Fool Me Once

by Karly Lane

  ‘We’ll take good care of him, but there’s going to be nothing you can do for him tonight, and I think right now you could do with some rest too. Have you got somewhere to stay?’ he asked as he jotted down something on Michael’s chart.

  Looking down at herself, she realised the clothes she wore were muddy and damp, and suddenly longed for a hot shower.

  ‘Not yet, there wasn’t time to do much of anything before I got here,’ she shrugged.

  ‘Well, how about I get someone to make a call to one of the motels relatives stay at—it’ll be affordable and close to the hospital.’

  Georgie sent him a grateful smile and within half an hour she’d caught a taxi to the motel and was standing beneath the steady stream of hot water, finally able to release the pent-up emotions she’d refused to acknowledge.

  When her sobs had finally subsided, she emerged from the bathroom, set the alarm and lay down on the bed with a weary sigh, falling into an exhausted sleep.

  Arriving back at the hospital, she hurried to ICU, her footsteps faltering as she heard raised voices outside the doors to the intensive-care waiting room.

  Derrick Matthew stood nose to nose with a formidable-looking nurse.

  ‘I don’t give a damn about your policies. I demand that you let us in to see our son.’ If it wasn’t already shock enough seeing the man here, hearing him refer to Michael as his son was enough to make her mouth drop open.

  ‘As I said before, you can’t go in to see him at the moment, and if you don’t lower your voice, I’ll have to ask you to leave the hospital.’

  Georgie slowed her steps as she approached the small group of people milling in the waiting room. Shannon glanced up and saw her, jumping to her feet immediately. ‘Georgie, we came as soon as we could. Do you know anything? They won’t let anyone in to see him, his mother is beside herself.’ Shannon had returned her call and had informed Michael’s mother of his accident, but Georgie had been brief and hadn’t given many details, and she was dreading the fact that now there wouldn’t be any escaping some pretty uncomfortable questions.

  ‘They said the operation went well. He had internal injuries and a few broken ribs, but they’ve managed to stop the bleeding. He’s going to be fine. ICU is just a precaution,’ she told them calmly, feeling awkward with all eyes upon her.

  Michael’s mother looked as impeccable and stylish as always, even in this sterile environment, but small lines creased around her eyes and between her perfectly shaped eyebrows, and she looked close to tears.

  ‘How did this happen? What was he even doing at your place?’ Shannon asked.

  ‘He was …’ Yeah, nah, there was no way she was going to manage to go into those kind of details right now. So instead she chose to ignore that question. ‘He stepped in front of a bull to save me,’ she said softly, hearing her voice catch.

  When his mother opened her mouth to ask more questions, Georgie quickly backed away. ‘I’ll go and speak to the nurse and see if I can get you in to see him,’ she said.

  ‘If we can’t get in, what makes you think they’ll listen to you?’ Derrick demanded with his usual touch of superiority.

  Georgie’s gaze snapped to his, but her voice was calm. Suddenly an unexpected confidence washed over her. ‘Because I’m his wife.’

  She heard the collective gasp and almost smiled at Derrick’s open mouth as he stared at her, for once at a complete loss for words.

  Crossing to the nurse’s station, Georgie lowered her voice. ‘Would it be okay if Michael’s mother went in to see him? She’s pretty worried about her son. She can take my visit.’

  The nurse considered her silently for a few moments before leaning over the desk and lifting her voice, her tone definitely on the cooler side of polite. ‘You have five minutes, and only you,’ she said, nodding at Lorraine before pointedly glaring at Derrick.

  As she walked towards the door, Michael’s mother hesitated briefly in front of Georgie with a bewildered smile, then she pushed open the door and slipped inside the quiet room.

  Taking a breath, Georgie turned around and prepared to face the music. She wasn’t disappointed. Shannon came to a stop in front of her with an expression that volleyed between hurt and confusion. ‘You’re his wife?’

  ‘It’s complicated.’

  ‘Ya think?’ Shannon asked sarcastically. ‘When did this happen? You two were hardly on speaking terms at the wedding, and why didn’t I get an invite?’ she demanded, and Georgie briefly squeezed her eyes closed in dismay as she heard her best friend’s voice quiver.

  ‘Shan, it wasn’t … no one was invited. It happened a while ago.’

  ‘How long?’

  ‘A year and a half. Give or take.’

  ‘A year and a …’ She gasped, unable to continue as she stared at her lifelong friend as though she were a stranger.

  ‘Shannon and I only met a year and a half ago,’ Brent pointed out uncertainly. He’d been a quiet, if confused, bystander to the entire drama until this point.

  ‘I’ll come back later. You all need to be here with him now … I …’ She turned and almost ran from the accusing stares. It was too much to face alone and she wasn’t in the right frame of mind to deal with questions right now.

  Georgie bought a coffee and sat outside drinking it. Her emotions were in utter chaos. So much had happened in such a short time and she was having trouble processing it all.

  She knew Michael loved her; he’d risked his own life to save hers and she knew with certainty she’d have done the same for him. She also knew they had something special. No other man before, or since, could affect her the way he did.

  ‘Georgie?’

  She jumped as she heard her name.

  ‘Mrs Matthew.’

  ‘Please, call me Lorraine.’

  ‘Has there been any change?’

  ‘He’s with the doctor now and they’re assessing him. He was awake but we didn’t get to speak. I wanted to thank you, for what you did back there.’

  Georgie gave a flicker of a smile. ‘You’re his mother, you should have been able to see him.’

  ‘And you’re his wife …’

  Georgie swallowed nervously. She saw the questions in the older woman’s eyes and braced herself. ‘I guess it’s a bit of a surprise.’

  Lorraine gave a small shrug and sat down on the bench beside her. ‘I knew something devastating happened to him a while ago.’

  Georgie looked up uncertainly into the other woman’s face.

  ‘He came back from an unexpected trip to Hawaii a different man. He was like the son I used to know before his father died.’ She blinked back tears, straightening her spine and forcing a smile to her peach-shaded lips. ‘He was the happiest child, content with life. He loved the land so much. It was a tremendous shock when his father died and we sold the farm. I simply couldn’t afford to work it, we were in a lot of debt, and the truth was, I didn’t like being a farmer’s wife.’

  Georgie saw a brief almost apologetic smile touch her lips at the admission.

  ‘After that, Michael changed. He became a shell of the child he was.’

  She stopped and took out a tissue from her designer handbag, delicately touching her nose and dabbing her eyes.

  Georgie felt her own heart becoming heavy. She could picture Michael’s childhood so vividly, and he’d been right, they were a lot more alike than she’d given him credit for. She also realised he hadn’t used his past as a grudge, as he had once accused her of doing.

  Uncomfortably, she realised she’d been acting like a spoilt child, blaming him for something that wasn’t his fault. Using her anger and hurt to push him away, time and time again.

  Lorraine composed herself and turned her eyes, so similar to those of her son, upon her once more. ‘Then he came home from Hawaii and he was … happy. Really happy. He wouldn’t tell me why, just said it would all be revealed in due course. But then he vanished for three months, buried himself in his remotest properties, and when he even
tually resurfaced, he was back to his distant, tight-lipped self … only worse. He refused to talk to me about it. It was almost as though he were grieving.’

  Georgie cringed, knowing she was the cause of his pain.

  ‘It was only at Brent’s wedding that I saw a glimmer of that old Michael once again, and I wondered if you’d had something to do with it.’

  ‘Mrs … Lorraine. Michael and I … it was a bizarre, whirlwind relationship. We barely knew each other. It couldn’t have worked,’ she said, shaking her head sadly.

  ‘Did he ever tell you anything about his father and me?’

  Georgie gave a small snort. ‘No. He left out quite a few details about his life.’

  His mother tilted her head slightly as though studying her thoughtfully. ‘A friend from boarding school invited me home with her one holidays in our senior year and we went to a rodeo. That’s where I met Michael’s father.’ She smiled sadly. ‘We fell head over heels in love the moment we met. I ran away with him two days later and we were married within weeks.’

  Georgie stared at the woman in astonishment.

  ‘Like you, it was instantaneous and crazy; we were complete opposites in every way.’ She smiled and shook her head at the memory. ‘I was a spoilt little rich girl, and he was trying to scrape together a living on the rundown farm his parents had left him. We had absolutely nothing, but I loved that man so much.’ Her voice caught and she paused, her gaze falling to the ground between their feet. ‘My point is, Georgie, you can’t always pick who you fall in love with. Sometimes your heart just decides, regardless of your background or your family … or even your common sense.’ She lifted her gaze to meet Georgie’s. ‘Don’t throw away what your heart truly desires. Because once it’s gone …’ She stood abruptly and turned away, but not before Georgie saw the longing and heartache written across the woman’s face and felt her own heart lurch in sympathy.

  Georgie stared after her and felt a strange sense of calm. Getting to her feet, she tossed her empty cup in the bin and straightened her shoulders. When she got to the ICU, she was told her husband had been transferred to another ward. She retraced her steps quickly, searching for room numbers.

  Stopping outside the room, she heard voices and knew a room full of curious eyes would be waiting inside. She almost chickened out, but after a few moments she somehow found the courage to push open the door.

  Shannon immediately rose from her seat and greeted her with a tight hug. ‘I’m sorry, Georgie. I was so caught up in myself, I forgot to be there for you.’

  Georgie smiled gently, ‘It’s okay, nothing like dropping a bombshell first thing in the morning.’

  Her eyes went to the bed and she froze as she found two dark blue eyes fixed upon her face intently.

  Moving towards the bed, she turned her gaze upon Derrick Matthew, who sat in the chair next to the bed with his arms folded across his chest. ‘Excuse me, Mr Matthew, I’d like to sit beside my husband,’ she said firmly.

  ‘Get up, dear,’ Lorraine said drolly from behind her. ‘Let’s go and find something to eat and leave these two alone.’ She clapped her hands like a schoolteacher and herded them all out the door.

  Georgie took a breath and let it out slowly as she sat down next to the bed. ‘How are you feeling?’ she asked, needing to break the sudden silence.

  ‘Like I was trampled by a thousand-kilogram bull. I also wondered if I might have some kind of head injury when I woke up and saw Derrick. I must have been pretty bad if he turned up.’

  ‘You kinda shook everyone up a bit, I think,’ she said softly.

  His chest was bare but covered in bandages, a multitude of tubes still attached. The skin she could see was a riot of blues, purples and reds.

  ‘You saved my life, Michael. It should be me in that hospital bed, not you.’

  ‘Well, from what I hear, you saved mine, so I guess we’re even.’ His voice was husky and it seemed to hurt him even to speak.

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘Georgie.’

  They both spoke at once and Georgie bit her lip uncertainly. ‘Sorry, you go,’ she said, blinking rapidly to keep her tears at bay.

  ‘I’ll arrange for my solicitor to be in touch and we can get the divorce underway.’ His voice sounded hollow, as hollow as her insides suddenly felt.

  It was a good thing she was sitting down, because she felt as though the room were beginning to spin. She’d come in to tell him what an idiot she’d been, and he was offering her the one thing she’d been demanding for over a year and a half.

  He’d dropped his eyes to the bedspread and it seemed as though he’d said everything there was to say.

  She wanted to argue, but for the life of her she couldn’t get a single word past the swelling of her throat, now clogged with tears.

  Getting to her feet, the chair squeaked loudly on the waxed floor and she cringed at the abrasive sound. ‘Well, I guess … I’ll get going then.’

  He turned his face away to stare out the window.

  Georgie felt as though she were about to turn into a sobbing, crumpled mess and hurried to the door before she made an even bigger fool of herself.

  Outside she took three steps before sinking onto a chair in the hall. Burying her face in her hands, she let the tears fall, her shoulders shaking as sobs wrenched from her aching chest.

  Then his mother’s words floated back to her and she remembered the sadness in her face as she’d spoken of his father.

  No.

  She was not going to let this happen.

  She’d been an idiot and she might not deserve a second chance, but she had to try—she couldn’t leave it like this. Jumping from her seat, she wiped away the tears with her fingers and opened the door—to find Michael, his face grimacing in pain, attempting to sit up in bed.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she yelped as she raced to his side, helping him to lie back down against the pillows.

  ‘I was trying to get up,’ he growled.

  ‘What on earth for? Are you crazy? You just had surgery.’

  ‘I was trying to stop you before you left,’ he bit out angrily.

  Georgie stared down at him uncertainly. ‘Why?’

  ‘What did you come back for?’ he countered, and she saw that his face was tight with a combination of pain and uncertainty.

  ‘I came back to …’ She faltered under his heavy stare but she took a deep breath and forced herself to continue. ‘To tell you I don’t want a divorce,’ she finished defensively.

  His expression remained tense and she winced. He was probably thinking she was an irrational, unstable woman, and after everything she’d put him through lately, she had to admit he’d be quite justified.

  Then slowly his tension eased and a small sigh escaped his dry lips.

  ‘I was trying to catch you to tell you I didn’t mean it.’

  ‘You didn’t?’ she ventured as a small ray of hope began to glow inside.

  ‘Of course I didn’t! I never wanted it. I was only offering it because you’ve kept telling me it’s what you wanted,’ he scowled.

  ‘I was just so tired of going around in circles all the time … but almost losing you … it scared me, Michael.’

  ‘So you don’t want the divorce?’ he asked, uncharacteristically tentative.

  She shook her head and carefully laced her fingers through his where they rested on the bed. ‘When it all came down to it—when I thought I might lose you—I realised that nothing else matters—the property, Tamban, your stepfather … none of it matters. None of it hurts anywhere near as much as the thought of losing you.’ She wiped at an annoying tear that refused to blink away. ‘I love you,’ she said simply, lowering her gaze. ‘But that’s never been our problem. It’s been my past and your fear that I’ll leave that’s torn us apart. I can let go of the past, if I know you can stop hiding things because you’re scared of how I’ll react.’

  He opened his mouth to protest and she held up a hand. ‘I know, you had good r
eason to be worried about telling me who your stepdad was, but maybe if you’d told me as soon as you realised, instead of waiting so long, I wouldn’t have felt so betrayed … It’d still have been a shock, but finding out after we’d shared so much … that felt like a big betrayal. I trusted you.’

  ‘You’re right. I was scared of losing you. And I did,’ he pointed out.

  ‘I was upset and shocked about your business and who your stepfather was, but you lost me because you hid it from me. You have to stop doing that. You have stop thinking you need to protect me or to fix things for me. If this marriage is going to work, we have to be a team. Equal partners.’

  ‘I guess I always thought it was my job to protect you. Take care of you. That’s what husbands do.’

  ‘It’s what parents do to kids. I’m your wife, Michael, not a child.’

  ‘I never meant it that way.’

  ‘From now on, we deal with things together. Okay?’

  ‘Okay.’ His thumb rubbed across her hand gently.

  ‘And you are never, ever to scare me like this again, do you hear me?’

  Images of that huge beast tossing Michael like he was no more than a sack of potatoes played across her mind.

  ‘I’m all right, it’ll take more than the Hulk to do me in,’ he joked, seeing her tears.

  ‘He’s headed for the meatworks the minute I get home,’ she vowed, wiping her eyes.

  ‘No way, he’s worth too much to end up on a barbecue.’

  ‘I should have got rid of him a long time ago—he almost killed you.’

  ‘Don’t get rid of him, Georgie. We need him for a bit longer.’

  ‘We?’

  ‘Well, if my wife agrees, I’d like to use her bull in a breeding program with some of my own cattle. It would be a purely business proposition,’ he added hastily.

  A smile touched her lips as she stared at the face she loved with all her heart, had always loved but had been too scared to acknowledge.

  ‘I think we can come to some arrangement,’ she told him, leaning over to touch his lips gently. ‘Stud fees, huh.’

  ‘For the bull,’ he added dryly.

  ‘Oh, I don’t know, I think you could fetch a pretty good price as well. Maybe we can do a trade.’