of Evie with a new baby. A new niece most likely. The baby had to take after her father, but the similarities he’d already observed meant that he could imagine it would be what any baby of Evie herself could look like. Max’s chest actually constricted. Evie looked particularly ill and yet the look of unadulterated love on her face was unmistakeable. He’d been right thinking this was exactly the kind of life, of family, that Evie would want for herself. The only reason she hadn’t got it yet was because of her illness.
He could never give Evie the family she would want, once she got the transplant she needed. And it was foolhardy pretending he was here just for support for a woman who was, effectively, nothing more than a one-night stand. He needed to go. Get back to his life at Silvertrees. Refocus on his work. Forget about Evangeline Parker.
Moving quickly away from the photos and back to the armchair to wait for Evie, Max sought a way to best extricate himself. He’d have the drink she was preparing, and then make his exit.
‘Anyway, I just thought I’d make sure you’re okay. It’s great that you have a living donor in your sister-in-law,’ he offered when she came back through the door at last, a jug of orange juice and two glasses in hand.
‘Yes.’
‘No waiting on a transplant list. The procedure can be done at the earliest opportunity, before the body goes into kidney failure, and before it puts additional stress on your other organs.’
‘Yes.’
He tried to bite his tongue as she poured the first juice, but as her hand hovered over the second glass, he couldn’t stay silent.
‘Are you supposed to be drinking that? I’d have thought you should be limiting your potassium intake.’
‘What are you? The juice police?’ she grumbled, but he noted that she set the jug down without pouring a glass for herself. Settling herself on the couch opposite him. Distancing herself once again.
‘Evie...’ his voice was gravelly with concern, startling even himself ‘...I’m here. Talk to me.’
So much for extricating himself.
* * *
Evie had barely managed to stop herself from sinking back into his arms and confessing everything. He was here.
Here.
And more than that, he’d uttered the words she’d never even dreamed she would hear from him. He had made the time to come to her because he knew she needed him.
He just didn’t know how much, or why. And she had to be sure—she owed it to Imogen. She couldn’t bring Max into her daughter’s life until she knew it was absolutely worth it. That Max was worth it.
Not that she had a clue how she would even begin to tell him, anyway.
‘How are you feeling?’ he asked gently. ‘Besides the obvious.’
Tears pricked her eyes again. After years of dealing with troubled young adults, her own father, and even the unkindness of Max’s parents, she was used to the darker side of human nature. But sometimes other people demonstrated a depth of human kindness that was truly humbling. Not least the way her sister-in-law had stepped up to offer her a kidney, and then the way Annie and her brother had opened their home to her without question.
And now here was Max—the man with whom she’d shared little more than the most incredible and the only five-night stand of her life—and he had tracked her down here because he was a good person. How far would that goodness extend, though?
‘Besides the obvious physical exhaustion?’ she asked with a weak smile in a bid to buy herself more time. ‘I’m feeling mentally drained.’
It might send him running, but at least then she would know.
Max said nothing. Instead, he stood up and crossed the room to sit next to her on the couch. She couldn’t hold back the torrent of words any longer.
‘There have just been tests. So many tests that I thought they would never end. Not to mention all the tests which Annie endured just to help me.’ Evie lifted her hands to count off on her fingers. ‘EKGs to check her heart rhythm, chest X-rays to rule out lung disease or lung tumours, pap smears and mammograms, CAT scans to check for kidney stones, not to mention a whole gamut of blood tests.’
She cast Max a sheepish glance.
‘You’ll already know that, I’m sorry. It’s just I sometimes can’t believe what she’s put up with, for me.’
‘You’re important to her.’ Max spoke quietly. ‘And to your brother. Besides, you can’t tell me you wouldn’t have done the same thing for one of them.’
That was true. But it wasn’t her doing it for them, was it?
‘I just wish they didn’t have to go through this for me. What if Annie gives me her kidney and her son needs it? She and my brother have a nine-year-old boy.’
‘Is there any reason to think he would need it?’ he asked calmly.
She knew what Max was getting at. PKD was usually inherited. Her nephew was about as healthy as wild, boisterous, vitality-filled nine-year-old boys got.
‘My brother doesn’t carry the gene, and my nephew was checked out and found clear. But that’s not the point,’ she objected. ‘He could get hit by a car, develop some other undiagnosed kidney disorder, or anything.’
‘Unlikely, given what you’ve just said,’ Max soothed. ‘Is that what happened with you? You only discovered you had a kidney disease this last year?’
Old memories crashed into Evie out of the blue, sideswiping her. Memories of her mother and her stepfather, and of her brother. How they’d rallied around her as a teenager when they’d first discovered there was a problem. She couldn’t have hoped for a closer-knit family back then and, with Annie as her sister-in-law now, she was still so very fortunate. But she missed her parents. Almost every single day. Her heart ached for the fact that they would never even know about their granddaughter. Imogen would never have the incredible memories of loving grandparents that her nephew had.
‘Evie?’
She’d been staring off into the distance. With a start, Evie dragged herself back to the present.
‘Sorry. What were we saying?’
‘Did you discover your illness this past year?’
‘No,’ she admitted, her eyes meeting his. ‘I was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease when I was a kid, but I only started entering the first stages of renal failure one year ago.’
That had been the same week she’d allowed herself to break her rules and sleep with Max.
‘What happened?’
‘I’d been working with a particularly troubled young boy when I got kicked.’
‘That must have been some kick,’ he growled.
‘I guess.’
She wasn’t about to tell him it had been so forceful it had propelled her several metres backwards across the office. The kick hadn’t caused the problem, it had merely been a catalyst. She tried to lighten the tone.
‘But it was right over the site of my weakest kidney. Murphy’s law, I guess.’
‘I see.’ Max nodded grimly. ‘No wonder you left your job. I would imagine that would have been a hard decision for you. I know how passionate you were about your work there.’
Evie frowned.
‘I haven’t left for good, I just took leave when I became too exhausted to work there.’
She wasn’t prepared for his reaction.
‘Evie, you can’t possibly go back to work there.’
‘Of course I can.’ She bristled at his authoritative