‘Oh, Azzam,’ Alex said softly, and she slid off the couch to kneel beside him so she could put her arms around his waist and rest her head against him, knowing words alone wouldn’t heal the hurt he was feeling. ‘You did what you had to do. Believe me, I know about family.’
He didn’t answer for a moment then he tilted her chin so he could look into her face.
‘Tell me,’ he commanded, and she found herself obeying, telling him of Rob, of his job in the bank, of his need for ‘stuff’, as she’d always thought of it, and the embezzlement, then his stupidity in thinking he could borrow more to pay it back, her mother’s shame and drawn-out death from cancer, and her—Alex’s—determination to protect her brother’s wife and child from the money-lender and to clear the family name.
‘I’m getting there,’ she said, ‘and I didn’t thank you for paying me those wages. I know you must have put the money into my account because the money-lender’s bully hasn’t been to see me.’
‘Wages? You thought all I’d paid you were some piddling wages?’
He seemed angry again.
‘Why would you have paid me more? Why would I have expected there to be more?’
Azzam found himself groaning again. How stupid had he been to have even thought of judging this woman by his experience with Clarice?
He stood up, lifted the woman he loved with ease then sat down on the divan with her in his lap.
‘Later, you will tell me how we can repay these debts, and maybe make life easier for your sister-in-law and niece, but now I need to apologise to you because right from the beginning I let the past and my experience with Clarice when she first came to Al Janeen influence my judgement of you. Yet that first time I saw you in the rose garden I felt something for you, and afterwards, when I watched the way you helped the children at the earthquake village and held the orphans in your arms, I understood you had that rarest of gifts, a love that reached out to all humanity.’
He kissed her neck, lifting her hair and pressing his lips to the pale skin.
‘That’s when I fell in love, although maybe I fell a little bit in love in the rose garden when you turned on me with such fierce anger. This is a woman with iron in her soul, I thought, and was intrigued.’
‘Iron in my soul?’ Alex echoed, but she’d turned her head and was kissing his ear as she spoke, teeth nipping at it. ‘I’m not at all sure that’s a compliment.’
He moved so their lips met.
‘Believe me, it is. My country needs women with iron in their souls as leaders of the community, and I—’ he kissed her more firmly ‘—I need a woman with iron in her soul as my consort, and in my bed as well, and as mother of my children, and grandmother of my grandchildren—’
She broke away.
‘The children? I didn’t think! I was so surprised to see you my mind went blank. The children are all right? Did anyone find out anything about their father? Is the new oasis dug? Is the village being rebuilt?’
Azzam smiled at her.
‘The children are well and happy. The baby is starting to walk around furniture, Zahid’s arm is out of the cast, and Tasnim asks me every day when you are coming back. She tells me she is learning English words from Ghaada so she can talk to you. As to the rest, you must come and see for yourself. We cannot marry yet, you and I, because of the mourning period, but you will return with me and we will be together as misyar man and wife, then in time we will have a more formal marriage, maybe out beside the lagoon, just you and me, Samarah and Hafa as witnesses, and the children, for they, too, are special to us both.’
Had she rubbed the lamp unintentionally? Or was this real? Alex returned the kisses Azzam was pressing on her lips, but her mind was not on kisses. It was whirling, doing sums—if the million dollars was really hers, she could pay off the debt then buy a house for her sister-in-law and niece, and have plenty left over to invest for her niece’s future, enough to pay for any equipment or treatment she might need. And surely she, Alex, could fly them over for a visit, take them to the blushing lagoon and out to the village, show them the desert …
‘I’ve lost you,’ Azzam said, straightening up and looking at her with a slightly wary expression on his face.
‘It’s okay,’ she assured him. ‘I was just tying off some loose ends in my head. I’m with you now.’
And she kissed him to show that she was.
SIX-WEEK
MARRIAGE
MIRACLE
JESSICA MATTHEWS
JESSICA MATTHEWS’S interest in medicine began at a young age, and she nourished it with medical stories and hospital-based television programmes. After a stint as a teenage candy-striper, she pursued a career as a clinical laboratory scientist. When not writing or on duty, she fills her day with countless family and school-related activities. Jessica lives in the central United States, with her husband, daughter and son.
“I want us to reverse course. To go back to the way we were. Before everything happened.”
“As great as the idea sounds, I don’t know if we can,” she said honestly. “We aren’t the same starry-eyed people we once were, and no amount of magical fairy dust will change us back.”
He tugged her arm until she didn’t have a choice but to perch on the edge of his bed. “Maybe we aren’t the young, naive kids we once were. Maybe the hopes and dreams we once had have died. But that doesn’t mean we can’t create new ones. Together.”
Darn it, but his grip was comforting, and once again his voice was so sincere—so full of faith—that the wall she’d created in her heart to hold back her hurts and disappointments began to crumble. Quickly she struggled to shore up those widening cracks, before emotions overwhelmed her.
Recent titles by the same author:
EMERGENCY: PARENTS NEEDED
THE ROYAL DOCTOR’S BRIDE
Dedication
To Judi Fennell for her Spanish language expertise.
Any errors are my own.
To adoptive and foster parents across the world.
Your generous spirit is truly an inspiration to all of us.
CHAPTER ONE
“ANOTHER ambulance is coming.”
Leah Montgomery didn’t spare her nursing colleague a glance as she stripped the used hospital sheets from the bed. “Tell me something I don’t already know,” she said wryly. “The moon was full when we came to work this morning.”
Although it wasn’t a scientific fact, hospital staff the world over recognized and accepted that full-moon shifts were the proverbial shifts from hell. So far, this was shaping up to be one of them. Everything from car wrecks, heart attacks, lawn mower accidents, and simple sore throats had flooded the Spring Valley ER on this hot August day.
While many of her staff bemoaned the extra workload, she didn’t mind the increased pace at all. Being busy kept her mind off things she didn’t want to think about—things like her husband’s plane crashing in the Mexican jungle a month ago today. Or the report stating that there were no survivors, which meant Gabe was dead.
Dead!
After four painfully long weeks, it still seemed surreal, as if she might wake up some morning and discover she’d simply had a horrible nightmare. To her disappointment, each day was like the one before—the facts hadn’t changed overnight. Neither did they change when she worked until she was too exhausted to reflect on the losses in her life.
If her boss would allow it, she’d cover more shifts than her PRN status allowed in order to keep her demons at bay. She was willing to do anything to stay busy until time took away the anguish over her last conversation with Gabe—the one where she’d asked to make their separation permanent with a divorce.
Some might call her crazy, others might say she was being silly and sentimental, but the truth was, she was mourning for Gabe on so many levels. Grieving that his vibrant life had been cut short at age thirty-eight; grieving that their marriage had reached an impasse; grieving for the loss of their dreams and missed opportunities. Was it an
y wonder she needed the fast pace of the hospital, the steady stream of new patients and drama as a life raft she could climb aboard?
“I hear Maternity is swamped,” Jane rattled on, blithely unaware of Leah’s inattention. “They’re so packed with new moms, they’re overflowing into the med-surg unit.” She unfolded a fresh sheet and began tucking the corners under the mattress.
Leah pictured a nursery filled with bassinets of sleeping babies wearing pink or blue stocking hats, the hallway crowded with beaming fathers and proud grandparents while new mothers, some having already forgotten the pain of childbirth, looked on benevolently. She didn’t begrudge the new families their happiness, but a familiar pang of disappointment shot through her chest.
At one time, she’d imagined herself in similar circumstances, with her parents waiting for their first peek at her child while Gabe passed out the bubblegum cigars and strutted as only a new father could. She’d fallen pregnant almost immediately after they’d decided it was time to start their family, making that dream seem like a sure thing and easily within her grasp. In her mind, and Gabe’s, the future couldn’t have been brighter.
Life, however, had rewritten her beautifully scripted scene.
Instead of joining the ranks of other new mothers, she’d become one of a small percentage of women who became a gynecological emergency. Shortly after entering her last trimester of an unremarkable pregnancy, her placenta had separated without warning. She’d lost the baby as well as her hopes for future children when profuse and unstoppable bleeding had necessitated a hysterectomy. Afterwards, she’d been whisked away to the surgical floor where babies weren’t seen or heard.
Her parents had been there for her, of course, but pity, not pride, had shown on their faces. As for Gabe … he’d been on one of his occasional trips for the Montgomery family’s medical foundation. He’d come as soon as her parents had called him, but time zones and flight schedules had prevented his return until the day she was ready to be released.
“I just love to stop and peek at the newborns,” Jane gushed. “They have such cute little wrinkled faces.” Suddenly, she stopped short. “Oh, Leah. Here I am, babbling on so insensitively about babies after everything you’ve been through. First a miscarriage, then the adoption fiasco—”
Leah cut off her friend’s reminder of their failed foray into the world of adoption. After her surgery, still hazy from the grief of her loss, Gabe had convinced her to think about adoption and then so many things had fallen into place with amazing speed—Gabe’s lawyer had known a young woman who’d wanted to relinquish her baby. They’d hurriedly filled out the necessary paperwork and completed the required governmental home studies and background checks. The entire time the birth mother had been adamant about her choice—she was making the right decision for both her and her unborn child. Yet when the hour arrived for Leah and Gabe to pick up the baby from the hospital, the young woman had changed her mind and Leah had once again driven home empty-handed.
Leah couldn’t fault the girl for her change of heart—it had to be difficult to relinquish one’s child, especially after seeing that tiny person for the first time—but understanding didn’t take away her gut-wrenching disappointment.
“It’s okay,” she lied. “I don’t fall apart just because someone talks about babies or mentions how cute they are.”
Admittedly, they were, but seeing those adorable little faces was tough, which was why she never, ever, entered the secured area to stare at them through the plate-glass window. Why add insult to injury? she’d rationalized.
“I know, but—”
“It’s okay,” Leah repeated, as much for her own benefit as Jane’s. “Honestly.”
Jane nodded, but the worried wrinkle between her eyes suggested her good-mood bubble had burst. Determined to regain their easy footing, Leah thought it best to gently steer the conversation in another direction, for both their sakes.
“OB isn’t the only busy department in this place,” she commented as she tucked a fitted sheet around a corner of the mattress. “Our daily patient census is above average across the entire hospital and we both know our ED visit numbers are up, too. The extra business should make the bean counters happy.”
“Maybe this year we’ll get a Christmas bonus for a job well done,” Jane responded hopefully.
Word from the last supervisors’ meeting was that the possibility was remote, but Leah wasn’t going to rain on Jane’s picnic. “Maybe, but, bonus or not, more patients means more nursing staff are necessary, which means I work more often.”
Jane paused from working on her own two bed corners. “Look, hon,” she said kindly. “I know you’re probably feeling guilty because you’d never resolved your differences with Gabe, but killing yourself now that he’s gone, working sixty-plus hours a week, isn’t the way to cope.”
“I’m not killing myself,” Leah protested mildly, pointedly ignoring Jane’s opinion about her reasons for the pace she’d set for herself. “I’m merely keeping busy. Just like I have for the past year.”
“Keeping busy is one thing. Doubling your hours is another.”
“Okay, so I am working a few more hours,” Leah conceded reluctantly, “but I was off duty yesterday and I spent the day puttering around the house. And then I treated myself to dinner and a movie.”
“Dinner and a movie?” Jane’s eyes brimmed with curiosity. “Did you finally put Jeff out of his misery and go on a date?”
About six months ago, Dr. Jeff Warren, one of Spring Valley’s ED physicians, had invited her to a concert, then a community theater play. Both times she’d declined, not because she didn’t enjoy his company or didn’t want to attend those particular events. No, she’d gently refused his invitation because in spite of being separated from her husband of ten years, going out with another man while she was still officially married made her feel as if she was cheating.
Which was why she’d wanted Gabe’s signature on those divorce papers. It was past time to stop expecting a miracle and start thinking about the future—her future—instead of the past. As it had turned out, she didn’t need his signature after all.
Leah shot her friend a spare-me look. “Are you kidding?” she asked. “I haven’t even buried Gabe and you’re asking if I’m seeing Jeff?”
“Buried or not, you’ve been separated for over a year,” Jane reminded her. “It’s time to move on.”
“I will,” Leah promised. “But I can’t until I’ve dotted all my ‘i’s and crossed all the ‘t’s.”
Jane rolled her eyes. “What’s left to dot and cross? From what you’ve said, his body may never come home.”
How well she knew that. The Mexican authorities had reported the discovery of the airplane’s charred remains in a ravine. They lacked the resources to recover the bodies and in their bureaucratic minds the burned-out shell of the aircraft made it pointless to do so. Undaunted, and after greasing palms for several weeks, Gabe’s second-in-command Sheldon Redfern had received permission to send in a private recovery team. As of yesterday, they hadn’t reported any more encouraging news than what the authorities had already shared.
Their success, however, wasn’t the reason she was dragging her feet …
“The annual foundation fund-raiser is coming up in a few months,” she pointed out. “It seems tacky to plan a tribute to my deceased husband while I’m dating someone else.” Their relationship may have been rocky the last two years and she might be finally ready to look for male companionship and find romance again, but in honor of the good times and the love they’d once shared, she owed it to Gabe to wait.
“Did you tell that to Jeff?”
She nodded, remembering their conversation. He’d been so understanding, which not only came as a relief but also endeared him to her all the more. “He’s agreed to give me time,” she said, deciding not to mention that she’d set their first official date for the Saturday night after the fundraiser. If Jane knew that, she’d be bouncing off the walls with e
xcitement and Leah didn’t want to see her sly smiles and winks in the meantime.
Jane stared at her thoughtfully. “Personally, I think you’re worried too much about what other people think, but another month or two won’t make much difference. Just be sure your decision to stay out of the dating game is based on the right reasons.”
“What other reason could I have?”
Jane shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe that you still love Gabe and are waiting for the ultimate proof that he won’t be coming back.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” She avoided her friend’s gaze because she didn’t want Jane to recognize what she herself refused to dwell on or admit. “If I loved him, why would I have moved out?”
“You tell me. I just don’t want you to be stuck on hold for the rest of your life.”
“I’m not,” Leah insisted. “I’m merely being cautious. There’s no sense rushing into something I might come to regret.” She grabbed a fresh cotton blanket and shook it out of its folds with a decisive snap, effectively signaling an end to their conversation. “Do you know what’s coming in next?”
Jane shook her head. “All I heard was that they were bringing in three from the airport.”
“The airport?” She considered for a moment. “Bigwigs, no doubt.”
“What makes you say that?”
“It’s probably food related and the only folks who get food on a plane are seated in first class. And who usually can afford to sit in first class?”
“Ah.” Jane’s eyes gleamed. “Bigwigs.”
“Exactly.”
“You’re stereotyping, you know. Regular people buy first-class tickets, too.”
Leah flashed her a wide smile. “Okay, so I’m generalizing but, mark my words, it won’t be three average Joes who roll into our ambulance bay. They’ll be fellows wearing suits and ties, carrying briefcases and BlackBerrys, and wanting a magic pill to fix whatever ails them. Oh, and can we hurry because they’re already late for a meeting.”
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