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‘B-but I’m an athlete …’ Emma’s thin voice cracked the silence. ‘Running is my life. I’ve got sponsors queuing up.’
Ben ached for her. She was the same age as Hannah. He knew all about teenage passion and how focussed they could be on one thing and one thing only, be it boyfriends or fashion or sport. ‘I know, Emma,’ he said gently. ‘I will do the best I can, but you need to know the risks. You have a rare condition. You did nothing to cause it—it’s just there and has to be taken care of. That’s my job. Your job is to trust me to do what I can to give you a good outcome, but as I said there are no guarantees.’
He waited for a moment to add, ‘I always advise patients to get a second opinion in cases such as these. It doesn’t reflect on my judgement so, please, don’t think I would be in the least offended by you seeking someone else’s opinion. In fact, I would prefer it.’
‘No,’ the father said after exchanging another quick glance with his wife and daughter. ‘We’ve heard you are the best and we want you to look after Emma. You were the one who diagnosed the tumour in the first place after she’d been shuffled from doctor to doctor for months.’
Precious, precious months, Ben thought with anguish as he opened his drawer for the necessary consent and admission forms. God, there were times when he really hated his job.
‘So what do you think of my big brother?’ Hannah asked as they finished their coffee. ‘Isn’t he gorgeous?’
‘Er … yes …’ Georgie said. ‘But I don’t want you to think that there’s anything going—’
‘A thousand bucks, huh?’ Hannah cut her off musingly. ‘Don’t you think he’s worth the payout of your bet?’
Very definitely, Georgie thought, but she wasn’t going to admit it to Ben’s sister. She was only starting to admit to herself that the attraction she felt for him was moving fast beyond the physical.
Hannah didn’t wait for an answer and plunged in again. ‘He got terribly hurt by Leila Ingram. She was sleeping around behind his back. I was glad when they broke up because I never liked her in the first place, but I feel bad for him as he’s not dated since. He’s nearly thirty-five. He should be married with a baby on the way by now. I’m dying for a niece or nephew and Mum and Dad would love a bunch of grandkids.’
Georgie blinked at her helplessly, not sure she was supposed to contribute to the conversation or simply be a sounding-board. In the end Hannah took the matter out of her hands and rattled on some more.
‘I’m not sure if you know this but my dad is not Ben’s real father. His dad died when he was six in a tractor accident.’ She gave a little shudder and continued, ‘I still can’t look at the bank of that dam without thinking of how dreadful it must have been for Ben to have his father ruffle his hair at breakfast that morning, only to be killed half an hour later.’
Georgie swallowed a thick lump of empathy in her throat for what Ben and his mother had been through. Life was so fragile sometimes—she saw it all the time at work. It was one of the things that challenged her and frustrated her at the same time. Fate laid a heavy hand on some people and a lighter one on others.
‘My dad was the owner of the neighbouring property,’ Hannah went on. ‘He had secretly loved my mum for years. He helped Mum get back on her feet; he did all the farm labour and helped pay for feed, just like Ben is doing now, on account of the drought. My parents would have lost the farm without his help.’
Georgie recalled the pile of invoices she’d seen in his utility that night after the gym and grimaced again at how rude she had been towards him. ‘Your brother is a very nice man,’ she said. ‘It’s no wonder you adore him.’
Hannah grinned. ‘So you like him a little bit, then, do you?’ she asked.
‘He’s my boss, Hannah,’ she said, more to remind herself more than the young girl. ‘We have to work together for the next twelve months. Things can get tricky when workplace romances run off the rails. We have to deal with life-and-death situations—there’s no room for ill feeling and resentment as it could compromise patient care.’
‘Well, I think he likes you,’ Hannah said with sisterly authority. ‘He keeps looking at you all the time. Haven’t you noticed?’
Georgie was beginning to think Ben’s kid sister was a little too observant. If Hannah had already perceived Ben’s interest, what on earth was she making of her pathetic attempt to disguise hers? ‘Um … sort of,’ she said at last. ‘But it’s just because we got off to a bad start. Did he tell you what I did to him?’
‘No,’ Hannah said, leaning forward. ‘Tell me what happened.’
Georgie told her the details of that fateful morning, watching as the young teenager’s blue-green eyes went wide at first, and then her face falling as reality began to sink home.
‘No wonder he didn’t tell me or Mum,’ Hannah said, nibbling her bottom lip. ‘He might have been killed.’
‘I’m so sorry. I feel so bad about it. I’m normally so careful but I was nervous about my first day at the hospital …’
A frown was still wrinkling Hannah’s forehead. ‘I had a terrible accident on my bike when I was seven,’ she said in a subdued tone. ‘I nearly died. I had to be resuscitated three times on the way to hospital in the ambulance. We don’t talk about it much at home. It upsets everyone too much.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘It’s why Ben chose to do neurosurgery,’ Hannah continued. ‘He hadn’t long qualified as a doctor when I was hit by a car on the road leading to our property. When I came out of a three-week coma with all my faculties working normally, he decided to specialise in neurosurgery.’
‘There are lots of patients who are very glad he did,’ Georgie put in.
‘Yes, I know,’ Hannah said. ‘So I guess you could say something good came out of something bad. I nearly
lost my life but it gave the world a wonderful neurosurgeon as a result.’
‘Do you remember anything about the accident?’ Georgie asked.
