The Australian's Desire (Mills & Boon By Request)

by Marion Lennox, Lilian Darcy, Lilian Darcy

Janey took a deep breath and just said it. ‘Yes, he is, love.’

  ‘Why? How is he my dad?’ he yelled.

  She reached for the button on the side of the tub that turned off the jets. They couldn’t shout this conversation.

  ‘He and your mum were married,’ she said. ‘But sometimes people discover that they can’t be married to each other after all, and they’re not happy and they fight, and that’s not good if they have a child. So they separate—move to different houses or different towns—and the baby goes with either the mum or the dad.’

  She came upon the issue of shared custody in her head, examined it for a moment, and let it go. She had to make this as simple as possible, and about Rowdy himself, not about the myriad scenarios that could happen to kids after a divorce.

  She stretched a wet, slippery arm out of the hot tub and took his hand. ‘You went with your mum, and she lived in a couple of different places, but then she took you to Mundarri, and she decided not to tell you that you had a dad, because he was too far away.’

  He nodded. ‘In Crocodile Creek.’

  Which seemed far away to him. Janey looked at London, looked at Alice concealing her whereabouts from Luke for so long, and let that go, too.

  ‘When she died, I brought you to Crocodile Creek so we could meet your dad, but then we had the bus accident, and everything got complicated and Luke and I talked about it and decided to wait a while before we told you who he was. But then …’ She trailed off. Luke would have to pick up the story now.

  He came forward and sat on the edge of the jacuzzi. ‘But then we were talking just now, you and me, and you asked a couple of questions, and I don’t like telling lies. I thought you’d want to hear the truth. Is it OK, Rowdy?’

  Out of his son’s range of vision, he rolled his eyes and pressed his palm to his forehead. I’m stuffing this up.

  Janey shook her head. You’re not.

  ‘I’d like to have a dad,’ Rowdy said cautiously. ‘Do I have to live at your house, with all the doctors?’

  ‘You don’t have to, but we—’

  ‘I want to live with Auntie Janey.’

  ‘Do you? I guess you would. She’s pretty good, isn’t she?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I think so, too.’ There was a tiny pause. Luke seemed to be thinking fast, weighing up options Janey couldn’t quite read. ‘Here’s a plan, then. Janey, stop me straight away if I’m going too fast.’ It sounded like a warning.

  ‘Too fast?’

  ‘Although it feels to me, right now, as if I’m eight years too slow.’

  That, she couldn’t answer. She met Luke’s gaze once more, over the top of Rowdy’s head. She couldn’t breathe. Something hung in the air, a moment so important and pivotal she didn’t have a name for it, or a word for how she felt. What could she say? Eight years too slow? Eight years?

  Luke spoke. ‘I want to live with Auntie Janey, too,’ he said, not taking his eyes from her face for a second.

  What was he doing? Rowdy looked between the two of them, up over his shoulder at Luke, down at Janey, with the deck’s yellow lighting gleaming on the water. He was confused, and waiting for more.

  So am I.

  ‘Luke?’ she whispered.

  ‘I want to marry her, and then the three of us can live together.’

  ‘In Crocodile Creek?’ Rowdy asked.

  ‘If you want. If she wants. Janey?’

  ‘Marry you?’ Her heart began to beat faster.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Because …?’ Of Rowdy?

  He understood at once. ‘No, not because. For a million other reasons. For the one reason that really counts. Tell me, Janey, so I know if we’re on the right track here.’

  ‘I think we’re on the right track,’ she said faintly.

  ‘Just think?’

  ‘I—I have questions.’

  ‘Which I can answer.’ He leaned closer. ‘You see, Rowdy, I knew her before I met your mum, and we were always friends. Sometimes we didn’t quite understand that we were friends, because we got annoyed with each other a lot. People make mistakes about how they feel sometimes. There was so much I didn’t understand then …’

  Who is he really talking to? Rowdy or me? Himself?

  ‘But I’m not making a mistake about Auntie Janey now. She reminded me about something last night. A party we went to once. And I didn’t remember while she was telling me about it, but today in the bird hide it suddenly came back to me. And I realized …’ He stopped. ‘But that’s for Auntie Janey and me to talk about later. Janey?’

  ‘Yes. It’s insane. It’s not,’ she corrected quickly. ‘It feels insane. But when I think … I’m not sounding sensible, am I?’

  He sat on the edge of the hot tub. ‘Not very. We’re waiting for a clear answer, Rowdy and I.’

  And she knew that Rowdy needed one.

  ‘Luke and I are going to get married, Rowdy,’ she said, and as soon as the words were spoken, clear and plain, the way he needed, they sounded right.

  ‘Well, he’s asleep already,’ Luke said ten minutes later, coming out of the bedroom Rowdy had chosen for himself. ‘So I guess he’s OK with everything for the moment.’ He paused, then spoke quietly. ‘Are you OK with it, Janey? I sprang it on you. It wasn’t the right time. I didn’t know what else to do. Can we make it the right time now? I love you. Can’t even say it in words.’ He covered the remaining space between them in three paces. ‘Will you marry me, sweetheart?’

  ‘Oh, Luke …’ She reached out her arms and whispered, ‘Do I really need to tell you?’

  She pressed her cheek against his, smelling the clean scent of his recent shower on his warm skin. They were both wrapped in the resort’s tropical kimono-style robes. ‘Tell me anyway,’ he whispered, seeking her mouth.

  ‘I love you. I’ll marry you.’

  He kissed her with deep, sweet, hungry heat. They grinned at each other, stroked each other’s hair, kissed again even more deeply, and then he just held her, and it was all she wanted. ‘At first I kept feeling Alice’s ghost …’ he said.

  ‘Me, too.’

  ‘Not real, but in my head.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘I’d been so angry with her, but I still couldn’t help wondering.’

  ‘If you were looking for her when you looked at me?’

  ‘Yes. And then in the hide today it hit me. I was never looking for her in you. It was the other way around. Always. Eight years ago, when you used to drive me so crazy and we’d rub each other up the wrong way, have those arguments while we washed the dishes at your parents’ place at Christmas and birthday gatherings, or in groups of doctors at work. It was only because I wanted you.’

  ‘Wanted me?’

  ‘I think you wanted me, too.’

  ‘Only I wasn’t ready. Plus you were too perfect, and you knew it.’

  ‘And you were impossible. And that was what drove me so crazy, that you didn’t have the first idea of how much you were worth. A lot more than I had to give you at that point in my life, to be honest.’

  ‘No …’

  ‘Yes. Now I’ll give you my whole heart, and it’s bigger than it used to be.’

  ‘We’ve both grown up …’

  ‘Janey, I was looking for you in Alice, and I was so blind to think I could have found all of your qualities in her.’

  ‘You remembered the kiss.’

  ‘I remembered you in a silver dress. Did you ever wear that again?’

  ‘I borrowed it. It was an act of madness, not my kind of thing at all. Sent all the wrong signals, I thought.’

  ‘You looked fabulous. The way you danced. The way you smiled. The way you let your hair fall all over your face and just went wild. And in the hide I remembered this smug moment of thinking at the party that I’d known all along that you could be fabulous, and that was when I realised the truth. And it means we can let Alice go.’

  ‘Let her go?’

  ‘She’ll always be your sister,
and Rowdy’s mother, but she’s not and never has been the woman I’m searching for, with you as her substitute. You have to know that, Janey. It’s always been you.’

  ‘And it always will be you, Luke, in my heart,’ she promised him in a whisper as she looked into his amber eyes. ‘For the rest of my life.’

  On the beach at Crocodile Creek, in the cove below the Athina Hotel, a bonfire blazed while the sun began to set behind the cyclone-ravaged mountains to the west. The debris from the cyclone had been piled in several heaps off to the side of tonight’s gathering, gentle waves had deposited much of the churned-up sand back onto the beach, and in the fading light you couldn’t even see the damage, only the beauty.

  Luke, Janey and Rowdy had caught the five o’clock boat back from Charm Island, a day later than originally planned, and had driven straight to the cove from the boat dock in Crocodile Creek’s tiny harbour. Cal and Gina’s wedding ceremony was scheduled to begin at six o’clock.

  Most people had already gathered when they came down towards the water, but there were still some late arrivals streaming ahead of them onto the sand, carrying eskies or baskets or foil-covered dishes. The Grubbs’ way of catering for the event had been to get everyone to bring a contribution.

  Janey saw several smoking pits of coals in the sand, and there seemed to be a massive array of food, either already baking or waiting to go in. She saw pineapples and prawns and whole fish, two dozen parcels of something wrapped in fresh banana leaves, cubes of chicken and meat on bamboo skewers, piles of marshmallows and pots of chocolate sauce, salads and cakes and wine.

  She recognised Georgie and Alistair—the latter gave Georgie’s backside a lascivious pat as she watched—and Christina and Joe. Christina sat in a wheelchair that looked somewhat bogged down in the sand, and she had baby Isabella in her arms. There was Mrs Grubb and her husband Walter, Max and CJ, Charles and Jill and little Lily. She found faces that she couldn’t put a name to yet as well, but could make guesses about.

  Those two pretty blondes had to be Susie and Hannah Jackson, because she didn’t think Crocodile Creek had two pairs of identical medical twins. And the twin with her arms around a good-looking man had to be Hannah, because the man would be Ryan Fisher, her new fiancé. They were returning to New Zealand early next week, she thought.

  The slightly plump and freckled but beaming woman standing next to a uniformed police officer was Grace O’Riordan, whom she’d only met briefly, and the officer was Harry Blake. That was the groom, Cal, standing with a couple of mates, near a woman who must be the marriage celebrant. He had bare feet and wore white gabardine jeans and a tropical patterned shirt in white and silver-grey. She realised that CJ was dressed the same way. Several cameras clicked, and everyone looked nervous, including the two groomsmen, but what were their names?

  My head’s starting to hurt!

  Janey gave up her attempt to identify everyone. She’d get to know them soon enough. She was staying in Crocodile Creek. Rowdy ran down the beach and spotted Max and CJ, who were doing long jumps in the sand, vying for the most impressive style and the most wildly scissoring legs. ‘Hey, guys, watch this!’ he yelled, and launched into the air, windmilling his arms and landing in a messy heap.

  ‘No, watch this!’ yelled Max, immediately determined to outdo a mere five-year-old. He didn’t bat an eyelid at the fact that Rowdy had spoken, and neither did CJ.

  But several of the adults turned to Janey and Luke, surprised, questioning, pleased. Georgie gave a thumbs-up sign. She was grinning her head off.

  ‘We worked a couple of things out,’ Luke said. He glanced up to the path leading down to the beach. ‘Tell you later.’

  Because here was the bride, wearing silver thongs and a white slip dress shimmering with beads. She had white flowers in her hair. She waved at CJ and he hurried to take his place beside Cal.

  ‘I can do an even bigger one!’ Rowdy yelled to Max.

  ‘Listen to him,’ Luke said softly.

  ‘I know,’ Janey whispered back. ‘It’s wonderful.’

  They stepped close to each other, he put his arm around her and she leaned against him, belonging there with every cell in her body. A beach wedding might be really nice, Janey decided, when it was their own turn …

  ‘Looks like you worked out a heck of a lot,’ said Georgie.

  ‘All the important stuff,’ Luke answered. ‘We still have to refine a few details.’

  ‘Are you staying in Crocodile Creek?’

  ‘What can I do? Janey loves a bit of heat.’ He slid his hand down to her hip and she turned her face up for a kiss.

  ‘Whew, you don’t have to tell me. I can feel it from here,’ Georgie said, fanning herself.

  Gina arrived at Cal’s side, everyone fell silent—even Rowdy—and their simple ceremony began, with the waves lapping on the beach and a certain happy realisation in the air that there would be more weddings in Crocodile Creek before too long.

  A Proposal Worth Waiting For

  Lilian Darcy

  PROLOGUE

  HE SAW her through the open doorway of Josh’s hospital room and stopped, his body dropping instantly into a silent, wary freeze, half-masked by the door itself, while he prayed she hadn’t seen him.

  Miranda Carlisle.

  The name shouldn’t mean so much to him after so long. It had been eight years since they’d last seen each other. And if the intervening time since he and Miranda had studied medicine together provided a protective cushion, then surely his marriage to Anna should do so even more.

  But my marriage is in so much trouble…

  Nick shut his eyes for a moment, not willing to face the thought. He could hear Anna’s murmuring voice as she sat in the chair beside Josh’s bed, just out of his line of sight. She had her usual barrage of almost obsessive questions and concerns. Miranda’s replies sounded patient and cheerful and clear, but he doubted whether they would quieten Anna’s fears for long.

  When he opened his eyes again, he saw Miranda scribbling some lines in Josh’s notes, her head bent a little to reveal the delicate shape of her neck and her elfin ears showing pale pink through her silky dark hair. She still wore it in that swinging ponytail he remembered, and it made her look young and vibrantly energetic, like a jazz dancer or the leader of a troop of Guides.

  She was Josh’s doctor now. His new respiratory specialist, because the previous one, Dr McCubbin, had just retired. Anna was thrilled with Dr Carlisle, after Josh’s emergency admission yesterday, and had said so in her usual over-detailed, stress-filled way.

  But Nick hadn’t admitted to their past association, other than to say to Anna in passing, ‘We went through medicine together. She worked bloody hard every step of the way. I’m not surprised you think she’s good.’

  Good, and dangerous.

  Dangerous?

  He was shocked to recognise the fact, but he was in no doubt of it. If their brief, passionate past relationship was going to flare in his memory in such vivid colours every time he saw her, then he should steer clear of her in the future as much as he could. For the sake of his very shaky marriage. For the sake of politeness and professionalism. For the sake of…yeah…a few things inside himself that it wouldn’t be productive or relevant or safe at this point to confront, when there was so much else of more importance going on.

  On paper, you’d think that avoiding Miranda Carlisle wouldn’t be possible at all. Nick’s own son. His son’s doctor. The scarily unstable nature of Josh’s asthma attacks. The relationship between Miranda and little Josh would definitely be ongoing.

  But when Nick thought of the way Anna had been reacting to Josh’s illness since it had been diagnosed eleven months ago, he knew with his usual frustration and sinking heart that his wife would be only too happy if he kept out of the way
and left all the questions, the emotions and the sacrifice to her.

  Now, for example. She wouldn’t be pleased to see him, wouldn’t appreciate how much he’d shoved his schedule around at Royal Victoria Hospital in order to get here at this time of day.

  He saw Miranda tuck Josh’s notes into the plastic pocket at the end of the bed. It looked as if she was leaving. He ducked quickly back against the corridor wall before heading into the nearest visitor’s toilet.

  She hadn’t seen him. Good. He would wait until she was certain to be gone—as a reconstructive surgeon who made these kinds of hospital rounds himself on a daily basis, he knew how to time these things—and then he’d go in to greet his wife and son.

  Nick was wrong. Miranda had seen him, although she guessed he didn’t know it. When he’d first appeared and then ducked back, the movement had caught her eye at once. She’d been steeling herself for the encounter, so she had been on the alert.

  Her focus had been on Josh and his mother, but she’d glimpsed the figure in the doorway and managed to catch a couple more angled, hidden glances as she’d written in Josh’s notes.

  Handy things, those notes.

  As soon as she’d seen the name Devlin, Nicholas, listed as the patient’s father, she’d wondered. Her former colleague, James McCubbin, had mentioned in passing a young patient named Devlin with a surgeon for a father. Now James had retired, and his patients would be parcelled out to the other three doctors in the practice.

  By virtue of being the one on call when Josh had come into the emergency department with his mother yesterday afternoon, she’d inherited him, and a quick check of the contact details had confirmed that his father was that Nick, her Nick, the one who had sneaked up on her heart without her knowing it during the course of six years of shared medical studies and had then shattered it to pieces in one single night.

  Or maybe she’d broken her own heart by giving it away too eagerly. She’d never really been sure how those things went. Her fault, or his? She could see, now, how much her failed six-year relationship with Ian Mackenzie had been the result of the lessons she’d learned…or had thought she’d learned…from what had happened with Nick.