‘I don’t think that’s a good idea either.’
‘Why not?’
She whirled to face him. ‘Because I’m falling in love with you,’ she whispered.
‘I think that’s a really good idea,’ he said, and he smiled.
‘No, it’s not.’
‘Ginny, we need to see where this can take us.’
‘That’s nuts. Like there’s five roads branching out ahead and we know three end in brick walls, so let’s just put our foot on the accelerator and go where the steering-wheel takes us.’
‘I just want to take you to dinner.’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘You know why not.’
‘Richard’s doing little but sleeping. Miriam’s with Madison…’
‘You see, there’s the problem,’ she whispered. ‘Madison needs to be with me. She needs to start seeing me as a constant.’
He drew in his breath at that. He really was absurdly handsome, Ginny thought inconsequentially. He was still wearing his theatre gown and slippers, hospital green. He’d raked his hair as he’d spoken to Stephanie’s parents and it was tousled and rumpled and she just want to…
No!
‘Maybe I could try,’ he said, and she blinked.
‘Try. Try what?’
He chewed his bottom lip. ‘Ginny, this thing between us…You say you think you’re falling in love.’
‘I’m trying very hard not to,’ she said, and he nodded.
‘Me, too.’
‘So why are you asking me out to dinner?’
‘Because I’ve got this appalling feeling that I might be making a mistake.’
‘Fergus, my appendages aren’t going to go away,’ she said softly. ‘Believe me, I didn’t mean this to happen. I know, this is really fast but it’s overwhelming. Every time I look at you I think how can I have appendages when it means I can’t have you? But I do have them, Fergus. Madison is right here in my heart and I’m even falling for my dogs.’
‘OK, then,’ he said, and she blinked again.
‘OK, what?’
‘I’ll try.’
‘You’ll try what?’
‘Let’s have a picnic on the lake tonight. With appendages attached.’
‘Not in the boatshed,’ she said in a hurry, and he grinned.
‘Not in the boatshed.’
‘A proper picnic.’ She sounded suspicious but she couldn’t help it.
‘Yes.’
She bit her lip but it had to be said. ‘I can bring Madison?’
‘You can bring anyone you want.’
‘A barbecue.’
‘Yes. If we can build one on the shore.’
‘There’s a cairn down on the east shore we can use as a barbecue.’ She stared at him for a long moment and came to a decision. ‘Right. If I leave now, I can catch the butcher.’
‘Just like that?’
‘Just like that,’ she said. ‘Are you doing evening surgery?’
‘Yes, but it’s lightly booked. It should be finished by six.’
‘I’ll see you at seven, then,’ she told him. ‘On the east shore. With sausages.’
‘See you then.’
Terrific, she thought as she drove butcher-wards. What on earth was she doing?
She didn’t have a clue.
CHAPTER TEN
SHE was there-with appendages. Fergus pulled into the east shore parking area, where a row of eucalypts divided the paddocks from the sandy shore, and he thought she’d brought everyone she could think of.
Ginny. Madison. Twiggy, Snapper and Bounce. Richard, lying on a blow-up mattress on the shoreline and seemingly asleep, and Miriam, calmly sitting beside him, her stockings off and her feet in the water.
It was a real family picnic, Fergus thought, and he wanted to run.
‘Hi.’ Ginny rose from where she’d been sorting through a picnic hamper. She was wearing a crimson bikini with a crimson and white sarong. She was smiling.
Maybe he didn’t want to run.
‘Bounce nearly ate the sausages,’ Madison announced. She was also wearing a bikini-a miniature version of Ginny’s. The Cradle Lake ladies auxiliary had held a working bee to augment Madison’s scant wardrobe. She now had outfits for every occasion, but her tiny body still looked waiflike and Fergus felt his heart wrench.
Maybe he should run.
‘So who saved the sausages?’ he asked, and Richard opened his eyes and managed a weary smile.
‘Our Ginny was a rugby player in a previous life. It was a tackle that would have done an international player proud.’
‘Ginny got a sore knee,’ Madison said gravely, and Fergus looked at said knee and saw a graze and a trace of blood.
‘Do you need a doctor?’ he asked, and she flushed a little.
‘I don’t need a doctor, thank you very much,’ she managed.
‘We need a cook,’ Miriam told him. ‘You’re on barbecue duty.’
‘Why?’
‘Men tend barbecues,’ Richard whispered. ‘And I can’t.’
It was all Richard could do to make himself heard, Fergus thought, looking down at his patient in concern. It must have cost him a huge effort to be there tonight. But together Miriam and Ginny had him comfortable. They had his oxygen cylinder set just above the water line. They’d lain him right on the water’s edge and he had a hand trailing lazily in the water.
The night was warm and dreamy, the sun a low ball of fading heat, reflecting softly off the water. If I only had a few days left, this is where I might like to be, Fergus thought, and glanced at Ginny and saw she was thinking exactly what he was thinking. There was pain behind her eyes, knowledge of imminent loss.
‘Let’s get these sausages cooked,’ he said, maybe more roughly than he’d intended. ‘Maddy, would you like to help me?’
‘Madison,’ she whispered.
‘Sorry. Madison, would you, please, help me with the sausages?’
‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Have they been pricked?’
‘Pricked?’
‘No,’ Ginny told him. ‘They’re unpricked sausages.’
‘That’s a terrible state of affairs,’ he told the little girl. ‘Let me teach you how to professionally prick a sausage.’
They pricked, cooked and ate their sausages. They polished off salad and lamingtons and sponge cake and grapes and lemonade.
