A Family Of Their Own

‘Sandwell Gardens.’ Once again he turned to face her and grinned. ‘And before you get the wrong idea, the name sounds far grander than the actual place is! The said gardens boil down to a scrubby bit of grass and a few pathetic trees.’

‘But at least you do have grass and trees,’ she said tartly. ‘The only thing I can see from my window are the houses across the road. The view is less than inspiring, I assure you.’

‘In other words, count my blessings, eh?’

His gaze was warm, far warmer than it should have been bearing in mind the short time they’d known one another. Yet it didn’t feel as though it had only been a matter of hours since she’d met him, she realised. It felt as though she’d known him for ever. Maybe she had in a way because Nick was the living, breathing embodiment of the man she’d always dreamed of spending her life with.

The thought shocked her so much that she gasped, and she saw his eyes darken with concern. ‘Are you all right?’

‘Yes, fine.’ She hunted for an explanation because telling him the truth was out of the question. Nick would run a mile if he found out that she’d decided he was the blueprint of the man she had always wanted to marry.

‘I just remembered that I meant to phone my father last night,’ she said, using the first excuse she could think of. ‘I promised to let him know how my first day at work had gone and it completely slipped my mind.’

‘He’s probably worried sick that you’ve been abducted by slave traders,’ Nick said lightly, but she was relieved to see that he seemed to have accepted her story.

They reached the platform and Leanne followed as he made his way through the crowds of people who were waiting for the next train to arrive. He turned to her when they reached a relatively quiet spot.

‘Why don’t you phone him from the clinic? You can always reimburse the company for the call so it isn’t a problem. I know what my dad is like when my sisters are away—he worries himself to death in case something has happened to them.’

‘No, it’s OK. I’ll do it tonight,’ she assured him, then frowned as she mulled over what he’d said. ‘I thought you had just the one sister, the one who was a nurse at your parents’ practice.’

‘I’ve a younger sister as well. Penny is the baby of the family. She’s just been accepted as a junior houseman at Bart’s. She’s also getting married in two weeks’ time, which is why I came back to England.’

‘You are lucky!’ she exclaimed wistfully. ‘I can’t imagine what it must be like, being part of a big family like that. I always longed to have brothers and sisters.’

‘It has its ups and downs. It isn’t all good.’

‘What do you mean?’ She looked at him curiously, unable to ignore the pain she had heard in his voice. Without stopping to think, she laid her hand on his arm. ‘Nick, tell me.’

She heard him take a deep breath and when he spoke she felt her eyes prickle with tears because of the sadness in his voice. ‘I had another brother as well—my twin, Matt. He died when he was twenty-six.’

‘I am so sorry! I don’t know what to say apart from that…’ She felt her throat clog up with emotion and turned away because she didn’t want him to see how much it had upset her. She couldn’t begin to imagine how it must feel to lose someone as close to you as a twin brother.

Their train arrived just then and in the scramble to squeeze into the carriage there was no chance to say anything else. Nick stood beside her as the train roared through the tunnel. They were packed so tightly together that she could feel the heat from his body all down her side, but she didn’t try to move away.

Maybe it would help to lessen his grief if he knew she was there for him, she thought wistfully. She might be reading too much into a situation she knew very little about, but she sensed that his brother’s death still affected Nick. If there was any way that she could help him, she would do so. It might be only hours since they had met but she cared about this man. She really did.

Nick was glad when the journey was over. Standing so close to Leanne in the crowded carriage had been a test of endurance he could have done without. Talking about Matt’s death always upset him, but it wasn’t only thoughts of his brother which had plagued him.

Every time the carriage had swayed, he had felt Leanne’s breast pressing against his arm, her thigh making the most fleeting yet tantalising contact with his own. Frankly, he was a bundle of nerves by the time they reached St Stephen’s station and couldn’t wait to alight. Being that close to Leanne had tested his self-control beyond any reasonable limits, but he couldn’t afford to forget the rules by which he’d lived for the past ten years.

It was a depressing thought but he tried not to show how much it upset him as they stepped off the escalator into the station’s concourse. Nick paused and looked round, wondering what he should do. He had left home early with the express intention of having breakfast at one of the station’s numerous cafés, and it had suddenly occurred to him how rude it would be not to invite Leanne along.

‘I was going to stop for coffee and something to eat,’ he explained, turning to her. He felt his heart bump painfully when she looked around and he saw the concern in her beautiful grey eyes.

Had she guessed how upset he always felt whenever he spoke about Matt? he thought wonderingly. Was that why she looked so sad all of a sudden, because she cared that he was hurting?

He sensed it was so and it was both a pleasure and a pain to realise it because he couldn’t afford to wallow in the comfort she could offer him. He had to stick to the decision he’d made all those years ago. He could never ask a woman to commit herself to him when he had nothing to offer her.

‘How do you fancy joining me for breakfast? My treat.’ It was an effort to behave naturally when his mind was suddenly awash with desires which he had thought he’d put behind him a long time ago.

‘Oh, that’s very kind—’ she began, and he found himself interrupting when he sensed that she was going to refuse. Maybe he was playing with fire, but the thought of spending a little more time on his own with her was too tempting to resist.

‘Say that you’ll come,’ he coaxed. ‘Just a quick cup of coffee and maybe a roll if you’re not very hungry? I hate eating on my own so you will be doing me a favour.’ He smiled appealingly at her, watching the rapid play of emotions that crossed her face before she shrugged.

‘Why not? A cup of coffee might help to warm me up.’ She gave an exaggerated shiver. ‘I still haven’t acclimatised to the British weather.’

‘Even we British haven’t acclimatised to our weather, which is why it’s such an endlessly fascinating topic of conversation!’

He quirked a brow when she chuckled, trying to disguise how pleased he felt that she had accepted his invitation. Frankly, he couldn’t understand why it should mean so much to him. All they were going to do was share coffee and a snack, hardly an earth-shattering moment in anyone’s life.

‘I’m not kidding. Put two Brits together and they’ll spend most of their time discussing the vagaries of the weather. You’ll never be at a loss for something to say if you stick to the weather as a topic.’

She burst out laughing. ‘If I’d said that you would claim I was being racist!’

‘Probably. But the one thing we British are good at is not taking ourselves too seriously. Right, two large cups of coffee coming up. And how about some bacon sandwiches to go with them?’

‘No way! Think of all that cholesterol.’ She shook her head so vigorously that a wisp of dark red hair broke free from its restraining pins.

Nick’s hands clenched because he wasn’t sure that he would be able to resist smoothing it back into place if he didn’t get a grip on himself. How would she feel about that? he wondered, then cut short the answer because he didn’t want to hear it. Even allowing himself to imagine that Leanne might not be averse to him touching her hair—or other parts of her beautiful body—was too big a test of his self-control.

‘All right, then, no bacon. The sausage is pretty good, though, especially if you add lots of brown sauce…That’s a thought. Do you Aussies appreciate the finer points of brown sauce? If not, your taste buds are in for a treat.’

He breathed a sigh of relief when she laughed. All things considered, he hadn’t handled things too badly, he decided as they made their way to the nearest café. He’d kept his cool and hadn’t made a complete idiot of himself. Great! Now all he had to do was keep it up for the next three months while Leanne worked at the clinic and he was home and dry.

Is that all? a small voice whispered. A mere twelve weeks of pretending that Leanne doesn’t have the power to turn your life inside out? You have nothing to worry about, then, do you?

Nick swallowed a groan. Who was he kidding? Nothing about this situation was going to be easy. All he could do was pray that he had the strength of mind to stick to what he knew was right. No matter how much he liked Leanne, nothing could ever come of it.

‘Just coffee and one of those rolls, please.’

Leanne pointed to a tray of sugary rolls at the back of the counter, nodding when the assistant asked if she wanted jam with it. ‘Please.’

She took the plate and followed Nick to the checkout. Even at this early hour of the day, the café was crowded, but she spotted a couple getting up from a table in the corner and pointed towards it. ‘I’ll snag that table for us. OK?’

‘Fine.’ Nick gave her a quick smile then hunted some money out of his pocket to pay the cashier.

Leanne made her way to the table, edging aside the debris left by the previous diners so that she could put her tray down. She unloaded her cup and plate then piled the dirty dishes onto the tray and handed them to the young man who had arrived to clear up. By the time Nick arrived, the table had been wiped clean and she had managed to find paper napkins and silverware.

‘How very organised you are, Miss Russell. I usually end up bobbing up and down, fetching all the things I’ve forgotten.’ He unloaded his tray then grinned when he spotted the small packets of brown sauce propped against the salt cellar.

‘You get extra points for those!’ he said, laughing at her. ‘Were you a Guide, by any chance? You seem to be very well prepared.’

‘It comes from waiting on tables at my parents’ restaurant, although brown sauce isn’t something my dad normally offers his clientele,’ she explained with a grin.

Nick’s brows rose. ‘Clientele, eh? I take it that your dad doesn’t run a greasy-spoon café, then?’

‘You take it right.’ She ripped open a packet of sugar and poured it onto the frothy white bubbles floating on the surface of her cup of cappuccino. ‘Dad caters for the top end of the market. The restaurant overlooks Sydney harbour and the people who go there expect—and get—the very best cuisine.’