A Pup to Rescue Their Hearts Read online

  Twins Reunited on the Children’s Ward

  A very unexpected reunion!

  Pediatric consultant Josh Stanmore can—quite literally!—not believe his eyes when he finds himself face-to-face with Gloucester General Hospital’s newest doctor, Lachlan McKendry. It’s like looking in a mirror! As Josh and Lachlan’s working lives entwine on the children’s ward, they start to unravel the secrets of their past... But it’s the help of two inspirational women that will let them look to a future that they never thought possible!

  Meet Josh and Lachlan in...

  A Pup to Rescue Their Hearts

  Josh Stanmore thought his life was complete...until pup Lucky and single mom Stevie step into his life—and leave his heart wanting more!

  A Surgeon with a Secret

  Surgeon Lachlan’s life is falling apart... Can nurse Flick be the one to help him put it back together?

  Dear Reader,

  I’d like to introduce to you Josh Stanmore and Lachlan McKendry. They were separated at birth and adopted into very different families—one ordinary and one of extreme wealth and privilege. One knows he’s adopted, but one has never been told. They had different reasons to choose a career in medicine, but they’ve both ended up in the pediatric field, which is how they unexpectedly meet each other. They have different reasons to mistrust family and love, but they’re both about to take on what could be the biggest challenge of their lives—finding love...

  Josh and Lachlan are extraordinary men and they both needed absolutely amazing women. Come and meet Stevie and Flick. I hope that you’ll love them as much as I do!

  Happy reading!

  With love,

  Alison Roberts

  xx

  A Pup to Rescue Their Hearts

  Alison Roberts

  Alison Roberts is a New Zealander, currently lucky enough to be living in the South of France. She is also lucky enough to write for the Harlequin Medical Romance line. A primary school teacher in a former life, she is now a qualified paramedic. She loves to travel and dance, drink champagne, and spend time with her daughter and her friends.

  Books by Alison Roberts

  Harlequin Medical Romance

  Royal Christmas at Seattle General

  Falling for the Secret Prince

  Medics, Sisters, Brides

  Awakening the Shy Nurse

  Saved by Their Miracle Baby

  Rescue Docs

  Resisting Her Rescue Doc

  Pregnant with Her Best Friend’s Baby

  Dr. Right for the Single Mom

  Hope Children’s Hospital

  Their Newborn Baby Gift

  Twins on Her Doorstep

  Melting the Trauma Doc’s Heart

  Single Dad in Her Stocking

  The Paramedic’s Unexpected Hero

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

  Praise for Alison Roberts

  “Overall, Ms. Roberts has delivered a delightful read in this book where the chemistry between this couple was strong from the moment they meet... The romance was heart-warming.”

  —Harlequin Junkie on Melting the Trauma Doc’s Heart

  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

  EXCERPT FROM A SURGEON WITH A SECRET BY ALISON ROBERTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  PAUSING ON HIS way to grab a coffee in the paediatric ward’s staffroom was a deliberate action on the part of Dr Josh Stanmore. He’d spotted that new nurse coming towards him and, as Head of Department, he knew it was high time he introduced himself and made this new staff member feel welcome. He’d noticed her before, of course. Who wouldn’t when that wildly curly, rich auburn hair would make her stand out in any crowd? The fact that she was undeniably gorgeous was not something that was consciously crossing Josh’s mind right then, however. His motive was professional, not personal.

  Even more unlikely to occur to him was the thought that this momentary, random interruption, in his quest to find a caffeine hit to help get him through the rest of a busy afternoon, would end up saving a life.

  Maybe it was because he didn’t want the newest addition to the paediatric staff of Gloucester General Hospital to feel intimidated by the HOD watching her approach that made him avert his gaze for a moment. To turn his head and glance through the windows of the playroom that ran the width of this end of the ward. A playroom that was deserted for the moment because afternoon visiting hours were over and it was a rest time for all their patients.

  Except...the playroom wasn’t quite deserted, was it? Josh could see small, bare legs beside a large, pink bean bag. And an even smaller hand, lying palm upwards, with the fingers curled as if the child was asleep.

  Or...unconscious?

  With a muttered oath, Josh stepped swiftly through the door of the brightly decorated room, moving far enough to be able to see the rest of the child and instantly recognising that she wasn’t one of the patients on this ward. This little girl wasn’t wearing a plastic identification bracelet on her wrist and she was not wearing pyjamas or slippers. She had sparkly pink shoes on and a dark blue dress that was...good grief...almost the same shade as her lips.

  It took Josh only another two strides before he could crouch beside the child. To check her mouth for any obvious obstruction to her airway and then slide his fingers down to her neck to feel for a pulse at the same time as assessing whether she was breathing or not.

  She wasn’t.

  Josh had no idea how long this child had been unconscious. She wasn’t breathing but she still had a palpable pulse so he wasn’t too late. There was no time to go looking for equipment like a bag mask or a defibrillator. There was only one thing to do and Josh didn’t hesitate. He pinched the little girl’s nose shut as he pulled in some air before covering her mouth with his own to try and deliver a lifesaving breath. And then another.

  Breaths that failed to make that small chest rise.

  He knew he had to call for assistance but fear was enough to make him take another few seconds to scoop this little girl into his arms and turn her face down with her head lower than her chest. He flattened his hand so that he could apply back blows that might be effective enough to dislodge whatever was blocking her airway.

  * * *

  She’d seen him standing near the door to the playroom and the fact that her path was about to cross for the first time with that of the man who was effectively her new boss had been enough to make Stephanie Hawksbury’s heart skip a beat. For a moment she thought he might be waiting for her but then he ducked into the playroom and, by the time she got close enough to see through the windows, he was on his knees on the floor, playing with a child.

  Wait...

  Nobody played with a child by hitting them on the back like that. It took Stevie only another split second to process what was actually going on and the armload of toys she’d been returning to the playroom fell from her arms to scatter and bounce on the floor. She shoved the door open, dragging in a deep breath.

  ‘What do you need me to do, Doctor?’

  ‘Get the door.’ His words were terse as he got to his feet with the child cradled in his arms. ‘Treatment room...stat...’

  Stevie
held the door and then ran to get in front of him so that she could hold the door of the well-equipped treatment room that was used for a wide range of procedures that included anything from inserting a new intravenous line to a full-on resuscitation attempt.

  Like this one...

  Josh Stanmore laid the small girl on the bed in the centre of the room. Stevie was already pushing the airway trolley closer. If he’d been delivering back blows, it was obvious that Josh thought this small patient was choking and it was very obvious that she was becoming hypoxic from lack of oxygen. The small face was as white as a sheet, making the contrast with her blue lips all the more shocking.

  Stevie would get the defibrillator next, of course, because if the breathing had stopped completely, a cardiac arrest would not be far away. She also turned her head towards the large red button beside the door that could trigger a cardiac arrest alarm that would have a dedicated team rushing towards them to assist.

  Josh must have seen the direction of her glance but he wasn’t about to stop for anything just yet—perhaps because he knew he had all the equipment he needed in this room and that he also knew they had only a matter of minutes before irreversible brain damage could occur and they couldn’t afford to lose even precious seconds. He didn’t have a whole team of medics to direct but the intensity of the gaze that was currently fixed on Stevie suggested that he thought she was capable of providing whatever assistance he needed.

  And, dammit...that was exactly what she going to do. Whatever it took. There was no way she was going to let a child die in front of her like this.

  ‘Start chest thrusts,’ Josh ordered. ‘I’m going to try direct vision to see the obstruction. If that doesn’t work, we’re going to need to do a surgical airway.’

  Stevie positioned one hand on the centre of the child’s chest and began pushing in the same way she would for compressions in CPR. Even if the child’s heart was still beating, this was the protocol for a choking child because the action, like back blows, could potentially dislodge the obstruction.

  From the corner of her eye, she saw Josh choosing a curved blade to snap onto the handle of the laryngoscope and clicking on the light to test it. He was also scanning the trolley.

  ‘I can’t see any Magill’s forceps.’

  ‘Second drawer down on the left.’

  ‘Got it.’

  ‘Shall I try another breath?’

  ‘Yep.’

  Josh was at the head of the bed and was pulling the stainless-steel trolley close. As Stevie positioned the mask over the child’s mouth and nose and squeezed the bag to try and deliver air to her lungs, she saw Josh tug the tie loose on a sterile pack and roll it out to open it.

  A cricothyroidotomy kit, with a large IV cannula, five-mil syringe, oxygen tubing and a three-way stopcock for a needle cricothyroidotomy. There were also scalpels and tubing if a far more invasive surgical airway was required. Stevie’s heart sank at both the glint of the scalpel and what her fingers were telling her as they tried to squeeze the bag. The air inside it was going nowhere.

  ‘Still obstructed?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Right...’ Josh sounded perfectly calm. ‘Let’s see what’s going on, shall we?’

  He slid a rolled-up towel beneath the girl’s shoulders to tilt her head into what was known as the ‘sniffing’ position. Holding the laryngoscope in his left hand, he gently inserted the blade into the right side of their patient’s mouth and Stevie knew he would be displacing the tongue to the left, which could allow the bright light to show him any visible foreign body in her airway. His movements were careful and confident and, although she was holding her breath, Stevie realised she had complete faith in this doctor. He knew exactly what he was doing and he didn’t appear to be at all intimidated by the fact that he was dealing with a life-or-death emergency and a ticking clock.

  And he could see something... Stevie could only see the back of Josh’s head but she could feel the intent focus of his entire body as he lifted the small-sized Magill’s forceps he was holding in his right hand. Like an elongated and angled pair of scissors with blunt, circular ends, these forceps were specifically designed to be used in airways, to guide the placement of tubes or to remove foreign objects.

  It was a delicate manoeuvre. Josh had tilted his head to be able to see what he was doing with the forceps and there was nothing Stevie could do for the moment other than watch. She saw the lines deepening around Josh’s eyes that told her this was no easy task. She heard the tiny sigh that suggested relief as he seemed to be winning and then she noticed the way he caught the corner of his bottom lip between his teeth as he held onto his concentration.

  And then his breath came out in a growl of frustration.

  ‘Lost it,’ he muttered. ‘It’s so slippery...’

  Stevie swallowed hard. The next step would be to insert a needle into this child’s neck, which would buy them a little more time, but if that didn’t work, they would have to create a way to get air into her lungs by cutting a larger hole. And the seconds were ticking past relentlessly. Had she made a mistake in not hitting the alarm button sooner?

  As if he’d heard her thought, Josh flicked her an upward glance.

  ‘This time,’ he said quietly. ‘Trust me—we’ve got this.’

  She did trust him, Stevie thought. Even though she didn’t know this man at all—hadn’t even been properly introduced to him, in fact, in the few days since she’d started working here—she was ready to trust him even when it was a child’s life hanging in the balance.

  He moved even more carefully this time as he slipped the forceps down the little girl’s throat, and the tension ramping up as he paused for a long moment to make sure he had a good grip on whatever the slippery object was, meant that Stevie could actually hear her own heartbeat thumping in her ears as she continued to hold her own breath.

  It probably only took a few seconds for Josh to pull the forceps slowly clear but it felt like for ever because she had to know that they hadn’t lost their grip. Relief surged through her body as she saw them emerge from the child’s mouth with something between the ends and—in the same instant—she could see and hear the desperate gasp as the little girl sucked in her first breath in too long. Or had that sound come from her own lips and that was why Josh’s glance flicked up again to meet hers?

  If it was, he clearly understood. He held her gaze for no more than a heartbeat but she could see the relief in his own eyes and it was so genuine—and caring—that Stevie knew that this doctor was a person she could have the utmost respect for. That he was as trustworthy as her instincts had already decided. And that she liked him.

  A lot.

  ‘Let’s get some oxygen on,’ he said. ‘I’m just going to have another look and make sure there’s nothing else down there that I can see.’

  ‘What was it?’ Stevie looked at the sterile cloth on the trolley as she reached up to connect tubing to the overhead oxygen supply. ‘Oh...a grape?’

  ‘Yeah...’ Josh was shining the light of his laryngoscope down the child’s throat again. ‘The message that you have to cut grapes for littlies still hasn’t got out there well enough. I heard recently they’re the third most common cause of food-related choking deaths in children. I can’t see anything else down there.’ He removed the blade of the laryngoscope, unhooked his stethoscope from around his neck and frowned as he focused on the small girl’s face while fitting the earpieces. ‘Who is she, do you know?’

  Stevie shook her head. ‘I’m guessing she’s a sibling of one of our patients. She probably came in during visiting hours.’

  She held the mask, now with oxygen running, over the girl’s mouth and nose. Josh’s hand brushed her arm as he moved the disc of the stethoscope to listen to their patient’s chest. Stevie could feel the twitch of movement under the mask she was holding in place.

  ‘I think she’s
waking up...’

  ‘Good...’

  Stevie knew why there was still a note of caution in Josh’s tone. The girl was breathing on her own but would she regain consciousness fully? Had she been without adequate oxygenation long enough for brain damage to have occurred?

  They both turned their heads as the door of the treatment room opened. It was the first time that Stevie had seen the paediatric ward’s nurse manager, Ruby, without a smile on her face.

  ‘What’s happening, Josh? What do you need?’

  ‘We’re under control, thanks, Ruby. I found this girl unconscious in the playroom—respiratory arrest due to a totally obstructed airway.’

  ‘Oh, dear Lord...’ Ruby closed her eyes in a long blink. ‘I was just helping with the hunt for Amelia here. Her baby brother has come in for observation and her mother was feeding him while the registrar did the admission. Dad went to the cafeteria to find a late lunch for them all and Mum assumed that Amelia had gone with him. It’s panic stations out there. I’ll have to let them know where she is.’

  Ruby moved far more swiftly back to the door than Stevie would have expected for a woman of her size and age and she’d no more than poked her head into the corridor to call out to someone than she was stepping aside to let other people into the room.

  A young man, who was holding a baby. And a terrified-looking young woman with a pale tear-streaked face.

  ‘Oh, my God...’ she sobbed. ‘Amelia...’

  The woman rushed towards the bed and, as she reached to touch her daughter, the little girl opened her eyes and burst into tears.

  ‘Mumma...’

  Stevie could feel the prickle of tears behind her own eyes. Happy tears, because the fact that Amelia was awake and speaking and knew who her mother was made it more than likely she had come through this life-threatening incident unscathed. It seemed the most natural thing in the world to look up and meet Josh’s gaze yet again and, this time, it felt like an acknowledgement of a bond. The two of them had been the only people to share that very real fear, the tension of the fight, the relief of a successful outcome and now the joy of the world righting itself at least in this moment of time. A whole story that had taken only a couple of minutes but would be one that Stevie was never going to forget.