‘Sure. Promise I’ll be quick. What would you like?’
She looked at Marco. ‘Scones and cream?’
Marco smiled at the young girl and she blushed all the way to the roots of her hair. ‘One hot chocolate, one coffee black, and two scones and cream. Per favore.’ The girl nodded and sped off.
Well, that was that. She studied his face. He didn’t look tired. So maybe he really did manage on four hours’ sleep. She was beginning to droop. She stifled a yawn. ‘So tell me how it went.’
‘Very well. No complications. A simple scope and shunt away from the narrowed opening into the bladder. Initial ultrasound shows good drainage into the bladder already.’
‘Do you think my granddaughter’s kidneys will be very damaged?’
His face softened and he reached across to touch her hand. Just that one stroke made her feel better. Comforted. His hand moved back. ‘This I cannot tell. We will hope not.’
What did she expect? How could he know that? She just wanted reassurance but wisely he had promised nothing he couldn’t give. Still, she appreciated his empathy. He was a kind man.
The hot drinks and scones arrived and they both smiled at the waitress. ‘So quick. Grazie.’
‘Wow.’ Emily too was impressed. ‘Thank you.’ The girl grinned and hurried off and almost bumped into Finn, who stood suddenly from his chair, almost knocking it over.
He growled something at their waitress and shook off Evie’s hand before he stormed towards the door. Evie’s face looked white and drawn and Emily looked away. Maybe she could catch up with Evie later. Check she was okay. There was no doubt she was in love with the man who had just left her and Emily felt her heart go out to the younger woman. She’d picked a hard road there.
‘It seems our surgical chief is not happy.’ Marco too had seen.
She refocussed on the man beside her. ‘I’m sorry?’
‘Finn. We met in the States a few years ago. Got on well.’
Of course Marco would know him. They were both surgeons. She spread cream on the scone and then dropped a dollop of jam in the middle. ‘Evie’s tough. If anyone can bounce back from Finn’s ill humour, Evie can.’
‘And who is she?’
‘A medical officer here, a darned good one, but she’s more than that. Her father’s the hospital’s main benefactor, and the reason Sydney Harbour has so many ground-breaking programs.’
‘Lockheart?’
‘Yes. If rumour is to be believed, she and Finn have an on-again, off-again relationship that sometimes rattles the windows around here. But if I needed medical help, either of them would do fine by me.’
And you would do fine by me, he thought, and the premonition that this woman could rock his stable skim-the-surface world seeped into his bones with a wary premonition. ‘I realise you have a lot on your mind but have you thought about dinner this evening?’
‘No.’ Not much anyway. ‘I really can’t think of anything until after I see Annie.’
‘Of course. Forgive me.’ He was not usually this impatient.
They sipped their drinks and the silence became a little strained. She broke it. ‘So how long are you here? At Sydney Harbour?’
‘A month. Then I fly out to the US for a consultancy in New York. Last month it was London.’
She sipped her cocoa and the heat seeped into her cold edges. His life sounded a little on the cool side too.
Suddenly she wasn’t hungry. ‘It sounds a glamorous life.’ The creamy scone stared back at her. Like a red eye. She bet she had red eyes. Why on earth had this man asked her to breakfast? Kindness. That was all. Now she just needed to accept the favour and move on.
‘Si. Glamorous.’ He picked up his coffee and took a sip.
‘So where is home?’ At his frown she tried again. ‘Your family.’
His expression didn’t change but she felt stillness come over him. And the temperature dropped another two degrees. So he didn’t like questions. ‘I have no family. I rent when I need. Mostly I work.’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.’ She glanced at her watch and took another sip of her cocoa. ‘I might see if Annie is back.’
He’d been abrupt. Closed her out like he always did when people asked about his family. No wonder she wanted to leave. What did he expect to happen? He never answered questions about himself. He’d learnt at a very young age when the police were eager for any news of his father. When neighbours had shunned his family as soon as they’d realised who they were.
But this woman would never do that. The voice came from nowhere. Just a whisper, like she’d whispered yesterday to his thoughts, and he closed his ears.
‘I apologise.’ He glanced down at her uneaten scone. ‘Your food.’
‘I’m not really hungry.’ She yawned. ‘Excuse me.’ He wanted to pick her up and carry her to a big feather bed and tuck her in to sleep. Or not to sleep.
He glanced around for the waitress and managed to catch her eye. She nodded and started their way.
‘We will go. See if Annie is back on the ward and then you must go home to bed.’ There was that thought again. Emily in bed. He dragged his mind away from her golden bob of hair lying next to his on the pillow.
She dug into her bag for her wallet and he shook his head. ‘Please. Allow me.’ He laid a note on the table and stood up to help pull out her chair. The waitress arrived and he smiled and gestured with his hand that she keep the change.
Emily stood and he followed her out of the kiosk back towards the wards. He wanted to ask if she would come with him tonight but he would not ask again. Perhaps after she’d seen her daughter he would know.
‘HI, MA,’ Annie whispered sleepily. ‘They said my baby’s fine.’ She lay in a twin-bed room and the other stood turned back, waiting for June to return to the ward. ‘I’m gonna call her Rosebud.’
Emily ached with the thick swell of love in her throat. At the moment her daughter could call her daughter Medusa and she wouldn’t mind. She was just glad Annie and her baby were okay. It was hard to realise her own baby was growing up. She didn’t want to think about the time when she left her completely. And her little gnome granddaughter was safe from further harm too. ‘That’s wonderful, darling.’ She squeezed the pale fingers on the sheet and stared mistily down at her daughter.
‘It all went very well, Annie.’ Marco’s deep voice rumbled in her ear and his presence felt like a man they’d known a lot longer than twenty-four hours.
Emily stepped back to think about that, but he must have stepped forward at the same time.
His hands came up to rest on her shoulders and her shoulders fitted snugly up against a wall of chest she’d only dreamed about. It felt too good to move but Emily’s attention flew to her daughter. Thankfully Annie’s long lashes rested on her pale cheeks as she drifted in a post-anaesthetic haze and she couldn’t see her mother’s weakness.
From the pillow Annie’s eyelids didn’t flicker as her voice faded away. ‘Thank you, Marco.’ In her semi-doze Annie’s palm slid across the sheet to protect the small mound of her stomach and Emily let herself relax for