Career Girl in the Country / The Doctor's Reason to Stay (12 page)

As the child’s feet touched the ground again, he gave a whoop of delight. ‘Again.’

Poppy laughed at his joy and looked across at Matt, knowing he would have done this very thing with Lisa and Annie, and a combination of concern for him and envy for herself sat heavy in her gut.

His expression was a revelation. Instead of the raw pain she’d seen so often in his eyes, his dark gaze held warm delight with a glimmer of resigned sadness. Sadness she knew would understandably stay with him for ever in some shape and form when he remembered his beloved daughter. Seeing him in action with Lochie, she knew he’d been a wonderful father.

The dream shifted again, tugging hard, morphing into something tangible and real.
You, Matt, a child on a picnic out here.
It tempted her so much that it terrified her. This time she deafened it with a loud yell of ‘One, two.
wheeeeee!’

The sun was dropping low in the sky and the air temperature dropped with it. Matt jogged back from the second water hole track, now seriously worried. He could see Poppy in the distance, wrapping Lochie up in one of the towels to keep him warm. Where the hell were his parents?

Relief filled Poppy’s eyes when she saw him. ‘Are they on their way back?’

‘I didn’t find them.’

Her face blanched and he gave her arm a squeeze. ‘It’s time to contact the police.’ He leaned into the truck and got onto the radio as he heard Lochie asking for food.

‘What about a lucky dip?’ Poppy sounded overly bright as she opened the top of her backpack. ‘Stick your hand in there and see what you can find.’

Lochie looked sceptical but Matt smiled, knowing Poppy had a secret stash of food in that pocket of her backpack. She had a natural affinity with children, which had been another surprise to him. It shouldn’t have been. He’d learned over the past weeks that once people got past the smoke and mirrors of her no-nonsense, crisp façade that she hid behind, they found a woman with a huge capacity to give.

‘Chocolate!’ Lochie held up the distinctive purple-foiled bar.

‘Jack, it’s Matt Albright. We’re at Walker’s Gorge with a five-year-old and his parents are missing. Vehicle has New South Wales plates. We’ve been back at the car park for well over an hour and I’ve walked the two tracks the little bloke said he’d been on but there’s no sign of them.’

‘Five-year-olds are not that reliable, Matt.’ The experienced police officer took the registration number and went on to suggest he break into the vehicle for any clues.

Cursing central locking, he yelled to Poppy and Lochie. ‘We need a big rock to break a window.’

‘Now, that’s not going to be hard to find.’ Poppy took two steps, picked one up and threw it through the driver’s side window.

‘You’re really bad!’ Lochie threw himself at Poppy’s
legs and she immediately bent down. ‘Sweetie, I’m sorry but we need to see if Mummy or Daddy left a map or a plan of where they were going and they’re not going to be cross, I promise.’

‘I want Mummy.’ The small boy’s wail rent the air.

‘I know you do, Lochie.’ She gave him a quick hug and then opened the car door, carefully brushing away the shards of glass with a towel before looking for any identifying information.

Matt hung onto the radio, waiting for Jack. ‘Have you found anything, Poppy?’

She held up a National Parks brochure. ‘There’s a map of the park and both water holes have been highlighted.’

‘Matt.’ Jack’s voice crackled down the line. ‘Car’s registered to a Lance Wilkinson and we’ve just had a report that a personal location beacon’s been activated in the area. Do you have a map?’

He leaned over and grabbed the laminated and detailed hiking map he always carried when he came out here. ‘Got it.’

‘Find your location. On the west side of the car park there’s a rough side track that heads along the ridge. The GPS in the PLB is coming from there. You can get in by vehicle if you drive to Koonunga picnic ground.’

‘How the hell did they end up there?’ But it was a rhetorical question because to an inexperienced walker all scraggly gum trees and red rocks looked the same and taking the wrong direction was sadly far too easy. ‘We’re on it, Jack.’

He turned to call Poppy, only to find her sitting in the dirt by the other vehicle, cuddling a sobbing Lochie. Her right arm held him close and her left hand stroked his hair while the little boy clutched a well-loved
soft toy bear she must have found for him in the car. Her dark hair rested against the boy’s jet locks.

Mother and child. Poppy as a mother.
The image stuck him hard in the solar plexus. He had to clear his throat before speaking. ‘We’ve got co-ordinates, hop in.’

Half an hour later, after bouncing along a rocky escarpment no one in their right mind would call a road, and using their GPS, Jack’s guidance and their eyes and ears, Matt stopped the truck for the fourth time and hopped out. Bringing his hands up to cup his mouth, he yelled, ‘Cooee.’

Then he listened. He’d been straining to hear anything for so long that at first he thought the returning ‘cooee’ was his own voice.

‘Did you hear that?’ Poppy’s face filled with hope.

He called again, and this time Lochie and Poppy joined in.

A male voice replied, ‘Cooee. Help us.’

‘We’re on our way.’ Matt grabbed the medical bag and was starting to walk in the direction of the voice when a bearded man, supporting a woman, stumbled into the clearing.

‘Mummy, Daddy!’ Lochie pulled out of Poppy’s grasp and ran to them.

‘Thank God, Lochie.’ The woman sobbed out her child’s name as she was lowered to the ground, gripping her left arm close to her chest.

Lance grabbed his son, hugging him close until Lochie wriggled and said, ‘Daddy, it hurts.’

Poppy ran to the distraught woman, and Lance, on seeing Matt, gripped his shoulder. ‘Thank you. Thank you for finding him, for finding us.’

Matt suggested Lance sit down. ‘Actually, Lochie found us and your PLB is how we found you.’

Lance rubbed his head, relief clear in his eyes. ‘One minute we could see him and the next he was gone. Then I lost our bearings searching for him because all this red rock looks the same.’

‘I’m just glad you’re safe.’

‘Matt, I need the medical bag.’ Poppy was crouched down next to the woman, who was pale and sweaty and had removed her shirt. ‘Joanne fell on an outstretched arm and she’s got a shoulder separation, but you’ve probably seen more of these than me.’

Matt introduced himself to the patient. ‘I’m going to be as gentle as I can but this will probably hurt.’

Joanne flinched. ‘It can’t be worse than it already is, can it?’

Matt didn’t want to promise anything. His fingers explored the top of the humerus and then followed the clavicle. A red tinge flushed the skin, indicating bleeding, and a distinctive bump marred the normally smooth line over the AC joint. ‘I’m going to treat this with a cuff and collar sling and give you some strong painkillers to keep you comfortable on the long trip back to Bundallagong. We’ll X-ray and ultrasound it when we arrive at the hospital and check for any other fractures, displacement, muscle and ligament damage. Does it hurt anywhere else?’

‘Just our pride that we did something so ridiculously stupid.’ Joanne leaned her head against Lance’s shoulder as Lochie nestled between them. ‘I’m never letting this child out of my sight again.’

‘Good idea.’

Matt and Poppy spoke at the same time and he caught her vivid gaze full of intense feeling. For the
briefest moment he experienced a moment of pure simpatico unlike anything he’d ever known.

Poppy pulled her theatre cap off her head and dropped it in the bin, wondering what on earth was going on in Bundallagong on this particular Thursday with two middle-of-the-night emergencies. She’d only just finished removing a lacerated spleen from a young man after a car accident when Matt’s registrar, who was on night shift this week, had rushed up a guy with a bleeding gastric ulcer. It had been touch and go, with the patient bleeding so much that the blood bank was now in dire straits.

As she created a reminder on her phone to ring the radio station’s breakfast show at seven to get the word out so Bundallagong residents would make a special effort to give blood today, she saw the time and sighed. 6:00 a.m. It was a really lousy time to finish as there was no point going home to sleep because she’d barely have got settled when she’d have to get up again. Yet she had ninety minutes to fill before she could do pre-surgical rounds. She thought of Matt; gorgeous and rumpled, sleeping spread-eagled across her bed. Even though she knew she wasn’t going home right now, the fact he was there, in her bed, waiting for her, wound around her heart.

Careful.
She gave herself a shake and walked quickly to her office.

She turned on her computer and brought up the email program as she did routinely every morning now, since Matt had pointedly said that bed was a work-free zone. She’d tried to argue that point but had deliciously lost, conceding defeat as he’d brought her to the brink
of orgasm and then suggested he needed to stop right there to go and check his emails.

She’d even amazed herself by not sending William the surgical report this week. It had taken considerable strength of will and she’d almost capitulated, especially when her secretary had reminded her, but Matt’s suggestion had been worth a try, given that everything else she’d tried hadn’t made much difference in getting any response from her boss.

As thirty emails downloaded, the ping of her ‘countdown’ widget alerted her to the blinking number fourteen at the bottom of her screen. Ten weeks down and two weeks remaining in Bundallagong. Two weeks left with Matt.

The thought screamed through like a missile.
You’ll miss him.

‘Ms Stanfield?’

She looked up distractedly, her brain stalled on how fast her time in Bundallagong had flown and how soon it would be over. One of the cleaners stood in the doorway of her office, and with wobbly legs she stood up and greeted him. ‘Morning, Joe.’

He pulled a photo out of his overalls front pocket. ‘My Louisa, she had the baby, and my son-in-law, he email me this.’

She’d been hearing about this long-awaited baby who’d been very slow to put in an appearance for ten days now, and as she stared down at the photo of a black-haired baby with fathomless eyes, her throat tightened. ‘Congratulations, she’s adorable.’

Joe beamed. ‘Maria and I, we fly to Perth today to visit, but don’t you worry. Franco will be looking after your office and I tell him to start your coffee at seven.’

A prickle of embarrassment made her feel uncomfortable.
‘That’s very kind, Joe, but, really, I can make my own coffee.’

The cleaner nodded as he put the photo back in his pocket. ‘Yes, but if we look after you, perhaps you stay here in Bundallagong.’

Two and a half months ago Poppy would have scoffed at such a suggestion, but with every patient she’d treated, with every staff member she’d got to know and with every choir meeting, tiny roots had sprouted, connecting her to the community. She’d enjoyed her time here.

And if you don’t get the job, would you stay?

The unexpected thought spun around her heart like the silky strands of a web, tying her to Bundallagong. Tying her to Matt.

A spasm hit, freezing her muscles, making it hard to breathe and hard to stand. Somehow she managed to smile, wish Joe a safe trip to Perth and sink back into her chair. She pushed her hands against her forehead and up into her hair.

No, no, no. You can’t be that stupid.

Panic skittered through her, sending her reeling. Falling for Matt, a man who still loved his dead wife, would be beyond dumb—it would be her worst nightmare. She sucked at relationships at the best of times but there was no way she could compete with Lisa, who’d been perfect alive and was now immortalised as a saint.

Have you learned nothing from your disastrous relationships?
Her guiding Amazon rose up to her full height and brandished her sword and shield.
Woman up!

Poppy pulled up memories of her father and Steven—betrayal, hurt, rejection—each recollection
shoring up her resolve, but every time she thought of Matt she could only picture him laughing with her, teasing her, talking, listening and wrapping his arms around her each night until she fell into a deep sleep.

You love him.

Oh, God, no.

No, not love, please, not love.
She dropped her head into her hands as the thought branded her with its full impact. She loved him. Little by little, day by day, she’d fallen in love with him so slowly she hadn’t even realised it.

How had she left herself so unprotected?

She knew better than this. She knew from bitter experience that love wasn’t enough and never had been. Love left a girl open to hurt and heartache, and to being let down in the worst way. Nothing good could ever come from being in love, and exploring this bit of self-realisation was pointless.

No promises, no regrets, no past and no future.

Matt’s words rose up in her mind. She’d made a complete mess of something that should have been fun and short term. Once again, she’d let herself fall in love with a man who wasn’t able to love her. She was too foolish for words.

Biting her lip, she welcomed the jolt of physical pain and rolled back her shoulders, pushing the feelings down deep to languish with the other relationship mistakes in her life and the ashes of her ill-fated marriage.

She tuned into work like she always did, keeping all her emotions at bay, and ploughed through the list of mail, deleting, forwarding and replying as required, while she sipped coffee and listened to the cacophony of sound that came with the dawn. She smiled as the sky filled with pink and grey as the native parrots rose
from their sleep—another Bundallagong ritual she’d come to enjoy.

As she hit Send on the last email, her phone beeped its reminder. 7:00 a.m. She silenced it and immediately heard a ping from her computer, heralding a new email.

William.

A chill ran through her as her gut rolled on a wave of acid. She put her phone down and her hand hovered over the mouse for a few seconds before she moved the cursor over his name and clicked.