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Heat rushed into her cheeks. ‘True, but half an hour before you rang I’d called in to see David and found him trying to wipe up the mug of coffee that he’d spilled over his clothes and the carpet. He was in a bit of a state, cross at his lack of control over a simple mug, embarrassed that I had to help him get out of his trousers.’ She hesitated, reminded herself she had to work with this man, and added, ‘I’m sorry I took it out on you.’
‘It must’ve been difficult for you.’
‘Only because David’s stubbornly independent.’ And because she’d often seen him sitting on the veranda of his big old house staring down the drive as though waiting for Brad to arrive. David had needed Brad desperately, and she’d told him. Rightly, or wrongly. Make that wrongly. She should’ve kept her mouth shut. On the other hand, it had worked and David was happier than he’d been in a long time.
‘Isn’t he just? Stubborn as an ox. And you were right that night. It is my place to be here for David. I owe him a lot.’
‘I heard you lived with David and Mary as a teenager.’
He nodded. ‘They rescued me from foster-care when I got into trouble with the law. David always listens to people, especially youngsters who don’t have anyone on their side. I gave them merry hell at times, but they were always there for me from the day I met them.’ Brad leaned back in his chair, tipped his head to stare up at the ceiling. ‘I should’ve come the moment David told me about the Parkinson’s, given him the time off to reassess his priorities. But I was caught between two people—David and my son.’
Not an easy choice. Why was he telling her this? Did he feel he had to justify his actions to her? ‘Haven’t Samuel and his mother moved to California?’
He winced. ‘Yes.’
So, what had stopped him coming, then? Glancing at his stern face, she thought better of asking. But she couldn’t imagine what it must’ve been like for Brad to have his son taken so far away. To only see him on rare occasions when he’d have been used to having Samuel in his life every day must’ve broken his heart. It was one thing not to be able to have a child, but to have one and lose him? That was far beyond her comprehension. She’d never feel complete again if it happened to her.
On the desk the phone buzzed discreetly. Grateful for the interruption, Erin slipped out the door, leaving Brad to answer it. Leaving Brad with a haunted look in his eyes.
Panic rose, threatened to engulf her. She could not share the clinic with this man. She’d go crazy trying to deal with all the emotions that whirled through her at the sight of him. A moment ago she’d wanted to hug away that haunted look. Imagine if she’d attempted to? He’d have been furious. How was she going to manage? One day at a time? Impossible. One minute at a time?
Brad watched Erin go as he slowly reached for the phone. What a motormouth he’d turned into all of a sudden, raving on about personal things to her, exposing himself to her scorn. Which hadn’t been forthcoming. He’d grown to expect derision from Blenheim folk ever since his wayward youth spent here. The one time he’d talked to Erin on the phone she’d been so scathing in her criticism of him that he’d believed she was just another disgruntled Blenheimite, but she’d managed to make him think about how he was letting David down, made him realise it was time to move on from what Penelope had done.
The pain that had stabbed him when he’d talked about Sammy to Erin was ebbing. She still didn’t know how he’d struggled to leave the apartment where he and Penelope had brought Sammy home as a four-day-old infant; where he’d taught his boy to play ball in the back yard; where he’d told him endless stories, attempting to get him to go to sleep. The apartment was crammed with sweet memories Brad hadn’t been able to bring himself to leave. The rooms were filled with the sound of Sam’s laughter. His childish drawings still adorned the walls of his bedroom and the kitchen. His rugby ball lay discarded by the back door, not needed in his new life.
The phone stopped ringing.
Brad spun around in his chair to stare out the window at the back of a brick wall beyond which rose the ugly sight of a supermarket.
‘God, Sammy, I miss you so much. Sunday night phone calls are just not enough, buddy.’ He needed to touch his boy, to hug him and talk with him. Hearing his excited chatter over the phone did not make up for not being able to see Sam’s eyes grow as big as plates and his mouth curl up into a happy smile as he explained how he’d hit a run at baseball.
Baseball. A goddamned Yankee game. What was wrong with good old rugby? A game that Kiwis and Aussies loved? A man should be able to teach his boy the rudiments of a real bloke’s game.
Someone knocked on his door, and Marilyn’s face appeared tentatively around the edge. ‘ED is on the line regarding Jason. Is there something wrong with your phone line? I put the call through here.’
‘Try again, Marilyn. I’ll get it this time.’ He gave her a smile, the kind that usually got him most things he wanted. Except in Blenheim. Would it work with Erin? Would she fall for his charms? More likely she’d tell him to go take a flying leap off a very high cliff.
This time he took the call. ‘Perano.’
‘Roger Bailey, ED, Blenheim Hospital.’
‘Roger, as in the best oarsman Otago Med School ever put up against Canterbury?’ Brad hoped this was one man who’d accept him back in town without prejudice. Roger had loathed Penelope from the start, bringing tension between the two men.
‘Didn’t do us a lot of good, considering some of the useless dudes we had on that team. You still kicking a rugby ball around?’
‘Not since I tore a ligament in my shoulder and decided I was getting too soft.’ Not since my son was stolen from me.
‘How are you anyway? I hear you’re back to keep David out of trouble.’
‘Only for a few months.’ But even in the week since he’d arrived here, Brad had noticed some of the tension lining David’s mouth easing, making him wonder how he’d be able to leave again.
‘Right, about Jason Curtis.’
‘Go on.’ Brad sighed with relief. No mention of his ex-wife, then. The local gossip machine had probably put out an all-points bulletin about the state of Brad Perano’s marriage before he’d even made the decision to move back home. Glad to have avoided the subject, Brad listened to everything Roger had to say about their young patient.
Roger filled him in quickly and efficiently. ‘I’m flying Jason up to Starship Children’s Hospital in Auckland on the medical emergency plane. I’m not happy about the head injury and we don’t have a resident neurosurgeon here. I’m probably being over-cautious but better that way than thinking we can handle his problems and having it backfire on us.’
Brad hung up, and noted his computer informing him he had two patients waiting to be seen. ‘Great, now I’m running late.’ What had happened to the idea of coming in early and being very organised by the time the clinic opened for business?
He’d tell Erin about Jason later. Erin. The name suited her. Damn it. Why couldn’t she be called Gertrude or Winifred? Then he’d be able to recall his austere great-aunts every time he looked at her, and forget the blinding passion that had rocked him earlier. Being squashed in that kennel-size shop, he’d felt dizzy with the scent of her.
Erin.
Damn it. He had to work with her. Like it or not. She could be another problem to add to an already overly long list of problems, starting with a town that he had to get back on side with.
Erin’s only a problem if you let her be, squeaked a pesky little voice in his head.
Brad shoved the voice aside and went in search of his first patient. Nothing like focussing on someone else’s problems to forget his own for a while.
Erin sat at the tiny table in the centre’s kitchen and bit into her salad sandwich. Not exactly the most exciting lunch but it was all she’d had time to slap together after the way her morning had gone.
‘I’d have thought you’d be munching on burgers and fries, getting all the carbs you can after your early morning ride.’ Brad dropped onto a chair opposite her, threatening its flimsy legs with his weight.
‘She would if I didn’t nag her to be healthy.’ David beat her to answering Brad as he walked in behind him.
Erin rolled her eyes at the man who’d been more like a father to her than her own had. She knew he was hoping Brad would buy him out of the practice. ‘One of the drawbacks of working with David is that he thinks he can order me around.’
‘He was always like that with me too.’ Brad snagged a muffin out of the goodies basket David had brought in for all the staff as he officially handed over the last of his patients to Brad. ‘By the way, David, I’ve got two young rascals to mow your lawns for you. They’re going to cost you twenty bucks a fortnight, starting this afternoon.’
‘That’s a lot of money for two lads.’
‘You’ve got a lot of lawn.’
‘Those boys who wanted my bike? You’re giving them a job?’ Erin stared at Brad. ‘Is that wise?’
‘You told them you’d give them a job if you could. I just happened to think of one.’
David was looking from her to Brad and back again. ‘Did you two meet before this morning?’
Erin stared at the remains of her sandwich and dropped it on the plate, pushed it aside. ‘We bumped into each other at the shop and then again at Jason’s accident just along the road.’
‘Hardly surprising when you live next door to each other, I guess.’ David studied his muffin as though seeing it for the first time.
‘Neighbours?’ Brad sounded shocked, and that hurt. Did he hate the idea? Or did he see some advantages?
Erin hadn’t made her own mind up about the situation yet, but one thing was for sure: there was no changing it. She wasn’t moving, and Brad had to stay with David while helping him out so they were stuck with each other living close by.
Brad was asking her, ‘Which is your house?’
‘The townhouse at the bottom of David’s driveway. Two years ago I came to Blenheim looking for a job and wanting to buy my own place. I went to an open home and David was there, trying to sell this wonderful brand-new home. We got talking and by the time I went back to my motel that night I had a house and a job. Amazing how things work out sometimes.’ Those two pieces of good fortune had made her think the move to Blenheim was meant to be.
‘Best thing you ever did, my girl. For me anyway.’ David stood up. ‘Anyone for coffee?’
‘No, thanks.’ Erin leaned over the back of her chair to dig inside the fridge for a can of soda she’d put there earlier. The snap of the tab was loud in the sudden silence.
Brad was watching her, a thoughtful expression clouding his face. ‘Where did you move from?’
He was full of questions.
‘I was of no fixed abode. An army brat who grew up and then joined the very service I’d hated all my childhood.’ Always shifting from one base to the next, new schools and new kids to get on side with. The only constant had been Jonathon. For some bizarre reason, more often than not they found themselves living at the same base and going to the same school. He’d been her best friend who became her husband. The services had been the only life she’d known. She’d panicked when the time had come to choose a career and a town to live in. The services had been a safe option.
‘So you left the army to do your nursing training?’ Brad sounded genuinely interested.
‘No, I took three years’ leave when I turned twenty. Then once I’d qualified I transferred from the signals corps to the medical unit.’ She got up and shoved a window open. Brad seemed to consume all the air, leaving none for her. ‘It’s hot in here,’ she said lamely, then glanced at her watch. ‘Oops, I’ve got a patient coming in for her hep. A shot. Lucky girl’s off to Tanzania next month.’
At the door she stopped, remembering Katie Bryant. ‘Brad, I’ve made an appointment for you to see Katie Bryant. She came in for her immunisation shots this morning. I tried to get her mother to stay on this morning but she already had another appointment at the dentist.’
Erin paused, thought about the unease she’d felt when she’d seen Katie. ‘I would’ve talked to either of you first but you were both busy at the time. I think there’s something wrong with Katie but I don’t know what. Just a gut feeling. She’s pale, underweight, sleeps a lot.’
‘When’s her mother bringing her back?’ Brad asked, wariness edging his voice. The same caution she’d noted in Alison’s voice when they’d talked about Katie.
‘Wednesday morning. I tried to persuade her to bring Katie before then but with nothing specific to go on I didn’t succeed.’
Brad turned to David. ‘Are Katie and her mother related to Joey Bryant?’
‘Wife and daughter.’
Brad’s Adam’s apple bobbed. ‘Maybe you should see them.’
David caught Brad’s eye. ‘No. You’ve got to start somewhere and Joey’s family is perfect.’
Brad stared at David for a long moment before turning to Erin and asking, ‘Does the mother think there was anything out of the ordinary with her daughter?’
What was going on here? Something had just gone down between David and Brad that she couldn’t understand. Erin focussed on the question Brad had asked. She’d think about the rest later. ‘Not at all. Said it was nice that Katie had begun sleeping so well. Sleeping has always been a problem with her, driving her parents to despair at times.’ She sipped her soda. ‘I’m probably wasting everyone’s time but I want to be sure.’
Erin Foley. Brad hadn’t managed to dispel her image from his mind all day. Not even his trepidation about seeing Joey’s wife had wiped his mind clear of the nurse. Which said a lot because he was as nervous as hell about talking to Alison. Maybe when Alison told Joey who their new GP was, their appointment would be cancelled. That would not be good for little Katie and more than anything Brad wanted to do what was best for his patients. Erin was concerned about the girl so he must see her.
Erin. His brain always switched back to her. When she’d arrived at the medical centre in such a damned hurry that morning and he’d seen that mass of shining black curls tumbling down her back, he’d have fallen flat on his face if he hadn’t grabbed the filing cabinet. She was a knockout.
She’d flustered him, her laughter echoing through the building when she’d been with those children first thing. She certainly had a way with her that had made each one of them giggle and talk non-stop, forgetting about the needle about to stab their thigh. She’d make a great mother, if that was anything to go by.
An unbidden thought, an unwanted one, entered his head. Did she have a partner? David had said she lived alone, which surely meant no partner, no children? But a beautiful woman like Erin would never be completely single. There had to be a man somewhere in her life.
That idea made Brad’s good mood evaporate in an instant. Which was plain silly. He did not want to get involved with any female. Been there, done the time. A fling might be all right but he wasn’t having one with Erin Foley. A bad idea in the circumstances.
‘Goodnight, Dr Perano,’ Marilyn called from behind her desk.
He paused. ‘What would it take to get you to call me Brad?’ Marilyn appeared to be in her late fifties, and seemed a stickler for protocol. So far she’d refused to budge on using his first name, but he was determined to win. Judging by the set of her jaw, it might take a while.
‘I’m sizing you up, young man. Give me time.’
Did she know of him from the past? He didn’t recall her at all, but the stories about him might have coloured her perception of him even before they’d met.
‘Young man?’ Brad muttered. ‘I’m thirty-four.’
‘And I’m sixty-four, so be patient.’ She stood and pushed her chair under her desk, then leaned down to retrieve her handbag from the floor. Then she looked him in the eye. ‘Just be good to our David and you’ll have me calling you any damned thing you like.’
So he was on notice from the office staff. But the fact that David’s staff cared so much for the older man actually made Brad hum as he opened the door to the car park. He might’ve been slow in getting here but others had stepped up to the mark. Guilt caught him. David had shown no censure towards him. Which only said how big-hearted the man was and how much further indebted he had become.
Outside David called to him from beside his car. ‘You on your way home, too? Want me to pick up anything from the supermarket?’
‘No, I’ve got all I need to cook tonight’s dinner.’ Brad scratched his chin thoughtfully. ‘So Erin lives down the bottom of our drive. That’s kind of handy for you.’
‘Perfect situation.’ David raised pale blue eyes to him. ‘Don’t tell me you’re bothered by it? Why would you be?’
Because she’d be too close to him. There’d be no getting away from her. It was one thing that they’d be working together. He could probably manage to keep her at arm’s length here, but to have her practically living on his doorstep meant he’d never have peace of mind. He slapped his hands on his hips and stared across at David, suddenly cross. ‘I don’t like it.’
‘Erin’s been very helpful and always there if I’ve needed anything.’ David talked as though he hadn’t seen Brad’s angst, but Brad knew better. David missed nothing, and now his eyes twinkled suspiciously. ‘I think you two will get along very well.’
‘You are so wrong.’ They’d light up like flames with petrol added. Something indefinable and hot already sat between them, something he wasn’t prepared to explore.
‘Give her a chance. Get to know her. You’ll like her.’
I already like her. A lot. Too much. But bitter experience had taught him people weren’t always what they first seemed to be. ‘You could be wrong.’
‘Bradley, you give her a chance. I’ll not have you upsetting the cosy set-up we’ve got at work or anywhere else.’
David only called him Bradley when he wanted to make a point, but that didn’t stop Brad arguing. ‘It’s not wise to socialise with staff.’
David chuckled. ‘You can’t expect me to agree with that. Not when my Mary was a nurse on my surgical ward when I was an intern.’
‘There are always exceptions.’ Was the old boy matchmaking?
How much worse could this get?
CHAPTER THREE
‘WHAT a day I’ve had, Lucky.’ Erin chattered to her cat as she drove carefully through the streets towards home. ‘First day back and already I feel like my holiday is so long ago it didn’t happen.’
Lucky was unusually silent, sitting in the cage staring straight ahead, ignoring Erin entirely.
‘Come on, stop sulking. It’s not as though I left you incarcerated in some dire cat hostel with no one to care for you. I know for a fact you’ve been pampered beyond your wildest dreams.’ The fees had been horrendous, but well worth it. The Paws Cattery came highly recommended.
‘We’ve got a new neighbour.’ Her mouth turned up into a reluctant smile. ‘He’s gorgeous.’ An image of Brad on his Harley-Davidson made her mouth water. She’d been putting drugs away in the clinic’s fridge when the bike had roared to life outside. Discreetly nudging aside the curtain a tad, she’d studied the man who’d had her heart rate rising and falling alarmingly throughout the day. The Harley belonged with him, balanced perfectly between those muscular thighs, adding to his sexiness. Brad intrigued her, confused her, and had her wondering what it would be like to get to know him.
To have an affair with him? The steering-wheel flicked sideways. She straightened the car, her heart pounding in her throat. Just thinking about Brad was dangerous.
‘Definitely no affair,’ she reassured Lucky. Brad would be used to experienced women, not someone who’d only ever known one man intimately. Anyway, she liked her life where no man told her how to live, where to work, when to cook dinner.
