eyes and mouth, and his dark brown hair, though thick and glossy, had a few streaks of silver in it around his temples. His skin wasn’t quite as weathered and tanned as his father’s or brothers’ back on the farm at home, but it still had a deep olive tone.
He was still imposingly tall and whipcord lean and fit, as if strenuous exercise was far more important to him than rest and relaxation. She looked at his hazel eyes. The same shadows were there—long, dark shadows that anchored him to the past.
‘I was wondering when I’d run into you,’ Molly said to fill the bruised silence. ‘I suppose Neil or Ian told you I was coming over to work at St Patrick’s for three months?’
His expression became inscrutable and closed. ‘They mentioned something about you following a boyfriend across,’ he said.
Molly felt a blush steal over her cheeks. She still wasn’t quite sure how to describe her relationship with Simon Westbury. For years they had been just friends, but ever since Simon had broken up with his long-term girlfriend Serena, they had drifted into an informal arrangement that was convenient but perhaps not as emotionally satisfying as Molly would have wished. ‘Simon and I have been out a couple of times but nothing serious,’ she said. ‘He’s doing a plastics registrar year over here. I thought it’d be good to have someone to travel with since it’s my first time overseas.’
‘Where are you staying?’ Lucas asked.
‘In that house over there,’ Molly said, pointing to a seen-better-days Victorian mansion that was divided into small flats and bedsits. ‘I wanted somewhere within walking distance of the hospital. Apparently lots of staff from abroad set up camp there.’
He acknowledged that with a slight nod.
Another silence chugged past.
Molly shifted her weight from foot to foot, the fingers of her right hand fiddling with the strap of her handbag where it was slung over her shoulder. ‘Um … Mum said to say hello …’
His brows gave a micro-lift above his green and brown-flecked eyes but whether it was because of cynicism, doubt or wariness, she couldn’t quite tell. ‘Did she?’ he asked.
Molly looked away for a moment, her gaze taking in the gloomy clouds that were suspended above the rooftops of the row of grey stone buildings. It was so different from the expansive skies and blindingly bright sunshine of the outback back home. ‘I guess you heard my father’s remarried …’ She brought her gaze back up when he didn’t respond. ‘His new wife Crystal is pregnant. The baby’s due in a couple of months.’
His eyes studied her for a beat or two. ‘How do you feel about having a half-sibling?’
Molly pasted on a bright smile. ‘I’m thrilled for them … It will be good to have someone to spoil. I love babies. I’ll probably babysit now and then for them when I get back …’
He continued to look at her in that measured way of his. Could he see how deeply hurt she was that her father was trying to replace Matt? Could he see how guilty she felt about feeling hurt? Matt had been the golden child, the firstborn and heir. Molly had lived in his shadow for as long as she could remember—never feeling good enough, bright enough.
Loved enough.
With a new child to replace the one he had lost, her father would have no need of her now.
‘You’re a long way from home,’ Lucas said.
Did he think she wasn’t up to the task? Did he still see her as that gangly, freckle-faced kid who had followed him about like a devoted puppy? ‘I’m sure I’ll cope with it,’ she said with the tiniest elevation of her chin. ‘I’m not a little kid any longer. I’m all grown up now in case you hadn’t noticed.’
His gaze moved over her in a thoroughly male appraisal that made Molly’s spine suddenly feel hot and tingly. As his eyes re-engaged with hers the air tightened, as if a light but unmistakable current of electricity was pulsing through it. ‘Indeed you are,’ he said.
Molly glanced at his mouth. He had a beautiful mouth, one that implied sensuality in its every line and contour. The shadow of dark stubble surrounding it gave him an intensely male look that she found captivating. She wondered when that mouth had last smiled. She wondered when it had last kissed someone.
She wondered what it would feel like to be kissed by him.
Molly forced her gaze to reconnect with his. She needed to get her professional cap on and keep it on. They would be working together in the same unit. No one over here needed to know about the tragic tie that bound them so closely. ‘Well, then,’ she said, shuffling her feet again. ‘I guess I’ll see you at the hospital.’
‘Yes.’
She gave him another tight, formal smile and made to move past but she had only gone a couple of paces when he said her name again. ‘Molly?’
Molly slowly turned and looked at him. The lines about his mouth seemed to have deepened in the short time she had been talking to him. ‘Yes?’ she said.
‘You might not have been informed as yet, but as of yesterday I’m the new head of ICU,’ he said. ‘Brian Yates had to suddenly resign due to ill health.’
She gripped the edges of her coat closer across her chest. Lucas Banning was her boss? It put an entirely new spin on things. This first foray of hers into working abroad could be seriously compromised if he decided he didn’t want her working with him. And why would he want her here?
She was a living, breathing reminder of the worst mistake he had ever made.
‘No,’ Molly said. ‘I hadn’t been informed.’
‘Is it going to be a problem?’ he asked with a direct look she found a little intimidating.
‘Why would it be a problem?’ she asked.
‘It’s a busy and stretched-to-the-limit department,’ he said. ‘I don’t want any personal issues between staff members to compromise patient outcomes.’
Molly felt affronted that he thought her so unprofessional as to bring their past into the workplace. She rarely spoke of Matt these days. Even though she had lived with her grief longer than she had lived without it, speaking of him brought it all back as if it had happened yesterday—the gut-wrenching pain, the aching sense of loss. The guilt. Most of her friends from medical school didn’t even know she had once had an older brother. ‘I do not bring personal issues to work,’ she said.
His hazel eyes held hers for a beat or two of silence. ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘I’ll see you in the morning. Don’t be late.’
Molly pursed her lips as he strode off down the street. She would make sure she was there before he was.
Lucas glanced pointedly at the clock on the wall as Molly Drummond rushed into the glassed-in office of ICU. ‘Your shift started an hour ago,’ he said as he slapped a patient’s file on the desk.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she said breathlessly. ‘I tried to call but I didn’t have the correct code in my phone. I’m still with my Australian network so I couldn’t call direct.’
‘So what’s
