Caroline Anderson - From Heartache to Forever

Passion, pregnancy, heartbreak...

Can they find their happy-ever-after?

Fresh out of broken relationships, trauma specialist Ryan McKenna and nurse Beth Costellos passion-fueled fling was a welcome escape. But the shock of an unexpected pregnancy and the heartache of losing the baby they never knew they wanted was too much to bear. Now, working together again in Yoxburgh, where they first made love, can they finally get to know each other...and discover theyre meant to be together?

Ryan didnt have a huge number of pictures, but there were a few Beth remembered, including one of a wild, rugged landscape that had hung over his bed, and it made her body tingle to look at it.

How many times had they made love on the bed beneath it? Dozens, every one of them memorable. She put it to one side and sorted through the others, the less contentious ones. Or less evocative, at least, of their past, the pre-Grace period before hed gone away for the first time, when their lovemaking was smoking hot and nothing else was taken seriously.

Hed made her laugh, made her gasp with ecstasy and weep with frustration, but always, always, hed set her on fire. It had been the perfect antidote to Ricks cheating and lying ways, and just what shed needed. Intensely passionate, and yet light and frivolousor it would have been if things hadnt turned out the way they had, but the heat, the passion, was still there smoldering under the surface, and it was getting harder to ignore.

Dear Reader,

Well, this is book 101. Easy, youd think, after all that practice? Apparently not, because there are only so many ways you can skin a rabbit, and Im struggling to find issues that I havent already covered, often more than once. I know every story is different, but even so...

So I decided to tackle an issue Ive largely avoided over the years, because its such a sensitive and emotive subject. Its also, though, a very real issue, and one which affects a surprising number of couplesthe loss of a stillborn child. It was hard to write, and I sincerely hope Ive done it justice.

Ryan and Beth hardly knew each other when she became pregnant, and the loss of their baby wounded them both deeply, but their grief isolated them from each other. Now back working in the ED after two years apart, their attraction still strong, they need to find a way forward. Enter Tatty, a scruffy stray dog who steals Ryans heart and helps them find the way. She may have stolen the show a teensy bit, but I hope you fall under her spell the way Beth and Ryan did.

With love,

Caroline x

From Heartache to Forever

Caroline Anderson

Books by Caroline Anderson

Harlequin Medical Romance

Hope Childrens Hospital

One Night, One Unexpected Miracle

Yoxburgh Park Hospital

From Christmas to Eternity

The Secret in His Heart

Risk of a Lifetime

Their Meant-to-Be Baby

The Midwifes Longed-For Baby

Bound by Their Babies

Their Own Little Miracle

A Single Dad to Heal Her Heart

Harlequin Romance

The Valtieri Baby

Snowed in with the Billionaire

Best Friend to Wife and Mother?

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Praise for Caroline Anderson

Written with flair, sensitivity and heart, Their Meant-to-Be Baby is a wonderfully compulsive tale of second chances, redemption and the power of love that I found absolutely impossible to put down!

Goodreads

A sweet, romantic story. Very enjoyable.

Goodreads on Best Friend to Wife and Mother?

Contents

A H , B ETH , JUST the person. Ive got a favour to ask you.

Her heart sank. Again?

How did I know that was coming, right at the end of my shift?

She turned towards James with a wry smile and then everything ground to a halt, because the man standing beside the EDs clinical lead was painfully, gut-wrenchingly familiar.

His strangely piercing ice blue eyes locked on hers, his mouth opening as if to speak, but James was still talking, oblivious to the tension running between them.

Beth, this is Ryan McKenna, our new locum consultant. Ryan, this is

Hello, Beth.

Her name was a gentle murmur, his eyes softening as he took a step forward and gathered her up against his chest in a hug so warm, so welcome that it brought tears to her eyes.

Oh, Ry

He let her go long before she was ready, stared down into her eyes and feathered a kiss on her cheek.

OK. So Im guessing you two know each other already, or this is love at first sight, James said drily, and Ryan laughed a little off kilter, taking a step back and giving her some much-needed space to drag herself together.

Yeah, we know each other, Ryan said, his voice oddly gruff. Weerwe worked together, before I went abroad. Best scrub nurse Ive ever had the privilege of working with.

There was a whole world left unsaid, but James just nodded, still unaware of the turmoil going on under his nose.

Well, its good to know you got onwe rely on teamwork. Beth, I was going to ask you if you could be a star and give Ryan the once-over of the department and then take him for a coffee? They really need me in Resus, and Im sure youd like to catch up?

What, now? she asked, feeling a flicker of something that could have been panic.

If you can spare the time. Id be really grateful and they do need me.

She met Ryans eyes, one eyebrow raised a fraction. Are you OK with this? he murmured.

As if James had left her with a choice...

Its fine, Ry. I dont have to be anywhere, she said quietly, surrendering to the inevitable, and she turned back to James. Go. Youre right, they could really use you. Sams tearing his hair out and Livvys rushed off her feet. Well be fine.

He nodded, his face relieved. Thanks, Beth. Youre a star. And while youre at it, if you could convince him to apply for the permanent post, youll have my undying gratitude.

Her heart thudded, the flicker threatening to turn into a full-on panic attack.

I thought the application window was closed?

Its been extended. Soif you could twist his arm?

He was smiling, but his meaning was clear, and they were desperate for another consultant, but simply seeing Ryan again had sent her emotions into freefall and her hard-won status quo felt suddenly threatened. A locum post was one thing, but she didnt know if she could cope with him here on a permanent basis, not when she was finally putting her life and her heart back together after the last two agonising years.

Not that it, or she, would ever be the same again...

Anyway, it wasnt relevant, because he was committed to Medicine For All, the aid organisation hed been working with for the past two years, and she knew how strongly he felt about that. Hed walked away from Katie because she didnt understand, so there was no way hed be looking for a permanent job and he obviously hadnt been clear enough with James.

Leave it with me, she said, which wasnt a yes but it was the best she could do, because she was oddly torn between wanting to run away and wanting to talk to him, to find out how he was.

Because something had changed him, she could see that at a glance. He was thinner, his face slightly drawn, shadows lurking in the back of his eyes. The same shadows that lurked in hers after all that had happened between them? Or other shadows, from the things hed seen in those two years? Both, probably.