Healing the Doctor's Heart by Shirley Hailstock

Author:Shirley Hailstock
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2019-10-15T19:22:31+00:00

* * *

JAKE DIDN’T KNOW how to begin. Lauren had known right away that there had been a woman in his life. After the accident, Jake tried to put her out of his mind, but it didn’t work. He’d gone through scenario after scenario about that day. If he hadn’t gone to Europe. If he’d stayed at the hotel for lunch. If he hadn’t run across the street against the light, he’d have been several yards behind the explosion. The concussive force of the impact might have knocked him down, but it wouldn’t have had the devastating effect on his arm and hand that it did.

“Jake.”

Lauren’s voice was soft, almost a whisper when she called his name. It was uncanny how she could read his moods and try not to intrude on them, while also bringing him out of any introspection that she deemed unhealthy.

“What are you thinking?”

Lauren didn’t talk in riddles or offer rationalizations. She was clear and direct.

“Dance with me,” he said.

She looked around the room. They were in the windows room. She called it that sometimes and Jake had begun to think of it the same way.

“There’s no music.”

Taking out his phone, he pushed a few buttons and music filled the air. Jake opened his arm and Lauren stepped forward. He slowly waltzed her about the room, avoiding the furniture.

When the song ended, another began.

“Her name was Jennifer,” Jake began.

Lauren didn’t move in his arm. She said nothing and Jake understood that she knew who he meant.

“We met during a sailing competition. I was on a crew team. We’d been challenged by a rival team and were gathered on the lake. I don’t remember if Jennifer came with anyone, but we left together and from then on we were rarely without one another.”

They were no longer moving about the floor, no longer dancing, just turning around and around in the same place.

“We were engaged. I thought I was what she wanted. We had fun together, but we’d never talked about the important things that a marriage meant, children, careers, hopes and dreams. Then the accident happened.”

Their steps stalled, but the two of them didn’t part. Lauren looked at him. Her eyes seemed huge this close to him. “What happened?” she whispered.

“She stayed around while I was in the hospital, but when she found I couldn’t use my arm or hand, she ended our engagement. She said she couldn’t take care of an invalid. She didn’t want the kind of life that would entail for us now.”

Lauren gasped. “I’m so sorry.”

“It was for the best in the long run,” he said. And now he believed it. “She was honest, at least. I wished her well in the end.”

“You must have been heartbroken,” Lauren said.

“I thought I was. There was so much on my plate at the time that it was difficult to separate one emotion from another.”

When Jake sorted them out, Jennifer was the least of his worries. He put her out of his life, but both he and Cal knew that the experience had soured him for another relationship.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.