Her eyes went to his mouth, her tongue darting out to wet them in case he kissed her. Her heart gave an almighty thump.
Was
he going to kiss her? Oh, God, she should have brushed her teeth while she’d had the chance. She should have at the very least rinsed with mouthwash. But, then, she’d just had a sip or two of coffee so—
‘I want you to think about something, Dr Nin,’ he said in a gravel-rough tone that made her skin lift all over.
She swallowed, not just a tiny swallow, but a melon-sized one. ‘Y-yes?’
His arctic eyes were like ice picks pinning hers. ‘When you drive up to visit your sister, I hope for your sake each and every one of the towns you pass through has a qualified doctor in residence in case you happen to need medical assistance along the way.’
Fran blinked, she thought it was probably for the first time in a whole minute, maybe longer. ‘Are you planning on riding that motorbike of yours any time soon on the same roads I will be using?’ she asked in an arch tone.
His eyes wrestled with hers but she refused to give in. She held him stare for stare, her heart beating so fast it felt like the percussion sections from three orchestras had taken up residence inside her chest.
After what seemed a week he stepped away from her. Picking up his police hat from the seat of one of the kitchen stools where he’d placed it earlier, he put it on his head, so low it shielded his eyes. ‘If I do I will be making a special effort to keep an eye out for you,’ he said with a hint of mockery in his tone.
Fran kept her mouth tightly closed, watching as he strode to the door, her stomach feeling hollow when the door clicked shut on his exit.
Rufus tilted his head from side to side in doggy confusion, a soft whine that sounded so mournful Fran glared at him. ‘Don’t you start,’ she said, and then as he gave her a hangdog look she sank to the floor and, wrapping her arms around his shaggy neck, hugged him close. ‘Sorry,’ she said, wondering why she felt so close to tears.
‘O
H
,
MY
gosh, they’re absolutely gorgeous!’ Fran breathed as she looked through the neonatal nursery window at tiny Joshua and Timmy.
‘Timmy’s still having some trouble breathing on his own,’ Caro said. ‘They’re still not sure if he will need to go to Sydney but so far so good. But Joshua’s doing well. I was able to feed him with some expressed milk earlier.’ She gave a heavy sigh and added, ‘I just wish I could take them both home right now.’
Fran tucked her arm through her sister’s. ‘Hang in there, Caro,’ she said. ‘You need to concentrate on the twins’ health right now and, anyway, everything’s fine at home.’
‘Yes, thanks to you it is,’ Caro said as they made their way back to her room on the ward. ‘I ran into Jane Pelleri in the hospital cafeteria. You saved little Ella’s life. Everyone’s talking about it and about how you helped Candi Broderick after her fall off her horse. You didn’t mention a word to me or Nick last time we spoke. Why not?’
‘I didn’t want to worry you both,’ Fran said.
And because I didn’t actually save Ella’s life.
‘You’d just had the boys and it all happened so fast in any case.’
Caro gave her a big sister I’m-older-and-wiser look. ‘But doesn’t that tell you something?’
Fran blew out a breath. ‘Look, it you’re going to join Sergeant Hawke’s mission to have me settle in Pelican Bay as the local GP, forget it. The right person for the job will come along soon enough and I am definitely not it.’
‘But what if you
are
the right person, Fran?’
Fran screwed up her mouth. ‘If I was, then the town—as they say in those old westerns—is not going to be big enough for both of us.’
Caro’s brows lifted and her eyes twinkled. ‘So it’s pistols at dawn with Sergeant Hawke, is it?’
Fran flicked her hair back behind her shoulders. ‘I can’t remember when I’ve met a more annoying man. He gets under my skin. I think he does it deliberately. And then I find out he’s just lost his mother after a long illness and I felt such a fool for shouting at him for cutting me off that day because apparently he’d just got the call and was rushing to get back, but how was I supposed to know that? He never said a word. In fact no one said a word. I would have apologised then and there but he never said a thing. Then he came around for coffee and just stood there, making me feel uncomfortable. I can’t seem to win with him. I don’t know why he’s so…so
infuriating!’
‘Gosh, I’m sorry. I should have told you about his mother but the twins arriving early totally distracted me.’
Fran gawped at her sister. ‘You knew?’
Caro winced. ‘Sorry, but Beryl told me he wanted it kept pretty quiet. I think only she and Jim Broderick knew about it until a day or so ago.’
Fran flicked her eyes upwards in frustration. ‘You could have told me. I made a complete and utter fool of myself.’
‘Ah-h…’ Caro sighed.
Fran gave her sister a beady look. ‘What was that sigh for?’
Caro’s expression was guileless. ‘What sigh?’
‘You know what sigh,’ Fran said, scowling. ‘That big sister-I-know-something-you-don’t-know sigh.’
‘What would it hurt to give Jacob’s suggestion a try?’ Caro asked.
Fran narrowed her eyes. ‘How do you know about Sergeant Hawke’s suggestion?’
Caro pointed to the two little blue teddy bears dressed in football jerseys propped up next to a bunch of flowers on her bedside table. ‘Because he ran into Nick downstairs about an hour before you did. I was in the nursery, feeding the bubs, so I didn’t actually speak to him personally. He was on his way to a court case in Sydney and dropped in on his way through. Nick told me Jacob thought you should put in some hours at the clinic. It sounds like a great idea, don’t you think?’
Fran pursed her lips so tightly they felt like they were stitched in place.
‘It’s not like anyone’s asking you to do it full time,’ her sister went on. ‘Just a day or two a week for a couple of hours, four at the most, until a new locum is found.’
Fran turned to look out of the window, her shoulders hunched, her arms crossed over her chest. ‘Did Nick tell him what happened?’ she asked when she could trust herself to speak.
‘Of course he didn’t!’ Caro sounded wounded. ‘A promise is a promise, even if both Nick and I think it’s a totally stupid one.’
Fran rolled her eyes again. ‘It’s not stupid to me. I want to rebuild my life my way with no one looking at me with pity in their eyes.’
‘Jacob’s a cop, Frannie,’ Caro said. ‘He’s probably had to deal with the same stuff you did lots of times in his career. I bet he’s had lots of drug addicts throw punches and kicks at him, maybe even pull a knife on him or even worse—a gun. I reckon he’s the one person in town who would understand what you’ve been through.’
Fran limped over to where she had placed her handbag earlier and hoisted it over her shoulder. ‘No one can do that, Carolyn,’ she said bitterly. ‘The day Scott Draper attacked me I changed and I can’t change back. No amount of understanding is going to do that.’
‘You’re letting him win, don’t you see that?’ Caro said. ‘You’re letting a drunken drug addict who didn’t even know what he was doing at the time take your life away from you.’
‘Don’t lecture me on what I should do,’ Fran said tightly, feeling her emotions bubbling up inside her at the injustice of it all. ‘You weren’t there. You don’t know what it was like.’
‘You have to put it behind you, Fran,’ Caro insisted. ‘Mum and Dad put their lives on hold for you for three months while you got back on your feet. Now it’s your turn to do your bit to aid your recovery. You have to put in an effort. I know it’s hard, honey. But I’m here for you and the whole of Pelican Bay will support you if you would let them know about it, I just know they would.’
Fran knew some of what her sister said was right. Her parents had lived every day of the month she had been in an induced coma not knowing whether their youngest daughter would ever breathe on her own again, let alone practise medicine again. They had helped her through the long, slow rehabilitation process, every day helping her get to and from physiotherapy sessions, tirelessly supporting her until she was able to regain her independence.
It had been just as hard for Caro, living miles away with her husband, travelling back and forth during the first gruelling months of her pregnancy to visit her, doing what she could to help.
‘I know at some point I will have to move on,’ Fran said, letting her bag slip from her shoulder as she came over to her sister’s bed. ‘I know I have to put the past behind me. I just have to. But I’m scared.’ She buried her head into the soft pillow of her sister’s chest, sighing as Caro’s arms wrapped around her. ‘I’m so scared I won’t be able to be the same competent doctor I was before.’
She lifted her head to meet her sister’s gaze. ‘I nearly lost that child, Caro. I didn’t save her, Jacob did. I totally froze and if it hadn’t been for Jacob taking over…‘ She shuddered and added in a hoarse whisper, ‘I’m just so scared it will happen again and there won’t be anyone around to help me.’
Caro stroked Fran’s hair, cuddling her close with her other arm. ‘I know you are scared, sweetie, but one step at a time, OK?’
It was a long while before Fran lifted her head again to look at her sister. ‘I’d better get going. Rufus has probably eaten his way through the sofa and the coffee tables by now.’
Caro smiled. ‘I think he’s well on his way to falling in love with you.’
Fran got off the bed and picked up her bag, digging for her keys inside it. ‘Yeah, well, a dog is a great companion and all that, but it would be nice if I could get a decent man to do the same.’
‘I wasn’t talking about Rufus.’
Fran’s fingers closed around her keys, her chest feeling as if her hand was doing the very same thing to her heart. ‘You’re imagining things, Caro,’ she said, avoiding her sister’s all-
seeing gaze. ‘The man is hardly civil to me. He thinks I’m a lazy layabout city chick with nothing better to do than to work on my tan between skiing holidays.’
‘He’s quite a catch, Fran,’ Caro said. ‘And much better looking than anyone you’ve dated in the past.’
Fran tried to bring some of past boyfriends’ features to mind but it was a bit of a blur, although she didn’t think she should tell her sister that. It sounded so shallow of her to not even be able to picture even one of them mentally, especially as there had only been three and only one of them had been relatively serious.
‘Jacob Hawke’s OK, I guess,’ she said in an offhand tone. ‘But he rides a donor cycle which is a definite strike against him.’
Caro’s forehead became a road map of fine lines. ‘A donor cycle? What the hell is a donor cycle?’
‘It’s what A and E doctors call motorbikes,’ Fran answered. ‘I always swore after I did a term in neurosurgery when I was a registrar that I would never get involved with a man who rode a motorbike. Head injuries are so common. It’s too dangerous.’
‘Maybe he likes to live a little dangerously,’ Caro said, her eyes glinting mischievously. ‘I think he looks amazingly sexy in his police uniform, and when he’s in all that black leather riding gear it makes me think of-’
‘Don’t.’ Fran held up her hand like a stop sign. ‘I’m off men at the moment, remember?’
Caro gave her a knowing look. ‘Frannie, you’ve always been off men. All through your teens you were totally focussed on studying. And then all through med school and ever since you qualified work was always more important to you, more’s the pity. A casual love affair with a handsome cop is just what you need right now to boost your confidence.’
Fran hoisted her handbag strap over her shoulder. ‘I hope to God you didn’t get Nick to suggest such a thing to Sergeant Hawke,’ she said.
‘Would I do that?’ Caro said with that same twinkling smile.
When Fran went to the general store the following day she ran into Jane Pelleri, who was doing a quick shop while her husband looked after the children. Ella was now back at home, showing no sign of any after-effects from her terrifying experience. The pool gate had been repaired and life was more or less back to normal. So different from so many others, Fran thought as she listened to Jane recount something cute the boys had done to welcome their baby sister home.
Beryl Hadley wasn’t working on the cash register that day but a slim, almost thin young girl of about sixteen was filling in for her. Fran smiled as she loaded her things on the counter but the teenager barely looked up as she mechanically scanned the items. She was dressed in loose-fitting black clothes—even the top she was wearing was long sleeved which must have been sweltering for her in spite of the air-conditioning inside.
‘Hi, I’m Fran, Carolyn Atkins’s sister,’ Fran said to break the silence. ‘Is Beryl having a day off?’
‘Yeah.’ The girl scanned the packet of dog treats Fran had chosen for Rufus.
‘What’s your name?’ Fran asked after another few items were scanned. ‘I don’t think I’ve seen you around town before.’
‘Tara,’ she said dully, scanning the last item and bringing up the total. ‘Will that be cash or charge?’
Fran handed over some notes. When the girl placed the change in her hand Fran noticed several thin white scars on
the underside of the teenager’s wrist. The girl pulled her sleeve back in place and closed the drawer of the cash register with one of her bony hips.
‘Nice to meet you, Tara,’ Fran said, picking up her bags.
‘Yeah,’ Tara said without meeting Fran’s gaze. ‘Same.’
Fran was coming out of the store, still frowning, when a man in his early sixties approached her. ‘Dr Nin,’ he said. ‘I’m so glad to meet you at last. I’m Nigel McLeod, the mayor.’
‘Pleased to meet you, Mr McLeod,’ Fran said, juggling her shopping bags to shake his proffered hand.
‘I was wondering if you would like to have a tour of the medical clinic this morning,’ he said. ‘Everyone is so thrilled about how you stepped into the breach, so to speak.’
Fran took a step backwards. ‘Um…I haven’t exactly said I—’
‘It’s just such an amazing coincidence,’ he went on as if she hadn’t spoken. ‘It’s obviously meant to be. Here we are waiting desperately for the position to be filled since the GP who was supposed to arrive has had some doubts cast over his overseas qualifications and then you turn up. It’s a miracle, that’s what it is. An answer to a prayer and, believe you me, this whole town has been praying for someone as competent as you. The way you saved that little girl’s life and Jim Broderick’s daughter too. The orthopaedic doctor at the hospital she was flown to said she was lucky she didn’t lose that leg. You’re Pelican Bay’s latest hero. I am sure you’ll be nominated as citizen of the year after this.’
Fran gave him a wan smile. ‘Mr McLeod…I am very grateful for your offer but I’m not planning on—’
‘Of course I know it’s a dreadful imposition but there are already several patients lined up to see you,’ he said. ‘As soon as they heard there was a doctor in town, they booked in. Linda Brew is the clinic receptionist. She’s been on the phone,
fielding calls all morning. Oh, to be so popular!’ He beamed. ‘I wish it worked like that for me when it came to council elections.’
Fran’s smile turned to a grimace. She could see worming her way out of this was going to take more flexibility than that of an Olympic gymnast. She thought of the patients who had their hopes up, probably already sitting there on the edges of the waiting room chairs, eagerly anticipating her attendance. What if one of them was like Jacob’s mother, in desperate need of pain relief? How could she say no? It wasn’t as if a drug-crazed maniac was going to barge through the doors out here. This was Pelican Bay, a quiet seaside village, not the centre of Melbourne’s nightclub scene. The sort of stuff she would be dealing with here would be things like chickenpox, for example, or chest infections, the occasional laceration, maybe some broken bones like Candi Broderick’s, but hopefully no more near-drownings like little Ella Pelleri’s. Maybe she could do it as a once-off, a sort of favour to the town, but that was all.
‘Look, Mr McLeod, I’m not making any promises or anything, but since there are patients already wait—’