in the doorway with such an expression of anxiety on his face that Kirsty almost laughed. Almost. You had to move your chest to laugh and she wasn’t about to do any such thing.
‘Jake.’
In two strides he’d reached her, taking her hand, stooping to kiss her forehead, her lips.
‘Kirsty…’
‘Hey, am I dying?’ she managed weakly. ‘I don’t even act like this with patients two minutes before the end.’
‘You could have died,’ he growled, his voice breaking with emotion. He hauled a chair up and sat beside her, without letting go of her hand. Which was very satisfactory indeed. ‘Kirsty, will you marry me?’
Her world stilled. Marry…
Too much was happening too fast. This was crazy. It couldn’t be happening.
‘Um, no,’ she whispered, and then at the look on his face she added an addendum. ‘Well, not yet. There’s things I need to sort out first.’
His face cleared. ‘I haven’t actually got the marriage celebrant out in the hall,’ he told her with a rueful smile- and kissed her again. ‘What do we need to sort out?’
She was having trouble sorting out her head.
‘I’ve been asleep?’
‘We gave you ten milligrams of morphine before we winched you off the rock,’ he told her.
‘You gave me morphine?’
‘I was so worried about the baby I didn’t see you were in trouble,’ he said. ‘Then you disintegrated…’
Hey! ‘I did not disintegrate.’
‘There’s my girl,’ he said approvingly. ‘OK, you had a wee sniffle. You sniffled until the medical evacuation helicopter arrived from Barnham. We winched Susie and the little one up and lowered them onto the boat. Then we put the harness on you and you proceeded to pass out.’
‘I’m sure I didn’t,’ she said with an attempt at indignation, which didn’t quite come off.
‘There’s no shame in passing out when some stupid medic tries to winch a patient with two broken ribs,’ he told her. ‘Rule at accident scenes: examine and don’t take anyone’s word that they’re not injured. Hell, Kirsty, your chest is a mess. You must have thumped into a rock when you went overboard. Susie said you hauled her up onto the rock, and how you did it…’ His voice broke. ‘I’ve heard of mothers lifting cars off injured kids. Adrenalin or something. It was the bravest-’
‘Susie,’ she said, cutting across a description that was starting to unsettle her more even than she was already unsettled. It wasn’t so much what he was saying, it was how he was looking at her as he said it. Like he’d found a new world. ‘Tell me about Susie,’ she managed before he could start again, and he took a couple of seconds to recover his voice, to make it work again.
‘Susie’s great. We winched her and the baby over to the boat but she proceeded to sit up and watch as you were winched off. The moment she realised you’d passed out it was like she’d assumed another body. She was battered and bruised and she’d just given birth. After the battering she’d taken she should have been unconscious herself. Instead, she was hugging her baby so tight it took two of us to prise her away so we could examine her. She was sitting up on the deck, yelling at us to take care of you and to bring more doctors. She was saying that I was too emotionally involved to treat you, and she wanted specialists, and to get a team of the best doctors down at the wharf to take control the moment we docked…’
Kirsty smiled. That was the Susie she knew. Bossy. Happy. In charge of her world.
Oh, welcome back, Susie.
‘And the baby really is fine?’
Jake smiled, a lovely, wide smile that encompassed the world. ‘Rose is gorgeous. Rose and her mother are currently asleep in the ward next door. In the next bed is Angus, who’s refused to go to Sydney until he’s seen you safe. He and Susie have both gone to sleep with Rosie’s incubator between them, and I can’t tell who looks the proudest.’
‘Incubator?’
‘Only until we’re absolutely sure she’s warm. But it’s a precaution I’m sure we don’t need. She’s fine.’
‘How wonderful.’
But there was one more question. One more thing that had to be asked. ‘Kenneth?’
His face clouded. ‘Can it wait?’
‘No.’
His hold on her hand tightened. ‘Not good.’
‘Tell me.’
‘We saw him while we were heading out to the rocks,’ Jake said softly. ‘Angus told us where to look-and why. What he said made us think we ought to keep on going. But the police sergeant got on the radio and by the time Kenneth reached harbour he had a reception committee.’
‘But they didn’t arrest him?’ There was something about his voice that told her…
‘He headed out to sea again. The fisheries and wildlife patrol boat went after him. They followed him for about half an hour, not approaching, just waiting for him to run out of fuel. They knew he was sick.’
‘Then?’ Kirsty asked, but by the look on Jake’s face she already knew what was coming.
‘He came close to shore,’ Jake said grimly. ‘They thought he’d beach the boat and make a run for it. Then, at the last minute, he just hit the throttle, took the boat up to maximum speed-which on that boat is enormous-and steered straight at the rocks. He didn’t stand a chance.’
Oh, no. She lay still, letting the enormity of what had happened sink in. ‘Dear God.’
‘Mental illness is such a void,’ Jake said sadly. ‘There’s so much we don’t know. Maybe if I had my time again I’d train to be a psychiatrist.’
‘And then Dolphin Bay would miss out on having the best family doctor in the world,’ Kirsty said softly. ‘Oh, Jake…’
‘Which leads back to my original question,’ Jake whispered. ‘I’ve just watched a doctor under the most extraordinarily difficult circumstances rescue a patient from drowning, perform a flawless delivery-’
‘Hey, you delivered-’
‘Perform a flawless delivery,’ Jake repeated. ‘Knowing to a nicety when to accept help-’
‘It was
But he wasn’t letting her get a word in edgeways. ‘And you did all that when you were so battered yourself that you should have been prostrate with pain. I’ve decided this place needs another doctor. I decided that a long time ago but now I’m certain. And that other doctor’s you, Kirsty McMahon. I love you so much…’
‘You can’t love me.’
‘How can I not?’
‘You don’t do love any more.’
‘Yes, I do. Now I do.’
‘I propositioned you,’ she whispered. ‘I goaded you on.’
‘And very nicely you goaded, too. But you only asked for a kiss.’ He assumed a look of virtue. ‘I’m taking it further. I’m asking for your hand in marriage.’
It was too much. The pain was whirling back again, making her senses swim. She looked up into his eyes and she saw love and desire, and all she wanted to do was sink into those eyes…forget…forget…
Marriage.
Jake.
‘This isn’t fair,’ Jake whispered, seeing the doubt and confusion and pain in her eyes. ‘I won’t push you.’
‘I can’t think.’ She had to think. She must. Jake…
‘Don’t,’ he said softly. He bent and kissed her lightly on the forehead, brushing the salt-stiff curls away and letting his fingers rest on her face. ‘I’ll give you something now that’ll send you right back into the land of nod, and when you wake up we can start again.’
‘Start…’
‘Let’s start again. Kirsty,’ he said softly. ‘Let’s forget you propositioned me. Let’s forget I was a dope, and now let’s forget I proposed marriage. But also…let’s forget your fear of commitment, your belief that the people around you will die, your fear of moving forward. Sleep, my lovely Kirsty, and wake up to your new world. Our new world.
