Healing the Doctor's Heart Read online

  He’s a great doctor...

  Will she make him a better man?

  When pediatrician Lauren Peterson becomes a live-in companion to Jake Masters, a reclusive surgeon with an arm injury and attitude problem, she knows it’ll be tough going. Jake is totally disillusioned with the medical profession, so Lauren can’t tell him she’s a doctor. The deception’s easy...until she falls for the unexpectedly kind heart beneath Jake’s unfriendly exterior. Can the truth give them both a fresh start?

  Jake’s heart thumped.

  He realized he didn’t want her to go. He’d become used to her being there. He even enjoyed their arguments. Sometimes he looked forward to them. But she had to be thinking of returning to work. And why wouldn’t she? He’d taken her suggestions and he was better for them.

  “Lauren, if you can postpone going until Cal returns, I’d like that.”

  Jake wanted to see Lauren, but he was driving and could only glance at her. She appeared at a loss for words. He didn’t know if she expected him to say what he had. He hadn’t intended to, but he liked talking to her. He liked her more than as a friend, but he couldn’t let it go further than that. He remembered her first day, when she walked into the apartment and had to pry him out of bed. Now here he was asking her not to leave.

  Dear Reader,

  I’ve always loved masquerade parties, and writing Healing the Doctor’s Heart gave me the opportunity to revisit that game. Lauren had to find a way of cracking the glass Jake had around his heart and her method proved unconventional to say the least.

  New York City is also one of my favorite places to visit and I’m blessed to live so close to it. Setting the story there among the varied cultures and street figures that garner tourists’ attention was perfect. But the characters of Lauren Peterson and Jake Masters warmed my heart. They are part of my growing family of people I want to talk to time and time again. I want to know what happens to them next. Do they have children? How does Lauren handle a new baby? The book could go on and on and on, but there are other stories to write.

  I’m working on another one right now and hopefully you’ll be ready to read the story of Jake’s brother soon.

  Thanks for going on the adventure with Jake and Lauren, and if you’re interested in this and other books I’ve written, you can contact me through my web page or on social media.

  Thanks again and as always, keep reading.

  Shirley Hailstock

  Healing the

  Doctor’s Heart

  Shirley Hailstock

  Shirley Hailstock began her writing life as a lover of reading. She likes nothing better than to find a quiet corner where she can get lost in a book, explore new worlds and visit places she never expected to see. As an author, she can not only visit those places, but she can be the heroine of her own stories. The author of forty novels and novellas, Shirley has received numerous awards, including a National Readers’ Choice Award, a Romance Writers of America’s Emma Merritt Award and an RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award. Shirley’s books have appeared on several bestseller lists, including the Glamour, Essence and Library Journal lists. She is a past president of Romance Writers of America.

  Books by Shirley Hailstock

  Harlequin Heartwarming

  Summer on Kendall Farm

  Promises to Keep

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

  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

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  EXCERPT FROM THE SHERIFF’S SECOND CHANCE BY TANYA AGLER

  CHAPTER ONE

  DR. LAUREN PETERSON’S feet pounded the New York City sidewalk with the same force as her heartbeat. The point of no return was still ahead. She should turn around, dash down the steps to the subway and go back to the Brooklyn brownstone she was giving up at the end of the month. She still had time. No one would know. No one would be hurt. Disappointed, maybe, but not hurt.

  She could almost feel herself doing it, reversing course and heading home, the ghost of her skirt plastered to her legs in the wind as she made her attempt to run away from what she was hurtling toward. The traffic, pedestrians all seemed to crowd around her, slowing her footsteps.

  “This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done,” Lauren said out loud. Since her decision was dumb and foolish, she had no problem having people on the street thinking the same about her.

  Maybe she should care.

  Why had she allowed Caleb Masters to go on interviewing her for that job, especially when she realized Jake Masters wasn’t there? She stopped abruptly and looked at the sky. Two people careened into her and she backed up against a building, accepting their angry looks as she let them pass.

  “What was I thinking?” This time her voice was barely above a whisper, since she knew the answer could come from only her own mind.

  People around her moved aside, giving her plenty of room. Many looked curiously at her. She was talking to herself without a phone near her mouth or earbud cords streaming down to some concealed electronic device. Thankfully, she was clean, well dressed and carrying shopping bags, but that wasn’t proof that she had all her faculties.

  Resuming her steps, Lauren thought of the recent interview with Caleb, only two days ago. She’d gone to it hoping Jake would be there, as well. It was her way of reconnecting with him. They hadn’t met in years. She was going to explain who she was, but that approach changed when the only person in the room was Caleb. She should have left before she made the mistake of asking about Jake, explaining that they went to college together. Caleb’s interest piqued when she said that. Of course, she was Lauren Graves back then. Everyone called her Lori. Caleb then offered her the position. She accepted it and walked away.

  And that was the stupid thing.

  She objected to his argument that she was perfect for the job after she’d told him she wasn’t a therapist. She was a pediatrician, dealing with children and overanxious mothers.

  “He’s seen too many doctors and refuses to see another one,” Caleb said. That’s when he told her he didn’t want Jake to find out her profession.

  She should have refused, left the room as fast as her spiked heels would carry her. Lauren didn’t really want a job. Not now. She’d sold her practice. Her plans were to leave New York, move to a small town near the ocean or out west and reestablish her pediatric office. How could she let herself be talked into a job as a nonmedical aide for a man she hadn’t seen in decades and conceal who she was? She was a doctor and proud of it.

  And he was a broken man at that.

  The schoolgirl crush she’d had on Jake Masters was preoccupying at the time, but she was an adult now, thankful that Jake was ignorant of her prior feelings. As a junior to her freshman in college, Jake didn’t even know who she was. She was sure he wouldn’t recognize her. But she wanted to see him anyway. She couldn’t explain it other than to say she wanted to know if he was still as good-looking as he’d been in college and if that foolish crush she’d had on him was still there.

  In the years since she finished school, she’d thought of him in passing, usu
ally when she was online with a school chum, or if she went to a social event with college friends. In medical school, she wondered what he was doing. Once, she’d looked him up on the internet and found a reference that he was entered in a tennis tournament. He’d been good at athletics and she was surprised that he hadn’t pursued that as a line of work.

  Until Caleb told her Jake was a trauma surgeon, she wouldn’t have thought the two of them had medicine as a common denominator. Now she was about to find out what else they had in common.

  Lauren had reached that imaginary line.

  * * *

  HER HEART THUMPED the moment Jake came out of the office building. Caleb had said he was in. Looking down at the ground, seeing the imaginary line, she hesitated for a long moment, and then watched him moving toward her. Taking a deep breath, she rushed forward, the bags and packages in her hands swinging back and forth as she sped toward some pretend engagement. There were plenty of people on the street. Not only was it the end of the lunch hour, but also the tourists in this section of the city were thick and unpredictable.

  Jake’s head was down as he dodged the human traffic coming in all directions. Intentionally, Lauren bumped into him and like an actor on a stage, she bounced back, falling to the ground, her packages scattering everywhere.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said, offering his left hand to help her up.

  Lauren pulled her belongings close to her as other pedestrians pushed her things back in the bags and handed them to her. Finally, she took Jake’s hand and he levered her up. His hand was soft, but strong, a doctor’s hand. She was surprised at the strength of him. Even though she knew that the loss of use in his right arm had likely strengthened other part of his body, she hadn’t expected to feel so weightless as he pulled her into a standing position.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  She forced herself to breathe hard as she used her free hand to brush any street dirt from her skirt.

  “I guess I’ll live. I’m mostly embarrassed. My pride is a little injured but holding. It looks like my shoe bore the brunt of the physical damage.” She hopped on one foot showing him the severed heel of her sandal.

  “Let me get you a taxi,” he offered.

  She wondered how he was going to do that if he didn’t let go of her and use his left hand to signal for a cab.

  “I don’t need a taxi. I’m fine and I live in Brooklyn.”

  “The cost will be mine,” he said. “After all, I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

  She smiled. “I was walking too fast. How about we settle it with a cup of coffee.” She looked behind him. Several shops, including a coffee bar, an Italian restaurant and a Greek eatery beckoned. “I have a new pair of shoes in one of these bags.” She glanced down, lifting the bags slightly away from her. “I can change inside.”

  He looked around, probably noticing the eating places for the first time. Lauren could tell he wasn’t exactly planning to spend any more time with her.

  “I don’t usually eat out,” he said.

  “I don’t either, but I’m leaving the city soon and I’m trying out some new things before I head into the great unknown.” She gave the last words an uptake of tone. “Come on, have some coffee with me.”

  “Well...”

  She didn’t give him time to refuse. Grabbing his left arm, she propelled him forward. “I’ll even spring for the coffee.”

  He allowed her to pull him along, but when she neared the coffee bar, he stopped.

  “This one would be more comfortable,” he said. It was the Italian restaurant.

  “You like Italian food.” Lauren stated the obvious.

  They went in. Lauren did her one-legged hop step as they followed the waiter to a secluded booth. The place was beautifully appointed. She felt as if she’d stepped from a New York street straight into Provence or Naples. Most of the tables were empty. Waiters had already begun preparing them for the dinner crowd. White tablecloths with bud vases holding a single rose, bone china and silverware gleaming in the light.

  Luck was still with her as she settled her bags and placed her napkin in her lap. The line was crossed, and there was no going back, yet there were more hurdles for her to jump before she did what she’d been hired to do.

  “Have you had lunch?” he asked.

  She shook her head.

  “They have some very fine food here. It’s all made with fresh ingredients,” he said.

  So, he did know about the restaurants in the area. She’d been wrong in that. It was a mistake on her part. She’d have to be more alert in the future or he’d trip her up.

  “I suppose that’s how you like your food?” she said, just to have something to say.

  He looked her straight in the eye for a long time. Lauren felt as if he was able to see into her mind. Then she realized the string of nurses and therapists he’d had in the past must have asked a question like that.

  “You don’t have to cut me with your eyes. I like fresh food too,” she said.

  He relaxed a bit. The waiter arrived and they quickly ordered.

  “What’s wrong with your arm?” she asked when they were alone again.

  “You are certainly direct for someone I only met a moment ago.”

  She nodded. “You’re right, especially since we haven’t even exchanged names.”

  His expression told her he had yet to think of that small detail.

  “Lauren Peterson.” She extended her hand, her left hand.

  Jake looked at it and after a moment pulled his hand up and shook hers. “Jake Masters.”

  “Now that we’re acquainted, Jake Masters, what’s wrong with your arm?”

  “I had an accident.”

  “When?”

  “I’m not going to play twenty questions with you.”

  “Too pushy?” she commented. He’d be amazed if he knew the shy, quiet college kid she used to be still lurked inside her. She was great with children, but it took a lot of courage for her to deal with adults who weren’t the parents of her patients. And romantic relationships were out of her league ever since her divorce. “I’m sorry. I’m used to asking questions.”

  “Really, what do you do?”

  His speech was very formal and he sat up straight in his seat, coming only short of folding his hands in front of him like he was in the third grade. Jake wasn’t as warm and welcoming as his brother, and it made Lauren feel as if she was in another job interview.

  “At the moment, I’m between careers.”

  “What did you do in your last career?”

  She stared at him. “Arm surgery,” she said.

  A long moment went by and then he grunted. It wasn’t a laugh, but a sound that told her he didn’t believe her for a New York minute.

  “And what are you going to do in your new career?”

  “Now who’s asking a lot of questions?” She paused. “Anyway, I haven’t decided where to go yet. I’m looking at someplace close to the ocean. I’ve always liked the sea. I feel calm there. In the meantime, maybe I could work for you. Of course, it would be temporary.”

  “And why do you think I need someone to work for me?”

  The waiter interrupted them with their meals. When he left, Lauren returned to the conversation.

  “Because you’re in pain and I know something about pain.”

  “How do you know I’m in pain?”

  “By the way you’re holding your shoulder.” At that he shifted, but didn’t truly relax. “And by the way you clench your teeth until it eases.”

  She picked up her fork and took a bite of the seafood fettuccine she’d ordered. Closing her eyes at how wonderful it tasted, Lauren savored the pasta and sauce. She didn’t often cook her meals with all fresh ingredients. She didn’t have time. She remembered visiting her sisters and her parents. They always ha
d catch-up and cook time in the kitchen. The five of them would catch up on what was happening in their lives while they made a meal. Their mom would plan the menu and each sister would choose what she wanted to make. It was a female bonding time that was fun and delicious. Lauren missed those days.

  “Are you a therapist?” He nearly spit the word. The expression on his face was crafty.

  “A massage therapist? Not technically, no. But I’ve done my share of working with someone in pain.” She wiggled her fingers and smiled to show she knew what she was talking about.

  “Don’t bother. I’m fine. I don’t need any kind of therapist,” he said, again with a disdainful tone.

  “I can see you’re in pain, but...” Lauren raised and dropped her shoulders, leaving her statement open.

  Jake said nothing. His silence made her only want to try harder.

  “So, what do you do, Jake?”

  He didn’t immediately answer. “I’m between careers at the moment.”

  “I see,” she said, knowing even with his dry method of speaking, he was mocking her. “I suppose in your last career you were a bouncer.”

  “What?”

  “Someone who knocks people down on the street.” Lauren wondered if he ever smiled. So far he’d scowled, winced and grimaced, but showed no positive emotion at all. He looked angry, something his brother had failed to tell her. Lauren had kept an image of him as the happy college student. But they were no longer in college and she was no longer Lori Graves. She was thirty-one and he was either thirty-three or thirty-four.

  “That isn’t it,” he said.

  She decided not to pursue it any further. Lauren was new to this pretend game and she didn’t want to show her hand or let him discover that she’d been hired by his brother. She was naturally shy and nervous at all the talking she was having to do.

  They ate in silence for a while, enjoying the excellent food. When the waiter brought the check, Lauren quickly took it. Without glancing at it, she handed him her credit card and he walked away.