Sydney Harbour Hospital: Tom's Redemption

Welcome to the world
of Sydney Harbour Hospital
(or
SHH
… for short—
because secrets never stay hidden for long!)

Looking out over cosmopolitan Sydney Harbour, Australia’s premier teaching hospital is a hive of round-the-clock activity—with a
very
active hospital grapevine.

With the most renowned (and gorgeous!) doctors in Sydney working side by side, professional and sensual tensions run sky-high—there’s
always
plenty of romantic rumours to gossip about …

Who’s been kissing who in the on-call room? What’s going on between legendary heart surgeon Finn Kennedy and tough-talking A&E doctor Evie Lockheart? And what’s wrong with Finn?

Find out in this enthralling new eight-book continuity from Mills & Boon
^®
Medical
^™
Romance—indulge yourself with eight helpings of romance, emotion and gripping medical drama!

Sydney Harbour Hospital
From saving lives to sizzling seduction,
these doctors are the very best!

Dear Reader

I’m not surprised that Sydney, one of the world’s most beautiful cities, was chosen as the host city for a series of books, and I’ve loved writing book number four of the
Sydney Harbour Hospital
series. It’s been especially fun as my husband’s been working in Sydney recently, and I got to have a few weekend trips to the ‘Emerald City’.

Being a tourist in a city is very different from being a resident, and that got me thinking about my hero, Tom Jordan. He’s been away from Sydney for two years, and he’s coming back to live in the same apartment and work at the same hospital. One random event has changed his life for ever and he’s on a fast learning curve. Nothing in Sydney is the same, but one thing that hasn’t changed is his belief that he doesn’t need anybody’s pity or help.

Hayley Grey is one exam away from being a qualified surgeon, and all her energies are consumed by work. She’s spent years keeping busy so she doesn’t have time to think about anything else, but a person can only run from something for so long before it catches up and starts to cause problems.

Ask Tom or Hayley if they’re happy and they’ll probably answer, ‘I do all right.’ Neither of them is prepared for what happens when they meet, and both of them are running scared.

I hope you enjoy their story as they slowly learn that to open one’s heart and invite people in is the most valuable of life’s lessons.

I love hearing from readers, and you can find me at www.fionalowe.com, harlequin.com, Facebook and Twitter.

Happy Reading!

Fiona

About the Author

Always an avid reader,
FIONA LOWE
decided to combine her love of romance with her interest in all things medical, so writing Mills & Boon
^®
Medical
^™
Romance was an obvious choice! She lives in a seaside town in southern Australia, where she juggles writing, reading, working and raising two gorgeous sons with the support of her own real-life hero!

Recent books by the same author:

CAREER GIRL IN THE COUNTRY
SINGLE DAD’S TRIPLE TROUBLE
THE MOST MAGICAL GIFT OF ALL
HER BROODING ITALIAN SURGEON
MIRACLE: TWIN BABIES

These books are also available in eBook format
from www.millsandboon.co.uk

Sydney Harbour
Hospital:
Tom’s Redemption

Fiona Lowe

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Sydney Harbour Hospital

Sexy surgeons, dedicated doctors
,
scandalous secrets, on-call dramas …

Welcome to the world of Sydney Harbour Hospital
(or
SHH
… for short—because secrets never stay hidden for long!)

In February new nurse Lily got caught up in the hotbed of hospital
gossip in
SYDNEY HARBOUR HOSPITAL: LILY’S SCANDAL
by Marion Lennox

Then gorgeous paediatrician Teo
came to single mum Zoe’s rescue in
SYDNEY HARBOUR HOSPITAL: ZOE’S BABY
by Alison Roberts

Last month sexy Sicilian playboy Luca finally met his match
SYDNEY HARBOUR HOSPITAL: LUCA’S BAD GIRL
by Amy Andrews

This month Hayley opens Tom’s eyes to love in
SYDNEY HARBOUR HOSPITAL: TOM’S REDEMPTION
by Fiona Lowe

Join heiress Lexi as she learns to put the past behind her in May:
SYDNEY HARBOUR HOSPITAL: LEXI’S SECRET
by Melanie Milburne

In June adventurer Charlie helps shy Bella fulfil her dreams—
and find love on the way!
SYDNEY HARBOUR HOSPITAL: BELLA’S WISHLIST
by Emily Forbes

Then single mum Emily gives no-strings-attached surgeon Marco a
reason to stay in July
SYDNEY HARBOUR HOSPITAL: MARCO’S TEMPTATION
by Fiona McArthur

And finally join us in August as Ava and James
realise their marriage really is worth saving in
SYDNEY HARBOUR HOSPITAL: AVA’S RE-AWAKENING
by Carol Marinelli

And not forgetting
Sydney Harbour Hospital’s
legendary heart surgeon
Finn Kennedy. This brooding maverick keeps his women on hospital
rotation … But can new doc Evie Lockheart unlock the secrets to his
guarded heart? Find out in this enthralling new eight-book continuity
from Mills & Boon
^®
Medical
^™
Romance.

A collection impossible to resist!

These books are also available in ebook format
from www.millsandboon.co.uk

With special thanks to Leonie and Steve:
two terrific doctors
who generously shared their medical knowledge
.

CHAPTER ONE

T
OM
J
ORDAN
—Mr Jordan to almost everyone—stood on the balcony of his top-floor penthouse apartment with the winter sunshine warming his face. The harsh cry of seagulls wheeling above him clashed with the low and rumbling blast of a ferry’s horn as the tang of salt hit his nostrils. All of it was quintessentially Sydney. The emerald city.
Home
.

He gazed straight ahead towards the Opera House with its striking sails and architectural splendour, before turning his head toward the iconic bridge on his right. He knew the scene intimately, having grown up in Sydney, although a
very
long way from this multimillion-dollar vantage point. As a kid he’d once taken the ferry to Taronga Park Zoo on a school excursion and been awed by the size of the mansions that clung to the shoreline for the breathtaking views. The teacher in charge had noticed him staring and had said, ‘Dream on, Jordan. People like you only ever clean their floors.’

Tom had never forgotten that hard-nosed teacher or his words, which had eventually driven him to prove that teacher wrong. Prove everyone in Derrybrook wrong—well, almost everyone. Two people hadn’t needed convincing because they’d always believed in him.

The penthouse and the Ferrari were his way of giving
those bastards from Derrybrook ‘the finger’. The long, hard journey to being head of the world-renowned neurosurgery department at Sydney Harbour Hospital was another beast entirely—a personal tribute to one of life’s special men.

His nostrils twitched as a slight musty aroma mixed in with the sharp citrus of cleaning products, drifted out from inside and lingered on the afternoon air. His cleaning lady had been both liberal and vigorous with their use in meeting the challenge of ridding the apartment of stale air—the legacy of having been closed up for well over a year. A year that had started out like any other, on a day that had been so routine it would have gone unnoticed in the annals of history yet for one tiny moment of mistiming, which had changed everything. Irrevocably. Irreversibly and indelibly.

For twenty-two months he’d stayed away from Sydney, not ever imagining he could return to the
one
place that represented everything he’d lost, but, just like that one moment in time, things had once again changed. Two months ago on Cottlesloe beach in Perth, the wind had whipped up in him an urge so strong it had had him contemplating heading east, but to what? A week later he’d received a joint invitation from Eric Frobisher, Medical Director of SHH, and Richard Hewitson, Dean of Parkes University’s School of Medicine, inviting him to give a series of guest lectures over six weeks for staff and medical students. His initial reaction had been to refuse. He wasn’t a teacher and lecturing wasn’t what he wanted—it didn’t even come close, but on a scale of necessity it was better than doing nothing at all. Doing nothing had sent him spiralling into a black hole that had threatened to keep him captive.

He gripped the balcony rails so tightly that the skin on
his knuckles burned. This past year had been all about ‘re-education’ and was the first step onto the ladder of his new life. Once before he’d dragged himself up by the bootstraps and, by hell, he could do it again. He
had
to do it again. Only this time, unlike in his childhood, at least he wouldn’t see their pity or disdain.

A nip in the air bit into him, making him shiver, and he turned slowly, reaching out his hands to feel the outdoor table. Having made contact, he counted five steps and commenced walking straight until his extended left hand pressed against the slightly open glass door. Running the fingers of his right hand down the pane, he kept them moving until they touched and then gripped the rectangular handle. He pulled the door fully open and stepped inside, barely noticing the change in light.

‘And we’re done. Good work, everyone. Thank you.’ Hayley Grey, final-year surgical registrar, stepped back from the operating table and stripped off her gloves, leaving her patient in the capable hands of the anaesthetist and nursing staff. The surgery would later be described in the report as a routine appendectomy and only she and her night-duty team would know how close it had come to being a full-on disaster of septic shock with a peritoneum full of pus. Kylie Jefferson was an extremely lucky young woman. Another hour and things could have been very different.

Hayley pushed open the theatre swing doors, crossed the now quiet scrub-in area and exited through another set of doors until she was out in the long theatre suite corridor. She rolled back her shoulders as three a.m. fatigue hit her, taunting her with the luxury of sleep. Glorious and tempting sleep, which, she knew, if she gave in to and snuggled down in her bed, would only slap her hard
and instantly depart with a bitter laugh. No, after years of experience she knew better than to try. She’d stick to her routine—type up her report on the computer, have something to eat, do an early round—and only then, as dawn was breaking, would she head home.

‘Hayley, we’ve got cake.’

‘What sort of cake?’

Jenny, the night-duty theatre nurse manager, rolled her eyes as Hayley walked into an unexpectedly busy staff lounge. Earlier in the night a road trauma case had put everyone on edge and Hayley had seen the tension on their faces when she’d arrived for her case. Two hours later, with the RT patient in ICU, the adrenaline had drained away, and the nursing staff was debriefing in the low-lit room, curled up on the couches and tucked up in warm theatre towels.

She automatically switched on the main bank of lights to make the room reassuringly brighter.

Hands flew to eyes as a chorus of ‘It’s too bright. Turn them off’, deafened her.

Jenny compromised by turning off the set over the couches. ‘After a month here, do you really have to ask what type of cake?’