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‘Not Sammy?’ Not his son? Hope flared. Brad looked back at the boy lying before him, and gulped. He looked nothing like Samuel. Except for the blond hair, the skinny legs and knobbly knees. Brad’s head spun. Damn it, he’d just made an idiot of himself freaking out like that. How could it be Samuel anyway? He was far away in California. The pain subsided, and Brad leaned down to run the back of his hand over the boy’s soft cheek, his fingers shaking.
Not his son, but another man would be feeling this agony as soon as he learned about the accident. What did these medical people think of him losing his cool like that? They’d probably cart him off to the lock up if he wasn’t careful. He looked around at the thinning crowd. At least no one here seemed to have recognised him. Thank goodness. He didn’t want his mistake added to the rest of the gossip no doubt circulating around Blenheim about him. Twisting his neck further, he found the nurse’s thoughtful gaze on him. She’d heard every word he’d uttered.
She gave him a tentative smile before filling in the patient report form for the ambulance crew. ‘Jason’s mum works in ED.’
The second officer leaned over and read the boy’s name. He whistled. ‘This is Polly’s boy? She’s already on shift.’
Glad of the distraction, Brad said, ‘Tricky. What happens when you call this job through to ED? It could be her who picks up the radio link.’ He felt for the woman. ‘Is there any other way of letting the staff know so they can tell her personally?’
‘We’ll phone in on our cell,’ one of the medics answered as he strapped the oxygen mask to Jason. ‘Right, let’s get that bike off and roll this lad onto the backboard.’
The four of them worked to get Jason safely untangled before transferring him to the stretcher and into the ambulance.
Brad turned to the nurse now standing beside him. ‘Phew, I’m glad that’s over. I always feel uncomfortable dealing with these situations when I’ve got no equipment at hand.’
‘I know exactly what you mean.’ Her teeth dug into her bottom lip. ‘And poor Polly’s going to get a shock, even if she is told before Jason gets there.’ She looked up at him and he could see the thought in her eyes.
A shock such as he’d just had.
Stepping up to the back of the ambulance, the woman advised the paramedic, ‘Tell Polly I’ve gone round to tell Jason’s father, will you?’
The paramedic began closing the back of the ambulance. ‘Sure will. And thanks for your help, Erin. I wish you’d come and join us. You’d make a great team member and we could use your skills.’
Brad gasped. Erin? As in Erin Foley, nurse at the medical centre he’d started working at? What would she have to say about his loss of concentration back there? If she informed the staff at the centre about it they might think they had more cause to look at him sideways.
But right now she was saying with an expressive shrug, ‘Who knows? If my new boss doesn’t work out, I might have to consider it.’
Still absorbing this latest bombshell, Brad muttered, ‘You’ve got doubts about a new boss before you’ve even worked with him?’ Why? Could she be feeling remorse for the tongue-lashing she’d given him over the phone last month despite not knowing him?
Erin blinked at him. ‘Ah, yes, I have.’ Turning her shoulder to him, she spoke to the paramedic again.
Of course she’d think it was none of Brad’s business. He should tell her who he was, get whatever was bothering her out in the open before clinic began. But, damn it, this was the woman who’d forced his hand, made him jump on a plane and cross the Tasman to help out the man who’d taken care of him years ago. If not for Erin Foley’s caustic phone call he’d still be justifying staying in Adelaide, pretending it was work that kept him there, not reluctance to face a town full of people who’d despised him for being a bad boy as a teenager. People who were no doubt laughing up their sleeves at his failed marriage, thinking he’d got his just deserts for believing he could escape his roots and rubbing their noses in it as he went. He shivered. And he couldn’t bear if they started in on Samuel.
The laughter about his mistakes and misdemeanours he could handle, but if anyone dared say a word about Samuel’s parentage he wouldn’t be able to hold in his hurt and anger.
A nudge in the arm from Erin’s elbow brought him back to his surroundings. She asked politely, ‘Are you okay? You look a bit pale.’
Pale? ‘I’m fine.’ He opened his clenched hands. ‘You want me to come with you to tell the boy’s father?’
‘No, thanks. I know them well.’
And he was a stranger. In her eyes, at least. There was a very real chance he’d know one of Jason’s parents, might’ve gone to school with one of them, so it was best he didn’t go with Erin to see Jason’s father. Brad didn’t want the past getting in the way of what she had to tell the other man. ‘Fair enough. Though someone else might’ve already beaten you to the door.’
‘Very likely but I need to make sure. I’d say Jason was on his way to school when he was hit by the van.’ She stretched her legs and looked around the crowd, nodded at a few people she obviously knew.
Of course she knew them. Some of them might even be patients at the medical centre where he now worked. Where she worked. He was her boss and he was interested in her other than as a nurse. That had to stop right now. This very instant. It wasn’t professional.
Only last week when he’d started at the clinic he’d had to hold his tongue when everyone had told him about the competent and cheerful nurse who had gone on leave the same day he’d started. He’d known the acid of her tongue over the phone, but nothing else about her. He’d expected a middle-aged paragon who was efficiency personified. No one had told him she was drop-dead gorgeous, and that was with a helmet on and wearing those dreadful Spandex cycle shorts with the padded seat.
Movement out of the corner of Brad’s eye caught his attention. Two youngsters were picking up a bike from the side of the road, a bike that looked suspiciously like Erin’s. ‘Hey, you two.’
The boys stopped, glanced over their shoulders, apprehension on their sulky faces. Little blighters had been about to steal the bike. ‘Put that down now.’
Their apprehension grew, but they remained quiet.
Erin looked around. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Those two were borrowing your bike.’ He’d managed to stop their silly escapade.
Her head spun around so fast she had to be giddy. Her eyes hardened, and she stormed across to retrieve her cycle. Damn, but she looked even more beautiful when she was angry. Something he didn’t need to know. But his brain seemed to be filing it away for later anyway.
She growled at the boys in a low voice that stroked his raw nerves. ‘You were going to steal my bike? How dare you? If you want a bike, get a job and earn the money for one. I should report you to the police.’
One of the boys scoffed, ‘Yeah, right, lady.’
The other glared at her defensively. ‘Who’d give us a job?’
She looked from one boy to the other, a frown scrunching her forehead. ‘I would, if I could. Unfortunately there aren’t any jobs for schoolkids where I work.’
Brad noted how hope flared quickly in the lads’ eyes, and disappeared as rapidly. Poor kids. Maybe he could think of something. But in the meantime they still owed her an apology. He turned to the boys. ‘Haven’t you two got something to say to this lady?’
Like twins they screwed their noses into sneers and rolled their eyes at her. But they did mutter, ‘Sorry.’
‘I imagine that’s as good as I’m going to get.’
He sighed. He’d heard these sorts of comments throughout his youth. People always expected the worst of kids from the wrong part of town, and judging by the worn and ill-fitting school uniforms these two were wearing, that was exactly where they came from. ‘You could give them a break.’
‘What? Am I supposed to congratulate the boys for being would-be thieves? They need a good dressing down.’
True, and they’d get one from him if their parents weren’t forthcoming. Did he know these boys’ families? It might be better for him if he left them alone and headed straight to the clinic. Don’t get involved. Don’t stir up the past any more than you have to.
But he still shook his head at Erin in warning before turning to the boys. ‘Come on, you two. Let’s get out of here.’
Before he hauled this woman into his arms, bike and all, and kissed her until her legs couldn’t hold her up. Banging his hand on his head, he muttered, ‘What the hell’s the matter with me?’
He tried to concentrate on the lads, tried to ignore her as she checked the road was clear before cycling away. She was going to be furious when she learned who he was. Why hadn’t he introduced himself once he’d realised they’d be working together?
Because he didn’t want to see the disdain at what she perceived to be his lack of compassion towards David any sooner than he had to. Had she heard about his badboy reputation? Would that add to her scorn?
But as those trim legs pumped the pedals he couldn’t stop staring after her. His hungry gaze followed her out onto the road. Her backside, clad in those cycling shorts, was a sight not to be missed. It sent his temperature soaring, his heart racing, and his groin aching. He really tried to look elsewhere, for his own sake, but he couldn’t. He watched as she weaved amongst the traffic, his gaze following her until she finally disappeared from sight.
Unfortunately he couldn’t disappear off the radar for the next few months as he’d committed to helping David adjust to his illness. That took precedence over everything. Over everyone, including blue-eyed beauties. The same one who’d rightly accused him during that phone conversation of putting David second.
Home. The one place he’d been too ashamed to return to. The place he and his ex-wife had been in a hurry to leave and make a fresh start away from his bad image. Away to a city where he didn’t have to explain to a patient that while he might’ve stolen a shirt off their washing line years earlier, he could now competently diagnose their illness. In Adelaide his wife had finally begun to carve out the lifestyle she’d craved all her underprivileged childhood. Brad had always known Penelope had used him to get out of Blenheim but he’d understood her, and loved her enough to give her what she wanted. Big mistake.
His marriage had been the one subject that had been taboo between him and David. The older man had seen further ahead than Brad could, had known no one could feed Penelope’s hunger. David had foreseen no amount of wealth would give her what she needed, and he’d argued long and hard with Brad not to marry her. Brad had believed he could provide more than enough to keep his wife happy. Time had proved David right, Brad wrong, and cost him his son.
He and David had patched the rift between them enough to get along again, but the deep affection they’d always known since David had first taken him into his home as a fourteen-year-old was missing. The man who’d kept him out of court, made him accountable for his own actions and, finally, set him on the right path to a successful career now needed looking out for.
Brad glanced at the two boys skulking along beside him. He’d expected they’d have taken off by now. ‘You two hungry?’
Two heads flicked around, astonishment in their eyes. ‘Yes.’
‘Okay, back to the shop. I saw some buns and sandwiches in a cabinet that should fill the hole in your bellies.’
‘Cool.’
‘Thanks, man.’
‘Call me Brad.’ His step lightened. He liked it that he could do something for those that life gave a rough deal. He put on his confident, competent doctor’s face, the one that hid his nervousness about facing up to people he’d hurt in the past.
Then there was Erin. He had to front up to her too. At least she hadn’t featured in his past. Neither was she going to feature in his future. Settling into David’s place in the practice had just got a whole load more difficult.
CHAPTER TWO
ERIN rushed into the medical centre as though being chased by a hungry lion, knowing she’d have kept a lot of people waiting. She had an immunisation clinic and the waiting room was full of young mothers and their toddlers. ‘Sorry I’m late, everyone, but there was an accident and I stopped to give a hand.’
‘It’s okay, we heard,’ one of the women said as she shoved a pacifier in the mouth of a screeching child.
A curly-haired toddler grabbed at the hem of Erin’s straight denim skirt, tugging her to a halt.
‘Hey, gorgeous, how are you today?’ Erin bent down and swung Katie Bryant into her arms.
Big brown eyes stared back at her out of a pale face with shadows on her cheeks. One tiny fist tapped Erin’s chin.
‘I guess that means you’re fine.’ Erin kissed the top of Katie’s head and gently placed her back on her feet. ‘Is she not sleeping too well?’ she asked Alison, Katie’s mother.
‘Too much sometimes. I never have trouble putting her to bed these days.’
Maybe she was overreacting but Erin decided she’d get Annie or Dr Perano to take a look at Katie before her injection. The little girl didn’t look quite right, not as robust as she usually was. A temperature reading wouldn’t go astray either. Glancing around the room, Erin’s heart squeezed as she saw all the little ones playing and crying and chattering, the mums talking and laughing as though they had all the time in the world. This was what she wanted, more than anything else. To be a mother, to have her own family. This was what she could never have.
She may have reconciled herself to the fact that she was infertile but that hadn’t stopped the hurt, the fierce need or the raw longing that sometimes overtook her. Especially on days like this when she worked with lots of children.
Infertility sucked.
Erin leaned over the counter at Reception, looking for the pile of files relating to her young patients. She said quietly to the receptionist, ‘Jason Curtis was hit by a car. Has anything come through from the hospital about his condition yet?’
Marilyn paused between phone calls. ‘Dr Perano said he’d ring ED shortly. He told us you’d been there so we figured you’d be running behind time.’
‘Dr Perano? How would he know—?’ Erin’s stomach dropped. ‘The guy at the accident scene was a doctor… That was Bradley Perano?’
Embarrassment gripped her, making her squirm right down to her sandals. She’d been ogling him at the corner store. What was that going to do for their future working relationship? She gaped at Marilyn. ‘No way. That couldn’t have been Dr Perano. Too much of a coincidence.’
Please, she silently begged the receptionist, please tell me I’m wrong in my supposition.
‘Definitely me.’ A deep, sexy voice came from behind the door of the office where the filing cabinets stood. He appeared in the middle of the office, taking up all the space with his big frame. ‘But not really a coincidence when you think we weren’t far from the clinic. I was on my way here when I stopped at the store.’
Here, where they were to work together. Did he also know that by living with Dr David Taylor he’d become her neighbour too? Breathe. Slowly. In. Out. Erin spied the patient notes she needed as she turned to face Dr Perano fully. ‘So you’ve guessed I’m Erin, the practice nurse?’
He came to shake her hand. ‘Yes, I worked it out when that paramedic used your name.’
‘You didn’t say anything.’ Her hand disappeared somewhere inside his big, rough one.
His expression turned wary, but he said in the voice that made her heart rate speed up, ‘Sorry about that, but there was a lot going on.’
Sure, there had been, but there’d also been ample opportunity to introduce himself. ‘It would’ve been nice if you’d said something. We tend to be friendly around here.’ And she could’ve prepared herself better for this moment.
Wariness turned to disbelief. ‘I’m sure you’re right.’ His tone suggested otherwise. ‘Anyway, now we’ve met. Everyone talked you up big time last week. You and Annie.’
Annie was her best friend and a part-time GP at the medical centre. They’d spent a week in Golden Bay with Annie’s three little boys while Annie’s husband had been overseas with his job as a winemaker.
‘Annie’s wonderful. Her patients love her.’ With a start Erin realised Brad was still holding her hand. A nervous tug and she’d retrieved it. She jammed her hand in the big pocket on her skirt, holding in the warmth he’d engendered. If only she’d had known who this guy was before making an idiot of herself at the shop. She’d heard so much about him from David that she’d made the mistake of thinking she already knew him. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined a man so imposing that she lost all sense of reality around him. It was only day one. She’d get over this by tomorrow and then they’d work together without any problems.
She was very happy at this medical centre where she’d got to know the patients, and the staff treated her like one of their own. She did not need anyone disrupting that.
Bradley was still talking, no contrition in his voice. ‘I’ve heard your patients adore you, too.’
Ignoring that she edged around him, muttering, ‘Excuse me, but I need to get working.’
Stepping in front of her, he stopped her escape. ‘Erin, can I have a word first? In my office?’
‘Can it wait, Dr Perano? I’ve held up these people long enough already.’ She looked around the waiting room and was astonished to see all the mothers watching her and obviously listening to their conversation.
‘Firstly, it’s Brad, not Dr Perano. Secondly…’ And the guy paused to smile beguilingly across at those waiting women. ‘Secondly, I’m sure no one will mind if I talk to my practice nurse for a few minutes.’
‘Go ahead.’ One mother grinned. ‘He’s far more interesting than us lot.’
Thanks a million. Where was female solidarity when you needed it? Erin scowled at them all and only got winks and grins back. Except from Alison Byrant, who seemed to be studying the new doctor carefully.
In Brad’s office Erin sat, waiting, on the corner of his desk. What did he want to talk to her about that couldn’t be said out in the office? Goose-bumps lifted the skin on her arms. Probably that phone conversation when she’d told him how selfish she thought he was for not coming home to give David some support.
Now that the Parkinson’s disease that had struck David was relentlessly getting worse, it was time for Brad to pay his dues. That night when she’d answered the phone for David after cleaning him up she had been fit to yell at someone. Bradley Perano had phoned at the perfect time. She mightn’t have met him back then but she’d certainly told him what she thought of him. Her heart thudded slowly and painfully. She had been abrupt and he’d deserved better. He had his own problems, which David had alluded to but not divulged.
Apprehension trickled across her mind as she watched this insanely good-looking man close the door firmly and make his way around to sit behind his desk, his long legs taking few strides to reach his chair. Light scuff marks showed on his trousers where he’d knelt down on the road beside her to attend to Jason.
Erin swivelled around, keeping him in sight. Her gaze was drawn to his fingers: long and strong, they’d do amazing things to her sensory nerves if they ever touched her skin.
He cleared his throat, forcing her to look up and lock gazes with him. A thoughtful expression tightened his face, darkened the fudge colour of his eyes to mud. So he wasn’t happy with her.
‘About this morning at the accident site…’ He hesitated. ‘When I saw that child lying there I got a shock and made a mistake. Sammy fell out of a tree once, broke his arm and got concussed. He was very lucky. For some reason this morning seemed like a rerun, only worse.’
Not about her, then. ‘Sammy being Samuel, your son?’ Another clue to this man’s identity she’d overlooked that morning. But she had been more worried about Jason.
Brad’s eyebrows flicked up, down. ‘I take it that David has mentioned my family?’
‘Only that you and your wife have been separated for about eighteen months and that Samuel is with his mother.’ When Brad’s lips tightened into a hard line she added, ‘David only mentioned it after I quizzed him about you before you’d decided to come home to take over his medical practice while he sorts things out. I don’t know all the details.’
‘Is that why you gave me a bollocking over the phone?’ His tone lifted in anger. ‘What I chose to do was none of your business.’
