Dating The Millionaire Doctor

CHAPTER NINE

THE last case had been complex and he’d welcomed it. Finally, here was medicine that held his full attention.

Jeff Holden was someone he’d worked with before. Jeff had needed surgery as a child and had recurring adhesions. Jake had recognised him as he’d come in.

Jeff had been allocated to one of his more junior anaesthetists, but almost to his surprise he’d found himself changing the list. Taking time to talk to him before he put him under.

‘Do you watch baseball?’

‘No.’

‘Do you watch football, then?’ he’d asked.

To his surprise Jeff did, and so did the nurse assisting, and instead of a tense few moments before theatre there’d been a heated discussion about Jeff’s team-and while he worked he figured he ought to learn more about a sport he only took a fleeting interest in.

Now the operation was over-successfully, he thought, though with adhesions you could never be sure-and he thought maybe he could hang around until Jeff was properly awake. This surgeon was known as being curt. Jake had watched the operation. He knew the outcome and maybe he could answer questions.

Thanks to Tori he was changing, he decided, as he reversed the anaesthetic and headed out into the recovery area. And as if the thought had conjured her…Tori was there.

For a moment he thought he was dreaming. He wasn’t. She was in full surgical garb-she must, to be allowed into this area. She had green gown, green cap, green bootees.

Green eyes.

Tori.

She was chatting to a patient at the end of the recovery queue-a woman wide-awake and ready for an orderly to take her back to the ward.

Both of them were smiling.

She looked up and saw him and she stopped smiling. She said something to the woman in the bed, and she turned to face him.

‘Hi,’ she said. ‘I believe you owe me three and a half minutes, Dr. Hunter. I’m here to collect.’

Shock held him immobile for all of three seconds. Now, though… He was across the room before he knew it, and he meant to take her hands, or he thought he meant to take her hands, but instead she was folded against him in a hold that felt good, felt right, felt wonderful. Her surgical cap was under his chin. He wanted to feel her curls, but they were in a hospital ward and she was gowned, almost a professional, and it seemed every one of his colleagues had suddenly found an excuse to be here.

How long had she been here? Had his colleagues known? Why hadn’t someone told him?

‘She wouldn’t let us.’ Brad, the oldest of the orderlies, answered his question before he asked. ‘She came to reception a couple of hours ago looking for you. Marie gowned her and brought her in here.’

‘I was just as happy in the waiting room,’ Tori said, tugging away so she was at arm’s length, and grinning happily up at him with that smile that had knocked him sideways a month ago and was still knocking him sideways now. ‘But Marie asked me where I was from and we got talking and next thing I was in here. It’s been lovely, watching everyone wake up, procedure over.’

‘She’s been talking to the Holloways,’ Brad said, his gaze on Tori openly speculative. ‘She’s calmed them right down.’

The Holloways?

Jodi Holloway was seventeen with a diagnosis of kidney cancer. The parents had been close to hysterics since the diagnosis, but the surgery, performed by Central’s most skilled urologist, had gone well.

‘You know our Jim,’ Brad said ruefully, still seeming to sense what he was thinking. ‘If the great man says one more word than he must, it’ll kill him. He told the Holloways there’d been a complete excision and the recurrence rate was on the outer edge of the normal curve, and then he went off to find his dinner. Only of course we had Jodie looking like death after anaesthesia and Mr. Holloway staring after Jim like he’d never heard a word and Mrs Holloway threatening to have hysterics. And here’s your Tori, moving in like she’s our own personal counsellor only better, saying, No, it’s fantastic news, and drawing them a normal curve and explaining probability and saying, Wow, if Jodi’s outside normal limits for recurrence, then there’s only this tiny chance it’ll come back, it’s the best news. And by the time Jodie woke up she had both parents smiling. So if you don’t keep her we will,’ Brad said, grinning, and Jake realised everyone was grinning-practically the whole ward.

What was she doing here?

‘Two and a half minutes now,’ she said softly, for only them to hear. ‘We need to talk.’

‘I’m almost finished.’

‘So you should be,’ Brad said darkly. ‘You started at six this morning and it’s almost midnight. Take him home,’ he told Tori. ‘And he’s not supposed to be on call tomorrow so you can keep him ’ til Monday.’

‘I won’t keep him,’ Tori said, sounding suddenly strained. ‘I have a hotel,’ she said to Jake. ‘I don’t want to intrude.’

‘You’re not intruding,’ Jake said, feeling more and more as though his world had just lit up again. He didn’t know why she was here but he was pleased to see her on all sorts of levels. ‘Give me a minute to finish up here and we’ll go find somewhere to eat.’

‘At this hour?’ she said doubtfully. ‘Will anywhere be open?’

‘Hey, this isn’t Combadeen,’ he said, grinning. ‘I don’t know why you’ve come, but welcome to Manhattan.’

She felt as if she was here under false pretences. He was acting as though he was really pleased to see her. She should just blurt it out now, she thought, but she had to wait until he’d spoken to the family of the guy he’d just been working on, and he’d checked his patient was fully awake and could take in what he was saying. So she watched and waited, calm on the outside. She was anything but calm on the inside.

But finally he was finished. He filled in his paperwork, they both got rid of their gowns and, at last, he was ushering her out through the hospital entrance.

He’d taken her arm as if he was genuinely pleased to see her-as though she was a favourite friend dropping in unexpectedly.

‘You look great,’ he said, and she smiled, but absently. She’d put all sorts of effort into her appearance but now she was too nervous to think about it. How to tell him?

‘Why are you here?’ he asked, and at least that was easy.

‘After the wildfires we have lots of animals that can’t go back to the wild. Zoos are offering them homes. I was asked if I’d come with a consignment of two koalas and four wombats.’

‘To Manhattan?’

‘Close enough.’

‘Close enough to drop in for a visit,’ he said and tugged her closer. ‘So where are the dogs?’

‘At the lodge. Rob’s nursing a broken heart. He’s a great puppy sitter. But, Jake…I needed to talk to you. I was trying to phone you. But then they asked me to come with the animals. There’s something…’

They were in the crowded entrance to Emergency. People were bustling past them, intent, urgent. An ambulance was pulling up; people were spilling out. Life was happening all around them but Tori’s life was centred right here, on this moment, and it could wait no longer.

‘I’m pregnant,’ she said, loud enough for a guy pushing a wheelchair towards the entrance to grin and say, ‘Lovely news, dear. Come back in a few months and see how smooth I can push a gurney.’

Tori flushed from the toes up.

Jake stopped. They both stopped.

She knew what he’d say. She braced, waiting. No, she thought, wildly, she didn’t know what he’d say; for there were two alternatives.

He could say, ‘You told me you were safe.’

Or he could say, ‘Whose is it?’ Or, ‘How do I know it’s mine?’

She’d been trying to figure out answers to both, trying to force herself not to react. It was she who’d made the mistake. He was allowed to be angry.

But now… The silence was stretching out and she thought, Which, which…

‘Hey, it’s okay,’ he said finally, strongly, catching her hands in his. ‘Tori, don’t look like that. We can cope with this. But you will have to move here.’

She blinked. This was so much what she hadn’t expected. Simple acceptance.

You will have to move here… She could ignore that, she thought. That was an aside. What mattered most was that he knew. She’d told him.

‘I thought I was safe,’ she started.

‘So did I. I guess we were both wrong.’

‘No, but I told you… I thought…’

‘And I accepted your assurance because I wanted you,’he said, and his hands were firm and sure, imparting strength and reassurance. ‘Tori, I know you well enough to accept you’d never lie about something so important. But hey, we’re both medical. We both know the only true contraceptive is a brick wall. So where do we go from here?’

‘I don’t know,’ she managed, shocked almost beyond speech. She pulled away a little and stared up at him, searching for anger. She saw shock, she thought, but no anger at all. Not even revulsion. Just a man taking in important news and trying to deal with it as best he could. A man concerned for her. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered, awed.

‘For making you pregnant?’ His mouth quirked at the corners and she thought, He’s laughing. The concept of laughter right now was so ludicrous it was…ludicrous.

Maybe she wouldn’t mind a bit more emotion, she thought. Was she reaching for the stars to want joy?

‘I meant, thank you for not yelling,’ she said, thinking it wasn’t enough.

‘Why would I yell?’

‘Because I made a mistake. And…and for not asking me who the father is.’

There was a pause at that. ‘I have too great a respect for self-preservation for that,’he said finally, grave again. ‘I don’t want to be kicked into the middle of next week.’

‘I don’t think I could kick you that far.’

‘You’d be entitled to. Come to dinner. It’s close.’

They didn’t talk again until he ushered her into a late-night diner, where a guy called Louis greeted him by name and ushered them into an alcove he obviously used a lot.

‘Burger and fries for me,’ Jake said. ‘Louis does the best. Would you like some, too?’

‘No!’

‘Dry toast?’ Jake tried, sympathetically, and Tori screwed up her nose again and so did Louis, his eyes alight with interest.

‘How about hot cakes with blueberries,’ Louis said encouragingly. ‘A nice short stack, guaranteed not to overwhelm a lady. And maybe a glass of wine?’

‘Maybe hotcakes and tea,’ Tori said gratefully, and Louis beamed and disappeared and Tori was left with Jake and his nice, sensible reaction.

She’d sweated over this moment for three weeks now. Tried to figure what to say. Now it had been said. She’d done what she’d come to do.

She didn’t even need to stop and have hotcakes, she thought suddenly. She could go home. Only she wasn’t going home. Not now. Not yet. She was sitting in a late-night diner with Jake, about to have hotcakes while he assimilated fatherhood into his life plan.

Sensibly.

Anger was rising again. Unreasonable? Maybe.

She wanted joy.

‘How…’ he ventured at last.

‘I had a contraceptive implant.’ She’d rehearsed this question. ‘They last for three years. Only then my life fell apart and I forgot it was due for replacement. The night…the night we…’

‘Made love,’ he said gently, and she stared at her hands and nodded.

‘Made love,’ she repeated softly. ‘It was love, wasn’t it. Of a sort. All I could think that night was that I needed-I wanted-you, and I thought, Yes, I’m protected. Even after-wards I didn’t worry. Only then, when I tried to figure it out, all my records were burned in the fire. As were Dr. Susie’s, so the letters that were supposed to go out reminding people of routine stuff were never sent. So there you are. Comedy of errors. Resulting in one baby.’

‘Our baby.’

‘If you want a say…’

‘You’re not considering termination?’

‘No!’

‘Why?’

‘Micki’s baby died. There’s been enough death. I want this baby.’

Louis arrived then, with their meals. The normally jovial host had sussed them out by now. He left, with only a sideways, speculative glance at Jake.

‘So you came to Manhattan just to tell me,’ Jake said.

‘I don’t want anything from you, if that’s what you mean.’ She concentrated on her hotcakes and left him to his thoughts.

There were a million sensations running through him right now-shock, disbelief that this could be happening, overwhelming responsibility…yeah, and a healthy dose of fear, too. But the one that suddenly hit the top was anger.

‘You’ll take my help,’ he snapped, before he could control the anger behind his words. ‘It’s my call, too, Tori. You have my baby, then I’m in the equation, like it or not. You’ll stay here.’

Her face stilled. She met his gaze steadily, but he thought he saw a flash of fear behind her eyes. What had she expected?

What was she expecting?

‘No,’ she said. ‘You know where my home is, and it’s not here.’

‘Your home’s burned. Your home could be anywhere.’

‘In your dreams.’

‘Eat your dinner, Tori,’ he said, forcing his tone to gentle, and almost to his surprise she did. She nodded and addressed herself again to her hotcakes.

They seemed to agree with her. His appetite had deserted him but he ate his burger on automatic pilot while Tori made her way through Louis’s truly excellent hotcakes. She didn’t speak. She drank her tea, cradling her cup as though she needed the comfort of its warmth.

She’d done some serious shopping, he thought, watching her. She looked great, in tight-fitting jeans, high boots, a tiny white coat. Then he realised she wouldn’t be able to wear those jeans for much longer.

She was carrying his child. She was alone and she was pregnant.

She had to stay-but he couldn’t force her.

‘I didn’t mean to scare you,’ he said, and she flashed him a look of mistrust.

‘This is new territory for both of us,’ she murmured. ‘Scary territory.’

‘People do it all the time.’

‘Not me. Not us.’ Then she shrugged. ‘Look, this has been a big shock to throw at you. It’s after midnight. You must be exhausted. I know I am. I’m staying tomorrow so if you want to talk about it again…’

‘You’re staying tomorrow?’

‘I have a flight booked the day after. I thought I’d take two days after the delivery, one to tell you and one to let you come to terms with it and yell.’

She was only half joking. She’d expected anger?

There was anger, he thought, but the anger wasn’t at her. It was at himself. He’d met her when she was at her most vulnerable. Why had he ever touched her?

‘We can’t undo it,’ she said, evenly and steadily, seemingly forcing herself to be calm. ‘I’m sorry to give you this responsibility you don’t want. I’m not sorry for me, though, so don’t you be sorry for me either. I’m a big girl and I can cope with this. In fact, I intend to love this baby. I suspect all Combadeen will love it.’ She rose. ‘Can I catch a cab back at the hospital?

‘Where are you staying?’

She told him and he frowned. ‘It’s Saturday night. That whole district parties. There’s no way you’ll sleep.’

‘It looked fine.’

‘When did you arrive?’

‘Four. I came to the hospital almost straightaway.’

‘And I made you wait…’ He was trying to get jumbled thoughts into order but it was like herding ants. All he could see was Tori’s pale face, and all he could register was that this woman was carrying his child.

‘Tell you what,’ he said, noting her too-big eyes, the effort bravado was costing her, knowing half of her wanted to run. ‘My apartment’s got a great settee in the living room. There’s more than enough sleeping space for two. I bought the place knowing I needed to sleep any time, so quiet’s where it’s at.’

‘I don’t want to stay with you.’

‘You can trust me, Tori,’ he said, gently but inexorably. ‘Don’t you?’

She stared at him for a long moment, a moment that stretched on into something far beyond trust for a night shared. It stretched into something that was important for their future. Shared parenting? And something more, he thought, but that was suddenly somewhere he didn’t want to go. Not yet. Not ever?

‘Let’s get a cab,’ he said, focusing on practicalities, because practicalities were all he could bear to think about. ‘I’ll take you to your hotel. If I’m exaggerating-if you think you can sleep there-then I’ll leave you and we’ll meet in the morning. But if what I say is true, will you trust me enough to bring your gear back to my apartment? Separate rooms, Tori. Nothing you don’t want, I promise.’

‘And you’ll let me leave?’

‘I don’t have a choice.’

‘No,’ she said heavily. ‘You don’t.’

He was right, her hotel was appalling. They went back to his apartment. Jake slept on the settee. Tori slept in his room.

‘I’ll spend the night pacing,’ he told her when she objected. ‘So I might as well pace on the balcony. Once upon a time a man could go through a couple of packets of smokes in this situation. Now it’s traffic fumes or nothing.’

She was so tired she hardly smiled. So he made up the settee for himself, and Tori lay in Jake’s bed and thought she was so tired she should sleep, but sleep was a long time coming.

The bed was really comfortable and really big. Big enough to entertain?

There’d have been women. Of course there must have been women.

But none of them had stayed very long, she thought. This place was almost clinically austere.

Her little relocatable home had been austere and beige. This place was austere and grey.

Maybe it was chic, but she hated it just the same as she’d hated the drabness of her relocatable. It was cool and grey and impersonal.

She missed her dogs.

The dogs were fine. They’d hardly miss her. But there was no one-nothing-to hug.

There was silence from the sitting room. Maybe Jake wasn’t serious about pacing. Maybe he’d said that to make her think he was taking her news seriously-that he thought it was a big deal.

He’d accepted it so smoothly. Maybe it had even happened before.

That was unthinkable.

But why should she lie here and want this baby to be as new and as wonderful an experience for Jake as it was for her?

It couldn’t be, she thought. She and her baby would be in Australia. Jake would be here.

She’d organise videos.

Not of the birth, though, she thought hastily. There was no way she was going there. She’d do that on her own.

By herself. There was a bleak thought.

Jet lag was insidious, she decided. Exhaustion was making her depressed, or maybe it was this appalling apartment. Jake had prints on the wall-charcoal sketches of something avant garde. Horrible. In the moonlight she couldn’t see detail; she could only see the vague outline of garish figures.

Thinking on, it wasn’t even moonlight. It was the glare of a million buildings, lit at night with a million neon signs.

How could she be homesick when she’d been away for less than a week?

No matter; she was. She wanted the dogs. She wanted to hear the birds in the trees outside her window.

She wanted for Jake to be not right through that door and for that door not to be closed.

‘Go to sleep,’ she told herself firmly, desperately. ‘Now.’

Pigs might fly.

Jake had learned from years of being on call to hit the pillow and summon sleep. Self-preservation had taught him the knack. It had never failed him-until now.

He’d never had Tori sleeping right through the wall until now.

He’d never been told he’d be a father until now.

He wanted…

He didn’t know what he wanted.

He wanted Tori.

If you made a woman pregnant you married her. It was an old dictum-did it still apply?

She’d already refused him.

He didn’t know the first thing about relationships. Where to start?

By taking tomorrow off. Yeah, okay, he thought wryly, good one. It was his rostered day off anyway. Very magnanimous. He could do a quick check-in at the hospital before she woke and then he’d show her New York.

But Monday he had a list longer than his arm, and it was too late to delegate. She’d be on her own then.

He could probably cut it a bit. Get home at a reasonable hour.

To find the little wife waiting for him, with supper served and his slippers warmed?

Tori was right. It was a ludicrous concept. Only it had to be thought of. She had to stay.

Why?

He had a sudden vision of himself, aged about seven. Summer holidays. His mother off with one of her lovers. He in his grandparents’ mausoleum of a house on Long Island.

Lonely as hell.

Tori was having his baby, and his kid wasn’t going to be lonely. If he was going to be a father, he wanted his kid here, whether Tori agreed or not.

His kid?

He’d never thought of being a father. He’d had such a solitary upbringing; he’d simply expected more of the same.

He’d reacted calmly enough to Tori’s news. Or more. He’d been so stunned that all he could feel was concern for Tori. To think past that to fatherhood itself…

He’d have a daughter? A son?

The idea was so overwhelming he couldn’t take it in.

He let it swirl for a while, trying to figure things out, but no matter how he looked at it, one thing stood out. This child would not have his upbringing. His mother telling lies about his father. His parents continents apart.

She had to stay.

He’d marry the mother of his child.

She slept until ten, and when she woke Jake was standing over her, lean and long and gorgeous, wearing a sleek business suit, a crisp white shirt and a crimson tie. What the…

She glanced from him to the clock-and yelped.

He grinned and set toast on the bedside table, then sat on the side of the bed. It was such a familiar thing to do that she practically yelped again.

‘Feel up to breakfast?’ he said and smiled, and she thought, This man is the father of my child. That was such a seriously sexy, seriously wonderful thing to think that her toes practically curled.

But what was with the suit?

‘You’re dressed up, why?’ she managed.

‘I’ve been into the hospital so I could clear the rest of the day.’

‘I thought you had today off.’

‘I don’t do off days, but I’m free now. Moving on… You don’t look like you have morning sickness,’ he said, and she hauled her thoughts back to earth. Or almost back to earth.

‘I’m only sick if I move fast.’

‘Then don’t move fast.’

‘I won’t.’

He leaned forwards and took the pillows from the spare side of the bed, then wedged them behind her. And there it was again, that blast of caring. And of maleness. And of…want?

Down, girl, she told herself fiercely. You have twenty-four hours left of this man. There’s no use lusting after something-someone-you can’t have.

But she was definitely lusting.

He was handing over tea and she had to take it, even though there was suddenly a really big part of her that wanted to fling the tea onto his cool-grey carpet, grab him and haul him back onto his own pillows. He was the father of her baby…

‘So have you ever been to New York?’ he asked, and she blinked and had a couple of sips of tea and mustered her hormones into some sort of corral. But the boundaries she put around them looked frail. Very frail indeed.

‘No,’ she managed, and her voice came out a squeak and she had to try again.

‘So where have you been?’ He handed over toast. Her fingers brushed his and she practically yelped all over again. She had to get herself under control.

‘Um, Sydney?’ she ventured.

‘Is that the furthest?’ he demanded, astounded.

‘Yeah,’ she said, defensive, and then because she didn’t want him to think she hadn’t travelled because she was a wimp, she told him the rest. ‘Mum died when Micki and I were small. Dad had the veterinary practice up and we helped him, after school, every holiday. I thought I might travel for a bit after vet school but by the time I finished, Dad had Parkinson’s. Micki’s marriage was in trouble and she was in Perth. She couldn’t help. If I hadn’t stayed Dad would have had to sell up and it’d have broken his heart.’ She paused and then added quietly, ‘Though if he sold up maybe he’d still be alive.’

‘Hey, Tori, don’t.’ He smiled, coaxing her to let it go. ‘You can’t beat yourself up over decisions like that. And you’re here now,’ he said. ‘Your first overseas experience. You need to stay for more than a day.’

‘No.’ The thought terrified her.

‘Not necessarily with me.’

‘I’d mess with your life,’ she said and glanced at the spare side of the bed.

‘There’s no one.’

‘I didn’t mean that.’

‘Okay, you didn’t mean that, but I’m telling you anyway. If you want to sleep in my bed for the next month-’

‘No!’

‘No?’

‘No,’ she said, and she sounded desperate but there wasn’t anything she could do about it. ‘I need to get up now.’

‘If you need to sleep, then sleep.’

‘If I’ve only got one day in New York, I’m not sleeping.’

‘You should take more.’

‘I’m house-training Itsy,’ she said. ‘I can’t take more.’

‘Tori…’

‘I haven’t come to interfere with your life. I’ve just come to tell you and then to go.’

‘I can’t see that I can let you go.’

‘You don’t have a choice,’ she said, trying hard to sound firm and sure and confident. Was he planning on locking her up until this baby was born? Ha! She’d thrown him, she thought. She’d had a month to get used to the idea of a baby. He’d had less than a day.

‘So I’ll get up and you can point me to the Statue of Liberty,’ she said, moving right on.

‘Is that what you want to see?’

‘And the Empire State Building, and Central Park and Tiffany’s.’

‘Tiffany’s?’ he said blankly.

‘My very favourite movie in the whole world. Don’t you just love Audrey Hepburn?’

‘Like life itself,’ he said promptly, and she giggled and ate a bit of toast and thought, This could be okay. She’d do the tourist thing, maybe they’d meet for dinner tonight; they’d discuss practicalities like just how much access he wanted and how they were going to figure it out, and then she’d head back to Australia and get on with it.

‘I’ll go put on my walking shoes,’ he said.

‘You don’t have to come with me,’ she said, startled. ‘I’m guessing you’ll already have seen the Statue of Liberty.’

‘I might have,’ he agreed. ‘But she’s worth a second look. And to be honest, I’ve never once been inside Tiffany’s.’