Read The Surgeon's Convenient Fiancée (Medical Romance) for Free Online Page B

her mind. Between them they would sort out something that was good for her daughter’s children.
    Thoughtfully Deirdre sat on her bed and stared at the locked door. Things were falling into place. It had long puzzled her why a self-centred, impatient man like Jerry would go through the motions of being a father when his heart and his talents were very obviously not in that direction. As for herself, she had only been able to tolerate the situation because he was away a lot, travelling overseas in connection with his work, mostly to Third World countries, involved in sweat-shop manufacturing, she thought. The house was just sort of a hotel to him, where he expected service and comfort, rather than a home to which he should contribute something.
    She wondered how Moira could ever have got involved with someone like Jerry. Perhaps he had offered her material things at a time when her own profession had been precarious and she had had the two children to support. Those children were the products of Moira’s idealistic student days, it seemed, when love and attraction had taken precedence over birth control and common sense.
    What irony that Moira had won millionsin a lottery just before she had contracted a terminal illness.
    Deirdre’s mobile phone, on the bed beside her, shrilled.
    ‘Hi! This is Shay Melburne,’ the now familiar voice said. ‘I decided to give you a call because I’ve been wondering if you are all right, in view of the fact that you didn’t want to enter the house earlier in the evening.’
    ‘Oh, hello,’ Deirdre said, blushing and absurdly pleased to hear his voice, even though she knew that he was forbidden to her, so to speak, being married. ‘That’s kind of you. I… well…there has been a showdown of sorts, but it’s going to be all right, I think. I’m going to see the children’s grandmother tomorrow, who’s my real employer.’
    ‘And that will be all right, you think?’ his pleasant, calm voice enquired.
    ‘I think it will clarify the situation for me,’ she said.
    ‘My second reason for calling,’ he said, his tone light, ‘is from a morbid curiosity to find out if Basil the rat got into your groceries in the garage.’
    As he had, no doubt, intended, she laughed.‘No, everything was intact,’ she said. ‘Sweet of you to ask, though.’
    ‘I’m also calling to see if you would like to come to the hospital tomorrow, maybe at lunchtime. I could meet you in the main lobby, we could have lunch in the hospital cafeteria, maybe, and then I could show you the operating suite…with the permission of the head nurse. I’m not actually operating tomorrow, but I do have to see some patients in the outpatients department in the morning.’
    The glow of pleasure that suffused her made it plain that there was no way she would refuse such a wonderful opportunity. Things were moving quickly. Perhaps getting to breaking point and then taking action always moved things along in this way when you found yourself at an impasse. ‘Well…I have to see my employer at eleven o’clock tomorrow,’ she said hesitantly, ‘and expect to be with her for at least an hour…’
    ‘Would one o’clock be all right?’
    ‘Yes. Thank you, I really appreciate that.’
    ‘My pleasure. See you tomorrow, then. Are you sure that everything’s all right?’ Even though he scarcely knew her, he wasobviously picking up vibes or something, she thought, from the tone of her voice.
    ‘There’s nothing I can’t cope with,’ she said, lying, forcing a lightness to her voice. ‘Goodnight.’
    ‘Goodnight.’ It seemed to her that he sounded reluctant to hang up.
    Perhaps the act of nearly running her over was on his conscience, so that he felt an exaggerated responsibility for her, she speculated. It was good that he did. She sat there on the bed glowing with an unaccustomed sense of being cared for. Having had to stand on her own two feet for so long had made her feel like a wary, hunted animal a lot of