His Runaway Nurse Page 17

  ‘I know it’s becoming a little repetitive,’ she said, teasing him gently, ‘but again I have to ask why.’

  ‘Why?’ Grace repeated the word and this time climbed onto Majella’s knee.

  He didn’t answer for a very long time, then before he did, he reached across the table and took her hand.

  ‘Because I love you,’ he whispered. ‘Surely you must know that, although it took me far too long to work out that the panic I felt when I saw you crawl into that cave, and the pain I felt when Gracie was so sick, and the sleepless nights I’ve suffered since you went away all added up to love.’

  Majella squeezed his fingers.

  ‘It doesn’t sound very comfortable,’ she said, smiling at him, hoping all the love she felt was shining in her eyes.

  ‘It’s not,’ he said, ‘although it could be eased if you’d just say something other than “Why?”’

  ‘Like what?’ She squeezed his fingers. ‘Like “I love you, Flynn”? Would that do?’

  Flynn felt as if his heart would burst, yet suddenly it all seemed too easy.

  ‘You’re sure?’ he asked, and Majella set Grace down on the ground, pulled up a tuft of grass and gave it to the little girl to feed the wallaby.

  ‘Would this convince you?’ she said, coming around the table and reaching out her hand to Flynn, drawing him to his feet, then stepping into his arms, folding his body close to hers, before kissing him full on the lips.

  It began as a confirmation of her love but turned into something very different. It scorched its way through her body, making it throb in places she doubted had ever felt sensation. She pressed her pelvis forward, wanting to feel him against her, while her heart raced and her nerves tingled and the little hairs on her arms stood to attention.

  ‘Flynn!’ she murmured, not knowing words to tell him what she felt.

  ‘Hush!’ he whispered, letting his mouth tell her what she needed to know, accepting this silent confirmation of her love.

  Then Grace was there, wedging her little body between their legs, demanding attention from one of them. Majella responded first, lifting her daughter into her arms and looking at Flynn with new questions in her eyes.

  ‘There’s Grace,’ she reminded him quietly.

  ‘Do you think I haven’t considered her?’ he said, reaching out to tweak one of Grace’s curls. ‘Haven’t wondered if I can be a father to her—do right by her? Loving her is easy, but the rest? I’ll try, Majella, that I promise you. I know she’s Jeff’s daughter, just as I know Jeff will always own a little piece of your heart, but I’ll do my utmost to be the best replacement father she could have.’

  Majella smiled at him over Grace’s head.

  ‘Loving her will be enough,’ she said, then turned as a car drove into the yard.

  ‘Dinner?’ Flynn asked, and Majella nodded.

  ‘I’ll pick you up,’ he said. ‘Eight?’

  She nodded again, too full of love and hope and joy to speak, hugging Grace so tightly the little girl squirmed in her arms.

  He brushed a kiss across both their heads then left.

  ‘You going?’ Helen said when he passed her in the carport.

  ‘Just up the road. I’ll book in at that B and B, and come back to take Majella out to dinner. Is that all right with you? Do you mind babysitting yet again?’

  Helen looked from him to Majella, who’d followed him more slowly through the house.

  ‘I don’t mind at all,’ Helen told him, then she smiled. ‘Especially as it looks as if this might be a special occasion.’

  Then she turned back to Flynn.

  ‘But you don’t have to book in down the road. We’ve a guest bedroom.’

  She didn’t add, ‘Or you could share Majella’s room,’ although there was a speculative gleam in her eyes.

  Would he?

  He glanced at Majella and knew the answer immediately. This was her home but it was also her mother-in-law’s house. There’s no way she’d share a bed with Flynn under this roof.

  But…

  ‘Well, if you don’t mind,’ he said to Helen. She assured him they’d be happy to have him, adding, ‘Go get your things and I’ll show you the room and where the bathroom is, and basic directions so you don’t get lost. The place rambles a bit.’

  He got his overnight bag, then followed Helen into a room that was bright and airy, furnished with a three-quarter bed, bedside table, a comfortable chair, a polished wood dresser and built-in wardrobes. The bed boasted a patchwork quilt, and two clean fluffy towels were stacked on the dresser.

  Flynn put down his bag, and let Helen guide him to the bathroom just down the hall.

  ‘We all share it,’ she explained, ‘having turned the other one into an operating theatre. ‘Majella’s down the end—Gracie sleeps in her room. I’m next and Sophie is next to you.’

  So that’s the geography of the house, Flynn thought, returning to the room and considering it again—considering the family who had lived in it. Majella was probably in what had been a guest room, which meant…

  He opened the wardrobe doors and knew he’d guessed correctly, old books and games stacked on the topmost shelf—a boy’s books and games.

  Jeff’s books and games.

  Flynn sank into the chair and rested his head in his hands.

  Was he jealous?

  He considered it carefully but knew it wasn’t jealousy he was feeling. More a kind of kinship with the boy who’d owned the games—or with the man he had become.

  And inside his head he made a promise—to the boy and to the man—promised him he’d never be forgotten—that he’d share their lives—then he thanked him, still silently, still communing in some way with a man he hadn’t known, thanking him for watching over Majella when everyone she’d known had failed her.

  She wore a dark red dress and looked so beautiful he couldn’t breathe, yet somehow he’d driven to the restaurant, responding to her conversation rationally. At least, he hoped he’d sounded rational.

  But now they were there, seated across from each other at a table set, as his had been, with crystal and silver. A single red rosebud in a fine crystal vase stood between them, the velvety, almost black petals matching the colour of Majella’s dress.

  ‘I can’t sustain an entire evening’s conversation saying nothing but “I love you,”’ he said, ‘but that’s all I can think to say. That and “You’re beautiful”. Do you think if I keep repeating them you’ll get bored with me?’

  ‘Never,’ she assured him, ‘but you don’t have to carry the conversational burden all alone you know. I might have things to say.’

  ‘Like “I love you” and “You’re beautiful”?’ he said hopefully, and she chuckled and shook her head.

  ‘Not more important than those two things, but I do love you and you are, well, if not beautiful, very handsome, but I’ve been thinking.’

  Dread began to filter into Flynn’s cocoon of happiness.

  ‘Not bad things,’ Majella assured him, reading his concern with ease.

  Then she smiled, and reached out for his hands, needing to hold them while she talked.

  They were interrupted by a waiter, offering a choice of drinks, then had to read the menus and make more choices. The entrees arrived far too quickly, meaning there was food to discuss and tastes to offer to each other, so all serious conversation was set aside until the meal ended.

  Which meant it was some time later Majella again captured both his hands and looked at him across the table.

  ‘Do you think perhaps we could get married on the thirtieth of September?’

  ‘Before the deadline?’ Flynn said warily. ‘You’d be happy to do that? To take the house?’

  ‘Not exactly happy,’ she explained, ‘but honestly, Flynn, how stupid would it be for us to marry so as not to take it when I could do so much good with the money? I could build Helen the new lab she needs to expand her business, and she could afford to hire someone to do the marketing of the products,
which would give her more time to try new recipes and experiment with different oils and essences. She has so much knowledge of native plants that she’s wasted just selling the products she’s already developed.’

  ‘You have been thinking about it,’ Flynn said, smiling at her enthusiasm.

  She nodded, then continued.

  ‘There are your sisters, too. They’ll need houses if they don’t already have them, or we could pay off their mortgages if they do, and your mother—is she comfortable enough? We don’t have to throw the money away, but we could use it where it does most good.’

  ‘So, after all, you’re marrying me for the money?’

  Majella smiled at him.

  ‘Have you paid the bill?’

  He nodded.

  ‘Then come outside and we’ll find a quiet corner of the car park and I’ll show you again why I’m marrying you,’ she said, her heart racing as she thought of kissing Flynn again—remembering how good it always was—thinking that it could only get better as their relationship developed and their love grew stronger.

  And as she kissed him she whispered things she hoped he wanted to hear, whispered her love for him that had begun when she’d been young, and how somehow a little kernel of it had stayed intact throughout the years until they’d met again, when it had burst open and blossomed into something so wondrous she had no words to describe it—no way to explain it.

  Except to say, ‘I love you, Flynn!’

  ISBN: 978-1-4603-5909-9

  HIS RUNAWAY NURSE

  First North American Publication 2007

  Copyright © 2007 by Meredith Webber

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