by Lucy Clark
To have and to hold—all over again?
Dr. Molly Wilton’s life is turned upside down when her ex-husband reappears and drops a bombshell—they’re still married!
Molly never expected to see Dr. Fletcher Thompson again, but that’s not the only reason she’s going weak at the knees…Fletcher is more gorgeous than ever!
Now that he’s back, Molly is remembering just how special Fletcher is. Despite all that’s come between them, could the first man Molly fell in love with be the man she needs forever?
“Molly? Are you sure?”
“That I want to kiss you?” She closed her eyes, her body leaning slightly toward him. “That I want you to kiss me back?” She looked at him, desperation, need and longing in her tone when she said, “Oh, yes, Fletcher. I want that. I need that—right now.”
Her last two words were soft, and accompanied by an irresistible, sensual tremor.
No man in his right mind could fight the temptation any longer, and with one swift move he slipped his arms about her, drawing her close, before lowering his head to capture her lips in a kiss so intensely powerful he felt as though the earth had literally shifted beneath them.
Dear Reader,
Here is the final story in the Wilton triplets series. Like her other two sisters, Molly has her own unique personality—and it was great to finally let her shine bright. Doing her last year in a busy hospital as a surgical registrar means she’s bound by strict time constraints, and yet taking part in hospital events such as Clown Patrol brings her a lot of delight. We see her working late, studying and trying to come to terms with her emotional past, and it really lets us see the inner workings of vivacious Molly.
These aspects are clearly what draw Fletcher to her in the first place, and although they haven’t seen each other for such a long time, it’s clear from the get-go that their underlying attraction is still very much alive.
Many times when I’m writing a character he or she often reveals aspects of personality that I hadn’t originally thought of. This is fantastic for a writer, because it means that the character is “coming alive,” so I was not only surprised but excited to discover that Fletcher was a magician! Of course he has a lot of other skills, but this fun-loving side of his personality, as well as his drive to help those less fortunate than him, are attributes that not only attracted Molly in the past but also attract her in the present.
I really enjoyed helping Molly and Fletcher to achieve their happy ending, and my epilogue finalizes the stories of the Wilton triplets. However, stay tuned—because Stacey, Cora and Molly’s younger sister, Jasmine, is already starting to “come alive”!
With warmest regards,
Lucy
STILL MARRIED TO HER EX!
LUCY CLARK
Books by Lucy Clark
Harlequin® Medical Romance™
A Child to Bind Them
Dr. Perfect on Her Doorstep
Her Mistletoe Wish
The Secret Between Them
Resisting the New Doc in Town
One Life-Changing Moment
Dare She Dream of Forever?
Falling for Dr. Fearless
Diamond Ring for the Ice Queen
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
Lucy Clark
is a husband-and-wife writing team. They enjoy taking holidays with their two children, during which they discuss and develop new ideas for their books, inspired by the fantastic Australian scenery. They use their daily walks to talk over characterization and fine details of the wonderful stories they produce and are avid movie buffs. They live on the edge of a popular wine district in South Australia, and enjoy spending family time together on the weekends.
To the amazing, wonderful and talented
Liz Bentley. I cannot thank you enough for the
educational support you have provided to my
children over the years, especially 2014. You impact
your students in the most positive way and make
them feel proud of their accomplishments.
You are a brilliant teacher. Many, many thanks.
Romans 14:8
Praise for
Lucy Clark
“A sweet and fun romance about second chances and second love.”
—HarlequinJunkie on
Dare She Dream of Forever?
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
Epilogue
CHAPTER ONE
MOLLY FINISHED APPLYING the last of the face paint, grinned at herself in the mirror and turned to head back to her locker situated in the surgical theatre changing rooms. This was one of the highlights of her job as a surgical registrar—being rostered on with other registrars to take part in the clown patrol through the paediatric ward. All departments were involved and the fun times they had helped with inter-department bonding.
Today she was rostered on with her fellow surgical registrar, Alexis, and two others from the urology department. It didn’t matter that she’d been in Theatre all night long or that she had a lecture to attend this afternoon. It didn’t matter that prior to her entering the changing rooms, her eyes were scratchy, her feet tired and her mind had almost turned to mush.
‘It’s the happiness on the faces of those kids that matters,’ she said out loud, her spirits lifting as she looked down at her brightly coloured jumpsuit. She pulled her blonde curly hair back into a flat bun and added some clips to keep the flyaway wisps in place. Ever since she’d moved from Newcastle to Sydney in order to complete her surgical training, her bouncy waves had turned into unruly curls thanks to the mix of humidity and drizzle.
‘Sorry, sorry, sorry.’ Alexis panted as she came rushing through the door, rainbow-coloured curly wigs in her hands. ‘The lift was packed so I raced up the five flights and—’
Molly waved away her friend’s explanation as she took the wigs. ‘No drama. Sit down and catch your breath while I fix your wig in place.’ Alexis did as she was bid but within a second, Molly gasped. ‘Did you get the noses?’
‘Right here.’ Alexis pulled them from her pocket.
‘Excellent.’ Molly pinned Alexis’s wig in place then tended to her own before accepting the squishy red clown nose, which actually honked, and sliding it onto her own. She squeezed it twice, the two women laughing at the noise it made. ‘All ready to entertain the troops.’
‘We’d better get moving. They were expecting us at least half an hour ago.’ She picked up their bag of tricks as they exited the changing rooms.
‘It’s not really our fault that morning theatre ran late.’ Molly shrugged her shoulders. ‘But at least Mr Derriack is now on the mend and doing well in Recovery.’
The two women continued to chat as they headed quickly along the corridor, then down three flights of stairs. ‘We are so late,’ Alexis remarked again as they finally arrived at the paediatric ward. ‘Here’s hoping the urology boys have been holding down the fort.’
Molly opened the door and they both slipped inside, their bag of balloons and funny tricks at their side all ready to entertain the children.
‘There you are,’ Taylor, the paediatric sister, said as they came in the door.
‘Theatre ran late,’ Alexis offered as they headed to the children’s playroom where many of the small patients had gathered. For those who were still bedridden or too sick to join in the fun in the playroom, Molly
and Alexis would pay them a special visit, hopefully bringing a smile to their sad little faces.
‘At least you’re here,’ Taylor added.
‘Why? Where are the urology registrars?’ Alexis asked.
‘Held up in Theatre, but, thankfully, a visiting research surgeon was chatting with the ward clerk and he said he could do magic tricks. And he can.’ Taylor pointed to where a man was busy entertaining a group of children, all of them totally captivated by his performance. ‘He came right over and saved the day.’ Taylor’s eyes were wide with delight. ‘He’s been entertaining the kids for the past fifteen minutes.’
‘Wow. A doctor who can do magic. I like him already.’ Molly laughed as they took a peek around the corner of the playroom. The children sitting there were staring at the doctor with such rapt attention, his white coat having been removed, his blue shirt sleeves rolled up as he magically pulled row after row of brightly coloured handkerchiefs from his closed fist.
Molly’s real smile vanished as she stared at the magic doctor, her heart skipping at least two beats. ‘Fletch!’ The name was whispered in shock, her body starting to get in on the act by trembling. What in the world was he doing here? At her hospital? In the paediatric ward? Doing magic tricks?
‘Ready, Molly?’ Alexis was clapping as the magic doctor finished pulling a string of colourful handkerchiefs out of his closed fist with an expert flourish. ‘Molly?’ Alexis asked a moment later, looking closely at her friend. ‘What’s wrong? You’re whiter than the face paint.’
‘Uh…’ Molly turned her head, not wanting to look at the man who had once set her heart to racing, who had made her entire body tremble with desire, who had stolen her heart.
‘Are you sick?’ Alexis rested her hand on Molly’s shoulders and looked into her eyes. ‘Taylor’s gone to thank the magic doctor and introduce us.’ Alexis stared at her for another moment before saying, ‘I’m glad you’ve got a painted smile on your face otherwise you’d be the most frightened clown I’ve ever seen.’
Molly glanced once more in Fletcher’s direction. Why was he here? At Sydney General? She tried to think clearly and recalled Taylor saying that he was one of the visiting research surgeons. How was Fletcher Thompson a visiting research surgeon? He was supposed to be overseas, saving the world. At least, that was where he’d been the last time she’d had any sort of contact with him.
‘Molly? Come on,’ Alexis implored. ‘I really need you to pull it together. Taylor’s introducing us.’
Eyes widening, Molly hoped Taylor wouldn’t say her name, but then she remembered that she wasn’t being introduced as Molly Wilton, Senior Surgical Registrar. No. She was in disguise. She was ‘Moppet’ and Alexis was ‘Squeaky’. Perhaps that might mean that Fletcher would have no clue who she was. It was possible.
Molly straightened her shoulders and cleared her throat, nodding to Alexis. ‘I’m ready. How about you, Squeaky?’
Alexis replied in a falsetto voice. ‘Ready to have supery-doopery, fun-funny-fun.’
Molly managed a true smile just as Taylor finished introducing them. All the children turned to look in their direction with eager expressions on their faces. Together, the two clowns skipped to the front where the children were gathered, Molly doing her level best to ignore the ‘magic doctor’.
Where she’d half expected Fletcher to leave once she and Alexis started their routine, he didn’t. He stayed and laughed and clapped along with the children. Even after the show was over, Molly and Alexis heading to the wards to spend some time with the less mobile children, she was still highly aware that Fletcher was on the ward, hanging around. Had he recognised her beneath her face paint and silly clown clothes? He wasn’t watching her all the time, wasn’t trying to talk to her alone, wasn’t even in the same room as her. How could he possibly know?
They hadn’t had any contact for the past fourteen years, ever since she’d signed the divorce papers. Too young to know better, too young to be married. She’d always thought she’d never see him again but now here he was, at her hospital. Why? Was it just a coincidence?
‘Moppet? Moppet?’
A small five-year-old girl was tugging on Molly’s brightly coloured clown costume, demanding her attention. Molly honked her clown nose, making the little girl giggle. It was best she continued to forget that Fletcher Thompson was even in the building…at least for now.
She and Alexis made balloon animals and told funny jokes and when the urology registrars finally arrived, they did a little slapstick skit that involved a lot of falling down and silly noises.
‘And…we’re done!’ Alexis sighed almost two hours later as they left the paediatric ward. She pulled off her colourful wig as they made their way back to the theatre changing rooms. ‘Wooee, this thing makes me hot and sweaty. Doesn’t it make you hot, Molly? And your hair is so much longer and curlier than mine.’ Alexis fluffed her fingers through her short, spiky brown locks.
Molly walked briskly along the corridor just wanting to return to the changing rooms as soon as possible, for there was no way she wanted to risk bumping into Fletcher. ‘If I cut my hair short and coloured it like a rainbow, I wouldn’t even need to wear the wig,’ she responded absent-mindedly.
‘That might be fun to see,’ a deep voice said from just behind them. She didn’t need to turn around to see who had spoken. Nor did she need Alexis stopping in the middle of the corridor and smiling at the man who was brilliant at magic tricks.
‘I once knew a woman who had blonde curls that used to go really tight when it was humid. Do yours do that?’ The rich timbre of his deep voice washed over her, creating a long-repressed sensation of awareness. Why had he come here? Why was he forcing her boxed-up memories to return to the surface?
Alexis stopped walking and turned to face him. ‘Hey there, magic man. Excellent tricks. The kids loved them.’
‘Thanks.’ He proffered his hand and Alexis quickly shook it. ‘Fletcher Thompson.’
‘Alexis Borello.’
Molly had wanted to keep walking down the corridor, to get back to the changing rooms as quickly as possible so that she didn’t have to face Fletcher, not yet. She wanted more time to figure out what he was doing here and whether he knew who she really was.
‘This is my colleague,’ Alexis was saying, gesturing to Molly.
‘Uh…I think that’s my phone,’ Molly interrupted, her voice a little louder, a little more frantic, a little more panicked than usual. She reached into her clown bag and pulled out the hospital portable phone that all doctors who were on call had to carry. Unfortunately for her, the phone had become entangled with several left-over balloons and glitter sticks, a few of them falling to the floor. Molly didn’t care. She started to walk as she checked the phone. ‘Darn. Missed a call. Gotta go.’
Not caring whether she left Alexis behind or not, Molly all but sprinted up the corridor, startling a few people when she rounded the corner near theatres because it wasn’t every day you saw a frantic clown dashing towards the theatre block.
Even once she was safe inside the female changing rooms, Molly’s heart rate didn’t return to normal. Fletch was here. Fletcher was here. Her Fletch was here, in the hospital! What was she supposed to do? Being that close to him, smelling his glorious scent, remembering the way his clever, ingenious hands had touched and tickled and tantalised.
‘Stop it,’ she told herself as she stood in front of the mirror, wiping off the clown make-up. Her hair was now free from the wig and she was dressed in her own comfortable jeans and T-shirt. ‘Whatever you had with him is in the past. You both tried to make it, you both failed,’ she continued to remind her reflection. ‘It’s over.’ So why did her body feel more alive than it had in years? Just the sight of Fletcher was enough to make her tingle all over. Closing her eyes, she hung her head. Why couldn’t she get the man out of her system?
‘Because he’s Fletch,’ she whispered.
‘What is up with you?’ Alexis came into the changing rooms, enunc
iating every word slowly and individually. Molly jumped, startled at her friend’s appearance. ‘You fair bolted away from the nice visiting magician doctor man.’ Her friend tut-tutted. ‘It’s not like you to run from a handsome, incredibly clever man, so what gives? Was it his brilliant magic tricks or the way he smiled that scared you more?’
Molly looked at her friend in the mirror before turning to face her. Shoulders back, chin jutting out with defiance, she opened her mouth, her tone haughty. ‘I didn’t appreciate his comments about my hair. They were far too…familiar.’
Alexis stared at her for a moment, completely baffled. ‘Really? I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it. He was probably just trying to be friendly.’
Molly frowned and slumped her shoulders. It wasn’t fair for her to take her annoyance with Fletch out on her friend. ‘I’m sorry, Alexis. I guess I’m just overly tired.’
‘Well, you were in emergency theatres half the night and then elective theatres all morning. You deserve at least a little bit of rest.’
Molly nodded. ‘I think I’ll head home and catch some sleep before the lecture this afternoon.’
Alexis was still looking at her with such concern and confusion, Molly didn’t blame her. ‘All right. I might head to the residential wing and do the same. Entertaining children does tend to make a person rather tired.’ She chuckled and stepped forward to give Molly a hug. ‘Go and sleep. I’ll take care of packing up the clown things.’
‘Really?’ Molly tried unsuccessfully to smother a yawn. ‘Thanks, that would be great.’
Alexis agreed that she was indeed ‘great’ and, with a laugh, Molly grabbed her bag from her locker and headed out of the changing rooms, calling goodbye to some of the theatre staff before she reached the main corridor.
It was there that she saw him. There that she stopped. There that she stared.
‘Hello, Molly.’ He was leaning against the wall on the opposite side of the doors that lead to the theatre department. So casual. So relaxed. So…gorgeous.
