Step into the world of NYC Angels
Looking out over Central Park, the Angel Mendez Children’s Hospital, affectionately known as Angel’s, is famed throughout America for being at the forefront of paediatric medicine, with talented staff who always go that extra mile for their little patients. Their lives are full of highs, lows, drama and emotion.
In the city that never sleeps, the life-saving docs at Angel’s Hospital work hard, play hard and love even harder. There’s always time for some sizzling after-hours romance …
And striding the halls of the hospital, leaving a sea of fluttering hearts behind him, is the dangerously charismatic new head of neurosurgery Alejandro Rodriguez. But there’s one woman, paediatrician Layla Woods, who’s left an indelible mark on his no-go-area heart.
Expect their reunion to be explosive!
NYC Angels
Children’s doctors who work hard and love even harder … in the city that never sleeps!
Dear Reader
Have you ever known a people-pleaser—someone who will do anything to keep others content? Perhaps you are one. If so, you know what a huge undertaking making everyone happy can be. Impossible, even. Yet Polly Seymour, RN, plods ahead with her challenging life, insisting upon sprinkling seeds of joy everywhere she goes, whether a person wants those seeds of joy tossed their way or not.
On the other hand, we might all also know the proverbial curmudgeon. A person who has been kicked in the teeth by life once too often—someone who has forgotten what it’s like to be a part of the huddled masses, yearning for something better. Most observers would give up on him and his sour moods. But someone astute at reading people, like Polly, recognises a man with a big heart even if he doesn’t want to admit it. Because any man whose day isn’t complete until he’s said goodnight to each of his hospitalised paediatric patients can’t be all bad, right? Meet Dr John Griffin.
Throw these two most unlikely people together on a busy orthopaedic hospital ward, let them duke it out—her killing him softly with her charm, him coming off gruffer than he intends—and watch the sexual sparks fly. It just goes to show you never know which small gesture or innocent invitation might reach inside another person’s heart and start the healing.
Now imagine running into someone your first day on a new job—someone who will change your life—but all you feel is annoyed. Imagine being the newest employee on the ward and still having the nerve to approach the head of the department with a grand idea. Imagine two damaged people, struggling to make it through each day, using completely different coping mechanisms. Meet Polly and John, two people I hope you’ll root for as they stumble and fumble their way towards that often elusive prize—their very own happy-ever-after.
Welcome to NYC Angels—the hospital that won’t turn anyone away.
Happy reading!
Lynne
Lynne Marshall loves to hear from readers. Visit www.lynnemarshall.com or ‘friend’ her on Facebook.
About the Author
LYNNE MARSHALL has been a Registered Nurse in a large California hospital for over twenty-five years. She has now taken the leap to writing full-time, but still volunteers at her local community hospital. After writing the book of her heart in 2000, she discovered the wonderful world of Mills & Boon® Medical Romance™, where she feels the freedom to write the stories she loves. She is happily married, has two fantastic grown children, and a socially challenged rescue dog. Besides her passion for writing Medical Romance™, she loves to travel and read. Thanks to the family dog, she takes long walks every day!
To find out more about Lynne, please visit her website: www.lynnemarshallweb.com
Recent titles by this author:
DR TALL, DARK … AND DANGEROUS?
THE CHRISTMAS BABY BUMP
THE HEART DOCTOR AND THE BABY
THE BOSS AND NURSE ALBRIGHT
TEMPORARY DOCTOR, SURPRISE FATHER
These books are also available in eBook format from www.millsandboon.co.uk
NYC Angels:
Making the
Surgeon Smile
Lynne Marshall
Many thanks to Mills & Boon® for the opportunity to participate in this wonderful Medical Romance™ continuity. Special thanks to Flo Nicoll for creating Polly and John, two characters I grew to think of as friends by the end of this book.
CHAPTER ONE
MONDAY MORNING POLLY SEYMOUR dashed into the sparkling marble-tiled lobby of New York’s finest pediatric hospital, Angel’s. The subway from the lower East Side to Central Park had taken longer today, and the last thing she wanted to do was be late on her first day as a staff RN on the orthopedic ward.
Opting to take the six flights of stairs instead of fight for a spot in one of the overcrowded elevators, she took two steps at a time until she reached her floor. As she climbed, she thought through everything she’d learned the prior week during general hospital orientation. Main factoid: Angel Mendez Children’s Hospital never turned a child away.
That was a philosophy she could believe in.
Heck, they’d even accepted her, the girl whose aunts and uncles used to refer to as “Poor Polly”. It used to make her feel like that homely vintage doll, Pitiful Pearl. But Angel’s had welcomed her to their nursing staff with open arms.
Blasting through the door, completely out of breath, she barreled onwards, practically running down a man in a white doctor’s coat. Built like a football player, the rugged man with close-cropped more-silver-than-brown hair hardly flinched. He caught her by the shoulders and helped her regain her balance.
“Careful, dumpling,” he said, sounding like a Clint-Eastwood-style grizzled cowboy.
Mortified, her eyes shot wide open. Sucking in air, she could hardly speak. “Sorry, Dr….” Her gaze shifted from his stern brown eyes to his name badge. “Dr. John Griffin.” Oh, man, did that badge also say Orthopedic Department Director? He was her boss.
She knew the routine—first impressions were lasting impressions, and this one would be a doozy. Without giving him another chance to call her “dumpling”—did he think she was thirteen?—she pointed toward the hospital ward and took off, leaving one last “Sorry” floating in her wake.
At the nurses’ station, she unwrapped her tightly wound sweater, removed her shoulder bag and plopped them both on the counter. “I’m Polly Seymour. This is my first day. Is Brooke Hawkins here?”
The nonchalant ward clerk with an abundance of tiny braids all pulled back into a ponytail lifted his huge chocolate-colored eyes, gave a forced smile and pointed across the ward. “The tall redhead,” he said, barely breaking stride from the lab orders he was entering in the computer.
Gathering her stuff, and still out of breath, Polly made a beeline for the nursing supervisor. Brooke’s welcome was warm and friendly, and included a wide smile, which helped settle the mass of butterflies winging through Polly’s stomach.
Brooke glanced at her watch. “You must be Polly and you’re early. I wasn’t