‘Hey, that’s only to be expected,’ Maxi returned bracingly. ‘At this stage your tummy will naturally lack muscle tone. And don’t forget, it’s your third pregnancy.’
The young mother laid a hand across the tummy in question. ‘It just seems a bit more wobbly this time,’ she reflected.
‘Your ligaments and joints will be loose for about three months,’ Maxi explained. ‘But in the meantime I could show you a series of exercises to get you on the right track again.’
Karryn looked uncertain.
‘It would all be very low-impact,’ Maxi promised.
‘What kinds of things would I have to do?’
‘Nothing more taxing than sitting and keeping your lower back flat,’ Maxi illustrated. ‘Then breathing out and drawing your belly button towards your spine, holding the position for a count of ten and then repeating it. Think you’d be cool with that?’
Karryn grinned. ‘I reckon. And I could keep the exercises going when I got home.’
‘That’s the general idea,’ Maxi affirmed with a smile.
A flicker of uncertainty crossed the young mum’s face. ‘But…I couldn’t afford to pay much. Would this extra stuff cost a lot?’
‘Well, I certainly won’t be charging anything,’ Maxi dismissed. ‘I’d guess you’ll simply transfer from Jake’s list to mine so I’ll be treating you. If that’s all right with you, of course?’ And all right with Jake, she willed silently.
‘Oh, yes,’ Karryn asserted quickly. ‘I mean, Jake’s always very kind and I don’t know what the district would do without him—but sometimes it’s just nice to be able to speak to a woman doctor. We only ever had another one out here and that was when I was having Belinda. But she left soon after. I don’t think she really took to the place…’
Maxi grinned. ‘She wasn’t from England, too, was she?’
‘Melbourne, I think,’ Karryn replied guilessly.
Maxi got to her feet, deciding she’d gained enough of her new patient’s confidence to go forward with her plan. ‘I’ll let you get some rest now, Karryn. But I’ll pop back first thing in the morning and we’ll get cracking, all right?’
‘That’d be great. I hope you stay in Tangaratta, Dr Somers,’ the young woman added earnestly.
‘Oh—thanks. Me, too.’ Maxi felt incredibly touched. A wild kind of expectancy hurtled through her veins. Now she only had to convince Jake to let her stay…
Somehow she had to, she resolved as she left Karryn’s room and made her way slowly back to the nurses’ station. She just couldn’t allow herself to be gathered up like so much nuisance baggage and put on the plane out.
Just the thought of it made her insides twist sickeningly. And suddenly it was all happening again, the absolute need she felt around Jake Haslem—the need to be held, loved. The need that had driven her here, belatedly, to this quaint little outback town in Australia.
In her mind’s eye she relived the first time they’d kissed. It had been halfway through his six-month exchange in England. Such an unromantic time and place for it to have happened. They’d been in Casualty at the end of a particularly gruelling night shift. Their patient had been stitched up and released and they’d been standing side by side at the basins in the treatment room.
Jake had washed his hands and dried them quickly while she’d only just elbowed the taps off, her hands dripping wet. And out of the blue he’d leaned his body towards her, turning his face to meet hers. And just like that he’d kissed her.
And after a little gasp at his audacity, her body had gone to meet his like a river returning to its source.
Circling her arms around his neck and keeping her wet hands out of the way, she’d anchored her body closer until they’d been hard against each other.
And it had felt wild and wonderful, as if it had been destined to happen from the moment they’d set eyes on each other. He’d printed kiss after kiss on her mouth, the way he’d gone about it almost imperious, so damned confident. Yet his lips had been teasing and meltingly sweet…
‘Touch me, Max,’ he’d whispered gruffly against her mouth. ‘Touch me.’
‘My hands are all wet…’
‘Who cares?’ He’d folded her more closely to him, more tightly, driving a wild kind of passion through her veins until she was giddy with power. And wanting to kiss him all night long.
They’d heard the rattle of a trolley outside and pulled back from each other, and her heart had caught in her throat at the look in his eyes. ‘Next weekend?’ he’d whispered urgently. ‘The Cotswolds? Can you get away?’
She hadn’t even tried to pretend it was a casual invitation to go walking. ‘Yes.’
CHAPTER THREE
MAXI gusted a small sigh. Backtracking her thoughts had left her mind in a muddle, her spirits flagging. Perhaps she was just travel-weary. On the other hand, perhaps it had been one huge mistake, coming here at all. She moistened her lips as if trying to dampen the panicky feeling that had surfaced out of nowhere.
And suddenly and uncomprehendingly she felt homesick for everything familiar. For winter and the grey skies of England. For the sharpness of the outdoors stinging her cheeks when she’d taken the dogs for a run. For the warmth of her parents’ old-fashioned kitchen, the comfort of her mother’s hearty soup at teatime. For a heart-to-heart with her brother, Luke, and shopping with her little sister, Freya…
She shook her head as if to clear away the shards of retrospection. This was no time to be wallowing in the past. Jake hadn’t run her out of town—yet. Like a squirrel methodically gathering nuts for the winter, she pulled all her mental resources around her, her manner purposeful as she crossed to the nurses’ station.
‘Oh, hi, Doctor.’ Loretta looked up from her paperwork. ‘Like a cuppa?’
‘Not just now, thanks.’ A trapped smile nipped Maxi’s mouth. ‘Jake’s buying me tea at the pub.’
‘That’ll be right,’ Loretta confirmed. ‘Thursday’s his night to eat there. It’s steak night.’
Maxi felt her cobbled-together courage drop to the floor. So he hadn’t meant the invitation as anything special. Why on earth had she let herself imagine he had? She swallowed the knot of disappointment, instead working the muscles in her face into the semblance of a smile and making herself focus. ‘Loretta, does the town have a WI?’
The charge looked blank.
‘A Women’s Institute,’ Maxi enlightened her.
‘Ah. Don’t think so…’ Loretta frowned a bit and then brightened. ‘But we do have a CWA. A Country Women’s Association—any use?’
‘That’s just what I’m looking for. Is there a head person I could contact?’
‘Now, there I can help you.’ Loretta looked pleased. ‘Liz Maynard. She runs the local craft shop. It’s is in the main street just a few doors along from Jake’s surgery.’
‘Excellent.’ Maxi nodded her thanks. ‘I’ll pop in and see her tomorrow. Couple of things I want to run by her.’
‘Steak not to your liking?’ Jake asked later as they sat over their meal at the pub.
‘It’s fine.’ Maxi sent him an over-bright smile. ‘There’s rather a lot of it, that’s all.’
Jake lifted a shoulder dismissively. ‘They do tend to think in servings of half a cow. Just leave it.’
‘I wouldn’t be offending anyone?’