A few minutes – and her own toilet stop later – Anna returned to the consulting room and handed Julia the pregnancy test.
Julia stared at it, open-mouthed and teary-eyed. ‘Oh my God. I’m up the duff.’ Her eyes lifted to Anna’s face. They were swimming with tears.
‘The pee never lies,’ Anna smiled. ‘Congratulations.’ She flashed a smile back at Julia, but all Julia could do was stare at the test in her hand. A heaviness landed with a thud in Anna’s heart, laden with all the things she’d lost. A husband. A life together. The potential for children and a family. It wasn’t that she was jealous of Julia, any more than she was of any pregnant woman who sat in her consulting room. She was genuinely happy for each and every one of them and was usually crying as much as they were at finding out the happy news. Seeing her patients go through their pregnancies and then seeing their little babies grow up into boys and girls and then teenagers? It was the clichéd circle of life coming true each and every day in her practice. It balanced out the sadness and frailty of what life was like for some, and gave Anna a balance and symmetry of hope and happiness.
But sometimes, especially today, she felt raw. These friends were taking this next leap into the adventure of their lives while she’d had a door slammed firmly shut in her face. The tears in her eyes hadn’t sprung just from happiness. They were half-formed with longing and regret, too.
‘So what about the vomiting, Anna? That’s part of the whole big adventure, isn’t it?’
Anna nodded. ‘I’m pretty sure your nausea is a case of good, old-fashioned morning sickness.’
Julia’s bright eyes faded and her shoulders slumped. She slowly took in another deep breath and swallowed. ‘You mean I’m going to feel like this for months?’
‘Sorry to break it to you, bella, but you might.’
Julia looked at her watch. ‘But it’s three o’clock in the afternoon. Shouldn’t it have gone by now, being “morning” sickness? You sure there’s nothing else wrong?’
‘I’ll let you in on a secret, Julia. The boy doctors who came up with the description are full of crap. I see some women who never feel sick and others who feel sick pretty much all day. But the good news? It should disappear by your mid-trimester.’ Anna reached out a hand and covered Julia’s with it. ‘And don’t forget why you’ve got it in the first place. You’re having a baby.’
Julia sighed, fresh tears glistening in her eyes. ‘Oh boy. I’m having a baby.’
‘Yes, you are and it’s wonderful news. Isn’t it about time you told your husband?’
‘Shit, I’d better ring him. No, scratch that. I want to tell him in person.’
‘Isn’t he out in the waiting room?’
Julia looked at Anna, bleary-eyed and confused. ‘Ry? He’s not here. He’s back at Middle Point.’
‘Oh. It’s just that Grace mentioned that your husband brought you in.’
Julia laughed. ‘Believe me, if Ry was up in Adelaide with me, he wouldn’t be in the waiting room. He’d be in here watching the stick turn blue. It’s Joe out there, you know, Lizzie’s brother. He hitched a ride to the city with me today.’
Anna’s pulse throbbed behind her eyes. She’d stopped listening somewhere around the mention of Joe. So he was out there. In her waiting room. She glanced over to the wall separating them. There was a bookcase filled with medical books, on it’s middle shelf a plastic model of the inner ear and a couple of old glass medicine bottles. Behind it, a brick wall and then on the other side a row of plastic chairs and a coffee table on which magazines and children’s books were scattered.
He was out there. Joe with the body and the smile and the tan and the denim blue eyes and that mysterious eyebrow.
‘We were just about to drive home, but when Joe saw me turning green around the gills, especially after I had to pull over and throw up in the gutter, so stylish, I know, he wouldn’t take no for an answer. He took the wheel and said I needed to see a doctor. He looked you up online and here we are.’
Anna swallowed. ‘He’s a wise man.’
‘Can you keep my secret?’
‘Of course I can, doctor-patient confidentiality and all that.’ Anna knew all about secrets, the kind that hurt and the kind that set you free when you told them. Happy secrets? She hadn’t seen too many of those in her life lately.
‘It’s just that I don’t want Joe to be the first to know. I haven’t even told Lizzie. She’d kill me if Stinkface finds out before she does.’
Anna was confused. ‘Who’s Stinkface?’
‘Joe. She calls him Stinkface. It’s a sibling thing. Not that I would know much about that, being an only child. Do you have brothers and sisters, Anna?’
‘Grace is out there and we have a brother, Luca.’ Anna crossed the room to her desk and sat down at the computer. There was some information she needed to find for Julia, as well as give her jittery hands something to do.
‘She’s your sister? She’s lovely and was so patient when we came storming in the front door. Don’t know what she must think of Joe. He was pretty insistent about you seeing me.’
‘Really?’ With a will of its own, Anna’s stilettoed foot began bouncing.
‘I kind of let Joe think it might be food poisoning. A bad oyster from lunch with a client.’
Anna flicked her eyes from the computer screen to Julia. ‘You really are a master of the dark art of spin, aren’t you?’
Julia managed to smile at that and Anna could see some of her sparkle returning.
‘I do have a reputation to uphold, you know.’
‘Well.’ Anna turned to her desk, leaned over and clicked the mouse to bring her screen to life. She needed a minute to think. The words and images on the screen blurred into fuzziness. Finally she clicked on a bookmarked website she often used to give information to expectant mothers and printed off a couple of sheets of information. ‘I’m going to give you a verbal prescription for what troubles you. Try dry crackers even before you get out of bed. Rest as much as you can. Lots of small sips of fluid – flat lemonade, ginger ale, weak tea, cordial. And rest. And make sure Ry tends to your every whim.’
Julia laughed. ‘That’s what got me into this mess in the first place.’
Anna collected the papers from the printer and passed them to Julia. ‘If you have the energy for that, go for it. But you’ll probably find that in the next few weeks, all you’ll want to do is lie down – alone. Here’s some information to take home to see you through the next few weeks. You should think about where you want to have the baby and don’t forget to make an appointment with your GP when you get back to Middle Point. They’ll get you started on your antenatal checks and book you in for your first ultrasound.’
Anna found a smile and tried to maintain her professional demeanour. So what if Joe was out there? Julia was her patient, if only for today, and she had important medical information to give to her about her pregnancy and about staying healthy.
‘And so we hit the first hurdle.’ Julia sat up gingerly and dangled her legs over the edge of the examination table. ‘You see Anna, I don’t have a GP in Middle Point. I’ve only been back a few months and I haven’t needed one. Up until now.’
‘There’ll be plenty to choose from, I’m sure.’
Julia stood on shaky legs, walked to Anna’s desk and took another deep breath. ‘Oh God.’ She clutched her stomach. ‘Looks like Joe will be driving home.’
Anna took Julia’s arm, tried to scare away the heebie-jeebies that had lodged behind her breastbone and together they walked into the narrow hallway.
And there he was.
Not for Joe a seat in the waiting room. He was pacing in the main reception area, sandwiched between starstruck Grace behind the reception desk and six pensioners staring at him in wide wide-eyed admiration from their seats in the waiting room. Joe looked dishevelled and worried as hell. His blond hair was standing up in spikes, as if he’d been running his fingers through it, and there was a tension in his hunched shoulde
rs. A black polo shirt hung loosely from his broad shoulders and dark denim jeans completed the beachside look. His eyes, which Anna noticed once again were almost the colour of those jeans, looked to her for half a second.
Then they caught Julia’s face. ‘Are you all right?’ His eyes did a quick flick back to Anna.
Anna looked to Julia for guidance. It wasn’t her secret to tell and she needed to know how Julia was going to spin herself out of this one.
‘Just a mild bout of food poisoning, isn’t it, Anna?’ Julia asked.
Anna shoved her hands into the pockets of her elegant, wide-legged trousers and transferred her weight from one high heel to the other. She wasn’t going to lie but she could fudge it, too. ‘She’ll be fine. Lots of fluid and rest. Remember that last word, Julia. Rest.’
Joe seemed to relax a little at the announcement. He moved to Julia, took her elbow in his left hand and wrapped a protective arm around her shoulders.
‘Now will you call your husband and tell him you’re sick?’ He shot Anna a relieved smile. ‘She wouldn’t let me ring him. Told me I was being ridiculous. All I know is that he’s going to kick my arse when he finds out we kept this a secret.’
‘Settle down, Joe. I’ll handle Ry. You handle the driving.’ Julia fished in her handbag and presented her keys with a jangle.
‘I could tell him we went out for lunch and tied it on, big-time journo style. That you had too much to drink.’
‘You would,’ Julia murmured. ‘Take me home, Stinkface.’
Joe rubbed a hand through his hair. Things were looking a whole lot better than they had an hour ago. It was damn lucky he remembered Anna’s last name. He was freaked out when Julia fell ill. She’d suddenly come over all pale, sweaty, wide-eyed and it had all seemed to hit her in a few minutes. It had freaked him out a little – a lot. So he’d googled Anna’s name and then taken the wheel. She was the only Anna Morelli GP on the ’net, so he took a chance and drove out to her surgery, right in the middle of Adelaide suburbia. That’s how easy it was to find her. The woman who ran off after their night together, who wouldn’t give him a number, was simply a Google search away. His most important job now was to get Julia back home to her husband and her bed. He was responsible for his sister’s best friend and some crazy protective instinct kicked in. He had to get her home.
But, damn it, Anna was right there.
He’d been wanting to talk to her, needing too. To see if she was okay, to help her maybe. He needed to know that having sex with him hadn’t made things worse for her.
He’d been trying damn hard not to remember having sex with her. The way she looked at him with those caramel eyes, the way they’d melted when he touched her. The feel of her hair when he’d run his fingers through it, silky and long and soft. And the body he’d had his hands and lips all over. The body he’d been kind of obsessed with since that night. Joe let out a breath, frustration mixed with relief and pure and simple desire. Seeing her now, so beautiful, and being all capable and doctor-y as well, was like being sucker-punched.
Julia moaned and Joe came crashing back to that reality. ‘Oh God. I feel awful.’
‘Get in the car, you whiner.’ Joe moved to the front door of the surgery and held it open but Julia stopped. When she pulled her purse out of her handbag and fumbled with her Medicare card, Anna shook her off and pushed her gently to the door. ‘Please. Don’t even think about it. Just go home and rest.’
‘Thanks, Anna,’ Julia said. ‘For everything.’
And if Joe wasn’t mistaken, there was something more to that thanks than was immediately obvious. Eye contact just a little too long. The tears in Julia’s eyes. And when Anna reached out to pull Julia into a long hug, well, Joe’s journalistic instincts confirmed his suspicions. There was a secret between these two women.
As they stepped onto the footpath, the unusually warm autumn afternoon hitting them in a shimmering waft as they walked to the car, parked on the street right out front. Joe opened the passenger side door and Julia gingerly positioning herself on the seat. He found the lever to recline it and she leaned back, her eyes drifting closed. It wasn’t much but it was the best he could do. She might get some sleep on the hour and a half long drive back to Middle Point. When he closed the car door and turned, Anna was there on the footpath.
He walked to her. ‘Thanks for seeing her, Anna. I really appreciate it. Ry will, too.’ Anna averted her eyes, glanced up and down the street instead of looking at him. A pimped-up car with a noisy exhaust sped past. Two ladies dressed head to toe in black shuffled towards them and called out something to Anna.
‘Che pezzo d’uomo!’ (What a man!)
‘Sei sposata, Anna. E mio!’(You’re married Anna. He’s mine!)
Joe watched the exchange, fascinated by the humour in the old women’s faces and then entranced by the flush that crept up Anna’s cheeks. When she answered them back in fluent, real and passionate Italian, he almost tumbled into the gutter.
She waved at them and laughed as they nudged each other and gave him another long once over before entering the surgery.
‘Your biggest fans?’ he asked, finding a safe place for his hands in the front pockets of his jeans.
Anna reached up to play with the gold medallion on her necklace. It glinted as the afternoon sun caught it and as she turned it over in her fingers, he thought about how snugly it fit between her breasts.
‘Regulars.’
‘You’ve got a busy place here.’
Anna shrugged. ‘Enough to keep me out of trouble.’ And then the flush in her cheeks bloomed again.
‘Listen,’ Joe said and without even thinking, he reached a hand out to her. It came to rest on her arm, where the short sleeve of her silk top revealed honeyed, soft skin. He felt goosebumps and it stirred something in him that felt like hope.
‘Thank you. For seeing Julia.’ He fought the almost irresistible urge to sweep his hand around inside the fall of her hair to the back of her neck and pull her in close.
When she looked up to him, her brown eyes wide and her full lips parted and still, he took another step closer.
‘Joe …’ Anna shrugged his hand from her shoulder, moved so she was out of reach.
‘Ry would want me to thank you for him, too.’
‘It’s nothing. I’m a doctor. Look, my name’s over there on that brass plate. It’s what I do.’
‘Lucky for us. Next time you’re down in Middle Point, you’d better let me buy you a drink. It’ll be my way of saying thanks.’
She replied with nothing but a sad smile and the slightest shake of her head.
‘C’mon. Think about it,’ Joe didn’t want to push her anymore. Maybe he’d planted the seed and she would consider it. Would think about him. He turned to walk to the driver’s seat. It was only after he’d got in and clicked his seatbelt into place, did he notice that she’d followed him, and was peering down to look at him through the open window.
‘Wait, Joe.’
‘Yeah, Anna?’ Was she changing her mind about that drink? Was there a chance he would see her again? Anna flicked her hair over shoulders, stopped as if she was making up her mind about something.
‘Wait one minute.’
Joe glanced over to Julia, who was already asleep in the passenger seat.
A minute later Anna was back, thrusting a plastic bag at Joe. ‘You might need these.’
As Joe opened it to look inside, she reached in and held the top of the bag tight in her fingers. ‘Sick bags. She’ll need them, probably around Willunga Hill when the road starts to curve. Keep them handy.’
Joe nestled them at Julia’s feet. ‘Good thinking. Thanks again.’
‘My pleasure.’
Joe slid the keys into the ignition but didn’t start the car. He didn’t want this moment to end. He didn’t want to drive away.
Anna was still leaning over and looking at him through the open window.
‘So, food poisoning, huh?’ he asked with a smile.
/>
She gave him a knowing look. ‘She’ll be fine.’
‘I should get her home.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Ry will kill me if I don’t.’
‘He will. She needs her rest. You were right to bring her to see me.’
A car stopped in front of them and an old man slowly extricated himself from the front seat. Neither of them were distracted by his shuffle towards the door of Anna’s surgery.
‘Well,’ Joe managed.
‘Well,’ Anna replied, her words and her eyes lingering.
And there, in that look, Joe was struck with the strangest realisation. She doesn’t want me to leave either.
And knowing that was enough for him today, was enough to keep hoping that he might see her again. His job now was to get Julia home. He turned the key and the car roared into life.
‘See you soon, Anna.’ He held out his hand to shake hers.
‘See you, Joe.’ She took it, and for a moment they were like that in the street, hand in hand, looking into each other’s eyes.
Finally they let go. Anna took two steps back from the car, straightened and waved them off. As she grew smaller and smaller in the rear-view mirror, the lump in Joe’s chest got bigger and bigger. Any plan he’d had to hit Adelaide’s nightspots had just disappeared.
And he suddenly didn’t care.
CHAPTER
16
Later that evening, after Anna had slipped off her shoes, carefully removed the make-up from her face, and changed into some comfy clothes, she sat on her sofa with a glass of wine. All around her the house was quiet. A gully breeze fluttered the long curtains in her living room and the faintest smell of cut grass wafted through the house. Everything around her was neat and in its place. The elegant lamp on the antique table at the end of the sofa. The elegant coffee table books on her low coffee table that Alex had conveniently left behind. It seemed he didn’t want to read them either. The Persian rug was set squarely on the polished floorboards at perfectly perpendicular angles to the sofa and the original artwork over the fireplace was stylish and eye-catching.
Our Kind of Love Page 10
