If it hadn’t been too weird a thought to entertain, he might have even interpreted her expression as vaguely guilty.
Did she think he was directing sympathy at her, maybe? As if. He had enough sensitivity to know that she wouldn’t appreciate that. She was clearly a strong and capable woman. Someone who’d taken on the responsibility of a child who wasn’t her own. Who was having to cope with the disaster of that child becoming gravely ill and who was doing everything she possibly could to put things right.
He respected that. Good grief, she’d gone to the other side of the world to try and track down the boy’s dad and when she’d discovered he wasn’t the one, she’d headed back to chase up another lead. Hopefully, that had proved successful. What with all the drama of Max and Ellie in recent months and then getting them shifted to this house and the wedding being planned, Rick hadn’t caught up on any further news about that. He had heard that Josh had been in hospital again in Auckland, which was why Sarah had only just made it to Dunedin in time to be Ellie’s bridesmaid. Maybe that had been for the transplant.
‘Hey, buddy.’ He winked at Josh as they positioned themselves near an old sundial in a corner of the garden. ‘How’s it going?’
Josh eyed him warily.
‘I’m Rick.’
‘I know. You’re Max’s friend.’
‘Yep.’ Both men spoke together and then Max put his arm over Josh’s shoulders as cameras whirred. ‘Rick’s got a Ducati too. Just like mine.’ He raised an eyebrow at Rick. ‘Josh was looking at that photo of us last night. With the bikes.’
‘Max said he might give me a ride one day.’
‘Cool.’ Rick had no trouble smiling for the camera. Maybe this was it. His ticket for getting to know Sarah. Max was going to be very busy settling into married life. He could offer to give Josh that ride.
‘I don’t think so.’
Sarah held out her hand to accept the glass of juice she had requested at the drinks table, congratulating herself on being so restrained.
Had Rick been waiting for a moment when she was away from everybody else to make his unwelcome offer to give Josh a ride on his motorbike?
Over my dead body had been the words that first sprang to mind but she had managed—with difficulty—to stop them emerging. She didn’t want to antagonise this man. OK, maybe this was a long shot but it was the only shot she had left and she couldn’t afford to throw it away. And maybe she should have been as prepared for something like this as for the way Rick was making no secret of finding her attractive.
He was totally irresponsible. The kind of good-looking—well, OK, make that great-looking guy who skated through life getting everything he wanted and to hell with any less than pleasant consequences. How old was he? Thirty-five or-six? High time he woke up and smelled the coffee, that’s for sure, but what was she going to do if he simply refused?
‘I’m not suggesting anything remotely dangerous.’ Rick pulled a can of lager from the nest of ice in a big silver tub. ‘Just a slow crawl around the block, or something.’
The smile revealed that Rick Wilson usually got what he wanted and no wonder. It was a winning smile, for sure. Confident and lazy. Softening a face of definite lines and a shadowed jaw that had ‘bad boy’ stamped all over it. Soft, dark hair that had been neatly combed into place a while back but the breeze in this outdoor setting had detached a single lock that almost touched an equally dark eyebrow. Eyes that had a hint of mischief that any woman would have trouble resisting.
Any other woman, that was.
‘I don’t think so,’ Sarah repeated, trying very hard not to put a punctuation mark between each word. She even added a smile of her own. ‘But thanks anyway.’
His smile faded. A tiny frown appeared between his eyes.
Oh…help.
As if in answer to the silent plea, there was a rustle of silk beside her and Ellie reached for one of the cans in the tub of ice.
‘For Max.’ She grinned in response to Rick’s raised eyebrows. ‘He’s got his hands full of baby at the moment.’ Then she looked from Rick to Sarah and she paused, her eyes widening.
Sarah gave her head a tiny shake. No, she hadn’t broken her promise.
‘Rick was just offering to give Josh a ride on his bike,’ she said, her tone carefully neutral.
‘Oh…’ Ellie bit her lip, giving Rick an oddly sympathetic glance. ‘Um…Josh’s mother was killed when she was a pillion passenger on her boyfriend’s bike,’ she said quietly.
Rick winced visibly. ‘Sorry.’
‘No worries. You weren’t to know.’ Sarah could see Josh approaching. ‘Here’s your juice,’ she said brightly. ‘Want something to eat as well?’
‘Nah. I’ve already had heaps. Can we go down to the beach? Max says there’s a jetty and you can go fishing.’
‘Maybe another day. We’re here for the wedding, remember? And not for too much longer, either. You don’t want to get too tired when you’re going to be starting school again this week.’
This wasn’t going well.
If it wasn’t his wedding day, he might have given Max a bit of stick for setting him up for that little disaster of offering Josh the opportunity to get maimed or worse.
He still could, if he made a joke of it, but there was something even more disturbing that needed his attention urgently.
Sarah was talking to Jet now. Smiling and nodding at something he was saying. Rick broke off the conversation he was having with some theatre nurses he knew and moved in their direction. The clock was ticking here because who knew how long it would be before she whisked Josh off home? And what if she was busy agreeing to a date or something? No. Rick could be pretty sure he was safe on that score. Jet wouldn’t go near a woman who had a child. The mere mention of babies had been enough at times for his mate to hold up crossed fingers and make a hissing sound to ward off bad voodoo.
‘We’ll have to see how it goes,’ Sarah was saying as he got close enough to hear. ‘One step at a time.’
‘Hey…’ Jet seemed happy enough to include Rick in the conversation. ‘Did you know Sarah’s a specialised ICU nurse? She’s coming back to work at Queen Mary’s next week.’
‘Just casual to start with,’ Sarah added. ‘I’m not sure how it’ll go. All depends on Josh, of course.’
‘Of course.’ Rick gave up trying to find a smooth opening line. Instead, he went for something much more mundane. ‘Our paths will be crossing. I spend quite a good percentage of my time in ICU.’
‘You’re a neurosurgeon, yes?’
‘Yes.’ This was good. Had she been asking someone about him? Even better that she would be working in that department. Given that neurosurgery was often the main specialty involved in cases like head injuries, he often spent considerable periods of time in ICU. But then he frowned.
‘Coming back? You’ve worked there before?’ Surely he would have spotted her. In the unit or the cafeteria. Even the car park, dammit. He was absolutely certain he would have noticed.
Sarah’s expression was rueful. ‘I applied for a job and got it but I never actually did a shift. That was when Josh got diagnosed.’
‘ALL?’ Jet queried.
Sarah’s nod was grim. Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia was the stuff of parental nightmares. ‘The next few months were a bit of a blur. All the invasive diagnostic tests and then induction chemotherapy. I lived in the children’s oncology unit.’
‘Good response to induction?’ It was