Читать книгу Midwives On-Call - Алисон Робертс - Страница 19

ISLA WOKE TO the roaming of his hands.

There was a moment of bliss as instinct told her to roll towards him or just lie there and relish the slow exploration, to kiss him as she wanted to, and then she remembered the sheer recklessness of last night.

It was Alessi who addressed it.

‘You owe Blake and Christine an apology,’ Alessi said to her ear as he kissed it. ‘It is possible to get too carried away.’

‘It’s fine,’ Isla said, and somehow her voice sounded together. ‘I’ve got it covered.’

He would assume, of course, that this good-time girl would have contraception all taken care of, especially as she was a midwife.

Isla closed her eyes on sudden tears.

What the hell would he say if he knew she’d been a virgin until last night, that she wasn’t even on the Pill?

Isla was starting to panic, not that she would let him see.

‘I have to go.’ She rolled over and gave him a smile.

‘Now?’

‘Now.’ Isla nodded.

‘Hey … His hand was on her shoulder as she sat up. ‘There’s no need to rush off.’

But there was.

She had to get home.

She had to think.

And so she climbed from the bed and headed out to the lounge, where her clothes lay strewn.

‘I’ll drive you,’ Alessi said as she pulled on her dress.

The embarrassment of getting a taxi in last night’s clothes was the only reason she agreed.

Alessi made do with last night’s clothes also and the lack of conversation in the car had him rolling his eyes. ‘I knew that you’d do this,’ he said as he pulled up at a café.

‘Do what?’

Alessi gave a mirthless laugh and got out and Isla sat there, watching him order coffee through the café window. Next door the shutters were going up on a pharmacy. Once home she could go and get the morning-after pill, Isla thought, and then closed her eyes because she knew that she wouldn’t. She had nothing against others taking it, it just wasn’t for her.

She sat there, telling herself she was overreacting, that she couldn’t be pregnant, except her assurances had the same ring to her as her teenage mums’ did.

She was twenty-eight!

Damn you, Alessi, Isla thought as he walked back to the car carrying coffee. Damn you for making me lose my head.

Not just last night but this morning, too, for she wanted more of him. She wanted that grim mouth to smile, she wanted his kiss and to be back in his bed, she wanted more of whatever it was they’d found.

‘Here.’ He handed her a coffee and Isla took a sip and screwed up her face.

‘I don’t take sugar.’

‘How the hell would I know?’ Alessi said as he started the engine. ‘Because you don’t communicate …’

Her shoulders moved as she let out a small involuntary laugh. ‘Did you plan that?’

‘I did.’ He glanced over and gave her a smile. ‘I actually know that you don’t take sugar so I asked them to put in three.

‘What’s your address?’ he asked, and after she had given it to him he resumed the conversation. ‘Do you know how I know that you don’t take sugar?’

Isla said nothing, just stared ahead as he answered his own question.

‘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?

Isla didn’t know.

‘He’s getting tired,’ Alessi said as he lowered Niko from his shoulders. ‘We’ll take him to see his favourite thing and then get him home.’

‘What is Niko’s favourite thing?’ Isla asked, glad for the change in subject.

It was the meerkats!

Niko hung over the edge of the barrier, shrieking with laughter every time they stood up and froze, calling out to ‘‘Lessi’ to watch.

‘Look at that one,’ Alessi said to Niko. ‘He’s on lookout while the others dig for food.’

Niko didn’t care if he was on lookout; he just laughed and laughed till in the end so, too, were Isla and Alessi.

It was fun.

Just a fun day out and Isla hadn’t had too many of those. She finally felt as if she was being herself, only it was a new self, someone she had never been—someone who was honest and open, except for the lies she had promised to keep.

At six, Alessi strapped an already fast asleep Niko into his car seat. ‘Hopefully he will stay that way till tomorrow,’ he said. ‘I’ll get him home and then we can go and get some dinner.’

‘Won’t it look odd if I’m with you?’ Isla asked.

‘Odd?’ Alessi checked.

‘For Allegra, seeing me out with you …’

‘I’m not going to hide you around the corner and pretend that I’ve spent the day with Niko alone. Anyway, he’s three, he’s going to tell her that you were there.’

‘I guess.’ There was a flutter in her stomach as they pulled up at Allegra’s house, but thankfully Alessi didn’t put her through the torture of coming up to the door when Isla said that she’d prefer to wait for him in the car.

‘I’ll just carry him up the stairs and put him into bed,’ Alessi said. ‘I won’t be long.’

Famous last words.

‘Is that Isla in the car?’ Allegra asked as she let him in.

‘It is.’

‘Alessi …’ Allegra started, but didn’t elaborate until Niko was tucked up in bed and the bedroom door was closed behind him.

‘What?’ Alessi said. He’d heard the note of reprimand in his sister’s voice when she’d seen who was in the car. ‘It’s no big deal.’

‘Well, it is to me,’ Allegra said. ‘Can you try and not break up with this one before I have the baby. I don’t want any bad feelings …’

‘There won’t be any bad feelings,’ Alessi said. ‘Isla would never involve you like that …’ Then he halted, because he’d lied. It was starting to feel like a big deal. ‘Anyway, I have no intention of breaking things up.’

Allegra gave a slightly disbelieving snort. ‘The baby’s still four weeks off, Alessi.’

‘I know.’

Allegra paused at the bottom of the stairs and turned and looked at her brother, who she loved very much. ‘Four weeks would be an all-time record,’ Allegra said. ‘Well, not an all-time …’ Her voice trailed off. She didn’t think the mention of Talia’s name would be particularly welcome here. ‘I like Isla.’

‘I do, too.’ Alessi admitted. ‘Yes, perhaps it would be more sensible to wait till the baby is born but …’ He gave a small shrug. ‘I’d already waited for nearly a year.’

He had.

Alessi said goodbye to his sister and then headed back to the car. A part of him wanted to turn and retract what he’d said to his sister—push the genie back in the bottle—yet he did really like Isla.

He more than liked her, in fact.

It was a rather new feeling to have.

‘Right.’ Alessi climbed into the driver’s seat. ‘Do you want to go for dinner?’

‘I do.’ Isla smiled. ‘I’m actually starving.’

‘Name where you want to go, then,’ Alessi said. ‘I picked the zoo so it’s your turn to choose.’

Isla thought for a moment. ‘We could go to Geo’s. I hear they’ve got a new menu.’

‘Geo’s?’ Alessi frowned but then screwed up his nose. ‘Maybe we could try somewhere else …’

‘Why?’ Isla pushed. ‘You’re Greek and I love Greek food and they do the best in Melbourne.’

‘We’ll never get a booking this time on a Sunday night.’

‘I will,’ Isla said.

‘They have a dress code,’ Alessi pointed out.

‘Not for me …’ She halted then. Geo’s was one of the best Greek restaurants in Melbourne and it was booked out ages in advance, just not for the likes of Isla. She could feel the tension in the car and guessed it was thanks to her latest arrogant remark. God, she’d suggested a seriously expensive restaurant in the same way she’d asked for champagne the first night they’d met.

‘Don’t make me feel pretentious, Alessi.’

‘I’m not.’

‘Actually, you are.’

He could have driven off, Alessi realised, simply left it at that. Instead, he left the engine idling and told her the truth. ‘Geo’s is actually my parents’ restaurant, Isla.’ He watched as her eyes widened in surprise and then he surprised himself and let out the handbrake. ‘Let’s go there.’

‘Alessi.’ Isla let out a nervous laugh. ‘I honestly didn’t know. I don’t want to make things awkward for you.’

‘Why would be it awkward?’ he said, while determined not to make it so.

The restaurant was packed and heads turned as Alessi led her through. Isla was acutely aware that she was wearing shorts and runners, especially when a woman, who had to be his mother, came over and gave her son a kiss.

‘This is Isla,’ Alessi introduced them. ‘She’s a friend from work and we have just taken Niko to the zoo. Isla, this is my mother, Yolanda.’

‘Come upstairs,’ Yolanda said. ‘Introduce Isla …’

‘We’re going to eat downstairs,’ Alessi said firmly, and guided Isla to a table near the back. And as they took a seat he explained. ‘If I take you upstairs then I’d have to marry you,’ he teased.

‘Downstairs it is, then.’

The food was amazing—even if Yolanda did tend to hover. Isla could hear laughter from upstairs. It was clear that Alessi had a huge extended family and a couple of them stopped by, greeting Isla warmly.

‘Your family are close,’ Isla said.

‘Very,’ Alessi agreed, and then told her a little about how the restaurant had started. ‘We started getting more and more orders for catering. People would bring in their own dishes and ask my mother to make her moussaka in them so that they could pass them off as their own. Once we had finished school my parents were ready to take the gamble so the café was closed and Geo’s opened. Upstairs is all for family. Downstairs is the main restaurant.’

‘Do you come here a lot?’

‘I try to drop in once a week,’ Alessi said, ‘maybe once a fortnight if things are busy at work.’

‘And have you ever taken anyone upstairs?’ Isla smiled, more than a little nosy where Alessi was concerned.

‘One person.’

The smile was wiped from her face as she heard the serious note in his voice. ‘You remember Talia from school?’

Isla nodded.

‘We started going out when she first went to med school.’

‘How long were you going out for?’ Isla asked, and his response caught her by surprise.

‘Two years.’

‘Oh.’ She’d always thought Alessi kept his relationships short-term. ‘That’s a long time.’

‘Especially by Greek standards,’ Alessi said, and took a breath. He never went into the past with women but he was starting to hope for more of a future with Isla, and for Alessi that meant being honest. ‘We were about to get engaged. Neither my parents nor hers have ever forgiven me for calling it off.’

‘You were young.’ Isla tried to keep things light. ‘Surely that’s better if you weren’t sure you were ready.’

‘I was ready,’ Alessi said, and watched as Isla’s glass paused just a little before she placed it on the table. He was close to sharing, closer than he had ever been. He liked her take on things, he actually respected her directness and the slight detachment that came from Isla. She offered a rare perspective and he wanted more of that now. ‘Apart from the reunion, do you keep in touch with Talia?’ Alessi asked.

‘A bit,’ she said. ‘Just social networks and things … Why?’ She smiled. ‘Do you still have a thing for her?’

‘God, no,’ Alessi said. It was the truth.

He looked at Isla—the fact that she and Talia were loosely in touch was enough of a reason not to tell her the truth about that time.

Or an excuse not to.

Isla would never break a confidence, he knew that.

Alessi knew then how serious he was about Isla because in more than a decade he had never once come close to telling another woman the truth behind that time.

But not here.

Not yet.

‘How serious did you and Rupert get?’ Alessi asked. ‘Did you ever speak of marriage?’

‘No.’ Isla let out a short laugh. ‘Rupert and I …’

Alessi watched as she suddenly took great interest in the dessert menu, which two minutes ago Isla had declined, and he was suddenly glad he hadn’t revealed all.

Yes, he knew her a bit better but despite her apparent ease, Isla still revealed very little. ‘Shall we go?’ Alessi suggested, and Isla nodded.

‘It seems strange not to have to wait for the bill.’

‘We still have to account for our time.’ Alessi smiled and rolled his eyes as his mother made her way over, insisting that they come upstairs for coffee, but Alessi declined.

‘I have work at seven,’ he said, determined not to let his family push things, while determined not to hide. ‘So does Isla.’

He drove her back to her apartment and they chatted along the way. ‘Do you miss Isabel?’ Alessi asked.

‘I do,’ Isla said, ‘though it sounds as if she’s having an amazing time in Cambridge …’

‘How come she went?’ Alessi asked. ‘It was quite sudden.’

‘It just came up,’ Isla said, and gave him the same answer that she had to Sean. ‘Who wouldn’t kill for twelve months’ secondment in England?’

‘It had nothing to do with Sean?’

‘Sean?’

‘I just picked up on something.’ Alessi glanced over. ‘When he first started, I was down on MMU and Isabel was blushing and avoiding him as much as you would have avoided me tomorrow had I not dragged you out today …’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

She did, Alessi was sure, but her trust was worth his patience and so he kissed her instead.

His kiss was more intimate than last night, Isla thought. It tasted not so much of passion but of promise and possibility. His mouth was more familiar and yet more intriguing because it pushed her further along a path she had never been on with a man.

Here they could end their amazing weekend.

Right now she could climb out of the car and go up to her apartment. Both of them could gather their thoughts, ready to resume normal service on Monday.

It was Isla who pulled back. ‘I don’t want anyone at work to know …’

‘Of course,’ Alessi said, and then guessed the reason they were still in his car, rather than her asking him up. ‘Oh, yes, you share with Darcie.’ He hesitated, wondering if asking her back to his for a second night was too much, too soon, yet it was Isla’s boldness that took him by delighted surprise.

‘She’s on call tonight.’

It was new, it was delicious, it was a weekend that didn’t have to end just yet as Isla invited him just a little bit further into her life.