by Dianne Drake
“Ellie?” he called.
“Over here,” came the response from an old truck sitting amongst all the junk.
Immediately, he was there, looking in the driver’s side window. Then climbing in and pulling both Ellie and Lucas into his arms. “Are you OK?” he asked her.
“No,” she said. “I’m not.”
* * *
Matt studied the IV drip in Ellie’s arm, then looked down at her. She was stable, the baby was fine. But this was the rest of her pregnancy. In bed. Resting. No work. No rescue operations. He took her hand and kissed it as he sat down on the edge of her bed.
“How’s Lucas?” she asked him.
“Fine. No signs of trauma. I talked to the sheriff in the area who was assigned to investigate, and he thinks Lucas simply walked out of the clinic and got into Albright’s truck, maybe thinking it was mine. Since Albright has a habit of leaving doors open, his truck door might have been open, making it easy for Lucas to climb in. There’s a strong possibility that Albright didn’t even know Lucas was there.”
“Where is Lucas now?” she asked.
“On the back of a pony. A lot of people volunteered to watch him for a couple of days while I’m here with you.”
“You don’t have to stay, Matt. Lucas needs you now.”
“So do you.” He laid his hand on her belly. “And, so does our son.”
“We need to talk about that,” Ellie said. “Dr. Gupta’s fairly optimistic that I can go to term, or near term. And she’s approved the helicopter rides back and forth, since she’ll be seeing me pretty much every other week now.
“But do you really want me to stay with you, because this isn’t going to be easy. I think all I’m going to be allowed to do is chew and swallow, which means the burden of my care will be, well...up to you. And while I know you’ve promised to stay, is that really what you want to do? Because I’ve changed my mind about some things that will allow you to get back the life you want.”
“Such as?” Matt asked, his face growing a little clouded with concern.
“I’m going to keep the baby. Raise him the way he needs to be raised. You don’t have to be involved in that, since it’s my decision and not yours. And the second thing—I talked to your social worker about Lucas a little while ago. I’m going to adopt him. I love him like he’s mine, and I can’t see him going to someone else. I’m pretty sure you’ll approve me, because it’s a good thing that the boys will be raised together.”
“Want me to tell you about my plan?” Matt asked. “Because I have one, too.”
Ellie shut her eyes and drew in a deep breath. “Is it going to break my heart?” she asked. “Because I really want the boys and me to be a family.”
“Well, your plan is a good one, but it will be a perfect one if I’m included in it.”
She opened her eyes, clearly startled. “What do you mean?” she asked cautiously.
“It starts with this—will you marry me, Ellie?”
“Because of the baby?”
“Because of you. You are the most engaging, hard-driven, optimistic woman I’ve ever known. I think I fell a little in love with you in Reno, and I’ve fallen the rest of the way in love with you here, in Forgeburn. Now I love you even more for wanting to adopt Lucas, but I think I’ve known all along I wouldn’t give him up. I just chose to ignore the obvious because of, well, so many things. My past mostly. It’s hard to move forward when you’re so stuck in the past. Hard moving forward if you think you’re going to be rejected, too.”
“You thought I’d reject you?”
“Your plan was always about going back to Reno.”
“Because your plan was always about going back to the army. What was I supposed to do?”
“Actually, we both did the same thing. We hid from our feelings, partly because neither of us wanted to be rejected the way we were when we were kids. And partly because it’s scary changing your life so drastically when you’ve found it to be the safe haven you’ve never had before. I love you, Ellie Landers. And if part of that means moving to Reno with you, I’ll do it.”
“But I don’t want to go back to Reno,” Ellie said. “Part of my plan—the part I never thought would happen—was staying here, raising our boys together. But you were always so dead set on getting back to being an army surgeon, I thought I couldn’t compete with that.”
“You started competing with that the first time I laid eyes on you, only I was too stupid to see it. And while I haven’t been consciously aware of how I was dealing with my feelings, getting rid of Lucas, not raising our baby, not getting involved with you the way I wanted to—that’s all part of the way I cope. Maybe leaving Janice behind was, too. I don’t know.
“But that’s not who I want to be. That was the kid who lived in the dump. But I’m not that kid anymore. The one who always ran away. I’m the man who wants to be your husband, and father to our boys. The man who wants to stay.”
“I would never hurt you, Matt. And leaving you—no. I didn’t want to do that. Not after I saw who you were. But my first reaction was how am I going to live the life I’ve been trained to live with a child? I took the easy way out. Dumped the decisions about what to do on you.
“But then...there was you. A completely different matter. Plus Lucas. A ready-made family for the woman who was so career-oriented she couldn’t see anything else around her. I was hiding behind my career like you were hiding behind yours. Always telling myself I wanted, even needed bigger and better. But you, Lucas and our baby—that’s what I need. All I need. That’s my bigger and better, and I only came to realize that after I realized I wasn’t my mother. My bigger and better isn’t hers, and hers isn’t mine.”
She smiled. “And mine’s so much better than hers will ever be. So, yes, I want to marry you. More than that, I need to marry you, and not because I’m pregnant but because we are a family—the four of us. We need to be together.”
“Then will it be Reno or Forgeburn?” he asked, reaching over to brush a tear from her cheek. “Or someplace else, where we can start over?”
“We’ve already started over right here, in Forgeburn. This is where I want to stay. I’ll keep my company. Just move the facilities here, if that’s what you want. I like it here. Like the people here. And despite your bad memories, which I want to help you deal with, this is the place I want to raise our boys. The people are good. I love the desert.
“And when you give up your practice here to go back into the army, we can find another house or maybe buy this one—that is, if you want to stay here. If you don’t, well, anywhere. I’ll even go with you overseas when I’m allowed. I know some military families get to go. And the boys and I—we’ll follow you when we can. And wait for you to come home when we can’t.”
“No following,” he said. “I want my family to have stability. Besides, I’m only going to be gone a few days every month, working at a veterans’ hospital. As a surgeon. Then the rest of the time I’ll be here, as a GP.
“How?”
“Remember when I told you the army had options. My option was to vacate my contract and transition into the reserves to serve the rest of my active duty. I’ll be in for a longer period of time but working only a few days at a time. So I’ve already started the process of buying the practice and the house from Doc Granger. Oh, and so you’ll know, I wouldn’t have let our baby be put up for adoption either. I fell in love with him the moment I knew you were carrying him. Just didn’t want to admit it, like everything else I didn’t want to admit.”
“That first day when Lucas called you Daddy...”
“That’s when I knew,” he admitted. “Knew I was being stupid in so many ways. Knew what I wanted. Knew that it scared me to death. Knew that we were meant to be a family.” He bent over and kissed her lightly on the forehead. “It won’t be an easy life. I can’t promise you much except my love.�
�
“And a life I never thought I could have. That’s what I’ve wanted, Matt. Like you, I didn’t want to admit it because changing a life is so difficult, and I’ve had to do it so many times, trying to find out who I really am. Who I am, though, isn’t so complicated after all. I’m the woman who wants to be part of her family. Wife, mother and, yes, career woman. With you, Lucas, Matthew—”
“Matthew?” he interrupted.
“That’s what I’ve named him. I don’t know your middle name but I want him to have that, too.”
“No, you don’t,” he said, putting on a fake cringe.
“What is it?” she asked him.
“First, tell me your name. I don’t have a clue what it is.”
“It’s Eleanor Landers, NMI.”
“What’s NMI?”
“No middle name. My mother believed middle names were useless, and being the practical woman she is she didn’t give me one. And before you ask, she only named me Eleanor because it was convenient. It was the name of the nurse who helped deliver me. Apparently, my mother hadn’t had time to choose my name, so when they asked her, she looked at the nurse’s nametag and that’s the name I got.”
“Be glad it wasn’t Brunhilde,” he said, chuckling.
“Actually, I got lucky. I like my name. But, apparently you don’t like your middle name?”
He shook his head.
“No secrets in this relationship, Matt. So tell me.”
“Strandrew,” he admitted.
“Strandrew? I’ve never heard of that.” She lifted her hand to her mouth to cover a giggle. “Matthew Strandrew McClain.”
“What can I say? I think my dad was drunk when he filled out the paperwork. I’m pretty sure it was supposed to be Andrew. At least, that’s what I’ve always told myself.” Her laugh was infectious, and he joined in.
“Matthew Andrew,” she finally said. “I could get used to that. But you’re right. Not Strandrew.” She wrinkled her nose, just saying the name again.
“So, now that we’ve named our son, and you’ve accepted my marriage proposal, what’s next?”
“Call the hospital chaplain, then happily-ever-after?”
“Definitely happily-ever-after,” he said, stretching out on the hospital bed next to her when she scooted over and patted the spot where she wanted him. “And would that begin with a kiss?”
“Or maybe a kick to the belly,” she said, placing his hand on her belly.
“And a kiss,” he said, leaning over but kissing her belly, as their son was still kicking inside her. “I think he knows he’s the one who brought us back together, where we belong,” Matt said when baby Matthew finally calmed down.
“I think you’re right,” Ellie said, scooting over a little more to cuddle in with Matt. “Now, how about a kiss for the mommy?”
* * * * *
If you enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from Dianne Drake
Healing Her Boss’s Heart
Reunited with Her Army Doc
Saved by Doctor Dreamy
The Nurse and the Single Dad
All available now!
Keep reading for an excerpt from The Shy Nurse’s Rebel Doc by Alison Roberts.
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The Shy Nurse’s Rebel Doc
by Alison Roberts
CHAPTER ONE
IT BLINDSIDED HIM.
Blake Cooper had just swung himself off his motorbike in his allotted ED staff parking space at Sydney’s Bondi Bayside Hospital and flipped up his visor. He should have been easing off his helmet, now, and reaching for the worn leather satchel in the side pannier but he wasn’t moving at all. His fingers felt like they were stuck to the sides of his helmet and his eyes were just as stuck.
On that car...
A gleaming, vintage MG roadster.
Red.
Of course it was red. It was a giant Dinky toy, come to life.
His toy.
And, there he was. Five years old again. Finding that shoebox full of treasure at the bottom of the carton of kitchen junk his mother had bought for virtually nothing from the charity shop clearance sale. There’d been more than a dozen of the tiny pre-loved metal vehicles but his absolute favourite had been that little red MG roadster, even if it did have chipped paint and a missing wheel. He could almost feel the sharp edges of it in his hand right now, as his fingers curled into a fist—the way they had back then, as they clutched the toy hidden in his pocket, whenever something important was happening. Like when he had to change schools. Or when the big boys on the block were following him home...
Blake dismissed the memory of that fear with a soft snort. His upbringing had had its advantages because he wasn’t afraid of anything now.
And this real-life toy wasn’t anything like his miniature version. Someone must have spent a fortune restoring it. He’d bet it had a completely new motor now, and that soft, red leather upholstery certainly wasn’t original. A new staff member, perhaps? Or a visiting consultant who had the means to indulge a pricey hobby? The idea of spending huge amounts of money purely for pleasure was distasteful but he wasn’t going to allow that to tarnish a memory that had been a poignant reminder of something very special. It became so much more muted when you were an adult, that bolt of sheer happiness that life could deliver something so amazing. When you could find real treasure so unexpectedly.
He pulled his helmet off. He was tucking it under his arm when the soft, early morning air around him, still blurred with those long-ago memories, was shattered by a sound that lifted the hairs on the back of his neck.
A scream of pure terror.
‘Help...oh, God... Help...’
It was coming from the adjoining public car park. Blake’s helmet bounced, unseen, off the asphalt behind him. He vaulted over the dividing fence with only a touch of his hand to boost him. The heels of his cowboy-style boots beat a tattoo on the hard surface as he ran towards the terrible sound. His peripheral vision caught the movement of others coming in the same direction but he was there first. The young woman standing beside the opened back door of her car didn’t appear to be injured or unwell. She just looked petrified.
‘What is it? What’s happened?’
The question was redundant a split second later, because he could see into the back seat of the car now. Into the baby seat. He could see the blue lips of a baby who wasn’t breathing.
The safety harness was already undone and it was easy to lift the infant with his hands under its armpits, his fingers supporting the head. Sometimes, b
eing moved suddenly could be enough to restart breathing but Blake could feel how unresponsive this baby was as he stepped back from the car. He dropped to his knees and cradled the baby in his arms, tilting the head back to ensure the airway was open as he covered the tiny nose and mouth with his lips as he delivered a rescue breath.
And then another. He could see the chest rising so he knew that the airway wasn’t obstructed but there was still no response. With two fingers positioned on the centre of the baby’s chest he began rapid compressions. A few seconds later, he paused to deliver another two breaths.
Other people had arrived now.
‘What happened?’
‘How long since he stopped breathing?’
The mother was sobbing. ‘I knew there was something wrong, that’s why I was bringing him here but I thought he’d...that he’d just fallen asleep... It was just before I turned into the car park...’
‘Should I go and get a resus trolley?’
It was a nurse he knew very well who was asking the question. Harriet Collins worked in the intensive care unit but she was also a founding member of the Specialist Disaster Response team that was a big part of Blake’s life as well.
Blake had filled the baby’s lungs with air again and lifted his head to answer Harriet as he started another set of compressions but then he paused for a second. He could feel the difference beneath his hands. The tension of muscles contracting as the baby took a breath on its own.
And then another.
Blake got to his feet with the baby still in his arms. ‘No trolley,’ he told Harriet. ‘The sooner we get inside the better.’
He was already taking off, heading towards the nearest entrance to the emergency department through the ambulance bay. He could have this baby in their well-equipped resuscitation area in less than a minute if he ran.
He heard the despairing wail of the baby’s mother behind him but Harriet was onto it. A swift glance back showed her putting an arm around the still terrified mother’s shoulders. ‘Come with us,’ he heard her say. ‘Dr Cooper knows what he’s doing, I promise. He’s the best...’
