Holding him was a mixed blessing, however. It stirred emotions that Emily had no desire to explore. She didn’t need to. She clung to the present just as carefully as she was holding the tiny baby and she listened somewhat absently to Lucky’s nurse, Grace, listing the gifts that had arrived so far.
‘There’s a cot and blankets and a whole carton of clothes. And you should see all the soft toys! One little girl came into Reception and told them that this tiger was her “very favouritest toy” but she wanted the lost baby to have it.’
It was part of the mix that kept medicine such a fascinating career. Joy amidst tragedy. Examples of human strength and caring. Emily was almost bemused by the overload of her day’s impressions as she made her way slowly back to the old house.
She was too tired to try and sort it out. To see if she could use all the positive input to shine a light into the dark cloud still hanging over Megan Cooper.
She was so tired, in fact, that finding Mike sitting on the back steps of the house didn’t even cause any resurgence of that nervous anticipation that had fuelled her for most of the day.
It was just so nice to see him.
And so easy to return the joyous smile of welcome she was receiving.
Dinner could wait. All the sustenance Emily needed was sitting right on that step.
CHAPTER SIX
‘AT LAST!’
Mike patted the empty space on the step beside him. ‘Come and take the weight off those pedals, babe.’
Emily’s smile twitched. ‘You calling me fat?’
‘Hell, no!’ Mike sucked in his breath audibly. ‘Wouldn’t risk that. You might spit on my helicopter again and corrode the paintwork.’
‘Huh!’ Emily snorted indignantly but sat down beside Mike, aware of a building disappointment.
It would be something a lot more than an anticlimax if they just slipped back into a long-standing friendship and that unfinished conversation from last night didn’t rate even a mention.
But Mike was oddly silent now. They both gazed seawards, watching the light change and darken the silhouettes of the islands out to sea. Around them, they could hear the intermittent raucous cries from a troop of parakeets and the lazy heat of the day’s end intensified the perfume of tropical flowers—especially the jasmine that frothed along the ironwork decorating the veranda roof. Splashing noises and laughter could also be heard from the direction of the swimming pool but the silence from the open doors of the house not far from the steps gave the impression that the living quarters were deserted.
Mike and Emily were alone.
The silence continued long enough for Emily to cast a sideways glance at Mike and she found herself the object of a steady regard. His dark eyes were fastened on her with serious intention but enough of a twinkle remained for Emily to know that Mike had no regrets about the conversation he’d started last night.
And he had every intention of continuing the topic.
Disappointment fled. There was no room for it because that excitement was back with renewed vigour. Emily’s heart raced and she had to lick suddenly dry lips. The flare in the depths of Mike’s eyes as he watched her mouth left Emily in no doubt at all about how serious he was concerning any proposed changes in their relationship.
‘Fancy a walk on the beach?’
Emily could only nod. She was grateful for the offer of Mike’s hand as she got to her feet. In fact, she was surprised to find herself so effortlessly upright. A second ago, Emily would have sworn that the supporting structure of her bones had vanished. Simply melted away. But they hadn’t. Emily could walk perfectly well and she could feel every one of the bones in her hand as it continued to be held in a rather firm grip by Mike.
Nobody noticed them walking, hand in hand, past the swimming pool. Gina’s little boy, CJ, was in there—crowing with delight as he rode on his father’s shoulders. Rudolph, the weird-looking puppy, was barking and racing up and down the edge of the pool, either deeply concerned about CJ’s safety or miffed that he was missing out on all the fun. Any second now and the dog would be in the pool as well, and both Christina and Alix were laughing helplessly as they waited for the inevitable development.
Emily and Mike kept walking. Past the pool. Through the memorial garden. Down the rock-strewn slope that led to the beach, on a path that wound through grass decorated with the soft yellow blooms of moonflowers. They left their shoes at the end of the path and let the warmth of sun-kissed sand bury their toes.
‘So…’ Mike sounded amazingly cheerful. As though they wandered off to redefine their relationship every day of the week. ‘How was your day?’
‘Busy.’ A normal kind of conversation was a good idea. Emily found some of her nervousness retreating. ‘But good.’
‘How’s Megan?’
‘She’s had a setback with developing ARDS but she hasn’t got any worse since this morning so I’m hopeful we’ll get on top of it.’
‘Still on the ventilator, then?’
‘Oh, yes. We won’t attempt weaning her until we’re getting some normal lung and renal function results.’
‘How long will that take, do you think? Best-case scenario, that is.’
‘If everything comes together and the antibiotics start doing their job properly, it could be quick. We might have her off the ventilator by the time her mother gets in to visit her on Wednesday.’
And if it didn’t, Megan could be on life support for much longer. The possibility of having to switch it off with their patient still dependent on the machinery didn’t need to be raised. This was no time to be examining a worst-case scenario.
‘And Lucky? How’s he doing?’
‘He’s just wonderful.’ Emily could hear the smile in her voice. ‘I fed him just before I left.’
‘Yeah?’ Mike was watching Emily’s face and his lips curved softly in response to her tone. ‘You like babies, don’t you?’
‘Everyone likes babies,’ Emily said lightly. Her own attitude to that topic was not something she wanted to get onto right now. One step at a time. ‘This baby, anyway. Have you heard about the truckload of presents that have started arriving for him?’
‘Hamish told me. And Cal told me about the fundraising thing for the swimming pool and the dinner at the Athina. You going?’
Are you?’
‘I’ll probably get roped in to wash dishes or something. I expect my mother will be cracking the whip. My sister’s planning a visit this weekend so it could turn into a bit of a family gathering, what with her tribe of kids.’
‘I should offer to help as well. It’s a very generous gesture. All that work and no profit.’
‘They do well enough. It’s a boutique hotel. Costs the earth to stay there—especially that honeymoon suite that’s got its own path to the beach.’
‘They didn’t charge me the earth when I stayed there.’
‘Were you in the honeymoon suite?’
Emily laughed. ‘Of course not. I had the little room at the back of the kitchen, but it was just perfect. I couldn’t move into the house back then because they were doing some major renovations and there were no spare rooms. I lived at the Athina for nearly three months. Your parents were just wonderful to me. It really felt like home. I was very sad to leave.’
‘I remember, vaguely. Something in a letter about a nice girl called Emily.’ Mike chuckled. ‘With the usual rider from my mother saying “but she’s not Greek”.’
Emily winced inwardly at the reminder of how different she was from the type of women Mike preferred. Perhaps she even winced outwardly because Mike gave her hand a reassuring kind of squeeze.
‘She’s always tried to steer me in the direction of some “nice” Greek girl she’s discovered somewhere, and I’ve always ignored her. She knows I’ll pick who I want.’
But did he really want her? It was just too much of a fantasy to be at all believable.
‘You’ve always picked girls that look Greek, though.’ Emily tried to sound casual.
‘Like Marcella.’
‘Only Marcella.’ Mike’s smile was wry. ‘And that could never have worked. Talk about a high-maintenance woman.’
‘What about Trudi? And Kirsty?’
‘They picked me.’ Mike had the cheek to sound completely innocent. ‘I wasn’t even out looking, if you remember.’
‘You didn’t exactly run and hide.’
‘Oi!’ Mike sounded offended now. ‘It was you that suggested Kirsty. I thought it might be because you’d guessed what I was thinking and were trying to warn me off.’
‘Warn you off what?’
‘Trying to steal you away from Simon bloody Kent, that’s what.’
‘Oh.’ Emily was silent for a moment, hugging the thought that maybe Mike had been having fantasies about her for as long as she’d been indulging in them about him. ‘So…why didn’t you, then?’
Mike stopped walking suddenly and pulled Emily’s hand so that she had to turn and face him.
‘Because you never gave me the slightest indication that you were interested in being anything other than a friend. I’m still not sure that I believe you are.’ Mike’s gaze was searching. ‘Are you, Em?’
‘I…I always thought the same thing.’ Emily held the eye contact. ‘That we could only ever be good friends.’
‘Why?’
‘Because…’
There were so many reasons. Mike was gorgeous and clever and courageous, and his life, both personal and professional, would always be imbued with a kind of vitality and excitement Emily could never hope to provide. He could have his pick of any women that came into his orbit. Why on earth would he be interested in a quiet, somewhat serious, ordinary-looking doctor? How could she start trying to explain how inadequate she felt sometimes? But she had to say something so she picked the easiest example.
‘Because I’m not Greek.’
A corner of Mike’s mouth twitched. ‘You can spit, babe. That’s Greek enough for me.’
‘And…and I’m so different from Mar—’
Mike’s fingers on her lips stopped Emily making any comparisons to his former partners.
‘It’s because you’re so different that I love you, Em.’
He loved her?
Whoa! This was going way too fast. Mike hadn’t even kissed her, and he was telling her that he loved her? Or did he mean the kind of love that good friends had for each other?
‘You still haven’t answered my question,’ Mike reminded her softly.
Emily just stared. Words had deserted her. Mike smiled patiently at her blank expression.
‘Are you interested in more than friendship from me, Emily Morgan?’
Time hung, suspended, for a heartbeat and then Emily’s head moved in a slow, sure nod.
‘Thank God for that,’ Mike murmured.
His hand seemed to be waiting to catch her head as soon as it rose from the nod. His fingers cupped her chin and his thumb stroked across her lips as lightly as the brush of a butterfly’s wing.
Emily had that melting-bones sensation again, which only intensified as she saw that Mike was about to kiss her. She needed to shut her eyes to concentrate on remaining upright.
And then she kept them shut and forgot about being upright or not. She forgot about Megan and Lucky and Simon and everything else that had been uppermost in her world in the last few days.
Everything except the man she was now kissing.
This was Mike.
Warm, strong, funny, gentle Mike. The best friend Emily had ever had. The man she had known she could love for ever but had never dreamed she would have the faintest hint of a chance with.
Maybe it was because of those fantasies that this now felt nothing like any first kiss Emily had ever had in her life before. It made every other kiss she had experienced seem a pretence of the real thing. Merely a meeting of mouths.
Emily could feel every cell attached to Mike’s lips. The whole length of his solid body and the strength of his arms as he held her against him. The warmth of his breath and the controlled energy in the tiny movements of his fingers and mouth.
And more. With every variation in the pressure of his lips and every electric tingle from the slide of his tongue against hers, Emily could feel the sincerity of what he was doing. The desire to communicate how much he wanted this.
How much he wanted her.
Taking a breath was postponed long enough for it to become a gasp, and Mike drew back instantly. Emily’s eyes flew open to meet the question in his gaze—the anxiety that she might not want this as much as he did.
She ran her tongue across her bottom lip, recapturing the taste and feel of Mike’s mouth. And then she smiled and saw Mike’s expression soften in relief. He pulled her back into his arms but this time he didn’t kiss her lips. He drew her close enough for her head to be against his shoulder and then he pressed his lips to her hair and just held her in a wordless and wonderful hug.
The gesture was a confirmation that what they already had wasn’t going to go away. That the bond between them was rock solid, and taking their relationship to a level so far beyond simple friendship was not going to change its foundations.
‘Are you on call tonight?’
‘’Fraid so.’ Emily swallowed, nervousness rearing its head again in the face of the obvious invitation underlying Mike’s words. There was a curious relief to be found in the response she was obliged to give. Any more kisses like that would lead to more, just as inevitably as Rudolph would have fallen into that swimming pool by leaping so close to the edge, and the prospect of that kind of intimacy with Mike was still too much to be believable. Too much to trust that it could happen and not lead to heartbreak.
The only men she had shared a bed with in the past had become bored with her and moved on. Could she hope to offer him anything on a par with what the outgoing, vivacious and beautiful and therefore very experienced women he had known previously would have been able to?
A hint of that relief must have been evident because Mike said nothing for several seconds. They drew apart so that there was a space between their bodies and Emily felt that small amount of air like something solid and cool. She had to suppress a tiny shiver at the sudden perceived change in temperature.
Looking up, Emily met that unshuttered kind of gaze again. She was almost getting used to this invitation to step into a private part of Mike’s world. She wanted to dive in head first, in fact, but it was scary.
And Mike seemed to understand.
‘You can trust me, you know, Em.’
‘I know.’
‘You can trust how I feel about you. I’m serious here, babe.’
‘I know,’ Emily whispered. ‘But…’
Mike waited patiently and Emily took a deep and rather shaky breath.
‘We’ve both been in other relationships until only a few days ago. This is so…fast.’
‘Maybe that’s because it’s always been there and we’ve got some catching up to do.’
Emily wanted to believe that. Desperately. But she needed something more in the way of reassurance before taking that leap of faith. She opened her mouth to say that maybe they shouldn’t rush into anything but the words died as Mike reached up and touched a spot just above her left breast.
‘I can see that badge we talked about,’ he said very quietly.
His fingers moved as his hand flattened and then his palm was cupping her breast. ‘I can feel it, too,’ Mike continued, his head dipping as he brushed Emily’s lips with his own. ‘It’s hot.’ His lips moved against hers, the words a barely audible murmur. ‘It must be glowing.’
Oh…Lord! Something was certainly glowing. The heat wasn’t originating from any metaphorical accessory, however. A fire had been ignited deep within Emily’s abdomen and tendrils of white-hot sensation were flickering through her veins to reach all sorts of strange places.
And then Mike took her hand and held it to his chest. ‘Do you feel mine, Em? Do you want this as much as I do?’
&nbs
p; Emily’s hand pressed into the hard muscle over Mike’s ribs. She wanted to slide it under the thin fabric of his shirt and feel that bare olive skin with her fingers. To taste it with her mouth. To…
‘Yes,’ she sighed.
Mike’s hand closed over hers, stilling its movement. ‘I can still hear a “but” in there somewhere.’
‘I’m just not sure we should rush into anything.’ There. She’d said it aloud now. ‘I don’t want to risk our friendship by maybe having some kind of fling that’s just going to fizzle out.’
‘You said you trusted me.’
‘And I do.’ Emily stepped back so that she could see Mike’s face properly but she kept hold of his hand. ‘Things aren’t really normal right now, though, are they? There’s been such a lot happening and we’re all overworked and tired. And we’ve both just broken up with other people.’ She caught her breath quickly. ‘It could be that part of what we’re feeling right now is a result of rejection. A…rebound thing.’
‘You think I might want you just because there’s a gap in my life that needs filling?’
‘I…’ Emily dropped her gaze. ‘I hope not.’
Mike used his forefinger to tilt Emily’s chin and he said nothing until their eyes met again.
‘Is that what I am for you, Em?’ The words carried a peculiar urgency. A replacement for Simon?’
‘Of course not!’ Emily was shocked. Simon and Mike were from such completely different planets that a comparison was ridiculous. Even at the very start of that relationship Emily had never felt anything like this. ‘You’re…you,’ she added lamely.
‘And you’re you,’ Mike echoed sternly. ‘The place anyone else has had in my life is a place that doesn’t need filling. And it’s nowhere near where you fit in.’ His voice softened but lost none of its conviction. ‘It’s you I want, Emily. It always has been.’
The silence that followed his words was filled with a sound Emily knew that only she could hear. The rustle of departing doubts, maybe. Or a song of pure joy.
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