‘Oh?’ The journalist looked eagerly towards Abby, hoping for more details.
Abby kept her face as straight as Noah’s. Their story was their own and they weren’t about to share it with the world at large. They weren’t about to forget it either, however. An accidental meeting that was going to shape the rest of their lives.
So she simply shrugged as the silent communication between herself and Noah was full of laughter. And love...
‘It’s no big deal,’ she said. ‘We just kind of bumped into each other.’
EPILOGUE
One year later...
‘THIS HAS TO be the most romantic place on earth for a wedding.’
Abigail Phillips grinned at her sister. ‘You should know. It’s where you had yours. Where you got engaged and where you had your first date.’
‘Mmm...’ Lisa Phillips smiled dreamily into the mirror as she put the finishing touches to her hair. ‘I’m just so happy to be back here. And for the best reason ever.’
‘I was never intending to copy you. You know that, yes? I would have been more than happy to get married in the local registry office. It was Noah who had other ideas.’
‘I’m pretty sure that was Hugh’s doing. You remember that night you came around to dinner? When that magazine article had come out about that guy with the toe for a thumb and you told us that the journalist had assumed you were married?’
‘Of course. And when we went out to the kitchen I told you that it didn’t really bother me at all whether we got married or not. That I would always be happy as long as Noah and I were together.’
‘Yeah...well, it was then that Hugh showed Noah the picture of where we got married. This place.’
‘I know. He was still going on about it when we got home that night. The south of France, he kept saying. That view from that terrace. Those stone floors and walls...that grapevine...’
‘It wasn’t just the picture,’ Lisa confessed. ‘Hugh told me later that he’d told Noah that there was something magic about this particular restaurant. That it was only because he’d been clever enough to bring me here on our first date that I fell in love with him and we began our happy ever after.’
Abby laughed as she took the last sip of the glass of champagne she’d been given as she made her final preparations to marry the love of her life.
‘It might be true. You are happy, aren’t you?’
‘Couldn’t be happier. Especially now that the morning sickness is fading. I didn’t get any the first time around with Amy. Hey...maybe that means it’s going to be a boy this time. It would be nice for Leo to have a boy cousin.’
‘Speaking of Leo. And Amy...it’s about time we went to find my flower children, isn’t it? If Hugh and Noah are playing with them, they’re probably grubby already.’
‘Let’s see...’
Lisa gave Abby a searching glance from head to toe that took in her wheelchair with the tiny bunches of delicate, white gypsophila attached to the wheels’ spokes with silk ribbons. Abby’s dress was white and lacy but fitted enough to be elegant and she had a red sash around her waist to match her matron of honour’s dress—a nod to the pact that the sisters had made when they were very young, that they would wear red despite the different shades of their hair because it was their happy colour. Abby’s long, golden red hair was in loose waves, threaded with tiny white roses, fragrant orange blossom and single sprigs of gypsophila.
‘Yep,’ she pronounced. ‘You’re ready.’ She looked around them. ‘Where are the baskets of rose petals for the kids?’
‘Over there. What’s the bet that Leo just sits down and tries to eat them?’
Lisa smiled. ‘They’re edible. I checked.’
‘Do you think he should be walking better by now?’ Abby couldn’t help the anxious question as they reached the door of the bathroom they’d been using for final preparations and she could see her son in his uncle’s arms as he came towards them. ‘Look at that. He still loves to be carried everywhere and he’s nearly fifteen months old.’
‘Don’t forget he arrived nearly three months early so he’s actually spot on with his milestones. Plus, he’s the most adorable little boy in the entire world.’
Lisa stepped through the door to give Abby room to manoeuvre her wheelchair to the start of the aisle that had been created by shifting all the wrought-iron tables to one side of the terrace, where the wedding breakfast would be served later, and putting chairs—decorated with silk ribbons and more small clouds of the ethereal gypsophila—into rows for the select group of close friends and family who’d travelled to France to share this celebration.
Lisa smiled at her husband, who would be returning to his best man duties as soon as the children had been delivered back to their mothers to play their part in this intimate wedding ceremony.
‘I should warn you, though...’ she said, seriously. ‘I can only keep saying that about Leo if it turns out that Amy’s getting a little sister.’
Amy, at nearly two years old, was delighted with her task of being a flower girl and she was beaming as Lisa straightened her headband of white daisies and gave her the small, silk-lined basket of rose petals.
‘You’ll need to hold Leo’s hand, sweetheart,’ she told her daughter. ‘You can go down to where Daddy and Uncle Noah are waiting and throw the petals on the ground on the way.’
‘C’mon, Leo.’ Amy turned to her cousin. ‘Let’s go...’
But Leo stayed where he was, standing there with his cute short trousers and braces over a white shirt with a red bow tie. And then he sat down on his well-padded rump and looked at his mother—those dark eyes looking huge in that perfect little face framed by dark waves just like his father’s.
‘You want a ride?’
Leo’s face split into the biggest grin ever and he held up his arms. Abby laughed and expertly adjusted the position of her wheelchair so that she was close enough to lean over the side and scoop Leo into her lap.
Hugh was standing beside the groom now, in front of the stone wall of the terrace, where an archway covered with white flowers had been placed to offer the best possible view of the forests covering the mountainous terrain that flowed from this medieval French village towards the blue streak in the distance that was the Mediterranean.
Lisa walked ahead of Abby, helping Amy to scatter rose petals. Abby rolled across the big flagstones that made the floor uneven enough to bounce Leo on her lap and make him giggle. He hadn’t been in the least bit upset that Lisa had taken his basket of petals to help Amy. He had his lion lovey blanket firmly in one hand, just in case he might need comfort in strange surroundings.
Not that he was looking anything less than perfectly happy, cuddled against his mother as she approached the man who was waiting for them both.
Noah.
The man she always thought she couldn’t possibly love any more than she did right now but then, almost every day, she discovered she was wrong.
Her lover.
Her best friend.
The father of her baby and now he was about to become her husband.
The enormity of it all stole Abby’s breath away but that was okay. She’d never really needed words to be able to communicate with this man, had she?
She could tell him now just how much she loved him. And she knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that he would say exactly the same thing back.
* * *
If you missed the previous story in the Medics, Sisters, Brides duet, look out for
Awakening the Shy Nurse
And if you enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from Alison Roberts
Single Dad in Her Stocking
Melting the Trauma Doc’s Heart
Dr. Right for the Single Mom
Pregnant with Her Best Friend’s Baby
All available now!
Ke
ep reading for an excerpt from Tempted by the Single Mom by Caroline Anderson.
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Tempted by the Single Mom
by Caroline Anderson
CHAPTER ONE
WHY? WHY TODAY, when she was already running late before she’d even started, did someone have to make it even worse?
She glared at the car reversing neatly into the one remaining doctors’ space—a car she didn’t recognise, and she’d never seen the driver, either. He certainly wasn’t one of their doctors, so whoever he was he had no business parking there.
Didn’t seem to bother him. He either didn’t know, or didn’t care, but he flashed her a smile as he got out of the car, then locked it and headed for the surgery without a backward glance.
Who did he think he was? Cocky, arrogant—argh! There weren’t words for what she felt. The expensive car, the confident stride, the easy charm—not to mention the insanely good looks. Clearly a man for whom everything had always gone his way. Well, not now. Whoever he was—probably a drug rep—he was about to get his comeuppance.
Still fuming, she reversed into the last available space in the car park, not really wide enough but doable—or it would have been, if she hadn’t been so cross.
She heard the scrape, closed her eyes and breathed, then shuffled the car slightly further from the offending wall, squeezed out of the ridiculously narrow gap she’d left herself, slammed the door and headed across the car park.
Seriously, could today get any worse? Well, his could. If he was still in Reception—
He was. He was chatting to the receptionist, leaning forward engagingly as he spoke, and that easy charm was obviously working on Katie, which just infuriated her more. His hands were shoved casually into the pockets of immaculately cut trousers that fitted his neat, strong hips to perfection. Of course they did. They wouldn’t dare do anything else.
She eyed his shoulders, broad and yet not heavy, the legs strong and straight below firm, taut buttocks. He probably worked out in a fancy gym somewhere. You didn’t get a neat, sexy bottom like that by accident.
She dragged her eyes up to head height.
‘You’ve parked in a doctor’s space,’ she said crisply to his back, keeping a lid on her temper with difficulty, and he straightened up and turned towards her, that infuriating smile still on his face.
‘Yes, I—’
‘I know parking’s tight, but that is just not on. There was another space, so why not park there yourself? Or anywhere else, frankly! Or was that the only space big enough for your ego? Thanks to you I’ve scraped my car, I’m now ten minutes late and I’ve got patients waiting!’
An eyebrow rose a fraction. Over his shoulder she could see Katie gesturing wildly, but she ignored her and stood her ground, and he shook his head slowly.
‘Maybe you need to get up earlier,’ he murmured, and she stifled the urge to growl at him.
‘And maybe you need to learn to read!’
‘Ellie! Dr Kendal!’ Katie chipped in, getting to her feet and looking even more flustered, and his eyebrow went up a little further, a lazy smile now playing around his aggravatingly beautiful mouth.
‘I think we’d better start again,’ he said, holding out his hand, the smile tugging at his lips. ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dr Kendal. I’m Nick Cooper. Dr Nick Cooper.’
The new—and desperately needed—member of their team.
Brilliant.
Why didn’t the ground just open up and swallow her?
* * *
He had to stifle his laugh.
Her jaw sagged, and for a second she was speechless. Then she shook her head, mumbled what could have been an apology and fled through the staff door as Katie opened it, her face flaming.
He dropped his hand back to his side, shrugged and smiled at the receptionist who was looking horrified and fascinated all at once.
‘So, that’s Dr Kendal,’ he murmured, vaguely intrigued.
‘Yes. Ellie. I’m so sorry, she’s normally lovely. I don’t know what’s got into her.’
He pulled a face and walked through the door into the back of Reception, closing it behind himself. ‘I do. I took the last doctor’s space, and now she’s scraped her car. Oops. If I’d known who she was I would have moved, but I didn’t have a clue.’
‘She’s only part-time, so if she wasn’t on duty when you came for your interviews you wouldn’t have met her—and she does normally walk. You weren’t to know.’
He nodded. ‘No. Ah, well. I have no doubt we’ll have time to catch up later.’
Katie gestured towards the other doorway, still looking flustered. ‘Come in and I’ll introduce you to the admin team, and I’m sure Dr Gallagher will be out in a minute to talk to you. I’ve let her know you’re here.’
She led the way, and he followed her into the office and scanned it for any sign of his fiery new colleague, but she’d gone.
Pity. Never mind. He was here all day, there was time, and he could look forward to what was bound to be an interesting conversation...
* * *
Why had she done that?
Torn him to pieces without even giving him a chance to speak? And if he’d been a patient, he would have been well within his rights to complain. No, it was even better than that. He was a colleague, her senior, and she’d just hurled abuse at him in their first interaction.
Marvellous. Just marvellous.
Not that he’d been exactly polite himself, telling her to get up earlier. She’d been up before half five as it was to do the laundry, and if Maisie hadn’t been a diva and Evie hadn’t needed her nappy changed again and Oscar hadn’t lost one of his shoes and then had a meltdown, she wouldn’t have been late and then none of this would have happened.
She felt her eyes prickle, and clamped her jaw shut hard, blinking furiously as she closed her consulting room door behind her and leant against it. It could have been worse. There could have been a whole bunch of patients in Reception, so at least she hadn’t had an audience while she’d made a total fool of herself.
‘Breathe,’ she said softly, and closed her eyes, sucking in a long, slow breath through her nose and out through her mouth. In...and out... In...and out—
The quiet tap on the door made her jump, and she leapt away from it and wrenched it open, to find herself face to face with her worst nightmare, no doubt coming to tear her apart in private. Well, it was certainly justified, and he probably hated her already.
Or maybe not...
‘Katie thought you’d want this,’ he said quietly, holding out a mug of tea without a trace of a smile, and she stared at it suspiciously.
Beware of strangers bearing gifts...
‘Why are you bringing me a peace offering? I’m the one who should be apologising—or have you slipped something into it?’
His mouth twitched. ‘Don’t tempt me,’ he murmured, and gave her a wry smile. ‘It’s not a peace offering. Katie was about to bring it to you, and I suggested I do it. I thought we could do with clearing the air.’
She took it from him with fingers that weren’t quite steady, then made herself meet his eyes. He held her gaze, his searching, thoughtful, the smile gone now. She was quite glad she didn’t know what he was thinking...
She felt her shoulders drop in defeat. ‘Look, I’m sorry, I didn’t know who you were, which is no excuse whatsoever, I know that, but—’ She broke off, still mortified and wondering if there was any way she could rescue the situation. ‘I hadn’t realised you were coming in today, I thought you’d be starting on Monday, so I wasn’t expecting you, I didn’t recognise you, and then you
took the last reserved space, and as if that wasn’t enough I scraped my car parking by the wall, which was just the icing on the cake—’
‘Ellie, breathe! It’s OK. Forget it. You’re right, I am starting on Monday, I’m just having an induction today, learning the ropes a bit, finding my feet before I start. I guess nobody told you. And I’m sorry I took your parking place, but Lucy told me to park there because you usually walk to work. Obviously not today.’
‘No. I should have been, I nearly always do, but I got—held up,’ she said, for want of a better way of putting it.
‘So it seems. Parking’s tight, isn’t it? Lucy said it’s a regular occurrence with the building work going on.’
She nodded, sighing with relief because he had every right to be unreasonable about this. ‘It is, but they should be finished soon and the builders’ vans will be gone, and not a moment too soon. Look, I’m sorry, can we do this later? I don’t mean to be rude—again—but I do have patients waiting and I’m already on the drag.’
‘Of course. And I’m sorry about the parking—and your car.’
‘Don’t be sorry. You had every right to park there, as it turns out, and I massively overreacted. And thank you for the tea. I haven’t had time for one today.’
His eyes softened at the corners, that flickering smile sending strange little shivers through her body. ‘My pleasure,’ he murmured. ‘We’ll catch up later.’ His lips twitched again. ‘You can teach me to read, and I can teach you to tell the time.’
She rolled her eyes. He might have forgiven her, but he clearly wasn’t going to let it drop.
‘Oh, I can tell the time,’ she told him wryly. ‘I was up at five twenty-seven, for what it’s worth.’
A silent ah, and he backed out, fingers waggling. ‘Better not hold you up any more, then. I’ll see you later.’
She nodded, and the door closed softly behind him.
Shaking her head and wishing she could wind the clock back, she put the tea down, washed her hands and fired up her computer, her mind refusing to let go of that lazy, sexy, fleeting smile.
Saved by Their Miracle Baby Page 15
