on more than one occasion, his daughter.
It should be refreshing that someone was prepared to antagonise him on Stella’s behalf, but Susie was not the only one capable of mistrust. What was it Charles had said? That Susie and Stella had made a formidable team this week? Alex had yet to gauge the strength of the relationship between this woman and his daughter and, given the unfortunate family spat on his arrival, it might be prudent to avoid any further antagonism until the emotional lie of the land became clearer.
If what Charles had been telling him was true, he owed this woman rather a lot and he was not a man to leave debts unpaid, but he would need to satisfy himself regarding motivation first. To make sure nobody was being used.
The vow may be years old now but nobody was ever going to use Stella like that again.
‘Can I leave it to you to show Alex where the cabin is?’ Charles was saying now. ‘Jill’s wanting to come over to help look after Lily. It’s too late for the usual ferry or seaplane transfers but I said I’d try and sort out some transport.’
The black suitcase had already been whisked away to the resort hotel.
‘I’ll have it sent back,’ Susie told Alex. ‘As soon as I can tear myself away for the champagne and caviar.’
He didn’t smile. He turned away, in fact, to stare at the ocean view as they began their walk towards the cabin. Did he think she was being critical of such an affluent choice of accommodation? Or, worse, that she was being serious?
Maybe the man had no sense of humour.
Not that he really needed one with his looks. Women must fall at his feet in droves, even without the additional attractions of vast wealth and an international reputation as one of the best paediatric neurosurgeons in the southern hemisphere.
Susie gave her head a tiny shake. It wouldn’t be enough for her. A large part of the sheer joy to be found in being alive came through laughter.
On the other hand… Susie stole a quick glance at the man walking alongside her. It was a little too easy to imagine the kind of female response the sight of Alex would generate. She could actually feel an odd frisson of something herself.
Something she hadn’t felt for a very long time.
Good grief!
She was attracted to him?
Susie flicked her hair back with a far more vigorous shake of her head. Not possible. Not when he had made Stella so miserable. And particularly not when she remembered that unpleasant emphasis in calling her Miss Jackson that first time. He’d been so sure she was unmarried, and why was that? Because he’d judged her appearance and personality and decided that nobody would have been interested?
At least he couldn’t possibly know how well the barb had found a target.
The faint bars of a piece of classical music came from nowhere. It wasn’t until Alex stopped that she realised the sound was coming from his pocket.
‘Excuse me for a moment,’ he said, extracting his cellphone. The phone he had said he was going to switch off. ‘I’d better take this,’ he added, after a glance at the tiny screen. ‘It’s my registrar.’
Susie took another pace or two before she stopped, and she didn’t turn around. Her back could be a silent protest that he could still allow priorities other than Stella to claim his attention.
A rapid exchange of medical terminology was easy to ignore but then the tone of the conversation suddenly changed and Susie found herself eavesdropping.
‘Do the parents want to speak to me again?’ A heavy silence as Alex listened. ‘Please, tell them how sorry I am.’
He sounded sorry.
Sincere. And caring.
Susie tried not to let her opinion of this man take a U-turn. Why hadn’t he sounded like that when he’d been speaking to his own daughter?
It was hard to ignore the heavy sigh she heard. Then a silence that seemed to speak volumes. But then Alex cleared his throat and it seemed to be business as usual.
‘Can you give me a quick update on Melanie? I’m going to be unavailable by mobile for a while. What’s the ICP looking like?’
There was another exchange of medical information, a farewell and then Susie heard the phone give a blip that suggested it was, indeed, being switched off.
‘Sorry about that,’ Alex murmured. He moved to catch up with Susie. ‘It’s been a day from hell in the unit.’
‘Has it?’
Susie was only being polite. She didn’t really expect Alex to start talking to her about his professional life. The silence around them was welcome rather than uncomfortable. Then it became too quiet. Where were all the children? All on the beach, perhaps, or rounded up to participate in some pre-dinner activity.
The shade of the patch of forest they were in had also been initially welcome but seemed to become oppressive. It was hot and there was no hint of any sea breeze reaching them now.
Or did the feeling of oppression come from her companion? Susie looked sideways and was startled to catch Alex’s gaze. He was frowning again and Susie felt as if she was under some kind of new evaluation.
‘I operated on a fourteen-year-old boy in the early hours of this morning,’ Alex said abruptly. ‘He and his brother got collected by a drunk teenager who lost control of his car last night. The brother died instantly. We did our best with Sean but we knew by this morning there was no point in continuing life support. There were potential organ recipients in the wings. I was talking to the parents again as I was arriving here. My registrar tells me they’ve just decided to have the ventilator switched off…and they’ve agreed to donate Sean’s organs.’
‘Oh…’ Susie didn’t know what to say. How glib had she been in considering that his day might have been stressful? Nobody could have missed the pain in his voice when he’d relayed his sympathy to the parents of that boy. Alex cared about his patients. A lot. How much of his mind and heart were unavoidably involved elsewhere at present? Beside a bed in an intensive-care unit where a family was gathered to say a final farewell to a child they should not be losing.
For the second time Susie was trapped by her eye contact with Alex. This time—incredibly—it seemed even more powerful. This wasn’t any kind of surface inspection, however. Perhaps he was trying to gauge the effect his words had had. Did Susie understand why he might have been so horrified at the sight of his daughter having been transformed into a teenager in the space of a few days? That these years were enough of a minefield for any parent to contemplate, let alone someone in Alex’s position who got to see the worst of what could happen?
Of course she understood. And she could respect anyone in the medical profession who cared that much about his patients. But Stella was his daughter. His only child. On top of what was almost always a difficult life stage, she was having to deal with things that, fortunately, most teens didn’t have to face. A life- threatening illness. Stella was…special, and if a line in the sand was being drawn, Susie was not about to allow herself to get tugged onto Alex’s side. She didn’t
