by Lucy Clark
As she quickly showered and dressed, she realised that if her medical services had been required, someone would have come over and woken her up. The fact that they hadn’t went a little way to alleviate her guilt. The twins’ party was due to start soon and she still had to wrap their presents.
Rushing around, she was eventually ready. She’d pushed all thoughts of Joshua to the back of her mind, intent on finding out how he handled seeing her again. Would he be happy to see her? Would he treat her as though nothing had happened? Would he welcome her with open arms, dipping her over his arm in a tango move and then kissing her in front of everyone?
Her cheeks warmed at the thought.
Hurrying so as not to be late, Abbey grabbed her hat before heading out of the door and across the street to the pub. As she walked in, her gaze automatically sought out Joshua and she found him standing behind the bar, cocktail shaker in hand as he smiled at something Mark had said.
Rach was sitting on the floor with the twins, who were busy throwing wrapping paper around the place, enjoying themselves thoroughly. Dustin was sticking a ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ game to the wall and Giselle was carefully carrying a large birthday cake of the twins’ favourite cartoon character to its pride of place on a table set up in the corner of the room.
‘Ooh.’ Becka was the first one to spot the cake. ‘Look, Jimmy.’
‘Ooh.’ Jimmy echoed his sister, the twins standing in awe of the cake before the moment of surprise quickly passed, both of them jumping up and down and clapping with delight. ‘I want some now.’ Jimmy’s declaration was met with a resounding echo of the same from his sister. It was then that Becka spied Abbey in the doorway and ran over to her, holding out her hands.
‘Presents?’
Abbey smiled and bent down. ‘Yes, sweetheart. This is for you.’
‘And me?’ Jimmy wasn’t about to be outdone by his sister.
‘Of course.’ Abbey handed them the carefully wrapped presents, knowing that within a matter of seconds the paper would be discarded on the floor in a complete mess. ‘Happy birthday.’
‘What do you both say?’ their father’s voice reminded them, and Abbey looked up, surprised to see Joshua standing before her. She hadn’t realised he’d moved.
As she slowly rose again, the twins said in unison, ‘Fank you, Abbey.’
‘You’re welcome.’ Abbey smiled as the children ripped open the paper, ooh-ing and ahh-ing as they pulled out hand-painted pictures of their favourite cartoon character. The difference with these pictures was that Abbey had captured each twin’s likeness and included them in the drawing. ‘You can hang them in your room,’ she told the twins.
‘Abbey.’ Joshua was stunned, trying to get a good look at what she’d drawn. ‘They’re…perfect.’ He turned back to look at her. ‘I had no idea you could draw so incredibly well. You could do your own art show.’
She laughed at this. ‘I doubt it but thank you.’
Joshua looked from the pictures, which his children were now running around showing everyone else, back to Abbey. Somewhere between the hours of decorating the house with balloons and streamers and catching a full twenty minutes worth of sleep before the twins had woken up, he’d vowed to keep his distance from Abbey. Now, as he stood there, drinking in her essence and once more being astounded by her grace and poise, he found himself failing.
What was it about this woman that made it so difficult for him to remain aloof? She took off her hat and headed further into the room, going over to give Dustin a hand as he finished organising all the ‘tails’ for the donkey game.
‘You are looking more and more at the beautiful doctor,’ Giselle murmured, coming up behind Joshua.
‘Huh? What? No. We’re just friends, Giselle.’
‘I am French. Please do not insult my intelligence where le langage de l’amour is concerned.’
‘I’m not trying to insult you, Giselle. It’s just that Abbey and I are friends. That’s all.’
Giselle huffed at his words. ‘You have a chance at happiness, not like you think you had before but real happiness. Happiness like I have with my Markey. You were not happy before. It was sad, what happened to your Miriam, but that is gone now. Moving on is good.’
‘Giselle,’ Joshua warned, and his friend held up both of her hands in surrender.
‘Australian men are all stubborn. I forget. Pardonnezmoi, chéri.’
More people started to arrive then and the twins were once again the centre of attention, Joshua making sure they remembered their manners as they received their gifts. Within a few hours, the pub was filled with adults and children, the children heading into a room in the back which had originally been the ‘ladies’ room’ in years gone by. Mark and Giselle had been helping Dustin and Rach to prepare a feast for all and when the sun started to set just after they’d all eaten, everyone trooped outside to look at the fairyland house Joshua had made for his children.
Throughout the afternoon and into the early evening, Jimmy had taken an incredible shine to her so when they headed outside, Jimmy was firmly settled in Abbey’s arms and Becka was snuggled close to her father. This forced Abbey and Joshua to stand together so the twins could ooh and ahh together at the pretty fairy lights.
Abbey whispered something into Jimmy’s ear and in the next instant the little boy said, ‘Fank you, Daddy.’ Becka echoed her brother’s sentiments and as Abbey glanced at Joshua, she saw that he appeared rather choked up. It was quite common for parents to get choked up when their children did something nice, or sweet, or just plain gorgeous, but in that one moment Abbey wondered just how many thanks Joshua ever received for all the things he did.
Of course, he had the town rallying around him, helping out, keeping the children safe, but there were also a lot of hours when it was just Joshua and the twins. In the early mornings, when he’d have to get them up and dressed and give them breakfast. Then in the evenings, there would be baths and dinner and bedtime stories.
As they sang ‘Happy birthday’ to the twins and cut the cake, everyone getting a piece, Abbey watched Joshua more closely, watched the way he interacted with his children. She knew without a doubt that he would do anything for them, even if it meant he got no sleep in order to make sure their birthday was a success. He loved them. Of that there was no dispute, but apart from giving them what they needed, he didn’t seem to actually spend time with them. He would wipe their hands when they got sticky. He would take them to the toilet when they danced quickly before him, barely able to hold on. He would pick them up and hold them when they asked him to yet she couldn’t help but wonder how often he rolled around with them on the floor, tickling them and laughing with them. Did he love them? Yes. Did he care for them? Yes. Did he know where they were the most ticklish? Abbey wasn’t so sure. There was definitely a distance between father and children and she had to wonder why.
The fact that he was trying to put distance between the two of them was painfully evident but it hadn’t been completely unexpected. Both of them had been fighting the attraction between them ever since she’d arrived in Yawonnadeere Creek. This morning, alone on her verandah, they’d both lost that fight, giving in to the sensations that had become too powerful to ignore.
Now, though, as people started to say their goodbyes, Becka still curled up in her father’s arms, Jimmy surprisingly settled in her own, Abbey wondered what was next on the agenda for Joshua and herself. She’d come to the outback to help identify the pieces of her new life, to shuffle them around into some sort of order and hopefully to gain control over them. However, all she seemed to have received on her arrival were more pieces of her life, from way back in her past, mixing with her future. To say she was confused was an understatement.
Soon the pub was back to being just the inner circle, everyone shuffling tiredly around the room, tidying up and setting things back to rights. Joshua was sitting on the other side of the room, Becka sound asleep on his shoulder.
‘I’ll go put Be
cka down and then come back for Jimmy,’ he told her, but Abbey shook her head.
‘I can carry him. No sense in you making two trips. You look utterly exhausted, Joshua. Did you sleep at all?’ Abbey stood as she spoke, shifting the deadweight of Jimmy into an easier position for her to carry him.
‘I did.’
Abbey rolled her eyes and grinned. ‘Sure, but for how long?’
‘Long enough to now be utterly exhausted, according to my colleague.’ He couldn’t help but smile down at Abbey as they called goodnight to their friends before heading next door. Abbey followed Joshua to the rear of the building where they went through the back door and down a small hallway to the children’s bedroom. He quickly flicked on their nightlights, which illuminated the room beautifully.
He put Becka into her cot while Abbey did the same with Jimmy, tucking the little boy in before bending down and placing a kiss to his fair head, sliding up the cot-rail to keep him safe throughout the night.
‘Your pictures will hang beautifully in here,’ Joshua told her, indicating the décor.
‘Yes. I had hoped they would.’
‘I had no idea you were so good.’
‘Just as I had no idea you liked to cook,’ she pointed out as they stood in the middle of the room.
He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets and looked at her. ‘Abbey, about what happened earlier this morning…’
‘It’s fine, Joshua. We don’t need to have a postmortem about it. It was a kiss. That’s all. We both had sixteen years of curiosity burning within us and now the curiosity has been satisfied.’ She knew she needed to say the words because if she took control of this situation then she should be able to recover from it a lot easier. At least, that was her theory.
‘Good. Yes. I’m so glad you feel that way, too.’
‘I do. So, we can go back to being colleagues.’ Abbey could feel her head begin to pound, part of her wanting him to refute the words she’d said, to drag her back into his arms and plunder her mouth once more. The fact that he hadn’t, the fact that he seemed more than happy with her calm, mature attitude, was starting to make her irrational. ‘And speaking of that, as I’ve had far more sleep than you, if you wouldn’t mind giving me the phone people use for emergency calls, please? I’ll take control of the fort tonight.’
‘It’s really not necessa—’
‘It is, Joshua. Colleagues, remember?’
It was easier to hand over the phone than to stand there and argue with her, especially as he realised she was definitely in stubborn mode. He’d seen her in stubborn mode far too many times in the past and it was ludicrous to even try to argue. Instead, he pulled the phone from the waistband of his jeans and handed it to her.
‘Terrific. If I need you I’ll wake you but only if it’s necessary. The sooner I learn to take control of outback medical emergencies, the more help I can be to you.’
Control. There was that word again. He knew Abbey liked to be in control, to have everything nice and neatly ordered and structured. Being diagnosed with ovarian cancer and the subsequent treatment must have meant losing all control over her life. That was why she was here. To find her life. That’s what she’d told him and if finding control within the bonds of her job were going to help her, who was he to stand in her way? In fact, he could probably learn a thing or two from her, given that he seemed to have very little control where wanting her was concerned. Even as she stood there before him, saying goodnight and thanking him for inviting her to the twins’ birthday, he wanted to hold her, to kiss her, to breathe in her sweet, sunshiny scent.
But he didn’t. Instead, he said goodnight, watching as she walked from his children’s bedroom, emergency phone in hand, leaving him feeling more alone than he’d ever felt before.
Chapter Eight
NO EMERGENCY happened that night, or for the next two weeks, and after Abbey had been at Yawonnadeere Creek for three weeks, she was having trouble remembering a happier time in her life. Everything seemed to be falling into place. Except for Joshua.
To say that the kiss they’d shared had changed everything was as true as the sky being blue. Now that she knew how it felt to be held in his arms, to feel his body pressed against hers, to have his mouth creating havoc with her equilibrium, all she wanted was more. More touching, more wanting, more kissing.
They’d agreed that the kiss had been a mistake, that their curiosity had been too great to ignore. But now that it was over, it appeared that Joshua, for one, was more than happy to continue to ignore that incredible tug of desire Abbey seemed to be constantly carrying around with her.
When she was in the pub with their friends or doing a clinic or playing hide and seek with Becka and Jimmy, she was fine. She could be in the same room as him and control her feelings enough so that she didn’t throw herself into his arms, even though it was what she desperately wanted.
His touch had awakened something deep within her, something she’d thought had died when she’d entered the operating room to have her reproductive organs removed. Joshua had made her feel like a woman. His tenderness, his powerful need, his gentle caresses. The desire, the passion, the pounding pulse she’d thought she would never feel again had been alive and well when she’d been in his arms. She wanted that feeling again and she knew only Joshua could provide it.
As she stood behind the bar in the Yawonnadeere Creek pub, pulling a beer for one of the locals, Abbey looked across to where Joshua was sitting at a table talking to Mark. His children were sitting on the floor, colouring in.
Her heart-rate increased as she looked at him, the firmness of his broad shoulders, the strong muscles in his back, the smile on his face as he laughed at something Mark had said. Abbey swallowed and sighed as dawning realisation hit her with full force.
She was in love with Joshua Ackles!
‘Whoa. I think the glass is full, Doc,’ her patron at the bar said.
‘What?’ Abbey quickly stopped staring at Joshua, looking down at the mess she was making, beer everywhere. ‘Oh. Oops. Sorry.’ She quickly reached for a clean glass, pulled another beer and handed it over before starting to clean up the mess, she’d made, berating herself for not only being so stupid but for being so obvious in her ogling of Joshua. Then again, it wasn’t every day a girl discovered she was in love. She had the right to be shocked by the realisation.
She was startled out of her thoughts by a loud crashing and banging coming from the kitchen. She turned and headed in to see if Dustin was all right. He wasn’t. He was reaching for a towel to press to his hand which was now covered in blood.
‘What did you do?’ Abbey asked as she came forward. There was food all over the kitchen floor, a dropped pan, a few other utensils and the offending knife, which had obviously cut Dustin’s hand. The kitchen door opened a second later and Joshua walked in.
‘Need help?’
‘Yes, please,’ she said as she applied pressure to Dustin’s hand, forcing him to a stool so he could sit down before he passed out completely.
‘Stupid. So stupid of me,’ Dustin remarked.
Joshua came over with the first-aid kit and an ice pack. ‘Thanks,’ she said, accepting the ice pack from him and using it to apply added pressure to the cut. Joshua pulled on a pair of gloves and organised some other bandages while they waited for the bleeding to clot.
‘How are you doing there, Dusty? You’re looking a little pale,’ Joshua remarked.
‘Let’s get him to the floor,’ Abbey suggested, and while she held Dustin’s hand, Joshua helped the tall man to sit on the floor, away from the mess.
‘Dustin?’ Rach came into the kitchen, her eyes widening as she saw her husband and the mess on the floor. ‘What happened? Are you all right? Oh, no. Blood.’ Rach turned pale at the sight of the few drops of blood that had splattered on the floor with the knife.
‘Whatsa madder?’ Becka asked as she followed Rach into the kitchen. Her little eyes took in the scene and her cute little bottom lip instantly be
gan to wobble. ‘Dusty?’ Jimmy was hard on his sister’s heels and he, too, was quite distraught at what he saw.
‘Dustin’s going to be fine,’ Abbey soothed the children. ‘Daddy and I are going to look after him per-fect-ly.’
‘Rach, can you take the kids out, please?’ Joshua said.
‘Uh…’ Rach was glued to the spot.
‘Why don’t you both go and draw Dustin a picture? That will help him to feel so much better,’ Abbey suggested. ‘Take Rach with you. She’s very good at colouring in too, remember?’
Becka’s lip stopped wobbling at Abbey’s words and she slipped her little hand into Rach’s. ‘Come on, Wach. Let’s go make a drawing for Dusty. Come on, Dimmy.’ Becka ushered everyone out of the kitchen and Abbey couldn’t help but smile at the little girl’s forthrightness. It reminded her so much of Joshua.
‘A typical bossy female,’ Dustin remarked softly.
‘Ah, I beg to differ. She likes to take control of things, just like her father.’ Abbey grinned across at Joshua, who only frowned in response.
‘Right,’ Abbey said, deciding it was better to focus on what they were doing rather than trying to make Joshua smile. ‘Let’s take a look at it.’ She carefully removed the towel and now that the blood had clotted, Joshua began debriding the area.
As she took a closer look at the wound, she shook her head.
‘Sorry, Dustin, but it will need stitching.’
‘Really?’ He didn’t seem too happy. ‘But that means I won’t be able to work in the kitchen for a while. The last time I cut myself I was out of action for three weeks.’
‘And we all pitched in and helped,’ Joshua said smoothly. ‘The same thing will happen again. We look after our own in this town, remember?’ He pulled out a plastic packet of sterilised vicryl sutures attached to a surgical needle and another wrapped needle that contained a local anaesthetic.