Return of the Maverick

She looked from one boy to the other, a frown scrunching her forehead. ‘I would, if I could. Unfortunately there aren’t any jobs for schoolkids where I work.’

Brad noted how hope flared quickly in the lads’ eyes, and disappeared as rapidly. Poor kids. Maybe he could think of something. But in the meantime they still owed her an apology. He turned to the boys. ‘Haven’t you two got something to say to this lady?’

Like twins they screwed their noses into sneers and rolled their eyes at her. But they did mutter, ‘Sorry.’

‘I imagine that’s as good as I’m going to get.’

He sighed. He’d heard these sorts of comments throughout his youth. People always expected the worst of kids from the wrong part of town, and judging by the worn and ill-fitting school uniforms these two were wearing, that was exactly where they came from. ‘You could give them a break.’

‘What? Am I supposed to congratulate the boys for being would-be thieves? They need a good dressing down.’

True, and they’d get one from him if their parents weren’t forthcoming. Did he know these boys’ families? It might be better for him if he left them alone and headed straight to the clinic. Don’t get involved. Don’t stir up the past any more than you have to.

But he still shook his head at Erin in warning before turning to the boys. ‘Come on, you two. Let’s get out of here.’

Before he hauled this woman into his arms, bike and all, and kissed her until her legs couldn’t hold her up. Banging his hand on his head, he muttered, ‘What the hell’s the matter with me?’

He tried to concentrate on the lads, tried to ignore her as she checked the road was clear before cycling away. She was going to be furious when she learned who he was. Why hadn’t he introduced himself once he’d realised they’d be working together?

Because he didn’t want to see the disdain at what she perceived to be his lack of compassion towards David any sooner than he had to. Had she heard about his badboy reputation? Would that add to her scorn?

But as those trim legs pumped the pedals he couldn’t stop staring after her. His hungry gaze followed her out onto the road. Her backside, clad in those cycling shorts, was a sight not to be missed. It sent his temperature soaring, his heart racing, and his groin aching. He really tried to look elsewhere, for his own sake, but he couldn’t. He watched as she weaved amongst the traffic, his gaze following her until she finally disappeared from sight.

Unfortunately he couldn’t disappear off the radar for the next few months as he’d committed to helping David adjust to his illness. That took precedence over everything. Over everyone, including blue-eyed beauties. The same one who’d rightly accused him during that phone conversation of putting David second.

Home. The one place he’d been too ashamed to return to. The place he and his ex-wife had been in a hurry to leave and make a fresh start away from his bad image. Away to a city where he didn’t have to explain to a patient that while he might’ve stolen a shirt off their washing line years earlier, he could now competently diagnose their illness. In Adelaide his wife had finally begun to carve out the lifestyle she’d craved all her underprivileged childhood. Brad had always known Penelope had used him to get out of Blenheim but he’d understood her, and loved her enough to give her what she wanted. Big mistake.

His marriage had been the one subject that had been taboo between him and David. The older man had seen further ahead than Brad could, had known no one could feed Penelope’s hunger. David had foreseen no amount of wealth would give her what she needed, and he’d argued long and hard with Brad not to marry her. Brad had believed he could provide more than enough to keep his wife happy. Time had proved David right, Brad wrong, and cost him his son.

He and David had patched the rift between them enough to get along again, but the deep affection they’d always known since David had first taken him into his home as a fourteen-year-old was missing. The man who’d kept him out of court, made him accountable for his own actions and, finally, set him on the right path to a successful career now needed looking out for.

Brad glanced at the two boys skulking along beside him. He’d expected they’d have taken off by now. ‘You two hungry?’

Two heads flicked around, astonishment in their eyes. ‘Yes.’

‘Okay, back to the shop. I saw some buns and sandwiches in a cabinet that should fill the hole in your bellies.’

‘Cool.’

‘Thanks, man.’

‘Call me Brad.’ His step lightened. He liked it that he could do something for those that life gave a rough deal. He put on his confident, competent doctor’s face, the one that hid his nervousness about facing up to people he’d hurt in the past.

Then there was Erin. He had to front up to her too. At least she hadn’t featured in his past. Neither was she going to feature in his future. Settling into David’s place in the practice had just got a whole load more difficult.

CHAPTER TWO

ERIN rushed into the medical centre as though being chased by a hungry lion, knowing she’d have kept a lot of people waiting. She had an immunisation clinic and the waiting room was full of young mothers and their toddlers. ‘Sorry I’m late, everyone, but there was an accident and I stopped to give a hand.’

‘It’s okay, we heard,’ one of the women said as she shoved a pacifier in the mouth of a screeching child.

A curly-haired toddler grabbed at the hem of Erin’s straight denim skirt, tugging her to a halt.

‘Hey, gorgeous, how are you today?’ Erin bent down and swung Katie Bryant into her arms.

Big brown eyes stared back at her out of a pale face with shadows on her cheeks. One tiny fist tapped Erin’s chin.

‘I guess that means you’re fine.’ Erin kissed the top of Katie’s head and gently placed her back on her feet. ‘Is she not sleeping too well?’ she asked Alison, Katie’s mother.

‘Too much sometimes. I never have trouble putting her to bed these days.’

Maybe she was overreacting but Erin decided she’d get Annie or Dr Perano to take a look at Katie before her injection. The little girl didn’t look quite right, not as robust as she usually was. A temperature reading wouldn’t go astray either. Glancing around the room, Erin’s heart squeezed as she saw all the little ones playing and crying and chattering, the mums talking and laughing as though they had all the time in the world. This was what she wanted, more than anything else. To be a mother, to have her own family. This was what she could never have.

She may have reconciled herself to the fact that she was infertile but that hadn’t stopped the hurt, the fierce need or the raw longing that sometimes overtook her. Especially on days like this when she worked with lots of children.

Infertility sucked.

Erin leaned over the counter at Reception, looking for the pile of files relating to her young patients. She said quietly to the receptionist, ‘Jason Curtis was hit by a car. Has anything come through from the hospital about his condition yet?’

Marilyn paused between phone calls. ‘Dr Perano said he’d ring ED shortly. He told us you’d been there so we figured you’d be running behind time.’

‘Dr Perano? How would he know—?’ Erin’s stomach dropped. ‘The guy at the accident scene was a doctor… That was Bradley Perano?’

Embarrassment gripped her, making her squirm right down to her sandals. She’d been ogling him at the corner store. What was that going to do for their future working relationship? She gaped at Marilyn. ‘No way. That couldn’t have been Dr Perano. Too much of a coincidence.’

Please, she silently begged the receptionist, please tell me I’m wrong in my supposition.

‘Definitely me.’ A deep, sexy voice came from behind the door of the office where the filing cabinets stood. He appeared in the middle of the office, taking up all the space with his big frame. ‘But not really a coincidence when you think we weren’t far from the clinic. I was on my way here when I stopped at the store.’

Here, where they were to work together. Did he also know that by living with Dr David Taylor he’d become her neighbour too? Breathe. Slowly. In. Out. Erin spied the patient notes she needed as she turned to face Dr Perano fully. ‘So you’ve guessed I’m Erin, the practice nurse?’

He came to shake her hand. ‘Yes, I worked it out when that paramedic used your name.’

‘You didn’t say anything.’ Her hand disappeared somewhere inside his big, rough one.

His expression turned wary, but he said in the voice that made her heart rate speed up, ‘Sorry about that, but there was a lot going on.’

Sure, there had been, but there’d also been ample opportunity to introduce himself. ‘It would’ve been nice if you’d said something. We tend to be friendly around here.’ And she could’ve prepared herself better for this moment.

Wariness turned to disbelief. ‘I’m sure you’re right.’ His tone suggested otherwise. ‘Anyway, now we’ve met. Everyone talked you up big time last week. You and Annie.’

Annie was her best friend and a part-time GP at the medical centre. They’d spent a week in Golden Bay with Annie’s three little boys while Annie’s husband had been overseas with his job as a winemaker.

‘Annie’s wonderful. Her patients love her.’ With a start Erin realised Brad was still holding her hand. A nervous tug and she’d retrieved it. She jammed her hand in the big pocket on her skirt, holding in the warmth he’d engendered. If only she’d had known who this guy was before making an idiot of herself at the shop. She’d heard so much about him from David that she’d made the mistake of thinking she already knew him. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined a man so imposing that she lost all sense of reality around him. It was only day one. She’d get over this by tomorrow and then they’d work together without any problems.

She was very happy at this medical centre where she’d got to know the patients, and the staff treated her like one of their own. She did not need anyone disrupting that.

Bradley was still talking, no contrition in his voice. ‘I’ve heard your patients adore you, too.’

Ignoring that she edged around him, muttering, ‘Excuse me, but I need to get working.’

Stepping in front of her, he stopped her escape. ‘Erin, can I have a word first? In my office?’

‘Can it wait, Dr Perano? I’ve held up these people long enough already.’ She looked around the waiting room and was astonished to see all the mothers watching her and obviously listening to their conversation.

‘Firstly, it’s Brad, not Dr Perano. Secondly…’ And the guy paused to smile beguilingly across at those waiting women. ‘Secondly, I’m sure no one will mind if I talk to my practice nurse for a few minutes.’

‘Go ahead.’ One mother grinned. ‘He’s far more interesting than us lot.’

Thanks a million. Where was female solidarity when you needed it? Erin scowled at them all and only got winks and grins back. Except from Alison Byrant, who seemed to be studying the new doctor carefully.

In Brad’s office Erin sat, waiting, on the corner of his desk. What did he want to talk to her about that couldn’t be said out in the office? Goose-bumps lifted the skin on her arms. Probably that phone conversation when she’d told him how selfish she thought he was for not coming home to give David some support.

Now that the Parkinson’s disease that had struck David was relentlessly getting worse, it was time for Brad to pay his dues. That night when she’d answered the phone for David after cleaning him up she had been fit to yell at someone. Bradley Perano had phoned at the perfect time. She mightn’t have met him back then but she’d certainly told him what she thought of him. Her heart thudded slowly and painfully. She had been abrupt and he’d deserved better. He had his own problems, which David had alluded to but not divulged.

Apprehension trickled across her mind as she watched this insanely good-looking man close the door firmly and make his way around to sit behind his desk, his long legs taking few strides to reach his chair. Light scuff marks showed on his trousers where he’d knelt down on the road beside her to attend to Jason.

Erin swivelled around, keeping him in sight. Her gaze was drawn to his fingers: long and strong, they’d do amazing things to her sensory nerves if they ever touched her skin.

He cleared his throat, forcing her to look up and lock gazes with him. A thoughtful expression tightened his face, darkened the fudge colour of his eyes to mud. So he wasn’t happy with her.

‘About this morning at the accident site…’ He hesitated. ‘When I saw that child lying there I got a shock and made a mistake. Sammy fell out of a tree once, broke his arm and got concussed. He was very lucky. For some reason this morning seemed like a rerun, only worse.’

Not about her, then. ‘Sammy being Samuel, your son?’ Another clue to this man’s identity she’d overlooked that morning. But she had been more worried about Jason.

Brad’s eyebrows flicked up, down. ‘I take it that David has mentioned my family?’

‘Only that you and your wife have been separated for about eighteen months and that Samuel is with his mother.’ When Brad’s lips tightened into a hard line she added, ‘David only mentioned it after I quizzed him about you before you’d decided to come home to take over his medical practice while he sorts things out. I don’t know all the details.’

‘Is that why you gave me a bollocking over the phone?’ His tone lifted in anger. ‘What I chose to do was none of your business.’

Heat rushed into her cheeks. ‘True, but half an hour before you rang I’d called in to see David and found him trying to wipe up the mug of coffee that he’d spilled over his clothes and the carpet. He was in a bit of a state, cross at his lack of control over a simple mug, embarrassed that I had to help him get out of his trousers.’ She hesitated, reminded herself she had to work with this man, and added, ‘I’m sorry I took it out on you.’

‘It must’ve been difficult for you.’

‘Only because David’s stubbornly independent.’ And because she’d often seen him sitting on the veranda of his big old house staring down the drive as though waiting for Brad to arrive. David had needed Brad desperately, and she’d told him. Rightly, or wrongly. Make that wrongly. She should’ve kept her mouth shut. On the other hand, it had worked and David was happier than he’d been in a long time.

‘Isn’t he just? Stubborn as an ox. And you were right that night. It is my place to be here for David. I owe him a lot.’

‘I heard you lived with David and Mary as a teenager.’

He nodded. ‘They rescued me from foster-care when I got into trouble with the law. David always listens to people, especially youngsters who don’t have anyone on their side. I gave them merry hell at times, but they were always there for me from the day I met them.’ Brad leaned back in his chair, tipped his head to stare up at the ceiling. ‘I should’ve come the moment David told me about the Parkinson’s, given him the time off to reassess his priorities. But I was caught between two people—David and my son.’

Not an easy choice. Why was he telling her this? Did he feel he had to justify his actions to her? ‘Haven’t Samuel and his mother moved to California?’

He winced. ‘Yes.’

So, what had stopped him coming, then? Glancing at his stern face, she thought better of asking. But she couldn’t imagine what it must’ve been like for Brad to have his son taken so far away. To only see him on rare occasions when he’d have been used to having Samuel in his life every day must’ve broken his heart. It was one thing not to be able to have a child, but to have one and lose him? That was far beyond her comprehension. She’d never feel complete again if it happened to her.

On the desk the phone buzzed discreetly. Grateful for the interruption, Erin slipped out the door, leaving Brad to answer it. Leaving Brad with a haunted look in his eyes.

Panic rose, threatened to engulf her. She could not share the clinic with this man. She’d go crazy trying to deal with all the emotions that whirled through her at the sight of him. A moment ago she’d wanted to hug away that haunted look. Imagine if she’d attempted to? He’d have been furious. How was she going to manage? One day at a time? Impossible. One minute at a time?

Brad watched Erin go as he slowly reached for the phone. What a motormouth he’d turned into all of a sudden, raving on about personal things to her, exposing himself to her scorn. Which hadn’t been forthcoming. He’d grown to expect derision from Blenheim folk ever since his wayward youth spent here. The one time he’d talked to Erin on the phone she’d been so scathing in her criticism of him that he’d believed she was just another disgruntled Blenheimite, but she’d managed to make him think about how he was letting David down, made him realise it was time to move on from what Penelope had done.

The pain that had stabbed him when he’d talked about Sammy to Erin was ebbing. She still didn’t know how he’d struggled to leave the apartment where he and Penelope had brought Sammy home as a four-day-old infant; where he’d taught his boy to play ball in the back yard; where he’d told him endless stories, attempting to get him to go to sleep. The apartment was crammed with sweet memories Brad hadn’t been able to bring himself to leave. The rooms were filled with the sound of Sam’s laughter. His childish drawings still adorned the walls of his bedroom and the kitchen. His rugby ball lay discarded by the back door, not needed in his new life.

The phone stopped ringing.

Brad spun around in his chair to stare out the window at the back of a brick wall beyond which rose the ugly sight of a supermarket.

‘God, Sammy, I miss you so much. Sunday night phone calls are just not enough, buddy.’ He needed to touch his boy, to hug him and talk with him. Hearing his excited chatter over the phone did not make up for not being able to see Sam’s eyes grow as big as plates and his mouth curl up into a happy smile as he explained how he’d hit a run at baseball.

Baseball. A goddamned Yankee game. What was wrong with good old rugby? A game that Kiwis and Aussies loved? A man should be able to teach his boy the rudiments of a real bloke’s game.

Someone knocked on his door, and Marilyn’s face appeared tentatively around the edge. ‘ED is on the line regarding Jason. Is there something wrong with your phone line? I put the call through here.’

‘Try again, Marilyn. I’ll get it this time.’ He gave her a smile, the kind that usually got him most things he wanted. Except in Blenheim. Would it work with Erin? Would she fall for his charms? More likely she’d tell him to go take a flying leap off a very high cliff.

This time he took the call. ‘Perano.’

‘Roger Bailey, ED, Blenheim Hospital.’

‘Roger, as in the best oarsman Otago Med School ever put up against Canterbury?’ Brad hoped this was one man who’d accept him back in town without prejudice. Roger had loathed Penelope from the start, bringing tension between the two men.

‘Didn’t do us a lot of good, considering some of the useless dudes we had on that team. You still kicking a rugby ball around?’

‘Not since I tore a ligament in my shoulder and decided I was getting too soft.’ Not since my son was stolen from me.

‘How are you anyway? I hear you’re back to keep David out of trouble.’

‘Only for a few months.’ But even in the week since he’d arrived here, Brad had noticed some of the tension lining David’s mouth easing, making him wonder how he’d be able to leave again.

‘Right, about Jason Curtis.’

‘Go on.’ Brad sighed with relief. No mention of his ex-wife, then. The local gossip machine had probably put out an all-points bulletin about the state of Brad Perano’s marriage before he’d even made the decision to move back home. Glad to have avoided the subject, Brad listened to everything Roger had to say about their young patient.

Roger filled him in quickly and efficiently. ‘I’m flying Jason up to Starship Children’s Hospital in Auckland on the medical emergency plane. I’m not happy about the head injury and we don’t have a resident neurosurgeon here. I’m probably being over-cautious but better that way than thinking we can handle his problems and having it backfire on us.’

Brad hung up, and noted his computer informing him he had two patients waiting to be seen. ‘Great, now I’m running late.’ What had happened to the idea of coming in early and being very organised by the time the clinic opened for business?

He’d tell Erin about Jason later. Erin. The name suited her. Damn it. Why couldn’t she be called Gertrude or Winifred? Then he’d be able to recall his austere great-aunts every time he looked at her, and forget the blinding passion that had rocked him earlier. Being squashed in that kennel-size shop, he’d felt dizzy with the scent of her.

Erin.

Damn it. He had to work with her. Like it or not. She could be another problem to add to an already overly long list of problems, starting with a town that he had to get back on side with.

Erin’s only a problem if you let her be, squeaked a pesky little voice in his head.

Brad shoved the voice aside and went in search of his first patient. Nothing like focussing on someone else’s problems to forget his own for a while.

Erin sat at the tiny table in the centre’s kitchen and bit into her salad sandwich. Not exactly the most exciting lunch but it was all she’d had time to slap together after the way her morning had gone.

‘I’d have thought you’d be munching on burgers and fries, getting all the carbs you can after your early morning ride.’ Brad dropped onto a chair opposite her, threatening its flimsy legs with his weight.

‘She would if I didn’t nag her to be healthy.’ David beat her to answering Brad as he walked in behind him.

Erin rolled her eyes at the man who’d been more like a father to her than her own had. She knew he was hoping Brad would buy him out of the practice. ‘One of the drawbacks of working with David is that he thinks he can order me around.’

‘He was always like that with me too.’ Brad snagged a muffin out of the goodies basket David had brought in for all the staff as he officially handed over the last of his patients to Brad. ‘By the way, David, I’ve got two young rascals to mow your lawns for you. They’re going to cost you twenty bucks a fortnight, starting this afternoon.’

‘That’s a lot of money for two lads.’

‘You’ve got a lot of lawn.’

‘Those boys who wanted my bike? You’re giving them a job?’ Erin stared at Brad. ‘Is that wise?’

‘You told them you’d give them a job if you could. I just happened to think of one.’

David was looking from her to Brad and back again. ‘Did you two meet before this morning?’

Erin stared at the remains of her sandwich and dropped it on the plate, pushed it aside. ‘We bumped into each other at the shop and then again at Jason’s accident just along the road.’

‘Hardly surprising when you live next door to each other, I guess.’ David studied his muffin as though seeing it for the first time.

‘Neighbours?’ Brad sounded shocked, and that hurt. Did he hate the idea? Or did he see some advantages?

Erin hadn’t made her own mind up about the situation yet, but one thing was for sure: there was no changing it. She wasn’t moving, and Brad had to stay with David while helping him out so they were stuck with each other living close by.

Brad was asking her, ‘Which is your house?’

‘The townhouse at the bottom of David’s driveway. Two years ago I came to Blenheim looking for a job and wanting to buy my own place. I went to an open home and David was there, trying to sell this wonderful brand-new home. We got talking and by the time I went back to my motel that night I had a house and a job. Amazing how things work out sometimes.’ Those two pieces of good fortune had made her think the move to Blenheim was meant to be.