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‘Well,’ Jasmine said. ‘Sorry that it took so long.’
‘That’s okay. Simon’s asleep.’ Jasmine followed her mum through to the kitchen and Louise went to put the kettle on. ‘So when do you start?’
‘I don’t even know if I’ve got the job.’
‘Please,’ her mum said over her shoulder. ‘Every-where’s screaming for nurses, you hear it on the news all the time.’
It was a backhanded compliment—her mother was very good at them. Jasmine felt the sting of tears behind her eyes—Louise had never really approved of Jasmine going into nursing. Her mother had told her that if she worked a bit harder at school she could get the grades and study medicine, just like Penny. And though she never came right out and said it, it was clear that in both her mother’s and sister’s eyes Penny had a career whereas Jasmine had a job—and one that could be done by anyone—as if all that Jasmine had to do was put on her uniform and show up.
‘It’s a clinical nurse specialist role that I’ve applied for, Mum,’ Jasmine said. ‘There were quite a few applicants.’ But her mum made no comment and not for the first time Jasmine questioned her decision to move close to home. Her mum just wasn’t mumsy—she was successful in everything she did. She was funny, smart and career-minded, and she simply expected her daughters to be the same—after all, she’d juggled her career and had independently raised Jasmine and Penny when their father had walked out.
Jasmine wanted nothing more than to be independent and do the same; she just wanted a pause, a bit of a helping hand as she got through this bit—which in her own way her mother had given. After four weeks of living at home Louise had had a very nice little rental house come onto her books—it was right on the beach and the rent was incredibly low and Jasmine had jumped at it. It was in other areas that Jasmine was struggling, and nursing with all its shift work wasn’t an easy career to juggle without support.
‘I’m going to have to do nights.’ Jasmine watched her mother’s shoulders stiffen as she filled two mugs. ‘A fortnight every three months.’
‘I didn’t raise two children just so that I could raise yours,’ Louise warned. ‘I’ll help you as much as I can for a couple of months, but I take a lot of clients through houses in the evenings.’ She was as direct as ever. ‘And I’ve got my cruise booked for May.’
‘I know,’ Jasmine said. ‘I’m going to start looking for a regular babysitter as soon as I get the offer.’
‘And you need to give me your off duty at least a month in an advance.’
‘I will.’
Jasmine took the tea from her mum. If she wanted a hug she wasn’t going to get one; if she wanted a little pick me up she was in the wrong house.
‘Have you thought about looking for a job that’s a bit more child friendly?’ Louise suggested. ‘You mentioned there was one in Magnetic …’ She gave an impatient shrug when she couldn’t remember the terminology.
‘No. I said there was a position in MRI and that even though the hours were fantastic it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I like Emergency, Mum. You wouldn’t suggest Penny going for a role she had no interest in.’
‘Penny doesn’t have a one-year-old to think of,’ Louise said, and then they sat quietly for a moment.
‘You need to get your hair done,’ her mum said. ‘You need to smarten up a bit if you’re going back to work.’ And that was her mum’s grudging way of accepting that, yes, this was what Jasmime was going to do. ‘And you need to lose some weight.’
And because it was either that or start crying, Jasmine chose to laugh.
‘What’s so funny?’
‘You are,’ Jasmine said. ‘I thought tea came with sympathy.’
‘Not in this house.’ Her mum smiled. ‘Why don’t you go home?’
‘Simon’s asleep.’
‘I’ll have him for you tonight.’
And sometimes, and always when Jasmine was least expecting it, her mum could be terribly nice. ‘My evening appointment cancelled. I’m sure you could use a night to yourself.’
‘I’d love that.’ Jasmine hadn’t had a night to herself since Simon had been born. In the weeks when she’d first come home and had stayed with her mum, the only advantage she had taken had been a long walk on the beach each morning before Simon woke up. ‘Thanks, Mum.’
‘No problem. I guess I’d better get familiar with his routines.’
‘Can I go in and see him?’
‘And wake him up probably.’
She didn’t wake him up. Simon was lying on his front with his bottom in the air and his thumb in his mouth, and just the sight of him made everything worth it. He was in her old cot in her old bedroom and was absolutely the love of her life. She just didn’t understand how Lloyd could want nothing to do with him.
‘Do you think he’s missing out?’ Jasmine asked her mum. ‘Not having a dad?’
‘Better no dad than a useless one,’ Louise said, then gave a shrug. ‘I don’t know the answer to that, Jasmine. I used to feel the same about you.’ She gave her daughter a smile. ‘Our taste in men must be hereditary. No wonder Penny’s sworn off them.’
‘Did she ever tell you what happened?’ Jasmine asked, because one minute Penny had been engaged, the next the whole thing had been called off and she didn’t want to talk about it.
‘She just said they’d been having a few problems and decided that it was better to get out now than later.’
Before there were children to complicate things, Jasmine thought, but didn’t say anything. It was her mum who spoke.
‘I know it’s tough at the moment but I’m sure it will get easier.’
‘And if it doesn’t?’
‘Then you’d better get used to tough.’ Louise shrugged. ‘Have you told Penny you’re applying for a job at Peninsula?’
‘I saw her at my interview.’
‘And?’ Louise grimaced. They both knew only too well how Penny would react to the news.
‘She doesn’t want me there—especially not in Accident and Emergency,’ Jasmine admitted. ‘She wasn’t best pleased.’
‘Well, it’s her domain,’ Louise said. ‘You know how territorial she is. She used to put thread up on her bedroom door so she’d know if anyone had been in there while she was out. She’ll come round.’
And even though she smiled at the memory, Jasmine was worried that Penny wouldn’t be coming round to the idea of her little sister working in her hospital any time soon.
Jasmine was proven right a few hours later when, back at her own small house, adding another coat of paint in an attempt to transform the lounge from dull olive green to cool crisp white, there was a loud rap at the door.
‘Can you knock more quietly?’ Jasmine asked as she opened it. ‘If Simon was here—’
‘We need to talk,’ Penny said, and she brushed in and straight through to the lounge.
If Louise hadn’t exactly been brimming with understanding, then Penny was a desert.
Her blouse was still crisp and white, her hair still perfect and her eyes were just as angry as they had been when she had first laid them on Jasmine in the hospital corridor earlier on that day. ‘You said nothing about this when I saw you last week,’ Penny said accusingly. ‘Not a single word!’
‘I didn’t exactly get a chance.’
‘Meaning?’
She heard the confrontation in her sister’s voice, could almost see Pandora’s box on the floor between them. She was tempted just to open it, to have this out once and for all, to say how annoyed she still felt that Penny hadn’t been able to make it for Simon’s first birthday a couple of months earlier. In fact, she hadn’t even sent a card. Yet there had been no question that Jasmine herself would be there to join in celebrating her sister’s success.
Or rather celebrating her sister’s latest success.
But bitterness wasn’t going to help things here.
‘That dinner was to celebrate you getting your fellowship,’ Jasmine said calmly. ‘I knew you’d be upset if I told you that I had an interview coming up, and I didn’t want to spoil your night.’
‘You should have discussed it with me before you even applied!’ Penny said. ‘It’s my department.’
‘Hopefully it will be mine soon, too,’ Jasmine attempted, but her words fell on deaf ears.
‘Do you know how hard it is for me?’ Penny said. ‘All that nonsense about equal rights … I have to be twice as good as them, twice as tough as any of them—there’s a consultancy position coming up and I have no intention of letting it slip by.’
‘How could my working there possibly affect that?’ Jasmine asked reasonably.
‘Because I’m not supposed to have a personal life,’ was Penny’s swift retort. ‘You just don’t get it, Jasmine. I’ve worked hard to get where I am. The senior consultant, Mr Dean, he’s old school—he made a joke the other week about how you train them up and the next thing you know they’re pregnant and wanting part-time hours.’ She looked at her sister. ‘Yes, I could complain and make waves, but how is that going to help things? Jed is going after the same position. He’s a great doctor but he’s only been in the department six months and I am not going to lose it to him.’ She shook her head in frustration.
‘I’m not asking you to understand, you just have to believe that it is hard to get ahead sometimes, and the last thing I need right now is my personal life invading the department.’
‘I’m your sister—’
‘So are you going to be able to stay quiet when the nurses call me a hard witch?’ Penny challenged. ‘And when you are supposed to finish at four but can’t get off, are you going to expect me to drop everything and run to the crèche and get Simon?’
‘Of course not.’
‘And when I hear the other nurses moaning that you hardly ever do a late shift and are complaining about having to do nights, am I supposed to leap to your defence and explain that you’re a single mum?’
‘I can keep my work and personal life separate.’
‘Really!’
It was just one word, a single word, and the rise of Penny’s perfect eyebrows had tears spring to Jasmine’s eyes. ‘That was below the belt.’
‘The fact that you can’t keep your work and personal life separate is the very reason you can’t go back to Melbourne Central.’
‘It’s about the travel,’ Jasmine insisted. ‘And you’re wrong, I can keep things separate.’
‘Not if we’re in the same department.’
‘I can if they don’t know that we’re sisters,’ Jasmine said, and she watched Penny’s jaw tighten, realised then that this was where the conversation had been leading. Penny was always one step ahead in everything, and Penny had made very sure that it was Jasmine who suggested it.
‘It might be better.’ Penny made it sound as if she was conceding.
‘Fine.’
‘Can you keep to it?’
‘Sure,’ Jasmine said.
‘I mean it.’
‘I know you do, Penny.’
‘I’ve got to get back to work. I’m on call tonight.’ And her sister, now that she had what she came for, stood up to leave. Jasmine held in tears that threatened, even managed a smile as her sister stalked out of the door.
But it hurt.
It really hurt.
CHAPTER FOUR (#ulink_b9689cc1-d56f-5b13-8374-a5b87715d6d1)
IT WAS HER favourite place in the world.
But even a long stretch of sand, the sun going down over the water and a storm rolling in from the distance wasn’t enough to take the harsh sting out of Penny’s words.
Jasmine hated arguments, loathed them and did her very best to avoid them.
She could still remember all too well hearing the raised voices of her parents seeping up the stairs and through the bedroom floor as she had lain on her bed with her hands over her ears.
But there had been no avoiding this one—Jasmine had known when she’d applied for the role that there would be a confrontation. Still, she couldn’t just bow to Penny’s wishes just because it made things awkward for her.
She needed a job and, no matter what her mother and sister thought of her chosen career, nursing was what she was good at—and Emergency was her speciality.
Jasmine wasn’t going to hide just because it suited Penny.
It had been cruel of Penny to bring up her relationship with Lloyd, cruel to suggest that she wasn’t going back to Melbourne Central just because of what had happened.
It was also, Jasmine conceded, true.
Finding out that she was pregnant had been a big enough shock—but she’d had no idea what was to come.
That the dashing paramedic who’d been so delighted with the news of her pregnancy, who’d insisted they marry and then whisked her off on a three-month honeymoon around Australia, was in fact being investigated for patient theft.
She’d been lied to from the start and deceived till the end and nothing, it seemed, could take away her shame. And, yes, the whispers and sideways looks she had received from her colleagues at Melbourne Central as she’d worked those last weeks of her pregnancy with her marriage falling apart had been awful. The last thing she needed was Penny rubbing it in.
‘I knew I recognised you from somewhere.’ She looked over to the sound of a vaguely familiar voice.
‘Oh!’ Jasmine was startled as she realised who it was. ‘Hi, Jed.’ He was out of breath from running and—she definitely noticed this time—was very, very good looking.
He was wearing grey shorts and a grey T-shirt and he was toned, a fact she couldn’t fail to notice when he lifted his T-shirt to wipe his face, revealing a very flat, tanned stomach. Jasmine felt herself blush as for the first time in the longest time she was shockingly drawn to rugged maleness.
But, then, how could you not be? Jasmine reasoned. Any woman hauled out of a daydream would blink a few times when confronted with him. Any woman would be a bit miffed that they hadn’t bothered sorting their hair and that they were wearing very old denim shorts and a T-shirt splashed with paint.
‘You walk here?’ Jed checked, because now he remembered her. Dark curls bobbing, she would walk—sometimes slowly, sometimes briskly and, he had noticed she never looked up, never acknowledged anyone—she always seemed completely lost in her own world. ‘I see you some mornings,’ Jed said, and then seemed to think about it. ‘Though not for a while.’
‘I live just over there.’ Jasmine pointed to her small weatherboard house. ‘I walk here every chance I get—though I haven’t had too many chances of late.’
‘We’re almost neighbours.’ Jed smiled. ‘I’m in the one on the end.’ He nodded towards the brand-new group of town houses a short distance away that had been built a couple of years ago. Her mother had been the agent in a couple of recent sales there and Jasmine wondered if one of them might have been to him.
And just to remind her that he hadn’t specifically noticed her, he nodded to another jogger who went past, and as they walked along a little way, he said hi to an elderly couple walking their dog. He clearly knew the locals.
