The Heart Surgeon's Baby Surprise Read online

Another question but at least one he could answer.

  ‘Her mother was here. She flew down with the Royal

  Flying Doctor Service when they brought the baby to

  us. But she had to go home to the rest of the family—

  she’s hoping to get down again next week but even

  with really cheap accommodation available at the

  hospital, she still has to pay air fares and, I imagine, pay

  someone to mind the other children at home.’

  MEREDITH WEBBER

  15

  ‘Poor thing, it must be so hard to not be able to be

  with her baby,’ Grace murmured, but in such a way

  Theo had to look at her. Did she really feel for Scarlett’s

  mother or was she mouthing a platitude while thinking

  something else entirely?

  He didn’t know this woman so he had no idea and,

  really, did it matter? Yet again he sensed a puzzle…

  They’d moved away from Scarlett’s crib, out of the

  PICU to the lift foyer where they met up with other

  members of the team waiting to go down.

  ‘Grace and I are barely settled in and, speaking for

  myself, I need to shop before I can eat,’ Jean-Luc said,

  joining his and Grace’s names in a way that suggested

  a relationship, although as far as Theo knew they’d

  only met since their separate arrivals in Australia. ‘Is

  there a good restaurant close by?’

  ‘Scoozi!’

  Jean-Luc had spoken to Aaron who was standing

  beside him, but the reply was chorused by most of the

  team.

  ‘It’s the other side of the park,’ Jasmine Summers,

  one of the PICU nurses added as they all stepped into

  the lift. ‘Some of us are going there now, so do come

  along. You’re coming, aren’t you, Theo?’

  He had intended going home to do some work on a

  wood-fired oven he was building in his tiny courtyard,

  but he had to eat.

  And Grace Sutherland, for all her blunt questions,

  intrigued him…

  ‘Oh, do come, Theo.’ Now she added her entreaty,

  and though he had the strangest—and strongest—feel-

  ing he was being manipulated, he agreed.

  16

  THE HEART SURGEON’S BABY SURPRISE

  Out of curiosity, he told himself, and in part that was

  the truth, because there was something about Grace

  Sutherland that didn’t quite ring true—some mystery

  inside the beautiful packaging.

  That she was physically attractive to him was a sec-

  ondary matter, or so he assured himself. He didn’t get

  involved with work colleagues so the physical attrac-

  tion would never be explored, but the intrigue? It

  wouldn’t hurt to investigate that, surely…

  The group walked in a straggle of twos and threes

  down the road that ran alongside the park towards the

  restaurant. Grace walked in the lead with Phil, Theo be-

  hind them with Maggie and Aaron, and though he was

  listening to the conversation about titration rates of

  drugs during open-heart surgery in very small infants,

  he wasn’t taking in as much of it as he usually did.

  She walked with a peculiar grace—what a stupid

  thing to be thinking about a woman called Grace!—but

  the way she strode along, her pace matching Phil’s, sug-

  gested an athleticism that wasn’t often seen in special-

  ists of either gender, most of whom were too busy to

  get to the gym with any regularity or to work out in

  other ways.

  The staff at Scoozi, seeing the mob from the hospital

  arrive, pushed together a number of tables, but was it

  chance that Grace sat next to Theo, who had taken the

  chair at one end?

  ‘You didn’t answer my question,’ she said, answer-

  ing his own query—the seating arrangement had not

  been chance.

  ‘Question?’ he parried, although he knew full well

  what she’d asked. But now, rather than consider the

  MEREDITH WEBBER

  17

  woman’s grace, he was considering her lack of it. And

  her lack of good manners! It was none of her business

  why he’d switched from surgery to perfusion.

  ‘Why aren’t you married?’

  He’d forgotten that one! He stared at her, aware his

  disbelief was probably written on his face. It must have

  been for she looked embarrassed, but only for a mo-

  ment, recovering her composure beautifully and

  smiling an apology.

  ‘I know that’s personal, but I’m only here for six

  months and if I want to get to know everyone in the

  team, then I have to ask questions.’

  That kind of made sense—or did it?

  ‘Do you really want to get to know everyone in the

  team? After all, as you say, you’re only here six months,

  after which you’ll go back to South Africa, send emails

  for a few months, Christmas cards for a few years, then

  forget the lot of us.’

  ‘Probably not Christmas cards, I’m not good with

  them.’ She looked embarrassed, as if he’d been spot on

  in the reading of her character. Not that she was going

  to let him get away with it. She shifted slightly in her

  chair then continued, ‘But professionally it’s good to

  keep in touch with people, especially those with more

  experience, because you never know when something

  comes up you haven’t personally experienced before,

  and you can always ask.’

  She hadn’t answered his question, but her comments

  made him wonder even more about this woman. In his

  life, women were the ones who kept the strands of

  friendship sewn together, his mother and aunts keeping

  in touch with the family’s friends, while his ex-wife had

  18

  THE HEART SURGEON’S BABY SURPRISE

  been forever on the net, talking to one friend or another,

  and had turned the sending out of Christmas cards into

  a kind of ‘who gets the most’ contest. But, then, Lena

  was like that…

  ‘You’re thinking about some woman now,’ the exas-

  perating South African said, her clipped accent seeming

  to turn the remark into a rebuke.

  ‘You can’t know that!’ Theo growled. ‘And if there’s

  one thing I hate, it’s someone—usually a woman—

  telling me what I’m thinking.’

  ‘Well, you were scowling,’ Grace replied, totally un-

  abashed. ‘The kind of scowl that suggests bad thoughts,

  and as you’re hardly likely to be thinking bad thoughts

  about your bypass machine, or the menu that’s in your

  hands, I guessed it must have had something to do with

  my question.’

  He scowled some more and began to read the menu,

  although he knew it by heart and always ordered the

  Creole pizza and out of sheer politeness should have

  passed it to Grace, had she not annoyed him so much.

  ‘I’ll have the Creole pizza,’ she announced, Jasmine,

  on her other side, having handed her a menu. ‘Chicken,

  banana, sweet chilli sauce and sour cream—Italian

  purists must be turning over in their graves but it soun
ds

  delicious.’

  Now what was he going to order? If he ordered the

  Creole she’d think he was copying her and probably read

  something into it—like he might be interested in her.

  Which he was in the way a scientist was interested

  in a new specimen that appeared under his microscope,

  but no more than that, for all the unexpected tugs of at-

  traction he was feeling.

  MEREDITH WEBBER

  19

  Heaven forbid!

  He ordered a steak and a glass of the pinot grigio the

  restaurateur, Anna, imported from Italy. Someone fur-

  ther down the table had ordered a plate of garlic bread

  and another of brushetta before anyone was seated, and

  these arrived as the orders were taken, the plates of

  bread being passed around.

  ‘No, thank you,’ Grace said to both.

  ‘Dieting?’ Jasmine asked, and Theo watched, won-

  dering just how Grace would respond.

  ‘No, I never diet,’ she said, with the supreme confi-

  dence of a woman with a great metabolism.

  End of conversation, although Jasmine had obvi-

  ously meant it as an opening gambit.

  ‘Lucky you,’ Jasmine told her, not willing to let the

  subject go just yet. ‘I’m always dieting. I’ve tried just

  about every diet ever written.’

  ‘Oh, but surely you don’t need to diet, Jasmine.’

  Other women might have said the same reassuring

  words without Theo even noticing, but to him it

  sounded as if Grace was making an effort to be nice—

  as if social chatter didn’t come easily to her.

  Jasmine, too, must have sensed something strange for

  she smiled uncertainly, conveying enough apprehension

  for even someone as seemingly insensitive as Grace to

  see.

  ‘I didn’t mean to sound critical of diets or people

  who diet,’ she added quickly. ‘But research has shown

  that dieting fads can do more harm than good.’

  For Theo it was like watching an act in a play and

  he waited to see if Jasmine would be mollified.

  Apparently she was, for she smiled at Grace.

  20

  THE HEART SURGEON’S BABY SURPRISE

  ‘I know,’ she said with a big sigh. ‘I’ve read that too,

  but I think I’m addicted to diets.’

  It was said as a joke, but, sensing it would go straight

  over Grace’s head, Theo plunged in.

  ‘Like I’m addicted to good pizza,’ he said, forgetting

  he’d just ordered steak. ‘Which is why I’m spending all

  my off-duty time building a wood-fired oven in my al-

  ready too small courtyard.’

  ‘Is the pizza no good here that you didn’t order it?’

  Of course Grace had picked up on his error.

  ‘No, the pizzas are great, I just needed a change,’ he

  assured her. OK, so she’d zeroed in on him again, but at

  least discussing food likes and dislikes was better than dis-

  cussing marriage—or his lack thereof. And Jasmine was

  off the hook—she’d turned to talk to Aaron on her other

  side, so Theo took another slice of garlic bread and

  relaxed.

  ‘So, are you in a relationship?’

  Had he heard correctly? He stared at the woman he

  thought had asked an extremely impertinent question

  and she gave an embarrassed shrug.

  ‘I told you I asked questions—I explained why,’ she

  said. ‘And you didn’t answer about why you’re not

  married, so I wondered…’

  Theo studied her a moment longer, sensing some-

  thing he couldn’t quite pin down behind the brash

  manner.

  Something uncertain?

  It sounded that way, but surely not!

  Given the attraction he felt towards her, he knew he

  had to keep his distance, not find excuses to learn more

  of her.

  MEREDITH WEBBER

  21

  ‘Why?’ he asked, cool and distant again. ‘Why are

  you wondering—why do you need to know? As you

  said, you’re here for six months. I could work with

  people for six months and not need to know about their

  personal lives. In fact, there are people at this table— No,

  that’s not right, the team mostly know the surface things

  about each other’s lives, although the fact that I am single

  is enough for most of them to know. No one in the eight

  months I’ve been here has ever asked me why.’

  ‘Yes, well…’

  She pursed her lips—lush, full lips which, when

  pursed, looked extremely inviting and turned the tug

  into a more insistent feeling—and studied him in turn,

  then shook her head.

  ‘I’m sorry! I’ve been far too intrusive. My father was

  always telling me that, right from when I was a small

  girl, asking questions all the time and not differentiat-

  ing between acceptable questions and personal ones.

  Although—’

  She stopped, and Theo forgot he was trying to keep

  his distance and was intrigued enough to prompt her.

  ‘Although?’ he echoed, and she smiled and shook

  her head, the blue eyes looking…sad? Vulnerable?

  Vulnerable? This super-confident woman?

  Super-efficient, too, he suspected.

  Vulnerable was the last word he’d use…

  She’d gone too far. Again! Grace knew that, but

  somehow the switch that turned her off before she

  pushed that extra bit further had always been missing

  from her genetic programming. She should never have

  asked him about his marital state in the first place, then

  pushing when he didn’t answer…

  22

  THE HEART SURGEON’S BABY SURPRISE

  Terrible!

  But he’d be ideal. She’d known that from the moment

  she’d seen him, recalling his bio in the team info sheets

  she’d read. He was intelligent, well-built, good-looking—

  although she knew that shouldn’t be a prerequisite—and

  apparently available. Not that she needed available—she

  wasn’t intending to have an affair with him.

  All she really wanted was his sperm…

  She felt a blush stealing into her cheeks and was fu-

  rious with herself. She might be blessed with a good

  metabolism so didn’t need to diet, but she’d have pre-

  ferred a tendency to run to fat than this terrible blushing

  thing she had.

  Had Theo seen the colour in her cheeks that he lifted

  the bottle of cold water off the table and offered to pour

  her a glass? How embarrassing!

  Surely this was the time to ditch the Grand Plan—

  to forget all about it and just get on with her life. She’d

  lived with the ache for a long time—she could live with

  it a little longer…

  She thanked him and watched his concentration as

  he poured the water, then noticed the back of his hand

  as he passed her the glass—long slim fingers and a

  slight scattering of dark hair at the wrist—and for some

  strange reason the heat of embarrassment left her, and

  a shiver travelled up her spine.

  Looking at a man’s hand couldn’t make
you shiver,

  so maybe she was sickening for something.

  Not that she ever got sick…

  ‘Although?’ he said again, and it took her a couple

  of seconds to go back far enough to pick up the prompt.

  MEREDITH WEBBER

  23

  She smiled. Father had told her when she was very

  young that she had a beautiful smile and that you could

  never go wrong with a smile.

  ‘I can’t tell you the “although”,’ she said, wonder-

  ing if this was flirting. ‘But I am interested.’

  Duh! Blushing again. Who would have thought it

  would be this hard?

  ‘In me?’ Theo asked, and she felt her blush deepen

  so she must be scarlet-cheeked by now.

  ‘In everyone on the team,’ she said.

  ‘Oh!’ His dark brown eyes lit up to match his de-

  lighted smile. ‘So you’ll ask all of them about their re-

  lationships? Actually, I can fill you in on some of them.

  Jasmine’s just got engaged, Phil and Alex and Aaron—

  with Aldo added we have a lot of A s, don’t we? Anyway

  those three are all happily married—’

  ‘Stop! You’re making me more and more embar-

  rassed. It is none of my business.’

  Theo stopped, but only because she sounded genu-

  inely distressed, although he was pretty sure Dr Grace

  Sutherland didn’t often do distressed. But it was there

  again, that note of uncertainty in a person who gave off

  such positive vibes, and he was interested in spite of

  himself.

  In a purely professional way, of course.

  ‘I’m not in a relationship,’ he said, under the cover

  of the noise as meals were delivered to the table. ‘And

  I was married, but my wife and I split up seven years

  ago.’

  Wrong thing to tell her. That interested look was

  back in her eyes.

  ‘Do you know the number of weeks, days and hours

  24

  THE HEART SURGEON’S BABY SURPRISE

  as well?’ she asked, spearing a shard of red-hot pain

  dead-centre into his heart.

  ‘As a matter of fact, I do,’ he said, his voice as cold

  and as curt as he could make it. His meal was placed in

  front of him and he looked at it and shook his head,

  aware he’d never eat it, although, thinking now of

  Elena, he wouldn’t have eaten the pizza either.

  He didn’t look at Grace again in case he was invei-

  gled into thinking her vulnerable again. Vulnerable as

  a full-grown crocodile! So he cut his steak, and pre-

  tended to eat, shifting things around on his plate so it