by Fiona Lowe
The fact she put her patient’s needs first and asked you for help, despite how you treated her.
A streak of shame assailed him. Abbie McFarlane was a damn good doctor. How the hell had he missed that last night?
Abbie’s legs ached with heaviness as she sank onto the saggy couch in the staff lounge. She slipped off her shoes and swung her legs upwards, breaking the rule of no feet on the coffee table. Today had been one hell of a day but, despite her fatigue, a glow of pride warmed her. Bandarra Base had coped with a full-on emergency and, although two of their patients were in a critical and serious condition, the fact they were still alive lay at the feet of her team.
And Leo Costa. The opinionated, charismatic and brilliant surgeon.
Last night she’d wanted to hate him, this morning she’d just wanted him to go as far away from her as possible but obviously that was far too simple a request. If the fates knew in advance she would need a surgeon today, why couldn’t they have sent along a ‘nice guy’, a competent surgeon or, better yet, a female surgeon?
But no, they were enjoying a joke at her expense and had dispatched her worst nightmare. A man with magnetic allure, the kind of man she’d learned was toxic to her. A couple of short relationships at uni had made her consider perhaps she lacked judgement in her choice of men but it had been Greg who’d really rammed home the message. With charm and good looks, he’d drawn her into his enticing web and then trapped her. Now she knew to her very core that letting a man in her life was like taking a razor blade to her wrist—an act of self-harm.
So why, knowing all of that, did it only take one look from those dark, dark eyes to set off a rampaging trail of undeniable lust inside her, sending her pulse racing and battering every single one of Greg’s painful lessons about charismatic men? Battering her belief that the only way to be safe was to live a single life. A belief she hadn’t questioned once in three years.
She bit her lip hard against the delicious sensations and loathed her own weakness. But, despite how she felt about her reaction to him, she couldn’t deny Leo was the prize piece in today’s emergency. Without him, Jenny and the elderly woman would have been immediately airlifted to Melbourne and there would have been a strong chance both of them could have died in transit. Leo had saved Jenny and given Mavis a fighting chance.
Fatigue pummelled her sitting body and Abbie fought hard to resist closing her eyes. She’d already sent Justin home and she only had to stay awake a little bit longer, do one more round and then, fingers crossed, she could go home too. The squeak of the lounge door interrupted her thoughts and, immediately on alert that a patient had deteriorated, she glanced up, expecting to see the night-nurse.
It wasn’t the night-nurse. An intoxicating shimmer raced through her from the tip of her toes to the top of her scalp, leaving her breathless. Had she been blind and not able to recognise the strong brown hand that gripped the edge of the door, she would have known instantly it was Leo from the fresh mint and citrus scent that preceded him. How could a man smell so good after such a long day? ‘I thought you’d gone home?’
‘I spent some time with Nonna and for the last hour I’ve been caught up with journalists. Today’s crash made it all over the news and it seems that no one could find you.’ He shot her a questioning look and then walked straight to the instant hot-water heater unit and made two mugs of tea.
She shrugged, not caring that she’d left him with the press because she was pretty certain it was far more his thing than hers. ‘Your patients were evacuated to Melbourne so I figured you had the time and I was still tied up with patients.’
‘Well, you owe me because I’ve done print, radio and television interviews and I’m “mediaed” out.’
The soothing aroma of camomile wafted towards her and, for the first time since she’d walked into work hours ago, she relaxed. ‘You’ll look good on TV.’ The words rolled out of her mouth before her exhausted brain could censor them and she gasped, wanting to grab them back.
Have you lost your mind? Warrior Abbie held her shield high over her heart, her expression incredulous.
Leo grinned—a smile full of the knowledge that not only did he know he’d look bloody fantastic on TV, he’d also heard her gaffe. A gaffe a man like Leo Costa would read as an open invitation. He stared her down. ‘I didn’t think you’d noticed.’
Establish distance. From the moment she’d met him she’d been cool and it was time to dig deep and find her Zen so she could cope with him and keep herself safe. She tossed her head, hating the way her curls tangled into her eyes, ruining the attempted nonchalant look. ‘Let me put it this way. I noticed, and perhaps even enjoyed noticing, but not even your glossy magazine good-looks quite make up for the disrespect you showed me last night.’
She expected a tremor of anger or at the very least repressed indignation but instead he walked over to her and extended his hand.
‘Hello, I’m Leo Costa, general surgeon and grandson of Maria Rossi. Pleased to meet you.’
She frowned as she swung her legs off the table and slowly raised her hand to his, all the time wondering what was actually going on. ‘Abbie McFarlane.’
His firm grip wrapped around hers, underpinned with a gentle softness that had peril written all over it. ‘I hear you’re the doctor who’s been looking after my grandmother and you’ve had a few problems with one of the relatives?’
She studied his face, trying to read beyond the charm and the pretend first greeting. ‘He hit ten on the difficult scale.’
His eyes widened fractionally but he didn’t disagree as he sat down on the coffee table, directly opposite her. ‘Looking back, I think he let fear for his grandmother interfere with his medical judgement.’
She hadn’t expected that answer—the man had just verbalised his dread and that wasn’t something charismatic men usually did. ‘I can understand the fright.’
‘Well, it caught me by complete surprise. Nonna’s always been so fit and well and…’ He puffed out a short breath before giving a wry and apologetic smile. ‘I’m sorry for what I said; I was out of line. If it makes you feel any better, my family berated me at breakfast.’
Breakfast? The word clanged in her head like a fire bell. ‘Hang on; you were still insisting at nine a.m. that Maria be cared for by someone else.’
His shoulders rose as his head tilted slightly like a kid who’d been presented with the prosecuting evidence of an empty biscuit barrel. ‘Stubbornness is one of my less fortunate attributes.’
Her lips twitched. ‘One? So there are more?’
He captured her gaze, his eyes twinkling. ‘All I will confess to is that I’m not planning on being difficult about this again. Nonna’s lucky to have you; indeed Bandarra’s fortunate to have a GP of your calibre, Abbie.’
She saw the captivating smile, heard the warm praise, but the bells still pealed loud in her head. ‘So what you’re really saying is I’m still Maria’s doctor because you’ve realised there’s no one else.’
‘No. That’s not what I’m saying at all.’ Dismay extinguished the twinkle in his eyes and for the second time today she glimpsed a hint of the real man behind the smooth façade. ‘I admit to making a snap judgement last night and I’ve apologised for that.’
The tic in his jaw said apologies were not something he did very often. ‘But I worked alongside you today and there’s no doubt you know your medicine.’
The sincerity in his voice finally satisfied her. ‘Thank you.’
‘You’re welcome.’ He moved back to the bench and carried over the tea before sitting down next to her. His firm lips curved upwards into a conspiratorial smile full of shared experiences. ‘It was one hell of a day, wasn’t it?’
His words matched her thoughts, which totally unnerved her. First there’d been the unexpected apology and now he appeared to want to sit and chat. That alone was enough to cope with, but added on top was his scent and aura swirling around her like an incoming tide, creating rafts of delicious sen
sation tickling along her veins.
He shifted his weight and the couch moved, tilting her closer to him. Silver spots danced in her head. No, no, no. It took every exhausted molecule to force herself to stay upright and not give in to his magnetic pull—the one that called for her to lean against his arm and lay her head on his broad shoulder. But she knew only too well that men like Leo Costa were like the foxglove plant. Pretty to look at but potentially life-threatening, and the last thing her heart needed again was life-support.
She sipped her tea, trying hard to ignore the delicious tingling on her skin and the fluttering in her stomach that sitting so close to him had activated. Warrior Abbie raised her sword across the shield. She could do this. She could sit here for a few minutes and make polite conversation because, come midnight, Leo Costa would leave her hospital. The emergency was over and they’d resolved the issue of Maria’s care. She couldn’t imagine him staying in Bandarra very long before Melbourne called him home, and with his departure the status quo of Bandarra Base and her much-coveted quiet life would be restored. Yes, everything would return to normal. She smiled and breathed out a long, slow, satisfying breath.
Leo sipped his tea, watching Abbie holding her cup close to her chest as if it were some sort of protective guard. An unusual cosy feeling of well-being floated through him—something he never experienced when he was in Bandarra. Could an apology really have that effect? Apparently so. He’d always prided himself on being fair and he hadn’t given Abbie the same consideration. He let the odd feeling settle over him. Today had been incredible. Not just the excitement of the ‘seat-of-your-pants’ surgery but working alongside Abbie. She had an air of self-containment that intrigued him. Those eyes intrigued him.
She stared at her shapely ankles, which rested again on the coffee table, and sighed. ‘I could live without the todays of this world. We were lucky to have your expertise. Thanks.’
He was used to gushing praise but the plain appreciation had an unambiguous authenticity which he appreciated. ‘I’m just glad I was here. These days I mostly do elective surgery, although I’m on the trauma roster at Melbourne City. Thankfully, I’m not always needed.’
She turned her head to look at him and understanding wove across her face, joining her cute sun-kissed freckles. ‘But there’s nothing quite like the buzz of a good save.’
He grinned. ‘Yeah, but you can’t actually go around wishing accidents on people or saying stuff like that or you sound macabre.’
She chuckled. ‘You’re a surgeon; it’s a given.’
He tried to look affronted but instead he joined in with her tinkling laughter. Abbie McFarlane had a straight-shooting delivery style that was as refreshing as it was unusual. He realised with a thud that apart from his immediate family, not many people spoke their mind to him any more.
She returned her gaze to her feet and he fought the urge to caress her jaw with his fingers and tilt her head back towards him so he could look into her eyes. He wanted to dive into those eyes which had stared back at him so many times today from over the top of a surgical mask, expressing everything from fear to joy.
Instead, he breathed in deeply, letting her intoxicating scent of fresh berries roll through him.
‘So is this a flying visit to Bandarra?’
His libido crashed and burned as the familiar Bandarra-induced agitation spiralled through him. ‘Yesterday I would have said yes. I usually fly in and fly out because I’m frantic in Melbourne.’
You keep telling yourself that’s the reason. It’s served you well for years. He shut his mind against the eminently reasonable voice he’d been silencing for almost as long. ‘Nonna’s CVA gave me a wake-up call and I want to spend a bit of time with her.’
As if in slow motion, she moved her gaze from her feet to his face, her irises widening into a reflective pool. ‘Meaning?’
‘I’ve asked my secretary to set back my patient list for the month.’
A shadow passed through her amazing eyes and her usually well-modulated voice rose slightly. ‘So you’re here for a few weeks?’
‘Yep. Family time.’ A jet of edgy unease tangoed with the flow of imposed duty. Spending time with Nonna was the right thing to do but the fact it meant spending a few weeks in Bandarra sent a shot of acid into his gut, eating at the lining. How the hell was he going to fill his days and stay sane?
He leaned back and breathed in deeply, trying to relax his chest as he stretched his arms across the back of the couch. Immediately, his fingers itched to curl around Abbie’s alabaster neck and feel her softness against his skin.
Getting to know Abbie would keep the Bandarra demons at bay.
There was nothing quite like the thrill of the chase and the idea offered him the first ray of hope he’d felt since his father had demanded he stay. It would be the perfect distraction. ‘I’m looking forward to spending some time with you too, now we’re friends.’
Her torso shot abruptly away from the back of the couch as if she’d been electrocuted and her eyebrows shot skyward. ‘Friends?’ The word sounded strangled. ‘That’s probably going a bit far.’
Stunned surprise dumped on him like the cold and clammy touch of slime. He couldn’t even think of a time when someone had rejected his overtures and the feeling stung like a wasp—sharp and painful. His jaw tensed as he tried to hold on to his good humour. ‘Colleagues, then.’
She gave a tight laugh. ‘We’re hardly colleagues.’
Her words bit, devaluing his interpretation of the last fourteen hours and stripping bare the memory of the camaraderie and professionalism they’d shared. ‘What the hell do you call today, then?’
‘Long.’ She lurched to her feet, her gaze wavering until it finally rested on his left shoulder. ‘I have to do a final round, Leo, so I’ll say goodnight. Thanks for your help today and enjoy your holiday in Bandarra.’ She turned her back and walked away from him and towards the door.
His jaw fell open at her abrupt dismissal of him and a curse rose to his lips, but it stalled at the sight of her baggy scrubs moving against a curvaceous butt. Lust collided with aggravation and shuddered through him. His palm tingled, his blood roared hot and he wanted to haul her back by those caramel curls, wrap her in his arms and demolish her prickly reserve with a kiss.
For the first time in months his body came alive—every colour seemed brighter, every feeling more intense and he buzzed with the wonder of it. He didn’t know if it was the aftermath of the sheer rush of the emergency or the challenge of the very brisk Abbie McFarlane but, either way, if he had to stay in Bandarra he had to keep busy. Seducing Abbie McFarlane would be the perfect distraction. He clapped his hands as the seeds of a plan started to shoot. This was going to be too much fun and Abbie McFarlane didn’t stand a chance.
CHAPTER FOUR
ABBIE let Murphy, her Border collie, pull her along the path, totally oblivious to the usually soothing gnarled river red-gums with their silver and grey bark. Not even the majestic sight of fifteen pelicans coming in to land on the blue-brown river water could haul her mind away from the fact that Leo Costa was staying in Bandarra.
She gave a half-laugh tinged with madness that had Murphy looking up at her, his tawny-gold eyes quizzical. She’d been dreading Justin leaving, knowing that her workload would double. Now that seemed like a saving grace because she’d be so flat out virtually living at the clinic and the hospital that she’d never have any time in town to run into Leo. Who knew work would save her?
The magpies’ early morning call drifted towards her and she heard a message in the flute-like song. Work had saved her before. Greg might have stripped her of everything else, but he hadn’t been able to take away her job. She’d survived and rebuilt her independence. Never again would she confuse lust with love, charm for affection, or control for care. Now she had the unconditional love of a dog, which she’d choose every single time over the pile of broken promises men left in their wake.
‘Come on, Murph, time for breakfa
st at the clinic.’ She broke into a jog, channelling all her energies into the run, driving away every unsettling thought of an onyx-eyed man with broad shoulders that hinted at being able to shelter those he loved from the world.
The clinic was in the hospital grounds and housed in the original Bandarra hospital which had been lovingly restored in its centennial year. With its high gabled roof, tall chimneys and cream-painted decorative timber, it welcomed patients with its sweeping veranda and kangaroo motifs worked lovingly into the mosaic floor. Abbie had seen an old photo from 1908 where a hammock hung on the veranda so she’d bought a brightly coloured hammock and had slung it between the last two posts on the front veranda. One day she planned to have time to lie in it for more than the brief ‘test’ she’d taken when she’d installed it. Meanwhile Murphy enjoyed lying underneath it, using it as shade.
The thick brick walls always offered a respite from the heat. ‘Morning, Debbie,’ Abbie called to her practice nurse as she made her way into the cool kitchen, her stomach rumbling at the thought of fresh grapes just off the vine combined with locally made yoghurt drizzled with honey. ‘Where’s Jessica?’
Debbie followed her into the kitchen. ‘She’s come down with a filthy cold so I’m afraid we’re juggling reception and patients today.’
Abbie groaned. ‘That’s a great start to being one doctor down. Has anything come from the board about a new appointee?’ She dropped thick slices of crusty bakery bread into the toaster.
‘Robert Gleeson said he’s had applications from Egypt, India and Kenya and he’d be catching up with you soon for interview times.’
Abbie sighed. Rural medicine seemed to only attract doctors with the ‘short-term’ in mind and then they left just as she’d trained them up. The thought reminded her that yesterday’s emergency had got in the way of a farewell. ‘Is Justin able to have his party tonight?’