knows how tough it’s been,’ Ethan said. ‘And we’ve all done our best to help but the worst is over now and the kind of disruption we’ve seen today can’t be allowed to happen again.’ He shook his head. ‘If word gets out that you two are not happy working together, it will cause untold damage to our reputation and we’re not going to allow that to happen.’
Leo sighed. ‘If it continues, we might all have to rethink whether you can continue in your current employment.’ He eyed Abbie. ‘You’ve been a full-time mother for months now. If that’s more important to you than your career then we’ll find a way to work around it, but you need to be up front with us.’
‘I am being up front with you.’ Abbie’s voice was shaky. ‘And I’ve never considered choosing to give up my work. My daughter is the most important person in the world to me but I know how brilliant the childcare system at the Lighthouse is. We’d always planned to juggle our careers and family life to allow us to both continue working.’
Rafael felt something tighten inside his chest. He remembered those planning sessions. Lying on the bed beside Abbie, admiring the increasing size of her belly. Keeping his hand resting lightly on her skin so that he could marvel at the movement he could feel beneath it. Imagining them both collecting their baby from the crèche and taking her home for family time.
Life had been so perfect back then. So full of exciting dreams for the future.
How had it all turned to dust? He wanted it back. All of it.
But Abbie wasn’t even looking in his direction again now. She was facing her employers here at the clinic. Fighting for her career.
‘Then the issue is simply whether you can continue working together.’ Both Ethan and Leo shifted their gaze from Abbie to Rafael. Abbie also turned to look at him.
‘I can,’ she said.
There was determination in her eyes. And something more.
Hope that this could be a way through the enormous barrier that still lay between them?
Or was that wishful thinking on his part?
Whatever. It was a first step.
Rafael smiled. ‘So can I,’ he said. ‘I look forward to the privilege of working with you again, Abbie.’
SHE HADN’T EXPECTED THIS.
She’d been in perfect agreement with Leo and Ethan during that meeting this afternoon. Okay, she was partly to blame because she’d consciously chosen to let Rafael see the MacDonalds as part of his outpatient list but he’d had no right to push her out of being involved with Angus MacDonald’s first surgery. He’d actually told them she was unavailable?
Abbie scrubbed harder. It had been a long time since she’d been through this routine and her skin wasn’t liking the stiff bristles of the soap-impregnated brush. It stung as she spread her fingers and scrubbed between them and then moved on to the backs of her hands and the insides of her wrists but she didn’t lighten the pressure. The physical pain was an echo of the simmering anger she was prodding.
Rafael had been unprofessional. What had stopped him from popping his head into her office and just asking whether she wanted to be involved? He hadn’t needed to, though, had he? She’d already told him that it was another case she’d love to do.
Being pushed out like that was also confusing. And hurtful.
Wasn’t he the one who was so good at maintaining a professional distance that he could put his own emotions aside to make life and death decisions for his own daughter?
Why didn’t that automatically apply to his wife?
Because he hated her that much now? So much that his desire to avoid working closely with her was enough to make cracks appear in that ability to distance himself?
So much for thinking that they might be able to repair their marriage.
It was proving difficult enough to repair a professional relationship.
Not that others seemed to see that. The nurse who was waiting with a sterile towel held in a pair of tongs was smiling.
‘It’s so good that you and Mr de Luca are going to be working together again. Everybody’s really excited about it.’
Not everybody, Abbie thought grimly. But she smiled back as she took the towel to dry her hands.
‘It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?’
‘It’s never quite the same without you. Nobody else can work with Mr de Luca like you can. He gets quite cross sometimes.’
Abbie’s eyebrows rose as she pulled on her gown and then turned so that the nurse could tie it.
It made her feel a little better to know that no one else could partner Rafael in Theatre as well as she could but it wasn’t really a surprise, was it?
Their professional relationship had been astonishingly good from the moment they’d first shared an operating theatre together nearly two years ago.
Had any two surgeons ever clicked like that from the get-go? Complemented each other so perfectly it was as if one surgeon had suddenly doubled their skill set. And not only that. They worked in such a similar way that they could anticipate what the other was thinking or about to do. A silent form of communication and co-operation that had quickly become a talking point in their professional circle.
They’d been dubbed the ‘dream team.’
And they’d loved that.
But that had been then. The nurse’s comment had been a boost but she’d disappeared with an armful of dirty linen back into the changing rooms, and without her enthusiastic support the thought of working side by side with Rafael in Theatre was enough to make Abbie’s heart race and her mouth feel dry.
‘Get a grip,’ she ordered herself sternly, as she pulled on a pair of gloves.
She’d faced far harder things than this in the last few months. She’d had to make decisions and take actions with nothing more than her instinct to guide her at some points. And she’d had to do it firmly and swiftly. Because she’d had to do it alone.
So she could handle this.
Even if she hadn’t expected a challenge like this to appear so fast after Ethan’s edict that they work together—or face the consequences.
It was only 11:00 p.m. on the same day, for heaven’s sake.
A child had been brought in by helicopter for emergency surgery. Unrestrained, the six-year-old had been ejected from a car in a smash. She had multiple injuries, including two broken arms and major facial trauma.
She needed the best surgeons the Lighthouse had to offer.
Abbie was one of them, so that she could deal with the initial repair of the facial tissues and skin in the hope
