The Family He Needs Read online

  ‘Let me move this out of the way,’ he said as he picked up the chair and returned it to the table. ‘There you go. That nasty chair won’t hurt you again, Jules.’

  She smiled at his teasing and then grimaced again as she moved. ‘My…hero,’ she said stiltedly. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll adjourn to the female changing rooms where I can gather the remnants of my dignity in private.’

  Zac stepped back and swept his arm out wide in a gallant gesture. ‘As you wish,’ he said, trying to raise a smile. He succeeded. ‘I’ll go and check on our patients.’

  Julia preceded him out of the tearoom and headed to the female changing rooms without giving him a backward glance. She carefully sat down on the bench near her locker and hung her head, slowly stretching her neck and spine. ‘Ouch,’ she whimpered again. Looking down at the angry red mark across her forearm, she gave it another rub.

  Then she became aware of a dull ache across her back and at the base of her spine. She gently stood up and walked to the full-length mirror attached to the wall. Lifting the back of her theatre shirt, she twisted slightly to look at her back. Sure enough, a matching angry red mark was found.

  Giving it a rub as well, she lowered her top and headed for the door. ‘Ooh,’ she said, and winced as she walked. ‘I think a trip to the hospital pharmacy might be in order,’ she mumbled as she left the changing rooms.

  ‘I was wondering when you were going to resurface,’ Zac said as he lounged against the wall, obviously waiting for her.

  ‘Problem?’ She schooled her features so they didn’t show her pain.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Good.’ She started to walk up the corridor but stopped and winced.

  ‘You did hurt yourself.’ He nodded knowingly. ‘I thought so. Where does it hurt?’

  ‘I think I’ve bruised my coccyx,’ she told him and shook her head in annoyance.

  ‘Ouch,’ he said sympathetically. ‘I did that in my last year of med school, remember?’

  ‘Yes, but at least you didn’t fall over a chair. You bruised yours honourably.’

  ‘I’d hardly call getting tackled in a rugby scrum honourable but I know what you mean.’ His smile was back in place as he tenderly placed his arm about her waist. ‘Let’s get you back to the tearoom and I’ll go down to the pharmacy and get some anti-inflammatories for you. We’ll fill out the paperwork for Occupational Health and Safety later.’

  ‘Zac, I—’

  ‘Don’t argue with me, Jules. Doctor’s orders,’ he said pointedly as they reached the tearoom. ‘Now be careful of the chair,’ he joked. ‘I don’t want it to attack you again.’

  ‘Ha, ha,’ she said dryly, but allowed him to help her to sit down. She made sure she was sitting slightly forward rather than slouching back, which would have put pressure on her spine and bruised coccyx.

  Within no time at all he was back, carrying a small bottle of tablets in one hand and some sandwiches from a vending machine in the other. He put everything down on the table and walked to the sink to get a glass of water. The tablets were a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug which she’d prescribed thousands of times for her own patients.

  ‘I want you to take two anti-inflammatories now to help with the pain. Before bed tonight, I want you to take two more.’ He started to unwrap the sandwiches. ‘Make sure you persist with the course for at least the next week and, yes, Julia, I will be checking up on you.’

  ‘Oh, great,’ she mumbled without enthusiasm.

  He held out a sandwich to her. ‘Eat.’

  ‘You have got to be joking. I never eat vending machine food.’

  ‘Stop being difficult, Julia. You know you need to take anti-inflammatories with food, so take a bite.’

  Julia looked at the sandwich with distaste. ‘There weren’t any apples in the vending machine?’ she queried.

  ‘Julia!’

  ‘Oh, all right,’ she snapped. She gave in with reluctance and took the sandwich from him. She was feeling useless and vulnerable and although she didn’t like Zac to see her like this, she was glad it was him and no one else.

  ‘Eat all of that half, please.’

  Her only reply was to take another bite. When she’d finished, he shook out two tablets and handed them to her, watching her swallow them with the water.

  ‘What a good girl. I’m glad you’re being so cooperative.’

  ‘Only because I have to,’ she sulked, and he laughed.

  ‘Come on, it’s not that bad.’

  She sighed. ‘You’re right.’

  He sat down next to her and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze before letting go. Both of them were quiet for a while before Julia broke the silence.

  ‘Thanks for taking care of me. It’s been a long time since you’ve nursed me, Zac, and all I can say is that your bedside manner still needs attending to. Still as brisk and blunt as ever.’ She took another sip of the water, eyeing the other half of the sandwich with distaste. At least he wasn’t going to make her eat that half as well.

  He frowned at her. ‘When did I…?’ He stopped, gazing off into the distance. ‘That’s right.’ He snapped his fingers in remembrance. ‘When that awful flu virus did the rounds of the med school. I nursed you and then you nursed me. I’d forgotten all about it.’

  ‘All I know is it took you ages to recover.’

  ‘Garbage. Just because you heal miraculously overnight, it doesn’t mean you should pick on others whose bodies take a more leisurely rate to heal.’

  ‘Zac, it was almost two weeks that you were down. I was down for three days!’

  ‘Did you ever think I might have been faking it?’ He wiggled his eyebrows up and down. ‘Perhaps the thought of you coming to care for me every day was more exciting than admitting I was better.’

  ‘Were you?’ she asked.

  His smile grew wide and his eyes twinkled with mischief, but he didn’t confirm or deny it.

  ‘What if I knew you were faking near the end and decided I liked nursing you?’

  He laughed. ‘I’d say we’re two of a kind.’

  For the umpteenth time in the past few hours Julia found herself gazing into his eyes, working hard to resist the magnetic pull that existed between them.

  CHAPTER SIX

  ‘YOUR patients are ready,’ the A and E sister said as she poked her head around the open tearoom doorway. She looked from one to the other and then noticed the medicine on the table. ‘Everything all right?’

  ‘Fine,’ Zac responded. ‘Dr Bolton had a slight altercation with a chair.’

  Sister’s lips twitched. ‘Who won?’

  ‘The chair,’ Julia said with disgust as she braced her hands on the table to help herself stand.

  ‘Will you be all right for Theatre?’ Sister asked.

  ‘I’ll be fine.’ Julia brushed away the concern. ‘I’m just feeling a bit stiff at the moment and there’s nothing like a good operating session to really help the kinks set in.’

  Sister laughed and headed off. Julia could feel Zac watching her closely. He crossed to her side and placed his hand beneath her elbow for support.

  ‘Are you sure?’ he asked seriously.

  ‘I’ll be fine, Zac,’ she reiterated. ‘After all, I have the great Zachary Carmichael looking after me.’

  She and Zac went into separate theatres at the same time and Julia found that once she got going she was fine. She also knew the anti-inflammatories Zac had made her take would definitely help to dull the pain. Bruised coccyx bones were annoyingly painful and healed very slowly. At least in Theatre, once she was in position, she didn’t have to move much.

  Lucas Carter’s hand required open reduction and internal fixation with K-wires, and an hour after she’d started Julia was ready to close. Thankfully, the surgery had been straightforward with no complications.

  When Julia came out, she headed straight for the changing rooms. The sooner she was at home in bed, the better. After changing, Julia went to Recovery to check
on Lucas and also to see if Philip was there. Zac had still been in Theatre when she’d finished and she hoped he hadn’t run into any problems.

  Both patients were there and Zac was standing at the nurses’ station, already changed, talking quietly with the nursing staff. Julia checked on Lucas before sauntering carefully over to where Zac stood.

  ‘Feeling stiff?’ he asked.

  ‘A little.’ She nodded.

  ‘You poor thing,’ one of the nurses said, oozing sympathy. ‘I bruised my coccyx in high school and it still gives me trouble sometimes.’

  ‘I see Dr Carmichael has been spreading hospital gossip!’ She glared at him but he just smiled and shrugged.

  ‘We all seem to bruise our coccyx bones at some point in our lives,’ agreed another nurse.

  ‘Thanks,’ Julia responded with a forced smile.

  ‘Well, ladies.’ Zac reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out his car keys. ‘We’ll leave you to it. If you have any problems you know our numbers. Right now I’m going to walk Julia out to her car to make sure she gets there in one piece.’ He chuckled and the nurses joined in, the sympathetic looks returning as they all looked at Julia.

  As they headed outside, Zac’s arm beneath her elbow for support, Julia felt goose-bumps cascade over her body. Was it from the rain that was softly falling or Zac’s touch?

  ‘So nice of you to share my misfortune with the rest of the hospital,’ she quipped.

  ‘No need to thank me. It was nothing.’

  ‘Zac! I sincerely hope you didn’t tell them how I did it?’

  ‘I told them you’d had a disagreement with a chair.’

  ‘Zac!’ she spluttered again. ‘It was embarrassing enough that it happened in front of you or should I say because of you. If I hadn’t been fighting the need to kiss you again, I wouldn’t have tripped over the darn thing in the first place.’

  ‘So it’s all my fault?’

  ‘Correct, and you’d better not forget it,’ she said crossly.

  ‘Where’s your car?’ Zac asked, changing the subject, and Julia pointed to the white sedan parked next to his Jag. ‘Good. Give me your keys, please.’

  ‘Why?’ Julia held them tightly in her hand.

  ‘I’m driving you home, that’s why.’

  ‘Zac,’ she protested. ‘I’m more than capable of—’

  ‘Do you want to stand and argue in the rain?’

  ‘Well, what if I do?’ she demanded.

  He smiled at her. ‘Julia, you can’t be feeling all that good after the operating session. I’d rather you didn’t have a car accident on the way home and therefore I intend to drive you home, walk back to the hospital and then collect my own car.’

  ‘Then it looks as though you’re going to get really wet,’ she retorted, and crossed her arms defensively. ‘Which means we can stand here and argue the point for as long as it takes. I don’t need you to drive me anywhere, Zac.’ Julia had had enough and just wanted to go home—alone.

  ‘You are the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met.’ He shook his head. ‘Fine, then. You drive but I’ll follow you in my car to make sure you get there safely.’

  ‘Fine.’ Julia unlocked her car and watched as Zac did the same to his. ‘It might be a new experience for you—being forced to stick to the speed limit for a change,’ she called as she carefully lowered herself into the car.

  ‘I’m not going to dignify that with a response.’ He shut his door and started the engine.

  As Julia adjusted herself in the driver’s seat, she reluctantly admitted that perhaps Zac had been right. She was in pain but, she rationalised as she clipped the seat belt in, she’d been through worse. Giving birth to Edward had been the most painful experience of her life as she’d had no time for an epidural, and she now equated all pain against that one event. This was a cinch in comparison!

  Sure enough, Zac followed her all the way home. After she’d garaged the car, she stayed in it, wondering how on earth she was going to get out. She undid her seat belt and opened the door. Trying to shift one leg had her crying out in agony.

  ‘Will you let me help you now?’ Zac looked down at her through the open door.

  ‘I guess I’ll have to,’ she replied. ‘Either that or sleep the whole night in the car.’ She tried to laugh but it came out as a whimper.

  ‘Which won’t do you any good at all. Right,’ he said, and crouched down to slip his arms beneath her shoulders and ever so gently lift her out. Julia winced and grimaced, trying to hide the pain from Zac.

  ‘House keys,’ he ordered after he’d locked her car and garage. Julia handed them over without fuss and took the opportunity to lean on him as he helped her inside. He smelled good, he felt good—he was good.

  ‘I feel so useless,’ she muttered.

  ‘It’ll ease in a day or two,’ he said softly as he closed the front door behind him and dropped her keys on the hall table. The clock on the wall said it was half past seven. At least she knew that Edward was asleep. Her son was usually safely in dreamland by a quarter to seven—which was why he was always awake at what seemed like the crack of dawn. ‘Which one is your room?’ he whispered.

  ‘Oh, Mum can settle me,’ Julia protested, but Zac simply shook his head.

  ‘You are going straight to bed. Do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollars.’

  ‘End of the hall,’ she muttered, as they made their way up the corridor. She felt a little uncomfortable, heading to her bedroom with a man. Not just any man, she corrected herself, but Zac! Even though there was nothing…romantic about it, it still felt strange.

  After he’d opened the door and helped her over to the queen-sized bed in the middle of the room, Zac slowly eased away.

  ‘I’m going to get you a glass of water and some food so you can take another dose of the anti-inflammatories. Can you manage to undress by yourself or would you like some help?’ There was nothing leering or suggestive in his tone and she realised Zac had switched into ‘doctor’ mode.

  ‘Ask Mum to come and help me, please,’ she said, and he nodded before leaving the room. Moments later her door opened again and her mother walked in.

  ‘Oh, darling, are you all right? Zac just told me what happened.’

  Julia sat very still as she unbuttoned her shirt, wincing when her mother sat down on the bed beside her. ‘Oh, Mum,’ she whimpered. ‘It was a ridiculous accident but I’ve bruised my coccyx.’

  ‘So he said. You poor dear,’ Cassandra said in sympathy as she slowly stood, being careful not to rock the bed. ‘Let’s get you ready for a long, healing sleep and hopefully you’ll feel better in a day or two.’

  By the time Zac knocked on her bedroom door, opening it without waiting for a reply, Julia was changed and beneath the cotton sheet on her bed. ‘How’s the patient, Mrs Bolton?’

  ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, Zac, call me Cassandra.’ She motioned to the sandwich and glass of water he carried. ‘Anti-inflammatories?’

  He nodded and looked at Julia, a small smile on his lips. ‘Where are they, Jules?’

  ‘In my bag.’ Julia pointed to where she’d dumped her bag at the end of her bed.

  Without asking, he went through her bag, found the tablets and handed them over to Cassandra. ‘Two tablets, twice a day with food. Make sure she takes them, please.’ Zac transferred his gaze from Cassandra to Julia.

  ‘I’ll make sure she does. Julia was always a terrible patient as a child. A trait she inherited from me, I think.’

  Zac’s smile increased. ‘Give her another dose now to help her sleep,’ he said, as though Julia wasn’t in the room. She fumed inwardly as he turned to look at her. ‘The sandwich is peanut butter, which I hope you still like.’

  Julia nodded. ‘And made with fresh bread,’ she said, eyeing the sandwich he handed her. ‘Much better than your previous offering.’

  He chuckled. ‘Thank you. Well, I’ll leave you in Cassandra’s capable hands. Get some sleep.’ Zac stared longingly at Juli
a for a moment before turning and leaving. Cassandra started to follow him. ‘No, don’t bother, Cassandra. I’ll see myself out. You…’ he pointed to Julia ‘…take it easy tomorrow and I’ll see you on Monday.’

  She nodded again and watched him leave her room.

  ‘My goodness me,’ Cassandra whispered after they’d heard the front door shut. ‘The tension between the two of you is so palpable. I wish you’d do something about it, dear.’

  ‘Mum—this really isn’t the time.’

  ‘No, I don’t suppose it is.’

  The sound of Edward coughing made them both stop for a moment. ‘I’ll check on him,’ Cassandra said. ‘Finish your sandwich.’

  ‘Yes, Mum.’ When her mother left the room, Julia closed her eyes as she ate, reflecting on the night’s events. What didn’t Zac want to go through again? Was it a relationship with her? There was no denying that the old spark still existed. Had their break-up ten years ago been as painful for him as it had been for her?

  Julia finished the sandwich and thought about her life during the past decade. No. She shook her head. She’d never fully recovered from her break-up with Zac but surely now it was worth giving it another go?

  ‘Friends,’ she whispered softly into the still room. She knew Edward had been a deciding factor in Zac suggesting they become friends but maybe after spending some time together—just as friends—hopefully Zac would begin to see what a wonderful boy Edward was. He was adorable, gorgeous, polite and energetic. Then again, perhaps she had a biased opinion of her son. Julia smiled to herself as she swallowed her tablets down.

  ‘Is he all right?’ she asked when her mother came back into her room. She had something in her hands and placed a little bell on Julia’s bedside table.

  ‘He’s fine. I think he had a little pain in his tummy so I rubbed his back and he’s settled again.’ Cassandra picked up the empty plate and glass. ‘All done?’

  Julia nodded.

  ‘Right, then, I think it’s time we all got some rest. Ring the bell if you need help getting up to go to the bathroom.’

  ‘Mum, I—’

  ‘You’re as stubborn as I am, Julia Louise Bolton. Now, do as you’re told. I don’t want you aggravating your back any more than necessary. Understood?’