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 your excuse?’ he asked, taking in her pink face and the disarray of her light brown hair. ‘Boyfriend keep you up late last night, or did he make you late by serving you breakfast in bed?’
Her face went bright red and her grey-blue eyes flashed with annoyance. ‘Neither,’ she said. ‘I was on my way to work when I came across a cat that had been hit by a car. I couldn’t just leave it there. It had a broken leg and was in pain. I had to take it to the nearest vet clinic. It took me ages to find one, and then I had to wait until the vet got there.’
Lucas knew he should apologise for jumping to conclusions but he wanted to keep a professional distance. Out of all the hospitals in London, or the whole of England for that matter, why did she have to come to his? He had put as much distance as he could between his past and the present. For the last ten years he had tried to put it behind him, not to forget—he could never, would never do that—but to move on with his life as best he could, making a difference where he could.
Saving lives, not destroying them.
Molly Drummond turning up in his world was not what he needed right now. He had only recently found out she was coming to work here, but he had assured himself that he wouldn’t have to have too much to do with her directly. He had planned to become director at the end of next year when Brian Yates formally retired. But Brian being diagnosed with a terminal illness had meant he’d had to take over the reins a little ahead of schedule. Now he would have to interact with Molly on a daily basis, which would have been fine if she was just like any other young doctor who came and went in the department.
But