Rilla murmured something, and rocked her head from side to side, but didn’t waken.

Luca sighed and hunkered down beside her. He lifted a hand to shake her shoulder, but was caught by the protective way her fingers were splayed down low on her belly.

His baby lay beneath that hand. Their baby. He shook his head at the wonder of it all and gave in to the urge to lie down beside her. He lay on his side, his elbow bent, his head propped on his hand, and gazed down at her.

He would never have thought he’d get a second chance at this. Never. When things had ended between them he hadn’t even been able to contemplate something this wonderful ever happening again. The end had been too painful, too soul-destroying for him to ever want to be here again. But he was. And he wanted to hold his baby so badly he couldn’t resist putting his hand out to touch her.

Amy Andrews has always loved writing, and still can’t quite believe that she gets to do it for a living. Creating wonderful heroines and gorgeous heroes and telling their stories is an amazing way to pass the day. Sometimes they don’t always act as she’d like them to—but then neither do her kids, so she’s kind of used to it. Amy lives in the very beautiful Samford Valley, with her husband and aforementioned children, along with six brown chooks and two black dogs. She loves to hear from her readers. Drop her a line at www.amyandrews.com. au

Recent titles by the same author:

TOP-NOTCH SURGEON, PREGNANT NURSE*

THE OUTBACK DOCTOR’S SURPRISE BRIDE

FOUND: A FATHER FOR HER CHILD

THE ITALIAN COUNT’S BABY

*Brisbane General Hospital

Dear Reader

Welcome to Brisbane General Hospital! Set in my home town of Brisbane, this trilogy explores the lives and loves of three nurses, the Winters sisters—Beth, Rilla and Hailey. And three very special doctors—Gabe, Luca and Callum.

I’ve always wanted to write a linked series, and was thrilled when my editor suggested it. I love catching up with previous characters and being familiar with a particular setting. And Brisbane General is a beauty. Being a nurse, I can tell you there’s no place quite like a hospital to bring out real emotions and make people realise what is truly important in life.

In DR ROMANO’S CHRISTMAS BABY, it’s Rilla and Luca’s turn. Rilla’s carefully ordered world is turned upside down when, after seven years apart, her gorgeous husband Luca reappears as Brisbane General’s new Director of Emergency Medicine. The seething sexual tension between them cannot be denied—and neither is prepared for the consequences. Will Rilla and Luca get a much deserved happily-ever-after in their Christmas stockings? I hope you enjoy finding out.

Wishing all my readers a very merry Christmas and the best for 2009.

Amy Andrews

Don’t miss Hailey’s story in January 2009!

DR ROMANO’S CHRISTMAS BABY

BY

AMY ANDREWS

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To my sister-in-law Emily, one of my

biggest supporters. And to all those health care

professionals who man our hospitals over Christmas

while everyone else is making merry.

Extra-special Christmas joy to all of you.

CHAPTER ONE

‘I CAN’T believe I’ve still got a month to go,’ Beth puffed disgustedly as her legs plodded on down the bushy track, her hand kneading the small of her back. ‘I feel like I’ve been pregnant for ever. Now I know how elephants feel.’

Rilla looked at her sister and stifled a laugh. She’d never seen Beth look more beautiful. ‘Pregnancy becomes you,’ she said, patting her sister’s swollen belly.

Rilla felt a rush of emotion at the firm swelling beneath her hand and a twinge in her chest that had nothing to do with the exertion of the walk.

Beth shot Rilla a don’t-patronise-the-expectant-mother look. ‘Oh, yeah. Morning sickness, heartburn, backache and varicose veins. Very becoming,’ Beth muttered. ‘And to top it off I’ve got this damn head cold.’ She blew her nose on a tissue. ‘I mean, who gets a cold in September, for crying out loud?’

Rilla laughed, startling a nearby parrot, which took to the air with an indignant cry and a blur of crimson wings. ‘You should be at home with your feet up, not trampling through the bush with me.’

‘I’m going stir-crazy at home with nothing to do. I could have still been at work but Gabe insisted I take the full six weeks’ maternity leave.’

‘He likes to fuss.’ Rilla shrugged.

‘He’s driving me mad.’

Rilla grinned at the thought of her brother-in-law in full don’t-even-lift-a-paperclip mode. She stumbled over a tree root hidden beneath a carpet of leaf litter and fell behind Beth a little. She looked up to see her sister steaming ahead, still tall and straight as a stick from behind, despite the advanced pregnancy.

So unlike her own shorter, curvier proportions. Rilla had no doubt she’d be well up to the waddling stage by now. If only.

‘Anyway, I’m sick of talking about me. Let’s talk about something else.’

‘OK, sure.’ Rilla shrugged again. ‘What do you want to talk about?’

‘Let’s talk about you.’

Rilla frowned. ‘What about me?’

‘We’re worried about you, Ril.’

Rilla looked at her older sister. ‘We?’

‘The family. All of us.’

Rilla groaned. She’d been set up. ‘So you’re the emissary, are you?’

‘Come on, Ril. We love you. Of course we worry. You’ve been working hard for years to get the NUM job but the last few months, since the position came up, you’ve been working yourself into the ground. Then there was all the stress of the interview last week. Not to mention the divorce papers and taking off your wedding ring. We all know what a big step that was for you. If you’re not careful, you’ll be heading for a breakdown.’

‘I’m fine,’ Rilla said testily.

‘You don’t sound like it. Maybe you need to talk about it? About him?’ Beth said gently.

‘I do not want to talk about Luca,’ Rilla said tersely.

She didn’t even want to think about her estranged husband. The fact that she would be working with him again in a couple of weeks was causing enough angst. Only a matter of days until her world would once again tilt on its axis.

‘Have you heard from him yet? Where’s he going to be living?’ Beth persisted.

‘I suppose back at the flat…I don’t know. And I don’t care. I have better things to do than think about Luca Romano,’ Rilla retorted.

‘Which is why we’re walking to the very waterfall where he proposed to you eight years ago,’ Beth pointed out.

‘Hey,’ Rilla protested. ‘You wanted to go for a bush walk. I’m not David Attenborough. This is the only one I know.’

Beth raised an eyebrow. ‘It just seems a little… Freudian,’ she suggested.

The irony of their destination hadn’t been lost on her either, but Rilla refused to dignify her sister’s statement with a comment. The memories of the day Luca had brought her here were particularly powerful as she walked along. So much so she could swear she caught the occasional whiff of the unique aftershave Luca had always favoured.

They walked in silence for a few moments. The smell of eucalyptus, wattle and damp earth mingled to form a unique bushy fragrance. The heavy warmth of the September day was tempered by the thick canopy above. It filtered the sun’s intensity, allowing only a sprinkle of sunlight to bathe the path.

A bellbird tinkled in the background, complementing the persistent hum of insect song. A kookaburra laughed in the distance. The track was deserted on this Friday morning but come tomorrow it would be bustling with weekend tourists and city slickers keen for a slice of the great outdoors.

‘So he starts in a fortnight?’ Beth asked.

Rilla sighed and resigned herself to a grilling. ‘Apparently.’ ‘And you haven’t heard a word from him?’

‘I haven’t spoken to Luca in seven years, you know that.’

Not since he’d gone back to Italy after they’d both acknowledged it was over. Even the divorce papers had been handled via his lawyer. ‘If Dad hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t even have known he’d applied for the job.’

Beth whistled. ‘Seven years. That’s a long time.’

‘Tell me about it,’ Rilla griped, feeling every day of the intervening years.

Beth put her arm around Rilla. ‘It’s such a big step—divorce. I know it hasn’t been easy for you, Ril. Are you OK?’

Rilla felt tears prick at her eyes. ‘Sure,’ she said huskily.

They walked in silence for a few minutes. Beth stopped to hold her stomach as she sneezed and Rilla waited for her to blow her nose and resume their pace.

‘Why now? For the papers?’ Beth asked, under way again. ‘You never really said.’

Rilla shrugged. ‘I guess it’s like you and Hails have been saying—I need closure. I think turning thirty a few months ago made me realise that I’m not young any more. I want to get married and have a baby. Seeing you pregnant had really bought that home.’

Rilla’s arm brushed against her sister’s pregnant girth and she felt a deep well of longing rise within her and tears threatened again. The miscarriage she’d had at twenty-two hurt more acutely than ever. The thought of never fulfilling her biological purpose was deeply, deeply devastating.

‘I’m just in this kind of…limbo. I think I’ve finally recognised that I need to draw that part of my life to a close and get on with the rest of it. I can’t go forward with my past dragging me back all the time.’

Rilla felt Beth’s arm tighten around her shoulders and she felt immensely comforted as they trudged along the track.

‘And so pretty soon you’re going to be seeing him every day,’ Beth stated a few minutes later.

‘Yes,’ Rilla agreed, feeling utterly miserable. The sadness and guilt and tumult as their fledgling marriage had fallen apart seemed suddenly magnified by their absolute silence over the intervening years.

She’d thought she was over their brief, albeit intense relationship. Thought she was past it. She’d finally filed for divorce, hadn’t she? But his imminent reappearance was unsettling.

‘Maybe there’s a chance you two will…’

Rilla stopped walking and turned to Beth. She felt the years slip away. All the hurt and pain coming back in one violent rush.

‘Too many years have gone by, Beth. We were like strangers at the end. We shouldn’t have rushed in like we did, and getting pregnant so soon…’

She looked at Beth’s belly, swollen with Gabe’s baby and felt a stab of jealousy mix with her despair over the loss of Luca’s baby. She wasn’t twenty-two any more and Rilla wished for the hundredth time she could go back and live that time over again.

‘We were doomed from the beginning.’

‘He hasn’t signed the papers, though, has he?’ Beth countered.

Rilla shrugged, at a loss to explain why he hadn’t. She’d been expecting him to initiate proceedings years before and she’d most certainly expected him to sign the papers and end their dead-as-a-doornail marriage posthaste.

‘Maybe he regrets the things that happened? That he withdrew from you? He was hurting, Rilla,’ Beth said gently.

Rilla knew how much her family had adored her husband despite their initial qualms over the hasty match. And Beth in particular had always had a soft spot for Luca.

‘So was I.’

Beth put her arm around Rilla’s shoulders again. ‘I know. Come on.’ She pulled Rilla along with her. ‘We’re nearly there. I can hear the water.’

They came into a shady clearing carved from the thick bush land dominated by water cascading down a massive rock face into a crystal-clear pool beneath. Big flat boulders edged the waterhole. A slight breeze ruffled the tops of the canopy and revealed glimpses of an azure sky and cotton-wool clouds.

‘Wow, this is beautiful!’ Beth exclaimed in a hushed awe.

It was lush and vibrant. The abundant foliage looked as if it had been there since the dawn of time, its dark green opulence like a magical jewel, whispering of ancient times. Birdsong echoed around the still clearing, which was like a prehistoric amphitheatre, rustling through the leaves with a resonance more magnificent than a choir of angels.

It was perfect. A testament to the creativity of Mother Nature. Rilla felt as if they’d walked into the Garden of Eden. It was hard to imagine that such a paradise could exist in the centre of a thriving city, Mt Cootha being a mere ten-minute drive from the CBD.

‘I’d forgotten how beautiful it is here,’ Rilla said, her quiet voice invading the vibrant stillness.

‘Well, Luca always did have an eye for beautiful things,’ Beth said, grinning at her sister.

Rilla smiled a watery smile and they stood arm in arm, absorbing the wild beauty for a few moments.

‘Come on.’ Rilla roused herself. ‘Let’s sit.’

Beth nodded. ‘I brought some sandwiches and cool drinks.’

They took their shoes and socks off and Rilla supported Beth as she lowered herself down to one of the many smooth boulders that formed a natural rim to the pool.

‘Oh, God, I’m never going to get up again,’ Beth sighed as she dipped her legs into the blissfully cool water. She reached into her pocket for her tissue and blew her nose again. ‘I must look like a beached whale.’

Rilla smiled. Beth was full and ripe and lush. She placed her hand over the sudden ache that had sprung from her womb. ‘Don’t moan, whale,’ Rilla teased, to disguise the bleakness inside. ‘I’ll help you.’

‘You’ll need a crane,’ Beth said.

‘Stop fishing for compliments,’ Rilla said bossily, plonking herself down next to Beth. ‘You’re blooming.’

‘Tell that to my back,’ Beth grumbled as she accepted a bottle of water from her sister.

‘It seems to be bothering you a bit.’

‘It’s been bothering me for months,’ Beth said dismissively as she took a long pull of cool water. ‘It doesn’t help that this rock is so damn hard it could put diamond to shame.’

‘You’re right.’ Rilla laughed, preparing to get up. ‘We don’t have to stay. We can head back.’

Beth put a stilling hand on her sister’s arm. ‘Are you kidding? It’s like paradise here. I want to just sit and absorb it for a while. And I need a rest.’

Rilla relented. The trek hadn’t been particularly arduous, a little uneven and rocky in places, but, then, she wasn’t walking for two.

‘I know you don’t want to talk about Luca, Ril. But being proposed to here must have been very, very romantic.’

Rilla trailed her legs through the water as she thought back to that magical day. Had it only been eight years ago? It seemed like decades. But then some days, like today, it came back to her in such vivid detail it could have been yesterday.

‘Yes, it was.’

They had been alone here that day too. She remembered the feeling of isolation, of feeling they were the only two people in the world wrapped up in a cocoon of love. And she remembered the feeling of absolute rightness. That even after only three months she and Luca were meant to be. That nothing could put them asunder.

It had been a day full of promise and hope. The future had been so bright. So positive. She’d had no inkling that only seven months later their dreams would be crushed into the dirt and within a year it would all be over.

‘Got any Vegemite and cheese?’ Rilla asked, rousing herself from the memories that seemed to have taken over her life since finding out about Luca’s return.

‘Of course,’ Beth said, passing a round of Rilla’s favourite sandwiches to her.

They sat with their legs dangling in the pool, munching on sandwiches, chatting and laughing as the water trickled down the rock, inexorably eroding the surface. They didn’t talk about Luca, or the baby. In fact, sometimes they didn’t even talk at all, familiar enough with each other to be comfortable with silence. They mightn’t share the same DNA but they were as close as any blood sisters.

‘Damn,’ Beth muttered, rubbing her back again. ‘I think I’m going to have to get up. My back’s on fire and my butt is numb.’

They packed up their wrappers and Rilla helped Beth get her shoes back on.

‘God, I can’t wait to see my feet again.’ Beth grimaced as Rilla hauled her upright. ‘Ow,’ she called, reaching out to her sister as she doubled over.

‘What?’ Rilla demanded.

‘Oh, no.’ Beth’s grip tightened as she looked down.

Rilla looked down also. To her dismay a rapidly spreading wet patch stained the front of Beth’s shorts.

‘I think my membranes just ruptured,’ Beth said.

Rilla exchanged a look with her sister.

‘Oh, boy. Gabe’s not going to be happy,’ Beth said.

Rilla couldn’t have agreed more as she stared at the fluid now leaking down Beth’s leg.

‘It can’t be happening now. I’ve still got four weeks to go. It’s too soon. What are we going to do?’

‘It’s OK,’ Rilla said, hearing the first note of panic in her older sister’s voice. She was a nurse. She’d delivered the odd baby or two, the ones that couldn’t wait. Not that it was going to come to that.

‘It’s fine. We have plenty of time. Are you having contractions?’

Beth shook her head. ‘No. Just Braxton-Hicks’ on and off the last few days. It’s mainly my back.’

Rilla gaped at her sister and bit back an exasperated retort. It seemed very likely that Beth had been dismissing true contractions for the harmless Braxton-Hicks’ variety. She didn’t want to think about the fact that they’d been blissfully walking through the bush while Beth was in labour.

‘I wish Hailey was here too,’ Beth murmured.

Ditto. Beth would have been far better off having their youngest sister here. Rilla certainly would have given anything to have someone who had delivered hundreds of babies by their side. But Hailey had declined to join them today, out searching for apartments to rent instead.

‘OK, here’s what we’re going to do,’ Rilla announced. ‘We’re going to get back to the car as quickly as possible and then we’re going to drive straight to the General. It won’t even be a ten-minute drive from here. OK?’

‘OK.’ Beth nodded.

Rilla took an arm and let Beth lean against her as they left the waterhole. They hadn’t gone ten paces when Beth stopped abruptly, practically crippled by a contraction.

‘I don’t think that was Braxton-Hicks’,’ Beth said, her voice wobbling.

Rilla felt Beth’s arms trembling and did some calculations in her head. The walk to the waterhole had taken thirty minutes. The return trip would take longer if they had to keep stopping for contractions. Her heart slammed madly like an open shutter in the middle of a force ten gale.

‘Tell me it’s going to be OK, Rilla,’ Beth gasped, her hold on Rilla tightening.

Rilla could hear the tremble in her sister’s voice. Beth who was always cool, calm and collected was looking to her for assurance. Beth, who, prior to her maternity leave, had run the operating theatres at the General like a sergeant major for years.

‘Of course it is,’ she said confidently. ‘First baby labours take for ever.’ That was one piece of information she did remember in a brain that seemed to be suddenly frozen.

‘But it’s not my first baby.’ Beth grimaced as she clutched at her stomach.

Of course—it wasn’t. ‘It may as well be,’ Rilla said reassuringly. ‘Twenty-three years is a long time. We wipe the slate clean after a while. How long was your labour with David?’

‘Four hours,’ Beth said through gritted teeth.

Rilla tried not to look too alarmed when she glanced sharply at her older sister. ‘Let’s hustle,’ she said, kicking up the pace.

But the going was still slow. The contractions increased in frequency and length over the next twenty minutes, necessitating the need for numerous stops and Rilla was becoming more worried that they weren’t going to make it to the General.

The track remained deserted and their mobile phones still had no signal. All they could do was trudge on and hope the premature baby didn’t decide to make an appearance.

Rilla judged they were about twenty minutes from the car when Beth let out a cry and gripped hard to the arm that was supporting her.

‘What?’ Rilla demanded.

‘Oh, God,’ Beth panted. ‘I need to push.’

‘No. No, no, no,’ Rilla said, shaking her head wildly. ‘No pushing. It’s not far now.’

‘Ril,’ Beth said, leaning forward. ‘I think the baby’s right there.’

‘No.’

‘Yes,’ Beth said looking her younger sister straight in the eye. ‘It is. This baby is coming. Now.’

Rilla believed her. Oh, no! It was time to go to plan B. ‘OK.’ Don’t panic. Just do what has to be done. ‘I’ll get the picnic blanket out of the backpack. I think we need to take a look.’

Rilla’s pulse thundered as she spread the blanket on the track and helped Beth to the ground. This was Beth. Her sister. And her niece. The stakes couldn’t be higher and she was scared out of her brain.

‘Hurry,’ Beth bellowed loudly.

The loud groan broke into Rilla’s escalating fear. ‘OK, Beth, let’s take a look,’ Rilla said, forced to focus as the sound of her sister’s agony echoed through the bush.

Luca Romano was taking a walk down memory lane when he heard the cry of distress nearby. He responded immediately, pistoning his strong legs and arms hard to reach the source. Someone was obviously in trouble. The cry had been full of pain and panic. The bush grew eerily quiet as he headed towards the sound, as if it too could detect the urgency of the situation.

He burst from a side track onto the main pathway, locating the problem with a quick swivel of his neck to the right. He cursed under his breath. Two women were huddled on the track. What the hell had happened?

‘Everything all right here?’ he asked as he approached.

Rilla’s head snapped up. She may have had her back to the approaching man but she’d have known that sexily accented voice anywhere. It still haunted her dreams and stoked her fantasies. She turned. Of all the men in the entire world, their knight in shining armour had to be him?

‘Luca?’

Beth also looked up. ‘Luca?’

Luca stopped dead in his tracks. ‘Rilla? Beth?’

For a few moments no one did or said anything. The entire bush seemed to be holding its breath.

‘Rilla,’ Beth cried. ‘It’s coming!’

Rilla turned her attention back to Beth, breaking out of the twilight zone they’d entered. She looked down in dismay to find that Beth was right. The head was right there. Great!

She turned to look at Luca. There were seven years of silence and a jumbo load of baggage between them, but Rilla knew that they were in the worst possible place if the baby or Beth needed any emergency care. And estranged husband or not, Luca was an emergency medicine consultant—she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. She could ponder the fickle finger of fate later.

She swallowed. ‘Luca, get down here. I need you.’

Luca knew she hadn’t meant need him need him, but it didn’t stop the quick flare of heat he thought had been extinguished long ago. He took a beat to mentally douse the flame before he responded to the obvious urgency of the situation. He moved closer, crouching down on the rug.

‘Is she full term?’ he asked. His gaze assessed the situation as his medical training came to the fore.

Rilla shook her head. ‘Thirty-six weeks.’

Luca nodded. Only just premature. And Beth’s belly certainly looked a decent size.

‘What do you want me to do?’ he asked. He knew Rilla was perfectly capable of delivering a baby hell bent on getting out and didn’t see any need to take over. Beth was in good hands.

‘Just be here.’ Things were out of their control and Rilla knew it. Babies that came as fast as Beth’s determined little one practically delivered themselves. All she had to do was catch. ‘Just in case.’

She could feel his presence looming beside her and felt strangely claustrophobic in the middle of the wide open bush.

On second thoughts… ‘Actually, go down the other end and give Beth something to lean against. Reassure her.’

Luca nodded. Good idea. As far away from Rilla as possible. He shifted around behind Beth, settling her back against his stomach in a supported semi-upright position. Her elbows dug into his thighs for leverage.

Luca looked down into Beth’s sweaty face purposely evading Rilla’s gaze. A fine film of grime had settled into the furrows of her brow as her face grew red from the effort of suppressing the urge to push.

‘You’re doing well, Beth,’ he said, and gave her a gentle smile. ‘Let’s just keep this bit slow and easy.’ He picked up her hand and gave it a squeeze.

‘Easy for you to say,’ Beth said, gritting her teeth, and Luca laughed.

‘She’s nearly crowned,’ Rilla said to Beth.

He glanced up, despite telling himself he wouldn’t, and caught Rilla’s gaze. She was on her knees, her left hand against the baby’s head to slow the delivery so Beth wouldn’t tear. And she was just as he remembered. Exactly as she was in his dreams.

Her hair was just as thick. As dark and rich as expensive chocolate, and the weight of it in his palms was still almost tangible seven years later. Her long fringe was plastered to her puckered forehead and a hundred memories of sweeping it back while they made love swamped him.

Her eyes were the colour of amber—tawny in some lights, like liquid gold in others. The large freckle that adorned the corner of her mouth like an old fashioned beauty spot, the only blemish on her flawless olive skin, drew his gaze like a moth to flame. Before he knew it he was staring at her mouth, remembering its softness, its secrets.

Luca bit down on a frustrated oath. How the hell had he ended up helping to deliver a baby with his estranged wife in the middle of nowhere? His analytical mind spun at the odds of stumbling across this particular set of sisters on an out-of-the-way bush track. He’d only been back in Brisbane for two days. What kind of sick cosmic joke was this?

But how much more ironic, more cruel was it that a baby was being born as well? The very thing that had been the catalyst that had driven them away from each other seven years ago was the very thing that had now brought them back together for the first time since.

Beth groaned and brought him back to the present. ‘You’re doing well, Beth,’ he soothed quietly, returning his attention to Beth. ‘You’re so close—isn’t she, Rilla?’ he added as Beth started to protest.

Rilla swallowed at the familiar way he purred her name, his accent rolling it across his tongue, branding it with his own special stamp of possession. ‘Y-yes,’ she said huskily.

A couple of voices from behind split the air at that moment and Luca was relieved to see a young couple approaching.

‘Have either of you got a mobile phone?’ he called, his voice firm and commanding, gaining their attention immediately.

The couple nodded, looking at him uncertainly. ‘Yes, but there’s no reception,’ the woman said.

Luca nodded. ‘We know. I need you to run back to the car park and ring for an ambulance. Tell them we’ve got an imminent delivery of a four-week-premature baby.’

The couple stared for a moment, not moving. ‘Now, damn it! Hurry!’ Luca demanded. And then Beth cried out again and the couple needed no further encouragement, rushing away.

Beth quietened and Luca searched for some distracting conversation. ‘I didn’t know you were pregnant, Beth.’

Rilla suppressed a snort. ‘Well, you wouldn’t. Would you?’

He heard the accusation in her tone and their gazes locked, hers flashing rich gold embers. Had she cared? He’d left the country with the distinct impression she never wanted to see him ever again. He noticed her ring finger was minus the gold band he’d given her, and he wondered how long she’d waited before removing it.

Beth moaned, interrupting the sudden tension. The moan turned into a full-throated roar as her birth canal stretched unbearably to accommodate the baby’s head. Rilla talked calmly over the top of her.

‘OK, Bethy, just pant now. The head’s crowning. Pant through it,’ Rilla instructed.

‘I…can’t,’ Beth yelled.

Rilla knew that the urge to expel the baby was now a biological imperative and that all women got to a point where they felt defeated.

‘Yes, you can,’ Rilla and Luca chorused, then glanced at each other, startled by their synchronicity.

‘Like this.’ Luca demonstrated through the ruckus Beth was kicking up. He panted like a shaggy dog in a heat wave.

Rilla felt a spike of insane jealousy as Luca coaxed Beth through the last gruelling part of the birth. This was the Luca she knew. The Luca she’d loved. The consummate professional whose rapport with people was legendary.

Was this how he would have been had she carried their baby to term? Would he have held her hand and panted with her and looked at her like she was performing the most amazing miracle on earth?

The irony of the situation smacked her in the face. Kneeling on the ground, witnessing the wonder of new life, had brought all their old problems into sharp focus. Her sister was giving birth. The thing she hadn’t managed to do and in not doing so had driven a wedge so deeply between them they hadn’t been able to find a way back to each other.

Beth cried out and Rilla murmured words of encouragement. She looked at Luca’s downcast head. This could have been her, here with Luca.

The constant emptiness that gnawed away at her womb returned with ferocious intent. She’d give anything to be in Beth’s position now, an attentive Luca by her side, about to hold his baby in her arms.

She’d felt the loss of their baby so acutely the past couple of years, more so during her sister’s pregnancy. And being here with Beth, sharing this experience with Luca, was so bitter-sweet she wanted to cry.

‘OK, here she comes,’ Rilla announced, keeping her hand against the baby’s head as it inexorably eased out. ‘Nearly there, Beth,’ she encouraged. ‘Keep panting.’

‘This is it,’ Luca agreed, dropping a kiss on Beth’s brow and rubbing his hands up and down her arms.

The action distracted Rilla and her gaze was drawn to his wedding band still firmly in place. She blinked. He still wore it? After all this time? She’d have bet money on him removing it as soon as he’d left the country. Maybe she wasn’t the only sentimental fool?

Beth cried out and Rilla returned her attention to the situation. Seconds later her niece’s head slowly emerged into Rilla’s waiting hands.

‘You did it, you did it.’ Rilla beamed as she automatically inserted her fingers to check for the cord, her skills more innate than she’d realised.

‘Oh God, is it over?’ Beth panted, collapsing hard against Luca.

‘Just the shoulders now,’ Rilla assured her as her fingers found the one thing she didn’t want to—thick, slippery rope wrapped around the baby’s neck.

‘Oh, no,’ she whispered, lifting her gaze to Luca’s.

Luca saw the streak of fear flash like lightning through the tawny embers of her eyes. ‘What?’

Rilla’s pulse slowed and then stopped before stuttering to life in a frantic rhythm. ‘The cord…’ Every scrap of medical knowledge she’d ever learned seeped from her brain as blind panic took hold. Her niece had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.

Wrapped around her neck. Around her neck.

A thousand worst-case scenarios stomped through her mind like a pack of rampaging rhinos. Luckily Beth was completely oblivious, still caught up in post-head delivery euphoria. She looked at Luca, her mind chaotic.

‘It’s OK, Rilla.’ Luca smiled at her, his gaze brimming with confidence. ‘Just pull it over the head. You’ll be fine.’

Rilla stared at him, his calm gaze slicing through the escalating horror. He nodded at her and she pulled herself back from the tight grasp of panic and nodded back.

‘What’s happening?’ Beth asked. ‘Why do I still have half a baby stuck in me?’

Rilla’s hand trembled as she methodically pulled the cord over her niece’s head. Luckily it was only wrapped around once. ‘Nothing,’ she said, and smiled gratefully, mouthing, ‘Thank you,’ to Luca.

Luca inclined his head slightly and smiled back. ‘Give another push now, Beth, and the baby will be out,’ he encouraged.

Rilla felt goose-bumps wash over her and marvelled at how a few calm words from Luca had pulled her back from the edge. As shocking as it was to see him here today, she thanked the fates for sending him. Would she have coped if he hadn’t been here, hadn’t believed in her?

Beth nodded. ‘I hope so,’ she panted, as she braced herself to bear down again.

Rilla caught the body as it slipped out and the little girl didn’t even wait a second to let out an indignant cry, her fists waving in the air. Rilla laughed, relieved after her earlier fright to be holding the annoyed newborn. She passed the baby to an eager Beth.

‘Congratulations.’ Luca smiled, giving the baby a quick surreptitious once-over, performing a mental APGAR score, satisfied after the cord problem to see she was pink, with a very healthy set of lungs. ‘You’ve given birth to a very angry young lady.’

Beth laughed and then burst into tears as her precious, naked, bawling daughter was placed in her arms. ‘Look, Ril, look,’ she cried. ‘Isn’t she the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?’

Rilla nodded, a lump in her throat the size of an iceberg as she hugged Beth and gazed down into the red, scrunched-up, angry face of her niece. ‘She is.’

Luca saw the tears in Rilla’s eyes and was irresistibly drawn to her. Her face was sweaty and her hair was messy and she had a smudge of dirt on her cheek but she was looking at her niece like she was the most precious thing in the entire world and he couldn’t remember a time when she’d looked more beautiful.

It certainly hadn’t been the way he’d imagined he’d meet her again. Of the thousand scenarios that had formed in his head, this hadn’t been one of them. He’d hoped for a much more controlled setting. Somewhere removed from their memories, from their shared past. Hopefully in the politically correct surroundings of work.

This was…wild. Primitive. Full of raw human emotion and as such it was impossible to not feel connected to her and all they had been. He looked down at the still bawling newborn. Beth and Rilla were huddled together, laughing and talking at her. Rilla was stroking the infant’s head.

No. He hadn’t been prepared for this touching, emotionally charged situation.

He’d spent the last seven years buried in his work, trying to forget the mess he’d made with Rilla. Two years back in Italy, licking his wounds, and the next five in London, working his butt off. Losing their baby and their marriage falling apart had hurt so much he’d sworn he was never going to put himself through it again. He wouldn’t allow a vision of Rilla and her niece to derail his purpose after less than an hour.

A distant siren broke his train of thought and he was thankful for the reprieve from memory lane. He hadn’t come back here for her. He’d come back for closure. To prove to himself he was over her. So he could sign the papers and get on with his life.

‘Right. Come on, ladies, let’s get this show on the road.’ The baby seemed perfectly healthy but he knew the hospital would want to check her out very closely due to her prematurity and rather unorthodox arrival. He took his shirt off and held it out so they could wrap the baby in it.

He stood. ‘Rilla, take the baby.’ He didn’t look at her, just waited for Beth to pass the baby over. Then he picked Beth up, bringing the rug with him and effectively cocooning her. ‘Your ambulance awaits,’ he said, grinning down at Beth.

‘You can’t carry me, Luca,’ Beth protested as she hung on to his neck.

‘Of course I can,’ he said cheerfully as he headed towards the ever-louder siren. ‘Hold on. It’s not far now.’

Rilla was given no choice but to follow as her niece was still connected to her mother via the umbilical cord. Luca’s strong naked back and powerful stride bobbed before her with each footfall. His physique was as magnificent as she remembered, and if she hadn’t had to watch her step with her precious cargo, the ripple of the muscles in his broad shoulders would have been completely entrancing.

Her niece squirmed in her arms, demanding attention as if she knew her aunt was distracted. The baby seemed tiny, swallowed up in the folds of Luca’s big shirt, and his fragrance wafted temptingly towards her. Myriad memories involving Luca wearing nothing but his cologne almost caused her to stumble.

Her hands tightened around her niece. This wouldn’t do. Dr Luca Romano had been hers…once. But that had been eight long years ago and she was finally moving on with her life.

Even if his back still looked as good and he still smelled divine and he’d helped deliver her niece. Seven years of silence bred a lot of discontent. And she was never going there again.

CHAPTER TWO

RILLA tried to ignore the betraying flutter of her heart as she waited for the imminent arrival of Dr Luca Romano. It had been ten days since the birth of her niece. Ten days of knowing he was back, of expecting to look over her shoulder and see him. Beth had told her he’d popped in to see the baby every day during their admission, so she knew he’d been at the General. But he’d made no attempt to contact her, which only made this moment even bigger.

The place was abuzz with speculation about the new director of emergency. Few people in the department had been around long enough to remember him from eight years ago. Or, thanks to her insistence she keep her maiden name, to know that once upon a time he and Rilla had been married.

She figured it wouldn’t take long though, the hospital grapevine what it was.

‘You going to be OK, Rilla?’ Julia Woods, the NUM asked, sidling up to her.

Rilla forced a smile to her lips as she carried out the daily task of checking the resus trolley, pleased to have the routine. ‘Of course,’ she dismissed.

‘I’m sorry, he had some admin stuff to attend to so he thought it would be a good opportunity to drop in and meet everyone informally before he started next week. I could hardly say no.’

‘Of course,’ Rilla replied.

‘Have you seen him since he’s been back in the country?’

Rilla shut her eyes briefly, the image of his naked back as he strode along the track with Beth in true hero fashion burnt into her retinas. ‘Yes,’ she said noncommittally, her hand shaking slightly as she checked the light on the laryngoscope. ‘It’ll be fine, Julia. Really.’

Rilla saw the doubt in her boss’s gaze. Julia had known her for a long time. Had gone to their wedding. She knew how hard the separation and the intervening years had been on Rilla.

‘Really,’ Rilla reassured her, giving Julia’s arm a quick squeeze.

An hour later all the nursing staff were summoned to the staffroom to meet the new director. Rilla contemplated not going. It wasn’t like she needed an introduction. And if they’d been busy she would have stayed behind to man the fort, but the post-night duty lull was in full swing and unless a disaster struck, it would probably be another hour before today’s patients start tricking through the doors.

And then there was the message that not going would send. To those who knew their history. And to Luca. It was going to be hard enough working together again without people’s pity. It was time to show everyone, including Luca, that she was over him and moving on with her life.

As far as work was concerned, her baggage with Luca was in the past. Once word got out of their prior relationship they would be watched and speculated over endlessly. Rilla had to start on the right foot. Had to project an it’s-OK, it’s-all-in-the-past, the-divorce-papers-are-out-there, we’ve-moved-on aura. Even if it killed her.

Still, as he entered the staffroom, she wasn’t prepared for the sight of him. On Friday, due to the urgency of the situation, she hadn’t paid much attention to his attire, apart from when he’d been shirtless. But today, dressed in his work clothes, he looked devastatingly handsome. Like the old Luca.

His dark trousers sat low on his hips, the pleats at his waistband pressed perfectly, sitting in a way that emphasised the narrowness of his hips. His crisp navy blue business shirt was luxuriously thick. His zigzag-patterned tie classy.

So much for a casual meet and greet.

She didn’t have to check his clothing labels to know they were Italian, as were his soft black leather shoes. Luca had always dressed with complete and utter class. His wardrobe had had more labels than hers and she had teased him un-mercilessly about it when they had first got together.

But it was about more than the designer quality of his clothes. It was how he wore them. He’d always exuded charisma but now there was supreme confidence. Arrogance, almost. Once she would have put it down to his Italian roots or his noble Latin features, but she wasn’t so sure any more.

There was a distance to his demeanour, a streak of aloofness that moulded his raw sex appeal into something much more mature, more dangerous. And she didn’t think it had anything to do with ancestry. Whatever it was, the combination was powerful. Luca Romano was still a pleasure to watch.

Rilla was pleased to note, though, that there was some evidence of ageing. It hadn’t just been her. At thirty-five his black hair had some grey streaks. It looked more severe too. The length had been tamed. It had once brushed his collar and flopped a little in his eyes. Now it was more closely cropped. But it only succeeded in drawing attention to his amazing fringe of thick sooty lashes.

The few extra lines around his eyes and mouth in no way marred his handsome face. His jaw was just as square, his nose as patrician. He was still tall and lean and most definitely wearing his years well.

Rilla could see the fact was not lost on some of the younger nurses and was surprised by the hot shaft of jealousy that sliced through her. It shouldn’t have. Luca had, after all, always aroused this kind of reaction in women. Once, secure in his love, she’d taken pride in it, knowing he had been hers. Now it was as irritating as hell.

There were ten nursing staff on the morning shift and Julia introduced each one. Luca was his usual charming self. Not hurried. Taking the time to ask each one about themselves, putting everyone at ease, making them laugh. He was a hit.

‘Of course, you know Rilla,’ Julia said as she came to her second-in-charge.

‘Of course,’ Luca said, inclining his head.

They locked gazes for a moment, his accent sliding over her skin, eight years of history thick between them. Rilla felt her cheeks grow warm as Luca’s gaze moved quickly on to the next person, excruciatingly aware of the curious stares of her in-the-know colleagues.

She was pleased to escape ten minutes later after Luca’s brief new-broom speech finished with a my-door-is-always-open assurance. But his gaze was careful not to encompass her and she got the distinct impression she wasn’t included.

By midmorning the lull was well and truly over. In fact, the department had descended into bedlam. Ambulances arrived with frightening regularity, unloading their cargo of car-accident victims, asthmatics and chest pain sufferers, filling the resus bays.

The usual suspects swelled the waiting room out front with a mishmash of legitimate illnesses and minor time-consuming complaints—sore throats, vague pains, migraines, fevers, paper cuts.

The combined noise could have given a crowded theatre before curtain-up a run for its money. Not that Rilla noticed, well used to the low-level chaos that the emergency department became most days. And today, after the unsettling brush with Luca, she was more than grateful for the background hum distracting her from buried memories, newly roused.

Just before lunch the appropriately nicknamed Bat-phone rang. It was red and their direct link to the ambulance control centre. Rilla took the call about the imminent code-one arrival of a ten-day-old baby with apnoea. She replaced the receiver, a sudden chill up her spine as her thoughts instantly turned to her ten-day-old niece.

How worried the parents must be that their baby was having episodes where it stopped breathing. She quickly sorted through the possible causes. A seizure? Maybe caused by a brain infection or cranial trauma from an accidental or non-accidental injury. A respiratory infection? A near cot death?

‘Apnoeic ten-day-old. ETA two minutes,’ Rilla told Henry Bosch, the junior resident, as she entered the resus cubicles to prepare the area.

Henry gave her a startled look and Rilla could see the convulsive bob of his Adam’s apple.

‘Where’s Karen?’ he asked.

Rilla wished the senior reg was there too as she recognised the wail of a distant siren. ‘She’s still up with Julie and the resus team, dealing with the arrest on ward eleven. I’ve paged her. You’re it until then.’ Rilla smiled and injected confidence into her voice.

Please, let this kid be fine by the time it gets here.

There was no more time for wishes as the siren blared louder, announcing its arrival outside. ‘Let’s hustle,’ she said to Henry.

The ambulance doors opened and Rilla’s worst fears were confirmed when she saw the paramedic huddled over a small form, ambu-bag in place over the tiny face.

‘Ten-day-old baby, four weeks prem, three-day history of upper respiratory tract infection, Mum has a cold.’ The paramedic rattled off a brisk, succinct handover, eyes not leaving the baby as his partner slowly pulled the gurney from the car.

Sounds like an RSV picture, Rilla thought. The respiratory virus could affect babies very seriously, making them desperately ill. Especially if there was a history of prematurity.

‘Lethargic and poor feeding today. Mum had babe at the GP when she had a prolonged apnoea, resolving with stimulation. GP called the ambulance. Three further episodes en route, requiring vigorous stimulation and oxygen therapy.’

‘Rilla!’

Rilla turned, startled by the hysterical call, shocked to see Beth getting out of the passenger side of the ambulance.

‘Beth?’ Rilla gasped, looking at her sister’s tear-stained, frantic face. ‘What the…?’ She swivelled her head back to the tiny baby on the gurney, looking small and defenceless on the huge trolley. Bridie? Beth reached her and Rilla enfolded her distraught sister in her arms, her heart hammering madly as her sluggish brain connected the dots. This apnoeic, seriously ill baby was her niece?

‘It’s all my fault,’ Beth sobbed. ‘I gave her my cold. Her lungs are too premature to cope with it. Oh, my God, I don’t want her to die.’

Rilla would have given anything at that moment to be in possession of a magic wand. Anything. Instead, she was it. The only senior nurse they had around until Julia got back from the arrest, and she had only a very junior doctor at her disposal.

Her brain raced as she prioritised. ‘Bridie’s going to be fine, just fine,’ Rilla soothed as she hurried inside, dragging Beth with her, keeping up with the gurney. ‘You know she’s in the best hands here,’ she said, ‘the best.’

Rilla prayed to every god she could think of plus the ones she couldn’t, that she was right. She froze out the sickening worry of an aunt and the more basic pull of sisterhood. She had to remove herself emotionally from her tiny niece, struggling to breathe, and her frantic sister.

‘You’re going to have to intubate,’ Rilla told Henry briskly as she hooked Bridie up to the monitors and another apnoea required Rilla to give a vigorous sternal rub before it resolved. This time Bridie’s heart rate slowed and her oxygen saturations dipped. The situation was worsening.

‘We need to secure her airway,’ Rilla said, ignoring the frantic beat of her heart as she handed the laryngoscope, endotracheal tube and other equipment to Henry. One of the junior nurses was drawing up some intubation drugs.

‘Brenda, go put out a code blue page,’ Rilla ordered as Henry prepared to intubate. His hand shook and Rilla had the awful feeling he was going to foul it up.

Intubating a child or baby was always a little fraught, but in an emergency and for the first time? She knew Henry had to be feeling the pressure. Better to get as many medical people as possible down here so someone more experienced could take over. Hell, she’d ring the chief of staff, if she had to. Her father may not have had recent clinical experience but she’d bet her last cent he could intubate Bridie with his eyes closed.

Beth was crying and clutching at Rilla’s uniform, begging them both to do something as alarms shrilled all around them. Damn it! Rilla felt like her heart was being torn in two. She wanted to be over there comforting Beth but Bridie needed her too. At this moment even more than her sister.

‘Did you notify Gabe?’ Rilla asked as she administered the muscle-paralysis drug so Henry could pass the tube through Bridie’s vocal cords.

‘I paged him. He’s in Theatre. He didn’t want to go in today,’ Beth cried. ‘But he was fussing so much and it was only a short list. She wasn’t that bad this morning. I shouldn’t have made him go,’ she wailed.

‘It’s OK, Beth,’ Rilla assured her, her pulse rate skyrocketing as Henry attempted to insert the endotracheal tube. ‘I’ll send someone for him, I promise. Let’s just do this first, OK? It’s going to be fine. Nearly done.’

Only Rilla knew it wasn’t. Knew Henry was having trouble, and as she saw Bridie’s saturations plummet and her heart rate drop, she knew he was going to have to stop, re-oxygenate and try again.

‘Do you want me to give some atropine?’ she prompted Henry, and gave it when he nodded.

‘Oh God,’ Beth cried.

Where was the team? It seemed like an hour but in reality it had only been a minute. Satisfied that Bridie’s heart rate had stabilised and that Henry had control of the airway, Rilla made a decision.

‘I’ll be back in two seconds,’ she announced.

‘Ril, no! Where are you going?’ Beth demanded, her voice raising several octaves.

Rilla turned and looked at her sister. She grabbed her arms and gave them a gentle squeeze. ‘I’m going to call Dad.’

Beth’s face crumpled. ‘OK.’

Rilla paced out of the resus area into the corridor. Taking a couple of deep cleansing breaths, her hands shaking, she headed for the nearest phone. Before she could pick it up, her gaze met Luca’s.

‘Rilla? What’s wrong,’ he demanded, striding towards her. She looked like hell. Pale and shaken and about two seconds away from collapsing.

‘Luca. Thank God,’ Rilla said, putting her hand out to steady herself on his outstretched arm. She knew he wasn’t officially at work yet but she didn’t care. Bridie’s life depended on him. She’d never been more pleased to see him. Not even in the bush ten days ago. ‘I need you. It’s Bridie.’

Luca didn’t ask any questions, just followed her brisk lead. He listened as she prattled off the details and he swore under his breath as his sharp gaze took in the situation in the resus area.

‘Luca,’ Beth sobbed. ‘Oh, Luca.’

Luca gave Beth’s hands a brief squeeze before muscling a relieved Henry aside and with Rilla’s assistance slid the endotracheal tube past the vocal cords and into the trachea in one smooth movement.

‘It’s OK now, Beth,’ Luca soothed, as he held the tube with one hand and bagged with the other while Rilla, hands still shaking, secured the tube with brown tape. ‘She’s going to be OK. We won’t let anything happen to our little bush baby.’

Julia and Karen arrived in the resus bay, along with a PICU consultant, just as Rilla was satisfied the tube was secure. Luca and Henry filled in the details and Rilla was pleased to let them take over so she could comfort her sister. So she could be a worried aunt.

‘Come on out with me,’ Rilla encouraged. ‘Bridie’s in good hands. She’ll be up in ICU before you know it.’

‘No,’ Beth shook her head vigorously, wiping at her eyes with her hands. ‘I can’t leave her.’

Rilla nodded, knowing if it was her baby she wouldn’t be able to either. ‘I’ll ring Dad. We’ll get him to go and talk to Gabe.’

‘Oh God, Gabe.’ Beth dissolved into more tears.

‘Shush,’ Rilla soothed, rubbing Beth’s arm. ‘He’ll be here soon.’

Rilla didn’t even get three paces out of the resus bay before the enormity of the situation overwhelmed her. She groped for a nearby wall and sagged against it. Her breath hurt in her chest and tears stung her eyes as visions of her niece’s still body and pale lips replayed in her head. The what-ifs were crippling.

‘Rilla?’

She looked up to find Luca standing in front of her, his gaze gentle, a frown marring his forehead. She sucked in some much-needed air.

‘Are you OK, cara?’

Rilla nodded her head vigorously as his quiet endearment brought her perilously close to breaking down. She breathed in and out a few more times, grabbing at the sharp pain in her side. ‘I’ll be OK.’ Her voice was shaky and she knew it. ‘I was just… It was just…’

Luca nodded. She didn’t have to explain. ‘I know.’

They looked at each other for a few seconds. ‘I don’t know how to thank you. You’ve come to the rescue twice now with Bridie.’

Luca shrugged. ‘She’s my niece too.’

Rilla felt her eyes widen, a storm of emotions battering her already precarious state. Did he think he could waltz back in after all this time and play happy families with her? Why was he here? What did he want? Damn him! She didn’t have time for this now.

‘I…I have to call my father.’

He nodded. ‘You sure you’ll be OK?’

Rilla nodded back.

‘I’ll go and check how things are going.’

When Rilla re-entered Resus a few minutes later, Luca was holding a sobbing Beth and Rilla’s heart did a triple back somersault with a twist. He looked so big and manly, stroking her sister’s head. So like the old Luca. The one she’d fallen in love with. Not like the distant, workaholic stranger he’d become after the miscarriage.

‘Dad’s finding Gabe,’ Rilla said as she approached.

‘Oh, thank you,’ Beth said, her voice strained with emotion. ‘Look at me.’ Beth blew her nose. ‘I must be such a mess. So much for the capable nurse. I just fell apart.’

‘Of course you did,’ Rilla soothed. ‘She’s your baby.’

‘They think it’s RSV,’ Beth said, her voice thick with emotion and the remnants of her cold. ‘They say she’ll be tu-tubed for a few days.’ Beth broke down again and this time sought comfort in her sister’s arms.

‘Beth?’

Rilla looked up to find her father and an ashen-faced Gabe, still in his scrubs, staring at his daughter, who looked increasingly small amongst all the medical equipment that Julia, Karen and the ICU doctor and nurse kept adding. Beth ran straight into his arms, sobbing loudly. ‘I’m so sorry, Gabe. It all happened so fast.’

‘Shh,’ he soothed. ‘She’s in good hands now.’

‘How are you, darling?’

John Winters embraced his middle daughter.

‘I’ve been better.’ Rilla hugged her father. ‘Thank goodness for Luca being around. He was…’ her eyes met Luca’s over her father’s shoulder ‘…magnificent.’

It was true. He’d been calm and focused under pressure. He’d been exactly what Bridie had needed. What she’d needed—again. Their gazes locked.

John moved out of Rilla’s embrace and shook his son-in-law’s hand. ‘Thank you, Luca. Again.’

Minutes later Bridie was attached to the transport ventilator and was ready to move up to PICU.

‘Julia, I know we’re frantic but—’

‘Go,’ Julia ordered Rilla with a dismissive wave of her hand. ‘Of course you must go. Don’t worry about us. We’ll be fine. Just look after that niece of yours. And your sister.’

Rilla gave her boss a hug. Deserting her post on a frantic day was not going to win any brownie points for the NUM job but it was moments like these that put trifling things like jobs firmly into perspective, and Julia understood that family came first. It was why she was leaving her beloved post, uprooting her kids and following her husband and his new job to Canada.

Luca accompanied them, down corridors and up lifts, walking silently beside Rilla. Ahead Gabe and Beth huddled together, seeking comfort and support from each other and Rilla yearned to be able to do the same with Luca. She was so worried about Bridie, she could feel a knot in the pit of her stomach the size of a cricket ball and her legs felt like a dubious support. Once she would have leant on Luca automatically. But so much had changed.

The ICU nurse asked them all to wait in the parents’ lounge, promising to get them as soon as they had Bridie settled.

‘You don’t have to stay,’ Rilla said quietly as Luca took a seat next to her. He’d removed his tie and undone the top two buttons and she quashed the stupid urge to crawl onto his lap.

He turned and looked at her. ‘I’m staying.’

Rilla swallowed, absurdly happy by his insistence. She shouldn’t be. She should be angry. Why hadn’t he offered this level of support when she’d needed it seven years ago? Instead, he had thrown himself into his work, grown away from her. As had she. Too ill equipped to deal with the tragic end to a fledgling pregnancy so early in their relationship.

But he was here now, all solid and silent and dependable, and as confusing as it was, she’d take it for the moment. Because Bridie was by no means out of the woods and Luca had always made her feel like she could cope with anything when he was by her side. Well, for a while, anyway.

An increasingly fretting Beth and Gabe were ushered inside twenty minutes later. Given that they were all on staff at the hospital and the patient was the chief of staff’s granddaughter, the unit’s policy of only two visitors at a time could no doubt have been bent, but Rilla knew her sister and brother-in-law needed time by themselves with Bridie.

A frantic Hailey arrived, followed closely by Penny Winters.

‘Darling. What happened? How is she? Oh, poor Beth,’ Penny gabbled.

John embraced his wife. ‘She’s ventilated. They think she has a respiratory infection. We don’t know much more than that at the moment.’

Penny held her arms out to her daughters and Rilla and Hailey embraced their mother. ‘She’ll be fine, Mum,’ Rilla assured her.

‘Has anyone contacted David?’ Hailey asked.

They all looked at each other. ‘Damn! No.’ John shook his head and flipped open his mobile phone. ‘I’ll do it now.’

‘David?’ Luca murmured to Rilla as he watched John leave the room.

‘Beth’s son.’

Luca frowned. ‘The one she put up for adoption when she was fifteen? Just before your parents fostered her?’

Rilla nodded, not surprised that he’d remembered. He had been very close to her family. ‘He found her earlier this year.’

‘That’s wonderful,’ Luca enthused quietly. ‘Beth must have been ecstatic.’

Rilla swallowed a lump, thinking about all the things he’d missed out on. The things they could have shared, that he could have been part of. ‘She was.’

Another hour passed while the family waited. The television was on in the background, a welcome distraction, but no one could really concentrate on it for any length of time. They made idle chit-chat, all the time on tenterhooks.

Luca looked at his watch. It was two o’clock. He saw the strain and felt the tension in the room and felt as helpless as the rest of the Winters family. Whether he wanted it or not, he and Bridie were connected.

And not just because she was his estranged wife’s niece but because he’d been at her birth. Had put a tube in her throat today to save her life. After seven years of silence he wasn’t sure if he belonged here any more, amongst this shocked family, but he felt compelled to stay anyway.

Not just for him but for Rilla. OK, he’d come back to give himself some closure, to prove he was over her and sign the divorce papers, but Rilla was in the midst of a crisis and nothing else mattered for the moment other than Bridie getting well.

‘I’m going to go and get us all some lunch,’ he announced, standing and stretching.

He returned fifteen minutes later with a variety of prepackaged sandwiches, muffins, chocolate bars and a tray full of cappuccinos. Gabe entered the room as the food was being devoured. They all stood.

‘How is she?’ John asked.

‘Her condition is still unstable. Her blood gases are terrible and they keep escalating her ventilation. They’ve had to keep her paralysed to ventilate her adequately.’

Gabe’s voice cracked and they all crowded closer, touching his arm, rubbing his back and hugging him.

‘How’s Beth?’ Luca asked.

Gabe rubbed his eyes. ‘Terrible. She’s exhausted. Bridie hasn’t been sleeping or feeding well the last few nights because of the cold, so Beth’s pretty sleep deprived on top of being scared out of her mind.’

‘Has she eaten?’ Rilla asked.

Gabe shook his head. ‘I’ve tried to persuade her to come out and have some lunch but she’s adamant she’s fine.’

‘Right.’ Rilla nodded. ‘You sit and have something to eat and I’ll see if I can persuade her. Bossy sister might work better.’

Gabe nodded. ‘Thank you.’

Rilla was stopped at the door by Luca’s. ‘Do you want company?’

She looked back over her shoulder. The thought of seeing Bridie so ill was sickening and she was surprised at how very, very much she did want Luca with her. ‘Two at a time. That’s the rules,’ she pointed out.

‘Forget the rules,’ Luca said, striding towards her.

They spoke briefly with the ICU doctor who had helped earlier before going into Bridie’s isolation room. Beth looked dreadful, her face puffy, her hair rumpled. Rilla hugged her and Beth’s face crumpled.

‘She’s getting worse,’ she sobbed into Rilla’s shoulder.

‘Shh,’ Rilla crooned. ‘The doctor was just saying they’ve confirmed it’s RSV. You know they always get worse before they get better.’

Rilla looked at her niece lying in the warming cot, wires criss-crossing her tiny body like railway tracks. The monitor displayed multicoloured squiggles representing heart rate and blood pressure as well as respiratory rate and oxygen saturations.

Bridie had only been two and half kilos at birth and the illness had set her weight gain back. She was so pale, her legs slightly mottled. She looked lifeless and Rilla could see why Beth was so distraught.

Rilla stroked Bridie’s fingers, which were just sticking out from beneath some bandages. An IV line had been placed in her arm and it had been bundled up to keep it secure.

‘Hey sweetie,’ she crooned, ‘your Aunty Ril’s here. We all are.’

She looked over her shoulder at Luca. She was conscious of his presence behind her and his quick reassuring smile bolstered her flagging confidence that everything would be all right. He placed a hand on her shoulder and his thumb stroked the tense muscles of her neck.

‘Beth, Luca bought some lunch. Why don’t you come outside and have something to eat?’

Beth shook her head vigorously.

‘You need to keep your strength up, Beth,’ Rilla cajoled.

‘I can’t leave her.’ Beth shook her head again.

Rilla could see the determined jut of her sister’s chin. She needed to eat. She looked like she was ready to drop. Rilla despaired that she wouldn’t find the right words and she looked up at Luca. He squeezed her shoulder and mouthed, ‘Let me.’

‘Beth,’ Luca said, coming around to kneel beside her. ‘You need to look after yourself. Bridie is in the best place, being looked after by the best people. You need to rest and eat and drink regularly. They’re going to want you to start expressing milk soon to provide Bridie with much-needed calories to help her recover quickly. Your milk supply will suffer if you don’t take care of yourself. You wouldn’t want that, would you?’

Beth raised her face to look at Luca. ‘No,’ she sniffled.

‘OK, then. I promise Rilla and I will stay here right by her side until you get back. We won’t leave her, will we, Rilla?’

Rilla felt mesmerised by his low, accented voice. His sincerity was strangely seductive. ‘No. Absolutely not.’

Beth looked at Rilla then back at Luca. ‘OK. But just for a short while.’

‘Of course,’ Rilla said.

And that set up the pattern for the next two nights and days. As the medical team supported Bridie, adjusting to each phase of the illness, the family rallied to make sure that Beth and Gabe were getting enough rest and time away and looking after themselves.

Penny cooked nutritious meals and tempting snacks, feeding them all as they maintained their vigil at the hospital, grabbing brief moments of sleep where they could along with quick showers and hasty clothing changes.

Rilla didn’t leave the hospital at all, the vision of Bridie the day she’d come in by ambulance still too fresh in her mind. Luca stayed by her side and was a huge support for the entire family, volunteering to do the myriad things that needed doing outside the hospital so the family could stay together.

And, of course, when it was her turn to be with Bridie—night or day—he was by her side. It was odd, spending so much time in his company after seven years of no contact at all. By tacit agreement they didn’t talk about their own issues, even though she kept asking herself why. Why was he back? Why was he acting like he was still a part of the Winters clan? Like he still wanted to be part?

For the moment it was immensely comforting to have Luca with her. Their time for questions would come soon enough.

‘So how did Gabe and Beth meet?’ Luca asked as they sat beside Bridie in the wee small hours of the third day.

He’d been watching Rilla for the last hour as she’d struggled to keep her eyes open, the tawny flecks in her amber eyes visible even in the subdued light of the room. He remembered numerous times when she’d looked at him with slumberous eyes, turning in his arms and snuggling against him, her head beneath his chin as she’d fallen asleep.

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