came to see Jamie...’ He gripped the drip pole as his jaw tightened to exactly the same tension as Max’s. ‘In case he needed anything.’
So alpha clearly ran in the family. She wanted to tell him that Max had spent a good part of the night looking after that scrap of life out there. And was running late because of it.
But she held her counsel. ‘Would anyone like to introduce me?’
Max turned and smiled. ‘Yes. Sorry. This is my brother, Mitchell. He was the transplant donor for Jamie. He’s also consultant ED specialist here when he’s not on the dark side. Mitch, this is the new paediatric HDU charge nurse, Gabby.’
‘Gabby. Hello.’ Mitch’s eyebrows rose as he looked from Max to Gabby then back again.
There was a distinct edge between the brothers. So close in appearance, but a gulf stretched between them.
Oh, she knew enough about families that things didn’t always run smoothly, that there were crises and ups and downs. Hell, she knew you could be angry and disappointed with someone for years and years, but you still had to treat them with respect.
Because they were family.
And family, she’d had drummed into her, was everything. Which was why things had turned out so perversely in the end. Why she wasn’t going to have one of her own. Because now she’d wrested some control into her life, she’d never give it up.
But this Maitland thing seemed different. The brothers stood aloof, distant. There was a strange cold charge between them. And yet a child’s life hung in the balance out there. More than anything that should count. Surely, they should be united in that?
Mitch nodded towards her. ‘I came to find out who’s looking after Jamie today.’
‘I allocated him to Rachel. She’s very competent. Last thing I heard she was just about to give him his breakfast. Why don’t you come and see him? He’s probably ready for some daddy hugs. Then perhaps we could alert your nurses to your whereabouts.’
She ushered them out of her sluice room. As things had been progressing with Max in a way- too-dangerous direction, Gabby was thankful for the interruption. But perturbed by the existence of not one but two very distracting Maitlands.
Surely to God one was enough.
Six hours later Gabby finally found a moment to breathe. Slumping into the soggy orange sofa in the ward staff lunch-room, she broke out her sandwiches and yoghurt and started to eat.
Luckily the ward round had run smoothly. Jamie appeared to be making it through his first day post-op with just a niggling temperature. And there had been no major events.
Apart from her near heart attack every time Max brushed past her on the drug round, at the nurses’ station, along the corridor. Was it normal for a doctor to spend so much time on one ward?
Of course it was—he was dedicated, hardworking. And always, it seemed, there.
‘Gabby? We meet again.’
There. See? Always there, his deep voice making her stomach do cartwheels. She swallowed her mouthful of tuna mayonnaise. ‘I’m just leaving, actually.’
‘No, you’re not. Your feet are tucked up, your shoes discarded across the floor, you’re only halfway through a magazine and if I know women well...’ He let the ‘and I do’ hang in the silence. Well, hell, he certainly knew how to please a woman, as she’d learnt last night. ‘You won’t go until you finish the article on best celebrity diets.’
He squished down onto the cushion next to her, mug in hand. The fabric of his scrubs stretched tautly against the muscle of his thigh. The thigh she’d caressed, gripped and, by all accounts, scratched. She dragged her gaze back to his mouth, his words. ‘Which means, Gabriella, that we have time for a quick chat.’
‘I don’t think so.’ She made a big deal of slipping her feet into her shoes and checking her watch while weighing up her options. Still ten minutes of her break left. She could leave now and attend to the piles of paperwork or she could last out her break. With him. In here.
She felt the heat in her cheeks and knew her stupid body was betraying her. What to do? ‘I told you, Max. I’m not open to that.’
‘To what?’
‘More of last night. The whole sex thing...’
‘Yes. No. Me too. Although...I could be persuaded. You have to admit it was good. We were good. Anytime you want a replay, I’m your man.’ His eyes glinted and he appeared to be holding back a laugh.
Annoyingly, she liked it