Her eyes briefly met his. ‘Are you?’
‘You should know better than to ask a man that after he’s just had mind-blowing sex with a beautiful woman,’ he remarked dryly.
She bit her lip again, her eyes falling away from his as she moved away from him to gather up her clothes. ‘I just want to know…’
Jacob frowned and reached for one of her arms to hold her steady so she had to face him. ‘Know what?’ he asked.
Her eyes contained a spark of insecurity and fear. ‘How much of what happened just now was attraction and how much was pity?’
His frowned deepened. ‘You think I made love to you out of pity?’
‘I don’t know.’ Fran felt her eyes sting with unshed tears. ‘I just don’t want to be used. I don’t want to be hurt and I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me.’
His frown disappeared as he stepped back into her personal space. He took her hands in his and held them up against his chest. ‘Do you want to know why I made love to you?’ he asked.
She gave a little nod, blinking back the hot scald of tears.
‘This is why,’ he said, and brought his mouth down to hers.
F
RAN
sighed as his lips moved against hers with exquisite tenderness. It was so easy to imagine he was falling in love with her when he kissed her like that.
Falling in love?
The words rang like clanging bells inside her head. Was that what she wanted from him, to fall in love with her as she was falling in love with him? How had that happened? One minute she had hated him…well, maybe not exactly hated him, disliked was probably a more accurate term, but how could she possibly have fallen in love with him?
Easily, she thought as he deepened the kiss, sending her senses into another whirlwind of feeling. How could she not fall in love with him? He was the most magnetic man she had ever met. She had felt the powerful pull of attraction almost from the first moment she had met him, and each day since had only intensified the feelings she had tried to ignore. But whether he had similar feelings for her was only speculation at this stage. She knew enough about men to know they were primarily ruled by their bodies, not their hearts.
Jacob was a single man, a gorgeous single man currently living in a quiet seaside town where meeting young women
of a suitable age was far more difficult than in the big city. He had mentioned he had broken things off with his exgirlfriend a few months ago, which more or less explained his readiness to conduct a short-term affair with
her.
What fullblooded man wouldn’t fancy a quick fling if one was in the offing?
Fran cringed at the thought of how easily she had succumbed to his advances. She knew it was more or less de rigueur these days for young women to sleep with a man after only a couple of dates, but she had never felt the urge to do so before now. Something about Jacob had made the sensible part of her brain short-circuit. With one look from those blue eyes of his she had become a melting pool of shameless longing.
Desire whipped through her each time his tongue brushed against hers. His lips were like fire against her mouth, branding her with his taste, making her feelings for him impossible to ignore. She clung to him, pressing herself against his rock-hard pelvis, her half-dressed state somehow making it all the more exciting. He was wearing his jeans but his chest was still bare and rubbed against her breasts, making her flesh tingle with sensitivity.
The sound of a phone ringing made Jacob reluctantly break the kiss. ‘Sorry,’ he said, reaching for his mobile where he had left it earlier. ‘I’d better get this.’
The interruption was exactly what Fran needed to get herself back into her clothes and back into her rational mind. Things had moved so quickly in such a short space of time she was having trouble keeping up. She felt dazed, both physically and mentally. Jacob’s love-making had overwhelmed her in every way possible. She was shocked by how she had responded to him. She was doubly shocked that she had been
set to respond to him all over again if it hadn’t been for the phone call he’d received.
Once Jacob ended the call he unzipped his jeans and quickly exchanged them for his police uniform, strapping on his gunbelt before reaching for his hat. ‘Sorry about this, Fran,’ he said. ‘Can we have a rain-check on dinner?’
‘That’s fine,’ she said. ‘I should get back to Rufus in any case. He gets into mischief when there’s no one around to keep an eye on him.’
Jacob bent down and brushed his mouth against hers. ‘I’ll call you tomorrow.’
Fran drove home with her lips still buzzing and her body still tingling. A slow smile spread over her face as she thought of the next few months in Pelican Bay spending time with Jacob, the first man she had ever loved.
Fran was just coming out of the general store late the following morning when she ran into Jim Broderick, Candi’s father. ‘Dr Nin?’ He took off his hat, fumbling with the rim of it
between his fingers. ‘I was wondering if you had a minute for a chat. I tried to book at the clinic but Linda said you weren’t seeing any more patients.’
Fran felt the now all-too-familiar twinge of guilt but somehow stood her ground. ‘No, that’s right,’ she said. ‘The new locum is on his or her way in the next week or so.’
‘The thing is…I don’t know what to do about Candi.’ He rubbed his weatherworn face with one of his equally worn hands. ‘Ever since she came home from hospital she’s been impossible to live with. She won’t eat, or at least not when I’m around. She won’t go to school and she won’t even look at me, much less speak to me.’
Fran grimaced in empathy. ‘She’s at a difficult age, and
breaking her leg and losing her horse would have hit her hard. Teenagers tend to see things as very black and white. Give her time. Once she’s more mobile she will bounce back, I’m sure.’
He released a heavy sigh. ‘I had no choice but to put the poor horse out of its misery. His back leg was broken. But she won’t listen to me.’
‘Mr Broderick…Jim.’ Fran reached forward to touch him on the arm. ‘You did the right thing. It would have been cruel to allow him to suffer. In time Candi will understand that. She is grieving, perhaps not just for Cheeky but maybe for her mother too.’
Moisture glistened in the farmer’s sky-blue eyes and his tanned throat rose and fell over a tight swallow. ‘I miss her too,’ he said in a cracked voice. ‘God knows, a day doesn’t go past when I don’t miss her.’
‘Have you told Candi that?’ Fran asked gently.
His jaw worked for a moment in an effort to gain self-control, his gaze dropping to his hat resting now against his thighs. ‘No…’ He cleared his throat. ‘No. I haven’t.’ He looked at her again, his eyes brimming with tears. ‘You reckon I should?’
Fran nodded. ‘I think it’s time. She needs to know she’s not the only one who has lost someone she loved dearly. Maybe she needs to see how hard it is for you. Perhaps she has misinterpreted your strength and stoicism for not caring enough.’
He brushed at his eyes with the back of his hand. ‘I reckon you’re right. I’ve always been a stiff-upper-lip sort of guy like my father. When my mother died he just carried on as if it was another day on the farm. I guess I thought that was the best way to handle things.’
‘You’re doing the best you can do, Jim, so don’t beat yourself up about making mistakes occasionally,’ Fran said. ‘You’re human and have feelings and emotions just like your daughter does. I’ll drop out to see Candi if you like. When would be a good time?’
His face brightened. ‘You’d do that?’
She smiled. ‘Of course.’
He ran his fingers over the rim of his acubra hat. ‘Give me a day or two to talk to her, you know…about her mother.’ He looked up again. ‘What about Sunday, say, three in the afternoon?’
‘I’ll look forward to it.’
Jim scuffed his booted feet, shifting his lean body awkwardly, as if he was still not sure where to carry the emotion that had risen to the surface. He stretched out his work-roughened hand and gripped Fran’s firmly. ‘Thank you, for everything. I wish you were the doctor taking on the position. I can’t think of anyone more suitable for this place.’
Fran pushed aside her guilt with even more force. ‘I’m sure the new locum will be perfect. I’ll see you on Sunday.’
She let out her breath once the farmer had gone and continued on her way across the street to Tony’s Milk Bar. She sat in one of the old-fashioned booths and sipped her cup of tea as she waited for her sandwich to be prepared, watching as the heat haze shimmered on the street outside.
The bell above the door of the milk bar pinged as it opened and Fran looked up to see Jacob come in. He took off his police hat and smiled at her. ‘Hi.’
‘Hi…’
‘G’day, Sarg,’ Tony said from behind the counter. ‘What’ll you have?’
‘Just a flat white, thanks, Tony.’
‘Sure I can’t make you a steak sandwich? Or what about a burger?’
‘Not today. I’ve only got a minute or two. The coffee will be fine.’
‘Coming right up.’
Fran felt the brush of Jacob’s knees against hers as he sat in the opposite seat of the booth. She felt her whole body spring to life, the blood rushing through her veins.
‘Hot enough for you?’ he asked, a secret message in his gaze.
‘I’ve decided I like it hot,’ she said. ‘I like it a lot.’
He leaned his forearms on the table, his hands within touching distance of hers. Fran looked down at his fingers; she had only to move hers a couple of centimetres to make contact. She was just about to inch forward to do so when he spoke.
‘I’ve been thinking,’ he said. ‘We should try and keep this thing between us between ourselves and not the whole of Pelican Bay for as long as we can.’
Fran hoped the disappointment she felt wasn’t showing on her face. She wanted to shout how she felt about him from the top of the gumtrees but he clearly wanted to keep things quiet. She understood that. He was a high-profile person in a small community. But a part of her wanted him to openly acknowledge her as his girlfriend.
‘Probably a good idea,’ she said, glad now she hadn’t phoned her sister and blurted out her happiness.
Jacob glanced at Tony, who was coming across with a coffee in one hand and Fran’s salad sandwich on a plate with a neatly folded paper napkin in the other. Jacob leaned back in the booth as Tony put the food and drink on the table.
‘Anything else I can get you?’ Tony asked.
‘No, thank you,’ Fran said. ‘This is lovely.’
Tony looked at Jacob. ‘I heard on the news they caught that guy that did over Wade Smith.’
‘Yeah,’ Jacob said, stirring his coffee. ‘That’s what I came in to tell Dr Nin.’
Fran felt her shoulders drop a little further. This was business, not personal. She would have to learn the difference, and quickly.
‘Anyone we know?’ Tony asked.
Jacob shifted his mouth in a negative gesture. ‘No, it wasn’t a local. Smith had a run-in with an associate from his time in prison. The guy drove down here, got into an argument and things turned nasty. He made it look like a hit and run so no one would connect him, but his DNA was all over Smith’s place and Smith’s DNA and blood were in the back of his car. Smith woke up late last night and confirmed who attacked him.’
After a few more words about the case Tony went back to the kitchen. Jacob drained the contents of his cup and set it back down on its saucer.
‘It must be very satisfying for you to have solved the case,’ Fran said.
‘It was a team effort,’ he said. ‘But, yes, it is satisfying. It’s one of the reasons I love being a cop. You can’t solve every case but you can keep on trying. Take my father’s murder, for instance. I might never get the closure I want on that but it’s not going to keep me from having a damn good go at it.’
Fran reached for his hand and was deeply touched he didn’t pull away. ‘I think your dad would be immensely proud of you, Jacob,’ she said softly.
‘Thank you,’ he said, turning over her hand and giving it a little squeeze. ‘I’d better get going.’ He reached for his hat
on the bench seat. ‘Are you planning on coming around this evening for a workout before dinner?’
Fran wished she had the strength to say no. Perhaps playing a little harder to get would make him less reluctant to keep their relationship private, but she was not a manipulator by nature and didn’t intend to start now. ‘That would be great, if it’s OK with you?’
His fingers brushed against hers in a fleeting caress as he slid out of the booth. ‘I’m counting the hours,’ he said. Placing his hat on his head, he winked at her and left.
After he had disappeared from sight Fran looked down at her untouched sandwich. Her stomach was twitching with excitement, not hunger. She could barely draw in a breath without feeling as if it was snagging on something deep inside.
‘Lost your appetite, Dr Nin?’ Tony asked as he came past to collect Jacob’s used cup.
‘Um…I…’
He grinned at her. ‘You and Sergeant Hawke will give my place a bad name if you don’t eat when you meet in here.’
‘Oh, we weren’t meeting…you know, as in meeting like on a date or something.’ Fran felt the words tumbling out of her mouth, her face firing up the more she said, so she stopped before she did any more damage.
‘Yeah, and I believe you.’ Tony scooped up her plate with a knowing look. ‘I’ll wrap this to go. Maybe you’ll feel like it later.’
Fran gave him a pasted-on smile. ‘Thanks. I’m sure I will.’
As Fran was making her way back home she ran into Tara, who was on her way to start her shift at the store. She was showing a little less stress and even discussed attending school a little more regularly.
‘I don’t want to work in a shop for the rest of my life,’ Tara explained. ‘I mean, not unless I owned it.’
‘Have you thought about what you would like to do when you leave school?’ Fran asked.
Tara pushed down her sleeves as if she wanted to put the past out of sight. ‘Yes,’ she said with a spark of determination in her eyes. ‘I want to be a doctor. A GP, just like you.’
‘Actually, I’m not—’ Fran stopped, thought a bit and then continued, ‘I trained as an A and E specialist.’
‘So why’d you change to being a GP?’
‘I didn’t change…’ Fran said, feeling tongue-tied and awkward.
‘But you’re a great GP,’ Tara said. ‘I would love it if you stayed here.’
‘I’m afraid that’s not possible,’ Fran said as firmly as she could.
‘But why?’
She told Tara a little about what had happened, keeping the worst of it to herself rather than put off the young girl’s aspiration to be a doctor. ‘So I ended up quite by chance here in Pelican Bay for that one session,’ she concluded.
‘Wow, that’s way cool,’ Tara said. ‘Like, what would have happened to me if you hadn’t come along at exactly the right time? You really helped me the other day, you know? I did some thinking when I went home. I’ve been kind of letting my mother win by allowing her desertion to screw up my life. But I don’t want my life to be like that any more. I want to help people like you do every day. I want my life to count for something.’
Fran felt a slowly spreading warmth flow into every hollow space in her chest. ‘I’m so happy for you, Tara. I think you will be great at whatever you decide to do.’
Tara beamed. ‘Is it OK if I bring my brother Sam with me on one our walks?’