she could feel it, and feeling it wondered if he did want
her to move out.
Not that she could broach the subject—she didn’t
dare to. The one thing she had decided, there beneath
the shower, had been that she wanted to spend as much
time as possible with him, to gather together a good
store of memories to take with her, not only when she
went but to hold to her heart through the rest of her life.
‘I’ll phone a gynaecologist I know at the hospital,
he’ll tell me who’s the best OB man for you to go to.
We want to see you get the best care from the begin-
ning.’
The statement came out of the blue and when Grace
dropped her paper from in front of her face to look at
Theo, she realised he’d folded his newspaper and set it
down on the bedside table and was staring towards the
window, wearing his ‘thinking’ face.
‘That’s terrific of you to bother but I don’t think ob-
stetricians want to see any patients until they’re at least
a couple of months gone.’
‘It’s not terrific of me, it’s my baby too,’ he said, still
contemplating the window, which showed nothing but
an expanse of blue sky. ‘I do have some responsibility.’
Then he turned to her.
‘Do you know at what gestation stage they do the
scans that show the sex? I’m thinking a boy would be
best. Not that it matters, but for business I think it would
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be less stressful for a man to manage business than a
woman who might want to be juggling family and a
career already.’
Grace stared at him, trying desperately to make
sense of what he was saying.
‘What are you talking about?’
‘The baby. Best if it’s a boy, although of course we
can’t do anything about it now.’
He’d turned towards her and offered this second
statement with the air of a man who’d made everything
crystal clear.
‘Theo!’ Grace said, exasperation making the word
far too loud. ‘What do you mean? Why should it
matter?’
He smiled at her and she had to push away the emo-
tional involvement problem very forcefully because
Theo’s smiles made her so warm and happy it was no
wonder she’d become emotionally involved.
‘The baby.’
‘What about the baby? Why better if it’s a boy? Is
this purely male chauvinism or what?’
Theo shook his head and hitched himself back
against the pillows, folding his arms across his naked
chest.
‘No, I’ve been thinking about it, and it’s not all bad.
Although I know females probably have more nous
than males, I think because men usually have a woman
backing them up, they are better able to handle major
responsibilities.’
It still made no sense to Grace.
‘Theo, this child, male or female, might be a chef,
or a librarian, or a waitress or a labourer. Whatever he
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139
or she decides to do, I’ll back it, and there’ll be no
worries financially because he or she will inherit my
money and my father’s and there’ll be enough there to
set him or her up. But although there’ll be money,
there’s not so much it would make for a major respon-
sibility.’
‘Except for my money,’ he said.
‘ You’ve got money?’
Grace hoped she didn’t sound as startled as she felt,
but she couldn’t help looking around. Yes, Theo had
made the little terrace house very snug but it hardly
shouted major-responsibility-type wealth.
‘Quite a lot,’ he said, almost apologetically. ‘Though
the bigger part of it is tied up in a trust for my child or
children. My father died when I was still married but
as he didn’t like or trust my wife, he left the major
portion of his money to my issue. After the accident, as
I had no intention of having more children, I’d resigned
myself to it going to some fairly worthless cousins
who’ve already gone through the money their father left
to them. But then, when you started talking about the
baby, I realised it was the perfect solution. Of course,
because it’s quite a lot of money, I’ll probably have to
be more involved in the child’s upbringing than you’d
perhaps like, but to take on my father’s legacy, the child
will need some special training in financial matters.’
Theo thought he was explaining things rather well,
but apparently something had upset Grace for she was
out of bed, staring down at him with much the same ex-
pression he thought he would be wearing when faced
with a man-eating alligator.
‘You want this baby so it can inherit your father’s
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money? You had this ulterior motive all along and didn’t
think to mention it to me? And you accuse me of
sticking pins in your bloody condoms! Oh, no, it was
all Theo doing a big favour for Grace—getting the little
woman pregnant—when all along you were conniving
behind my back, plotting, planning. Did you never
pause to think I might like to know these things? Did
it never occur to you that I might not want my child to
have some great inheritance hanging over his or her
head?’
‘But how could you not want your own child to be
wealthy?’
He thought it was a valid question but all he got was
a scoffing laugh.
‘You don’t get it, do you?’ she said, now pulling on
clothes as fast as she could, picking them up from the
tangle on the floor where they’d hastily discarded them
last night. ‘It’s not only the wealth, it’s the secrecy
thing. Here I’m thinking you’re doing this for me, and
I’m under obligation to you, to say nothing of feeling
gratitude, when all along you’ve had your own agenda.
One you didn’t even consider sharing with me. How’s
that for trust? I’ve been open and honest with you from
the start, Theo Corones, and you’ve deceived me.’
And on that note she stormed out of the bedroom,
and out of the house minutes later, because he heard the
front door slam.
He stayed in bed, running the conversation back and
forth in his head, wondering where he’d gone so wrong.
Unfortunately, it all sounded quite rational to him so he
put it down to Grace’s hormones being out of kilter,
decided she would go back to the flat and he’d give her
MEREDITH WEBBER
141
time to calm down then call her later. After all, most of
her clothes were here. She’d have to come back at some
point.
She didn’t.
Though by Friday of that week, she’d run so short
of clothes—having worn the same two shirts and skirts
the previous four days—she actually wore the se
xy
T-shirt to work.
Theo watched from afar. He’d worked out by now
that she’d got what she wanted out of him—preg-
nancy—and that was that. She’d simply used the child’s
inheritance as an excuse to get away from him. And the
fact that she looked pale and wan he put down to the
beginnings of morning sickness. Although inside his
chest he felt a pang whenever he saw her, he refused to
acknowledge it as pity because feeling sorry for her
would mean he cared.
And he didn’t do emotional involvement!
But wearing the T-shirt to work was taking things too
far. Most of the women on the team wore casual clothes
to and from work as, during the day, their clothes were
covered by a coloured coat, or their entire body was en-
veloped in green theatre pyjamas. But, still, he wasn’t
happy about her flaunting herself in the T-shirt—not
happy at all—and he intended to tell her so. The ma-
jority of the team were off to Scoozi for dinner and an
unofficial rundown of the past week, but when she
didn’t turn up there, he went to her flat, meeting Jean-
Luc in the foyer.
‘She’s not home,’ he said, and suspicion, like a shiny
green serpent, coiled in Theo’s belly.
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‘And you’d know where she is?’ he asked, wonder-
ing if she was as close as being inside Jean-Luc’s flat.
‘Not a clue,’ Jean-Luc said casually, ‘but I knocked
on her door a little earlier and got no answer.’ He hesi-
tated, then added, ‘You two had a falling out?’
Theo scowled at him.
‘It’s none of your business,’ he said.
Jean-Luc agreed, then added, ‘I don’t gossip but
living in the flat beneath hers I couldn’t help but notice
that she’s rarely home. She mentioned that you and she
were…together. Nothing more, and I’ve said nothing
to anyone although I have kept an eye on her place
when she’s not there. Am I right in assuming your
affair is now over?’
‘No!’ Theo snapped, although he was beginning to
wonder if it was.
But Jean-Luc took him at his word.
‘Well, that’s good because I’m sure everyone in the
team has seen how much Grace has relaxed in the last
few weeks. I know she tries to come across as tough and
always on top of things, but I think that woman has a
very soft, perhaps even vulnerable core.’
He walked out the front door, leaving Theo with no
option but to follow. Jean-Luc turned left, away from
the hospital, and Theo, not wanting to go home to an
empty house that still smelt vaguely of orange blossom,
turned right and trudged back to the hospital.
She did have a soft core.
She was very vulnerable.
He couldn’t have been so wrong in his reading of her.
Yet this action of walking away from him the moment
she got pregnant made him wonder if he’d been totally
MEREDITH WEBBER
143
taken in. The stand-off continued, although it was
strange because when they’d been together they’d been
forever running into each other at work, often stretch-
ing Theo’s restraint to its limits, wanting to touch her
as they nodded in passing, or discussed cases, pretend-
ing they were colleagues and nothing more.
But as the days went by he realised that they’d prob-
ably made opportunities to meet at work. That, or she
was deliberately avoiding him now.
It made her heart ache just to see him. Grace had
realised this the first week of their separation. She re-
membered telling Kelly that the heart didn’t really feel
emotion, but something in Grace’s chest was aching
almost constantly.
At night, lonely in her bed in the sterile, almost
empty flat, she played their final conversation over and
over in her head.
Was she wrong? Was she being pig-headed over the
issue of him not telling her about the legacy? And did
it really matter if her child ended up tremendously
wealthy?
No, she guessed not. He or she could give away any-
thing not needed. It was the not telling her—the deceit—
the fact that Theo had a reason just as strong as she did
for having a child, and he hadn’t seen fit to tell her.
Not that any of this mattered. When it came down
to the absolute basics, the more she was with Theo the
more—she was about to say emotionally involved but
alone in bed she could say the real word, love—she
would grow to love him, so leaving him when she had
to go home would be that much worse.
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Work proved her solace and her release. She was re-
markably well, perhaps feeling a little nausea in the
early morning but the uneasiness disappeared once
she’d eaten and walked briskly up the road to work. So,
by the time she arrived in their section, she could con-
centrate on what had to be done.
She was going to work early these days, wanting to
see the babies, especially Scarlett, before Theo was
likely to be around. Alex’s wife, Annie, had had her
baby and Alex was on paternity leave, so Grace was in
Theatre most days, working with Aldo and with Phil,
having to use all her skills and showing them different
techniques while she learnt new ones herself.
She nodded to Theo in passing, and if her heart raced
when he was in Theatre with her, she was professional
enough to focus all her attention on the operation,
ignoring the little signals his body still transmitted to
hers.
‘We’ve got a heart!’
Becky poked her head into the theatre, yelling this
news from the doorway. Grace was closing, the
Norwood operation on a little boy nearing completion.
‘It’s up the north coast, a hospital at Murwillumbah.
Who can go?’
Phil looked at the baby on the table, watched Grace
put the final staple in his chest, then said, ‘Would you
go, Grace? I know you’ve done heart retrievals—it’s
your special field. I don’t want to leave young Sam here
and Aldo’s on days off. Becky will arrange a team, an
ambulance will take you to the airport—not the main
airport but the one small planes use. From there, a vol-
unteer will fly you up north. You’ll have to do the op-
MEREDITH WEBBER
145
eration then bring it back. Time wise…’ he glanced up
at the clock on the wall ‘…we’d expect you back by
midnight and we’ll have Scarlett all prepped and ready
to go.’
Grace felt excitement leap in her body. A heart for
Scarlett! What could be better?
‘Of course I’ll go. I leave now?’
Phil nodded.
‘Becky will organise transport at the other end, and co-
ordinate with the pilot. Whoever s
he finds to go as
surgical assistant will have all the gear, and Theo’s off-
sider, Ryan Cooke, will do the perfusion and cardiople-
gia.’
He hesitated then added, ‘Good luck!’
There was a chorus of good-luck wishes from the
team, as the little girl who had struggled so hard to stay
alive had won all their hearts, but the voice she’d wanted
to hear—Theo’s deep-throated ‘Good luck’—was
absent.
Not that she had time to think of Theo. She stripped
off her theatre gear and dragged on her clothes then
hurried out to where Becky, Ryan and Jackie O’Connor,
one of Alex’s surgical assistants, were waiting, Jackie
holding a medical case and cool box.
Grace took the time to check what was in the case—
stitches and sutures, sterile gauze, retractor, sterile bags,
lactate solutions—and in the cool box—ice.
‘Our ambulance is downstairs—it’ll be lights and
sirens all the way so we’ll have to hang on,’ Ryan said.
‘Another ambulance will meet you at the Gold Coast
airport. The baby’s being taken to Tweed Heads
hospital and you’ll operate there.’ Becky took up the in-
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THE HEART SURGEON’S BABY SURPRISE
structions. ‘Their ambulance will take you back to the
plane, the pilot will let us know when he’s due to land
in Sydney and we’ll have transport waiting for you.’
Excitement built inside Grace, so much so that as the
screaming vehicle sped through Sydney’s streets she
forgot about the man who hadn’t wished her good luck
and concentrated on what lay ahead.
The operation to remove a donor heart was delicate.
It was important to keep a good length of vein and
artery attached to the heart so it would be easier for Phil
to attach them to Scarlett’s vessels, and equally impor-
tant to keep a reasonable length of the small vessels that
came off the aorta and pulmonary artery to make attach-
ment easier as well.
A man called Ron was waiting at the airfield and he
led the three of them to a plane so small she marvelled
that it could hold an engine strong enough to keep it up
in the air, but Ron exuded confidence so she put her
trust in him and as they flew north towards the border
between New South Wales and Queensland, she re-
hearsed the operation in her head.
She had done similar operations before and knew she
was more than competent to do it, but was it being
pregnant that made her feel extra sorrow for the parents
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