The Husband She'd Never Met

by Barbara Hannay

  Max did this with a light touch of his fingertips.

  If he really is my husband, his fingertips—those very fingertips—must have skimmed beneath my clothing and trailed over my skin.

  The thought sent a thrilling shiver zinging through her.

  There was something rather fascinating about those rough, workmanlike hands, so different from the pale, smooth hands of Dave the accountant...the last guy she could remember dating.

  She quickly squashed such thoughts and concentrated on the contents of the cupboard—a small, rather plain brown leather handbag with a plaited leather strap, more conservative than Carrie’s usual style. She certainly didn’t recognise it.

  Max, with a polite smile, handed the bag to her, and she caught a sharp flash of emotion in his bright blue eyes. It might have been sadness or hope. For a split second, she felt another zap.

  Quickly she dropped her gaze, took a deep breath and slid the bag’s zip open. Inside were sunglasses—neat and tasteful sunglasses, with tortoiseshell frames—again much more conservative than the funky glasses she usually wore. Also a small pack of tissues, an emery board, a couple of raffle tickets and a phone with a neat silver cover. Sunk to the bottom was a bright pink and yellow spotted money purse.

  Oh. Carrie stared at the purse. This she definitely remembered. She’d bought it in that little shop around the corner from her flat. She’d been bored on a rainy Saturday morning and had gone window shopping. She’d been attracted by the cheery colours and had bought it on impulse.

  But she had no memory of ever buying the plain brown handbag or the neat silver phone. Then again, if the phone really was hers it could be her lifeline. She could ring her mother and find out for sure if this man standing beside her bed in jeans and riding boots truly was her husband.

  Or not.

  ‘I need to ring my mother,’ she said.

  ‘Sure—by all means.’ Max Kincaid’s big shoulders lifted in a casual shrug. ‘I’ve already rung her to explain about the accident, so she’ll be pleased to hear from you.’

  This did not bode well. He sounded far too relaxed and confident.

  Carrie’s stomach was tight as she scrolled to her mum’s number and pressed the button. The phone rang, but went straight through to the voicemail message.

  At least her mother’s voice sounded just as Carrie remembered.

  ‘Mum, it’s me,’ she said, trying to keep her own voice calm. ‘Carrie. I’m in hospital. I’m OK, or at least I feel OK, but can you ring me back, please?’

  As she left this message Max waited patiently, with his big hands resting lightly on his hips. He nodded when she was finished. ‘I’m sure Sylvia will ring back.’

  Sylvia. Max Kincaid knew that her mother’s name was Sylvia.

  Feeling more nervous than ever now, Carrie picked up the familiar purse. While she was waiting for her mother’s call she might as well check the driver’s licence.

  Please let it say that I’m Carrie Barnes.

  The usual spread of cards were slotted into the purse’s plastic sleeves, and right up front was the driver’s licence. Carrie saw immediately that, while the photo was typically unflattering, the picture was definitely of her face. There could be no doubt about that.

  And then her gaze flashed to the details...

  Name: Carrie Susannah Kincaid.

  Sex: Female.

  Height: 165 cm.

  Date of birth: July 8th 1985.

  Address: Riverslea Downs station,

  Jilljinda, Queensland.

  Her heart took off like a startled bird.

  Thud-thud-thud-thud.

  Her headache returned. She sank back against the pillows and closed her eyes. This was either a huge hoax or the hospital staff were right. She had amnesia and had forgotten that she was married to Max Kincaid.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ she said.

  ‘You’ve had an accident, Carrie.’ He spoke gently. ‘A fall from a horse. A head injury.’

  ‘But if I can remember my name, and my mother’s name, why can’t I remember anything else... Why can’t I remember you?’

  Max Kincaid gave an uncomfortable shrug. ‘The doctor is confident you’ll get your memory back.’

  The problem was that right now Carrie wasn’t sure that she wanted her memory to come back. Did she really want to know that it was all true? That she wasn’t a city girl any more? That she lived on a cattle property and was married to this strange man?

  It was far too confronting.

  She wanted the reassuring comfort of the life she knew and remembered—as a single girl in Sydney, with a reasonably interesting and well-paid job at an advertising agency and a trendy little flat in Surry Hills. Plus her friends. Friday nights at Hillier’s Bar. Saturday afternoons watching football or going to the beach at Bondi or Coogee. Every second Sunday evening at her mother’s.

  It was so weird to be able to recall all these details so vividly and yet have no memory of ever meeting Max Kincaid. Even weirder and more daunting was the suggestion that they hadn’t merely met, but were married.

  Did she really live with this strange man in the Outback?

  Surely that was impossible. She’d never had a hankering for the Outback. She knew how hard that life was, with heat and dust and flies, not to mention drought and famine, or bushfires and floods. She was quite sure she wasn’t tough enough for it.

  But perhaps more importantly, if she was married to this man...she must have slept with him. Probably many times.

  Involuntarily Carrie flashed her gaze again to his big shoulders and hands. His solid thighs encased in denim. She imagined him touching her intimately. Touching her breasts, her thighs. Heat rushed over her skin, flaring and leaping like a bushfire in a wind gust.

  For a second, almost as if he’d guessed her thoughts, his blue eyes blazed. Carrie found herself mesmerised. Max’s eyes were sensational. Movie star sensational. For a giddy moment she thought he was going to try to lean in, to kiss her.

  On a knife-edge of expectation, she held her breath.

  But Max made no move. Instead, he said, matter-of-factly, ‘I’m told that you can check out of the hospital now. I’m to take you to Townsville. For tests—more X-rays.’

  Carrie sighed.

  He picked up the holdall he’d brought with him and set it on the chair beside her bed. ‘I brought clean clothes for you.’

  ‘My clothes?’

  His mouth tilted in a crooked smile. ‘Yes, Carrie. Your clothes.’

  He must have gone through her wardrobe and her underwear drawer, making a selection. Invading her privacy. Or was he simply being a thoughtful husband?

  If only she knew the truth. ‘Thank you,’ she said.

  ‘Do you need a hand?’

  Instinctively her gaze dropped to his hands. Again. Dear heaven, she was hopeless. ‘How do you mean?’

  ‘With getting out of bed? Or getting dressed?’

  She was quite sure she blushed. ‘No, thanks. I’ll be fine.’

  ‘I’ll be outside, then.’ With the most fleeting of smiles, Max left.

  * * *

  In the hospital hallway, Max dragged in a deep breath and let it out slowly as he tried to ease the gnawing anxiety that had stayed with him since his initial panic yesterday, when he’d heard about Carrie’s accident. He’d never experienced such gut-wrenching dread.

  In that moment he’d known the true agony of loving someone, of knowing his loved one was in trouble and feeling helpless. He’d wanted to jump in his vehicle and race straight to the hospital, but Doug had warned him to hold off. Carrie was sleeping and probably wouldn’t wake before morning.

  Now, Max felt only marginally calmer. Carrie was out of danger, but he was left facing the bald facts. Two days ago his
wife had walked out on him. Today she had no memory of ever meeting him.

  It was a hell of a situation.

  One thing was certain: he had no hope of sorting anything out with Carrie if she didn’t even know who he was. But by the same token, there was no question that he wouldn’t look after her until she was well again. He was still her husband, after all. He still loved her. Deeply.

  And he couldn’t shake off the feeling that Carrie still loved him, that she hadn’t been totally honest about her reasons for leaving. But perhaps that was just wishful thinking. There was a strong possibility that when Carrie’s memory returned she would also recall all her grievances in vivid detail.

  The very thought ate at Max’s innards, but he would worry about that when the time came. Till then, his role was clear.

  * * *

  Carrie edged carefully out of bed. Her feet reached the floor and as she stood she felt a bit dizzy, but the sensation quickly passed. The bump on her head throbbed faintly, but it wasn’t too bad.

  She took out the clothes Max had brought—a pair of jeans and a white T shirt, a white bra and matching panties. There was also a plastic bag holding a pair of shoes—simple navy blue flats. Everything was good quality, and very tasteful, but Carrie found it hard to believe they were hers.

  Where were the happy, dizzy colours she’d always worn?

  Conscious of the man waiting mere metres away, just outside her door, she slipped off the hospital nightgown and put on the underwear. The bra fitted her perfectly, as did the pants, the jeans and the T-shirt.

  She was surprised but rather pleased to realise that she was quite slim now. In the past she’d always had a bit of a struggle with her weight.

  She combed her hair again and then checked the bedside cupboard and found a plastic hospital bag with more clothes—presumably the clothes she’d worn when she arrived here. Another pair of denim jeans and a blue and white striped shirt, white undies and brown riding boots. Crikey.

  She felt as if her whole life and personality had been transplanted. These clothes should belong to a girl in a country style magazine. Which was weird and unsettling. How had this happened? Why had she changed?

  Anxiety returned, re-tightening the knots in her stomach as she stuffed the bag of clothes and the brown handbag into the holdall. She checked her phone again. Still no reply from her mum.

  Mum, ring me, please.

  She needed the comfort of her mum’s voice. Needed her reassurance, too. At the moment Carrie felt as if she was in a crazy sci-fi movie. Aliens had wiped a section of her memory and Max Kincaid was part of their evil plan to abduct her.

  She knew this was silly, but she still felt uneasy as she went to the door and found Max waiting just outside.

  His smile was cautious. ‘All set?’

  Unwilling to commit herself, she gave a shrug, but when Max held out his hand for the holdall she gave it to him.

  They made their way down a long hospital corridor to the office, where all the paperwork was ready and waiting for her.

  ‘You just have to sign here...and here,’ the girl at the counter said as she spread the forms in front of Carrie.

  Carrie wished she could delay this process. Wished she could demand some kind of proof that this man was her husband.

  ‘Will I see the doctor again before I leave?’ she hedged.

  The girl frowned and looked again at the papers. ‘Dr Byrne’s been treating you, but I’m sorry, he’s in Theatre right now. Everything’s here on your sheet, though, and you’re fit to travel.’

  ‘Carrie has an appointment in Townsville,’ Max said.

  The girl smiled at him, batting her eyelashes as if he was a rock star offering his autograph.

  Ignoring her, he said to Carrie, ‘The appointment’s for two o’clock, so we’d better get on our way.’

  Carrie went to the doorway with him and looked out at the landscape beyond the hospital. There was a scattering of tin-roofed timber buildings that comprised the tiny Outback town. A bitumen road stretched like a dull blue ribbon, rolling out across pale grassland plains dotted with gum trees and grazing cattle. Above this, the sun was ablaze in an endless powder-blue sky.

  She looked again at her phone. Still no new message.

  ‘Carrie,’ Max said. ‘You can trust me, I promise. You’ll be OK.’

  To her surprise she believed him. There was something rather honest and open about his face. Perhaps it was country boy charm, or perhaps she just needed to believe him. The sad truth was she had little choice...she was in the Outback and she had to drive off with a total stranger.

  Max opened the door of a dusty four-wheel drive.

  He was nervous, too, she realised. Above the open neck of his shirt she could see the way the muscles in his throat worked, but his hand was warm and firm as he took her arm. Her skin reacted stupidly, flashing heat where he touched her as he helped her up into the passenger’s seat.

  A moment later, having dumped the holdall beside another pack in the back, he climbed into the driver’s seat beside her. Suddenly those wide shoulders and solid thighs and all that Outback guy toughness were mere inches away from her.

  ‘Just try to relax,’ he said as he started up the engine and backed out of the parking space. ‘Close your eyes. Go to sleep, if you like.’

  If only it was that easy.

  CHAPTER THREE

  THEY WERE ABOUT twenty kilometres down the road, with the small town of Jilljinda well and truly behind them when Carrie’s mother rang back.

  ‘It was such a relief to find your message and to hear your voice,’ her mum said.

  ‘It’s great to hear you, too, Mum.’ You. Have. No. Idea.

  ‘How are you, darling? Have you really lost your memory?’

  ‘Well, yes. Some of it, at least. The more recent things, apparently. I can remember all about Sydney, and about you and my friends, but I have no memory of meeting M-Max, or coming to Queensland.’

  ‘How very strange. It must be extremely upsetting, dear.’

  Carrie’s stomach took a dive. She’d been hoping her mother would tell her this was all a terrible mistake.

  Now, clearly, the impossible was not only possible, it was true. She was married to Max, an Outback cattleman.

  ‘Yeah, it’s very upsetting,’ she said. ‘It’s weird.’

  ‘And Max said this happened when you fell from a horse?’

  ‘Apparently.’ Carrie didn’t add that she had absolutely no memory of ever learning to ride a horse. The situation was bizarre enough, without giving her mum too much to worry about.

  Just the same, she heard her mother’s heavy sigh. ‘I always knew something dreadful like this would happen to you out there. I warned you right from the start that you should never marry a cattleman. The lifestyle is just too hard and dangerous, and now this accident proves it.’

  A cold wave of disappointment washed over Carrie. She’d been hanging out for maternal reassurance, or at the very least a few motherly words of comfort.

  ‘I don’t feel too bad,’ she felt compelled to add. ‘My headache’s just about gone. But I have to go to Townsville for more tests.’

  ‘Oh, dear.’

  Carrie sent a sideways glance to Max. Clearly her husband wasn’t in her mother’s good books and she wished she knew why. Was it something he’d done? Or was it merely because he lived in the Outback? She wondered if he’d guessed her parent’s negative response.

  ‘Are you in an ambulance?’ her mother asked next.

  ‘No.’ Carrie felt cautious now as she explained, ‘I’m with Max. He’s driving me to Townsville.’

  ‘Oh.’

  Carrie didn’t like the sound of that. Oh. It reinforced all the fears and doubts she’d been battling ever since Max had walked into her ho
spital room. Now she’d virtually handed herself over to a complete stranger, who was also apparently her life partner, her lover.

  In the car park he’d given his word. ‘Carrie, you can trust me, I promise. You’ll be OK.’

  She wanted to trust Max. All evidence pointed to the fact that he truly was her husband, so she needed to trust him. And as far as she could judge he had a very direct and honest face, although right now he shot her a sharp, frowning glance, almost as if he’d guessed the tenor of her mother’s message...

  ‘I suppose Max hasn’t said anything about—?’ Frustratingly, her mum stopped in mid-sentence.

  Carrie frowned. ‘Said anything about what?’

  ‘Oh... I—I—I’m sorry. Don’t worry, dear. I—I spoke without thinking.’

  Mum, for heaven’s sake.

  Beside Carrie, Max was very still, his eyes focused on the road ahead, his strong tanned hands steady on the steering wheel.

  ‘Is there’s something I should know, Mum? Just tell me.’

  ‘No, no, darling. Not now. You shouldn’t be stressed at a time like this. You should be trying to relax. Ring me again after you’re safely in Townsville. After you’ve finished with the tests.’

  Carrie hated being fobbed off. Her mum had been on the brink of telling her something important. ‘But what did you mean? What don’t I know?’

  Her mother, however, would not be coerced.

  ‘I’ll say goodbye for now. Take care, Carrie. I’ll be thinking of you and sending my love.’

  Then silence. She’d disconnected.

  Carrie gave a soft groan, dropped the phone back into her lap, and felt her uneasiness tighten another notch.

  * * *

  Here we go, thought Max. The Dragon has fired her first flare.

  He kept the thought to himself, clenching his teeth to hold back a comment. Carrie had enough to deal with right now.

  Beside him, she sighed. ‘Am I right in thinking that I often feel angry or frustrated after a phone conversation with my mother?’

  He sent her a sympathetic smile, but she looked so tired and confused he wanted to do a hell of a lot more than smile. His instincts urged him to pull over to the side of the road and take her in his arms. He wanted to ease that furrow between her fine brows, press a gentle kiss to her forehead, then another on the tip of her neat pointy nose, before finally settling on her sweet lush lips.