Men In Uniform: Mad About The Doctor: Her Little Secret / First Time Lucky? / How To Mend A Broken Heart. Carol Marinelli
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want to land him with all of it; even Ellie, who had seen it all, struggled to fathom how rigid her mother could be. ‘She’s difficult.’
‘They often are,’ Nick said, and he handed her her top. ‘And with all she’s been through.’
‘She was the same before,’ Alison admitted, ‘though when Dad and Tim were there…’ She couldn’t really explain, but without further explanation Nick seemed to understand.
‘You weren’t in the full spotlight?’ When she nodded he continued, ‘So where are you tonight?’
‘Don’t worry about it.’ She tried blasé, tried casual, but Nick could tell otherwise and she knew it. ‘You really picked the wrong girl to have your torrid Sydney fling with.’
And he looked up at her and was silent for a moment because, yes, he had. He could see stains of hurt in her serious brown eyes and he didn’t want to add to them, except inevitably he already had. Already this was turning into something else, something bigger, something he hadn’t come to Australia for.
‘It doesn’t feel like a fling,’ Nick admitted.
‘It’s all it can be.’ Alison was practical, even if she was shaking inside.
‘Come on.’ He stood and looked around for his keys. ‘I’ll walk you home.’
‘It’s five minutes away.’
And he should say goodnight here, Nick knew.
End it here.
But Nick never went for the easy option, so he reached for his keys.
‘You’re not walking on your own.’
They walked back to Alison’s home in pensive silence, and he didn’t kiss her on the doorstep, because he knew she didn’t want him to, but as she let herself in her mouth still tingled from his and her body held the scent and memory of him. Her eyes must have glittered with stirred passion because Rose’s face screamed of martyrdom as she offered Alison a cup of tea. Even though she didn’t want tea, even though she wanted to go to bed and think of Nick and read the text he’d just sent because she could feel the vibration of her phone in her bag, that this time made her feel giddy with wanting to read it, she said, ‘That would be nice,’ and curled up on the sofa and took the mug from her mum.
‘I thought you were at a party.’
And instead of saying she had been, or offering the usual half-truth, Alison was honest.
‘We gave it a miss,’ she admitted. ‘We went back to Nick’s for dinner.’
‘He seems nice,’ Rose said, because after all he’d brought her baby home.
‘He is nice.’
‘How long did he say he was here for?’ Skilfully, so skilfully, Rose took the pin and deflated the bubble Alison was floating on. Carefully, lovingly, perhaps, she warned her daughter that this could never, ever be. ‘Nice-looking man,’ Rose said. ‘He must have broken a few hearts on his travels,’ she added, just to make sure her daughter got it.
‘I’m going to bed.’ Alison tried to keep her voice light.
She peeled off her clothes and read her text, which was hardly torrid, hardly from a man hell bent on getting in her knickers and promptly breaking her heart. It just thanked her for a nice day and a really nice night, that he’d enjoyed it.
She should stop this now, common sense said.
Just turn her back on his charm, because there really was no point.
She swam between the flags, certainly wasn’t into casual relationships, and that was really all it could be with Nick. In a few weeks he’d be off and she’d be left, and if she wasn’t extremely careful, Alison knew she’d be nursing a broken heart.
Actually, she already knew she would be.
He’d arrived in her life as blonde and as dazzling as summer. He just lit everything up and enhanced it all some more.
She didn’t get him, but she wanted to.
She wanted the little bit of him that was possible, because there was something about Nick that got her, something that was…just a little bit like the single word she sent back to him.
Same. x
‘I’M NOT stalking you!’
She grinned as she walked across the foyer to Emergency on Monday night and Nick joined her. ‘Amy asked yesterday if I could cover her week of nights.’
‘Oh.’
‘I got called in yesterday,’ Nick explained.
‘I didn’t see you on the bus.’
‘I drove. It was a last-minute thing. I didn’t know whether to ring and offer a lift…’ He admitted only a quarter of it—if the truth were told, he hadn’t known what to do, full stop.
Despite her kisses, despite the thrum between them, there was more to Alison, of that he was sure. He didn’t want to hurt anyone, didn’t want to get involved.
Or that was what he had told himself.
Sunday had been spent turning down offers to go out, and not just from colleagues. He’d been called in for a multi-trauma late afternoon and had found a rather blatant card from a Louise H., reminding him where she worked and that she’d love to see him there.
It would actually have been the safer option.
Instead he’d accepted Amy’s suggestion they ring out for takeaways, which they’d eaten in her office. The conversation had been easy and before he’d known it, the clock had been edging towards midnight and he’d agreed to take over her week of nights.
But Alison was on nights too.
He headed straight for the staffroom, Alison to her locker, and if she hurried there was time for a drink before she started.
‘God!’ Moira was tying back her hair. ‘I’m tired before we’ve even started. Try sharing a house with eight travellers and doing a week of night shift!’ She gave her dazzling smile. ‘All worth it, though.’ They walked through to the staffroom and Moira gave a delighted whoop as she saw Nick. ‘Are you on nights too? ‘
‘‘Fraid so.’
‘Now, that does cheer me up,’ Moira said, and she was just so light and uninhibited with her banter, Alison would have killed for a little of the same. ‘There’s not a spare room at that fancy house of yours, is there?’ Moira rattled on. ‘For a fellow travelling night worker?’
‘It’s a one-bedroomed flat.’ Nick grinned.
‘Move over in the bed, then!’ Moira winked. Of course, she had no idea about Alison and Nick, she was just having fun.
Sort of.
‘Alison.’ Sheila popped her head around the staffroom door. ‘We’ve had a lot of staff ring in sick tonight. Mary will be in charge, but apart from that it’s agency.’ She gave a brief smile to Moira and a couple of the others. ‘Luckily it’s been quiet. The wards all have beds, so you shouldn’t have too many problems. Can you make sure the restocking and drug orders get done, and make sure the trolleys are all wiped down. Oh, and there’s a list up on the notice-board—you need to do a refresher lifting course. Make sure you tick off what session you’re attending.’
So Alison did, and tried not listen to Moira’s chatter and Nick’s easy replies—tried not to feel as if he was surely thinking he’d set his sights on the wrong girl. After all, he and Moira were both here on holiday.
This was her life.
It