Susan Carlisle - A Forever Family - Their Miracle Child

‘Have you had dinner yet?’ Mitchell asked Jade as she was leaving NICU for her tea break.

‘Heading there now. I have an hour, so I intend to put my feet up and grab a wrap or a salad in the cafeteria.’

‘I’ve got a better idea,’ Mitchell said as the elevator doors opened and they both stepped inside. ‘A little Italian restaurant across the road. They serve the best pasta and they do it quickly. They know we don’t have much time. It’s delicious and just like being in Italy.’

Jade was surprised by the invitation but it happened so quickly she didn’t have time to refuse. Or think it through. Perhaps that was a good thing, she surmised as they stood at the traffic lights a minute later, waiting to cross the main road as darkness was falling.

‘I should have asked if you like Italian food,’ he said after a minute or two. ‘I guess I just assumed everyone does.’

‘You guessed right with me, I love Italian.’

The meal came out quickly and they were halfway to finishing their risottos when Mitchell decided to tell her about the pool and what he’d seen. He had been thinking it over since it had happened and had decided that he wanted and needed to be honest with Jade. He had no intention of embarrassing her but he felt she had the right to know.

He just wasn’t entirely sure how to raise it.

‘You seem quiet suddenly,’ Jade commented as she pushed the risotto around with her fork. She was borderline full but searching for more of the tasty grilled chicken pieces. The herbs were amazing and Mitchell was right, the food was great.

‘There was something I wanted to tell you,’ Mitchell began, and then hesitated. He wasn’t sure how Jade would react but he hoped she might see the humorous side of it. He had definitely not taken advantage of the situation by looking back at her after the initial shock sighting.

‘Go on,’ she urged as she gave up on trying to fit in any more food and just sipped on her iced water.

Mitchell took a nervous sip of his own water. ‘The other morning, I came to the house to assemble the sound system. Arthur had no clue how to put it together so he asked me to do it.’

Jade had no idea where the conversation was heading and why Mitchell thought there was a need to tell her about his handyman work. ‘Was this when you served me breakfast in bed with Amber?’

‘Yes.’

‘So did you get it done before I woke up?’

He drew a deep breath and continued. ‘No, it was later in the morning.’

‘But I was home all morning after Maureen and Arthur took Amber out, and I didn’t see you,’ she returned with a puzzled look.

‘No, you didn’t see me, but I saw you sun-baking by the pool.’

Embarrassment hit and Jade put her hand to her mouth and closed her eyes for a moment. ‘I thought there was no one home or I would never have gone out in the sun like that.’

‘I just wanted to say that I looked away as soon as I realised what you were doing. Your secret’s safe with me but I wanted us to have a level of honesty. I didn’t want to keep it from you.’

‘What I was doing? What are you talking about? I was sun-baking … that’s all. You hardly had to avert your eyes, I’m sure you’ve seen it a million times before.’

Mitchell stared at Jade with a puzzled look. She was so casual about sunbathing naked and it took him by surprise.

‘Hardly a million,’ he remarked.

‘There were so many bikinis on the beach the other day.’

‘Yes, there were, but you chose not to wear one and … and that’s okay …’

‘What on earth are you talking about?’ she cut in abruptly. Her eyes were wide and completed her horrified expression. ‘I was wearing a bikini.’

‘Not by the time I got there,’ he told her. ‘I walked to the shed to get some tools and when I closed the door I saw you lying there on the sun lounge with nothing on. I dropped the tools, picked them up and left.’

Jade sat up in her chair and wiped the corners of her mouth with the white napkin. ‘I don’t know whose house you were in, but it couldn’t have been the same one as me because I had on a string bikini. I have to admit it isn’t something I would parade around Amber but it’s all I had and I wanted to enjoy the sun. Clearly, you don’t know me very well to think for a moment I sunbathe in the nude.’ Jade dropped her voice to barely a whisper. ‘It’s not what I’d do.’

Jade thought back to her wildest days and even then she would have drawn the line at that.

‘Jade, we’ve only known each other for three days, so I can’t say I really know much about you at all. What I do know is that you’re a brilliant nurse, amazing with both the parents and the neonates, and you’ve done an amazing job of bringing up Amber. She’s a sweetheart and she adores and depends on you. I’m not about to judge you for skinny-dipping. In fact, quite the opposite,’ he said with a twinkle in his eye.

‘In your parents’ pool … that would be so wrong.’

‘My family owes you so much for how you have raised Amber and been there for her every step of the way. Honestly, Jade, after what you’ve done for our family you can pretty much do anything you want and get away with it.’

‘You can stop right there. It’s been hard at times but she is a joy and so precious and I couldn’t imagine a day without her,’ Jade told him. ‘But no matter how grateful your family might be, I wouldn’t overstep the mark and skinny-dip in their pool … ever. Stripping down to a bikini is a stretch for me, let alone running around the pool naked.’

Mitchell smiled but wasn’t sure why she wouldn’t wear a bikini around Amber. It was Australia and the twenty-first century so there was no reason that she couldn’t, and from what he had seen there was absolutely no reason for her not to wear one. Maybe she was telling the truth. Maybe she had been wearing a swimsuit and his eyes had misled him.

‘What colour is your bikini?’

‘It’s kind of skin-coloured Lycra. You could call it nude. Maybe you should check your distance vision.’

‘Damn, maybe I should,’ Mitchell said, laughing. ‘If only I’d known that you were wearing a swimsuit, I would’ve stopped and focused. But, Jade, I must say from my brief glance you looked stunning.’

Jade felt her cheeks redden with the compliment. She knew Mitchell really had looked away quickly. He was a gentleman. If he had stopped to look at her he would have quickly seen she’d been wearing a bikini so decency really had made him look the other way in a hurry.

Although now she felt quite self-conscious that he had seen her in the skimpy swimsuit and she felt the need to explain why she had been wearing something so at odds with her normal dress code.

‘I haven’t worn it in years. I don’t think it’s the right image any more, particularly around a little girl. I think Amber would prefer to see me in something a bit more respectable.’

Mitchell did not break eye contact as he looked at his dinner companion and the woman who was slowly claiming more than his attention. She was getting closer each day to claiming his heart. ‘I would have to disagree with you on that one, Jade. I’m sure Amber would think her aunty looked gorgeous in a bikini. I know I did.’

THE CALL CAME through from the Royal Flying Doctor Service just as Jade was scrubbing in the next afternoon. It was her last shift for the week, then she would have four days off with Amber to visit the zoo and have a birthday picnic.

‘I can leave immediately,’ Mitchell said as he saw the paediatric consultant scrubbing in. He knew NICU would be well covered. ‘Do you have the gestational age?’

‘Around thirty-four weeks.’