The first was that the flashy red car was still parked alongside hers.
The second, and far more alarming thing, was that the man who presumably owned the car was leaning against it. Watching her.
Waiting for her?
And then Evie gasped as she noticed a third thing. Below the white cuffs at the bottom of the black sleeves of this man’s tuxedo, something was dangling from his hand. A gold chain. A gold chain that had a heart-shaped topaz.
‘I’m thinking this might be yours?’
He was smiling at her, but the generous curl of his lips didn’t match that intense stare and Evie couldn’t smile back.
Who was this man?
A complete stranger but she recognised something about him.
No. It was something she was recognising about herself. Heavens...had it been that long since she’d experienced a real physical attraction to anybody? So long, it took a moment to interpret that odd sensation that started deep in her belly and then spread like wildfire through her veins.
Any smile she might have dredged up was nowhere to be found now.
She’d felt like this once before, hadn’t she? And look how well that had ended up. She’d kept herself safe ever since and that wasn’t about to change now.
‘It is, indeed,’ she said, her tone clipped. ‘I realised it must have broken when I...um...fell over.’
‘When you were pushed over, you mean. I must apologise again. My...ah...companion was a bit over the limit.’
‘Mmm...’ Evie wasn’t about to excuse the woman’s behaviour. Where was she, anyway? A quick sideways glance told her that nobody was sitting in the car waiting for him.
‘The least I can do is have it fixed for you.’
‘No.’ Evie stepped forward, her hand outstretched. ‘That’s really not necessary. But thanks for the offer.’
He seemed reluctant to let the necklace go so Evie had to try and take it from his hand. The instant her fingers touched his, however, the awareness of skin against skin was electric and she instinctively snatched her hand away again.
Wow... Now she remembered the way his grip on her arm had started to burn and that had been with a protective layer of clothing between them. That touch had been...had been like nothing she’d ever experienced before.
It had happened so fast it was no more than a slight hesitation but if she didn’t cover it up just as fast, this was going to get awkward.
Okay...it was awkward already and it had only taken a heartbeat. Had he felt that jolt as well or was he just aware that she had. Why couldn’t he just reach out himself and hand her the damn necklace?
Evie couldn’t look up and meet his gaze. Because she knew he was staring at her and she also knew that he would be able to see exactly why she’d had to snatch her hand away.
He wasn’t even saying anything to diffuse the weird tension that had sprung from nowhere.
It was only another tiny moment of time. Just enough to suck in a single breath but the silence seemed charged.
And then it was broken.
Not by this man saying anything. Or Evie saying anything. Or the footfalls of anyone else arriving in the car park. It was broken by another sound. High-pitched and wobbly. Like a kitten mewing.
Except that Evie spent enough time around babies to think it was very unlikely to be a kitten.
‘Did you hear that?’ Her head turned so that she could look in the direction the sound had come from—that bank of wheelie bins tucked out of sight at the back of the hospital. The bin on the end was one of those wire mesh ones that took folded cardboard for recycling but someone hadn’t bothered to squash one of the boxes and put it in the bin. This box was tucked between the recycling bin and a solid bin but it was poking out far enough to make it easily noticeable.
Another tiny mew cut through the still air and Evie turned her whole body now, her necklace completely forgotten. She was aware that the stranger was following her as she ran towards the box but it didn’t matter. Any tension between them had been forgotten along with the necklace, in the face of something far more concerning.
* * *
Ryan dropped the necklace into his pocket with a sigh as he followed this suddenly rather irritating small woman.
He wanted to get to his bed and sleep off his jet lag so he could be on form for his first day on the new job tomorrow. When he’d spotted the glint of jewellery on the way back to his car, he’d known instantly that it probably belonged to her. It had been a surprise to find the car that he’d seen her open was still there, parked alongside his, so he’d been waiting and thinking about what to do. Take the necklace into Reception? Hang onto it in the hope of seeing her somewhere around the hospital? He’d certainly recognise her easily. He’d finally come up with the solution of tucking it under the windscreen wipers of her car when he’d seen her coming into the car park, her head bent as she walked slowly, clearly looking for her lost property.
Why hadn’t he said anything? Or walked to meet her? What had been with that odd urge to simply watch her getting closer to him? To let the anticipation build until she noticed him and met his gaze?
And what on earth could explain that really weird moment when she’d touched his hand and jerked away as if it were a hot coal? He’d felt the heat, as well.
She was ahead of him so she reached the box first, crouching down beside it. She was wearing scrubs under her coat so he assumed she was a nurse at Hope Hospital and that was a pleasing thought. He’d probably see her again, then...
‘Oh, my God...’ She was peering into the box. ‘I knew it had to be...’
‘What?’ Ryan crouched beside her. ‘Good grief...a baby?’ He lifted the box, moving to where he could catch some light from the nearest lamp. He didn’t like the colour of the baby’s face and it was clearly in some respiratory distress because it could barely summon the strength to cry. Without hesitating a moment longer, he began striding towards the back entrance of the hospital.
‘Where are you going?’ She was almost having to run to keep up with him.
‘I need to examine this baby properly. It’s not well.’
‘You need to examine it?’
‘I’m a doctor here. Or I will be tomorrow.’ He kept moving. ‘My name’s Ryan Walker.’
‘Oh... You’re the new surgeon? The Australian?’
‘Yep.’ Ryan had reached the door. Unlike the main entrance, this one needed a security pass to open it from the outside.
‘I’ll do it. I’ve got a card.’ She leaned past him. ‘I’m Evie Cooper. I work here.’
‘Where’s the emergency department? Oh, I don’t suppose there is one, with this being a private hospital?’
‘I work in Intensive Care,’ Evie told him. ‘Let’s take him there.’
Ryan nodded as he followed her inside. ‘Lead the way. And let’s hurry.’
JANINE LOOKED SHOCKED, as well she might, when Evie hurried into the neonatal intensive care unit accompanied by a man in a tuxedo who was carrying a cardboard box. One of the intensive care specialists, Susie, was sitting beside Janine at the central station and her jaw dropped as well.
‘A baby’s been abandoned in the car park,’ Evie explained.