by Amy Andrews
He took a step back, looking more and more horrified as his butt met the bench again. ‘But...it’s only been two months. That’s...crazy.’
Felicity nodded. ‘I know. Trust me, I know. But it’s there anyway. You want to know something crazier? I think I fell in love with you on the train.’
He took a deep breath and let it escape as he shoved a hand through his hair. ‘I...don’t know what to say. I really like you, Felicity, I—’
‘It’s fine,’ she interrupted, shaking her head. His horror would be comical if it wasn’t currently tearing her heart into tiny little pieces.
She didn’t need him trying to stumble through a quantification of how much he liked her.
‘I know. I understand. Really, I do. But that’s why I can’t do this. Why I can’t move to Sydney with you. And why I’m leaving now.’
He didn’t say anything. Just stood there, his face a mix of confusion, shock and disbelief, and all the broken pieces of her heart splintered.
She blinked hard as her emotions threatened to take over. She needed to get through this without breaking down. ‘Thank you for everything,’ she said. ‘I will always remember and cherish our night on the train. And I will miss you.’ She stopped, cleared the quaver in her voice. ‘Have a good life, Callum. Be happy. You deserve it.’
And then, because she really was about to lose it, she turned on her heel and slipped out of the house.
He didn’t try and stop her.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Two months later...
CALLUM STOOD ON a balcony overlooking Sydney Harbour. Not his. A friend’s. Taking a breather from another excruciating dinner party. A murmur of conversation, an occasional laugh and bluesy notes from a top-of-the-range system oozed out into the night air. A light breeze ruffled his hair as the lights on the harbour blurred on the surface of the water courtesy of his compromised night vision.
‘Cal?’ He turned to find Erica—or maybe it was Angelica?—standing in the doorway, smiling at him. ‘Entrées are being served.’
He nodded. ‘Okay, thanks. I’ll be right in,’ he assured, then turned back to the view. He could sense her lingering in the doorway but refused to be hurried. It was rude but he wasn’t good company tonight.
He’d told Kim, a thirty-three-year-old mother of four, she had breast cancer today. She’d sat deathly still in the chair as if he’d gutted her while Josh, her husband, had yelled at him then openly wept.
Try as he may, he couldn’t get it out of his head. And being here wasn’t helping.
Go to dinner parties, Felicity had said. Except tonight he just wanted to be with her. Not at this banal event where everyone was trying to out-surgeon each other. Where they always tried to out-surgeon each other.
It had been hard to start with—reconnecting with the old crowd. And their stories had stirred the old fires, but not like before. He’d spent two years during his GP training burning with envy and resentment that he wasn’t in the club any more.
And then he’d gone to Vickers Hill...
Why did they keep inviting him back? Because you keep saying yes, doofus.
Maybe he needed to say no every now and then. Maybe he needed to start socialising with other GPs. Except not those at his current practice because that wasn’t really working out. His billable hours had halved and he’d already had a couple of ‘friendly chats’ with the head of the practice about picking up the pace.
But how could he have only spent five minutes with Kim and Josh today? Felicity would never have forgiven him.
He’d never have forgiven himself.
God, he missed her. Dreamed about her. Woke up at night aching for her. Had almost called her a dozen times. Had wanted to call her today. To tell her about Kim. To share his utter helplessness and hear the soft note of empathy in her voice.
To hear her say he could do this.
A ferry horn wafted towards him from somewhere on the water and he shook himself out of his funk, throwing back the rest of his whisky and making his way inside.
He took the indicated seat next to another woman whose name he didn’t remember. A sumptuous feast was served courtesy of some up-and-coming catering firm in high demand amongst the urban professional set. Absently he wondered what Kim and Josh were eating tonight.
Was it possible to stomach anything after such news?
The talk turned to shop, as it inevitably did, and Callum let it whirl around him. It took a strong stomach to dine with a bunch of surgeons as the nitty-gritty of all kinds of blood, guts and gore was openly discussed.
‘What about you, Cal?’
Callum glanced in the direction of the query. It was from Allan, one of the guys he’d gone to med school with. Allan was a transplant surgeon.
‘You save any lives today in the eczema, allergies and asthma trenches?’
There was general laughter. Allan’s attitude was typical and one that had dogged and bugged him during his training, but it flowed off him now.
‘No. I told a woman she had an aggressive form of breast cancer.’
As a party killer it worked a treat. Callum could almost hear the loud scratching of a needle across a vinyl record as everyone fell silent.
It was bliss for about two point five seconds before Roger, a facio-maxillary surgeon, said, ‘You should refer her to Charlie Maddison. He’s an excellent breast surgeon.’
‘Or Abigail,’ Allan added, which garnered a lot of murmured support.
The conversation moved on to breast surgery. No one asked her name, her age or her prognosis. Whether she was married or had kids. Not even the name of the oncologist he’d rung and personally spoken to, arranging for Kim and Josh to go straight there and see her immediately. Nope. They’d moved on to the biggest tumours they’d ever removed.
His phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out, grateful for the interruption, concealing it under the table a little as he glanced at it. He smiled when he saw it was a text from Felicity.
They had been texting back and forth a few times a week for a while now, after some initial radio silence. But with Luci and Seb all loved up and talking wedding bells they’d been included in group texts and it had gone from there.
It wasn’t the kind of communication he craved but she seemed to want to keep it light and he was happy for any kind of contact. She usually sent him a picture with Meryl or Alf or any of his other regulars and he’d taken to sending her pictures of the beach and the view from his balcony because a crazy part of him hoped it might just convince her to rock up one day.
Not even her unexpected I love you doused that particular fantasy. Not when he missed her so damn much. Okay, it had shocked him at the time but she had prewarned him she was that kind of girl.
Callum smiled as he read the text—Mrs Smith says hi—and tapped on the attachment. The image opened up to reveal a selfie of Felicity and Mrs Smith, their faces smooshed together. Felicity was cross-eyed and making a fishy mouth with her lips—so very Flick—while the older woman glared suspiciously at the camera.
A niggle took up residence in his chest as he devoured every detail. Felicity had her saint badge on her collar and Mrs Smith was sporting one on her collar too. Her diamantés spelled out Security.
He laughed out loud. He couldn’t help himself. It was the first time since talking to Kim and Josh he’d been taken out of himself and his lungs suddenly felt too big for his chest.
‘You okay, man?’ Allan asked.
Callum looked up to find everyone at the table staring at him as if he’d lost his mind.
Maybe he had.
Was he okay? Hell, no. If he wasn’t very much mistaken, he was heads over heels in love with a chick who’d just sent him a fishy-lipped selfie. The realisation hit him like a tonne of bricks as he glanced at the woman beside
him. She was gorgeous and a renal surgeon to boot. But he couldn’t imagine her crossing her eyes and scrunching up her face while posing with a cantankerous old woman.
Wow. He was in love with Felicity. He’d been fooling himself that his feelings had been milder, that he’d merely been missing her, ignoring the emptiness inside, going through the motions because he’d been determined to prove that he could come back from his injury as if nothing had ever happened.
But it hadn’t worked. Because his entire focus was screwed up. Literally and figuratively. He’d been blind to what was important.
Felicity.
The niggle grew to the size of a fist, pushing on his sternum. Who knew love could feel this bad? Like a freaking heart attack!
He stood up, pushing his chair back abruptly. What was he doing here when she was there? Why had he ever left?
Because she’d made him. She’d sent him away. To sort his life out. To work out what he truly wanted.
If you love something, set it free.
Well...mission accomplished. And he didn’t want to feel this empty ever again. Felicity filled him up and he didn’t want to spend a second longer away from her than he had to.
‘Cal? Are you okay?’ Allan repeated, his forehead creased.
Callum dumped his napkin on the table. ‘I am now, Allan. I’m sorry but I’ve got to go.’
‘Hey, where’s the fire?’ Erica—Angelica?—joked.
‘In Vickers Hill.’ He grinned.
Everyone looked a little mystified as he walked away but Callum didn’t give a damn as he strode out of the apartment. For the first time in two months—hell, in almost three years—everything felt right.
Felicity had set him free. Because she loved him. Now it was time to go back. Because he loved her.
* * *
It was almost seven when Callum finally caught up with Felicity the next evening. He’d been travelling all day but he felt completely energised. He’d gone straight to her house in his hire car, the speech he’d been rehearsing all day bursting on his tongue, only to be told by a neighbour she was at Luci’s, watering the garden.
Callum knew from Seb that Felicity was taking care of Luci’s garden while they waited for a buyer in a market that wasn’t exactly thriving. Undeterred by the setback, he’d driven straight to Luci’s and pulled up outside her house ten minutes later.
He experienced a strange sense of déjà vu as he cut the engine. The street was quiet and the cottage looked as pretty as a picture, the waning sun glowing a lovely honey hue on the brickwork. He half expected Mrs Smith to tap on his window, narrow her eyes at him and call him ‘young man.’
He spied Felicity watering the lavender further up the path, her back to him, buds from her phone firmly plugged into her ears. He climbed out of the car and headed towards her, content to stand on the footpath near the front gate and just watch her. Her ponytail swung as she moved her head to whatever beat was being piped into her ears.
A stream of dying sunlight caught the hose spray at the right angle, causing rainbows to dance in the fine mist. She’d told him once that her heart was a pink light glowing inside her and now he knew how she felt as rainbows filled up his chest.
It was a fanciful notion. Utter romantic nonsense. But he didn’t care.
She turned then and his breath hitched as she spied him and went very still. ‘Callum?’
It wasn’t quite the rapturous welcome he’d been dreaming about but it was Felicity and he was here with her and that’s all that mattered right now. ‘Hi.’
She didn’t do or say anything for long moments, just stared at him. ‘What are you...doing here?’
‘I rang Bill last night.’
She eyed him warily as she twisted the nozzle to cut off the spray. ‘Why?’
‘I asked him for a job.’
‘You...did?’
Callum nodded, pleased to hear the first sign of a squeak in her voice. A good sign, he hoped. ‘He offered me his. I’m taking over his share of the practice. He’s finally retiring.’
She walked towards him, frowning and nonplussed. ‘But...he didn’t say anything today.’
‘I asked him not to.’
An even bigger frown. ‘Why?’
‘Because I wanted it to be a surprise.’
She’d reached the gate but kept firmly on her side. ‘You did?’
He smiled as her frown lines smoothed out and her tone lightened.
‘Yes. I wanted to tell you myself.’
‘You did?’
He laughed then. The entire time they’d been acquainted he’d never known her to be monosyllabic. Quite the contrary.
‘Yes. Because I love you.’ The words came much easier than he’d thought they would. He’d thought saying it for the first time would be terrifying but it was easy.
Things always were when they were right.
‘You set me free and you were right to do so. I needed that. I needed to go home to know what I wanted. To be sure. But now I know and I’m back. Because I’m yours. If—’ his heart thundered in his chest, suddenly unsure of himself ‘—you’ll have me.’
She stared at him, reaching for the gate and wrapping her fingers around the curved metal. She looked lost for words but the glassiness of her eyes said more than words ever could.
‘Felicity?’
‘Is it what you want?’ she asked, fierce suddenly. ‘Really?’
He nodded. ‘It is.’ He slid his hand over the top of hers. ‘You and me. Here. In Vickers Hill.’
She glanced at their joined hands before returning her gaze to his face. ‘What about your job? Your apartment?’
‘I resigned today. It wasn’t working out there anyway since a bossy nurse taught me patients needed more than five minutes with their doctor. I have to go back for a month and work out my notice but then I’m moving here. And we’ll keep my apartment as a holiday home. We can rent it out or leave it empty. I’m sure Seb and Luci wouldn’t say no to bunking there while they figure out where they want to be. I know Luci’s not keen to have the baby on the boat.’
She smiled then. It was only small but it was progress. ‘Seems like you have it all worked out.’
He shook his head. ‘No. I don’t. Not really. None of it means anything without you and I’m completely terrified now you haven’t thrown yourself at me that you’ve found a six-foot-nine, rugby-playing boyfriend, so can you please just put me out of my misery already?’
Their gazes locked and in that moment he could see love shining in her eyes. Love for him. Only him. He hadn’t seen anything more beautiful in his life.
She pushed gently on the gate. He stepped back as she stepped through and joined him on the footpath, their bodies almost touching.
‘You’re the only one for me,’ she murmured.
Relief flooded Callum’s system. It coursed fast and cool through his chest and flowed hot to his groin. He smiled, slid a hand on her waist, drew her closer, their bodies aligning in perfect synchronicity.
His gaze dropped to her mouth as anticipation tightened his belly.
‘Good evening, Dr Hollingsworth,’ a familiar authoritative voice said from across the road. ‘Flick didn’t tell me you were back in town.’
He groaned under his breath and Felicity laughed as he plastered a smile on his face. ‘Mrs Smith,’ he said. ‘I see you’ve recovered fully.’
‘I see you’re not back in town for more than five seconds and you’re already taking liberties.’
Her disapproving gaze fell to where his body was pressed against Felicity’s. Too damn bad. There was no way he was stepping away like some guilty schoolboy. Not now he had Felicity exactly where he wanted her.
‘Indeed,’ he agreed cheerfully. ‘And I intend taking liberties as long as Felicity
will let me, Mrs Smith, because I love her and she loves me. Consider yourself warned.’
He dipped her then, ignoring both Felicity’s surprised squeak and Mrs Smith’s scandalised gasp.
‘Callum,’ Felicity whispered, clutching at his arm while trying not to laugh. ‘You’re going to give her a heart attack.’
‘Lucky for her we know how to do CPR.’ He grinned.
Then he kissed her—long and dirty—claiming her mouth with deliberate indecency, giving Mrs Smith something really juicy to gossip about.
Because he didn’t care who said what—this was right. This was for ever.
EPILOGUE
One year later...
THEY HELD THE WEDDING in Luci’s back garden. Although it wasn’t Luci’s any more—Callum had bought it the day after he’d dipped Felicity in the street and kissed her, and they’d been happily living in sin together ever since.
Much to Mrs Smith’s chagrin.
Seb and Luci and little Eve travelled to Vickers Hill for the wedding. As did Felicity’s parents and Bill and Julia, who interrupted their RV trip around Australia.
Felicity wore a pink dress and, thanks to Alf Dunnich, a garland of glorious pink rosebuds in her hair. And, in a few days, they’d be heading to Sydney for two blissful sun-drenched weeks at Callum’s apartment where, with any luck, they’d make a honeymoon baby.
The first of many.
Felicity couldn’t have been happier as she said, ‘I do’, and she kissed her new husband in front of all their family and friends.
And somewhere from on high Meryl, who had passed away while Callum had been working out his notice in Sydney, was nodding her head and saying, I told you so...
* * * * *
If you missed the first story in THE CHRISTMAS SWAP duet look out for
WAKING UP TO DR GORGEOUS
by Emily Forbes
And if you enjoyed this story, check out these
other great reads from Amy Andrews:
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT SHIFT
200 HARLEY STREET: THE TORTURED HERO
