Healed by His Secret Baby Read online

  ‘Does it?’

  Lane wasn’t sure. She’d thought Simon had loved her the way she’d loved him and what had happened there? He hadn’t been able to bear to share her at all. Had tried to isolate her. Given her cruel ultimatums and then blamed her when their relationship collapsed.

  Was she being foolish, falling for Cole’s charms? Naïve? Was she re-enacting history once again? Doomed to fail and never to measure up?

  What if this relationship failed? If they even had a relationship! They’d spent one night together. Had that been lust? Or romance?

  I don’t know. Can’t it be both?

  ‘Love endures all things,’ said Mary. ‘What’s that quote that says all couples who are meant to be are the ones who go through all the rubbish designed to tear them apart but come out so much stronger than anyone could ever imagine?’

  Lane shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Is it in The Bible?’

  Mary laughed. ‘No, lovey—I think it was a meme on social media.’

  She couldn’t help but laugh, too. The idea of Mary being au fait with what was happening on the internet seemed odd. It didn’t seem her thing.

  But then Mary got serious. ‘I like you, Lane, but I’ve known Dr Branagh for much longer and I know what he’s been through. He doesn’t need any more turmoil in his life. He doesn’t need any more grief. Please don’t cause him any. He’s a good man.’

  ‘I know he is. I won’t hurt him, Mary. I promise.’

  ‘Good. Now, then, let’s get those doors open and let our patients in. We’ve got some work to do.’

  * * *

  Lane welcomed in her first patient—an elderly lady of seventy-two who was there for a hypertension review.

  Lane greeted her and indicated that she should sit down. ‘How have you been, Mrs Walker?’

  ‘Just fine! As far as I know!’

  ‘Been taking your medication regularly?’

  Mrs Walker nodded.

  ‘No headaches, nosebleeds?’

  ‘None at all.’

  ‘That’s good. And have you been keeping track of your blood pressure at home? You have your own machine, don’t you?’

  ‘Sometimes I forget, but it’s generally all right. Here’s my last set of readings.’

  She passed over an A4 sheet of paper with her blood pressure readings taken each morning and night. They were generally a little higher than Lane would like, but weren’t sky-high.

  ‘We’ll do a blood test today—is that all right?’

  ‘Of course. Anything you have to do.’

  Lane began to gather the equipment she would need.

  ‘I hear that you have a little one? A baby girl—is that right?’

  ‘Er...yes...’

  ‘Someone told me that her father is Dr Branagh?’

  Lane froze. What had Mrs Walker heard? And who was talking about them?

  ‘I’m sorry?’

  ‘I don’t mean to interfere, and it’s really none of my business, but I do admire Dr Branagh so much. And when his wife died... Well, I’m sure you understand. To find out that he has a child after all is...’ Mrs Walker searched for the right words.

  Atrocious? A scandal? Gossip for the grapevine?

  ‘Just wonderful for him. He so deserves happiness.’

  Lane nodded. ‘So does everyone else.’

  Why was everyone so concerned about Cole’s happiness? What about hers? She wanted to be happy, too!

  ‘Could you roll up your sleeve for me, please?’

  Lane performed the blood test and then used the patient’s other arm to take a blood pressure reading. It was still a little high. One hundred and forty-two over one hundred and one. But perhaps Mrs Walker was excited about all the gossip? Or nervous about the blood test? Only she hadn’t seemed nervous...

  ‘We’ll do another reading in a moment.’ She tapped her assessment into the computer. ‘What sort of exercise are you getting each week, Mrs Walker?’

  ‘I do a bit of walking. To the shops and things.’

  ‘Anything else?’

  ‘Not really.’

  ‘You don’t smoke, do you?’

  ‘Not any more. I used to, years ago.’

  ‘And what about your diet? Do you use a lot of salt in your cooking?’

  ‘A bit. And I do like to add some to my meal when it’s on the plate.’

  ‘Maybe you could consider cutting down? Even if you just start off by not putting it on your meals at weekends?’

  Mrs Walker considered it. ‘I could, I suppose...’

  Lane took Mrs Walker’s BP for a second time and saw that it had come down slightly—which was better, even if it wasn’t great.

  ‘We’ll use this lower reading. So, I’ll get your bloods sent off and if you don’t hear from us assume everything’s normal.’

  ‘All right. Is that it? Am I done?’

  ‘You’re all done.’

  She smiled and watched as Mrs Walker began to amble her way from the room. The burning question broke free before she could stop it.

  ‘Can I ask...how did you hear about Tori being Dr Branagh’s daughter?’

  The woman stopped at the door. ‘I heard it from my friend Alice. But I think she heard it from her friend...erm... Caroline, I think...’

  So it seemed their little secret was definitely out, then? Someone must have heard about Tori. Had Cole said anything? He might have told his parents? Did he even have any? And if they’d told people...

  ‘Right. Okay.’

  ‘We all think it’s wonderful. He deserves happiness after all he’s been through.’

  So you said.

  Lane smiled and nodded. ‘See you next year, Mrs Walker,’ she said, even though she knew she wasn’t going to be here for very much longer. Shelby would soon be back and Lane and Tori would be long gone.

  Unless...

  Did she dare think that she might have a chance at a future with Cole? Was he even on the market for another relationship? Could she measure up to what he’d had with his wife? What would it mean, sticking around here? She’d get to keep Tori in her life, that was for sure, and Cole? She really did like the idea of keeping Cole in her life. But that would only be if she could believe he was nothing like the other men in her life. Like Simon.

  She crossed her fingers without even thinking about it. Touched the wood of the chair opposite her.

  Lane would take all the luck she could get.

  * * *

  Later she and Cole drove to the park, put Tori in her buggy and began to walk, hoping to find a nice spot. It seemed lots of other people had had the same idea, and the park was filled with sunbathers and families enjoying an ice cream.

  In the centre of the park there was a small café, and next to it a small aviary filled with beautifully coloured budgies and canaries up high and ground quails on the floor below. There were lots of toddlers gazing in and squealing at the birds, which fluttered and flew about at each noise.

  ‘There’s a space over there.’

  Cole pointed to a space where they could lay their picnic blanket and they headed over the grass to claim the spot. Behind them was a small flowerbed, filled with roses and edged with lavender, thick with busy bumblebees.

  Lane laid out the blanket and then set about unloading the picnic she’d packed. There were sandwiches and sausage rolls, grapes and fruit, yoghurt, rice cakes, pâté and crackers. Simple fare that would be easy to snack on.

  ‘Did I tell you we’ve become quite the talking point?’ she asked.

  Cole raised an eyebrow. ‘Us?’

  ‘Well, more you. And Tori. People know she’s your daughter.’

  ‘And they think you’re her mum?’

  ‘No. They seem to know I’m not. God only knows what explanation they’ve come up with for that.’
>
  Cole shrugged his shoulders as he helped put some food into a small bowl that had a suction cup on the bottom, so Tori couldn’t throw it to the ground from her buggy tray.

  ‘We know the truth. That’s what matters.’

  ‘It doesn’t bother you that people are talking about you behind your back?’

  He shook his head. ‘No. Not really. They talked plenty when I lost Andrea. You can’t stop gossip, can you?’

  ‘But they could be saying the wrong thing! What if they assume you had an affair while you were married?’

  ‘Then Tori would be much older than she is. I can only hope and pray that my patients’ mathematical skills are as acute as I would like them to be.’ He popped a grape into his mouth and made an appreciative sound. ‘These are good.’

  He stuck the bowl to Tori’s tray and waited for the little girl to start eating, then sat back cross-legged on the blanket.

  ‘Does it bother you?’ he asked.

  She looked down at the ground, loath to admit that it did. Simon had spread some awful rumours about her after she’d chosen Skye and Tori over him.

  ‘It does, doesn’t it? Why?’

  ‘I once had a big group of friends. My own... Simon’s. When we split we were the hot topic. It was hard to go anywhere afterwards because of it. People took his side. People I’d thought would have my back. I tried to tell them the truth, but Simon was a very effective storyteller.’

  ‘They shut you out?’

  ‘It was like I’d had an affair.’

  ‘People act weirdly in situations they don’t fully understand.’

  Suddenly Tori let out a cry, and Lane whipped her head round to look and saw a bee fly away from Tori’s face. Had she been stung?

  ‘Oh, my God! Tori!’

  She scrambled to her feet at the same time as Cole and tried to look at the baby’s face, but it was hard because Tori was crying and her face was red and blotchy.

  ‘Did it sting her? Where did it get you, sweetie? Tell me...show me where it hurts.’ She turned to Cole. ‘What if we need ice?’

  ‘She’ll be okay. We don’t know if it stung her. Besides, it flew away—don’t bees die after they lose their sting?’

  ‘I don’t know. Why won’t she stop crying?’ Lane was jiggling her up and down, trying her best to soothe her.

  ‘Here, let me try.’

  Cole took Tori from her arms and began to gently sway her from side to side, but there was a look on his face that alarmed her.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Her face is beginning to swell.’

  ‘That’s the sting, right?’

  ‘Could be... But there’s also the flushing and... Are those hives?’

  Lane tried to see, but it was hard. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Let me listen to her breathing. Take her pulse.’

  ‘Oh, come on—it can’t be that bad.’

  ‘Was Skye allergic to bee stings?’

  Lane stopped, her blood chilling at a long-forgotten memory. ‘There was a wasp sting once... The swelling lasted a few days, but she didn’t get seriously ill or anything!’

  Cole’s face showed deep concern as he listened to Tori’s laboured breathing.

  ‘Call an ambulance. Now!’

  CHAPTER TEN

  HE’D THOUGHT THEY’D be having a lovely picnic in the park, enjoying being part of their new, weird family unit, but instead he was standing at the bedside of his daughter as a strange doctor injected her with epinephrine.

  Her anaphylaxis had been rapid onset and had affected her breathing. The paramedics, when they’d arrived, had thankfully had a pen they could use to inject Tori with, and the doctors had given her another dose. Her pulse was getting stronger, but she was unconscious still and he felt awful. Helpless.

  He couldn’t lose Tori the way he’d lost Andrea and their baby. He hated feeling helpless, knowing that Mother Nature had struck his family yet again.

  Why was this happening to them?

  Was he doomed? Cursed? Destined to lose everyone the second he got close to them? The second he gave someone his heart, fate thought it was fair game to rip it out of his chest for a bit of fun?

  ‘This is all my fault,’ he said.

  ‘No, No, it’s not. It’s mine. I should have remembered...considered... But it had never happened before, I...’

  He looked at Lane on the opposite side of the bed. Both of them, despite their training, had gone into a panic with no EpiPen in sight, no medical equipment that could help them, no convenient doctor’s surgery with its whole stock room in an emergency. They’d been ordinary people, with a just a phone and fear in their hearts at watching a loved one almost slip away.

  ‘We could have lost her,’ he said.

  ‘We didn’t.’

  ‘But we could have. We should have been better prepared.’

  Lane shook her head. ‘How were we to know?’

  He didn’t want to say it, but... ‘When Skye had her reaction, what happened?’

  Lane looked blank. ‘I don’t know. I wasn’t there. It happened when she was a lot younger.’

  ‘But you’d been friends since you were small?’

  ‘Yes. But it didn’t happen when she was with me. It was on a day trip with the children’s home, or something. I just remember her telling me about it once. An offhand comment about seeing the doctor because her leg had swelled up so badly she could hardly walk. I just assumed she’d had a bad reaction to the sting—I couldn’t possibly have known that her daughter would be severely allergic!’ She stared at him. ‘You don’t blame me, do you?’

  He shook his head. ‘Of course not! I’m just trying to get this straight in my head—there’s nothing like this in my family medical history.’

  The doctors with them issued an instruction to the nurses present to keep a watchful eye on Tori, then the lead doctor turned to Lane.

  ‘She’s had a bad shock, but she’s getting better. We’ve stopped the main reaction and I’m very sure she’ll wake up soon. We’ll keep her on oxygen until she does, and the nurses will keep an eye out and make sure you go home with an EpiPen or two for future incidents.’

  Cole raised an eyebrow. ‘Future incidents? We’re never letting her outside again!’

  The doctor smiled. ‘Everyone reacts like that, but she’ll be okay. It just takes time to adjust to a new normal, that’s all.’

  ‘Thank you, Doctor. You’re sure she’ll wake up soon?’ asked Lane.

  ‘Absolutely. Her body shut down briefly, but all her vitals are coming back up to normal. You just sit and wait. I’ll be around if you need a chat.’ He patted Lane on the shoulder and then went on to his next patient.

  Cole reached out for Tori’s hand and grasped it in his own. It seemed so small and delicate. Like a rag doll’s.

  He brought it to his lips and kissed it. ‘I’m never letting go again.’

  * * *

  Lane didn’t want to leave Tori’s bedside. She felt that if she took her eyes off her for even a second then something terrible would happen—like it had in the park.

  If I’d been paying attention to Tori instead of worrying about gossip, for goodness’ sake!

  It was haunting to be back in a hospital. The last time she’d been in one it had been with Skye, hearing a doctor tell her that there wasn’t any more they could do.

  But Tori was breathing normally again. Her airway was clear, her skin was beginning to settle down from the bright red it had first become, and her observations on the monitor were practically normal.

  Tori made a noise in her sleep, her eyelids flickering. ‘She’s dreaming.’

  ‘I hope they’re good dreams,’ Cole said.

  They could still see the indentation on Tori’s neck where the bee sting had been, just under her chin. It was like a marke
r, pointing out their failure to protect her from harm. Lane still couldn’t believe she hadn’t considered the bee any danger. Wasn’t she supposed to be Tori’s guardian? Guardians guarded. They protected. And Lane hadn’t done her job properly.

  ‘Me, too.’

  The nurse had brought them a cup of tea, but the drinks sat cooling on the side, both of them unwilling to take their eyes off Tori for a minute.

  ‘At least we’ll know going forward. And we’ll have medication on hand in case of emergencies.’

  Lane nodded. ‘We’ll have to make sure that when she starts nursery they have one in stock, too. Or should it be two?’

  ‘It’s two.’

  ‘Right...’

  ‘I guess one of us is going to have to stay overnight with her.’

  Lane volunteered. ‘I’ll do it. You have work in the morning. I don’t.’

  ‘Will you be all right?’

  She smiled. ‘I have plenty of doctors at my beck and call, if needed.’

  ‘Let’s hope they’re not. I feel awful at leaving her. What if she wakes and I’m not here?’

  ‘She’ll have me.’

  She didn’t see the look on his face. The one that said he wanted her to have him, too. ‘You’ll call me if anything changes?’

  ‘Of course.’

  He got up from his side of the bed and walked round to her, taking her in his arms. For a moment they stood together, holding each other, taking comfort. It felt good to be in his protective arms again, and she couldn’t imagine ever wanting to let go. But his patients needed him. He had a full clinic tomorrow.

  She closed her eyes as he kissed the top of her head and squeezed her once more. ‘I can be here at a moment’s notice. Keep me updated, won’t you?’

  ‘Promise.’

  They kissed goodbye and he kissed Tori on the cheek, whispering something she didn’t catch in her ear. And then he grabbed his jacket and he was gone.

  She watched him leave, knowing how hard it must be for him to do so.

  Lane settled back beside the bed and lay her head on her elbows. She would watch Tori until she fell asleep herself.