Hawaiian Sunset, Dream Proposal

by Joanna Neil

  ‘It’s brilliant news. My parents are going to be over the moon, as well.’ He was still smiling. ‘They’ve been worried sick about me.’

  Amber left him to absorb his good fortune and went off in search of James. She just had to share this with him. Every day they came together to talk about the highs and lows of their work, and this was definitely a high.

  ‘I saw him go into the patients’ day room a few minutes ago,’ Sarah said. ‘He told me he was looking for one of his asthma patients but, to be honest, I think the room has been empty for the last hour. Martyn sometimes ambles down there in the late afternoon, but he was waiting for Ethan to get in touch last I heard.’

  ‘Thanks, Sarah,’ Amber murmured. ‘I’ll go and check in there first of all.’

  There was a spring in her step as she walked down the corridor and hurried towards the room. Martyn would be glad to hear the news, too, because he had kept up his interest in Jack’s case, wanting to know if the side effects had caused any problems. Luckily, they hadn’t.

  She pushed open the door to the day room. James was in there, though his back was towards her, and as soon as she saw his lean, familiar figure, she brightened. But then he half turned and with a shock she realised that he was not alone.

  Caitlin was there with him, and they had their arms around one another, locked in an intimate embrace. He was kissing her, but as they heard the sound of the door opening, they broke apart.

  Amber stared from one to the other, her heart taking a downward leap in her chest, her throat closing in a surge of emotion. Then she swivelled around and hurried out of the room. Her worst fears had come crashing down on her, and she had no idea what to do or how to cope.

  ‘Is something wrong?’ Martyn asked. He was walking slowly along the corridor towards her and now there was a look of concern on his face. ‘What is it? Has something happened to a patient? Is it Jack? Has he taken a turn for the worse?’

  She looked up at him, unable to speak for a moment or two. Then, ‘Jack’s fine,’ she told him briefly. ‘He’s absolutely fine. His treatment’s working.’

  Martyn turned to follow the direction she was taking. ‘Will you slow down?’ he asked. ‘Where are you going?’

  She didn’t answer him, but at that moment Caitlin and James came out of the day room, and on hearing their voices Martyn half turned with her to look towards them.

  James looked pale, his features sombre, but Caitlin’s face still wore the bemused look of a girl who didn’t know what was happening in the world around her.

  ‘Will you walk me back to my room?’ Martyn said, looking at Amber. ‘I’m feeling a bit shaky. I was going to watch TV in the day room, but I think I’ve changed my mind. I’ve just remembered that there’s racing on the radio, and I’d rather listen to that in my room.’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ Amber said. The last thing she wanted right now was to have company of any kind, but Martyn was a patient, and his needs had to come first. They started to walk along the corridor, leaving James and Caitlin behind. Perhaps James thought better of following her, seeing that she wasn’t alone. The relief Amber felt was small consolation.

  ‘Are you still worrying about finding a job?’ Martyn asked once they were back in his room. ‘You haven’t seemed to be your usual self these last few days. I know you’ve been concerned about Jack not improving as fast as you would have liked, but you’re doing all you can for him, aren’t you?’

  Amber helped him into his chair. He sounded as though he was having difficulty breathing, and she guessed that the effort of walking to the day room had placed a strain on his heart. ‘Just you try to relax for a while, and get your breath back,’ she said. She poured him a drink of juice from the jug on his bedside table, and offered him a tablet to dissolve on his tongue and ease the spasm of pain in his chest.

  He accepted both, and then leaned back in his chair, gathering his strength.

  ‘Jack is feeling much better,’ she told him. ‘The treatment seems to be working at last, and we’ve managed to keep the side effects down to a minimum. With any luck, he’ll be going home at the end of the month.’

  ‘That’s brilliant news.’ Colour was gradually coming back into Martyn’s cheeks, and Amber watched him, concerned for his well-being and trying to push the image of James and Caitlin out of her mind.

  Seeing them together that way had come as a tremendous shock, but now, as she slowly absorbed the reality of the situation, she was trying to analyse how she truly felt.

  Was it something she had known all along—that she and James had drifted apart? Would it have happened even if Caitlin had not come along? What was it that James had said? ‘You can rely on Amber to take care of things. She’s always been a force to be reckoned with.’

  Perhaps that’s where the trouble lay. She was self reliant up to a point, whereas Caitlin was young and vulnerable, and she brought out the protective instinct in James. It didn’t matter that Amber might be filled with self-doubt from time to time. She tried her best to deal with each problem as it came along, and it was a matter of pride to her that she should try sort things out for herself instead of wearing her heart on her sleeve. But maybe James didn’t want a woman who was on equal terms with him, and that was a sad truth that Amber was trying to take on board.

  Her shoulders slumped. She was empty inside. There was nothing left. No dreams to cherish, no soul mate to walk hand in hand with her through life, no job to help her seek solace in helping others…no future. All that lay before her was an endless, bleak desert.

  Martyn stirred, and she realised that he was studying her thoughtfully as he shifted in his chair. His condition was beginning to improve, and she could see that he was frowning, preoccupied now that he was feeling a little more rested.

  ‘Would you like me to switch the radio on for you?’ she asked. The headphones were on a hook on the wall behind him and she made to reach for them, but he shook his head.

  ‘I’ve changed my mind,’ he said. ‘I don’t feel like listening to the radio after all.’ He pulled in a deep, steadying breath. ‘I’m glad Jack is feeling better. It will be good for him to go home.’ He hesitated. ‘I keep wondering what’s going to happen when I go back home—back to Hawaii, I mean. Life is never going to be the same for me again, is it? I’m beginning to realise that I might struggle in some ways without help. Here in hospital it’s reassuring to know that someone is always on hand to help out, but I won’t be able to rely on that back home, will I?’

  ‘You’ll have Ethan, won’t you?’ Amber frowned. ‘He’s a doctor, and he’s your nephew…he isn’t going to leave you to cope on your own, is he?’

  ‘He has enough to do, with the plantation and his work at the hospital. I can’t ask him to do any more.’

  ‘What about Caitlin? Her university course finishes soon, doesn’t it? Won’t she be on hand to take care of you?’

  Martyn pulled a face. ‘She’s very young, and she has her life ahead of her. I can’t ask her to stay home and look after me. Besides, she plans to take up a post in pharmaceutical sciences at the university hospital in Oahu. Her exam results here in London have been excellent, and she’s assured of a place there.’

  Amber shook her head. ‘I don’t understand how you can be feeling concerned about what will happen back home. In your circumstances, you could have someone take care of you twenty-four hours a day…though I can’t see you putting up with that state of affairs for very long. I don’t think you’re temperamentally suited to have someone by your side for that length of time.’

  Martyn began to smile. ‘You understand me so well, don’t you? And how long have we known each other? A very short time.’ He was thoughtful for a while, and then said, ‘Of course, there is a solution to my problem. You would be my perfect choice…who could be better to look out for me?’

  Amber stared at him. ‘I’m not sure that I follow your drift,’ she said.

  Martyn leaned forward in his chair, his face brightening as th
ough everything was becoming clear to him. ‘It’s like this…It occurs to me that with you being out of work, you might just want to think about coming over to Hawaii to take care of me—on a part-time basis,’ he hurried to add. ‘I wouldn’t want you to feel that you needed to be there all the time. You could always take up a part-time post at the hospital. I have contacts that could fix you up with work. I know they’re short of people in the emergency unit.’

  Amber was stunned by his proposition. ‘But there must be all sorts of people you could ask to do that,’ she said, ‘people who live near to you back home.’

  ‘Possibly,’ he agreed. ‘But I know you, and I like you. I’ve become very fond of you over these last few weeks. More to the point, I trust you, Amber. Think of it as a great opportunity. Not only could you work in Emergency, you could learn more about medicine in a different country, a different climate.’ He watched her as though he was trying to gauge her reaction. Then he leaned forward and reached for her hand, clasping it between his palms. ‘Couldn’t you do with a break right now…sun…sand…sea…? What could be better?’

  ‘I…You’ve taken me completely by surprise,’ Amber managed. ‘I don’t know what to say.’

  ‘Say yes,’ Martyn urged her. ‘You don’t have any reason to stay here, do you? Except your family, of course. But we could arrange for you to link up online, or even for them to come out to see you.’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Amber was frowning, trying to take it all in. What was there for her here, except heartbreak and unemployment? Her whole life had changed over these last few weeks. Her career would soon be on hold, and this very afternoon her love life had come crashing down around her. Why shouldn’t she take the easy way out and try to escape the tragedy? Wouldn’t it be the chance of a lifetime to go and work on a tropical island in the Pacific Ocean?

  ‘Well then, let’s say that you come out for six months, to give it a try? That way you wouldn’t be committing yourself for ever. What do you think?’

  ‘What does she think about what?’ Ethan’s voice broke the silence, crackling through the air and slicing through Amber’s reverie like a knife. ‘Am I missing something? Why are you two holding hands again?’ His voice was etched with suspicion and his blue eyes raked over her, so that Amber felt her defences spring up in an act of self-preservation.

  Why was he so concerned about her relationship with his uncle? Did he really think she was trying to inveigle her way into his uncle’s heart? It hurt that he should think so little of her.

  ‘Your uncle has just offered me a job in Hawaii,’ she said. Her jaw lifted. ‘And I’m thinking of accepting it.’

  Ethan gasped, but Martyn’s hands tightened on hers, and a smile lit up his face. ‘You won’t regret it if you do, I promise you.’

  She smiled at him. ‘We’ll see. Just give me a little while to think things through,’ she said. ‘I’m not sure that making snap decisions is a good idea.’

  ‘I know you’ll make the right choice.’ Martyn was irrepressible now, and she could see he believed it was a done deal. That gave her pause for thought. It was one thing to rile Ethan by making rash statements on the spur of the moment, but Martyn deserved better. His offer was genuine, she was sure of that, because he wanted the best for both of them, and it would only be fair to give the idea due consideration.

  Ethan, on the other hand, was ready to take issue with her on the mere suggestion that she and Martyn were cooking up plans between them.

  She gazed across the room at the screen. Ethan’s gaze drilled into her, and she could feel the frustration that fed the flame that burned in his eyes. Did he think she had manoeuvred Martyn into offering her this opportunity?

  That was his problem, she decided. She’d had enough of being let down by men and the system in general. It was time to take charge of her life, instead of allowing events to buffet her here and there in whimsical fashion. If Ethan didn’t like the option she chose, that was unfortunate. Martyn was offering her a way out, and she would give his suggestion some serious, deep thought.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ‘I CAN’T wait to be back on the island,’ Martyn said, ‘but it shouldn’t be much longer now, all being well.’ In the background, the quiet drone of the plane’s engines seemed to confirm what he was saying. ‘Of course, the delay at the start of the flight didn’t help, did it? Though I expect we’d have had to wait much longer if you hadn’t stepped in and helped the flight attendant.’

  ‘I felt sorry for her,’ Amber murmured. ‘There isn’t really any treatment for a perforated eardrum, except for painkillers and maybe antibiotics. But she certainly wasn’t able to come with us on the flight in that condition, so it left the airport authorities with a problem to solve, didn’t it? They had to quickly find someone to replace her.’

  Martyn pulled in a long, deep breath. ‘It all turned out fine in the end, though, thank goodness. And now we’re on the last leg of the journey.’ He smiled softly. ‘It seems such an age since I last set foot on Hawaiian soil, and yet really it’s only been a few months.’

  ‘Perhaps it feels that way because so much has happened to you in that time,’ Amber suggested. ‘You’ve been very ill.’ She frowned. ‘In fact, I was worried in case you wouldn’t be well enough to fly, but you seem to have surprised us all.’

  ‘I was determined to make it,’ he said with quiet satisfaction. ‘I have to go home. I don’t know how much longer I have on this earth, but I want to die on Hawaiian soil.’

  Amber reached for his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. ‘Please don’t say that. You’ve been doing so well.’

  ‘Only with your help,’ he said. ‘You mustn’t worry about me. I’m content. I’m glad that I’ve been given a little more time.’ He gave her an appreciative, gentle smile, before leaning back in his seat and slowly closing his eyes. Within minutes, he appeared to have drifted into a light doze.

  Amber gazed out of the window of the plane. She still found it hard to believe that she was actually sitting here by his side, getting ready for the approach to the island. Her mother’s warnings and the echo of her parental anxiety were still ringing loud and clear in her head.

  ‘But it’s so far away, and you don’t know this man or these people,’ her mother had said.

  ‘Why don’t you speak to Martyn yourself?’ Amber had suggested. ‘I’m sure he’ll be able to put your mind at ease.’ Her mother had agreed to do that, but in fact her father had made his own checks to see that all was well. He had spoken to the hospital authorities on the island and verified that the job she was going to did indeed exist, and though Amber protested that she was perfectly able to take care of herself, she was pleased that they cared enough to make sure that she would be safe.

  Her mother was still agitated, even after she had spoken to Martyn. ‘This is all so sudden,’ she said, ‘and I can’t think why he wants to take you halfway across the world.’ For a moment Amber thought she sounded very much like Ethan. Ethan was definitely guarded about Martyn’s sudden decision to ask her to come to Hawaii with him, and she still had the feeling he thought she might somehow have manipulated his uncle into taking this action.

  ‘Are you sure you know what you’re doing?’ he quizzed her, his blue eyes narrowing on her. ‘My uncle might be physically frail, but he won’t be alone out here. Hawaii is my land, my territory, and my family is everything to me. I won’t stand by and see any of them hurt.’ It was a warning she took to heart. She didn’t blame Ethan for his attitude…it was good that he cared so much for his uncle, but it was unnerving to know that he was suspicious of her motives. Clearly she couldn’t look forward to everything being plain sailing when she arrived in Hawaii.

  As to her mother, Amber couldn’t quite see what she was worried about. ‘Everything’s been properly sorted out,’ she told her. ‘The arrangement is that I’ll have my own house—well, it’s a bungalow, really—but it will be fairly close to the big house where Martyn lives. I’m not sure whether his nephe
w lives with him, but I think it was Ethan’s idea that I have my own place.’ He didn’t want her getting too close to Martyn, that was for sure, but she wasn’t about to say that to her mother and cause her to worry even more.

  ‘Aren’t you surprised that Martyn has taken to you this way?’ her mother asked. ‘He’s given you no real reason for wanting you to go out there, has he?’

  ‘He’s set up a job for me,’ Amber said. ‘Perhaps he was concerned that I was going to be unemployed. Anyway, I start work at the hospital two weeks after I arrive in Oahu.’

  At least, after talking to Martyn, her mother was no longer putting obstacles in her way. She seemed reconciled to the fact that Amber had made up her mind, and she seemed slightly appeased when Amber promised to stay in touch.

  ‘I want you to talk to me every week, and tell me what’s going on,’ her mother said. ‘We’ll set up one of those video cam links that you told me about.’

  ‘I’ll do it as soon as I get there,’ Amber said. ‘Honestly, you’re worrying over nothing. Didn’t you feel reassured after you spoke to Martyn? He’s really a very good man, you know. Dad spoke to him on the phone, didn’t he? And he didn’t have any problem with him.’

  Her mother was still fretting. ‘He spoke to his nephew, too, but he didn’t seem too keen on the idea. I’m just taken aback by the whole thing. This has all happened so quickly,’ she said. ‘I can’t get used to the idea.’

  That was the only explanation her mother gave for her anxiety, and Amber did her best to set her mind at rest. Her mother didn’t usually react this way to new situations and Amber thought it a little odd that she should be so unsettled about it even now.

  ‘You’ll be able to come and visit me, won’t you?’ Amber murmured. ‘You and Dad are due a holiday, and I’ll be back after six months anyway.’

  ‘So you say. He said you could stay on, didn’t he?’