CAROL MARINELLI - Hot Single Docs - Waiting For You - St Piran's - Prince on the Children's Ward

‘Rumour is you’re looking for a nurse so you can escape from this place.’

‘In this case rumour is correct.’ But he was starting to wonder whether being trapped at home with a star-struck nurse who called him Your Highness every two minutes might not be just as irritating as being in hospital.

‘I can’t imagine who would want the job. As temperaments go, yours is pretty volatile.’

‘Once I’m out of here my temper will be just fine. Josh promised to find me a nurse by the end of the day. Do you know if he’s had any luck?’

‘Depends on your definition of luck.’ She picked up the phone that he’d slung on the bedcover. ‘You shouldn’t be using this in the hospital. It’s breaking the rules.’

‘So I’ve been told. Trouble is, I’ve never been much good with rules.’

Her beautiful mouth flickered into a tiny smile of mutual understanding. ‘That’s one thing we have in common, then. But while you’re in here, you have to behave.’

‘Discharge me and I’ll behave. So—has he found me a nurse?’

‘Not a nurse, exactly.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean? I have to have someone who knows what they’re talking about. And preferably someone who doesn’t call me Your Highness at the end of every sentence.’ He needed to get out of here before lying here trapped with his own thoughts drove him crazy. He needed distraction.

Tasha lifted her head. Her gaze connected with his. ‘I know what I’m talking about. And I have no intention of calling you Your Highness.’

‘You?’ Alessandro felt shock thud through his gut. ‘You’re a children’s doctor.’ She was also someone he’d carefully avoided for over a decade.

‘I’m a doctor. My speciality just happens to be children. But I have all the skills necessary to assist your rehabilitation. I can nag you to do your exercises, throw away the junk food and make sure you take lots of healing early nights—’ humour lightened her voice ‘—on your own. I’ve never been anyone’s nurse before but I’m a quick study.’

His mouth felt dry but he was in too much pain to try and reach for his glass again. ‘You’re offering to nurse me?’

‘We’re old friends, Alessandro. It’s the least I can do.’ Her smile was warm and genuine, so why did he feel so uneasy?

Something didn’t feel right.

He decided that this was one of those occasions that merited the direct approach. ‘You and I, we didn’t exactly part on good terms.’

‘No. You were a complete bastard,’ she said frankly, ‘but that was a long time ago. I was at an impressionable age. Do you honestly think I’m still bothered about something that happened almost ten years ago? That would be ridiculous, don’t you think?’

Would it?

He looked at her for a long moment, his eyes searching out the true sentiment behind the lightly spoken words. ‘Tasha—’

She leaned towards him, mockery in her gaze. ‘I was seventeen years old. I had no taste, and I was overwhelmed by the fact that you were a prince. And now we’ve got that out of the way, can we just forget it? No girl should be made to feel embarrassed about the foolish crushes she had as a teenager. So what do you say, Alessandro? Am I hired?’

* * *

Josh opened the front door of his house, his mood swerving between elation and guilt.

He tried to push the guilt back where it belonged.

His marriage to Rebecca was over. She was the one who had called time on their relationship and moved out. They’d wanted different things. Right through their relationship, they’d wanted different things.

As he hung up his jacket Megan’s fragrance engulfed him, wrapping him in memories.

Maybe he’d moved on a bit quickly, but he was human, and when it came to Megan...

Just thinking about her lifted his mood, and he closed the front door, relieved that Tasha had refused his invitation to come home with him. He needed time to think, but already his mind was racing ahead, thinking of the future. He wanted Megan here, with him, all the time. He wanted to laugh with her over a meal, he wanted to sleep with her and wake up with her. They were adults, weren’t they? He was past the age of wanting to creep around like a teenager. Snatched moments in the on-call room would never be enough for him. He knew what he wanted now.

He wanted Megan. In his life. For ever.

Energised by a certainty he’d never felt before, Josh checked his phone, hoping to find a message from her, but there was nothing and he was surprised by the strength of the disappointment that thudded through him.

Had she gone back to sleep after he’d received the call that his sister was in the department? He imagined her still lying there, in sheets tangled from the heat of their loving, dreaming about what they’d shared.

Was she planning even as he was planning?

Pondering that question, he threw his keys on the table, feeling lighter than he had in months. Smiling slightly, he retrieved the post from the floor and strolled into the kitchen, lured by the promise of strong coffee.

‘Hello, Josh.’ Rebecca sat there, her beautiful face pale, her eyes sharp with accusation.

Reality slapped his dreams in the face.

Josh felt the lightness evaporate and a sick dread that he couldn’t identify settled around him like a dark cloak. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I’m your wife, Josh.’ Her tone was brittle. ‘This is still my home.’

Guilt churned inside him. It was hard to remember they’d ever been close. Hard to remember that once they’d chosen each other.

‘Where were you last night?’

He bit back the urge to tell her to mind her own business. ‘At the hospital. It’s where I work.’

‘But you weren’t working, were you? And don’t bother lying to me because I phoned the hospital to ask where you were.’ She gave a thin smile. ‘Consultant’s wife’s privileges. No one knew where you were, but they did know you weren’t on duty.’

Josh felt as though the walls of the house were closing in on him. Moments ago his future had seemed so clear. Now all he saw was murky black. ‘Rebecca—’

‘Am I supposed to be grateful that you didn’t have sex with her in our bed?’ Her fury snapped chunks out of the fragile remains of their relationship. ‘Who is she, Josh? And don’t bother denying there’s someone else because I can see it in your eyes.’

It wasn’t just in his eyes. It was in his heart. It was all through him and it gave him strength to do the right thing. To fight.

Josh straightened his shoulders. ‘There is someone. You and I—our relationship is over, Rebecca. We’ve agreed that, and—’

‘I’m pregnant.’

The silence in the room was absolute. It was as if the words had stopped time but he knew it wasn’t the case because the hands of the kitchen clock were still moving.

Pregnant. A baby.

Josh felt strangely detached. The words floated through his numb brain but didn’t settle. Pregnant. It was as if he was outside himself, looking in. And then reality punched him in the gut. Denial burst to the surface, driven by a desperate need to hold onto the dream. ‘No.’ The word was dragged from deep inside him. ‘You can’t be. That isn’t possible.’

‘Why? Because it isn’t convenient for you? Because it isn’t what you want?’ Her voice rose. ‘I’ve got news for you, Josh. Babies don’t always come along at the most convenient moment in your life.’

He knew that. Just hours ago Megan had finally confirmed that the baby she’d lost so traumatically eight years earlier had been his—a cruel epilogue to the night both of them had spent in hell. His decision to save Megan’s life all those years before had cost her a child. Their child. The knowledge intensified a guilt and pain that had never left him.