Playing the Playboy's Sweetheart

by Carol Marinelli

  * * *

  ‘Em...’ She opened her eyes to the sight of Hugh. He wasn’t smiling, just looked haggard. ‘I’m so sorry I couldn’t get there... I’m so pleased the ultrasound went well.’

  ‘Is Gina okay?’ Emily asked.

  ‘No.’ Hugh shook his head. ‘She’s very ill indeed.’

  Emily watched the haze of tears rise higher in his eyes and heard him quickly try to grab them back with a sniff.

  It didn’t work.

  ‘She’s in a very dark place,’ Hugh admitted, ‘but she’s finally admitted that there’s a problem and she’s in the right place to get the help she needs.’

  ‘How long has she been ill?’

  ‘It’s been on and off,’ Hugh said. ‘You remember the first night we got off with each other? I didn’t want you to get into the car with Gina.’

  ‘Did you think she’d been drinking?’

  ‘No, I thought she might be on something, or that she’d been drinking. I’d reported her to her boss the previous day. I just couldn’t let you get into the car with her and I couldn’t properly tell you why. As it turned out, I was wrong. I even had Gina crying on me a week or so later about some bastard who had made terrible accusations. I’ve just told her today that that bastard was me.’

  ‘Oh, Hugh.’

  ‘It’s been a very long day. If I could have been here I would have but Gina broke down and told me some things that have been going on and how depressed she was and that she needs help...’ He looked at Emily. ‘You don’t leave a seriously depressed anaesthetist alone—can you understand that?’

  ‘I can.’

  ‘I’ve been worried for weeks. I didn’t know whether to speak to Alex, given I’d reported her once and nothing had come of it. I went to Mr Eccleston and, as it turns out, I wasn’t the only one. Anton’s voiced his concerns rather loudly.’

  ‘Anton!’

  Hugh nodded. ‘Nothing’s happened at work, I believe Gina when she says that, but out of work...’ Hugh closed his eyes. ‘The lines were starting to blur. Apparently she turned up in the car park the worse for wear on Monday and Anton just took her car keys from her and drove her home and then went and reported her.’

  No wonder Anton had been in a filthy mood on Monday, Emily thought.

  ‘How’s Gina now?’

  ‘She’s been admitted, though not here,’ Hugh replied, ‘but she’s getting the help she needs now. Nothing has ever happened between Gina and I,’ Hugh said. ‘The world thinks we have an on-off thing, but I’m a very good judge of people and I had her pegged from the first week we started as med students. I love Gina, but not in that way. I care for her and, as I told her today, I will always be her friend, but she has to help herself.’

  ‘God...’ Emily lay back on the pillow. He had been so honest. Ought she be? He stopped speaking and looked up as Alex and Jennifer came in.

  ‘Jennifer.’ Hugh stood up and smiled at Emily’s visitors. ‘Alex, nice of you to come by.’

  ‘Ooh, lovely,’ Emily said, taking a huge bunch of flowers.

  ‘I just brought Alex in some afternoon tea and he told me some of what’s been happening. How are things?’ Jennifer said.

  ‘Very well.’ Emily smiled.

  ‘Could I have a word, please, Hugh?’ Alex asked.

  Hugh was stony-faced as they headed out into the corridor. ‘I’ve heard about Gina.’ Alex’s expression was equally grim. ‘You didn’t think to discuss it with me?’

  ‘I did think of it,’ Hugh said, ‘but at the end of the day these are serious accusations and I decided to make the call. I was hoping it would all be a bit more discreet and maybe it would have been if Gina hadn’t had her meltdown here.’

  ‘I apologise for jumping to conclusions,’ Alex said.

  ‘You weren’t the only one...’

  It was that Emily had jumped to them that hurt most.

  Emily glanced out of the window to where Hugh and Alex were talking, and loathed the mess she’d made of things.

  ‘He got the job.’ Jennifer broke into her thoughts.

  ‘Really?’

  ‘It must have been a hard time for him, deciding whether to report her or not. I’ve known Gina for years. She’s the loveliest woman, I don’t know where it all went wrong.’

  ‘I guess she’s working it out.’

  It was an afternoon for visitors and Emily smiled when Miriam came in. ‘How are you feeling?’

  ‘Sore but much better,’ Emily said, and then she frowned and then she started cringing as vague, hazy memories fought to return. ‘Oh, my...did I...?’

  ‘You did,’ Miriam said. ‘I’m sorry you’re so unhappy. I certainly don’t want you working somewhere while you’re pregnant where you feel miserable. Maybe we can look at you doing a stint in A and E when you come back from maternity leave, or...’

  ‘Miriam.’ It was Emily who knew what she wanted now. ‘I want to go back to A and E. If I put it off now, it will never happen and I really do want to get on. Also, it’s actually not that bad.’

  ‘You’re sure?’

  Emily nodded. ‘It’s certainly better for the patients and...’ She thought for a moment. ‘In many ways I do enjoy it. I never expected to.’

  ‘Well, you’ve got a couple of weeks off to think about it.’

  More than a couple of weeks. This pregnancy was suddenly vital to Emily and after a rocky start she wanted to give it every chance.

  ‘Anton said to take some time off, so I was wondering if I could tag some annual leave onto sick leave.’

  ‘Of course,’ Miriam said. ‘Take what you need. Then you’ve got another eight weeks in Emergency and then...’ Miriam gave her a lovely smile ‘...we’ll talk about that Clinical Nurse Specialist position that’s coming up.’

  * * *

  When Alex and Jennifer had gone, she thought she might get a smile from Hugh and that he would share the news that he’d got the job but instead he wanted to speak about them.

  ‘Emily, maybe I came on too hard. You know I have a thing about women who question my every move, but I can get that maybe you’re going to have trust issues. A bit rich, though, given you got off with me when you were seeing Gregory.’

  She looked at him and her instincts had been right, they had been that very night they’d first kissed. She simply hadn’t followed them.

  So she followed them now.

  ‘There was no Greg. I made him up.’

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘To keep you away.’ She took a deep breath and said it. ‘I don’t have trust issues,’ Emily said. ‘I manufactured that row on Saturday.’

  ‘You manufactured it?’

  ‘I knew there had to be a reason you were outside, speaking to Gina. I knew you wouldn’t do that to me.’

  ‘Why the hell would you make up a row?’

  ‘Because I wanted space away from you to think. I don’t want to fall in love so hard it hurts. I don’t want to be crazy about someone...’

  ‘You don’t want to feel?’ Hugh just smiled. ‘Oh, dear, Emily, like it or not, you’re going to. You can lock yourself away with boring boyfriends and unconscious patients but about eight months from now you’re going to have your heart held hostage for ever by this little one.’

  ‘I know,’ Emily said, ‘it already is.’

  ‘You do have trust issues...’

  ‘I don’t.’

  ‘Yes, you do, because you don’t trust me not to try and make it work, but I shall.’ He thought about his boss who had taught him so much and the effort he was putting into his own marriage. ‘At the first sign of trouble your parents just walk away. Well, that’s them and this is me—I’m a very hard worker, Emily, and not just in my career...’

  * * *

  A c
ouple of hours later, her obs done, his pager handed in for the day, it was just the two of them, lying on the bed, watching the news on TV.

  ‘Do you think we’ll be like that?’ Hugh suddenly asked.

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘Alex and Jennifer. Will you be popping in for some afternoon delight?’

  ‘She was bringing him something to eat.’

  ‘Please,’ Hugh scoffed. ‘It really affected me that night. I think I’m damaged.’ Emily smiled to herself as she turned to Hugh because he still hadn’t told her that he’d got the job.

  ‘What did Alex want?’

  ‘A very quick formal interview and then he told me I’ve got the job.’

  ‘Hugh, that’s fantastic. I’m so pleased.’

  ‘I haven’t accepted it yet,’ Hugh said. ‘I said I needed to speak to you first.’

  ‘Speak to me?’

  ‘I don’t know if you’d prefer a fresh start,’ Hugh said. ‘We do have a bit of history scattered around the hospital.’

  ‘Er, I have one bit of history,’ Emily said, referring to Marcus.

  ‘Exactly,’ Hugh said. ‘And I get it if you want to make a go of things well away from my past.’

  ‘There’s no need,’ Emily said.

  ‘You’re sure?’

  ‘Absolutely.’ She turned to him. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t know how you put up with me...’

  ‘I have asked myself that a few times,’ Hugh admitted.

  ‘But you did?’

  ‘Yep, I told you—I work at things.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘I love you,’ Hugh said, as if it was the least complicated emotion in the world, and maybe sometimes it was because it was right here in the room. ‘Whenever you’re ready, Emily,’ he nudged.

  ‘Iloveyoutoo.’ She said it very quickly, more as one word, but Hugh just smiled.

  ‘Progress!’

  Emily reached for her phone. ‘I’d better call Dad and let him know I’ll definitely be home tomorrow. He and my new stepmum are going to come over and then Mum will come down...’

  ‘You really don’t get this partnership lark, do you?’ Hugh said. ‘Ring your father and tell him there’s no need to worry. I’ve got five days’ carer’s leave.’

  ‘Oh!’

  ‘Alex told me. Well, so long as we’re living together...’ He gave her a very nice smile. ‘Your place or mine?’ Hugh said.

  ‘Mine,’ Emily said, because she wanted to recover among her own things, wanted her own bed, her own bathroom. And then she looked at Hugh and amended all that, because more than that she wanted him. ‘To pick up a few things.’

  ‘Good choice,’ Hugh said, ‘because I have a cleaner who comes in every other day.’

  ‘Ooh!’ Emily smiled. ‘How lovely.’

  The future suddenly was.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  EMILY DID PICK up a few things and on her second trip Hugh asked that she pick up a few more things, namely her birth certificate.

  Which she did.

  But staring at the mountain of paperwork, just thinking of the impossibility of it all, Emily baulked at the final moment.

  ‘I don’t want to get married, Hugh.’

  ‘It will be tiny,’ Hugh said. They’d almost decided to get married in Scotland at her old church but just the thought of her mum and her dad and half-brothers and -sisters and even Jessica, who was now a Facebook friend, tiny was something it could never be.

  ‘I don’t want to,’ Emily said. ‘You said we could take things slowly.’

  ‘That was before I knew you were pregnant,’ Hugh said, but then dropped it.

  ‘Will you be all right tomorrow?’ Hugh checked, because after a weekend off and five days’ leave he was back at work and on call for the entire weekend. ‘Your mum said she’d come down and Kate’s going to drop in.’

  ‘Hugh, I don’t need anyone. I’m not even sore now.’

  Just tired.

  Kate did drop in and so too did her dad, and he brought the twins, who were on a weekend access. And then Jessica sent her a message and asked if she could drop by, which she did.

  ‘These are for you,’ Jessica said, handing over some DVDs. It was the entire series of a show Emily had said in passing during their chats that she’d never watched. ‘Well, when I say they’re for you I want them back, but I watched them back to back after I had my operation.’

  It was funny but after all these years apart they slipped back so easily and Jessica set up the DVD in Hugh’s bedroom and they watched the first episode together and then the second.

  ‘One more,’ Emily said, only pausing it to take a call from her mum, who felt a little put out that Emily hadn’t needed her to come down.

  ‘Mum’s coming next week with Abby,’ Emily said as she concluded the call. ‘It’s exhausting, being sick.’

  It was nice, though.

  Not the surgery part but finally, after all these years, Emily knew she had a family. As complicated as it was, as scattered as they were, the news about her operation had somehow reminded people about the relative that they’d tended to forget, and finally Emily knew she was loved. The twins now knew who she was and Emily was determined that it would remain that way.

  Best of all, though, was knowing she had Hugh and also knowing that he had her.

  ‘What happened to the bedroom?’ Hugh asked, when he came home a little grey around the gills after a long weekend on call, but he had stopped for two coffees on the way and handed her one as he looked around the room. The television was at the foot of the bed and it looked like there had been a little party and there sat Emily in bed, having pressed the pause button on her show at the sound of his car.

  It was very nice to come home to.

  ‘Jessica set up the room,’ Emily said, taking a long drink of coffee. ‘Is that okay?’

  ‘Of course,’ Hugh said. ‘I should have thought to bring the television down.’

  ‘I’m fine,’ Emily said. ‘I was just being a sloth. It was so good. How was work?’

  ‘Busy,’ Hugh said, ‘but good. At least till this morning.’ He pulled a face. ‘Ernest Bailey died in the small hours.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Emily said. ‘Was it expected?’

  ‘Nope.’ Hugh shook his head and told her what had happened as he got undressed. ‘He was supposed to be discharged home this morning. He was going to live with his daughter.’ Hugh had a quick shower and then, damp and lovely, he climbed into bed. ‘He didn’t really want to go and live with his daughter. He was a very proud man. He couldn’t have lived alone, though.’ Hugh lay and thought for a moment. ‘I spoke with Laura for a long time and she said it’s how he would have wanted it.’

  ‘Did he get his cup of tea?’

  ‘Many of them. Laura brought a Thermos in for him to have by his bed every night.’ Hugh was quiet for a moment. ‘I had a little cry but then I knew she was right—it would have been their golden wedding anniversary tomorrow, so it’s nice that they’re together.’

  She looked at Hugh and he looked back and smiled. ‘I didn’t boo-hoo.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘I’ve got to go to sleep.’

  ‘So do I,’ Emily said. ‘I’m on Hugh time. I’ve been up all night. One more episode to go.’

  ‘Watch it now.’

  ‘No, no, I’ll save it for tonight.’

  ‘Just watch it. You know you want to.’

  Did life get better than this? Emily wondered as her back-to-back DVD marathon concluded. Hugh was half-asleep beside her and the last sip of coffee was still warm as she flicked off the television.

  ‘Was it good?’ Hugh asked, pulling her down beside him.

  ‘So good,’ Emily said. ‘I’ve never do
ne that before—watched a whole series back to back.’

  ‘It’s the best way,’ Hugh mumbled. ‘I’ve been thinking...’ He had. Hugh had been lying there thinking of Ernest and Hannah and all the things that mattered most. ‘After you see Anton for your check-up I’ve got a long weekend. Do you want to go to the Lake District? Maybe take a few days before you go back to work?’

  ‘I’d love to.’

  ‘We never did get full use of that room.’

  ‘It would be lovely,’ Emily said. ‘Go to sleep.’

  They had a kiss and she felt his hair in her hands still damp from the shower and she revelled in his sleepy kiss. Emily changed her mind—about sleeping, that was—because her other hand moved down his torso, their kiss moving seamlessly from tender to passionate by the swirl of her tongue. She loved the quickening of his breath and how he gathered her closer into him. There was no need to ask if it was too soon, or if she was ready, her body just was. Warm and relaxed and turned on in his arms, the icing appeared on the cake as Hugh kissed her till she lay beneath him and he took all his weight on his elbows. ‘I missed you,’ Hugh said.

  She had missed him too but was just a little nervous as he entered her, scared that something might tear, but he took it really slowly and gave her time to get accustomed to the stretch of him inside her, and then slowly, as he moved inside her, her abdomen learned how first to relax and then it started to tense, but in pleasure now.

  Emily’s hands met behind his neck, loving the sight of his concentrated effort and the pleasure that was moving through her, the delicious friction combined with tenderness, and this risky thing called love that came with benefits galore.

  She could feel his restraint and it turned her on, could feel him holding back from driving in deep, and as his arm slipped under her back and lifted her higher into him, it possibly hurt a bit but she’d take it for the pleasure as her orgasm started to home in and, yes, she was ready, more than ready as Hugh started to thrust faster while holding back on going very deep. One final swell of Hugh and then the bliss of his release gave him two gifts—a liberating shout of pleasure from Emily, combined with a very intense orgasm. They both welcomed the rewards of his restraint.

  ‘I’ll sleep now,’ Hugh said, smiling down at her. ‘Can we pretend you’ve just had surgery quite often?’