The Doctor Claims His Bride Read Online Free PDF Page A

his working life so much easier. But a leaden feeling settled in his gut and thrilled didn’t come close to describing it. He ran his hand through his hair, his brain scrambling to make sense of his feelings.
    She’s just an average nurse like every other one you’ve met, worked with and forgotten .
    But there was nothing average about Mia and that was the problem.

CHAPTER THREE
    F LYNN walked over to the clinic from his residence, smelling the salt lingering on the early Saturday morning air, and breathed in deeply, savouring the freshness. Not one breath of wind rippled the trees and he knew the sea would be flat and calm—an ideal morning to go fishing.
    He had a patient to see and a patient to hopefully discharge and then the day was his, emergencies notwithstanding. He’d ask around and perhaps drive up to the north of the island and see if anyone was heading out to fish. He could do with a day away from the clinic.
    A day away from Mia . He needed to clear his mind.
    He shoved his hands deep into his pockets. He should have taken the three to five a.m. shift for all the sleep he’d got. Images of Mia had floated through his mind despite him trying to shut them out, despite practising deep breathing and attempting relaxation. Hell, he’d come to these islands to avoid women and life had been easy. He wasn’t going to let one nurse change that.
    As he pushed the clinic door open he heard Jimmy calling out.
    ‘Mia, is there more toast?’
    Relief settled over him. He’d made the right decision in not evacuating Jimmy. A boy with a healthy appetite was a great sign.
    Mia appeared from the kitchen holding a tray with cereal, milk and fruit. ‘Good morning.’ A warm smile tinged with familiar tension washed across her face. ‘I hope you ate breakfast at home because the way Jimmy is eating, my supplies are dwindling at a rapid rate.’
    Her tinkling laugh spun around him, pulling at him with its intoxicating, sweet sound. For a woman who’d been up half the night she had no right to look so fresh and alluring. Her face, free from make-up, shone with a healthy glow, and her hair framed her cheeks, not yet pulled back into its usual neat ponytail.
    He’d called into the clinic at three a.m. but Jimmy had been stable and sleeping and she’d sent him away, promising to catch a few hours’ sleep herself. He took the tray from her. ‘I learned the hard way and now I have a secret stash of food.’
    ‘Ah, yet another trick of remote medicine I have to learn.’ She pulled a tiny spiral notebook and pencil out of her pocket and wrote ‘Food supplies’ in it, under a list of other short notes, the bridge of her nose creasing in concentration.
    The action surprised him. He’d understand if she wrote down a reminder for a drug order or something related to work, but some extra food?
    She caught him staring at her and she quickly flicked the notebook closed, jamming it back in her pocket as if caught out doing something wrong. ‘Let’s give the boy round three of his breakfast.’
    Jimmy sat crossed-legged on the bed, crumbs scattered all around him.
    ‘Is that all that’s left of three slices of toast and Vegemite?’ Mia teased as she brushed away the crumbs. ‘I had a brother who had hollow legs like you. He used to eat and eat and eat.’
    Flynn slid the tray onto the over-bed table, wondering about the words ‘had a brother’. Wouldn’t people normally say, ‘My brother used to have hollow legs like you’? ‘Tuck into this, mate, and then I’ll come back and have a look at your dressing, OK?’
    Jimmy bit into a yellow banana and nodded as Flynn motioned for Mia to leave the room with him.
    He strode into the kitchen and plugged in the coffee-machine. ‘I need a cappuccino—what about you?’
    ‘That sounds great.’ Mia cut two slices of hearty wholemeal bread and dropped them into the toaster. ‘So, will Jimmy be discharged home to rest today or do you want to keep him in a bit longer so that