Bachelor Cure by Marion Lennox

tell you what—it’s not fear of flu that does it. And the old ladies have nothing on the young ones. You create havoc with my nursing staff—and all they get for their pains is a hopeless case of unrequited love. Or lust.’ He grinned. ‘Or maybe both.’
    â€˜Bill…’
    â€˜Hey, we could make this a proper partnership here,’ Bill continued, thinking this through. ‘Now, look, Mike. Be serious here. You know, if you snap your fingers, you could date any single lady in this valley. Even my Barbara says you make her pulse rate wobble—and she’s the mother of my four kids. Yet you never go out with anyone more than twice. So…’He held up his hand again to silence Mike’s interruption.
    â€˜No. Shut up and let me speak. So therefore…it stands to reason that you’ve been saving yourself. And I reckon the lady you’ve been saving yourself for has just entered your orbit.’
    â€˜You have to be kidding!’
    â€˜Would I joke about anything as serious as matchmaking?’ Bill demanded. He grinned and lifted one finger on his raised hand. ‘You listen to Uncle Bill, my boy. One. The lady is seriously desirable. Even I can see that, despite my commitment to my Barbara. If Barbara can look sideways at Mike Llewellyn, I can look sideways at Henry Westcott’s granddaughter.’
    Then another finger went up. Bill was on a roll here and he wasn’t to be stopped. ‘Two… The lady is a qualified medical practitioner.’ A third finger. ‘Three. The lady has a need to stay in the valley. All you have to do is keep Henry alive and needful of family. And four…’ He said this as Mike rose and stalked to the door. ‘Four, you need to be married, Mike Llewellyn. You need a wife and a few kids and a mortgage just like the rest of us.’
    And as Mike walked out and slammed the door behind him, Bill’s face split into a huge grin.
    Because Mike Llewellyn didn’t look angry. He just looked confused.
    Bloody hell! Could they really have something going here?
    â€˜I just might have another plate of porridge, Mrs Thompson,’ Bill said to the hospital cook. ‘I’d drinkchampagne if I could, but porridge will have to do. Believe it or not, we might have Dr Mike seriously interested in something other than work!’
    Â 
    Dr Mike wasn’t seriously interested. Or…was he? He did his ward rounds with a strange feeling hanging over his head.
    Normally his mind was totally on his job. Apart from his devotion to one crazy dog—and the small matter of his love affair with his car—he gave one hundred per cent concentration to his patients.
    Now, though… His patients sensed that there was something different about Mike this morning. He was just as attentive, but there was an air of bewilderment about him.
    â€˜Are you worried about Henry Westcott?’ Sandra Lessing asked. She’d been the cause of his lack of sleep the night before last. Now she was sitting up in bed feeding her day-old son, and, like every patient in the hospital, she was agog with the news of Henry being found.
    â€˜I guess.’ Mike shrugged and smiled down at the downy little head nestled against his mother’s breast. ‘I don’t know, Sandra. There’s no way of telling just how bad the damage is yet.’
    â€˜He was so lucky to be found.’ Sandra’s family farmed a property on the other side of the ridge to Henry’s and she knew at first hand just how hard the country around here was to search. ‘If it wasn’t for his granddaughter coming back…’ She looked at Mike, her eyes twinkling. ‘She’s really something, isn’t she? Bill introduced me to Tessa yesterday whenhe was showing her over the hospital. She’s just lovely.’
    â€˜Yes,’ Mike said shortly, but he didn’t want to think of how lovely Tessa was. He needed to