The Heart Surgeon's Secret Son

by Janice Lynn

  She closed her eyes, prayed her eardrums wouldn’t burst from the loud roaring of her heartbeat. She had to tell him right now.

  “Daniel—” she began.

  “It’s none of my business, right?” He smiled wryly, turned her hand in his, and traced her life line. “You know, I wasn’t sure how I felt when I saw you on Monday morning. But I’m glad you came to Boston, Kimberly. Glad our paths crossed again.”

  He lifted her palm and kissed the center. “Very glad.”

  “Daniel, I need to tell you something.”

  Her tone must have warned him that what she had to say was serious, because he squeezed her hand. “Tell me.”

  “I loved Ryan’s father—”

  “You’ve already said that,” he interrupted, shaking his head. “You’re talking in circles.”

  Frustrated, she glanced around the noisy restaurant. “You’re Ryan’s father.”

  His hand fell away from hers and he stared at her, his eyes narrowed. “What did you say?”

  “You’re Ryan’s father.”

  Stunned didn’t begin to cover the look on his face.

  Dear Reader

  Since my early teens, Mills & Boon® romance novels have carried me to faraway places and allowed me to experience exotic locales, fantasy lifestyles, and to fall in love time and again.

  I truly believe love is the greatest gift any of us ever give or receive. For a hundred years Mills & Boon has given this gift to their readers—me and you.

  They’ve provided an escape—to get lost in romance and to have faith in love and life renewed.

  In THE HEART SURGEON’S SECRET SON, Daniel’s faith in love is shaken when he discovers his high-school sweetheart gave birth to his son and never told him. Daniel is a hero I immediately fell in love with. He’s dedicated, honourable—and did I mention sexy? Kimberly loves him with all her heart, and makes the decisions she believes are right—but, like many of us, she makes mistakes that sometimes exact a high toll.

  It’s an honour to be included in Mills & Boon’s centenary celebration, as an author and as a lover of romance. Happy 100th Birthday!

  I love to hear from readers. Please e-mail me at Janice@janicelynn.net, write to me care of Mills & Boon, or visit me at my website www.janicelynn.net

  Janice

  THE HEART SURGEON’S SECRET SON

  BY

  JANICE LYNN

  Janice Lynn has a Masters in Nursing from Vanderbilt University, and works as a nurse practitioner in a family practice. She lives in the southern United States with her husband, their four children, their Jack Russell—appropriately named Trouble—and a lot of unnamed dust bunnies that have moved in since she started her writing career. To find out more about Janice and her writing, visit www.janicelynn.com

  Recent titles by the same author:

  THE DOCTOR’S PREGNANCY BOMBSHELL

  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

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER ONE

  NURSE Kimberly Brookes stared out her hotel window and, despite the room’s warmth, shivered at the wintry blur of white obscuring Boston’s skyline.

  Or maybe the thought of having to spend the next week with Dr. Daniel Travis had triggered the goose bumps prickling her skin.

  Either way, she felt chilled to the bone.

  Within the hour she would come face-to-face with the one man she measured all others by. No one even came close to touching her heart the way Daniel did.

  Was that why the thought of seeing him made her blood race and her hands shake?

  As one of Cardico’s key marketing sales executives, she needed to learn everything about the innovative pacemaker Daniel had helped to develop. Each sales executive would spend a week with Daniel, shadowing him, so they would have a full understanding of the life-saving device.

  She’d delayed as long as she could. Now she prepared to face a man she’d once loved, a man she’d planned to never see again.

  Who was she kidding?

  There was no way to prepare for Dr. Daniel Travis. He’d done miraculous things to hearts long before he’d earned his medical degree, and she’d never been impervious to his allure.

  Perhaps deep down she’d always known her path would cross Daniel’s again.

  She needed to get over her silly schoolgirl fantasies, and seeing him provided the only way to do that.

  Hopefully, she’d see him and realize her youthful hormones had tricked her mind. No man could be as charismatic as she remembered Daniel.

  Then again, wasn’t she reminded daily just how charismatic he’d been? Just how blue those penetrating eyes had been?

  Need squeezed her heart, and she glanced at her watch. Ryan would be awake. She picked up her cell phone and hit autodial to call her son’s cell phone.

  “Hey, Mom,” he answered on the second ring. “I’m up and ready for school, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

  Just hearing his deepening voice caused her to smile. He hadn’t expected the morning call. She’d called last night after she’d arrived at her hotel. She’d wanted to make sure he’d settled in at his best friend Tyler’s house for the week. Kimberly and Tyler’s mother, Beth, had gotten to be good friends over the years, and the boys often stayed over at each other’s homes.

  “I never thought otherwise,” she admitted. Ryan was a good kid, an honor student and a star athlete. Like his father, he excelled at almost everything he attempted. When he did run across a new challenge, he stuck it out until he mastered yet another skill.

  She’d always encouraged him to try new things, to be well rounded and to chase his dreams. It’s what a loving mother did. Hadn’t she experienced firsthand the lengths a mother would go to to protect her child?

  Ryan was her whole world. They’d gone through life’s journey alone for so long, just the two of them. And, despite everything, they’d done all right.

  Better than all right.

  Her eyes watered and she swiped at them. She was being ridiculously sentimental and knew the cause.

  “I just called to say I missed you,” she said into the phone, trying to hide her emotional state, “and hope you have a good day at school.”

  “Aw, Mom,” he said, but she could hear the pleased teasing in his voice. They’d always been close, and thus far Ryan hadn’t shunned her affectionate nature. “I told you that you should have brought me.”

  “Missing school for a week was not an option,” she reminded him, knowing academics played the least role of why she’d refused to consider Ryan coming with her to Boston.

  “Yeah, yeah, but think how educational the trip would have been for me to visit Paul Revere’s house and the site of the Boston Tea Party and the—”

  “Nice try,” she interrupted. “Maybe next time.”

  A time when she wouldn’t be spending every moment in Daniel Travis’s company.

  Someone spoke to Ryan in the background.

  “Hey, Tyler’s mom is ready to leave for school,” Ryan said. “We have a student council meeting before class starts and have to be there early. Got to run. Love you, and see you on Saturday afternoon.”

  “I’ll call tonight.”

  “I’ve got basketball,” he reminded her, sounding distracted, and she knew he was headed out the door with his cell phone stuck between his shoulder and his ear. His book bag no doubt hung off his free shoulder and his b
lond hair would still be damp around the edges. Many a time she’d seen him similarly head out of the house while on the phone with one girl or another.

  Oh, yeah, she was reminded daily just how charismatic Daniel Travis had been.

  “Call me after the game,” she told him. “Love you. Bye.”

  “Love you. Bye,” Ryan repeated their special farewell.

  The phone line went dead and the instant connection to her son faded, leaving her lost and panicky at the tremendous events that would occur before the day ended.

  She clutched her phone tightly in her palm. A week away from Ryan felt like forever. They’d never been apart more than two nights. Yet she couldn’t have brought him with her as she’d done on previous business trips.

  No way would she risk him and Daniel seeing each other.

  Sure, she’d dreamed of them meeting for fifteen years, but reality wasn’t dreams.

  Reality was being a single mom so the man you’d given your heart to could have his dreams.

  Sighing, she pushed away from the window, checked her sleep-deprived appearance in the mirror one last time, and left the hotel room.

  Time to go face her past so she could move on with her future.

  Dr. Daniel Travis glanced at his Boston Memorial Hospital schedule and sighed at the thought of yet another marketing person shadowing his every move.

  He shouldn’t complain. Thousands of lives around the country and eventually around the world would be improved because of the specialized three-lead pacemaker for congestive heart failure patients.

  But even better, Cardico had agreed to fund his next research project once the pacemaker had been successfully launched. A project that, if triumphant, would fulfill his dreams.

  From the time his dad had died from complications of heart surgery, Daniel had wanted to be a cardiologist. Specifically he’d wanted to come up with a better way to perform a coronary artery bypass graft, or CABG. A Staphylococcus infection had set into his father’s leg after the donor vein had been removed and the infection had spread throughout his weakened body.

  Daniel knew there had to be better ways than grafting one’s own veins, which required a second surgical site. Cow and pig valves had been used for years for heart valve replacements. Why couldn’t animal veins be used as donor grafts? Daniel believed they could, and he planned to test that theory.

  He would find a way to keep people from dying so needlessly.

  Not once had he ever strayed from his goal of preventing what had happened to his father from occurring again.

  Daniel scrubbed up, then he entered the cardiac lab. Once there, he slipped on his sterile gloves.

  He shivered at the frigid temperature, but from experience he knew the heat from the lights and the knowledge he held someone’s life in his hands would soon have him sweating. Although a fairly simple procedure, he never took life for granted or how quickly the tides could turn when you placed a foreign object into someone’s heart.

  Each person he worked on was someone’s husband, wife, sister, brother, mother, father, loved one. If he messed up, more than just the patient paid the consequences. That alone made him take his time, do the best he could each and every time he became directly responsible for someone’s life.

  From the corner of his eye he noted the audience at the far side of the operating room. With their light blue scrubs, face masks, hair bonnets, and shoe covers, the group of seven were medical students and the Cardico marketing executive.

  He preferred to meet the sales representatives prior to them observing, but this one hadn’t arrived until late last night and he’d missed the scheduled meeting with her that morning. One of his research study patients had been rushed into the emergency room due to fluid overload. He’d stabilized her and the ongoing study was not compromised. Besides, he didn’t feel guilty at standing up Kimberly Brookes as her rescheduling had already held up his schedule two times too many.

  Out of courtesy, more than anything, Daniel said a quick hello to the woman having the pacemaker placement. Sedation flowed into her via the IV in her right wrist and although she was awake, she wasn’t lucid. He always made face-to-face contact with his patients prior to a procedure, visually and mentally making sure he had the right person.

  Ellen Mills, sixty-seven, obese, and suffering from severe fatigue, shortness of breath, dizziness, and bradycardia, a slow heart rate caused by a left bundle branch block.

  Daniel glanced at the monitor, mentally reviewed his pre-op notes, then watched the operating room nurse clean the woman’s chest with antiseptic. Next, she placed an adhesive drape around the area where he would make the incision.

  With Ellen readied, he picked up a sterile blade and made a two-inch straight cut a couple of inches beneath her left collarbone, slicing through skin and tissue. Using an imaging device called fluoroscopy to guide his movements, he painstakingly inserted the pacemaker leads into a large vein, easing the wire to the heart.

  Daniel funneled a lead to the desired area within the right atrium of Ellen’s heart and screwed it into the muscle wall, making sure it was securely anchored. Next, he inserted a lead into the right ventricle and screwed it into the heart wall.

  The last lead always proved the most difficult and riskiest of the lead placements. With single-minded focus and steady hands, he threaded the third lead through the coronary sinus and into the left ventricle, checked placement, then screwed the lead into the thickened heart tissue.

  The operating room nurse dabbed a hint of moisture from his brow.

  Daniel carefully double-checked the wire placements and made sure all three leads remained in the desired spots. He slid the thin square battery-operated generator into the incision and anchored it to where he wanted it to rest for the eight or so years that the unit would reside inside Ellen.

  Daniel smiled. It would be eight years before the unit needed to be replaced compared to the former six. Two extra years before a patient had to go through the procedure again, thanks to Cardico’s advanced battery technology.

  The computer chip in the generator would sense when Ellen’s heart needed to beat and would pace the rhythm to make the heart eject blood efficiently.

  First watching the monitor screen to ensure the pacemaker functioned properly, he stitched up the incision. When he’d tied off the last stitch, he removed his gloves and squeezed Ellen’s hand.

  “I’m finished, and everything went perfectly. I’ll be by your hospital room later this afternoon to check on your progress,” he told the woman.

  Still a bit dazed, Ellen clasped his hand and nodded. “Thank you, Dr. Travis.”

  Daniel nodded, then turned to the students and the Cardico representative. He would give a guest lecture later in the week, but for now the students’ instructor would review the procedure with them. However, Daniel’s job entailed meeting and greeting Kimberly Brookes.

  Despite wearing identical surgical garb to the students, he immediately spotted her. As the students removed their face masks, she stood slightly to the left of them. Even through the baggy blue fabric, her femininely curved body caused his gaze to linger in appreciation. Truth be told, his noticing surprised him as months had gone by since the opposite sex had held much interest for him.

  Besides Ms. Brookes’s delectable body, he could see her tension. Anxiety radiated from her every pore. Was she weak-stomached and the procedure had got to her? As placing the device involved very little blood, few got squeamish or light-headed. Very few.

  Annoyed at what he suspected would cause yet another delay, his gaze lifted to hers.

  He knew those eyes.

  His body tightened with tension and his own stomach weakened.

  What the hell was Kimberly Duff doing in his cardiac lab?

  CHAPTER TWO

  DANIEL pulled himself together with lightning speed, quickly masking his shock at seeing his one-and-only heartbreak.

  His Kimberly had gone to nursing school and worked for a medical equipment comp
any? Last he’d heard she planned to go to California to pursue an acting career after she finished high school. Perhaps Hollywood hadn’t glittered quite as brightly as she’d thought.

  A nurse.

  She’d changed her mind about more than just him, it would seem.

  His gaze dropped to her bare hands, which pressed flat against the wall behind her, as if for support.

  Was she as shocked to see him as he was her?

  She couldn’t be. She’d known all along who she was coming to meet. Known, and delayed for as long as possible by rescheduling twice.

  A slow grin spread across his face as the truth hit him.

  She’d been worried about seeing him.

  Which meant she still had feelings for him after all these years. Feelings strong enough that she feared them coming face-to-face.

  Her eyes widened ever so slightly at his mirth, and she nervously moistened her lips.

  Desire flickered through him. Hot, wet desire that shook the floors of Boston Memorial Hospital and threatened to knock Daniel off his feet.

  Just the sight of her pressed to the wall turned him on, made him want to push against her, grind his body into hers, and hear her call out his name.

  He took a step toward her, closing the distance between them, then stopped cold.

  What was he doing?

  Fifteen years had gone by. Brookes, not Duff. She was married. She’d dumped him for some guy she’d met while he’d been away at school.

  He had no right to touch her, and even if he had, he was at work.

  “Daniel.” His name came out as little more than a hoarse pant from her pale pink lips.

  Her discomfort did little to ease the wild plethora of emotions hitting him or his unwanted surge of libido. Years had gone by since he’d experienced such a reaction. Perhaps since the last time he’d seen her.

  “Kimberly,” he said with a sarcastic edge, taking in everything about the woman before him. The long lashes fringing her eyes, the fullness of her lips, the smooth texture of her creamy skin, the curves beneath her hospital-issue scrubs.