Return of the Maverick

Brad glanced at the two boys skulking along beside him. He’d expected they’d have taken off by now. ‘You two hungry?’

Two heads flicked around, astonishment in their eyes. ‘Yes.’

‘Okay, back to the shop. I saw some buns and sandwiches in a cabinet that should fill the hole in your bellies.’

‘Cool.’

‘Thanks, man.’

‘Call me Brad.’ His step lightened. He liked it that he could do something for those that life gave a rough deal. He put on his confident, competent doctor’s face, the one that hid his nervousness about facing up to people he’d hurt in the past.

Then there was Erin. He had to front up to her too. At least she hadn’t featured in his past. Neither was she going to feature in his future. Settling into David’s place in the practice had just got a whole load more difficult.

CHAPTER TWO

ERIN rushed into the medical centre as though being chased by a hungry lion, knowing she’d have kept a lot of people waiting. She had an immunisation clinic and the waiting room was full of young mothers and their toddlers. ‘Sorry I’m late, everyone, but there was an accident and I stopped to give a hand.’

‘It’s okay, we heard,’ one of the women said as she shoved a pacifier in the mouth of a screeching child.

A curly-haired toddler grabbed at the hem of Erin’s straight denim skirt, tugging her to a halt.

‘Hey, gorgeous, how are you today?’ Erin bent down and swung Katie Bryant into her arms.

Big brown eyes stared back at her out of a pale face with shadows on her cheeks. One tiny fist tapped Erin’s chin.

‘I guess that means you’re fine.’ Erin kissed the top of Katie’s head and gently placed her back on her feet. ‘Is she not sleeping too well?’ she asked Alison, Katie’s mother.

‘Too much sometimes. I never have trouble putting her to bed these days.’

Maybe she was overreacting but Erin decided she’d get Annie or Dr Perano to take a look at Katie before her injection. The little girl didn’t look quite right, not as robust as she usually was. A temperature reading wouldn’t go astray either. Glancing around the room, Erin’s heart squeezed as she saw all the little ones playing and crying and chattering, the mums talking and laughing as though they had all the time in the world. This was what she wanted, more than anything else. To be a mother, to have her own family. This was what she could never have.

She may have reconciled herself to the fact that she was infertile but that hadn’t stopped the hurt, the fierce need or the raw longing that sometimes overtook her. Especially on days like this when she worked with lots of children.

Infertility sucked.

Erin leaned over the counter at Reception, looking for the pile of files relating to her young patients. She said quietly to the receptionist, ‘Jason Curtis was hit by a car. Has anything come through from the hospital about his condition yet?’

Marilyn paused between phone calls. ‘Dr Perano said he’d ring ED shortly. He told us you’d been there so we figured you’d be running behind time.’

‘Dr Perano? How would he know—?’ Erin’s stomach dropped. ‘The guy at the accident scene was a doctor… That was Bradley Perano?’

Embarrassment gripped her, making her squirm right down to her sandals. She’d been ogling him at the corner store. What was that going to do for their future working relationship? She gaped at Marilyn. ‘No way. That couldn’t have been Dr Perano. Too much of a coincidence.’

Please, she silently begged the receptionist, please tell me I’m wrong in my supposition.

‘Definitely me.’ A deep, sexy voice came from behind the door of the office where the filing cabinets stood. He appeared in the middle of the office, taking up all the space with his big frame. ‘But not really a coincidence when you think we weren’t far from the clinic. I was on my way here when I stopped at the store.’

Here, where they were to work together. Did he also know that by living with Dr David Taylor he’d become her neighbour too? Breathe. Slowly. In. Out. Erin spied the patient notes she needed as she turned to face Dr Perano fully. ‘So you’ve guessed I’m Erin, the practice nurse?’

He came to shake her hand. ‘Yes, I worked it out when that paramedic used your name.’

‘You didn’t say anything.’ Her hand disappeared somewhere inside his big, rough one.

His expression turned wary, but he said in the voice that made her heart rate speed up, ‘Sorry about that, but there was a lot going on.’

Sure, there had been, but there’d also been ample opportunity to introduce himself. ‘It would’ve been nice if you’d said something. We tend to be friendly around here.’ And she could’ve prepared herself better for this moment.

Wariness turned to disbelief. ‘I’m sure you’re right.’ His tone suggested otherwise. ‘Anyway, now we’ve met. Everyone talked you up big time last week. You and Annie.’

Annie was her best friend and a part-time GP at the medical centre. They’d spent a week in Golden Bay with Annie’s three little boys while Annie’s husband had been overseas with his job as a winemaker.

‘Annie’s wonderful. Her patients love her.’ With a start Erin realised Brad was still holding her hand. A nervous tug and she’d retrieved it. She jammed her hand in the big pocket on her skirt, holding in the warmth he’d engendered. If only she’d had known who this guy was before making an idiot of herself at the shop. She’d heard so much about him from David that she’d made the mistake of thinking she already knew him. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined a man so imposing that she lost all sense of reality around him. It was only day one. She’d get over this by tomorrow and then they’d work together without any problems.

She was very happy at this medical centre where she’d got to know the patients, and the staff treated her like one of their own. She did not need anyone disrupting that.

Bradley was still talking, no contrition in his voice. ‘I’ve heard your patients adore you, too.’

Ignoring that she edged around him, muttering, ‘Excuse me, but I need to get working.’

Stepping in front of her, he stopped her escape. ‘Erin, can I have a word first? In my office?’

‘Can it wait, Dr Perano? I’ve held up these people long enough already.’ She looked around the waiting room and was astonished to see all the mothers watching her and obviously listening to their conversation.

‘Firstly, it’s Brad, not Dr Perano. Secondly…’ And the guy paused to smile beguilingly across at those waiting women. ‘Secondly, I’m sure no one will mind if I talk to my practice nurse for a few minutes.’

‘Go ahead.’ One mother grinned. ‘He’s far more interesting than us lot.’

Thanks a million. Where was female solidarity when you needed it? Erin scowled at them all and only got winks and grins back. Except from Alison Byrant, who seemed to be studying the new doctor carefully.

In Brad’s office Erin sat, waiting, on the corner of his desk. What did he want to talk to her about that couldn’t be said out in the office? Goose-bumps lifted the skin on her arms. Probably that phone conversation when she’d told him how selfish she thought he was for not coming home to give David some support.

Now that the Parkinson’s disease that had struck David was relentlessly getting worse, it was time for Brad to pay his dues. That night when she’d answered the phone for David after cleaning him up she had been fit to yell at someone. Bradley Perano had phoned at the perfect time. She mightn’t have met him back then but she’d certainly told him what she thought of him. Her heart thudded slowly and painfully. She had been abrupt and he’d deserved better. He had his own problems, which David had alluded to but not divulged.

Apprehension trickled across her mind as she watched this insanely good-looking man close the door firmly and make his way around to sit behind his desk, his long legs taking few strides to reach his chair. Light scuff marks showed on his trousers where he’d knelt down on the road beside her to attend to Jason.

Erin swivelled around, keeping him in sight. Her gaze was drawn to his fingers: long and strong, they’d do amazing things to her sensory nerves if they ever touched her skin.

He cleared his throat, forcing her to look up and lock gazes with him. A thoughtful expression tightened his face, darkened the fudge colour of his eyes to mud. So he wasn’t happy with her.

‘About this morning at the accident site…’ He hesitated. ‘When I saw that child lying there I got a shock and made a mistake. Sammy fell out of a tree once, broke his arm and got concussed. He was very lucky. For some reason this morning seemed like a rerun, only worse.’

Not about her, then. ‘Sammy being Samuel, your son?’ Another clue to this man’s identity she’d overlooked that morning. But she had been more worried about Jason.

Brad’s eyebrows flicked up, down. ‘I take it that David has mentioned my family?’

‘Only that you and your wife have been separated for about eighteen months and that Samuel is with his mother.’ When Brad’s lips tightened into a hard line she added, ‘David only mentioned it after I quizzed him about you before you’d decided to come home to take over his medical practice while he sorts things out. I don’t know all the details.’

‘Is that why you gave me a bollocking over the phone?’ His tone lifted in anger. ‘What I chose to do was none of your business.’