The Doctor's Secret Son

by Deb Kastner

  You Can Go Home Again

  Delia Rae Ivers said goodbye to small town Serendipity ten years ago for medical school. To start a new life, she’d ended her romance with the town rebel, Zach Bowden—and kept their little boy a secret. But when her mother falls ill, Delia answers the town’s online ad for a new doctor. It’s time to come home to family, friends…and the man she loved a decade ago. Will forgiveness give them a second chance to become the family they were meant to be?

  Hadn’t anything else scandalous happened in the ten years she’d been gone?

  It seemed to her everyone had far too keen of memories where she and Zach were concerned.

  Delia had a hard time breaking her gaze away from Zach. He took one step toward her and then stopped, undecided.

  Alexis, Mary and Samantha stood and hovered around Delia until she, too, came to her feet.

  But instead of meeting her halfway, Zach stepped sideways and planted his hat on his head.

  “Ladies,” he murmured with a clipped nod. A moment later he was striding out the door and down the road.

  Delia was equally distressed and relieved. She didn’t care for him brushing her off with such callousness, but she wasn’t quite ready to talk to him, either. She didn’t yet know how to say what needed to be said, nor when would be the best time to do it.

  Maybe there was no best way to say it.

  Zach, you have a son.

  Books by Deb Kastner

  Love Inspired

  A Holiday Prayer

  Daddy’s Home

  Black Hills Bride

  The Forgiving Heart

  A Daddy at Heart

  A Perfect Match

  The Christmas Groom

  Hart’s Harbor

  Undercover Blessings

  The Heart of a Man

  A Wedding in Wyoming

  His Texas Bride

  The Marine’s Baby

  A Colorado Match

  *Phoebe’s Groom

  *The Doctor’s Secret Son

  *Email Order Brides

  DEB KASTNER

  lives and writes in colorful Colorado with the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains for inspiration. She loves writing for Love Inspired Books, where she can write about her two favorite things—faith and love. Her characters range from upbeat and humorous to (her favorite) dark and broody heroes. Her plots fall anywhere in between, from a playful romp to the deeply emotional. Deb’s books have been twice nominated for the RT Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Book of the Year for Love Inspired. Deb and her husband share their home with their two youngest daughters. Deb is thrilled about the newest member of the family—her first granddaughter, Isabella. What fun to be a granny! Deb loves to hear from her readers. You can contact her by email at Debwrtr@aol.com, or on her MySpace or Facebook pages.

  Deb Kastner

  The Doctor’s Secret Son

  Dear Reader,

  Welcome to Love Inspired!

  2012 is a very special year for us. It marks the fifteenth anniversary of Love Inspired. Hard to believe that fifteen years ago, we first began publishing our warm and wonderful inspirational romances.

  Back in 1997, we offered readers three books a month. Since then we’ve expanded quite a bit! In addition to the heartwarming contemporary romances of Love Inspired, we have the exciting romantic suspenses of Love Inspired Suspense, and the adventurous historical romances of Love Inspired Historical. Whatever your reading preference, we’ve got fourteen books a month for you to choose from now!

  Throughout the year we’ll be celebrating in several different ways. Look for books by bestselling authors who’ve been writing for us since the beginning, stories by brand-new authors you won’t want to miss, special miniseries in all three lines, reissues of top authors and much, much more.

  This is our way of thanking you for reading Love Inspired books. We know our uplifting stories of hope, faith and love touch your hearts as much as they touch ours.

  Join us in celebrating fifteen amazing years of inspirational romance!

  Blessings,

  Melissa Endlich and Tina James

  Senior Editors of Love Inspired Books

  To my grandchildren, Isabella and Anthony.

  You are the future of our family’s faith.

  * * *

  Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Bearing with one another and forgiving one another; Even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

  But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.

  —Colossians 3:12–14

  Contents

  Prologue

  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

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Epilogue

  Dear Reader

  Questions for Discussion

  Prologue

  Text Message

  Riley Ivers: My mom is crying. She just got off the phone with Grandpa.

  Justin Sanderson: What’s up?

  Riley Ivers: She says we have to move.

  Justin Sanderson: Dude, tell her the house next door to mine has a For Sale sign out front.

  Riley Ivers: I wish. My grandma’s sick. We have to move near her.

  Justin Sanderson: Where?

  Riley Ivers: Texas.

  Justin Sanderson: No way!

  Riley Ivers: I don’t want to move away from Baltimore.

  Justin Sanderson: Tell her you don’t want to go.

  Riley Ivers: I did. She said she doesn’t want to go, either, but we have to ’cause of Grandma.

  Justin Sanderson: Oh, man.

  Riley Ivers: This stinks.

  Chapter One

  Medical emergencies were few and far between in Serendipity, Texas. Delia Rae Ivers wasn’t sure she’d ever readjust to the sleepy pace of the town where she’d been born. She hadn’t so much as visited for years, and now suddenly she was living and working here. After a busy emergency room setting at the Baltimore hospital she’d interned at, being a small-town doctor was going to take some getting used to.

  She leaned back in the leather chair behind her desk and stretched wearily. She was a doctor, not an accountant, and squinting at numbers for hours as she examined the small medical clinic’s financials and then entered them into her computer was not her idea of fun.

  “Riley, buddy, are you finished counting the gauze rolls?” she called to her son. They’d arrived in town only five days ago, and Riley hadn’t yet met any kids his age, so Delia had given him small tasks to do around the clinic to keep him busy and out from underneath his grandparents’ feet.

  “I’m done, Mom.” Riley peeked his head around the corner of the back office door and a lock of shaggy black hair flopped over his forehead. No ma
tter how he tried to comb it, his thatch of hair stubbornly spiked hopelessly in every direction.

  “And the boxes of gloves? Did you get those, too?”

  “Yeah, I did.”

  Delia’s gaze dropped to the toy car her son was clasping in his left hand. Clearly he was getting bored counting medical inventory, and she couldn’t blame him. It wasn’t exactly the most exciting job in the world, especially for a nine-year-old boy. Gentle waves of love lapped in her heart. Riley was her world, and had been from the moment he was born.

  “I have another project for you,” she informed him, pinching back the smile that would give her away.

  Riley groaned. “Oh, Mom.”

  “I think you’ll like this.” She let her smile emerge. “You know that little alcove—room—in the back corner of the waiting room? The one that’s set up for kids to play in?”

  Riley nodded. His eyes glinted with interest, but she could tell his concentration was still focused on the car in his hand.

  “I bought a video game system and a small television to hook up in there so the older kids have something to do while they wait.”

  “Way cool!”

  She chuckled. Now she knew she had her son’s full attention.

  “I need to get it hooked up. Think you can do that for me?”

  At age nine, Riley was heads-and-tails above Delia in the electronics department. When it came to video games and televisions, and even computers, he already knew more than she ever would. She had no doubt that he’d have the system up and running in no time. As she’d said, it was for the kids; but most especially, it was for Riley. She knew there’d be times he would be stuck at the clinic waiting for his mom to finish work. Now he’d have something to keep him occupied.

  “The TV and the video system are already in the room, so whenever you’re ready…” Her sentence drifted to a halt as Riley sprinted from the room. Delia smiled.

  Poor Riley hadn’t wanted to move, especially two weeks before Christmas and Delia couldn’t say that she blamed him. This wouldn’t have been her first choice, either—or any choice, for that matter. But her mother, with her worsening multiple sclerosis, needed the kind of care only a nursing facility could give her—or a live-in doctor.

  Delia had the right training. Could she do any less for the family she loved?

  She’d soon discovered she was needed in other ways, too. Her email had been overflowing since she’d announced her return. Friends were quick to remind her that old Doc Severns had retired a few months back, and the entire town was without a practicing M.D. Serendipity’s clinic had been closed. Now that Delia had moved back, she intended to take over the practice. Not only would she be able to help her own mother, but she could also make a real difference in the community—to the friends and neighbors she’d grown up with and still cared about.

  She sighed and brushed her long, straight black hair back with her fingers. Even with all of the dynamic changes in her life, it wasn’t so much the future that weighed so heavily on her mind.

  It was the past.

  Zach Bowden, to be precise.

  Serendipity’s own James Dean in faded jeans and a white T-shirt, with dreamy poet eyes and bad boy ways. Trouble with a capital T. The man she’d left behind but had never forgotten. The only man who’d ever completely captured her heart.

  And her worst nightmare.

  Zach was the reason Delia had left town so suddenly all those years ago, and he was the reason she’d never returned to Serendipity, not even to visit. Even with all the time that had passed, he was the reason she was having such a hard time concentrating on the books. She couldn’t get him out of her mind.

  Serendipity was a very small town. Sooner or later the two of them would cross paths, and when they did, Delia had no doubt that her life would go into a tailspin.

  So, for that matter, would Zach’s, when he found out the truth about why she’d stayed away.

  And Riley?

  Her decision to move home had everything to do with her son, who had recently started asking tough questions about his father, painful questions Delia had been unable to answer. It was her deepest fear that Riley would be the one most injured by the choices she’d made—and was making now.

  A persistent knot throbbed behind her left eye. She rubbed her temple to relieve the pounding pain. Between accounting and Zach, it would be almost impossible for her to avoid a headache, both literally and figuratively.

  No matter how she felt, she had to press on. The only way to look to the future here in Serendipity was to settle the past. Do the right thing—whatever that was. For Delia, the lines between right and wrong had been cloudy and gray for years.

  She tried to turn her mind back to the present, but she found it difficult to concentrate. Math had never been her strong suit. She retrieved the pencil she’d tucked behind her ear and wiggled the computer mouse so the screen would come back to life. The software she was using was supposed to help, but instead it managed to confuse her all the more.

  She could do this, she reminded herself.

  Financials were part and parcel of operating a small-town clinic. For now, she needed to conquer the numbers on her own. Although, later, she planned to hire a receptionist to take up much of the slack.

  A steady, persistent knock startled Delia and she jerked up in surprise. No one should be here yet. The sign in the window still said that the clinic was closed for business, and she wasn’t expecting any deliveries this afternoon; but whoever was rapping on the rear door was certainly insistent.

  Still a little hazy from the mental strain of bookkeeping and the emotional strain of moving home to Serendipity, she went to see who it was. An ambulance had backed up within feet of the clinic doors, the lights still flashing. She realized that she must have been completely lost in her thoughts, for she hadn’t heard a siren, although she supposed it was possible they hadn’t used one.

  Nonetheless, her mind instantly shifted into doctor mode. Adrenaline pumped through her and erased all the fogginess from her brain. She didn’t give a thought to the fact that she was not officially open for business. Someone needed help. That’s what she was here for.

  Her focus was completely on the patient as the EMT who’d been driving moved around to the back of the ambulance and swung the doors open. She recognized the first paramedic, Ben Atwood, and she knew the man strapped to the gurney—Drew “Spence” Spencer, the fifth-grade teacher at the elementary school in town. He was attached to an IV and his face was bunched up in pain as he cradled his left arm to his chest.

  She held open the door and gestured them inside as the second EMT exited the ambulance and moved to the other side of the gurney to help guide it in.

  “You know Drew Spencer.”

  Delia’s breath caught as she flashed her gaze to the paramedic who was speaking to her.

  Zach.

  Her heart slammed to a halt and then lurched back into action. Zach’s voice had deepened some, but even after all these years, she recognized his distinctive honey-rich drawl immediately.

  How could it be that Zach was an emergency medical technician? Not only that, but an unpaid volunteer, as the tri-county fire department couldn’t afford a full-time staff.

  She was so surprised that a proverbial feather could have knocked her over. Zach had never cared for anyone but himself—he’d proven that more times than she cared to count.

  She felt as if she were participating in a strobe-lit, slow-motion theater scene as she turned to lock eyes with her old flame. Surely the distance, the time, would make some sort of difference in her feelings for him, or at least mute them in some way.

  Back then she’d been young. Irrational. Naive.

  And totally in love.

  She knew better now.

&nb
sp; But the moment her gaze met the dreamy chocolate depths of his eyes, she realized nothing had changed. It was as if the years between them hadn’t passed at all, if her heart had anything to say about it.

  One corner of his lips twitched upward in a lady-killer smile that had sent more than one young woman’s heart aflutter. He took a deep breath and exhaled and Delia realized she was breathing right in synch with him.

  He was still incredibly good-looking in that rough-edged, bad boy way of his. Her gaze slid over him, remembering every detail of his lean, muscular six-foot frame.

  His wind ruffled, shaggy brown hair was cut only marginally shorter than it had been when he was younger. The straight nose and strong jaw were the same—although his skin was more weathered and there were stress lines on his face. A haunted, pained expression had replaced the jaunty, carefree attitude he’d carried as a youth.

  Without giving it a second thought, she took a couple of steps toward him.

  “Zach,” she murmured.

  He reacted as if she’d pushed him, jerking his shoulder away and stepping hastily backward out of her reach. A muscle twitched in the corner of his jaw as he broke his gaze away from her.

  She experienced a stab of something suspiciously like rejection, but that only lasted for a second before panic set in.

  Zach was here. And Riley was in the next room.

  Her heart beat frantically as she considered her options, not that she had any. She could hardly bolt out of the room to go get Riley and then run away and hope Zach didn’t see them.

  She didn’t know when—or even if—she was going to tell Zach he had a son; but definitely not this soon. Not in these circumstances. She could only hope Riley was too caught up in setting up the video system to bother checking out what was happening in the exam room.

  Mindfully, and with all the willpower she possessed, she calmed her nerves and turned her attention to her patient, where it belonged.

  Zach’s introduction of Spence had been a little off-script for what one would expect in a big hospital. But this was Serendipity, which was an extremely close-knit community. Everyone literally did know everyone. She’d gone to school with Spence, although he’d been several grades above her.