by Sue MacKay
‘What else?’ Devlin laughed back.
‘Now I work here, you’ll get a good deal on any you buy.’ Lily smiled. ‘That includes anyone who’s interested.’
‘You might live to regret that.’ Max laughed again, a genuine sound with no questions behind it. ‘Seriously, thank you.’
‘Right, let’s get this show happening before people start wandering off for a meal.’ Devlin tapped his glass. ‘Attention, everyone.’ The room went quiet instantly. ‘Sarah, come forward and let me wax lyrical about you for a moment.’
Sarah stepped up, a warm smile directed at Devlin. ‘That’d be a first.’
As the laughter died down, Devlin continued. ‘You’ve been a wonderful partner in the practice. Kept us all on our toes and created strong relationships with each of us and your patients.’
While he extolled Sarah’s talents Lily looked around at the people she’d be soon start working with. Genuine fondness for Sarah showed on all the faces, and she could only hope she’d come close to replacing the GP everyone looked up to.
Drawing a deep breath, she took a sip of wine and felt a moment of insecurity. What if she wasn’t up to the position? She’d done a good job in Singapore, and had come home with a superb reference, so why wouldn’t she be up to the job? Devlin had head-hunted her when he’d heard from her father that she was returning home. He wouldn’t have done that if she didn’t have the skills and competence the partners required. But apprehension still knotted deep inside her, and she couldn’t understand why. Staring into her glass as though the answer was there, she let her mind roam in search of a clue.
‘Hey.’ A quiet nudge from her left. Max.
The answer. It was Max shaking her up. Previously, he’d never have quietly brought her back to where she should be focused. He’d have made a joke about her lack of concentration. What else was going to be dissimilar? Working in a different environment from what she’d become used to? She thrived on challenges, but was she up to this one? And did she mean Max or the medical centre’s expectations?
‘Listen.’ Max again, still in a quiet voice no one else would hear.
Glancing around, she found the room’s focus on her, and lifted her shoulders into confident mode. Please let no one have seen that moment of worry.
‘I’m happy to be handing over to you, Lily. You’ll be excellent.’ Sarah closed the gap between them and gave her a hug. ‘I mean it,’ she said quietly.
Lily returned her hug. They’d spent hours together going through their patients and sharing a couple of meals at the restaurant down the road. ‘I’ll do my absolute best.’ To hell with the doubts looming in her head.
Devlin hadn’t finished. ‘Welcome, Lily. I’m so pleased you’re joining us.’ Then he raised his glass. ‘Okay, let’s have a toast to Sarah and Lily, and get on with enjoying the evening.’
As the noise level increased again, Lily stood back to watch, still shaken by her sudden concerns.
Then Max tapped his glass against hers. ‘Feel like heading to Capacio’s after this for a meal and catch-up?’
Max was asking her out for a meal. Not on a date surely? It would be rude to decline. But suddenly she’d had enough of getting her head around how he’d changed. He’d thrown her preconceived ideas and old memories to the wind and she was struggling. This Max seemed great, but was she rushing her acceptance that he’d changed so much? She needed space to remind herself she was not looking for a man to share her life, and especially not this one. She needed space to quieten the slow drumming in her veins, to douse the warmth filling her.
‘Unfortunately I’ve got to see my sister-in-law, so I’ll take a rain-check.’ The moment the words were out she regretted them. Why not go along for some fun? It didn’t have to be about Max. But it was too late. There was no way to undo the words without appearing rude. ‘Next time?’
‘Sure.’ By the look in his eyes there wouldn’t be a next time.
CHAPTER TWO
MAX ROUNDED THE corner and braked. An SUV with flashing hazard lights was parked in the centre of the secondary road leading to the Let’s Have Fun camp at the end of Whangaparaoa Peninsula. Further on, what appeared to be at least one enormous pine tree blocked all hope of further travel.
‘Damn. Should’ve stuck with the main road.’ The lure of Lily had tempted him off track, and now he was stopped almost outside her beach house. If he’d been late before this, there was no hope now of making it to the camp before the kids were out and at it. But, then, he wasn’t meant to oversee them twenty-four seven, and no one expected him before ten at the earliest.
Even with the windows closed the harsh noise of chainsaws in action was loud. Two people were cutting branches off the tree, while two older men were engrossed in moving the sawn lengths to the side of the road as they came free, ready to be loaded on a trailer attached to a nearby tractor.
Stepping out and tossing his jacket onto his seat, Max shut the car and headed over to the men. Might as well make himself useful. ‘Need some help?’
One man straightened up from the growing stack of timber, sweat streaming down his face despite the chilly winter air. ‘Sure do, mate. We can’t keep up with those two.’
Max looked over at the people wielding their machines and gaped. A pocket of heat expanded throughout his chilled body. Surely not? Then again, why not? Lily could still surprise him, which shouldn’t be a surprise at all. She might be tall enough to lay her head on his shoulder but she was slim and that chainsaw wasn’t made for cutting kindling. He couldn’t stop looking at the apparition before him. Curvaceous in the right places, no biceps bulging from strain to fill out the sleeves of an oversized plaid work shirt unlike anything he’d seen her wear before.
‘Here, put these on.’ One man handed him leather work gloves and leaned close to be heard above the din. ‘Saves getting splinters in your hands. Name’s Archie, and this here’s George. That guy over there’s Cal. I’m thinking you know Lily by the stunned look on your dial.’
‘I do. I’m Max.’ He was still gaping at Lily as she attacked a large branch with skill. ‘What’s she doing, brandishing that lethal equipment?’
‘Better not let her hear you say that or you’ll likely lose a leg.’ Archie laughed. ‘She’s darned handy with a chainsaw, believe me.’
As he watched, the branch hit the ground with a thud, and Lily straightened, pushed the safety goggles off her face and turned in his direction. And blinked. ‘Max?’ she mouthed, surprise registering in her steady gaze. A smile appeared on her face.
‘Obviously me,’ he answered silently, drinking in the sight of her face. How had he never realised how beautiful her smiles were? Because she’d hardly ever smiled at him. Just as well or his gut would have become permanently cramped. Nodding, he moved closer to the destruction to begin lifting logs to carry to the trailer. The muscles in his shoulders tightened as he sensed her watching him. And tightened some more when he realised she’d left her position to come across.
‘When did the trees come down?’ he asked to prevent saying what was really dominating his mind.
‘About five this morning. We waited for sunrise before getting stuck in. How did you manage to come this way? There’s supposed to be a warning sign up at the turnoff.’ Her breathing was even, despite what that chainsaw must weigh.
‘Afraid not. Unless I missed it.’ Anything was possible. He’d been dreaming about catching up with Lily again, and fighting the excitement that had brought on. She’d disappointed him when she’d turned down his offer to go for a meal together last Thursday. Once he’d have been irked, but not any more. It seemed those feelings had been replaced with a need to really know Lily, to get on with her emotions. Emotions best avoided but already impossible to ignore.
Warmth had flooded him whenever he’d thought about her over the last few days. So had the warning that he wasn’t looking for love, even
if he wanted it. He had no intention of hurting a woman emotionally to meet his own ends. Hell. Emotion here, there and everywhere. It hadn’t used to be in his vocabulary. He blamed Lily. He smiled. Yeah, of course he did.
She smiled back. ‘You’re out early. Another hour and you’d have got through, no bother.’
‘This will be cleared in an hour?’ An exaggeration surely?
‘We’ve already cleared another, admittedly smaller tree further along.’ She grinned. ‘I’d better get back to it. Are you okay doing this in those clothes? The pine’s covered in sap. There are overalls in the garage behind the house if you want.’ Her head dipped in the direction of the stained timber, low-build home with picture windows from end to end and glossy-leafed shrubs placed strategically around the lawn. Beautiful in its simplicity.
Max sighed. The property was a perfect match for Lily. ‘I’ve jeans and an old shirt in the car. They’ll do.’ He hadn’t brought good clothes for the week, preferring casual ones as it often helped kids relax when they wanted to talk about their problems. He flicked the boot catch and undid the buckle of his belt—see, no notches, Lily—and smiled to himself as she hurried back to the fallen trees. Very prudish looking when she was anything but. In bed at least. He took a deep intake of air, forced it out.
Those nights together had been a revelation. The argumentative woman had flipped a switch and been hot and exciting, giving so much of herself he’d had to wonder if there were two Lilys. Then a third had come to light afterwards when she had walked away from him and kept him at a distance with her sharp retorts to anything he’d said.
It had been a wake-up call, forcing him to stop and wonder what the hell he had been playing at. Finding he wasn’t immune to her, that his heart might want to take a second look had shocked him silly. Until Lily, playing the field and remaining single had been the only way to go for him. After that, other women’s reactions towards his easy come, easy go attitude had made him realise he’d been selfish. He’d got that from his mother, who’d said girls were easier to raise than boys and that Max would need his father to keep him on track while he was growing up.
First Lily and then cancer had finally taught him how important kindness and honesty were. All the while Lily had continued niggling away at him, lighting a spark in his body, long after she’d finished working at the department to head offshore. A spark that had been relit across the road outside the medical centre last week.
He’d been his father’s son: tough. His mother had been right about that, but it wasn’t a strength he was proud of once he’d understood he’d hurt people because of it. And he did love his dad. When he’d been young, his father had dreamed of becoming a doctor but his family had been dirt poor so the day he’d turned fifteen he had left school to find a job. At first Max had wanted to study medicine for his father, but even before he’d started training he’d known there was no other career for him. He’d found a side to himself that involved caring for people without giving away his heart.
The medical scene had absorbed him, made him happy for the first time. He’d found his niche. Only when he’d been ill had his mother admitted being proud of him. Even his father, in his gruff way, had said so. That moment had lifted the cloud that had sat on his heart all his life. Dad was proud of him. And his mother.
The females in his family hadn’t abandoned him entirely when he’d been young. He’d spent time with them as they’d lived only three streets away, and his step-dad had accepted him as part of his family. But he’d been determined to put on a brave face like his father had done, and not show his hurt over being left behind.
Lily had been the one exception in his life—after the fact. At first she had been no different from any other date, but soon she could have had him eating out of her hand for more of her gentleness and that off-the-scale lovemaking. Yes, lovemaking, the first and only time he’d called sex anything other than sex. For good reason. Sex didn’t involve his heart. Lily had knocked on it.
It had been a game-changer. One that had had him raising the barriers to keep her out of his mind and soul. Even now he didn’t understand why. More importantly, why had Lily made him feel that when they hadn’t been close? He’d sometimes wondered if she too felt abandoned in some way and that he might hold some answers for her needs. Then he’d decide he was being crazy. Lily would never want him other than in the sack. It was payback for the women he’d treated the same over the years. But she’d remained an itch ever since.
The chainsaws roared to life, the sharp sound of blades cutting through wet wood filling the air. Lily and her off-sider were careful, keeping distance between themselves and continually checking to see where everyone was. The equipment wasn’t something to argue with.
A vivid, gruesome picture came to Max’s mind from his first year as an intern in an emergency room. He shuddered. A woodsman working in a pine forest had slipped while felling a tree and the result had not been good, the only thing saving the man from bleeding out being the other woodsmen working the same area with basic first-aid training to their credit. But the real mess had been handed over to Max and his colleagues at the hospital. They’d saved the guy’s leg and he’d gone back to work in the forests as soon as he’d been able, saying it couldn’t happen twice. Max wasn’t so sure. Imagine if anything like that happened to Lily. No, he did not want to conjure up that hideous image. Lily handled her saw with all the confidence she’d use with a dessert spoon, only she was super-vigilant.
‘She knows what she’s doing.’ Archie spoke beside him.
Max shuddered again. ‘I’m sure she does, but it’s nerve-racking to watch.’
‘Learned off her old man and those brothers she pretends are as weak as kittens.’ Archie chuckled. ‘No one was ever going to hold Lily back. Only had to say bet she couldn’t do something and she’d be off to prove them wrong.’
‘There’s a woman I recognise. Though she never tried to prove anyone wrong in the medical world, only determined not to make mistakes.’ Just like him. They’d been more similar than he’d realised. Wonder what else they had in common he didn’t know about?
‘You’ve worked with her?’
‘While we were training.’
Why hadn’t he spent time getting to know her better, instead of overreacting to her confident manner, when she had made it abundantly clear she wanted nothing more to do with him? He’d acted as per normal—distant—but what if he’d wooed her with some finesse? She’d got her own back by popping into his head on and off, except in the bleakest days of his treatment, giving him a nagging sense of a missed opportunity for something wonderful. He’d never know what that was about. Unless... Unless nothing. That’d mean letting her in to get behind the shield keeping his heart safe. How was he going to avoid that and get to know her better?
When both chainsaws finally stopped, the silence was overwhelming. Lily swiped her hands on her overalls, highlighting her shapely hips. Max swallowed a groan, squashed the stab of longing hitting him.
‘We’re done,’ Lily called. ‘Let’s haul the last of this clear of the road and go have a coffee, everyone.’
‘Best thing I’ve heard all morning.’ He should head away and find the camp, not hang out with Lily and her old cronies, except the idea of staying on for a bit warmed him. Max lifted a log up onto his shoulder and headed for the trailer.
Looking around, he breathed in the cold air tightening his skin and absorbed the sound of waves crashing onto the shore beyond the road. The air was heavy with salt and above gulls shrieked as they dived and soared while they patrolled the beach. Calm overtook Max. This was a great location for a week away from the madness that was the medical hub. No wonder Lily had come here before starting work.
‘I can even run to bacon and eggs if you’re lucky, guys.’ Lily was speaking to them all but smiling directly at him.
He could return her refusal to join him the other night
, show her he wasn’t moved by her reappearing in his life, but it wasn’t in him to say no.
She’d stung his pride when he’d thought they’d been getting on well, yet there was a warmth tucking around him he hadn’t known for a long time, and he was damned if he could shuck it off. It felt good, right, and he wanted more. Careful. Damn, but he was tired of being careful. Again, it was Lily upsetting his determination to remain single, to cruise through life without involving, and thereby hurting, someone else. Lily. Gulp. Lily? Being careful was so ingrained in him, yet within days—in a blink—of catching sight of Lily again and ‘careful’ was disappearing from his vocabulary. Dangerous. For her. For him.
The month of isolation to prevent catching anyone’s germs when his system had had no resistance due to the new treatment. The weeks after chemo when he hadn’t wanted anyone to see him looking so despondent—not to mention bald, though that had been quite funny when the cause didn’t tear him apart.
Now that gnawing fear of the cancer returning made him leery of getting involved with someone and having to watch them cope, to pick up the pieces afterwards if the worst happened, of breaking their heart along with his. It wasn’t the greatest place to be, keeping a space between himself and everyone else, especially someone who could make all the difference if she was prepared to accept he didn’t have a guaranteed future.
Lighten up. You’ve only just caught up with Lily and you’re thinking all this? Get real. Get practical. ‘Got mushrooms to go with that?’
One well-styled eyebrow rose. ‘The man wants it all.’
Did he ever. Max shrugged, trying to keep that to himself. ‘Tomatoes?’
‘Thought you knew this woman,’ Archie grunted as he dragged a log the length of his body off the road.
‘Here, let me take that.’ Max leapt after him and took the heavy load from the old man. ‘Can’t have you falling on your face because Lily didn’t cut that in two.’
‘My fault, eh? Let me take the other end, Max.’ She took hold of the log and headed for the trailer, leaving Max no choice but to follow or drop the wood on his toes.
