Chapter Three
“All she needs is to keep that leg still and let the tendons heal,” Angie said distractedly.
The green fangs of jealousy had taken a huge bite out of her heart. After they’d sedated Willow and put her in the small cage, Cissy placed her hand on Angie’s arm. At first, her heart had almost stopped beating as she imagined Liam with a wife and a child about to be born. Well, maybe not stopped, but it had given a damn good jump.
“It’s okay, Angie. Don’t worry, Lucy’s not that early. I was talking to her in the supermarket yesterday. She said she only had a couple of weeks to go.”
“You know Liam’s wife?” Angie forced the words out, as hard as it was to say Liam’s wife. That was an honour she had once thought would be reserved for her. It was like tasting sawdust. And yeah, hell would freeze over before that happened. He hadn’t loved her enough. What had happened to bring him out here to the outback, and to find a wife so quickly? And one who was having a baby? Right now, right this very instant, as she was standing looking at his cute little dog.
Despair fought with jealousy as Angie realised she couldn’t stay in Spring Downs. Not if Liam was settled here playing husband and daddy. She’d always had a rampant imagination, and her heart clenched as she imagined Liam nursing a newborn baby with a head of black hair and green eyes just like his. She frowned, maybe not. Hadn’t she read somewhere that all babies were born with blue eyes?
“Lucy’s not Liam’s wife.”
“Hmm.” Angie lifted her head and stared at Cissy. “What did you say?”
“I said Lucy isn’t Liam’s wife.” Cissy looked at her curiously.
“Not his wife?” Angie repeated slowly. “They’re not married?” Despair crept away a little bit.
“No, Lucy is Lucy Mackenzie, Liam’s cousin. They grew up here together. She’s married to Garth.” Cissy laughed and her words soothed Angie’s soul. “She and Liam lived out on their grandparents’ farm for a while, but Garth and Lucy got married last winter, and now the other two cousins are coming home, too. They all left for university and after their mothers were killed in a car accident in Europe, none of them had come home very often.”
“Sebastian and Jemima,” Angie said quietly. She should have remembered Lucy was Liam’s cousin, but the shock of hearing that phone call, and seeing his reaction about a baby being born, had delayed rational thinking for a few minutes and fired her imagination into overdrive.
Liam had often talked about his cousins. He’d told her about his mother and his aunts being killed in a car accident.
But why the hell was he home from London? Especially after that big promotion he’d gotten.
“I’d forgotten Liam had cousins.”
“Are you really okay, Angie? You’re pale again.” Cissy frowned as she followed Angie back into the front office.
“Yes. I’m fine. It was just a shock seeing Liam out here. Last I heard he was in London.” This time she was proud of how steady her voice was and it seemed to reassure Cissy. “And I was sure he’d stay there.”
“Liam’s been out on the family farm for most of this year. He’s been in a couple of times with the farm dogs. Just before Rod left for America.”
Angie shook her head. “We lost touch not long after I came back to Australia. I had no idea his family came from out this way. He never said.”
If she’d known, there was no way she would have bought the practice. Blast and damnation, in Liam Smythe’s hometown. What were the chances of that?
Cissy tidied up the waiting room, and after she went home to her family, Angie fed the other animals in the small hospital enclosure out the back. She played with Willow’s soft ears until the pup was settled and had drifted off to sleep, and then slipped off her lab coat, combed her hair and put on some lipstick.
Despite her intention of not getting involved, and of avoiding Liam, ten minutes later she was walking along the road toward the Spring Downs Cottage Hospital. It was mid spring and the cool westerly winds of winter had finally blown themselves out. The sky was deepening to a rich purple and indigo and the small clouds puffing above the western horizon were shot with gold. As the evening star glowed in the early evening sky, Angie closed her eyes and made a wish.
A wish that will never come true.
The hospital car park was almost empty. Two red dust-covered work utes sat side by side near the main office. She pushed open the door of the small building and took a deep breath.
Stupid, that’s what I am.
“Hello, Angie.” Helen Longmore, the front counter receptionist and owner of the cutest ragdoll cat called Sybil, greeted her as she crossed the reception area. “What can I do for you?”
Angie thought for a moment before she spoke. She’d already seen how gossip travelled in this small town, and she didn’t want the fact that she and Liam Smythe had been—had been what?—to get around.
Lovers? Live-ins? Almost engaged?
More like friends with benefits. She was the one who had read more into their relationship.
More fool me.
“Hi Helen. Um, I told Cissy I’d get a progress report on Lucy Mackenzie. She couldn’t come in and I said I’d swing by on my way home.” She crossed her fingers behind her back to make up for the little white lie.
Helen’s face settled into a sweet expression. “Why don’t you go and see for yourself? Lucy’s already back in the ward. Her family’s with her.”
“So no baby today?” God, she felt like she was a part of the family with all these personal questions.
“A sweet little boy. Seven pounds! Fastest labour we’ve had for a long time and a great weight for an early baby.”
“Oh, that’s lovely. I’ll let Cissy know everything is all right.”
The phone rang and Helen picked it up. Angie gave her a wave as she turned for the door.
“Angie. Wait!”
She closed her eyes as Liam’s voice reached her from the end of the corridor leading to the wards. Reluctantly, she stopped and waited for him to catch up.
“Did you come to make sure I didn’t dump the dog on you?” Liam reached for her arm but Angie pulled away and headed for the main door. He followed her as she opened the door and stepped out into the car park.
“No. I didn’t. I knew you’d come back.” Truth be known, she just couldn’t stay away from him, and disgust at her weakness curled in her stomach.
“So what did you want?” Liam’s eyes were shadowed in the dim light. Angie rummaged for her keys in her deep handbag; it was hard to see in the quickly fading light.
God, she was losing it. Her car wasn’t here. It was parked in her driveway where she left it every morning because she walked to work. The sun had slipped behind the horizon and the sky was almost dark. A lone white cockatoo flew over, its raucous squawk breaking the silence.
“I wanted to make sure Lucy was okay. And you seemed so worried before about Willow.”
God, that sounded weak. It would have been the last thing on his mind.
“Worried?” Liam stopped and gently took her arm.
Angie’s voice was quiet as she lifted her eyes to those deep green ones that she had once loved so much. “I came to tell you Willow—the dog—is okay. If you want, you can take her home tonight. I thought it might save you a trip back into town tomorrow. Cissy told me you live out at Prickle Creek at your grandparents’ farm.” She said the words as a statement and kept any sign of a question from her tone.
Liam ran his hand through his hair. “Ange?”
“What?” The diminutive of her name from his lips sent a shaft of longing through her, but she pushed it away.
“Look, this is crazy. Let’s go and grab a drink or a meal or something. I’m starving.”
“I…can’t.”
His gaze narrowed. “Don’t tell me your new man expects you to cook his dinner. You never cooked for me.”
“Don’t be an arse, Liam.”
“I’m sorry. Seeing you here has thrown me.”
You and me both, boyo. But his words, no matter how cutting, had given her a lifeline.
“No, I don’t have to cook because”—Angie tried to remember the name of Jenny’s boyfriend that week, the guy who had answered the phone the last time Liam had rung.
Greg? Gavin? Gareth? Grant?
That was it. Hugh! She remembered how much Liam disliked the actor Hugh Grant in that last movie they’d watched together, and she’d smiled as Hugh had chatted to him that night. If she’d known Liam was going to make such a huge assumption, she would have taken the phone from him sooner.
“Hugh doesn’t live here. I don’t have to cook for anybody. In fact, Hugh is not—”
“So come and have dinner with me. I’d like to catch up with your news.” His face lit up in that old familiar smile and Angie knew she was in trouble. Any thought of explaining about Hugh fled as she stared at Liam.
Deep trouble. Black-haired, green-eyed trouble.
“And I’ll show you a picture of my brand new nephew. I’m sure your Hugh won’t mind old friends catching up.” Liam’s eyes crinkled and she was a goner. Back to where she’d been eighteen months ago.
She tried to recall the feelings that had held her numb when she’d said good-bye to Liam in their small flat in Notting Hill. Her flight from Heathrow back to Sydney was departing late at night, and she’d insisted that he not take the night off to take her to the airport. Instead, they’d said good-bye on the small porch as she’d waited for the taxi. Two years of living together, sharing their lives, and they had talked about the bloody weather. He didn’t love her and she had to accept that.
Angie’s father had walked out on her and Mum when she’d been six years old. She’d watched her mother beg her father to stay and it hadn’t been pretty. She’d never forgotten it, and that memory helped her stay strong. Then and now. Thank goodness she’d never told Liam she was in love with him.