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He had his back to them and his calf muscles bulged as he propelled himself off the sand and into the air to block a ball at the net. His block was successful and Ellie watched as he high-fived his partner and waited for the ball to be returned. He scooped it up and prepared to serve. He tossed the ball high and raised his arms in the air as he hit it over the net. Ellie could see the muscles of his back ripple with the movement. She’d seen his face in profile as he’d served the ball over the net but, even without that glimpse, Ellie knew it was him, she could feel it. That humming in the air was back, getting louder as she got closer. Her senses were on high alert. The sun was a bit brighter, the tang of the sea a bit saltier, the air a bit warmer, but the sounds of the other people had faded a little. The humming was drowning the other sounds out.
‘Well? What do you think?’ Jess was still waiting for Ellie to answer her questions.
Without a trace of a doubt Ellie knew what she wanted. He was right there, in front of her.
As vaguely as she could, she answered Jess’s last question. She tried not to watch James as she spoke but it was hard to keep her attention focussed elsewhere. ‘He has a smile that could brighten any day. He should have a job he enjoys but he doesn’t necessarily have to wear a suit and a tie to work. He needs to like being active, a physical kind of guy, but he’d have to smell nice. He needs a sense of humour and he needs to love his family. He doesn’t need to have his life all mapped out but he would need to know how to treat a woman and he must be prepared to only date one woman at a time.’
Ellie wasn’t sure if James qualified for any of those things, for all she knew he was already married with half a dozen children, but surely with that smouldering, Latin thing he had going on, not to mention the look he had in his eye, she was willing to bet he’d taken his fair share of women to bed, and she was willing, if he was available, to put her hand up to join that list. He could be her experiment, she decided. She could try choosing a man first and looking for a father for her future children second. She could live in the moment for a change. She didn’t have to fall in love with him.
She managed to position herself between Jess and the beach so she was able to keep one eye on the volleyball, and on James, as they walked past. With her hair tied back and hidden underneath a cap she didn’t think he’d recognise her so she thought she could check him out from behind her dark glasses. As they drew level he bent down to pick up the ball and Ellie felt safe enough to let her eyes run over him. His shorts pulled taut over his legs and butt as he squatted down to the sand and his biceps flexed as he retrieved the ball. As he straightened up he looked directly at her. Ellie had thought he wouldn’t recognise her but he paused in mid-action and stood still, only for a second or two but Ellie knew that in that space of time he’d known it was her. She quickly averted her gaze and hurried past. She felt as though he could read her mind and she definitely did not want him to know what she was thinking.
She kept walking, resisting the urge to turn around as she and Jess continued on to the kiosk by the beach stairs where they stopped for coffee. While they waited for their orders to be filled she wondered whether she’d lost her mind. She was supposed to be getting her life into order and taking stock of her goals, not thinking about ripping the clothes of a virtual stranger.
She must be mad to think about James Leonardi at all. Dating was supposed to be off her list and dating another doctor from the same department would definitely be asking for trouble. But there was something irresistible about him. Not just his looks or the powerful, passionate vibe he exuded; it had something to do with that strange humming sensation, that magnetic pull that seemed to draw her to him. Even now, she knew she could turn around and instantly find him in a crowd. Somehow they were connected.
But she had to ignore these feelings. She kept her back turned to the beach as she waited for her coffee, resisting the urge to take just one more look. It didn’t matter how much she fancied him, James Leonardi was not for her.
CHAPTER THREE
WHEN Ellie returned to work on Tuesday it was to one of the worst shifts she’d had in a long time and it was all thanks to Rob. Mostly they’d managed to work amicably together since the demise of their affair but occasionally she seemed to be in his firing line and today was an especially bad day. She was being blamed for every little thing that went wrong—a dressing that hadn’t been changed, X-rays that had been misplaced and a blood test that had been ordered but hadn’t been done fast enough to please Rob. None of these things were actually Ellie’s tasks, she was up to her neck in admissions and discharge summaries, but Rob had decided to haul her over hot coals for the failings of the entire ward. And he wasn’t finished yet. Ellie was completing paperwork at the nurses’ station when she saw him marching towards her with a severe expression on his face. She froze, wondering what she was going to be blamed for now.
He stopped a few paces from her and snapped. ‘I just saw George Poni and his wife getting into the lift. He tells me he’s going home.’
‘Yes, I’m filing his paperwork now,’ she said, waving a hand towards the stack of papers on the desk.
‘Who said he was ready for discharge? Mr Poni is my patient.’
‘Yes, but you handed his care over to Dr. Leonardi.’ Ellie tried to keep a neutral tone.
‘I still expect the courtesy of being informed if my patients are leaving.’
First I’ve heard of it, Ellie thought, but she bit her tongue. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t realise you wanted everything discussed with you. The physio said he was ready to leave, his mobility aids and equipment for home have been organised, I’ve made an outpatient appointment for George to see you in a fortnight and his discharge was discussed with Dr Leonardi,’ she explained. She was tired of being made a scapegoat for Rob’s bad mood today.
‘Next time I would like to be kept in the loop,’ Rob barked at her. ‘I expect to have my orders followed. Is that understood?’
I was following orders, Ellie felt like saying. You hadn’t indicated that James wasn’t to discharge your patients. She knew the appropriate discharge procedures had been followed. ‘Yes, Dr Coleman,’ she replied, hoping he’d go away and leave her alone if she didn’t argue. She couldn’t believe he was treating her this way but she was powerless to prevent his verbal lashing and he knew it. Her meek and mild attitude had the desired effect. With one final glare in her direction Rob stormed from the ward.
‘Boy, you’re in his bad books today. I’ve never seen him that irritated.’ Sarah, a first-year nursing graduate, who had been keeping her head down throughout Rob’s tirade, spoke up the moment he left. ‘What have you done to upset him?’
Ellie blinked back tears. She wasn’t going to let him get to her. She knew exactly what she’d done to annoy him. She’d gone against his wishes and she knew Rob was annoyed over her refusal to continue their relationship but she couldn’t believe he was choosing to take it out on her in this fashion. He had no cause to query her work performance; she was good at her job and she took pride in that. She knew what the problem was but there was nothing she could say, or do, that wouldn’t put her in the spotlight. She couldn’t tell anyone else why he was treating her this way. So she shrugged.
‘Maybe he just got out of the wrong side of the bed,’ she proposed.
‘I see his mood hasn’t improved at all.’
Ellie looked up from her paperwork at the sound of James’s voice. How long had he been standing there, she wondered and what had he heard? She was only just feeling brave enough to face him after seeing him at the beach on the weekend and now he’d witnessed her latest embarrassing moment. She was ready to crawl under the desk at the thought that he’d heard that exchange with Rob.
‘Any idea what that was all about?’ he asked.
He was watching her with his chocolate gaze, seemingly oblivious to her discomfort.
‘He was annoyed because George Poni has been discharged without his say-so,’ Ellie told him.
James frowned, a crease marring his smooth olive forehead. ‘I wonder why he didn’t say anything to me about that.’
Ellie shrugged. ‘Maybe I’m an easier target.’ There was no reason for anyone to think that Rob’s earlier behaviour was related to her in any way, shape or form, especially not if she appeared unfazed.
‘He was biting people’s heads off in Theatre too this morning so unless you did something to upset him before that I think you’re off the hook,’ James said.
And then he smiled at her, a wide smile that brought those lovely creases to the corners of his dark eyes. Instantly Ellie felt her confidence restored, just his presence helped to soothe her frazzled nerves and his smile almost completely eradicated all thoughts of Rob’s tirade from her mind. That hum of electricity she could feel when he was present made everything else recede. Harsh words, colleagues, nothing else seemed to matter so much and once again Ellie had to force herself to concentrate on the tasks at hand.
She breathed a sigh of relief. ‘So it’s not just me, then.’ She paused briefly and mentally crossed her fingers before asking, ‘He didn’t explain why he was so cross?’
‘Are you kidding? He’s an orthopaedic surgeon, he doesn’t have to explain himself to anyone!’
Ellie closed the file she’d been working on and looked up at him. There were two bright spots of colour on her cheeks and her blue eyes were glistening but the panicked look he’d seen there a moment before had vanished. Her earlier nervous expression had been replaced by a smile as she laughed at his flippant comment.
‘Are you here on a social call or is there someone you want to see?’ she asked.
As she spoke her blonde hair bounced around her shoulders, catching the light and distracting him. Why had he come to the ward? He struggled to recall what he was doing there. ‘I’m here to see Mavis Williams. I was paged, something about her temperature?’
Ellie nodded. ‘Yep. Let me grab her file and I’ll come with you.’
She collected the case notes and led the way and he trailed a couple of steps behind, enjoying the way her hips moved as she stepped out in front. She was a petite woman, several inches shorter than him but perfectly proportioned. Her waist was tiny, her hips narrow but they swayed enticingly.
She’d intrigued him since the first time he’d seen her at the Stat Bar and he’d celebrated his good fortune when he’d discovered that not only did she work at the hospital but she worked on the orthopaedic ward. She’d be working with him.
When he’d seen her at the Stat Bar it was as though they had been the only two people in the room. She’d been surrounded by others but it was as if they had receded into the distance, leaving her standing alone, silhouetted by her own golden glow. It had been an odd sensation for James.
He’d felt her presence at the beach too. It had been more than just the feeling you got when you knew you were being watched. There had been something extra. Despite her cap and sunglasses, he’d known instantly it was her. He’d felt her and it wasn’t until she’d walked away that he’d noticed she wasn’t alone. She may have been walking with a friend but he’d only had eyes for Ellie.
She was the first woman to catch his attention in months, in almost seven months to be exact. Perhaps he was ready to move on.
‘Morning, Mavis,’ James greeted the old lady as they entered her room. ‘You’re running a temperature, I hear.’
Ellie retook Mavis’s temperature as James checked her other symptoms. ‘The nurses might be right, Mavis. It’s possible you have a UTI. It’s a common complaint in hospitals, I’m afraid. If you can stomach cranberry juice that’s often a good natural combatant but I’ll organise some tests and if necessary we can treat it with antibiotics.’ He glanced at Ellie, who immediately picked up on his silent request.
‘I’ll go and organise the things for the urine culture,’ she said.
James watched her go. She made him think of summer and sunshine and happy times. She was golden and if he believed in auras that would be how he would describe her. She had a golden aura and it seemed to envelop him whenever he was near her. It ensnared him and made it difficult to think past her and just being around her made him feel good.
‘You’re enjoying your new job, I see?’ Mavis said with a smile.
‘It certainly has some perks.’ He wasn’t embarrassed at being caught watching Ellie. Most of the males on staff did the same, he’d seen them. Almost everyone seemed captivated by her and he wondered if she was aware of the effect she had on men.
‘You’re not married, then?’
He hadn’t been embarrassed until Mavis made that remark. Did she think he’d still be watching Ellie if he were married? He shook his head. ‘No. I never quite made it down the aisle.’
‘Why don’t you ask Ellie out? She’s single too,’ Mavis the matchmaker replied.
‘Is she?’ His heart rate increased with the announcement. ‘How do you know that?’
‘You don’t get to my age without learning a thing or two about people and, besides, I’ve been here so long I’m starting to feel like part of the furniture and when people get used to having you around they forget to watch their conversations. Trust me, she’s single. You should ask her out.’
‘I might take your advice. Thanks, Mavis,’ he said with a wink as Ellie returned to the room. But even as he spoke he wondered if he would issue an invitation. What would be the sensible thing to do? Had anything changed in his life over the past few months? He was still committed to his job, still focussed on establishing his career. Did he have the time or emotional energy for the singles scene? No matter how enticing Ellie was, he wasn’t sure if he was ready to date again.
There was a buzz of excitement in the room. The noise level had been high all evening, as was usually the case in a room full of women, but the level had increased noticeably in the last few minutes. Ellie checked her watch—ten-thirty. Her school leavers’ reunion had been girls only until now and her old school friends were becoming distracted by the arrival of their boyfriends.
They had only been out of school for five years so there wasn’t all that much to catch up on. They’d been doing one of three things—travelling overseas, studying or working or a combination of all of those. A few were married, a couple had babies but they were the exceptions.
Ellie watched as Carol, Amy and Fiona, in fact, most of the organising committee, went to greet their partners as they entered the function room. Two things were immediately obvious to Ellie. One, that three hours was the time limit allocated to catching up with friends before the girls needed to let their partners in on the evening and, two, the committee members were all in relationships, which was why the decision to include partners in the evening had been made. A third thing came to mind as Ellie watched the change in group dynamics—she wasn’t in the mood to watch happy couples.
It had been three months since the disastrous dinner with Rob and her heart was well and truly mended. If she was honest, she’d admit her pride and her ego had suffered more than her heart. It was more about her dreams and what his lies had done to them. She was angry more than heartbroken and it wasn’t difficult to be angry with a man who was a liar and a cheat. Her dreams might have been shattered but her heart was intact, though she still didn’t feel like being surrounded by happy couples.
The reunion was being held in Sydney’s infamous Kings Cross district in a private function room in a recently renovated and refurbished building. The building was typical of many in the Cross, with the businesses making the most of limited land by going upwards. There was a ‘gentleman’s club’ in the basement, a traditional nightclub on the ground floor with function rooms on the first floor, and Ellie didn’t want to know what was on the floor above that.
The reunion committee had booked out the function room until midnight and Ellie knew that gave them access to the nightclub afterwards. Normally she would be planning on partying until the small hours of the morning but tonight she was out of sorts. She was tired of the incessant noisy chatter going on about her but it was still too early to go home. To get some respite from the noise she slipped out of the room and onto the balcony that opened off it. Maybe watching people in the Cross, instead of her old school friends and their partners, would improve her mood.
She closed the balcony doors behind her and the change in atmosphere between inside and outside was incredible. Inside the air had smelt of perfume, hairspray and women and while initially that had been overpowering it was at least a clean smell. Outside the air smelt of petrol fumes, cigarettes, greasy takeaway food, alcohol and men. And the noise had changed from the high-pitched, excited chatter of women to car horns, music and deeper, loud voices.
If she had been down at street level she might have retreated inside but on a first-floor balcony she felt safe enough to watch from a distance. The balcony was divided in two by a low iron balustrade and a second function room opened onto the other half. From her vantage point Ellie could see people inside the other room but for the moment the adjoining balcony was empty.
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