‘I’d like that,’ she said.
‘It reminds me of my folks’ home,’ he continued.
‘Where is that?’
‘A few hundred miles to the north. My father has a ranch near the San Bernardino Mountains.’ He glanced at her. ‘Have you ever been to a working ranch?’
‘No. I would love to see one, though.’
When she saw the satisfied smile on Kendrick’s lips she could have bitten her tongue. Clearly the man thought he was making progress. Didn’t he recognise a friendly, polite response when he got one? But anything she said now would only make it worse.
The rest of the short journey passed quickly. Kendrick made a short detour to point out the San Andreas fault.
‘Have you ever experienced an earthquake?’ Elizabeth asked. The thought of one happening, even though they were so close to the fault, didn’t concern her. How could it? The worst had already happened.
‘I was involved in the rescue mission after the quake in Kashmir. The army used the helicopters’ heat-seeking equipment and radar to locate trapped bodies.’ He brought his dark eyebrows together and his silver eyes darkened to pewter. ‘It was tough. I sure hope we don’t see anything like that here, even though they think it’s inevitable.’
There was nothing much she could say in reply. The more she knew about Kendrick the more he surprised her. From helicopter pilot to stuntman? None of it seemed to fit. But the closed look on his face told her now was not the time for questions. If ever.
When they touched down they were surrounded by people wanting to know about Sunny. As soon as she’d updated them, Elizabeth excused herself, saying she wanted to phone the hospital, leaving Kendrick to field their questions. Whatever he decided to tell them about her near miss was up to him. Somehow she knew he would make sure there was no blame attached to her and she didn’t know how she felt about that. She didn’t want to be beholden to this man.
That night, when Elizabeth was lying in bed, her thoughts kept drifting back to Kendrick. Thumping her pillow and throwing off her blankets didn’t make any difference. Resigned to a sleepless night, Elizabeth made herself cocoa and took a seat by the window, gazing out at the thousand stars lighting up the cloudless sky.
Earlier she had spoken to the doctor at the hospital and he’d confirmed a diagnosis of malaria.
‘Well spotted,’ he said warmly. ‘A day or two would have made a difference. She would have become a lot sicker. As it is, we should be able to discharge her after the weekend.’
‘It wasn’t me who spotted it,’ she’d said. She couldn’t sit back and take credit where none was due. ‘It was one of the stuntmen. He was in the army and saw a lot of it there, apparently. He’s the one who flew us down.’
‘Well, whoever caught it, the result’s the same,’ the voice on the other end of the phone said. ‘But tell him good job from me.’
Why did her thoughts keep returning to Kendrick? There was no doubt he was interesting. One minute he was acting like someone straight out of an action movie, the next he was being kind and perceptive and, she had to admit, good company. But that wasn’t the only reason. There was a strength about him, an assurance, as if he was always in control, as if he’d never let anything bad happen on his watch.
In every way he was different from the man she had married. She couldn’t imagine Kendrick walking out on his wife and child when that child had a life-limiting illness. But then again, what did she really know about the stuntman? He was clearly someone who liked his freedom. But that was okay. It wasn’t as if she was thinking of Kendrick in that way. Being intrigued by someone was a whole different ball game to wanting to be with them.
She walked across to the bedside table and picked up the photograph of Charlie. Tracing the contours of her daughter’s face with the tip of her finger, she smiled. From the first moment she’d held her daughter in her arms, she’d been overwhelmed with love. In that instant she’d understood when people talked about a mother’s tigerish protectiveness. And when Charlie had finally been diagnosed with Gaucher’s disease, that instinct had only grown stronger. She would have given her life for her child.
Simon, on the other hand, had been disbelieving, almost outraged. As it had become apparent there was something seriously wrong with their child, he’d insisted on getting a second and then a third opinion. But no matter how many doctors they had seen, the diagnosis had always been the same, as Elizabeth had known it would be. Charlie had inherited a rare gene from both her parents and there was nothing anyone could do to stop the illness taking its course. Finally she had put her foot down.
‘Enough, Simon. She has a terminal illness and nothing’s going to change that. She won’t be with us for long, but whatever time we have with her, can’t we just make the most of it? No more treating her like a pincushion. No more dragging her halfway across the world.’ Seeing the grief in her husband’s eyes, she had softened. ‘Let’s just love her.’
Simon had shaken his head and looked at her, his eyes filled with abject misery. ‘I don’t know if I can cope with all this. I know what that says about me, but I don’t think I can.’
And he couldn’t. He had tried at first, but soon he’d been spending more and more time away from them and at work. Elizabeth had intended to return to her job with the air ambulance service when the baby was six months old, but that had proved impossible. Not that she’d minded. She’d wanted to make the most of every second she had of Charlie’s life.
It shouldn’t have been a surprise when Simon had left, but it had been. To be honest, she hadn’t even noticed him drawing away from her until it had been too late.
His leaving her rocked her soul, but for Charlie’s sake she had picked herself up and carried on. What else could she do? The last time she had seen her ex-husband had been at Charlie’s funeral.
She would never love again, she knew that. It was too painful. So why was she even thinking about Kendrick? The man was clearly not her type. But wasn’t that part of the reason she was attracted to him? At least he didn’t pretend to be something or somebody he wasn’t.
CHAPTER THREE
KENDRICK glanced over to where Jack was leaning against one of the cars they were using in the shoot, gesticulating with his hands as he talked. Next to him was Elizabeth but from her body language, arms folded, whatever Jack was saying was cutting no ice. For the first time ever, Jack’s famous smile and charm was having no effect. Kendrick eyed Elizabeth speculatively. Most women were fawning, gibbering wrecks when Jack turned on his charm. But Dr Lizzie seemed less than starstruck. Kendrick grinned. The movie star was still persevering, but it would take more than his dazzling, whiter-than-white smile to thaw this particular ice maiden.
What was her story anyway? Why was she so cool and distant? Had she just come out of a broken relationship? It was the most likely explanation for her frosty exterior. If so, he knew exactly how to fix that.
He strolled across to Jack and Elizabeth and was pleasantly surprised to see the look of relief in her eyes when she noticed him and shot him a smile. He loved seeing her all-too-rare smile. It softened her mouth and lit up her eyes.
‘Kendrick,’ she said. ‘Jack was just inviting me to his party next weekend. He says everyone’s going.’
Sneaky so-and-so. Trying to get in there first. Thinking that an invitation to his mansion in Beverly Hills would tip things in his favour. His gut was telling him that it would take more than glitz and glamour to impress the doctor, but he wasn’t going to tell Jack that.
‘You’re coming too, I assume, Kendrick?’ Although the lead actor smiled, Kendrick could see that he didn’t want him to get in his way. Every time they did a film together there would be this little unspoken competition about who would end up with the woman they both