Hijacked Honeymoon

CHAPTER EIGHT

RYAN came with her.

It took three minutes before they were in Abbey’s car, heading for the Miller property, and by then Abbey felt like all the wind had been pushed right out of her. If there was one thing Ryan Henry could do, it was mobilise help in an emergency.

He organised Jack while Abbey contacted the police. By the time Abbey was off the phone she knew there was no way Felicity would look after Jack. Abbey would never have thought of asking it of her but Ryan knew no qualms. He asked but he got nowhere. Felicity took herself off in Ryan’s car, clearly appalled that Ryan felt the need to get involved. Abbey heard her talking angrily while she was waiting for the police sergeant to answer his mobile phone.

‘For heaven’s sake, Ryan, this is none of your business. These people have nothing to do with you.’

Ryan didn’t respond to Felicity’s anger at all. ‘I’ll see you later, Felicity,’ Ryan said flatly. ‘I’ll go over the road and find the girl who looks after Jack…’

Their voices faded out of range and Abbey blocked Felicity’s anger out of her mind. She simply didn’t have time to think about it.

She rang the ambulance as well as the police, asking the officers to take the vehicle out to the Millers’.

‘I hope I’m overreacting here,’ she said to herself. ‘I hope Marg’s overreacting.’

But Marg Miller was a sensible, unemotional woman who’d buried a husband and raised a family of six on her own, and Abbey had never known her to panic before.

With a sinking heart, Abbey slipped off her dress, hauled on jeans and a sweatshirt and emerged to find Marcia had already arrived from over the road. Ryan was a mover and shaker if anyone was. The next thing Abbey knew they were turning out of the driveway, with Ryan at the wheel of her car.

‘Tell me where to go, Abbey,’ Ryan said curtly.

‘Just straight north.’ She paused. ‘You know the Miller farm?’

‘I think so. Off Palm Road.’

‘That’s the one.’ Abbey frowned. ‘It’s not much use us going there, though. Ryan, where would you go if you took off in your car from the Millers’ with a piece of rubber hose, and suicide in mind? You’d need a spot where no one would find you until morning.’

‘Mmm.’

There was silence while the little car cut through the night. Outside was still and warm and starlit. It was a lovely night. Hardly a night for ending your life.

‘Ryan… when I asked for your help with Mrs Miller and told you I thought there was something wrong with Ian… did you contact him?’ Abbey said diffidently into the darkness. She tried as hard as she could to make her voice non-judgemental but it still came out badly. And Ryan heard it

‘No.’

‘Oh.’

Silence.

‘Hell,’ Ryan said at last. ‘I didn’t see the need. It was none of my business. I rang his mother like you asked.’

‘And?’

‘And she said she was worried about Ian’s health. So I told her to have him make an appointment with you or Steve or me next time he was home. Or see his own doctor in Sydney.’

‘Just like he would if he had a sore throat,’ Abbey said softly.

‘How the hell was I to know he was suicidal?’

‘You weren’t to know that,’ Abbey agreed. ‘I should have rung myself.’

‘Abbey, Ian’s health is none of our business.’

‘No. Like Felicity said…’

‘Abbey…’

‘Just shut up, Ryan,’ Abbey said, in a voice that dragged. ‘You’ve changed from the Ryan I knew and loved. I don’t think I know you any more, but I guess it doesn’t matter. It’s not us that’s important here. Just… just think about where Ian would go.’

‘Thomlinsons’.’

Ryan’s voice three minutes later, cutting across the silence, made Abbey jump. Her mind had been racing in a million directions, and she didn’t like where she ended up each time. How long had Ian been away? Marg hadn’t known. How long had he had to carry out what he intended?

‘Pardon?’

‘Thomlinsons’,’ Ryan said heavily. ‘You must know the place, Abbey. The cove where we swam out to rescue old man Thomlimson’s crayfish?’

Abbey frowned. And considered.

The Thomlinsons ran a derelict property just north of the Millers’. The ground on the Thomlinsons’ place was rough and hilly, giving way to mountains behind. From the foot of the mountains the land turned into uncultivated wilderness.

Going north from the Millers’ the road turned to gravel. Just before the Thomlinsons’ farmhouse there was a track, leading off to a tiny cove nestled deep in the hills. Very few people knew about it. Ryan and Abbey had found it on their bikes as kids, and then they’d seen old man Thomlinson collecting his crays so they’d gone back time and time again to rescue his catch.

‘Ian would know about it,’ Abbey said slowly. ‘He was brought up on the Miller place, and all the Miller kids knew every inch of the coastline around here. Almost as well as we did.’

‘Ian would know the cove is deserted. There’s room down there to turn a car but that’s all And he could sit and look out to sea until… ’ He didn’t go on.

‘Let’s try there,’ Abbey said decisively. She motioned to the mobile phone on her belt. ‘We’re not too far away that we can’t get back in a hurry if he’s found elsewhere, but… Oh, Ryan, may you please be right.’

He was.

Two minutes later Ryan nosed the little car gently off the road and onto the track leading down to the beach. They bumped over three or four sandhills and came to a halt

There was a car in front of them, facing out towards the sea, and in the moonlight they could see the car had a hosepipe leading from the exhaust up to the driver’s window.

Dear heaven…

Ryan was out of the car almost before it stopped. Even hindered by her weak knee, Abbey wasn’t far behind, but by the time she reached him Ryan had the driver’s door open and was dragging the unconscious Ian out of the car.

The stench of exhaust fumes was almost overwhelming. Abbey shoved her hand up to her mouth, coughed and gagged but kept on coming.

‘No.’ Ryan’s voice was clipped and curt, stopping her in her tracks. He kept moving, dragging Ian’s body clear of the car and onto the green verge of seagrass. Away from the fumes.

‘Get your bag, Abbey,’ he ordered swiftly. ‘Fast. Move! I think he’s still alive.’

What followed were several frantic minutes.

By the time Abbey reached him with her bag Ryan had already cleared the airway. Abbey found the mask, positioned the oral airway into Ian’s mouth and started breathing for him. Ryan started cardio-pulmonary resuscitation. They worked together as a team, each concentrating fiercely on what they had to do.

And three minutes later they had their reward. Ian’s body heaved, he retched into the mask and then, as Abbey moved to clear his airway, he retched again and his lungs heaved for air.

Had they been in time?

No longer needed for breathing, Abbey helped Ryan swing Ian onto his side to prevent him choking. It was only three or four minutes since they’d arrived. Not very long, but how long hadn’t Ian been breathing before they’d got to him?

It couldn’t have been that long if CPR worked so quickly, Abbey told herself, but maybe that was wishful thinking.

Ian’s eyelids flickered open. His eyes moved uncertainly from Abbey to Ryan in the soft moonlight and he groaned.

‘No!’

‘Ian…’

‘Damn you. No. Put me back. Put me back…’

Well, that was a start. Ryan gave Abbey a half-hearted grin, felt for Ian’s pulse and his grin broadened.

Ian was definitely going to live.

One problem was over, but this was only the first step, Abbey knew. How many would-be suicides had been rescued or revived, only to suicide successfully later? Heaven knew, but the list must be legion.

At least Ian had a chance now. Abbey could try to communicate, even if Ryan hadn’t.

Even if Ryan thought it was none of her business.

‘It’s OK, Ian.’ Abbey’s arm went around Ian’s shoulder and she hugged him in a gesture that had nothing to do with being a doctor but everything to do with the fact that she’d known Ian since childhood and his mum was her friend. ‘We’re here for you. I don’t know what the problem is that’s so awful you had to take this step but, whatever it is, we’re with you and we’ll be here tomorrow for you. Just relax now. Concentrate on getting your strength back. We’ll take you to hospital and talk through your hassles in the morning.’

‘No.’ It was a fierce, fretful whisper. ‘Don’t touch me. Don’t… Leave me alone. You can catch…’

But Ryan was bending over, and he suddenly took Ian’s hand and gripped hard.

‘Ian, have you got AIDS?’ he demanded flatly.

Ian’s eyes widened. He stared from Ryan to Abbey and then back to Ryan. And his face closed in misery.

‘Oh, God… ’

. ‘Is that why you did this?’

‘What do you think?’ Ian whispered. ‘HIV positive… Oh, God… ’

‘Hey, Ian, AIDS isn’t the end of the world,’ Ryan said strongly. ‘It’s not even a death sentence. I’ve just come from New York and the latest breakthroughs are amazing.’ His grip tightened. Ian was firmly held by the pair of them.

This was no clinical approach. This was two humans comforting another in any way they could, and Abbey could only wonder at the concern in Ryan’s voice. She hadn’t thought him capable of such concern for someone he hardly knew.

This was the old Ryan, then. Not Felicity’s Ryan.

‘Ian, let me talk to you about this in the morning,’ Ryan said. ‘But for now… rest and know that when you wake up you won’t be by yourself. Abbey and I are here to help. Your mum’s worried sick and the old prejudices about your illness are disappearing fast. I promise you, what’s in front of you isn’t worm dying over now. I promise you, mate.’

And he stayed with his hand gripping Ian’s until the ambulance arrived. Then Ian closed his eyes with exhaustion and let the medical world do its will with him.

‘How did you guess he has AIDS?’

‘Intelligence,’ Ryan said promptly-so promptly that Abbey burst out laughing. They were back in the car again, travelling south. Steve had been telephoned and was waiting for Ian at the hospital. Mrs Miller would be there too. There was no urgency for their return, and the night seemed suddenly light and free and lovely.

Tragedy averted.

‘So, tell me how your mighty intelligence worked it out?’ Abbey demanded, and Ryan grinned.

‘How about intuition?’

‘That’s worse.’

‘It’s partly what it was, though,’ Ryan told her. ‘I knew Ian at school-remember? I remember him being a loner, and thinking maybe he was gay. That’s not enough on its own, and he was still a teenager, but the look of him… the fear… the worry that you might be infected if you touched him… At a guess, he’s HIV positive, he’s working on out-of-date information and he’s terrified.’

‘I see.’

Abbey nodded, thinking it through. It made sense. Ian had done law at Sydney university and very rarely came home. All the other Miller kids were married and settled by now, but Abbey had never heard any hint of a romantic attachment for Ian.

Oh, dear. This was some end to her dinner party. At least, though, they’d been in time.

‘I think you mean trouble, Ryan Henry,’ Abbey said as they turned out of the cove. ‘Things have gone haywire since you arrived. To use CPR twice in ten days… Believe it or not, it’s been six months since I’ve tried to resuscitate anyone, and then I failed. It hardly seems fair that you’ve done it twice successfully in this short a time. You’ll be thinking I go from one drama to another.’

‘Don’t you?’ Ryan demanded wryly, and Abbey shook her head.

‘Nope. But… as you can see, when I’m needed I’m really needed,’ she added thoughtfully. ‘That’s why I’ll never leave here. If I left… Well, if Sapphire Cove had doctors at all it’d be overseas doctors who think a tropical resort sounds wonderful. I’ve seen them come and go from other places around here. They stay through our winter and think it’s magic and then comes summer and they can’t wait to leave! February here tries anyone’s temper.’

‘I remember summer in Sapphire Cove,’ Ryan said, thinking back to a time it had been so hot even shorts and thongs had seemed too much trouble to wear. ‘Though I have to say I kind of like summer here. All the rain and frogs and insects-and the odd cyclone thrown in for good measure.’ He hesitated. ‘At least it must get quieter for you. When the wet hits your population must fall.’

‘Mmm, but the ones that stay get sicker,’ Abbey told him. ‘I get so many tropical infections. The water gets warmer, with particles of coral floating everywhere. People go swimming with a tiny scratch and it turns into a major infected wound.’ She sighed. ‘Well, that’s my business. You’ll be long gone by February.’

Then she hesitated. She needed Ryan’s help before he left. ‘You will have a really long talk to Ian tomorrow, though, won’t you, Ryan? I don’t know the up-to-date treatments for AIDS. In fact, I’ve never treated an AIDS patient. I can’t reassure him as he needs to be reassured.’

‘I’ll phone a friend in New York tonight for information,’ Ryan agreed. ‘He’s working in the field and he has the disease himself. If anyone can give me the latest, Marcus can. And then I’ll talk to Ian in the morning.’

Abbey bit her lip. ‘You… you promise?’

Silence.

‘You really do think I’ve changed, don’t you, Abbey?’ Ryan said softly, but his knuckles on the steering-wheel were white. ‘Hell, Abbey, I said I would.’

‘I’m sorry. It’s just… well, it’s Ian’s life. And… and I’m already blaming myself for tonight. If I hadn’t depended on you-’

‘Yeah.’ Ryan’s voice was curt and angry. ‘Let’s all blame Ryan.’ He cast a swift glance at her. ‘Why not? I do myself.’ He shrugged. ‘And I’m sorry. Believe me, Abbey, you can’t blame me any more than I do myself.

‘I guess-doing what I do-well, my job’s mostly research and teaching, and when I am called in for hands-on work the patient’s been counselled and assessed already. Often they’re already unconscious on the operating table. You get used to thinking of problems as a pelvis or a femur or a combination of problems-not as Mr Jones whose life depends on what you’re doing.’

He sighed. ‘I guess I hadn’t realised until tonight-or maybe I once knew but had forgotten-that what I do has a wider impact It certainly did tonight-or, rather, what I didn’t do. It damn near caused a tragedy.’

He stared straight ahead again and kept on driving, and Abbey bit her lip as she watched his drawn face. She should have shut up. Ryan hadn’t changed so much that she had to kick him when he was already feeling so guilty.

She turned away and glanced out of the car. They were travelling along the beach road towards the town, and the moon was glimmering over the sea in a brilliant band of gold. The beach stretched away on either side-a broad ribbon of sand, smooth and washed clean in the moonlight. It was low tide and Sapphire Cove was at its most beautiful. Not a tourist in sight. Nothing.

Except…

‘Ryan, stop!’

Abbey’s voice was urgent, and Ryan acted instinctively. He shoved his foot on the brake so hard that if they hadn’t been wearing seat belts both would have been catapulted through the windscreen.

‘What on earth…?’

‘Pull over, Ryan.’ Abbey’s voice was excited rather than fearful. She was staring down at the beach in wonder. ‘Oh, Ryan…’

And Ryan looked. And saw…

A vast turtle was lumbering up the beach, causing a swathe in the wet sand like a bulldozer ploughing a channel. The turtle was heading in a straight line up the beach, and that could only mean one thing. As far as Ryan knew, turtles came out of the sea for one purpose. To lay eggs.

‘Oh, Ryan…’ Abbey was scarcely breathing. ‘After all this time… ’

She hauled open the car door and was out, heading across the sandy verge to the beach beyond. Like it or not, Ryan was left to follow.

Abbey and Ryan watched the turtle for almost two hours, and they hardly spoke for the entire time.

What they were seeing was a miracle. The huge green turtles were increasingly rare in these waters. They came up onto the beach to lay their eggs, but there were thousands of miles of coastline for them to choose and for one to choose this place… and this time…

All Abbey’s life she had wanted to see one lay her eggs. And, back in the time when he’d been her friend, so had Ryan. So Abbey assumed he was as spellbound as she. As eager to see.

And, miraculously, for once in her busy life Abbey could take the time to watch. Abbey had a babysitter who wasn’t expecting them home soon. Steve was in charge at the hospital. For once in her life Abbey was free.

She crouched low in the seagrass and was silent as the big turtle lumbered up almost within touching distance and started to dig.

The turtle was almost two feet wide and three feet long-massive-and nothing was getting in her way. Whether or not she was aware of Ryan and Abbey’s presence, she kept on digging, but Abbey wouldn’t have distracted her for the world. She didn’t have to warn Ryan to stay still or be silent. Ryan sank on the sand beside her and watched by her side.

And watched.

And watched.

And, in a way, this time was a healing for them both. For Abbey the last years had moved like a fast-paced nightmare. John’s death. The birth of Jack. Financial disaster and the constant pressures of far too much work.

And Ryan?

Ryan watched the turtle, preparing a safe place for her brood, and he felt his foundations shift. Or what he’d thought of as his foundations.

He hadn’t known until this moment that he’d left a part of him here when he’d left this place. At fifteen his mother had dragged him half a world away and had set about systematically destroying every memory he’d had of his childhood. His father hadn’t really cared, she’d said. Why else hadn’t he fought her for custody? Sapphire Cove had nothing except a bunch of country hicks and no culture at all.

Close on twenty years of her poisoned tongue had had their effect. He’d almost started believing her.

But now in this time of absolute stillness and wonder-crouching side by side with Abbey in the sand-their bodies touching and yet not speaking at all-letting the moonlight play on their faces as it lit up the wonder of new life before them-Ryan knew that his mother was wrong.

Sure, in New York he had a life that his mother was proud of. But was it his life?

He sat and he watched and he thought. Two hours was nothing-and yet two hours had the power to change people’s lives.

They stayed where they were as a miracle happened before their eyes. The moonlight cast a soft glow over the whole beach, lighting the scene almost like day.

The turtle knew exactly what she was doing. She scraped a vast hole behind her, using her paddles to shove the sand aside. Occasionally a spray of fine sand flew up over Abbey and Ryan and it was as much as Abbey could do not to laugh in delight.

And then came the eggs…

Slowly they came, one after another. Eggs, eggs and more eggs. Soft white balls, plopping moistly into their bed of sand. A huge mound of new life, just waiting to happen.

And finally the last egg was laid and the turtle’s job was almost complete. Once more those massive paddles shifted the sand, but this time they calmly coated her eggs-slowly, carefully-leaving no egg uncovered. And then, magically, as though receiving final acclaim for a job well done, the great turtle turned and looked straight at Ryan and Abbey.

Straight in the eye. Eyeball to eyeball. As if challenging them to keep her eggs safe.

And then she calmly turned towards the ocean and made her way majestically back to sea. The waves washed over her as she reached the shallows, the sea took her back into its warmth and all there was left to tell them she’d really been here was a tract of furrowed sand leading down to the sea. And Abbey and Ryan were left staring after her in wonder.

‘She knew,’ Abbey breathed. ‘Did you see? She knew we were here all the time. She let us watch.’

‘Yeah, well, she must have known we were doctors.’ Ryan smiled but he felt a bit emotional all the same. In truth, he felt very emotional.

It was all too much. This place. This woman. His friend…

It was bringing his childhood back again fast. How many October and November nights had he and Abbey hunted along this beach, searching for just what they had seen tonight? They’d never found a breeding turtle, but they’d always been sure they would.

‘Just one more night,’ Abbey had pleaded over and over again when Ryan had tried palming her off with homework commitments or somesuch. But the breeding season was short and Ryan had never tried hard to think of reasons he shouldn’t come. He’d longed to find one as much as Abbey had. They’d crept out when their respective mothers had thought they’d been long in bed, and if Abbey’s mother had suspected the reason her daughter wore dark shadows under her eyes for most of the turtle-breeding months she’d never let on she knew.

And then Ryan had gone.

‘But we’ve never even found a turtle yet,’ Abbey had wailed when Ryan had told her he was going.

She’d put the pain aside with her heartache for Ryan, and she’d stopped searching. Somehow it hadn’t seemed important to find a turtle when Ryan hadn’t been here to share it with her.

But now Ryan was back-and they’d found their turtle.

Abbey turned to face him, and found him watching her, and the wonder in her heart was reflected in his eyes.

‘Abbey…’

‘Did you ever see anything so beautiful?’ she breathed, and Ryan’s hands came out to take hers.

‘No, Abbey, I never have.’

And suddenly he wasn’t talking about the turtle.

And Abbey wasn’t thinking about the turtle.

There was only the linking of their hands.

There was only what was between them.

Ryan.

Her friend.

Her love.

And then there was nothing between them any more. Nothing. Not even distance. Somehow the length of their arms which had been there was gone. Somehow Ryan’s head was bending and Abbey’s was tilting upwards to meet him. To welcome him. To taste him and to know this man who was a part of her already. Whom she already knew in every way but this.

And then his lips were claiming hers and Abbey’s mouth was opening beneath his to acknowledge his claim. This was so right. So… so meant. Like the turtle they’d been looking for since childhood and had finally found. They’d known they would find her. And maybe… maybe Abbey had always known this was her place. Here was her home. Ryan’s arms were where she was meant to be. Like the turtle, this was a miracle searched for and found.

Ryan…

Ryan’s hands were falling to her waist. Somehow they were no longer sitting, but settling deeper into their sandy hollow so their bodies were cocooned against each other. The sand, warm from the heat of a day of tropical sun, welcomed and embraced them. Above them were the moon and the stars and the night sky. And holding them all together was her Ryan.

Ryan…

Abbey returned his kiss, gently at first but then with increasing fierceness-possessiveness. Ryan was hers. Hers! What right had he had to go away and leave her all those years ago? What right had he to marry Felicity?

The thought of Felicity flashed into Abbey’s mind but she shoved it away as her hands wound themselves around Ryan’s broad shoulders and her breasts pushed against his chest. Dear God, she wanted him. Ryan…

Felicity.

The thought flashed back again. Abbey shoved it away with everything she possessed-but the thought wouldn’t go.

It wouldn’t

Felicity.

And Ryan felt it.

Wondering, Ryan drew back a little in the moonlight.

‘Abbey?’ he said, and his voice was a husky murmur, laced with desire. ‘Love?’

‘Felicity,’ she said flatly.

Silence.

Abbey pushed Ryan back and rolled sideways in the sand. She stood, uncertain, refusing to look at Ryan. Refusing to look at her love.

‘T-take me home, Ryan,’ she said softly. ‘I think… we must both have been mad. You’re engaged to Felicity, remember? ’

Deny it, her heart was screaming, but Ryan didn’t. Instead, he stood and looked gravely down at her. When he spoke again his voice was harsh and bleak.

‘As you say. We’ve both run mad. Gone troppo has meaning after all.’

And that was that. End of evening.

‘Help me hide the turtle tracks before we go,’ Abbey managed, staring out to sea. Concentrating on anything but the pain in her heart.

There was something else to concentrate on. The eggs must be protected. There were all sorts of predators who’d see the turtle’s furrow before the tide came back in. The best disguise was simply to make more furrows-so it looked like the sand had been disturbed by a party of revellers rather than one solitary turtle. And put plenty of human scents around to deflect interest

Ryan nodded. Like Abbey, he was searching for something to say. Something to do that didn’t touch the jumble of his emotions. He left Abbey and retrieved a huge piece of dried seaweed. Silently he started raking it back and forth across the sand.

For a long moment Abbey watched him, and then silently started to do the same.

There were shadows haunting Ryan, she thought bleakly, and one of those shadows was her. She could feel Ryan’s desire. But she knew… Well, Abbey knew his mother and she knew Felicity. She knew what she was up against.

Finally they finished and made their way back to the car.

‘There are a group of turtle-watchers in town,’ Abbey managed as they settled back in the car for the drive home.

Her voice was flat and desolate. She was no longer excited about the turtle. She just wanted to get home. Get to the sanctuary of her pillows so she could hide her head and have a good howl. ‘I’ll let them know where the eggs are. They’ll work out the gestation period and set up a watch when they’re due.’

If they could, the turtle-watchers would try to be here when the eggs hatched. The journey from the nest to the sea was the most hazardous the turtles would face. Often almost all the tiny hatchlings were eaten by gulls and other predators before they reached the water.

‘I’d love to be here when they hatch,’ Abbey added.

Silence.

‘If I can I’ll send you a photograph,’ Abbey offered, and Ryan’s gut clenched into an almost unbearable ache.

She’d send him a photograph to put on the wall in his office. So he could remember this night always.

He couldn’t bear it.

Felicity was on the telephone when Ryan arrived back at his father’s farm. She greeted him with a cool smile, a lift of her eyebrows and a wave to the coffee-pot.

Ryan obliged. He made her coffee and then sat and waited for his love to finish speaking to New York.

His love?

His future.

He should be working, too, he told himself. He was running so far behind. And tonight… tonight he’d spent the whole night watching a turtle. What a waste!

Yeah?

If he told her, Felicity would agree it was a waste. His colleagues back in New York would think it was a waste.

Or maybe they wouldn’t. Maybe they’d be as jealous as hell.

‘What’s the time in New York?’ he asked when Felicity finally finished her phone call. She was typing furiously into her lap-top computer and clearly had no time for small talk.

‘About eleven mid-morning. What kept you? Did you find your suicide, then?’ It was only half a question. When Felicity worked she committed herself absolutely. It was one of the things Ryan admired about her. She had a brilliant mind, a brilliant body and…

And?

He gave himself a mental shake. What the hell was he thinking of? There was no ‘and’. Felicity was everything he needed in a woman.

Everything he wanted?

‘We found him,’ he said grimly. ‘He has AIDS.’

Felicity frowned. ‘Was the suicide successful?’

‘No. Close, but we found him in time. We resuscitated him.’

‘Ryan!’ Suddenly he had all Felicity’s attention. She stared up at him, appalled. ‘Ryan, I hope you took precautions.’

‘We used a mask.’

‘And gloves? Ryan, for heaven’s sake, resuscitating AIDS patients is not your job. If that’s what Abbey wants to do, fine, but to haul you in… She has no right.’

No. She didn’t Abbey had no right to ask anything of him at all.

And the thought of her not having that right made Ryan sick at heart.

Abbey was his friend.

With a huge mental shake Ryan managed to shove the thought of Abbey aside-the thought of Abbey in his arms-yielding her slim body to his. Clinging to him. Welcoming his kiss as if it was right.

She was lovely, but Abbey wasn’t his future. She couldn’t be. Abbey was a widow and a mother and she had obligations up to her neck. Someone like Abbey would fit into his New York life like a fish out of water.

He shrugged-and turned to phone New York.

Turned to get on with his life.