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‘You have a son, Angela.’ His voice was calm and relaxed. ‘Congratulations.’
‘Oh.’ Angela plopped down onto the bed, her expression dazed and delighted. ‘What happened then? What did you do?’
‘I didn’t do anything,’ Tom said easily, handing her the baby carefully. ‘You did it all yourself. You were brilliant. Does it feel good?’
Angela stared down at the tiny baby in her arms and her eyes filled. ‘Yes.’ Her voice was a whisper. ‘It feels great.’
Sally blinked back tears and then cursed to herself as Tom gave her a searching look.
Bother. She always found childbirth emotional but the last thing she wanted to do was show that emotion in front of Tom.
An hour later, having handed Angela and her baby son over to the nurse from the ward, Sally went and picked up her bag and coat from the staffroom.
She felt totally exhausted.
It had been a long day, but she knew that it wasn’t the work that had left her feeling drained.
It was seeing Tom again.
She found deliveries emotional at the best of times, and having Tom working shoulder to shoulder with her on her very first day had left her shaken and tense. What she really needed was to climb. Climbing always relaxed her. It was the degree of concentration required, the knowledge that to allow the mind to wander for one second might result in a fall.
She stared out of the window, acknowledging the dark. It was too late to climb.
So she would need to find another way to escape. She needed to look elsewhere for relaxation and distraction from Tom.
She slid her arms into her coat and made for the door, her whole body tensing when she saw him standing there.
Her defences rose and her chin lifted. ‘Excuse me.’
‘No.’ He walked in and closed the door behind him, standing with his back to her only escape route. ‘I won’t let you avoid me, Sally.’
‘I can hardly be accused of avoiding you,’ she said lightly. ‘I’ve been working side by side with you for most of the day.’
‘And it’s been torture, hasn’t it?’ His voice was harsh and he breathed in deeply. ‘We need to talk about the past. About what happened between us. And we need to move on.’
‘It was seven years ago. And I’ve already moved on.’ She clutched her bag in front of her like a shield. ‘There is absolutely nothing to talk about. I can barely remember it.’
She shot him a look of pure indifference, one of the many looks that she’d been practising.
‘Is that so?’ His voice was soft and his blue eyes narrowed as he surveyed her. He was trying to penetrate that shield but her armour was strong, forged from the burning fires of pain and betrayal.
‘The past is just a memory,’ she lied smoothly, ‘and memories are easily forgotten over time.’
‘Well, you may have nothing to say on the subject, but I have plenty.’
‘Then that’s your problem, not mine. And now I’m going home. It’s been a long day.’ She walked up to him and lifted her chin, her eyes flashing into his. ‘Excuse me.’
There was a tense moment when she thought he was going to reach for her, but then the door behind him opened and he was forced to step aside.
Emma stuck her head round. ‘Oh, great, you’re still here.’ She smiled at Sally. ‘Bryony is on the phone. She said to tell you that she’s in the car park if you want a lift home.’
‘Thanks.’ Without glancing in Tom’s direction, Sally walked confidently out of the room, casting a smile at Emma. ‘See you tomorrow.’
She didn’t want to talk to him. Didn’t want an intimate conversation. She just wanted him to treat her as a colleague, nothing more.
That was all she could cope with.
CHAPTER THREE
TOM watched the staffroom door close behind the two women and fought the temptation to put his fist through the window.
He was boiling with frustration, aggravated to the point of explosion by the less than satisfactory exchange with Sally. There were things he needed to say and she wasn’t allowing him to say them.
But could he really blame her for that?
He ran a hand over his face and cursed softly. All day he’d been aware of her and it had disturbed his concentration more than he cared to admit.
She’d always played havoc with his emotions.
He prowled over to the window and stared moodily down into the car park, his jaw tightening as he saw Sally opening the door of his sister’s car and sliding inside.
He saw a flash of long leg, a glimmer of blonde hair and then she vanished from sight.
For now.
He comforted himself with the fact that Sally Jenner wasn’t going anywhere. She’d made the decision to come home so she was obviously planning on staying around. Which meant that he had plenty of time to engineer the conversation he was determined to have.
His mouth tightened as he watched Bryony drive off.
And the first thing he was going to do was talk to his sister.
Sally settled into her seat and gave a self-satisfied smile. ‘Thanks for the lift. Excellent timing. It’s hard to make a dramatic exit on a mountain bike.’
Bryony caught the smile and laughed. ‘From the look on your face, I gather you won that round.’
Sally took a steady breath. ‘Well, I didn’t make a fool of myself. You would have been proud of me. I was Miss Cool.’
And somehow she’d managed to pretend an indifference that she hadn’t felt.
Seeing Tom had affected her even more than she’d imagined it would.
Bryony waited for her to fasten her seat belt and then drove off. ‘I would have liked to have seen his face when he saw you.’
‘He was shocked,’ Sally said softly, recalling the look in his eyes with a slight shiver. ‘And disconcerted, I think.’
‘Never seen my big brother disconcerted about anything before,’ Bryony said dryly, shifting gears and slowing down as she approached the exit of the hospital. ‘I wish I could have been there.’
‘Well, fortunately Emma was,’ Sally told her. ‘That wasn’t a meeting I would have wanted to have in private.’
‘So what did he say?’
Sally moistened dry lips. ‘He wants to talk.’
Bryony paused at the junction, her expression serious. ‘About what?’
‘The past, I suppose.’ Her eyes met her friend’s and Bryony pulled a face.
‘Well, that was to be expected.’
‘I don’t want to talk about it, Bry. It was bad enough when it happened, without reliving it. What can we possibly achieve by talking about it?’ Sally asked hoarsely, pulling her coat around herself with a slight shiver. ‘Can you turn the heating up in this car? It’s freezing.’
‘The engine will warm up in a minute,’ Bryony said absently, checking the traffic and pulling onto the main road. ‘And you know as well as I do that if my big brother sets his mind on something, he gets it.’
Sally lifted her chin and stared into the frosty darkness. ‘I can be as determined as him.’
In the past seven years she’d discovered reservoirs of strength in herself that she hadn’t known existed.
She wasn’t the same person who had run for cover when he’d rejected her.
Bryony sighed. ‘I know. Which means we’re in for fireworks.’ She gave her a sympathetic glance. ‘You may not want to talk, but if it’s what Tom wants then, trust me, you’ll be talking. He isn’t easily distracted when he wants something. You know that as well as I do.’
Of course she did.
It was that same single-minded approach that had made him such a respected obstetrician at such a young age.
Bryony sighed. ‘You’ll be fine, Sally. You’ve put him behind you.’
A long silence greeted her words and Bryony glanced at her friend in consternation. ‘Oh, no, tell me you’re not …’
‘No.’ Sally’s voice sounded croaky and she cleared her throat. ‘No, I’m not. But it was hard, Bry. Really hard. Even harder than I thought it would be.’
And she’d always known that seeing Tom again would be difficult.
Bryony reached out and squeezed her hand. ‘Just take it a day at a time. What you need is a new love interest. I’m going to find you someone gorgeous to help take your mind off my brother.’
Sally shook her head. ‘No, thanks. I’m better off on my own.’
‘Can I ask you something?’ Bryony pulled up outside her old cottage and switched off the engine. ‘Has there been anyone since Tom?’
Sally turned away, her eyes fixed out of the window. ‘Let’s just say he was a hard act to follow.’ She gave a sigh and then turned to Bryony with a bright smile. ‘But I’m working on it. Truly.’
Somewhere out there was a man who wouldn’t seem like second best.
She sat, lost in thought, and the silence stretched into infinity.
Finally Bryony spoke. ‘Are you truly going to be able to move on?’ Her tone was doubtful and Sally stirred.
‘I’ve moved on. I’m home,’ she said simply, undoing her seat belt and reaching for her bag. Suddenly she needed to be on her own. ‘Thanks for lending me the cottage. I’ll find somewhere of my own soon.’
‘No need,’ Bryony said with a frown. ‘Jack and I don’t use it any more. We were going to rent it out anyway. Does Tom know you’re staying here?’
Sally paused with her hand on the doorhandle. ‘No. He asked where I was living but I dodged the question.’
‘But it isn’t going to take him long to figure it out. What if he comes here?’
‘I hardly think he’s going to go to those lengths to have a conversation,’ Sally said with a faint smile. ‘Goodnight, Bry. Thanks for the lift.’
‘You left your bike at the hospital,’ Bryony reminded her. ‘I’ll pick you up in the morning.’
Smiling her thanks. Sally let herself into the cottage, flicked on the lights and walked through to the cosy kitchen, feeling the tension in her neck and shoulders.
It had been a hard day. Harder than she’d anticipated.
She’d known that the first meeting would be difficult, of course. Known that seeing Tom would be painful.
She’d expected to feel anger and contempt. Expected to dismiss him with a few well-rehearsed words.
What she hadn’t anticipated had been the race of her heart and the kick of her breathing.
Sally made herself a coffee and then sat down at the kitchen table, her hands coiled round the hot mug.
Tom Hunter was still a dangerously attractive man.
But he had no place in her life any more.
She wasn’t that careless with her heart.
Tom sat in his sister’s kitchen, tapping long fingers on the table.
‘She’ll be home in a minute, but I probably ought to warn you that you’re not flavour of the month,’ Jack said mildly, opening two beers and handing one to his friend.
Tom drank from the bottle and then banged it down on the table. ‘Did you know Sally was back?’
Jack settled himself opposite, his feet on the table. ‘No. If Bry wanted to keep it from you, she’s hardly going to tell me, is she?’
‘You’re her husband.’
Jack grinned. ‘And you and I have been best mates since primary school, Tom. Takes more than a woman to come between us, even if that woman is your sister.’
Tom sighed and rubbed long fingers over his aching temples. ‘I wish someone had warned me.’
‘Why?’ Jack took a slug of beer. ‘I thought you weren’t interested in her anyway.’
Tom reached for his beer. He’d thought that, too.
But seeing her again had unsettled him more than he would have thought possible.
Being on the receiving end of her cool indifference had made him feel as though he’d lost something special.
