The Would-Be Daddy

The Would-Be Daddy
Jacqueline Diamond

BABY BATTLESafe Harbor surgeon Marshall Davis and staff psychologist Franca Brightman have different opinions on almost everything, but especially on children. She’s been fostering kids for years, while he only wants to raise his own child.But one night when Franca desperately needs tenderness, Marshall is there for her, and they find comfort in each other's arms. She brushes it off as a moment of weakness. Until she discovers she’s pregnant. Franca wants this baby, and she knows Marshall does, too—but only on his terms. Does this mean war…or a wedding?

She was leaving?

“Let’s not part this way,” Marshall protested. “We should talk.”

“About what?”

“You’re supposed to be the expert.”

“On pregnancy?” she asked.

“On relationships.”

“Well, here’s my opinion,” Franca said. “We’re not compatible, Marshall. I wish we were, and sometimes … No. I refuse to delude myself. Let’s just leave it at that.”

Her footsteps rapped across the tile floor toward the hall. Then he heard the door latch behind her with a loud click.

He sat at the counter, bewildered. How could she deny the intimacy they’d shared last night? Yet judging from her words, she regretted the whole night with a man she could never love. What had seemed a transformative experience to him had been entirely one-sided.

He and Franca had always been opposites. Why expect things to be different now?

Because, in a few weeks, they’d learn whether they were going to be parents …

The Would-Be Daddy

Jacqueline Diamond

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

Medical themes play a prominent role in many of JACQUELINE DIAMOND’s one hundred published novels, including her Safe Harbor Medical series for Mills & Boon Cherish. Her father was a small-town doctor before becoming a psychiatrist, and Jackie developed an interest in fertility issues after successfully undergoing treatment to have her two sons. A former Associated Press reporter and TV columnist, Jackie lives with her husband of thirty-seven years in Orange County, California, where she’s active in Romance Writers of America. You can sign up for her free newsletter at www.jacquelinediamond.com (http://www.jacquelinediamond.com) and say hello to Jackie on her Facebook page, JacquelineDiamondAuthor (http://www.facebook.com/JacquelineDiamondAuthor). On Twitter, she’s @jacquediamond (http://www.twitter.com/jacquediamond).

To Hunter and Brooke

Contents

Cover (#ue5e6dc83-da59-5f65-a8a5-55b9398c0a2e)

Introduction (#u11c0448e-05cc-59ea-923c-648183bc4592)

Title Page (#u2cb8b25b-27b8-5e52-a9e5-1008ddf9cf4e)

About the Author (#u6aebabd8-40ca-571c-97be-9cf6a0cddeff)

Dedication (#u863a8fca-cc84-5593-8a49-3f642967ecaf)

Chapter One (#ulink_c5e822a3-515d-5622-86c9-360bd5e35210)

Chapter Two (#ulink_c42eeae8-8201-563e-9572-e6f68d1b296e)

Chapter Three (#ulink_c18abe05-1493-5b18-8e45-27ee39359bbc)

Chapter Four (#ulink_66095dd7-07eb-5246-b72c-cac101d56aa0)

Chapter Five (#ulink_9b39d3e7-1b11-579e-88c7-4d9844b10528)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twenty-One (#litres_trial_promo)

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One (#ulink_d1f6610f-db02-5628-8a82-26733d8fe0fc)

It was unfair, dangerous and cruel. That poor little girl. If Franca Brightman didn’t figure out a way to rescue four-year-old Jazz, she’d burst into a fireball that would bring down the Safe Harbor Medical Center parking structure on top of her.

She’d tried to work off her fury by staying late on a Friday night at her office. She’d spent hours reviewing the patient files that had come with her new job as staff psychologist. Plunging into the records and assessing patients’ need for additional treatments should have blunted her pain and outrage.