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He’d wanted to play every sport known to man. And he’d done that for a while. But once he’d become sick, sports had been a no-no. Anything that could have caused injury, breaks, anything that had expended too much energy. All had been forbidden. So Ryan had only been able to dream about the sports he’d yet had to master. And surfing had been one of them.
Only once had the brothers had the opportunity to try surfing together. They’d been dragged to yet another official engagement by their parents—only this time it had been in Hawaii and the boys had disappeared to the beach as soon as they’d got there.
He’d never forget the look on Ryan’s face as he’d finally managed to stand upright on the surfboard. The expression of pure joy and exhilaration, captured in a few fleeting seconds on his teenage brother’s face, was a picture that was seared into Luke’s brain. A moment in time, frozen and remembered for ever.
Luke tore his eyes away from the crashing waves. Sometimes the memories were just too hard.
Abby headed back down the corridor, her heart beating furiously in her chest. She wasn’t sure if it was the effect of Luke holding her again, or from the stress of having to tell him about Reuben.
She ducked around the corner and stood for a second with her back against the wall, letting the feel of the cool concrete spread between her shoulder blades and back, easing her hot, trembling skin. She took a few deep slow breaths to calm her frantic heartbeat. At least he understood. At least he knew what it felt like to have someone that you love suffer from the condition. She didn’t need to explain to him what type of cancer it was, the statistics around it, the treatments and, worst of all, what Reuben’s chances were, because he knew all that already. Fifteen years ago the statistics had been much grimmer—Luke’s brother was proof of that. Things were a lot more positive now, but there was still always the chance that her child would be the unlucky one. Abby shook the thoughts from her head. She couldn’t stand it when the crows of doubt crept into her head and haunted her. A few months ago she’d had a dream that she was standing next to a graveside, watching a little white coffin being lowered into it, and she’d woken screaming and covered in sweat.
Why? She had no idea, because Reuben was doing well, brilliantly, in fact. But there was always just this tiny sliver of doubt, right at the back of her mind, chipping away at her. The slightest temperature and she’d be awake all night, worrying it was some hideous infection rather than a mild sniffle. But then again she was a mother and she was only human.
James Turner rounded the corner and just about walked into her. ‘Dr Tyler, I was looking for you.’ He seemed oblivious to her anxiety.
‘You were? Is everything all right?’
‘I’m just about to move Jennifer Taylor from your emergency department, but she’d like to speak to you before she moves.’
‘The First Lady, the First Lady wants to see me? But why? I’m not her doctor.’
‘I know that, Dr Tyler.’ He shrugged his shoulders. ‘What the First Lady wants, the First Lady gets.’
Abby nodded and glanced at her watch. Nearly three o’clock. Only a few more hours before she could clock off and head home to Reuben, only this time she would have Luke in tow. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what that would feel like. What would it be like to have a man under her roof? A man who was going to stay the night, and possibly for the next four days?
‘Dr Tyler?’ James Turner’s voice was abrupt, he was obviously losing his patience.
‘Sure, sure, I’m coming.’
Abby strode back into the emergency department and towards Jennifer Taylor’s room. The security service man at the door gave her a little nod as he stood aside to let her enter the room.
Jennifer was on the phone and she was in tears. ‘Yes, yes, I know. I understand, really I do.’ She sniffed back a new wave of tears as Abby grabbed some tissues and crossed to the edge of the bed. ‘Yes, Charlie, I promise, I’ll get them to phone you if I go into labour. Love you.’
She hung up the phone and grabbed the tissues from Abby, blowing her nose furiously. ‘I’m sorry Abby,’ she motioned for her to sit down at the side of the bed.
‘What are you sorry for? Was that your husband?’
She nodded tearfully.
‘Is he mad at you?’
Jennifer shook her head. ‘Charlie? Never. No, he’s in the middle of a peace agreement, they’ve been negotiating it for the last two years and it’s just about to be signed. So he really needs to be there. But he wants to be with me.’
Abby nodded. ‘I’ll bet he does. I’m surprised he doesn’t want you near him in Washington.’
Jennifer laughed. ‘That’s the last place he wants me right now. No, he’s spoken to Dr Fairgreaves and knows that I will get the best possible care. It’s actually lucky that I’m here.’
‘Lucky?’
‘Yes. If this had happened in Washington, some idiot would have leaked it to the press already. At least here I’ve got a modicum of privacy.’
Abby smiled. It was really the last thing she’d expected her to say. ‘So you’re happy that the First Son or Daughter is going to be born in Pelican Cove?’
‘I couldn’t be happier.’
Abby mulled it over. Jennifer Taylor was full of surprises. ‘So what can I do for you?’
Jennifer rolled her eyes. ‘I’m bored, Abby. They …’ she motioned towards the door ‘…are driving me crazy. They won’t let me out of the room, they won’t let me open the window, they won’t let me look out the window.’ She flopped her head back against her pillows. ‘There’s a good chance I’m going to be here for at least four days. I can’t take much more of this seclusion. I need something—or someone—to distract me.’
Abby smiled and looked around the little room. It was cheery enough, but was built for practicalities, not for comfort. She also knew that the room Jennifer Taylor was being moved to was almost identical.
‘How about I bring you some movies from home, and some books? What do you like?’
Jennifer breathed an audible sigh of relief. ‘Perfect, Abby, thanks. Movies, I like older ones, from when I was a teenager, particularly action ones—Bruce Willis, Harrison Ford or anything sci-fi. And books, definitely romance. You’ve got some, haven’t you?’
‘Oh, yes, by the bucketload.’
‘You’re a lifesaver. Thanks, Abby. I know there are things I should be worrying about. But I want some normality, some distractions. So, now I’ve got the somethings to distract me, what about the someone?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, what’s the gossip in Pelican Cove? Tell me. Tell me about the people and their lives. It’s so nice just to talk to someone normal—about normal things.’ She waved her arms around. ‘Everybody that’s usually around me has a political agenda. Either that, or they’re trying to write me a political agenda. I want normal. I want to know girlie stuff. I’m away from Washington now. I’m in a beautiful part of the country I’ve never seen before. I don’t want to be the First Lady right now. I want to be an expectant mom, waiting for her first child.’
She leaned over and touched Abby’s hand. ‘So, Dr Tyler, what’s the story with you and our Dr Storm?’
Abby stiffened, taken aback by the question. ‘Well, nothing really. We were friends a long time ago,’ she stumbled.
‘That’s not what he says. He says you were more than friends.’
‘He said what?’ She was horrified. Luke had been discussing their past relationship with the First Lady?
‘Don’t look so worried. I’d noticed something between you and I asked him about it. He looked really down.’
‘He did?’ Maybe she wasn’t so angry with him after all.
‘I told him he was a fool to let you slip through his fingers.’
Abby half smiled. ‘You did?’ How could a woman that was only a few years older than her seem so worldly wise?
‘Yes, I did.’ Jennifer leaned over and grabbed a barrette from the nearby table, c
oiling her hair up at the back of her head and pinning it in place. ‘He strikes me as quite a lonely soul,’ she said, looking thoughtful. ‘And knowing who his parents are, it doesn’t come as such a surprise.’
