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Abby was startled. ‘You know Luke’s parents?’
‘Of course I do. His father’s a senator. Didn’t you know that?’
Abby nodded her head. ‘Yes, yes, I did. I met them at birthdays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I was with Luke for four years but his parents weren’t the most engaging people I’ve ever met. Kind of ironic since they’re both politicians. When they spoke to me it was almost as if their minds were on something else—the next thing on their list. Let’s just say that Luke didn’t seem to have a very good relationship with them. We certainly didn’t get invited around every week for Sunday dinner.’
‘I’m not surprised. Senator Storm is charm himself, but it’s all superficial. And as for her …’ She gave her head a little shake then gave Abby’s arm a little squeeze. ‘Meeting you was probably the best thing that could have happened to him, Abby, and it’s time to get to the bottom of whatever he’s hiding from you.’
Abby looked incredulous. ‘What on earth makes you think … ?’
Jennifer Taylor tapped the side of her nose. ‘I’m not the First Lady for nothing.’
Abby stood up and gave her a smile and she headed to the door, ‘No, you’re certainly not.’
The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur. Luke went between the ER and the cath lab, checking on Dr Blair. Abby spent most of her afternoon treating a nine-year-old who’d been stung by a jellyfish. She’d done the best she could following the latest protocols for carefully removing the tentacles, helping to prevent more venom release and treating the child with painkillers and steroids before arranging the transfer to San Francisco Children’s Hospital for further treatment. And at the end of the day it didn’t matter what she did, she already knew that the scarring would be significant.
Luke came and stood outside with her while she watched the ambulance pull away and draped his arm around her shoulders again.
‘Are you okay?’
She gave a wistful little nod. ‘I guess.’ She watched the ambulance set off down the coastal road, ‘I just wish that I could help more.’
He gave her shoulder a little squeeze. ‘C’mon, Abby, you do the best job that you can. How can that be bad?’
She turned and shot Luke a smile that made his heart stop. He could almost feel the static in the air between them. If he just bent forward he could kiss her, right here, right now, in the middle of the ambulance bay outside the ER. Would she let him? Or would she object?
Her hair caught in the wind and fluttered in front of her face, blocking his direct access to her pink lips. She gave her head a shake and moved the strands from in front of her eyes, tucking them behind her ears. Their gaze was broken, the moment lost.
Something twisted in his stomach. Five years ago he would have been able to kiss Abby whenever he wanted. Now he couldn’t. He’d no right to kiss her. He’d no right to hold her the way he was doing. He glanced at his arm resting easily on her shoulders, almost as if it was something he did every day. And there it was again—the feeling that he was missing something. That he’d let something really important just slip through his fingers. For someone on the outside, Jennifer Taylor wasn’t too slow.
He turned slightly, guiding Abby back in towards the doors, and glanced at his watch. It was nearly six o’clock. ‘Have we finished for the day?’ he asked.
Abby nodded, glancing down at her pager. ‘They’ll call me if any paediatric emergencies come in that they can’t cope with.’ She turned to face him as they reached the desk. ‘How’s Dr Blair?’
‘Textbook, no problems. Routine care, but the staff will call me if they have any concerns.’
‘Have you got your case?’
Luke gave a little nod and pulled it from behind one of the desks. He shook his head slowly. ‘Before you see the contents, all I can say in my defence is that I packed it for a conference, not for coming to Pelican Cove. I might be a little overdressed.’
‘I can’t wait to see. Come on, let’s go.’ She grabbed her jacket and headed towards the nearest exit. Luke expected her to head towards the car park but instead she headed for the coastal footpath that Reuben and his childcare worker had walked along earlier.
‘What, no car?’
Abby smiled. ‘I have one at home but here I don’t need one. We’re only about two minutes along this path.’ She walked ahead along the path, which, although it lay well back from the cliffs, gave a spectacular view over the whole of Pelican Cove. From here Luke could see the boats sitting in the harbour, the houses dotted along the coast, the sandy beaches and even the pelicans on the rocks beneath.
‘Wow, Abby, this is some view. You must love walking to and from work every day. You don’t get this in Washington or San Francisco.’
‘No, you don’t.’ She stopped and gazed towards the ocean. ‘That’s why I love it here—why I intentionally came to stay here when I knew I wanted to adopt.’ She spread her arms out across the harbor. ‘This is the kind of life I want for my kids,’ she said. ‘Not granite, stone, skyscrapers and streets that aren’t safe to play in.’
‘Kids? Plural? Are you planning on adopting some more or having some of your own?’ It was a weighted question.
Abby shrugged her shoulders. ‘Whatever happens happens. If it’s only Reuben and me for as long as I’m blessed with him, then that’s fine. If I meet someone and have some kids of my own, then that’s fine too. If I don’t ever meet someone, then I might decide to go down the route of adoption again. It’s worked out pretty great for me this time.’ She’d moved down the path a little and then stopped just short of a white picket fence. The fence surrounded a gorgeous shingled house that looked out over the ocean. It was painted blue and white and was large and spacious, much bigger than Luke would ever have expected, and looked like a true family home.
He could see Reuben playing in the garden with his childcare worker, jumping from a wooden-built swing to a little playhouse built in exactly the style of the main house, complete with little tiles on the roof.
Abby noticed him watching her blond, bouncing son. ‘Like I said earlier, Luke, families come in all shapes and sizes and I’m happy to take what I’m given.’
The words stuck in his throat. This was where he should take the opportunity to talk, to tell her what a failure he’d been when the mumps had struck, and why he shouldn’t be part of anyone’s family—that when his brother had needed him most he had failed him.
It had killed him that he’d been so infectious he hadn’t been allowed to visit his brother. The irony of it was he had been immunised against mumps as a child, but the vaccine obviously hadn’t been effective. So, when he had been struck down with the highly infectious acute disease, the last person he had been allowed to visit had been his immunocompromised brother.
And with the mumps virus had come fever, swelling of his salivary glands and more importantly orchitis, inflammation of the testes. And Luke had been unlucky, in more ways than one. His sperm-producing cells had been damaged, leading to permanent infertility. At the time, it had all seemed so irrelevant. He’d just lost his brother. He hadn’t really been interested in his family-making capabilities. But as time had progressed and he’d met Abby, a woman who wanted to have a family of her own, he’d known he couldn’t take that away from her.
And he still wasn’t ready to face up to his infertility. He’d followed the doctor’s instructions for a year after the virus struck. Suffering the embarrassment of delivering samples of semen to check if his fertility status improved. Then the offer of counselling, when it hadn’t. At that point, the last thing he’d wanted to discuss had been his lack of baby-making facilities. For him, it was linked. He’d failed in the parenting role for his brother and someone was making sure he wouldn’t be in that position again.
He looked out over the cov
e again, watching the early-evening surfers catching the waves. This was where Ryan should have been. Leading the charge on the crest of a wave and riding his way to happiness and fulfilment.
Luke gave a little smile as he watched them, the strong sea winds raking through his hair. His eyes caught a glimpse of Abby’s neat butt as she turned up a path away from the sea. He could almost hear his brother shouting in his ear: Go for it, Luke! Another smile spread across his face as he turned and followed her up the winding path.
CHAPTER FIVE
IT WAS just how he’d imagined it would be. A beautiful, light, airy house with gorgeous views over the ocean. Complete with white picket fence surrounding the garden. And the family to complete it.
It disturbed him a little. She was living in the house he’d always imagined her having. And everything about it was perfect, from the beautiful wooden floors and wide open spaces to the bright, carefully planted flowerbeds and sandpit in the front garden. Abby led him through the wide hallway to the kitchen at the back of the house. It was huge, with thick wooden worktops, a white Boston sink and a couple of easy chairs looking out of the patio doors over the back garden.
‘Abby, just how big is this house?’
She gave a little smile. ‘Big enough.’
‘No, seriously, Abby, my apartment in Washington could fit in here six times over.’
She leaned back against her sink, crossing her arms over her chest. ‘Well, there’s this, the kitchen/diner, then I have two separate sitting rooms at the front and a study, a cloakroom and a laundry room. Upstairs there are five bedrooms, two en suites and a family bathroom.’
‘Wow. This place is huge.’ He cleared his throat a little. ‘Without being cheeky, did you win the lottery?’
She laughed. ‘I wish. Why would you think that?’
‘Because this house is pretty near “Millionaires’ Row” in Mendocino Valley. This place couldn’t have come cheap.’
