by Lucy Clark
‘It is. Do you need me to come back and do a handover?’
‘That’s exactly what we need. If you can have one week with the new head, handing things over while the operating lists and patient numbers are low, that would be helpful. Then, when clinics start up in another week, he’ll be ready to take on the full duties and you’ll be free to return to your position as resident orthopaedic surgeon and devote as much time to your research project as you’d like.’
Melody breathed in a cleansing breath. It also meant she’d be able to move to Melbourne if she needed to.
‘Who’s the new head, then?’ Ethan asked, as he watched his sister pack.
‘I didn’t ask and I don’t really care.’ She laughed with delight. ‘I’m free, Ethan. I don’t have to worry about letting everyone down and I can move to Melbourne to be near George and—’
‘What happened to giving him space?’
‘I think he’s had enough space. I’m through marking time. I’m going to find that man and make him see sense. I’m going to let him know that I love him and I’ll wait for as long as I need to until he can tell me he loves me, too because I’m pretty sure he does…’ She frowned. ‘At least, I hope he does.’
‘Don’t go second-guessing yourself,’ Ethan encouraged as he zipped up her bag and carried it out to her car. ‘It’s not that I want you to leave, sis, but, seriously, go and get this whole thing sorted out so I can see you being happy instead of being as miserable as a wet week.’
Melody laughed, not taking offence at her brother’s words. It was because he loved her, because he wanted the best for his sister that he was all but pushing her out of his home.
The drive back to Sydney was refreshing as she started making plans for her new future.
She hadn’t realised how much of a weight the head of department job had been around her neck until it had been lifted. When she arrived at her apartment, it was to find George standing there, knocking on her door.
Melody closed her eyes and blinked one very long blink as she continued to stare at him. Was she seeing things?
‘George?’
He turned to look at her, taking in the bag in her hand and the sunglasses on her head. ‘You weren’t home.’
‘No. I was at Ethan’s.’
‘Oh. I didn’t know.’
‘How could you?’
They stood there, so close to each other and yet so far apart, both of them having the most ridiculous conversation as they drank in the sight of each other. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I—uh—sent you a text message.’
‘You did?’ She dug in her bag for her phone. ‘I have it off when I drive so I’m not tempted to answer any calls or messages.’
‘Good. Safe driving practice,’ he stated. ‘That’s good.’
She found her phone and switched it on, waiting impatiently for the message light to blink so she could look at it. When she opened the text message from George it was to find one single emoji—a red heart.
Melody stared at the emoji, then looked at George, hope filling her heart. ‘Really?’
He nodded, then as though the admission had given them both wings they were in each other’s arms, their mouths meeting and melding with perfect synchronicity. She kissed him with all the love in her heart, wanting him to feel just how wonderful he made her feel. In return, she felt his own need, his desire and his acceptance of their mutual love.
When one of her neighbours came out into the corridor, seeing the two of them kissing, Melody belatedly realised where they were. She’d been so caught up in everything about him that she hadn’t even opened the door to her apartment. She quickly unlocked her door and beckoned him inside. It was then she realised that he, too, had a bag beside him—a large bag.
‘You’re staying in Sydney?’
‘I’m staying wherever you are,’ he told her as he gathered her close again, kicking the door shut to the apartment to ensure they had all the privacy they needed.
‘I was going to do the same thing. I told Ethan I wanted to be wherever you were and that if you didn’t love me I would give you all the time you needed to come to the sane and rational conclusion that we belong together.’
‘You were going to leave Sydney?’
‘I got a call from the CEO—they’ve found a new head of department so I’m free, George. I’m free to move to Melbourne or to Timbuktu—I don’t care, so long as I’m with you.’ She pressed a kiss to his lips then shook her head. ‘I know we only had one week together but these past ten weeks apart have been absolute torture.’ She kissed him again. ‘I missed being able to talk to you, to share things with you, to just sit and spend time with you.’
‘You could have called me,’ he ventured, but she shook her head.
‘I knew I had to be patient and to trust you, two things I needed to have more practice with.’ She broke free from him for a moment and took his hand, leading him over to the lounge, where they sat down together. ‘You needed to sort things out in your own way, in your own time.’
‘When I returned to Melbourne—’ George stopped and shook his head. ‘It was as though I was having an out-of-body experience. I could walk around my house, the place I’d lived with Veronique, and it was as though I was intruding on someone else’s life. It wasn’t mine. It wasn’t where I belonged any more. I felt the same way at the hospital. I did a few shifts over Christmas and New Year, and although everything was familiar it was…out of balance with the man I’d become.’
George shook his head and held her hands in his. ‘I’m not the same man I used to be and that’s all because of you, Melody.’ He held her gaze as he spoke, his tone intense and filled with repressed desire. ‘Our week together helped me realise that I’d merely been existing, going through my days one at a time but not really taking anything in. In the beginning the travelling had been good for my grief but it wasn’t until I arrived back in Melbourne that I realised I was done.’
‘Done with grieving?’
He shook his head. ‘Done with the guilt from wanting to move forward.’
‘Good, because I don’t think you’re ever done with grieving. It just…changes.’
‘It does, and Veronique’s mother told me herself that Veronique wouldn’t be happy if I was always looking backwards. My wife would want me to be happy and you…’ He lifted her hands to his lips and pressed soft kisses to her knuckles. ‘You make me happy, Melody. Being with you, laughing with you, working with you.’
‘Working with me?’
George gave her a lopsided smile and shrugged one shoulder. ‘Didn’t you mention St Aloysius had found a new head of the department? That you were now free to do whatever you wanted?’
Melody frowned at him for a moment before dawning realisation crossed her face. ‘You’re the new head of department?’
‘There was nothing for me in Melbourne any more and everything here in Sydney because Sydney is where you are.’
‘You took the head of department position?’ She laughed with rising incredulity.
‘Is that OK?’
‘Uh…yeah.’ She nodded her head for emphasis. ‘Of course it is, but are you sure you’ll be happy here?’
‘Yes. I like the hospital. I like Rick, who I’ve insisted remain as my PA, and I like the resident orthopaedic surgeon…very much.’ He leaned forward as he said the last few words then captured her lips with his. ‘Very much,’ he reiterated a few moments later after delighting in the way Melody kissed him back with such uninhibited abandon.
‘I love you, George.’
‘I love you, too, Melody.’
‘You do?’ She smiled as though she was still unable to believe it.
‘I do, so very much. My life was…incomplete without you.’
‘Mine, too.’
‘Then be with me for ever, Melody. You complete me and I want to feel like that for ever. Marry me?’
She gasped at his words but before she could answer, he continued.
<
br /> ‘Let me show you I’m not like the other dead-heads who broke your heart. I love your intellect, the way we can talk about operating techniques, share the highs and the lows of our jobs. I’ve never had that with anyone before but when I found it with you it was as though a part of me became complete. Then another part and then another. Be my wife,’ he urged. ‘Complete me.’
‘And children?’ she asked hesitantly. ‘Do you want children?’
‘With you? Absolutely.’ His kissed her once more, a kiss that was filled with passion and promise—the promise of a long and devoted life together. ‘Say yes,’ he ground out as he nibbled his way to her ear lobe. ‘Say yes.’
‘I will.’ She laughed, happier than she’d ever been in her life. ‘If you’d give me half a chance.’ Goose-bumps shivered down her body as he continued his assault. Giggling, she planted her hand in his hair and gently tugged his head away. ‘George!’
‘Sorry. It’s been so long since I’ve been able to kiss you like this and all I’ve dreamed about every day we were apart.’
‘Well, we’re not apart now.’ Her words were filled with love, love for the man who was her soul mate, her other half. ‘I’ll agree to complete you if you complete me. George, you don’t need to show or prove anything to me—because you’ve already done it. I’m not talking about moving to Sydney but the fact that you accept me just as I am. No man has ever done that before. You’re the first—and the last.’ She brushed her lips across his. ‘Marry me quickly.’
‘As you wish.’ His mouth met hers in a mutual declaration of love, one they were both willing to contribute to and work at. ‘How am I going to be able to keep my hands off you?’ he groaned as he buried his face in her neck, unable to resist kissing the soft skin. ‘Working with you every day. Sitting next to you in departmental meetings. I don’t know if my self-control can take it.’
George raised his head to look at the woman he loved. The woman who had made him the happiest man on the face of the earth. He smiled at her.
‘I guess we’d better work out some…’ she paused and raised her eyebrows suggestively ‘…guidelines, then.’
His gaze darkened with desire. ‘I look forward to it, Dr Janeway.’
‘So do I, Professor!’
EPILOGUE
THE FOLLOWING CHRISTMAS neither George nor Melody was working. Both of them were enjoying spending their holidays with family. Ethan and CJ had decided to host Christmas at their place in Pridham, and with Melody’s parents and brother Dave and his family coming to join in the festivities it was most definitely a madcap time for all of them. Donna and her husband Philip were there as well, allowing George to catch up with his old friends.
After they’d all enjoyed a huge barbeque lunch with a plethora of salads, the Australian heat giving them a slight reprieve and only being mildly hot instead of stinking hot, Melody had adjourned inside to relax in the air-conditioning. Sitting in CJ’s living room, she put her feet up on the lounge and closed her eyes, a possessive hand on her slightly swollen abdomen.
‘Ah, good. I was just coming to see if you were resting,’ George stated as he brought her a glass of iced water.
‘I am.’ Just then she felt the baby move and although she’d been able to feel it shift around for a while, George was yet to feel it. ‘Here. Quick.’ She reached for his hand and placed it on her abdomen. ‘Wait. Just wait a second.’
They both waited, their wedding rings touching as Melody placed her hand over George’s. Their wedding day had been a lovely one, nice and quiet but filled with their friends and family beneath a small marquee in one of Sydney’s prettiest parks. After the pomp and ceremony of the VOS, neither of them had wanted a lavish affair, preferring to focus on the main aspect, which was the two of them making an open and honest declaration of their love for each other.
Then, only two months later, Melody had announced to her husband that she thought she might be pregnant. George had instantly bought a pregnancy test and they’d waited and watched together as the test had confirmed that Melody’s supposition had been correct.
A moment later the baby moved and George’s eyes widened in delighted astonishment.
‘Did you feel it?’
‘I felt it.’ He grinned widely and bent down to kiss her abdomen.
‘What are you two doing?’ CJ asked as she came into the room, Ethan hard on her heels, twenty-month-old Lizzie-Jean wriggling around in her daddy’s arms.
‘I just felt the baby kick!’ George laughed. ‘It’s the first time.’
‘It’s a great feeling,’ Ethan remarked, coming to stand next to his wife and placing a possessive hand on CJ’s very flat stomach. ‘And one we’re looking forward to enjoying in a few months’ time as well.’
‘Wait. What?’ Melody tried to sit up but found it difficult to move quickly. Thankfully, George was by her side and immediately helped her up. ‘You’re going to have another baby?’
‘Lizzie-Jean’s going to have a little brother or sister,’ CJ confirmed, and the two women embraced. George and Ethan shook hands then gave each other a brotherly hug.
‘We really are becoming one big happy family,’ Melody stated, and Ethan agreed.
‘Come on, CJ. Let’s go and break the news to Mum and Dad that they’re going to be grandparents again.’
After they’d headed out, George sat on the lounge, his wife in his arms. ‘Can you believe it? It’s good that all the cousins are going to be close in age.’
‘It is.’ Melody smiled, tears of happiness starting to prick behind her eyes. ‘It’s wonderful. Where I thought I’d never find true love, never find the right man for me, into my life you came with a twinkling grin and turned my world upside down.’ She kissed her husband. ‘Thank you for making me so happy.’
‘Right back at you,’ he replied, and kissed her soundly, so glad he’d had the courage to take this second chance at love, because now his cup really did runneth over.
*
If you missed the previous story in the SYDNEY SURGEONS duet, look out for
FALLING FOR THE PREGNANT GP
And if enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from Lucy Clark
THE FAMILY SHE’S LONGED FOR
REUNITED WITH HIS RUNAWAY DOC
ENGLISH ROSE IN THE OUTBACK
A FAMILY FOR CHLOE
All available now!
Keep reading for an excerpt from A MOMMY FOR HIS DAUGHTER by Amy Ruttan.
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A Mommy for His Daughter
by Amy Ruttan
CHAPTER ONE
I HATE FLYING. I hate flying.
Evelyn closed her eyes and gripped the armrests tighter as the Cessna C207 Skycraft she was flying in was jostled
by turbulence. And being in a small plane that only seated seven people meant that the turbulence really rattled her around, making her stomach twist and knot in apprehension.
Although it wasn’t just the turbulence that was doing that to her.
She’d thought in the twenty years since she’d been here that her hometown might have built a road from Sitka to Wolf’s Harbor, but no.
Nothing seemed to have changed. Wolf’s Harbor was still relying on the service of bush pilots and a small airport and harbor to service the larger hub of Sitka. Although there was a ferry service to Juneau, it took three hours to drive to the ferry terminal and another four hours to cross the channel. That was if the ferry was running. The fastest way was still by air.
Evelyn would have preferred a boat excursion from Sitka to Wolf’s Harbor, but there were no vessels departing on the eight-hour journey from Sitka through Cross Sound and into the small inlet of Wolf’s Harbor. The Cessna had been her only option.
She didn’t like airplanes, even though she was used to flying. Her grandmother had loved taking trips all over the world, but even though air travel was second nature to her she didn’t like it any better.
The plane rocked again but the other people who were on the same flight didn’t pay any attention to it. They were calm and just rocking with the turbulence as if it was nothing. Of course they were probably used to it.
Evelyn was not. She was used to first class. She wasn’t used to a bush plane way of life, nor to this level of turbulence where the pilot would probably have to crab land on the Tarmac because of the wind shear.
The first time she’d flown on a Cessna had been when she’d left Wolf’s Harbor—or rather when she’d been taken from Wolf’s Harbor.
She’d never got to go back.
Of course she’d been only ten when she’d gone to live in Boston. Her father had been killed by a runaway logging truck when he’d gone out one evening. Her mother—who’d died when Evelyn was four—had been Tlingit, and her maternal grandmother and uncle had lived in Wolf’s Harbor, but Evelyn hadn’t heard from them in twenty years.
When she’d first left she’d written letters to them, but nothing had ever come back. She’d been devastated, but her paternal grandmother had taught her to be tough. To harden her heart against disappointment.
