Daring to Fall for the Single Dad, page 1
Buenos Aires Docs
Finding the prescription for a love that lasts...
Meet the dedicated medics of the Hospital General de Buenos Aires. They might be winners in their work, but they all need a little help when it comes to finding their happy-ever-afters!
Luckily for them, passion is sweeping through the corridors of the hospital like a virus and no one is immune! Are they brave enough to take their chance on happiness...and each other?
Find out in
Sebastián and Isabella’s story
ER Doc’s Miracle Triplets by Tina Beckett
Carlos and Sofia’s story
Surgeon’s Brooding Brazilian Rival by Luana DaRosa
Gabriel and Ana’s story
Daring to Fall for the Single Dad by Becky Wicks
Felipe and Emilia’s story
Secretly Dating the Baby Doc by JC Harroway
All available now!
Dear Reader,
What a thrill it was to be able to team up with a group of three other Harlequin Medical Romance authors and put these four Buenos Aires Docs books together. It felt like we created our own little world, where magic happened daily, not just on the pages for our characters, but in the emails we shared, discussing our stories.
I can’t wait to work with more of them again. In fact, Luana and I are working on a Valentine’s Day duet as we speak!
I really hope you enjoy this dalliance in the dazzling city of Buenos Aires, where my hero Gabriel has his work cut out as a single dad, and that’s before his childhood trailblazer friend Ana shows up in his life again. Will a long-term crush turn into more as Ana launches a new, hectic family clinic, or will the past come back to bite them? Read on to find out.
Becky x
Daring to Fall for the Single Dad
Becky Wicks
Born in the UK, Becky Wicks has suffered interminable wanderlust from an early age. She’s lived and worked all over the world, from London to Dubai, Sydney, Bali, New York City and Amsterdam. She’s written for the likes of GQ, Hello!, Fabulous and Time Out, and has written a host of YA romance, plus three travel memoirs—Burqalicious, Balilicious and Latinalicious (HarperCollins, Australia). Now she blends travel with romance for Harlequin and loves every minute! Tweet her @bex_wicks and subscribe at beckywicks.com.
Books by Becky Wicks
Harlequin Medical Romance
From Doctor to Daddy
Enticed by Her Island Billionaire
Falling Again for the Animal Whisperer
Fling with the Children’s Heart Doctor
White Christmas with Her Millionaire Doc
A Princess in Naples
The Vet’s Escape to Paradise
Highland Fling with Her Best Friend
South African Escape to Heal Her
Finding Forever with the Single Dad
Melting the Surgeon’s Heart
A Marriage Healed in Hawaii
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
To my lovely dad, Ray Wicks, who is definitely not single and will probably never read this. You’ll always be my number one anyway.
Praise for Becky Wicks
“A fast paced, beautifully set and heart warming medical romance set in the stunning Galapagos Islands. Interwoven with a conservation theme which is clearly a passion of the author.”
—Harlequin Junkie on The Vet’s Escape to Paradise
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
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
EXCERPT FROM SECRETLY DATING THE BABY DOC BY JC HARROWAY
CHAPTER ONE
HOLDING UP A HAND, Dr Ana Mendez waved at the post boy, smiling at his pink feathered headdress as he zoomed past her windows on his bicycle.
‘I guess everyone’s getting in the spirit already,’ she said to her vase of fresh marigolds. It was early now, and relatively peaceful on the streets, but in just a few hours her city would be pumping with a thousand kinds of music, dancing groups and musicians in every side street. The crowds would be shuffling in colourful costumes through the blocks and barrios, and her ears would be assaulted from all angles as every speaker tried its best to compete with the rest. The first day of Carnival was always fun in Buenos Aires—unless you worked in A&E, she thought to herself. The staff at the hospital were always run off their feet at this time of year. Luckily this clinic wasn’t opening till Monday, so she had the perfect excuse to hide away from the mayhem.
Ah, this clinic—her new clinic! Steering her wheelchair expertly to the desk, breathing in the smell of the fresh paint, Ana glanced at the plaque on the wall above her MD certificate. Her lips twitched with a proud smile at the sight of her name glistening in silver: Dr Ana Mendez. She had her own practice...finally!
She and her small but excited team had decided to get the madness of Carnival over with first, but every day had dawned with a new set of tasks to complete in the run up to opening. She’d been coming here every day with new additions in preparation, or to assist the workmen with new equipment, new lighting or new posters. Any excuse would do, because this was all so exciting. So...not what people had expected someone like her to go and do.
Turning her chair back towards her consulting room, she noted how at home the snake plant she’d brought in today looked already. ‘Very nice, mijo, I think this place is ideal for you,’ she said to it. Its sword-like leaves with bold stripy patterns suited the corner of her desk, she decided, and, best of all, it could survive with little help—just like her.
After years of working her way up and around hospitals all over Argentina, she had finally taken over the barrio’s clinic round the corner from the home she’d grown up in, and moved into her new wheelchair-adapted apartment too. Dr Azaban, the old GP, had hung up her coat and retired just a few months ago. The call had come in while Ana was on a break from a shift at the Medical Medicina Privada in Bariloche, where she’d been for the best part of five years.
‘The time is now, Ana,’ she’d said, in the phone call that would change the direction of her life. ‘Are you ready to come home and take over?’
It had taken a while, a lot of prep, a lot of money and a lot of documentation but she’d sailed through it all with one goal on the horizon—a home from home, a place to call hers and a new, refreshed clinic for the community to call theirs. She’d always said, when she came home, it would be for something worthwhile. Dr Azaban was an old family friend who’d been preparing Ana for this since she’d completed her studies. Not that it wasn’t going to take a while to readjust—she was still bumping into people she’d forgotten to tell she was even back in Recoleta!
Ana adjusted a bright-red truck on the colourful mat in the children’s section of the waiting room, then sat up straighter a soft blue teddy bear on his tiny stool. It had been decided years ago, and even laid out on her vision board, that her clinic would possess none of the drabness she’d encountered in other GP practices over the years. The process of getting well began in the mind, in cheery surroundings with positive vibes, she reminded herself, plucking a colourful marigold from another vase on the magazine stand and placing it behind her ear.
This was something she’d taken on board as a child, when the kind staff at the children’s ward at Hospital General de Buenos Aires had sat her down and explained how she would likely never walk again. At just six years old, she’d lain there after the car accident, wondering how on earth she’d get by without the use of her legs. She’d been too young to fathom how hard it would be, not just on her going forward but also on her parents, Juan and Martina. She’d been too young to understand anything then, except the kindness and good intentions of the people around her and the way the bright colours had made her feel.
In those dark times she’d grown to find a sense of hope in the cheery flowers and toys, the pretty fabrics of the blankets and the reassuring faces on the posters on the walls. Everything ever since had been about colour, she thought now, catching a glimpse of herself in the window. She didn’t need Carnival as an excuse to dress up as though she’d wheeled her chair through a rainbow and come out draped in it on the other side. Her bright-yellow polka-dot headscarf held back her long mass of raven black curls and matched her shoes. She always matched her headscarves to her shoes wherever possible.
A banging on the door made her start. ‘We’re not open yet!’ she called. But the banging continued, this time louder. What the...?
Ana sped for the door, only to find a white-haired man doubled over on the pavement, clutching his chest. ‘Mr Acosta!’ she cried, recognising in shock the seventy-something man from the shop over the road.
‘I think I’m having a heart attack, Ana,’ he managed, his face creased in pain. No soon had she flung open the doors than he was lurching forward, practically landing on her lap in the wheelchair.
‘Come
Thankfully, the sound of a siren in the distance soon gave her comfort, and within minutes she was watching two men leap expertly from the vehicle outside, Ambu bags bouncing on their hips. Then she realised who was wearing the first paramedic’s uniform.
Oh, my God.
‘Gabriel Romero,’ she mouthed in surprise as the world stopped.
He pulled up short in front of her. ‘Ana?’
Her old friend looked at her wide-eyed, and she took in the full extent of his dashing looks in a fraction of a second: the piercing yet warm brown eyes that had steadied her as a child and teenager into adulthood; the thick chocolate-brown hair that matched his beautiful dark skin; his sculpted face; and those adorable dimples that had always made him seem more boy than man. Now at thirty-two, as was she, he was just all man. Their locked gaze left her breathless, before any surprise at seeing him was quickly overshadowed by the severity of Mr Acosta’s condition.
His partner, Bruno Gomez—whom admittedly she hadn’t known as well as Gabriel had over the years—dropped to his knees beside the man. He swiftly assessed the situation. ‘Pulse is weak, respirations are shallow,’ he murmured to Gabriel, his gloved hand checking for signs of life. Mr Acosta wasn’t moving now and dread pooled in her stomach.
Gabriel looked up. ‘Possible myocardial infarction. Get the AED ready, Bruno.’
Bruno nodded and reached for the automated external defibrillator from their medical bag. ‘AED’s ready, Gabe.’
Bruno attached the AED pads to Mr Acosta’s chest as Gabriel continued monitoring his vital signs. ‘Analysing,’ the AED’s automated voice announced. They both stepped back as it assessed the situation. Ana held her breath. ‘Shock advised. Stand clear.’
A surge of anxiety gripped her, and she fought to stop herself gripping Gabriel’s arm. She had seen her share of medical emergencies, of course, but the urgency of this moment in her as yet unopened clinic seemed different for some reason. She glanced at Gabriel, who nodded, his face determined.
‘Clear,’ he declared as the AED administered the shock. The man’s body jolted briefly as the electric current coursed through him.
Bruno leaned in, listening to the man’s chest with a stethoscope. The man’s face made her want to cry suddenly. No! She could not have a man die here, not now, not ever! Her clinic would be a big failure before it even launched, and as for poor Mr Acosta...
‘We’ve got him!’ came Gabriel’s relieved announcement. ‘OK, we’re good, let’s get him to hospital.’
The two men talked coolly and calmly to Mr Acosta, and fixed him with the breathing apparatus. Ana remained calm and collected, making a call to Mr Acosta’s wife to tell her what was happening.
At the same time, she couldn’t help the way her mind was reeling, not just with the adrenaline of the moment, but with the rapid-fire memories coming at her the more she watched Gabriel in action. He had done a lot to help bring her to this point... Actually, did he even know this was now her clinic? He had always wanted more for her. He was the one who’d encouraged her to apply for medical school in the first place!
In minutes, they had Mr Acosta on the stretcher, breathing heavily but stable. Ana held the door open for the two paramedics, and grabbed her own car keys.
‘I’ll follow you,’ she said on the street, motioning to her wheelchair-adapted vehicle outside.
‘Are you sure? It’s getting pretty crazy out here already.’ Gabriel held her eyes for a second over the stretcher as he heaved it up into the back of the ambulance with Bruno. Her breath caught in her throat as he leaned out through the doorway, reached for her face and adjusted something in her hair. She had clean forgotten the marigold was still there, sticking out from behind her ear.
‘They were always your favourite flowers,’ he said, just before Bruno called to him, offering her an apologetic look over Gabriel’s shoulder. Ana fought the flush warming her cheeks.
‘I’ll meet you in A&E,’ she said quickly, sweeping past him, surprised and marginally annoyed by the fluttering in her belly at a time when she could have done with staying calm.
As she drove behind the ambulance in the blare of its siren, her cheek tingled with the lingering feeling of him rearranging flower in her hair after all this time. Of course, the city was big, but the medical scene was small, so it had always been just a matter of time before their paths crossed again.
Still, now she couldn’t stop thinking about their history together. Five years was a long time to go without seeing her friend, maybe even too long to pick up where they’d left off without it being a little weird, she thought, taking in a crowd of teens in feathers and sequins drinking soda by a pulsating speaker. Ana being in Bariloche for the last five years had cemented the divide, but they’d fallen out of touch even before that. She supposed he’d been too busy to check in as much, just as she had. He was a dad now; Dads were always busy. Or maybe those were just the excuses she’d been telling herself to trick her mind into falling out of love with him...
* * *
‘Mr Acosta is going to be fine; he’s stable, and his wife is on her way,’ Gabriel said later, closing the door to the treatment room and motioning Ana to accompany him down the hall. ‘Coffee?’
With the elderly man settled in recovery, Ana thought, what was another thirty minutes? Especially if it meant finding out what Gabriel Romero had been up to all this time.
Her heartbeat intensified yet again as she motored her chair alongside him through the labyrinth of corridors. Silly, she scorned herself. Once, maybe years ago, she’d had a hard crush on Gabriel, but that had been stomped out pretty fast once she’d realised he definitely did not feel the same way about her. The fact that he’d had a child with a relative stranger proved she’d hardly known him at all, really!
He looks beyond handsome in his uniform, though, she thought to herself as they made for the cafeteria. And Ana didn’t miss the way he kept shooting her sideways glances as he stopped briefly to discuss something with a tall, muscular man whose name tag read ‘Dr Carlos Cabrera’. She’d never seen Carlos before.
A&E was a hubbub of activity as usual. Nurses called out names, another ambulance arrived in a blare of sirens outside and Ana wheeled her chair alongside Gabriel, noting the acrid, astringent smell in the air and the lack of colour. Her clinic would always smell fresh, if she could help it, such as using flowers, she decided. It would always be a place of calm...at least, compared to this. It was more than a little strange just being here in the giant, hectic Hospital General de Buenos Aires, after all the time she’d spent in quieter, smaller establishments, let alone being with Gabriel.
‘You look really well,’ Gabriel said, holding open the cafeteria door for her. ‘I see you’re still as colourful as I remember. Nice shoes, by the way.’
‘Why, thank you!’ He was such a charmer. That hadn’t changed, then. Gabriel had always complimented her choice of clothing, unlike her mother, who’d suggested on more than one occasion that it was unprofessional. Ana disagreed, of course. Mama was always trying to help in ways Ana didn’t need her to; besides, she could do her job in any size, shape or colour of clothing, as long as she was always sitting down. Not everyone knew how to approach a GP in a wheelchair, so she’d learned over the years to hit them with the real her before they could imagine her as someone else in their own heads.
Gabriel sat her down in a quiet corner of the cafeteria, undisturbed. Soon they were sipping their coffees. His dark hair was still short, almost shaved to the scalp, which only intensified his liquid brown eyes as they talked.
