The Heart Surgeon's Baby Surprise Page 18

  some little incident at work as he cooked their dinner.

  But all she’d wanted was a baby—he’d known that

  from the start.

  ‘That coffee smells good. Good morning, or is it

  good afternoon?’

  She was wearing one of his shirts that barely covered

  her butt and made her glorious legs look so good he

  wanted to tell her she should wear less more often.

  Then not tell her, because he would hate for another

  man to see her as she was now.

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  THE HEART SURGEON’S BABY SURPRISE

  ‘I’m in a clothes bind again,’ she said, for all the

  world as if nothing had happened between them and

  they were back where they’d been before he’d brought

  up the child as his father’s heir. ‘All my gear is back at

  my place and somehow…’ she blushed in the way he

  found irresistible ‘…I tore the skirt I was wearing when

  we came in.’

  He sipped his coffee and wondered just how long

  this nothing conversation would go on, then he

  suddenly realised that this was Grace being Grace

  again—cool, competent, classy, and covering up such

  a welter of insecurities he didn’t know how she did it.

  But although he’d seen through the act, he wasn’t

  going to let on—not just yet. After all, hadn’t she been

  keeping him waiting?

  ‘Coffee?’ he offered, and that’s when she snapped.

  ‘Of course I don’t want coffee. We were supposed

  to be talking, to be sorting things out, and suddenly

  we’re back in bed together and nothing’s sorted—’

  He knew that now she’d started she’d keep going

  for it was how she got uncomfortable things said, so

  he broke in.

  ‘Except me telling you I love you—surely that’s a

  step in the right direction.’

  Her hands stole to her cheeks, scarlet again.

  ‘I thought I might have dreamt that part,’ she said,

  so hesitant he had to stand up and put his arms around

  her.

  ‘You didn’t dream it. I do love you, and while it

  might make things complicated for you, you’d better

  learn to live with it because I’m going to love you for

  a long, long time, Grace Sutherland. And loving you I

  MEREDITH WEBBER

  179

  want to live with you, with you and our child and

  whatever other children we might have. I said before I’d

  like to see South Africa—moving there is no problem

  to me.’

  She was looking at him, her eyes still wary, as if

  afraid to accept what he was saying, while Theo himself

  was growing increasingly anxious because, although

  his declaration was going quite well, there didn’t seem

  to be any answering declaration from the woman to

  whom he was professing such love.

  For one panicky moment he wondered if he’d got it

  wrong—totally wrong—and she didn’t love him, but

  he’d learned to read her and he thought…

  Now her clear blue eyes met his.

  ‘It was living together I wanted to talk about,’ she

  said, so quietly he had to strain, and hold her closer, in

  order to hear the words. ‘On the plane. That’s what I

  was thinking, that it would be best for the baby, but I

  knew how you felt and didn’t know how to ask you if

  you’d mind, and also it seemed to me as if I was going

  back on our agreement even to think about it, but, Theo,

  if you love me…’

  He kissed her gently on the lips.

  ‘I do love you and although it’s hard for you to be-

  lieve that, you’ve got to try, maybe say it to yourself a

  hundred times a day. “Theo loves me.” Three little

  words—not hard.’

  Could she hear his tension in the huskiness of his

  voice that she said the words then returned his kiss,

  pressing her lips against his before saying them again?

  ‘Maybe a million times a day,’ she said, a radiant

  smile breaking out on her face.

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  THE HEART SURGEON’S BABY SURPRISE

  ‘Just as long as you believe it,’ he growled, and held

  her tight against his body, delighting in the feel of Grace

  in his arms again, considering going back to bed, re-

  fusing to think about the fact she might not love him…

  He deepened the kiss, ruthlessly dragging such a

  response from her that she trembled against him, whis-

  pering his name in breathless gasps.

  ‘Bed?’ she suggested, but he shook his head.

  ‘No way,’ he said, and held her aroused body a little

  away from him so he could look into her flushed face

  and starry eyes. ‘Not until we’ve talked, and I don’t

  mean about arrangements and agreements and babies

  having two parents. I want other talk—it’s time for love

  talk, Grace.’

  The colour faded from her cheeks and once again he

  was gripped by a fear that he’d got it wrong, but her chin

  tilted upward and her eyes met his.

  ‘I’ve only told one other man I loved him, Theo,’ she

  said quietly, ‘and he destroyed that love in the most

  public and painful way possible. I promised myself I’d

  never fall in love again, but almost from the moment

  we met I found myself being drawn to you—not only

  with our atoms hooking, but our minds as well. You

  were kind, and considerate and understanding, and

  suddenly there you were in my heart. Although I’d told

  young Kelly that love didn’t live in hearts, I knew you’d

  taken up residence in mine. But knowing how you felt,

  I didn’t want to embarrass you by telling you.’

  Theo hugged her close again.

  ‘If I promise not to be embarrassed, will you tell me

  now?’ he murmured against the soft gold hair that

  smelled of orange blossom.

  MEREDITH WEBBER

  181

  She nodded then eased away from him.

  ‘I love you, Theo, with all my heart and all whatever

  other organs might be involved with love.’

  ‘Thank heavens for that!’ he said, giving her a hug

  of absolute joy. ‘ Now we can go back to bed!’

  CHAPTER TEN

  SCARLETT was doing well with her new heart—so well,

  in fact, they were considering moving her out of the

  PICU. Grace stood looking down at the little baby,

  thinking of her own child—hers and Theo’s—growing

  inside her, when Mrs Robinson appeared.

  ‘I know they’re not supposed to tell, the social wel-

  fare people, but my husband had to know who’d ar-

  ranged the money so we could come down and be with

  Scarlett and now we want to thank you,’ she said

  quietly, handing Grace a bulky parcel.

  ‘Oh, no, I don’t want a gift—my gift was the

  pleasure of being able to help,’ she said, but Mrs

  Robinson insisted she have it so Grace unwrapped it

  and there, folded carefully, lay the most beautiful, del-

  icately knitted, cream shawl.

  ‘It’s from wool from our own sheep—super fine—

  and my mother spun it then I
knitted it. I’ve knitted one

  for each of the children so they’d each have one to pass

  on to their children, and at first we thought Scarlett was

  going to be a twin so this time I knitted two, but now

  I’d like you to have it for your baby.’

  MEREDITH WEBBER

  183

  ‘My baby?’ Grace queried, unable to believe this

  was happening—first that Mrs Robinson had found

  out about her gift, and now that the woman knew she

  was expecting.

  ‘I told you my mother was the seventh daughter of a

  seventh daughter—she said Scarlett would be saved by

  a pregnant woman and looking at you, seeing your smile

  when you look at Scarlett and all the babies here, it’s just

  confirmed what Mum said. You are pregnant, aren’t

  you?’

  Grace nodded, but had no idea what to say. She could

  feel heat rising in her cheeks, and knew if she tried to

  talk she’d probably cry, but fortunately, as she held the

  beautiful shawl in her hands, Theo came in and appar-

  ently took in the situation with one glance.

  ‘Ah, first baby gift, and what a beautiful one,’ he

  said, picking up the shawl and holding it out so Grace

  could see the lacy, intricately knitted pattern. ‘Thank

  you, Mrs Robinson, we’ll treasure this.’

  Mrs Robinson beamed with pride, and Grace,

  though exceptionally grateful for Theo’s intervention,

  was now even more confused.

  ‘How did you know what it was?’ she demanded a

  little later when they found themselves alone in the

  tearoom.

  He laughed and kissed her lightly on the lips.

  ‘One look at your face was enough to tell me. You

  were shocked and delighted and happy and bamboozled

  all at once and I thought, There’s my beautiful Grace,

  all uncertain again because someone’s done something

  nice for her and she doesn’t know how to handle it.’

  He kissed her again.

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  THE HEART SURGEON’S BABY SURPRISE

  ‘You have to believe in yourself, Grace Sutherland.

  Oh, you do as far as your profession goes—you know

  you’re good at what you do—but in your personal life

  you have to accept that you are one of the world’s

  nicest, kindest, most caring and concerned people, and

  you don’t have to hide that niceness and kindness and

  caring and concern behind a screen of polite disinter-

  est, or brusqueness, or a distant manner because no

  one’s ever going to take you for granted again. If they

  do, they’ll have me to answer to and I can be a very for-

  midable man when I like!’

  He sounded so fierce Grace had to laugh, and,

  laughing, she fell into his arms, so when Phil wandered

  in he found them locked together, not laughing now but

  reaffirming all the words they’d spoken over the last few

  days with a kiss.

  ‘Got things sorted, then,’ Phil said, walking past

  them to put on the kettle.

  ‘You might say that,’ Theo told him, then, because

  it was only Phil, he went on kissing Grace.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-3030-3

  THE HEART SURGEON’S BABY SURPRISE

  First North American Publication 2009

  Copyright © 2008 by Meredith Webber

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or

  utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic,

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  publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road,

  Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are

  either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously,

  and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business

  establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  Document Outline

  Title page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Copyright Page

  Table of Contents

  Start