Jacqueline Diamond - A Baby for the Doctor

Jack indicated the three doorways. “Which one's your room?”

“Back corner.”

“I'll bet it has a great view.”

Taking the hint, Anya led him into the room. “Ignore the mess, okay?” She'd left a pile of clean laundry on the bed to be folded.

“You consider this a mess? It's nice.” Hardly high praise, but then, her plain, inexpensive furnishings didn't merit compliments.

She found Jack's nearness even more enticing in these intimate quarters. Everything about him appealed to her, from his chest-hugging T-shirt to the light in his green eyes.

Longing shimmered through Anya. As a diversion, she hurried to the window. “It's especially pretty at sunset.”

“It sure is.” When Jack approached, the air heated between them. His arm circled her waist, drawing her close.

Anya relaxed against him. When Jack turned her toward him, a rush of longing underscored how much she'd missed him. New Year's Eve hadn't been a tipsy aberration. She'd longed for him from the moment they'd met. And now she longed for even more …

A Baby for

the Doctor

Jacqueline Diamond

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Delivered at home by her physician father, JACQUELINE DIAMONDcame by her interest in medical issues at an early age. Later, during her career as a novelist, Jackie was inspired to follow medical news after successfully undergoing fertility treatment to have her two sons, now grown. Since then, she has written numerous romances involving medicine, as well as romantic intrigues, comedies and Regency historicals, for a total of more than ninety-five books. She and her husband of thirty-five years live in Orange County, California, where she's active in Romance Writers of America. You can see an overview of the Safe Harbor Medical miniseries at www.jacquelinediamond.comand say hello to Jackie at her Facebook site, www.facebook.com/JacquelineDiamondAuthor.

For Jennifer, Steve, Jessy, Mickey and Courtney

Contents

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

Chapter Eighteen

Extract

Chapter One

“That was unbelievable.” Exhilarated, Dr. Jack Ryder stripped off his surgical gown, folded it inward to contain the soiled part and stuffed it into the specially marked laundry receptacle.

He wished his mentor, Dr. Owen Tartikoff, hadn’t already left the operating suite so he could thank the man for letting him take the lead in today’s microsurgery, a procedure known as pain mapping. Instead, he shared his high spirits with the anesthesiologist, Dr. Rod Vintner.

Rod quirked an eyebrow at the younger man’s excitement. “Don’t let it go to your head. In the Middle Ages, surgery was performed by barbers. By the way, I could use a trim.” Pulling off his cap, he displayed a shock of graying brown hair.

“Getting a little thin in the middle,” Jack responded. One of the techs, obviously new at Safe Harbor Medical Center, seemed startled at this exchange, so Jack explained, “Rod’s my uncle.”

“Barely,” said the anesthesiologist, removing his glove from the edge, inside out to protect his skin from the contaminated surface. “We’re the same age.”

“Except that you’re eight years older,” Jack corrected mildly.

“Anything less than ten years is negligible.” Rod slid his bare fingers inside the second glove and pulled it off, also inside out.

“In your fevered brain.”

“I have much more interesting things in my fevered brain.” Rod replaced his surgical cap with a fedora. The look, combined with his short beard and sharp eyes, reminded Jack of a college professor he’d once studied under, a fellow who’d also been quick to pounce on a student’s vulnerability but was kind at heart.

As he washed his hands, Jack mentally replayed the surgery. The minimally invasive microlaparoscopy technique involved making an incision about the size of a needle stick. Then the patient had briefly been brought out of anesthesia, and he’d used tiny instruments to touch the organs, allowing her to react so he could identify the exact source of her pain.

After she was again under anesthesia, he’d removed the endometriosis, excess cells from the uterus lining that had spread to the abdominal cavity. The small amount might not have troubled another patient, but each individual perceives pain differently, and this patient had been in agony. Hopefully, she would now feel much better and be able to pursue her goal of having a baby.

“I can’t believe I hesitated to apply for this surgical fellowship,” he commented to Rod as they left the suite. “Thanks for nudging me.”

“You’d been away from Southern California long enough,” his uncle said. “Anyway, I needed a roommate and I like your cooking.”

Jack took a quick glance around the second-floor hallway. A couple of young nurses must have been watching for him because they immediately made eye contact and flashed him warm smiles. He gave what he hoped was a friendly but distant nod in return. “Could you keep your voice down?” he murmured.

“Why is it such a big secret that you cook?” Rod strode alongside him toward the twin elevators.

“I learned a long time ago that if women find out I have domestic skills, they’ll never leave me alone,” Jack said. He’d unwittingly earned a reputation as a ladies’ man in his younger years simply by responding to women’s interest. Whether they were attracted to him as a doctor or as a single male, he’d never been certain, but the discovery that he was a good cook acted like an accelerant on a fire.

He’d soon realized how quickly some ladies made assumptions about having a future with him and how easily feelings could get hurt. So he’d done his best to avoid involvement. Until recently...

“Women never leave you alone,” his uncle commented.

“Some of them do.” Especially the one I didn’t mean to drive away.

And there she was, waiting by the elevators, freshly scrubbed after surgery. Wavy brown hair tumbled around nurse Anya Meeks’s sweet face, but her full lips no longer curved when Jack appeared and her intense brown eyes avoided his even while she’d been smoothly assisting him in the operating room.

He should have followed his own rules about not hooking up with a coworker. Yet something about Anya had drawn him to her from the start—her dark, humorous gaze, her quirky energy when they joked and the anecdotes she’d shared during operations about helping raise the younger siblings in her large family. After growing up longing for a stronger family connection, Jack had found those stories especially fascinating.

Which was why when he’d run into her at a New Year’s Eve party five weeks ago and learned she was ready to go home before her designated-driver roommate, he shouldn’t have offered her a ride. He’d been well aware of an undercurrent of attraction between them. Still, because they lived in the same apartment complex, the suggestion had made sense. But then he really shouldn’t have walked her to her door, and then walked through her door, and then noticed the leftover mistletoe and claimed a kiss and then...

The experience of being with her had been so unexpected and powerful, he’d wanted to proceed with caution. Plus, Anya had urged him to leave before her roommate came home. “Let’s just keep this light, okay?” she’d said.

Jack had agreed. After all, they were still coworkers and neighbors, and too much closeness too soon could spell disaster. He did want to see her again, but he’d figured they’d gravitate to each other naturally and let whatever happened, happen. But she’d avoided him ever since. During the past month, he’d done his best to throw himself into her path, but that had led exactly nowhere.