It was back to work on Monday and the magical time she’d spent in Sydney with her best friend Luci and the train trip and last night would all soon be pushed to the side as she morphed back into Flick and her life revolved around work and small-town life.
So she was going to savour this for as long as she could.
Half an hour later the train had pulled up at the platform and she was saying goodbye to her fellow travellers and Donald as she disembarked. A part of her wanted to stay on for ever, stay in this bubble for ever with Callum. But it was neither real nor possible so she channelled Flick and let it go, stepping onto the platform.
‘Well, I guess this is goodbye.’
Felicity took a calming breath as Callum’s familiar sexy rumble washed over her. She turned to face him, struck again by how sexy he was as her gaze roamed over his face, trying to remember every detail.
She was curiously reluctant to say goodbye. What did she say to a man who’d given her a moment in time she was never going to forget? Who had made her body sing? Who had made her feel sexy and desired?
Thank you just didn’t seem enough.
‘Do you have someone picking you up or...?’
Maybe they could catch a lift together? Maybe if he was also in the city for a few days they could...?
‘We could share a taxi if you like. Where are you heading?’
‘Oh, no, it’s fine,’ he said. ‘I have someone picking me up.’
Of course. It was better this way really. A clean break.
‘In fact...’ he looked past her shoulder ‘...I think that may be her.’
Her. A sick moment of dread punched Felicity in the gut. She hadn’t even asked him if he was involved with someone. She’d just assumed...
‘Dr Hollingsworth?’
Felicity blinked at another very familiar voice as Callum waved and said, ‘Over here.’ She turned to find Mrs Baker, the wife of Vickers Hill’s police chief, heading in their direction.
What the...?
‘Mrs B.?’
‘Oh, Flick, darling.’ She smiled and pulled her into a big bear hug. ‘What a surprise! Oh, wait...did I get my wires crossed? Julia was supposed to come but one of the receptionists had to go home sick, which left them short-staffed so she was ringing around to find someone else. I left a message on her phone that I’d do it but maybe she didn’t check it and had already arranged for you to do the pick-up?’
Felicity had absolutely no idea what the other woman was talking about. ‘The pick-up?’
‘Yes.’ Mrs Baker nodded. ‘For Dr Hollingsworth here.’
Dr Hollingsworth? Felicity glanced at Callum. He was Dr Hollingsworth? The new locum? The one who’d done the house swap with Luci?
‘You’re Dr Hollingsworth?’
He frowned, obviously confused now too. ‘Yes.’
Oh, hell... What had they done?
‘So you’re not here to pick him up?’ Mrs Baker asked, looking as perplexed as Felicity but oblivious to her inner turmoil.
‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘We’ve been on the train together. I just didn’t...’ she glanced at Callum ‘...know it.’
‘Oh, how delightful.’ Mrs Baker beamed. ‘What a coincidence.’
Hmm. Delightful wasn’t the way Felicity would describe it. She’d slept with the locum? A man she was going to have to face every day for two months?
How could they pretend it had never happened now?
‘So...you know one another?’ Callum asked, frowning at both of them, obviously trying to put the pieces together.
‘Oh, yes.’ Mrs Baker nodded vigorously. ‘Flick’s one of the practice nurses at Dr Dawson’s surgery, aren’t you, dear?’
Felicity watched as realisation slowly dawned on Callum’s face. ‘Oh. Right.’
‘Isn’t that an amazing coincidence?’ Mrs Baker repeated.
‘Yes...amazing,’ he murmured through lips that were so tight Felicity worried they might spontaneously split open.
Fabulous.
The man looked like he wanted to disappear. Or, at the very least, hightail it out of town. Felicity didn’t know whether to be sad, mad, insulted or to push him back on the damn train herself.
‘Right, well...’ Mrs Baker said, still oblivious to the thick air of what-the-hell between them. ‘Did you want a lift back home too, dear? Only we really do have to hit the road. It’s a good two-hour drive, more with the peak-hour traffic.’
‘Oh, no, thank you,’ Felicity said, dragging her gaze off the incredulity in Callum’s green eyes. ‘I’m staying on for a few days.’ Thank God! ‘I’m not back till Sunday.’
‘Oh, that’s nice. Doing some Christmas shopping or seeing some bloke you’re not telling any of us about?’ Mrs Baker nudged her arm playfully.
Hardly. Given the last bloke she’d seen was now a certified disaster. She returned the older woman’s good-natured teasing with a wan smile, changing the subject. ‘Well, you’re right, you’d better be off. Say hi to everyone and I’ll see them all on Monday.’
She forced herself to look at Callum like he was just some guy she’d met on the train and not someone she’d torn up the sheets with in what had been, without a doubt, the most memorable—and now the most disastrous—time of her life.
‘It was nice meeting you, Dr Hollingsworth,’ she said, willing a smile to her lips. She wasn’t entirely sure she’d managed it but she ploughed on. ‘I look forward to working with you over the next couple of months.’
About as much as shoving a rusty fork in her eye.
He nodded, his mouth set in the grim line she’d first seen back at Central Station in Sydney. God—had it only been yesterday?
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Can’t wait.’
He looked like he could do with a rusty fork too.
And then, because there was actually someone watching her, Mrs Baker was ushering him along and out of the station and she was staring at his back. His chinos encasing those long athletic legs, his T-shirt stretching over those big shoulders, his hair brushing his nape.
A back she’d seen naked. A back she was damn sure she’d scratched up a little at one stage. Felicity shut her eyes and allowed herself an internal groan. How was she going to work with him every day and not think about their night together?
Not remember the bunch of his muscles under her hands as he’d loomed over her, the smell of his cologne on his neck, the deep groan when he’d orgasmed—three times.
Not relive every moment in glorious Technicolor?
Not want a repeat performance?
FELICITY ALWAYS ARRIVED at work at seven in the morning. The practice didn’t open until eight but she liked to grab a cup of tea and set things up at a leisurely pace. She liked to go through each of the doctors’ appointment books as well as her own to mentally prepare herself for the day.
This morning she was here at seven because she hadn’t been able to sleep. She’d driven into town deliberately after dark yesterday so no one could just drop in for a chat. She’d spent three days in Adelaide, trying to figure