Tony was apparently supervising, and must have sensed her presence for he looked up and waved.
‘I took plenty of photos for the police but thought you’d rather have it removed before the entire neighbourhood saw it. These lads are students of mine who think they might get extra credits for their good deed.’
‘Well, I certainly hope they do,’ Alex replied. ‘Just give me ten minutes, I’ll get some clothes on and organise coffee and toast for all of you. I think I might even have some croissants in the freezer.’
Tony smiled at her, and Alex felt a twinge of regret that the smile didn’t provoke even a small tingle in her nerves.
It was a very nice smile, he was a very good-looking man, he was kind and thoughtful and obviously clever—his list of good attributes could probably go on for ever.
So why—?
She knew why, although she’d managed to put Will out of her mind for the past few days.
Or almost out of her mind…
Tony and his crew finished their job and settled on the deck, first helping her carry out all they would need for their breakfast. They chatted easily, confident young men, remarking on the beauty of the river, then moving on to medical talk, telling her they’d probably see her around the hospital before too long.
She thanked them for their help and was surprised when, as they were leaving, one of them hung back.
‘You know,’ he said, ‘we could easily make up a roster for someone to sleep out here with you until this is sorted.’
The others jeered.
‘In a spare bedroom or on your couch,’ he growled. ‘Just till they catch whoever did it.’
‘Thank you,’ Alex said, touched by their concern. ‘But Tony’s already offered and I’ve assured him I’ll be fine.’
More jeering and hooting but this time directed at Tony. Would she, as a student, have treated the dean with as much levity? Definitely not, but perhaps this was to do with this being a smaller, more intimate university. For whatever reason, it seemed healthier than the awe in which she, as a student, had held the professors.
They departed, Tony telling her he’d left the kayak in the shed beneath the house, beside the tinnie.
‘And you should shift the key to the shed from above the door—it’s the first place a burglar looks.’
Alex laughed, but she would shift the key, and check all the locks before she went to work. Tony would email the photos to her to show the police and had even offered to go to the police station with her, but she was feeling stronger again, and ready now to fight this person or at least find out who it was and why they felt she had ruined their life.
* * *
By lunchtime she was glad it was Friday, with two free days ahead of her—well, free except for a ward round.
Getting back into the routine of work had taken more out of her than she’d expected it would, so a relaxing weekend—lazing on the deck with a good book, perhaps trying out the kayak—was looking very appealing.
Her phone line flashed.
Marilyn, to tell her Dr Kent wanted to see her after her last patient at four.
‘Thanks, Marilyn,’ Alex responded, hopefully calmly, although her heart was giving jittery little bumps. ‘He’s probably picked up something that might interest me from the seminar.’
Which made sense!
In fact, she hoped that was why he wanted to see her.
Or perhaps he just wanted to check out how her first week had gone.
Another buzz on her phone told her the next patient was waiting while she sat here thinking up excuses for Will’s visit so she wouldn’t start thinking it was personal and getting all excited!
You are thirty-six years old and should be over this excited stuff, she told herself firmly. Besides, it would never work.
She went out to meet her next patient.
* * *
But the Will who entered her office at four-thirty and loomed over her desk certainly didn’t look as if he’d come for any social reason, neither, given the scowl on his face, did she think it was to pass on newly learned knowledge.
‘Just what is going on in your life that I’ve had police questioning me about my actions?’ he demanded, and Alex learned the meaning of dumbfounded.
‘The police what?’ she managed when she’d finally found her voice.
‘Visited me at work, asking why my vehicle had been seen parked outside your house last night.’
His anger was hot enough for her to feel the sizzle of it across the desk. But when she’d made sense of what he’d said she found anger of her own.
‘And what was your vehicle doing outside my house last night?’
He slumped into a chair.
‘Foolish as it now seems, I got back from Sydney and thought I’d call in and see how your first week at work was going,’ he muttered.
Not to see me—the thought breezed through her head, silly disappointment in its wake.
‘I went out to a kayaking meeting—there’s a group at the university—’
‘I know all about the kayaking group at the uni—Tony Mitchell’s lot.’
Uh-oh—so Will and Tony Mitchell didn’t get on! That much was evident from the way he’d said the name.
‘Ah, I get it!’ Will continued, in a voice that could have frozen fire. ‘He came to see you about your father—thought, gorgeous new woman in town, I must get to know her, and already you’re in the kayaking group.’
‘I am not in the kayaking group.’ Alex spat the words at him. ‘Yet!’ she added, mostly out of spite. ‘And Tony Mitchell asked me to the meeting as a kind gesture to a new person in town. I’ve only met him three times but he seems a thoroughly nice man and very helpful as well.’
‘Three times?’
Alex sighed. She wasn’t sure why but suddenly they were arguing about something that didn’t really matter—except that it obviously did to Will.
Not that she had to explain anything to Will.
Of course she did—not only had he been incredibly kind since her arrival but he’d been there for her that last dreadful day in court.
‘Tony brought some students around this morning to clean some offensive writing off the front of the house. I assume, as the police have spoken to you, you know about it.’
* * *
Will studied the weary-looking woman across the desk from him and wondered how the situation had developed into a heated argument.
Because he’d been shocked and concerned by the police visit?
Or because he was jealous of Alex’s association with Tony Mitchell?
Deeply, gut-churningly jealous!
Which, given his ambivalence over the rights or wrongs of having a relationship other than friendship with Alex, was ridiculous.
He shrugged his shoulders and leaned across the desk to touch her hands, lightly clasped in front of her on the polished wood.
‘I’m sorry, Alex. Charging in here and roaring at you. But when the police told me what had been happening, I couldn’t believe you hadn’t told me—talked to me about it.’
He saw shadows chase across her face but she didn’t move her hands.
‘At first it was just a phone call, and—you’d been so good, done so much already—I didn’t want to seem a complete wimp by telling you about it. Then there was the rock and I did tell the police about that. It was only when Tony drove me home after the meeting and saw the writing on the wall that he became involved.’
She smiled, as if at some memory, and it took all Will’s self-control not to tighten his grip on her hands at the mention of Tony Mitchell.
‘Tony brought students out this morning to clean it up and they were so sweet, offering to set up a roster to sleep over each night so I wouldn’t be alone.’
‘I bet they did,’ Will said, and Alex laughed.
‘No, the young man who suggested it was very proper, offered to sleep on the couch. The others carried on but it was all good-natured and I know they’d have done it if I’
d wanted it. I imagine to them I’m like an elderly aunt.’
‘I doubt it,’ Will said, ‘but the boy was right, you shouldn’t be in that house on your own.’
She moved her hands and stood up.
‘Will, I haven’t come home after all this time to that beautiful room my father made for me to be chased away by someone with a grudge.’
Will stood too, moving to the side of the desk, closer—wanting to touch her but still conflicted about it all.
‘I can understand that,’ he said gently, his anger forgotten in his concern for Alex. ‘But if someone’s nursed that grudge for twenty years, who knows what direction it might take next.’
She moved now, closing the distance between them, putting her hand on his arm and looking up into his face.
‘I know, it worries me too, but I won’t be hounded out of my home.’
How could he not kiss her?
He was thinking of a cheek kiss but somehow her lips were right there, and once his mouth had touched them he was lost, especially as she was making breathy little sounds that seemed to indicate she didn’t mind the kiss at all.
Soft, pliant lips, tasting new and fresh, tasting of the river, and sunlight, and beginnings and maybe endings…
His mind buzzed with sensations he couldn’t possibly be feeling, yet kissing Alex was like nothing else he’d ever done before. Kissing Alex was a journey and a revelation, and he gathered her closer, nestled her in his arms, fingers wanting to explore, but his mind insisting he concentrate—for now—on the kiss…
* * *
Alex knew her bones were melting. Bone-melt from a kiss was something she’d heard of but had never experienced so right now, given she had Will to lean on, she was going to explore it fully.
His skin was just a little rough—as if he hadn’t shaved since early morning—but the roughness, when it caught her skin, was tantalising in some way.
His lips demanded and she gave, his tongue invaded, and she welcomed it, tasting, testing, right where she’d wanted to be since first meeting Will again, for all she still felt, deep down somewhere she couldn’t find right now, that it couldn’t work.
She’d failed other relationships but to get into one where there was a young vulnerable child and fail that?
Unthinkable!
She was easing away from his body when an angry buzzing from the desk broke them fully apart, and, seeing the time, Alex realised Marilyn must still be in the outer room, perhaps waiting for Alex to leave so she could lock up.
And here she’d been kissing Will with such abandon when anyone could have walked in!
Alex pressed the key and spoke to her office manager.
‘I’ll lock up,’ she said to the unseen Marilyn. ‘Will’s got some stuff to pass on from the seminar, so you go on home.’
Would Marilyn go without poking her head in to say goodbye? Alex hoped not because she knew her lips would be swollen, her cheeks reddened from the kiss, and her clothes probably not as neat as they might be.
‘Just don’t forget to lock the inner doors as well,’ Marilyn reminded her, before adding, ‘Goodnight, Dr Kent,’ in a voice that suggested she knew full well why the pair of them had forgotten the time.
Alex looked at the man she’d been kissing.
‘I don’t know, Will,’ she said, sighing wearily to underline the futility of the words. ‘I’m afraid to get into a relationship with you—afraid I’d let you down.’
‘I doubt you could ever do that,’ he said, yet she heard a shadow of doubt in his words.
Unfortunately, he smiled and spoiled all the determination she’d been mustering.
‘But I do know I’m hungry,’ he announced, ‘and no matter what rubbish we’ve got in our heads about this attraction between us, we do still have to eat.’
‘Fish and chips on my deck?’
Alex regretted the words before they were fully out of her mouth.
Will grinned.
‘Or fish and chips at the beach, so you could look at the ocean for a change, but perhaps, until we’re a bit surer about where this is going—how we feel about a relationship between us—I think we should stick to restaurants. There’s a great Indonesian place in town, or Greek, if you fancy throwing plates.’
‘Indonesian,’ Alex said. ‘I feel like spicy but not too hot.’
‘Do you now?’ he whispered, and kissed her again, but briefly this time, finishing the kiss with a brush of his fingers down her cheek.
‘I’d have said very hot,’ he teased, and she knew she’d reacted with a blush.
* * *
Alex waited until they’d ordered and were sipping a pleasant fruit cocktail before she asked the question that had been burning in her brain.
‘Why aren’t you sure where this is going or how you feel about a relationship between us?’
He took her hand. ‘Are you?’
She shook her head but persisted. ‘No, but don’t answer a question with a question. Why?’
He smiled and the way his eyes crinkled at the corners almost halted her breathing.
They’re wrinkles, for heaven’s sake, a voice in her head scolded, but she’d already moved on to study his lips as he spoke, and the way he ran his fingers through his hair when he was…
Frustrated?
Well, so was she but he was trying to explain so at least she should listen.
She was a woman, she could do two things at once, so look and listen.
But, even listening, he didn’t seem to be making much sense.
‘Excuse me,’ she said, aware she should have been listening more closely, ‘but are you saying the attraction is nothing more than frustration because neither of us has been in a relationship for a while?’
He gave a huff of laughter that suggested more despair than humour.
‘That’s what I don’t know. It’s just I’ve never felt like this before—never experienced almost instant attraction, not with Elise, not with any woman—so I have to think it must just be frustration.’
Hand in the hair again, long, slim fingers—clever fingers—
‘Then there’s love!’ He blurted out the word as if it was anathema to him. ‘What if we get into a relationship and it leads to love? And then there’s Charlotte…’
He took her hands and squeezed her fingers. ‘See, I’m a mess.’
Ah, that made sense—the falling in love thing, not the mess. He’d lost the woman he’d loved—been so hurt by it he didn’t want to risk it ever again. She wanted to get up and go around and hug him, tell him it was okay.
Not that her own situation was much better.
‘I agree with you about Charlotte,’ she said, hoping to get his mind off lost love. ‘Not that I don’t love children but the fact I haven’t been able to make a relationship work before worries me. I don’t want to get involved with you to the extent I get to know her, too, then it all falls apart. I don’t think that would be fair to her.’
‘So you’re a mess as well,’ Will said, almost cheerfully, ‘and the whole thing’s a mess and perhaps it’s better if we just hope it all goes away.’
‘Do you think it will?’ Alex asked him, and when he smiled this time, she knew the answer, at least from her side of things.
The shake of Will’s head confirmed his thoughts and fortunately their meal arrived or they’d probably have kissed again, right there in the restaurant, then left without eating if the urgency Alex was feeling was any guide.
‘Saved by the rijsttafel,’ Will joked.
‘And my gado gado!’
They shared the meals, and ate, and talked of Alex’s first week at work, and the seminar Will had attended in Sydney, but the thread of desire had thickened to a rope and it tightened between them until words became impossible.
‘I’ll follow you home,’ Will said as they left the restaurant, and although Alex protested, she knew she’d feel safer if he was there….
But the reminder of the harassment broke the spell between
them and she realised she couldn’t go on needing the support of someone every time she drove home after dark.
‘How did the police get on to you?’ she asked, as he held the car door open for her.
‘Apparently they questioned everyone in the street, and a neighbour had seen my car. I stopped it and phoned you because the house was in darkness.’
‘Was it late?’
‘Eightish, I suppose,’ he said, bending down so he could hold her hand as he spoke. ‘I guess the neighbours went to bed before the real culprit turned up with the paint. Look, are you sure you won’t stay with me—well, not me but with Mum? Or get a hotel room in town?’
Alex reached up so she could kiss his cheek.
‘While we’re both so confused?’ she teased. ‘You know full well we’d end up in bed in that hotel room, and right now I think that would make things worse instead of better. Besides, there’s Buddy, and I really love my house, Will, and I won’t be hounded out of it.’
* * *
The courage of her statement shook him. She was something special, this woman…
But hadn’t they just agreed the attraction between them couldn’t go anywhere?
His churning thoughts made it impossible to speak so he nodded, kissed her cheek, shut the door and went to his own car. At least she hadn’t protested about him following her home.
He pulled into the drive behind her and waited while she came out, lowering the garage door with the remote.
‘No graffiti tonight,’ she said, but a quaver in her voice suggested she wasn’t feeling nearly as brave as she made out.
He grew angry again that someone had targeted her like this—as if she hadn’t been through enough—and the dark outline of a car parked on the verge about four houses up disturbed him as well. He’d check it out before he went home.
‘You’re looking at that car up there,’ Alex said, and Will remembered just how observant she was. ‘It’s probably a neighbour’s visitor, or one of my student fans taking on the job of guardian.’
‘I’ll check it anyway,’ Will promised, although now he thought he recognised the shape of it—a shape very like the big four-wheel-drive Tony Mitchell drove.
He took her key and opened the door for her, ducked as Buddy swooped out the door then back in again to land on Alex’s shoulder.
The One Man to Heal Her Page 9
