0373659504 (R)
Authors: Brenda Harlen
“Surprise... You’re pregnant!”
Obstetrician Avery Wallace has uttered those words but never had them said
to her
...till now, just three weeks after her unexpected New Year’s Eve with the hospital’s “Dr. Romeo,” Justin Garrett. But Avery’s sworn off marriage, motherhood and men—especially doctors. And it isn’t attraction she feels for the sexy ER doc...it’s pregnancy hormones!
“Let’s get married.”
One night isn’t enough for Justin, not when he’s crushed on Avery for years. But a baby? Not in his plans. So no one’s more surprised by his proposal...or more disappointed by her refusal. The hospital’s buzzing but Justin doesn’t care. He knows what to do—and he has a little over eight months to do it: convince Avery to make him a husband before he becomes a daddy.
What was on her little mind?
She looked like she was about to jump out of her skin. And he needed to know why.
“So why you’d ask me over?”
Avery’s fork fell and clattered against her plate. “I just wanted to follow up...about what happened...on New Year’s.”
He didn’t need a reminder. The heat between them had been undeniable, so strong he’d pulled her into the nearest private spot—a supply closet. He’d waited three years to have her, and the memories of that night still played out in his dreams.
“What
exactly
requires follow-up?” he asked.
She didn’t look at him. “Well...it, um, turns out we didn’t, um...dodge the bullet.”
It took him a minute to figure out what she was saying. Then he felt something deep in his gut. “You’re...pregnant?”
She pulled a narrow plastic stick out of her pocket. Two lines showed in the window. Then she met his eyes. “You’re going to be a daddy.”
* * *
THOSE ENGAGING GARRETTS!: The Carolina Cousins!
Dear Reader,
Whenever I sit down to start a new project, I think about the characters—who are the hero and heroine at the center of the story? And while it’s always fun to discover that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things, I thought it might be fun to introduce some extraordinary people and see how they respond to ordinary events.
Doctors are true heroes and heroines every day of their lives, but when it comes to matters of the heart (and I don’t mean cardiology!), they occasionally stumble just like the rest of us.
Justin Garrett has everything going for him: he’s good-looking, smart, charming and rich. In addition to all of that, he’s also a doctor—a combination that makes him pretty much irresistible to women... Except Avery Wallace. The savvy obstetrician isn’t the type to fall for his practiced lines or sexy smile, and she’s
definitely
not going to fall into his bed.
But after working side by side in the ER on New Year’s Eve, an innocent kiss leads to more guilty pleasures—with unexpected consequences!
I hope you enjoy Justin and Avery’s journey!
Happy reading,
Brenda Harlen
Two Doctors & a Baby
Brenda Harlen
Brenda Harlen
is a former attorney who once had the privilege of appearing before the Supreme Court of Canada. The practice of law taught her a lot about the world and reinforced her determination to become a writer—because in fiction, she could promise a happy ending! Now she is an award-winning, national bestselling author of more than thirty titles for Harlequin. You can keep up-to-date with Brenda on Facebook and Twitter or through her website,
brendaharlen.com
.
Books by Brenda Harlen
Harlequin Special Edition
Those Engaging Garretts!
The Single Dad’s Second Chance
From Neighbors...to Newlyweds?
Montana Mavericks: What Happened at the Wedding?
Merry Christmas, Baby Maverick!
Montana Mavericks: 20 Years in the Saddle!
The Maverick’s Thanksgiving Baby
Montana Mavericks: Rust Creek Cowboys
A Maverick under the Mistletoe
Montana Mavericks: Back in the Saddle
The Maverick’s Ready-Made Family
Reigning Men
Visit the Author Profile page at
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This book is dedicated to all the real-life doctors, nurses, EMTs and others who work in the medical field—because you make a difference, every single day. Thank you!
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 Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Epilogue
Excerpt from
Fortune’s Special Delivery
by Michelle Major
Chapter One
A
fter six years at Mercy Hospital, Dr. Justin Garrett knew that Friday nights in the ER were inevitably frenzied and chaotic.
New Year’s Eve was worse.
And when New Year’s Eve happened to fall on a Friday—well, it wasn’t yet midnight and he’d already seen more than twice the usual number of patients pass through the emergency department, most of the incidents and injuries directly related to alcohol consumption.
A drunken college student who had put his fist through a wall—and his basketball scholarship in jeopardy—with fractures of the fourth and fifth metacarpal bones. A sixty-three-year-old man who had doubled up on Viagra to celebrate the occasion with his thirty-six-year-old wife and ended up in cardiac arrest instead. A seventeen-year-old female who had fallen off her balcony because the Ecstasy slipped into her drink by her boyfriend had made her want to pick the pretty flowers on her neighbor’s terrace—thankfully, she lived on the second floor, although she did sustain a broken clavicle and had required thirty-eight stitches to close the gash on her arm, courtesy of the glass vodka cooler bottle she had been holding when she fell.
And those were only the ones he’d seen in the past hour. Then there was Nancy Anderson—a woman who claimed she tripped and fell into a door but whom he recognized from her frequent visits to the ER with various and numerous contusions and lacerations. Tonight it was a black eye, swollen jaw and broken wrist. Nancy wasn’t drunk, but Justin would bet that her husband was—not because it was New Year’s Eve but because Ray Anderson always hit the bottle as soon as he got home from work.
More than once, Justin had tried to help her see that there were other options. She refused to listen to him. Because he understood that a woman who had been abused by her husband might be reluctant to confide in another man, he’d called in a female physician to talk to her, with the same unsatisfactory result. After Thanksgiving, when she’d suffered a miscarriage caused by a “fall down the stairs,” Dr. Wallace had suggested that she talk to a counselor. Nancy Anderson continued to insist that she was just clumsy, that her husband loved her and would never hurt her.
“What did she say happened this time?” asked Callie Levine, one of his favorite nurses who had drawn the short straw and got stuck working the New Year’s Eve shift beside him.
“Walked into a door.”
Callie shook her head. “He’s going to kill her one of these days.”
“Probably,” Justin admitted grimly. “But it doesn’t matter that you and I see it when she refuses to acknowledge what’s happening.”
“When she lost the baby, I honestly thought
that
would do it. That her grief would override her fear and she would finally tell the truth.”
“She fell down the stairs,” Justin said, reminding her of the explanation Nancy Anderson had given when she was admitted on that previous occasion.
Then, because talking about the woman’s situation made him feel both frustrated and ineffectual, he opened another chart. “Did you call up to the psych department for a consult?”
“Victoria Danes said she would be down shortly,” Callie told him. “Did you want her to see Mrs. Anderson?”
“No point,” he said. “I just need her to talk to Tanner Northrop so we can figure out what to do there.”
“Is that the little boy in Exam Two with Dr. Wallace?”
“Dr. Wallace is still here?” He’d crossed paths with Avery Wallace earlier in the evening when he’d sneaked into the doctor’s lounge for a much-needed hit of caffeine and she’d strolled in, wearing a formfitting black dress and mile-high heels, and his eyes had almost popped right out of his head.
She’d barely glanced in his direction as she’d made her way to the women’s locker room, emerging a few minutes later in faded scrubs and running shoes. It didn’t matter that the more familiar attire disguised her delectable feminine curves—his body was always on full alert whenever she was near.
She’d moved to Charisma three and a half years earlier and started working at Mercy Hospital. Since then, he’d gotten to know her pretty well—professionally, at least. Personally, she wouldn’t give him the time of day, despite the definite sizzle in the air whenever they were around each other.
Although she wasn’t on the schedule tonight, she’d assisted him with a procedure earlier in the evening because they were short staffed and she was there. He’d expected that she would have gone home after that—making her escape as soon as possible. Apparently, he was wrong.
Callie nodded in response to his question. “She’s teaching the kid how to play Go Fish.”
He smiled at that, grateful Tanner had some kind of distraction. The eight-year-old had dialed 9-1-1 after his mother shot up a little too much of her favorite heroin cocktail and wouldn’t wake up. She still hadn’t woken up, and Tanner didn’t seem to know if he had any other family.