by Lucy Clark
‘How about you?’ Alyssa asked, bringing Summer out of her reverie.
‘Huh?’
‘What are you planning to wear to the ball?’
‘Uh…I have no idea. In fact, I haven’t really given it much thought.’
‘Well, you should. I know a certain doctor who would be quite happy to see you all dressed up in your finest clothes.’
‘Really?’ Summer was astonished. ‘Who?’
Rhonda looked at Alyssa with incredulity before both women turned to look at Summer again and said in unison, ‘Jason, you ninny.’
‘What! No. No, no, no. Jason and I are just colleagues.’
‘Ri-i-i-ght.’ Alyssa and Rhonda looked at each other and winked.
‘We believe you.’
‘Thousands wouldn’t.’
‘Would do him the world of good, too,’ Rhonda added. ‘The poor man hasn’t been on a date in years. Ever since she left.’
‘Leave him alone,’ Alyssa defended. ‘His divorce was only final about six months ago and JD is the type of man to love deeply. Emotionally scarred, he is.’
Rhonda nodded then her smile returned. ‘And what he needs is to go to the ball with the newest addition to our little family. It would do him good.’
Summer had listened to the two women, interested in what they had to say. Jason seemed a bit of an enigma. He seemed to switch between being friendly and caring to giving her a wide berth.
‘His ex-wife was a model,’ Rhonda told her. ‘A lot like you in some ways. Always pretty and immaculate.’
Summer tried not to cringe at the word.
‘She had ambition, that one,’ Alyssa agreed with a nod. ‘Still does.’
‘She’s still working as a model?’ Summer asked.
‘Oh, yes. Quite famous now is the former Miss Ballarat. Which is why it would do him good to get out and about. He needs to stop thinking about things and have more fun, and to do that the simplest answer is for him to ask you to the dance.’
Alyssa sighed. ‘You’d make a gorgeous-looking couple. His tall, dark and handsome looks, your startling blond hair and mesmerising blue eyes.’
Both women looked off into the distance and sighed.
Summer shook her head. She wasn’t used to this sort of good-natured teasing and decided the best course of action was to laugh it off. ‘You two are, quite simply, crazy.’ Although their words did stick in her head. Jason? Was Jason really interested in her? Or was she the nearest single female and so people would just presume they’d get together? No. The two nurses had to be wrong. In any case, he wasn’t her type.
‘Thank you. Thank you very much,’ Rhonda replied, as she stood and went to check on a little girl who had started to cry. Just then Jason came up and sat down in the chair next to Summer.
She could feel her cheeks going red. Had he heard any of the previous conversation? From his relaxed reaction, it didn’t seem as though he had. She straightened in her chair and pasted a smile in place. ‘Tough meeting?’ she asked, as Alyssa headed off to make herself a cup of coffee.
‘They wouldn’t stop talking.’ Jason slumped forward onto the desk and put his head down.
‘You look exhausted.’
‘I’m feeling it.’
‘Just as well I’m doing the weekend shift. You can put your feet up and relax, Dr Daniels.’
He lifted his head then and looked at her. ‘Yeah. I guess I can and not worry that a know-it-all Melbournian locum is going to change all departmental policies by the time I return on Monday.’
Summer laughed. ‘Was it really that bad?’
He wished she wouldn’t laugh. She really was far too appealing when she did that. ‘Felt like it sometimes. What’s Tommy doing for the weekend?’
‘He’s spending most of it with Bradley. Having his first ever sleep-over on Saturday night.’
‘He’s never had a sleep-over before?’
‘No. I told you he was always quite reserved.’
‘What? Even with his friends?’
‘Yes.’ She felt bad saying that her son hadn’t had any real friends. The boys he’d talked to at school had been the same ones he’d spent time with at charity affairs and parties. Those boys were the offspring of the Sydney social set and were all as self-centred as their parents.
‘What about camping?’
‘Camping?’ Summer looked at him as though the word were completely foreign.
‘You know. Outdoors. Tent. Campfire. Sleeping bags. Wrap it all up into a swag and carry it on your back as you hike through the bush.’
‘A swag?’
Jason shook his head and threw his hands up in the air in disgust. ‘You’ve never carried a swag? What sort of Australians are you?’
‘We be city dwellers,’ she replied with a laugh.
‘I can see, Dr Hoyts, that there are some gaping holes in your small-town education. Sure, you’ve moved here, made new friends and settled into life quite nicely, but to never have been camping?’ He tut-tutted. ‘I think we might need to rectify this.’
‘You’re going to take me camping?’ She was utterly astounded.
‘You and Tommy. Sure.’
‘Really?’
‘Something strange about that? After all, you did want a new life with new experiences. I think camping would definitely classify as a new experience.’
Summer decided he was probably just being polite and really meant nothing by the invitation so she decided to laugh it off, as she had with Rhonda and Alyssa earlier. ‘So long as wherever we camp has a very comfortable mattress, hot running water, a fully functional bathroom and room service, I’ll gladly carry a swag and sleep in a sleeping bag.’
Jason laughed. Never had he enjoyed a woman’s conversation as much as he enjoyed Summer’s. True to his resolution, he’d made friends with Summer and kept his distance as far as the attraction between them went. They’d seen each other a few times in their apartment complex but it had usually been as one of them had been going out and the other coming in.
The odd thing was that the more he got to know Summer, the more they chatted about non-specific things, about life in general and nothing on a deeply personal level, the more he wanted to dig a little deeper. It was as though he now needed to prove to himself that she was exactly like Amanda because the sooner he realised that, the sooner he’d be able to get his life back on track.
Still, he’d found himself watching her every now and then, hopefully when she’d been unaware of his presence. If she ever caught him, he’d probably blush beetroot red and he’d never blushed before in his life. Just now he’d stopped himself at the doorway into the ward, watching as she’d talked and joked with Rhonda and Alyssa, presumably about the upcoming hospital ball. He hadn’t been able to hear exactly what they’d been saying but it had seemed to be the top pick topic of conversation for every woman in the hospital of late. He’d also noticed that as the two nurses had chatted on, Summer had sat there, staring into space, and instinctively he’d known she’d been thinking about something in her past.
It was an odd sensation, to be sure of what someone else was thinking, and he’d never felt it before. It was as though he was in tune with her, and where at first he’d felt like running from the sensation, he was now quite intrigued by it.
‘That might take a bit of extra planning,’ he remarked about her criteria.
‘Then go to it, man. Don’t let me keep you. Might even give you something to think about on your weekend off.’
Jason smiled. ‘I was planning on catching up on my reading but this sounds like a project I could really sink my teeth into.’
Summer eyed him sceptically for a moment. ‘I wasn’t really being serious, Jason. You don’t need to worry about taking Tommy and I camping.’
‘I beg to differ.’ Now that the idea had been voiced, he wanted to carry it through. Camping was so real, so raw that it always showed a person’s true nature. ‘It’s important that you experience it at least once.’
>
‘Or not.’
‘It’ll be good for Tommy.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Because I’m a guy. Guys need to get outside in the wilderness. It’s a throwback to the caveman days,’ he pointed out, as though that explained everything. ‘We need to get back to nature. Breathe the fresh air. Hit the open road.’
‘Beat your chests?’
‘Exactly.’
‘Well, I can breathe fresh air and hit the road simply by walking outside the hospital.’
Jason smiled at her. ‘Now you’re being funny.’
‘I try my hardest.’
‘I think an overnight camp would be good for Tommy and his mother, or are you too much of a princess to accept the challenge?’ Jason wasn’t sure why he was pressing her so hard to agree to this. His first rationalisation was that he was only being friendly, neighbourly. He’d do the same for anyone else in the hospital who wanted to try camping for the first time.
His second rationalisation was that spending some extra time with Summer away from the hospital, away from everyone else and putting her in a different setting, would help to bring out her flaws. It was a way to almost prove to himself that she wasn’t all she appeared to be. That he’d find deeper layers and that those layers would reveal her true self.
It had happened with Amanda and he’d long since wished he’d dug a little deeper before he’d asked her to marry him. Not that he was planning to marry Summer. No. Marriage to any woman wasn’t in his future plans because when it came to love, he didn’t trust any woman as far as he could throw her. However, a camping trip would help little Tommy, so it should all be worth it. Right?
‘A challenge?’
‘Are you the type of woman to back down from a challenge?’
Her eyes twinkled with determination and humour. ‘Not any more.’
‘So you think you’d be able to handle it?’
‘If I can handle the inner Sydney set of bitchy socialites, I think I can handle anything.’
‘Hmm. One jungle to another.’
‘Exactly.’
Jason held out his hand and watched as Summer put hers instantly into it. They shook, both ignoring the sparks that zinged around their bodies at the touch. It was the first time he’d ventured to touch her in two weeks and it was as though those weeks had produced a drought because this time when they came into contact, it somehow seemed to be more powerful than previous.
‘You’re on.’
‘It’s a deal.’ They spoke together. ‘I’ll make the arrangements, make sure it’s on a weekend we’re both rostered off and get back to you.’
‘And you’ll remember my criteria?’
‘Comfortable mattress, bathroom, room service.’
‘You forgot hot running water.’
‘Right. Right. Got it.’
‘OK. I’ll figure out a way to break the news to my son.’
At the mention of Tommy, Jason grinned. ‘He’s gonna love it.’
That night, as she was getting ready for bed, Summer thought back over her conversation with Jason, still astonished that what had started out as a throw-away comment had ended up with the promise of a camping trip. A camping trip with a man who still kept invading her dreams every night, no matter how hard she tried to banish him.
After checking that Tommy was sleeping peacefully, she went into the bathroom and brushed her teeth, taking her hair down from the style she always wore to work, the blond tresses falling about her shoulders. She looked at herself in the mirror, being critical of her looks. Her eyes, she’d always thought, were a little too close together and her nose seemed too straight sometimes. Of course, she’d been the envy of the social set because she hadn’t needed to have any cosmetic surgery done. Summer shook her head, glad those days were now behind her.
She headed back to her bedroom and changed into her satin pink pyjamas before resolving to tackle the very last packing box which stood over in the corner of the room. It was the box that contained her wedding photographs and other memorabilia of her life with Cameron. She’d left the box to last because she wasn’t quite sure where she should put its contents. After discovering what she had about the secret life of her husband since his death, she hadn’t even been able to look at her wedding pictures, now knowing what a farce her marriage had been.
She knew Cameron had been having an affair, especially considering he hadn’t touched her since Tommy’s birth. It was as though he’d done his duty, provided an heir to the Hoyts fortune, and that he had then been free to resume his playboy lifestyle. The little woman had no longer mattered. That had hurt. The fact that her own husband hadn’t found her attractive had definitely hurt and although they’d smiled and continued to attend functions as a couple, it had all been completely fake.
She realised that her attraction to Jason had also been fuelled due to the fact that he wasn’t at all immune to her charms. She knew he definitely found her appealing because of the looks they’d shared. It was so exciting that she knew that was half the reason why it was increasingly difficult not to think about him. A man who really thought she was attractive. Someone who liked her for who she was both inside and out—not because she looked pretty on his arm and came complete with her own family fortune.
Summer stared at the box and shook her head. ‘You can do this. You can unpack this box. You’re bigger than this and it’s only photographs. You’re keeping them for Tommy’s sake, not yours, so just put them away on the top shelf where they can gather dust and you can forget about them.’ With her pep talk done, she took a deep breath and opened the box. She took out something rectangular wrapped in white butcher’s paper, only to discover it was the gilded frame that contained her wedding picture.
She looked down at her smiling image, recalling how happy she’d been on that day. Finally, she’d told herself, she’d found a place to belong. She’d been floundering in a sea of confusion ever since her parents had died during her final year at medical school, leaving her all alone except for a few distant cousins who lived overseas and whom she barely knew.
Three years later, she’d met Cameron and he’d swept her off her feet, courting and wooing her and making her fall in love with him. He’d encouraged her to continue her paediatric training, only asking that after they were married she work part time only. She’d been more than happy to do as he’d asked, filling the rest of her time with charity work and social functions organised by his mother.
‘The Hoyts family name is highly esteemed and as such you must be beyond reproach,’ Cameron’s mother had often told her, usually when Summer had made a blunder.
Summer put the photograph down on the bed, pushing the thoughts away. The Hoyts family were in her past and there wasn’t anything she could do to change it. Walking to the box, she took another wrapped parcel out and discovered it was Cameron’s family bible, something she hadn’t taken much interest in but it had meant the world to him. It contained lists of generations of Hoyts men and one day the book might be of interest to Tommy, if he chose that life. As she turned it over in her hand, she felt something touch her lightly.
Her eyes widened as the long brown leg of a spider touched her again. Screaming, she threw the book onto the floor and ran from the room, shuddering all the way. She hated spiders. Ridiculous, she knew, given that she was far taller and bigger than them, but still… She shuddered again, her heart pounding in her chest.
Quickly, she checked on Tommy in case she’d woken him but he slept on. She was further startled by a loud knocking at her front door.
‘Summer?’
She rushed towards the door and flung it open. Without waiting for an invitation, Jason walked past her and looked quickly about the room.
‘What happened? I heard you scream. Are you all right? Is it Tommy? Are you—’ He stopped as his eyes settled on her. His jaw dropped and his mouth dried as he simply stood there and stared at her. He pointed, then dropped his hand back to his side.
‘You
r hair.’ It was loose. It was flowing freely around her shoulders, framing her face as he’d often pictured it would. ‘You’re…stunning.’
CHAPTER FOUR
THE spider. The unpacking. The memories.
It all disappeared into thin air as Summer stood there in her pyjamas, staring at Jason. He was dressed only in a pair of jeans that looked as though they’d long forgotten any shape but his own. His bare chest was firm, rippled with contours that her fingers itched to touch.
It had been a long time, longer than anyone would have suspected, since she’d seen a man in such a state of undress, and her heart started to pound out a wild rhythm against her rib cage. He didn’t say a word but continued to stare at her, his last two words still ringing in her ears.
He thought she was stunning? How could that be? She was about to get into bed and go to sleep. She was wearing comfortable but old pyjamas and had no make-up on. She hadn’t even brushed her hair after taking it down—instead, she’d sifted her fingers through the locks, giving her scalp a bit of a massage. How could he think she looked stunning?
‘J-Jason.’ His name was a whisper as she dragged her gaze away from his naked torso to finally look into his rich, brown eyes. The desire, the attraction she’d seen there before had now intensified and she knew it was going to take all the willpower in the world to get through the next few minutes. ‘I’m…I’m…fi—’
‘Stunning,’ he said again, and took a step towards her. When he’d arrived home from the hospital that evening, he’d managed to convince himself the camping trip was nothing but a friendly way to help Summer out with Tommy. They were colleagues. Neighbours. Possibly, you could even call them friends. Nothing more.
Until he’d heard her scream.
As the sound had pierced the air, Jason had felt the blood drain from his body, his eyes staring intently towards his front door, every nerve ending telling him to move, to check she was all right. With his heart pounding wildly, his mind whirring through several scenarios as to what might have happened to make her scream, Jason had instantly stalked over, wishing he’d thought to trade keys with her—purely for an incident such as this.
