New Doc in Town / Orphan Under the Christmas Tree

by Meredith Webber

  ‘You’re thinking bikes and I’m thinking love!’

  Whoops!

  He had no idea how the word had slipped out, but now it hung, like the fat blow-up Santa, in the air between them.

  ‘Love?’ Lauren echoed, so uncertainly Tom had to hug her again.

  ‘Yes, love,’ he whispered. ‘A four-letter word I’d never thought I’d find a use for, but having found you and Bobby there’s no other word to cover it.’

  He eased away again and once more tilted up her face to he could look into those clear hazel eyes.

  ‘Do you mind very much?’ he asked, and saw her frown.

  ‘Mind what?’

  Nerves churned in his stomach. In fact, he was reasonably certain that if he raced off and threw up he’d feel a darned sight better, but now he’d started with this love thing he’d better keep at it.

  ‘Mind my loving you?’

  Could she hear the uncertainty in his voice—the fear?

  She looked more puzzled than she had earlier, clear eyes clouding over as she kind of squinted at him.

  ‘You love me?’ she queried, definitely disbelieving.

  Tom straightened up—it was time to show some spine.

  ‘I do,’ he said firmly, and just to prove it, he kissed her.

  Hard!

  Then hot!

  Then heavy as his body took control and claimed her mouth, consuming it as if he could take her into his skin and be one with her.

  Her response didn’t exactly say she loved him, but it certainly indicated she didn’t mind his kisses. Right now there was the question of love …

  One-sided love?

  Surely she could have said ‘I love you’, or even ‘Me too’ when he’d said he loved her, but no, when she did speak it was to ask if he knew of any bicycle shops in Port that might stay open late at Christmas time, adding, ‘Because we could get Cam and Jo to babysit and drive down to get the bike, but we should phone first to make sure they’ve got a red one of the kind an eight-year-old would want.’

  ‘You want to drive to Port to buy a bike?’

  He’d eased away from her, needing distance so his brain would work.

  ‘Not necessarily tonight,’ she said in a kindly voice. ‘But we need to know what evenings they’ll be open and we need to find out if we can get one already put together. My brother bought one for his son and it took until dawn on Christmas morning to put it together and even then it went backwards because he’d done something wrong with the chain.’

  Tom slumped into a chair.

  ‘Did you miss the bit of conversation earlier when I said I loved you?’ he demanded.

  Her face went still, then she shook her head.

  ‘No, I heard it,’ she said, ‘but I thought it might be best not to talk about it in case it was an aberration.’

  For a man who’d never done the love declaration before, the conversation was becoming unnecessarily convoluted.

  ‘Me loving you an aberration or me saying it an aberration?’

  Lauren shrugged.

  ‘Either, I suppose, or maybe both. I just thought if I didn’t mention it then it could just go away, and anyway the bike is important, you know. It’s in Bobby’s letter to Santa.’

  She passed him a scrappy piece of paper she must have had crumpled in one hand all this time and he smoothed it out and read it, swallowing hard when he’d finished.

  ‘We won’t yell,’ he promised Lauren, who nodded back at him.

  ‘And we’ll find a bike.’

  She nodded again, and Tom knew it was now or never.

  ‘So,’ he said, ‘with that sorted, let’s get back to love.’

  Did she cringe?

  Was she afraid to tell him she didn’t love him?

  The thought brought a wave of panic through his body and all but melted his brain, but he stiffened, told himself to be a man, and waited.

  And waited …

  ‘You want me to start?’ he finally asked, although he felt that was wrong because he’d already said it, but what the hell, here it went.

  ‘I love you, Lauren,’ he said, loud and clear, adding a kind of addendum to the original idea by saying, ‘I think maybe I have for a while—kind of loved you anyway, but wary of seeing more of you, seeing you romantically, in case it was love, and I was so convinced I couldn’t do love I steered clear.’

  She smiled and stepped a little closer. Close enough to touch but not touching.

  ‘Do you know when you get excited about something you trip over your words?’ she teased, using words he’d said to her some days ago. ‘But I love you too. And like you, I think it was probably there for a while, but feeling how I did about intimacy, I didn’t want to let you down.’

  ‘As if you could ever let me down,’ Tom told her, gathering her into his arms and holding her carefully, as if she was a precious object that might shatter with too much pressure. ‘As if you could ever let anyone down! You’re kind and good and thoughtful and loving and probably far too good for me, but you and me, we’re all Bobby’s got so maybe we’re stuck with each other.’

  And with that he kissed her, gently at first, letting the embers of their physical love flare gradually back to life, igniting them both so they were sliding fingers onto skin beneath frustrating clothes when a ‘Bleagh!’ from the doorway had them springing apart.

  Tom recovered first, holding out his arm to bring Bobby into the circle of their love.

  ‘Get used to the sloppy stuff, kid,’ he said, ‘there’s going to be a lot of it around.’

  And Lauren proved it, by hugging Bobby hard and kissing his unruly hair and then his ear and then his cheek until he squirmed and shrieked in protest and Tom knew he’d found a family …

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  LOOKING back, Lauren realised that the big mistake they made was leaving Bobby with Jo and Cam while they drove to Port to buy a red bike. Two nights before Christmas and the shops were open until midnight. Not only that, but all the Christmas decorations were reduced in price and she discovered for the first time how much the man she loved loved a bargain.

  ‘What on earth …? ’ Jo demanded, as they began staggering into the house laden with boxes and bags of decorations.

  ‘He likes a sale,’ Lauren explained, looking helplessly at the pile of new acquisitions. ‘We’re never going to get them all up.’

  Tom came in, Cam following with the last of the purchases.

  ‘I’ve put the bike over in my office at the hospital,’ he told Lauren, then he looked at the two women. ‘Well, what are you waiting for? Do you think these decorations are going to hang themselves?’

  ‘You want to do them tonight? It’s nearly midnight,’ Lauren protested.

  Tom shot her a quick grin.

  ‘This from a woman who had me knotting a rug at two in the morning!’

  ‘Knotting a rug?’ Jo echoed feebly, looking from one to the other then shaking her head, while Cam was already digging decorations out of boxes, demanding scissors and insisting they all get busy.

  ‘Think how Bobby will love it when he wakes up,’ Tom whispered to Lauren, standing so close she could feel the tendrils of warmth and love wrapping around them once again.

  ‘Fair enough,’ she said, and she joined the others, until the whole house was hung with decorations, a giant paper bell over the dining table, mistletoe over every doorway—Jo and Cam taking far too much advantage of that—the tree alight, in spite of Tom’s misgivings, with bright balls of glistening colour. Every window had its own frame of tinsel, the veranda railings were wound with greenery, and up on the roof—though what two respected medicos were doing on a roof in the middle of the night!—was a full team of reindeer and a sleigh big enough to hold the blow-up Santa Lauren and Bobby had bought earlier.

  Once it was done, they sat down to enjoy a cold drink, the pleasure they would give the little boy warming all of them.

  ‘So much has happened,’ Jo mused, ‘since the stands went down. What coul
d have been a terrible accident minimised by Tom and Cam’s fast action.’

  ‘We were lucky,’ Tom said. ‘All but one of the patients have been discharged and he’ll be home for Christmas.’

  ‘Bobby wasn’t so lucky,’ Lauren reminded them.

  ‘Not in losing his mother,’ Jo said, ‘that was terrible, but then look where he ended up—with two of the most loving people in the whole Cove. Yes, he’ll grieve and you’ll both help him keep his mother’s memory alive, but for the rest of his life you’ll be the only parents he knows.’

  ‘Which is a very scary thought,’ Tom said, but he reached out and took Lauren’s hand, adding, with a smile, ‘Although it’s kind of exciting, too, isn’t it?’

  She leant across and kissed him on the lips.

  ‘Very exciting,’ she said.

  ‘Well, there’s a nice surprise,’ Jo said, standing up and tugging Cam to his feet. ‘Methinks it’s time we left these two to talk about parenthood.’

  ‘Should we?’ Tom asked when they’d departed.

  ‘Should we what? Talk about parenthood? Or maybe go to bed?’ Lauren teased.

  ‘Minx!’ Tom said, taking her in his arms, his heart—his entire body—so full of pleasure or gratitude or maybe love that she could tease him like that it was a wonder he could speak at all.

  She nestled closer.

  ‘We’ve the rest of our lives to talk about parenthood,’ she whispered.

  ‘And to go to bed,’ he answered, adding even more quietly, ‘Together!’

  Bobby’s delight the next morning made all the work they’d done the night before worthwhile, and that evening, Christmas Eve, as they stood by the tree on the foreshore, singing carols, they could look up and see their Santa in his sleigh, and the star shining right on the apex of the roof, guiding them home.

  The damaged stands had been cleared away earlier in the week, but they stood on the other side of the tree, Bobby between them, his high, sweet voice rising to the heavens, his electric candle held steady in his hands.

  Tom looked down at him, then at Lauren, with her arm around the child’s shoulders, then he turned to look out at the ocean and knew he’d come home. After all his wanderings, he’d finally come home, and not only had he found a home, he’d found a family to live in it, his family—his loves!

  Had Lauren caught his thoughts that she turned towards him and the hand that had been resting on Bobby’s shoulder reached out to touch grasp his fingers?

  ‘I love you.’

  She mouthed the words above Bobby’s head and squeezed his fingers.

  ‘And me you,’ he said, but he spoke aloud, making Bobby turn towards him.

  ‘What?’ the child demanded, and Tom knelt in front of him.

  ‘I was just saying “I love you”,’ he told the little boy, then before Bobby could protest he kissed him quickly on the cheek.

  The carols ended, and with arms wrapped around each other they walked home up the hill. Home to the Christmas lights and the star of hope—home to the future.

  Together!

  All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.

  All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises II BV/S.à.r.l. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the prior consent of the publisher in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

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  First published in Great Britain 2011

  by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited.

  Harlequin (UK) Limited, Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road,

  Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR

  © Meredith Webber 2011

  ISBN: 978-1-408-92489-1