Lynne Marshall - Pregnant Nurse, New-Found Family

How hard was it to say, I’m pregnant?

She sighed, and distracted herself by cleaning up her equipment and charts.

A strong, warm hand wrapped around her wrist and stopped her. She looked into his inquisitive eyes and swallowed.

“What do you need to tell me?”

She blew a light breath through her lips and tried to ignore the butterflies in her stomach.

He didn’t let go. “Well, it’s been exactly five weeks since we…ah…met.”

“I remember it well. Now go on.”

“And earlier this week, when I passed out, they ran some lab tests on me.”

His head tilted the tiniest bit and his eyes grew more serious.

“The thing is…I’m pregnant,” she whispered.

Lynne Marshallhas been a registered nurse for twenty-five years. She’s been an avid reader all her life. She began her writing journey in 2000, and quickly discovered Medical™ Romance allowed her to combine both her love of medicine and drama. Lynne is happily married to a police lieutenant, and has a grown daughter and son. Besides her passion for writing romance stories, she loves travel, reading, and power walks. You can visit Lynne’s website at www.lynnemarshallweb.com

Recent titles by the same author:

SINGLE DAD, NURSE BRIDE

IN HIS ANGEL’S ARMS

HER L.A. KNIGHT

HER BABY’S SECRET FATHER

BY

LYNNE MARSHALL

www.millsandboon.co.uk

This book is dedicated to the five years I worked as an allergy nurse, when I made special friends such as Joyce, Lorraine, Sue, Annette and Esther. With special thanks to Dr. Kenigsberg for helping me iron out my original premise, and in fond memory of Dr. Freund, a true gentleman.

CHAPTER ONE

THE last thing Gavin Riordan had ever expected was to be a full-time father again. The family courtroom drama had been legendary over the custody of his son three years before, but in the end the judge had ruled, as was most traditional, on the side of the mother.

He shook his head at the memory that Tuesday evening, and jogged down the hall in the clinic section of Los Angeles Mercy Hospital with his son in tow.

“Bupinder, have you got a minute?” He pulled the resistant nine-year-old, Patrick, along behind him.

The allergy doctor slowed down to let them catch up.

“May I run something by you?” he asked.

“Of course,” she said.

“I tell you, it’s the strangest thing.” Gavin accompanied the petite allergist along the clinic corridor. “One minute Patrick was fine. The next he had a huge asthma attack. Got any ideas?”

Dr Bupinder Mehta slanted her head in thought and studied Gavin’s son with large brown eyes. She turned back and asked, “Has he taken any antihistamines in the last week?”

“Not since the last big attack a month ago.” That asthma attack had made sense, as his mother had been leaving for England the next day and Patrick had been torn up about saying goodbye. But why had he had the asthma flare-up this time?

They’d spent the day together and gone to the movies in the afternoon. Gavin was determined to make up for not being the father he should have been all along, now that Patrick was living with him again. As usual, as soon as they’d returned home on Sunday afternoon, Patrick had run to his bedroom and slammed the door. A short time later he had come out wheezing. “This last time he just needed inhalers.”

“Then let’s do a skin test. Pollens, food, we can do the whole panel if he’s willing and you’ve got the time.” She brushed her long, black braid over her white lab coat and pushed on the double doors to a large, bright waiting room.

“I guess there’s no time like the present.” Gavin rushed ahead and held the door open with one hand and scratched his neck with the other. He sent a glance his son’s way and quickly saw the pursed lips and usual defensive resolve. He was positive his ex-wife Maureen’s sudden departure for England for four months had something to do with Patrick’s return of asthma after all these years.

Thinking of asthma as an emotional disease had been out of favor with the experts for a long time, yet Gavin still felt there was a connection. After he got some concrete medical answers, he’d deal with the emotional triggers in Patrick’s life.

On a whim, Maureen had decided to take a university extension course in art history at Oxford. She’d left Patrick with Gavin, even though it had meant putting him in a new school for the last few months before summer vacation and losing contact with all of his old friends. Maureen had always been impulsive, especially when it came to spending Gavin’s money. Patrick was definitely unhappy with the situation. And Gavin was still adjusting to the added responsibility of being a full-time single dad while running the Mercy Hospital ER.

But he was determined to make things work. And right now that meant getting to the bottom of his son’s new onset of asthma flare-ups.

“Beth, will you do one last skin test for me, please?” Dr Mehta’s precise British accent echoed in the almost empty room.

The nurse snapped her head around and looked straight at them.

“I know it’s late, but I’d like to do my colleague a favor, if you don’t mind.”

At first she looked startled, as if a spark of recognition flickered in her intense hazel eyes. She quickly recovered, and her stare washed over him like a cold wave. Holy smoke. She was the woman from the party.

“ I think you’ve got the wrong person,” she murmured in the hallway of the chief resident’s condominium after the kiss that had made his toes curl .

“ Feels pretty right to me.” He tilted her chin and kissed her again. “My name’s Gavin .”

“ I’m Bethany. Beth,” she whispered over his mouth before smothering him with another brain-melting kiss .

Oh, yeah, she wanted him .

He hadn’t used the best judgement that night. But he’d had no regrets. Not one. That was, until now.

She looked different with her hair pulled back into a tight ponytail, no make-up on, and baggy uniform scrubs, but she couldn’t fool him. Though nothing like the wild woman he’d encountered a month ago, it was Beth nevertheless. She ignored him, while turning a deep shade of crimson, smiled at her boss, nodding her head as though no earth-shattering recognition had just occurred.

They were both adults. They’d made a choice to make love without knowing each other. So why did he feel so off balance? Because he’d never done anything as crazy as that before!

“I need to check Mr Plescia’s arms, then I’ll be right with you.” She flicked her glance away before he had the chance to smile at her, and walked across the room to her other patient.

This could get awkward .

He’d hoped he would see her again, but he’d had to leave the party in a rush when his charge nurse, Carmen, had beeped and alerted him that Patrick had been admitted into an ER fifty miles away in Irvine with a full-blown asthma attack. That had been the Saturday night before his ex had left for England—his last weekend of freedom before becoming a full-time father again—and he’d acted like a crazed college student at a frat party. But, damn, he’d been angry with Maureen for pulling another stunt, and nervous about having his son come to live with him, and, well, he’d decided to cut loose. Not much to be proud of.

After the news about Patrick’s asthma attack, he’d been so distracted he’d forgotten to ask for her full name or to get her phone number. It was an easy stretch to assume she thought he’d used her. In a way he had. He regretfully shook his head. Damn, he was out of practice. The least he could have done was found out where she worked and called her.