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A Doctor's Confession
Dianne Drake
Deep South Docs! Swapping the Big City…for the Bayou!After tragically losing a patient, former doctor Alain Lalonde has come to the Bayou to forget his past. But he can’t help being drawn to intriguingly beautiful nurse Maggie Doucet! And when a difficult case unexpectedly makes them foster parents they find themselves not only bonding with the child – but with each other too…!
Praise for Dianne Drake: (#ulink_e264d75d-ffe1-5302-ba3a-b587968616f2)
‘A very emotional, heart-tugging story.
A beautifully written book. This story brought tears to my eyes in several parts.’
—goodreads.com Community Review on P.S. YOU’RE A DADDY!
‘An excellent story written with emotional depth and understanding.’
—millsandboon.co.uk Community Review on FIREFIGHTER WITH A FROZEN HEART
A Doctor’s Confession
Dianne Drake
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Table of Contents
Cover (#u95293dbc-9d31-5aa7-93ac-7568e7ebb3bf)
Praise for Dianne Drake: (#u3b78d10e-844f-5d14-a5d6-36d0be2712b6)
Title Page (#u5228d63b-d8df-547b-9db6-4c6488467a2a)
CHAPTER ONE (#uf011d8ec-fbaa-5b26-ae1a-6f13f2bc3371)
CHAPTER TWO (#u7e91ce2c-c381-5bf4-8585-4c907651daf9)
CHAPTER THREE (#u690a670f-9a91-5cfa-bca4-4e77c4080681)
CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
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)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_8b4270e1-36fe-55c5-881e-b9932ad8175d)
“HE’S HANDSOME ENOUGH,” Magnolia Loraine Doucet—Maggie—commented. It was one of those hot, hot August days in Big Swamp, where her preference was to sit on the front porch swing, fan herself and sip a tall, cool lemonade. Which was exactly what she was doing with her sister Mellette on the front porch of Eula’s House.
Inside, Mellette’s husband, Justin, was arguing with Amos Picou on just how much larger the clinic extension should be. Amos wanted to keep everything as it was, and Justin wanted things bigger—a surgery for minor procedures, a cubbyhole where he could escape to write pages for his latest crime novel. It wasn’t a lot in terms of square feet, but changes were met with resistance in these parts.
And while the argument with Amos, who was in favor of leaving things be, was not nearly as heated as the noonday sun, it had seemed the perfect time for the sisters to go outside and take a break.
“You mean drop-dead-gorgeous carpenter man without his shirt, and all sweaty. And look at his …” Mellette Bergeron teased.
“You’re a pregnant lady with a husband just inside the door. You don’t get to look at his anything.”
“Hey, I can still look … a little.”
“You’ve got a looker. Got him hook, line and six months into your pregnancy.”
Mellette smiled the smile of a very contented woman as she laid a protective hand on her belly. “Don’t I know that.”
“So stop looking at that guy over there.” Maggie nodded her head, indicating the big hunk of a carpenter working on framing the additional room that would be used as a minor surgery at Eula’s House.
“Because you want him?” Mellette teased.
“Please. You know I’m not into relationships.”
“Ah, yes. School and work, and more work. An exciting life.”
“It is exciting.”
“Then why are you looking?”
“I’m not looking so much as … as … admiring the physiology. And I was involved not that long ago.”
“Marc the Bland and Raymond the Terrible. You do know how to pick ‘em.”
Maggie Doucet envisioned Marc for a moment—nice man, no wow factor. When his image disappeared she conjured up Raymond the Terrible—man’s body, pig’s head.
“Marc was okay, just not … not conversant or interesting. And if you recall, Marc the Bland dumped me. He dumped me because I wasn’t interesting enough for him.”
Maggie and Mellette both laughed, then Mellette continued, “Then entered Raymond the Rebound, who turned out to be Raymond the Terrible. Misogynist pig of a man.”
“I know, I know. You warned me, Mother and Daddy warned me.” So had her other five sisters. “I met a street performer down in Jackson Square who was dancing for coins and even he warned me in a mime sort of way.”
“Yet you didn’t listen to any of us, did you?”
No, she hadn’t. Because that’s just the way she’d been, looking for absolution and as stubborn as the day was long. Not a good combination. Sure, it was a long, tired story about how she’d been stupid. One known to women the world over. And yes, she’d already admitted it freely. What she’d done hadn’t just been stupid. It had been double stupid! Head-in-the-sand time, being dumped by someone she considered bland, then turning to Raymond.
Lesson learned from all that—she wasn’t ready to jump back into anything for a long time to come. What she had suited her, kept her as safe as she needed to be. “Not doing it again for a long, long time, if ever.”
“Not even with Mr. Tool Belt over there?”
“Especially with Mr. Tool Belt over there. He’s …”
“Too tempting?”
“I’m not looking.”
“But you took him lemonade yesterday, didn’t you? Did you take lemonade to any of the other workers or just him?”
“Just him, but … I did make a pitcher full and left it out there in case any of the others wanted it.”
“But he got his from you? Correct?”
“What are you trying to imply?”
“Nothing!”
Maggie snapped, “I just gave the man some lemonade, so don’t make a federal case out of it, okay?”
“Which means you are interested, being so defensive and all.”
“And just where do you get that?”
“You also said he’s sexy, did you not?”
“I said the way he drank his lemonade is sexy. That’s not saying he’s sexy.” Although he was. Very.
“Same thing,” Mellette argued.
“No, it’s not.” Maggie turned and scowled at her sister. “Your pregnancy hormones are acting up again, which is making you irrational.”
“How so?”
“You want everybody to be as deliriously happy as you are right now. Even if, like me, they don’t want to be. Or if, like me again, they’re satisfied with their life the way it is.”
“Maybe you want to be happy the way I am, and you just don’t know it yet. I was like that when I first met Justin. Wasn’t ready to let go of the past and move on. It took me a while to come round, but when I did …”
“You decided the whole world has to act just like you did. Except my world is complicated.”
“And mine wasn’t?” Mellette asked. “I had to remove a wedding ring given me by someone I loved very much in order to make room for Justin. And I also had a daughter who was very much involved in my move forward. And you have …” She folded her arms across her fat belly and faked a contemplative frown.
“Let’s see. You have none of that. You’re moving away from a boring boyfriend, followed by a chauvinist rebound, you’re at the top of your law school class, you have a killer job that you claim to love. And that sweaty guy over there keeps looking at you out of the corner of his eye. Nothing about that sounds complicated at all. In fact, it seems pretty straightforward to me.”
“I’m in transition. Give me some time.”
“Seriously, Maggie? That’s the best you can do?”
Maggie took a quick peek at the guy in the jeans, then concentrated on her lemonade. “I’m sure his story is a long, sad one. You know, dumped by the love of his life who ran off to marry a rodeo clown, and now he sits at home alone every night, sniffing the scent of her left on the pillow while petting FruFru, the fluffy white poodle over which they fought for custody.”
“First thing is, he’s definitely not the poodle type. German shepherd, I think. Yes, he’d definitely have a German shepherd. And, Maggie, if you think he sits home alone every night, you probably don’t deserve to serve him lemonade. He’s one catchable hunk of man if I’ve ever seen one, and the only reason he’d be staying home is because he wants to.” She took a sip of her lemonade.
“Or he’s a serial killer.”
“A serial killer with drop-dead-gorgeous blue eyes,” Mellette continued.
“They’re green,” Maggie corrected.
“You looked!”
“And I saw his sandy blond hair, wide shoulders and six-pack abs. Sure, I noticed, and that’s not counted as looking. It’s being observant. And I’ll have a good description ready for the police if he is a serial killer.”
“He’s a sexy drinker with drop-dead-gorgeous green eyes you can describe right down to his abs. So does he have a birthmark?”
“You said they’re drop-dead gorgeous,” Maggie challenged. “I didn’t.”
“And you’re going to contend they aren’t, madame lawyer?”
“Not a lawyer yet. And I’m not contending anything other than the fact that they’re green.” A very nice, tranquil green. “And that he is handsome.” With coloring that nearly matched hers, with green eyes just a shade lighter than the green in her eyes.
“Because you were gazing longingly into them.”
“If you weren’t so pregnant, I’d challenge you to a fight, right here, right now,” Maggie said in good-natured fun. “The way we used to when we were kids.”
“Remember how Daddy would encourage us, even lay down bets on who’d win the wrestling match? So then we’d go at each other for a while, then Mother would come in and Daddy would pretend he knew nothing about it? Then he’d get all stern and try correcting us, and we’d jump all over him.”
Both sisters laughed over the memory.
“Between you and me,” Maggie said, “I’m glad you’re having a girl. I like the idea that Leonie will have a sister the way I had all of you, and I love the idea of having another niece since the first one I got was so great. I mean, boys are nice, but I don’t know how one would fit into the family. We’re so used to girls.” She was referring to her six other siblings. At age thirty-three, Maggie fell middle in line of the seven Doucet girls. With long, honey-blonde hair and green eyes, she stood out as the different one—she being fair while the others ranged in skin complexion from medium dark to dark.
Being the fairest of the group, people had taken for granted she was also the weakest or most vulnerable. Except that wasn’t true. There wasn’t a weak, vulnerable Doucet girl in the bunch. Admittedly, Mellette was probably the strongest of them all, and that had helped her through the death of her first husband and into a life with a new love.
Maggie wasn’t far behind Mellette in strength, though. Only hers was directed at her career. First a nurse, and now studying to be a lawyer who defended medical malpractice suits—a career change that had come about after her hand, placed directly on a patient’s heart with the intent of squeezing the life back into him, had saved him but also caused him an infection.
The ungrateful man hadn’t thanked her for saving him but he had sued her for infecting him, which, for a while, had shattered her world and her desire to be in medicine. But like the typical Doucet she was, she’d come back swinging, decided to go to work as a malpractice investigator and, true to her strong nature, decided after that it wasn’t enough. Now, with just over nine months to go, she’d be the lawyer fighting back on behalf of the doctors and nurses who got sued unjustly.
“I think Justin’s glad it’s a girl, too. He loves Leonie, and while he’s never said as much, I think he likes the fact that Daddy reigns over an empire of girls. Maybe sees himself in a similar position.”
“You want seven, like Mother had?” Maggie questioned.
Mellette shook her head vigorously. “This one, maybe one more. Although I will say that Mr. Drop-Dead-Sexy Carpenter over there looks like he’s got some boys in him, in case you want to change the direction of the Doucet family.”
“Pregnant or not, I am going to wrestle you to the floor,” Maggie said, giving her sister a pretend slap on the arm.
“Over what?” Justin Bergeron asked, stepping out onto the front porch. Justin, a general surgeon and part-time general practitioner at Eula’s House, was also a medical crime novelist, with a burgeoning screenwriting career added to his résumé.
Both sisters looked up at him and started laughing.
“And I’ll take that as my cue to go back inside,” Justin said.
