Falling for the Billionaire Doc

by Amy Ruttan

  His father’s eyes narrowed. “A free clinic in the medical facility we have planned will attract the wrong kind of people.”

  Henry shook his head. “And your son getting married to someone like Dr. Brown sends the wrong message.”

  “I put up with Michelle because, at the very least, she wasn’t an abandoned child of drug addicts. Did Dr. Brown tell you that? Did she tell you that she was left at the side of the road at a diner. Her mother died of an overdose in a dingy Montana slum hospital and her father is serving time for selling drugs. She’s the child of meth heads.”

  “She saves lives!” Henry shouted. “And those people may have biologically brought her into this world, but she is not their daughter. She’s Dr. Wilfred Burke’s daughter and he was a well-respected and well-liked physician in Aspen. Kiera is nothing like the people who gave birth to her. She’s better than that. She’s a healer. And so am I.”

  “You do face-lifts.” His father rolled his eyes. “It’s done. There’s no changing the board now.”

  “It’s not going to look so good to all those people who gave money to the free clinic now, is it?” Henry warned. “You’re building a spa now instead of a hospital with a free clinic. That looks bad.”

  His father’s back stiffened. “You wouldn’t?”

  “No. You’re right. I wouldn’t, but I can sever ties with you and Mother. How would that look to your potential voters? Won’t they question why the beloved son of Governor Baker has cut ties with his family? Especially since you seem to spout off that family ties are so important and that we’re all so close. Maybe your voters would like to know that you sent me off to boarding school and that you chased away the woman I fell in love with because she was abandoned as a child.”

  “You wouldn’t.” His father stood up. “You wouldn’t dare do that to me. Not after all I’ve done for you!”

  “What have you done for me? You paid for my education—well, I can pay that back. You put me on the boards of hospitals in Colorado, but I can see that it was to protect your own assets. I am thankful for you helping me out after Michelle died, but enough. I owe you nothing. I don’t care if it ruins me. I’m done with you.”

  “You’re done with me?” his father shouted. “You’re ungrateful, after everything I’ve done.”

  “For what? The only thing I’m grateful for is that you taught me what kind of man I never want to become.” Henry turned on his heel and left.

  It felt good to tell his father off.

  It was a relief to let that all go, even though he knew that it really wouldn’t help. His father wouldn’t change and Kiera wouldn’t change her mind about him.

  He’d put his heart on the line and it was broken again, but he’d taken away something. He’d been so afraid of opening his heart again because of what had happened with Michelle and how her death had almost killed him, but he was lonely, and Kiera had made him feel alive again.

  So, even though he didn’t have her, Henry felt like he had won.

  He just wished that he could have Kiera, too.

  He was still in love with her.

  He loved her.

  And he wanted to marry her, but he’d ruined that. From the moment he’d made a deal with her, he’d ruined that.

  He pushed people away because he was so afraid of being alone.

  And he had no one to blame but himself.

  As he walked down the empty halls of Aspen Grace Memorial Hospital, he tried to shake Kiera from his mind, but he couldn’t.

  He needed to make things right.

  He needed Kiera in his life. He wouldn’t give up on her. He wouldn’t abandon her.

  Even if it meant he had to give up his practice and his beach house, he couldn’t live without Kiera.

  “Henry!”

  He turned around to find his father calling him. “What?”

  “Come back. Just please come back and let’s talk about this more.”

  “What more is there to say, Father?”

  “Just. Please,” his father begged quietly.

  Henry nodded and headed back into the boardroom.

  “Fine,” his father said.

  “Fine what?” Henry asked.

  “We’ll put a free clinic into the new medical facility. It’s won’t be a hospital, but there will be a clinic. There’s enough money to hire back some of the staff from Aspen Grace Memorial. We’ll have an emergency free clinic available, and we can work with the other hospital in town for patients.”

  “You came up with that idea fast.”

  “It’s what was suggested at the board meeting that you missed, but you’re right. I turned it down and appointed someone as chairman who would vote the way I wanted.”

  “You performed a coup, Father. Don’t sugarcoat it. I’m not a child.”

  His father nodded. “You can tell your fiancée that her clinic is saved, but Aspen Grace is in disrepair and it would cost too much to retrofit it and expand.”

  “I understand.”

  “I will make the calls to the appropriate staff. I just ask that you don’t sever ties with us publicly. And don’t sever the ties with your mother. In her own way she does care for you. It would... It would break her heart if you did that.”

  “I doubt that. She didn’t have much time for me.”

  His father sighed. “That was my fault. She cares for you. She does. Please don’t hurt her.”

  It touched Henry to hear his father talk so softly about his wife. It surprised Henry.

  Maybe his father wasn’t made of stone.

  And Henry wasn’t, either.

  Henry nodded. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. I do care for you, Henry. I know we sent you off to boarding school, but that’s...that’s what I knew. It was how I was raised and... I’m sorry if I hurt you. I was wrong, but this is all I know how to give. I don’t want you out of my life. I didn’t want this to come to blows like this. I’m sorry for holding your mistakes over you.”

  Henry nodded. “And I hope that you understand that the way I am is all I can give right now to you, as well, but I am willing to try. You did the right thing here today, Father. You bit the bullet and it’s a good thing. Keeping the clinic open is the right thing.”

  “I can’t hire back Dr. Brown though.”

  “Why?” Henry asked.

  “It would seem like nepotism in my election year. So I do apologize about that.”

  “Father, she’s not really my fiancée. I persuaded her to pretend to be my fiancée to annoy you, and it worked.”

  His father smiled. “Is that so?”

  “Well, I guess the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, does it?”

  “Then, offer her her job back. If you’re not getting married to her, then please announce that so it doesn’t look like nepotism.”

  “I will.” Henry went to open the door.

  “I do find it strange, though.”

  “What?” Henry asked, pausing with his hand on the door handle.

  “I could’ve sworn that you two were in love. The way you two looked at each other during the fundraiser. The way I saw you look at her here in the halls of the hospital. And from what I saw in the papers when you two were at that small pizza place. I could’ve sworn that it was real.”

  “Papers,” Henry asked, bewildered. This wasn’t Los Angeles.

  His father handed him one of the gossip tabloids that Henry was always featured in. And there it was. A picture of him and Kiera. They’d managed to snap pictures of him with a “mystery redhead,” or so the headline teased.

  He smiled at the picture and handed it back to his father.

  “Well, it’s not. I’ll make sure she knows that her job is safe. Thank you.”

  His father nodded. “And I’ll get your mother to lay off with the matchmakin
g. She just wants to see you happy. As do I.”

  Henry didn’t say any more. He opened the door to the boardroom for a second time and left. His heart was aching.

  He could’ve sworn that there were feelings between him and Kiera, but he’d been wrong.

  And his heart was paying the price.

  “Henry! Wait!”

  He turned and saw Kiera standing at the end of the hallway. She looked out of breath, her hair was flyaway and her cheeks were bright red from the cold.

  “Kiera, what are you doing here?” he said as he closed the gap. She was still trying to catch her breath.

  “Sorry, the cold... I ran.”

  “I gather that,” Henry said. “Why are you here?”

  “I’m here for you.”

  * * *

  Kiera’s heart was racing and she couldn’t believe what she was about to do. When she’d been with other men, when the relationship ended, she hadn’t really cared.

  Except for Brent.

  She’d closed off her heart after Brent had broken it. She had gotten on with her life. She had had Mandy, but now she’d let Henry into her heart.

  And when she thought he had betrayed her or used her, it had devastated her. Yet, he had asked her to go to California.

  He had showed that he cared and she was so scared to move.

  So scared to open her heart and take a chance.

  Her pulse was racing. She had run all the way to Aspen Grace Memorial. Even though everything was mostly shut down, she still had a pass to the staff entrance and she’d gotten in. She’d just hoped that she wasn’t too late and that Henry hadn’t left.

  And she wasn’t too late.

  He was still here.

  She didn’t know what to say.

  “You’re here for me?” he asked, confused.

  She nodded and swallowed the hard lump that had formed in her throat, because she had never said what she was about to say to anyone, except Mandy.

  She had never told Dr. Burke that she loved him.

  She had never told anyone that she loved them. Not even Brent, because she’d told her parents that when she was small and they’d left her anyway.

  It was a huge risk, but Kiera was tired of waiting.

  She was tired of being alone.

  Tired of waiting for a family that didn’t exist. She had to make her own family and that family was Henry.

  Henry was her family.

  He drove her bonkers and she hated his father and everything his father represented, but she loved Henry.

  He was her person.

  And she wanted marriage, babies, everything with him. She wanted love, the hurt, the laughter, she wanted everything. She wanted everything she had secretly dreamed about.

  He was her everything, and she had been almost stupid enough to let that slip through her fingers because she was a fool.

  “I’m here for you.” Tears stung her eyes. “This is hard for me to say.”

  “It’s okay,” he said gently. “You can tell me anything.”

  “Okay,” she whispered. “Okay.”

  “You’re shaking.”

  “I know.” She smiled and reached up to touch his face, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I love you, Henry. Against every rational fiber in my being, I love you. You made me feel safe in a world where I have never felt safe. I’ve been using Mandy as a crutch, waiting for people who are never coming back. I’ve been wasting my life. Holding myself back. I love you.”

  He smiled at her tenderly. “I love you, too. And I’m sorry.”

  “For what? You tried to save the hospital. I know that’s not your fault.”

  “No, I’m sorry for not telling you about my past and the debt I owed to my father. I was embarrassed by my mistakes. I still am, but they won’t stop me. I don’t want to leave you ever.”

  Her heart soared and tears slid down her cheeks. “I think I need you to kiss me.”

  “I want to do that, too, but I have something to tell you.”

  “Oh?”

  “The free clinic has been saved. I told my father about us and I threatened to cut ties with him, which would ruin his political career, so he saved the free clinic.”

  “How?” Kiera asked, taking a step back. “It was bleeding money.”

  “That night at the fundraiser, you raised a lot more money than you know. The clinic is saved and it’s yours if you want it. We can’t offer jobs back to everyone who lost their jobs here at Aspen Grace Memorial, but we can hire back quite a few to run that emergency clinic.”

  “I’m so glad the clinic is saved, but I don’t... I don’t want it.”

  Henry raised an eyebrow. “What? I thought that’s what you wanted? All this time, fighting with me tooth and nail. The awful signs you made.”

  Kiera laughed. “It’s what I thought I wanted, but it was just something holding me here. I used it as a reason not to leave and not to live my life. You helped me come alive again, Henry. And, I don’t want it. Mandy is getting married and moving on... I don’t want to be held back. I love you and I want to be with you. And you love California. I’ve never been to California and I think I would like to go.”

  “What about Agnes, what about your patients?”

  “Agnes will understand and Dr. Carr can take care of her. What I want is you. I want to live my life. Finally. I want to be with you.”

  She couldn’t stop crying as the truth was revealed. She’d spent so much of her life trying to be controlled, trying not to let her emotions show, but it all just came spilling out of her.

  “I love you, too, Kiera and I want you. I’ve held everyone at bay since Michelle died and I used her memory as a shield to keep myself from being hurt again, but then you showed up and got under all those defenses. I fought it as long as I could, but you brought me back to life, too, Kiera. I never thought for a second that you would be the one to bring me back to the land of the living, but you did. And, if you’ll have me, I would like to turn our fake engagement into something real?”

  “Yes.” She smiled. “Yes. I would like that, too.”

  She threw her arms around him and Henry scooped her up, kissing her. He set her back down on her feet.

  “So, I guess this time we can talk about a ring then?”

  “A ring?” She laughed. “I don’t need a ring.”

  “Oh, you need a ring now. And I’m not taking no for an answer.”

  “Should we tell your father it’s for real this time?” Kiera asked.

  Henry glanced back. “Later. How about we go take Mandy and her fiancé out for dinner? Let’s celebrate with your family.”

  “That sounds like a plan, Dr. Baker. That sounds like a good plan indeed.”

  They walked out of the empty hospital hand in hand.

  Her heart was so full.

  And for the first time since being a little girl, she felt like she was finally going home. The family she had longed for, for so long, had finally come to get her.

  She was no longer incomplete, frozen and stuck in a holding pattern.

  She was whole.

  She was going to have a family and a real place to call home.

  EPILOGUE

  A year later, Huntington Beach, California

  THERE WERE NO witnesses except for a justice of the peace who was standing beside him at the edge of the ocean and a small laptop sitting on a table that was connected to another laptop in Aspen, Colorado.

  Mandy, Derek and Sif were crowded on the small laptop screen as Henry stood on the beach in the same suit he’d worn the day he met Kiera, exactly one year ago.

  They hadn’t wanted a big society type of wedding, even though that had been his mother’s preference. Henry had been able to keep her at bay by promising her that she could throw a big society event when they headed back to
Aspen next week.

  One event. That’s all Henry was going to give his parents. One photo opportunity. The rest of the time he planned to spend locked away in his Aspen condo with his new bride. This time, she wouldn’t be shimmying out of the bed and there would definitely be no pillow walls between them.

  It was just going to be the two of them, locked away for a good week.

  There would be no work.

  No traumas.

  No medicine.

  Just them.

  Kiera walked down the stairs from his beach house. She was wearing a flowing white dress, and an ocean breeze caught it briefly. She laughed and held the dress down as she descended the steps and walked barefoot across the sand toward him.

  His heart swelled with pride as he saw her.

  Her red hair was braided back, but down, and golden strands shimmered in the bright California sun.

  She was absolutely breathtaking.

  Once they were in California, she had gotten a job as a trauma surgeon in the best hospital in Los Angeles, and for the last year they had been working hard.

  After the ceremony, they were having a nice monthlong vacation, and he was going to make the best of it.

  She stood in front of him, smiling.

  He took her hands.

  “You sure about this?” she asked.

  “Positive.”

  Kiera waved to Mandy and Derek on the screen.

  The justice of the peace stepped forward.

  “We’re gathered here today to witness the union of Henry Terrance Baker and Kiera Micheline Brown. Do you, Henry Terrance, take Kiera Micheline to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

  Henry smiled. “I do.”

  He pulled out a rose gold band that she had picked out from an antique shop in Venice Beach and slipped it on her slender finger.

  “And do you, Kiera Micheline, take Henry Terrance to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

  “I do.” She pulled a simple platinum band out of her dress and slipped it on his finger.

  “Then by the power invested in me by the state of California, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss your bride.”

  Henry smiled, pulled Kiera in close and kissed her, like he’d been wanting to do as he’d counted down the days until they were locked away together in Aspen.