option. The silence lengthened and he guessed they were both going to pretend nothing was wrong.
Georgia felt gutted. She wasn’t even sure Max knew it was Sol’s hospital.
She tried to quell the pictures that rose unbidden into her mind. It’s OK, she told herself. The connection with Del wasn’t so bad. Was it?
Sol would have to be the receiving consultant on duty to have had any contact with Del. Even then the registrar would probably have been the one to read the nurse’s notes.
There really wasn’t much chance Sol would track them down, and she doubted Del would speak much about Meeandah except to nod.
Georgia just wished she hadn’t been the one to sign and print her name on the nurse’s transfer letter—along with Max’s. She still signed her maiden name because of the rigmarole of changing names through the nurse’s registration board so Sol would recognise it.
‘We have the weekend before us. What can we do to put a smile on your face?’
Georgia looked up at him blankly.
‘Would you like to go somewhere? For the weekend?’ This time it had been Max to change the subject and she was glad because her own brain still felt sluggish with shock.
The idea of hiding away from the world appealed to Georgia greatly. ‘Let’s go away. Drive bush roads for the weekend. Follow where the tracks take us.’
Nobody would find them and she would be able to push the thoughts of Sol far into the back of her mind again. She’d just begun to feel settled and happy but now the secure rock Max had built for her had crumbled away with only one obstetric transfer to Sol’s hospital. Her response in itself was disheartening.
‘Go camping, you mean?’ Max was looking at her as if to judge how serious she was.
The idea promised sanctuary, Georgia thought, clutching at anything to divert her mind away from the past. ‘No phones, no people—just the bush and us.’
‘I think it’s a great idea to take some picnic supplies and get offroad,’ Max said cautiously, and she looked up in surprise. She’d thought he would have jumped at the chance to camp out.
He went on. ‘How about we run back into the coast at night to sleep with civilised showers and comfortable beds? Away from the mosquitoes, for Elsa’s sake.’
The urgency to hide loomed larger than comfort for Georgia. ‘Elsa will be fine. I thought you enjoyed roughing it.’
‘Logistically it’s a little easier for me to camp than you and Elsa. If you don’t fancy the coast there are fabulous mountain retreats in the Lamington National Park. We could slip across into Queensland and go up into the mountains and make log fires in the retreats at night when Elsa goes to bed.’
She sighed with relief. They could still go. ‘That would be wonderful, Max. Could we?’
‘Sure.’ He stood to collect their plates. ‘We can decide where we’ll go after dinner. I’ll go online later and check it all out. I do have friends up that way who own a lodge.’
She watched him head for the kitchen. She normally would have jumped up to help him. He was solicitous and she guessed he must have connected the hospitals, too.
She felt like someone had dropped a boulder on her smooth life when she wasn’t looking. To get away this weekend would at least give her time to get her thoughts together without jumping at every sound.
She hugged herself and the feel of her arms reminded her how it had felt when Max had first agreed to look after her. That first day that Sol had seen Elsa.
She stood up, walked to the window and gazed out into the inky blackness. Far away on the ocean a container ship rode the horizon. Alone and undefended it could still look after itself.
She wasn’t ready to do the same and she didn’t know what to do for the best.
What if Max was in danger, too?
Max entered the room and placed the dishes on the table, not trying to be quiet. He expected her to turn from the window but she didn’t seem to hear him return.
When he touched her on the shoulder she flinched so violently that his hand pulled back and his own pulse rate soared.
‘Hey.’ He stepped closer now that she knew he was there and slid his arm around her shoulder. When she didn’t pull away he turned her into his chest and encircled her. She was shaking and his chest tightened. He would protect them both with his last breath.
‘You only need to tell me how you feel and I’ll share it with you,’ he said and teased her gently. ‘You’re not alone and I’m deeply offended you think you are.’
‘I’m sorry, Max.’ She sniffed into his shirt and his hand slid up and brushed the hair out of her eyes. Her expression of deep foreboding twisted his stomach.
He wanted to snatch up Georgia and her daughter and carry them away from any chance of Sol finding them and that was when he began to realise she would never be free until the Sol issue was resolved.
‘Even if it is only for a year, I am your husband. Who better to protect you? I may seem a flipperty sort of fellow but I do have hidden strengths.’
‘You don’t seem flipperty at all. You’re wonderful.’ She glanced at his muscled arms and gave a twisted smile. ‘Your strength isn’t hidden and I don’t deserve your patience with my bogeyman.’
‘Cut it out, Georgia. If we are anything, we are friends.’ He lifted her chin. ‘Isn’t that right?’
‘Yes.’ She nodded and buried her face back into his shirt.
‘So friends trust each other and your worries are my worries. But we do need to communicate. It is very hard to help you when you shut me out.’
‘I know.’ She straightened and he hugged her one last time before he forced himself to let her go.
‘Come and eat. Then we’ll talk. Unless we feed all this food to the dog, Mrs White will find out we didn’t enjoy her hard labour.’
‘I couldn’t eat a thing.’
Max stared down at her and she looked so forlorn and lost that his heart ached to ease her pain.
He leant forward again and kissed her gently on the lips with all the tenderness she inspired in him. She sighed against him and didn’t pull away, and when he drew back she turned her face towards him and leaned up to kiss him back. He forced back the desire to pull her into his arms and really kiss her so she could forget the man that stood between them.
‘I’m scared, Max.’ Georgia leant her head on his chest again.
‘I know, darling.’ He had felt her tremble beneath his lips when their lips had met. He couldn’t see how one man could inspire such dread but Georgia obviously could.
‘Hold me,’ she whispered.
He’d imagined holding her in his arms many times, but not for this reason. Poor baby. ‘Any time you want,
