The Doctors’ Baby

told him.

‘I might.’

‘But it’s not definite.’ He sounded so disappointed that she almost chuckled out loud.

‘I probably would,’ she said, just to placate him. Or just to make him smile.

And she succeeded. ‘That’d make me feel so much better,’ he told her. ‘If I get called out to someone’s ingrown toenail, and I’m whittling away at rotten nail at three in the morning and smelling some farmer’s stinking feet, it’d make me feel a whole heap better knowing that my partner was sleeping at home with her hair splayed out all over the pillow…’

‘And with her dog beside her and her door firmly locked!’ She said it as a reaction, like she was slamming her hand on the lock right now!

‘Really?’ He sounded shocked at the thought of such distrust, and Em could contain herself no longer. Her laughter rang out over the waves. This man was ridiculous. Deliciously ridiculous, but ridiculous all the same.

‘Yes, Dr Lunn, with my door locked,’ she told him. ‘Do you think I’m naive or something?’

In answer, the hold on her hand tightened even further.

‘You wouldn’t have to lock the door,’ he said virtuously. ‘Because I’d be out chopping up toenails.’ And then his voice flattened. ‘And, no, Dr Mainwaring,’ he told her, and his voice was suddenly deadly serious, ‘I think you’re all sorts of things. But I definitely don’t think you’re naive.’

He’d caught her right off her guard. She wasn’t ready for seriousness. ‘Jonas…’

‘Emily…’ He matched her tone of uncertainty exactly, and it was all she could do not to laugh again.

‘You’re impossible! Jonas, we need to see Anna.’

‘So we do.’ He sighed. ‘So we do. But we can come back here another night. No?’

‘Maybe.’

‘What sort of answer is that?’ Once more his voice had changed and now he sounded indignant. It was impossible not to laugh.

‘It’s a safe answer,’ she told him, and then because suddenly she didn’t feel safe in the least-she felt very, very exposed-she hauled her hand from his and started to run. ‘I’ll beat you to the car, Jonas Lunn,’ she called.

She ran.

Rather to her surprise, Jonas didn’t follow suit. Instead, he stopped dead, and watched her flying figure in the moonlight, racing up the sandhills toward his waiting car.

And his smile slowly died.

‘I wonder if I’m being really, really stupid here,’ he asked himself-but there was nothing but the moon and the surf to answer him.

Jonas had been right.

Anna was terrified and ready to back out, and it took his and Em’s combined persuasion to keep her on track.

‘We’ve made the appointment.’ Jonas went through it slowly and surely. ‘And we’ve organised everything else that needs to be done. You drop Sam and Matt at school and take Ruby to Lori’s, and then I take you to Blairglen for the tests. If we’re delayed-if you need more tests than a mammogram and biopsy-then Lori will collect the children and give them their dinner.’

‘But they’ll put me straight into hospital. If it’s cancer-’

‘They won’t,’ Em said strongly, and put her hand out to cover Anna’s. The woman was trembling. This fear was the culmination of a month’s imaginings, Em thought. How much better it would have been if she’d just confronted the thing head-on when she’d first found the lump, rather than wait until it had built into this icy terror.

‘Anna, a few days now will make no difference to the outcome at all,’ she told her decisively. ‘No matter what the results of the tests are, there’s time to come home and think about it. Savour the feeling that it’s just a cyst. Or come to terms with the fact that you have an early breast cancer before you need surgery. Either way, no one’s going to rush you into something you’re unhappy with.’

Anna looked desperately from her brother to Em and back again.

‘But Jonas has already spoken to Lori about taking the kids long-term.’

‘That’s just so, if the worst comes to the worst, you know you can face it,’ Em told her, and received a grateful glance from Jonas for her pains. ‘Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. It’s my personal creed and I remember it every time my phone rings.’

There was a pause while Anna thought that through. Then…

‘That must be terrible,’ Anna said slowly, for the first time looking at Em and really seeing her. ‘I hadn’t thought about it before, but now… It’s the not knowing that’s the worst, and in your job all the time there’ll be not knowing. Like that awful tractor accident last week. You had to deal with that, didn’t you?’

‘It was dreadful,’ Em said gently. ‘At the time it was frightening. But once I knew what I was dealing with, the fear faded as I worked through what had to be done. That’s exactly the same as you. Tomorrow you’ll know what you’re dealing with.’

‘I don’t know how you do it,’ Anna whispered, and that was the cue for Jonas to take her other hand.

‘Anna…’

To Em’s surprise she pulled away from her brother. ‘Don’t!’

‘I just wanted to say that I’m here for you. I’ll take you for the test tomorrow, but I’m staying on in Bay Beach.’

His words obviously shocked her. ‘Why?’

‘For you,’ he said promptly, but Anna shook her head at that.

‘No way, Jonas. I don’t need you.’ She bit her lip and stared at the table. ‘I’ve never needed you-just like I never needed Dad and I never needed Kevin. You’re not to stay on my account.’

What was behind this? Anna thought, puzzled. There was more history here than a brother antagonistic toward a sister’s partner.

But Jonas was shaking his head, and smiling at his sister as if he was reassuring her that he really didn’t want to intrude-that things were as she wanted them.

‘I’m not staying because of you-Stoopid,’ he told her.

‘I wish you’d stop calling me that silly name.’ Unconsciously Anna’s hand clenched so that the whites of her knuckles showed through her skin. She was too thin, Em thought. Too young and too tired and too battered by life.

‘OK.’ Jonas’s smile died. He stood and, surprisingly, he moved to stand behind Emily. His hands dropped down to grip her shoulders but he still spoke to his sister. ‘I won’t call you Stoopid any more.’

‘Fine. And you don’t have to stay.’

‘I do have to stay,’ he said gently. ‘Because Em needs me.’

‘Em?’

‘I couldn’t believe what Em was facing this morning,’ he told his sister, with his big hands still resting lightly on Emily’s shoulders. ‘You saw yourself what a strain she was under, and it knocked me sideways. I know I’m due to leave for overseas, but I’ve decided to put it off. I’m staying put.’

‘With…with Dr Mainwaring.’

‘With Emily,’ he corrected her. ‘With one of the most hard-working, beautiful, desirable lady doctors I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. Em and I have it all worked out.’

‘I don’t believe this.’

Neither did Em. Heavens, the way he talked-the way he was holding her-the man sounded as if he was in love with her!

And he did exactly nothing to change that impression.

‘Em and I have spent the last two hours on the beach,’ he told Anna. ‘We’ve been working things out. It may be sudden, but it doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.’ The grip on Em’s shoulders tightened-either in affection or as a warning. Even afterwards, Em couldn’t quite figure out which.

‘I’m not leaving Emily,’ he told his sister. ‘We’re partners.’

‘I-’

‘So I’m here for you as well,’ he told her, his voice brooking no argument. ‘But mostly I’m here for Em. And I’m here for as long as she wants me. Whether you want me or not.’