Tempted By The Single Mum

New start, new life...

New family?

After a lifetime of putting others first, GP Nick Cooper is craving his fresh start in Yoxburgh—it’s time to discover what he wants. And that’s his beautiful new colleague, Ellie Kendal! But Ellie comes as a package deal, and as a devoted single mom of three, she’s nothing like anyone he’s ever met before! His head warns him to hold back, even though his heart already belongs to them all...

CAROLINE ANDERSON is a matriarch, writer, armchair gardener, unofficial tearoom researcher and eater of lovely cakes. Not necessarily in that order! What Caroline loves: her family. Her friends. Reading. Writing contemporary love stories. Hearing from readers. Walks by the sea with coffee/ice cream/cake thrown in! Torrential rain. Sunshine in spring/autumn. What Caroline hates: losing her pets. Fighting with her family. Cold weather. Hot weather. Computers. Clothes shopping. Caroline’s plans: keep smiling and writing!

Also by Caroline Anderson

One Night, One Unexpected Miracle

Yoxburgh Park Hospital miniseries

Risk of a Lifetime

Best Friend to Wife and Mother?

Their Meant-to-Be Baby

The Midwife’s Longed-For Baby

Bound by Their Babies

Their Own Little Miracle

A Single Dad to Heal Her Heart

From Heartache to Forever

Tempted by the Single Mum

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

Tempted by the Single Mum

Caroline Anderson

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-0-008-90232-2

TEMPTED BY THE SINGLE MUM

© 2020 Caroline Anderson

Published in Great Britain 2020

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

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I have many people to thank, not least my editor

for her endless patience. Sheila, you are a star.

Also Juno, who’s looked after us for very many years,

through many trials and tribulations.

Thank you for your kindness and support.

And, last but not least, thanks also to

my long-suffering husband John, who must

surely be sick of me saying, ‘We can’t do that.

I have to write my book…’

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

Dedication

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

EPILOGUE

Extract

About the Publisher

CHAPTER ONE

WHY? WHY TODAY, when she was already running late before she’d even started, did someone have to make it even worse?

She glared at the car reversing neatly into the one remaining doctors’ space—a car she didn’t recognise, and she’d never seen the driver, either. He certainly wasn’t one of their doctors, so whoever he was he had no business parking there.

Didn’t seem to bother him. He either didn’t know, or didn’t care, but he flashed her a smile as he got out of the car, then locked it and headed for the surgery without a backward glance.

Who did he think he was? Cocky, arrogant—argh! There weren’t words for what she felt. The expensive car, the confident stride, the easy charm—not to mention the insanely good looks. Clearly a man for whom everything had always gone his way. Well, not now. Whoever he was—probably a drug rep—he was about to get his comeuppance.

Still fuming, she reversed into the last available space in the car park, not really wide enough but doable—or it would have been, if she hadn’t been so cross.

She heard the scrape, closed her eyes and breathed, then shuffled the car slightly further from the offending wall, squeezed out of the ridiculously narrow gap she’d left herself, slammed the door and headed across the car park.

Seriously, could today get any worse? Well, his could. If he was still in Reception—

He was. He was chatting to the receptionist, leaning forward engagingly as he spoke, and that easy charm was obviously working on Katie, which just infuriated her more. His hands were shoved casually into the pockets of immaculately cut trousers that fitted his neat, strong hips to perfection. Of course they did. They wouldn’t dare do anything else.

She eyed his shoulders, broad and yet not heavy, the legs strong and straight below firm, taut buttocks. He probably worked out in a fancy gym somewhere. You didn’t get a neat, sexy bottom like that by accident.

She dragged her eyes up to head height.

‘You’ve parked in a doctor’s space,’ she said crisply to his back, keeping a lid on her temper with difficulty, and he straightened up and turned towards her, that infuriating smile still on his face.

‘Yes, I—’

‘I know parking’s tight, but that is just not on. There was another space, so why not park there yourself? Or anywhere else, frankly! Or was that the only space big enough for your ego? Thanks to you I’ve scraped my car, I’m now ten minutes late and I’ve got patients waiting!’

An eyebrow rose a fraction. Over his shoulder she could see Katie gesturing wildly, but she ignored her and stood her ground, and he shook his head slowly.

‘Maybe you need to get up earlier,’ he murmured, and she stifled the urge to growl at him.

‘And maybe you need to learn to read!’

‘Ellie! Dr Kendal!’ Katie chipped in, getting to her feet and looking even more flustered, and his eyebrow went up a little further, a lazy smile now playing around his aggravatingly beautiful mouth.

‘I think we’d better start again,’ he said, holding out his hand, the smile tugging at his lips. ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dr Kendal. I’m Nick Cooper. Dr Nick Cooper.’

The new—and desperately needed—member of their team.

Brilliant.

Why didn’t the ground just open up and swallow her?

He had to stifle his laugh.

Her jaw sagged, and for a second she was speechless. Then she shook her head, mumbled what could have been an apology and fled through the staff door as Katie opened it, her face flaming.

He dropped his hand back to his side, shrugged and smiled at the receptionist who was looking horrified and fascinated all at once.

‘So, that’s Dr Kendal,’ he murmured, vaguely intrigued.

‘Yes. Ellie. I’m so sorry, she’s normally lovely. I don’t know what’s got into her.’

He pulled a face and walked through the door into the back of Reception, closing it behind himself. ‘I do. I took the last doctor’s space, and now she’s scraped her car. Oops. If I’d known who she was I would have moved, but I didn’t have a clue.’

‘She’s only part-time, so if she wasn’t on duty when you came for your interviews you wouldn’t have met her—and she does normally walk. You weren’t to know.’

He nodded. ‘No. Ah, well. I have no doubt we’ll have time to catch up later.’

Katie gestured towards the other doorway, still looking flustered. ‘Come in and I’ll introduce you to the admin team, and I’m sure Dr Gallagher will be out in a minute to talk to you. I’ve let her know you’re here.’

She led the way, and he followed her into the office and scanned it for any sign of his fiery new colleague, but she’d gone.

Pity. Never mind. He was here all day, there was time, and he could look forward to what was bound to be an interesting conversation...

Why had she done that?

Torn him to pieces without even giving him a chance to speak? And if he’d been a patient, he would have been well within his rights to complain. No, it was even better than that. He was a colleague, her senior, and she’d just hurled abuse at him in their first interaction.

Marvellous. Just marvellous.

Not that he’d been exactly polite himself, telling her to get up earlier. She’d been up before half five as it was to do the laundry, and if Maisie hadn’t been a diva and Evie hadn’t needed her nappy changed again and Oscar hadn’t lost one of his shoes and then had a meltdown, she wouldn’t have been late and then none of this would have happened.

She felt her eyes prickle, and clamped her jaw shut hard, blinking furiously as she closed her consulting room door behind her and leant against it. It could have been worse. There could have been a whole bunch of patients in Reception, so at least she hadn’t had an audience while she’d made a total fool of herself.

‘Breathe,’ she said softly, and closed her eyes, sucking in a long, slow breath through her nose and out through her mouth. In...and out... In...and out—

The quiet tap on the door made her jump, and she leapt away from it and wrenched it open, to find herself face to face with her worst nightmare, no doubt coming to tear her apart in private. Well, it was certainly justified, and he probably hated her already.

Or maybe not...

‘Katie thought you’d want this,’ he said quietly, holding out a mug of tea without a trace of a smile, and she stared at it suspiciously.

Beware of strangers bearing gifts...

‘Why are you bringing me a peace offering? I’m the one who should be apologising—or have you slipped something into it?’

His mouth twitched. ‘Don’t tempt me,’ he murmured, and gave her a wry smile. ‘It’s not a peace offering. Katie was about to bring it to you, and I suggested I do it. I thought we could do with clearing the air.’

She took it from him with fingers that weren’t quite steady, then made herself meet his eyes. He held her gaze, his searching, thoughtful, the smile gone now. She was quite glad she didn’t know what he was thinking...

She felt her shoulders drop in defeat. ‘Look, I’m sorry, I didn’t know who you were, which is no excuse whatsoever, I know that, but—’ She broke off, still mortified and wondering if there was any way she could rescue the situation. ‘I hadn’t realised you were coming in today, I thought you’d be starting on Monday, so I wasn’t expecting you, I didn’t recognise you, and then you took the last reserved space, and as if that wasn’t enough I scraped my car parking by the wall, which was just the icing on the cake—’

‘Ellie, breathe! It’s OK. Forget it. You’re right, I am starting on Monday, I’m just having an induction today, learning the ropes a bit, finding my feet before I start. I guess nobody told you. And I’m sorry I took your parking place, but Lucy told me to park there because you usually walk to work. Obviously not today.’

‘No. I should have been, I nearly always do, but I got—held up,’ she said, for want of a better way of putting it.

‘So it seems. Parking’s tight, isn’t it? Lucy said it’s a regular occurrence with the building work going on.’

She nodded, sighing with relief because he had every right to be unreasonable about this. ‘It is, but they should be finished soon and the builders’ vans will be gone, and not a moment too soon. Look, I’m sorry, can we do this later? I don’t mean to be rude—again—but I do have patients waiting and I’m already on the drag.’

‘Of course. And I’m sorry about the parking—and your car.’

‘Don’t be sorry. You had every right to park there, as it turns out, and I massively overreacted. And thank you for the tea. I haven’t had time for one today.’

His eyes softened at the corners, that flickering smile sending strange little shivers through her body. ‘My pleasure,’ he murmured. ‘We’ll catch up later.’ His lips twitched again. ‘You can teach me to read, and I can teach you to tell the time.’

She rolled her eyes. He might have forgiven her, but he clearly wasn’t going to let it drop.

‘Oh, I can tell the time,’ she told him wryly. ‘I was up at five twenty-seven, for what it’s worth.’

A silent ah, and he backed out, fingers waggling. ‘Better not hold you up any more, then. I’ll see you later.’

She nodded, and the door closed softly behind him.

Shaking her head and wishing she could wind the clock back, she put the tea down, washed her hands and fired up her computer, her mind refusing to let go of that lazy, sexy, fleeting smile.

Stupid. She was nearly twenty minutes late now, and it would have a knock-on effect on the rest of the day. She didn’t have time to daydream, and particularly not about a man who probably practised his smile in the mirror!

‘Get a grip, Ellie,’ she told herself, took a gulp of her tea and pressed the button to call her first patient.

Predictably she finished her morning surgery late, checked some results and wrote two referral letters and then, just because why not, when she went upstairs to their temporary staff room to make herself a coffee and eat the lunch she’d hastily thrown together at crazy o’clock, Nick was in there alone.

Time to eat humble pie again...

He looked up from the paperwork scattered on the table in front of him, and his unbelievably blue, improbably beautiful eyes locked on hers with that clear, steady gaze that she was beginning to find unnerving.

‘OK?’

She laughed. Was she? Probably. ‘I’ll live. People don’t normally die of embarrassment. Have they abandoned you?’

‘They’re all busy. I’m fine. I’m reading through a pile of stuff they gave me and I was sort of hoping you’d come in so we could start again.’

‘No need, Nick, it’s fine, and I think I’ve probably said enough to last a lifetime. Can we just drop it? I’m not normally so inexcusably rude.’

‘I’m sure you’re not, but you were hassled and I was in your space. And you’d just trashed your car.’

She shrugged and headed for the kettle. ‘It’s hardly trashed, it barely shows, and I still shouldn’t have been so rude. You could have been anyone.’

Though how anyone else would have been worse than the new partner it was hard to imagine.

He got to his feet and headed over to where she was standing, moving with a lithe, easy grace—and a slight wince? ‘Let’s start again. I’m Nick.’

‘And I’m Ellie.’

She took the hand he was holding out to her, and as his fingers wrapped around her hand she felt warmth and reassurance and strength. And about a million volts. She dropped it like a hot potato, and he switched on the kettle and settled back against the worktop edge, legs crossed at the ankle, arms folded, sex appeal pouring off his perfectly honed body in waves.

Why did he have to be so darned sexy?

‘I’ll get you a drink, you eat your lunch,’ he said, that smile flickering again. ‘And while you do that, you can tell me why you were up at five twenty-seven.’

She rolled her eyes, handed him her empty mug and ripped the lid off her lunch box, retreating to the other side of the table for a bit of much-needed distance.

‘Coffee, please, white, no sugar. And since you asked, it was nothing unusual, I’m often up that early. I put the washing on, hung out the load which had done overnight, showered, dressed, hung out the second load, got the kids up, finally got them dressed after the usual arguments, we had breakfast, then Maisie had another strop because her best dress was on the line, Oscar lost a shoe and then had a meltdown and wouldn’t put his other shoes on, and Evie did a poo so I had to change her nappy, by which time Oscar had taken his shoes off again and hidden them, and Maisie was changing her dress for the third time. So, just another day at the office, really.’

He put the coffee down in front of her, his eyes wide and brimming with something that could have been sympathy if it hadn’t been for the laughter fighting its way to the top.

‘Ouch,’ he said softly, sitting down again and propping his elbows on the table as he held her eyes with that gorgeously blue and now sympathetic gaze. ‘That’s not a great way to start the day!’

She tried to smile but it was a wan effort and she abandoned it, making him frown. He leant slightly towards her, his eyes searching.

‘Are you OK, Ellie?’ he asked softly, and she shrugged.

‘Of course. I’m just tired. And it could have been worse,’ she said, forking up another mouthful of salad and trying not to think about the gorgeous eyes. ‘At least none them had thrown up in the night or had a temperature, but I pity the people at nursery. Oscar was still screaming by the time we got there because I’d put him in the car without his shoes on, and Maisie was mutinous and grumpy for England.’

‘And Evie? You did say Evie, didn’t you?’

She felt her face soften into an involuntary smile at the thought of her baby girl and put her fork down, the salad forgotten. ‘Yes, it’s Evie. She was her usual sweet, sunny little self, bless her heart.’

He grinned, his eyes crinkling and making him suddenly even more approachable. ‘Small mercies?’ he murmured, and she laughed.

‘Absolutely. I live for them, and I’m sure it won’t be long before she gets the terrible twos and it all falls apart. I’m enjoying it while it lasts.’

He sat back, his eyes still searching hers thoughtfully. ‘So, where’s your husband while all this is going on?’ he murmured.

The urge to smile evaporated, along with any trace of humour she’d been feeling, and she sat up straighter and dropped her eyes to her salad, prodding it around for something to do before she looked up again. ‘No husband,’ she said crisply. ‘I’m divorced.’

‘Ah. Join the club. I tell you what, let’s not go there, shall we? It’ll take all day and we’ve got much better things to discuss.’

It was his turn to look away, but not until she’d seen a subtle change in those fascinating eyes, a flicker of something like regret or disappointment or—grief? No matter. She was happy to let the subject drop and sip her coffee. Divorce was always a bit messy, and some were messier than others. Clearly not everything in life had gone his way...

‘So, how long have you been working here?’ he asked lightly, moving the subject on, and she was happy to pick it up and run with it.

‘Since after Maisie, so a little over three years? We had a flat in London, but David’s parents live in Yoxburgh and we’d bought a holiday home just round the corner from them, but he was away all the time working abroad so after we had Maisie we moved up here to our house and kept the flat on for when he was doing a fast turnaround, and I started work here when she was ten months old. And then two months in I realised I was pregnant with Oscar, which wasn’t planned, and then Evie came along.’

Although she wasn’t going into that, because David’s reaction had devastated her. It still hurt now, nearly two years later, and probably always would, but she was fine without him. Better, really, no matter how tough it might be sometimes.

‘So, how old are they now?’ Nick asked softly.

‘Maisie’s just four, Oscar’s two and a half, and Evie’s nearly fifteen months.’

His eyes widened. ‘That’s...’

‘Three in thirty-four months. I know. It’s ridiculous.’

He let out a long, slow breath. ‘I don’t know about ridiculous, but that’s pretty hardcore, for a single parent. For any parent, come to that, especially if you’re working. It must be a nightmare.’

She shook her head. ‘They’re a joy, really, when I have time to draw breath and think about it. Today was just one of those days, but I wouldn’t change it for the world, tantrums and all.’

‘No, of course not. I’m sure you love them all dearly.’

‘I do.’ She eyed him steadily, wondering if she’d heard something odd in his voice. ‘So, your turn. Why here?’

He shrugged. ‘Why not? I wanted a total change, I don’t have any ties, and it’s the sort of job I’ve always wanted. I was ready for it, it was there—it seemed sort of meant.’

‘What about your kids?’ she asked, blatantly fishing, but he just shook his head, his eyes steady but expressionless now.

‘No kids. If we’d had kids, I’d still be there. Children are a lifetime commitment. You don’t walk away. It’s not negotiable.’

She gave a little snort. ‘Tell it to the fairies. My ex walked out when I was eight weeks pregnant with Evie.’

He blinked, his eyes startled. ‘Seriously? He left when you were pregnant? Did he know?’

He sounded appalled, and she couldn’t help the bitter little laugh. Oh, yes, he’d known. It was why he’d gone.

‘I thought we weren’t going into this?’ she said, trying to keep it light and move on, but he didn’t let it drop.

‘Does he see them?’

‘Oh, yes. He comes up every fortnight and stays with his parents, who think it’s dreadful that he walked out on his marriage, and they’re not thrilled with me, either, because I won’t have him back, but they’re sticking by us because they want a decent relationship with their grandchildren, and the kids adore them. His loss.’