Redeeming the Playboy

by Carol Marinelli

‘When I first met Tommy and his father, Tommy took all his direction from me. He had more connection with me than with his own father. As you know, a child is normally unsure around strangers, but not in this case. Mike had had very few dealings with Tommy and that’s what we’ve been working on, whereas the psychologist has been dealing more with the issues of losing his mother. They’ve come on in leaps and bounds—despite enormous financial stress, Tommy and Mike are a real unit. He looks to his father now for prompts, he’s asking to see him right now …’

  ‘The father clearly has a temper problem. I saw the way he was with you.’

  ‘Yes,’ Nina said. ‘But never with Tommy.’

  ‘Never?’

  ‘He was cross this morning about the wet bed, but that was out of frustration and fear. He doesn’t understand the bruises and the cut. Mike told me that he was terrified that we’d take him away, what we’d think, that’s why he didn’t bring him in—which, yes, was a terrible call …’

  Jack nodded. It had been a terrible call but one he had seen many parents make.

  ‘I remember one child that was referred to us for unexplained bruising had leukaemia …’

  ‘He’s had blood work.’ Jack shook his head. ‘He hasn’t got that and leukaemia wouldn’t account for two fractured ribs and an infected cut that actually looks as if it’s combined with a burn—and that he’s resumed bedwetting.’

  ‘Fine,’ Nina said, and Jack frowned.

  ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘You’ve already made up your mind.’ She walked out of his office and to the nurses’ station and set up her computer to input her notes—God, she was an angry thing, Jack thought. He felt like walking over and tapping her on the shoulder, telling her that, no, he hadn’t made up his mind, that he was still trying to catch up on the notes, and that he didn’t jump in with assumptions. He looked at all the facts and then he made up his mind.

  So he started to.

  He read the psychologist’s notes though they dealt more with the issues surrounding the mother, and then he read Nina’s.

  They were incredibly detailed and her observations were astute, outlining how Tommy had first responded to her, that he had been precocious almost, sitting on her knee, playing with her lanyard, taking no direction from the father he knew, but in later visits he had turned more and more to his father, so much so that Nina had been about to close the case.

  So what had gone wrong these last weeks?

  Jack looked up and saw Nina tapping away on her laptop, then she stopped and yawned and gave her head a little shake. He watched as she stood and headed for the water cooler and then came back to the computer, frowning as she read through her notes. Then she must have hit ‘send’, because an update appeared in the notes Jack was reading.

  And he read Nina’s account of today.

  She was a brilliant report writer. He had expected more passion, a little dig at the medial staff perhaps, but instead she had detailed all that had happened, and her conclusion that, given the injuries and the lack of any explanation, she had obtained an urgent court order that allowed supervised access only for the next seventy-two hours.

  And Jack sat and racked his brains.

  He shut out all chatter.

  He was head of paeds for more reasons than his financial pull.

  No one argument swayed him, no tearful plea prompted his signature on anything that he didn’t believe in.

  Jack walked over to the bedside where Nina now stood stroking Tommy’s dark curls as he slept. ‘Do you always get this involved?’

  ‘Always.’ She didn’t look up. ‘Right now my department is all this little guy’s got.’

  ‘As well as the medical staff.’

  ‘I’m talking about family.’ She looked up. ‘He wants his father and I’ve been to court to stop that contact; it’s not a decision that can be taken lightly. I have a worker booked for nine a.m. and she will supervise a visit, but really Tommy needs his father tonight.’

  ‘I’ve been reading through the notes,’ Jack said, only he didn’t get to finish as he was interrupted by a sudden wail from a sleeping Tommy. Nina looked down, moved to comfort him as his eyes opened and he sat up, clearly terrified.

  ‘It’s okay, Tommy,’ Nina said, sure the little boy was having a nightmare, but instead Jack told her to step out, already pressing the bell for assistance. He knew long before Nina did what was happening, because Tommy hadn’t woken up. He was experiencing an aura, a sudden panic before a seizure, and Tommy nearly bolted from the bed as Jack firmly held him, then laid him back down as his body gave way to spasms …

  Nina felt sick. There was no question now that she should go home and she headed to the office, watching as the nurses ran with the trolley, IVs were put up and drugs were given.

  Yet nothing seemed to be working.

  She heard the call go out for the anaesthetist and then she saw through a chink in the curtains that after only brief respite young Tommy’s body was starting to seize again.

  A grim-faced Jack came into the office a while later.

  ‘He’s anaesthetised and we’re taking him down for an urgent head CT,’ Jack told her. ‘You need to let his father know.’

  ‘What do I tell him?’

  ‘Just tell him to get here,’ Jack said. ‘I’ll be the one to tell him that it’s not looking good.’

  CHAPTER FOUR

  IT WAS A wretched night.

  She had to sit with a terrified Mike who arrived after Tommy had gone for his CT scan. Because of the court order, because of the possibility that he had caused the injuries, Mike would only be allowed to see Tommy supervised, and when Lorianna, the duty social worker, appeared in the waiting room to sit with him, although exhausted, the last thing Nina wanted to do was leave.

  ‘Go home.’ Lorianna pulled her aside. ‘It’s after one and you’re due back at nine.’

  ‘I want to hear the results.’

  ‘They’ll be the same results in the morning.’ Lorianna was practical. ‘Anything from dad?’

  ‘Nothing.’ Nina shook her head. ‘I’d just spent the best part of an hour trying to convince Jack that Mike hadn’t harmed Tommy and I’ve just heard a nurse saying that they’re flagging brain trauma …’ God, she was questioning herself, which Nina did often, but she had been so sure Mike hadn’t hurt Tommy. The sight of the little boy seizing had really upset Nina and standing outside the CT area, seeing more and more staff rushing in, in a race to save a little life, had tears stinging her eyes.

  ‘You need to go home.’ Lorianna was firm. ‘You know that.’

  Nina did.

  There would be another family or families that needed her tomorrow and it wasn’t fair to them if she hadn’t at least had some sleep, but it felt so wrong to be leaving, so terrible to just walk away, except Nina knew that she had to.

  She said goodbye to Mike, told him she would be back first thing in the morning, and then headed out of the hospital building towards the street, where she would flag a taxi. Really, she should have called Security rather than walk in the hospital grounds this late at night, but right now she just wanted to get home. She questioned her decision, though, as a car slowed down beside her and she walked a little more briskly as the car kept pace with her and the window slid down.

  ‘Can I give you a lift?’

  Nina turned at the sound of Jack’s voice and saw his luxurious Jag, along with his face. ‘No, thanks.’

  ‘I actually want to talk to you—it turns out that you were right.’

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘Tommy hasn’t got a head injury,’ Jack explained. ‘It’s a nasty brain lesion that’s been causing the seizures. I expect that’s where his bruises and injuries are from. I just called in Alex Rodriguez, he’s in there speaking with the father now …’ He drove alongside as Nina walked on, her boots making a crunching noise on the icy sidewalk, her breath coming out in short white shallow bursts as she struggled to hold onto both her temper and her tears, bu
t, oblivious, Jack spoke on. ‘So there you go—we find out again that things are never as they seem. Nina, let me give you—’ He never got to finish.

  ‘“There you go!”‘ She swung around, biting back tired, angry tears. His car halted when she did and Nina said it again. ‘“There you go?” Is that all you have to say?’ She should stop speaking now, Nina knew, should just run for the nearest cab, except she didn’t. ‘Are you telling me that Tommy has a brain tumour?’ She was furious and let it show. ‘“Oh, hey, Nina, I just thought you might like to know …”‘

  ‘I’m trying to explain—’

  ‘And doing an appalling job at it. Have you even listened to what I’ve told you? Have you any concept what that family’s been through and now Tommy has a brain tumour? Do you expect me to do a little victory dance because I was right that Mike hadn’t beaten him? Well, I won’t because, unlike you, I don’t take cheap shots.’

  ‘Really?’ Jack checked, thinking of her little dig about him reading that she had delivered just that morning. ‘Or do you not even realise you’re doing it?’

  ‘At least I don’t gloat over other’s mistakes.’

  ‘Now, hold on a minute …’ Jack, rather illegally, parked the car in the hospital driveway and as he climbed out she stood there shaking with fury as several weeks of guilt and misery culminated in one very unprofessional row. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘You know full well what I’m talking about,’ Nina shouted. ‘Your little I told you so look when Baby Tanner was brought back in.’

  ‘Baby Tanner?’ She saw his nonplussed face, a frown marring his perfect features as he tried to recall.

  ‘The eight-week-old my department discharged …’ Guilt had lived with her since the night he’d been brought back and now, to add to her fury, Nina realised that he couldn’t even recall the case. ‘You don’t even remember, do you?’

  ‘Nina …’

  ‘You really can’t remember!’ She was disgusted.

  ‘Nina, what you fail to understand is …’

  She didn’t want to understand him, she didn’t want to be inside Jack Carter’s mind. She wanted him well away, and so with words she kept him well back. ‘You’re so bloody distant from your patients,’ Nina shouted, ‘you’re so clinical and detached …’ Her temper was nearing boiling point. It was two a.m., she was tired, cold and hungry and, despite herself, she fancied the arrogant man who stood in front of her, could see him so tall and groomed and just so sexy that she was perhaps more angry with herself than with him. ‘You know what, Jack?’ she hurled at him. ‘You’re burnt out.’

  ‘Oh, I’m not burnt out, baby—I haven’t even fired up …’

  Baby! Of all the chauvinistic, unprofessional things to call her—to relegate her … And maybe he realised the inappropriateness of his comment, because he gave a small shake of his head before walking toward her. ‘Get in the car.’ He was so close she could smell him. ‘I’ll give you a lift.’

  ‘I don’t want a lift.’

  ‘You’re upset …’

  Nina could hardly breathe she was so angry, so attracted and he was so terribly close. ‘I’m more than angry,’ Nina said, ‘I’m ropeable.’

  He had the audacity to smile.

  ‘I’m sure it could be arranged.’

  He smiled in the darkness and she could see his white teeth as they both held their breath. For a very long moment she thought he might kiss her, and wouldn’t that be typical Jack Carter? Snog his way out of a row, dismiss any criticism with a stroke of his tongue.

  She wanted him to, though, and that was what terrified her.

  Her feelings for Jack actually terrified her. She simply didn’t know how to react around him, didn’t know how she felt.

  Her eyes were savage now when they met his, as he again told her what she would do.

  ‘I’m going to drive you home and we’ll discuss this properly tomorrow.’

  ‘There’s nothing to discuss,’ Nina said.

  ‘Oh, I beg to differ …’ Jack said, ‘but not here, not now. Right now you need to calm down.’

  He might as well have lit the match. He’d be telling her she was premenstrual next, which, as an aside, Nina realised in that dangerous flickering moment, she was.

  But that wasn’t the point.

  That so wasn’t the point.

  ‘Oh, I’ll calm down when I’m out of this place and as far away from you as I can get.’

  ‘Nina …’ He caught her coat as she turned to go, and swung her around.

  ‘Is this off the record?’ Nina checked.

  ‘Of course!’ Still, she was sure, there was an edge of a smile on his beautiful mouth.

  ‘Screw you!’

  She shook him off, walked noisily on as fast as she could without slipping on ice, which he would just love, Nina thought angrily. Wouldn’t he just love watching her bottom up on the sidewalk as he slid past in his silver Jag?

  She practically ran out of Angel’s, hailed a cab and climbed in, cursing under her breath as he overtook them.

  At the same time, a curse come from Jack too.

  What the hell was all that about? Jack wondered as he headed for his apartment.

  Drama he so did not need.

  Yet …

  He thought of her angry face, the stamp of her boots, the bundle of passion he’d just witnessed and had actually enjoyed. Jack winced a little as he recalled his own retorts, though, which were so unlike him. He didn’t really row with anyone, didn’t really discuss, he just told people how it would be.

  Still, as he headed for home she soon disappeared from his mind. He was just mildly annoyed that he had dumped Monica that morning, because he could really use a decent unwind …

  Detached, clinical, yep, Jack was guilty as charged.

  But no.

  Nina was wrong.

  He was so not burnt out.

  Walking into her apartment, Nina closed the door on the world and let out a very long breath.

  She would not think about Jack.

  Neither would she think about Tommy.

  Quite simply, she had to sleep and had learnt long ago that sometimes you simply had to turn off fear and panic and just close your eyes for a little while.

  But her hands were shaking as she poured a glass of milk.

  Nina wandered through her apartment, hoping it would soothe her.

  She had just moved in and it was everything to her. She’d fought for eight years to have this, a proper home where finally they could be a family.

  She went first to Blake’s room, looked at the mountain of boxes that would hopefully soon transform into a bed and bedside table and a chest of drawers, but so far the fairies hadn’t been in to build them. She’d hopefully do that tomorrow night, or at the latest by Blake’s access visit next weekend.

  Then she moved to what would hopefully soon be Janey’s bedroom, but instead of feeling soothed her chest tightened in fear when she thought about her sister.

  Janey, even before their parents’ death, had been a wilful, difficult child, but now at fifteen she was going spectacularly off the rails, and Nina was absolutely petrified for her younger sister.

  She wanted Janey close and just hoped and prayed that the case meeting to be held in a few weeks would finally deem her a suitable guardian.

  Nina had been seventeen when her parents had been killed in a horrific car crash. She had been considered old enough to look after herself, but too young to care for a one- and a seven-year-old and, she now conceded, the department had probably been right.

  For two years she had been as difficult and as wild as Janey was now—worse, in fact. Devastated by the loss, not just of her parents but of her brother and sister too, Nina had been unable to keep up with the rent. She had lost her home and had spent a couple of years surfing friends’ couches until finally she had found the pro bono centre, which had, quite simply, turned her life around. The people there had counselled her, offered support, both practical and
financial, and she had commenced her studies at the age of nineteen and had qualified as a social worker at twenty-three.

  But a junior social worker’s wage had only allowed for a small one-bedroomed apartment and so she had still been unable to provide a proper home for her brother and sister, having to make do with just access visits and respite care.

  Determined that they would be together Nina had scrimped and saved for the past two years, had gone without luxuries and every pay rise had gone towards her savings until finally she had found a three-bedroomed flat she could afford. Now, at the age of twenty-five, she was hoping that, after all these years, the Wilson siblings could be a real family.

  But then she’d gone and lost her head with the Head of Paediatrics.

  Nina tried to sleep.

  Told herself that Jack wasn’t going to have her fired—he’d been inappropriate too.

  Terribly so.

  She lay there in bed and thought of his words, startled that just the repetition of them could have her body aflame.

  Nina turned over, screwed her eyes closed and did her best not to think about him. She could not think about Jack like that—except she was.

  Her own thoughts startled her. She had never been in a relationship, didn’t know how to handle men unless she was dealing with them professionally.

  She wasn’t thinking professionally about Jack now.

  And she hated sex, Nina reminded herself, except she was thinking the sexiest thoughts now, and she moaned out his name. For a breathless moment she lay there, embarrassed and mortified for different reasons now at the thought that tomorrow she might have to face him.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  IT ACTUALLY WASN’T an issue.

  When Nina walked into ICU to check on Tommy, the sight of Mike’s grief-stricken face was the only thing that consumed her and she barely noticed Jack speaking with Alex.

  But Jack noticed her.

  She was wearing a black skirt with a jade top and stockings and flat ankle boots today. She was far paler than yesterday and there were dark rings under her eyes, but even running on fatigue she was a ball of energy.