“Yep.” Danny gave a satisfied, cream-filled smile. “She told us you were making lunkhead here a Pavlova, so what else could we do but come over and taste test it?”
“Make an evening of it,” Mitch added, popping the tab on a Coke.
“Aren’t you lucky?” Steve winked.
Really, his friends could be such a bunch of dingbats. Normally he enjoyed their company, but he’d been on the verge of finding out whatever was troubling Emma and now he’d have to wait. Again.
Bloody dingbats.
Steve dropped down in a chair at the table. “So, what shall we chat about?”
“How about you being a dick-” Shane began.
“Shane,” Emma tsked. “It’s rude to not be gracious when you have visitors.”
Mitch leered.
“These aren’t visitors, Em. They’re parasites.”
“Ohh, nasty.” Daz popped a strawberry into his mouth. “We’ll go as soon as we finish the Pav, how’s that?”
“Bloody good idea. Hurry up.”
“Shane!” Emma scolded him while her eyes twinkled with mirth.
“Yeah.” Mitch wrapped a brawny arm around her shoulders to tug her in for a hug. “Don’t you let that dick upset you, Em. We’re here now, so there’ll be intelligent conversation and stuff.”
“And stuff,” Shane echoed with a snort. “Because that’s intelligent.”
Mitch ruffled Emma’s hair. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about your rude, nasty boyfriend, love. We’re here now.”
“You keep saying that,” Shane said, “and yet the atmosphere isn’t getting any better.”
“Anyone would think you didn’t want us here.” Steve scraped the last of the cream from his plate.
“It’s not thinking. It’s a fact.”
“Wow.” Steve cast Emma a sympathetic look. “Has he been grumpy like this all evening?”
She laughed.
Shane slumped in the chair. “I give up!”
“’Bout time,” Mitch said. “So, what’re we doing this evening? Eating, drinking, shooting the shit? Getting a movie?”
“Don’t think you’ll be staying long enough for a movie,” Shane retorted.
“He doesn’t mean it,” Emma told Mitch.
“I do,” Shane stated. “Every word.”
“Aw, lover-boy.” Steve batted his eyelashes at him.
“Don’t sweat it.” Daz grinned. “We won’t stay long.”
“Stay as long as you like,” Emma said. “You’re my guests in this house. Right, Shane?”
He regarded them all through narrowed eyes.
“Shane.”
“I’m thinking.”
“Shane!”
“Fine. Fine.” He grumbled. “I give up.”
“You said that already and look what happened,” Mitch said happily.
“Behave yourselves.” Emma pulled out from under his arm. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Shane watched her leave before returning his attention to his friends. “So, what? You blokes got no social life?”
“Sure we have.” Daz sat down. “We’re here, aren’t we?”
Shane snorted.
“Don’t worry.” Steve nodded at him. “We won’t interfere in your evening too much.”
“Yep,” Danny agreed. “Even though it hurts us, we accept the fact that Emma’s company is apparently more appreciated than ours.”
Shane picked up his spoon again while pulling his plate back in front of him. “So where’s the last of the motley crew? The better looking one?”
“Katie?” Danny laughed. “She’s buggered from helping Mum clean the shed this afternoon. Last I saw of her, she was collapsed on Mum’s sofa while Mum was cooking tea.”
“Hey,” Mitch said mildly, “Katie works hard.”
“It’s a little embarrassing when your own mother can still cook tea while you, the younger one, has to have a rest.”
“I bet Katie did most of the lifting.”
“Pfft. You always take her side.” Danny flapped a hand. “So, Shane, you settled into the clinic completely now? Being boss and all?”
“Yep.”
“Still liking it?”
“Of course. That’s not going to change.” Shane pushed the now empty plate aside. “Toss me a Coke, will you?” When Mitch actually made to do it, he yelled, “Not like that, you dick!”
“You said to toss it,” Mitch complained. “Make up your mind.”
“Cripes. Just bring it to me. Honestly,” Shane turned to Daz, “the bloke’s a twit.”
Daz studied Mitch as he slouched across the room holding the tin of Coke. “He comes in handy for lifting things and stuff.”
“Yeah,” Steve agreed. “The knuckle-dragger comes grunting into the hotel tradesman entrance this morning, beat his chest with both fists and growled ‘me here to work. Show me problem. Me work hard.”
Mitch just laughed.
Shane had to grin. His friends were dicks sometimes, but they were a good mob.
When they weren’t annoying him by crashing his time with Emma.
To be fair, if they knew they’d interrupted an important time, they’d have left immediately, but Shane wasn’t about to kick them out and risk embarrassing Emma, so he settled back to enjoy a relaxing time with them. She was happy to see them, and he’d be alone with her after and could pick up where they left off. Maybe this would help her relax in turn, who knew?
He was just popping the tab on the can of Coke when the phone rang. When it continued to ring and Emma didn’t appear, Shane stood up and started for the phone, calling out as he did so, “Want me to get it, Em?”
“Yes, please,” she called back.
He’d just neared it when the answering machine kicked in. Figuring he’d let whoever it was leave a message and she could get back to them when she decided to, he turned around and went back to the chair.
“Might be Katie,” Danny said. “Changed her mind and is coming after all.”
They all paused to listen.
“Hi Emma, its Bitsy,” a woman’s voice said. “Listen, I know you had a rough time, you know, with the stealing charge brought against you and everything, but it’s all sorted out now, right? Maybe you should reconsider and come back to the city, huh? We miss you. The kids miss you heaps.” There was a pause. “Emma, if you’re there, pick up, huh?”
Every man in the room froze.
Stealing charge? Shane stared at the answering machine. Stealing charge?
Emma charged into the room, her face white. Quickly she picked up the receiver and said, “Not a good time. Talk to you later,” and hung up.
The room was so quiet the ticking of the kitchen clock on the wall was the only sound.
Mitch, Danny, Steve and Daz looked at each other, then at Shane, then at her.
Slowly, Emma looked around at them. Taking in their expressions, she whispered, “I didn’t…”
“Em?” Shane looked from her to the phone and back again. “What was that about?”
“It’s not what it seems.” She swallowed. “Shane, I promise, I-” She stopped.
Was he hearing correctly? He didn’t know what to think. She had stealing charges against her? That could not be right. Not Emma. Not his Emma. Not the Emma he knew and trusted.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” she said in a rush, and ran out the doorway.
“Emma!” Shane started after her.
“Stay there, I’ll be back!”
“Emma-”
“Shane, please!”
He wavered on the spot. Go to her? Wait? He just didn’t know what to do. His first instinct was to go after her, but the cracked demand in her voice was very audible.
Okay, she needed time to compose herself. He had to give her that time, not force it. Right now, he knew force would be the wrong pathway.
He turned to face his friends.
“Wow.” Steve shifted uncomfortably. “That was…unexpected.”
Sha
ne scowled. “You don’t really think she did it, do you?”
“Hey man, don’t look at me like that. I never said she did. I just said it was unexpected.”
Danny stood up. “Maybe we better let you two talk, huh?”
Daz nodded. “Agreed.”
Mitch looked at Shane. “I’ll call you later, okay?”
“Yeah.” Shane nodded slowly. “Yeah, okay.”
They left, their voices muted. Outside came the sound of a car starting and leaving.
Leaving him alone in the house with Emma.
Heart thudding, he sat down slowly at the table. Just what the hell was going on?
A sound at the door had him snapping to his feet, but it was only CK who entered, sauntering over to her dish to crunch through some biccies.
Did his dad know about this? Shane rubbed his forehead. He couldn’t have, else he wouldn’t have hired her, right? But then, maybe it was all a mistake and she didn’t do it. Or she’d…no, it had to be a mistake.
Emma was as honest as the day was long. He knew it. He bloody knew it without a doubt. He just had to make sure she knew he believed her innocence.
Pushing to his feet, he walked to the hallway. “Emma? We need to talk.”
Silence greeted him.
“Emma? Sweetheart, it’s okay.”
When nothing more than silence still continued to be the answer, he walked to her bedroom to find it empty.
Maybe she was outside. She liked sitting on the swing chair in the evening.
He went outside. Silence.
A sudden alarming thought hit him, and he hurried back inside to search through the house, calling her name. “Emma! Emma, come on! Emma!” When she didn’t appear, he ran outside to look frantically up and down the street but all was silent. Nothing stirred.
For a few seconds fear clutched at him. Would he see her again? Why had she disappeared? Had she run away? Where in God’s name had she gone? Why the hell hadn’t he gone with his instincts and followed her immediately rather than give her time to compose herself?
He had to get his car and scour the streets for her, find her, let her know he was on her side. Moving fast, he ran back into the house and through to the kitchen, reaching out for the keys on the kitchen bench.
It was as he stopped for several seconds that CK meowed and rubbed around his ankles. That simple movement brought clarity flashing back, which in turn made his fear of Emma fleeing immediately recede.
She wouldn’t leave without CK. Emma was coming back. And when she did, he’d be here waiting for her, no matter how long that took.
Picking up CK, he walked into the lounge and sat down with her on his lap. As she settled down, purring happily, he took the mobile from his pocket and rang his father.
As soon as Doc picked up, Shane asked quietly, “Did you know?”
“Shane?”
“Did you know about Emma?”
There was silence for several seconds, then, “Know what?”
“About the stealing charge.”
“She told you, then.”
“No, Dad, she didn’t. I found out because some woman left a message on her answering machine.”
“Damn.” Doc sighed. “That was a bad way to find out.”
“So you knew all along.”
“She didn’t keep it a secret from me.”
Anger flickered through Shane. “But you didn’t tell me.”
“Son, she didn’t steal anything.”
“So you know the story.”
“She told me.”
“Then tell me, Dad, because I need to know.”
“I think it’s better that you hear from her.”
Shane’s teeth clenched. “Why didn’t you tell me she had a stealing charge against her?”
“Because the charge was withdrawn. Because it didn’t affect my judgement of her. She’s a damned good nurse, she didn’t lose her registration, all charges were dropped. And I trust her.”
“But you still didn’t tell me.”
“This has to come from her, Shane.”
“You didn’t put it in her file.”
“No. There was no need.” Doc didn’t make excuses. “It’s cut and dried for me. I ran the practice, I hired her before you came on as partner. If she had been hired after that, I’d have told you. But putting something like that in her file? What if someone saw it? No, I believe her explanation, and trust me, Shane, it wasn’t given easily. She was scared stiff when she told me, I could see it in her eyes.”
Reining in his anger, tamping it down with effort, Shane leaned back to gaze unseeingly at the painting hanging above the TV. “Tell me, Dad, did you meet her face-to-face?”
“The interview was done via Skype. I looked into her eyes and I knew she was innocent.”
Shane sighed. Yeah, he was pissed that Doc hadn’t told him, but Doc didn’t tell people everything. He kept a lot of the town’s secrets, and he’d take them to his grave.
“You’re angry,” Doc stated.
“You think?”
“Fair enough. Now what?”
“Now I’m waiting for Emma to return and tell me herself.”
“Aren’t you at her house now?”
“She ran out.”
“And you didn’t chase her? Heavens above, boy, haven’t you got a brain in your head?”
“I didn’t chase her, Dad, because I didn’t know she’d left!”
“Oh.” Doc was silent, then, “So now what?”
“So now I wait for her to return and talk to me.”
“You be gentle with her, boy. She’s been through a lot.”
Shane couldn’t help a reluctant laugh. “You always champion the underdog, don’t you, Dad?”
“Call it what you like, Shane. I know a genuine person when I see them. I trust my instincts and they’ve never steered me wrong. The question is…”
“What?” Shane queried when Doc left the half-finished question hanging.
“The question is, do you believe her?”
“What do you mean? That she stole?”
A sound at the doorway had him looking around to see Emma standing in the doorway. Her face was white, her eyes huge. The trembling of her lips made his gut clutch down deep. The vulnerability stamped on every inch of her face had his protective instincts surging up.
As Shane picked up a protesting CK to place her on the sofa, Doc said, “That she’s innocent.”
Standing, Shane moved around the sofa to stand before Emma.
She looked up at him, shoulders squared, uncertainty, fear and shame in her eyes.
“You’re asking if I believe she’s innocent.” Shane spoke to his father, but his words were for Emma.
She swallowed, hands fisted at her sides.
“Yeah, Shane, that’s what I’m asking.” Doc started to say something more, but he suddenly asked, “She’s there, isn’t she?”
Shane didn’t ask how he knew. Doc was known for his intuition. “Yeah, Dad, she’s here.”
“Then I’ll let you both talk. After that, if you want to talk to me, come around. I’ll be here for you.”
Doc hung up but Shane kept the phone to his ear, his gaze locked onto Emma.
Obviously thinking there was still someone on the other end of the phone, she remained silent.
He searched her eyes.
Searched his heart.
Searched what he knew about her, the time they’d spent together, the shared laughter. Everything she’d done and said.
But he knew already.
“Yeah,” he said softly. “I believe she’s innocent.”
A little light of hope filled her big blue eyes.
Those beautiful eyes.
Slowly, deliberately, he switched off the mobile and tossed it onto the armchair before he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him.
She came stiffly, still uncertain.
Love filled him. No denying anger as well. But mostly he didn’t want to see that fear in h
er eyes, that shame, not when it came to him.
He wanted her to trust him, damn it.
As she needed to know that he believed her.
He just held her, rubbing her back soothingly, not saying anything.
Gradually she lost the stiffness, but there was still unease in her body, tension.
Finally, he dropped his mouth to her ear and stated quietly, “Let’s talk.” His hand went from her back to her hand, linking their fingers to bring her with him as he turned and walked back into the lounge room. Rounding the sofa, they both sat facing each other. Equally determined to get the truth from her and give her support at the same time, he didn’t relinquish her hand. “Now talk to me, Emma. Tell me everything, leave nothing out.”
“I thought…” She swallowed. “I saw your face. Yours and the others.”
“And you thought…?”
“I thought…” She looked away.
“Look at me.” Placing a finger beneath her chin, he gently but firmly angled her back to face him. “You thought what?”
“I thought I’d lost you.” Her eyes filled with tears.
It almost broke his damned heart. He stroked the soft curve of her cheek with his thumb. “No. That won’t happen.”
“Don’t be mad at your dad, Shane. Please?”
“Dad’s not my concern at the moment, you are.” Resting his forearms on his thighs, he kept hold of her hand. “You’re my concern. Talk to me.”
“I wanted to. I tried to earlier, you know, before the boys came in.” She shook her head. “I didn’t want you to find out like this. I really didn’t.”
“Emma.” He squeezed her hand. “I believe you’re innocent. It was a shock to hear what we heard on the answering machine, I won’t lie, but I trust you. I believe in you. I’m not going to turn my back on you.”
Her smile was watery.
“Come on, now.” He gave her hand a little tug. “Let’s get this out in the open so we can move forward.”
Nodding, she reached for a tissue, wiped her eyes and tucked it into the pocket of her skirt. “Okay.”
Shane watched as she readied herself, giving her silent support by keeping her hand in his.
Like he was going to let her go and risk her disappearing on him again? Not going to bloody happen. If she disappeared again he’d tear the town apart looking for her. No more waiting. He was done with waiting.
“I had just started working at this new hospital,” she said. “I was on the medical ward and this one particular patient wore a lot of jewellery. She was told several times to let her family take the jewellery home. You know hospitals don’t like patients having valuables on them.”
Secrets (Hope Bay) Page 27