The Surrogate's Unexpected Miracle Read online

  So why did he feel kind of...disappointed?

  ‘It might take a wee while, though. I hope that won’t be a problem.’

  Luke shook his head. Of course it wasn’t a problem.

  ‘I’m not sure how soon I can get back to work,’ Ellie continued. ‘I’ll have to find good childcare.’ Something like a huff of laughter broke her words. ‘Good grief...I’ll have to find somewhere to live, first...’

  ‘There’s no rush,’ Luke heard himself saying. ‘You’re welcome to stay at my place for a few days if it’s not too far out of town.’

  A voice in the back of his head was making incredulous noises. Reminding him that he’d been relieved that he’d only have to ignore any attraction to this woman for one night. What did he think he was doing?

  ‘Really?’ Ellie sounded astonished. ‘That would be awesome. And the insurance company said they’d approve a rental car so the distance wouldn’t matter. I could still get out to view places.’

  They wouldn’t be spending that much time together, would they? Ellie would be out hunting for a new apartment. He’d be at work a lot of the time.

  All he needed now was to firm up those boundaries—for both their sakes.

  ‘And don’t worry about paying me back for the baby stuff.’ He kept his gaze firmly on the task of locating his designated space on the far side of the North Shore General’s car park. ‘It sounds like I’m going to get a lot more than I expected when the property sells. I don’t have any dependants and I don’t intend to get saddled with any, either. Consider it a gift.’

  Easing the big vehicle to a stop between the designated lines, he turned his head to offer a smile that would confirm that it was no big deal. That he could afford it easily enough for it to mean virtually nothing.

  To his surprise, Ellie was scowling at him. She looked...as disappointed as he’d been when she’d declared them to be no more than strangers?

  ‘I asked for your help,’ she said quietly. ‘Not charity.’

  It was another awkward moment, during which Luke realised how patronising he must have sounded. No wonder Ellie was on the defensive. That flash of anger in her eyes suggested that she would fight for her independence with the same kind of passion that she would use to protect her son.

  He had to respect that...

  And he needed to apologise.

  Luke opened his mouth to do exactly that but, before he could say a word, another sound was heard.

  A shriek of extreme pain.

  They were still staring at each other so Luke could see the way they both dismissed any thoughts of anything personal. The professional switch had been flipped at precisely the same instant.

  ‘Oh, my God...’ Ellie breathed. ‘That sounds like a child.’

  Luke had his door open already. ‘Where did it come from?’

  Ellie was out of the car now, too. ‘There...look...’

  Almost opposite them, a car had stopped at an angle that cut across two parking spaces. The driver’s door was open. So was one of the back doors. A woman was reaching into the car and another shriek split the air.

  * * *

  ‘Nooo... Don’t touch...’

  ‘I have to, darling...I’m sorry...’ The woman sounded nearly as upset as the child.

  ‘Nooo...’ The shrieks increased in volume. This child was clearly terrified.

  Jamie was still sound asleep in his flash, new car seat. Leaving the door open would mean that Ellie could hear him the moment he woke and the vehicle the screaming was coming from was only a few metres away. She didn’t hesitate to follow Luke.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ she heard him ask the woman. ‘I’m one of the doctors from the emergency department.’ A quick glance over his shoulder told him that Ellie was right behind him. ‘And this is Ellie, one of our nurses.’

  ‘It’s Mia—my daughter.’ The woman straightened, turning to face Luke. ‘We were at the park and she fell out of a tree.’ She tried, and failed, to stop her face crumpling and a sob emerging. ‘There’s something wrong with her arm. I think she’s broken it.’

  ‘How high was the tree? And did you see how she landed? Did she hit her head as well?’

  Ellie stepped past them, as the mother was answering Luke’s questions, into the small gap by the open door. She crouched down so that her head was a little lower than the girl, who had subsided into quieter sobs now that no one was threatening to touch her.

  ‘Hey, Mia...I’m Ellie.’

  ‘Go away...’

  ‘I like your shoes.’ Ellie made it sound as if the sneakers were the most exciting thing she’d seen all day. ‘Are they the ones that have the sparkly lights when you walk?’

  Mia said nothing. She was still glaring at Ellie suspiciously.

  ‘I want a pair of those.’ Ellie sighed. ‘But they don’t make them for big girls like me. How old are you, Mia? Four?’

  ‘No.’ Mia was offended enough to be distracted from her fears. ‘I’m five.’

  ‘Wow...you’re going to school already?’

  Mia nodded proudly and Ellie smiled at her. She let her gaze slide down as she did so, though. The little girl had one arm cradled against her chest and she was using her other hand to hold it still. Ellie could see the unusual shape of the small elbow on the injured side. She could also see the colour of the hand below it.

  ‘Oh...look at your nail polish... What a pretty colour. I love pink... It’s my absolutely favourite colour.’

  Mia was thoroughly distracted now. She actually smiled at Ellie. ‘Me, too.’

  She hadn’t minded Ellie’s gentle touch on the fingers of her uninjured hand as she put her own fingers beneath it to admire the nail polish. She was even more careful as she slipped her fingers beneath those on Mia’s injured side.

  ‘Can you move these fingers, darling? I want to see how pink they are.’

  Mia shook her head.

  ‘Because it hurts?’

  It was a slow nod, this time.

  ‘But it doesn’t hurt so much if you keep your arm very still?’

  Another nod.

  Ellie nodded. And then she raised her eyebrows. ‘Did you know...that if a little girl has broken her arm...when the doctors and nurses fix it, she can choose a pink cast to wear for weeks and weeks?’ Then Ellie shook her head. ‘But I guess you might choose a green one.’

  ‘Nooo...I want pink...’

  Ellie put her thoughtful face on. ‘Hmm...but you’d have to get out of the car and come to where they make the pink casts.’

  Mia’s face crumpled.

  ‘Tell you what...’ Ellie was looking around the car. ‘Is that your jacket? The pink one?’

  Mia nodded.

  ‘If I put it very carefully behind you, I could tie the sleeves over the front and that would keep your arm very, very still while we get you out of the car. And if Dr Luke lifts you, you won’t have to move at all and it won’t hurt more than a little bit.’

  Mia started to shake her head but then paused for long enough for Ellie to smile at her again.

  ‘He’ll take you to the pink cast place,’ she whispered, as if it were a secret.

  Mia was still hesitating but Ellie knew they were running out of time. ‘What say I make the jacket bandage? And, when that makes you feel better, you can tell us when you’re ready to come out of the car.’

  She didn’t give her time to think about it, already threading one sleeve of the jacket behind the little girl’s back and then pulling the puffy fabric through. She kept one sleeve at waist level and pulled the other one up to drape over the shoulder on the uninjured side. And then she made sure there was as much padding as possible around the elbow and pulled the sleeves tightly together and tied them in a firm knot. The injured arm was completely immobile and Mia had do
ne nothing more than whimper a little bit.

  It was only then that Ellie straightened, to find Mia’s mother and Luke had stopped talking and had been watching her—maybe for all of the few minutes it had taken to get Mia ready to be moved.

  She stepped closer to Luke and turned her head so that she could speak very quietly, right beside his ear.

  ‘Looks like a fracture dislocation of her left elbow,’ she murmured. ‘Limb baselines are well down. No movement in her hand and it feels cold. I don’t like the colour, either.’

  His gaze met hers. A brief eye contact but, like the moment they’d both heard the child scream, she knew they were both thinking exactly the same thing. This injury needed to be sorted urgently or Mia might end up with reduced function in her hand. This wasn’t the place to try and put in an IV and administer pain relieving drugs. It could be done far more efficiently and safely once she was in the emergency department.

  * * *

  It was Luke’s turn to crouch beside the car.

  He had to get this child out no matter how much she resisted but, if she struggled, it could well make her injury worse. A broken shard of bone could sever a nerve or a major blood vessel.

  He had watched the way Mia had calmed a terrified little girl with a skill that had taken his breath away. Had made something in his gut feel all soft and told him that she was going to be the best mother that Jamie could ever wish for.

  All he needed to do now was to follow her example.

  ‘I need you to pretend to be a caterpillar,’ he told Mia. ‘And you’re inside your cocoon getting ready to be a butterfly so you can’t move your legs or your arms. Can you do that, sweetheart?’

  Big, brown eyes flicked upwards. Was she looking for her mother? Or Mia?

  ‘I’m here, darling,’ her mother said. ‘I’ll be right beside you.’

  ‘You’re a pink caterpillar,’ Ellie said softly. ‘And you’re bee-yoo-tiful.’

  Luke used the distraction to slip one arm behind Mia and the other beneath her knees. On the middle syllable of Ellie’s elongated word, he lifted Mia and stepped backwards in a smooth movement but the little girl still screamed in fright.

  Luke held her close, careful to avoid any contact with the injured elbow. The splint Ellie had fashioned from the puffer jacket was remarkably good and the elbow was supported as well as it could have been with the kind of inflatable splints or other gear the ambulance service might have used. Having never worked with Ellie, he had been blown away, not only by her skill in winning the trust of a young patient, but her confidence in making an initial diagnosis and initiating the first level of treatment.

  To say he had been impressed was an understatement...

  Luke was confident that moving Mia hadn’t significantly increased her pain level and, sure enough, the child relaxed into his firm hold and became quiet.

  ‘Follow me,’ he told the mother. ‘I know the quick way into ED.’

  Walking past his own car, he noted the open door beside Jamie and glanced over his shoulder at Ellie.

  ‘I’ll come too,’ she said. ‘I’ll just get Jamie and the extra car seat and blanket.’

  Knowing that Ellie would be following made it feel curiously different, heading into the hospital through the staff only door that gave rapid access to the interior of the emergency department, bypassing the waiting room and triage desks. He almost waited at the door, knowing that Ellie wouldn’t have her staff swipe card she would need to open it with her, but the sense of urgency overrode the urge. This little girl had, unexpectedly, become his patient and she was his priority.

  No...not just his patient.

  His and Ellie’s.

  And that just made it all the more important to make sure Mia got the best treatment possible.

  He’d only been working in this department for a little over a month but Luke was very proud of the response he got, walking in with this injured child in his arms. The treatment was all he could have wished for. A nurse applied an anaesthetic patch to Mia’s arm within seconds of him putting her gently down on a bed and a fellow consultant was able to insert an IV line with minimal distress a few minutes later. X-rays were taken and an orthopaedic consultant arrived as the images became available on the computer screen.

  Ellie had been correct in her diagnosis. The elbow was both fractured and displaced and the blood and nerve supply to Mia’s hand was severely compromised. Thanks to the IV line, enough sedation was easily administered to make the process of relocating the joint and stabilising the fracture swift and completely satisfactory. And Ellie was there, with Jamie in her arms, as Mia blinked sleepily at the bright pink cast that covered her whole arm, keeping her elbow in the bent position it needed to heal.

  ‘Oh...’ Ellie pretended to shade her eyes from a blinding light. ‘That is so pink. I love it.’ She touched Mia’s forehead, smoothing away an errant tress of red hair, as she smiled. ‘Do you feel better now, hon?’

  Mia’s smile was all the response needed. Her mother was smiling, too.

  ‘I can’t thank you enough,’ she said. ‘I don’t know what I would have done if you two hadn’t found me.’

  ‘It was our pleasure,’ Luke said. ‘Wasn’t it, Ellie?’

  ‘Sure was.’

  Ellie’s smile lit up her face and Luke’s heart gave a curious little extra thump. He’d suspected that she was missing her job and now he realised not only how much she loved it but how good at it she was.

  He could imagine what it would be like to work with her properly. To be on a difficult shift here and know that he had someone like Ellie by his side. Someone he could rely on absolutely. A second pair of hands that belonged to someone who seemed to think along exactly the same lines he did.

  She wouldn’t be a vulnerable young mother, would she? She would be a trusted colleague.

  An equal.

  How easy would it be to dismiss an attraction that seemed to be getting stronger with everything Ellie did stirring up feelings of admiration? Pride, even.

  No. Luke turned away from that smile to say goodbye to Mia and her mother. It wouldn’t make any difference because he wouldn’t have allowed himself to act on that attraction. He wasn’t even going to be in the country in a couple of months and, in the same way he knew how much Ellie loved her work as an emergency department nurse, he also instinctively knew that she wasn’t the type to embark on a relationship that wasn’t going anywhere.

  The hints of the passion she had displayed to protect her child and keep her independence told him that Ellie Thomas was the type of woman who would fall in love and be just as passionate about being a loving and loyal partner.

  The guy that won that love would be the luckiest man on earth. The image of Ellie standing there with her baby in her arms was still in his head even though she was behind him. That unknown man would not only win the love of an extraordinary woman but he would get the bonus of a beautiful baby son.

  He’d better love him, Luke thought fiercely. As if he were his own. And he’d better know exactly how lucky he was and protect both Jamie and Ellie as if his own life depended on it.

  He would...

  In some ways, it was a damn shame he couldn’t be that man but that was how it was.

  And, with that reminder, Luke felt a surge of relief that that foundation stone had somehow miraculously put itself back together after the alarming moment in the Baby Supermarket.

  He knew exactly what he wanted from life and a family had never been in the plan.

  And never would be.

  CHAPTER SIX

  ‘THIS IS MORE like afternoon tea than lunch. You must be starving.’

  ‘I kind of forget about eating when I’m busy. It’s been quite a day so far, hasn’t it? Oh, wow...that looks amazing.’

  Ellie felt quietly ple
ased with herself. The last stop on the way home had been a quick dash through a supermarket and she’d put this lunch together. Mini baguettes stuffed with fresh slices of tomato, mozzarella cheese and basil leaves, drizzled with olive oil. She was having a tall glass of sparkling mineral water with a slice of lime but Luke had chosen an icy Mexican lager and had stuffed a wedge of lime down the neck of the bottle.

  ‘It’s my day off,’ he’d said, leaning past where Ellie was busy at the kitchen bench putting lunch together to open the fridge. ‘I reckon I’ve earned a reward.’

  Even without a celebratory drink, this was a reward for Ellie, too.

  They were sitting outside the kitchen on the overgrown terrace. The table beneath the canopy of a rampant grapevine was shaded from the surprising warmth of the autumn sunshine and Jamie was also in the shade, asleep inside the mountain buggy pushchair that went flat enough to be a pram as well.

  For a long while, they ate in silence.

  Nothing had ever tasted quite so delicious and Ellie couldn’t think of anyone she would rather be sharing this food with.

  Covert glances became more frequent. There was something profoundly satisfying watching a man taking such obvious enjoyment from food you had prepared. She loved the way Luke closed his eyes as he savoured his first mouthful and the way he wiped his mouth with the ball of his thumb to remove an errant crumb or drops of moisture the neck of his beer bottle had left behind.

  When Luke had reached behind her to get at the fridge, his arm had brushed close enough to her back to give her a shiver that felt as if it could turn into goose bumps. Every glance she allowed herself now could bring back that little shiver that started somewhere in her spine and then sent tiny forks of lightning deep into her belly.

  And they were as delicious as their meal and this perfectly peaceful, idyllic setting. The silence didn’t feel at all awkward. It felt completely comfortable—as if she and Luke knew each other well enough to simply relax in each other’s company.

  It wasn’t exactly silent at all, Ellie realised, then. She could hear the hum of bees amongst the wash of lavender flowers that were so thick and heavy, the old hedge was obscuring the stone path leading away from this courtyard. And the birds on the edges of the forest nearby... It was a long time since Ellie had heard the distinctive call and clicks of the native tui. She recognised the cheerful background song of wax eyes, and she would have known the squeak of her favourites—fantails—even if she hadn’t noticed them sharing the insect life with the wax eyes amongst the bunches of grapes weighing down the vines above them.