by Lucy Clark
‘Feels it.’
‘If that’s really how you see yourself, then you’re looking in the wrong mirror, my friend, because I see someone completely different. Your face has character and I love the story about how you broke your nose.’
‘Character. Right. That’s just another way of saying I’m ugly.’
‘You are not and I don’t want to hear you talking like that. Annie…you’re beautiful.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Yeah. I’d give anything to have your natural curls and so would a lot of other women. You are generous, nurturing and clever.’
‘So why don’t the men I date stick around?’
‘Maybe they’re intimidated by your brilliance?’
‘Yeah, right.’ Annie laughed but it ended on a sigh. ‘I’m going to be forty soon, Tash. Forty! I just want to get married, have children and be happy.’
‘And you will.’
‘When?’
‘I don’t know but give it some time. It’s only been three months since you called off the wedding.’
‘Since Adam called off the wedding, you mean.’
‘You told me it was a mutual agreement.’
‘Yeah…but he voiced the idea first.’
‘But you were thinking it, you even told me as much. Anyway, I’m not suggesting you get serious with Mr Gorgeous-Next-Door—’
‘Professor Gorgeous-Next-Door to you.’ Annie tried to inject a bit of humour into the conversation.
‘Whatever…But…I don’t know, use him as a mental diversion.’
‘A mental diversion? Are you listening to yourself?’
‘Must be Brenton’s bad influence.’ Natasha laughed. ‘Look. Every woman needs a transitional man and I just—’
‘Are you crazy? In three days’ time, he’ll be my boss!’
‘As women, we focus our minds on problems far too conscientiously. We get so wrapped up in things, nuances, gestures, innuendoes. You were the one wanting a change—all I’m suggesting here is a change in mental thought. You don’t need to follow through with anything, just allow yourself some private little…I don’t know…’
‘Fantasies?’ Annie supplied.
‘Flirtations,’ Natasha said firmly. ‘Sometimes, just the idea that someone else might be interested in you can go a long way to restoring self-confidence. Do you follow? It might help to just lighten your thoughts and that way you might start sleeping a bit better at night.’
‘How did you—’
‘You lived in our house after the fire, Annie. Even though you were doing shifts, I know the signs of a restless sleeper. I used to be one years ago, remember?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Think about it,’ Natasha ventured. ‘I have to go. It’s time for Rachael and the twins to go to bed so I’d better go kiss them goodnight.’
‘Give them one from me.’
‘Will do. Speak to you tomorrow. Bye.’
After Annie had replaced the receiver, she stayed on the floor, thinking over what Natasha had said and finally decided her friend had a point. Perhaps what she needed was a little mental diversion. It wouldn’t be anything serious and it certainly wouldn’t mean anything.
The sound of water running came through the walls and she remembered her neighbour saying he was about to have a shower.
Her neighbour!
Professor Hayden Robinson!
She rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes, focusing on the sound of the shower. The water cascading down over his crop of dark hair, plastering it to his head. The way he would lift his arms to wash the sand and salt from his hair, his blue eyes hidden beneath his eyelids. The soapy bubbles, sliding down his neck, over his broad shoulders, across his rigid abdomen and down towards—
‘Whoa!’ Annie sat forward and opened her eyes. ‘Whoa, girl!’ She realised her heart rate had increased and that her mouth was dry. Why had she listened to Natasha?
She rose from the floor and stalked into the kitchen, stepping firmly over the boxes and obstacles in her way. Reaching for one of the five remaining glasses she’d borrowed, she shoved it beneath the tap and filled it with water.
‘You do not need to fill your head with silly and childish schoolgirl fantasies—especially about your boss!’ she scolded herself before drinking the water. ‘You have an early morning so finish getting organised and get to bed.’
With a firm nod she did just that, wishing she’d borrowed the radio Natasha had offered. Instead, she sang some of her favourite songs as she went through each box…very carefully, sorting them out into categories which would make it easier once the furniture arrived.
As she lay down on her futon almost three hours later, Annie felt pleased. She hadn’t found another spider so felt more comfortable about going to sleep. She’d accomplished a lot and tomorrow she had yet another busy shift ahead of her, but as she closed her eyes and started to drift off to sleep, she couldn’t stop the images of her tall, dark professor from entering her dreams.
Annie had been on duty for three hours and it felt like for ever. She’d done a ward round, set two fractured arms, organised surgery for a patient with a fractured femur and now her pager was beeping again. Just as well it wasn’t a clinic day or she’d be completely frazzled.
She headed for the nearest in-house phone, answering her page. The extension was for the hospital switchboard. ‘Dr Beresford.’
‘Annie, Natasha’s on the line for you,’ the switchboard operator said.
‘Thanks.’ Annie waited while she was connected. ‘Hey, Natasha.’
‘Oh, Annie, I have some bad news.’
‘What’s wrong?’ The urgency in her friend’s voice made her feel uneasy.
‘I’ve been up all night long with Rachael. She’s been vomiting and now the boys are complaining of stomachache as well.’
‘How’s Lily?’ Annie asked after their sixteen-year-old daughter.
‘She slept over at a friend’s last night so hopefully she’s fine. I’m expecting her home in a few hours’ time.’
‘Monty’s not sick?’
‘No, but he’s due on at the hospital soon and—’
‘And you can’t take sick kids over to my apartment to wait for the furniture to arrive,’ Annie finished for her.
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t be. It’s not your fault and, of course, you must keep them comfortable.’
‘What will you do?’
‘I’ll ring the furniture store and see if they can give me an idea of when they might deliver.’
‘They never do.’
‘I know but I’m hoping. I might be able to sneak home during my lunch-break but as I’m due in Theatre soon, I have no idea when that might be.’
‘How about your new neighbour? Professor Robinson.’
‘No way!’ The thought of asking the professor to supervise her furniture seemed a little too intimate for her liking. ‘I’ll call the superintendent at the apartments. He’s a nice, agreeable man. I’m sure he’ll be able to help out.’
‘I’m really sorry, honey.’
‘It’s fine. Go and take care of the kids and I’ll check later to see how they are.’ She rang off and sighed heavily as she hung up the receiver. Why couldn’t her life be simple? Just for a few minutes? Everything always seemed so…complicated.
She rang the furniture store and received the usual answer—they couldn’t say when the delivery truck would get around to her place. Next, she rang the super and was relieved when he said it wouldn’t be a problem.
As she breathed a sigh of relief, her pager sounded and she groaned. Well, at least she’d had half a millisecond of peace. She noted the number was that of Emergency Theatres which meant her fractured femur patient was ready for her attention.
The operation was routine but twice during her theatre stint her pager beeped. The scout nurse called through to the number, informing them that Dr Beresford was in surgery. After the operation, Annie sat down to write up the notes
while the nurses worked around her.
‘I’m looking forward to meeting him,’ one nurse said.
‘A friend of mine, who used to work with him at Perth General, said he’s gorgeous.’
‘Really? When does he start?’
‘Monday.’
Annie didn’t usually listen to gossip but sat up a little straighter when she realised they were talking about Hayden Robinson.
‘Excellent. Is he single?’
‘Divorced.’ The nurse was speaking in a low tone filled with excitement at passing on the gossip.
‘Better and better,’ the second nurse said with glee.
Annie stood and closed the casenotes. ‘Thanks for your assistance during the operation,’ she said to the nurses.
‘Not a problem, Annie.’ They both smiled before continuing with their tasks and their conversation. She walked out of the room and went to Recovery to deliver the case-notes and check on her patient.
Everything was fine and as she headed for the changing rooms, one of the gossiping nurses came out. ‘Annie! You forgot your pager. It’s just beeped again.’
‘Oh, gee, thanks a bunch,’ Annie joked. ‘The thing hasn’t stopped beeping at me all day.’
‘Hey, your fault for becoming a doctor. I’m sure it never beeped that much when you were nursing.’
Annie smiled and shrugged. ‘Guess I can’t have everything.’ As she headed out of Recovery, she checked her pager. Three different numbers. One extension was the ward, the other was A and E and the third was a mobile phone number she didn’t recognise. She frowned, trying to think who it might be. She headed for the ward and answered the questions of the clinical nurse consultant. After that, she headed for Monty’s office.
‘You paged me?’ she asked, strolling right in without bothering to knock.
‘Hey, Annie.’ Brenton sat behind his desk and finished filling in a form.
‘How were the kids when you left?’
‘Rachael had stopped vomiting, Joshua took over and Chris was starting to look quite green.’
‘Oh, poor Natasha.’
‘I’ve called Lily and told her to stay at her friend’s place for a bit longer. Luckily, Aunt Jude came back from overseas a few weeks ago so at least Tash won’t be on her own.’
‘Let’s hope you don’t get it.’
‘I think Tash might already have been exposed but we’ll see what happens. Rachael only appears to have been sick for twenty-four hours and I’ve had quite a few people in through A and E this morning with similar symptoms.’
‘Terrific.’ Annie’s tone was despondent. ‘Now,’ she sighed, ‘I believe you paged me?’
‘Yes. You forgot to fill in some paperwork regarding one of the fractured arms you set earlier this morning.’
‘Sorry. That was when the patient with the fractured femur came in.’
‘Never mind. I just thought I’d increase your paperwork.’
‘Gee, thanks, mate.’
‘No problem. I know how much you love it.’ He grinned at her. ‘So…Tash tells me you have an…interesting neighbour.’
‘Oh, don’t you start.’
‘What’s he like? Tash said you thought he was good-looking.’
‘Don’t you and your wife have any secrets?’
‘Nope.’
Annie grinned back at him and shook her head. Her pager beeped. ‘I just want to hurl this thing through a window,’ she muttered as she checked the number. Brenton laughed and Annie frowned. ‘It’s the same number as before. Do you know this mobile phone number?’ She recited it to her old friend but he shook his head.
‘Only one way to find out,’ he said and pushed the phone on his desk in her direction.
‘Thanks.’ Annie dialled the number and waited to be connected.
‘Hello.’ The deep voice on the other end of the line was brisk.
‘This is Dr Beresford. I believe you were paging me?’
‘Annie?’
‘Yes?’ She listened cautiously, trying to figure out who it was.
‘It’s Hayden Robinson.’
‘Oh.’ Eyes wide in surprise, she felt a tingle flood through her body. What on earth did he want?
‘Your furniture has arrived and the delivery men want to know where you want things put or they’ll just dump it anywhere they like. Also, do you have anything besides instant coffee? The movers were thirsty,’ he added by way of explanation.
‘Where’s the superintendent?’ She ignored his remark about the coffee.
‘He had to go.’
‘What!’
‘What’s wrong?’ Brenton asked.
‘I can help out,’ Hayden continued, and for a second she thought she detected a hint of humour in his tone. ‘At least that way things won’t be left in the middle of the floor.’
‘You’re in my apartment?’ she asked incredulously.
‘Yes. The super left me in charge.’
‘Excellent,’ Annie mumbled gruffly. ‘Fine. Look…’ She checked her watch. ‘I’ll be there in five minutes.’ She replaced the receiver and momentarily covered her face with her hands. Taking a deep breath, she looked at Brenton. ‘Listen, Monty, I have to step out for about twenty minutes.’ She quickly told him what was going on.
‘Well, that was nice of Professor Robinson to help out like that.’
‘Yeah, right. Page me if you need me. Everyone else has.’ She was turning to leave his office when he stopped her.
‘Annie.’ He threw her a set of keys. ‘Take my car. It’ll be quicker than trying to get a taxi.’
‘Thanks, mate.’ Annie rushed out to the doctors’ car park and headed for Brenton’s Jaguar XJ6. Exactly four minutes later, thanks to green lights all the way, she parked the car in the guest parking spot at her apartment building, just as the furniture delivery truck drove away.
‘Great.’ She climbed out of the car and locked the door. Taking the stairs two at a time, she rushed to her floor, noticing all the apartment doors were closed—including hers. ‘Great.’ Digging in her shorts pocket for her keys, she shoved one into the lock and opened the door.
There, in the middle of her living room, dressed in shorts and casual cotton shirt was Hayden Robinson. He seemed oversized, like an out-of-proportion cartoon character, in a room that was now filled with furniture. Arranged furniture, she realised. Things weren’t all jumbled up as she’d imagined but instead everything was tastefully arranged. She couldn’t have done it better herself.
Her gaze flicked around the room quickly before settling on Hayden once more. He’d looked up when she’d opened the door and she realised, belatedly, that he was holding something in his hand. A photo frame.
She looked down at his feet where one of her boxes had been knocked over, several items having fallen out onto the carpet, unravelling themselves from the protective paper. She recognised the one Hayden held in his hand. It was a silver frame with colourful love hearts around the border. It was the frame that currently held a picture of Adam. When they’d broken up, she’d relegated it to a bottom drawer but hadn’t found the time to change the photograph.
Hayden looked at her—accusingly. She frowned, unsure why. He held out the photo frame so she could see the picture of the man she’d been engaged to.
‘Why do you have a picture of my cousin?’
CHAPTER TWO
‘YOUR cousin!’
Hayden watched as the colour drained from Annie’s face. ‘Here.’ He took her arm and guided her to a chair, gently pushing her down. ‘Sit down before you fall down.’ He caught a glimpse of her smooth legs as she sat, her khaki shorts hitching themselves higher. Very nice. Taking one last look at the photograph, he set it on her new bookshelf. ‘Adam is my cousin. I’m just curious why you have his picture in a pretty love-heart frame.’
Hayden kept his tone neutral while his brain searched for a rational explanation. He hadn’t seen Adam in years, but now that he’d moved back to the eastern coast of Australia he was planning
to catch up with him soon—like this evening, if he could!
He looked down at Annie, wanting to sort this out—but as soon as he looked at her, he knew it was a mistake. She was at a disadvantage sitting down but it made him realise just how much of her skin was on show. Her white summer top revealed an expanse of lightly tanned skin around her neck and shoulders—skin that would no doubt be soft to touch. He shoved his hands into his pockets and sat down opposite her.
She pushed a trembling hand through her curls and he realised he’d unnerved her. ‘How do you know Adam?’
‘If you’re his cousin, I’d expect you to know.’
Her tone was calm and he realised she was doing a great job of hiding her emotions. He nodded slowly. ‘That’s true but I haven’t seen him in a while.’
‘Then why don’t you get him to tell you what happened?’ She forced her legs to work and stood. Now that she’d got over the initial shock of discovering Hayden was Adam’s cousin, anger started to set in. How dared he question her? ‘It’s really none of your business.’ She picked up the frame and stalked into the kitchen. She heard Hayden move and realised he’d followed her.
She turned to look at him and tossed the frame into the bin. ‘End of discussion.’
‘So you’re just going to throw it out?’ He leaned against the doorjamb, his gaze focused on her. ‘Seems like your answer for anything that bothers you.’
‘How dare you? You know nothing about me.’
‘I know. That’s what I’m trying to find out.’ He stood up straight and advanced slowly into the kitchen. ‘What was the deal…’ he took a step closer ‘…with you…’ another step ‘…and Adam?’
Annie swallowed, her gaze flicking between his lips and his mouth. ‘It’s none of your business.’
She was right. It wasn’t, and his burning need to know the details of her relationship with his cousin surprised him. Why did it bother him so much? He was naturally distrustful of women, especially after his own ugly divorce, but why did he really care if she’d broken Adam’s heart?
Because if she had, she was capable of breaking someone else’s. He couldn’t deny he’d been instantly attracted to Annie but he couldn’t discount this information. She broke free of his gaze and started pacing up and down her kitchen, her arms crossed defensively over her chest before stopping next to the bin.