She looked in the mirror, feeling an expectant throb in her veins as she twisted her hair up into a presentable knot. She’d found him again. Now somehow, some way, she had to make him want to reclaim all they’d had.

Impossible as it appeared on the surface, she had to get Jake to tap into his feelings again. Realise that what they’d shared together in England they could have again here, on the other side of the world—his world, in the Australian Outback. She had her fingers firmly crossed as she left her bedroom and went to find him.

He still found it unbelievable she was here. Under his roof. The time they’d spent in England suddenly seemed pitched into sharp focus. And he knew now that meeting her had changed the whole course of his life. And it wasn’t just the intimate moments they’d shared, although they had been magic. No, it had been the way she’d made him feel, the way she’d made him laugh. In fact it had been the whole damn package that was Maxi. His Maxi?

Well, she had been. For a while.

Leah Martyn loves to create warm, believable characters for the Medical™ Romance series. She is grounded firmly in rural Australia, and the special qualities of the bush are reflected in her stories. For plots and possibilities, she bounces ideas off her husband on their early-morning walks. Browsing in bookshops and buying an armful of new releases is high on her list of enjoyable things to do.

Recent titles by the same author:

THE DOCTOR’S PREGNANCY SECRET

A MOTHER FOR HIS BABY

DR CHRISTIE’S BRIDE

THE BUSH DOCTOR’S RESCUE

CHRISTMAS IN THE OUTBACK

THE DOCTOR’S MARRIAGE

OUTBACK DOCTOR, ENGLISH BRIDE

BY

LEAH MARTYN

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CHAPTER ONE

FRUSTRATION was eating him alive.

The regular flight for the week had been and gone and his locum hadn’t been on board. So, where the hell was he?

Impatiently, Jake Haslem pushed a hand through the dark strands of his short hairstyle. ‘Ayleen!’ he yelled through the open door of his consulting room.

Ayleen Sykes, loosely titled Practice Manager, tipped a long-suffering gaze towards the ceiling, before swinging off her chair and walking across the corridor to Jake’s consulting room. ‘There was a reason we spent all that money and had the intercom phones installed, you know?’ she said dryly from the doorway.

‘Mmm. Forgot.’ Jake gave one of his repentant twisted smiles. ‘Could you call the agency in Sydney and see if they have any word on our locum’s movements, please? He was supposed to be on today’s plane.’

Ayleen glanced at her watch. ‘Haven’t you noticed the time, Jake? They’ll have all gone home.’

Jake swore under his breath. He hadn’t realised. Outback Australian summers meant daylight went on and on into the evening, until darkness fell as profoundly and quickly as a cloak thrown over the sun.

‘I suppose I could email them,’ Ayleen compromised. ‘We’d possibly have an answer first thing tomorrow.’

‘Sounds like a plan.’ Jake gave a resigned open-handed shrug. ‘Thanks.’ As his receptionist disappeared back to her desk, he swung to his feet and went across to the open window, looking out at the heat-hazed landscape.

There was the smell of smoke in the air today. And smoke meant bush fires. Jake exhaled a long slow breath. Not that on top of everything else.

He was trying to do the best for his patients but he was finding it more difficult every day. Tangaratta was dry and dusty, struggling through the worst drought in memory. And just lately he’d begun doubting his sanity in relocating here shortly after he’d returned from England two years ago.

But with his dreams for the future in tatters, he’d wanted out of Sydney and the predictability of working civilised hours at the state-of-the-art medical centre. And that had been when he’d chosen the hard physical grind that went with practising medicine in a remote rural area. In a place where he could actually feel needed by his patients. He huffed a rueful grunt into the silence. Sometimes, like today, he wished he didn’t feel quite so needed.

But, then, he had to admit that nothing had gone to plan since he’d arrived at what was supposedly a two-doctor practice. When he’d been in Tangaratta for only a month, a family emergency had driven his partner Tom Wilde back to the city. So now, many months on, Jake was still the sole family practitioner for the district, with the nearest large medical facility over two hundred kilometres away.

He reached up and rubbed a crick in the back of his neck. He couldn’t go on like this. Every day the situation became more critical. And if he fell by the wayside then his patients would have no one. And now, more than ever, the welfare of his patients had to come first. He blew out a low, weary breath. And in the same breath made a decision. To hell with trying to entice a locum to come here. He needed something much more permanent.

He needed a partner.

A murmur of conversation from Reception had him turning and frowning. He didn’t conduct an evening surgery and if someone was under the impression he did, they could think again. Unless it was an emergency, of course. But by the lilt of female conversation, it didn’t seem so. Possibly one of Ayleen’s tennis friends had come to collect her for their weekly night game…

Jake got no further with his speculation. Suddenly Ayleen was back at his door. ‘Someone to see you, Dr Haslem,’ she said formally. And sensing something private and of a confidential nature between her boss and his visitor was about to happen, she twinkled a finger wave and fled.

‘What the—?’ Jake’s muttered response was cut short as a young woman stepped forward into the doorway, looking squarely at him across the space that divided them.

For a second Jake couldn’t believe the evidence of his own eyes or the weird kind of sexual energy that rose out of nowhere to slice the air between them. His throat convulsed in a dry, deep swallow. His eyes weren’t deceiving him. It was her.

In the flesh.

As gorgeous as he remembered. Tall and leggy, her cloud of red hair drawn back from her face and gathered loosely under the sassy little cap perched on the top of her head, the peak almost hiding the green of her eyes. In deference to the heat, she wore a white vest top and fatigue-styled pale olive cotton trousers.

Jake felt his heart go into freefall, the nerves in his stomach twist and grind painfully.

‘What the hell are you doing here, Maxi?’ he said into the nerve-crunching silence.

‘Well, hello to you, too, Jacob.’

His mouth compressed and something like pain, no more than a flicker crossed his face. No one, not even his mother, called him Jacob but on her tongue, with its precise little English accent, it sounded perfect. And suddenly he was pitched back to another time and another place.

And a lover he would never forget.

Had she expected way too much? That his attitude might have softened in the two years they’d been apart? Maxi felt the composure she’d drummed up slide away and be replaced by a tangling disquiet in the pit of her stomach. Even just seeing him had elevated her pulse to drumming proportions, her body humming like a high-energy electricity grid.

She bit hard on the inside of her bottom lip and harnessed her wayward thoughts. He obviously wasn’t pleased to see her. That was an understatement. He wasn’t far off oozing hostility, riveted to the spot, the vibe of tension around him almost palpable.

Maxi frowned uncertainly. This Jake Haslem hardly seemed the same man who had arrived at the emergency department of her London hospital as part of a six-month doctor-exchange programme. Then he’d seemed big and brash, loaded with self-assurance, his Australian accent and his tan in the middle of an English winter setting him apart. And she’d decided huffily that his manner had bordered on arrogance. He’d annoyed her, confused her. And she’d avoided him like the plague until the duty rosters had changed and they’d been thrown together shift after shift.

And she’d begun to know a different Jake Haslem.

He’d told her he was from Sydney, his mother was an MP. ‘And your dad?’ she’d asked him.

‘Left us when I was thirteen.’ He’d got a closed-in look about him suddenly. ‘Went back to the States. He’s big in mining. You might have heard of him, John J. Haslem?’

She’d shaken her head. ‘And he’s not been back to see you since?’

He’d given a one-shouldered shrug. ‘Mum divorced him. But he had the grace to settle an obscene sum of money on us. I’m a rich kid,’ he’d added with his charm-laden grin. ‘So what about you, Maxi Somers? What’s your story?’

‘My parents have a small farm in Kent.’

‘Siblings?’

‘Twin brother and younger sister. Large extended family.’

He’d made a face. ‘Curse or blessing?’

Maxi had felt herself bridle and responded sharply, ‘Always a blessing.’

‘Hey, bear with me.’ He’d held up his hands in self-defence, sending her a little-boy-lost look. ‘I know nothing about big families and how they operate.’

‘Then you’d better come down to Kent on your next days off and meet mine,’ she’d said, almost cringing at the sudden huskiness in her voice.

And so it had begun. A love affair that had lasted three glorious months and ended in a mixed-up, emotional mess the day he’d flown back to Australia.

Now Maxi swallowed deeply, running a quick, critical gaze over him in case it told her something. He looked older, harder, but his tanned leanness was still there. She blinked a bit. There was no mistaking the fatigue in his eyes. He was obviously worked to death. Perhaps that accounted for the new look of hardness about him.

A lump came to her throat. Would he be receptive if she moved closer and gave him a hug for old times’ sake? Probably not, if his body language and that narrowed steely blue gaze were anything to go by.

At last Jake found his voice. ‘How did you find me?’

She moistened her lips. ‘It wasn’t too difficult. At first I thought I’d have to start calling every Haslem in the Sydney phone book. And then I remembered you’d said your mother was an MP. After that…’ She flexed her hands. ‘Easy as.’

Jake lowered his gaze. Why now suddenly had she come here? Thousands of miles from everything that was familiar to her and for what?

Nostalgia for the past…? Hope for a possible future…? After the soul-destroying way they’d parted? Unlikely.

With a flick of his hand he motioned for her to take the chair at the side of his desk and then threw himself back into his own chair. ‘So, Dr Somers.’ His mouth twisted slightly over the formal use of her name. ‘It’s been two years. I don’t imagine you’ve come for the scenery?’

Her heart gave an extra thud. How did she answer that? Honestly, if they were to have a chance of a reconciliation. ‘I wanted to travel, see some of the world. I haven’t come to apportion blame, if that’s what you’re thinking.’

In a second she saw a flash of his old arrogance. ‘It hardly matters now, does it? As I recall, you dumped me at the airport barely an hour before my flight home.’

Maxi felt faintly sick. She hadn’t expected them to get into it so immediately or so intensely. But then what had she expected? It was never going to be easy. ‘You’d sprung a marriage proposal on me the day before,’ she reminded him. ‘You expected me to just up and follow you to the other side of the world.’

‘I didn’t have time to hang about while you made up your mind, Maxi,’ he dismissed with a sharp thrust of his hand. ‘My work visa had run out. I had to leave.’

‘That’s your excuse, Jacob,’ she threw at him. ‘You could have extended your visa. The hospital admin would have sorted that.’

He looked disconcerted. ‘I had a job waiting for me in Sydney—a job I wanted. In the best clinic with the best facilities. Did you expect me to turn that down?’

She shook her head. ‘But you expected to add me to your list of must-haves—just like that!’ She clicked her fingers for effect and he gave a hard laugh.

‘I practically begged you to come to me when you were ready. And you had a thousand excuses why it couldn’t work.’

Maxi sighed. ‘You’re exaggerating, Jacob. I asked for time to sort out my feelings, my life. You were asking me to leave my family, everything I knew and…loved.’

Jake’s gut clenched with huge uncertainty all over again. ‘More than you loved me, obviously.’

‘Well, if that’s the way you want to see it, so be it.’ Maxi looked down at her clenched hands. She could only imagine that for a man like Jake it must have been a shock and a bitter frustration to discover he couldn’t make life happen the way he wanted it to, that even his money couldn’t get him what he clearly wanted—for her to up and follow. Because he’d simply asked her to.

Jake was shaken to his boots. Losing Maxi Somers had been the hardest lesson he’d ever had to learn. He’d been so angry she hadn’t seen it his way. And seeing her again here, it seemed the anger hadn’t died. It had catapulted back at him and now it had nowhere to fit. He dragged his thoughts together. Maybe they still had something to say to each other, maybe they didn’t. He wasn’t sure he wanted to find out. But she was here and somehow he’d have to deal with it. He dragged his brain into gear and asked the first mundane question that came into his mind. ‘So, how are your travels going, then?’

‘Good.’ Maxi drummed up the briefest smile. ‘I’ve been to New Zealand already.’

‘And how was that?’ he asked levelly.

‘Green, beautiful, folksy.’

He lifted an eyebrow.

‘I loved it.’

Jake leaned back in his chair and studied his fingertips. ‘So, then what? You decided to flip over the Tasman to Oz?’

‘Something like that.’ She hesitated. ‘And when I called your mother, she told me where you were working. I thought it was probably my only chance to see something of the outback and catch up with you…’

So there it was. Jake felt his gut clench even harder. She’d put it straight on the line. But letting her stay would mean his life would be turned on its head. He didn’t want it and he certainly didn’t need it. He opened his mouth to speak, but then just shook his head. ‘You shouldn’t have come, Maxi.’

She gave an uneasy half-laugh. ‘Well, thanks for the unwelcome. Why shouldn’t I have come? Your mother said your workload was horrendous. I actually thought perhaps among other things, I could help out…’

He snorted. ‘Don’t be ridiculous! You’d last a week and then you’d be screaming for the air-conditioned comfort of a city hotel.’

‘I’m tougher than I look,’ she protested, and he actually gave the semblance of a dry smile. ‘And you know we work well together.’

‘Maxi, listen,’ he said, serious now. ‘Living out here is light years from what you’re used to. And just now it’s hell on wheels. The drawbacks for you would be onerous.’

Her face had disbelief written all over it. ‘Like what?’

His heart revved. He couldn’t have her here. Not after all the hurt. Hell, did she think he was made of stone? He dragged his brain into gear. ‘Your complexion, just for starters. You’d be a sitting duck for melanoma.’ He warmed to his hastily invented excuses. ‘Believe me, I wouldn’t like to be responsible for anything as ugly as skin cancer happening to you.’

‘That’s a totally spurious argument,’ she countered in her smooth, well-modulated voice that had always played hell with his senses. ‘The actual cause of melanoma is unknown. And unlike you, Doctor, I didn’t run around with my skin exposed to harsh sunlight as a child when it’s assumed the damage is done.’

‘We lived five minutes from the beach. Everyone ran around in the sun. And I did wear sunscreen.’

She arched an expressive brow. ‘How do you explain those two lesions on your back, then? They could have turned nasty.’

‘Just as well you excised them for me,’ he dismissed with a shrug.

She felt a gentle tide of warmth wash over her skin at the memory. He’d been barely a week in her department. For a man she had been doing her level best to avoid, the intimacy of seeing him half naked while she’d operated had almost undone her.

‘And they turned out to be benign,’ he reminded her now.

‘You were lucky.’ And this was an absolutely crazy conversation. ‘Look.’ She held out her arms in front of her. ‘My skin hasn’t suffered so far. And I’ll cover up while I’m here.’

He shook his head. ‘You’re not staying. How did you get here, anyway? You weren’t on the plane.’

‘I hired a car in Sydney and drove here.’

He felt a glitch in his heartbeat. She’d driven over a thousand kilometres on some of the most isolated roads in the country just to see him again? ‘I can’t believe you did that.’

‘Oh, I took it in easy stages,’ she countered lightly. ‘It was…fun.’

He looked at her broodingly. ‘It was downright dangerous. What if you’d been targeted by a low-life?’

‘I wasn’t.’

‘Or had a flat tyre in the middle of nowhere?’

She gusted a small impatient sigh. ‘I have a mobile phone.’

‘And there was I, imagining you needed a jack to change a wheel,’ he said with a deadpan expression.

She poked a small pink tongue at him. ‘I stopped for petrol here and there. I asked the garage guys to check things. They were great.’

‘I’ll bet,’ he observed, studying the rosy mouth into which her tongue had retreated. A mouth with its tiny freckle on her bottom lip. A mouth that was made for kissing. And in a second some instinct, entirely male and protective, swamped him and locked itself around his heart.

He had no choice here. No choice at all. He couldn’t risk her turning temperamental on him and taking off into the sunset. ‘All right. You can stay for a week until the next flight out.’

‘That’s pathetic. I can’t do anything useful in a week!’

He got to his feet. ‘Well, it’s all I’m prepared to let you have.’ And, please, heaven, by then he’d have acquired the gumption to be able to handle this situation with Maxi with cool detachment.

‘Fine, then.’ Maxi shrugged and spun off her chair. But she was by no means giving up on this. ‘The pub looks pleasant enough. I’ll stay there.’

‘You’ll stay with me,’ he countered, the glint in his narrowed gaze as it skimmed over her, confirming her impression that he wasn’t about to let her out of his sight.

She bit back a smile. Well, that might work to her advantage. They still had something wildly unfinished between them whether Jake admitted it or not. She tilted her head and said innocently, ‘I appreciate you letting me stay with you. But won’t people talk?’

‘Talk, schmork,’ he dismissed. ‘Tangaratta is in the middle of a drought. Folk are too busy just trying to survive and keep food on the table to be concerned about their doctor’s living arrangements.’

‘I did notice the country looked rather parched,’ she said seriously. ‘How bad is it—really?’

‘It’s bad.’ He rolled back his shoulders as if to slough off an aching weariness. ‘Depression, exhaustion and stress everywhere. We’re already trucking water in for general use in the town.’

She nodded, moving closer to him, as if in some way to share his load. ‘So, I guess folk are pretty desperate.’

He nodded. ‘Farmers especially. Outlaying money they don’t have to plant crops that die before they’re barely out of the ground. In some cases selling up and getting nothing for their livestock. Families having to split up to go after jobs elsewhere. There certainly aren’t enough to go round locally.’

‘Suicides?’ she asked with some perception.

‘Couple.’ Jake dipped his head, the muscle in his jaw pulled tight. ‘One only recently.’ He stopped, unwilling to burden her with the harsh reality of it all. And especially he didn’t want to tell her about how it had affected him personally and made him question his worth as a rural doctor.

But Maxi, being Maxi and knowing him far better than he gave her credit for, soon sensed his need to unload his self-doubt. ‘So, tell me about it,’ she encouraged gently. ‘Was it someone you knew personally? A patient?’

He gave a hard-edged laugh. ‘Still the counsellor, I see.’

A flood of colour washed over her face. He’d made it sound almost an insult. ‘Call it debriefing, if that will assuage your medical ethics.’

Jake rode out the implication of her words with a small lift of his shoulders. He couldn’t deny it would help to talk and only another doctor, one with the special qualities that Maxi Somers possessed, would understand where he was coming from, when you agonised that perhaps you could have listened more closely, done more…

‘It was a friend, a local grazier.’ Jake scrubbed his hand across his cheekbones and went on, ‘When he was in town we’d usually make time for a beer and a chat. I knew he was concerned about the future. The bank was squeezing him and his property had generated little income with the prolonged dry.’

‘So, awfully difficult times,’ Maxi commented thoughtfully.

‘Yes.’ His moody gaze raked her face. ‘And it didn’t help that he was the fourth generation to inherit the property and felt an enormous burden to try to keep it in the family. But I guess things finally folded in on him. One morning he just upped and wrapped himself and his motorbike around a tree.’

‘Oh, lord…’ Maxi’s hand flew to her throat.

‘He should have come to see me,’ Jake emphasised tightly. ‘Maybe we could have talked things through. I’d encouraged him often enough…’

‘But he never came?’

‘No.’ In the brittleness of the silence that followed, Jake said hollowly, ‘This is no place for you to be, Max.’

She brought her chin up. ‘On the contrary. I’m a doctor. At a rough guess I’d say you could do with an extra pair of trained hands. And so could the people of Tangaratta, by all accounts. And I’m accredited to work here. I arranged all that before I left the UK. Put me on the staff and let me help.’

‘No.’

She hesitated infinitesimally. Jake was not a man you could bulldoze. She knew that. But there were other ways. More subtle ways… Closing the small gap between them, she went on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. ‘OK, then,’ she murmured. ‘If that’s what you truly want.’

Jake took a shaken breath as her hair fluttered a lacy pattern against his skin and he found himself surrounded by the delicate floral scent of her. God, it was magic to be this close to her again.

And in a rush all the old disconcerting feelings of his feet not seeming to quite touch the ground when she was this close were back, engulfing him.

He stepped away, breaking the mood quickly, before it turned into something wild and bitter-sweet. Sweeping down to collect his medical case from the floor beside his desk, he said briskly, ‘Let’s get you settled in, then, shall we?’

They arrived outside Jake’s place which Maxi observed was a big old sprawling timber home with verandahs all round.

‘Here, let me help you with that,’ he said gruffly when she opened the boot of her hire car and dragged out an overstuffed backpack. ‘Is this all you’ve got?’

She wrinkled her nose at him. ‘You expected seven suitcases, didn’t you?’

‘Probably.’ His mouth twisted wryly. ‘I thought you might have even brought your feather-down quilt as well.’

Maxi chuckled. He’d always taken the mick. She’d finally got immune to it after being tetchy at first. ‘I’ve brought everything I’ll need and this thing has a thousand pockets.’

‘Hmm. Is that it, then?’

‘That’s it,’ she confirmed. ‘I have all my really important stuff in here.’ She tapped the large leather satchel she’d swung over her shoulder. ‘Oh—who’s this, then?’ she laughed as a black Staffordshire terrier tore from the region of the back yard to wait inside the gate, thumping his tail on the cement path.

Jake opened the gate. ‘Get down, boy.’ He shooed the dog away with a nudge of his knee. ‘This is Chalky. He came with the practice so I’m stuck with him.’

Maxi bent and fondled the Staffy’s blunt head. ‘Chalky? Oh, I see.’ She gusted a laugh. ‘Upside-down logic—Chalky because he’s black.’

‘I didn’t name him so don’t blame me.’ With the dog glued hopefully to his side, Jake led her up onto the verandah and produced a key to the front door.

‘Do you take him for walks?’ she asked, as Chalky followed them inside, his claws clipping across the polished floor.

Jake snorted. ‘Of course I don’t take him for walks. ‘He’s got a huge back yard to run in. And when would I get the time?’

‘I suppose… It’s a nice house,’ Maxi changed tack, her gaze flying over the simple furnishings.

‘It comes with the job. You’d better have this room,’ he said abruptly. ‘It has its own en suite bathroom.’

‘Oh, lovely.’ She lifted a hand to tug off her cap and shake out her tangle of hair. ‘I’d kill for a bath.’

‘No baths.’ Jake went into the bedroom and dumped her backpack on the end table. ‘Three-minute showers are all that’s allowed.’

‘Oh, of course.’ She frowned a bit. ‘I imagine it’s imperative to use the least amount of water as possible.’

‘You’re going to hate it,’ He said flatly.

‘Don’t go making assumptions on my behalf, Jacob,’ she responded sharply. ‘Now, do you have spare linen? I’ll need to make up the bed.’

Jake’s eyes glazed over and he took a deep, very deep breath. This was never going to work. ‘Sheets and towels in the built-in cupboard in the hallway. Help yourself. Marie Olsen is employed by the hospital to come in once a week and keep the place clean and aired so you should find everything else is OK.’

‘Fine, thanks. Um, you mentioned a hospital.’ Maxi’s curiosity was piqued. ‘What’s the bed capacity?’

‘These days, ten,’ he replied, a slight edge to his voice almost as though he thought it was none of her business. ‘Four are designated nursing-home beds. We’re funded differently for those.’

‘The same the world over, then. Doctors being slaves to management number-crunchers wherever they work.’

Jake gave a noncommittal grunt and glanced at his watch. ‘Speaking of the hospital, I have to make a quick round. Couple of patients to check.’

Maxi’s eyes brightened. ‘I need to stretch my legs,’ she said. ‘Give me a minute to freshen up and I’ll come with you.’

Jake sensed he was never going to win here so he’d better just go with the flow. Or go nuts. ‘Whatever makes you happy.’ Shaking his head, he turned and left her to it.

Maxi spritzed water on her face and then ran a brush through her hair. It needed cutting and shaping again, she thought ruefully, disentangling a couple of strands until her brush ran smoothly.

She looked in the mirror, feeling an expectant throb in her veins as she twisted her hair up into a presentable knot. She’d found him again. Now, somehow, some way she had to make him want to reclaim all they’d had.

Impossible as it appeared on the surface, she had to get Jake to tap into his feelings again. Realise that what they’d shared together in England they could have again here on the other side of the world—his world in the Australian outback. She had her fingers firmly crossed as she left her bedroom and went to find him.

His efforts at hospitality left a bit to be desired, Jake thought thinly as he poured fruit juice into two tall glasses. She was probably dying from thirst after being on the road for most of the day and he hadn’t even offered her a drink of water. His mouth clamped.

He still found it unbelievable she was here. Under his roof. The time they’d spent in England suddenly seemed pitched into sharp focus. And he knew now that meeting her had changed the whole course of his life. And it hadn’t just been the intimate moments they’d shared, although they had been magic. No, it had been the way she’d made him feel, the way she’d made him laugh. In fact, it had been the whole damn package that was Maxi. His Maxi?

Well, she had been. For a while.

Suddenly, he felt as though his heart had been squeezed with terrible force and hung out to dry.

CHAPTER TWO

RETURNING the jug to the fridge, he swung back just as Maxi popped her head in and then joined him at the breakfast bar.

‘Cheers.’ She lifted her glass, tilting her head in that alert, bird-like way he remembered. ‘Who do you need to see?’

‘One of our seniors who was admitted with heatstroke earlier today and a third-time mum. Delivered twenty-four hours ago.’

Maxi looked surprised. ‘I’ve been doing a bit of homework about Australian rural medicine. From what I’ve been reading, most bush doctors decline to take midwifery cases. Because of the litigation tangle if things go wrong,’ she elaborated. ‘I mean, you’re so far from specialised help.’

‘We operate on a slightly different premise here.’ Jake lifted his glass and downed half his drink. ‘One of our nurses, Sonia Townsend, is a midwife. If the pregnancy looks straightforward, we like to deliver women here. Otherwise it’s a huge disruption for the family if the mum has to travel ahead of time and hang about for the birth at Croyden. That’s our closest regional hospital and it’s over two hundred Ks away.’

Maxi thought that through. ‘So, what else do you do?’

Jake sent her a wary look. ‘Medically?’

‘Of course.’

‘Let’s just say a broad-based training has helped me out more times than I care to recall. But there’s also an internet hook-up for rural doctors where we can consult with a specialist if we get desperate.’

Maxi slowly drained her glass and then placed it carefully back on the countertop. ‘It’s a different world out here, isn’t it?’

He gave a hard laugh. ‘You noticed?’ Without giving her time to answer, he swept the glasses off the bench and into the sink. ‘Let’s go and do this round,’ he said briskly. ‘And then I might buy you tea at the pub.’

‘Tea?’ Maxi took off after him as he strode to the front door. ‘As in cucumber sandwiches?’

‘More likely steak and chips.’

She sent him a speculative look, wondering if she was being sent up. ‘So, you actually mean you’ll buy me dinner?’

His smile was gently wry. ‘Something like that.’ Ushering her through the front gate, he began striding off along the concrete footpath.

‘Hey!’ Maxi trotted to keep up. ‘Aren’t we driving?’

‘Hospital’s just next door.’ Jake indicated the low-set weathered brick building some hundred metres up the road. ‘Years ago, the town council bought up acreage to build the hospital and then the doctors’ residence came after. Apparently in those days, when Tangaratta was a thriving rural community, there was a permanent medical superintendent on staff and several GPs in the town.’

‘So, what happened?’ Maxi asked, increasing her strides to match his.

‘Technology, probably. The needs and skills of the work-force change. And then a kind of domino effect sets in. Folk have to relocate to go after jobs and towns as small as this go into a kind of recession. But apparently, a couple of years ago, people were beginning to trickle back to start new ventures in the district. Gem fossicking, tourism and the like.’

‘And then the drought hit,’ Maxi surmised quietly.

He nodded, tight-lipped.

As they neared the hospital, Maxi began to look about her. There was a strip of lawn, faded and burned from the harshness of the sun, but along the path to the front entrance a border of purple and crimson shrubs was vividly in flower. ‘They look like hardy plants,’ she commented.

‘Bougainvillea.’ Jake huffed a laugh. ‘Can’t kill them with an axe. They thrive under these kinds of hot, dry conditions.’

‘The hospital itself looks quite a spacious building, at least from the outside.’ Maxi cast an interested glance around. ‘And I love those verandahs.’

‘In the summer they bring a sense of coolness. Conversely, they’re great for catching the morning rays in the winter months. The walking wounded love them.’

She shot him a brief smile. ‘So the architects of earlier times knew what they were about, then?’

He grunted. ‘More than they do now in lots of cases. This is where the CareFlight chopper lands when we have an emergency transfer.’ Jake led her across to where a windsock hung listlessly at the far end of large unfenced paddock.

Maxi’s gaze stretched across to the distant hills, muted into diffused greys and blues as the evening light softened their stark outlines. ‘It’s so quiet…’

‘Mmm. It kinds of enfolds you. You stop noticing it after a while.’

‘I guess you would, yes. Oh, look!’ Surprise edged Maxi’s voice and she pointed skywards, watching as a flock of large birds thrummed by on urgent wings, calling harshly to one another as they passed overhead. ‘What are they—wild geese?’

‘Wild duck. There’s not much water in the lagoons for them these days. They’re leaving in numbers now to fly towards the coast.’

‘Will they come back?’

‘When the waterholes and lagoons are full again. Come on, Doctor.’ He touched a hand to the small of her back. ‘Enough of the local commentary. Let’s do this hospital round.’ He shot her a questioning look as they went through the front entrance. ‘I’m assuming you still want to accompany me?’

‘Yes, please.’

Loretta Campion, the charge for the shift, was just coming out of her office as they approached the nurses’ station. ‘Evening, Jake.’ She tilted her fair head enquiringly. ‘We expected you much earlier. Was there a problem?’

He gave a short laugh. Only the female one beside him. ‘Got held up a bit. Loretta, this is, Dr Maxi Somers. She’s—’

‘The new locum,’ the charge guessed, smiling as she extended her hand to Maxi across the counter. ‘We expected you on today’s plane.’

‘Ahh…’ Maxi took a moment to think on her feet, her green eyes sparkling with mischief. ‘I’m afraid I rather surprised Dr Haslem. I drove here.’

Jake almost choked. He could see what she was up to. ‘Maxi’s here on a trial basis,’ he counter-claimed swiftly, trying to salvage something that had some semblance of truth.

Loretta’s eyes widened in query. ‘I thought the tenure was for three months?’

‘I’m sure we’ll sort something out that will benefit us both,’ Maxi came in smoothly. ‘Jacob’s just being his usual cautious self.’

Loretta’s gaze skittered curiously between the two medical officers. ‘Am I missing something here?’

‘We worked together in England,’ Maxi said, keeping the patter going but flicking Jake a don’t-you-dare look. ‘But I’m sure I’ll settle in here. I love the place already.’

‘Well, it’s not at its best at the moment,’ Loretta said sadly. ‘But what a godsend to have another doctor—and no offence, Jake, but my guess is that the ladies of Tangaratta will be making a beeline for Dr Somers’s surgery.’

‘Excellent.’ Maxi beamed. ‘I’ll look forward to meeting my new patients.’

Jake bit back a squawk of unbelief. She’d outgunned him without blinking an eye. Hell! And he’d thought she needed protecting! He turned to the charge, his expression carefully neutral. ‘Loretta, do you have the charts for Bernie Evans and Karryn Goode, please?’

‘Mr Evans has perked up. We’ve pushed fluids into him for most of the afternoon,’ Loretta said, proffering the files. ‘But I think we should keep him overnight. He was in a right old state when the meals-on-wheels folk found him. If it hadn’t been their day to call…’

Maxi opened her mouth and closed it again quickly. She was full of questions and suggestions but wisely kept them to herself. She guessed she’d already stretched Jake’s patience a little too far.

‘And Karryn wants to go home.’

‘We’ll have to see about that.’ Jake ran his eyes over his patient’s chart. She’d recovered well after the birth of her baby boy. Maybe he’d let her go and maybe he wouldn’t. ‘OK, thanks, Loretta.’ He lifted a hand in acknowledgment. ‘We’ll find our way.’

‘Where to now?’ Maxi asked eagerly. They’d walked from the nurses’ station and turned the corner into a short stretch of corridor.

‘Nowhere.’ In a quick, precise movement Jake angled himself in front of her so she was almost pressed against the wall. He stared down at her, his look unreadable. ‘Just what are you trying to prove here, Maxi?’

‘Sorry?’ She blinked uncertainly at him.

‘Pretending to be the locum. And what’s with the “I love the place already”,’ he mimicked.

Maxi winced. Had she really sounded like that? Almost simpering? She shook her head, biting the soft inside edge of her bottom lip. ‘It was a silly, spur-of-the-moment thing.’

His dark brows came together. ‘You’ve hardly been in the place five minutes. How could you have formed any opinion?’

She shrugged, wrapping her arms over her chest and kneading her upper arms.

‘Max, this isn’t some kind of mind game!’ Jake’s voice was laced with frustration. ‘This is about real patients with real needs!’

Maxi’s heart thumped. Had she gone too far? ‘I know that, Jacob.’ She swallowed uncomfortably. ‘I know.’

‘Then why give Loretta the impression you’re the locum?’

‘Your receptionist happened to mention the locum hadn’t arrived and I thought…well, I thought, why not? It was out of order,’ she admitted, her green eyes soulful and large. ‘I’ll rectify things with Loretta before we leave.’

‘You won’t,’ Jake said, his tone implacable. ‘If you want to be taken seriously, just start thinking of a plausible explanation for your sudden departure, when the time comes.’

‘But—’

‘Maxi…’ he warned.

She hesitated. Then lifted her shoulder in a dismissive shrug. ‘Whatever you say.’ A beat of silence. ‘So, do you want me to just make the tea while I’m here or am I allowed to speak to the patients?’

‘Just drop it, please.’ Jake’s gaze narrowed on her flushed face, the angry tilt of her small chin. ‘For the time you’re here, you’re a VMO—a visiting medical officer. With all the responsibility the title carries.’

‘Oh.’ Emotions began clogging her throat. His generous approach to what could have turned into a messy situation took her by surprise. And yet it shouldn’t have, she allowed. He’d always played fair. ‘I appreciate that—thank you,’ she said quietly.

‘You’re welcome.’ He began walking again. ‘Now, come and meet Karryn.’

Maxi felt a sudden overriding sense of caution. ‘I wouldn’t want the midwife to feel I was going over her head.’

‘You wouldn’t be. Sonia’s not around anyway. She left this morning to check on a couple of expectant mums on outlying properties.’

Maxi inclined her head towards the files. ‘May I see Karryn’s notes, then?’

Handing the chart over, Jake said, ‘I’m not sure I want her to go home just yet.’

They held a mini-consult in a nearby small treatment room. After Maxi had speed-read the patient’s history, she said musingly, ‘Karryn’s twenty-nine and this was her third pregnancy, right?’

‘Yes.’

And the delivery had been straightforward, Maxi noted. There’d been no excessive bleed and only a minor repair necessary. And twenty-four hours post-partum, her obs were well within the normal range. Maxi brought her gaze up. ‘So, why don’t you want her to go home?’

‘They live miles out of town, for starters.’ Jake hitched himself against the treatment couch. ‘She has a child of six and another four. The eldest, Belinda, goes to school. The four-year-old, Nathan, is home with Mum. Plus now she’ll have the new baby. And no one around for back-up.’

‘Are you concerned she’ll overdo?’

‘No question.’ Jake rubbed a finger along the bridge of his nose. ‘Karryn and her husband Dean are trying desperately to keep their property viable. For the last few months Dean has been away most of the day sinking water bores, and right up until she delivered the baby Karryn had been doing the feed drop for the cattle.’

‘I see.’ Maxi made a moue of conjecture. ‘So, fill me in here, Jacob. What does that entail? And when you say cattle—how many does that mean, a dozen or fifty?’

‘Nearer four hundred head.’

‘OK…’ Maxi refused to be thrown. ‘So, how physical is it for Karryn, then?’

‘It’s physical, time-consuming and iffy with the set-up they have to use. She takes the Land Rover with a trailer attached. She’s had to take Nathan with her. Now she’ll have to take the baby as well. They’ll be in safety harnesses but just the thought of it scares the hell out of me.’

‘It’s obviously a struggle,’ Maxi agreed. ‘But it’s the physical part that alarms me. Karryn is not hauling bales of hay out of the trailer, is she?’

Jake shook his head. ‘Not quite. The method they use is to put the vehicle into the lowest gear and secure the steering-wheel so it can’t deviate. The idea then is that the vehicle crawls along while Karryn walks behind, throwing out armfuls of hay from the trailer.’

‘It must be exhausting in this heat.’ Maxi’s heart went out to the young mum. ‘And Dean, the husband, can he not take over the chore until Karryn’s quite fit again?’

‘He’d like to, I’m sure,’ Jake said. ‘But their present bores are drying up and they have to sink for more water sources on the place. The alternative is that they sell their livestock, getting a pittance for it because there’s a glut on the market. And then basically…’ Jake paused for effect. ‘They’ll walk off their farm.’

Maxi winced. ‘I’m beginning to get a handle on things now. Could they buy in water, perhaps?’

Jake shook his head. ‘Not when every spare dollar has to go to buy feed for the cattle.’

‘I understand your concern as Karryn’s doctor, but realistically how far can you interfere?’

‘Maxi, credit me with a little sense. I’ve no intention of interfering. I just need a reason to keep Karryn for another few days. And then to think of a possible solution to ease her workload when she gets home.’

Maxi frowned, beginning to understand just how swamped he must be feeling with his patients’ stress rapidly becoming his own. And obviously Karryn and Dean were just one of many families facing similar scenarios.

But Maxi had a few ideas of her own. ‘Does the town have a physiotherapist?’

‘Not any more. She left a month ago. And I know where you’re going. Some appropriate exercise would up Karryn’s fitness considerably.’

‘Yes, it would. But we can get round that. I have the basics to know what I’m doing. But I’d like a chat with Karryn first. And I promise I won’t go over the top.’

Jake’s mouth crimped at the corners in a dry smile. ‘Can I trust you, though, I wonder?’

‘Give me a break, Jacob.’ Maxi hastily turned towards the door. ‘You’ve told me I have a job here—for the present, at least. So just let me get on with it, please?’

Jake pushed himself away from the couch, his jaw working for a moment. ‘I’ll introduce you to Karryn, then leave you to it,’ he said, grabbing the swing door before it slammed in his face. ‘And, Max?’

Maxi felt an odd little dip in her stomach as her gaze flew up to meet his. ‘Yes?’

He shrugged a bit awkwardly. ‘Just—thanks, I guess.’

She huffed a jagged laugh. ‘I may need that in writing later.’

Jake was as good as his word, taking his leave as soon as he’d courteously introduced Maxi and adding for good measure that she’d come from England on a working holiday.

Maxi shrugged inwardly. It wasn’t quite the truth but it would do for the moment.

‘You must be wilting in our summer weather,’ Karryn said shyly, pulling herself higher on to the pillows.

‘Just a bit,’ Maxi admitted with a smile. ‘But, then, I gather it’s not been an easy time for you either. How’s your bub doing?’

Karryn’s gaze went softly to the downy head in the cot beside her. ‘Really well. He seems a placid little guy. After Nate, that’s a blessed relief, I can tell you.’

Maxi husked a low laugh. ‘Handful, was he?’

‘Like you wouldn’t believe. Always on the go. Still is, for that matter.’ She blinked, her eyes filling suddenly. ‘I hate being away from my kids…’

Maxi placed her hand on the young mum’s shoulder and squeezed. ‘I’m sure you do, Karryn. And that’s what I want to talk about. How best and how quickly we can get you ready to go home to them. Dr Haslem has told me a little of your circumstances. I hope that’s OK?’

Karryn nodded, palming the wetness away from her eyes. ‘It’s hard for everyone around here at the moment. Not just our family.’

‘So I believe. How about you, though?’ Maxi persisted gently. ‘How do you feel in yourself?’

‘It’s been good just to be able to stay off my feet, I reckon,’ Karryn said honestly. ‘But I have to get back to help Dean. I don’t really have much choice.’

‘Perhaps you do,’ Maxi’s voice firmed. ‘If we put our thinking caps on.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘Well, how would you feel about having a few more days with us?’

The young mother looked torn. ‘I don’t know…’

‘I promise we’d use the time well,’ Maxi coaxed. ‘For starters, I could give you a daily massage.’

Karryn bit her lip. ‘I’ve never had one of those.’

‘I used to do it back home for my new mums. They always found it brilliant.’

‘My tummy is a disaster area,’ Karryn mourned.

‘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?’

‘I doubt they’d even notice.’ He met her widened gaze, his blue eyes mocking her with their trace of wry laughter. ‘Beef is the one thing there’s plenty of at the moment.’

Maxi looked at him doubtfully and then gave a reluctant smile. ‘If you’re sure it’s OK…’

‘Perfectly.’

With a neat co-ordinated movement, she moved her plate aside and leaned across the table towards him, her eyes alight with purpose. ‘Would this be a good time to talk about my patient list?’

‘Who said anything about you having a patient list?’

‘I already have the beginnings of one,’ she informed him smartly. ‘I have my new mum, Karryn.’

‘So you do.’ Jake acknowledged dryly. ‘And what did you come up with?’

‘I’ve outlined a programme of massage and gentle exercise for her and she seemed pleased with that and agreed to stay an extra few days.’

‘And?’

‘And what?

‘I don’t imagine you stopped there.’

She shrugged away his cryptic taunt. ‘I’m working on a way of perhaps making things a bit easier for when Karryn gets home from hospital.’

‘Oh?’ Jake’s eyes narrowed at her earnest expression and the tiny dimple in her cheek that gave the impression she was always on the brink of a smile. Damn and blast. If he lowered his guard for just a second, he knew he’d be leaving himself open to heartbreak again. He gave a rather curt nod of his head. ‘Tell me.’

‘Loretta’s put me onto the CWA.’ Maxi’s voice was laced with enthusiasm. ‘And from what she told me, their funding guidelines would seem to cover what I have in mind for Karryn and her family. Anyway, I’m going to pop in on Liz Maynard in the morning. I think between us we can work something out.’

Jake’s mouth pleated at the corners. ‘Just don’t get your hopes too high. There may nothing at all Liz can come up with. The CWA’s funds aren’t limitless and neither is their capacity to help people.’

‘I’m not about to give in to pessimism,’ Maxi declared stoutly. ‘I still believe in successful outcomes. I would’ve thought you did as well. You used to,’ she reminded him.

He gave a bleak kind of smile. ‘We’re in desperate times here, Maxi. Sometimes, no matter how much we wish it otherwise, there really is nothing we can do to change things.’

Maxi took a thoughtful swallow of her wine. She didn’t believe in giving up easily. There would always be something they could do. And for whatever time she had here in this tiny community, she resolved to find a way to do that something.

As they left the pub, she realised they still hadn’t discussed her patient list. Baby steps, then, she decided philosophically. She had enough to be going on with. And with a bit of luck, the rest would follow.

When they got back to the house, Jake unlocked the front door and stood aside for her to enter. In the lounge room, he tossed his keys on the coffee-table and swung round a bit awkwardly. ‘I’ll get house and surgery keys cut for you tomorrow. Meanwhile, do you have everything you need?’

Unfolding her clenched hands, Maxi held her palms against her thighs. ‘Yes, thanks. Um, what time do you usually have breakfast?’

He gave a hollow laugh. ‘I usually just grab a banana as I go. That’s breakfast.’

She gave a disapproving little shake of her head. ‘You can’t possibly start your day on a banana! How early do you leave for the surgery?’

‘Seven-thirty-ish,’ he said, his voice curiously gruff. ‘If there are patients to see at the hospital, I do a round first and then go on to the surgery.’

‘I could do your hospital round,’ she offered. ‘I’ll be going there anyway to start Karryn on her programme.’

He seemed to hesitate and then he said, ‘Fair enough. Thanks,’ he added, almost as an afterthought.

‘Then what?’ Maxi prodded. ‘I’ll come to the surgery?’

‘Will that be before or after you’ve seen Liz Maynard?’

She sent him a brief exasperated look. ‘After, I imagine.’ And, please, take me seriously, she wanted to add, but didn’t. She turned away. ‘I’ll say goodnight, then.’ Suddenly, it was all just too difficult.

Maxi couldn’t sleep. And it wasn’t as though the bed was uncomfortable. It wasn’t. And the sheets and pillowcases were of softest cotton, sweet and sun-dried. But she’d been overtired, she realised now, her thoughts all over the place.

She sighed and turned over, plumping up the pillow yet again. The absolute quiet was getting to her, unnerving her. That was until the cicadas started their concert outside her window, of course. It was driving her nuts. But that was nothing compared to the fright she’d experienced when a long mournful howl had pierced the night air and had had her jackknifing up, her heart banging inside her chest. Now, that was the stuff of nightmares.

Oh, lord… Closing her eyes, she began some relaxation techniques… Surely Australia didn’t have wolves, did it? But the howl had sounded like a wolf. And so close—so close…

She finally slept, rising early and strangely more in control. And under the needling warmth of the shower, even a three-minute one, she felt her body revive and her mind begin to focus.

Dressed for work in well-cut linen trousers and crisp white figure-hugging shirt, she made her way along to the kitchen, surprised that Jake hadn’t surfaced yet. She’d give him a surprise and fix breakfast.

Her eyes tracked around the kitchen. It was lovely, homely. She’d hardly had time to register anything last night, she thought, going forward to place her hand almost reverently on the scrubbed pine table, touching her fingers to the tiny dips and grooves in its surface and speculating about the doctors, young and possibly not so young, who had sat here. What stories they could tell now.

She moved across to the pantry and peered inside, raising an eyebrow in surprise. It was well stocked. And obviously down to the lady who came in—Marie. The fridge was similarly well provisioned and Maxi made a little sound of annoyance in her throat. There was no need for Jake to be skipping meals at all. Or as good as.

But, then, it wasn’t much fun cooking for one, she guessed. And wondered anew just how lonely and isolating it was for him here.

Locating bowl and whisk, she broke in several eggs and began to fluff them. A tiny frown pleated her forehead. Had disillusionment from their break-up driven him here? she wondered. Had her inability to join him really done that to him? She turned the beaten eggs into a pan and adjusted the heat.

‘What’s going on here?’

Maxi spun round from the cook-top and shot Jake a haughty little look. ‘Good morning. I’m fixing breakfast. And don’t tell me you don’t have time to eat.’

A little bemused, Jake leaned against the doorframe, watching her. She looked so absolutely right here, he thought, his mind sharpening with memory. Until he cautioned himself bleakly, silently, Just don’t get used to it, chum. There may be history between him and Maxi but there was definitely no future. He wasn’t about to set himself up to be hurt all over again.

‘Well, don’t just stand there, Doctor.’ Maxi beckoned him in. ‘I could use your help here. We need some toast to go with these scrambled eggs.’

Jake pushed himself away from the door and moved across the kitchen to look over her shoulder. ‘You really didn’t have to do this, Max.’ His voice was edged with a gruff quality, his hand of its own accord coming up to rest fleetingly at the nape of her neck.

Maxi felt warning signals clang all over her body and turned her head a fraction. With only the merest encouragement from him, she could have flung herself into his arms. Instead, she took a steadying breath, finding herself breathing in the fresh tang of his sandalwood shower gel. ‘I was up early,’ she improvised quickly. ‘It seemed logical to start breakfast.’ She swallowed a laugh. ‘You can take your banana for your play lunch instead.’

His chuckle was a bit rueful. ‘Perhaps I will. Anything would be better than Ayleen’s scones.’

‘Oh, dear.’ Maxi’s mouth turned down at the corners. ‘That bad.’

‘They give a new perspective to the meaning of rock cakes.’

Maxi chuckled. ‘I guess she’s just trying to be kind.’

‘Oh, she is,’ Jake agreed, sliding bread into the toaster. ‘She thinks I need looking after.’

Well, I’m your woman, then. Maxi bit her lips together on the words before they could tumble out. ‘So, if you don’t eat the scones, what do you do with them? I can’t imagine you’d want to hurt Ayleen’s feelings and chuck them in the bin?’

‘Lord, no.’ He pretended to shudder. ‘I’d never talk my way out of that. I smuggle them out and bring them home for Chalky.’

‘Is that good for him?’ Maxi seemed shocked by the very idea.

Jake shrugged. ‘Chalky loves them. They’re so hard, I think he cleans his teeth on them.’

Listening to his crazy banter, Maxi felt a strange sense of lightness. This was more like the man she’d known and—loved. Her mind stumbled over the word. To distract herself, she quickly got plates off the shelf and watched as Jake buttered the toast. ‘Please, tell me Ayleen doesn’t bring scones in every day.’

‘Only on a Friday.’

‘But that’s today!’

He gave a crooked grin. ‘Better brace yourself, then.’

Maxi felt a swirl of pleasure, watching Jake obviously enjoy the simple meal they’d more or less prepared together. She poured the tea and handed his mug across. ‘So, am I going to be seeing some patients today or are you intending to keep them all to yourself?’

Very deliberately, Jake took a mouthful of his tea. ‘I’ll sort out a few for you to see.’

‘Good.’ She smiled, activating the tiny dimple in her cheek. ‘I’d like a nice mix, then, please. Don’t feel you have to give me all the females.’

Jake put down his mug and wrapped his hands around it. ‘Be aware, Maxi, some folk will present with physical ailments that are purely manifestations of stress.’

‘So an unexplained pain somewhere but in reality they need to talk?’

‘Exactly.’ He gave her a brief nod of approval, seemingly pleased with her grasp of things. ‘There’s also been an upswing in drug and alcohol use. So use your own judgement but if you’re in doubt at all, check with me before you prescribe anything.’

‘I think I can manage that.’

It was just on ten o’clock when Maxi arrived at Jake’s surgery. Ayleen was, of course, in attendance, beckoning Maxi to the end of the counter out of earshot of the waiting patients. ‘Jake thought you might like to settle in a bit, Doctor, and then see a couple of patients after lunch.’

Maxi nodded. ‘That sounds fine. And, please, don’t let’s be formal. Call me Maxi.’

They exchanged a smile. ‘And I’m Ayleen. So now that’s settled, I’ll show you where to go and you can start getting your bearings.’

‘Brilliant.’

‘This’ll be you.’ Ayleen opened the door on a reasonably sized consulting room.

‘Oh, wow.’ Maxi blinked a bit, seeing a well-equipped, although impersonal domain. It set her thinking and she turned to the receptionist, a query in her eyes. ‘So, was this always a two-doctor practice?’

‘Oh, yes.’ Ayleen was only too happy to supply the information. ‘Jake joined Tom Wilde a couple of years ago but then Tom and his family had to leave for various reasons and Jake’s been soldiering on alone ever since. Such a relief you can stay for a while.’

Yes, but for how long? Maxi’s gaze clouded slightly. ‘The locum’s not turned up, then?’

Ayleen shook her ash-blonde head and gave a little sniff of disgust. ‘Changed his mind, according to the agency.’

‘There’s no chance he’ll change it back?’

‘Not when he’s accepted a job on the Gold Coast instead! Some people have no sense of personal responsibility these days,’ Ayleen proclaimed. ‘It all boils down to lack of respect, of course. In my younger days, you wouldn’t dare not turn up if you’d been offered a job.’ She flapped a hand around the consulting room. ‘This’ll be better once you get your own bits and pieces around. But plenty of time for that,’ she added cheerfully. ‘Now, come through and I’ll give you the rest of the tour.’

Her thoughts very mixed, Maxi followed.

‘Treatment room through here,’ Ayleen said, pulling back a screen.

‘Looks a good work area.’ Maxi was impressed with the array of equipment and would have liked to linger but Ayleen was on the move again.

‘Staff kitchen and other facilities along here. And talking of kitchens,’ Ayleen said with a smile, ‘what about some tea and scones? I brought my usual batch in this morning.’

Oh, dear, the dreaded scones. Maxi thought quickly. ‘Uh, thanks, Ayleen, but I already had a cuppa with Loretta over at the hospital.’

‘Next Friday, then.’ The receptionist-cum-practice manager beamed. ‘Now, I’d best get back and leave you to settle in. I usually make us a sandwich for lunch. Can I count you in?’

Maxi nodded around a smile. ‘Wonderful, thanks, Ayleen.’

‘So, how was your morning?’ Maxi asked. She and Jake were in the staffroom and Ayleen had just cleared their lunch things away and returned to her desk to get ready for the afternoon surgery.

Jake lifted his gaze, his eyes narrowing. ‘Much as usual. How was yours?’

‘Oh, pretty good, I think.’ Her teeth caught on her lower lip as she smiled. ‘I got a good hearing and a promising outcome from Liz Maynard,’ she added, leaning forward and warming to her subject. ‘Apparently the welfare of women and children is the main priority of the association so doing something for Karryn and the new baby comes well within their guidelines.’

Jake raised a dark eyebrow. ‘So, materially, what can they do?’

‘Liz is going to ask some of their members to cook and freeze some meals so Karryn won’t have to worry about getting everyone fed the moment she gets home, and Liz said they’ll get together and make up a basket of goodies, baby stuff and so on, as a gift for Karryn. Hopefully throw in some toys for the older children as well.’

‘That’s brilliant. I’m impressed.’ Jake’s mouth pulled down. ‘Why couldn’t I see all that was possible?’

Maxi made a throw-away movement with her hand. ‘Don’t beat yourself up. It’s hard to be objective when you’re the one having to deal with everyone’s stress day after day. And sometimes…’ she sent him a trapped smile ‘…it needs a woman-to-woman approach. Anyway, that’s not all my good news. Liz’s two teenage sons are home from boarding school early. Apparently the college needs the dorm for a group of overseas students on a study trip. Liz said the lads are bored already so she’s going to suggest to Karryn and Dean that the guys go out to the farm and do the hay drop for the next couple of weeks.’

Jake frowned a bit. ‘I doubt the Goodes will be able to pay the lads much.’

‘They won’t have to. Liz said once she’s explained things to the boys, they’ll be happy to volunteer. And the elder, Heath, has his driver’s licence so they can drive out and back each day—’ Seeing his expression, she broke off and bit her lip. ‘What?’

‘Nothing.’ Jake’s lips twitched thoughtfully. In just a few short hours this woman had begun to weave small miracles. And it felt as though a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. There was no denying her input would make a huge difference to the practice, to the patients. But it had taken him ages to close down his feelings about her. Did he really want them dragged out and opened up for inspection again? And that was bound to happen if he let her stay…

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