St. Piran's: The Wedding!

by Alison Roberts

  Megan didn’t know and it was a disturbing feeling. As if she was drifting.

  Lost.

  At least the map to the cardiology ward was well remembered and easy to follow. Megan found Claire sitting up in bed, reading a magazine.

  ‘Oh, my dear...’ Claire’s smile lit up her face. ‘I’m so pleased to see you. I don’t know how I’m going to thank you. Josh tells me you probably saved my life.’

  The heartfelt gratitude was embarrassing but it was impossible not to return such a warm smile.

  ‘I’ve got something else you might be pleased to see.’ Megan fished in her pocket. ‘The chain was broken but I had it fixed for you today when I was in Penhally.’

  ‘My chain...’ Claire took it from Megan almost reverently. ‘Oh...’

  ‘It looked like it might be special.’

  Claire nodded, her face misty. ‘My Joshie gave it to me for Mother’s Day. He bought it with the first money he earned from his paper round. I think he was about six or seven.’ Claire pressed the hand holding the chain to her heart. Her smile was rather wobbly now. ‘Sorry,’ she sniffed. ‘It’s all a bit...’

  ‘Emotional. I know.’ Megan’s smile was sympathetic. ‘You’ve been through rather a lot in the last twenty-four hours. I understand completely.’

  More than Claire would know, in fact. Megan had been on a bit of a roller-coaster herself. She watched as the older woman’s fingers trembled, trying to open the catch on the chain.

  ‘Can I help?’ She took the chain and Claire bent her head forward so that she could fasten it behind her neck. When she leaned back on her pillow her face was disconcertingly close. Those blue eyes so familiar.

  ‘Thank you, lovie. Please...sit down for a minute. Have you got the time?’

  ‘Of course.’ Megan took off her coat and perched on the edge of the chair beside Claire’s bed. She couldn’t help casting her eye over the monitor still recording an ECG and up at the IV pole, where the bag of fluids was empty. Did she still need a line in and fluids running to keep a vein open in case of emergency?

  ‘You’re looking good,’ she told Claire. ‘Are the doctors happy with you?’

  Claire nodded. ‘I’m allowed to go home tomorrow as long as I behave myself today. They’re going to do a...an echo-something-or-other in the morning.’

  ‘An echocardiogram?’

  ‘That’s it. They did tell me what it would show but it all sounded very technical.’

  ‘It gives them a way of looking at your heart and seeing how well it’s pumping. They can measure the blood that comes out with every beat and give it a number. It’s a percentage of the blood that was in that part of the heart. They call it an ejection fraction.’

  Good grief...Megan knew she was hiding behind professionalism here. Avoiding talking about anything too personal because this was Josh’s mother. The grandmother of Rebecca’s children.

  Claire seemed to see straight through her. She leaned forward and patted Megan’s arm.

  ‘I’m so glad you’ve come back,’ she said softly. ‘Josh will be too.’

  But she hadn’t come back. Megan opened her mouth to reiterate her visitor status but Claire was nodding.

  ‘You’re a star,’ she told Megan. ‘I saw your picture. In that refugee camp. You were holding a dear little baby and there were so many children all around you.’

  Megan’s eyes widened. ‘Where on earth did you see that?’

  ‘In that newsletter thing that comes from the organisation you work for. What’s it called again?’

  ‘Medécins Sans Frontières,’ Megan said faintly. ‘The MSF. Doctors without borders.’

  ‘So it is.’ Claire’s gaze was oddly direct. ‘Josh gets it delivered every month.’

  ‘I...ah...’ Megan had no words. Josh had been following where she was and what she’d been doing for the last two years? That was...unexpected. Flattering? Confusing, that was for sure.

  ‘He needs things to keep him interested.’ Claire’s tone was almost offhand. ‘Poor man, all he’s got in his life are the children and his work. It’s not enough, is it?’

  Megan could only stare at Claire, her jaw still slack. What was Claire trying to say?

  She didn’t have to wonder for more than a heartbeat.

  ‘He’d never admit it for the world.’ Claire’s voice was no more than a whisper. ‘But he’s lonely, so he is.’

  Megan took in a slow breath and tightened her jaw. Lonely? With two gorgeous children and his mum living with him? With his job and all his colleagues? His perfect life?

  He was lonely?

  And she was supposed to care about that?

  For heaven’s sake, Josh O’Hara didn’t have to be lonely if he didn’t want to be. He could have any woman he wanted. Back when she’d first met him, when he’d been no more than a talented but very junior doctor, he’d had the reputation of being a notorious womaniser. He’d been a legend. To have him even noticing the naïve bookworm of a final-year med student that Megan had been at the time, let alone focusing his well-deserved legendary skills in the bedroom on her for a whole night, had been unbelievable. When he’d been back with his ultra-cool friends days later and had ignored her, she’d known exactly how easily replaceable she’d been.

  So what had changed? He was still impossibly good looking. In that unfair way men were capable of, he was only getting more attractive as he got older. He was still supremely confident, with good reason, given the accolades the emergency department of St Piran’s Hospital regularly garnered. He was a prime example of pure alpha male and Megan could be absolutely sure that no woman in her right mind could be immune to the lethal Irish charm with which he could capture anybody he fancied.

  So, if he was lonely for feminine company, why wasn’t he doing something about it?

  And why did the mere thought of him being lonely echo in her own heart like this?

  Because, despite the new directions in which she had taken her life, she was lonely too?

  Did she really think she could move on and find a way to ignore the person-shaped hole in her life that would never be filled?

  There was no point in allowing that train of thought. If Josh was lonely, it had nothing to do with her. She couldn’t allow it to. With a huge effort Megan focused on what was right in front of her.

  An IV line that had blood backing up its length because the bag of fluids was completely empty and exerting a vacuum effect. She reached out and pushed the call bell.

  ‘You need your IV sorted,’ she told Claire. ‘And I should really be getting going.’

  It wasn’t a nurse who answered the call bell. It was Anna.

  ‘Hey...’ She grinned at Megan. ‘You called?’

  ‘Hardly needs a consultant cardiac surgeon to remove a cannula or hang some more fluids but this is good. Saves me having to page you to give you your car keys.’

  ‘How did you get on? Was it useful?’ Anna glanced at the IV tubing taped to Claire’s arm.

  ‘Enormously. Thank you so much. I zipped all round Penhally and sorted out some contractors to start work on the cottage. They’re charging like wounded bulls but the plumber and electrician both said they could start tomorrow.’

  ‘Fantastic.’ Anna was eyeing the monitor beside Claire’s bed. ‘It’s all looking great,’ she told her patient, ‘but I’d rather keep your IV in for a bit longer. Think of it as an insurance policy against any complications. If it’s there, we won’t need it. Now...where’s the trolley? Ah, there it is...’ She moved to the corner of the room but turned to look at Megan as she pulled open a drawer. ‘If they’re not starting till tomorrow, that means you won’t be able to stay there yet.’

  ‘Probably not for a few days, no.’

  ‘So you’ll stay and keep me company?’

  ‘If you’re sure...’ Being so close to the beach was as much of a draw card as Anna’s company. ‘And, yes, I’d be delighted to cook tonight. I’m going to go and pick up my rental car now and will do some s
hopping.’

  ‘Oh...’ Claire had been following the conversation, looking from one younger woman to another and back as though following a tennis match. Now she was beaming. ‘You’ll be just down the road, then, lovie. You’ll have to come and have a cuppa, so you will.’

  Anna excused Megan having to respond. She’d come back with a new bag of saline from the trolley drawer but exclaimed in frustration when she went to hang it on the hook.

  ‘It’s past its expiry date. It shouldn’t even be in the trolley. That really isn’t good enough.’ Discarding the bag, she went back for another one.

  Megan’s jaw dropped. ‘You’re not going to throw it out, are you?’

  ‘Have to. It expired a month ago.’

  ‘But that’s such an arbitrary date. You can see it’s all right.’ Megan held the bag up to the light. ‘No goldfish swimming around. This stuff lasts for ever. It’s only salty water. We wouldn’t hesitate to use it in Africa.’

  ‘Plenty more where that came from.’ Happy with the new bag, Anna was changing over the giving set, pushing the spike into the port on the bottom of the bag. ‘And not only fluids. I’ll bet there are hundreds of things like cannulas and syringes that have to be discarded at every stocktake because they’ve gone over the date. Hospital policy. Hey...maybe we should gather them all up and post them to Africa.’

  ‘That’s not a bad idea. In fact...’ Megan felt a fizz of real excitement ‘...it’s a brilliant idea. My clinic would be over the moon to get a crate of supplies like that.’

  ‘We could do some fundraising, too.’ Claire didn’t want to be left out of the discussion. ‘There’s plenty of grannies like me in the district and we’d love a good cause to have a bake sale or something for.’

  ‘Oh, I couldn’t ask you to—’

  Claire held up her hand in a stop sign. ‘Don’t you say another word, lovie. I’ve been lying here wondering how I was ever going to be able to thank you for saving my life and this is it. I can not only say thank you to you but we can do something for all those poor children in Africa at the same time. It’s perfect.’

  Perfect. There was that word again. Funny how it was starting to grate.

  ‘Go and talk to Albert White,’ Anna advised. ‘You’ll need the CEO’s permission before you start gathering up the old stuff. I’ll ask Luke who else you could talk too as well. You could fill dozens of crates if you got some other hospitals on board with the idea.’

  If nothing else, the excuse of going to talk to Albert White took Megan away from Claire and her disturbing confidences about her son’s state of happiness. It also stopped Megan worrying about the downside of staying longer at Anna’s place with it being next door to the O’Haras. It was a godsend to have something other than herself or Josh to think about as she walked through the hospital corridors, and the more she thought about it, the better the idea seemed.

  By the time she knocked on the CEO’s office door, she was more excited about it than she could remember being about anything for a very long time.

  * * *

  The last thing Josh O’Hara expected to see when he emerged from the lift on his way to visit his mother was Megan Phillips shaking hands with Albert White.

  ‘Josh...’ Albert was positively beaming. ‘I heard about your mother. I’m delighted to hear today that she’s doing very well.’

  ‘You and me, both.’ But Josh was looking at Megan, who seemed to be avoiding his gaze. She looked oddly...nervous? What was going on?

  ‘You’re not working today, are you, Josh?’ Albert continued. ‘Didn’t Ben tell me he had things covered in Emergency?’

  ‘I’m just here for a visit.’

  ‘All by yourself? Where are those little ankle-biters?’

  ‘Being babysat by one of Mum’s friends from her grandmothers’ group. Only she’s a great-grandmother. You remember Rita—the ward clerk in NICU who retired a while back?’

  Albert’s eyebrows rose. ‘Who could forget?’

  Josh snorted softly. ‘I know. She’s a much nicer person these days now that her feet don’t hurt from too much standing. Her great-grandson, Colin, goes to the same playgroup mine do. They call it “afternoons with the oldies” or something similar. Anyway...’

  ‘Yes, yes. Must get on. I’ll leave Megan to tell you the good news.’

  Josh stared after the CEO as he bustled away.

  ‘Was he actually rubbing his hands together?’ he murmured.

  ‘Probably.’ Megan was biting her bottom lip.

  ‘And didn’t I see you two shaking hands? It looked like you’d made some kind of a deal.’

  ‘Mmm.’ Megan was still avoiding direct eye contact.

  Josh sighed inwardly. He had a feeling that whatever it was, it was going to make life a little more complicated for him.

  Megan was eyeing the button to summon the lift. Josh leaned against the wall. She’d have to reach around him to get to the button.

  ‘So...is it a big secret?’

  Megan sighed audibly. ‘No. And you’ll find out soon enough, I suppose. Anna had this idea...’

  He listened to the plan of collecting out-of-date supplies like IV gear and drugs and old equipment that was being replaced and donating them to Megan’s clinic in Africa. He had to agree it was a brilliant idea but he was only half listening to the words coming out of Megan’s mouth. What was even more riveting was the way her mouth was moving. The flicker of real passion he could hear in her voice and see in her eyes.

  It had the effect, he thought, that holding a shot of whisky under the nose of a recovering alcoholic might have.

  So tempting.

  He actually had to fight the urge to put his finger against Megan’s lips and stop the words. And then to cover her lips with his own and silence them for a very, very long time...

  And then Josh realised that Megan had stopped talking. He tried to pull back her last words from the ether before they evaporated completely.

  ‘I’m not quite sure what this has to do with my department.’

  ‘Albert made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.’

  ‘Which was?’

  ‘He’ll donate everything suitable that St Piran’s can spare. He’ll contact his fellow CEOs from other hospitals in the district and get them to pitch in. He’ll endorse a hospital fundraiser to cover the shipping costs.’ Megan was biting her lip again. ‘He’ll even throw in a ticket so that I can travel with the load and make sure it gets to the right place.’

  Josh shook his head in amazement. ‘That’s an amazing offer all right.’ But he couldn’t shake the image of Albert walking away rubbing his hands together as though he’d got the better end of the deal. ‘What does Albert get out of it?’

  ‘Me,’ Megan said simply. ‘I’ve agreed to work here for the next few weeks to get a big project off the ground. He needed a paediatric specialist to oversee it.’

  Josh was grateful for the wall he was leaning on. Now he could understand exactly why Megan had looked nervous. She knew that he wouldn’t like this.

  ‘The project’s the paediatric triage and observation suite to go into A and E, isn’t it?’

  It had been a pipe dream for such a long time. The busy emergency department with all the sights and sounds and smells that went with major trauma and life-threatening medical problems was a terrifying place to bring young children, especially when they were sick and even more vulnerable. And often, admitting them to a ward was not necessary but they did need observation for a period of time because, if you had the slightest doubt, you couldn’t afford to send them home. A dedicated, child-friendly space that still had the capability to deal with life or death situations would put his department even more securely amongst the best in the country.

  ‘Mmm.’ Megan finally looked up. ‘I couldn’t say no, Josh. I did try, I can assure you.’

  Really?

  Maybe she was doing this to punish him.

  Seeing her again had disturbed his equilibrium markedly. Feeling her
presence in his house and seeing her close to his children had made visible cracks in the foundations of his new life. Even when she wasn’t there, he could feel the way it had been last night. It had haunted him all day. So much so that he’d accepted with alacrity Rita’s offer to babysit. So that he could escape. Not only to visit his mother but to find refuge in the other half of his life.

  His work.

  How could he handle knowing that he would see her here every day? For weeks?

  Megan had found her new life. In Africa. She’d found someone special.

  Did she want to rub his nose in that? To remind him, on a daily basis, just how much he’d messed up his own life?

  It was then that Josh realised he’d been holding eye contact with Megan just a shade too long. That he’d been searching her face for confirmation. But what he saw was something quite different.

  Anxiety.

  Fear, almost.

  Why was she afraid?

  ‘I could try and talk to Albert again,’ Megan said quietly. ‘If it’s a problem.’

  Josh could feel his head moving. Not in assent. He was slowly shaking it from side to side in a negative response.

  Because he knew why Megan was afraid. She didn’t want to be working near him any more than he wanted her to be. Because she was unsure about whether she could handle it.

  And she could only be that unsure if she still felt the same way about him as she had before she’d walked away two years ago. Before he’d ended things to stay in his marriage and be the father he’d had to try and be for his children.

  But he wasn’t married any more, was he?

  Was that going to make a difference? Could he afford to even think about letting it make a difference?

  Josh had no answer to that internal query.

  And maybe that was what he needed to find out. It might be the only way he could avoid being haunted for the rest of his life by what might have been with Megan Phillips.

  He could talk to Albert himself but if the incentive that had been offered had been massive enough to swing the deal when Megan was clearly feeling vulnerable, how could he do anything that might wipe out the reward she wanted so badly? If she didn’t have something like this to keep her here, she might leave again, and Josh knew that if she left on such a disappointing note he would never see her again.