One Life-Changing Night
A kiss to mean for ever?For A&E nurse Naomi Bloom, a handsome man only spells bad news. So when she’s forced to move in with her gorgeous new boss, Dr Tom Williams, she is certain he’s strictly off-limits!Tom swore he’d never love again after losing his wife. But Naomi’s presence is a breath of fresh air and Tom finds his long-held vow challenged. Will he be ready to embrace the risk when one kiss leads to a night these two will never forget?
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‘The Baby That Changed Her Life moved me to tears many times. It is a full-on emotional drama. Louisa Heaton brought this tale shimmering with emotions.’
—Goodreads
‘You know that feeling you get after you read an incredibly awesome book … the feeling where you don’t know what to read next, because the book you just read was so awesome …? That’s exactly how I feel.’
—Goodreads on The Baby That Changed Her Life
‘You’re very kind, Naomi.’
His eyes sparkled in the moonlight. Standing there, holding his hand by the riverside, seemed the right thing to be doing. Their relationship had changed so much, and where once she had been apprehensive around him she now felt that she cared. That she wanted good things for him. And the idea that he would be alone for the rest of his life …
He was staring down at her—intently.
They were so close to each other, and she suddenly became aware of the small space between them—almost as if it were crackling with unseen electricity.
His eyes stared deep into her soul and it was as if she could feel him searching, see him looking for something within her that only he could find. He took a step closer.
Naomi sucked in her breath, her lips parting as he came closer. Did she want Tom to kiss her?
Yes. Absolutely.
I came out of a horrid five-year relationship once, feeling hurt, dejected and jaded. It hadn’t been a good place to be—mentally or emotionally—and I emerged from the experience as a single woman, utterly determined never to get involved in another relationship ever again. Men were off the menu.
Three weeks later I was engaged to be married to my now husband! No one—definitely not me!—could have predicted that I would be swept so swiftly off my feet and find a wonderful, kind, loving man who could disprove all my theories about men in one fell swoop.
It’s a shock to the system, I can tell you, and I wanted to write about and explore that shock—and that’s how my characters in this book, Naomi and Tom, came into being. They both have preconceived ideas about love and I wanted to shake their worlds!
I felt every second of Naomi’s journey, and I wrote about a hero whom I hope all of my readers can fall in love with. I certainly did! I hope you’ll enjoy their story.
Louisa xxx
LOUISA HEATON lives on Hayling Island, Hampshire, with her husband, four children and a small zoo. She has worked in various roles in the health industry—most recently four years as a Community First Responder, answering 999 calls. When not writing, Louisa enjoys other creative pursuits, including reading, quilting and patchwork—usually instead of the things she ought to be doing!
For Sukidoo, the best friend I’ve never met. xx
Table of Contents
SHE HADN’T EXPECTED to fall into the arms of a stunningly handsome man on her first day at work. Or to have climbed up a wobbly ladder in Welbeck Memorial’s A&E department. But it was nearly the end of January and the Christmas decorations were still up.
Naomi had offered to take them down at the end of her shift, which had been a long twelve hours, and her head was buzzing with information and protocols and procedures. But she had nothing waiting for her at home—not even a cat—and, quite frankly, putting off going back to her little bedsit with its dingy second-hand furniture had seemed like a good option. Starting a new life was one thing, but starting it in a derelict, ought-to-be-bulldozed ground-floor flat with a growing mould problem was another.
When she’d offered to take the decorations down, the sister in charge had been very sweet. ‘Oh, you don’t have to do that! We’ll get one of the porters to do it. It’s your first day.’
But she’d insisted. ‘Honestly, it’s fine. Besides, it’s bad luck to keep them up this long. Bringing the old year into the new.’
‘Well, just be careful. There’s a stepladder in my office you can use, but make sure you get someone to steady it for you, or you’ll have Health and Safety on my back.’
Naomi smiled to herself, remembering the health and safety lecture she’d sat through that morning. She would be sensible and follow the rules. Just as she’d always done. She located the boxes for the Christmas decorations piled high in the sister’s office and spent the first hour removing baubles and tinsel from the lower branches.
The old, artificial tree was almost bald in parts and she could see it was decades old, dragged out from its box year after year to try and brighten the place up. Her nose wrinkled as she leant too far into one of the branches and breathed in dust and the smell of Christmases past.
As she pulled her face free of the tree, another stench—this one of alcohol and body odour—mixed into the fray, sweeping over her like a wave. A scruffy-looking man with stained clothes staggered towards her. She turned to steady him as he passed by, hoping to steer him back in the direction of the waiting room, but the drunk angrily turned on her instead. ‘Leave me alone! Shouldn’t you be
