A Nurse to Heal His Heart

  She makes him feel alive again

  But can he heal her heart too?

  Single dad GP Joe Thompson’s priorities are his daughter and his patients. It might’ve earned him a brooding reputation, but since losing his wife romance has been off-limits...until he meets locum nurse Rose McIntyre! Her warm smile and live-for-the-moment attitude soothe a pain Joe believed would never fade. But can Joe stop Rose running from her own secrets...and find comfort in his arms?

  “I liked the hero immediately.... However, it was from the moment the hero and heroine come face-to-face for the first time that had me reading quickly, determined to discover more....”

  —Harlequin Junkie on Reunited by Their Secret Son

  “This was a beautiful, emotional story filled with exciting medical drama... plenty of light-hearted moments to give relief to the more emotional aspects of the story, it was perfectly balanced and a joy to read.”

  —Goodreads on The Nurse’s Special Delivery

  She wondered how it would feel pressing her mouth against his.

  Then wondered why she’d think such a thing when she’d told herself a million times already that she couldn’t be interested in him.

  Definitely not interested in kissing him.

  Liar.

  Her gaze traveled from his arms to his face, first seeking out his mouth. Lips slightly parted in a smile that set off fireworks in her stomach. A stubbled jaw she ached to run her fingers along; slashed cheekbones. Back to that mouth that had recently learned how to laugh and was now embracing it. That smile that transformed him. He was so tall and occasionally gruff and a little aloof at times...and she knew now that was because he was juggling so many things, not least bringing up a child on his own. But he was also unbearably sexy and kind and had a hidden sense of humor that he only shared when he was relaxed.

  She liked him relaxed.

  But all she was aware of, right now, was that mouth. All she could think of was the way it would feel pressed against her own.

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for picking up A Nurse to Heal His Heart.

  England’s beautiful Lake District, with its soaring mountains and deep blue lakes, is the perfect place for rest and recuperation—and a little bit of romance! It’s a place very close to my heart and I visit it as often as I can.

  It also happens to be home for single dad GP Joe Thompson, who has had more than his fair share of heartache. It’s where he nurses his wounds and nurtures his daughter. It’s the place Rose McIntyre retreats to when she’s recovering from her own kind of heartbreak. And where they meet (or rather, clash)—one grumpy doctor versus one live-for-the-moment nurse.

  Joe doesn’t believe in fate or destiny, but their story made me hope it does exist, even if just for their very special happily-ever-after.

  I really hope you enjoy A Nurse to Heal His Heart as much as I did writing it. I love hearing from readers, so please do get in touch either via my website, louisageorge.com, where you can sign up for all my release news, or on Facebook: LouisaGeorgeBooks.

  Happy reading!

  Louisa x

  A Nurse to Heal His Heart

  Louisa George

  Books by Louisa George

  Harlequin Medical Romance

  The Ultimate Christmas Gift

  The Nurse’s Special Delivery

  The Hollywood Hills Clinic

  Tempted by Hollywood’s Top Doc

  Midwives On-Call at Christmas

  Her Doctor’s Christmas Proposal

  One Month to Become a Mom

  The War Hero’s Locked-Away Heart

  The Last Doctor She Should Ever Date

  How to Resist a Heartbreaker

  200 Harley Street: The Shameless Maverick

  A Baby on Her Christmas List

  Tempted by Her Italian Surgeon

  Reunited by Their Secret Son

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

  Join Harlequin My Rewards today and earn a FREE ebook!

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  To my amazing editor, Flo Nicoll, who shares my love of the wild and wonderful Lake District.

  Thank you for saying yes when I came up with the idea for this story, and for all your wise words and support over the years. (And, most importantly, for conjuring up famous celebrities at opportune moments!)

  I’m so lucky to have you xx

  Praise for Louisa George

  “This really is a magical story that had me laughing, smiling and shedding a few tears.... Ms. George brings the characters to life on the pages.”

  —Goodreads on Tempted by Hollywood’s Top Doc

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  EXCERPT FROM TEMPTED BY HER SINGLE DAD BOSS BY ANNIE O'NEIL

  CHAPTER ONE

  THERE SHE WAS AGAIN.

  The third day in a row she’d marched past his house, rattled through the farm gate bordering his property and walked up onto the hill path. He wouldn’t have noticed—Joe generally took little interest in the steady stream of day-trippers and hikers walking past his foothills cottage—only for the bright multi-coloured hat and lipstick-red knitted knee-length coat more suitable for shopping than hiking.

  It was the hat that had first caught his attention. Oranges and yellows and something he was sure his sister would call umber or something. Like a sunburst, or sunrise. A fresh vibrancy in the Lake District early autumnal grey they’d been having for the last few weeks. But wearing a wool coat and no decent wet weather gear? Downright foolish. She was probably one of those ill-equipped flakes he heard about too regularly, that had Search and Mountain Rescue out in the dark, risking their own lives.

  Should he tell her about today’s forecast? Run after her like a busybody and tell her to wrap up warmly and get back down before dark and the threatened downpour?

  Like hell. He’d promised himself he wouldn’t get so involved these days—live and let live. Get Katy ready for school, then go to work, come home. That was his life now: rinse and repeat.

  But there was something about the brightness that compelled him to watch her. She’d stopped along the path and was looking out over the hotchpotch of grey stone and whitewashed buildings in the village. From this vantage point at the kitchen sink he had a closer view of her profile. Fresh pink cheeks. Long white-blonde hair cascading down her back as she shook her head from side to side and stretched her arms out wide, raised a leg. Such joy and energy in her movements, she waved her arms in the air and breathed deeply, maintaining her single leg balance. A yoga position?

  She was doing yoga on a mountainside in sleepy Oakdale.

  Yeah, it took all sorts.

  As if she knew he was looking, she turned to him and smiled. Something about the openness of her face, of the soft yet bright eyes, had him instinctively smiling back. Enough of a rarity these days that it made the muscles around his mouth feel stretched and strange.

  He made a snap decision—hell, he was just doing his civic duty—and found himself on
the path running towards her. It hadn’t started raining yet, but the wind was cruel and cold. He liked it that way. It bit through his skin, reminding him that he had once been a man who felt things instead of just numbly going through the motions.

  ‘Hey.’ He caught up with her. Close up, she was...well, she was beautiful. English rose complexion, pretty smile and that long hair moving round her shoulders like a languid river as she turned to look at him. Beautiful indeed. It had been a very long time since he’d been struck enough to think something like that about a woman. He cleared his throat, raised his voice above the wild whip of wind. ‘It’s going to rain.’

  ‘I know. I checked the forecast.’ Her voice was soft, like velvet. A purr. Her eyes a curious amber colour. Something he’d never seen before. Or at least hadn’t noticed. A hint of an accent, definitely southern. Not from around here, so no understanding of how quickly bad weather could creep up.

  ‘But still no raincoat? No waterproof trousers? Gaiters?’ She didn’t even have a rucksack and he’d take bets on her not having a drink or snack in those cosy pockets in case of emergency. Wool? In the rain? Hypothermia would hit her before she had the chance to call the Oakdale team out. Didn’t she know how stupid that was? ‘I hope you’re not going to be out for long—it’s dangerous to be dressed like that out here. The weather changes very quickly at the top of those mountains and you could get caught out. People would have to risk their lives trying to find you if you got lost or hurt—imagine that. Imagine if someone got hurt because you didn’t plan your hike properly. You’re not remotely prepared for the conditions. Any conditions, to be honest.’

  Her sunny smile fell as she looked at his collared cotton shirt then down at his leather work shoes. ‘Neither are you, but I wouldn’t dream of being so rude to a stranger.’

  ‘Rude? I was trying to help.’ Thanks for nothing.

  Her eyebrows rose and she looked at her legs then back at him. ‘Do I look as if I need help?’

  Anything but. She looked vibrant and strong. Long limbs encased in black Lycra tights. Pink-cheeked. Well, actually red-faced now. He shrugged. ‘Okay. Suit yourself. Get wet.’

  She tipped her head and looked at the blackening clouds. ‘I like rain.’

  She really was a flake, then. Rain might have been good for crops, but it wasn’t good for ill-prepared hikers. Or car drivers... He pushed that memory away, along with the accompanying ache in his heart. ‘Good, because you’re going to get a soaking today. Fill your boots.’

  ‘I intend to.’ At least she had sturdy shoes on. That was something. Gold eyes flashed with irritation. Warm-coloured pupils with a cold fleck of anger. She held his gaze.

  And he held it right back. So much for being the Good Samaritan. He’d know better next time.

  ‘Daddy? Dad! What are you doing out here? What’s for breakfast? Can we have pancakes today?’

  His daughter’s voice jolted him back to reality. Behind him, Katy was shivering on the path, dressed only in her pyjamas. Nothing on her feet.

  ‘Quick, inside—you’ll get cold out here.’ He ran back to the house, cursing to himself. Idiot. That was the last time he’d try to be helpful. ‘Sorry, darling. No pancakes on a school day. I’m making porridge and there’s a banana for afterwards.’

  ‘Aww. Not fair.’

  ‘Keep complaining and it’ll be two bowls of porridge,’ he quipped, trying to make her smile while making a deal.

  Katy’s bottom lip protruded in her well-worn, years-old way of appealing to his soft side. ‘Granny makes pancakes every day when I’m there. Why can’t we have them every day too?’

  Joe bit back the healthy eating lecture that seemed to form the basis of their communication these days. His beautiful, playful toddler had turned into a demanding little Miss recently and he wasn’t sure why. Growing pains? Not for the first time—and definitely not the last—he wondered how different things might have been if Katy had had two parents around to bring her up. And with that thought he slopped the porridge into a bowl, the altercation with the woman still infiltrating his mood. Thank God he’d never need to speak to her again. Tomorrow, if she went past, he’d keep his mouth shut. Good luck to her.

  He slid the bowl over to his eight-going-on-eighteen-year-old. ‘Hey, you’ll thank me when you still have lots of energy to run around at playtime.’

  ‘Ugh. But I don’t like it.’ Katy really did look dismayed and Joe’s heart pinged. Guilt lingered around the edges. Work was too damned busy at the moment; two staff down had made them all fraught, working extra hours to keep up with demand. Which meant less time with Katy. But now, as she watched his reaction, she grinned so easily, turning from heartbroken to heartbreaker with the simple upturn of her lips. ‘I have lots of energy. All the time. And I really, really like pancakes. They’re the best thing ever and if I have them I’ll smile all day. For ever.’

  For ever. He wished he could somehow stop time and preserve her like this, so innocent and so easily pleased by little things.

  ‘Okay, we can set the alarm for earlier tomorrow and try making some pancakes. But you remember what happened last time?’

  ‘You just threw it too high. We know better now. Granny’s shown me how to flip them properly.’ His daughter looked up at the sticky patch on the ceiling that he hadn’t quite managed to remove with normal detergent and water. ‘I’ll show you.’

  ‘Okay. Pancakes tomorrow. Now, eat up the porridge.’ And there. He’d given in to her again. How could he not? She was the light of his life, the reason he got up in the morning. Things could have been so different...

  As he tipped the rest of the sludgy breakfast into his own bowl his gaze drifted outside again. Thick clouds darkened the sky as heavy raindrops pelted the windows. See? She’d be getting soaked right about now. Rude? No, sensible. Unlike sunburst hat woman, who had disappeared and taken what little was left of his good mood with her.

  * * *

  The irritation lingered with him for the rest of the morning. His sister would have told him he had a choice and that he could choose to be jovial. But now he was running forty minutes late and was choosing to be quietly efficient and, okay, he might well have come across as gruff to the patient who complained about being kept waiting. Jovial and work-smart didn’t figure in his picture right now. He was a man, after all; he couldn’t multi-task.

  And as if he needed more proof of his inability to focus, every time he tried writing up his notes he stared at the screen and the image of sunburst hat woman filled his head. Gah. He’d been rude and she’d called him on it, rightly. But it had been for her own good. At least that was what he kept trying to convince himself. And those eyes... The memory of that unusual colour had lingered as long as his bad mood. Why had he gone outside to talk to her when women were off his agenda these days?

  ‘You want a cuppa?’ Maxine, his trusty receptionist, called through his open office door.

  ‘Brilliant. Yes, please, in my takeaway cup though, because I’m just heading out on the home visits.’

  Maxine hobbled in on her arthritic legs. One day, too soon, she’d retire and he’d never find someone to truly replace her. She wasn’t just the face of Oakdale Medical, she was it, heart and soul. ‘You’ll come through to the staffroom first, though, Joey? The new locum nurse has popped in for a walk-through before she starts properly tomorrow and I want you to say hello.’

  There was a glint in her eye that made him nervous. He wasn’t sure why. Maybe, because Maxine hadn’t had a glint in her eye for a long time. ‘Oh?’

  ‘We’ve got her for a month so we’ve got some breathing space to fill the vacancy. Be nice—I don’t want you scaring her off.’

  ‘I’m always nice.’

  ‘Hmm... No comment.’ She smiled and he remembered his sister saying Maxine needed a medal for putting up with him these last few years. No doubt she was right. He hadn’t exactly b
een a bundle of laughs recently. ‘Come and say hello at least.’

  He probably should, and be thankful someone had turned up at all, given the scarcity of people wanting to work here in the middle of nowhere, but he had patients who needed him to visit them. ‘Would it be rude if I said no, and that I’ll meet her tomorrow? I’ve got too much to do before the afternoon clinic.’

  ‘Right you are. I’ll tell her. She’s lovely, so I’m sure she’ll understand. Actually, there’s something about her that seems...’ As she shook her head her nose crinkled. ‘Oh, nothing really. Just me being silly.’

  ‘Seems what?’ He didn’t want anyone upsetting his staff. But there he was, jumping to conclusions before he’d set eyes on the woman.

  ‘I don’t know...familiar, I suppose, although I’ve never met her before. She’s nice. Got a nice manner. Friendly.’ As she turned to leave she stopped short and inhaled sharply. ‘Oh. Oh.’

  His gut clenched. ‘Everything okay, Maxine?’

  She hunched forward and rubbed at her chest. Frowned. ‘Nothing. Don’t fuss. Just indigestion. I told David not to put onions in my sandwiches, but did he listen? No. And I ate them anyway, too quickly for my own good.’

  ‘You sure you’re okay?’ Pulse prickling with concern, Joe was halfway across the room, assessing her pallor and breathing rate. ‘What kind of pain is it? Come and sit down; let me look you over.’

  She threw him the same look she’d been giving him for the last five years or so. ‘Since that accident you’ve been on a mission to save the world, Joseph Thompson. And you can’t. You’ve got to stop worrying about everyone and everything.’

  ‘I care about you, so sue me. Let me check you over. Sit down.’ He didn’t want to be reminded about the accident and his overwhelming need to protect those he cared about. ‘Please, Maxine. It won’t take a minute.’

  But, woefully stubborn as usual, she straightened and waved him back to his seat. ‘I’m fine, Joey. Don’t go bothering about me. I’ll pop the kettle on. The closed sign’s up, Jenny’s out on calls, Alex is still on annual leave and the nurses are at a vaccination update over at the community hub in Ambleside, so it’s tea for two. Oh...three if we count Rose.’