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‘What kinds of things would I have to do?’
‘Nothing more taxing than sitting and keeping your lower back flat,’ Maxi illustrated. ‘Then breathing out and drawing your belly button towards your spine, holding the position for a count of ten and then repeating it. Think you’d be cool with that?’
Karryn grinned. ‘I reckon. And I could keep the exercises going when I got home.’
‘That’s the general idea,’ Maxi affirmed with a smile.
A flicker of uncertainty crossed the young mum’s face. ‘But…I couldn’t afford to pay much. Would this extra stuff cost a lot?’
‘Well, I certainly won’t be charging anything,’ Maxi dismissed. ‘I’d guess you’ll simply transfer from Jake’s list to mine so I’ll be treating you. If that’s all right with you, of course?’ And all right with Jake, she willed silently.
‘Oh, yes,’ Karryn asserted quickly. ‘I mean, Jake’s always very kind and I don’t know what the district would do without him—but sometimes it’s just nice to be able to speak to a woman doctor. We only ever had another one out here and that was when I was having Belinda. But she left soon after. I don’t think she really took to the place…’
Maxi grinned. ‘She wasn’t from England, too, was she?’
‘Melbourne, I think,’ Karryn replied guilessly.
Maxi got to her feet, deciding she’d gained enough of her new patient’s confidence to go forward with her plan. ‘I’ll let you get some rest now, Karryn. But I’ll pop back first thing in the morning and we’ll get cracking, all right?’
‘That’d be great. I hope you stay in Tangaratta, Dr Somers,’ the young woman added earnestly.
‘Oh—thanks. Me, too.’ Maxi felt incredibly touched. A wild kind of expectancy hurtled through her veins. Now she only had to convince Jake to let her stay…
Somehow she had to, she resolved as she left Karryn’s room and made her way slowly back to the nurses’ station. She just couldn’t allow herself to be gathered up like so much nuisance baggage and put on the plane out.
Just the thought of it made her insides twist sickeningly. And suddenly it was all happening again, the absolute need she felt around Jake Haslem—the need to be held, loved. The need that had driven her here, belatedly, to this quaint little outback town in Australia.
In her mind’s eye she relived the first time they’d kissed. It had been halfway through his six-month exchange in England. Such an unromantic time and place for it to have happened. They’d been in Casualty at the end of a particularly gruelling night shift. Their patient had been stitched up and released and they’d been standing side by side at the basins in the treatment room.
Jake had washed his hands and dried them quickly while she’d only just elbowed the taps off, her hands dripping wet. And out of the blue he’d leaned his body towards her, turning his face to meet hers. And just like that he’d kissed her.
And after a little gasp at his audacity, her body had gone to meet his like a river returning to its source.
Circling her arms around his neck and keeping her wet hands out of the way, she’d anchored her body closer until they’d been hard against each other.
And it had felt wild and wonderful, as if it had been destined to happen from the moment they’d set eyes on each other. He’d printed kiss after kiss on her mouth, the way he’d gone about it almost imperious, so damned confident. Yet his lips had been teasing and meltingly sweet…
‘Touch me, Max,’ he’d whispered gruffly against her mouth. ‘Touch me.’
‘My hands are all wet…’
‘Who cares?’ He’d folded her more closely to him, more tightly, driving a wild kind of passion through her veins until she was giddy with power. And wanting to kiss him all night long.
They’d heard the rattle of a trolley outside and pulled back from each other, and her heart had caught in her throat at the look in his eyes. ‘Next weekend?’ he’d whispered urgently. ‘The Cotswolds? Can you get away?’
She hadn’t even tried to pretend it was a casual invitation to go walking. ‘Yes.’
CHAPTER THREE
MAXI gusted a small sigh. Backtracking her thoughts had left her mind in a muddle, her spirits flagging. Perhaps she was just travel-weary. On the other hand, perhaps it had been one huge mistake, coming here at all. She moistened her lips as if trying to dampen the panicky feeling that had surfaced out of nowhere.
And suddenly and uncomprehendingly she felt homesick for everything familiar. For winter and the grey skies of England. For the sharpness of the outdoors stinging her cheeks when she’d taken the dogs for a run. For the warmth of her parents’ old-fashioned kitchen, the comfort of her mother’s hearty soup at teatime. For a heart-to-heart with her brother, Luke, and shopping with her little sister, Freya…
She shook her head as if to clear away the shards of retrospection. This was no time to be wallowing in the past. Jake hadn’t run her out of town—yet. Like a squirrel methodically gathering nuts for the winter, she pulled all her mental resources around her, her manner purposeful as she crossed to the nurses’ station.
‘Oh, hi, Doctor.’ Loretta looked up from her paperwork. ‘Like a cuppa?’
‘Not just now, thanks.’ A trapped smile nipped Maxi’s mouth. ‘Jake’s buying me tea at the pub.’
‘That’ll be right,’ Loretta confirmed. ‘Thursday’s his night to eat there. It’s steak night.’
Maxi felt her cobbled-together courage drop to the floor. So he hadn’t meant the invitation as anything special. Why on earth had she let herself imagine he had? She swallowed the knot of disappointment, instead working the muscles in her face into the semblance of a smile and making herself focus. ‘Loretta, does the town have a WI?’
The charge looked blank.
‘A Women’s Institute,’ Maxi enlightened her.
‘Ah. Don’t think so…’ Loretta frowned a bit and then brightened. ‘But we do have a CWA. A Country Women’s Association—any use?’
‘That’s just what I’m looking for. Is there a head person I could contact?’
‘Now, there I can help you.’ Loretta looked pleased. ‘Liz Maynard. She runs the local craft shop. It’s is in the main street just a few doors along from Jake’s surgery.’
‘Excellent.’ Maxi nodded her thanks. ‘I’ll pop in and see her tomorrow. Couple of things I want to run by her.’
‘Steak not to your liking?’ Jake asked later as they sat over their meal at the pub.
‘It’s fine.’ Maxi sent him an over-bright smile. ‘There’s rather a lot of it, that’s all.’
Jake lifted a shoulder dismissively. ‘They do tend to think in servings of half a cow. Just leave it.’
‘I wouldn’t be offending anyone?’
‘I doubt they’d even notice.’ He met her widened gaze, his blue eyes mocking her with their trace of wry laughter. ‘Beef is the one thing there’s plenty of at the moment.’
Maxi looked at him doubtfully and then gave a reluctant smile. ‘If you’re sure it’s OK…’
‘Perfectly.’
With a neat co-ordinated movement, she moved her plate aside and leaned across the table towards him, her eyes alight with purpose. ‘Would this be a good time to talk about my patient list?’
‘Who said anything about you having a patient list?’
‘I already have the beginnings of one,’ she informed him smartly. ‘I have my new mum, Karryn.’
‘So you do.’ Jake acknowledged dryly. ‘And what did you come up with?’
‘I’ve outlined a programme of massage and gentle exercise for her and she seemed pleased with that and agreed to stay an extra few days.’
‘And?’
‘And what?
‘I don’t imagine you stopped there.’
She shrugged away his cryptic taunt. ‘I’m working on a way of perhaps making things a bit easier for when Karryn gets home from hospital.’
‘Oh?’ Jake’s eyes narrowed at her earnest expression and the tiny dimple in her cheek that gave the impression she was always on the brink of a smile. Damn and blast. If he lowered his guard for just a second, he knew he’d be leaving himself open to heartbreak again. He gave a rather curt nod of his head. ‘Tell me.’
‘Loretta’s put me onto the CWA.’ Maxi’s voice was laced with enthusiasm. ‘And from what she told me, their funding guidelines would seem to cover what I have in mind for Karryn and her family. Anyway, I’m going to pop in on Liz Maynard in the morning. I think between us we can work something out.’
Jake’s mouth pleated at the corners. ‘Just don’t get your hopes too high. There may nothing at all Liz can come up with. The CWA’s funds aren’t limitless and neither is their capacity to help people.’
‘I’m not about to give in to pessimism,’ Maxi declared stoutly. ‘I still believe in successful outcomes. I would’ve thought you did as well. You used to,’ she reminded him.
He gave a bleak kind of smile. ‘We’re in desperate times here, Maxi. Sometimes, no matter how much we wish it otherwise, there really is nothing we can do to change things.’
Maxi took a thoughtful swallow of her wine. She didn’t believe in giving up easily. There would always be something they could do. And for whatever time she had here in this tiny community, she resolved to find a way to do that something.
As they left the pub, she realised they still hadn’t discussed her patient list. Baby steps, then, she decided philosophically. She had enough to be going on with. And with a bit of luck, the rest would follow.
When they got back to the house, Jake unlocked the front door and stood aside for her to enter. In the lounge room, he tossed his keys on the coffee-table and swung round a bit awkwardly. ‘I’ll get house and surgery keys cut for you tomorrow. Meanwhile, do you have everything you need?’
Unfolding her clenched hands, Maxi held her palms against her thighs. ‘Yes, thanks. Um, what time do you usually have breakfast?’
He gave a hollow laugh. ‘I usually just grab a banana as I go. That’s breakfast.’
She gave a disapproving little shake of her head. ‘You can’t possibly start your day on a banana! How early do you leave for the surgery?’
‘Seven-thirty-ish,’ he said, his voice curiously gruff. ‘If there are patients to see at the hospital, I do a round first and then go on to the surgery.’
‘I could do your hospital round,’ she offered. ‘I’ll be going there anyway to start Karryn on her programme.’
He seemed to hesitate and then he said, ‘Fair enough. Thanks,’ he added, almost as an afterthought.
‘Then what?’ Maxi prodded. ‘I’ll come to the surgery?’
‘Will that be before or after you’ve seen Liz Maynard?’
She sent him a brief exasperated look. ‘After, I imagine.’ And, please, take me seriously, she wanted to add, but didn’t. She turned away. ‘I’ll say goodnight, then.’ Suddenly, it was all just too difficult.
Maxi couldn’t sleep. And it wasn’t as though the bed was uncomfortable. It wasn’t. And the sheets and pillowcases were of softest cotton, sweet and sun-dried. But she’d been overtired, she realised now, her thoughts all over the place.
She sighed and turned over, plumping up the pillow yet again. The absolute quiet was getting to her, unnerving her. That was until the cicadas started their concert outside her window, of course. It was driving her nuts. But that was nothing compared to the fright she’d experienced when a long mournful howl had pierced the night air and had had her jackknifing up, her heart banging inside her chest. Now, that was the stuff of nightmares.
Oh, lord… Closing her eyes, she began some relaxation techniques… Surely Australia didn’t have wolves, did it? But the howl had sounded like a wolf. And so close—so close…
She finally slept, rising early and strangely more in control. And under the needling warmth of the shower, even a three-minute one, she felt her body revive and her mind begin to focus.
Dressed for work in well-cut linen trousers and crisp white figure-hugging shirt, she made her way along to the kitchen, surprised that Jake hadn’t surfaced yet. She’d give him a surprise and fix breakfast.
Her eyes tracked around the kitchen. It was lovely, homely. She’d hardly had time to register anything last night, she thought, going forward to place her hand almost reverently on the scrubbed pine table, touching her fingers to the tiny dips and grooves in its surface and speculating about the doctors, young and possibly not so young, who had sat here. What stories they could tell now.
She moved across to the pantry and peered inside, raising an eyebrow in surprise. It was well stocked. And obviously down to the lady who came in—Marie. The fridge was similarly well provisioned and Maxi made a little sound of annoyance in her throat. There was no need for Jake to be skipping meals at all. Or as good as.
But, then, it wasn’t much fun cooking for one, she guessed. And wondered anew just how lonely and isolating it was for him here.
Locating bowl and whisk, she broke in several eggs and began to fluff them. A tiny frown pleated her forehead. Had disillusionment from their break-up driven him here? she wondered. Had her inability to join him really done that to him? She turned the beaten eggs into a pan and adjusted the heat.
‘What’s going on here?’
Maxi spun round from the cook-top and shot Jake a haughty little look. ‘Good morning. I’m fixing breakfast. And don’t tell me you don’t have time to eat.’
A little bemused, Jake leaned against the doorframe, watching her. She looked so absolutely right here, he thought, his mind sharpening with memory. Until he cautioned himself bleakly, silently, Just don’t get used to it, chum. There may be history between him and Maxi but there was definitely no future. He wasn’t about to set himself up to be hurt all over again.
‘Well, don’t just stand there, Doctor.’ Maxi beckoned him in. ‘I could use your help here. We need some toast to go with these scrambled eggs.’
Jake pushed himself away from the door and moved across the kitchen to look over her shoulder. ‘You really didn’t have to do this, Max.’ His voice was edged with a gruff quality, his hand of its own accord coming up to rest fleetingly at the nape of her neck.
Maxi felt warning signals clang all over her body and turned her head a fraction. With only the merest encouragement from him, she could have flung herself into his arms. Instead, she took a steadying breath, finding herself breathing in the fresh tang of his sandalwood shower gel. ‘I was up early,’ she improvised quickly. ‘It seemed logical to start breakfast.’ She swallowed a laugh. ‘You can take your banana for your play lunch instead.’
His chuckle was a bit rueful. ‘Perhaps I will. Anything would be better than Ayleen’s scones.’
‘Oh, dear.’ Maxi’s mouth turned down at the corners. ‘That bad.’
‘They give a new perspective to the meaning of rock cakes.’
Maxi chuckled. ‘I guess she’s just trying to be kind.’
‘Oh, she is,’ Jake agreed, sliding bread into the toaster. ‘She thinks I need looking after.’
Well, I’m your woman, then. Maxi bit her lips together on the words before they could tumble out. ‘So, if you don’t eat the scones, what do you do with them? I can’t imagine you’d want to hurt Ayleen’s feelings and chuck them in the bin?’
‘Lord, no.’ He pretended to shudder. ‘I’d never talk my way out of that. I smuggle them out and bring them home for Chalky.’
‘Is that good for him?’ Maxi seemed shocked by the very idea.
Jake shrugged. ‘Chalky loves them. They’re so hard, I think he cleans his teeth on them.’
Listening to his crazy banter, Maxi felt a strange sense of lightness. This was more like the man she’d known and—loved. Her mind stumbled over the word. To distract herself, she quickly got plates off the shelf and watched as Jake buttered the toast. ‘Please, tell me Ayleen doesn’t bring scones in every day.’
‘Only on a Friday.’
‘But that’s today!’
He gave a crooked grin. ‘Better brace yourself, then.’
Maxi felt a swirl of pleasure, watching Jake obviously enjoy the simple meal they’d more or less prepared together. She poured the tea and handed his mug across. ‘So, am I going to be seeing some patients today or are you intending to keep them all to yourself?’
