Janey didn’t answer. Nina quietly thought that Janey might very well be jealous of the more structured access Nina had with Blake, but that was because of his age and the distance he lived from Nina, which made shorter visits impossible. With Janey it was mainly holidays and the occasional sleepover, especially as Janey’s weekends were taken up with sport activities.
‘I could take you to netball.’
‘I’m not doing netball any more.’
‘How come?’ Nina asked. ‘You loved it, Blake and I were going to come and watch.’
‘Yeah, well, don’t bother. I got dropped.’
‘How come?’ Nina pushed. ‘You were doing really well.’
‘Till I swore at the umpire.’ Janey was peeling apart her muffin, not looking at Nina as she spoke. ‘And Barbara says that if I’m going to carry on like that then I can spend the weekend sorting out the basement.’ She looked up at Nina. ‘I guess if you ring her, though, she might let me come …’
‘No.’ Nina did her best not to be manipulated. Barbara was doing the hard yards, dealing with Janey, and Nina simply refused to interfere in the groundings and early bedtimes Barbara was trying to rein Janey in with. ‘Barbara’s right not to just let it go. Janey, you loved your netball. What were you doing, swearing at the umpire?’
‘She was a stupid cow.’
‘Everyone’s a cow to you …’ Nina tried to hold onto her temper, tried not to upset Janey, but it was impossible. She had no real authority with her sister. Janey pulled all the strings and she started pulling them now.
‘Yeah, well, you’re the biggest cow.’ Janey stood. ‘I’m stuck cleaning out a basement all weekend while you’re busy spoiling Blake. Thanks a lot, sis …’
And she stormed out of the café and straight past Jack, not that she noticed him.
Jack noticed her, though.
He moved out of the way as a fast-moving, angry teenager stormed past and he looked into the café and saw Nina resting her head on her hands. He wanted to go over to see if she was okay but he’d just been called for a consult in ICU so he’d make time for Nina later.
And he would.
Jack was determined now, because he could not, could not, stop thinking about her.
It was an absolute first for him.
Jack’s days were too busy to spend time dwelling on one woman, but he woke up thinking of Nina, spent the day with her sort of present in his mind. And the evenings were impossible, because she was always busy and sometimes she didn’t even return his phone calls.
Another first.
So when he rang at seven that night only to find out that she was working late and didn’t have time to stop, like some idiot he found himself walking through a dark social work department to the light from under her office door with a bottle of sparking water and some take-out.
‘Jack, I really can’t stop.’
‘You can’t eat?’
He had a good point. That coffee with Janey had been a long time ago, but it wasn’t just the timing that was the problem. She was used to Jack looking completely gorgeous and groomed at all times, but she was slightly disarmed at the sight of him in scrubs—he was displaying rather more skin than she could deal with and say no to, so she kept her voice matter-of-fact as she declined him.
‘I can eat, but I have to work. I’m due in court in the morning and I have to finish this report …’
‘You haven’t got five minutes?’
And she remembered her own manners, or she got the delicious waft of food, or it could have been that Jack was someone she found it incredibly hard to say no to, but she gave him a smile and gave in. ‘Thank you.’
‘How was your day?’
‘Busy,’ Nina said. ‘How was yours?’
‘Full on …’ He chatted as he served up their meals. ‘I’ve spent most of it up in ICU. There’s a little one giving the paed team a headache. Still, we’ve got her stable now and a plan for tomorrow.’
‘Sounds good.’ It didn’t annoy her any more that he never really used patients’ names.
‘And there’s been progress in other areas,’ Jack continued. ‘We got the go-ahead on the supervised waiting room.’
‘That’s going to be so well utilised.’ Nina took a forkful of noodles and they were utterly delicious. ‘I can’t think of the times I’ve wanted to speak to a parent away from the family, to be able to have the children looked after, even for a little while …’
‘It was the one thing the ER nurses really wanted, so it will be good to get it off the ground. So, what have you been up to?’
‘Just work,’ Nina said.
‘How are your brother and sister?’
‘Pretty much the same.’
She was nothing like anyone he’d ever dated. Usually it was the woman trying to get Jack to open up or to tease out information from him. He knew full well that Janey had upset her today and yet Nina simply wouldn’t share it, and it infuriated him as he swallowed a taste of his own medicine.
They chatted some more about work and Nina finished her food and thanked him for stopping by, but Jack didn’t move from the chair he was sitting on.
‘Jack, I really need to work.’
‘I won’t interrupt.’
He sat quietly as she typed and Jack drank sparkling water till his patience waned.
‘What’s the report about?’ Jack asked.
‘It’s not one of your patients.’
Still he sat there.
Still she worked.
‘Tell you what.’
Nina rolled her eyes as Jack interrupted her again.
‘Why don’t you come back to my place when you’re finished?’
‘Because I have to go home. I need to wear a suit for court in the morning.’
And he really wanted to see her in a suit! ‘Tell you what, give me your keys and I’ll go back to your place …’
‘Excuse me?’ She had no idea the concession he was making, how he never went to a woman’s place. Jack liked to be at his own home, never wanted to be too far into anyone’s life. ‘Like I’m going to give someone I hardly know the keys to my apartment.’
‘Hardly know?’
‘Jack.’ She gave up typing and stood, cleared up the noodle boxes and threw them in the bin. ‘I’m going to be here till midnight at least—one a.m. at this rate.’ She walked over to him, looked down at him and it was as if he made her feel reckless. She couldn’t tell him that she adored the distraction, that right now all she wanted was bed and him, but she could not, must not give her heart over to him.
‘I really need to work.’
‘And I think you deserve a break.’ He pulled her onto his lap and they both knew where that had led last time and again he kissed her.
His kiss remained potent and brought her straight back to the places they’d once been. He was unshaven tonight and she felt the scratch on her face and pulled back just a little. ‘I need my face for court …’
‘Let me kiss you somewhere else, then.’
He was funny and dark and sexy and she had