The Single Dad's New-Year Bride

The Single Dad's New-Year Bride
Amy Andrews

It began with a magical midnight kiss at a New Year Ball… …and that’s where paediatric nurse Hailey Winters knows it has to end. She can’t risk her heart on a single father again – but she’s already fallen for gorgeous Callum Craig’s adorable child… Callum too has loved and lost. Now he devotes all his time to making sure his young son Tom gets well again, and to his work as Head of Paediatrics.But when Hailey’s in the room there’s always a smile on Tom’s face, and hope in Callum’s heart… And all Callum knows is that somehow, some way, he must make Hailey part of his family.Don’t miss this sparkling story from Brisbane General Hospital!

He was looking at her intensely. His gaze zeroed in on her mouth.

Her pulse stuttered to a halt for a brief second, before resuming triple-time. Their time on the balcony seemed an age ago now, but when he looked at her like that it was as if it had been yesterday.

She took his empty beer bottle, pleased to be doing something, breaking the eye contact. She headed into the kitchen, desperate for space, and almost jumped when she realized he’d followed her.

Callum stood in the doorway, suddenly clear about why he’d come tonight. He wanted her. He had since the Ball, and he didn’t want to pretend he didn’t any more. ‘I want to make love to you.’

Amy Andrews has always loved writing, and still can’t quite believe that she gets to do it for a living. Creating wonderful heroines and gorgeous heroes and telling their stories is an amazing way to pass the day. Sometimes they don’t always act as she’d like them to—but then neither do her kids, so she’s kind of used to it. Amy lives in the very beautiful Samford Valley, with her husband and aforementioned children, along with six brown chooks and two black dogs. She loves to hear from her readers. Drop her a line at www.amyandrews.com.au

Recent titles by the same author:

DR ROMANO’S CHRISTMAS BABY*

TOP-NOTCH SURGEON, PREGNANT NURSE*

THE OUTBACK DOCTOR’S SURPRISE BRIDE

FOUND: A FATHER FOR HER CHILD

THE ITALIAN COUNT’S BABY

*Brisbane General Hospital

Dear Reader

Welcome to the very last in my Brisbane General trilogy! Set in my home town of Brisbane, this trilogy explores the lives and loves of three nurses, the Winters sisters—Beth, Rilla and Hailey. And three very special doctors—Gabe, Luca and Callum.

I’ve always wanted to write a linked series, and was thrilled when my editor suggested it. I love catching up with previous characters and being familiar with a particular setting. And Brisbane General is a beauty. Being a nurse, I can tell you there’s no place quite like a hospital to bring out real emotions and make people realise what is truly important in life.

In THE SINGLE DAD’S NEW-YEAR BRIDE, Hailey and Callum throw their hearts into the ring. The new Head of Paediatrics, Callum Craig, is a widower with a six-year-old son, Tom, who is recovering from leukaemia. Hailey is damaged from a relationship with another man and his child. Neither wants to complicate their already complicated lives. But sometimes fate has other things in store, and life throws curve balls. And it all begins with a kiss at the hospital’s New Year’s Eve Ball!

I hope you enjoy their story, and their eventual realisation that life is for living and love can’t be denied.

I’ve loved the whole experience of creating this hospital and these wonderful characters. I wish all my readers health, happiness, and above all love.

Amy Andrews

THE SINGLE DAD’S NEW-YEAR BRIDE

BY

AMY ANDREWS

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

To Joyce Russell, who has read all my books.

Thanks, Joycie. Your support means so much.

CHAPTER ONE

HAILEY WINTERS had never felt so isolated in her life. Which was no mean feat considering that the ballroom held about four hundred people. Music from an eighties retro band blared out from the stage and party-goers danced amidst the strobe lighting while others milled around, conversing in small groups. Her table companion chatted away, unaware of her total distraction.

She sighed. She’d been keeping herself together so well these last few months. Moving on. But surrounded by couples while single on New Year’s Eve was not her idea of fun. Her sisters, Beth and Rilla, had insisted she attend the hospital ball, insisted it was time she got out, insisted she stopped telling them she was fine and demonstrate it. So she had agreed—reluctantly—because she wanted to prove to them she was fine and, of course, she’d also never been able to say no to them.

And they meant well, but she just wasn’t the party type. Any more. She watched Beth and her husband Gabe across the table. He was saying something to her, his mouth pressed against her ear, and her sister laughed, looking adoringly up at him. Gabe’s lips moved again and Beth opened her mouth, giving him, a faux scandalised look.

Oh, please, get a room!

She turned her attention to Rilla and Luca. Her Italian brother-in-law and her middle sister with matching olive complexions looked like two peas in a pod. She saw Rilla’s eyes widen as Luca’s hand suspiciously disappeared from view and Hailey rolled her eyes. Make it two rooms. If anything, newly reconciled and expecting their first baby, they were even more lovey-dovey than Beth and Gabe.

New Year’s Eve was for lovers and unfortunately she just didn’t fit the bill. Not that she wanted to. Not that she was looking. She’d moved on. And being alone for the rest of her life was infinitely more appealing than having her heart stomped all over again. Yet, still, she felt…restless tonight. Out of place.

Hailey realised Ronald Archer, an acquaintance of her father’s, had stopped droning on and was looking at her expectantly for a reply. She brought her wandering thoughts back into order and re-entered the conversation.

A minute later, still listening to Ronald, Hailey froze as something brushed against her stockinged leg beneath the table. She almost stopped breathing as the tiny interloper scratched its way up further under her floor-length ballgown.

Hailey shuddered. Please, don’t let it be a spider.

‘Excuse me for a moment,’ she said politely to Ronald, before scraping her chair back, knocking it to the floor and leaping away from the table. She stamped her feet on the floor like a horse, trying to shake the unfortunate creature loose.

Thankfully, with the Brisbane General’s annual New Year’s Eve Ball in full swing, there were few witnesses to her wild jig.

‘Goodness, dear, whatever is it?’ Hailey’s table partner enquired.

‘Something just crawled up my leg, Mr Archer,’ Hailey said, inspecting the floor for the insect that had dared defile her expensive French stockings. It was difficult to see anything in the muted lighting of the ballroom. ‘Some kind of bug or insect.’ She shuddered.

‘Or maybe something even more dangerous? Like a small child, perhaps?’

Hailey looked up from the floor as she heard her companion’s laughter. A boy sat on his haunches just under the table, his mouth and eyes wide open in his pale face, a small torch in one hand, a toy truck in the other. He was wearing a white shirt with a fat bow-tie and had remorse stamped on every adorable feature. He may as well have had the word ‘Guilty’ tattooed on his forehead.

‘Oh,’ Hailey said, the screaming bug-phobic girlie inside instantly retreating now the danger was apparently nonexistent. ‘Hello, there.’ She smiled.

The little boy smiled back at her and Hailey could almost hear his audible expiration as it slowly dawned on him from the grins on everyone’s faces that he wasn’t going to be in trouble. He opened his mouth to say something but didn’t get the chance.

‘Tom!’

Hailey saw uncertainty twist his small brow into a deep furrow as she turned to face the exasperated-looking man striding towards them. He was tall with hair so short he looked like he’d lost a battle with a lawnmower and after only two seconds’ perusal Hailey could see he filled a tuxedo better than any other man there.

Better than Gabe. Better than Luca. And her brother-in-laws were bona fide hotties.

Callum Craig took one look at the scene—an upturned chair, his son under a table, several adults looking down at him—and groaned inwardly. What had Tom been up to now? He’d only lost sight of him for a minute. How had he managed to create such havoc so quickly?

Hailey put her hand out to halt the man’s progress and took a step towards Tom, offering him her outstretched hand. ‘It’s fine,’ she assured him hastily, as the little fingers wormed into hers. Hailey’s heart lurched at the, oh, so familiar action and she gave an automatic reassuring squeeze as she tugged gently and pulled his little body in close to hers.