They took their time over coffee, and then Rick went downstairs to make breakfast while Fleur showered. When she entered the kitchen his face broke into a grin.
“I was hoping for the leather trousers.”
This morning Fleur had teamed them with a warm sweater. Maybe he’d be the one to take them off again in a re-creation of some of last night’s fantasy. But for now she was hungry.
There was toast with English marmalade on the table, along with granola, yoghurt and fresh fruit. They ate in silence for a while, and then Rick put down his toast, looking at her thoughtfully.
“I know what that look means.” Fleur smiled at him. He was about to rock her world again by saying something unexpected. Bring it on...
Rick shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I overheard what Jim Brady said to you last night. About revisiting your case.”
“I wondered if you had.” Fleur frowned. That wasn’t the kind of unexpected she’d hoped for. The rose-colored haze that had surrounded her since she’d opened her eyes this morning dispersed a little.
“You told him that what happened was in the past, Fleur. But we both know that’s not true. You’re still haunted by it.”
“And you think that reviewing the file is going to make anything any better?” Fleur pressed her lips together.
“It might. Maybe you owe it to yourself to do everything you can to try.”
“Maybe I owe it to myself to do everything I can to just forget about it, Rick.” She could hear a sharp edge to her tone. Why couldn’t he just leave it alone?
He shook his head, dragging his hand through his hair. “But... Jim Brady said there was something more, something you don’t know.”
That was exactly what terrified Fleur. If there was something she didn’t know about, or that time had altered in her memory, she might have to look at everything she’d done since in a different light.
“I can’t do it. I just...can’t.”
“Then can you let me go and do it for you? This isn’t an opportunity that you can just dismiss.”
She stared at him. Didn’t he understand that would be even worse? Allowing the man she’d just made love with to see the one thing she was most ashamed of? Fleur took a deep breath.
“No, Rick. I don’t want to talk about it anymore...”
“Which is why you weren’t going to even tell me what Jim Brady said?”
Fleur could hear the hurt in his voice and she felt her heart thump, almost painfully, in her chest. There was no answer she could give him other than the truth.
“You’re right. I wasn’t going to tell you.” Rick had issues about this. He couldn’t bear to feel that she wasn’t doing everything in her power to heal, but she just couldn’t do this. It would have been better if he hadn’t overheard Jim, and then the whole thing wouldn’t have come up and spoilt everything.
Fleur looked at the half-eaten food on her plate miserably. He wasn’t going to let it go, because he wasn’t able to. Rick felt that there were things he hadn’t said to Lara and he’d already told her that he couldn’t bear to make those same mistakes again.
“I should go. I have to help Pam clear up the library this morning.” As excuses went, it was as good as any.
He didn’t believe it. She could see that in his face. But Rick didn’t make any attempt to stop her when she rose to leave.
* * *
He should have waited and thought a little more carefully about what to say to Fleur. Or maybe he shouldn’t have spoken about the overheard conversation at all. But it was done now. He had messed up, and it seemed that Fleur wasn’t going to forgive him for it. He hadn’t seen her since the morning after they’d made love, and on an island that was barely ten miles from one end to the other that was unlikely to be anything other than avoidance on her part.
He was busy at work, and that made it a little easier to spend at least some of the day not thinking about her. The weather had closed in, cutting the island off from the mainland, and since the emergency services in Boston couldn’t reach them, the clinic was providing cover. Tonight Rick was on call.
He left work early, spending an hour at home with Ellie until the childcare assistant knocked on his door, clutching her overnight bag. She’d be staying with Ellie while Rick was working tonight. He kissed Ellie goodnight, and made his way back to the clinic. Alone in his office, with only paperwork to while away the evening, he began to miss Fleur with a vengeance.
Just as he was thinking he couldn’t bear it anymore, a knock sounded on the door. Hopefully it was someone who needed a little real work done, which would take his mind off things. Rick got to his feet, opening the door, and came face to face with Fleur.
All he could think about was how she seemed to glow. Cheeks red from the cold outside, hair shining around her face. Beautiful, in a way that words couldn’t describe. He froze, wondering if he could somehow keep this vision of her in his memory.
“Do you have a minute?” She smiled hesitantly.
“Yes...yes, of course. Always, Fleur.” Rick stood back from the door. What was he thinking? “Let me take your coat.”
She unzipped her coat and handed it to him. Then a scarf and a padded gilet that she wore underneath. Rick considered making a comment about the weather, and decided not to. Instead, he ushered her across to the informal seating area, sitting down opposite her. He wanted very badly to touch her but he didn’t dare.
“I came to apologize.”
“What?” He would have understood it if she’d come to tell him that she was dividing the island into two while she was still here, and that he wasn’t to cross onto her territory until she was gone. “You have nothing to apologize for, Fleur.”
“I walked out on you.”
“You were absolutely right to do so. It’s your decision to make, and I wouldn’t let it go.” Rick tried to put the blame firmly where it belonged.
“I told you once that I needed you to keep pushing me.”
“Things were a lot more clear cut then. I was your doctor and we were working through issues that hindered your recovery. Things are different between us now.”
It was different. It had taken Fleur to make him see it. It was a doctor’s job to deal with the hard facts and tell his patients the truth. Maybe Lara hadn’t needed to hear that from him, and his unquestioning support had been more valuable to her than he had known.
“My attitude didn’t help. I was too scared to want to even listen to what you had to say.” Fleur leaned forward, catching his gaze in hers. “Maybe we can try again. Get the conversation right this time.”
Fleur was giving him a second chance. The opportunity to go back and get something right. It felt like a lifebelt, tossed to a drowning man, and Rick made a grab at it.
“I’d like that.”
She nodded. “So... Jim Brady says that there’s something in my file that I should see. What do you think?”
Rick thought carefully before he spoke. “I think... I know that you have nothing to blame yourself for. Jim Brady seems like a good man and I don’t think he’d suggest you see the file unless there’s something there that will give you closure on the issue. I think you should take him up on the offer, but I believe in you and I know that whatever decision you make will be the right one.”
Fleur shot him a smile that sent tingles racing up his spine. “I don’t want to open old wounds but... I can’t rest, knowing that there might be something there that I don’t know about, however bad it might be. I should go and see the file.”
“What?” Rick stared at her. “That’s not what you said the other day...”
“I was afraid and angry then. I’ve thought a lot about it since, and I think you’re right.” She shrugged. “Sometimes things just work out that way.”
He felt suddenly lighter, as if a weight had been lifted from around his neck. Not just t
he weight of missing Fleur, it was the weight of all the things he hadn’t said to Lara. All the mistakes he’d made, which seemed to be so much more understandable now that Fleur had understood.
She got to her feet, walking around the coffee table and sitting down on his lap, putting her arms around his neck. He wasn’t sure what he’d done to deserve this, but he’d take it. The feeling of her body next to his was far too good to quibble about.
“Were you...considering kissing me?” He tried to make the question sound innocent, but that, of course, was impossible.
“Yep. Seriously considering it...”
When she did kiss him, it was so warm, so full of longing that Rick almost wished he hadn’t mentioned the word. Much more of this and he’d forget that he was on call tonight and take her back to the lighthouse. Up to the top of the tower, where he’d make sweet love to her.
Sweet love. He hadn’t made sweet love for a long time. But it was impossible to do anything else with Fleur.
“Did Josh bring you here?” Finally he found the strength to draw back a little.
“Yes. He’s on his way over to the west side of the island to fetch the meteorologists.”
“Meteorologists...?” This island truly did have everything.
“Yeah, they’re a bunch of students, studying storms. One of the parents owns a holiday home here, and they’re all staying there.”
“Well, they’ll be happy tonight. Looks as if there’s quite a storm brewing.”
Fleur laughed. “Getting into weather prediction now, are you?”
“Since it’s an island tradition, I thought I’d give it a go.”
“Well, you’re doing splendidly. You’ll be rivalling Young Salty before you know it.”
Rick rolled his eyes. “If I ever...ever...show any signs of becoming like Salty Harrington, you have my permission to throw me off a cliff. So what’s Josh doing with the meteorologists, then?”
“You know Dad. Interested in everything. They’ve set their instruments up to record wind speeds at the harbor, but they want to get some photographs as well. They’re going to be camping out in his study. Dad dropped me off on his way over here, and he’s going to take them to our place and then come and fetch me.”
“Giving us some time to either make up or break up, eh?”
“Something like that. When I asked him for a lift, he said that he was pleased I’d finally stopped moping around...”
Rick kissed her. “I dare say that Ellie will share that sentiment. I’ve been moping too. Give Josh a call and tell him I’ll take you home.”
“Aren’t you on call tonight?”
“Yes, I am, but I’m not officially on the clock for another hour. So that’ll give me time to kiss you goodnight on your doorstep. Josh can fling the door open and ask what the blazes I think I’m doing with his daughter if he wants.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
RICK HAD THE tremulous feeling that the last half an hour had changed his life. He reminded himself that it hadn’t and that all it was going to change was however long he and Fleur had left together. But that felt like a long time at the moment.
Donning their coats, he left word that he’d be back in half an hour, and they walked out of the clinic together. The wind crashed against Rick’s face, and he automatically put his arm around Fleur in case it knocked her off her feet.
But she was steady enough as she looked up at the sky. The lights from the clinic produced an almost eerie glow against the low cloud as the falling snow began to cover the path.
Then it happened. A flash of light across the sky, followed quickly by a deep rumble. The sky took on an almost pink tinge, and when another flash rent the cloud, Fleur screamed with delight, stretching her arms up as if to catch it.
“What on earth...?”
“Thunder snow! It’s awesome, isn’t it?”
Rick had never seen anything quite like this. Awesome just about summed it up. It was as if the sky was suddenly filled with the power of a hundred thunder gods, each one fighting for supremacy.
“The meteorologists are going to love this.” She was capering around, as if her dance might provoke another flash of lightning.
“Shouldn’t we be...inside or something?”
“No. It’s just a thunderstorm, only with snow. Don’t you have these in England?”
“I’ve never seen one. It’s pretty amazing...”
Rick looked up at the sky just as another bolt of lightning flickered across the cloud. This time the thunder masked both of their cries.
He hugged Fleur tight. Somehow the sky seemed to know that he and Fleur were together again, and had thrown a little something of its own into the mix. Kissing her seemed the only thing possible, and when the sky flashed once more, that was only a natural consequence of the electricity between them.
* * *
They’d counted six flashes of lightning, and then the storm had abated a little. The snow had eased off, and visibility had improved, and Rick had been keen to take the opportunity to get on the road. They climbed into one of the clinic’s emergency vehicles, which was standing ready for Rick’s use tonight so that he could respond if a call came in while they were on the road.
Thunder snow. It wasn’t all that common on the island, but it happened here more than it did inland, and it was one of those things that Fleur had forgotten she’d missed. One of those things that seemed so much more exciting when she was in Rick’s arms.
Her phone rang and she answered it, listening to her father’s hurried words. “I’m with Rick now. Do you need him?”
“Yes, I think we might...”
“Okay, we’re almost home. I’ll call you when we get there.”
“Right you are. Look for the flare, honey...”
“Yep. Stay safe, Dad.”
Fleur ended the call. Rick had already slowed the car and was looking at her questioningly.
“That was my dad. One of the students was over at our place this afternoon, and stayed there while Dad went to collect the others. While Dad was out, Simon went outside to take some photographs. He said he’d be back in half an hour but he didn’t return. They’ve called him but he’s not answering his phone.”
“And they’ve sent out a search party?”
“Yes. He might just have lost track of time, but Simon’s from the city, so he’s not really used to these conditions. They’ll send up a flare if they find him. Blue if everything’s okay, and red if they need help.”
“Okay. Just as well we came prepared.” Rick’s mouth formed a firm, thin line as he started the SUV’s engine again.
They drove along Main Street and turned off toward the harbor. There were a few people out and about, drawn onto the sidewalk by the majesty of the storm, but keeping close to home. Fleur could see the lights from her parents’ house up ahead.
Suddenly a red flare shot up into the sky.
“I see it.” Rick had clearly been on the lookout as well. “How do we get there?”
“It’s coming from beyond our place... Inland a little, I think...”
“All right. I’ll drop you off.”
Like hell he would. “I’m coming with you.”
“I’d prefer it if you were at home.”
“Forget it, Rick. You need me to help you find them. Anyway, you’re not used to these conditions either.” Fleur wondered whether he’d stop the SUV outside her parents’ house and refuse to move until she got out of it. That would be precious moments spent arguing.
“All right, you have a point.” He gave in so suddenly that Fleur raised her eyebrows in surprise. “But be careful, eh?”
“Don’t worry about me. I’m not about to undo all the work we’ve done...”
She directed him past the house, away from the harbor, dialing her father’s number as they went and telling him that they w
ere on their way. Fleur kept the line open as they drove through the blinding snow, listening to her father’s shouted instructions. The storm had become fiercer again, and even she was beginning to become disoriented.
“Send up another flare, Dad. We’re nearly there...” There was a pause and another flare shot upwards, much closer now. “Okay, I’ve got you. We won’t be long.”
She turned to Rick. “Dad says he’s coming to meet us. Look out for a red distress lantern by the side of the road.”
They drove in silence, and Fleur leaned forward in her seat, straining to see the glow of the lantern. “There... I see it!”
Rick nodded. “No point in telling you to stay in the car, I imagine...”
“None.”
Her father was standing next to a small car, which was almost completely covered by snow, waving the lantern above his head. Rick drew up next to him and got out of the SUV, and Fleur slid across to the driver’s side, following him.
“I’m glad you’re here.” Her father shot Fleur a sidelong scowl. Apparently he was only glad to see Rick, and he’d prefer it if Fleur was safely at home. He’d get over it.
“How is he?” Rick swung the tailgate of the SUV open, pulling out his medical bag.
“He climbed a tree to get a better shot of the lightning.” Her father would be rolling his eyes about now, but in the darkness it was difficult to tell. “He says he doesn’t remember what happened, but it looks as if he fell and a branch came down on top of him. We haven’t moved him as you were so close.”
“But we’ll need to as soon as we can.” Rick reached into the SUV, taking out another long bag and slinging the strap over his shoulder. He might not be used to these conditions, but he understood well enough that Simon could freeze to death if he was outside for any length of time.
Her father nodded, picking up Rick’s medical bag. “Yep. Storm’s getting worse.”
Rick took her arm, gripping it tight as they trudged through the snow toward the huddled figures up ahead. When they reached them, the circle of people parted to let them through and the men kneeling next to Simon scooted to one side. Rick took his gloves off, bending down to examine Simon.
Resisting Her English Doc Page 11
