It Happened One Night Shift
A stolen kiss in the ERFive years ago brooding ex-military medic Gareth Stapleton lost his beloved wife to breast cancer. Since then he’s kept his distance from everything and everyone. Until Dr Billie Ashworth-Keyes waltzes into his life and turns it upside-down…Gareth is intrigued by the vivacious ER doc, but he knows she’s off-limits. Then, one night shift, Gareth finds himself locked in the hottest kiss of his life! Suddenly he realises that Billie is exactly what he needs to make his days—and nights—a lot more meaningful!
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AMY ANDREWS has always loved writing, and still can’t quite believe that she gets to do it for a living. Creating wonderful heroines and gorgeous heroes and telling their stories is an amazing way to pass the day. Sometimes they don’t always act as she’d like them to—but then neither do her kids, so she’s kind of used to it. Amy lives in the very beautiful Samford Valley, with her husband and aforementioned children, along with six brown chooks and two black dogs. She loves to hear from her readers. Drop her a line at www.amyandrews.com.au
This is the first book I’ve written where my hero is a nurse. I’ve been toying with doing it for a long time, but I didn’t really have a scenario in my head until recently. Then I saw ex-military triage nurse Gareth in my mind’s eye and knew I had my hero.
He’s tough and strong and self-reliant, but after thirty doctor/paramedic heroes I thought I’d meet resistance from my editor over Gareth being a nurse and Billie, the heroine, being a doctor. Not the case, however. I was given free rein to bring their story to life and I’m so grateful—because Gareth is just the hero that Billie needs: supportive when required, but challenging her to be the person she is … not the person others want her to be. And Billie is just the woman Gareth needs—dragging him back into the world of the living. Helping him live, laugh and love again. Showing him that there is another life for him.
Both of them have pasts that make going ahead with the future complicated. Both of them are facing demons. But that is the beauty and power of love. And for Gareth and Billie falling hard is inevitable.
I hope you enjoy their journey.
Love
Amy
I dedicate this book to all my lovely nursing friends from the former Royal Children’s Hospital. Twenty-one years is a long time to be in any one place and I have enjoyed every moment—even the harrowing ones. I will miss you all.
Table of Contents
Dear Reader
Dedication
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
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
GARETH STAPLETON DROPPED his head from side to side, stretching out his traps as he kept his eyes on the road.
He was getting too old for this crap.
It had been a long, crazy shift in the emergency room and he needed a beer, a shower and his bed.
Saturday nights in a busy Brisbane ER were chaotic at the best of times but the full moon had added an extra shot of the bizarre to the mix. From now on he was consulting astrological charts when requesting his roster.
He yawned and looked at the dash clock—almost midnight—and was grateful for his shift ending when it had. The waiting room had still been full as he’d clocked off and he didn’t envy the night shift having to deal with it all.
Suddenly, the car in front of him—a taxi—swerved slightly into the opposite lane and Gareth’s pulse spiked.
What the hell?
Despite only going at the speed limit, he eased back on the accelerator as the taxi corrected itself. Gareth peered into the back windscreen of the car, trying to see what the guy was doing. What was distracting him? Was he texting? Or talking on the phone?
He couldn’t tell what the driver was doing but at least the taxi appeared to be empty of passengers.
Gareth eased back some more. He may only be driving a twenty-year-old rust box but he had no desire to be collateral damage due to this clown’s inattention. Luckily they were on a long, straight section of road linking two outer suburbs so there were no houses, no cars parked on either side, just trees and bushland.
The taxi wobbled all over the lane again and Gareth’s stomach tightened as a set of oncoming headlights suddenly winked in the distance. His fingers gripped the steering-wheel a little firmer as a sense of foreboding settled over him.
Gareth’s sense of foreboding had served him well over the years—particularly in the Middle East—and it wasn’t going to be disappointed tonight.
He watched in horror as the taxi swerved suddenly again into the path of the oncoming car. Gareth hit his horn but it was futile, the crash playing out in front of him in slow motion.
The driver of the other car slammed on the brakes, swerving to avoid what Gareth could have sworn was certain collision. He waited for the crash and the sound of crunching metal but, thankfully, it never came. The taxi narrowly missed the other car, careening off the road and smashing into a tree.
But now the oncoming car was in his lane and Gareth had to apply his brakes to prevent them crashing. Luckily the other driver had the good sense to swerve back into his own lane and they both came to a halt almost level with each other on their own sides of the road.
