They rounded the corner of the hospital and Frankie saw her surprise. Lined up outside the hospital doors was her luggage. She couldn’t see her toiletry bag, but that was something she could live without.
“This is fabulous!” She rushed towards her things. Unzipping one of the bags, she called over to Lucas who stood against the doors to the hospital with a carefully blank look on his face. “Come and see.”
“If you’re going to show me the Louboutins you can’t possibly live without, I don’t want to know.” He turned and pushed open the hospital door.
Her joy at seeing the return of her property evaporated, as did what was left of her patience. She’d flown to Astoria as soon as she could, landing late at night and working until the next morning in the time zone she was accustomed to. The previous evening, she’d taken his snide comments as her due. She had struggled to come to terms with the environment they were working in and the fact she’d be camping out every night. But in her defence, her entire world had come crumbling down around her ears. Everything she’d believed in was a sham and she hadn’t slept in nearly forty-eight hours.
“You don’t want these then, Dr Perfect?” Frankie taunted, holding up some of the bandages and dressings contained in the first suitcase she’d opened.
He turned slowly, clearly trying to hold himself in check as her barb hit home.
“Or these?” She held up bags of saline from the next case.
“What else do you have there?”
Lucas was over by her side quickly, pulling a bag towards himself and opening it. “Where did you get this stuff?”
“From a medical supply company. I know you think badly of me, but surely you don’t think even I would rip off a hospital?”
He didn’t apologise, but did have the decency to look contrite. She added the word ‘stubborn’ to his list of descriptors.
“This is why you were so upset last night?”
“Yes.”
He was so keen to see what other supplies she might have in her luggage that he’d forgotten to face his scars away from her. Her gaze travelled over his face, noting the yellow flecks around the irises of his blue eyes. “You underestimated me. Again. Did your mother never teach you not to judge a book by its cover?”
He flinched at her final sentence, his eyes clouding over with pain before he closed them. A millisecond later, they popped open, all trace of emotion gone.
“You’re right. I was wrong.” He got to his feet, positioning himself so his left side was away from her. “How did you get all of this here so quickly?”
“When you have a joint bank account with one of the best paid people in England, most things are possible.” It wasn’t a brag, simply the truth. “Joey paid for everything. The supplies, my flight out to Miami, and then the helicopter here. It’ll be weeks before he realises, he rarely touches his bank statements.”
“Remind me never to do whatever it was that Joey did to annoy you.”
She had believed he’d broken her heart. But he hadn’t. Her pride had been wounded, but the worst part was not knowing who she was if she wasn’t Joey Cunningham’s fiancée.
“You’ll never get the chance.”
And he wouldn’t. She would never again put herself into the position where she relied on someone else for her self-worth, her happiness, and her very existence. She would build a life for herself and rely only on her own endeavours to pay her bills. Once she worked out what she was going to do beyond this job, of course.
But she’d do it and she’d do it without a man.
#
He really should’ve said the S-word. But he’d said sorry a million times when his brother died and, after a while, it’d lost its meaning. His mother’s pain-filled eyes as she struggled to reassure him she loved him just the same Lewis’s accident would always haunt him.
And he wasn’t sure Frankie needed an apology. She’d made her point and made it well. He’d written her off as a beautiful bimbo with little thought of anyone but herself, and been proven wrong. It wasn’t something that happened often, but it had taught him a valuable lesson. He wouldn’t underestimate her again.
Lucas was ready to step into their operating room and see what job was next when Hettie stopped him. The older lady was as wide as she was tall and, though she didn’t know the first thing about medicine, she’d come to the hospital to volunteer as soon as the earthquake had hit.
Since then, she had hurried about fetching whatever the medical staff needed and helped feeding those patients lucky enough to be well enough for solid food. She had been a godsend—always bright, alert, and upbeat despite the disaster around them. He didn’t think he’d seen her take a rest at all and there she was once more, concern creasing her weather-creased face.
“Mr Lucas, there’s a lady at the side entrance who needs your doctoring.”