by Lucy Clark
‘How can you not be in the Christmas spirit? You, who always wanted it to be Christmas all year round? the woman who loved wishing everyone happy holidays as she walked around the hospital or went to the shops or the gym or, in fact, anywhere.’ Flynn pressed a finger to his lips in thought.
‘In fact, I remember you animatedly and jovially wishing the Prince of the Netherlands the happiest Christmas one year. Then the next day you gave a homeless man the same greeting in exactly the same way.’ He shook his head in bemusement. ‘That’s one thing I always liked about you, Reggie. You treated everyone, prince or pauper, the same. You afford everyone the same courtesy.’
Reggie glared at Flynn, her anger beginning to rise. ‘Don’t compliment me.’
‘Why not?’
Her mind tried to think of a reason because she could hardly tell him that his words had warmed her heart. She didn’t want her heart to be warmed by Flynn. Not now. Not ever. But he was still standing there, waiting for her reply. ‘Just…because.’ She shook her head and walked out of the café, waving her thanks to the owner and managing to muster a half-hearted smile. She hated herself for feeling this way, for not spreading joy and happiness, as was her wont, but seeing Flynn again, even walking alongside him as he fell into step beside her was throwing her completely off balance.
‘Just because? What kind of answer is that?’
‘The only one you’re going to get.’ She pressed the button at the pedestrian crossing with great impatience, wanting the light to turn green instantly so she could walk away from the man who had hurt her so bitterly. Still, she wasn’t the same woman she’d been six years ago. Once more in her life she’d been forced to pick herself up and keep moving forward. His rejection of her had only served to make her stronger and because of that she could and would stand up to him.
Drawing in a deep breath, she turned to face him, to give him a piece of her mind, to tell him to leave her alone, but it was only then she became aware of other people coming to join them at the traffic lights, waiting to cross the road. She was forced to step closer to him, to rise on her toes so she could direct her words closer to his ear.
‘Whatever happened between us happened a long time ago, Flynn.’
‘It wasn’t that long ago,’ Flynn pointed out, stepping closer to her, dipping his head and heightening the repressed awareness she was experiencing. She closed her eyes, desperate to remain in control of the situation and not be swayed by the cologne he was wearing, the same scent she’d introduced him to all those years ago, assuring him the subtle spicy scent suited him much better than the woodsy one he’d been wearing. She couldn’t believe he was still wearing the hypnotic, alluring scent.
The lights turned green, the beeping sound from the pedestrian crossing startling her slightly. She opened her eyes and belatedly realised that while everyone else had moved off, she and Flynn were just standing there, close—too close—looking at each other. She swallowed over her dry throat, desperate to ignore the tingles and sparkles and butterflies and all the other sensations this man had the habit of creating deep within her.
‘It was another lifetime ago,’ she eventually retorted, before turning and walking across the road, having to run the last little way as the flashing pedestrian sign had already turned red.
‘It was a good lifetime, though.’ His voice came from behind her and she glanced over her shoulder, not realising he’d crossed the road behind her. ‘We had a good time together.’
‘I don’t want to talk about it.’ She stopped walking for a moment and turned to glare at him. ‘Why are you here? Why now? Why—?’ She broke off, her voice cracking on the words. She looked away from him and shook her head, unable to believe her body and mind were betraying her by reacting to his enigmatic presence and becoming so emotional.
Swallowing, she shook her head and turned away from him, knowing it was better to beat a hasty retreat than say something she would regret. While Flynn may have broken her heart, it wasn’t in her nature to be mean or malicious.
She didn’t want to look behind her, didn’t want to know whether or not Flynn was following her. She didn’t want to know his whereabouts, she didn’t want to work alongside him in the clinic and she didn’t want to deal with him during operating lists. She wanted him to go, to leave the hospital and Maroochydore—in fact, leave Australia…and leave her alone.
So why, after the way he’d been smiling at her in the coffee shop, did she get the feeling that wasn’t about to happen?
CHAPTER TWO
REGGIE WAS GLAD she had a busy theatre list to focus her thoughts. It was easier to push the reappearance of Flynn Jamieson in her life to the back of her mind and instead be calm and controlled as she removed Mr Philmott’s gallbladder, relieved young Cynthia Schroder of her inflamed appendix and performed a hernia repair on Mrs Grant.
Between cases, she did her best not to run into Flynn, knowing he was operating in the next theatre. At one point, she was in the doctor’s tearoom, just finishing a much-needed cup of coffee, when she thought she heard his voice out in the corridor. Panic filled her insides and as she glanced wildly around the room she realised there really was no place for her to hide.
Quickly washing her cup, she headed to the door, intent on slipping out of the room as he came in. Never had she been more grateful to Ingrid Brown, one of the general surgical registrars who had been assigned to assist Flynn in Theatre, because as they came into the tearoom Ingrid was intent on keeping Flynn’s attention firmly on her.
‘Reg?’ Flynn interrupted Ingrid the instant he saw Reggie standing by the door. ‘How’s everything going in Theatre?’
‘Great,’ she offered, and quickly left the room, trying to ignore the spate of tingles that seemed to flood right through her body from the quick glance she’d received from Flynn. Why was it that even after six years, after breaking her heart and making her feel as though she was worthless, he could still create such havoc with her senses?
And that was the way things went for the next week, with Reggie doing her best to quickly slip out of a room the instant he walked in. Keeping a nice, uncomplicated distance between them was helping her to focus on her patients, on the planning for the hospital Christmas auction and on keeping her paperwork up to date. The fact that she was as jumpy as a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rocking chairs every time a nearby door opened or she heard male voices in the corridor meant nothing.
Self-preservation was of paramount importance in situations such as this, but even through all her efforts of avoidance she was having difficulty sleeping because the instant she lay in her bed and closed her eyes, memories of her past encounters with Flynn flooded her mind.
So many memories yet such a short time together. For the first two weeks in the Caribbean, she’d kept her distance from him, trying to figure out whether he was like all the other wealthy people she knew or whether he was, in fact, a normal person. Reggie had had very good reasons for distrusting the wealthy, but thankfully he’d turned out to be the latter…or so she’d thought.
Having been raised in an exclusive and snobbish Melbourne suburb, born to incredibly wealthy parents, Reggie had instantly recognised the name of Flynn Jamieson when he’d arrived at the understaffed Caribbean hospital for his six-week contract. Their fathers had been involved in some sort of business venture together and their elite community had been small, to say the least.
Of course, Flynn hadn’t had a clue of her own true identity and after she’d realised he really was interested in providing medical treatment to people in need, not just working there because it had been a good opportunity to advance his career, she’d started to thaw towards him.
She’d allowed herself to be affected by his gorgeous, sexy smile, his bright, twinkling eyes, his smooth, hypnotic voice. And once she’d fallen for him, hook, line and sinker, he’d revealed his true colours, discarding her feelings and dismissing her out of hand.
And yet somehow, all these years later, he still mana
ged to make her knees go weak with one of those smiles, make her heart pound wildly against her chest with a simple wink and make her melt in a boneless mass at the sound of his voice. It was wrong. Wrong that he still had such a hold over her emotions, and she resented him for it.
The following Monday, after she’d managed to avoid him once more during the general surgical elective theatres list, Reggie had stopped by her small office in the surgical block to finish writing up some notes and collect her computer and cellphone. It was late in the day and she was thankful the rest of the administrative staff had already left for the day because the last thing she felt like was talking to people.
‘So unlike you,’ she murmured, as she hunted around for her house keys, having already forgotten them twice in the past few days. She blamed Flynn’s presence for her lack of joviality and general absent-mindedness and once more wished he hadn’t chosen to come to Sunshine General and inadvertently torture her just by being around.
She heard a sound outside in the corridor and instantly she was alert, listening for evidence of Flynn. Deciding to forget the search for her keys, knowing her neighbour, Melva, had the spare set, Reggie quietly locked her office door and all but sprinted out of the department.
Whether or not it had been Flynn she’d heard or one of the cleaners, she didn’t care. Bumping into Flynn was too exhausting as it not only set her body into a trembling mass of uncontrollable tingles but also taxed her mind as she tried to fight the urge to throw herself into his arms and press her lips to his. She knew it was wrong to want to do that but sometimes it was difficult to deny the urge.
Reggie headed to the front of the hospital, looking forward to getting home, having a quick bite of dinner and then running a long, luxurious bath where she would soak until her skin was all wrinkled and pruney, washing away the cares of her day…and the acceptance that she was just as much attracted to Flynn as she’d ever been.
She stood at the taxi rank and looked up and down the road, unable to believe that at just after seven o’clock in the evening, on a Monday night, there were no taxis parked and waiting outside the hospital.
‘There are always taxis here,’ she murmured, spreading her arms wide.
‘Not tonight, from the look of things,’ Flynn’s deep voice said from beside her, the sound causing her heart to flip-flop with delight before a ripple of awareness washed over her. Reggie closed her eyes, trying to pull some sort of shield around herself, but she’d had a busy and emotionally exhausting day and wasn’t sure she had the energy for yet another run-in with Flynn.
Dragging in a deep breath, she opened her eyes and turned to look at him, deciding it was easier to face the situation than to make it worse by pretending to ignore him. ‘Do you think you might not continue to creep up on me?’ she asked, trying to keep her tone polite and impersonal but failing miserably.
‘Only if you stop dashing from a room every time I walk in,’ he countered, his clever eyes telling her he’d been aware of her avoidance tactics.
She looked down at her feet then cleared her throat. ‘Er…how was Theatre this afternoon?’
Flynn stared at her for a split second before nodding. ‘Good.’ He paused and she noted a small smile twitching at the corners of his lips. ‘No patients died.’
‘Always a good thing,’ she replied instantly, before she could stop herself. It was a private joke between the two of them, extending back to his first operating session in the Caribbean. The equipment at the hospital hadn’t been as up to date as that in the hospitals in Australia and afterwards she’d asked him that same question.
‘How did things go in Theatre, Flynn?’
‘Good,’ he’d replied, pulling off his cap and gown. ‘No patients died.’
Reggie’s laughter had filled the air at his words and it had been at that exact moment that she’d realised Flynn Jamieson was indeed a good man and she would be wrong not to give him a chance. She, herself, was proof that people shouldn’t be judged by who their parents were so she shouldn’t do the same to Flynn. ‘Always a good thing,’ she’d replied as he’d joined in with her laughter. From that day onwards, the two of them had been almost inseparable.
Reggie pushed the memory aside and glanced up and down the street as though willing a taxi to miraculously appear. She shifted her laptop bag to her other shoulder, wishing she hadn’t added a few hefty manila folders filled with paperwork to it.
‘You remembered,’ he said softly, reaching out to take her bag from her.
‘It’s OK. I’ve got it,’ she told him, grasping the strap and doing her best to ignore his comment. She didn’t want to stand here and reminisce about the past.
‘Of course.’ He dropped his hand back to his side. ‘Habit. I always used to carry your bag for you when we were together.’
‘But we’re not together anymore, Flynn, and I’m a big girl now and can do it all by myself.’ Her polite smile was starting to slip and not only was her exhaustion shining through, so was her lack of patience. ‘Look, Flynn, do you mind if we don’t do the trip down memory lane? I’ve had a hectic day and I just want to get back to my apartment, eat and have a—’
‘Relaxing soak in the tub,’ he finished for her, his words indicating just how well he did know her. ‘Of course you do.’ He took a step away. ‘I’ll leave you alone.’ With that, he turned and walked away without another word, leaving Reggie standing at the front of the hospital, beneath the bright lights, with other people milling around, both patients and staff.
She frowned at his quick retreat. It wasn’t that Flynn was leaving her all alone, deserted in the wilderness. He was merely doing as she’d asked. She should be grateful for that, so why was it she felt guilty for sending him away?
‘No taxis?’ an elderly man asked as he came to stand beside her, looking up and down the street.
‘There’s an international sporting match being played at the stadium,’ another person offered as she came to stand on the other side of Reggie.
‘Ah, all the taxis have taken their chances there.’ Reggie smiled and nodded, pulling her cellphone from her pocket. ‘I’d best ring for one. Would you like me to book one for both of you as well?’ she offered, feeling her natural joviality return. The others agreed and within minutes Reggie had ordered taxis for them. ‘They said it would be about another ten minutes.’
‘Thank you, dear,’ the man said. ‘I might go and sit down to wait.’
‘I’ll join you.’ But no sooner were the words out of her mouth than a white car pulled up into the taxi rank. Reggie did a double take as Flynn exited the car and came round to her side, taking her bag from her shoulder and holding open the passenger door.
‘Your taxi awaits, Dr Smith.’
The others who were waiting with her all laughed and clapped, drawing more attention.
‘I’ve called for a taxi,’ she spluttered as Flynn put a gentle hand beneath her elbow and guided her towards his car.
‘It won’t go to waste,’ the elderly man said, indicating a few other people who had come to the front of the hospital, hoping to find a swag of taxis.
‘So that’s settled,’ Flynn remarked, as a stunned Reggie sat in the passenger seat. He closed the door then turned to the other people standing there. ‘I apologise for not being able to be your personal taxi but I do wish you all the merriest of Christmases and a prosperous New Year.’ Then, with a small bow, he came round to the driver’s side, slipped behind the wheel, buckled his seat belt and the car merged seamlessly with the flowing evening traffic.
‘What…what are you doing?’ she asked, the shock slowly starting to wear off.
‘I’m giving you a lift home. I thought that was obvious.’ Flynn snapped his fingers at her. ‘Keep up, Reg.’
‘Don’t call me that.’
‘Why not? I’ve always called you Reg. In fact, if memory serves me correctly, I was the only one you allowed to call you that.’ Flynn’s smile was wide and bright. ‘It made me feel special.’
/>
‘That’s why I want you to stop.’
‘I’m not special to you anymore?’
‘Flynn, can we just stop this charade?’ she said abruptly, her exhausted temper getting the better of her.
‘Which way do I go?’
‘You go back to wherever it was you came from, get out of my life and leave me alone.’
‘No. I meant to your house. I don’t know where you live.’
Sighing with exasperation and deciding it was far better to work with him rather than against him as that would facilitate her arriving home sooner and thus escaping his presence, she said, ‘Turn right at the next set of traffic lights. Down two blocks then right, left, right, right.’
‘Right,’ he said, with a small chuckle.
Reggie rolled her eyes and stared out the window, determined not to say anything else. She’d been kidnapped and she was grumpy. Why was it Flynn seemed to bring out the worst in her?
‘You always used to say I brought out the best in you,’ he offered, and it was only then that Reggie realised she’d spoken out loud.
‘That was before.’ She shifted in her seat and stared at him. ‘I know I shouldn’t aggravate the designated driver but as you’ve basically kidnapped me, I just might.’ She dragged in a breath. ‘What we had all those years ago, Flynn, is over. I can learn to accept the fact that you’ll be here while Geetha’s on maternity leave—’
‘The next six months,’ he offered.
‘And I can even learn to work alongside you as a professional colleague, but at no point in the scenario of the two of us working at the same hospital does it mean we’re going to rekindle the relationship we had before.’ She shook her finger at him to emphasise her words. ‘You didn’t choose me, Flynn. You broke off our engagement and within less than a fortnight were married to another woman.’ Reggie crossed her arms over her chest and refused to say another word.
