Marion Lennox - The Doctor & the Runaway Heiress

‘Luce, this is brilliant. Pippa says six centimetres, and you remember the book? Every time it hurts you’re opening up a bit more. Every time it hurts it means your baby’s closer. That contraction was awesome. You’re awesome.’

It was amazing for both of them, Riley thought. For all of them. For Lucy had a team second to none.

She had Adam, whose love for her was transparent. She had Amy, who was even younger than Lucy but wise for her years and whose assistance now could, Riley sensed, validate and direct Amy’s existence for the rest of her life. And she had Pippa, preparing warmed towels, organising the sterilised equipment she’d sent him over to the hospital to fetch, overseeing her little team…

Pippa looked happy.

She was a woman he hardly knew. A woman of independent wealth, British, straight from the English class system he’d thought he loathed.

He’d made love to her out of need. Her need.

But…

As he watched through the window, as he saw her smile, chuckle, give steady encouragement, he knew things had changed. She was wearing jeans and T-shirt. Her feet were bare. Her hair was wet from her shower…

She was beautiful.

He thought of her down the crevice and he felt himself shudder.

‘Hey, it’s okay.’ Jason put his hand on his shoulder, searching to comfort. ‘She’ll be great. She’s got my Amy and your Pippa helping her through. You gotta trust women, mate. Amy says if I toe the line we can get married. How awesome’s that? To have your own woman… And Amy…’ He glanced in at his Amy. ‘I mean… not that Pippa’s not great. She is. But it’s one woman for every guy, right? Look at Adam. He’s in a blue funk now ’cos of Lucy. Look at me. I’ve even got a job. I’ll even come to the city to help her if she wants to train as a nurse. And you… what would you give up for Pippa?’

He and Pippa weren’t a couple. He should explain. But there was no time for explanation. Lucy hit full roar in mid-contraction. There wasn’t space for a reply and it was just as well.

But the question stayed.

What would he give up for Pippa?

What would he gain?

‘You’re so close.’ The labour had moved fast-five hours from the first contraction and now she was fully into second stage. Youth, Pippa thought. Emotionally, young mums had it hard, but physically they had so much going for them. Lucy was practically shooting this baby out.

‘I can see the head,’ she told her. ‘Adam, do you want to help deliver your baby? Amy, can you support Lucy’s shoulders so she can see?’

‘Awesome,’ Amy breathed. ‘Lucy, you’re fabulous. Do you want your dad to see?’ She hesitated. ‘And… Jason didn’t see my Riley born. Lucy, would you mind…?’

‘You can bring in the whole bloody army as long as they stay up my end of the bed,’ Lucy moaned. ‘Oooooohhhh…’

‘Nearly there,’ Pippa said. ‘One more push.’

‘Get my dad,’ Lucy yelled, suddenly desperate. ‘I need my Adam and I need my dad. Oooooooowwwwwww…’

So after eighteen years of not being permitted to do a thing for her, he was there beside his daughter as she gave birth. Riley knelt at the head of the settee, supporting Lucy’s shoulders as she saw her baby born, and he didn’t feel like a doctor at all.

One more push and the head slipped into view. Pippa was there, with warmed towels, warming the tiny head even before the shoulder came out.

‘Stay underneath with the towels,’ she told Adam as a last massive contraction ripped through.

And so, as Amy and Riley held Lucy up to see, Riley’s grandchild slipped into the world, to be caught by Adam, who looked like the sky had opened to reveal the secret of the heavens.

‘What…? What…?’ Lucy gasped as Adam gazed down in awe and Pippa did a fast check of the baby’s airway, making sure that everything was in working order. ‘What is it?’

‘Look for yourself,’ Riley growled, and felt a bit… a bit like Adam looked.

‘I have a boy. Oh, I have a boy!’ Lucy burst into tears. And then… ‘Ohhh…’

For Pippa was quietly directing Adam, showing him what to do, and Adam was settling his tiny son onto Lucy’s breast. The tiny baby hadn’t made a sound, but his eyes were wide open, wondering, and now…

He stirred and wriggled, skin against skin against his mother’s breast. Without prompting, Adam carefully guided the little mouth to where it needed to be.

He found what he was looking for. His tiny mouth centred-and Riley’s grandson found his home.

And Riley’s world shifted once more. He glanced up and saw Pippa’s eyes filled with unshed tears-and maybe his were the same.

His grandson had arrived into his family.

His family.

It was almost midnight before they ate their fish, and for all of them it was a truly memorable meal.

Jason and Amy cooked the fish. Pippa produced a salad. Riley found some chocolate biscuits.

You could spend thousands on a meal and not get better, Riley decided. They were all out on the veranda. The boys had lifted Lucy’s settee, Lucy and all, out where she could see the luminescence of moonlight off the ocean. She ate her fish and her chocolate biscuits-she was starving. She had a little name discussion with Adam, then she snuggled down to sleep, her baby beside her.

Adam watched their baby as if it was only he who stood between his son and all the threats of a dangerous outside world.

Adam had grown ten years in this afternoon, Riley thought. He’d make a good partner for his daughter.

He’d be a son-in-law to be proud of.

Part of a family to be proud of?

Until the meal was ended there were things to do, but now… Amy and Jason were snoozing on the sun loungers. Soon they’d roll into bed. Both babies were asleep.

‘I’m going to the beach,’ Pippa said abruptly. She’d been carrying stuff into the kitchen. Now she came out and walked straight down the steps to the garden. ‘See you later.’

He let her go. He was feeling… discombobulated.

His grandson was right beside him. He was thirty-eight years old and he felt a hundred.

He was watching Pippa in the moonlight.

She was wealthy. English. Good family.

He was a guy from the wrong side of the tracks. He was a guy who’d had a kid at nineteen, who was a grandpa at thirty-eight.

Pippa reached the gate leading down to the beach and he realised with a shock that she was no longer wearing jeans. She was wearing a sarong.

He’d seen it before. She wore it over swimmers.

‘You’re not going swimming?’

‘I won’t go out of my depth.’

‘What about night-feeders?’

‘I’ve painted my nails with Anti-Chew. Precautions R Us. You going to sit on the veranda for the rest of the night… Grandpa?’

Grandpa… The word still had him stunned.

She chuckled, she tossed her towel over her shoulder and she headed down the cliff path.

Grandpa.

Family.

Pippa.

CONTRARY to what she’d told Riley, Pippa had no faith at all in Anti-Chew. She consequently had no intention at all to bathe in the ocean.

There was, however, a rock pool at the edge of the cove. It was a naturally formed ring of rocks. At high tide the waves washed over it, meaning it was full of clear seawater. At low tide-now-there was an almost eighteen-inch rim of rock. The pool was five feet deep at the most. There was no way night feeders could get in. It was safe and she needed to swim.

It had been one incredible day. First Mickey. Then Lucy’s baby. And watching Riley…

His face had been changing all day. It was like he was fighting some desperate internal war, and he wasn’t winning.

She’d fallen in love with him.

How had she ever thought she could marry Roger? Oh, if she had…

She shuddered and dived into the rock pool. The water was cooler than she’d thought it would be, fresh from the sea, and she shuddered again.

She decided to swim and stop thinking.

The thoughts wouldn’t stop.

Riley.

Could she stay on at Whale Cove if he didn’t want her love?

He’d made it plain that he didn’t. Lucy was hauling him into family whether he liked it or not, but to have a needy, besotted nurse at his side as well…

‘It’s not going to happen,’ she told herself, and then she thought of how she’d felt that morning, on the rock, clinging to Mickey, clinging to Riley.

Feeling like… if she died now at least she’d known Riley. At least she’d had one night.

‘I want more nights,’ she said out loud, and started doing laps, up and down the length of the rock pool. She was tired to the bone, but she also knew she wouldn’t sleep. She might as well exhaust herself properly.

What would she do?

She wanted to stay here. She wanted to be part of this community, this job, but how much was the job and how much was Riley?

Tonight had been magic. Friends, family, kids, babies, barbecues at midnight, no clear delineation between work and home, saving Mickey, waving her fish from the helicopter, loving Riley…

She almost sobbed, only it was hard to sob when she had her head down, swimming hard. She closed her eyes and let the darkness envelop her.

Something touched her foot.

She pretty near had a palsy stroke. A night feeder…

She whirled in the water to face whatever it was, expecting teeth-and two hands landed on her shoulders, holding her up. Riley’s voice growled into the night.

‘I thought you’d have learned your lesson about night swimming.’

She’d whirled too fast. She had a mouthful of water. She spluttered and choked and it took a couple of moments before she could breathe properly, let alone reply. But finally…

‘If I’d died of fright,’ she said, with as much dignity as she could muster-which actually wasn’t very dignified when she was still spluttering and when his nose was only inches from hers-‘it would have been your fault.’