A Love Worth Saving Read online

  All he wanted to do was close the distance between them and run his hands over that firm, rounded ass.

  But he couldn’t do anything about it anymore. She’d laid down that law.

  She started twirling across the room, and his eyes moved up her body, skimming over the indent of her waist to feast on the breasts straining against the buttons of her business shirt. All thought of work and the program flew out of his mind at the hint of red lace that peeped out between the button holes.

  An involuntary groan slipped out his lips and Ana’s eyes flew to him.

  ‘Brad,’ she gaped, eyes stretching wide, her body going still. The tube of electrode paste she’d been holding up to her mouth like a microphone dropped to the ground from suddenly limp fingers.

  ‘You’re here…’ she continued to stare at him, her round eyes slowly losing the deer in headlights look.

  ‘Yeah,’ he shrugged, slipping into the room.

  ‘I…I didn’t think anyone was here,’ she dropped to the ground, picking up the tube of paste, her shirt gaping open, giving him an unobstructed view of her impressive cleavage, and he almost groaned again.

  ‘You know me, married to the job and all,’ he managed to get out pulling his gaze away as Ana stood and placed the paste on the shelf where it belonged. ‘How did today go?’ he asked, starting to help her put the last of the equipment away, anything to get his mind off the delectable body of hers.

  ‘It was good. Similar to a set-up at St Mary’s, I guess.’

  ‘That’s great. Did you have everything you needed? Is it all-’

  ‘Yeah, everything is here. I was able to set it up the way I wanted before the first patient arrived.’

  ‘That’s good. So, ah…are the hours suitable for you?’ he kept his head down as he asked the questions, occasionally shooting quick glances her way before focusing back on the mundane task he’d set himself.

  He felt as nervous as a school boy asking a girl out on a first date. But he hadn’t spoken to her since that night she’d left the note. Taking the cowardly route, he’d informed his admin manger Ana had taken the job and asked her to organise everything. He was busy, it was true, but still…

  ‘Hopefully. I’m still working Sunday, Monday, Tuesday nights at St Mary’s. And then I’ll be in here Wednesday afternoons, most of Thursday and Friday mornings.’

  ‘Wow, are you okay with that? It seems like a lot.’

  ‘I’ll see how it goes, but it’s only a few hours more than I was doing so it should be fine,’ Ana said as she locked the cupboard door. ‘Do you still have more work to do?’ she asked, reaching behind the corner desk to grab her handbag.

  ‘No. I’m just, ah, packing up myself.’ Brad wished things weren’t so damn awkward between them. It felt as though the contents of that letter, as brief as it was, had cultivated an iceberg between them. Maybe he should bring it up? But how? And what would he say?

  Ana turned towards him, her eyes a swirling mix of emotions, and it looked like she wanted to say something.

  ‘What?’ he asked, hoping she’d break the barrier between them. She continued staring at him, a moment, two moments longer, but then she shrugged and turned away.

  ‘Nothing. I’ll see you tomorrow.’ With a quick wave she was out the door.

  Cursing himself, Brad returned to his office to collect his own things, switching lights off as he went. Ana was in the car park when he exited the building, her bag resting on the roof of her bright yellow VW Bug, her phone plastered to her ear. With great effort, he turned his back and headed in the opposite direction, to where he’d parked his low-slung Aston Martin.

  ‘Dammit it!’

  What should have been a soft curse vibrated loudly across the car park. Brad spun around to see Ana yanking open her car door and throwing her bag inside.

  ‘Are you okay?’ he called out across the near-empty lot.

  ‘Oh,’ clearly startled, Ana swivelled around to face him. ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’

  ‘That didn’t sound like fine,’ Brad called back.

  ‘It’s just,’ she looked like she was going to tell him, but then she waved a hand in his direction. ‘It’s nothing. You’ve had a long day. I’ll see you tomorrow.’

  As though he could leave it at that. Throwing his briefcase into his car, he lightly jogged back to Ana just as she slammed her door shut.

  ‘Not so fast,’ he reached through the open window to stop her turning the engine over. His hand lingered on hers a moment, savouring the familiar feel of her skin against his before pulling back. ‘Tell me,’ he ordered instead, squatting down so that he was head-to-head with her through the window.

  ‘It’s seriously nothing,’ she insisted, but he could tell she was lying.

  ‘And I’m seriously not going anywhere till you tell me.’

  ‘Why do you even want to know? You don’t care about me, you—’

  ‘You know that’s not the case, Ana. That was your call to end us, not mine.’

  ‘There is no “us” Brad. We have one-night stands. Occasionally. Whenever the mood takes you.’

  ‘They’re not…I’m not…’ but he couldn’t get the words out.

  ‘Exactly,’ she said, starting the engine. ‘But just for the record, I didn’t end anything.’

  ‘But you’re note,’ his hand moved towards the pocket that housed the piece of paper.

  ‘I wasn’t referring to that part of what we do.’

  ‘Then what were you referring to?’

  ‘I…I…’ but she couldn’t seem to put what she wanted into words. ‘Don’t worry about it,’ she said instead, and kicked the car engine over. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’

  ***

  Ana took a deep, steadying breath as she sat in her car the following morning, preparing to go inside the small medical practice. Yesterday had been easier than she’d expected. Fun, even. And today, after she’d downloaded the data acquired from her three patients overnight, she was going to head into St Mary’s Hospital and begin her analysis training. Now that would be fun. Hopefully.

  But she was going to have to clear things up with Brad first.

  After taking another deep breath, Ana grabbed her bag and jumped out of the car before she lost her nerve. Pushing open the glass front door, Ana waved a greeting at the friendly girls out the front—she couldn’t quite remember their names just yet, so best to avoid talking—before slipping down the corridor, past the treatment room which was her little home in this place and headed straight for Brad’s office.

  She may not have entered it yesterday, but its location was burnt into her brain. Yesterday, it had been the place to avoid. She hadn’t trusted her emotional state around him, especially when she’d had patients to look after. She’d thought she was being over-cautious. She’d admonished herself for it, in fact. But it had turned out to be necessary, if her little outburst last night was anything to go by.

  Admittedly, she’d been hurt when he hadn’t called to discuss their options. Not even a little text to verify what her note had meant.

  But she’d heard nothing until Monday afternoon when she’d received an email from his admin manager, containing an offer of employment.

  Did she really mean so little to him? Did she really—No. She wasn’t going to allow herself to get upset about this. She’d walked into the job with her eyes open.

  Not angry not angry not angry, she mentally chanted until the tension began to ease out of her.

  Footsteps pounded towards her and she quickly opened her eyes. It was one of the doctors. He was tall, with darkish red hair. His name was Will, maybe? He was carrying a steaming mug of coffee, and shot her a friendly smile and nod as he brushed past.

  ‘Fitting in alright?’ he paused to ask.

  ‘Yes,’ she answered quickly. Too quickly probably, not that it mattered as he’d already scooted past her and settled into the consulting room to her left.

  Okay, she could do this. She could. Taking one last large breath for
courage, she made short work of the last few steps, knocked on Brad’s open door, and stepped inside.

  ‘Hiya,’ she greeted with a wave as he turned around. ‘So I’m sorry for snapping yesterday. I didn’t mean to and it won’t happen again.’

  He blinked at her words, one long slow slash of thick lashes, closing over tired, bleary, murky green eyes. ‘That’s…that’s not…’ He rubbed at his eyes, as though just waking from a dream, and when he looked at her again, he had the saddest expression on his face. It almost broke her heart all over again. ‘You don’t have to apologise, Ana.’

  ‘Oh, but I do,’ she insisted, sashaying across the room to perch up on his desk. Maybe it was wrong, but seeing him like this made her feel better about the whole situation. ‘I want this, here,’ she swirled her hand around the room, using it to indicate the whole work environment, ‘to work. It’s a good thing you’ve started, but it’s only going to work if we can get on. So, friends?’ She tilted her head to the side, holding her breath until the sadness in his eyes receded a little, and a small smile replaced his grimace.

  ‘Okay. Friends,’ he agreed, nodding.

  ‘And do you accept my apology?’

  ‘Of course,’ he nodded again, the smile stretching a little wider.

  ‘Good,’ she smiled back and then found herself caught in his gaze.

  God damn this man had her heart. The one man who didn’t want it.

  Neither made any attempt to move. They just sat there, staring at each other. Ana could have sat there all day. And maybe she would have, if her phone hadn’t started ringing.

  ‘Sorry, sorry,’ Ana mumbled, scrabbling inside her bag to locate the loudly-ringing phone. Finally her fingers wrapped around the wide, rectangular object and she yanked it free. With a quick glance at the caller I.D. she slid her finger across the green answer button and pressed the phone to her ear.

  ‘Hiya.’

  ‘Hey, lovely girl,’ the smooth tones of her step-brother Pierce echoed down the line. ‘Sorry, I missed your call last night. What can I do for you?’

  ‘How do you know I want something? I could just have been calling to chat.’

  ‘Darling, I know you. One missed call is a chat. Four missed calls is a cry for help. Out with it.’

  Great. She didn’t realise she was that predictable, but he was right on the money. ‘It’s not a big deal or anything, but I got approved for that place I was telling you about. I can move in this weekend. Do you think you might be able to come up and give me a hand?’

  Pierce lived in a gorgeous apartment on the Gold Coast, and they often hung out on the weekends.

  ‘Oh, lovey, I wish I could. But I’ve got to work this weekend. Surely Travis can give you a hand?’

  ‘No, he and Kelli are going down to Sydney to see Sean.’

  ‘And the olds aren’t due back till mid-week from their latest trip.’

  ‘Exactly,’ Ana sighed, disappointed. It would have been much easier moving with Pierce’s help. Not to mention joking around with him would have helped settle her nerves over the big move. ‘Never mind, I’ll figure something out.’

  ‘There’s no hurry for you to leave Travis’. We could always do it next weekend.’

  ‘Maybe,’ but if she put it off that long, she might back out. She had her courage geared up for moving out this weekend. Moving into an apartment on her own shouldn’t be a big deal. She was almost thirty, after all. But it was. ‘I might just hire a removalist.’

  ‘Okay, well, let me know which way you go.’

  ‘Will do,’ she finished the call, throwing the phone back in her bag and flicking her eyes back to Brad. His gaze was thoughtful, and a little worried. Damn. She’d forgotten how perceptive he could be.

  ‘Sorry about that,’ she muttered, sliding off his desk.

  He ignored the apology, his eyes drilling in to her. ‘Are you moving?’

  ‘Ah, yeah,’ Ana shrugged, trying not to make a big deal of it.

  ‘Where to?’ She fought the urge to tell him it was none of his business. That was no way to answer a “friend”.

  ‘Just a little apartment in the Valley,’ she answered instead, dropping her gaze to the floor and reaching for her bag.

  ‘Who are you moving in with?’

  ‘No one,’ she answered quickly, and made to leave but Brad grabbed hold of her wrist. ‘What?’ she dragged her gaze from where his thick, masculine fingers wrapped around her fragile wrist, to the piercing depths of his eyes.

  ‘Is that really a good idea?’

  Of course Brad would understand. He was the only one who knew just how hard it was for her to be on her own. But she couldn’t give in to the fear. Not if she had any chance of making the move work.

  ‘I’d better let you get ready for your patients.’

  ‘No rush,’ he waved away her concern, but Ana was already out the door. He didn’t follow. No surprise, there.

  Switching on the overhead light in the treatment room, she spotted two small black suitcases sitting on the mottled, sky blue bench. Awesome—two patients had already returned their gear.

  Dropping her bag in a discrete corner, she got started right away—pulling out the dirty equipment and loading the studies on to the system. She was fingertip deep in a bowl of vira-clean, using a toothbrush to scrub the gold electrode cups that had been attached to the patients’ head, when the phone on the nurses’ desk began to ring.

  Bugger, bugger, bugger.

  Dropping the electrode back into the liquid, she removed one glove before hastily diving on the phone. It was Stephanie…Who was Stephanie, again?

  ‘A Ralph Templeton has just arrived for you and he’s still got all these wires attached to him.’

  Ah, one of the receptionists. The one with the squeaky voice, though her voice was rather squeakier right now than Ana remembered.

  ‘Thanks. I’ll be out in a minute,’ Ana was already removing the other glove from her hand. After hanging up, she quickly washed her hands and ducked out to the waiting room to call the patient in.

  Oh dear, no wonder Stephanie had been rather squeaky talking about the wires. Mr Templeton’s grey hair was matted to his head, with clumps of white electrode paste causing random strands of hair to stand on their ends. Add to that the almost pealing stick-on tabs around his eyes, and the wrinkled, clearly slept-in clothes and the poor man truly did look a bit like Frankenstein.

  ‘Thank goodness you’re here, love. I tried to take them off but I think I broke the first one so I didn’t want to touch it after that.’ Ralph held out his hand and dropped a severed metallic cup into her hand.

  ‘That’s okay. I’ll get them off you in a jiffy,’ she assured him, escorting him into the treatment room. ‘Now, other than the broken lead, how did it go last night?’

  ‘I don’t know if you’ll get much out of it. I found it hard to sleep, to be honest. All these dang wires attached to me, I don’t know how anyone does it.’

  ‘You’d be surprised how much sleep you’ve actually had. In all my years in the industry, at least every second patient has said the same thing to me, but only a handful haven’t actually slept.’

  ‘Is that so?’

  ‘That’s why I’ll be having a look at the hard data, so we can make an accurate assessment,’ she assured him.

  ‘Knock-knock.’

  Startled by the noise, Ana spun around, electrode lead trailing behind her, to see Brad hovering in the doorway. Her heart started pumping faster at the mere sight of him, her mind skittering in a million different directions. Dammit. She really was going to have to learn to control these thoughts.

  ‘Hey.’ At least she managed to recover a little faster than she had last night. Maybe it wouldn’t take too long to get used to being around him so much. She could only hope. ‘I’m just with a patient, but if you give me a—’

  ‘Actually, I’m here to see the patient,’ Brad told her, slipping into the room and closing the door behind him. ‘How did you go last nig
ht, Ralph?’

  ‘Well, as I was telling the lass here, I don’t think I slept much with all wires on.’

  ‘Did you have any chest pains during the night?’

  ‘Not that I recall. That’s improved a lot since they changed my meds in hospital.’

  As patient and doctor chatted, Ana quietly went about removing the rest of the wires, breathing a sigh of relief as she pulled the last lead free. ‘All done.’ She stepped away to place the dirty equipment on the bench.

  ‘Wow, that was fast.’

  ‘Ana’s got lots of experience,’ Brad threw in.

  ‘And that’s everything?’ Ralph stood and looked around the room, like he couldn’t believe it was all over.

  ‘For now. After I’ve assessed the data we’ll have one of the sleep physicians at St Mary’s Hospital make an assessment on it. Have you got an appointment booked with Dr Lewis to review the results?’

  ‘Yes. Next Thursday.’

  Wow, that was fast. It was generally a two week turnaround at St Mary’s, but it was quite clear Brad was concerned for this patient.

  ‘That’s great. I’ll make sure it’s all ready for then.’

  As soon as he left, Ana set about uploading his data to the system and cleaning the equipment so it would be ready for the patients she was seeing later that afternoon.

  ‘How soon will his results be ready?’ Brad asked, still hovering in the centre of the room, staring at the computer as though the answer would burst out of there any second now.

  ‘I’ll be looking at his data today, but even if I finish scoring it, a sleep physician will need to review it.’

  ‘I’ll give Travis a call, see if he can push it through. I need to get Ralph on CPAP ASAP. Will you have a machine ready for him next Thursday?’

  ‘I’ve got a couple on stand-by,’ Ana assured him. She expected him to leave after that, but he continued to stand there, not moving. Ana paused her cleaning efforts, ‘don’t you have patients?’

  ‘Yes,’ he replied, but instead of leaving he moved towards her, his concern shifting into a suspiciously pleased-with-himself smile.