Her tenant’s bedroom door was open, revealing the rose-covered spread drawn tightly across the bed—army training no doubt—but it was in the kitchen, where she went to get a glass of water, that the surprise awaited her. A plate of fruit, but set out like a smiley face, two cherries for the eyes, a slice of pawpaw for a nose, a curved banana for a mouth. Balls of orange rock-melon curled around the face, while her name was spelled out in carefully cut pieces of watermelon—a riot of colour, taste and nutrition.
Assuming he didn’t make himself smiley-face fruit breakfasts every morning, it meant he’d done it especially for her.
Wanting to get in good with her so he could stay on permanently?
Or simply because he was a kind and thoughtful man?
A little pang inside her suggested that she’d like to think it was because he liked her, maybe was a little bit attracted to her, but common sense prevailed and she took the plate through to her house, apparently undisturbed overnight, and ate the fruit as she got ready for work.
Work.
She had to contact the Bennetts to find out if they’d decided what they wanted to do about a sleep programme for Kaylin, talk to Cam about IVF and Helene, contact Tom and Lauren to see if Friday afternoon suited them for a meeting …
She’d walked onto the deck as she was finishing the fruit and considering the day ahead, and now she sighed, thinking of Cam out there on his board, wishing for the first time in years that she was out there too.
Which reminded her of Cam’s promise to young Aaron. She was pretty sure the baby boards on which she and Jill had learnt to surf were in the storeroom downstairs. She’d check on her way down to work. They’d be ideal for the two little boys, though Cam couldn’t handle both of them safely on his own. Would Jackie join in surfing lessons?
Now it was a squirmy kind of disturbance in Jo’s stomach. No, she wouldn’t help. Bad enough having to work with a man to whom her body was attracted, but out of office hours?
At the beach?
No way.
Never!
‘Can I help?’
The offer startled her as she was hauling the boards out from behind other cast-off rubbish in the storeroom beneath the deck, sorry she hadn’t left the task until after work, because her hands were filthy and she was covered with dust.
Her tenant, standing in the doorway, was also ready for work—but clean.
‘Thanks, but I’ve found what I was looking for,’ she told him, not that he appeared the slightest bit interested in her reply, for he was lifting her old board—the last board she’d had specially shaped to her own design before she’d stopped surfing—running his hands over its smooth lines, the delight on his face suggesting he’d just discovered hidden treasure.
‘It’s a Silver Crowne,’ he said, in awed tones. ‘I’ve heard of these boards but never seen one up close. Silver Crowne only made pro boards.’
The slight accusation in the final sentence made Jo stiffen, but she refused to answer him, passing him the small boards instead.
‘Mind your clothes, these are still dusty,’ she said, ‘although most of the dust seems to have transferred itself to me. I thought they might do for the Trent boys.’
Cam grinned at her.
‘Wow, great idea. Teaching them to surf is a far better idea than taking them for one ride on my board. You’ll help?’
No was the obvious answer, but somehow it failed to come out. Jo made a big deal of dusting off her clothes, then gave up.
‘I’ll just run upstairs, have a quick shower and change into something clean—tell Kate I’ll be down in a few minutes.’
He seemed to accept she wasn’t going to reply for he asked, ‘Will these boards be safe if we leave them out, or should we lock them back in your storeroom but near the front?’
Jo was halfway out the door when she realised he was still holding the boards—and she hadn’t thanked him for breakfast.
‘We’ll leave them just inside and if you could shut the door and close the padlock that would be great. And thank you for the breakfast, it made my morning.’
She looked into the blue eyes she’d been avoiding since he’d appeared in the storeroom and read kindness in them, nothing more, she was sure, yet her heart was skipping around like a wayward wallaby, and some stupid sector of her brain was whispering it might be more than lust.
Which was impossible.
Lust at first sight was possible—she had no doubts about that—but anything else?
She wasn’t going to give the alternative ‘L’ word brain space.
Cam watched her dash away. She’d coloured as she’d thanked him for the breakfast that some fit of hitherto undiscovered whimsy had prompted him to make for her. Had he embarrassed her?
He didn’t have a clue. For some reason, all the useful information on how women thought, stuff his brain had collected from his sisters and his ex-fiancée, was no help at all in figuring out this particular woman.
Though why he thought it should when he’d only known her, what—less than two days.
And why it mattered …
He pondered these things as he made his way down the steps to the surgery, deciding in the end that it was because his body was attracted to her that his brain was confused.
Well, it would just have to stay confused, because he wasn’t going to act on the attraction. Honour was important in the army and how honourable would he be if he did act on the attraction? How could he have an affair with a woman when he was still getting over his experiences in the war, still getting vivid flashes of injured and dying young men, still hearing echoes of their cries in his ears, and not only when he was asleep?
He knew these flashbacks sent him into a kind of shock, making him withdraw, making him appear all the things Penny had said he was—remote, detached, morose—cutting him off from whatever company he was in.
Could he land some other woman with those mood swings?
Make her suffer as Penny must have to have broken off the engagement?
Best to stay unattached.
Jo heaved a sigh of relief when she saw Kate and one of the nurses in the lunch-room. No need for one-on-one again with Dr Cameron, although Cam wasn’t present and, no, she wasn’t going to wonder where he was. He could have been delayed with a patient, or gone shopping, surfing, anything.
Avoiding her as she would like to be avoiding him?
Her relief was short-lived.
‘Heard you and the new doc in town, our delectable Dr Cam, were dining together at the surf club last night,’ Kate said brightly, and too late Jo remembered Kate’s brother was the apprentice chef at the club.
Small towns.
