Outback Doctor, English Bride

Somehow she had to, she resolved as she left Karryn’s room and made her way slowly back to the nurses’ station. She just couldn’t allow herself to be gathered up like so much nuisance baggage and put on the plane out.

Just the thought of it made her insides twist sickeningly. And suddenly it was all happening again, the absolute need she felt around Jake Haslem—the need to be held, loved. The need that had driven her here, belatedly, to this quaint little outback town in Australia.

In her mind’s eye she relived the first time they’d kissed. It had been halfway through his six-month exchange in England. Such an unromantic time and place for it to have happened. They’d been in Casualty at the end of a particularly gruelling night shift. Their patient had been stitched up and released and they’d been standing side by side at the basins in the treatment room.

Jake had washed his hands and dried them quickly while she’d only just elbowed the taps off, her hands dripping wet. And out of the blue he’d leaned his body towards her, turning his face to meet hers. And just like that he’d kissed her.

And after a little gasp at his audacity, her body had gone to meet his like a river returning to its source.

Circling her arms around his neck and keeping her wet hands out of the way, she’d anchored her body closer until they’d been hard against each other.

And it had felt wild and wonderful, as if it had been destined to happen from the moment they’d set eyes on each other. He’d printed kiss after kiss on her mouth, the way he’d gone about it almost imperious, so damned confident. Yet his lips had been teasing and meltingly sweet…

‘Touch me, Max,’ he’d whispered gruffly against her mouth. ‘Touch me.’

‘My hands are all wet…’

‘Who cares?’ He’d folded her more closely to him, more tightly, driving a wild kind of passion through her veins until she was giddy with power. And wanting to kiss him all night long.

They’d heard the rattle of a trolley outside and pulled back from each other, and her heart had caught in her throat at the look in his eyes. ‘Next weekend?’ he’d whispered urgently. ‘The Cotswolds? Can you get away?’

She hadn’t even tried to pretend it was a casual invitation to go walking. ‘Yes.’

CHAPTER THREE

MAXI gusted a small sigh. Backtracking her thoughts had left her mind in a muddle, her spirits flagging. Perhaps she was just travel-weary. On the other hand, perhaps it had been one huge mistake, coming here at all. She moistened her lips as if trying to dampen the panicky feeling that had surfaced out of nowhere.

And suddenly and uncomprehendingly she felt homesick for everything familiar. For winter and the grey skies of England. For the sharpness of the outdoors stinging her cheeks when she’d taken the dogs for a run. For the warmth of her parents’ old-fashioned kitchen, the comfort of her mother’s hearty soup at teatime. For a heart-to-heart with her brother, Luke, and shopping with her little sister, Freya…

She shook her head as if to clear away the shards of retrospection. This was no time to be wallowing in the past. Jake hadn’t run her out of town—yet. Like a squirrel methodically gathering nuts for the winter, she pulled all her mental resources around her, her manner purposeful as she crossed to the nurses’ station.

‘Oh, hi, Doctor.’ Loretta looked up from her paperwork. ‘Like a cuppa?’

‘Not just now, thanks.’ A trapped smile nipped Maxi’s mouth. ‘Jake’s buying me tea at the pub.’

‘That’ll be right,’ Loretta confirmed. ‘Thursday’s his night to eat there. It’s steak night.’

Maxi felt her cobbled-together courage drop to the floor. So he hadn’t meant the invitation as anything special. Why on earth had she let herself imagine he had? She swallowed the knot of disappointment, instead working the muscles in her face into the semblance of a smile and making herself focus. ‘Loretta, does the town have a WI?’

The charge looked blank.

‘A Women’s Institute,’ Maxi enlightened her.

‘Ah. Don’t think so…’ Loretta frowned a bit and then brightened. ‘But we do have a CWA. A Country Women’s Association—any use?’

‘That’s just what I’m looking for. Is there a head person I could contact?’

‘Now, there I can help you.’ Loretta looked pleased. ‘Liz Maynard. She runs the local craft shop. It’s is in the main street just a few doors along from Jake’s surgery.’

‘Excellent.’ Maxi nodded her thanks. ‘I’ll pop in and see her tomorrow. Couple of things I want to run by her.’

‘Steak not to your liking?’ Jake asked later as they sat over their meal at the pub.

‘It’s fine.’ Maxi sent him an over-bright smile. ‘There’s rather a lot of it, that’s all.’

Jake lifted a shoulder dismissively. ‘They do tend to think in servings of half a cow. Just leave it.’

‘I wouldn’t be offending anyone?’

‘I doubt they’d even notice.’ He met her widened gaze, his blue eyes mocking her with their trace of wry laughter. ‘Beef is the one thing there’s plenty of at the moment.’

Maxi looked at him doubtfully and then gave a reluctant smile. ‘If you’re sure it’s OK…’

‘Perfectly.’

With a neat co-ordinated movement, she moved her plate aside and leaned across the table towards him, her eyes alight with purpose. ‘Would this be a good time to talk about my patient list?’

‘Who said anything about you having a patient list?’

‘I already have the beginnings of one,’ she informed him smartly. ‘I have my new mum, Karryn.’

‘So you do.’ Jake acknowledged dryly. ‘And what did you come up with?’

‘I’ve outlined a programme of massage and gentle exercise for her and she seemed pleased with that and agreed to stay an extra few days.’

‘And?’

‘And what?

‘I don’t imagine you stopped there.’

She shrugged away his cryptic taunt. ‘I’m working on a way of perhaps making things a bit easier for when Karryn gets home from hospital.’

‘Oh?’ Jake’s eyes narrowed at her earnest expression and the tiny dimple in her cheek that gave the impression she was always on the brink of a smile. Damn and blast. If he lowered his guard for just a second, he knew he’d be leaving himself open to heartbreak again. He gave a rather curt nod of his head. ‘Tell me.’

‘Loretta’s put me onto the CWA.’ Maxi’s voice was laced with enthusiasm. ‘And from what she told me, their funding guidelines would seem to cover what I have in mind for Karryn and her family. Anyway, I’m going to pop in on Liz Maynard in the morning. I think between us we can work something out.’

Jake’s mouth pleated at the corners. ‘Just don’t get your hopes too high. There may nothing at all Liz can come up with. The CWA’s funds aren’t limitless and neither is their capacity to help people.’

‘I’m not about to give in to pessimism,’ Maxi declared stoutly. ‘I still believe in successful outcomes. I would’ve thought you did as well. You used to,’ she reminded him.

He gave a bleak kind of smile. ‘We’re in desperate times here, Maxi. Sometimes, no matter how much we wish it otherwise, there really is nothing we can do to change things.’

Maxi took a thoughtful swallow of her wine. She didn’t believe in giving up easily. There would always be something they could do. And for whatever time she had here in this tiny community, she resolved to find a way to do that something.

As they left the pub, she realised they still hadn’t discussed her patient list. Baby steps, then, she decided philosophically. She had enough to be going on with. And with a bit of luck, the rest would follow.

When they got back to the house, Jake unlocked the front door and stood aside for her to enter. In the lounge room, he tossed his keys on the coffee-table and swung round a bit awkwardly. ‘I’ll get house and surgery keys cut for you tomorrow. Meanwhile, do you have everything you need?’

Unfolding her clenched hands, Maxi held her palms against her thighs. ‘Yes, thanks. Um, what time do you usually have breakfast?’

He gave a hollow laugh. ‘I usually just grab a banana as I go. That’s breakfast.’

She gave a disapproving little shake of her head. ‘You can’t possibly start your day on a banana! How early do you leave for the surgery?’

‘Seven-thirty-ish,’ he said, his voice curiously gruff. ‘If there are patients to see at the hospital, I do a round first and then go on to the surgery.’

‘I could do your hospital round,’ she offered. ‘I’ll be going there anyway to start Karryn on her programme.’

He seemed to hesitate and then he said, ‘Fair enough. Thanks,’ he added, almost as an afterthought.

‘Then what?’ Maxi prodded. ‘I’ll come to the surgery?’

‘Will that be before or after you’ve seen Liz Maynard?’

She sent him a brief exasperated look. ‘After, I imagine.’ And, please, take me seriously, she wanted to add, but didn’t. She turned away. ‘I’ll say goodnight, then.’ Suddenly, it was all just too difficult.

Maxi couldn’t sleep. And it wasn’t as though the bed was uncomfortable. It wasn’t. And the sheets and pillowcases were of softest cotton, sweet and sun-dried. But she’d been overtired, she realised now, her thoughts all over the place.

She sighed and turned over, plumping up the pillow yet again. The absolute quiet was getting to her, unnerving her. That was until the cicadas started their concert outside her window, of course. It was driving her nuts. But that was nothing compared to the fright she’d experienced when a long mournful howl had pierced the night air and had had her jackknifing up, her heart banging inside her chest. Now, that was the stuff of nightmares.

Oh, lord… Closing her eyes, she began some relaxation techniques… Surely Australia didn’t have wolves, did it? But the howl had sounded like a wolf. And so close—so close…

She finally slept, rising early and strangely more in control. And under the needling warmth of the shower, even a three-minute one, she felt her body revive and her mind begin to focus.

Dressed for work in well-cut linen trousers and crisp white figure-hugging shirt, she made her way along to the kitchen, surprised that Jake hadn’t surfaced yet. She’d give him a surprise and fix breakfast.

Her eyes tracked around the kitchen. It was lovely, homely. She’d hardly had time to register anything last night, she thought, going forward to place her hand almost reverently on the scrubbed pine table, touching her fingers to the tiny dips and grooves in its surface and speculating about the doctors, young and possibly not so young, who had sat here. What stories they could tell now.

She moved across to the pantry and peered inside, raising an eyebrow in surprise. It was well stocked. And obviously down to the lady who came in—Marie. The fridge was similarly well provisioned and Maxi made a little sound of annoyance in her throat. There was no need for Jake to be skipping meals at all. Or as good as.

But, then, it wasn’t much fun cooking for one, she guessed. And wondered anew just how lonely and isolating it was for him here.

Locating bowl and whisk, she broke in several eggs and began to fluff them. A tiny frown pleated her forehead. Had disillusionment from their break-up driven him here? she wondered. Had her inability to join him really done that to him? She turned the beaten eggs into a pan and adjusted the heat.

‘What’s going on here?’

Maxi spun round from the cook-top and shot Jake a haughty little look. ‘Good morning. I’m fixing breakfast. And don’t tell me you don’t have time to eat.’

A little bemused, Jake leaned against the doorframe, watching her. She looked so absolutely right here, he thought, his mind sharpening with memory. Until he cautioned himself bleakly, silently, Just don’t get used to it, chum. There may be history between him and Maxi but there was definitely no future. He wasn’t about to set himself up to be hurt all over again.

‘Well, don’t just stand there, Doctor.’ Maxi beckoned him in. ‘I could use your help here. We need some toast to go with these scrambled eggs.’

Jake pushed himself away from the door and moved across the kitchen to look over her shoulder. ‘You really didn’t have to do this, Max.’ His voice was edged with a gruff quality, his hand of its own accord coming up to rest fleetingly at the nape of her neck.

Maxi felt warning signals clang all over her body and turned her head a fraction. With only the merest encouragement from him, she could have flung herself into his arms. Instead, she took a steadying breath, finding herself breathing in the fresh tang of his sandalwood shower gel. ‘I was up early,’ she improvised quickly. ‘It seemed logical to start breakfast.’ She swallowed a laugh. ‘You can take your banana for your play lunch instead.’

His chuckle was a bit rueful. ‘Perhaps I will. Anything would be better than Ayleen’s scones.’

‘Oh, dear.’ Maxi’s mouth turned down at the corners. ‘That bad.’

‘They give a new perspective to the meaning of rock cakes.’

Maxi chuckled. ‘I guess she’s just trying to be kind.’

‘Oh, she is,’ Jake agreed, sliding bread into the toaster. ‘She thinks I need looking after.’

Well, I’m your woman, then. Maxi bit her lips together on the words before they could tumble out. ‘So, if you don’t eat the scones, what do you do with them? I can’t imagine you’d want to hurt Ayleen’s feelings and chuck them in the bin?’

‘Lord, no.’ He pretended to shudder. ‘I’d never talk my way out of that. I smuggle them out and bring them home for Chalky.’

‘Is that good for him?’ Maxi seemed shocked by the very idea.

Jake shrugged. ‘Chalky loves them. They’re so hard, I think he cleans his teeth on them.’

Listening to his crazy banter, Maxi felt a strange sense of lightness. This was more like the man she’d known and—loved. Her mind stumbled over the word. To distract herself, she quickly got plates off the shelf and watched as Jake buttered the toast. ‘Please, tell me Ayleen doesn’t bring scones in every day.’

‘Only on a Friday.’

‘But that’s today!’

He gave a crooked grin. ‘Better brace yourself, then.’

Maxi felt a swirl of pleasure, watching Jake obviously enjoy the simple meal they’d more or less prepared together. She poured the tea and handed his mug across. ‘So, am I going to be seeing some patients today or are you intending to keep them all to yourself?’

Very deliberately, Jake took a mouthful of his tea. ‘I’ll sort out a few for you to see.’

‘Good.’ She smiled, activating the tiny dimple in her cheek. ‘I’d like a nice mix, then, please. Don’t feel you have to give me all the females.’

Jake put down his mug and wrapped his hands around it. ‘Be aware, Maxi, some folk will present with physical ailments that are purely manifestations of stress.’

‘So an unexplained pain somewhere but in reality they need to talk?’

‘Exactly.’ He gave her a brief nod of approval, seemingly pleased with her grasp of things. ‘There’s also been an upswing in drug and alcohol use. So use your own judgement but if you’re in doubt at all, check with me before you prescribe anything.’

‘I think I can manage that.’

It was just on ten o’clock when Maxi arrived at Jake’s surgery. Ayleen was, of course, in attendance, beckoning Maxi to the end of the counter out of earshot of the waiting patients. ‘Jake thought you might like to settle in a bit, Doctor, and then see a couple of patients after lunch.’

Maxi nodded. ‘That sounds fine. And, please, don’t let’s be formal. Call me Maxi.’

They exchanged a smile. ‘And I’m Ayleen. So now that’s settled, I’ll show you where to go and you can start getting your bearings.’

‘Brilliant.’

‘This’ll be you.’ Ayleen opened the door on a reasonably sized consulting room.

‘Oh, wow.’ Maxi blinked a bit, seeing a well-equipped, although impersonal domain. It set her thinking and she turned to the receptionist, a query in her eyes. ‘So, was this always a two-doctor practice?’

‘Oh, yes.’ Ayleen was only too happy to supply the information. ‘Jake joined Tom Wilde a couple of years ago but then Tom and his family had to leave for various reasons and Jake’s been soldiering on alone ever since. Such a relief you can stay for a while.’

Yes, but for how long? Maxi’s gaze clouded slightly. ‘The locum’s not turned up, then?’

Ayleen shook her ash-blonde head and gave a little sniff of disgust. ‘Changed his mind, according to the agency.’

‘There’s no chance he’ll change it back?’

‘Not when he’s accepted a job on the Gold Coast instead! Some people have no sense of personal responsibility these days,’ Ayleen proclaimed. ‘It all boils down to lack of respect, of course. In my younger days, you wouldn’t dare not turn up if you’d been offered a job.’ She flapped a hand around the consulting room. ‘This’ll be better once you get your own bits and pieces around. But plenty of time for that,’ she added cheerfully. ‘Now, come through and I’ll give you the rest of the tour.’

Her thoughts very mixed, Maxi followed.

‘Treatment room through here,’ Ayleen said, pulling back a screen.

‘Looks a good work area.’ Maxi was impressed with the array of equipment and would have liked to linger but Ayleen was on the move again.

‘Staff kitchen and other facilities along here. And talking of kitchens,’ Ayleen said with a smile, ‘what about some tea and scones? I brought my usual batch in this morning.’

Oh, dear, the dreaded scones. Maxi thought quickly. ‘Uh, thanks, Ayleen, but I already had a cuppa with Loretta over at the hospital.’

‘Next Friday, then.’ The receptionist-cum-practice manager beamed. ‘Now, I’d best get back and leave you to settle in. I usually make us a sandwich for lunch. Can I count you in?’

Maxi nodded around a smile. ‘Wonderful, thanks, Ayleen.’

‘So, how was your morning?’ Maxi asked. She and Jake were in the staffroom and Ayleen had just cleared their lunch things away and returned to her desk to get ready for the afternoon surgery.

Jake lifted his gaze, his eyes narrowing. ‘Much as usual. How was yours?’

‘Oh, pretty good, I think.’ Her teeth caught on her lower lip as she smiled. ‘I got a good hearing and a promising outcome from Liz Maynard,’ she added, leaning forward and warming to her subject. ‘Apparently the welfare of women and children is the main priority of the association so doing something for Karryn and the new baby comes well within their guidelines.’

Jake raised a dark eyebrow. ‘So, materially, what can they do?’

‘Liz is going to ask some of their members to cook and freeze some meals so Karryn won’t have to worry about getting everyone fed the moment she gets home, and Liz said they’ll get together and make up a basket of goodies, baby stuff and so on, as a gift for Karryn. Hopefully throw in some toys for the older children as well.’

‘That’s brilliant. I’m impressed.’ Jake’s mouth pulled down. ‘Why couldn’t I see all that was possible?’

Maxi made a throw-away movement with her hand. ‘Don’t beat yourself up. It’s hard to be objective when you’re the one having to deal with everyone’s stress day after day. And sometimes…’ she sent him a trapped smile ‘…it needs a woman-to-woman approach. Anyway, that’s not all my good news. Liz’s two teenage sons are home from boarding school early. Apparently the college needs the dorm for a group of overseas students on a study trip. Liz said the lads are bored already so she’s going to suggest to Karryn and Dean that the guys go out to the farm and do the hay drop for the next couple of weeks.’

Jake frowned a bit. ‘I doubt the Goodes will be able to pay the lads much.’

‘They won’t have to. Liz said once she’s explained things to the boys, they’ll be happy to volunteer. And the elder, Heath, has his driver’s licence so they can drive out and back each day—’ Seeing his expression, she broke off and bit her lip. ‘What?’

‘Nothing.’ Jake’s lips twitched thoughtfully. In just a few short hours this woman had begun to weave small miracles. And it felt as though a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. There was no denying her input would make a huge difference to the practice, to the patients. But it had taken him ages to close down his feelings about her. Did he really want them dragged out and opened up for inspection again? And that was bound to happen if he let her stay…

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.