Dear Reader

I really enjoyed writing Penny and Jasmine’s stories which make up my SECRETS ON THE EMERGENCY WING duet. Even though they are sisters they are very different and that is what made them so real to me. I loved that, even though they had the same parents and shared the same pasts, because of their unique personalities they looked at things differently.

Penny and Jasmine don’t look alike; they don’t even get on. No-one could even guess that they are sisters—they really are two different sides of the same coin. Yet, for all their differences, there are similarities and I had a lot of fun with a little secret of Penny’s that you shan’t find out till near the end of the second book.

I really would love to know which sister ends up being your favourite? Except, as my mother tells me, you’re not allowed to have favourites …

You may yet be surprised

Happy reading!

Carol

x

SECRETS ON THE EMERGENCY WING

Life and love—behind the doors of an Australian ER

The SECRETS ON THE EMERGENCY WING duet is also available in eBook format from www.millsandboon.co.uk

About the Author

CAROL MARINELLI recently filled in a form where she was asked for her job title and was thrilled, after all these years, to be able to put down her answer as ‘writer’. Then it asked what Carol did for relaxation. After chewing her pen for a moment, Carol put down the truth—‘writing’. The third question asked—’What are your hobbies?’ Well, not wanting to look obsessed or, worse still, boring, she crossed the fingers on her free hand and answered ‘swimming and tennis’. But, given that the chlorine in the pool does terrible things to her highlights, and the closest she’s got to a tennis racket in the last couple of years is watching the Australian Open, I’m sure you can guess the real answer!

Recent books by Carol Marinelli:

Mills & Boon® Medical Romance™

NYC ANGELS: REDEEMING THE PLAYBOY**

SYDNEY HARBOUR HOSPITAL:

AVA’S RE-AWAKENING*

HERS FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY?

CORT MASON—DR DELECTABLE

HER LITTLE SECRET

ST PIRAN’S: RESCUING PREGNANT CINDERELLA†

KNIGHT ON THE CHILDREN’S WARD

**NYC Angels *Sydney Harbour Hospital †St Piran’s Hospital

Mills & Boon® Modern™ Romance

PLAYING THE DUTIFUL WIFE

BEHOLDEN TO THE THRONE~

BANISHED TO THE HAREM~

AN INDECENT PROPOSITION

A SHAMEFUL CONSEQUENCE

HEART OF THE DESERT

THE DEVIL WEARS KOLOVSKY

~Empire of the Sands

These books are also available in eBook format from www.millsandboon.co.uk

Dr Dark and Far-Too Delicious

Carol Marinelli

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MILLS & BOON

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CHAPTER ONE

JUST CONCENTRATE ON WORK.

Jed said it over and over as he ran along the damp beach.

He ran daily, or tried to, depending on work commitments, but as much as he could Jed factored running into his day—it served as both his exercise and his relaxation, helped him to focus and to clear his head.

Just concentrate on work, he repeated, because after the last two hellish years he really did need to do just that.

Jed looked along the bay. The morning was a hazy one and he couldn’t make out the Melbourne skyline in the distance. Not for the first time he questioned whether he had been right to take the position at the Peninsula Hospital or if he should have gone for a more prestigious city one.

Jed loved nothing more than a big city hospital—he had worked and trained at a large teaching hospital in Sydney and had assumed, when he had applied for jobs in Melbourne, that the city was where he would end up, yet the interview at Peninsula Hospital that he had thought would be a more a cursory one had seen him change his mind.

It wasn’t a teaching hospital but it was certainly a busy one—it served as a major trauma centre and had an NICU and ICU and Jed had liked the atmosphere at Peninsula, as well as the proximity to the beach. Perhaps the deciding factor, though, had been that he had also been told, confidentially, that one of the consultants was retiring and a position would be opening up in the not-too-distant future. His career had been building up to an emergency consultant position and, his disaster of a personal life aside, it was where he was ready to be. When Jed had handed in his notice six months ago an offer had been made and he’d been asked to reconsider leaving, but Jed had known then that he had to get away, that he had to start again.

But with new rules in place this time.

Jed missed not just Sydney and the hospital he had trained and worked at but his family and friends—it had been the first birthday of Luke, his newest nephew, yesterday, another thing he hadn’t been able to get to, another family gathering he had missed, when before, even if he hadn’t been able to get there on the day, he’d have dropped by over the weekend.

A phone call to a one-year-old wasn’t exactly the same.

But the decision to move well away had surely been the right one.

Still he questioned it, still he wondered if he had overreacted and should have just stayed in Sydney and hoped it would work out, assumed it was all sorted.

What a mess.

Jed stopped for a moment and dragged in a few breaths.

Over and over he wondered if he could have handled things differently, if there was something he could have said to have changed things, or something he had done that had been misconstrued—and yet still he could not come up with an answer.

It was incredibly warm for six a.m. but it wasn’t a pleasant heat—it was muggy and close and needed a good storm to clear it but, according to the weather reports, the cool change wasn’t coming through till tonight.

‘Morning.’ He looked up and nodded to an old guy walking his dog. They shared a brief conversation about the weather and then Jed took a long drink of water before turning around to head for home and get ready for work.

He should never have got involved with Samantha in the first place.

Still, he could hardly have seen that coming, couldn’t have predicted the train wreck that had been about to take place, but then he corrected himself.

He should never have got involved with someone from work.

Jed picked up the pace again, his head finally clearing. He knew what he needed to focus on.

Just concentrate on work.

CHAPTER TWO

‘JASMINE?’ IT WASN’T the friendliest of greetings, and Jasmine jumped as the sound of Penny’s voice stopped her in her tracks.

‘What are you doing here?’ her sister demanded.

‘I’m here for an interview.’ Jasmine stated what should be the obvious. ‘I’ve just been for a security check.’

They were standing in the hospital admin corridor. Jasmine was holding a pile of forms and, despite her best efforts to appear smart and efficient for the interview, was looking just a little hot and bothered—and all the more so for seeing Penny.

Summer had decided to give Melbourne one last sticky, humid day before it gave way to autumn and Jasmine’s long dark curls had, despite an awful lot of hair serum and an awful lot of effort, frizzed during the walk from the car park to the accident and emergency department. It had continued its curly journey through her initial interview with Lisa, the nurse unit manager.

Now, as Penny ran a brief but, oh, so critical eye over her, Jasmine was acutely aware that the grey suit she reserved for interviews was, despite hundreds of sit-ups and exercising to a DVD, just a touch too tight.

Penny, of course, looked immaculate.

Her naturally straight, naturally blonde hair was tied back in an elegant chignon—she was wearing smart dark trousers and heeled shoes that accentuated her lean body. Her white blouse, despite it being afternoon, despite the fact she was a registrar in a busy accident and emergency department, was still impossibly crisp and clean.

No one could have guessed that they were sisters.

‘An interview for what, exactly?’ Penny’s eyes narrowed.

‘A nursing position,’ Jasmine answered carefully. ‘A clinical nurse specialist. I’ve just been to fill out the forms for a security check.’ Jasmine was well aware her answer was vague and that she was evading the issue but of course it didn’t work—Penny was as direct as ever in her response.

‘Where?’ Penny asked. ‘Where exactly have you applied to work?’

‘Accident and Emergency,’ Jasmine answered, doing her best to keep her voice even. ‘Given that it’s my speciality.’

‘Oh, no.’ Penny shook her head. ‘No way.’ Penny made no effort to keep her voice even, and she didn’t mince her words either. ‘I’m not having it, Jasmine, not for a single moment. You are not working in my department.’

‘Where do you expect me to work, then, Penny?’ She had known all along that this would be Penny’s reaction—it was the very reason she had put off telling her sister about the application, the very reason she hadn’t mentioned the interview when they had met up at Mum’s last Sunday for a celebratory dinner to toast Penny’s latest career victory. ‘I’m an emergency nurse, that’s what I do.’

‘Well, go and do it somewhere else. Go and work at the hospital you trained in, because there is no way on earth that I am working alongside my sister.’

‘I can’t commute to the city,’ Jasmine said. ‘Do you really expect me to drag Simon for an hour each way just so that I don’t embarrass my big sister?’ It was ridiculous to suggest and what was even more ridiculous was that Jasmine had actually considered it, well aware how prickly Penny could be.

Jasmine had looked into it, but with a one-year-old to consider, unless she moved nearer to the city, it would prove impossible and also, in truth, she was just too embarrassed to go back to her old workplace.

‘You know people there,’ Penny insisted.

‘Exactly.’

‘Jasmine, if the reason you’re not going back there is because of Lloyd …’

‘Leave it, Penny.’ Jasmine closed her eyes for a second. She didn’t want to go back to where everyone knew her past, where her life had been the centre stage show for rather too long. ‘It has nothing to do with Lloyd. I just want to be closer to home.’

She did—with her marriage completely over and her soon-to-be ex-husband having nothing to do with either her or her son and her maternity leave well and truly up, Jasmine had made the decision to move back to the beachside suburb to be close to the family home and the smart townhouse where her sister lived and to start over again, but with family nearby.

She wanted to be closer to her mum, to her sister and, yes, she wanted some support, but clearly she wasn’t going to get any from Penny.

It was career first, last and always for Penny, but then again it was the same with their mum. A real estate agent, though now semi-retired, Louise Masters had made a name for herself in their bayside village for being tough and no-nonsense. It was the rather more dreamy Jasmine who did stupid things like take risks with her heart and actually switch off from work on her days off—not that she didn’t love her work, it just wasn’t all that she was.

‘We’ll talk about this later.’ Penny’s blue eyes flashed angrily—it was the only feature that they shared. ‘And don’t you dare go using my name to get the job.’

‘As if I’d do that,’ Jasmine said. ‘Anyway, we don’t even share the same surname, Miss Masters.’

Penny was now officially a Miss—the title given to females once they gained their fellowship. It caused some confusion at times, but Penny had worked extremely hard to be a Miss rather than a Doctor—and she wasn’t about to have anyone drag on her coat-tails as she continued to ride high.

‘I mean it,’ Penny flared. ‘You are not to even let on that you know me. I’m really not happy about this, Jasmine.’

‘Hey, Penny.’ Her sister turned, and so too did Jasmine, to the sound of a deep, low voice. Had Jasmine not been so numb right now, so immune and resistant to all things male, she might have more properly noticed just how good looking this man was. He was very tall and though his dark brown hair was cut fairly short it was just a bit rumpled, as was his suit.

Yes, a couple of years ago she might have taken note, but not now.

She just wanted him gone so that she could get back to the rather important conversation she had been having with Penny.

‘It’s getting busy down there apparently,’ he said to Penny. ‘They just called and asked me to come back from lunch.’

‘I know,’ came Penny’s clipped response. ‘I’ve just been paged. I was supposed to be speaking with Legal.’

Perhaps he picked up on the tension because he looked from Penny to Jasmine and she noticed then that his eyes were green and that his jaw needed shaving and, yes, despite being completely not interested, some long-dormant cells demanded that she at least deign to acknowledge just how attractive he was, especially when his deep voice spoke on. ‘Sorry, am I disturbing something?’

‘Not at all.’ Penny’s response was rapid. ‘This nurse was just asking for directions to get back to Emergency—she’s got an interview there.’

‘You can hardly miss the place.’ He gave a wry smile and nodded to a huge red arrow above them. ‘Follow us.’

‘Mrs Phillips?’ Jasmine turned as she heard her name and saw it was the receptionist from Security, where she had just come from. ‘You left your driving licence.’

‘Thank you.’ Jasmine opened her mouth to say that she was soon to be a Ms, but it seemed churlish to correct it as technically she was still a Mrs—it was there on her driving licence after all. Still, in a few weeks’ time she’d be a Ms and she’d tell everyone the same.

Jasmine couldn’t wait for the glorious day.

For now, though, she followed Penny and her colleague towards Emergency.

‘I didn’t mean to literally follow,’ Jed said, and he waited a second for her to catch up. Jasmine fell into reluctant step alongside them. ‘I’m Jed … Jed Devlin—I’m a registrar in the madhouse, as is Penny.’

‘Jasmine.’ She duly answered. ‘Jasmine Phillips.’

‘So?’ he asked as Penny clipped noisily alongside them. She could hear the anger in her sister’s footsteps, could feel the tension that was ever present whenever the two of them were together. ‘When do you start?’

‘I haven’t got the job yet,’ Jasmine said.

‘Sounds promising, though, if you’ve been sent up to Security.’

‘They have to do a security check on everyone,’ Penny said abruptly.

They all walked on in silence for a few moments.

‘Here we are,’ Jed said. ‘See that big red sign that says “Accident and Emergency”?’

‘How could I miss it?’ She gave a brief smile at his teasing as they headed through the swing doors and stepped into Emergency. ‘Thanks.’

‘No problem.’

‘Good luck,’ Jed said.

Of course Penny didn’t offer her best wishes. Instead, she marched off on her high heels and for a second Jasmine stood there and blew out a breath, wondering if she was mad to be doing this.

It clearly wasn’t going to work.

And then she realised that Jed was still standing there.

‘Do I know you?’ He frowned.

‘I don’t think so,’ Jasmine said, while reluctantly admitting to herself that they had definitely never met—his was a face she certainly wouldn’t forget.

‘Have you worked in Sydney?’

Jasmine shook her head.

‘Where did you work before?’

She started to go red. She hated talking about her time there—she’d loved it so much and it had all ended so terribly, but she could hardly tell him that. ‘Melbourne Central. I trained there and worked in Emergency there till I had my son.’

‘Nice hospital,’ Jed said. ‘I had an interview there when I first moved to the area, but no.’ He shook his head. ‘That’s not it. You just look familiar …’

He surely hadn’t picked up that she and Penny were sisters? No one ever had. She and Penny were complete opposites, not just in looks but also in personality. Penny was completely focussed and determined, whereas Jasmine was rather more impulsive, at least she had been once. She was also, as her mother had frequently pointed out throughout her childhood whenever Jasmine had burst into tears, too sensitive.

‘There you are!’ Jasmine turned as Lisa came over and Jed made his excuses and wandered off.

‘Sorry,’ Jasmine said to Lisa. ‘They took ages to find all the forms I needed.’

‘That’s Admin for you,’ Lisa said. ‘Right, I’ll walk you through the department and give you a feel for the place. It just got busy.’

It certainly had.

It had been almost empty when Jasmine had first arrived for her interview and the walk to Lisa’s office had shown a calm, even quiet department, compared to the busy city one Jasmine was more used to. Now, though, the cubicles were all full and she could see staff rushing and hear the emergency bell trilling from Resus. Not for the first time, Jasmine wondered if she was up to the demands of going back to work in a busy emergency department.

The last two years had left her so raw and confused that all she really wanted to do was to curl up and sleep before she tackled the process of healing and resuming work, but her ex didn’t want to see their son, let alone pay child support, and there was no point going through appropriate channels—she couldn’t wait the time it would take to squeeze blood from a stone, but more than that Jasmine wanted to support her son herself, which meant that she needed a job.

However much it inconvenienced Penny and however daunted she was at the prospect.

‘We do our best with the roster. I always try to accommodate specific requests, but as far as regular shifts go I can’t make allowances for anyone,’ Lisa explained—she knew about Simon and had told Jasmine that there were a couple of other single mums working there who, she was sure, would be a huge support. ‘And I’ve rung the crèche and said that you’ll be coming over to have a look around, but you know that they close at six and that on a late shift you don’t generally get out till well after nine?’

Jasmine nodded. ‘My mum’s said that she’ll help out for a little while.’ Jasmine stated this far more generously than her mother had. ‘At least until I sort out a babysitter.’

‘What about night shifts?’ Lisa checked. ‘Everyone has to do them—it’s only fair.’

‘I know.’

‘That way,’ Lisa explained, ‘with everyone taking turns, generally it only comes around once every three months or so.’

‘That sounds fine,’ Jasmine said confidently while inwardly gauging her mother’s reaction.

It was a good interview, though. Really, Jasmine was confident that she’d got the job and, as she left, Lisa practically confirmed it. ‘You’ll be hearing from us soon.’ She gave a wry smile as Jasmine shook her hand. ‘Very soon. I wish you didn’t have to do orientation before you start—I’ve just had two of my team ring in sick for the rest of the week.’

Walking towards the exit, Jasmine saw how busy yet efficient everyone looked and despite her confident words about her experience to Lisa, inside she was a squirming mess! Even though she’d worked right up to the end of her pregnancy she hadn’t nursed in more than a year and, again, she considered going back to her old department. At least she’d maybe know a few people.

At least she’d know where things were kept. Yet there would still be the nudges and whispers that she’d been so relieved to leave behind and, yes, she should just walk in with her head held high and face the ugly rumours and gossip, except going back to work after all she had been through was already hard enough.

‘Jasmine?’ She turned as someone called her name and forced back on her smile when she saw that it was Jed. He was at the viewfinder looking at an X-ray. ‘How did you get on?’

‘Good,’ Jasmine answered. ‘Well, at least I think I did.’

‘Well done.’

‘I’m just going to check out the crèche.’

‘Good luck again, then,’ Jed said, ‘because from what I’ve heard you’ll need it to get a place there.’

‘Oh, and, Jasmine,’ he called as she walked off, ‘I do know you.’

‘You don’t.’ Jasmine laughed.

‘But I know that I do,’ he said. ‘I never forget a face. I’ll work it out.’

She rather hoped that he wouldn’t.

CHAPTER THREE

‘HOW DID YOU GO?’ her mum asked as she let her in.

‘Well,’ Jasmine said. ‘Sorry that it took so long.’

‘That’s okay. Simon’s asleep.’ Jasmine followed her mum through to the kitchen and Louise went to put the kettle on. ‘So when do you start?’

‘I don’t even know if I’ve got the job.’

‘Please,’ her mum said over her shoulder. ‘Every-where’s screaming for nurses, you hear it on the news all the time.’

It was a backhanded compliment—her mother was very good at them. Jasmine felt the sting of tears behind her eyes—Louise had never really approved of Jasmine going into nursing. Her mother had told her that if she worked a bit harder at school she could get the grades and study medicine, just like Penny. And though she never came right out and said it, it was clear that in both her mother’s and sister’s eyes Penny had a career whereas Jasmine had a job—and one that could be done by anyone—as if all that Jasmine had to do was put on her uniform and show up.

‘It’s a clinical nurse specialist role that I’ve applied for, Mum,’ Jasmine said. ‘There were quite a few applicants.’ But her mum made no comment and not for the first time Jasmine questioned her decision to move close to home. Her mum just wasn’t mumsy—she was successful in everything she did. She was funny, smart and career-minded, and she simply expected her daughters to be the same—after all, she’d juggled her career and had independently raised Jasmine and Penny when their father had walked out.

Jasmine wanted nothing more than to be independent and do the same; she just wanted a pause, a bit of a helping hand as she got through this bit—which in her own way her mother had given. After four weeks of living at home Louise had had a very nice little rental house come onto her books—it was right on the beach and the rent was incredibly low and Jasmine had jumped at it. It was in other areas that Jasmine was struggling, and nursing with all its shift work wasn’t an easy career to juggle without support.

‘I’m going to have to do nights.’ Jasmine watched her mother’s shoulders stiffen as she filled two mugs. ‘A fortnight every three months.’

‘I didn’t raise two children just so that I could raise yours,’ Louise warned. ‘I’ll help you as much as I can for a couple of months, but I take a lot of clients through houses in the evenings.’ She was as direct as ever. ‘And I’ve got my cruise booked for May.’

‘I know,’ Jasmine said. ‘I’m going to start looking for a regular babysitter as soon as I get the offer.’

‘And you need to give me your off duty at least a month in an advance.’

‘I will.’

Jasmine took the tea from her mum. If she wanted a hug she wasn’t going to get one; if she wanted a little pick me up she was in the wrong house.

‘Have you thought about looking for a job that’s a bit more child friendly?’ Louise suggested. ‘You mentioned there was one in Magnetic …’ She gave an impatient shrug when she couldn’t remember the terminology.

‘No. I said there was a position in MRI and that even though the hours were fantastic it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I like Emergency, Mum. You wouldn’t suggest Penny going for a role she had no interest in.’

‘Penny doesn’t have a one-year-old to think of,’ Louise said, and then they sat quietly for a moment.

‘You need to get your hair done,’ her mum said. ‘You need to smarten up a bit if you’re going back to work.’ And that was her mum’s grudging way of accepting that, yes, this was what Jasmime was going to do. ‘And you need to lose some weight.’

And because it was either that or start crying, Jasmine chose to laugh.

‘What’s so funny?’

‘You are,’ Jasmine said. ‘I thought tea came with sympathy.’

‘Not in this house.’ Her mum smiled. ‘Why don’t you go home?’

‘Simon’s asleep.’

‘I’ll have him for you tonight.’

And sometimes, and always when Jasmine was least expecting it, her mum could be terribly nice. ‘My evening appointment cancelled. I’m sure you could use a night to yourself.’

‘I’d love that.’ Jasmine hadn’t had a night to herself since Simon had been born. In the weeks when she’d first come home and had stayed with her mum, the only advantage she had taken had been a long walk on the beach each morning before Simon woke up. ‘Thanks, Mum.’

‘No problem. I guess I’d better get familiar with his routines.’

‘Can I go in and see him?’

‘And wake him up probably.’

She didn’t wake him up. Simon was lying on his front with his bottom in the air and his thumb in his mouth, and just the sight of him made everything worth it. He was in her old cot in her old bedroom and was absolutely the love of her life. She just didn’t understand how Lloyd could want nothing to do with him.

‘Do you think he’s missing out?’ Jasmine asked her mum. ‘Not having a dad?’

‘Better no dad than a useless one,’ Louise said, then gave a shrug. ‘I don’t know the answer to that, Jasmine. I used to feel the same about you.’ She gave her daughter a smile. ‘Our taste in men must be hereditary. No wonder Penny’s sworn off them.’

‘Did she ever tell you what happened?’ Jasmine asked, because one minute Penny had been engaged, the next the whole thing had been called off and she didn’t want to talk about it.

‘She just said they’d been having a few problems and decided that it was better to get out now than later.’

Before there were children to complicate things, Jasmine thought, but didn’t say anything. It was her mum who spoke.

‘I know it’s tough at the moment but I’m sure it will get easier.’

‘And if it doesn’t?’

‘Then you’d better get used to tough.’ Louise shrugged. ‘Have you told Penny you’re applying for a job at Peninsula?’

‘I saw her at my interview.’

‘And?’ Louise grimaced. They both knew only too well how Penny would react to the news.

‘She doesn’t want me there—especially not in Accident and Emergency,’ Jasmine admitted. ‘She wasn’t best pleased.’

‘Well, it’s her domain,’ Louise said. ‘You know how territorial she is. She used to put thread up on her bedroom door so she’d know if anyone had been in there while she was out. She’ll come round.’

And even though she smiled at the memory, Jasmine was worried that Penny wouldn’t be coming round to the idea of her little sister working in her hospital any time soon.

Jasmine was proven right a few hours later when, back at her own small house, adding another coat of paint in an attempt to transform the lounge from dull olive green to cool crisp white, there was a loud rap at the door.

‘Can you knock more quietly?’ Jasmine asked as she opened it. ‘If Simon was here—’

‘We need to talk,’ Penny said, and she brushed in and straight through to the lounge.

If Louise hadn’t exactly been brimming with understanding, then Penny was a desert.

Her blouse was still crisp and white, her hair still perfect and her eyes were just as angry as they had been when she had first laid them on Jasmine in the hospital corridor earlier on that day. ‘You said nothing about this when I saw you last week,’ Penny said accusingly. ‘Not a single word!’

‘I didn’t exactly get a chance.’

‘Meaning?’

She heard the confrontation in her sister’s voice, could almost see Pandora’s box on the floor between them. She was tempted just to open it, to have this out once and for all, to say how annoyed she still felt that Penny hadn’t been able to make it for Simon’s first birthday a couple of months earlier. In fact, she hadn’t even sent a card. Yet there had been no question that Jasmine herself would be there to join in celebrating her sister’s success.

Or rather celebrating her sister’s latest success.

But bitterness wasn’t going to help things here.

‘That dinner was to celebrate you getting your fellowship,’ Jasmine said calmly. ‘I knew you’d be upset if I told you that I had an interview coming up, and I didn’t want to spoil your night.’

‘You should have discussed it with me before you even applied!’ Penny said. ‘It’s my department.’

‘Hopefully it will be mine soon, too,’ Jasmine attempted, but her words fell on deaf ears.

‘Do you know how hard it is for me?’ Penny said. ‘All that nonsense about equal rights … I have to be twice as good as them, twice as tough as any of them—there’s a consultancy position coming up and I have no intention of letting it slip by.’

‘How could my working there possibly affect that?’ Jasmine asked reasonably.

‘Because I’m not supposed to have a personal life,’ was Penny’s swift retort. ‘You just don’t get it, Jasmine. I’ve worked hard to get where I am. The senior consultant, Mr Dean, he’s old school—he made a joke the other week about how you train them up and the next thing you know they’re pregnant and wanting part-time hours.’ She looked at her sister. ‘Yes, I could complain and make waves, but how is that going to help things? Jed is going after the same position. He’s a great doctor but he’s only been in the department six months and I am not going to lose it to him.’ She shook her head in frustration.

‘I’m not asking you to understand, you just have to believe that it is hard to get ahead sometimes, and the last thing I need right now is my personal life invading the department.’

‘I’m your sister—’

‘So are you going to be able to stay quiet when the nurses call me a hard witch?’ Penny challenged. ‘And when you are supposed to finish at four but can’t get off, are you going to expect me to drop everything and run to the crèche and get Simon?’

‘Of course not.’

‘And when I hear the other nurses moaning that you hardly ever do a late shift and are complaining about having to do nights, am I supposed to leap to your defence and explain that you’re a single mum?’

‘I can keep my work and personal life separate.’

‘Really!’

It was just one word, a single word, and the rise of Penny’s perfect eyebrows had tears spring to Jasmine’s eyes. ‘That was below the belt.’

‘The fact that you can’t keep your work and personal life separate is the very reason you can’t go back to Melbourne Central.’

‘It’s about the travel,’ Jasmine insisted. ‘And you’re wrong, I can keep things separate.’

‘Not if we’re in the same department.’

‘I can if they don’t know that we’re sisters,’ Jasmine said, and she watched Penny’s jaw tighten, realised then that this was where the conversation had been leading. Penny was always one step ahead in everything, and Penny had made very sure that it was Jasmine who suggested it.

‘It might be better.’ Penny made it sound as if she was conceding.

‘Fine.’

‘Can you keep to it?’

‘Sure,’ Jasmine said.

‘I mean it.’

‘I know you do, Penny.’

‘I’ve got to get back to work. I’m on call tonight.’ And her sister, now that she had what she came for, stood up to leave. Jasmine held in tears that threatened, even managed a smile as her sister stalked out of the door.

But it hurt.

It really hurt.

CHAPTER FOUR

IT WAS HER favourite place in the world.

But even a long stretch of sand, the sun going down over the water and a storm rolling in from the distance wasn’t enough to take the harsh sting out of Penny’s words.

Jasmine hated arguments, loathed them and did her very best to avoid them.

She could still remember all too well hearing the raised voices of her parents seeping up the stairs and through the bedroom floor as she had lain on her bed with her hands over her ears.

But there had been no avoiding this one—Jasmine had known when she’d applied for the role that there would be a confrontation. Still, she couldn’t just bow to Penny’s wishes just because it made things awkward for her.

She needed a job and, no matter what her mother and sister thought of her chosen career, nursing was what she was good at—and Emergency was her speciality.

Jasmine wasn’t going to hide just because it suited Penny.

It had been cruel of Penny to bring up her relationship with Lloyd, cruel to suggest that she wasn’t going back to Melbourne Central just because of what had happened.

It was also, Jasmine conceded, true.

Finding out that she was pregnant had been a big enough shock—but she’d had no idea what was to come.

That the dashing paramedic who’d been so delighted with the news of her pregnancy, who’d insisted they marry and then whisked her off on a three-month honeymoon around Australia, was in fact being investigated for patient theft.

She’d been lied to from the start and deceived till the end and nothing, it seemed, could take away her shame. And, yes, the whispers and sideways looks she had received from her colleagues at Melbourne Central as she’d worked those last weeks of her pregnancy with her marriage falling apart had been awful. The last thing she needed was Penny rubbing it in.

‘I knew I recognised you from somewhere.’ She looked over to the sound of a vaguely familiar voice.

‘Oh!’ Jasmine was startled as she realised who it was. ‘Hi, Jed.’ He was out of breath from running and—she definitely noticed this time—was very, very good looking.

He was wearing grey shorts and a grey T-shirt and he was toned, a fact she couldn’t fail to notice when he lifted his T-shirt to wipe his face, revealing a very flat, tanned stomach. Jasmine felt herself blush as for the first time in the longest time she was shockingly drawn to rugged maleness.

But, then, how could you not be? Jasmine reasoned. Any woman hauled out of a daydream would blink a few times when confronted with him. Any woman would be a bit miffed that they hadn’t bothered sorting their hair and that they were wearing very old denim shorts and a T-shirt splashed with paint.

‘You walk here?’ Jed checked, because now he remembered her. Dark curls bobbing, she would walk—sometimes slowly, sometimes briskly and, he had noticed she never looked up, never acknowledged anyone—she always seemed completely lost in her own world. ‘I see you some mornings,’ Jed said, and then seemed to think about it. ‘Though not for a while.’

‘I live just over there.’ Jasmine pointed to her small weatherboard house. ‘I walk here every chance I get—though I haven’t had too many chances of late.’

‘We’re almost neighbours.’ Jed smiled. ‘I’m in the one on the end.’ He nodded towards the brand-new group of town houses a short distance away that had been built a couple of years ago. Her mother had been the agent in a couple of recent sales there and Jasmine wondered if one of them might have been to him.

And just to remind her that he hadn’t specifically noticed her, he nodded to another jogger who went past, and as they walked along a little way, he said hi to an elderly couple walking their dog. He clearly knew the locals.

‘Taking a break from painting?’ He grinned.

‘How did you guess?’ Jasmine sighed. ‘I don’t know who’s madder—whoever painted the wall green, or me for thinking a couple of layers of white would fix it. I’m on my third coat.’ She looked over at him and then stated the obvious. ‘So you run?’

‘Too much,’ Jed groaned. ‘It’s addictive.’

‘Not for me,’ Jasmine admitted. ‘I tried, but I don’t really know where to start.’

‘You just walk,’ Jed said, ‘and then you break into a run and then walk again—you build up your endurance. It doesn’t take long.’ He smiled. ‘See? I’m addicted.’

‘No, I get it.’ Jasmine grinned back. ‘I just don’t do it.’

‘So, how did you go with the crèche?’ He walked along beside her and Jasmine realised he was probably just catching his breath, probably pacing himself rather than actually stopping for her. Still, it was nice to have a chat.

‘They were really accommodating, though I think Lisa might have had something to do with that.’

‘How old is your child?’

‘Fourteen months,’ Jasmine said. ‘His name’s Simon.’

‘And is this your first job since he was born?’ He actually did seem to want to talk her. Jasmine had expected that he’d soon jog off, but instead he walked along beside her, his breathing gradually slowing down. It was nice to have adult company, nice to walk along the beach and talk.

‘It is,’ Jasmine said. ‘And I’m pretty nervous.’

‘You worked at Melbourne Central, though,’ he pointed out. ‘That’s one hell of a busy place. It was certainly buzzing when I went for my interview there.’

‘Didn’t you like it?’

‘I did,’ Jed said, ‘but I was surprised how much I liked Peninsula Hospital. I was sort of weighing up between the two and this …’ he looked out to the bay, ‘… was a huge draw card. The beach is practically next to the hospital and you can even see it from the canteen.’

‘I’m the same,’ Jasmine said, because as much as she loved being in the city she was a beach girl through and through.

‘You’ll be fine,’ Jed said. ‘It will take you ten minutes to get back into the swing of things.’

‘I think it might take rather more than that.’ Jasmine laughed. ‘Having a baby scrambles your brains a bit. Still, it will be nice to be working again. I’ve just got to work out all the shifts and things.’

‘What does your husband do?’ Jed took a swig from his water bottle. ‘Can he help?’

‘We’re separated,’ Jasmine replied.

‘Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.’

‘It’s fine,’ Jasmine said. She was getting used to saying it and now, just as she was, it would be changing again because she’d be divorced.

It was suddenly awkward; the conversation that had flowed so easily seemed to have come to a screeching halt. ‘Storm’s getting close.’ Jed nodded out to the distance.

Given they were now reduced to talking about the weather, Jasmine gave a tight smile. ‘I’d better go in and watch my paint dry.’

‘Sure,’ Jed said, and gave her a smile before he jogged off.

And as she turned and headed up to her flat she wanted to turn, wanted to call out to his rapidly departing back, ‘It’s okay, you don’t have to run—just because I don’t have a partner doesn’t mean that I’m looking for another one.’

God, talk about put the wind up him.

Still, she didn’t dwell on it.

After all there were plenty of other things on her mind without having to worry about Jed Devlin.

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