The fantasy was so far from the truth it was amusing enough to bring a genuine smile to her face as she took Emma and tucked her back into her car seat. Emma, bless her, didn’t wake up. Then she shoved the things threatening to spill from the pockets of the nappy bag back into place and she was ready to go.
‘Can you manage all that?’ Teo asked. ‘I could wander up with you, if you like.’
‘No, thanks.’ The last thing Zoe wanted was for John to realise she had a connection to someone he knew on a personal basis. Professional confidentiality was all very well but it didn’t apply between doctors, did it? ‘I can manage.’
‘Of course you can.’ Teo smiled again as he held the door open for her. ‘What I will do is have a word with the receptionist. They’ll slot you in for Emma’s appointment as soon as you get back from seeing John.’
Teo was busy for the rest of the morning and all afternoon that day.
A three-year-old boy, Timmy, who’d been burnt by climbing into a bath of scaldingly hot water was in the paediatric intensive care unit. Teo was part of the team led by Luke Williams that was having to deal with the complications of hypovolaemic shock caused by fluid loss from the burns. It was the child’s kidney function that was causing concern today and haemodialysis had to be added to the plethora of procedures that was keeping the small boy alive.
Timmy’s mother was beside herself with guilt and fear.
‘I had to feed the baby,’ she sobbed. ‘I had no idea that Timmy was trying to be helpful and run his own bath. I always, always run the cold tap first and then add hot water. I thought he was watching TV in the lounge room. The baby’s got colic and she’s really hard work after a feed.’
Teo could only listen and imagine how hard this had to be for her. There was no point in laying blame when it could only make things worse for everyone.
‘His dad walked out on us when I got pregnant again. One kid was bad enough, he said. He couldn’t handle having two.’
Teo made a sympathetic sound but part of his mind was wandering. Where was Emma’s dad? Zoe hadn’t mentioned a partner and he’d heard what sounded like a fierce determination to cope with her own situation. On her own. Had she been wearing a ring? He made a mental note to have a look next time he saw her.
Except he had no reason to see her again, had he?
The realisation was curiously disappointing and it stayed with him for the rest of the day as he did his rounds, checking on his small patients and comforting distressed parents. Zoe intrigued him. That she could be so competent in one area of her life and so lost in another made it seem like there had to be a key to unlocking the barrier dividing the areas. And it was sad that it was the home and family side that she was struggling with because Teo knew that was, by far, the most important part of anybody’s life. If Zoe could find it, she might not feel the need to be at work at all during this crucial stage of bonding with her baby and then, later, she could have the best of both worlds.
The final task of his day took him back to the paediatric outpatient clinic. Empty of patients now, there was only a cleaner pushing a vacuum cleaner around the chairs and a weary-looking receptionist filing paperwork at the desk.
‘Busy day, huh?’ He smiled at the receptionist. This wasn’t the time to take anybody to task for leaving a distressed mother and child without assistance while they had been waiting.
‘It was a nightmare,’ the receptionist said. ‘One registrar got called away for something on the ward and another had to deal with a kid who had an epileptic seizure in the toilets and we were running so late.’
‘Did Zoe Harper come back again with Emma?’
‘Yes.’ The girl gave him a curious glance. ‘Is she a friend of yours?’
Teo didn’t have time to respond. The cleaner was coming towards the desk.
‘I found this under the chair over there,’ the older woman said, holding out a leather wallet.
‘Oh, my goodness.’ The receptionist took the wallet. ‘Thank you so much. Someone’s probably worried sick about this.’ She opened the wallet. It had a pocket at the back for notes and slots for credit cards on the other side. In the middle was a plastic-covered pocket for a driver’s licence. ‘Zoe Harper,’ she said in astonishment. ‘Good thing you’re here, Dr Tuala.’
‘Is it?’
‘Well, she’s a friend of yours. You could take it back to her.’
‘I could.’ Teo’s tone was confident. Surely there’d be something in the wallet that would have her address on it? He could drop it off on his way home. He would get to see Zoe again. Even better, he could find out whether she had some support at home in the form of a partner.
He held out his hand for the wallet. ‘I’m on my way home right now,’ he said. ‘Consider it sorted.’
CHAPTER THREE
THE knock on the door couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Zoe was sitting in the tiny living room of her terraced cottage in one of Sydney’s older suburbs. Emma had been bathed and changed and had just started her final feed for the evening. And, for once, it was going well. Sucking on her bottle, she lay in the crook of Zoe’s arm, staring up at her mother. The memories of the awful morning they’d had in that waiting room were finally beginning to ebb away.
Zoe couldn’t help jumping at the sound of the knock. Nobody came visiting at this time of day.
Her first thought was that it could be James and she didn’t want to see him. There’d been undeniable relief on both sides when they’d decided to call it quits on their relationship. James had generously gifted her his share of the hefty deposit they’d put down on this cottage.
‘Consider it child support,’ he’d suggested. ‘That way, we can go our own ways with no hard feelings.’
The gesture had been very generous, considering that Zoe had inherited a piece of land from her grandmother that was probably worth a lot now. Not that she’d had a chance to think about what to do with it with everything else that was happening in her life.
Even worse than it being James, there was the faint possibility it could be one of her parents, given that she had finally written to them to inform them that they were grandparents. But she hadn’t expected a reply to the letter, let alone a personal appearance. They would see the fact that she was unmarried with a baby as further evidence of the trouble she’d caused from the moment she’d been born. Besides, how many years had it been since her mother had even left the house?
Zoe didn’t know because she hadn’t been in contact with them since she’d come to Sydney at the age of eighteen to start her training as a paramedic. That had been nearly ten years ago.
The possibilities flashed through her head so fast, she had considered them both by the time the knocking stopped. Both were enough to make her feel incredibly tense. Emma was still staring up at her but her contented sucking had stopped. She jerked her head back and the teat of the bottle sprang free and sent a spray of milk onto Zoe’s face. Emma’s face was crumpling ominously as a second knock came. Louder and more commanding than the first.
Her heart sinking, Zoe got to her feet. Emma would be howling by the time she got to the door. If someone was going to try and sell her an encyclopaedia or something, it could very well be the final straw.
It wasn’t James. It wasn’t her father and, thank goodness, it wasn’t her mother.
That it was Teo Tuala rendered Zoe completely speechless. He had something in his hand that he was holding out towards her.
‘The cleaner found this in the waiting