Marion Lennox - Wildfire Island Docs - The Man She Could Never Forget / The Nurse Who Stole His Heart / Saving Maddie's Baby / A Sheikh to Capture Her Heart / The Fling That Changed Everything / A Child to Open Their Hearts

She paused, then added, ‘I understand Alkiri was a friend of yours and you’d really like to be there, but the foreman wants to show Sam and me the laboratories—showing off, I suppose—and Keanu’s doing the oration so he has to be there. Our second aide will be here with you. Her shift doesn’t begin until eight, but if there’s any problem at all, phone me or Sam—our cell numbers are by the phone in the main office.’

Caroline took it all in, and much as her heart longed to be there to say goodbye to Alkiri, she knew being left here was a sign of her acceptance. Lockhart or not, Hettie was trusting her.

What Caroline hadn’t realised was that the statement—‘Anahera is helping her mother with the celebration feast’—meant Vailea was not in the kitchen. Apparently, nurses here made and served breakfast to their patients when called upon to do so.

Vailea—bless her heart, or perhaps her organisational skills—had a list of all meals up on a corkboard near the door. Not only were the meal menus there, but they had the requisite ‘GF’ for gluten free, and a little heart beside ones suggested for heart patients.

Back to her patients—checking their notes: no dietary restrictions for either of them.

According to—

‘How are you doing?’

Keanu was there, right behind her.

‘I thought you were busy with the hangi,’ she said, needing to say something as an almost overwhelming rush of what could only be lust weakened her knees.

She was still feeling that lust thing?

He was married!

And he hadn’t told her.

Anyway, might he not be right about the dangers of attraction, which was just a weaker word for lust?

And shouldn’t she show some reaction to this information?

But what?

‘Too many cooks,’ he said lightly, and she had to grapple her way back through her thoughts to where the conversation had started. ‘I’m not needed until a lot later. I’m doing the oration.’

The lightness vanished from his voice with the last sentence, and yet again Caroline’s first instinct was to hug him.

But hugs led to—

Well, trouble.

Change the subject.

‘You’ve been down to check? They’ve got the fire going?’

He nodded, so close now she could see the smooth golden skin of his face—the strong chin he must have shaved extra-carefully this morning.

And being that close, he must be able to see she was having difficulty breathing.

She ducked behind a table, and he stood opposite her.

‘And?’

‘The women are hanging flower leis and putting huge baskets of leaves all around the place. It’s really beautiful, Caro.’

‘Sounds lovely but I’ve got to get breakfasts,’ she managed, although her mind was on the kiss they’d shared the previous evening, not bacon and eggs.

‘I know,’ he said, his voice husky, his eyes unreadable. ‘I really wanted to tell you I went down to see Reuben this morning just to confirm the order to close the mine.’

The broad shoulders that had felt so solid beneath her hands lifted in a shrug.

‘I said it was a health and safety issue and, as a doctor overseeing that, I had the authority to issue the shutdown notice.’

Caroline sighed.

‘That was silly. You’ve put yourself into the firing line of the workers’ anger now. They already hate the Lockhart name, so what harm could a little more hate do? And as it’s Ian’s fault that the mine’s in the state it’s in, it’s a Lockhart issue anyway.’

Keanu’s sigh was almost as deep as her own.

‘We’ll just have to wait and see,’ he said quietly. ‘Reuben’s going to get someone in from Atangi to fence the site and he was going to tell the small crew still working as soon as I was out of sight.’

‘So they wouldn’t rend you limb from limb?’ Caroline queried, although she couldn’t find even the slightest of smiles to go with the suggestion.

‘Probably,’ Keanu agreed. ‘But it’s done now, so that’s one less thing for you to worry about. Let’s get started on these breakfasts.’

He’d done it so she could stop worrying about it?

‘Weren’t you talking about making breakfasts?’

One word, and a practical one at that, yet tingles still ran down her spine.

‘Of course. I’ve only got two and shortly I’ll be down to one patient, but would you mind asking them what they fancy for breakfast? Vailea’s left a list—there’s scrambled, boiled or fried eggs, bacon, baked beans, toast and jam, and I think there’s cereal.’

‘I might have to have the lot to wake me up,’ he said before turning and walking out of the kitchen.

To wake him up?

It hadn’t been that late when they’d parted.

So, had he, like she, lain awake long into the night, rethinking the kiss?

Or had he been thinking about his marriage?

About his wife?

Though perhaps he’d been worried about the mine closure and his decision to be the one to tell Reuben? Kept awake by things that had nothing at all to do with the heated, almost desperate kiss and the discussion that had followed it.

FINDING THE RATHER large kitchen altogether too small to share with Caro, Keanu delivered the breakfast orders and departed, excusing himself by explaining he wanted to change the dressings on the Buruli ulcer, which was causing both him and Sam a lot of concern.

It wasn’t responding to the medication, the young lad was in severe pain and the flesh was continuing to deteriorate, as was the lad’s general condition.

‘Are you sure nothing got into it before you came in here?’ he asked as he deadened the area around the wound to clean it yet again.

‘Could have.’ A shrug strengthened the typical boy reply.

‘Like what?’ Keanu asked, but all he got that time was a shake of his head.

He put the new dressing on the wound, wrote up stronger painkillers and was departing when the young aide, having just started on duty, brought in the breakfast tray.

Time he was gone, yet his feet led him to the kitchen.

‘Hettie tells me she’ll be here just before ten so you can come down to the longhouse.’

All he got for a reply was a frown, although eventually she must have summoned up enough courage to speak.

‘I—um—I’m not sure, Keanu. I really don’t like funerals—even the island celebratory ones. I hate that people say all the nice things about someone after they’re dead and can’t hear them. Why don’t people tell them that stuff before they die?’

Keanu moved across the kitchen towards her and put his arms around her.

‘You did tell him, Caroline, when we sat with him before he died. He knew how much he meant to you and if you don’t want to come down, of course you shouldn’t. I guess Hettie just assumed you would want to.’

He felt her body rest against his and tension drain from it. He longed to kiss her, but now he knew where kisses led …

He shouldn’t have come close enough to touch her, let alone give her a hug, at least until they’d had time to talk about last night’s revelations. About how she felt, about whether it mattered at the moment that he was still married …

So he let his lips brush the soft, golden hair on the top of her head and eased away from her.

‘I’ll bring you some food later,’ he said, and got out of the place before the regret that he hadn’t kissed her overcame his common sense.

The longhouse was busier than he’d expected, and he could pick out people from every inhabited island in the group. The harbour down at the mine would be crowded with boats and the old truck would have been ferrying locals from there to the research station all morning.