Lucy took a deep breath and quelled the moment of panic. She had made her decision and even if it didn’t work out as well as she hoped it would, at least it would give her a breathing space, time to put things into perspective. She simply had to remember how much worse it would have been if she’d found out about Richard and Amy after the wedding had taken place.
Max made his way to the staffroom then realised that he didn’t even have the energy to make himself a cup of coffee. Veering away from the door, he headed for the lift. The cafeteria should be open soon and the thought of a double espresso with his name on it was too tempting to resist.
The staff were just opening up when he arrived, so he gave them his order and sat down, feeling weariness washing over him. The long night had taken its toll, especially as it had been the second night in a row that he’d been called in. With Anna on maternity leave, he had been picking up more than his share of extra hours recently. It wasn’t a new occurrence, by any means. Working long and unsocial hours was par for the course in medicine. At one point, he’d been only too glad to work any time he was needed, too. It had been far less stressful dealing with his patients’ problems than what had been happening in his marriage.
Max frowned. It was rare that he thought about the past and it surprised him that he should do so now. He had been divorced for three years and he had closed the door on that episode in his life. OK, so he was willing to admit that it had had a knock-on effect, in that he avoided commitment these days, but to his mind that was common sense. Once bitten, twice shy seemed a sensible maxim to live by and he wasn’t going to put himself through all that heartache again.
His thoughts moved away from the less than appealing subject of his failed marriage and on to the far more interesting topic of their new midwife. Lucy Harris appeared both highly competent and extremely capable, and he was pleased that their views were in accord. Some of the older midwives were a little entrenched in their ways and it would be good to have a soul-mate on the unit.
The fact that she was also extremely pretty with those huge blue eyes and those shiny auburn curls tumbling around her cheeks was another point in her favour. Although Max shied away from commitment, he had a normal healthy interest in the opposite sex and Lucy Harris was a very attractive member of it. All of sudden his tiredness lifted and he grinned. Working with the lovely Lucy could turn out to be a real tonic.
Chapter Two
SOPHIE JONES’S baby finally made his appearance in the middle of the afternoon. Amanda, the senior midwife, helped Lucy deliver him. Lucy guessed that Amanda was keen to put her through her paces, but tried not to let it worry her. By the time Sophie and baby Alfie were transferred to a ward, she was confident that Amanda wouldn’t have any more concerns about her, and it was reassuring to know that at least one very important aspect of her life hadn’t changed.
Lucy fetched her coat at the end of her shift and left. It had started raining at lunchtime and the gutters were brimming over with water as she made her way to the bus stop. She huddled against the wall when a car sped past, sending a wave of water across the pavement, but by the time she reached the bus stop, her shoes and trousers were soaked through. She joined the queue, hoping that she wouldn’t have to wait too long. However, half an hour later she was still there when a car drew up and Max Curtis poked his head out of the window.
‘Do you want a lift?’ He glanced at her sodden trousers and grimaced. ‘You’re going to catch your death if you stand there much longer. Hop in.’
Lucy hesitated, not sure that accepting a lift would be the right thing to do. It didn’t seem fair to expect him to drive her home after the long day he’d had. However, the thought of getting out of the rain was too tempting to resist. She slid into the passenger seat and slammed the door.
‘Thanks. It’s really good of you,’ she said gratefully. ‘I don’t know what happened to the bus. I’ve been waiting ages and there’s been no sign of it.’
‘Probably two will turn up together,’ he said lightly, putting the car into gear. ‘So how was your first day then? Not too scary, I hope.’
‘No, it was fine,’ Lucy assured him. ‘Everyone was really helpful, which makes a huge difference when you’re starting a new job.’
‘It’s a good team,’ he assured her, slowing as they came to a set of traffic lights on red. ‘Most of them have worked on the unit for a while, so that helps, of course.’
‘It must do,’ Lucy agreed, turning to look at him. Although he wasn’t classically handsome, he was certainly attractive, she decided. The combination of those highly masculine features—a strong jaw, straight nose and perfectly sculpted lips—was very appealing. Rumpled dark brown hair falling across his forehead lent him a rakish air that many women would find pleasing too. She found it strangely engaging which surprised her, given what had happened recently.
‘I’m looking forward to being part of a settled team,’ she said, hurriedly squashing that thought. She certainly wasn’t in the market for another relationship. The fact that her ex-fiancé had betrayed her had destroyed her faith in men. Love, marriage and, most important of all, a family had always been her dream but not any more. She wouldn’t give any man that much power over her again. ‘The turnover of staff at my last place was a nightmare. You no sooner got used to working with someone before they left.’
‘It’s always more of a problem in the city. Staff tend to move around more than they do in rural areas. You were at the Royal, weren’t you?’ he asked, glancing at her.
‘That’s right. I was there for almost four years. It was really busy, but I enjoyed working there.’
‘So what brought you to Dalverston?’ he asked, returning his attention to the road as the lights changed. ‘Has your family relocated to this part of the world?’
‘No, only me.’
‘Really?’ He shot her a look and she saw the surprise on his face. ‘It takes guts to up sticks and leave everything behind like that.’
‘I don’t know about that. It just felt like the right thing to do,’ she hedged, not wanting to go into detail about the reasons for her decision. She sighed softly. Maybe it was silly to feel embarrassed, but what had happened had dented her confidence. She no longer saw herself as the person she had always been, but as a reject, second best. For some reason she hated to think that Max might see her like that too.
‘I realised that I was in a bit of a rut and needed a complete change of scene,’ she explained, wondering why it mattered what he thought. She barely knew him, so his opinion wasn’t going to make much difference to her. ‘When I saw the advert for Dalverston, I decided to apply for the post.’
‘And got it.’ He gave her a quick smile but Lucy could tell that he’d guessed there was more to the story than she’d admitted. ‘Well, the Royal’s loss is our gain is all I can say.’
He didn’t press her and she was glad about that. Maybe it would get easier with time but at the moment it was still too painful to talk about what had happened. They drove into the town centre and she gave him directions to where she lived from there.
Finding somewhere suitable had been harder than she’d expected. Although rent in Dalverston was less expensive than it was in Manchester, it was still a big chunk out of her monthly salary. She and Richard had signed a lease on their flat and there were still several months left to run. Richard had refused to pay his share of the rent after he’d moved out, and unwilling to make the situation even more unpleasant than it already was, Lucy hadn’t tried to persuade him. Instead, she’d been paying it all and had needed to trim her costs accordingly. She’d finally settled on a flat in one of the old terraced houses close to the high street. It wasn’t the best location but it would do for now. She would find somewhere better when she could afford it.
Max