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‘And one Veronique wanted for me.’
Melody leaned back in the chair and smiled. ‘You’ve done her proud.’
‘You don’t mind me talking about her?’
She shook her head, once again realising that George had a lot of things he needed to sort out if there was ever going to be anything developing between them in the future. He was still grieving, still…broken. They both were. ‘Veronique was a major part of your life,’ she continued. ‘We’ve all loved and lost. Sometimes through heartbreak, sometimes through death and sometimes through both.’
‘Both?’
She shrugged. ‘My brother, Ethan, went through a difficult time. His wife died from eclampsia and his baby girl died almost a day later. Ethan worked himself into a frenzy and it was only after he had a mild heart attack that he confessed his wife had been drinking heavily during her pregnancy and that his daughter had suffered from foetal alcohol syndrome.’
‘The poor man.’
‘He’s good now. He’s found happiness again and a new family.’
‘And I’ll bet you were his rock, the sister who pulled him through the darkest times of his life.’
‘We’re a close family.’
‘That’s nice.’ George held her close. ‘Family is important. I’ve realised that more and more this year. At first, I couldn’t wait to get away, to leave the hospital where both Veronique and I had worked. Now I have such mixed emotions about going back because I’m not going back to my old life. My old life doesn’t exist any more. It’s gone and I can never get it back.’
It was that, more than any talk about his wife, which pierced Melody’s heart. George wanted his old life back, which only reiterated that he wasn’t ready to look to the future and the possibility of a new life. Which was why his next words threw her completely.
‘Melody—I want to spend together whatever free time we have left. It’s only going to be an hour here or half an hour there, I know, but what do you think?’
‘Do you think that’s wise? Especially given what you’ve just said?’
‘I don’t know any more. I don’t know what’s right or wrong, what might happen or won’t happen. I just know that when I’m around you I feel calm and I haven’t felt calm in a really long time. It’s very selfish of me, and you have every right to say no.’ He looked expectantly into her face.
She was secretly delighted he wanted to spend time with her but was also highly cautious. ‘Well, we both have hectic schedules so it would make it difficult.’ She was trying hard to choose her words carefully. She didn’t want him to think she didn’t want to spend time with him because she did, but she also needed to gauge how much time would be enough for her to hold onto her sanity. Self-preservation was a key factor in her life, especially with her track record of relationships. ‘I’ll be in Theatre tomorrow, doing the second part of that hand reconstruction, while you’ll be doing your last theatre stint of show and tell.’
He chuckled at her wording. ‘That’s exactly how it feels sometimes.’
She smiled at him. ‘We could have breakfast together on Saturday morning before your flight to Melbourne.’
‘At the hotel?’
She shook her head. ‘I know a nice all-day breakfast place I’d like to take you to.’ They could say a private goodbye and then she could come home and cry her heart out.
‘You’ll pick me up?’
‘Sure. Then I can take you straight to the airport.’ Even as she said the words she wasn’t sure it was the best idea but he was right when he’d said they had very little time to spend together.
‘It’s a date.’ The way he looked at her, with a mixture of need, want and desire, left her with little doubt as to how she affected him. He clenched his jaw and shoved his hands into his pockets, as though to keep himself from crossing to her side and gathering her close.
They stared at each other for so long she was about to capitulate and cross to his side, eager to have his mouth on hers once more. George cleared his throat. ‘We’d better start watching these brilliant reconstructive surgeries of yours before I lose all control.’
‘Wait.’ His words took a second or two for her sluggish brain to process. ‘You were serious about that?’
‘Yeah. I really am interested.’ He pulled a USB memory stick from his pocket. ‘The library downloaded the files onto this stick for me and told me to keep it.’
‘You are really strange if your idea of fun is to sit and watch recordings of surgeries.’ She took the stick from him and put it into the USB port at the rear of her television. Soon they were sitting on the lounge facing the television ready to watch the surgery. ‘Are you sure?’ she checked one last time as he put his arm down the back of the lounge, his body very close to hers. It was exciting and comforting and sexy to have him so near. If this was her holiday romance, she couldn’t think of anything better to do on a date. Watching surgery with another surgeon, someone who really understood her work.
