hunched over his beer at Pete’s Bar, a watering place across the road from the hospital where most of the staff drifted if they didn’t want to be alone—or wanted to be alone in a section Pete called Off Limits.
The aroma of beef pie permeated the walls and Pete himself remembered every name he was told. He had twenty years of hospital names stored in his head.
Finn ordered the pie. ‘You should try it. To die for.’
Marco looked at it consideringly. ‘I have eaten but maybe I could manage one. I think I ran that off.’ And some other exercise, he reminded himself sardonically.
‘Evie says you’re seeing Emily Cooper.’
His appetite disappeared. So she had told her in the lift. And he’d apologised. Before he could say anything, Finn went on. ‘Good woman. Good midwife in an emergency too. Not the kind I would have thought up for a fling.’
‘We went out once.’ And slept together twice.
Finn looked at him under his brows. Must have seen something in his face. ‘Emily hasn’t said anything. Evie said she was in the lift with you two and could’ve cut the air with a knife.’
He’d got it wrong, again. Suspicion would kill him one day. ‘Very observant of her. I think I will have the pie.’ He stood up and walked over to the bar to order.
Man after his own heart. ‘Use your staff card. It’s half price,’ Finn called out, suddenly in a good humour because he’d found some other poor bastard who didn’t understand women either.
There was a lot of Marco D’Arvello that reminded Finn of Isaac. His brother had had that same kindness and warm exterior, and Finn wondered if Marco hid a similar feeling of homelessness. Thankfully Isaac had found happiness for the time he’d had with his wife, Lydia, something Finn had never allowed himself to find. The closest he’d come had been when he and Lydia had comforted each other after Isaac’s death. Lydia had been smart enough to know there was no future with Finn.
But now there was Evie. The reason he’d decided to come across here and think. That and the pain that was eating him alive.
Headstrong, defiant, warm-hearted Evie who for some incomprehensible reason said she loved him and he couldn’t quite believe it.
That was the problem. He didn’t want to risk becoming a quadriplegic—or worse—if she was going to hang her future on him. But there was the chance this surgery could remove the shrapnel and give him back full control of his hands.
Did he owe it to Evie to try? Or owe it to Evie to be half a man instead of just a shell? If he chose the surgery he’d just have to make a back-up plan to get away if it all went wrong.
‘You okay? You look worried. What’s up?’ Marco was back and he could see Finn was in pain. He set the pie down.
‘Nothing.’ Subject change. ‘So you’re leaving in a couple of weeks?’
‘Is it that close?’ Marco shrugged. ‘Doesn’t matter. You want to roster me on?’ He tried not to think of Emily. Of her character-filled house. Her family. He didn’t do families.
Of course Finn jumped at the offer. ‘The O and G guys would be thrilled. It’s always a pain getting cover.’
‘Fine.’ So this was penance. He could have left Sydney in fourteen days. ‘But I wish to be gone by the twentieth.’
‘Planning something special?’
He said the first thing that appeared in his mind. ‘Times Square.’ He’d be in New York for the new contract but it was unlikely he’d be out partying.
‘So, you going out with Emily again?’ Finn’s curiosity surprised him. Marco had never known him to be interested in someone else’s social life. Perhaps his friend was becoming more human.
‘I doubt it. She has a lot on her mind with her daughter.’
‘It’s a big responsibility. She does seem fairly consumed by her. I wouldn’t like to have a teenage daughter. Especially a pregnant one.’
‘Emily is a good mother.’
‘No doubt about that but she wouldn’t know squat about teenage boys and that’s how their life is going to change.’
Marco thought about that. Thought about the young man he’d seen. Emily’s natural reservations. About who was going to help her? And maybe the boy?
EMILY walked onto the ward Monday morning to collect Annie and the dull ache behind her eyes wasn’t helped when she saw Marco was still there.
‘Ah. Here is your mother.’ His glance swept over her. No doubt he could see the bags under her eyes. What did he expect if she’d been awake most of the night, reaching out for his hand in the bed beside her, or, worse still, scared she was falling in love?
His voice seemed to soften—or was it just her imagination? ‘Good morning, Emily.’
Cautiously Emily returned the greeting. ‘Marco.’ She could see Annie’s glance from one to the other and she prayed her daughter would hold her questions till later.
She made an effort to forestall her. ‘Dr D’Arvello has been very good when I was worried.’
‘Si. But today you look worried again.’ He smiled at Annie and then back at Emily. She wanted to look away but couldn’t because it felt too damn good to bask in the light. ‘All is good. Annie’s baby has increased the amount of liquid in the uterus quite substantially, which is a good sign of kidney function. I am very pleased.’
Emily felt one burden ease. ‘That’s wonderful news. So we can go?’
‘Si. But Annie must rest. I have clinics for another two weeks and I would like Annie to have another ultrasound at the end of this week and see me Friday morning in the rooms here.’
She glanced at Annie, who nodded. ‘Fine. We can do that.’ That meant one more definite time she would see Marco and the occasional ward sighting. She could handle that. Just.
‘So you’ll be here for a while?’ Annie was on a different track, a mission of her own, and Emily’s neck prickled.
‘Si. I have said I will work and do the on-call before I leave for the States.’
Annie looked so sweet and Emily’s trepidation grew. She knew that look. ‘So you have no family here, do you?’
Emily froze, wanted to put her hand out or even over her daughter’s mouth as she sensed what was coming.
‘No.’ Marco wasn’t stupid either and Emily held her breath.
So innocent Annie. ‘Would you like to come to my baby shower?’
‘Annie!’ Emily’s voice came out strangled.
‘I’ll see.’ Marco’s smile was crooked. ‘Perhaps your mother would prefer if I didn’t?’
Annie feigned horror. ‘Mum!’
Emily knew she was trapped. ‘What?’
Annie cajoled, ‘Well, I’d like to invite Rodney and his friends and maybe you could invite Dr D’Arvello and yours?’
Emily’s face reddened. ‘We’ll see. I’m sure Dr D’Arvello has other plans.’ She hoped.
Marco didn’t offer anything and she glared at him as she was obliged to fill the gap. ‘But of course he’s welcome.’
Annie was full of mischief. ‘You could even come home this afternoon and help us put up the decorations for Mum’s birthday.’
Emily blinked in shock. It got