Medical Romance December 2016 Books 1-6. Sue MacKay

it not going to plan yesterday, it saved Rupert’s life because it brought on my labour early and he was born just before his heart stopped. A day longer and he would not have survived. You saved our baby’s life, Dr Turner.’

      * * *

      ‘Charlie, is everything all right with Juliet?’ Ella asked as she caught up with Charlie scrubbing in before visiting with the quads.

      ‘Why? What makes you ask that?’ His tone was defensive. He didn’t want to be questioned by the midwife. They had been friends for a long time but he didn’t want to feel forced to justify his behaviour to anyone. There was no other choice but to push Juliet away. He had to be cruel to be kind. While he regretted hurting Juliet, he knew if he led her on he would hurt her more. It would just take her longer to feel the hurt. She was looking for a happily ever after and he was not that man. He had a debt to pay. And it wouldn’t allow him to love someone. Particularly the way he knew he wanted to love Juliet. With every fibre of his being.

      But he wouldn’t.

      ‘She rushed past me this morning, and snubbed me. Well, almost, I mean she waved at me but it wasn’t like her. And I asked about you and she just shrugged her shoulders. She and Bea are always so lovely and she seemed upset today.’

      ‘Perhaps she’s drained after yesterday,’ he suggested to deflect from the real reason.

      ‘No, she’s a pro,’ Ella responded. ‘She wouldn’t react that way.’

      ‘Just leave it alone.’

      ‘You know, Juliet would be perfect for you, Charlie. I know you may not have thought about her that way, but she’s beautiful, sweet and intelligent. You’re both single. I think she could be the one, Charlie.’

      ‘I like it on my own. It’s been that way for a long time. I had the one, and I lost her. I don’t need to hurt another woman.’ It was true that it had been a long time but it was a lie that he liked being alone. It was a penance he made himself pay for the accident.

      ‘It’s been over two years since the accident—that’s long enough for someone as young as you to mourn. Your wife wouldn’t want you to go on punishing yourself.’

      ‘I guess we’ll never know what she wanted, because I killed her.’

      ‘It was an accident—a stupid accident that no one could have averted. It’s lucky you lived through it.’

      ‘I’m not so sure I’d call myself lucky. I lost Alice.’

      Ella shook her head. ‘It was a tragic accident that you survived. You are not the first person to lose their partner. It’s awful, but it happens and people have to go on and rebuild their lives.’

      ‘It was stupid and reckless. I’ve no right to a happy life when my wife died with my hands on the steering wheel. I’ll never forgive myself for that.’

      ‘Charlie, I hope you know from the way Juliet and little Bea look at you, you might just be punishing more than yourself by pushing them away.’

      * * *

      Juliet saw Charlie around the hospital when she popped in to check on the quads over the next couple of days but he said nothing to her. He had every opportunity to try to make amends. To apologise. But he didn’t try. She felt as if the world were crashing in. A world she’d dreamed she might possibly begin to build with Charlie. She knew it was too soon to have been thinking for ever, but she had. For the first time in a very long time. They had shared his bed for one night and after she’d left, they did not even acknowledge each other.

      She had no idea how he could be so cold but she made a promise to herself as she heard his office door close.

      She would never trust her instincts where men were concerned.

      And she would never speak to Charlie Warren again. Although she doubted she would ever stop thinking about him.

       CHAPTER FOURTEEN

      IT WAS EARLY Monday morning when Juliet awoke. The sky was overcast and threatening to rain down on the still-damp earth. While she knew she had so much to be grateful for, it still didn’t lessen the pain in her heart. But just like the dismal weather, it too would subside in time, she reminded herself. But how much time that would take she didn’t know. Sitting in bed with Bea still sound asleep beside her, she thought back over the week since they’d arrived. So much had happened. The rushed journey over was probably the least eventful.

      Bea’s pink cast took her attention and she remembered the sinking feeling when she saw her fall to the snow. Instinctively, sitting in the warmth of her bed, with her little girl safely beside her, she still dropped her head into her hands. That fleeting but very real fear that something had happened to her daughter had been the worst feeling in the world.

      And how she felt as she thought about Charlie, she accepted, was the second to worst feeling.

      Losing him, after only having him for one night, brought sadness to her every thought. She had been stupid to believe there could be more. She had fallen into bed with a man once again without thinking.

      Then she shifted her shoulders and lifted her chin. It wasn’t quite like that, she had to admit to herself. Charlie was not just any man. He was different. Charlie never lied to her, like Brad. He didn’t scheme, like Bea’s father. He had never hidden the fact he liked his life the way it was. Alone. But Juliet had thought she could change that. And his clear affection for her daughter had convinced her that he was ready to open his heart to love.

      But he wasn’t.

      Both of them were wrong.

      She wasn’t sure what she would do. Extending her contract with Teddy’s was yet to be negotiated so she still had the option of returning home. Or perhaps going on a river cruise with her parents, she thought wryly.

      In the jumble of thoughts, she decided to get up and make some tea and let Bea sleep in a little longer. She tiptoed down the passageway into the kitchen and put on the kettle. She couldn’t let herself fall to pieces. Bea deserved better. She was too young to witness her mother’s heartbreak. Juliet’s tears would have to wait until the middle of the night, when she could cry alone and wish for what might have been.

      Looking at the clock, she realised it was later than she had thought. It was almost nine. Jet lag, she assumed, had finally taken its toll on her parents. That was for the best, she thought as she sat in her pyjamas and robe, holding the steaming cup of tea at the kitchen table. Her socked feet were inside her slippers.

      She thought she heard a car, but presumed it was the neighbours or local traffic passing by. It wasn’t the motorbike she wanted to hear. Biting her lip, and trying to hold back the tears threatening to spill onto her cheeks, she accepted that she would never hear Charlie’s motorbike in her driveway.

      A rustling and thumping suddenly began. And it seemed to get louder. Pulling back her kitchen curtains, to look out of her window into the neighbour’s driveway, Juliet couldn’t see anything. It was the oddest sound. Nothing she could really discern so she sat back down and sipped her tea. While some said tea solved everything, she doubted it would come close to resolving her problems.

      The noise changed to heavy footsteps. And they were outside her house. She crossed the wooden floorboards to the front door expecting a deliveryman. She tugged her dressing gown up around her neck and braced herself for the inevitable gust of cold air as she opened the door.

      But it wasn’t a delivery man.

      It was Charlie.

      ‘What are you doing here?’ Her voice was not welcoming. She was hurt and angry and disappointed and more confused than ever. And the reason for her tumultuous emotions was standing on her doorstep.

      ‘I brought the Christmas tree I promised Bea.’

      Juliet eyed him suspiciously as she looked to