The Surgeon's Love-Child. Lilian Darcy

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СКАЧАТЬ purchases, but he was wrong. When they stood waiting at the checkout, she tilted her head to one side and demanded, ‘So, Doctor, how many points did I lose? About fifty for the cheesecake and the cookies, obviously, but I believe I do have all the food groups represented in reasonable proportion.’

      ‘I wasn’t—’

      ‘You were, too! Silently analysing everything that went in the cart. Comparing me to—well, to whoever.’

      Agnetha. He almost said it, but managed to stop himself. Felt colour rising into his neck and thought in disbelief, My God, I’m blushing!

      ‘I thought so!’ said Candace under her breath.

      It was a type of audition. She teetered on the edge of resenting it. He had no right to judge and draw conclusions like that!

      Then, with more honesty and less bluster, she decided that she was doing exactly the same thing herself. Auditioning him for this imaginary, unlikely affair she couldn’t get out of her head.

      So far, he seemed like exactly the right candidate for such a thing, if she was going to consider the question in such cold-blooded terms. He would be easygoing, physical, fun to be with. He’d also possess certain shared understandings that didn’t need talking about, because they worked in the same profession.

      Yes, quite definitely an ideal candidate for an affair.

      Is this what Mom was thinking about when she told me to go away? That I’d meet someone and have a crazy fling, get my socks sizzled off and come home as revitalised as if I’d been to a health spa for three months? That I’d be over Todd and Brittany? Dear God, over it. That it wouldn’t hurt any more, and twist me up inside with bitterness and resentment and regret…?

      The idea was both terrifying and dangerously alluring.

      With her breathing shallower than usual, she asked, ‘Are you sure there isn’t anything else you need to do today? This is taking a long time.’

      ‘My schedule’s clear, so don’t worry about it. Shall we take this lot home to your place and unpack it, then grab some lunch before we do the car?’

      ‘Sandwiches? We have the makings for them now.’

      ‘Yep. Great.’

      They got to the first car dealership at two, after a lunch so quick and casual Candace might have been sharing it with Maddy. The salesman then spent half an hour addressing himself exclusively to Steve, even when it ought to have been quite clear to him that Candace was the prospective buyer.

      ‘Do you think he realises why he didn’t make a sale?’ Steve asked her when they left.

      She laughed. ‘I handled it. In fact, it was useful. He talked to you while I had an uninterrupted chance to think about whether I really wanted the car.’

      ‘I take it you didn’t?’

      She waggled her hand from side to side. ‘Probably not. Let’s keep looking.’

      At the second and third dealerships, she test-drove two vehicles and finally decided on a compact European model, with very low mileage on the odometer. She felt exhilarated and slightly queasy at having parted with so much money so quickly. Still, it didn’t make sense to delay. She was only here for a year. She needed to get organised, get her life sorted out, hit the ground running.

      Did this apply to arranging a quick, therapeutic fling as well?

      ‘Now you just have to drive it home,’ Steve said, reminding her that in all spheres of life, actions had consequences.

      ‘I don’t know the way,’ she answered.

      ‘Which is why you’ll follow me.’

      By the time they reached home, it was late afternoon. Steve suggested an evening meal at a local Chinese restaurant, and that sounded fine.

      Sounded fine.

      In reality, it was harder. When someone was seated a yard away and facing in your direction, it wasn’t as easy to avoid eye contact as it had been during driving lessons and grocery shopping. Candace drank a glass of red wine and regretted it. Jet-lag swamped her again, and the lighting in the restaurant was warm, inviting and intimate. She felt woozy, smily, relaxed and far too conscious of him.

      When their eyes did meet, it was like tugging on a cord. She was a marionette and he was controlling the strings. He was making her nod and smile and listen with her chin cushioned in her palm and her elbow resting on the table.

      ‘Hey, are you falling asleep?’

      ‘No…’

      ‘You will be soon. I’d better take you home.’

      ‘You’re making my decisions for me,’ she retorted.

      ‘Only tonight,’ he said softly. ‘Promise you, the rest of the decisions will be all yours.’

      Perhaps he hadn’t meant it to sound like such an intimate threat, but Candace panicked anyway. Her sleepiness vanished and she pulled herself to her feet, grating the legs of the chair on the restaurant’s scratchy carpeting.

      ‘Damn right they will!’ she said, and saw his startled expression.

      ‘Candace, I didn’t mean—I meant it, OK?’

      ‘I—I know. I’m sure you did.’

      She turned away from him, felt his fingers slide in a quick, feather-light caress from her shoulder to her wrist, and was absolutely positive that she’d end up in his arms tonight. The idea was so breathtakingly terrifying that she didn’t wait for him to pay for their meal. She simply stumbled out of the restaurant, hurried along the sidewalk and stood by the driver’s side door of her new car until he caught up to her.

      Steve didn’t say anything about it. Not then. Not for the next few days. And he didn’t kiss her.

      He had more than one opportunity. Terry and his wife were still away, but the rest of Narralee’s small medical community gathered to welcome her at a barbecue at Linda and Rob Gardner’s on Saturday evening. She enjoyed meeting everyone, and laid some tentative foundations of friendship.

      As Terry had predicted, Linda was going to be nice. She had a no-nonsense haircut, a chunky build, a throaty laugh and a wicked sense of humour. She was down to earth in her opinions, happy with her career and open in her love for her children and her even more down-to-earth husband.

      Getting over her jet-lag, Candace stayed until ten o’clock and drove herself home, then saw Steve’s car breeze past her house as she stood on the deck, watching the moonlight over the water.

      He glanced across, saw her there, slowed down and waved. She almost wondered if he would come over. They’d had a long conversation at the barbecue. Lots of laughs in it, and some quiet moments, too. If he did come, she would offer him tea or coffee, while secretly quaking in her shoes…

      But, no, he didn’t show up.

      The next morning, they met on the beach. Candace hadn’t swum in the ocean in years, but loved it again at once. Taylor’s СКАЧАТЬ