Return of the Maverick

‘Not Sammy?’ Not his son? Hope flared. Brad looked back at the boy lying before him, and gulped. He looked nothing like Samuel. Except for the blond hair, the skinny legs and knobbly knees. Brad’s head spun. Damn it, he’d just made an idiot of himself freaking out like that. How could it be Samuel anyway? He was far away in California. The pain subsided, and Brad leaned down to run the back of his hand over the boy’s soft cheek, his fingers shaking.

Not his son, but another man would be feeling this agony as soon as he learned about the accident. What did these medical people think of him losing his cool like that? They’d probably cart him off to the lock up if he wasn’t careful. He looked around at the thinning crowd. At least no one here seemed to have recognised him. Thank goodness. He didn’t want his mistake added to the rest of the gossip no doubt circulating around Blenheim about him. Twisting his neck further, he found the nurse’s thoughtful gaze on him. She’d heard every word he’d uttered.

She gave him a tentative smile before filling in the patient report form for the ambulance crew. ‘Jason’s mum works in ED.’

The second officer leaned over and read the boy’s name. He whistled. ‘This is Polly’s boy? She’s already on shift.’

Glad of the distraction, Brad said, ‘Tricky. What happens when you call this job through to ED? It could be her who picks up the radio link.’ He felt for the woman. ‘Is there any other way of letting the staff know so they can tell her personally?’

‘We’ll phone in on our cell,’ one of the medics answered as he strapped the oxygen mask to Jason. ‘Right, let’s get that bike off and roll this lad onto the backboard.’

The four of them worked to get Jason safely untangled before transferring him to the stretcher and into the ambulance.

Brad turned to the nurse now standing beside him. ‘Phew, I’m glad that’s over. I always feel uncomfortable dealing with these situations when I’ve got no equipment at hand.’

‘I know exactly what you mean.’ Her teeth dug into her bottom lip. ‘And poor Polly’s going to get a shock, even if she is told before Jason gets there.’ She looked up at him and he could see the thought in her eyes.

A shock such as he’d just had.

Stepping up to the back of the ambulance, the woman advised the paramedic, ‘Tell Polly I’ve gone round to tell Jason’s father, will you?’

The paramedic began closing the back of the ambulance. ‘Sure will. And thanks for your help, Erin. I wish you’d come and join us. You’d make a great team member and we could use your skills.’

Brad gasped. Erin? As in Erin Foley, nurse at the medical centre he’d started working at? What would she have to say about his loss of concentration back there? If she informed the staff at the centre about it they might think they had more cause to look at him sideways.

But right now she was saying with an expressive shrug, ‘Who knows? If my new boss doesn’t work out, I might have to consider it.’

Still absorbing this latest bombshell, Brad muttered, ‘You’ve got doubts about a new boss before you’ve even worked with him?’ Why? Could she be feeling remorse for the tongue-lashing she’d given him over the phone last month despite not knowing him?

Erin blinked at him. ‘Ah, yes, I have.’ Turning her shoulder to him, she spoke to the paramedic again.

Of course she’d think it was none of Brad’s business. He should tell her who he was, get whatever was bothering her out in the open before clinic began. But, damn it, this was the woman who’d forced his hand, made him jump on a plane and cross the Tasman to help out the man who’d taken care of him years ago. If not for Erin Foley’s caustic phone call he’d still be justifying staying in Adelaide, pretending it was work that kept him there, not reluctance to face a town full of people who’d despised him for being a bad boy as a teenager. People who were no doubt laughing up their sleeves at his failed marriage, thinking he’d got his just deserts for believing he could escape his roots and rubbing their noses in it as he went. He shivered. And he couldn’t bear if they started in on Samuel.

The laughter about his mistakes and misdemeanours he could handle, but if anyone dared say a word about Samuel’s parentage he wouldn’t be able to hold in his hurt and anger.

A nudge in the arm from Erin’s elbow brought him back to his surroundings. She asked politely, ‘Are you okay? You look a bit pale.’

Pale? ‘I’m fine.’ He opened his clenched hands. ‘You want me to come with you to tell the boy’s father?’

‘No, thanks. I know them well.’

And he was a stranger. In her eyes, at least. There was a very real chance he’d know one of Jason’s parents, might’ve gone to school with one of them, so it was best he didn’t go with Erin to see Jason’s father. Brad didn’t want the past getting in the way of what she had to tell the other man. ‘Fair enough. Though someone else might’ve already beaten you to the door.’

‘Very likely but I need to make sure. I’d say Jason was on his way to school when he was hit by the van.’ She stretched her legs and looked around the crowd, nodded at a few people she obviously knew.

Of course she knew them. Some of them might even be patients at the medical centre where he now worked. Where she worked. He was her boss and he was interested in her other than as a nurse. That had to stop right now. This very instant. It wasn’t professional.

Only last week when he’d started at the clinic he’d had to hold his tongue when everyone had told him about the competent and cheerful nurse who had gone on leave the same day he’d started. He’d known the acid of her tongue over the phone, but nothing else about her. He’d expected a middle-aged paragon who was efficiency personified. No one had told him she was drop-dead gorgeous, and that was with a helmet on and wearing those dreadful Spandex cycle shorts with the padded seat.

Movement out of the corner of Brad’s eye caught his attention. Two youngsters were picking up a bike from the side of the road, a bike that looked suspiciously like Erin’s. ‘Hey, you two.’

The boys stopped, glanced over their shoulders, apprehension on their sulky faces. Little blighters had been about to steal the bike. ‘Put that down now.’

Their apprehension grew, but they remained quiet.

Erin looked around. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Those two were borrowing your bike.’ He’d managed to stop their silly escapade.

Her head spun around so fast she had to be giddy. Her eyes hardened, and she stormed across to retrieve her cycle. Damn, but she looked even more beautiful when she was angry. Something he didn’t need to know. But his brain seemed to be filing it away for later anyway.

She growled at the boys in a low voice that stroked his raw nerves. ‘You were going to steal my bike? How dare you? If you want a bike, get a job and earn the money for one. I should report you to the police.’

One of the boys scoffed, ‘Yeah, right, lady.’

The other glared at her defensively. ‘Who’d give us a job?’

She looked from one boy to the other, a frown scrunching her forehead. ‘I would, if I could. Unfortunately there aren’t any jobs for schoolkids where I work.’

Brad noted how hope flared quickly in the lads’ eyes, and disappeared as rapidly. Poor kids. Maybe he could think of something. But in the meantime they still owed her an apology. He turned to the boys. ‘Haven’t you two got something to say to this lady?’

Like twins they screwed their noses into sneers and rolled their eyes at her. But they did mutter, ‘Sorry.’

‘I imagine that’s as good as I’m going to get.’

He sighed. He’d heard these sorts of comments throughout his youth. People always expected the worst of kids from the wrong part of town, and judging by the worn and ill-fitting school uniforms these two were wearing, that was exactly where they came from. ‘You could give them a break.’

‘What? Am I supposed to congratulate the boys for being would-be thieves? They need a good dressing down.’

True, and they’d get one from him if their parents weren’t forthcoming. Did he know these boys’ families? It might be better for him if he left them alone and headed straight to the clinic. Don’t get involved. Don’t stir up the past any more than you have to.

But he still shook his head at Erin in warning before turning to the boys. ‘Come on, you two. Let’s get out of here.’

Before he hauled this woman into his arms, bike and all, and kissed her until her legs couldn’t hold her up. Banging his hand on his head, he muttered, ‘What the hell’s the matter with me?’

He tried to concentrate on the lads, tried to ignore her as she checked the road was clear before cycling away. She was going to be furious when she learned who he was. Why hadn’t he introduced himself once he’d realised they’d be working together?

Because he didn’t want to see the disdain at what she perceived to be his lack of compassion towards David any sooner than he had to. Had she heard about his badboy reputation? Would that add to her scorn?

But as those trim legs pumped the pedals he couldn’t stop staring after her. His hungry gaze followed her out onto the road. Her backside, clad in those cycling shorts, was a sight not to be missed. It sent his temperature soaring, his heart racing, and his groin aching. He really tried to look elsewhere, for his own sake, but he couldn’t. He watched as she weaved amongst the traffic, his gaze following her until she finally disappeared from sight.

Unfortunately he couldn’t disappear off the radar for the next few months as he’d committed to helping David adjust to his illness. That took precedence over everything. Over everyone, including blue-eyed beauties. The same one who’d rightly accused him during that phone conversation of putting David second.

Home. The one place he’d been too ashamed to return to. The place he and his ex-wife had been in a hurry to leave and make a fresh start away from his bad image. Away to a city where he didn’t have to explain to a patient that while he might’ve stolen a shirt off their washing line years earlier, he could now competently diagnose their illness. In Adelaide his wife had finally begun to carve out the lifestyle she’d craved all her underprivileged childhood. Brad had always known Penelope had used him to get out of Blenheim but he’d understood her, and loved her enough to give her what she wanted. Big mistake.

His marriage had been the one subject that had been taboo between him and David. The older man had seen further ahead than Brad could, had known no one could feed Penelope’s hunger. David had foreseen no amount of wealth would give her what she needed, and he’d argued long and hard with Brad not to marry her. Brad had believed he could provide more than enough to keep his wife happy. Time had proved David right, Brad wrong, and cost him his son.

He and David had patched the rift between them enough to get along again, but the deep affection they’d always known since David had first taken him into his home as a fourteen-year-old was missing. The man who’d kept him out of court, made him accountable for his own actions and, finally, set him on the right path to a successful career now needed looking out for.