by Amy Andrews
Lola shut her eyes as the words slugged hot and hard like New Year’s Eve fireworks into her chest. Oh, God. That was what she was doing. She was restricting herself to a half-life. Choosing adventure over love.
Yes, love.
Because she did love Hamish Gibson. No matter how much she’d tried to deny it. How much it scared her. And it did scare her because they were so different and she knew squat about being a couple. Squat about being grounded after being a gypsy most of her adult life.
But he’d crept up on her, slid under all her defences, and her heart was full of him. Bursting with him. And now she couldn’t imagine her life without him.
She didn’t know what shape her life would take next, all she knew was that two wise women had given her advice this festive season and she’d be a fool to discard the lessons they’d imparted.
She chose love. She chose a full life.
If she hadn’t already blown it.
Lola stood. Not stopping to think about what she was doing next, she was already on her phone, ordering a cab, which would probably cost her a fortune in a surcharge on New Year’s Eve but she’d had two glasses of wine and she didn’t care. She grabbed the postcard off the table and strode into the living room, snatching her keys out of her handbag before heading for the door.
She had to see Hamish. She had to tell him she loved him and beg him to forgive her and hope like hell she hadn’t blown it. Because now Lola realised she was living a half-life and she wanted her full life, with Hamish, to start immediately.
* * *
Lola arrived at Grace’s apartment with fifteen minutes to spare before midnight. She knew Marcus and Grace had gone to some fancy party in the city so they wouldn’t be here. She also knew Hamish wasn’t working.
Because they were supposed to be together tonight.
She just hoped like hell he was at the apartment and not out somewhere whooping it up, because he wasn’t answering her calls or her texts. If he wasn’t here she didn’t know what she was going to do, but if it meant she had to sleep outside this door all night, torturing herself with images of who he might be whooping it up with, she would.
Lifting her hand to knock, the door opened before she got a chance to make contact and Lola pitched forward. Right into Hamish’s chest. His hands came out to steady her.
‘Lola?’
‘Hamish.’ He smelled so good—coconut and pine—that for a second she just stood in the circle of his arms and breathed him in.
Too quickly, he eased her away and Lola noticed he had his keys in his hands. ‘You’re on your way out?’
‘Yes.’ His grin was really big, and that impossibly square jaw of his was looking absolutely wonderful covered in ginger scruff. ‘I was coming to you.’
He kissed her then, pushing her against the open doorway, and Lola melted, moaning deep in the back of her throat, her hands going up around his neck to shift nearer, to bring him closer. Her head filled with the scent of him and the sound of his breathing and the taste of beer on his breath.
‘Oh, I missed you,’ he muttered, and his words filled her head too, making her feel dizzy.
Intoxicating her.
She was drunk. Drunk on the feel and the taste and the smell of him. On his heat and his hardness. But...they had to talk first.
There were things he needed to hear, things she needed to say. And if they kept this up there’d be no talking. There’d be nudity in the hallway and sex on the doorstep. God knew, she wanted him badly but she had to prove to him she could talk with her mouth, not just her body.
Lola pulled away, placing a hand on his chest as Hamish came back in for more. Their breathing was heavy between them as his gaze searched hers. ‘We need to talk.’
‘Lola, I don’t care.’ He dropped his lips to her neck and nuzzled. ‘I don’t bloody care.’ His words were muffled and hot on her neck and Lola’s eyes felt as if they’d rolled all the way back in her head as he teased her there, his tongue and his whiskers a potent combination.
‘I’ve held out for as long as I can and I just don’t care any more. You win. Whatever kind of relationship you want, I’m in. We don’t have to talk ever. I just need you too bloody much.’
His words were like a rush to her brain. And places significantly south. But they didn’t give her any great satisfaction. She’d treated him like a sex object. Like a life support for a penis and that had been wrong.
‘Hamish.’ Lola broke away again.
He pulled back, his pupils dilated with lust, his breathing raspy. ‘Come to bed with me. Let me show you how much I missed you.’
And he kissed her again, long and drugging, and she clung to him, blood pounding through her breasts and belly and surging between her thighs as the dizziness took her again. The man could definitely kiss. He sure as hell made it hard to stop.
But. This was important. It was their future.
Lola pushed hard against his chest this time and Hamish groaned as he pulled away again. ‘You accused me of not wanting to talk.’ She was panting but determined to see this through. ‘And you were right. So I’m going to do this properly. We’re going to talk. And then you can take me to bed and do whatever you want with me.’
He searched her gaze for a moment before breaking into a smile. ‘Whatever I want?’
Lola’s heart swelled with love. ‘Anything.’ She’d give this man anything.
He grinned. ‘You’re on.’ Then he stepped back, grabbed her hand and urged her inside. ‘Let’s go to the balcony. I won’t be tempted to take off your clothes out there. Probably.’
Lola laughed. She didn’t care where they talked, only that they did, and she followed him out to the balcony with its view of the Manly foreshore in the distance. She could hear the distant noise from New Year’s Eve revellers floating to her on the balmy night air.
Hamish stood at the railing, his arms folded across his chest as if he couldn’t be trusted not to touch her, and Lola smiled. She settled against the railing too, leaving a few feet between them.
‘Speak.’
She didn’t speak. Instead, she reached into the pocket of her work trousers—because she hadn’t stopped to change—and handed over May’s postcard. He took it impatiently, staring at the picture. ‘What’s this?’
‘It’s a postcard from May.’
‘Well, yeah, I figured that. I mean why are—?’
‘I got it today. It’s postmarked the twenty-first.’
He glanced at her swiftly. ‘Oh, Lola.’ He took a step in her direction and stopped. ‘Are you okay?’
Lola nodded. ‘I am, actually.’
‘It’s kinda freaky, yeah?’
‘Yeah.’ Lola smiled. ‘A little.’
‘Listen, I’ve been thinking. I could come with you...to Doongabi...keep you company.’
Hamish no doubt knew about all the funeral arrangements. She’d only responded in a perfunctory manner to his texts and hadn’t answered any of his calls, but Grace was up to speed with all the details.
Lola’s heart filled up a little more at Hamish’s offer. ‘You have to be back at work in Toowoomba.’
‘I’m sure I can figure it out with my boss.’
‘Well...yes, thank you. I’d like that.’ She took a step towards him. There was only about a foot between them now. ‘I’d like to introduce my family to the man I love.’
She could hear Hamish’s breath catch and caught the blanching of his knuckles as he gripped the railing. ‘The man you love?’
‘Yes.’ Lola nodded and her heart banged in her chest. This was it. The moment of truth. ‘I love you, Hamish. I’m so sorry it took me this long to see it. That I was so blind to it, too wedded to this idea of being a gypsy, too frightened to deviate from the path I’d set myself all those years ago, to see what my heart already knew.’
‘You love m
e.’
He was very still suddenly and Lola rushed to reassure him. ‘Yes. God, yes.’ Her hands were trembling and she folded her arms to quell the action. ‘It took a postcard and some words from Aunty May and my heart transplant patient to realise that I’ve only been living a half-life and a gypsy caravan is big enough for two and I want to share mine with you.’
‘You do?’
‘Yes.’ Stupid tears threatened and Lola blinked them back. She was done with crying. ‘And I treated you like a...sex object—’
His laugh cut her off. ‘Well, that bit wasn’t so bad.’
Lola laughed too. ‘That bit was pretty damn good. But it was wrong of me. You were always more than that. You were the guy who made me laugh. The guy who held me when I was sad. The guy who watched Die Hard with me. The guy who bought me the most beautifully perfect gift I’ve ever been given. I’ve been falling in love with you all this time and lying to myself about it because I’ve been single for so long I don’t know how to be part of a couple.’
‘Lola.’ Hamish took that one last remaining step and brought his body flush with hers, his hands sliding possessively onto her hips. He smiled. ‘You should stop talking now and kiss me.’
Lola shook her head, pressing a hand between them as worry that she might screw things up grew like a bogeyman inside her head. ‘I mean it, Hamish, I don’t know how to do this. And we’re so different, we want different things. I still don’t know how we’re going to work it all out.’
He smiled gently. ‘Do you love me, Lola?’
She nodded. ‘Yes. God, yes.’
‘Do you want to be with me? In the forever kind of way.’
‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘I want forever with you.’
‘Good answers, City.’ He smiled and Lola relaxed and fell in love a little more. ‘All that matters is that we love each other. We can work the rest out. Sure, it’ll take compromise and we’ll probably argue a little and go back and forth a hundred times over the same old things but as long as we’re committed to staying together, we can overcome anything. We’ll be all right, Lola, I promise.’
Suddenly, Lola knew he was right. She could feel it in her bones. Because nothing was more important in her life than Hamish. And she knew he felt the same way about her.
They were going to be better than all right. They were going to be freaking amazing.
‘Now.’ Hamish removed her hand from his chest and urged her closer. ‘Are you going to kiss me or what?’
Lola smiled, lifting on her tippytoes to kiss the man she loved, twining her arms around his neck and sighing against his mouth as their lips joined and everything in her life clicked into place.
In the distance the countdown started and they were still kissing as the crowd yelled, ‘Happy New Year!’
The first firework shot into the sky with a muted thunk and exploded seconds later in an umbrella of red sparks. Lola and Hamish broke apart, laughing. She stared in wonder at the fireworks and at Hamish.
‘I think I just saw stars.’ Lola laughed up at him as the night sky erupted into a kaleidoscope of noise and colour.
He grinned. ‘Me too. Now, let’s go make the earth move.’ And he tugged on her hand and led her to his bedroom.
EPILOGUE
A COOLING HARBOUR breeze blew cross the park on the warm November morning. Flurries of electric purple jacaranda flowers swirled and drifted to the ground, carpeting the road and the footpath and the edge of the park where the ceremony was being held in a stunning lilac carpet.
‘Do you take this woman...?’
Lola’s hands tightened in Hamish’s as she smiled up at her soon-to-be husband and her heart did its usual kerthump. It had been his idea to have the marriage service here, in this place she loved so much. And, if it was possible, her heart expanded a little more.
Having Grace and Marcus joining them to make it a double wedding was the icing on the cake. They’d already said their vows and were waiting eagerly for Lola and Hamish to get through theirs so they could all be declared husbands and wives.
Grace was looking radiant in her figure-hugging cream lace creation, her gorgeous red hair piled into a classy up-do. Marcus was darkly handsome in his suit and still only had eyes for Grace.
Lola had chosen a more gypsy-style dress of embroidered cotton that flowed rather than clung. It had shoestring straps and fluttered against her body in the breeze, the garland of jacaranda flowers in her loose, curly hair the perfect finishing touch.
‘I sure as hell do.’
The wedding guests—a mix of friends and both families who’d travelled to Sydney for the occasion—laughed at Hamish’s emphatic answer and Lola’s heart just about burst with happiness. He was breathtakingly sexy in his fancy suit with his purple shirt. His clean-shaven jaw was as rock solid as always, his reddish-brown hair flopped down over his forehead as endearingly as always and his bottomless blue gaze was full of promises to come.
It had been a whirlwind year—falling in love, getting engaged and planning a wedding in such a short space of time but, as Aunty May had said, when you knew, you knew.
Hamish hadn’t gone back to Toowoomba, he’d stayed on in Sydney to complete his course, finishing it while Lola had been in Zimbabwe then joining her there for the last week, taking Aunt May’s ashes with him. Together they’d scattered them from a canoe across the mighty Zambezi River, a place as wild and free as May herself.
Tomorrow they were leaving for two weeks in London before heading to western Queensland. Hamish was taking up a two-year rural post and Lola had a job at the local hospital. And she was looking forward to it.
It had taken her very little time with Hamish to learn that home was wherever her heart was and her heart would always be with him. They’d even talked about having children when they returned to Sydney.
Children!
Lola had always assumed she’d remain childless, like May. Now she couldn’t wait to be running around after a little blonde girl and little boy with cinnamon hair. She’d been a lot of places and seen a lot of things but what she craved most now was home and hearth and family.
It was official, she was a hundred percent, head-over-heels gone on Hamish Gibson.
‘And do you take this man...?’
The celebrant was smiling at her. Grace was smiling at her. Her mother was smiling at her. And Hamish... Hamish was smiling at her.
‘Yes,’ Lola said, her eyes misting over. ‘For ever and ever.’
More laughter but Hamish squeezed her hands tighter and, as the jacaranda flowers twirled around their heads in the breeze, she knew she’d never spoken truer words.
He was hers. And she was his.
For ever.
* * * * *
If you missed the previous story in the Nurses in the City duet, look out for
Reunited with Her Brooding Surgeon
by Emily Forbes
And if you enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from Amy Andrews
A Christmas Miracle
Swept Away by the Seductive Stranger
It Happened One Night Shift
200 Harley Street: The Tortured Hero
All available now!
Keep reading for an excerpt from Heart Surgeon to Single Dad by Janice Lynn.
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Heart Surgeon to Single Dad
by Janice Lynn
CHAPTER ONE
“I’M A DOCTOR, you know.” No, the flight attendant didn’t know, but Natalie Sterling was determined to make it on time to her presentation.
She’d heard of airlines overbooking flights, but it had never affected her. Until now.
“A pediatric heart surgeon,” she added, hoping to gain empathy. Natalie couldn’t recall having pulled that card before, but she wasn’t one to no-show a speaking commitment if she could help it. “Bumping me to a later flight doesn’t work.”
The stewardess shook her head. “There’s nothing I can do. It was in the agreement when you purchased your ticket that if the plane is overbooked you would have to take a later flight.”
Taking a deep breath, Natalie stared at the pretty thirty-something blonde in her crisp uniform. It wasn’t the woman’s fault.
“It’s urgent I go on this flight.” She heard the almost pleading tone, but was beyond caring. She needed to get to Miami this afternoon.
“We’re sorry for any inconvenience, but you’re going to have to exit the plane.” The forced smile on the attendant’s face warned that further argument was futile and the woman was losing her patience.
If only Natalie could have kept her flight the evening before, instead of having to delay her departure. Still, she’d been needed for an emergency surgery, and her patients came first. Always.