Luckily Amy chose this morning to sleep late, so Nikki was able to shower and pull her disordered mind back into some sort of control before her daughter and their visitor burst in.
‘Luke’s in the swimming-pool,’ Amy informed her. ‘Beattie says we can swim too, but will you come as well?’ Then she frowned at her mother. ‘You look different.’
‘I wore this dress a couple of days ago,’ Nikki said self-consciously. It was one that Charlotte had sent. ‘Don’t you like it?’
‘I remember. It’s a pretty dress,’ Amy agreed. She eyed her mother up and down. ‘It’s not that that’s different. It’s…’ She stopped. ‘I don’t know what it is.’
‘Your mum’s smiley,’ Karen announced suddenly. ‘She’s not usually smiley.’
‘Well, I hope your mum’s smiley today too,’ Nikki said softly, stooping to give Karen a swift hug. The hug did more than show affection to the little girl. It also enabled Nikki to hide her mounting colour. ‘She’s coming to see you today, and maybe she’ll take you for a walk to show you your new house.’
‘Will I go back home today?’
‘We’ll get you moved into your new house first,’ Nikki promised. ‘Karen, it might be a week or two before your mum’s got things under control. Do you think you can put up with us for that long?’
Karen nodded solemnly. ‘I like it here,’ she said seriously. ‘And if you think Mum needs a rest…’
‘I think you both need a rest,’ Nikki told her. ‘When your arm’s a bit better and you can go back to being your mum’s best helper then we’ll send you home so fast we won’t see you for dust. Faster than a speeding bullet…’
‘Faster even than Superman…’ Amy giggled. ‘I like having Karen here. Mummy, are you coming swimming with Luke?’
Nikki shook her head. ‘No.’ She dared not. The thought of Luke in the swimming-pool…The thought of Luke anywhere at all was enough to turn her knees to water. She needed strong black coffee and some distance between them. ‘You girls go,’ she ordered.
‘But Luke’s waiting!’
‘Let him wait!’
Once again they breakfasted by the side of the pool. Whispering Palms was transformed, Nikki thought fleetingly as the children’s laughter sounded across the water. Beattie was beaming and affable. She kept looking from Luke to Nikki and back again, and Nikki knew exactly what was in her mind.
‘You need to find yourself a nice new man,’ Beattie had told Nikki over and over again, and now, seemingly, one had found her cherished Dr Nikki. And such a nice young man! Beattie handed out extra pancakes and her smile broadened.
‘Are you staying home to study all day?’ Beattie asked Nikki, refilling her coffee-cup, and Nikki nodded.
‘Though I’ll have to go in to the hospital first,’ she told the housekeeper. She was carefully avoiding Luke’s eyes. ‘I need to check Mrs McDonald.’
‘I can do that,’ Luke told her lazily.
‘No.’ Nikki flushed and stared intently at her cup of coffee. ‘Lara’s my midwifery patient and I should see her.’
‘Suits me.’ To her surprise Luke didn’t argue. He pushed back his chair. ‘Thanks for breakfast, Beattie.’ He lifted his brows at Nikki. ‘Coming, then?’
He could as well have kissed her. His eyes smiled at Nikki as he moved to help her rise and she felt herself flush to the core of her being. She felt beautiful and desirable and…and loved. Oh, if only she were…
There was a minor hiccup. Luke had been using Nikki’s car and Beattie needed the house car to take the girls to school and kindergarten. ‘It’s no problem,’ Luke told her as Nikki voiced doubts. ‘I’ll drop you back after the hospital rounds. You’ll still be home in time for enough study to suit your rigid requirements.’ Nikki looked up at him suspiciously but he wasn’t laughing. He wouldn’t laugh at her, she thought suddenly. He’d laugh with her maybe, but not at her.
They found Lara McDonald perched up in bed eyeing her breakfast dubiously. ‘Do you think I should?’ she asked as Nikki and Luke entered.
Luke grinned. ‘I don’t see why not, do you, Dr Russell?’
‘Not too much,’ Nikki advised. She crossed to the bed. ‘Feeling better, then?’
‘A hundred per cent.’ Mrs McDonald took a deep breath. ‘You know, maybe some of the pain was just fear. I thought the baby was coming and it got worse.’
‘It happens.’ Nikki lifted the chart and smiled at what she saw. ‘Everything’s fine, then. I see no reason why your husband can’t take you home this afternoon. Stay until after lunch, though. We’ll see. how your tummy responds to breakfast first.’
‘He won’t want me home.’ The woman smiled shyly. ‘He cossets me that much! If he had his way I’d stay in hospital for the next two months.’ She sighed. ‘I can’t blame him. This baby means so much to both of us.’
‘I know,’ Nikki said gently.
‘Well, maybe you don’t,’ the woman said. ‘You had your baby young, if I remember right. My husband and I, though-well, we’ve been trying for ten years. Ten years is a lot of time to be without a baby when you really want one.’ She bit her lip. ‘I don’t know how people cope when they can’t have children. I think…I think I might have gone mad.’
‘Or maybe you would have found the strength to cope,’ Nikki said gently, trying hard not to look up at Luke. ‘There’s more to life than having children.’
‘You say that, but then you have your daughter,’ Lara said firmly. ‘And maybe I’ll say that when I’ve got my brood safely round me. But not until then.’
A slight sound made Nikki turn. Luke had quietly left while the woman talked, closing the door behind him.
‘Oh,’ the woman in the bed said. ‘He’s gone. I guess he’s in a hurry and I was wasting your time with my small talk.’ She looked up at Nikki. ‘Such a nice man,’ she smiled.
‘Yes,’ said Nikki dully. ‘Such a nice man.’
There was little else for Nikki to do. All the other patients in the hospital had been handed over to Luke. She spent ten minutes in the office going through correspondence and then made her way back out to the car. Luke appeared fifteen minutes later.
‘There should be a taxi service in this town,’ Nikki said lightly as he lowered himself into the car beside her. For once, Luke’s face was set and grim. Nikki turned away, not wanting to see the etching of pain in the lines around his eyes.
’It’s no problem to drive you back.’
’No. But it’ll make you late for surgery.’
’Will you dock my pay if I’m late?’ Luke demanded, and Nikki swung back towards him, surprised by the intensity of his tone.
’Don’t be daft.’
He laughed without humour. ‘It’s happened before. Being a locum is the pits.’
‘So why do you do it?’
Luke’s mouth tightened even further. He swung the little car out of the car park and was silent for the rest of the drive home.
That was the last time they talked for the day. Back at Whispering Palms, Nikki left the car without a word. For the life of her she couldn’t think of a thing to say. Tackle what’s really wrong, her medical training told her. Probe the hurt. And yet…And yet this was the man she loved and she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t hurt him further.
She spent the rest of the day desultorily studying, but to her surprise she achieved a lot. ‘I’m in danger of passing this blasted exam,’ she told her reflection as she dressed for dinner. ‘Which makes Luke Marriott’s arrival well worth while.’
The thought held no comfort at all. Nikki stared bleakly at her reflection and then turned away. What on earth was happening to her nice ordered life? She had no idea.
Luke wasn’t in his customary position in the kitchen when she appeared. Beattie shook her head disapprovingly at Nikki’s questioning look. ‘He won’t be in,’ she said tightly. ‘Rang and said he had a case out the other side of town. It’s only Verity Birchip. I told him if he spent his life running all the way out to Birchips for every one of Verity’s imaginary ills he’d have his work cut out for him, but he wouldn’t listen. Said he’d grab something to eat in town and be home late.’