by Amy Ruttan
And she remembered Dr. Chin’s words, too, which Calum reminded her of, and that was that sometimes doing good could cause more harm and sometimes it was better to let things go. She used to think that applied to her dream of a family. Even though she swore she never wanted that, she really did.
Deep down, she did.
She wanted roots and she wanted a safe place.
She wanted a place to call home.
She wanted Calum and she wanted a family with him, whatever that consisted of. She wasn’t terrified of having a toxic relationship with Calum. She was afraid of having a toxic existence without him.
George was getting a second chance at life and as Pearl worked with Calum to ensure that George had that chance, she realized that she was being given a second chance at life, too, and she wasn’t going to squander it.
She was done running.
* * *
“George?” Pearl asked.
George was coming to in the postanesthesia recovery unit.
It had been a long surgery, but Pearl was glad that they were able to take his leg and leave a good enough stump, that when it healed, he would be able to get a prosthetic. With physiotherapy and training, George had a chance to run again.
For now, he would could use that keen eye and mind of his to strategize and train. On some level she wished that she could follow him and continue to be his doctor, but she missed her time in this hospital.
She missed San Francisco and, most of all, she missed Calum.
Pearl could see that now.
And this was her life. For the first time in a long time, she was going to start making the right decisions.
“George?” she asked gently again.
“Doc? Is it over?” he asked, murmuring.
“It is.”
“How bad was it?” he asked.
“Dr. Munro did an excellent job. When the stump heals you can be fitted with a state-of-the-art prosthetic, and with physiotherapy you can be running again.”
George smiled, his eyes still closed. “And all the cancer is gone?”
“That’s right. No more chemotherapy or radiation. It’s going to take some time for your body to heal, George. I’m going to give marching orders to your coach and your mom. Your body has been through a lot, but you’re going to live, George.”
“Well, of course I am.” He opened his eyes and smiled at her, his dark eyes twinkling. “With you as my doctor, of course I am.”
She sighed. “I’m no longer working for the Bridgers.”
He frowned. “I have to say I’m sad about that, Doc, but I get it. You’re in love with Dr. Munro and with the baby you’re doing what’s right for your family.”
“Exactly, but if that new doctor the Bridgers hire is a jerk...you can always come back to me.”
George smiled, his eyes getting heavy again. “Thanks, Doc. Thank you and Dr. Munro for saving me, for giving me a second chance at life. I was too pigheaded and stubborn to see that I was killing myself for nothing.”
“You’re welcome, George.”
George drifted back to sleep under the effects of his anesthetic. She slipped out of the recovery unit and informed George’s mom, and everyone else who was waiting to hear about him, the status of the surgery and that he was doing well.
After many hugs, she went in search of Calum. Their conversation had been cut short due to the surgery and there was more that she wanted to tell him.
She texted him and he texted back that he was in his office. She made her way to the other side of the hospital and found Calum waiting for her in his office. She slipped in and shut the door.
“How is George doing?” he asked.
“He’s stable. He’s doing well. I wanted to stay in the postanesthesia recovery unit until I made sure that he woke up and was okay. I told him that it will take time, but he should make a full recovery.”
“We got all the cancer and I’m so pleased with that. He’ll have a big adjustment, but you can take care of that as his physician.”
“No, I can’t.”
Calum looked confused. “I don’t understand?”
“I mean, I resigned.” She worried her bottom lip, her heart racing.
His eyes widened. “What?”
“I’m no longer the team surgeon for the Bridgers.” It felt weird to still say it out loud, but it also felt right.
“You loved that job. You were good at it.”
She sighed. “I do love my work, but I didn’t love that job. It was a means to escape. I did run, but I was afraid of having a toxic relationship with you. I didn’t think that a relationship could work between two people who worked together, but being here in this hospital again, it reminded me of everything I gave up. The most important piece of that was you.”
Calum smiled, his expression softening. “So what are you saying?”
“The chief of surgery said I had to clear it with the head of orthopedic surgery, but I would like to work here. If you could use another attending?”
“This is what you want?” he asked.
She grinned, nodding. “Yes. It is. I want to come home.”
Calum stood up and took her in his arms. “I think that can be arranged.”
“I want to stay in San Francisco. My life is here and I was a fool to think that I could run from it. I love you, Calum, and I’m glad that I get a second chance with you and I’m sorry that I wasn’t there when you needed me most, when I needed you the most. I was just too lost in my own darkness to realize that.”
“I love you, too, but I will say as your superior the moment the obstetrician puts you on bedrest you’re done. No more surgeries!”
“I’m seeing the OB in the morning and we’ll talk about what happened last time. There’s no guarantee this one will stick. It’s all risky.” And it terrified her still. She was nervous.
“It’s worth the risk.” He tipped her chin and kissed her gently. “It’s worth the risk to have you in my life. To have you stay with me.”
“I love you.” She kissed him again, deeper this time. “And in answer to your other question, yes.”
He looked confused. “What other question?”
“Yes. I’ll marry you. If you still want to get married?”
His eyes twinkled and he smiled. “I still want to marry you. How about Saturday?”
She laughed nervously. “The courts won’t be open.”
“Yeah, but Las Vegas is always open. We can fly down, get married. What do you say?”
“I think it’s insane.”
“Insanely good, right?” he teased. “So, what do you say?”
She kissed him again. “I say yes.”
And he answered her, by kissing her and never letting her go.
EPILOGUE
One year later
“DID YOU TIE the bolt down?” Pearl asked.
“Yes,” Calum answered, stuck under the pine tree they had purchased at the lot and trying to adjust the tree in a very rickety stand. Max the sheepdog was under the tree, watching what Calum was doing and wagging his tail nonstop.
“It looks crooked.”
He frowned at her briefly from under the tree. “That’s not helpful.”
She chuckled. “Well, I don’t know... There was nothing wrong with a fake tree.”
“Those are awful. This is Aidan’s first Christmas and we’re going to have a proper real tree.”
“Did you grow up with real trees? I grew up with fake ones,” she teased.
“Well, no. This is my first real tree, but I learned all about them before I decided on this.”
“You educated yourself?” she asked.
“Of course.”
Pearl rolled her eyes as Calum went back to work under the tree, cursing and muttering to himself. What he needed was a better tre
e stand, but he was happy with the one he had bought himself.
He’d just underestimated the size of the tree he’d purchased.
It was cute that he thought they needed a real tree for Aidan’s first Christmas when Aidan was only three months old. Pearl glanced at him, sleeping soundly in his portable bassinet, totally unaware of the ministrations that his father was going through to make his first Christmas magical.
When it was already magical.
Aidan had been their miracle baby. The pregnancy had been a breeze. She’d gone into labor and Aidan was born on his due date, promptly and quickly.
She had a feeling that if she ever had another baby she wouldn’t be so lucky. And he was the best baby there was, sleeping through the night, no colic. Calum liked to tease that he was an alien baby because he was just so perfect.
Pearl didn’t know about the alien thing, but she couldn’t help but agree that he was perfect. Everyone doted on him and Derek, her godson, called himself honorary big brother. Derek was walking so well. He couldn’t climb as well as he used to, but he was still active and Pearl was glad to have Derek in Aidan’s life.
He was going to be a good influence. Although, Dianne still like to bring up that she thought it was a sore spot that she didn’t get to go to their impromptu wedding in Vegas. However, Dianne and Jerome being Aidan’s godparents more than made up for it.
After the wedding she moved into Calum’s home and together, when she was feeling up to it, they finished off renovations. His little apartment inside the home was good enough for him, but Pearl had other plans for the large home.
The Bridgers had sent over a team onesie, personally delivered by George, who was managing so well with his prosthetic. When he had come over to see the baby, he was talking to her about training in the spring and that he was getting married to his old college sweetheart.
They’d gone their separate ways when he was drafted to the Bridgers because she didn’t want to go to San Francisco and he had shut her out because of his cancer. George had been inspired by what Pearl and Calum had gone through, the moment he could travel again, he went to Philadelphia, found Reese and proposed right there and then.
Max barked and the sharp sound startled Aidan so he began to fuss.
Pearl scooped him up and held him close. He instantly stopped fussing and her heart soared with happiness. Aidan George Munro was the perfect child and she was so lucky to have him.
Her parents were distant and Calum’s mother was gone, but Grayson was involved in his grandson’s life, though Calum was still sorting through his emotions for his estranged father. Still, he didn’t deny his son is grandfather. Aidan had enough people who weren’t blood-related to make up a family and that was all that mattered.
Blood didn’t make a family. Love did.
Max barked again.
“Max, you’re not helping matters, buddy.” Calum slid out from the tree. It was still leaning heavily on its side. He frowned. “I can do a surgery so intricate on delicate, brittle bones, surgeries that deal with nerves, and yet that blasted tree...”
Pearl laughed. “You need a bigger stand. Your eyeballs were bigger than the stand you had.”
Calum nodded. “Yes. You may be right.”
“What do you mean I may be right? I am right. Look at that thing.”
He stood up and stretched. “Fine. You’re right.”
Calum put his arm around her and stared down at his son.
“I’ll get a bigger stand in the morning,” he said.
“Good.” And as she said good Max stood up from under the tree and they both watched in amusement as the tree fell to its side again.
“You know, this reminds me of one of those cheesy Christmas movies where the dad overestimates the ratio of tree and house.”
Calum chuckled. “I will not be that dad.”
“You have a blinding amount of lights outside the house. You are so that dad and trying to make a good old-fashioned, fun family Christmas.”
“Fine. I am. We both haven’t had really traditional Christmases. I wanted something Aidan would remember...even if he won’t remember this.” Calum picked up the tree and set it in a corner until he could get a new stand.
Pearl headed over to the large bay window, to look out over the street and all the lights. Aidan was sleeping in her arms, but it didn’t matter.
This time of year had never really mattered to her, until now.
Calum came up behind her. “I love you. Thank you for being my family.”
“I love you, too. Thank you for being my family.”
He kissed the top of her head, his arms around her and her arms around their son.
Now she understood what these holidays meant, because she had finally found her family. Even if it had been under her nose all this time.
She had found her family.
She had finally come home.
* * *
If you enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from Amy Ruttan
Baby Bombshell for the Doctor Prince
Pregnant with the Paramedic’s Baby
Royal Doc’s Secret Heir
The Surgeon’s Convenient Husband
All available now!
Keep reading for an excerpt from Pacific Paradise, Second Chance by Susan Carlisle.
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Pacific Paradise, Second Chance
by Susan Carlisle
CHAPTER ONE
LANDON COCHRAN, MD, scrolled through the pages of the file on his tablet again. He studied the name in black on the screen: Macie Beck. Surely it wasn’t the same woman. There must be any number of Macie Becks in the world. What were the chances that the one he had known was currently in the Northern Mariana Islands? Even slimmer the chance that she’d be on the small island of Saipan? It couldn’t be her.
As the one-hundred-and-fifty-passenger plane circled the twelve-mile-long lush green island below, Landon looked out the window. Though it was an American territory, Saipan was closer to China than to Hawaii.
The plane lined up for its approach along the single landing strip of the airport, which was built on top of a mountain. This was nothing like the busy airports he was used to. There was none of the hustle and bustle, not even another plane in sight.
He gathered his satchel and hoped his larger bag had made it onto the airplane. In this part of the world, weight was carefully considered on flights. Often bags would be left behind to show up on the next plane, which might be the next day. It had happened to him only once, but ever since, he carried a change of clothes in his smaller bag just in case.
Soon, the plane landed and passengers were disembarking. As Landon stepped out and walked down the metal stairway that had been rolled to the plane, he looked at the lush vines and vegetation all around the area. This part of the world was hot, muggy and rainy. Welcome to the tropics, he thought. He followed the other passengers across the tarmac to the low gray terminal.
Landon entered the cool building and waited for his luggage. Twenty minutes later, with his rolling bag in hand, he headed out the glass doors to the parking lot, where the late afternoon heat was offset by a slight ocean breeze. Across the street stood the abandoned cement bones of a chain hotel, left unfinished.
He located a man who held a card with his name on it.
“I’m Dr. Cochran.”
“Welcome to Saipan.” The man gave him a toothy grin and took his large bag, then led Landon toward a car. “I am Mario,” he said with a slight accent.
While Mario put his bag in the trunk, Landon chose to sit in the front so he could check out
the area. He wasn’t here to be pampered. He had a tough job ahead, and he needed to familiarize himself with the people and the island as quickly as possible.
As Mario drove down the winding road toward the coast, they passed small square houses made of cement blocks. Many had grassy yards while others were surrounded by dirt spaces filled with chickens. They turned south up a wider two-lane road that skirted the coastline. Businesses lined the sides of the road, many with palm trees in front that swirled in the wind. To Landon’s amazement, cars filled the roadway.
For someone who had grown up in the American Midwest, this was a completely different environment. When he was in the navy, he’d been deployed as far west as Hawaii, where he had loved the heat, breeze and ocean. Apparently, he would get plenty of that here. That was, if he had a chance to get out of the hospital long enough to appreciate it. He’d come to evaluate the Saipan Hospital and ensure that it received the updates necessary to give the people of Saipan and the surrounding islands the best healthcare possible.
Soon, a white building with windows running across the front came into view. Mario steered the car into the circular drive and stopped under the brick porte cochere.
“Here we are.” Mario gave Landon another grin before getting out. Landon followed suit and met him at the rear of the car to pick up his luggage.
“Thank you,” he said to the man, then took the handle of his luggage and rolled it behind him through the glass-door entrance.
Inside, the building was cool. A long tile corridor lay before him, and he searched for a sign that would direct him to the administration office. The pharmacy was located to his left and the emergency waiting room entrance to his right, yet he didn’t see any directions to Administration, so he continued down the hallway cross an intersection of a hall and continued on. At the end of the long hall he took a chance and turned left. There he found the office.
After opening the single glass door, he spoke to the thirtysomething, slim, local woman behind the desk. “I’m Dr. Landon Cochran of the World Health Organization. Macie Beck should be expecting me.”
