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Daring To Date Her Ex
Annie Claydon
The last man she expected to see…When Dr Thea Coleman catches sight of new consultant Dr Lucas West, it takes every ounce of her self-control not to run from the room! Seven years ago Lucas didn’t ever board their flight to Bangladesh – leaving Thea brokenhearted…Now Lucas is back, and as single dad to an adopted daughter it’s clear he’s changed. But it’s also clear that the attraction between them burns stronger than ever. Thea must now face an impossible decision: does she dare take a chance on love… and date her ex?
Praise for Annie Claydon: (#ulink_ef52300d-0c03-5239-bd10-694351eb8bd3)
‘A compelling, emotional and highly poignant read that I couldn’t bear to put down. Rich in pathos, humour and dramatic intensity, it’s a spellbinding tale about healing old wounds, having the courage to listen to your heart and the power of love that kept me enthralled from beginning to end.’
—GoodReads on Once Upon a Christmas Night …
‘A lovely story—I really enjoyed this book, which was well-written by Annie as always.’
—GoodReads on Re-awakening His Shy Nurse
‘Well-written brilliant characters—I have never been disappointed by a book written by Annie Claydon.’
—GoodReads on The Rebel and Miss Jones
Dear Reader (#ulink_ab10b8c0-7db7-5fc7-9615-3a6935d0a32e),
I can’t believe that this is my tenth book! Where has all the time gone?
When I think about it, I know exactly where it’s gone. There have been many, many hours at the computer, smiling at something one of my heroes has said, or gnashing my teeth at the situation a heroine has found herself in. I’ve experienced the thrill of receiving an email from someone who’s read one of my books. I’ve met readers, editors and authors—both online and in person. Received boxes of books, new covers, new titles and editions from around the world. And the excitement of it just never seems to pall. If anything, my tenth book is more of a delight than my first—because it’s finally sunk in that this is all real and not a dream.
Thank you for being with me on this journey. It’s had its ups and downs, its hard times and successes. But in the end it’s you, my reader, who makes it such a joy.
Annie x
www.annieclaydon.com (http://www.annieclaydon.com)
Cursed from an early age with a poor sense of direction and a propensity to read, ANNIE CLAYDON spent much of her childhood lost in books. After completing her degree in English Literature she indulged her love of romantic fiction and spent a long, hot summer writing a book of her own. It was duly rejected and life took over. A series of U-turns led in the unlikely direction of a career in computing and information technology, but the lure of the printed page proved too much to bear and she now has the perfect outlet for the stories which have always run through her head: writing Medical Romance™ for Mills & Boon
. Living in London—a city where getting lost can be a joy—she has no regrets for having taken her time in working her way back to the place that she started from.
Daring to Date Her Ex
Annie Claydon
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To all the readers, editors, family and friends
who’ve supported me this far.
Thank you.
PROLOGUE (#ulink_20d93066-8941-50f6-bf11-31ee4d0eef47)
HE WASN’T THERE.
Thea Coleman surveyed the sea of heads bobbing in front of her. No reason to panic. There were walkways, coffee shops, seating areas to check out … It had been a nice fantasy, stepping out of a taxi and bumping into Lucas almost straight away. Seeing his face light up when he saw her, holding his hand as they walked together into the airport to embark on the biggest adventure of their lives. But fantasy was a forgiving and flexible thing, and there was another one that would do just as well. Finding him at the last minute, just as he was about to board the plane. Pushing through the crowds to fling herself into his arms, and flying off into the sunset with him.
She checked her luggage in, went through passport control, and scanned the passenger lounge anxiously. It looked as if fantasy number three was going to be the one. She’d find him on the plane. Lucas would have given up all hope that she might change her mind and come with him by then.
She knew that he was on this flight; the tickets had been propped up in front of the mirror in his bedroom for over a month. Every night she’d offered up the silent hope that he might change his mind. That he’d ask her to put her career on hold and go with him. Or that he’d decide that the opportunity of working as a doctor in Bangladesh was a dream he could postpone until she had completed her two years’ foundation training and could apply to work alongside him.
Every morning the tickets had still been there and there was one less day to count before he used them. It would be sensible to wave him goodbye and get on with her life. Only love didn’t listen to sense.
As soon as the seat-belt light dinged off, she squeezed past the man sitting next to her and walked up and down the aisles of the plane. Slipped into business class, in case he’d got an upgrade, and managed to ascertain that he wasn’t there before she was politely asked to leave by one of the flight attendants. When the plane landed in Dhaka, she had no more fantasies left to rely on.
She tried not to cry as she went through passport control and claimed her baggage. Covering her long, fair hair with a scarf, she walked out of the airport alone into the unforgiving heat of an unknown city.
Table of Contents
Cover (#u776647ff-a4bb-5139-9f0b-9b7b7bf968d7)
Praise for Annie Claydon: (#u9d615722-5fac-57a8-a4c5-63151f0e8d10)
Dear Reader (#uedee7e01-9c74-5ba2-9915-e101f4b9e446)
About the Author (#u5e371f7c-b5be-586e-a9e1-17dc3cb2d406)
Title Page (#u9bd011df-2a07-5067-97d1-bf8a96ddefa7)
Dedication (#ud51a13b8-57fa-5fc0-9f4a-3498fb018fb6)
PROLOGUE (#u99a949ff-a98e-5d66-8508-0e66c6238b43)
CHAPTER ONE (#ud04430cf-8080-5558-9c8d-0070b938f1fb)
CHAPTER TWO (#u507eaae4-7ee3-527a-9354-51a1159f0c4b)
CHAPTER THREE (#u4d6e24a4-304b-5492-934a-a6641317dc72)
CHAPTER FOUR (#uefeef6dc-06de-5133-a189-01070987ade1)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINETEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_fd5c4216-04b7-5bfd-9b7c-152fd9e97acb)
Seven years later—Day One
THERE WAS NOTHING especially urgent about the manner in which the phone rang, but context was everything. Not many people called at seven o’clock on a Monday morning for an idle chat. And it was one of the laws of the universe that you could come into work early, hoping for a couple of quiet hours before the switchboard opened at nine, and something would happen.
Thea reached for the phone. ‘Dr Coleman.’
‘Good. Glad you’re here …’
‘What is it, Jake?’ She surveyed the carefully ordered pile of paperwork in front of her. In comparison to the sometimes chaotic disorder of the Central London A and E department downstairs, it suddenly seemed like a poor shadow of reality.
‘I’ve got a thirty-four-year-old male that I want a second opinion on. Will you come and have a look?’
‘I’ll be right down.’ Paperwork might be a necessity, but it didn’t put a smile on her face when she got out of bed in the morning. And Thea was smiling as she put the phone down.
‘Where is everybody?’
Jake Turner was a great guy and a good doctor, but he generally didn’t have much of an appreciation of time. A busy shift in A and E could do that to you.
‘It’s seven in the morning, Jake. Anyone with any sense is still thinking about getting out of bed.’
‘Ah. No wonder I had to ring around.’
‘You mean you didn’t call me first? I’m devastated.’
Jake snorted with laughter. ‘I tried Michael Freeman. I thought he’d want to know about this.’
Michael was Head of Respiratory Medicine at the hospital. ‘So what have you got that warranted the attention of our beloved leader? I don’t see any holes in the walls or visiting dignitaries.’
‘Thirty-four-year-old male, persistent cough, congested lungs and recent weight loss. I’ve had some X-rays done and I think it might be tuberculosis.’
‘What’s his history?’
‘He’s been sick for a while. His GP put him on antibiotics and he improved a bit then deteriorated again after he finished them. He came in last night with chest pains and difficulty breathing.’
Thea flipped through the A and E notes that Jake had handed her. ‘Any travel overseas lately?’
‘Nope, nothing. And this guy’s a teacher.’
‘From …’
‘The big secondary school up the road.’
Something pricked at the back of Thea’s neck. A couple of thousand pupils, aged eleven to eighteen, all crammed into an overcrowded inner-city school. Along with a suspected case of TB. ‘Great. You’d better be wrong, Jake.’
Unlikely. Jake was far too good a doctor for that.
‘Yeah. Let’s hope so.’
Mr Michael Freeman, Head of Respiratory Medicine, leaned back in his leather chair, rubbing his neck as if it hurt. ‘You’re sure?’
‘Sure as I can be. I’ve put a rush on the initial tests and we should have them back within twenty-four hours. But the patient has all the symptoms of active pulmonary TB.’ Thea slipped the X-rays out of their sleeve and clipped them into the light box on the wall.
Michael studied them carefully. ‘I agree. You’re admitting him?’
‘Yes, I want to keep him under observation for a few days.’ Thea pointed to the areas on the X-ray that indicated fluid in the patient’s pleural cavity. ‘The pleural effusion might well resolve once we start medication, but if it gets any worse I’ll need to do a thoracentesis.’
‘I agree. I want you to supervise the isolation procedures yourself, along with the notifications. If we have a situation where the infection’s already spread, then I want you dealing with it.’
‘I hope it hasn’t.’
Michael fell back into his chair. ‘So do I. What do you think, though? Worst-case scenario.’
This was Michael’s preferred modus operandi. He knew the answers already and, as the head of department, it was his job to make the decisions. But he always listened to his staff, and let them come up with the solutions he already had in mind.
‘Given that TB’s not that infectious …’ Thea let out a sigh. False optimism wasn’t going to help the situation. ‘Worst-case scenario is that we have an unknown number of pupils infected. The patient’s not been abroad in the last five years so the source of his infection is probably in this area. The contact tracing’s going to be a big job and we’ll have to do it carefully. We don’t want wide-scale panic, but we do want to provide prompt testing where it’s appropriate.’
Michael nodded. ‘Agreed. And what do you recommend for resourcing?’
‘We can’t do it all ourselves. We’ll need consultancy from Public Health England, and probably a couple of extra TB nurses to support the staff here.’
‘Any ideas about who might be leading the hospital team?’
‘I’d thought that you would be doing that.’
Michael gave her the smile that he usually reserved for anyone who wasn’t quite catching his drift. ‘I see from your staff record that you worked in Bangladesh for two years at a TB clinic.’
‘That was three years ago.’ Thea never talked about Bangladesh. She was surprised that Michael even knew she’d been there, but she supposed her CV must be on file somewhere.
