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‘Well, it serves as a breakfast kitchen,’ Nick explained, going over to the fridge. ‘There’s a separate dining room through the archway, but I tend to eat in here, mostly… or upstairs on the upper deck. I can look out over the ocean from there.’
‘That sounds like bliss.’
He nodded, putting ice into two glasses and adding tea from a jug. ‘It is. Would you like lemon and mint with this?’ he asked, indicating the iced tea.
‘Please. That would be good.’
He placed the two glasses on a tray, along with the jug of tea and a plate of mixed hors d’oeuvres. ‘We’ll take these upstairs and I’ll show you the upper deck.’It’s great up there at this time of day, and you can see over the whole of the bay from the terrace.’
She followed him up the stairs, walking through a second sitting room and out through beautifully embellished glass doors onto the balcony terrace.
He was right. The view from the deck was fantastic, and Katie could even see the wildflowers that grew on the craggy slopes in the distance. He pulled out a chair for her by a wrought-iron table, and she sat down and began to relax.
Out here, there were tubs of yellow and orange California poppies, their silky petals moving gently in the faint breeze, and against the far wall, standing tall alongside a trellis, were spiky blue delphiniums. Hanging baskets provided even more colour, with exuberant displays of petunias.
‘Help yourself to food,’ he said, sliding a plate across the table towards her. ‘I wasn’t sure whether you would have eaten or not before you came.’
‘Thanks.’ She glanced at the food on display. There was pâté with crackers, honey-glazed chicken and a spicy tomato dip with tortilla chips. ‘It looks delicious.’
He smiled. ‘Not my doing, I’m afraid. I have food sent over from the hotel quite often. I don’t always have time to cook.’
‘I’m not surprised. You must spend the bulk of your time at the hospital, and even if you don’t work on a day-to-day basis at the vineyard or the hotel, there must be a fair amount of organisational work to deal with. I expect you’re the one who has to make the most important decisions, aren’t you?’
He nodded. ‘That’s true. Things tend to crop up from time to time that need my attention—like this unfortunate episode with Mrs Wyatt.’ He frowned. ‘I went to see her, and I’m really pleased that she’s looking a lot better than she was a few days ago.’
Katie smiled. ‘Yes. I couldn’t help noticing that you arranged for her to have a private room—the basket of fruit and the flowers you sent were a lovely touch. I know she appreciated them.’
‘It was the least I could do.’ He spread pâté onto a cracker and bit into it. ‘People come to the hotel expecting to have a good time and live for a while in the lap of luxury. They don’t want to find themselves being taken out of there by ambulance.’
‘But you weren’t obliged to pay anything towards her hospital care, were you?’
He shrugged. ‘No, that’s true. Her insurance company will pay for that… but I wanted to be certain she had the upgrade to make sure that she’s comfortable, and, anyway, I count it as good customer relations.’
‘Hmm. I can see that you take your role as hotelier seriously.’ She dipped a tortilla chip into the fiery salsa sauce. ‘You must be anxious to know what caused Mrs Wyatt to fall and break her shoulder. Would you like to hear the results of the tests?’
‘Yes, definitely… I’m glad she said it would be all right for you to discuss them with me. Is it what we thought—a TIA?’
She nodded. ‘It looks that way. The doctors monitored her heart and discovered that she has atrial fibrillation—as you know, that kind of abnormal heart rhythm can sometimes cause clots to form in the blood vessels. They did a CT scan, along with blood tests, and found a narrowing of the arteries. The general feeling is that she probably developed a blood clot that temporarily disturbed the flow of blood to the brain. This most likely dissolved of its own accord, but it’s possible that more will form as time progresses if she doesn’t have treatment.’
‘So presumably they have her on anti-thrombotic therapy? And they’ll give her medication to counteract the abnormal heart rhythm?’
‘That’s right.’ She took a sip of iced tea. ‘It looks as though you’re in the clear—or, should I say, the hotel’s in the clear?’ She smiled at him. ‘That must be a huge relief to you.’
‘Yes, it is. I can’t tell you how badly I needed to hear that. It’s great news. Lucky, too, for Mrs Wyatt, because now she gets to have the treatment she needs to put her back on the road to health.’ He rested back in his seat, taking a swallow of iced tea and looking the picture of contentment. ‘Thanks for telling me that, Katie. I’m really obliged to you for finding out all this information.’
He set down his glass and looked her over, leaning towards her. ‘In fact, if I didn’t think you’d take it amiss, I could kiss you for it.’ He came closer, as though, having hit on the idea, he was ready to carry it through into immediate action, regardless of the consequences.
Katie flattened herself against the back of her chair, deftly foiling his attempt. ‘I think you’d better give that one a miss,’ she said, her green gaze meshing with his. ‘It wouldn’t do if every male doctor tried to kiss me whenever I presented them with good results, would it?’
His eyes narrowed. ‘Have any tried?’
‘Oh, yes. From time to time.’
‘And succeeded?’ He was frowning now, his blue eyes darkening.
‘Maybe. Once or twice.’ His expression crystallised into one of seething frustration, and she laughed softly. ‘Sorry about that. I couldn’t resist. You looked so put out.’
He gazed at her, totally nonplussed. ‘You certainly got me going there,’ he said, his mouth twisting. ‘My fault. I should have known any number of men would want to try their luck with you. That goes for me, too. Somehow, ever since we first met, I’ve been hung up on getting to know you better… much better.’
She pulled a face. ‘Well, I’m not sure that’s such a good idea—not in the way you mean, at least.’
He studied her thoughtfully for a moment or two, his expression serious. ‘He hurt you badly, didn’t he—this man from back home? You must have been very much in love with him.’
‘I thought I was,’ she said awkwardly. ‘I thought I knew him, but perhaps I was blind to his faults. He had a lot of charisma, and I believed he was saving it all for me. It turned out I was wrong.’
And wasn’t Nick so very much like James? He had that scintillating charm that could sweep a woman off her feet, and Katie was no exception. She had to be on her guard. No matter how hard he tried, she wasn’t going to succumb to Nick’s winning ways. Hadn’t her father warned her about him?
‘But let’s not dwell on any of that,’ she murmured. ‘I’m here with you now, and we do have two things in common… our work and my father. Maybe it would be safer all round if we simply kept things between us on that level.’
‘Hmm…maybe.’ He sounded doubtful. His eyes were still dark, and there was a brooding quality to his expression.
Katie decided to plough on with her new diversionary tactic. She helped herself to some food and said quietly, ‘Perhaps we should talk about what happened this morning—about your efforts to persuade my father to sell his land, and the effect it’s having on him. Maybe we need to clear the air on that score. You know I’d sooner you put an end to any attempt at making a deal. Anyway, I have the feeling he’s not at all sure about going ahead with it.’
Nick frowned. ‘He hasn’t said as much to me. and while there’s a chance he’ll concede to us, we’re bound to keep trying. It would mean a lot to my father to bring the vineyard back into our keeping. My great-great-grandfather bought the land at the turn of the century, but a parcel of it was sold off some years back when the family fell on hard times. It’s a matter of pride to my father to restore the vineyards into family ownership once more. He sees it as our inheritance. It’s very important to him.’
‘That may be so, but I can’t say it any clearer—I think you should hold off on those negotiations.’
Nick’s steady gaze met hers. ‘Jack doesn’t need you to hold his hand where business is concerned.’
A glint of steel came into Katie’s eyes. ‘I have to disagree with you on that one,’ she said. ‘And this is definitely not the right time to be pursuing it with him.’
Nick frowned. ‘That’s another matter, of course. We both saw how ill he was today.’ He poured more iced tea into her glass. ‘You think your father needs to be cosseted but he takes it on himself to take care of business matters, and then it becomes a matter of pride for him to see things through.’
So, no matter what she said, he wasn’t giving up on his plan to secure her father’s land. She drank her iced tea and studied him over the rim of her glass. Clearly, his family was not going to be satisfied with the empire they had built up. They would go after whatever they wanted. Forewarned was forearmed.
Nick’s phone bleeped, and he glanced down at the screen briefly. ‘It looks as though the workmen have finished installing the hot tub,’ he said. ‘Shall we go down and take a look?’
‘Yes, of course.’
She followed him down the stairs and out to the courtyard, where the workmen waited, standing by their handiwork.
‘We’re all done here,’ the spokesman said. ‘I think you’ll find everything’s in order. Just turn these controls here to adjust the jets.’ He began to point out the various buttons and fittings. ‘This is your filter… and here’s where you change the heat settings. We’ve left it set to around midway. Neither too hot nor too cold, but of course it’s all a matter of personal preference.’
‘That’s great,’ Nick murmured. ‘It looks perfect. Thanks for all your hard work.’ He turned to Katie. ‘Stay and enjoy the courtyard for a minute or two, will you, while I go and see the men off? There’s an ornamental fishpond that you might like to look at, over there in the corner. I’ll be back in a few minutes.’
‘Okay.’ She watched him go, then turned and walked towards the far side of the courtyard, an attractive area, laid out with a trellised arbour and rockery. A gentle waterfall splashed into the pond where koi carp swam amongst the plants and hid beneath white waterlilies.
She gazed down at the green fronds of water plants drifting with the ripple of water from a small fountain and lost herself for a while in a reverie of a past life.
‘Sorry to have left you,’ Nick said, coming back to her a short time later. ‘I think the men did a good job. They sited the tub perfectly and left the place looking neat and tidy. Didn’t take them too long either.’
She nodded. ‘I expect you’ll appreciate your new tub for a good many years to come.’ Turning back to the pond, she added, ‘This is beautifully set out.
The water’s so clear, and the plants are perfect.’ Her voice became wistful. ‘I remember having one in our garden when I was a child… but it was never as good as this. I suppose you have to keep on top of things—make sure the filter is kept clear, and so on.’
‘That’s true. I tend to check it every so often. The pond is a hobby of mine. I find it totally relaxing, something you need so that you can wind down after a day in Emergency.’ He sent her an oblique glance. ‘Did your father set up your pond… or was it something that came with the house, so to speak?’
‘It came with the house. My father was interested in it, but he wasn’t around for long enough to take care of it, and the work fell to my mother.’
‘And she wasn’t that keen?’
‘She was keen enough when my father was with us, but after he left to go and live here in California she fell apart. She lost interest in everything.’
He frowned. ‘I’m sorry. That must have been hard.’ He scanned her face thoughtfully. ‘I’ve known Jack for some eighteen years, ever since he pipped us to the post and bought the vineyard from its previous owner. In all that time I had no idea he had a daughter back in the UK.’
‘No. It seems he kept it quiet.’
‘I suppose you had to take a lot of the burden on your shoulders—how old were you when he left?’
‘I was eight. As to any burden, I must say I didn’t really understand what was going on at the time. It was all very confusing. When I realised he wasn’t coming back, I was hurt, heartbroken, and then as the years went by I became angry and resentful. There was just my mother and me, no cosy family unit with brothers and sisters to share happy times. I missed that.’
A shadow crossed his eyes. ‘And that’s why you never came over here until now.’ He looked at her with new understanding. ‘You were waiting for him to come back to you.’
She lowered her head. ‘It wasn’t going to happen, was it? So eventually I decided that if I was to make peace with myself, I had to come and find him and sort out my demons once and for all.’
He slid an arm around her shoulders. ‘I’m sorry that you had to go through all that,’ he said quietly. ‘It must have been a terrible time for you.’ He drew her close and pressed a light kiss on her forehead. ‘It seems almost unforgivable that he should treat you that way, and yet I know Jack is a good man at heart.’
Katie didn’t answer. She couldn’t. She was too conscious of his nearness, and it brought up all kinds of conflicting emotions within her. Everything in her told her that this man was some kind of adversary. He was a threat to her father, and a danger to her peace of mind, and yet when he touched her like this, she was instantly lost in a cotton-wool world of warmth and comfort.
His arms were around her, his body shielding hers from all that might hurt her, and the searing impact of that tender kiss had ricocheted throughout her whole body. She didn’t want to move, or speak. Why couldn’t she stay here, locked in his embrace, where the world stood still and she might forget her worries?
‘Do you think you can find it in you to forgive him?’ Nick murmured. ‘He’s very ill, and there may not be too much time left.’
‘I don’t know.’ She gave a faint sigh. The spell was broken and she straightened, gazing down into the water of the pond. Fish darted among the green fronds, oblivious to the troubles of the world around them. If only she could find such inner peace.
She took a step backwards. ‘I should go,’ she said. Nick was the last person she should look to for comfort. He could well turn out to be even more of a heartbreaker than her father.
CHAPTER FOUR (#ulink_f00c8526-d0fa-5c86-85a3-7e52f73c5604)
‘IS YOUR father really considering selling his vineyard to the Bellini family? That seems very strange to me.’ Eve Logan sounded doubtful at the other end of the line. ‘I haven’t had a lot of contact with him over these last few years, but I did gain the impression that the business meant an awful lot to him. I wouldn’t have thought it was something he would give it up lightly.’
‘No, probably not,’ Katie agreed. ‘When I spoke to him the other day he said he hadn’t thought it through yet, or words to that effect. I’m wondering if the Bellinis are putting undue pressure on him. He isn’t well, and I have the strong feeling that he isn’t up to it.’
‘Then perhaps it’s as well that you’re over there and able to look out for him.’
‘Yes, maybe.’
Katie cut the call to her mother a few minutes later and gazed around the apartment. She was feeling oddly restless. Ever since her visit to Nick’s home several days ago, she had been suffering from what she could only think of as withdrawal symptoms, and it was all Nick’s fault.
That kiss had been the lightest, gentlest touch, and it surely had been nothing more than a gesture of comfort and understanding, but the memory of it had stayed with her ever since. Nick had a compelling, magnetic charm that could surely melt the stoniest heart, and she was proving to be no exception.
It wouldn’t do at all. She was off men… they could string you along and lead you into thinking that everything was perfect, and then throw it all in your face with the biggest deception of all. No. Every instinct warned her that it would be far better to steer clear of Nick before he could work his magic on her. He spelled trouble and that was something she could definitely do without.
It didn’t help that she managed to catch a glimpse of his house every time she headed along the main highway on her way to or from the hospital. Today had been no exception. Nick’s home was beautiful, a jewel set in the golden, sand-fringed crown of the California coast.
Annoyingly, against all her better judgement, her thoughts kept straying to him. What was he doing. was he there, sitting outside on the upper deck, watching the seagulls perch on the distant bluffs?
But she wasn’t going to waste any more time thinking about him. Enough was enough, and she had work to do. The dishwasher needed emptying and there was a stack of ironing waiting for her… though with any luck she could finish her chores and still have time to wander down to the beach and take in one of the glorious sunsets that were the norm around there.
She set to work, but she was only halfway through her ironing pile when the phone rang.
‘There’s been a surfing accident just a mile from where you are,’ her boss told her. ‘Darren Mayfield, a fourteen-year-old, was knocked unconscious and had to be pulled out of the water. The ambulance has been called, but you’ll probably reach him before it arrives. A nasty head injury, by all accounts.’
‘I’ll leave right away,’ she told him, unplugging the iron and heading for the door. Her medical bag was in the hall, ready for such emergencies, and the rest of her supplies were in the car.
The boy’s level of consciousness was waxing and waning by the time she arrived on the beach. ‘Do you know anything about what happened to him?’ she asked his mother, who was waiting anxiously by his side.
‘He came off his board when one of the big waves hit,’ the woman said, her voice shaky. ‘The board sort of rose up in the air and then crashed down on him. We had to drag him out of the water. There’s a gash on the back of his head and he’s bleeding... He hasn’t come round properly since we brought him to shore.’ Her lips trembled. ‘He keeps being sick, and I thought it was just concussion, but it’s more than that, isn’t it? He should have recovered by now.’
‘I’ll take a look,’ Katie murmured, kneeling down beside the boy. ‘How are you doing, Darren?’ she asked quietly. ‘Can you hear me?’ She waited, and when there was no response she added, ‘Do you know what happened to you?’
He still didn’t answer, and Katie began to make a swift but thorough examination. ‘He’s unconscious,’ she told his mother, after a while. ‘I’m going to put a tube down his throat, and give him oxygen, to help with his breathing, and then I need to stabilise his spine to prevent any more damage being done.’ She carefully put a cervical collar in place, before checking the boy’s heart rate once more. It was worryingly low, and his blood pressure was high, both signs that the pressure within his brain was rising. That didn’t bode well.
Suddenly, Darren’s whole body began to shake, and Katie reached in her medical bag for a syringe.
‘Why’s he doing that?’ his mother asked in a panicked voice. ‘What’s happening to him?’
‘He’s having a seizure,’ Katie answered. It was yet another indication that this boy was in trouble. ‘I’m going to inject him with medication that will help to stop the fit.’
By the time the paramedics arrived, she had put in place an intravenous line so that fluids and any further drugs could be administered swiftly and easily. ‘We need spinal support here,’ she told the men, keeping her voice low so as not to worry the boy’s mother any further. ‘He has a depressed skull fracture, so we need to phone ahead and tell the trauma team what to expect. They’ll most likely need to prepare him for Theatre.’
She spoke to the lead paramedic as they wheeled Darren into the ambulance a few minutes later. ‘I’ll ride along with him in case there are any more complications along the way.’
The paramedic nodded. ‘You go ahead with Mrs Mayfield and sit by him. I’ll call the emergency department and keep them up to date.’
‘Thanks.’
Katie looked at her patient. He was deathly pale and she was deeply concerned for this boy as she sat beside him in the ambulance. She had placed a temporary dressing on the wound at the back of his head, but it was bleeding still, and she was worried about the extent of the damage.
The journey to the hospital seemed to take for ever, though in reality it was probably only about fifteen minutes, and as soon as they pulled into the ambulance bay, Katie was ready to move. The paramedics wheeled Darren towards the main doors.
‘He had another seizure in the ambulance,’ she told the doctor who came out to greet them, ‘so I’ve boosted the anti-convulsive therapy. I’m afraid his blood pressure is high and it looks as though the intracranial pressure is rising.’ Again, she spoke quietly so that the boy’s mother wouldn’t be unduly alarmed, but to her relief a nurse stepped forward and gently took the woman to one side.
‘We’ll get an x-ray just as soon as we’ve managed to stabilise his blood pressure,’ a familiar voice said, and Katie was startled to see Nick appear at the side of the trolley. He was wearing green scrubs that only seemed to emphasise the muscular strength of his long, lean body. Her heart gave a strange little lurch.
He listened attentively to the paramedic’s report and was already checking the patient’s vital signs, scanning the readings on the portable heart monitor that Katie had set up. Then he looked at Katie and gave her a quick smile. ‘Hi,’ he said.
‘Oh… I… somehow I hadn’t expected to see you here.’ Katie’s response was muted, but she recovered herself enough to acknowledge him, and also the paramedics, who were ready to leave on another callout. She was troubled about her patient’s progress, but Nick’s sudden appearance had thrown her way off balance. In the heat of the moment it had completely slipped her mind that he might be on duty.
