A Paramedic to Change Her Life, page 1
“I told you I never stay in one place for long.”
It was a well-honed protective mechanism. Never get too attached—to people or places—because it’s so much easier to cope when they’re not there any longer. “A year or two and I’ll be moving on again. That’s the way I roll. As I said, I like you, Jo, and age is just a number. It doesn’t make the slightest difference. Not to me.” He held her gaze. “But maybe it does for you? If you’re looking for something more...significant?”
She shook her head. “I think I gave up on the idea of significant a long time ago. I’ve had too many dead-end relationships. I’ve watched too many other marriages disintegrate, including my brothers’. I do have another confession, though.”
“What’s that?” There was a sparkle in her eyes now that he’d seen somewhere before. Oh, no...she wasn’t about to tell him that she was falling in love with him, was she?
She took a deep breath. “I’m planning to have a baby,” she said.
Dear Reader,
I’ve got a meme that has resonated on so many levels for me. It’s a picture of two white circles on a dark background. There’s an arrow pointing to the center of the small circle labeled “Your Comfort Zone.” Inside the big circle are the words Where the Magic Happens.
In any aspect of life, I find it can be all too easy to stay in that comfort zone, but the inspiration of this image to push myself in new directions in the hope of finding magic has yet to wear off, and that applies to my storytelling along with other things like new travel destinations or meeting new people or just trying an unfamiliar cuisine.
Jo, my heroine in A Paramedic to Change Her Life, has decided to make a huge leap out of one of her own comfort zones and she’s hoping for the magic of being able to become a mother before it’s too late. There’s another comfort zone she might also need to step out of—if she wants to keep the extra magic she’s found—but I’ll leave that one for you to discover.
Happy reading!
With love,
Alison xx
A Paramedic to Change Her Life
Alison Roberts
Alison Roberts has been lucky enough to live in the south of France for several years recently but is now back in her home country of New Zealand. She is also lucky enough to write for the Harlequin Medical Romance line. A primary school teacher in a former life, she later became a qualified paramedic. She loves to travel and dance, drink champagne, and spend time with her daughter and her friends. Alison Roberts is the author of over one hundred books!
Books by Alison Roberts
Harlequin Medical Romance
Two Tails Animal Refuge
The Vet’s Unexpected Family
Twins Reunited on the Children’s Ward
A Pup to Rescue Their Hearts
A Surgeon with a Secret
Royal Christmas at Seattle General
Falling for the Secret Prince
Unlocking the Rebel’s Heart
Stolen Nights with the Single Dad
Christmas Miracle at the Castle
Miracle Baby, Miracle Family
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
Praise for Alison Roberts
“Ms. Roberts has delivered a delightful read in this book where the chemistry between this couple was strong from the moment they meet... The romance was heart-warming.”
—Harlequin Junkie on Melting the Trauma Doc’s Heart
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
EPILOGUE
EXCERPT FROM CORNISH REUNION WITH THE HEART DOCTOR BY LOUISA GEORGE
CHAPTER ONE
THE FIRST CLUE that it might be harder than usual for Dr Joanna Bishop to ignore the significance of this particular day of the year came in the form of the rather startling noise of a nearby car horn.
Not that she had any premonition of the ripple effect the noise might have, of course. All she was thinking about, as she looked through the glass doors of the exterior entrance, was why someone might have parked a car at such an odd angle in the ambulance bay of Dunedin’s Princess Margaret Hospital’s emergency department and why they were now leaning repeatedly on the horn. Clearly, assistance was needed. Urgently.
Pulling on gloves as she moved swiftly to follow a triage nurse and registrar through the double sets of sliding doors, she could see frantic movement around the car as the driver jumped out and opened a back door. A security guard was opening the other door. By the time Jo reached the car, the male driver was halfway into the back seat on the driver’s side. A woman had one leg out of the vehicle on the other side but was clinging to the sides of the passenger seat in front of her. And screaming.
‘Oh, my God...the baby’s coming... Like, right now...’
‘She started having contractions all of a sudden.’ The man sounded terrified. ‘About twenty minutes ago. I didn’t think we were going to make it. I didn’t know what to do...’
‘You’ve done exactly the right thing,’ Jo told him. She tucked the front locks of her short, dark bob behind her ears, bent down to the woman, who was still lost in her pain, and put one hand on her back to let her know she wasn’t alone. She put her other hand on what looked to be a belly in the late stages of pregnancy to feel the iron-hard clench of contracting muscles. They couldn’t try moving her from the car just yet but they would need to be ready when the contraction ended because an upward glance revealed clouds that looked threatening enough to be about to resume the heavy rain showers they’d been having on and off all morning. Jo turned to the senior triage nurse beside her but she didn’t need to say anything.
‘I’ll grab a wheelchair,’ Hanna said. ‘And an obstetrics kit—just in case.’
Jo nodded her approval of Hanna’s initiative. She needed to raise her voice to talk to the woman’s partner over the sound of the loud groaning. ‘How often are the contractions happening?’
‘I dunno. Every couple of minutes?’ The man wriggled further onto the back seat and sounded as if he was on the verge of tears now. ‘It’s not supposed to be happening like this.’
‘How many weeks along is she?’
‘Thirty-six.’
‘Just the one baby?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Have there been any problems with the pregnancy?’
‘No.’ The man’s face twisted. ‘Not until now...’ He put his arm around his wife’s shoulders. ‘It’s okay, babe. We’re here now. You’re gonna be okay...’
He seemed to be trying to reassure himself as much as the woman, but for Jo there was relief to be found in knowing that this was a singleton pregnancy that was this close to full term. A high-risk situation like a very premature delivery or the imminent arrival of twins or triplets would have rung much louder alarm bells, but Jo still turned to the young doctor beside her.
‘Page whoever’s on call from Obstetrics, please, David. And let’s get someone from Paediatrics down as well.’ If this was going to turn into the fairly rare event of a birth in the emergency department Jo still needed to plan for any complications such as post-partum haemorrhage for the mother or a newborn with a respiratory arrest. They had two patients here.
It was also a relief to feel the rigidity beneath her hand beginning to soften. The woman’s contraction, along with her groaning, was beginning to subside.
‘I’m Jo,’ she introduced herself, ‘one of the doctors here. We’re going to take good care of you and your baby. What’s your name?’
‘She’s Susie,’ her partner answered for her. ‘She’s my wife.’
‘Is this your first baby?’
‘Yeah...’
Still clinging to the passenger seat, Susie’s breath came out in a sob. ‘I think I’m bleeding. There’s something horribly wrong, isn’t there?’ She turned her head to hide her face against her partner. ‘Jack... I’m scared...’
Jack put both arms around her. They were both crying.
‘You’re not bleeding.’ Jo had already checked what she could see of the towel Susie was sitting on. ‘You’re feeling wet because your waters have broken, which is perfectly normal at this stage of labour.’ There was some staining in the fluid that could be meconium, which would suggest the baby was stressed, but Susie didn’t need to know that. ‘Let’s get you inside before your next contraction and then we’ll be able to see what’s happening.’
Hanna was beside her again, with a wheelchair that she was using to carry a blanket, the equipment roll that contained things that might be needed for a birth, like clamps, scissors and a scalpel, pads and a suction bulb. She had also thought to grab a cylinder of Entonox but it quickly became apparent that providing Susie with inhaled pain relief, let alone trying to move her into a more desirable environment might not be possible. She was gasping, crying out and trying to speak all at the same time.
‘It’s coming... I can feel the head... Oh... Oh...’
There was a short period of controlled chaos a
Hanna used shears from the obstetrics kit she had unrolled to cut through clothing and they could both see that Susie was quite right—her baby’s head was visible and about to be born. Jo’s priority, as she knelt beside the car, was to try and control the speed with which it happened, by putting gentle pressure on the baby’s head, to minimise trauma to both mother and baby.
As soon as the head had emerged, Jo used her finger to check for the position of the umbilical cord and found it around the baby’s neck. Her careful attempt to bring it over the baby’s head or even loosen it was unsuccessful.
‘It’s too tight,’ she told Hanna. ‘I’ll have to clamp and cut it.’
Hanna handed her two clamps and then the sterile scissors to cut through the cord between them. Delivery of the baby had just become more urgent but, although Jo could feel that Susie was pushing, there was no progress to be seen in the movement of the baby’s body.
‘We’re nearly there, Susie. Give me a really big push.’
Jo kept her voice calm but Hanna had picked up on the urgency as she held onto Susie’s legs to support her.
‘You’re doing so well,’ she told the young mother. ‘One more big push, hon. Hard as you can. Push, push, push...’
In her peripheral vision, Jo caught the arrival of the obstetric consultant but there was no way she could hand over the management of this birth at this critical moment. She was holding the baby with both hands and she pushed gently downwards to free the first shoulder and then applied upward traction to free the second. The rest of the baby boy’s body slid out rapidly and, at the same time, there was a loud, warbling cry from the infant that sparked an audible sigh of relief from the group of medical staff surrounding Jo and Hanna, a nod of approval from the obstetrician and the sight of both the first-time parents bursting into tears.
The baby was moving and clearly breathing well enough to cry so the priority was to keep him warm and get both mother and baby into the emergency department for a thorough assessment and the next Apgar score, which was due at five minutes after birth. Hanna handed Jo a warm, dry towel which she used to wrap around the infant, cradling him in her arms, and she got to her feet so that she could hand the baby to his mother as soon as she’d been helped into the wheelchair.
It had been a very long time since Jo had delivered a baby and, on that occasion, it had been put straight onto the mother’s abdomen so it was even longer since she’d held one in her own arms. For just a heartbeat she looked down at the crumpled, angry little face of this tiny human that had just entered the world rather abruptly and it felt...heartbreaking.
Not in a bad way. It felt as if something had broken that had been filled with a liquid warmth that was now seeping, with the speed of light, right through Jo’s body. The kind of warmth that came from the best of what life could ever offer. The kind of warmth that only really came from human connection.
From love...
Susie was in the wheelchair now, blankets around her shoulders and tears streaming down her face as she held her arms out for her baby.
‘Here you go. He’s just gorgeous.’ Jo carefully transferred the bundle and had to blink away a tear or two of her own. ‘This little guy’s had a birthday you’re never going to forget, hasn’t he?’
She stayed where she was for a moment, peeling off her gloves, as Susie was wheeled into the department. She could see that her colleagues from both the obstetric and paediatric departments had already taken over the care of mother and baby so her own part in this drama was no longer essential and, well... Jo needed to take a quick breath before joining them to continue any involvement in the case.
Hanna rolled up the sterile cloth that had contained the scissors and clamps.
‘Reckon this is one you’re never going to forget either.’ Her smile widened. ‘Happy Birthday, Jo.’
Jo couldn’t smile back at her friend. If anything, she could feel her expression becoming quite sombre. It wasn’t because she didn’t want to think about her own birthday—she was looking forward to the planned celebration with Hanna after work, where they were going to try the tapas and sangria at the new Spanish restaurant in town.
No. It was because something much more important was happening. Jo could still feel that odd warmth that holding the baby had triggered and it felt as if a switch had been flicked, in her head as well as her heart.
‘You know what?’
‘What?’ Hanna’s eyebrows rose and then lowered into a concerned frown. ‘Are you okay, Jo?’
‘Never better.’ Jo led the way back into the emergency department. ‘I’ve just realised something.’
‘Oh?’
Jo pulled in a deep breath as she turned her head. ‘If I don’t do it now, I never will because it’ll be too late. It might be too late already but I won’t know until I try, will I?’
‘Oh, no...’ Hanna stopped in her tracks before the automatic door could be triggered ahead of them. ‘Delivering that baby has blown a fuse, hasn’t it? You want one of your own?’
‘I’ve always wanted one. One day. It’s just never been the right time. And it never will be if I keep waiting for it to arrive. It’s my birthday, Hanna. I’m forty-six.’ Jo blew out a breath. How on earth had that apparently sneaked up on her? ‘Forty. Six. Time isn’t just running out...it’s disappearing around the corner.’
‘But...’
Was Hanna about to point out that Jo didn’t even have a man in her life, let alone a partner to raise a child with? Jo didn’t need to be reminded. It was also time to stop this snatched conversation and get back to work, but Hanna was looking worried now. As if she thought Jo might be completely losing the plot?
‘There’s something you don’t know about me,’ Jo told her. ‘Something nobody knows.’
‘Go on then... Tell me. I can keep a secret.’
But Jo shook her head. ‘We can’t talk about it here.’
‘Just as well we’re going out for dinner then, isn’t it?’ Hanna followed her inside.
Jo was already switching off from anything personal as she walked towards the resuscitation area that Susie and her baby had been taken to. She’d have to tell Hanna about it later because she’d already opened the bag that contained the cat, hadn’t she? And when she started talking about it out loud it would become real and would end up changing her life.
But that was okay. Because that feeling was only getting stronger and it ramped up to a new level as she walked into Resus and saw Susie cradling her baby boy on the bed beside her.
The fuse had blown. The switch had been flicked. And Jo had meant what she’d said.
It really was now or never.
* * *
‘Whoa.’
‘It’s all good, mate.’ Cade Cameron threw the briefest of glances towards his junior crew partner, who was reaching to catch the water bottle that was sliding off his lap. ‘I know what I’m doing.’
But his partner, Geoff, was grinning. ‘I know. Word is that you’ve done a bit of rally car racing back in the day.’
Cade didn’t look sideways again as the next twist of the hilly road demanded his full focus. ‘Yeah...it’s been one of my hobbies in the past. Off road driving too.’
Flickers of colour from the flashing beacons on the roof of the vehicle were lighting up the shadows of the pine forest they were driving through and reflecting on the wet tarmac beneath them. There wasn’t much traffic on this road now that they were well out of the city so Cade didn’t flick the siren again until they were behind a logging truck that obligingly slowed and pulled to the left as they reached a straighter stretch. Cade put his foot down then.
This was great. His first day in his new job and he was getting one of his favourite kinds of callout. Outdoors. Away from any main roads. Something that could well provide the kind of challenge an adrenaline junkie thrived on. Even the weather looked as if it was going to add another level to an unknown and potentially dangerous situation and that was fine by Cade.
