Bachelor Doc, Unexpected Dad

by Dianne Drake

  From confirmed bachelor...

  To committed dad!

  Army doc Matt McClain and career woman Ellie Landers share one unforgettable night, never expecting to meet again. Until Ellie arrives on Matt’s doorstep—pregnant! Matt has just become guardian to his orphaned nephew, and the nomadic medic isn’t ready to be a father of two! But faced with losing Ellie and their baby, Matt might just realize that he has what it takes to make them a family.

  Ellie felt again the rush of excitement, not even thinking that she should pull away.

  More of this was what she wanted; what she’d wanted since Reno. That surging tide of warmth that rushed over her. The tingle that spread from her head down to her toes. And, Matt’s face. His beautiful face. Even though her eyes were closed, she could see it, every nuance. And wanted more. So, she reached up and stroked his cheek, pulling him out of that moment, but just briefly, as he looked down at her and smiled. “This is probably the worst thing we could be doing,” he said, his voice so hushed she could barely hear him.

  He was right, of course. But she didn’t care. And as she twined her hand around his neck, pulling him back to her, he tilted her head up and kissed her, softly again, but progressing to a shade of passion that made her cling to him like he was the only solid thing in her life. His unrelenting lips parted hers, causing her to press herself even harder to him—her, their baby, him...all pressed together.

  Dear Reader,

  My first encounter with a real cowboy was several years ago, in a small town in Utah. Being a city girl, I figured that some rodeo must be in town. But my husband set me straight. The guy was for real. Ever since then, I’ve wanted to write a book about a cowboy doctor, and an up close and personal conversation with another cowboy gave me the inspiration and instruction I needed.

  It was on a trip in the desert where I finally came up with my idea for Doctor Matt McClain. The area was so remote, there were no services anywhere. And, specifically, no medical services. So, what would happen if I placed a doctor in the middle of nowhere? Where would he find patients? My first clue was the cowboy trailers we encountered everywhere. Cowboys lived in them when they were working. And that became the basis for this story, and another one or two to follow.

  Until next time, wishing you health and happiness.

  Dianne

  PS: Check out my website at dianne-drake.com or follow me on Twitter, @diannedrake. I’m also at Facebook.com/diannedrakeauthor. You’ll find me on Instagram, too.

  BACHELOR DOC, UNEXPECTED DAD

  Dianne Drake

  Books by Dianne Drake

  Harlequin Medical Romance

  Sinclair Hospital Surgeons

  Reunited with Her Army Doc

  Healing Her Boss’s Heart

  Deep South Docs

  A Home for the Hot-Shot Doc

  A Doctor’s Confession

  A Child to Heal Their Hearts

  Tortured by Her Touch

  Doctor, Mommy...Wife?

  The Nurse and the Single Dad

  Saved by Doctor Dreamy

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

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  To a real-life cowboy I met on a lonely ranch road. Thanks for the inspiration!

  Praise for Dianne Drake

  “This is a classic romance...a lovely story which I heartily recommend.”

  —Harlequin Junkie on The Nurse and the Single Dad

  Contents

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  EXCERPT FROM THE SHY NURSE'S REBEL DOC BY ALISON ROBERTS

  PROLOGUE

  MATT ROLLED OVER in bed and looked at her. She was still sleeping, and so beautiful in her sleep he wanted to stay another night with her. That wasn’t his life, though. As tempting as Ellie was, and she was the most tempting woman he’d ever met, he didn’t get to have that kind of involvement in his life. In fact, he’d planned everything to fit him the way he wanted—no strings. It was easier. People didn’t get hurt.

  Still, that graceful form under the satin sheets next to him was so hard to resist. And it wasn’t just the physical intimacy that had been good. They’d talked. Dined. Danced. Things he’d never done with a woman before. And Ellie was so easy just to hold, to be near.

  The first night, he’d assumed it would be fun and games, she’d be gone by the time he went to sleep, and he would never see her again. But that’s not what had happened. They’d stood on the balcony for a while, looking at the beautiful Reno lights, laughing at silly things, talking much longer than he’d expected to. And the night had passed so quickly. In fact, by the time they’d gotten around to what he’d assumed would take only a short time, the sun had already been coming up and he’d been wondering where the night had gone.

  Then Matt had watched Ellie, off and on that day, always having an excuse to be near her. It was a convention and medical conference after all. The hotel ballroom was filled with various displays of new medical products and pharmaceuticals. Somehow, the ones that had seemed to catch his attention had always been near her booth. And while he’d tried not to be obvious about watching her, Ellie had caught him at it a time or two, leaving him with a blush on his face and a shrug on his shoulder. Much the way a schoolboy with a crush would act.

  But those looks she’d caught—they’d led to a second night, one with much less talking and much more passion. In fact, she had already been in his bed when he’d gone back to his room, having bribed a maid to let her in. And that night it had been like two desperate people clinging together at the end of the world. In some ways, that’s what it was. The end of their little world as, in three days’ time, he’d be back in a hospital in Mosul, putting pieces of injured soldiers back together. That’s who Matt was. And that was his world. Not this one.

  Still, as Matt buttoned his shirt and headed to the hotel room door that second morning he wondered if something like this, someone like Ellie, could ever have a place in his life. It was a nice dream, but in his experience dreams didn’t come true, and it was all he could do to make it through his reality.

  Someone like Ellie deserved more. But he was a man who had nothing to give.

  Opening the door quietly, so not to disturb her, Matt stepped into the hall, took one last look at Ellie before he shut the door, then leaned against the wall for a moment, watching the hotel maid making her way slowly down the corridor with her cart. By the time she reached this room, he’d be on a plane to Hawaii, and from there a military transport back to Iraq.

  CHAPTER ONE

  “I DON’T KNOW what to do with him,” Matt McClain said, looking down at the little tow-headed boy in the firm grasp of his second cousin, or half-cousin, or whatever it was that related them distantly.

  Sarah Clayton held the boy’s hand like she was holding on to a dog that was about to get away. Tight, and with a purpose. But not friendly. There was nothing friendly or nurturing in her. Nothing compassionate. Nothing to indicate she cared at all for the kid. “The same thing you think I’m supposed to do with him. Only I’m not going to do it. I took care of your sister those last two weeks, and I’ve had him wi
th me ever since. But you’re here, and you’re more blood to him than I am so, he’s yours. Besides...”

  She held out an envelope—one that had been sealed, opened then sealed again. “Janice left you this.”

  He opened it, and looked down at the shaky handwriting—the handwriting of a dying woman. A lump formed in his throat and he turned his back to Sarah as he read it.

  Dear Matt,

  If you’re reading this, that means the cancer has finally beaten me. The doctors said I was too late for treatment, but that’s been my life. Too late for everything. It’s called non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and I’m sure you know all about it since you’re a doctor.

  Yes, I know you’re a doctor. Heard it from a man in the casino where I was working. He was drunk and saying all kinds of crazy things...things that didn’t make sense. His name was Carter, I think, and he said he was a doctor. I don’t know if that’s true, but he was going on about his buddy Matt, from Forgeburn, who saved his life. Great doctor, he called you. And I’m sure you are.

  Matt stopped reading for a moment and took a breath. Carter Holmes had been his best buddy since med-school days. He’d sustained almost fatal injuries and, yes, he’d saved his life. “Do you know how long Janice was in Vegas?” he asked Sarah, without turning to face her.

  “For a while, I think. She told me she moved around a lot. Changed her name so your old man wouldn’t find her. Said she was always looking over her shoulder to make sure he wasn’t coming after her.”

  Matt clenched his jaw, not wanting to read any more but knowing he had to.

  I don’t blame you for not sending for me, Matty. We were both kids. Neither of us knew what to do. But I did wait until I couldn’t stay there anymore. You were gone, Dad left me behind, and even though I wasn’t even fifteen I knew I had to leave there, too.

  I spent a lot of time going from place to place, never settling down. I was afraid to. Afraid I’d get too comfortable someplace and let my guard down. So I always moved on. Funny thing is, all those years I was running I guess Dad had died right after he left Forgeburn. At least that’s what Sarah said. Guess neither of us had to run away, did we?

  Matt turned to Sarah. “He’s dead?”

  She nodded. “They found him in one of the canyons. They think he’d passed on quite a while before one of the cowboys stumbled on him. He was living like he always did, they said. Hoarding trash and drinking his life away. Folks around here said it was the drink that took him. Didn’t really care to find out.”

  Matt shut his eyes. So many wasted years he and Janice had had when they could have stayed together. But they’d become two kids out on their own, in a world they didn’t know. He’d found his salvation in the army. But Janice... Matt turned away from Sarah again, before she could see the tears brimming in his eyes.

  I did one good thing, though, Matty. His name is Lucas. I don’t know who his father is, and there’s no sense looking. But he’s a good boy—the only thing I’ve done right. I want you to take care of him for me. Make sure he has better than what we did.

  Do for him, Matty, what you couldn’t do for me.

  That was where the letter ended. No last words, no signature. “Is this all?” he asked Sarah.

  “It was all she could do to get that on paper. She went to sleep with the pen still in her hand and she didn’t...”

  Matt nodded as he looked across the sandy expanse at his sister’s grave. A few mourners were still there—maybe five or six and he wondered who they were and why they had come. Forgeburn had never been a real home to them. All it had ever been was the place from which they wanted to escape. “Why did she come back here?” he asked.

  “Because she wanted to contact you, but she wasn’t up to it. And I was the only relative, even though I live a good fifty miles from here.”

  “So, Lucas,” Matt said, once he’d regained his composure and turned around again to face Sarah. “You’ve got kids. You know how to take care of them. I don’t. And I’m still on active duty. I have to report back in two months.” He’d been granted emergency family leave to come and make arrangements for Lucas, but those arrangements didn’t include keeping him. That thought had never crossed his mind as he’d assumed Lucas was already settled in with Sarah. But apparently not. “And I’m scheduled to go back to Iraq later this year. How, in all of that, does he fit in?”

  “Look, Matt. I kept him until you got here, just to be nice, but this is where it ends. Janice named you as his legal guardian, the social worker from child services has seen to the legalities of it, which makes him your responsibility, not mine. So adopt him yourself, or find someone else who wants him—it’s your decision. And I don’t mean to be unreasonable about this, but my husband doesn’t want him. We’ve got enough to handle without adding another child to it. So...” She shrugged. “Take him. Or get rid of him. Either way, I’m out of it.”

  Take him. Just like that. Take a nephew he hadn’t even known he had until he’d received word his sister had died. Matt wasn’t opposed to family responsibility. In a lot of ways, he liked the idea of honoring the obligation, even in a family like his. A mother who had left when he’d been five. A sister who had—well, ended up back where she’d started. A dad who apparently had died without notice.

  But Lucas—he needed his chance. He hadn’t asked to be born into the McClain family. It’s just what he’d got. Still, kids didn’t belong in his life. He’d planned it like that. No kids, no obligations. Obligations—for a moment the image of Ellie flashed through his mind. If ever there’d been a time when he’d come close to taking on an obligation other than his career...

  “Look, Sarah, give me a couple weeks to figure it out. Can you do that much?”

  Sarah shook her head. “Sorry.”

  Well, she wasn’t giving him many options. For a career military surgeon, always going in one direction or another, moving from place to place and in his case combat zone to combat zone, there was no room to care for a child. In fact, he didn’t even have a place to call home, and kids needed a home, and stability. They needed someone there all the time to raise them. They needed what he and Janice had never had.

  “All I can say, Matt, is I know you’ve been doing good for yourself, despite the way your daddy treated you. I’m glad for you. But I can’t take Lucas. So, like I said, I’ve already contacted child services, they know the situation, and the paperwork’s started. So he’ll go to a group home until they can find a family who’ll take him in, unless you do. As for adoption...” She shrugged. “Can’t say what’ll happen there. He’s a cute kid. Doesn’t talk, though. Not a word.” She leaned in and whispered, “Don’t think he’s very smart.”

  “Probably because he’s traumatized from everything that’s been happening to him,” Matt snapped. Then he looked down at Lucas, who was sucking his thumb. He had a ratty old blanket tucked under his arm, and he wore a pair of sneakers that were clearly several sizes too large. All Matt could think was he was so vulnerable. And scared. Matt knew what it was like to be vulnerable and scared. Knew exactly what the kid was feeling...like his whole world had just collapsed. Matt couldn’t blame Lucas for not wanting to talk. There had been many times in his own young life when he hadn’t wanted to talk either.

  “Hope it doesn’t mess up your life too much, Matt,” Sarah said, then turned and walked away, leaving Matt standing alone in the cemetery, holding on to Lucas with one hand and a bag of clothes with the other. And with no idea what to do next.

  “Do you eat hamburgers?” he asked Lucas, who looked up at him with wide, frightened eyes. The kid needed more than a hamburger. Matt knew that. He needed words of reassurance. The promise of a home. A hug. Right now, though, he was equipped to buy him a hamburger. That’s all.

  Did kids his age eat hamburgers? Matt’s medical training told him yes. But his parenting training—well, there was none of that to draw on. No kids in his life,
no kids in his future. No home. No wife. He thought back to that morning when he’d left Ellie sleeping and walked away. Too bad he couldn’t go back and stay there. It had been nice. No worries. No past. No future. Just that moment in time. Unlike this moment in time, when his only goal was a hamburger, or anything else a two-year-old would eat.

  * * *

  “I need to do what?” Ellie Landers looked at the ultrasound, and didn’t see anything particularly distressing. She knew how to interpret what she was seeing. Her brief time in nursing had taught her that much. And what she saw right now looked perfectly normal.

  “Rest more. Eat better. Reduce stress. Cut back on work. You know, the simple things.”

  She did know, but she wasn’t sure why all this applied to her. Dr. Shaffer had just told her the baby was healthy. She was healthy, too. So why the precautions? “But there’s nothing wrong with me. You said so just a few minutes ago.” Now she was worried.

  “Your blood pressure is on the high end of normal. You’re at risk for gestational diabetes partly because of your age and partly because your mother has diabetes. And you’re chronically tired.”

  “Because I work eighteen hours a day.” Ellie liked Doc Shaffer. He’d been her mother’s obstetrician, now he was hers. Medically, he had a great reputation. Personally, he was just plain kind. He’d never asked her to explain the pregnancy. Not that there was much to explain about a two-night fling at a medical conference. All that, plus he had a great heart for his patients and treated them with respect and dignity no matter what the situation. As someone in the medical field, Ellie appreciated that. As a patient, she was glad to have it.

  “Cut it back,” he said, leaning forward across his desk, looking over at her across the top of his glasses. “You’re thirty-four, Ellie. You live a busy life and drive yourself harder than anybody I’ve ever seen, except your mom. And I don’t want you having complications with this pregnancy.”