Outback Doctor, English Bride. Leah Martyn

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      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.

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