Was that professional concern? Concern for the mother of his daughter? Or, could it be possible, genuine concern for the woman he’d realised he loved? And this time, when she tried to reprimand herself that she was being unrealistic, the spark of hope refused to be stamped out.
‘All right,’ Annie was saying. ‘Shall I...? Do you want me to call you with updates?’
‘Sorry?’
So she’d got it all wrong.
His surprise at why he should need to be kept informed was a kick in the teeth. Evie tried but she couldn’t stop the tears of regret from welling in her eyes. Even Annie’s tone changed as she turned her back to speak quickly and quietly into the phone.
‘To let you know how Evie is doing? She told me not to bother you, after your conversation the other day. But then we agreed it was better to tell you so that you could decide whether you wanted to come down for your daughter or whether you were happy for my husband and me to look after Imogen.’
‘Ah, right.’ He sounded genuinely sorry he’d misunderstood, at least. ‘Actually, Annie, I think it’s probably better for Imogen to stay in a constant environment with your family rather than be pulled from pillar to post coming back up to me whilst Evie is down there.’
A fresh wave of nausea rolled over Evie. It was enough that he couldn’t forgive her, but she didn’t want to be the cause of a rift in his new relationship with his daughter.
‘Fine,’ she heard Annie respond flatly, but her irritation with Max was audible. ‘Then the baby will stay with us. We’d love to have her longer. Just thought you might, too.’
‘Okay. Tell Evie it’s going to be fine.’
Evie stared across the room in shock. Max never said that. He never promised anyone everything would be fine. Never.
‘And tell her I’ll be with her in...’
The line crackled as he faded out but it sounded as if he’d said half an hour. That couldn’t be right.
‘What?’ Annie’s shock was nothing compared to the way Evie’s heart leaped. ‘I can’t hear you clearly.’
Still, that couldn’t be right—it was a much longer drive than that.
‘Sorry, heading into a tunnel so I’ll probably get cut off any minute. I said I should be there in half an hour.’
‘How?’ Annie voiced Evie’s thoughts, but the line cracked again and went dead.
Evie stared at her sister-in-law in disbelief before a heavy tear trickled down one cheek. Hope, confusion, anticipation, expectation—it was all in that one salty droplet.
‘Did he mean the Meadowall Tunnel between my house and here?’ Annie asked slowly.
Leaning her head back on the pillows, Evie just shook her head and hoped.
* * *
‘Feeling pretty bad?’ The gruff voice woke Evie from her fitful slumber and she snapped her head up in disbelief. She hardly dared to open her eyes too quickly in case she found he wasn’t really there.
Nope. He was reassuringly solid.
She drank in the sight, but slowly the dark-circled eyes, unshaven stubble, and slightly haunted expression registered. It gave her something to cling to.
‘I’m about as good as you look,’ she murmured shakily.
‘That bad, huh?’ His eyes were loaded with regret.
‘Pretty much. I can’t believe I fell asleep. When did Annie go?’
‘You’re exhausted. Annie said you dozed off as soon as our phone call ended and she stayed with you until I got here.’
‘Half an hour?’
‘Twenty-four minutes.’
‘You really were already down here?’ A few more restraints of caution gave way.
‘Outside Annie’s house,’ he confirmed quietly.
He stepped towards her and she offered no resistance as he snaked his arms around her shoulders and drew her in. Instead, Evie closed her eyes and allowed his familiar citrusy, musky, masculine scent fill her senses. Max dropped a kiss on her head.
Still they didn’t speak.
Beyond her, the rest of the hospital fell away. Just like the first time, it was just her and him, and nothing else.
‘Why are you here, Max?’ she mumbled against the rock wall of his chest.
‘To bring you home.’ His words were muffled, spoken into her hair. She had a feeling he was breathing her in just as she’d done with him. Her heart cracked.
‘What’s changed?’
He paused a bit before saying the word she didn’t want to hear.
‘Nothing. Everything.’
‘Max...’ She drew her head back but didn’t pull away. ‘I am sorry.’
He shushed her.
‘No, it’s my turn now. I should have accepted your apology that afternoon, but I was being pig-headed. I know you were scared to tell me, and that you couldn’t have been sure what my reaction would have been. Just because I know what my parents are like doesn’t mean you did.’
‘What about betraying your trust? You said you couldn’t forgive me.’
‘I was being an idiot. I’m sorry. I was thinking of my own feelings where you were more concerned about our daughter. That won’t happen from here on.’
‘From here on?’ Evie whispered, needing to hear Max say the words. ‘Does that mean you want Imogen and me to come back with you?’
‘No.’
She tipped her head back, confused.
‘You said before that you wanted to bring Imogen and I home.’
‘Yes, but not my old place—why should you two have to move? I’ll move down here and we’ll get a new place. A home of our own.’
‘You’re leaving Silvertrees?’
She should be more circumspect but she couldn’t stop a tiny balloon of elation floating up inside her, lifting some of the darkest fears about this recent rejection episode.
‘You said to me a month ago that this is where you love to be.’ Max nodded. ‘Your family is here, you and Imogen have ties here. I don’t have ties up there. It’s just a job. I can find a job anywhere. So we find a house you love near your brother and Annie, and we start a new life together as a proper family.’
‘But you still intend that I should give up my career?’
‘Actually, no. Sally told me about a centre she visits down here, with a whole new set of kids just desperate for someone like you to believe in them, fight for them. I spoke to one of the board members on the drive down. We need a proper meeting to hammer out the details but they’ve been hoping to approach you for quite a while. They also know of me by reputation and would be more than happy to welcome me as their new go-to paediatric plastic surgeon.’
‘Working together?’ She couldn’t seem to process what he was telling her.
‘Side by side, whenever you needed me.’
It all sounded too good to be true. And yet it was true. Max was here, and he was offering all she’d ever wanted. And more.
‘You would do that for me? For Imogen?’
‘I would. And for me. I realised that I don’t give half as much back as you do, and it’s time I started.’
‘You’ve got it all figured out, haven’t you?’ Evie marvelled.
‘Pretty much. There’s just one thing left.’
She didn’t realise what he was doing until she felt the cool metal sliding over her finger. The ring was stunning, a classic grain-cut solitaire diamond ring set in a platinum band with alternate diamonds and rubies set into each shoulder.
‘I never make promises I can’t keep. So believe me when I promise I’ll love you until the day I die. Marry me, Evie?’
Looking up into his face, she realised how real it was. No more secrets, No more lies. Just the promise of love and support and a future with the man she loved.
A long, long future. She was determined of that.
‘Yes,’ she whispered with a throaty chuckle, unable to resist teasing him. ‘And I promise to love you until the day you die, too.’
‘Minx.’ He grinned against her lips as he slid his hands into her hair to draw her into an intense, toe-curling kiss.
EPILOGUE
‘NICE MEDAL. SNAP!’ Max teased as Evie ran towards him, brandishing her newest necklace and with her space blanket billowing out behind her like a cape.
‘His and hers?’ She arched her eyebrows in amusement.
‘Quite.’ He laughed. ‘You looked fantastic coming over that finishing line, by the way.’
‘Thanks, I was just glad the whole thing was over. I don’t think I could have raced another metre. But this finishers’ medal makes it all worthwhile, even if I am somewhere around five hundredth according to the race officials.’
‘Yeah, well, never mind the four hundred and ninety-nine. How many of them are former transplant recipients?’ Max snorted dismissively. He was immensely proud of his wife and, judging by the beam on her face, she felt just as proud of herself. ‘Besides, I heard that over one thousand competitors started this year, so you’ve beaten over half of them.’
‘True,’ chuckled Evie. ‘So, I got Annie’s right kidney round a half-mile swim, a seventeen-mile bike ride and a five-mile run in one hour and fifty-nine minutes. How’s her left kidney doing?’
‘This is your first triathlon, ever, and still you’re so damn competitive.’ He dropped a kiss on her nose.
‘Mmm-hmm. It’s also my transplant’s five-year anniversary, with no rejection episodes since that initial blip.’ She snuggled against his chest before pulling her head back excitedly. ‘I’m feeling incredible. So, about Annie’s other kidney?’
‘I actually don’t know, sorry,’ he relented. ‘I haven’t seen your brother since the last changeover points where he was waiting for Annie, but I think he said she was about fifteen minutes behind you at that point, and you know you’re a faster runner than she is.’
‘She’ll probably be coming in between two hours twenty and two hours thirty, then.’ Evie glanced at her watch. ‘Shall we head back to the finish line?’
‘Good idea. I said we’d meet everyone there so look out for Imogen—she’s probably still commandeering your brother’s shoulders for the best view in the house.’
‘She would. She’s the cheekiest five-and-a-half-year-old I’ve ever known.’ Evie clicked her tongue but Max wasn’t fooled; her love for their two children radiated through everything she did. ‘What about Toby?’
‘He’s doing what he always does in the middle of the afternoon...’
‘Sleeping,’ she chimed in, laughing. ‘I bet my brother’s pushed him the whole way around in that off-road racer pram you bought.’
‘You can count on it.’
They jostled their way good-humouredly against the finishers coming towards them, finally making it back to the finish line to look out for their family.
It felt good to Max.
The last five years had been the best of his life since he’d left Silvertrees to move to within fifteen minutes of Evie’s family. Unexpectedly, he’d not only gained a family in Evie and Imogen, but he’d also gained the family he’d never had in Annie’s family, too.
The ink had barely been dry on his resignation when the job offers had flooded in, and he had happily accepted a generous promotion package to the top local hospital, which had included a relocation incentive to the house of their dreams. But, more importantly, they had accepted his proviso that he must also have time to work with some of the troubled teens from the new centre where Evie had returned to part-time work along with having time with her family.
The fact that they were doing this race today for Sally seemed so perfectly fitting. Free of the recognisable silvery lines, Sally had easily found her dream job, which had previously eluded her, and it had also given her the confidence to start charity work in her spare time for the residential centre where she’d first met Evie.
Max wrapped his arms around his wife feeling, as he did every day, contented and relaxed.
‘Do you know, between you, Annie and I, we’ve raised money well into five figures?’ he murmured into her ear, revelling in the look of proud shock as she twisted her head to look up at him.
‘Seriously? That’s incredible. Does Sally know? She’ll be over the moon.’
‘Sally’s the one who told me.’ Max nibbled Evie’s ear, causing her to inadvertently wiggle against him.
‘What about you, anyway? How did you do?’
‘I didn’t do too badly.’
She pulled out of his arms and spun around.
‘You didn’t win, did you?’
‘Who do you think I am? Superman? No, I didn’t win.’
She poked him playfully in the ribs.
‘What was your time, then?’
He grinned until she shrieked with anticipation.
‘Oh, come on, Max, you have to tell me.’
‘One hour, twenty-seven minutes.’
‘Wow...’ She soberly bestowed a kiss on his lips. ‘That has to be a high position?’
‘Within the top ten.’
‘That seriously deserves a prize.’ She adopted a serious expression. ‘I feel I should reward you.’
‘Oh, really?’ He pulled her to him, the crowd surging unconcerned around them.
‘Yes, really. Tonight,’ she clarified, snaking her arms around him. ‘When we’re alone.’
‘I think I love the idea but I have a feeling that you might be too tired for anything tonight.’ He smiled, lowering his mouth to drop a soft kiss on her lips, surprised when she deepened it to something full of promise.
‘It’s funny,’ she whispered, ‘but suddenly I find I have untapped resources of energy these days. Must have been the white chocolate and raspberry muffin you gave me this morning before the race, but I feel there’s nothing I can’t handle.’
‘That,’ he murmured gently, kissing his wife again, ‘I don’t doubt.’
* * * * *
If you enjoyed this story, check out the great debut from Charlotte Hawkes
THE ARMY DOC’S SECRET WIFE
Available now!
Keep reading for an excerpt from SANTIAGO’S CONVENIENT FIANCÉE by Annie O’Neill.
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Santiago’s Convenient Fiancée
by Annie O’Neil
CHAPTER ONE
SANTI CLENCHED HIS fists so tightly it hurt. Good. There was still feeling in them. He shot his fingers out at full length, simultaneously giving them a hard shake.
The movement jettisoned him back to memories he’d thought he’d left back in Afghanistan. Syria. Africa. Wherever. Didn’t matter. Dog tags were dog tags. CPR worked or it didn’t. The need to shake it off and stay neutral was the same no matter where he was.
What mattered now was the chest in front of him needing another round of compressions. Fatigue couldn’t factor into it. Giving this guy another shot at living could.
“Where the hell is the ambulance?” he bellowed to anyone who might be in the vicinity. The only answer...the echo of his own voice reverberating off the cement stanchions of the underpass. Raw. Frustrated.
Santi wove his fingers together again and pressed the heel of his palm to the man’s chest, ignoring the worn clothes, the stench of someone who had slept rough too many nights and the fact he’d been providing CPR for twenty minutes since he’d rung for an ambulance.
“C’mon, Miami!” he growled, keeping steady track of the number of compressions before stopping to give the two rescue breaths that just might jump-start this poor guy’s system. “Give the man a chance.”
He glanced at the man’s dog tags again. Diego Gonzalez.
“What’s your story, amigo?” He tugged off his motorcycle jacket, leaving it where it fell on the dry earth before beginning compressions again. He might leave it for Diego once the ambulance turned up and they got a shot or two of epi and some life back into him. From the state of Diego’s clothes, the world had given up on him. Well, he sure as hell wouldn’t. He’d seen it time and again since he’d left the forces. Veterans unable to find a path after their time overseas. Nothing computing anymore. Lives disintegrating into nothing. He might have hung up his camos just a few months ago, but the last thing he was going to do was forget the men who’d given the military their all, only to find life had little to offer when they came home.
Home.
The word was loaded, and just as dangerous as a sniper bullet. He shook his head again, tightening his fingers against his knuckles as he pressed.
Twenty-nine, thirty.
As he bent to give another two breaths he heard the distant wail of a siren.
The Surgeon's Baby Surprise Page 18
