Susanne Hampton – Midwife's Baby Bump (страница 1)
Married to the man she met at eighteen, SUSANNE HAMPTON is the mother of two adult daughters—one a musician and the other an artist. The family also extends to a slightly irritable Maltese shih-tzu, a neurotic poodle, three elderly ducks and four hens that only very occasionally bother to lay eggs. Susanne loves everything romantic and pretty, so her home is brimming with romance novels, movies and shoes.
With an interest in all things medical, her career has been in the dental field and the medical world in different roles, and now Susanne has taken that love into writing Mills & Boon® Medical Romance™.
Midwife’s
Baby Bump
Susanne Hampton
Writing this book came with challenges, as I had never been a part of a continuity and the idea of writing Felicia and Tristan’s love story within a much larger story was daunting. But it was equally exciting. It provided the opportunity for my hero and heroine to interact with characters who had already overcome obstacles to love and to introduce characters who would quite soon have their love story unfold.
Tristan Hamilton doesn’t see long-term love in his future. He has devoted his career to improving the quality of life of his tiny patients as he doesn’t want them to have the kind of sterile childhood he endured. Felicia Lawrence is a midwife in training who wants love, marriage and the whole white picket fence—because she never enjoyed anything close to that growing up. Flick never met her father, and she’s determined to provide her future children with a wonderful, loving home, but she won’t settle down with just anyone. She’s waiting for that one special man.
One unexpected night of passion sees Tristan and Flick’s lives steered by fate in a very different direction, and they have more than just themselves to consider. They have to take a leap of faith, learn to trust and open their hearts to a life they never planned.
I hope you enjoy their journey, filled with joy and setbacks, happiness and disappointment, and the discovery that true love is worth the risk.
Thank you to Sarah and Kate, two young women who dedicate their lives to helping others and still find time to offer me nursing and midwifery advice for my books.
I have a deep admiration for the women and men who choose careers in the field of medicine and the valuable ancillary services. They willingly and selflessly provide care for those who cannot care for themselves and emotional support for their families.
We would be lost without you.
Table of Contents
Dear Reader
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
IT ALL BEGAN just before lunch on the beach at Port Melbourne. Felicia Lawrence, or Flick as her family and friends knew her, squinted against the midday sun’s brilliant glare. Her sunglasses, she quickly realised, were still sitting on the kitchen bench.
As her feet sank into the soft warm sand, she decided not to walk back across the beachside road, up the stairs and unlock her second-floor apartment again. The sun’s heat felt so glorious on her bare shoulders and she felt sure if she headed inside she would find chores to do or even some study and she wanted the day to be different. She wanted to step away from her routine. Normally she was up early for her daily walk and back in the shower before six, well before work, but not this day. She was attending the Victoria Hospital ball and it was the first big gala event she had attended so Flick wanted everything about the day to be special.
She was a midwife in training, and it was her final-year placement at the Melbourne Maternity Unit within the large teaching hospital. Another midwife, Sophia, had encouraged her to attend the glitzy social function and she’d agreed. Since they were both single, they would be each other’s plus one.
Flick had slept in a little longer, enjoyed a light brunch and headed out about an hour before lunch. Wearing denim shorts and a bikini top, she walked down to the foreshore, tiptoeing over the expanse of broken seashells on her way to the shallows. She was making her way along the pristine sand when she heard her mobile phone ring. Caller ID showed it was her younger half-sister.
‘Hi, Megan.’
‘Hi, Flick, hope you’re doing absolutely nothing, just like I told you last night. No housework, no study, zilch. For once in your life make the day about you, Felicia Lawrence.’
‘As instructed.’ She laughed. ‘I’m walking along the sand and getting my feet wet.’
‘Speaking of getting your feet wet, what about looking for a boyfriend while you’re out tonight? It’s been for ever since you actually dated.’
Flick rolled her eyes. ‘Sophia and I are going as each other’s date. We just want to dress up in something other than scrubs and have some fun.’
‘I guess it’s a start.’ Megan’s voice sounded a little deflated. ‘At least you’re getting out, which is a damn sight better than your usual non-existent social life.’
Flick stopped walking as she reached the water’s edge and let her toes sink into the wet sand. The tepid water rushed up to her ankles.
‘I’m studying and doing my final placement. I don’t think now’s exactly the right time to think about my social life.’
‘I’m just saying if you find a handsome prince at the ball tonight, for God’s sake, Flick, don’t do your usual midnight cold-feet bolt! Just let it happen. You might surprise yourself.’
‘I’m not looking for anyone.’
‘I know, you’ve never been looking. You’ve had a sum total of two boyfriends, which isn’t surprising since you were working two jobs to save enough money for both of us to have the chance to study. You’ve built your life around taking care of everyone else. Look at yourself, Flick, even your career is delivering other women’s babies. Plus you have that ridiculously minute herb garden, your latest time-wasting mechanism and another way to fill your life and avoid a relationship. You don’t have to hide from men or procrastinate about accepting a date. There are some nice guys in the world, it’s just that our mother never brought that type home … or married one. And just because both of your boyfriends weren’t
Flick listened to the sisterly lecture, knowing there were more than a few half-truths. Her two boyfriends had been nice, perhaps too nice, she’d realised not long into each relationship. She had chosen both men because they’d been nothing like the type her mother would date. They’d been sensible, and stable with nice office jobs, hadn’t drunk more than light ale, and that had only been on weekends, they’d been averse to gambling and had seemed to share her dream of marriage and children.
They’d both ticked all the boxes but it hadn’t taken long to discover that being the opposite of her mother’s type didn’t guarantee love or anything close to it. There had been no spark, no chemistry, no fireworks. Something had been missing and Flick had known it wouldn’t be fair to string either one along. So they’d parted as friends since there had been no passion to incite a deeper reaction, and she’d found out that both had since married. They had offered a picket-fence ending, but Flick needed more. She wanted to raise her children in a happy family but she knew she needed to fall completely and hopelessly in love with the father of her children. She wanted to be swept off her feet by desire and spend her life with the man of her dreams. But she soon realised it was just that. A dream.
‘Let’s face it, we both had a pretty crappy childhood,’ Megan interrupted Flick’s thoughts. ‘I can’t remember one Christmas without our mother disappearing after a takeaway lunch to meet another potential boyfriend. And let’s not forget the presents she never bothered to wrap because she spent every spare minute updating her online dating profile. And then we were blamed each time a man left her. It was as if having children was a burden, preventing her from finding true love.’
‘True love isn’t often found in the front bar of the local hotel …’
‘No, but apparently both of our fathers were.’
They shook their heads in unison, neither knowing the other had done the same. There were no fond memories of their childhood, neither had met their father but at least they had each other.
‘I know you brought me up and as my big sister you don’t usually take my advice, plus I’m like a million years younger than you …’
‘Not quite a million,’ Flick cut in, laughing at her half-sister’s teasing as she stepped from the watery pool her feet had made and continued on her walk. ‘Try four!’
‘Anyway, take my little, but ever so much more worldly, sister advice and just let your stunning blonde hair down. Have just one night of fun and don’t over think it. You have been so ridiculously responsible your entire life and you need to walk a little on the wild side, even if it’s just for one night. And don’t spare our mother a second thought. Believe me, she’s not thinking about us right now.’