, and if you’re interested in this and other books I’ve written, you can contact me through my web page or on social media.

Thanks again and as always, keep reading.

Shirley Hailstock

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

Introduction

Dear Reader

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

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Extract

About the Publisher

CHAPTER ONE

DR. LAUREN PETERSON’S feet pounded the New York City sidewalk with the same force as her heartbeat. The point of no return was still ahead. She should turn around, dash down the steps to the subway and go back to the Brooklyn brownstone she was giving up at the end of the month. She still had time. No one would know. No one would be hurt. Disappointed, maybe, but not hurt.

She could almost feel herself doing it, reversing course and heading home, the ghost of her skirt plastered to her legs in the wind as she made her attempt to run away from what she was hurtling toward. The traffic, pedestrians all seemed to crowd around her, slowing her footsteps.

“This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done,” Lauren said out loud. Since her decision was dumb and foolish, she had no problem having people on the street thinking the same about her.

Maybe she should care.

Why had she allowed Caleb Masters to go on interviewing her for that job, especially when she realized Jake Masters wasn’t there? She stopped abruptly and looked at the sky. Two people careened into her and she backed up against a building, accepting their angry looks as she let them pass.

“What was I thinking?” This time her voice was barely above a whisper, since she knew the answer could come from only her own mind.