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    Adopted: One Baby
    Adopted: One Baby
    Adopted: One Baby
    Ebook123 pages1 hour

    Adopted: One Baby

    By Natasha Oakley

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    About this ebook


    Lorna Drummond has become guardian of her little orphaned niece. But with sexy millionaire Raphael McKinnon on hand to help, the idea of being a stand–in mum to baby Imogen isn't quite so daunting. Together they may just become a family for real...!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers Australia
    Release dateNov 1, 2012
    ISBN9781460889220
    Adopted: One Baby
    Author

    Natasha Oakley

    Natasha Oakley began writing as a “creative displacement activity” when her fifth child started sleeping through the night. 60,000 words later she'd created some fantastic characters and a book with no plot at all! Terrible though it was, an ambition was born – she wanted to be an author. Since Natasha always loved a happy ending, it was easy to decide to write romances! She lives in Bedfordshire with her family. Visit Natasha’s website at: www.natashaoakley.com

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      Book preview

      Adopted - Natasha Oakley

      CHAPTER ONE

      SITTIFORD was pretty enough, but it wasn’t somewhere you’d want to stay for long. At least it wasn’t if you harboured any kind of ambition beyond the cultivation of the most perfect petunia.

      Lorna Drummond reached for her handbag as her taxi pulled into a lay-by within the hospital car park. So why had her sister chosen to come back to Sittiford to have her baby when practically the only thing they’d ever agreed on was the need to leave?

      It didn’t make any sense. Not unless Vikki had experienced some kind of epiphany. She looked up and caught the driver watching her in his rearview mirror.

      He swivelled round in his seat. ‘You’re the sister of that girl in the accident, aren’t you? The one who died?’

      ‘That’s right.’ Lorna reached for her purse, hiding her face with her blonde hair. ‘How much do I owe you?’

      ‘£7.40, love.’ He reached out a tattooed hand to take the ten-pound note she offered, then, ‘I was sorry to hear about your sister and that.’

      ‘Thank you.’ Lorna convulsively reached for the door handle, desperate for escape.

      ‘The baby is doing all right, is she?’

      ‘I haven’t seen her yet, but I think so. Thank you. Please keep the change.’ She uncurled herself from the car and shut the door firmly, standing back to let the taxi drive away.

      Lorna took a deep breath and looked up at the high walls of Sittiford Hospital. Gone was the dour Victorian building she remembered, and in its place was curved brickwork and commissioned sculptures.

      And up there, apparently, was her sister’s baby. Vikki’s baby. It was unbelievable. She felt guilty thinking it now… but Vikki with a baby didn’t make any sense either. Her life was all about parties, new places, exciting people…

      Had been about all those things, Lorna corrected silently. Vikki was dead. However many times she said that over to herself, she couldn’t quite accept it.

      Ever since that late-night phone call she’d felt like a non-swimmer in one of those wave pools. Wave after wave crashing against her. Consequence after consequence. And each one coming so fast that it was difficult to know what she should be reacting to first.

      Lorna walked across the sweeping drive towards the entrance to the Rainbow Wing. The doors opened automatically as she approached, and, obedient to the sign, she paused long enough to cleanse her hands with the jellylike hand-wash.

      The heels of her shoes clipped loudly on the hard surface of the floor, and the sterile smell caught at the back of her throat. Vikki must have come back for a reason other than that she was pregnant. She’d hated this town. Hadn’t been able to get away quick enough…

      Was the reason a man?

      Somewhere out there was the father of her sister’s baby. Was he here? In Sittiford? And, if so, why hadn’t he come forward? Vikki had been irresponsible, and generally feckless in the choices she’d made, but she must have known who the father was.

      Surely she’d told someone? Even if the police hadn’t been able to find them yet. Lorna came to an abrupt stop at the reception desk and waited while an involved conversation was translated by an elderly woman’s son.

      It was the strangest feeling to know the baby’s father could be anywhere. The man sitting in the corner reading a newspaper. The one she’d just passed in the car park, perhaps? Anywhere. He could be absolutely anywhere.

      Was he married? With other children? Was that why he’d not come forward yet? And, if he was married, did that mean he’d never come forward?

      ‘Can I help you?’

      Her head spun round. ‘I’m here to see Baby Drummond. M-My sister—’

      ‘Ah, yes. They’re expecting you in Neonatal.’ The receptionist’s hand was reaching for her receiver before Lorna had time to consider what she was going to say. ‘I have Ms Drummond in reception now. I’m sending her up.’

      The receptionist’s eyes were suspiciously glossy as she looked at her, and it made Lorna’s control falter. Too much sympathy was difficult to cope with. ‘You need the third floor. There’s a lift to—’

      ‘I’ll walk. Thank you.’ Anything to escape that caressing kindness. Lorna started towards a likely pair of double doors. ‘Through here?’

      ‘Yes. Third floor.’

      Lorna pulled the door open and started up the staircase. At the large black number three she stopped to read the sign that stated Neonatal was to the left. She pushed through the fire door and walked onto a utilitarian landing.

      One large window looked out on an ugly arrangement of cylindrical storage containers connected by pipes—who knew what for? Lorna stood for a moment, bracing herself for what was to come next, and emotion flooded through her.

      It was all so sudden and unexpected. One moment she was living the life she’d chosen, happily immersed in academia, the next she was on a plane back to Heathrow and dealing with the death of a sister she hadn’t seen in almost nine years—and seemingly expected to deal with the baby she’d left behind.

      It was all so ridiculous.

      What did she know about babies? Or even family for that matter? She’d spent a decade avoiding both. Lorna placed a hand on her flat stomach as though it would stop the churning inside. She was scared. She didn’t do babies. Didn’t know one end from the other.

      ‘Not the best view,’ a male voice said behind her. Sexy, deep…

      Startled, Lorna whipped round in time to see the lift doors close and a man walk towards her. Tall. Scruffy… In a kind of actor-promoting-a-film style.

      ‘Are you going in?’ he asked, indicating the buzzer with a tilt of his head.

      Lorna’s eyes skimmed his denim-clad thighs, took in the worn leather jacket and continued on up to the too-long hair. A confident and all together too sure of himself type of male—with an incongruous pink teddy bear tucked nonchalantly under his arm.

      No sooner had she thought it odd that a man like him would be carrying a soft toy than she remembered that this was outside Neonatal and he must have a baby in there…

      She bit her lip. He might even be quite worried by that. He didn’t look traumatised, but he might be.

      And at least he was here. Showing support. Doing the best he could. Shame if his best was a pink bear. ‘Yes. Yes, I am.’

      ‘Only you need to push the buzzer or they won’t know you’re here.’

      She raised her eyebrows. ‘I was just about to buzz.’ Did she really look so stupid that he thought she couldn’t work that out for herself?

      He was exactly Vikki’s type of man. The thought slipped into her mind. Her sister had always seemed to go for the kind of man who, personally, made her feel as if her blouse was buttoned up a little too high and her make-up just that little bit too perfect.

      He strode forward and pushed the red button, and Lorna had ample opportunity to see that his denim jeans clung equally tightly to his firm buttocks. There was an arrogant confidence in every line of his body. Sexual simply because of the way he moved.

      She hated that. It made her feel so uncomfortable. Some memory jagged, like cobwebs on nails. She’d seen him before. Or someone like him?

      Had she seen him in one of Vikki’s photographs?

      ‘It doesn’t usually take this long to get an answer,’ he said, peering through the strengthened glass aperture.

      ‘I—I wouldn’t know.’

      He glanced over his shoulder and then back, as a young and harried-looking student midwife pulled the door open.

      ‘Sister’s not finished her shift yet.’

      ‘No worries. Can you tell her I’ll wait in the Bistro. Oh, and I’ve brought this up for Baby Drummond—’

      ‘Why?’ The question shot from Lorna like a bullet from a gun, scarcely allowing time for her to register that the younger woman had clearly recognised him.

      ‘Sorry?’

      ‘W-why have you brought that for my niece?’ she asked, pointing at the teddy bear.

      ‘Niece?’ He turned and really studied her. He’d not done that before, and it made her feel flustered. ‘That must make you Lorna Drummond. I’d never have recognised you.’

      Lorna pulled a distracted hand through her blonde hair. ‘Have we met?’

      He held out his hand. ‘Raphael McKinnion. Ellie’s brother.’

      Raphael McKinnion. Rafe McKinnion.

      She allowed him to take her hand, feeling as though her stomach had been invaded by several hundred butterflies.

      Ellie’s elder brother. At fourteen she’d have thought she’d died and gone to heaven if her best friend’s brother had so much as spoken to her. Now he was shaking her hand.

      And still holding a pink teddy bear intended for her niece. Was Raphael McKinnion the reason Vikki had come back to Sittiford?

      Her sister wouldn’t have been intimidated by a man like Rafe McKinnion. If she’d wanted him she’d have crooked her little finger and he’d

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