‘Still, it’s a shame that we won’t get to watch Jed and Penny studiously avoiding each other and trying to pretend that they’re not together.’
Jasmine felt her blood run cold. She couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing. ‘Jed and Penny?’
‘Didn’t you know?’ Vanessa was idly watching the television as she spoke and didn’t see Jasmine’s appalled expression and carried on chatting, blissfully unaware of the impact of her words. ‘They’ve been on and off since Jed started here, not that they would ever admit to it, of course. Heaven forbid that Penny brings her personal life into work and be so reckless as to display human tendencies.’ Vanessa’s words dripped sarcasm. ‘God knows what he sees in her.’
‘Maybe he doesn’t.’ Jasmine was having great trouble speaking, let alone sounding normal. ‘Maybe he doesn’t see anything in her. It’s probably just gossip—you know what this place can be like.’
‘I wish,’ Vanessa sighed. ‘Jed is just gorgeous. He’s wasted on that cold fish. But I’m afraid that this time the hospital grapevine is right—Greg walked in on them once and you can hardly miss the tension between them.’ She turned and looked at Jasmine. ‘I can’t believe you haven’t noticed. It’s an open secret, everyone knows.’ Vanessa stood up. ‘Come on, we’d better get back out there.’
Except Jasmine couldn’t move.
‘I’ll be along in a moment,’ Jasmine said. ‘I shan’t be long.’
Her hand was clenched around the chocolate so tightly it had all melted, not that she noticed till Vanessa had gone and Jasmine stood up. She headed for the bathrooms—she didn’t just feel sick, she actually thought she might vomit as she washed the mess off her hands. She held onto the sink and tried to drag in air and calm her racing thoughts before heading back out there.
Not once had it entered her head that Penny and Jed might be together.
Not one single time.
And Penny had never so much as hinted that she was seeing someone.
But, then, why would she?
Penny never told Jasmine what was going on in her life. Her engagement had ended and Penny had said nothing about it other than it was over. She certainly never invited discussion. Jasmine, in turn, had never confided in Penny. Even when her marriage had been on the rocks, Jasmine had dealt with it herself—telling her mum and Penny that it was over only when her decision had already been made.
She should have listened to Penny, Jasmine realised. She should never have worked in the same department as her sister.
Jasmine scooped water from the sink into her hand and drank it, tried to calm herself down. Somehow she had to get through the rest of her shift.
Jed was coming round tonight.
Jasmine spun in panic at the thought.
She would talk to him … And say what?
If there was anything between him and Penny she would just end it and move to the fracture clinic.
Or back to Melbourne Central, because that sounded quite a good option right now. And if that sounded a lot like running away from her problems, well, at that moment Jasmine truly didn’t care. As much as she and Penny didn’t get on very well, never in a million years would she do that her sister.
Except it would seem that she already had.
‘You seem in a hurry to escape the place,’ Penny commented.
‘For once, yes,’ Jed said. ‘It’s all yours.’
He had more on his mind tonight than a busy department.
Tonight he was going to tell Jasmine the truth about what had happened with Samantha.
It was an unfamiliar route Jed was considering taking and one he was not entirely comfortable with. He was way too used to keeping things in. He’d avoided anything serious since his last break-up. Sure, he’d had the occasional date, but as soon as it had started to be anything more than that, Jed had found himself backing away. And as if to prove him right, the texts and tears that had invariably followed had only strengthened his resolve not to get attached and to step away. Except for the first time he felt as if he could trust another person. After all, Jasmine had opened up to him.
Jed wasn’t stepping away now.
Instead, he was stepping forward.
He rang ahead to his favourite restaurant and ordered a meal for two, but despite confidence in his decision there was more than a touch of nerves as he paid for his takeaway and headed back to the car, as he built himself up to do what he said had sworn he would never do—share what had happened, not just with someone he was starting to get close to … but with someone he was starting to get close to from work.
‘Hi.’
Jasmine opened the door and let him in, still unsure what she should say, how best to broach it. Did she really want to know that he was with her sister? Did she really want Jed to find out the truth?
Surely it would better to end it neatly?
To get out before they got in too deep?
Except she was in too deep already.
‘I bought Italian,’ Jed said, moving in for a kiss, ‘but to tell the truth I’m not actually that hungry.’
She’d meant to carry on normally, to sit down and discuss things like adults while they were eating, but as he moved in to kiss her, just the thought that he might have been with Penny had Jasmine move her head away.
‘Jasmine?’ She saw him frown, heard the question in his voice about her less-than-effusive greeting, but she didn’t know how to answer him. Despite three hours trying to work out what she might say to him, how best to approach this, she still didn’t know how and in the end settled for the first thing that came into her head.
‘I’m not sure that you ought to be here.’
‘Sorry?’
‘I don’t think this is working, Jed.’
‘It would seem not.’
Of all the things he had been expecting tonight, this wasn’t one of them. Sideswiped, Jed walked through to the lounge and put the takeaway down on her coffee table, completely taken aback by the change in Jasmine. They’d made love that morning, he’d left her smiling and happy, with no hint of what was to come. ‘Can I ask what has changed between this morning and tonight?’
‘I just think things have moved too fast.’
‘And could you not have decided this before you introduced me to Simon?’ He didn’t get it and he knew she was lying when he saw her blush. ‘What’s going on, Jasmine?’
‘I heard something at work today,’ Jasmine admitted. ‘Something about you.’
‘So it’s gospel, then?’ was Jed’s sarcastic response. ‘And while you were listening to this gossip, did you not consider running
