Radclyffe - Crossroads

Synopsis

Dr. Hollis Monroe specializes in short-term relationships, typically eight months or less. As an obstetrician dealing with high-risk pregnancies, she spends all her time and energy in caring for women at a nice, comfortable professional distance until she delivers their babies and can walk away. They're happy, she's satisfied, and no one gets hurt. The perfect relationship.

Pregnant mother-to-be Annie Colfax is alone and barely making ends meet—she didn't plan on starting a family by herself, but she's determined to succeed. All she has to do is survive.

Neither woman wants a relationship, but fate brings them together at a crossroads that will change their lives forever.

Crossroads

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Crossroads

© 2012 By Radclyffe. All Rights Reserved.

ISBN 13: 978-1-60282-807-0

This Electronic Book is published by

Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

P.O. Box 249

Valley Falls, New York 12185

First Edition: November 2012

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

Credits

Editors: Ruth Sternglantz and Stacia Seaman

Production Design: Stacia Seaman

Cover Design By Sheri (GraphicArtist2020@hotmail.com)

By Radclyffe

Romances

Innocent Hearts

Promising Hearts

Love’s Melody Lost

Love’s Tender Warriors

Tomorrow’s Promise

Love’s Masquerade

shadowland

Passion’s Bright Fury

Fated Love

Turn Back Time

When Dreams Tremble

The Lonely Hearts Club

Night Call

Secrets in the Stone

Desire by Starlight

Crossroads

Honor Series

Above All, Honor

Honor Bound

Love & Honor

Honor Guards

Honor Reclaimed

Honor Under Siege

Word of Honor

Justice Series

A Matter of Trust (prequel)

Shield of Justice

In Pursuit of Justice

Justice in the Shadows

Justice Served

Justice For All

The Provincetown Tales

Safe Harbor

Beyond the Breakwater

Distant Shores, Silent Thunder

Storms of Change

Winds of Fortune

Returning Tides

Sheltering Dunes

First Responders Novels

Trauma Alert

Firestorm

Oath of Honor

Short Fiction

Collected Stories by Radclyffe

Erotic Interludes: Change of Pace

Radical Encounters

Edited by Radclyffe

Best Lesbian Romance 2009-2011

Stacia Seaman and Radclyffe, eds.

Erotic Interludes 2: Stolen Moments

Erotic Interludes 3: Lessons in Love

Erotic Interludes 4: Extreme Passions

Erotic Interludes 5: Road Games

Romantic Interludes 1: Discovery

Romantic Interludes 2: Secrets

Breathless: Tales of Celebration

Women of the Dark Streets

By L.L. Raand

Midnight Hunters

The Midnight Hunt

Blood Hunt

Night Hunt

Acknowledgments

Medical romances are a niche within a niche, but for me each is a little piece of my history, and as I have written them, a part of a community of books featuring continuing and overlapping characters. I have written two lines of medical romances, one set in the fictional Philadelphia Medical College ( Fated Love and Night Call ) and the other in the University Hospital system ( Turn Back Time, The Lonely Hearts Club , and the First Responders book Trauma Alert ). My first medical romance, Passion’s Bright Fury , is the prequel to Fated Love and takes place in NYC. Each novel explores a new set of characters, but like the hospital where I spent twelve years training, the community at the center of each feels like home. Everyone knows everyone else, often better than friends and family. Any of the books can be read in any order, and familiar faces will show up as they often do in real life, around the next corner. I hope you find coming home as enjoyable as I.

Thanks go to Sandy Lowe for perseverance, patience, and unflagging support; to author Nell Stark for taking the time from her ever-busier schedule to comment and encourage; to Ruth Sternglantz for expert editing; to Stacia Seaman, for never missing a step; and to my first readers Connie, Eva, Jenny, and Paula for never growing tired of me.

Special thanks to Sheri for a great cover that captures the essence of the story.

And to Lee, for the fun of it all— Amo te.

Radclyffe, 2012

For Lee, for sharing the road

Chapter One

The on-call phone rang, waking Hollis from an uneasy sleep. She rolled over on the narrow bed, groped in the darkness for the cell, and swiped accept without looking. “Monroe.”

“It’s Honor Blake in the ER, Dr. Monroe. We need you down here STAT.”

“What is it?” Hollis sat up, the last vestiges of sleep driven from her mind by the familiar tightening in her belly and surge in her blood. Adrenaline rush—as potent as sex and twice as satisfying. She glanced at the battered plastic digital clock on the equally battered metal bedside stand. 3:32 a.m. Why did the complications always come in the middle of the night? For that matter, why did most babies choose to show up after midnight? Questions obstetricians had been asking without answer for centuries, probably.

“A twenty-four-year-old in the range of thirty-five weeks, and she’s hemorrhaging.”

“On my way. Can you call Labor and Delivery and tell them we’re coming?”

“Already done,” the ER chief answered.

“And page the on-call neonatal—”

“Already done.”

“Yeah, sorry. Guess this isn’t your first rodeo.”

“Not by a long shot. Are you awake?”

“And moving. Be right there.” Hollis disconnected, stuck the phone in the back pocket of her scrubs, and grabbed her lab coat off the back of the door on her way out. She’d only been at Philadelphia Medical Center a week after finishing her fellowship at a friendly rival hospital across town, but she knew all the shortcuts to the ER already. She took the stairs three at a time down two levels and pushed through the fire door to the ground floor. The wide, tan-tiled halls were nearly empty in the middle of the night. Empty stretchers covered with plain white sheets were lined up head to toe along one wall like sentries, awaiting six a.m. when the transport teams would begin ferrying patients from the ER and hospital rooms to X-ray, the OR, and all the many other destinations in the hospital. By the time the walk-in clinics opened at nine, the halls would be congested with foot traffic. Now the only people around were men and women from housekeeping—pushing floor polishers, rolling supersized trash bins, and steering canvas carts piled high with soiled linens.