Alison Roberts - Midwives On-Call

‘Because I don’t really like how I am around you, Isla. I don’t like it that even though you run so very cold, I still find myself hanging out for the occasional heat. I notice things about you that I would prefer not to. Like you don’t have sugar, like the day you told someone you were going to walk in your lunch break yet you never have. How you hold back on everyone and everything …’

‘I don’t.’

‘You do.’ Alessi glanced over as he drove her home. She was back to being unreadable, back to being cool and aloof and just everything that she hadn’t been last night, and he wanted her back.

‘We’re going out this afternoon,’ he said as they pulled up at her apartment.

‘I’ve got plans.’

‘Cancel them. I’ll pick you up at one.’

‘I might be out.’

‘Then I’ll be back at two.’

‘Alessi …’ Isla didn’t know what to make of this. ‘Last night—’

‘I don’t want to hear you regret it,’ Alessi interrupted, ‘or that it was something that shouldn’t have happened or that it was just a one-off. Get it into your head that I’m going to date you, Isla, and that starts today. I’m certainly not waiting until Monday to find out if you’re speaking to me or avoiding me.’

Isla let out a pale smile. ‘It would have been the latter.’

‘Which is why we are going out today. There is one thing we need to get straight though, Isla—I don’t cheat, and I expect the same from you.’ Her cheeks were on fire as he continued speaking. She knew he was referring to the night when she had practically offered to get off with him while Rupert and Amber had been back in the bar. ‘I don’t care what you got up to when you were with Rupert but if you are seeing me, then you are seeing only me. Do you get that?’

Isla nodded but her heart was heavy.

He really didn’t know her at all.

‘We have a companion,’ Alessi said, when Isla opened her door at one to find him there, holding Niko in his arms. ‘Allegra’s husband, Steve, is working and she called and asked if I would mind having Niko for the afternoon as she needs a break. She rarely asks …’

‘That’s fine.’ Isla smiled. ‘Hi, there, Niko.’

‘I thought we could go to the zoo,’ Alessi said, but he must have seen her startle. ‘You don’t like the zoo?’

‘I’ve never been,’ Isla admitted. ‘Actually, that’s not strictly true, I’ve been to a couple of dinners there and a wedding once. I’ve just never …’

‘Been to the zoo,’ Alessi finished for her. ‘Well, I have been many times. It’s Niko’s favorite place for me to take him.’

‘I’d better get changed,’ Isla said, because she’d put on a dress, assuming they would be going out for lunch.

‘Jeans?’

‘Shorts,’ Alessi said. ‘It will get hot walking around and, anyway, I like to see your legs.’

How could he manage to flirt while holding a three-year-old as well as offering to take her to the zoo, of all places?

It was hot and smelly and actually fun.

‘Oh, my … Isla fell in love with the orangutans, which was possibly to be expected, given her job, but the babies were so adorable.

‘They are as hairy as some of my premmies,’ Alessi said.

Isla glanced at him, hearing the genuine warmth in his voice.

‘Your premmies?’

‘Until they go home.’ Alessi nodded.

‘Wouldn’t that take its toll?’

‘Perhaps, but the night that my brother died it looked as if my parents might lose all three of us. There was a doctor there who stayed night after night and my parents always say that were it not for him, they could have gone home with no children.’

‘That’s your parents’ memory, Alessi,’ Isla said, ignoring the set of his jaw. It worried her, all the pressure that he put on himself. ‘I’m sure there were a whole lot of others who played their part.’

‘I don’t need to be told to delegate.’

‘Lucky you, then,’ Isla said, ignoring the edge to Alessi’s voice that told her this was out of bounds. ‘I’m constantly being reminded to delegate by my team. Anyway, I just hope your phone’s off, because I’ve never been to the zoo before and I might prove a terrible disappointment for Niko if you suddenly have to dash off.’

He gave a reluctant smile, which turned to a wry one an hour or so later when Jed rang through some results that Alessi was waiting for.

‘Thanks for letting me know,’ Alessi said. ‘Yes, just continue with the regime.’ As he ended the call Alessi looked over at Isla. ‘I’ll never turn my phone off.’

Isla just laughed. ‘Neither will I.’

They just wandered, eating ice cream and taking it in turns to push Niko in his stroller. ‘He gets tired,’ Alessi explained. ‘He’s walking so much better now but on days like today it’s better to bring the stroller along.’

‘How bad was he when he was born?’ Isla asked.

‘Bad enough that we thought he might not make it,’ he said. ‘Allegra was very sick, too. It was a terrible time. My parents …’ He was quiet for a moment. ‘I think it brought a lot back for them.’

‘About your brother?’

Alessi nodded but then tried to turn the conversation a little lighter. ‘God, could you imagine the pressure if anything had happened to Allegra?’

‘Pressure?’

‘“Do your homework, Alessi, your brother would have loved the chance. When are you going to get married …?”’ He rolled his eyes. ‘“Your brother would have loved that chance, too!”’ He gave a wry smile. ‘Thankfully Allegra and Steve have taken some of that heat off by marrying and having Niko. Don’t get me wrong, I love my parents but they make it clear that I’m not doing all the things a good Greek son should.’

‘Well, I don’t do all the things that a good Delamere girl should.’

‘Such as?’ Alessi asked as they headed towards the elephants and he took Niko out of the stroller and put him onto his shoulders.

‘Such as being a midwife. My parents thought I should study medicine, like my sister. It caused a lot of rows. Even when I got the position of head midwife my father suggested I’d be better off heading to medical school. Finally, though, he seems to get that it’s not a hobby.’

‘Don’t you get on with them?’

‘Oh, I do,’ Isla said. ‘We’ve had our differences. My midwifery for one, and that they were pretty absent when we were growing up. I get on much better with them now that I’m an adult. I can understand better why, now—their charity work is really important.’

‘Family is more so.’

‘I agree,’ Isla said. ‘I guess it’s all about balance. My parents didn’t have that, it was all or nothing for them.’

They stopped at the elephants. A calf had recently been born and there was quite a crowd gathered. ‘Imagine delivering that,’ Isla grinned.

‘You love your job, don’t you?’ Alessi said, feeling more than a touch guilty at his assumption that her father had paved her way—clearly she’d had to fight to get where she was.

‘I do.’

‘Did you always want to be a midwife?’

‘Not always,’ Isla said, but didn’t elaborate. She just watched as the little calf peeked out from between his mother’s legs.

‘I love the elephants,’ Alessi said into the silence. ‘I like the way they always remember.’

‘I hate the way they always remember,’ Isla said.

‘Why?’

‘Because some things are best forgotten.’

‘Such as?’ Alessi asked.

She turned and gave a weak smile but shook her head. She simply didn’t know how to tell him or how to answer his questions about when she had decided to be a midwife. At what point did you hand over your heart, your past? At what point did you reveal others’ secrets?