Wildfire Island Docs: The Man She Could Never Forget / The Nurse Who Stole His Heart / Saving Maddie's Baby / A Sheikh to Capture Her Heart / The Fling That Changed Everything / A Child to Open Their Hearts

‘It was your idea.’

‘Hardly. I suggested using the laboratories as a base to attract new research. I didn’t expect you to run with it to the extent of creating the world’s most desirable conference venue.’ Luke shook his head. ‘You don’t do things by halves, do you, Harry?’

‘I needed a new direction. Or maybe a distraction.’

Luke’s gaze dropped to his friend’s hand. ‘How is it?’

‘Oh, you know … I won’t be stepping back into an operating theatre any time soon.’ Harry turned away with a smile. ‘Let me get you a nice cold beer. Unless you’d prefer something else? A cocktail, perhaps?’

‘A beer would be great. But don’t worry. I’ll get it myself. And I need to say hello to people.’ Luke followed Harry towards the bar but got sidetracked on the way when he noticed an acquaintance. ‘Charles … it’s been far too long. How are things going in Washington, DC?’

‘It was snowing when I left.’ Charles—an American expert on dengue fever—grinned broadly as he gestured towards their stunning view of the beaches and sea beyond the jungle. ‘Have to say, this is a bit of a treat.’

‘It’s a great place. If you walk past the rock fall at the end of the beach in front of the bures you’ll get to Sunset Beach. On an evening like this the cliffs light up like they’re on fire. That’s how this island got its name.’

‘Is that so? You’ve obviously done your homework.’

‘Not exactly. I’ve been here before. When I was starting my specialty training in tropical diseases I came out to do a stint at the hospital here.’

A short stay that had only been intended to enhance his training but which had ended up changing his life.

Haunting him …

He’d known he would encounter ghosts here but they were so much more powerful than he had anticipated. He should have made it impossible for Harry to persuade him to return but how could he have missed this inaugural event when he’d been present at the moment the dream had started? When he’d been the one to suggest the setting?

‘I heard about the hospital.’ A tall, blonde woman with a Scandinavian accent had joined them. ‘Is it usual for such an isolated group of islands to have such a well-equipped medical centre?’

‘Not at all. It’s thanks to the Lockhart family that it came about. They discovered the gold and started the mine and the research station.’

‘And the mine did well enough to pay for setting up the hospital?’

‘Not exactly.’

Another ghost appeared because it was impossible not to remember when he’d first heard this story himself. He’d been walking hand in hand with Anahera, on their way to the best seat in the house for the dramatic show that nature put on every evening at Sunset Beach. He could actually hear the sad notes in her voice as she’d filled him in on a bit of island history.

‘It was a family tragedy that made it happen. A premature birth of twins that led to the death of their mother and one of the twins being severely disabled. Their father—Max Lockhart—devoted his life to making sure such a thing would never happen again. He studied medicine himself, lobbied the Australian government for funding and encouraged local people to get trained. I believe he even paid for some of that training out of his own pocket.’

‘Amazing …’ Charles murmured. ‘And now he’s set up this conference centre? He’s a man with vision, that’s for sure.’

‘Someone else had this vision.’ Luke looked up to smile in Harry’s direction. He was outside now, with a group of islanders, and they were taking the top layer off a cooking pit. Steam billowed out and a delicious smell wafted in through the open walls of the meeting house. ‘Have you met Sheikh Rahman al-Taraq?’

‘I heard a lot about him when I made enquiries after getting the invitation for this meeting. A surgeon, yes? Isn’t he funding some extensive research into vaccines for encephalitis? How come a surgeon got so interested in a tropical disease?’

‘You’ll have to ask him about that.’

‘I’ll do that. Maybe over dinner. Whatever it is they’re dishing up out there smells fantastic. I’m starving …’

‘I don’t like fish pie.’

‘There’ll be some ice cream later, Raoul. As long as you eat your veggies.’ Anahera tried to sound firm but she was smiling as she delivered her last dinner tray. ‘You won’t be eating hospital food for much longer anyway. Didn’t I hear Dr Sam say you might be able to go home tomorrow?’

‘He’s going to see how well I go on the crutches. And talk to my mum about getting to clinics to get my bandages changed.’

‘Yes … you’ve got to keep that leg clean. You don’t want to have to have any more operations.’

‘I’m going to have a big hole in my leg where the ulcer was, aren’t I?’

‘Not a hole, exactly, but it will be a big scar and a dent where there isn’t so much muscle. And you’re going to have to work on building up your other leg muscles with the exercises we’ve taught you. You’ve been in bed for a long time.’

‘Ana …’

She turned swiftly at the urgent tone of the call to see Sam in the doorway of the two-bed ward.

‘Sam … I thought you were at the cocktail party.’

‘I was on my way. Got a call. You have to come with me.’

Anahera tucked back a stray tress of long dark hair that was escaping the knot on the back of her head. She glanced down at her uniform of the green tunic and three-quarter-length pants that were looking a bit worse for a long day’s wear and she shook her head, but Sam was already turning. His voice got fainter as he headed towards their small theatre suite.

‘Now, Ana. It’s an emergency.’

Any thoughts of how she must look vanished as Anahera ran after Sam. He was lifting the heavy life pack in one hand and reaching for an oxygen cylinder with the other.

‘What’s happened?’

‘Could be a heart attack. One of the visiting doctors. Ten out of ten chest pain and nausea. Grab the resus kit and let’s go.’

Manu, the hospital porter, had a golf cart already running outside the door.

‘Maybe I should stay,’ Anahera said. ‘We can’t leave the hospital unattended.’

‘I’ll stay,’ Manu told them. ‘And Hettie’s on her way.’

‘I need you,’ Sam said as he stowed the gear on the back of the vehicle. ‘You’re the one with the intensive care training. If we have to intubate and ventilate, I want you helping.’

Ana climbed onto the cart. Sam was right. This was exactly the sort of scenario she had covered with her extensive postgraduate training. She could deal with something like this without a doctor around, if necessary, and the opportunity to keep her skills fresh didn’t happen that often.

They bounced down the track as Sam opened the throttle. It wasn’t that far to the new development but it was far enough to have Anahera running through all the possibilities in her head. Would they find their patient in a cardiac arrest? At least there were plenty of doctors there who could provide good-quality CPR but they would need the defibrillator to have any hope of starting a heart again.

It was almost an anticlimax to rush in and find nothing dramatic happening. A group of people were standing quietly beside a table covered with abandoned plates of food. A middle-aged man was sitting on the floor, propped up by a large cushion. Another man was crouched beside him with a hand on his wrist, taking his pulse. The woman standing beside them, directing a breeze from a fan to the patient’s face, was Anahera’s mother, Vailea Kopu, who was the first to spot their arrival.

‘They’re here,’ she said. ‘You’re going to be fine, Dr Ainsley.’

‘I’m fine already,’ the man grumbled. ‘I keep telling you, it’s only indigestion. I ate your wonderful food too fast, that’s all.’

Sam crouched beside the man. ‘Let’s check you out to make sure. I’m Sam Taylor, one of the resident doctors here.’

‘This is Charles Ainsley.’ The man monitoring the condition of their patient turned to look at Sam. ‘He’s sixty-three and has a bit of a cardiac history …’

Anahera wasn’t hearing any of their patient’s history. Her hands were shaking as she opened the pockets of the life pack and pulled out the leads they would need to do a twelve-lead ECG and check whether the heart’s blood supply was compromised.

She couldn’t look up but she didn’t need to.

She would have known that voice anywhere …

How on earth had the possibility of Luke Wilson attending this elite conference not occurred to her?

But it had, hadn’t it? She’d been avoiding any mention of the upcoming event because that thought had been haunting her. Not attending the cocktail party because she didn’t want to hear people talking about research into tropical diseases had been a blanket denial. There was only one person she would really dread listening to. Or meeting. The visiting medical specialists would only be here for a couple of days, she had told herself. It would be easy to stay out of the way.

Much easier not to even know whether Luke was present.

She’d been right to dread this. Even the sound of his voice was overwhelming enough to have her whole body trembling. What would happen if she looked up and made eye contact?

He was still talking to Sam. ‘… Stable angina but he’s due for a coronary angiogram next month.’

‘Let’s get an ECG,’ Sam said. ‘Have you had any aspirin today, Charles? Used your GTN spray?’

‘I took an extra aspirin for the flight. Forgot my spray.’

‘No problem.’ Having unbuttoned the shirt, Sam reached for the leads that Anahera had attached sticky dots to. ‘Grab the GTN, Ana. And let’s get some oxygen on, too.’

Ana …

Her name seemed to hang in the air. Had Luke heard? Or had he recognised her already and was trying to ignore her presence?

Dammit … her hand was still shaking as she pulled the lid from the small spray pump canister.

‘Open your mouth for me,’ she directed. ‘And lift your tongue …’

‘I can do that.’ A hand closed over hers to remove the canister and there was no help for it—she had to look up.

And Luke was looking right back at her.

For a heartbeat nothing else existed as those hazel-green eyes captured her own with even more effect than the touch of his hand had—and that had been disturbing enough.

Her body froze, and she couldn’t breathe. Her mind froze as it was flooded with emotions that she’d thought she would never experience again. The love she had felt for this man. The unbearable pain of his betrayal.

And then something else made those memories evaporate as instantly as they’d appeared.

Fear …

This wasn’t supposed to be happening. It was dangerous. She had to protect more than her own heart and that meant she had to find the strength to deal with this and make sure nothing was allowed to change.

Determination gave her focus and an unexpected but very welcome sense of calm. It was Anahera who broke the eye contact and found that both her voice and her hands had stopped shaking.

‘Fine. I’ll put the oxygen on.’

The moment had mercifully been brief enough for no one else to have noticed. Or maybe it hadn’t. Sam looked up after sticking the final electrode into place.

‘This is Anahera,’ he told Luke. ‘Our specialty nurse.’

‘Yes.’ Luke pressed the button on the canister to direct a second spray under their patient’s tongue. ‘We’ve met before.’

‘Of course …’ Vailea was still standing beside them, providing a cool breeze from the palm-frond fan. ‘I knew I’d seen you before. You came here to work in the hospital a few years ago.’

‘I did.’

‘You had to rush away, though … Your wife was ill?’

Oh … God … There it was again. The pain …

‘Yes.’ The monosyllable was curt. Grudging. Maybe Luke didn’t want to remember the way they’d parted any more than she did.

The only blessing right now was that there were only two people in this room who knew what had happened during the few weeks that Luke had been here and only one who knew what the aftermath had been.

Anahera just had to make sure that it stayed that way.

Ana …

Hearing that name had been a bombshell Luke hadn’t been expecting.

Oh, he’d seen the green uniform that looked a bit like a set of scrubs from the corner of his eye and had realised the attending doctor had brought an assistant to help carry all the medical gear, but he’d been so focussed on relaying all the information he’d gathered about Charles that he hadn’t looked properly.

And then he’d heard her name. Had seen the way her hand had been shaking as she’d struggled to get the cap off the GTN spray pump. It had been an unconscious reaction to take the canister from her hand. Ana had been struggling and he could help. The consequence of touching her hadn’t entered his thoughts at all so no wonder it had been another bombshell.

But both of those shocks—hearing her name and touching her skin—were nothing compared to looking into her eyes for the first time in nearly five years.

How could that be so powerful?

They were just a pair of brown eyes and he must have met hundreds of people with that eye colour over those years. How could a single glance into this particular pair make him feel like the ground beneath him had just opened into a yawning chasm?

It was like the difference between putting a plug into an electrical socket and somehow sticking your finger in to access the current directly.

And Ana had felt it, too. He’d seen the shock in her eyes but then he’d seen something he’d never expected to see. Something that squeezed the air out of his chest to leave a vacuum that felt physically painful.

He’d seen fear, he was sure of it.

‘It’s gone.’ The voice of their patient sounded absurdly cheerful. ‘The pain’s completely gone.’

No. Luke rocked back on his heels, his gaze seeking Ana’s again.

Charles might well be feeling fine but Luke had the horrible feeling that, for himself, the pain had only just begun.

CHAPTER TWO

ANAHERA WASN’T LOOKING back at Luke and it felt like deliberate avoidance.

She had the nasal cannula hanging from her hands, one end attached to the oxygen cylinder, the other end ready to loop around their patient’s ears, and she was looking at Sam.

‘Keep really still for a tick, mate. I’m going to get a twelve-lead ECG printed out and then we’ll see what’s what.’

There were a few seconds’ silence as the life pack captured a snapshot of the electrical activity of the heart and then printed out the graph. Luke looked around, as if he needed to remind himself of why he’d come here when he’d known about the risk. Okay, he’d thought that the worst he would face would be the memories but there’d always been the possibility that Ana might have come home again, hadn’t there? He’d pushed it aside. He was only going to be on the island for a couple of days, in the company of his professional colleagues and a good friend. He wouldn’t be facing anything he couldn’t handle.

But here he was. Facing something he had no idea how to handle.

Anahera was afraid of him?

He’d hurt her that badly?

An unpleasant crawling sensation began to fill that space in his chest. He felt like a jerk. A complete bastard.

His gaze had tracked the other conference attendees standing in a sombre group waiting to hear the verdict on Charles Ainsley’s chest pain but he ended up looking at Anahera again. This time her head was bent close to Sam’s as they both studied the ECG. He could hear her voice.

‘There’s no sign of any ST segment elevation. I can’t see any depression that might show myocardial ischaemia either, can you?’

She was speaking softly, her tone measured. He hadn’t even remembered hearing her speak like this, maybe because the memory of the last time he had spoken to her had been so very different.

She’d been so angry that he’d finally tracked her down and called her while she’d been on shift at that hospital in Brisbane.

‘What’s the problem, Luke? Is London a bit boring? You feel like cheating on your wife again?’

She hadn’t been about to let him say any of the things he’d wanted to say.

‘I don’t want to hear it. I never want to hear from you again. Ever …’

The anger had been contagious in the end. She’d hated him. How could love turn to hate as decisively as if a coin had been flipped?

It couldn’t. That had been the conclusion Luke had come to. It couldn’t happen if the love had been real. Yes, you could throw the coin in the air but there was magic in real love and the coin would always land the right side up.

He could never hate Anahera. Not in a million years. He would have given her the chance to explain. He would have listened.

And forgiven her anything.

Even now, he could forgive the way she was deliberately avoiding his gaze. How could he not when he’d seen that fear in her eyes?

‘It’s looking good, isn’t it?’ Charles was smiling. ‘I told you it was only indigestion.’

‘It’s more likely it was angina, given how quickly it’s gone with the GTN.’

‘In any case, I’m fine.’ Charles began to peel off the electrodes. ‘I’m sorry to have given everyone a fright. It’s my fault for forgetting my spray.’

‘Keep this one,’ Sam said. ‘I’d still like to run some more tests. I’ve got a bench top assay for cardiac biomarkers. If I take a blood sample, I can pop into the laboratory here and have a result in no time.’

‘Have a drink instead,’ Charles said. ‘And some of the amazing food.’ He waved at his colleagues. ‘Please carry on with your dinners,’ he directed. ‘Another life saved, here.’

A relieved buzz of conversation broke out and there were smiles all round. Anahera was still looking serious, however, as she coiled wires to tuck them into a pocket of the life-pack case.

He had to say something.

‘It’s good to see you, Ana. I … I wasn’t expecting to.’

‘No.’ The wires had tangled a little and she shook them. ‘I wasn’t expecting to see you either.’ Her soft huff of breath was an embryonic laugh. ‘Silly, I guess. This is your field.’ The wires were being coiled more tightly than necessary. ‘It’s a long way to come, though, and I wouldn’t have thought you’d …’

What? She wouldn’t have thought he’d want to come anywhere near this place again? The brief glance in his direction as her sentence trailed off made him feel like he was a stranger to her. Not someone to be afraid of now but someone to be ignored?

‘I thought you were living in Brisbane.’ Luke could have kicked himself the moment the words came out. It made it sound like the only reason he’d come back here was because he’d thought she was safely a very long way away.

But that was the truth, wasn’t it?

‘Sorry to disappoint you.’ The pockets on the life pack were snapped shut, and Anahera got to her feet. ‘I moved back home a couple of years ago.’

‘I’m not disappointed.’ He attempted a smile. ‘And it is good to see you again.’

A lot of time had passed. Surely they could find a way to connect on some level? He wanted that, he realised. More than was probably good for him.

He wanted to see her eyes the way he remembered them, not full of fear that he might hurt her again. Or so distant he wasn’t even being acknowledged for who he was. Or who he had been.

What he really wanted was to see Anahera smile, but it wasn’t going to happen, was it?

And then it struck him. She wouldn’t be afraid of him if she knew the truth. She wouldn’t feel that avoiding him was the best way to cope either.

Something else crept into the odd mix of his feelings.

A glimmer of hope, perhaps?

Maybe this was an opportunity for both of them to lay some ghosts to rest. So that they could both move on with their lives without being haunted by what had happened between them.

‘You stay.’ Anahera zipped up the resus kit after Sam had taken the blood sample Charles had finally agreed was a good idea. ‘You were coming here anyway. I can take all the gear back to the hospital.’

‘Are you sure?’ Sam was watching their patient rejoin the gathering. ‘I would quite like to keep an eye on him for a while. It’s only going to take a few minutes to run the assay.’

‘I’d like to see the laboratory again.’ Much to Anahera’s discomfort, Luke hadn’t followed Charles to the other side of the meeting hall. ‘It sounds like you’ve got more gear in there than there was when I was last here.’

‘I’ll bet. You should come and see the hospital, too. You wouldn’t have had the CT scanner when you were here. Or the ventilator we’ve got for intensive care either.’

‘You’ve got a CT scanner? Wow …’

‘And Anahera, here, is a qualified intensive care nurse. She could pretty much do my job, to tell the truth. She did paramedic training in Brisbane, too. She’s the best at intubating if you’ve got a difficult airway.’ Sam laughed. ‘But you probably know that. You guys must have kept in touch since you were here?’

‘No.’ Luke and Anahera spoke at the same time but their tones were very different. Luke’s held regret. Anahera’s was firm enough to sound like a reprimand. No wonder Sam gave her such a surprised glance.

She shrugged, her smile wry as she tried to excuse her tone. ‘You know how many FIFOs we get. If we kept in touch with them all we’d never have time to do our jobs.’

Slipping the straps of the resus kit over her shoulders, Anahera bent to pick up the life pack in one hand and the oxygen cylinder in the other. She managed a brief glance at Luke. Another smile even, albeit a tight one. ‘Enjoy your visit,’ she said. ‘I hope the conference is worthwhile.’

‘Let me carry some of that for you.’

She avoided his gaze. ‘I’m fine.’

Surely Luke could see that she needed to get away from him? Someone certainly could. Anahera could feel her mother’s curious gaze all the way from where she was serving food again.

Had she been wrong in assuming that only she and Luke knew what had happened when he’d been on the island that first time? How close they had become?

If Vailea was busy putting two and two together, it could make things a whole heap more difficult.

‘No, you’re not.’ Sam took the heavy life pack from her hand. ‘Don’t be such a heroine, Ana. You make us look bad.’

Sure enough, another man was coming towards them, clearly intent on helping.

Anahera smiled at Sam. ‘Go on, then. Just to make you feel better.’

It would make her feel better, too, to have company as she walked away from Luke. She straightened her back. She had friends here. She used her now free hand to wave at her mother, who smiled back. She had family here, too. Luke was the outsider. If he presented a threat, she had plenty of people on her side.

And maybe he would retire gracefully. Sam had paused as Luke introduced him to the man who’d joined them.

‘This is Harry. Sheikh Rahman al-Taraq. He’s the person who’s responsible for all of this. The man who’s making it his mission to find a way to beat encephalitis, amongst other tropical nasties.’

A sheikh? Anahera blinked. This was all getting a little surreal.

Sam shook the sheikh’s hand. ‘I can’t wait to talk to you,’ he said. ‘I’ve got a few minutes to spend in the laboratory and then I’ll be back.’

‘Mind if I come with you? I’d like to see how the labs are shaping up. We’ve put quite a lot of new equipment in there. Luke, you should come, too.’

‘Oh?’

‘I might have another job for you—after you’ve given your keynote address tomorrow. We’ve got a bit of research to set up, here. A clinical trial, I’m hoping.’

‘I’m only here for a couple of days, Harry.’ Luke’s laugh sounded a bit forced. Nervous even?

If that was the case, he wasn’t the only one feeling like that. Anahera started walking towards the golf cart again. This was getting rapidly worse. She needed a safe place to try and get her head around it all. She couldn’t wait to get back to the hospital.