The Nurse Who Stole His Heart

by Alison Roberts

  The gesture was so tender it made Luke’s heart ache but his head was still grappling with new thoughts that seemed increasingly important. Maybe Anahera had convinced herself she wasn’t really lying to him. She had, after all, told him part of the truth.

  But she’d made love with him and still hadn’t told him.

  He’d done the same thing, though, hadn’t he? He’d made love with her without telling her anything about Jane. Hana had been conceived on one of those stolen nights. How many opportunities had he had to tell her the truth? Opportunities that had only became impossible to grasp because he’d known that if he had, Anahera would never have allowed that kind of intimacy. He’d wanted—needed—it too much to risk that.

  But that had been then and this was now.

  The destruction of his trust in Anahera ever since he’d learned the truth made the idea of being that close to her seem abhorrent. You couldn’t make love with someone you couldn’t trust.

  His head was spinning. Anahera must have felt like that when she’d lost her trust in him. Even if they’d been in the same place, she wouldn’t have wanted to talk to him, let alone be close enough to touch.

  What had changed?

  She must have forgiven him, that was what it was.

  And she must have wanted to be with him as much as he had wanted to be with her.

  She’d told him that she’d loved him more than she thought it was possible to love anyone.

  Had.

  Past tense. She’d also said that it was too late.

  It was always too late, Luke. We just didn’t know it...

  ‘It’s not too late.’

  ‘What?’ Anahera’s head came up with a jerk.

  Oh, God...had he said that aloud? This wasn’t the time or the place to talk about anything in the past or even what could still be between them now. This time was about Hana. Nothing else mattered.

  Her face was white. ‘Did you say it was too late?’

  ‘No...the opposite. I said it’s not too late.’

  ‘I don’t understand...’

  Luke was spared having to try and explain by Sam’s return. He had Vailea with him, and Hana woke up and then it was time to take a blood sample and get the procedure of the lumbar puncture over with.

  The topical anaesthetic on her elbow had made getting that sample relatively painless but it was still frightening for Hana, and when the sticky patch was peeled from her back she knew there was more to come and her co-operation ceased.

  ‘I need you to lie on your side, darling. And curl up.’ Anahera was trying to bend Hana’s knees and get her bent so that the spaces between her vertebrae were as wide as possible.

  ‘No-o-o... I want to go home.’ Hana pushed at her mother with her arms and kicked her legs, and her sobs were becoming heartbreaking.

  Sam was pulling on a pair of sterile gloves and looked at Vailea with a head tilt to ask for her help but the older woman was looking almost as upset as Hana. She had a hand pressed to her mouth and it was shaking visibly.

  Luke touched her arm. ‘You go,’ he said quietly. ‘It’s not as bad as it looks. And it’ll be over soon. I’ll come and find you.’

  And then he stepped closer to the bed and crouched so that his head was on the same level as Hana’s.

  ‘Hana?’ He had to raise his voice to cut through her wails and be heard. And he tried to sound as if he had something very exciting to tell her.

  It didn’t work. So Luke clicked his fingers in front of her face. Then he did it again, above his head.

  ‘What’s this, Hana?’

  He clicked them again, close to Hana, to one side of her head and then the other. Up high and down low beneath the level of the bed.

  ‘Do you know what it is?’

  Hana had stopped crying. She stared at Luke as she rolled her head slowly from one side to the other to say ‘no’.

  ‘It’s a butterfly,’ Luke told her. ‘With hiccups.’

  The small, miserable face crumpled again, but this time it was with a smile. A sound emerged that could be a giggle.

  But laughter could turn to tears very easily.

  Luke knew he had only a very small window of time to do something a bit more heroic.

  * * *

  It was the worst thing in the world for a mother to have to restrain her child to allow someone to do something frightening and potentially painful. Anahera couldn’t blame her mother for being unable to help or even watch.

  This was killing her.

  And then Luke stepped in and caught Hana’s attention. In the surprising silence that fell, he began talking in a quiet, gentle voice that was utterly compelling.

  ‘You know how butterflies are caterpillars first and then they change?’

  Hana didn’t say anything or nod but she was clearly listening. The gasping breaths that had fuelled the terrified crying were subsiding into rapid breathing with just the occasional hiccup.

  ‘Did you know they make themselves a little house called a chrysalis so they can hide inside and not come out until they’re a real butterfly?’

  ‘A...a patercillar house?’

  Luke nodded. ‘And you know what? They have to curl up inside that house. Just the way Mummy wants you to curl up now. Could you do that, sweetheart? Could you curl up like a caterpillar?’

  It was the first time Anahera had heard him use an endearment for someone other than herself. The first time she had heard that level of caring. Weirdly, it was making her feel loved so surely Hana could feel it, too?

  She could. The little girl gave an enormous sniff. ‘’Kay...’

  ‘That’s my girl. Caterpillars have lots and lots of legs. How many have you got?’

  ‘Two...’

  ‘That’s right.’ Luke’s smile was genuinely impressed. ‘And they curl them up just like that...’

  It was easy now to slip her arms into place and rest them on Hana’s legs so that she could prevent any movement.

  ‘There’s going to be a little bit of rain on top of your chrysalis now,’ Luke said. ‘Can you feel the cold water dripping on your back?’

  Sam had a lopsided smile on his face as he swabbed Hana’s back with antiseptic. He was clearly as blown away as Anahera was with how effective the distraction was that Luke was providing.

  ‘There might be a little twig that pushes on you, too. It doesn’t hurt, does it? You can just feel it pushing.’

  Sam had injected local anaesthetic into deeper tissues through the numbed top layer of skin. Then he slipped the needle into where it needed to be without so much as a whimper or twitch from Hana. Spinal fluid was always so slow to drip into the test tubes but Anahera couldn’t believe how fast it was all over.

  ‘You can come out of your chrysalis now, sweetheart.’

  ‘Will I have wings?’

  ‘You sure will. Very soon.’

  Anahera widened her eyes. Luke was new to being a parent but surely he knew he shouldn’t make promises he couldn’t keep?

  Not that it mattered. The procedure was over and Hana was happy and it was all thanks to Luke.

  She had never loved him more than she did right then. Releasing the gentle hold she’d had on her daughter, she looked up to meet his gaze, and his eyes were as gentle as his tone had been with Hana. The smile that curled his lips was slow and so beautiful. The kind of smile she’d never thought she’d receive from him again.

  Was it so impossible to believe that he could forgive her?

  That, somehow, in the midst of this apparent crisis, he’d done so already?

  ‘I’ll go and start testing this.’ Sam was collecting up the test tubes. ‘She might have a bit of a headache for a while but hopefully the paracetamol she’s got on board will deal with that. We’ll top up the dos
e soon.’

  The anti-inflammatory did seem to prevent the headache that was a common side effect from having some spinal fluid removed. It seemed to be helping with the fever, too. Hana’s cheeks were looking less flushed. She fell asleep again, but this time it seemed less alarming—the sleep of a small child who was worn out by unusual events.

  Or was that wishful thinking?

  Like Hana growing wings?

  ‘She’ll want them,’ she warned Luke. ‘Those wings you promised her.’

  ‘I wouldn’t promise anything I couldn’t deliver.’

  Anahera’s heart skipped a beat at the serious note in his voice. He was giving her a message that had nothing to do with a promise made to a child.

  But then he smiled. ‘I was playing around online last night, wondering what I could get for Hana for her birthday. I found a pink sparkly fairy outfit that comes with a set of wings. I admit I’m no expert in such things, but it looked to me like fairy wings are pretty much the same as butterfly wings. It should be on the next supply plane that comes out.’

  ‘Oh...’ Why on earth had she never thought of that? ‘She’ll love that...’

  If she was well enough. A lot could happen in the few days before the next plane was due from the mainland.

  It was an opportune moment for Sam to come into the room. He had Vailea with him and her smile made Anahera catch and hold her breath. Did she already know something? Something good?

  ‘First results look great,’ he said. ‘Completely normal. I really don’t think we’re looking at anything more than your average kiddy bug. We’ll still keep her in overnight for everybody’s peace of mind but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she bounces back to her normal gorgeous self by tomorrow morning.’

  Anahera burst into tears and threw herself into Luke’s arms.

  Or maybe he had pulled her into them.

  It didn’t matter. They both needed this fierce hug that was a release from the worst fear in the world.

  They needed each other.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  ‘HERE. THIS IS the place.’

  It was the wooden bench in the hospital’s tropical garden where Luke had kissed her as the sun had risen after that long night when Tane had been admitted.

  Vailea had been happy to sit with her granddaughter. She’d practically shooed Anahera and Luke out the door of the room when they’d finally stopped hugging each other.

  ‘Go.’ She’d smiled. ‘Find a quiet place. You two need to talk.’

  And Luke had chosen this place. The spot where he’d been able to drag her back in time and make her realise that she’d never stopped loving him.

  She never would.

  And it felt... It felt like Luke didn’t want her to. He had taken her hand as they’d left Hana’s room and he still hadn’t let it go by the time they sat down on the bench. If anything, he was holding it even more tightly. Looking at her as if there was something of the utmost importance that he wanted to say but was struggling to find the words.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he finally managed. ‘You’re a better person than I am, Ana.’

  ‘What?’ Anahera blinked.

  ‘I judged you. I couldn’t get my head around how you could have slept with me when you hadn’t told me the truth, and then I realised I’d done the same thing to you when I didn’t tell you about Jane.’

  ‘But that was a long time ago. And it was me who judged you. And I was wrong. I knew that as soon as you told me.’

  ‘And you forgave me, didn’t you? Otherwise you wouldn’t have... You couldn’t have been so...’

  He had to be referring to that intense connection between them when they’d made love. Had it only been the night before last? The memory was still fresh enough to bring a flush of colour to Anahera’s cheeks and a very noticeable warmth to far more private parts of her body.

  She managed a smile. ‘Of course not. There’s nothing to forgive anyway, because I understand. It was my fault. I should have listened when I had the chance. I—’

  Luke’s finger on her lips stopped her words.

  ‘And I understand now, too. What it feels like to be a parent. There’s nothing for me to forgive either.’

  ‘But you’ve missed so much...’

  ‘Then let’s make sure I don’t miss any more. I still love you, Ana. I will never stop loving you. I know you think there’s no way to make it work but...but we have to try, don’t we?’

  Anahera nodded as tears filled her eyes. She already knew that she’d been wrong to base assumptions on the tragedy that had been her mother’s love story but there would be another time to tell him about that. She had something more important to say.

  ‘I love you, too, Luke. And we’ll find a way to make it work. You’re right. We have to. For Hana’s sake.’

  Luke’s smile was crooked. ‘For my sake, too. I can’t imagine my life without you. I want to marry you, Ana. I want to have more children with you. I don’t know how we’ll do it but I want... Dammit, I want it all.’

  This time it seemed quite okay to be a bit selfish.

  ‘I want it, too,’ Anahera whispered. ‘Every bit of it.’

  In some ways this kiss was very like the first one they had shared in this very spot. It was inevitable. A reminder of every past touch—every loving gesture.

  It was still the feeling of coming home.

  But at the same time, it was so much more than the last kiss had been because this time it held a solemn promise of what the future would hold.

  And yet Luke was frowning as he finally let Anahera take a proper breath.

  ‘I’ll have to go back to London very soon. I’ll have to sort out how I’m going to change my job.’ He smiled again. ‘You know, my senior registrar has been eyeing up my job for years. If I gave him the chance to job-share, I think he’d be over the moon.’

  ‘So you could spend time here on the island as well? That would be perfect.’

  But he shook his head. ‘Not when I’ll have to leave you behind. And Hana, when I’m only starting to get to know her.’

  ‘We could come with you. I’m not going to let you completely sacrifice the life you already have. And certainly not your job. You’re doing things that are too important—for people like our islanders, amongst others. You and that friend of yours—Harry? You’re going to change a lot of people’s lives if this vaccine works.’

  ‘But it’s winter in London at the moment. It’s cold and grey and...you’d hate it. Hana would hate it.’

  ‘Not if she could go to the patercillar house.’

  Luke’s smile made the corners of his eyes crinkle in a way Anahera had never seen before and she fell a little bit more in love with him—the way she had when she’d been there to share the way he had calmed and distracted Hana so that what could have been a horrible procedure had become almost a game. And the way he had cared for her mother, making it okay for her to leave when she’d been finding things unbearable.

  As if it was an extension of her thoughts, Vailea appeared on the garden path, looking a little tentative as she approached in case she was interrupting something important.

  ‘Hana’s awake,’ she told them. ‘And she really wants an ice cream. I can get one from the kitchen, but I thought you might like to be the ones to give it to her.’

  She had to be feeling a lot better if she was asking for ice cream. A smile curled Anahera’s lips and then kept growing.

  ‘We can give her something even better to go with that ice cream,’ she told her mother. ‘We can give her a daddy.’

  Luke’s sharp intake of breath was an echo of the expression on Vailea’s face.

  ‘It’s not...too soon to tell her?’

  ‘No.’ Anahera caught Luke’s hand and stood up, bringing him to his feet as
well. ‘It’s not too soon.’

  She was still smiling like the happiest woman in the world as she looked up at the man she loved. ‘And you were right. It’s not too late either.’

  Luke bent his head to kiss her again. ‘Let’s do it,’ he whispered into her hair. ‘Let’s make a family.’

  And that was exactly what they did.

  * * * * *

  Connect with us for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers, free online reads and much more!

  Sign up to our newsletter

  Share your reading experience on:

  Mills & Boon Australia site

  Facebook

  Twitter

  Watch our reviews, author interviews and more on Mills & Boon TV

  IMPRINT: Medical

  ISBN: 9781489206060

  TITLE: THE NURSE WHO STOLE HIS HEART

  First Australian Publication 2016

  Copyright © 2016 Alison Roberts

  All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Mills & Boon®, Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia 2000.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and ™ are trademarks owned by Harlequin Enterprises Limited or its corporate affiliates and used by others under licence. Trademarks marked with an ® are registered in Australia and in other countries. Contact admin_legal@Harlequin.ca for details.

  www.millsandboon.com.au