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The Baby That Changed Her Life
Louisa Heaton
‘You’re pregnant.’When midwife Callie Taylor agreed to be the surrogate mother for her best friend Dr Lucas Gold she couldn’t have predicted that his marriage would fall apart exactly when she became pregnant with his child…Suddenly her life has changed for ever, and Callie’s terrified of becoming a mum to the baby she never dreamed of keeping. Even more terrifying are the feelings she’s starting to develop for Lucas—feelings that have nothing to do with her hormones…and absolutely everything to do with his scorching kiss!
Her heart began to pound as her breath caught in her throat. Her skin had come alive at his touch, tingling and yearning for more.
He’s going to kiss me!
And she realised she wanted him to. Wanted it more than anything else in the whole wide world!
She sat up slightly and met him halfway, wrapping her hand behind his neck, embedding her fingers in his tousled hair and pulling his face towards hers, meeting his lips with hers, indulging in a wonderful, tentative, exploring first kiss.
Fireworks were going off throughout her body. She felt tense and relaxed and excited all at once. Her hands itched for his touch, to be holding him. Their mouths opened as the kiss deepened and his tongue took hers, and then she was breathing him, kissing him, holding him, in a way she’d never felt with a man before. His bristles scorched her face and it was a sweet agony as passion took them both by surprise and hunger for each other burned them to their very core.
This is Lucas!
Of course it was! He’d been there in front of her all this time, the man for her, and she’d let him be just a friend for all that time—not knowing, never allowing herself to think about it. Why hadn’t she thought about it?
Perhaps I did. In fact I know I did!
She’d once let the thought of what it would be like to sleep with Lucas occupy her mind for many a night. But she’d not wanted to risk their friendship. She’d always dismissed it.
I need to breathe.
She couldn’t remember how. Instead she continued to kiss him, to feel his soft hair in her fingers, his chest against hers, the yearning for more …
For so long she’d wondered what it would be like. This moment. This kiss. Yet she knew she had to stop it. Knew she had to let him go. Because this wasn’t meant to happen!
‘We shouldn’t do that.’ She sounded breathless. ‘We can’t risk it … there’s a baby now.’
Dear Reader (#u5b7856fa-68c3-5266-8114-1bceb5297cde)
Hello, and welcome to my very first Mills and Boon
Medical Romance™! I wanted to kick off my medical writing career exploring an issue that has always fascinated me, and so I knew I had to do a surrogacy story.
I’m nowhere near brave enough to be a surrogate myself, but I am eternally fascinated and proud of those women who do volunteer to have a baby for someone else. In this story that woman is Callie Taylor—a midwife, a fascinating woman who loves babies but has never wanted one for herself. Or so she thinks …
It led me to thinking: just what happens when the surrogate has doubts about what she’s doing? When I heard about women who’d ended up keeping the baby I knew I had to explore this with my characters, Callie and Lucas. They both deserve love and I hope you will enjoy their journey as much as I enjoyed writing about it.
I would love to hear from readers. If you want to contact me you can do so at Twitter, on @louisaheaton (http://twitter.com/louisaheaton), on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/Louisaheatonauthor (http://www.Facebook.com/Louisaheatonauthor), or on my website: www.louisaheaton.com (http://www.louisaheaton.com)
Warmest wishes
Louisa
LOUISA HEATON first started writing romance at secondary school, and would take her stories in to show her friends, scrawled on lined A4 paper in a big red binder, with plenty of crossing out. She dreamt of romance herself, and after knowing her husband-to-be for only three weeks shocked her parents by accepting his marriage proposal and heading off to Surrey to live with him. Once there, she began writing romance again and discovered the wonderful world of Mills & Boon
Medical Romance™.
After four children—including a set of twins—and fifteen years of trying to get published, she finally received ‘The Call’! Now she lives on Hayling Island, and when she’s not busy as a First Responder she creates her stories wandering along the wonderful Hampshire coastline with her two dogs, muttering to herself and scaring the locals.
Visit Louisa on Twitter, @louisaheaton (http://twitter.com/louisaheaton), on Facebook, www.facebook.com/Louisaheatonauthor (http://www.facebook.com/Louisaheatonauthor), and on her website: www.louisaheaton.com (http://www.louisaheaton.com)
THE BABY THAT CHANGED HER LIFEis Louisa Heaton’s debut titlefor Mills & Boon® Medical Romance™!
The Baby
That Changed
Her Life
Louisa Heaton
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
For Nicholas, James, Rebecca, Jared and Jack xxx
Table of Contents
Cover (#uf6bdc2d5-1ae1-5fce-afb8-b362c485f123)
Excerpt (#u5fb7d53f-8d72-5cb9-abd4-36ff3c9dcce1)
Dear Reader
About the Author (#ubb8e7f07-2728-523d-bd90-972ba3bf4111)
Title Page (#ubb60f212-af03-5242-9405-4506e429292f)
Dedication (#u81d5ec49-3365-595d-9ea9-adc5528aa091)
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
EPILOGUE
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
PROLOGUE (#u5b7856fa-68c3-5266-8114-1bceb5297cde)
CALLIE TAYLOR STARED at the pregnancy test kit. She felt the weight of it in her hands. There was no point in reading the instructions—she already knew what they said. Knew the simplicity of its words: ‘One line indicates a negative result. Two pink lines indicate a positive result’.
Simple words but such a momentous implication. Life-changing. Well, just for nine months, maybe—because, as a surrogate, she’d be giving the baby away after it was born. But even then … being best friends with the father of the baby meant the baby would always be in her life …
Callie opened the box, pulling out the thick wad of paper wrapped around the end of the two kits, and threw the instructions in the bin. She knew how these things worked. As a midwife, she conducted many a test—especially when she worked in the fertility clinic. She placed the second kit back on the shelf and tore through the wrapping around the first.
She had never considered for even one moment that she would be doing this test on herself, and yet here she stood.
What was she doing? Had she made the right decision to do this? To be a surrogate? What if things didn’t work out? What if she fell in love with the baby?
No, course not … I’d never do that.
She splashed her face with cold water and dried her hands.
Pee on the stick. That was all she had to do and she would know.
Could there be any doubt? It had to be positive, didn’t it? She already felt sick and tired all the time. And she kept eating biscuits.
Not much of a sacrifice, though, was it? A big waistline and labour. That was all she had to get through to give Lucas and Maggie their much wanted baby. Callie could do that. And she didn’t have to worry about wanting to keep the baby because she’d never wanted kids anyway.
No biggie.
So why aren’t I peeing on this stick?
She held the slim white plastic tube in her fingers, staring at it. Her bladder felt full. There was only one thing to do …
She did what she had to and put the cap on the stick, sliding it between the taps on her sink.
I’ll look at it in a moment.
Just as she was finishing washing her hands her doorbell rang. They were insistent, whoever they were. Ringing constantly, a finger held on the button, determined not to stop until she answered the door.
‘Oh, God … Who is it?’ she called out. If it was someone she didn’t know, then she wasn’t going to bother answering it at all! Did they not know that she had a life-changing moment going on here?
Leaving the bathroom, she glanced around at the state of her flat. It wasn’t too bad. There were cups here and there and on the coffee table, papers, magazines and an open packet of gingernuts. Clothes were draped over the back of the sofa, the radiator, and the whole place had a bit of an uncared-for air about it. It looked a mess.
Like me. Besides I’m in my pyjamas.
‘Callie, it’s me … Lucas!’
Lucas. The father. Maybe …
Okay, I have to answer the door for you, at least.
‘Hang on.’ Callie moved quickly down her hallway, grabbing stray items of clothes and tossing them all in her bedroom. She ran her fingers through her hair, hoping she didn’t look too much like death warmed up, and pulled open the door, trying to seem casual.
‘Hi,’ Lucas said. He looked awful.
She frowned. Lucas looked pale, distracted. Not his usual self.
Callie followed him into her lounge. ‘You okay?’
It wasn’t like Lucas just to turn up like this. Normally he’d ring to let her know he was coming round, just to make sure it was all right and she wasn’t going out.
Lucas stood in the centre of Callie’s lounge, hands in his jacket pockets, looking very uncomfortable. ‘No, not really—no.’ He fidgeted in his pockets, bit his lip. Then, with nothing better to do, he sat down on the couch in a sudden movement, waiting for Callie to join him.
‘What’s up?’ She hoped this was going to be a quick conversation, considering the state her stomach was in.
Lucas shrugged, unable to meet her gaze. ‘Everything. Everything’s up.’
Callie felt awkward. Normally in this situation a friend would reach out, lay a reassuring hand on a knee and say, Hey, what’s up? You can tell me. But Callie didn’t feel comfortable doing that. It wasn’t who she was. She didn’t do reassuring physical contact.
Except with her patients. Somehow it seemed okay to do it with them. It was her professional persona. It wasn’t her. That was Midwife Callie, not Real Callie.
Lucas smiled at her, but it was strained—one of those brave smiles that people tried to put on their faces when in reality the last thing they wanted to do was smile.
Callie was even more at a loss.
‘Hey … what’s wrong?’ She edged closer. She could manage that and resist the urge to put her arm around him.
‘It’s Maggie …’
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked quickly. ‘Is she sick?’ Callie really couldn’t imagine anything worse than that.
‘No, not sick. That would be easy to deal with … No, she’s worse than sick.’ His voice had a tinge of anger to it now, and Callie found herself frowning.
‘Then what is it?’ She dreaded asking. What would he say? Had she been in an accident? Was she at death’s door? In a coma? If it were any of these things, then how would the baby situation work? She’d only agreed to be a surrogate because there was no chance she’d be expected to take care of the baby …
Oh, God, I’m going to be expected to take care of the baby …
Horror and fear grabbed her in their vice and she began to feel icy-cold, almost to the point of shivering. She closed her eyes at the onslaught, hoping that when she opened them again everything would be good and Lucas would tell her something nice.
Lucas took in a deep breath. ‘She left. Walked out.’
He looked at her in disbelief and waited for her reaction. His eyes were strangely empty of tears, despite the news.
‘Left? But—’
‘She’s been having an affair, apparently. Some doctor in A&E. I don’t know—I think that’s what she said. She said I didn’t love her enough, she wasn’t happy, and she’s gone.’ He stood up then, unable to sit still a second longer, sighing heavily now that he’d told her the important news. He turned to her and did that brave smile thing again. ‘Good thing you’re not pregnant yet.’
