Candy said, ‘that sounds great.’
‘Good.’
‘But aren’t you on call?’
‘My registrar can earn his keep for a couple of hours,’ Steele said.
Wow.
There really was no messing with Steele; she had never really known anyone as direct as him before.
‘Anyway,’ Steele added, ‘I’ve got a few questions that I’d like to know the answers to.’
‘Question one,’ Steele said as they sat in a very nice café that was just a short drive from the hospital. ‘I want to know about your name—Candy?’
‘You’ll never know,’ Candy said as she looked through the menu. ‘It’s the reason I’m never getting married. It’s the reason I’m going on holiday alone. No one is allowed to see my passport!’
‘I’m determined to find out.’
‘You can be as determined as you like.’ She smiled. ‘It doesn’t mean that you’ll get anywhere, though.’
‘What do you want to eat?’ Steele asked.
‘I would like …’ She looked through the menu. What would she like? ‘I fancy a roast.’
‘Have a roast, then.’
‘I shall.’ Candy nodded. ‘A Sunday roast is exotic to me. It was pasta and pasta and more pasta when I was growing up.’
‘Well, I’ll have the pasta, then.’ He smiled, glad to be out with someone who seemed to enjoy their food. ‘That’s exotic to me.’
‘Please.’ Candy rolled her eyes.
‘Okay, second question—what was the mistake?’
Candy let out a breath; if this was leading anywhere, and it felt as if it was, then possibly she ought to tell him. Or possibly not, given that Steele would be long since gone by the time Gerry returned from Greece.
It wasn’t just a question of that, though. She liked Steele’s eyes, she liked his smile, she liked that she felt she could be honest with him. It would be such a relief to share what had been eating her up for these past couple of months.
‘Have you ever slept with an ex?’ Candy asked, quite sure, as she did so, that she was blushing from the roots of her hair to the tips of her toes.
‘Doesn’t everyone sleep with their exes?’ Steele checked. He was so at ease with it all that she let out a breath that she felt as though she’d been holding in since it had happened.
‘Well, I’ve only had two exes, and I only made that mistake with one of them.’
‘Actually,’ Steele added, ‘I’ve never slept with my ex-wife. I knew from the day we broke up that we were done.’
He saw her swallow. And swallow Candy did—she had certainly thought him worldlier than her and that he had been married and divorced confirmed it.
‘You sound bitter,’ she said, and was somewhat surprised when he didn’t deny that he was.
‘I am a bit when I think about it, which I don’t often do.’ He smiled. ‘She rang a few weeks ago and asked if we might consider getting back together. I long ago decided that I would never settle down with anyone again.’
He didn’t reveal the initial reason for their break-up. There was no point. There was no need for in-depth explanations about his infertility, given that he wasn’t going to be hanging around in any one place or in anyone’s space for too long.
Though perhaps he needed to make that a little clearer to Candy, he realised. She was seriously gorgeous. The attraction had been instant for both of them, of that there was no doubt, but she was several years younger than him and a lot less jaded and he did not want to cause hurt.
‘So you slept with your ex?’ Steele checked, and she gave a glum nod.
‘Do you know Gerry?’ Candy asked. ‘One of the head nurses in the emergency department.’
‘I’ve never met him,’ Steele said. ‘But I heard a bit about him when I was looking into the waiting times in Emergency. He’s an arrogant jerk apparently.’
‘That’s Gerry!’ Candy rolled her eyes. ‘He didn’t used to be. He got beaten up by two patients a few months ago and it seems to have changed him.’
‘He’s the one currently in Greece?’ Steele checked. ‘The one who wrote “Glad you’re not here” on his postcard?’
‘That’s the one.’ Candy nodded. ‘When I first moved out of home last year we went out, though not for very long.’
‘You only moved out last year?’
‘Believe me, twenty-four years of age is way too early in my family, unless it’s to get married. I should only have moved out to marry the boyfriend they had sort of pressed onto me … Instead, I dumped him and rented a flat.’
‘That would have been tough,’ Steele commented.
‘Yes, it caused a lot of arguments with my parents and I mean a lot, but in the end it was far easier to do that than marry someone just because my parents considered him suitable. Anyway, Gerry helped me a bit with the move, given that my parents were sulking. We went out for a while, like I said, but pretty quickly I ended it. That was last year but he’s been having a few problems of late. He asked if we could go out for a drink a couple of months ago …’ Candy gave an uncomfortable shrug.
‘One thing led to another?’ Steele checked, and she nodded.
‘It was a complete mistake on my part—he thought that signalled we were back together and he wasn’t best pleased to find out we’re not. Since then he’s been making things difficult for me at work. No one knows that we slept together again, thank God.’ She looked at Steele, surprised she could meet his eyes after her big revelation. ‘It should serve as a reminder—never get involved with anyone from work.’
‘Too late,’ Steele said. ‘I think we both know we’re heading for bed—guilt free.’
He liked it that she blushed and he liked it even more that she didn’t disagree with him. Now was the time to make it clear that, though this could be incredibly pleasant, there was no question of it lasting for very long.
‘I can assure you that I won’t turn into a monster when we’re over,’ Steele said, not very gently spelling it out for her. ‘I have very many exes who will tell you the same.’
Candy sat there as a delectable plate of roast beef, with all the trimmings, was placed in front of her. She was glad of the chance to think over his words rather than react immediately to them as she smiled and thanked the waitress. Steele was sitting there basically telling her that he was a playboy and warning her that before they started they had a use-by date hanging over them.
The strange thing for Candy was that she didn’t mind. His openness was, in fact, refreshing.
