the smile that lifted his stern face. It made him seem younger, more approachable.
‘That’s very kind. I don’t really feel like making the journey back tonight.’ His periwinkle eyes smiled engagingly at her. They were quite startling, those eyes of his. ‘I’m sorry to impose on you. I feel I’ve put you out enough, but I promise we’ll be very quiet guests.’
‘No, that’s fine, it’s no trouble.’
‘Well, we’ll be out of your hair tomorrow anyway, but I’m very grateful to have somewhere to sleep tonight!’
‘That’s OK,’ she said brusquely. She delved in her bag and brought out her house keys, tossing them to him. ‘You might as well go there now and get settled. There’s food in the fridge for you and Archie. The house is at the top of the hill beyond the surgery—you can’t miss it, it’s the only one with a blue door.’
Denovan jingled the keys in his hand before he turned to go, with a slightly apologetic expression on his face. ‘Actually, I have another very big favour to ask you. I’ll go and see Frank this evening—but an ICU isn’t the place for a little boy, and I was planning to ask one of the hotel staff to watch him for me, but that plan will obviously need to change. So, if you’re not doing anything tonight, could I possibly leave Archie with you for an hour?’
Not doing anything tonight? Kerry almost laughed. She only had about a hundred things on her to-do list from the fallout of Frank’s accident, like sorting out the paperwork she should have done last night, trying yet again to get some cover for her colleague, catching up on the seriously ill patients on his list. It seemed an endless catalogue of things. But Denovan had to see his brother and Archie had to be looked after.
She hid her sigh behind a smile. ‘No problem—I’ll be back after surgery at about six-thirty.’
‘I’m very grateful. I just want to satisfy myself they’re doing the best they can for him. Then I really have to get back to London early tomorrow. Archie needs to get back to his nursery school.’
‘Of course.’
‘I don’t know when I can get back here again, it rather depends on my other commitments. As I said before, Frank’s accident couldn’t have come at a worse time.’
Kerry thought of poor Frank lying so very injured in the local hospital, and raised her eyebrows. Denovan watched her expression.
‘You look very disapproving,’ he remarked, a sudden coolness in his tone. ‘I do have an incredibly busy life, and it’s been a nightmare trying to rearrange things today, but I managed it.’
Bully for you, thought Kerry scornfully, but she said lightly, ‘I guess I’m just a little surprised that you couldn’t have found time to come at the weekend perhaps. I’d have thought …’
The blue eyes turned flinty. ‘You’d have thought what exactly?’ he enquired frostily. ‘With the deepest respect, you have no right to presume anything about my arrangements.’
Talk about pompous! Kerry’s cheeks burned angrily. ‘I don’t presume anything—and it hasn’t been easy for me either, as a matter of fact, but if he was my brother—’
‘But he’s not!’ cut in Denovan harshly.
Kerry stared at him incredulously, astounded by his rudeness. Extraordinary how touchy and defensive he was about visiting his brother, it was as if she’d lit a blue touch paper! She felt she’d glimpsed the real Denovan O’Mara again, arrogant and self-centred, and all of a sudden the atmosphere in the room had dropped several degrees.
Denovan stared at the floor for a second, taking a deep breath as if trying to keep his anger under control, then he shook his head apologetically and looked slightly shamefaced.
‘Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to fly off the handle. It was completely uncalled for, especially when you’ve been so kind.’
Hah! thought Kerry cynically. Now she was seeing his charming TV persona once more.
‘I guess it’s been a hell of a long day,’ Denovan continued. ‘I just wish Frank could learn not to take liberties with his blasted car.’
Amen to that, agreed Kerry. Frank wasn’t aware of the upset he’d caused her over the past twenty-four hours!
‘Perhaps he’s learned his lesson,’ observed Kerry tersely. ‘However, I’m sure when he sees you, it will do him a lot of good.’
Denovan shrugged. ‘Actually, it could have quite the opposite effect. The last time I saw or spoke to Frank was over six years ago, and that wasn’t exactly a happy occasion.’ He said it lightly, but that only seemed to emphasise the gravity of their differences.
He turned and left the room, striding quickly down the corridor and attempting to gather his thoughts. God, he was a fool. Why had he flown off the handle when Kerry had queried his commitment to his brother? All she had done was express sympathy and offer hospitality to himself and Archie—and he’d repaid her by being incredibly rude.
The truth was, he admitted to himself, he had a terrible fear that coming back and seeing Frank would raise all kinds of ghosts that he’d tried to bury over the years—and perhaps there was some guilt that he had never attempted to build bridges with his brother.
Of course, Kerry knew nothing of the terrible legacy of betrayal and disgust he felt for Frank, and the bitterness that had grown up between the two men. He clenched his fists angrily. Hell, he didn’t owe his brother any sympathy at all after what he’d done to ruin the family. He took a deep breath and went to collect his little boy from the kitchen.
Kerry sat down and stared after him in astonishment. What earth-shattering event could have caused a six-year rift between the two brothers? And whatever it was, did it justify Denovan’s rudeness?
CHAPTER TWO
ARCHIE settled happily in front of the television while his father went to see Frank in the local hospital, which was about five miles away across the valley in the larger town of Laystone. Denovan said he would probably stay an hour and find out what the prognosis on Frank was.
Kerry put on the kettle and started to make a quick supper for herself and Archie. She flicked a look at the little boy, endearingly quaint with his round glasses perched on the end of his snub nose, his jaws moving rhythmically as he devoured a little bowl of raisins. He seemed an adaptable child—obviously well used to adjusting to new people and situations.
‘Would you like some pasta?’ she enquired.
He didn’t take his eyes from the screen. ‘No, I don’t like pasta, thank you.’
‘What about some baked beans, then?’ Kerry rooted around in a cupboard looking for suitable food.
‘No, I don’t like baked beans, thank you.’
‘Then what do you like?’
Archie dragged himself away from watching the flickering screen. ‘I like chips and burgers and ice cream and crisps and chocolate,’ he said firmly.
Kerry’s lips twitched in amusement—evidently his parents didn’t bother about healthy diets!
