Natalie Anderson - One Summer At The Beach

On impulse she turned to him. ‘Thank you, Rhys.’

‘What for?’

‘Everything.’ She smiled. He was so straight up. ‘I can really trust you.’

His face hardened. The green sparkle faded behind the slate. ‘Sienna.’

Her smile faltered. She was used to him closing over when she attempted to inquire into his life, but just then she hadn’t asked anything and right now he had the most remote expression she’d ever seen on him. ‘What is it?’

‘There’s something I have to tell you.’

For a second all her vital organs stopped. Something was wrong. ‘Don’t tell me you have a girlfriend.’

‘No, I don’t have a girlfriend.’ He flashed a tight smile. ‘Want to offer yourself for the part?’

‘OK. But I’m only in town for another few days. And so are you.’ Don’t start messing with the arrangement, Rhys. Not when she was only just keeping it real for herself. His deathly serious look panicked her. She couldn’t cope with serious. She had to get on.

‘That’s just it. I’m uh…’

‘You’re not married.’ Sure she was right on that one. He wasn’t able to open up even a little way, he’d never open up to marriage.

‘No.’

‘OK, so you’re not married and you don’t already have a girlfriend. Are you in trouble with the law?’

‘No. I…’ He sighed. ‘Sienna, please, let me finish.’

She should. Hell, what was she doing? Here he was finally trying to say something important and she was stalling him. Because, she realised, she didn’t want to hear it. Didn’t want this illusion shattered. And he was about to smash it—she could see it in his eyes.

He opened his mouth, drew in a deep breath.

And then they heard it. The ear-piercing scream. Startled, they stared into each other’s eyes as if questioning whether the other had heard it. And then sound came again—shouts and cries. They both turned and ran. Around the hedge encircling the fountain, through the trees.

They came upon masses of people. A pile of them bunched near one of the swing sets. Wisps of conversation came to them—disjointed commands filtering through the crowd. ‘She’s bleeding…she could be concussed…someone phone an ambulance.’

‘Excuse me. Make way, please. I’m a doctor.’

Sienna stopped. The crowd parted. Rhys walked through.

The next few seconds were like a series of still shots in her mind. All she heard was his voice—‘I’m a doctor’—over and over. She pulled herself together, walked closer as the crowd dispersed, parents relieved to be able to deal with their own upset kids now there was someone taking charge.

She looked about twelve, had blood spilling from a gash on her head. Was flat on her back. One of her legs was bent at a hideous angle below her shin. Sienna shut her eyes a moment, knowing that she’d just caught a glimpse of snapped bone. She opened them again, focused on him.

Rhys was on his knees next to her, talking softly. ‘What’s your name, sweetie?’

She looked stricken. He pushed back her hair with the lightest brush of his fingers, compassion clear in his expression, gentle warmth in his smile.

‘Katie.’

‘Katie.’ The child and the white-faced woman on the other side of her, presumably her mother, spoke simultaneously. Sienna understood. When he looked at anyone that way they’d talk. They’d trust—just as she had.

‘Hi, Katie. My name is Dr Rhys Maitland, but you can call me Rhys, OK?’ He was feeling over her body with deft hands. Sienna saw the way he was concentrating on other things while he chatted to her, saw the keen look in his eye. She recognised that look. Assessing. Evaluating. Deciding on his approach. When he got within range of her leg the child cried.

‘OK, sugar. We’re going to get you all fixed up, OK?’

He kept talking to her low and quiet. The low, quiet tones he’d used with her, but they were still audible across the grounds.

‘My friends are going to come and pick us up in the ambulance. Have you ever been in an ambulance before?’

One of the remaining bystanders next to Sienna turned to her. ‘He’s a doctor?’

‘Apparently so.’ Sienna looked back at Rhys. His experience and skill were obvious to everyone.

‘Is he good?’

‘Rhys is good at everything he does.’ Especially lying.

It couldn’t have been much more than five minutes till the ambulance arrived, by which time Rhys clearly had everything under control. He even had the mother smiling, and the girl—weakly through her tears. Sienna clenched her teeth, holding back the grimace. The crew leapt out, bags in hand. One had a toy koala that she gave to the girl to cuddle. The kid buried her face in the soft fur.

The other officer grinned at Rhys. ‘Hey, hero. Can’t keep away from it, can you? Not even on your holidays.’

Aside from a slight wry twist to his lips you wouldn’t have thought Rhys had heard the comment. Instead he focused on introducing them to Katie, then talking through her condition.

Sienna watched as he rapped out information. Cool, calm, still polite but so in control. The ambulance officers quickly getting onto it.

Dr Rhys. Spouting medical jargon and utterly at home in a scene of chaos and carnage.

Clinical.

She’d known he’d held something back from her, but this brought home just how little she knew of him. Had anything in the last few days been real?

Yes. Her stupid heart cried bitterly. Those moments in his arms had been the most real thing she’d ever experienced.

But she pushed it away—sex. That was all it had been. Some stupid game. For whatever reason—and what the hell reason it could have been was utterly beyond her—he’d fabricated his entire life. And the thing was he’d done that right from the very beginning.

Why hadn’t he told her? He’d lied. And at no point had he withdrawn from that lie. The only thing that appeared to be true was that he was on holiday—but from his job in this city, as a damn doctor. Tears of shock and hurt, wounded pride and wounded heart sprang in her eyes. He must have thought she was such a fool. Why, why, why? When she’d been so honest with him?

Rhys worked alongside Melissa and Simon to make Katie comfortable. Grateful it was a team from his own hospital. He’d figured it would be. They were in his catchment area. Hadn’t allowed himself to even think of Sienna until now—needing to focus entirely on stabilising the situation. Needing to keep control of his own careering emotions. He always struggled when it was a younger patient. He always saw Theo’s eyes—the unmistakable plea for help, the light fading. This time he could help. This time it would be OK. But his heart still thundered and he kept the sweats at bay with a level of self-command that had taken some years to perfect.

He knew his control would be even more precarious if he stopped to think about what Sienna was making of it all. He’d been about to make a clean breast of it. Unable to hold back from her, wanting her to know the truth because he couldn’t stand it any more, he had needed to fix it. It had been such a stupid idea in the first place—making up a new name, a different job—and yet, he couldn’t wholly regret it.

But, damn, she’d just found out only half the truth in the most unfortunate way. He finally braved a glance her way. Saw her white face. Saw the furious hurt in her eyes.

He looked away again super quick. He wasn’t free from his duty yet and until he was he couldn’t work on Sienna.

He heard Melissa talking to the mother.

‘Don’t worry. She’s in great hands.’

Rhys flashed a silencing look but Melissa was in full reassurance mode, taking the woman’s arm and leading her to the open doors of the ambulance, her high tones carrying halfway across the park. ‘Your daughter was lucky to have the city’s best ER doctor on a walk in the park today. Dr Rhys is brilliant. She’s going to be just fine.’