by Sarah Morgan
‘Yes. Although occasionally I worry about my children. Inevitably I’m called out more than I’d like to be.’
‘How do you cope with child care? I would have thought you’d have a live-in nanny.’
‘I didn’t want someone living in our home,’ Patrick said quietly. ‘I wanted it to be just us. A family. But it’s harder that way—requires more planning. Posy comes to the nursery in the hospital—that’s easy. Alfie goes to school. And I use Mrs Thornton before and after school. And she stays the night occasionally if she has to.’
Hayley grinned. ‘This is the same Mrs Thornton who wears scary red lipstick and fancies you?’
Captivated by her smile, Patrick had to force himself to concentrate. ‘That’s the one. She’s actually very good with the children. And she’s relatively local, which helps. Although clearly I have to make sure I’m not alone in a room with her.’
Hayley looked at him. ‘Well, I’m sure it’s hard, juggling work with children, but you obviously thrive on it. You look very happy for a man who’s working on Christmas Day.’
Did he?
Patrick gave a start. He was happy, he realised. Very happy. Just being around her made him want to smile. That realisation unsettled him. ‘It’s Christmas Day,’ he said blandly, standing up and throwing his cup in the bin. ‘And my friends are about to have a baby. Plenty to smile about.’
Hayley stood up too. ‘Christmas babies are always exciting.’ Her eyes sparkled and Patrick suddenly wanted to box her up like a present and keep her in his life for ever.
Seriously spooked by his thoughts, he dragged his gaze from hers and pushed open the door. ‘Come on. We’d better get back before Tom has a nervous breakdown.’
Over the next few hours, Hayley stayed with Sally, monitoring mother and baby.
‘Tell me I’m making progress,’ Sally moaned, and Hayley smiled and dimmed the lights slightly.
‘You’re making excellent progress. I’m proud of you.’ As she finished speaking the door opened and Patrick strolled into the room.
‘Hi, there. Just checking up on you.’ Patrick squatted down next to Sally and touched her arm. ‘How are things?’
Hayley’s heart was bumping so hard she turned away and concentrated on the charts to give herself a moment to recover.
‘I’m never sleeping in the same bed as Tom again if that’s what you’re asking me.’ Sally breathed in deeply. ‘And I want Hayley to come and live with me and be my new best friend. Apart from that, everything is fine.’
Realising that if she didn’t respond she’d draw attention to herself, Hayley turned with a smile. ‘I’ll come and live with you. You make me laugh and you have the same size feet as me. I can borrow your shoes.’
Patrick glanced at Tom. ‘You’re looking tense. What’s the matter?’
‘I want her out of the water,’ Tom muttered, but Sally rolled her eyes and Patrick stood up and took the charts from Hayley.
‘This is looking fine.’ He scanned them carefully. ‘Remind me how long she’s been in the water?’
Hayley checked the clock. ‘Four hours.’ She lifted her eyebrows. ‘That went quickly.’
‘It’s because we were talking about the three S’s.’ Sally tightened her grip on the side of the pool. ‘Shoes, shopping and sex.’
‘Sex?’ Patrick’s eyes narrowed and he turned to look at Hayley, a question in his eyes.
She tried to look innocent but felt her cheeks growing hotter and hotter under his sharp blue gaze.
He knew. He knew she’d been talking about him.
Oh, help—couldn’t Sally have been a little more discreet?
‘Nothing like a conversation about sex to remind a girl how she got herself in this mess,’ Sally said blithely, and Hayley squirmed.
‘I think I’ll just get myself a quick drink as the two of you are here.’ Desperate to escape, she pushed the aqua Doppler into Patrick’s hand and slunk towards the door. ‘Back in a minute.’
Chapter Five
HAYLEY hunted down somewhere to hide her burning face. Why had Sally been so tactless? What on earth was she going to say to Patrick? She wished she hadn’t been so honest with Sally. Slinking along the corridor, she found a staffroom. Fortunately it was empty, several half-drunk cups of cold coffee abandoned in the middle of the table.
New Year’s resolution, she told herself firmly.
No more talking about herself. Ever.
‘So whose sex life were you talking about?’ Patrick’s voice came from behind her and she spun round nervously.
‘Oh, I thought you were with Sally.’
‘Tom’s with Sally. Despite his apparent ineptitude he is, in fact, more than capable of monitoring his own wife for ten minutes.’ Patrick’s gaze didn’t shift from her face. ‘So?’
‘So, what?’ Keeping her tone innocent, Hayley avoided the subject, hoping he’d just give up. ‘Sally’s lovely, isn’t she?’
‘Delightful. She’s also extremely preoccupied with my love life.’
‘She cares about you. Do you want tea? Coffee? No, of course you don’t. You want to get back to Sally.’ She looked at him pointedly but he didn’t move.
‘How much did you tell her?’
Hayley looked around desperately, wondering if the staffroom had an emergency exit. She had a feeling she was going to need it. What had Sally said to him? She tried to buy herself some time, hoping that his mobile would ring. ‘What makes you think I told her anything?’
‘Hayley.’ Patrick’s voice was patient. ‘There is a taxi driver a few miles from here who knows everything about you from your bra size down to the colour of your knickers, and you were only in his vehicle for fifteen minutes. You’ve been with Sally for the best part of six hours so I think it’s fair to assume that she has a fairly good grasp of your life story by now.’
‘I did not tell him the colour of my—That was a total accident because he just happened to pick the phone up when I was talking to you and that was absolutely not my fault.’ Affronted, Hayley looked at him but still his gaze didn’t shift from hers and she scowled. ‘Did you ever think about being a lawyer? You should be a lawyer. You have a way of looking at people that makes them want to confess to things they didn’t do. Could you stop looking at me like that?’
Patrick’s brows lifted, but there was a glimmer of humour in his eyes. ‘How am I looking at you?’
‘Like I’m an idiot,’ Hayley mumbled, and the humour faded.
‘Hayley, I do not think you’re an idiot. Far from it. On the contrary, I think you’re an exceptional midwife. Really exceptional. Sally isn’t an easy patient and you’ve got her eating out of your hand.’
‘That’s different.’ Hayley stopped the pretence of making tea. ‘That’s my job. But the rest of it—I feel guilty,’ she admitted hopelessly. ‘And, yes, I feel like an idiot because I should have been able to find some way of smoothly deflecting her questions, instead of which I just blurted everything out like I always do.’ She gave him a look of helpless apology. ‘Why do I always do that? Why can’t I just be discreet and enigmatic?’
‘I’m not sure if that was a rhetorical question but if you really want an answer then I suspect it has something to do with the fact that you’re incurably honest.’
‘Well, whatever it is I am, I wish I was something different.’ Frustrated with herself, Hayley flopped down onto the chair and buried her face in her hands. ‘I’m so sorry. I messed up. I admit it. I didn’t want to say anything, I didn’t want to embarrass you, but Sally sort of wormed it out of me and if I hadn’t answered I would have looked rude. She’s a patient and a consultant’s wife and anyway she sort of guessed and—’
‘Hayley, breathe.’
‘Sorry?’ She glanced up at him and saw that the humour was back in his eyes.
‘As usual, you’re forgetting to breathe. You’re going to pass out.’
‘I never pass out. I’ve never fainted in my life.’
‘Then let’s
not make today the first time.’
‘Look, I feel really guilty, OK? I mean, this is where you work.’ Nervous under his steady gaze, she pulled the clips out of her hair, twisted it and pinned it up again. ‘And I can understand that you don’t want people gossiping about you. I’m really sorry I told her.’
‘In the interests of consistency, what exactly did you tell her?’
‘The truth, of course.’
Patrick studied her for a moment, a strange look in his eyes. ‘How much of the truth?’
‘Enough. I mean, I didn’t tell her absolutely everything—’ Hayley frowned, trying to remember exactly what she had said. ‘I definitely missed out the part where you thought I was pregnant and I skirted over the bit where you kissed me in the kitchen.’ Her face burned at the memory. ‘But I might have mentioned one or two things about that night in Chicago.’
His face was poker straight. ‘Did you tell her that you left your knickers on my bedroom floor?’
Hayley squirmed. ‘Maybe. Possibly. It might have been mentioned.’
The corner of his mouth flickered. ‘It sounds to me as though you’ve been the soul of discretion.’
‘You’re laughing at me again.’
‘I’m not laughing. Hayley you’re so sensitive—’
‘Because I know I keep saying the wrong things at the wrong time! I just can’t stop myself. My mouth is constantly getting me into trouble.’ She heard him draw in a breath and saw his gaze drop to her mouth and linger there as if he was thinking about…
And so was she.
She was thinking about nothing else. Sex, sex, sex. That was the only thing on her mind when she looked at Patrick.
Hayley jumped up and hurried over to the water cooler, wondering whether she could fit her burning body inside it. She’d made a decision that she wasn’t going to think about him in that way. And now she was doing it again. One look, and she was willing to forget all her promises to herself. Really, she needed to do something about herself. Something serious.
‘So you’re not mad with me, then?’ Keeping her tone light, she poured herself a glass of water that she didn’t want.
‘I’m not mad. But I did want to check exactly what you’ve told her so that we give her the same story.’ Patrick joined her at the water cooler and gently removed the cup from her hand, his fingers brushing against hers. ‘Do you mind if I drink that, given that you don’t want it?’
‘How do you know I don’t want it?’ Her voice was a squeak and his eyes gleamed with gentle mockery.
‘Because you’re easy to read.’ His eyes rested on hers for a moment and then he sighed. ‘I think perhaps it’s time I took you home.’
Hayley’s heart pounded like the drum in an orchestra.
He wanted to take her home? Oh, God, yes. Right now. She wanted to try out his enormous bed with the view over the forest. She wanted to see if he could repeat the magic he’d created that night in Chicago.
Staring up at him, her legs wobbled. His eyes were so blue, she thought dreamily—so blue it was like staring into the Caribbean ocean. Lost in a fantasy that involved herself and Patrick on a white sandy beach, it came as a shock when he frowned urgently.
‘Hayley? You need to decide. Is it yes or no? No one is going to judge you. I’ll take you if you want me to.’
She felt a thrill of shock at his unapologetically direct approach.
He wanted her that badly?
‘Gosh, Patrick, I—You make it really hard for a girl to stick with her decisions, I’ll give you that.’ But the fact that he was so desperate for her he just wanted to take her home right now sent excitement pouring through her body. Flustered, she tried to disengage her eyes from his. How was she supposed to think when he was staring down at her with unflinching concentration, as if she was the only thing in his world? ‘I mean it is flattering, obviously, that you feel this way. And I’m not pretending I’m not really tempted—I mean you know I am because I already left one pair of knickers in your room.’ She fiddled with her hair. ‘But the sensible side of me is saying that we ought to give this a bit more thought this time. I suppose what I’m saying is that frankly I’m surprised you even want to take me straight home given what happened last time. I mean, you didn’t contact me, I contacted you. And then you thought I was pregnant—’
He looked taken aback. ‘Hayley—’
‘I know, I know.’ She lifted a hand to silence him. ‘That was all a misunderstanding, but still I think it should remind us both that we have to think about this. Not jump in with both feet. Yes, there’s chemistry. I’m not denying that. But that doesn’t mean that we have to do something about it.’ Who was she kidding? If they didn’t do something about it soon she was going to go screaming mad. Her body was melting, her pelvis was on fire and all she wanted him to do was kiss her the way only he could kiss. ‘I’m just saying I think it might be a mistake. Not that I’m not flattered that you asked, of course—’
‘Hayley.’ His expression hovering somewhere between stunned and incredulous, Patrick ran his hand over his jaw. ‘I was asking whether you wanted to go home.’
‘I know, I heard you, and I still think that—’
‘Because it’s late. I thought you might be very tired.’ He spoke the words slowly, emphasising each one as if she were a small child. ‘You’re jet-lagged. I thought you’d need some rest.’
Rest?
He was suggesting that she go home to rest?
Facing the onset of massive embarrassment, Hayley looked at him stupidly. ‘You want me to—You were suggesting—Oh.’
There was a shimmer of amusement in his eyes, but also a flicker of sympathy. ‘Hayley, listen, don’t for one moment think that I don’t—’
‘If you laugh now, Patrick Buchannan, you will never be able to deliver a baby again,’ she warned huskily, ‘let alone make another one of your own. If you laugh, you will never again have to ask a woman if she’s pregnant.’
‘I’m not laughing.’
‘Good.’ She lifted her chin, trying to hold onto the last shreds of her dignity, trying to look as though this situation was entirely normal and that she didn’t really want to die on the spot. But she saw immediately that this whole misunderstanding was her fault. Because she’d been thinking about nothing but sex, she’d assumed he’d be the same.
‘Right. So you were, in fact, asking whether I want to go home and sleep.’ Hayley cleared her throat and tried to make her voice sound casual. As if she had conversations about sex every day of the week. As if she were a twenty-first-century woman. ‘Of course. That’s fine.’ This was even more embarrassing than realising she’d left her knickers on his bedroom floor.
‘Hayley—’
‘It’s kind of you to offer, but actually I’m not particularly tired.’ She felt like a stripper who had accidentally turned up at children’s party. ‘I don’t need to go back to the house now.’ She was never going back to his house again. As soon as the shift was over she was going to change her identity and leave the country. Maybe she’d become a nun—at least that way she wouldn’t have the opportunity to proposition men.
‘You’ve done us a favour, coming in,’ Patrick said cautiously, watching her closely as if he was afraid she might flip at any moment. ‘You’ve calmed Sally down, it’s probably because of you that she’s progressed. But none of us are for getting it’s Christmas Day and you weren’t supposed to be working. The night staff will be here soon.’
‘Sally is only eight centimetres dilated. I won’t leave until she has the baby.’ And that would mean staying near to Patrick. Oh, Hayley, torture yourself, why don’t you? Still, if things got too bad she could always drown herself in the birthing pool. ‘I’ll stay.’
‘You’re sure?’
‘Oh, yes. I’m very good at decisions. Once I’ve made a decision…’ Hayley snapped her fingers ‘…that’s it. Done. I never change my mind.’ Well, only about three thousand, two hundred and fifty-four times.
&n
bsp; ‘That’s very generous of you. Sally will be relieved—and so will Tom. He rates you, and that’s a compliment coming from Tom.’
Now he was flattering her to make her feel better, Hayley thought gloomily, remembering the sympathy in his eyes. He must think she was a sad, desperate woman. Not wanting to dwell on that, she changed the subject. ‘What are you going to do about the children? It must be Posy’s bedtime.’
‘It is. If you’re sure you’re willing to stay for Sally, I’ll send the kids home with my brother. They won’t complain—they adore Daniel.’
‘So you’re not going to ring the babysitter with the vampire lipstick?’
A sardonic smile flickered across his handsome face. ‘I think we might give her a miss this time. I think spending Christmas night with a vampire might be a little unfair on the kids. Although I have asked her to pop in and check on the kittens.’ His eyes gleamed with irony. ‘Yours and mine.’
‘I love the kittens.’ Why did he have to be so good-looking? It wasn’t fair. Things would have been much easier if he’d been small, earnest and academic. Reminding herself that if he’d been small, earnest and academic, she wouldn’t have left her knickers on his bedroom floor, Hayley smoothed her scrub suit and tried to look professional. As if she hadn’t just made it obvious that her feelings about him were anything but professional. ‘I’d better get back before Tom has a breakdown. You go and sort out the kids.’
‘Alfie advertised for a housekeeper? And he used my credit card?’
‘Yes, but that will teach you to leave it lying around.’ Patrick handed his brother a large bag. ‘This is everything they’re going to need for the night. You know, it might be easier if you just stayed in our house—’
‘No.’ Daniel gave a strange smile. ‘Today I asked Stella to marry me—’
‘I know.’
Daniel’s brows rose. ‘How do you know?’
‘You’re forgetting I have Alfie. He knows everything that goes on around here,’ Patrick said wearily. ‘So, did Stella say yes?’
‘Of course she said yes.’