A Family for Chloe Read online

  Single dad in the Outback

  Becoming a dad to his niece Chloe changes hotshot surgeon Felix McLaren’s whole world. Wanting the best for her, Felix heads for the Outback. But nothing about his new life is as he expected, and when beautiful registrar Harriette Jones bonds with him over little Chloe, everything changes.

  Harriette’s determined to focus on her future, but Felix and adorable little Chloe pull on her heartstrings. Is it possible they’re what she’s been missing all along...and that she’s the final piece of their family?

  Outback Surgeons

  These Outback heroes aren’t looking for love, but in the caring country town of Meeraji Lake...it’s catching!

  Welcome to Meeraji Lake—where Oscar Price and Felix McLaren find sharing the doctors’ quarters with ice queen Daisy Forsythe-York and überfriendly Harriette Jones is the perfect recipe for love...

  Find out what happens in Daisy and Oscar’s story

  English Rose in the Outback

  and

  Harriette and Felix’s story

  A Family for Chloe

  Don’t miss the Outback Surgeons duet from Harlequin Medical Romance author Lucy Clark

  Available May 2016!

  Dear Reader,

  Welcome to the second story in my Outback Surgeons series. Harriette and Felix certainly make an interesting couple, and I loved getting to know them.

  I knew I wanted to write about a heroine who has an adult son, and the relationship between Harriette and her son Eddie is based on the great friendship I share with my own adult son. Added to this mix is a very strong, some would say stubborn, little girl who is almost four. Miss Chloe Jane McLaren was an absolute hoot to create and write about, because when you’re almost four years old, you know everything...except how to juggle! Poor Felix often feels as if he’s floundering in a world he knows nothing about, but with Harriette’s help, and support from the rest of the crazy characters in the small Outback Australian town of Meeraji Lake, he finally finds his happily-ever-after.

  During the writing of this story, my beloved father passed away from cancer, which often made my creative times harder to find. I can’t thank my editors enough for their patience as I worked through my grief. There are many aspects of this story that pay homage to my dad and what he taught me and my siblings—the main thing being that family really is so very important. Harriette helps Felix to realize this, and to understand that what is past is past and all we can do is learn from our mistakes and move forward with a positive attitude.

  A Family for Chloe will always hold a special place in my heart... I hope it finds one in yours, too.

  Warmest regards,

  Lucy

  A FAMILY FOR CHLOE

  Lucy Clark

  Books by Lucy Clark

  Harlequin Medical Romance

  Wedding on the Baby Ward

  The Boss She Can’t Resist

  Taming the Lone Doc’s Heart

  Diamond Ring for the Ice Queen

  Falling for Dr. Fearless

  A Socialite’s Christmas Wish

  Dare She Dream of Forever?

  One Life-Changing Moment

  Resisting the New Doc In Town

  The Secret Between Them

  Her Mistletoe Wish

  His Diamond Like No Other

  Dr. Perfect on Her Doorstep

  A Child to Bind Them

  Still Married to Her Ex!

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

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  To Erica, Tim, Ella and Chloe—wonderful friends, thank you for allowing me to peek into your lives.

  Hebrews 4:16

  Praise for Lucy Clark

  “A good and enjoyable read. It’s a good old-fashioned romance and is everything you expect from medical romance. Recommended for medical romance lovers and Lucy Clark’s fans.”

  —Harlequin Junkie on Resisting the New Doc In Town

  “I really enjoyed this book—well written, a lovely romance story about giving love a second chance!”

  —Goodreads on Dare She Dream of Forever?

  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 ONE

  ‘HARRIETTE? HARRIETTE JONES?’ Felix McLaren stood in the middle of the Meeraji Lake District hospital’s emergency department and looked around for Dr Harriette Jones, the doctor he was supposed to contact, the doctor who was supposed to be in charge of the small outback Australian hospital. Apparently, she wasn’t here. In fact, there didn’t seem to be anyone in the entire ED. How could a hospital—one located in the middle of nowhere—be completely empty? He found the notion impossible, especially as he’d always worked in bustling, hectic hospitals.

  Felix looked around, astonished to find all the treatment rooms and emergency bays set up and ready for whatever emergencies might befall the small community. What on earth had he got himself into? He’d thought the decision to work in the Australian outback, in a small sleepy town, the right thing to do given his present circumstances; that working here would afford him more leisure time, but this—this was absolutely absurd. He’d expected things to be quiet but not this quiet.

  He hitched up the sleeping almost-four-year-old girl in his arms and walked towards one of the treatment rooms. ‘Hello?’ he called as loud as he dared so as not to wake the child. The last thing he needed right now was for her to wake up. He looked around to see if there was a bell or something he could ring in order to alert someone to his presence. ‘Hello? Harriette? Tori? Anyone?’ Still he received no answer. He’d been told by his friend Oscar Price to speak to either Harriette or Tori but neither was to be found.

  ‘They’ll be on hand to help you with whatever you need,’ Oscar had told him. Well, Oscar had been wrong. Felix shook his head with complete incredulity at the situation. What if there was an emergency? What were the patients supposed to do then? Treat themselves? He could only hope the drug cupboard was locked up tight.

  Surely there had to be someone, somewhere within this thirty-bed hospital, which boasted a small surgery, one ambulance and, from what he could see, two very well-stocked emergency treatment rooms.

  He walked back to the nurses’ desk and availed himself of a chair, sinking into it with relief. Chloe resettled herself in his arms without incident. Ordinarily she wouldn’t have had a bar of him but as she was so completely exhausted, she probably had no idea she was now sleeping in the arms of the guardian she didn’t like.

  And he knew for a fact that she didn’t like him because she’d told him so, in no uncertain terms. The words, ‘I hate you’ had left her lips several times during their short acquaintance and although he recognised them as the words of a child, that she couldn’t possibly comprehend the magnitude of her situation, they’d still cut him deep.

  It was the main thing he’d quickly discovered about becoming an instant parent—when it came to the child’s feelings about a person, place or thing, they told the absolute, honest to goodness truth. For Chloe, her new guardian was some
one she one hundred percent did not like. As far as she was concerned, he was ‘dumb’. She’d called him the word because he’d told her he wouldn’t be able to help her find her mummy and daddy.

  For the most part, though, Felix thought he wasn’t doing such a bad job. He usually managed to cope fairly well when she was asleep, but when she was awake Chloe Jane McLaren was more than a handful. Not that he blamed her. The poor little girl had been through more than enough during the past three months. Shunted around, confused, abandoned and now he’d brought her halfway around the world.

  Although she’d been born in Lancashire to an English mother and an Australian father, apart from him, Uncle Felix, she really had no other relations. Of course there was Felix’s father, but the two men had been estranged for decades. Not only had Felix had to deal with the deaths of his brother, David, and his sister-in-law, Susan, but now he’d become an instant parent.

  He was doing his best, trying to give Chloe some sort of normal life and, as such, he’d realised he needed to downsize his own workload. It had been a difficult decision because his career had been his life for so long. He’d worked incredibly hard and incredibly long hours to achieve the success as a respected and sought-after general surgeon. He’d won fellowships, been appointed to boards, written several published papers and been involved with new and innovative inventions designed to make the surgeon’s life that much easier. He was considered, amongst his peers, as a brilliant mind. Now...he sighed and shifted the sleeping child a little in his arms. Now, he was responsible for a little person and he’d never felt more out of his depth.

  That was the reason why he’d agreed to take the job here, in outback Australia. He’d hoped it would provide him with time. Time to get to know Chloe, time to come to terms with his grief, time to figure out what on earth he was going to do in the future. Would a year here make a difference to his career path? Could he be a respected surgeon and a parent? Should he employ a full-time nanny and housekeeper to give Chloe more stability? Or would that make her feel as though she’d been abandoned by yet another person in her life? He’d been so conflicted that when he’d bumped into his old friend Oscar Price, who had been temporarily in England, Felix had found himself confessing he’d no idea what to do. Oscar, as it turned out, was director of Meeraji Lake District Hospital in outback Australia but was presently on leave with his new fiancée, Daisy.

  ‘Why not go to Meeraji Lake for a while?’ Oscar had suggested. ‘A locum, Harriette Jones, is there holding down the fort but it’s a two-doctor hospital and I hate leaving everyone in the lurch. At the moment, though, family comes first and Daisy’s mother has been ill—we’re planning to head to Spain so she can enjoy the warmth. My focus has to be on my family and now that you have a family, that needs to be your first priority. That little girl needs you, Felix.’

  Felix had frowned for a moment, his mind working fast as he’d thought through a plan. He could take a twelve-month sabbatical from his present position and spend it in a less stressful working environment while figuring out how to be a parent. It could work. ‘You’re sure you don’t mind me going to Meeraji Lake?’ he’d asked.

  ‘Mind?’ Oscar had chuckled. ‘Mate, you’d be doing me a big favour.’

  Oscar had told him of the tight-knit community, of the excellent day-care centre, of the doctors’ residence that was only two doors down from the hospital. Everything was nice and close. Felix could spend whatever free time he had with Chloe and, when he weighed it up against his current job where he was at the hospital more often than not, it had sounded brilliant.

  However, Felix also wasn’t ignorant of the many dangers he would face with raising a wilful young child in such a barren environment. What if she decided to run away? She could dehydrate within a short space of time. Or what if she didn’t understand that the snakes and spiders in Australia were some of the deadliest in the world? Felix shuddered at the thought, realising he’d have to keep a close eye on her. How was he supposed to do that and—?

  The side doors to the hospital burst open and a gaggle of voices greeted him. Felix instantly opened his eyes and stood; the sharp action combined with the plethora of urgent chatter woke Chloe and she immediately began to cry. A paramedic stretcher was being wheeled in, the patient on the stretcher moaning and groaning with pain.

  ‘Shh... Shh...’ He started jiggling Chloe up and down while stroking her lightly on the back.

  ‘Tori, get an IV in. Adonni, get the portable ultrasound machine into emergency room one. Pat? Patrick? Can you hear me?’ The woman, a redhead with her mass of long curls pulled back into an extremely haphazard bun, continued giving rapid-fire instructions to the rest of the staff. ‘Bill, get Theatre prepped.’

  ‘You’re going to do the surgery here? You don’t want to transfer him to Alice?’

  ‘There’s no option but to operate. We don’t want Pat to end up with peritonitis,’ the redhead answered before the man she’d addressed as Bill headed off in a different direction.

  Chloe started to cry louder at the ruckus around her, as though completely indignant that anyone should disturb her sleep. At the sound of the child’s cries, the redhead, who was dressed in scrubs, turned to look at Felix. ‘Is she all right?’

  ‘Pardon?’ he called back as the stretcher disappeared into emergency room one. The redhead was patting her supine patient’s hand but called out louder to him.

  ‘Is your daughter sick? Does she require urgent treatment?’

  ‘Uh. No. She’s uh...’

  The front door to the hospital opened and in walked three men, all of them looking the worse for wear with bloodied hands, bloodied faces and sheepish grins.

  ‘What now?’ The woman glared at the three of them then pointed to the waiting area, shaking her head, the loose messy bun bobbling around on her head. ‘Sit. Don’t move and if you dare start to fight again in here, I’ll have Henry lock all of you up for three days.’

  ‘You can’t do that,’ one of the men said, his tone indignant.

  ‘Oh, yes, I can, Bazza, so don’t try me.’ Her tone was determined, brooking no argument.

  ‘Er...perhaps I can help?’ Felix spoke up louder as Chloe cried louder. ‘If there’s somewhere I can put her down so she’ll settle...’ He looked around at the vacant ED treatment-room beds.

  ‘Pardon?’ The redhead quickly walked over to him. ‘If you could just take a seat in the waiting room, I’ll be with you as soon as I can. I have an emergency appendectomy to deal with and—’

  ‘I’m Felix McLaren,’ he interrupted and when she still looked at him with a blank expression, he added, ‘The new doctor. Oscar’s friend. I’m here for the next year. Ring any bells?’

  Patrick’s moans and groans from emergency room one were getting louder. The woman took a few steps away. ‘If you know how to do an appendectomy, you can most definitely help out.’

  ‘Then I’ll help out.’ Again he angled his head towards the unsettled child in his arms; her cries were slowly subsiding but he could tell that the slightest noise could set her off again. ‘Here. You put Chloe down somewhere and deal with the brawlers and I’ll start scrubbing.’ He handed Chloe to the redhead. ‘I wouldn’t usually offload her like this but we don’t want that appendix to perforate and, besides, Oscar told me you were great with children.’

  ‘He did?’ Staring at him with big green eyes filled with confusion and a hint of annoyance, the redhead had no option but to accept the child he was thrusting into her arms.

  Felix paused for a moment and fixed her with a firm look. ‘Are you Harriette or Tori?’

  ‘Sorry?’ She had to raise her voice as the child hadn’t enjoyed being handed off to a stranger and was making her displeasure known.

  ‘Who are you?’ he asked, leaning in towards her so his words could be better directed towards her ear. His warm breath fanned her exposed neck an
d she was treated to a hint of his subtle spicy scent. It was nice. It was good. It was disconcerting. Why the action should cause a burst of goosebumps to flood down the side of the body, she had no idea. She pushed the unwanted reaction to his nearness aside and met his gaze.

  ‘I’m...um... Harriette. Harriette Jones.’

  ‘Harriette. Good.’ He nodded and took a step away, then shook his head and pointed to the door the man called Bill had gone through. ‘I’m presuming it’s that way to Theatres?’

  ‘Yes, but—’ She shifted the child in her arms and started jiggling up and down in an effort to help comfort the little girl, but anything else she might have said was useless as her new colleague had disappeared through the door that led to the wards and the operating theatre.

  Harriette tried not to be completely miffed at the man, at his high-handedness, at the way he’d simply abandoned his daughter to the care of a stranger and waltzed off in search of her operating theatre. Of all the nerve!

  ‘Then again, Harriette...’ Her little internal voice of reason spoke up. ‘You did say if he could do an appendectomy you’d be grateful of his help.’

  ‘But I hadn’t expected him to actually be able to do it!’ her irrational side answered. It had all happened too fast. She hadn’t asked him for any identification, hadn’t checked his medical credentials. He could be just anyone about to embark on a surgical operation that might affect Patrick’s health.

  She kept jiggling the child in her arms as her mind whirled with a thousand different thoughts at once. Oscar had called her to say his friend Felix McLaren would be arriving to locum for twelve months and Harriette had been glad of the help. She just hadn’t expected to be faced with an emergency, brawling idiots, her new colleague and a crying child all at the same time.

  Harriette dragged in a breath and assessed the situation as she patted the little girl on the back, doing her best to ignore the cries and figure out the triage of her patients. Bazza and his bar-room brawling mates were starting to argue again and Patrick, the town’s resident and self-proclaimed hypochondriac, was moaning even louder than before. At least this time Pat’s symptoms were genuine. Shifting the child to free up one hand, Harriette reached for the phone on the desk and called Henry, the town’s police officer.