her to climb in. She was no sooner seated than he
reached across her with the seat belt, snapping it home,
and although she protested that she was perfectly
capable of doing up her own seat belt, he ignored the
feeble words, striding around the hood and climbing
into the vehicle beside her.
They were sitting at the hospital gates, waiting for
the lights to change, when Theo spoke. ‘We’re shopping
tomorrow, I know, but after that, the next evening, if
you’re not on duty, I’ll cook dinner for us at my place.
I am not yet committing myself to your audacious plan,
but if you want me to think about it, you must grant me
the pleasure—is pleasure the word I need?—of getting
to know you better.’
‘Well, of all the—’
Grace bit off the protest she was about to make. The
man was Greek—it was in his blood to want to be the
boss—and it certainly sounded as if he might be con-
sidering agreeing to her proposition, although she
didn’t think the kissing part was necessary. That was
something she’d have to think about later when she
was away from the distraction his body—and the
memory of the kiss—was causing her.
No, what she had to do now was remain detached—
not get too hopeful.
Theo eyed her suspiciously. He’d expected her to
rebel against such high-handed treatment, and she’d
begun to protest, but the words had died on her lips.
Keeping on side with him—he could practically hear
her reasoning. But that was OK. What really bothered
56
THE HEART SURGEON’S BABY SURPRISE
him was his own behaviour. First kissing the woman,
and now making arrangements to see more of her.
Surely he wasn’t really thinking of helping her out?
And that’s all it would be! The pain of losing little
Elena had been so great he knew he could never live
through it again—and the only way to ensure that was
to not have another child.
Although a child that was yet wasn’t his? It could
work! He could watch from afar—be involved in that he
was kept informed of the child’s progress, and make joint
decisions about important things like education. He’d
certainly want that much. Just no emotional attachment!
And that’s what Grace would not only understand but was
insisting on.
In fact, a child like this could be the perfect solution
to the inheritance problem he had, although if the
child became his heir, he or she would eventually
become a very wealthy person, so it would be his re-
sponsibility to make sure the child could handle such
a situation.
Which meant he would have more responsibility
towards the child than he would really want…
But couldn’t he handle that without emotional at-
tachment?
Surely it would be possible, especially if the child
grew up on another continent! It was just a matter of
putting some safeguards in place and overseeing things
like the child’s upbringing and education. From a dis-
tance, of course.
He ignored a queasy feeling in his stomach, putting
it down to remembered pain from Elena’s death. He was
being practical here—practical, detached and unemo-
MEREDITH WEBBER
57
tional, like a scientist in search of a solution to a par-
ticular problem.
Suddenly the idea had possibilities, although, as
often with the very best of ideas, there were issues that
couldn’t be ignored.
‘Is it fair on the child?’
He’d pulled up outside her flat and hadn’t really in-
tended to ask the question, but the thought kept
sneaking into his head and had escaped without him
being fully aware of it.
‘Is what fair on the child?’ she asked, turning
towards him so in the light from a streetlamp he could
see the lower part of her face quite clearly—see the
slightly fuller lips he’d kissed only minutes earlier…
Tasted…
‘To grow up without a father?’
She scowled at him.
‘Give me a break! Take a look at statistics. Nearly half
the children growing up in so-called civilised countries
are growing up in single-parent households, having
perhaps occasional contact with the non-custodial parent.
Those kids don’t all turn into axe murderers, you know.
Most of them are fine. I grew up without a mother and I
managed.’
Did you? Theo wanted to say, but he didn’t, afraid
it might hurt her, but he couldn’t help but wonder if it
was growing up without a mother’s love that made her
so detached—so defensive.
So desperate to mother a child of her own?
And once again, thinking of the little motherless
girl-child Grace would have been, she sneaked beneath
58
THE HEART SURGEON’S BABY SURPRISE
his defences, so when he touched her on the shoulder
his hand was gentle, and when he said, ‘Let’s take it one
day at a time, for the moment,’ he hoped she’d under-
stand that he was seriously considering helping her out,
although he had grave doubts about purely clinical
sperm donation. Given the attraction he felt towards her,
there was, and always had been, a better way…
Was he weakening? Grace wondered as she stood in
the shadowed porch outside the front door and watched
his taillights disappear up the road. And if he was, how
did she feel about it?
‘Far from happy about the getting-to-know-you-
better part,’ she muttered to herself, lifting her fingers
to her lips and feeling where he’d kissed.
But he’d kissed her to prove a point—quite what
point she wasn’t sure. But it had certainly been a
proving-a-point kiss, not a getting-to-know-you kiss.
She laughed at herself as she unlocked the front
door—who was she to be even attempting to classify
kisses? It had been so long since she’d experienced a
kiss she’d forgotten what one felt like.
Certainly not hard and hot and demanding, she was
sure.
Scarlett’s condition was deteriorating. Theo didn’t need
Alex’s words to tell him, although Alex was explain-
ing to all the team at the morning ward round how fluid
was accumulating in her belly.
‘Will you draw some off?’ Grace asked, giving Theo
the opportunity to look openly at her, not stealthily
sideways as he had been doing throughout the round.
Why the idea of an heir hadn’t occurred to him when
MEREDITH WEBBER
59
Grace had first mooted her sperm-donation idea he
couldn’t say, but since it had struck him as a possibility
last night he’d thought of little else, conveniently ignor-
ing a hidden uneasiness that questioned the emotional
detachment ration
ale. Suddenly he had a way out of a
dilemma that had become so great he’d forced himself
to stop thinking about it. His father’s will stipulated that
only a child of his bloodline could inherit so although
Theo himself would have been more than happy to give
away the money—to hospitals and congenital heart
disease research institutions—he was tied.
In fact, he’d resigned himself to the money going to
his father’s younger brother’s family, a mob of wastrels
if ever there was one. They’d already run through the
money their father had bequeathed to them and were
forever applying to Theo for what they euphemistically
termed ‘loans’.
Alex was explaining to Grace that they’d drawn off
however many cc’s of fluid the previous day, but more
and more had built up.
‘Less perfusion?’ Grace suggested, and Alex turned
to Theo, who put aside all private thoughts and concen-
trated on work.
‘I’m concerned if we reduce the flow, which is al-
ready minimal—it could cause kidney damage. I’ve
gone over all the material I can find on fluid build-up
and believe it’s leaking from her tissues rather than
blood related, but we could try reducing the blood flow
and increasing the oxygenation, which might protect the
organs.’
‘Or might not,’ Phil said. ‘What worries me is that
she’s on the transplant list but if a heart became avail-
60
THE HEART SURGEON’S BABY SURPRISE
able right now, here in this hospital, would we operate
on her? Is she well enough? Could she take it?’
Theo looked at the pretty little baby girl lying in the
crib, unaware of the life-or-death discussion going on
around her. He prided himself on not getting emotion-
ally involved with patients, but there was something
special about this baby—this little girl.
And he knew the answer to Phil’s questions—no, as
Scarlett was today, they couldn’t operate.
‘Let’s draw off more fluid, reduce the perfusion, do
as you say, Theo, and add extra oxygen, and see what
happens,’Alex decided, but Phil again halted the group
before they moved on.
‘Do we take her off the list?’
They all knew what list he was talking about. Chil-
dren and adults needing donor hearts were listed on a
central Australia-wide register and when a heart
became available, it went to the next person on the list,
according to its size and compatibility.
‘And possibly let a heart that would suit her go to
someone else?’ Grace demanded.
‘Better than waste it giving it to Scarlett then losing
her and a viable heart that might have saved another
child.’
Alex’s registrar, Aldo Stephens, voiced the thought
in everyone’s mind, but Grace apparently didn’t give in
too easily—not that Theo should be surprised!
‘We don’t know she couldn’t handle it,’ she said.
‘I’ve operated on very sick babies who have come
through like little champions, and on top of that, who’s
to say a healthier baby will definitely survive a trans-
plant op? I hate the idea of delisting Scarlett. She might
MEREDITH WEBBER
61
be better tomorrow but would have to be relisted lower
down. Surely we can wait until we’re offered a heart
and then make the decision about whether she’s well
enough or not. If we decide not, then the heart goes to
the next on the list anyway and there’s nothing but a
really small period of time lost, but at least she can keep
her place until then.’
Theo felt like giving a cheer, but Grace was looking
embarrassed enough, perhaps thinking, as a newcomer
to the team, she shouldn’t have spoken so forcefully.
Phil and Maggie both now backed her up and Alex
nodded at least partial agreement.
‘We’ll keep her on another day and see how she
responds to the changes in the ECMO. What’s the level
of the diuretics we’re giving her, Aldo? Can we increase
them without jeopardising anything else?’
The discussion turned to drugs, and although Grace
was no doubt interested and taking it all in, her eyes
were on Scarlett and Theo knew, for all she might deny
it, she did get emotionally involved with her patients.
Which must augur well for her as a mother, surely,
he decided.
But wasn’t his thinking becoming clouded by the
fact he found her attractive—as in he was undeniably
attracted to her?
Which should have been reason enough to avoid
her, but he could hardly call off the shopping trip as
these people were colleagues—it was only polite to
show them where they could shop.
Having Jean-Luc there made things easy. All Theo had
to do was show them where the shopping trolleys were
62
THE HEART SURGEON’S BABY SURPRISE
then guide them around the store. Although he did hear
himself offering to push Grace’s trolley.
‘Push Jean-Luc’s if you want to push a trolley,’ she
told him, marching down the refrigerator aisle at a mile
a minute, lifting items off shelves, checking the labels
and either rejecting or selecting them.
‘A formidable woman,’ Jean-Luc remarked as he
stacked yoghurt into his trolley. ‘Not many get into our
specialty—I imagine it cost her a lot.’
And not for the first time Theo wondered just why
such a beautiful woman was still unmarried at thirty-
five. By choice, he was sure, but if she wanted a child
surely a conventional marriage would have been the
best way to produce one.
‘Can you believe that man?’ Grace said to Theo as
they waited on the far side of the checkouts for the
other doctor to finish. ‘It took him five minutes to
choose which coffee beans to buy, then he had to put
the beans through the grinder, then get a coffee-pot.’
Theo said nothing but he understood why Grace had
felt she couldn’t ask Jean-Luc—the two of them were
polar opposites. But the Frenchman did eventually
finish his shopping, politely thanking them for waiting
and inviting both of them to have coffee with him when
they returned to his flat.
Interested in seeing Grace in a social environment,
Theo agreed, although he would have preferred having
coffee with Grace on her own, the attraction he was
feeling towards her suggesting that making a baby with
her might be a lot of fun.
Which was a very irresponsible thought!
But since the notion of the baby being a suitable heir
MEREDITH WEBBER
63
had occurred to him, he was interested in Grace’s pro-
posal on more than the attraction level, although he
wasn’t getting caught up in the idea until he knew a
whole lot more about the woman who would be the
baby’s mother.
And until he’d thought through all the implications
for the baby…
His baby!
The inner queasiness returned.
They were unloading groceries from the car when
Lauren Henderson, a nurse in the PICU, arrived at the
flats where the two surgeons were living. Theo knew
her well, or as well as any fellow worker could know a
very reserved woman. That she was there to see Jean-
Luc was obvious, and that she was nervous, to the point
almost of panic, was also evident to Theo.
But whatever was bothering her had to remain a
mystery, for she left within minutes of arriving, an
anxious-looking Jean-Luc going after her.
‘It doesn’t look as if we’re going to get coffee here,’
Grace said, turning off the hot plate under the coffee-
pot. ‘Shall we walk across the park and get some?’
Theo hesitated, and she smiled.
‘I have no ulterior motive,’ she said. ‘I don’t want
romance in the shadows or further discussion on me
wanting a child. I simply want a decent cup of coffee.’
He agreed and they crossed the road and entered
the night-lit park, and though he’d walked through it
in the evening many times, tonight it struck Theo that
there was a romantic air about the place. Perhaps it
was the thick shadows of the Moreton Bay fig trees,
or the sound of the fountain splashing in the pond, or
64
THE HEART SURGEON’S BABY SURPRISE
even the way you could see the stars in spite of the
city lights…
‘Why no romance, Grace?’ he asked, an earlier
thought recurring. ‘I don’t mean right here and now in
the park, but in your life. You’re a beautiful woman,
there must have been men interested in you. Was there
no one you wanted to settle down with and raise a
family in what most would consider a normal way?’
She glanced his way but didn’t answer, simply
lengthening her stride as if she needed to get away, not
only from him but from the question.
‘You did ask me some very personal questions,’ he
reminded her, keeping up with her pace easily but
finding it harder to guess at her mood.
‘I was left at the altar,’ she said, after several minutes
of very tight silence. ‘Literally! And if you’ve ever suf-
fered any kind of humiliation—something I can’t
imagine you have—then arriving at a church where all
your friends and colleagues are gathered, in full bridal