Marrying The Millionaire Doctor Page 2

  ‘I said she looked absolutely gorgeous.’

  Her defiance was clearly infuriating.

  ‘She looks,’ Alex hissed, ‘like a tart.’

  Stella gasped. ‘That’s a horrible thing to say. How could you?’

  Alex closed his eyes for a moment. He took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes again, his expression had softened. He raised his hand in a gesture of apology. ‘I’m sorry, latria, but you’re thirteen years old and I find you wearing underwear in public and with your face plastered with make-up. What did you expect me to think?’

  It wasn’t plastered. The make-up was discreet and enhancing. The result of rather long girly time in Susie’s cabin that afternoon. She opened her mouth to protest but Stella got in first.

  ‘I wish you hadn’t even come.’ The girl twisted under Susie’s arm, having either not registered or not accepted her father’s attempt at an apology. She was fishing for her crutches.

  Should Susie try and hang on to them? Let Stella show her father she could now manage to walk on her prosthesis—something she had refused to even attempt until this week?

  No. Stella was far too upset to remember how to keep her balance. To fall over now would only make her humiliation unbearable. Susie helped her fit a crutch to each arm, which took only seconds.

  Tears were streaming down Stella’s pale face as she looked up at her father.

  ‘Go home,’ she shouted. ‘I hate you.’

  With that, she turned deftly and manoeuvred herself past Charles, heading towards the end of the jetty.

  ‘Stella!’ The word was a command.

  One that was blatantly ignored. Stella was picking up speed now that she had reached the path. She was running away as fast an anyone could with a pair of elbow crutches and a below-knee amputation. The state-of-the-art prosthesis that looked so wonderfully realistic wasn’t touching the ground. It was back to being what it had been since its procurement. An aesthetic accessory.

  Susie rounded on Alex.

  ‘How could you?’

  His face emptied of an expression worn many times by any parent of a teenager. That baffled kind of look that asked how on earth things had got so out of hand. As he focused on Susie, his face became completely neutral. ‘Excuse me?’

  ‘Your daughter walked nearly fifty metres this morning without using those crutches. She couldn’t even stand without the crutches a week ago and we’ve worked incredibly hard to get this far.’ The words were tumbling out. A release of all the hurt and disappointment she felt on behalf of Stella. ‘That’s exactly what she was doing when you arrived and that’s what you should have noticed. Not the bloody make-up!’ Susie gave an incredulous huff and put all her own fury into the glare she was directing at Alex. ‘How could you?’ she repeated.

  There was a long moment of stunned silence. Susie had seen him flinch. She knew her words had found a target. Clearly, he was considering how to deal with such a personal attack.

  The pilot had stopped approaching some time back, obviously disconcerted by the sound of angry voices. He was peering at something over the edge of the jetty with studied interest.

  Tiny sounds became magnified. The lap of gentle waves breaking on the nearby beach. The cry of exotic birds in the rainforest. A distant shout and then the laughter of children.

  The heat was intolerable.

  It wasn’t a tropical sun that was burning Susie right now, however. The heat was emanating from the man in front of her. His sheer energy was overpowering. Not simply anger. Anyone could get angry, especially a parent who had been publicly defied and then criticised. No. The power here came from anger underlined with a heady mix of intelligence, position and…and the most potent masculinity Susie Jackson had ever encountered.

  She had never met anyone like this in her entire life.

  What the hell did she think she was doing?

  His voice encapsulated every lightning impression she had just catalogued. It was a low, dangerously calm rumble.

  ‘Stella is my daughter, Miss Jackson. I have raised her alone since she was three months old.’ A tiny pause for effect. ‘I don’t think I need anybody telling me how I should be doing it.’

  Obviously he did, but the defiant response refused to come out. Susie’s mouth was too dry and she felt alarmingly close to tears herself. It was tempting to turn and run, as Stella had done, but she wasn’t going to.

  No way!

  A purring noise broke this silence and it came from the small, electrically powered vehicle that chose that moment to arrive. Slow moving and environmentally friendly, these island vehicles had two seats and could tow a small trailer for luggage.

  ‘Ah…my transport.’ Alex turned away, giving Susie the impression that she was a nuisance that had now been dealt with. He sounded slightly less sure of himself when he focused on the new arrival, however.

  ‘What in God’s name is that?’

  ‘Garf,’ Charles told him succinctly. ‘The camp mascot.’

  As was often the case, empty space in a cart or trailer had been gleefully occupied by the large, woolly dog.

  ‘But what is he? I’ve never seen anything like it.’

  ‘Labradoodle. Labrador poodle cross. Hypoallergenic. We had to be careful with pets and avoid anything that could trigger asthma attacks. He’s still on parole as far as close contact with some of the children.’

  Garf didn’t know that. He had obviously been waiting for the cart to stop. As soon as it did, he bounced off the seat and loped off in the direction Stella had taken. Susie smiled. Garf had an inbuilt antenna when it came to unhappy children and he was probably the best medicine for Stella right now.

  Alex gave a satisfied nod as the dog vanished up the track. ‘I’ll meet you back here in half an hour if that suits,’ he said to Charles. ‘Now, where is Stella’s dormitory?’

  Susie opened her mouth and then shut it again as she caught the flicker of Charles’s eyebrow.

  ‘Let me offer you a nice cold drink,’ he said to Alex. ‘I don’t know about you, but I could do with one.’ He smiled. ‘Don’t forget we’re on island time here. Nobody’s going anywhere and nothing needs to be rushed.’

  Diplomatic, Susie conceded. Far more so than she would have been in suggesting that Stella needed some time to herself before seeing her father again.

  And Charles was not someone who could be dismissed. He might be in a wheelchair but that did nothing to diminish this man’s presence, and he had the upper hand right now. They were on his patch.

  Alex had the grace to concede at least a reprieve. He inclined his head. ‘Wouldn’t say no to a cold beer. I have to admit it’s been rather a long and difficult day already.’

  Was that some kind of backhanded apology? Inferring that Susie’s earlier impression might have been valid and his reaction to Stella’s appearance had been the last straw on a stressed camel’s back?

  Charles was gracious enough to assume something along those lines. ‘I’ll bet,’ he said sympathetically. ‘Let’s send your luggage off to the resort and we can see what the fridge in my office has to offer.’

  ‘Lead the way.’

  ‘We’ll go via the centre if you don’t mind. I need to pop in on Lily.’

  ‘Lily? Your daughter?’

  ‘She’s not very well.’

  ‘I’m sorry to hear that.’

  ‘Nothing too serious but you know how young children can go down in a heap with a virus. I’m keeping her in the medical centre this afternoon so we can keep a close eye on her.’

  The voices of the two men faded as they moved away. The pilot took it as a cue to finish his journey along the jetty.

  ‘Bloody suit,’ he muttered. ‘Thinks he’s God’s gift, doesn’t he? You OK, Susie?’

  ‘I’m fine, thanks, Wayne.’

  ‘Poor kid.’

  ‘Hmm. I might just go and see where she is.’

  ‘You do that.’ Wayne hefted the smart black suitcase onto the back of the electric cart and greeted the driver. ‘There’s a couple of dead birds floating under the jetty, mate. Those noisy shearwater things. Someone might need to do something before they wash up on the beach or the kids go swimming or something.’

  The driver unhooked a radio from the dashboard. ‘I’ll call it in but I think the rangers are still out with the kids on some forest trek.’

  The rainforest buggy ride was actually over, Susie realised as she walked back towards the camp facilities. Already groups of children and their parents or carers were heading to the beach for a late-afternoon swim. She waved at Benita Green, a nurse with a small group of her cancer patients in tow, and then found herself returning the wide grin of little Danny, who was still completely bald from his chemo.

  It was hard to stay angry in this environment. Hopefully Stella had found a private spot and the island was working a similar magic on her. Or would she be angry at Susie for orchestrating the confrontation, albeit unwittingly? More likely, she was simply feeling utterly miserable.

  Unloved and unlovable.

  Where would she have gone?

  Not to the dormitory with the others returning and racing in to get their togs and towels. The older ones would be looking forward to the disco this evening and probably discussing it, and that would certainly rub salt into Stella’s wounds.

  Would she have gone to the cabin Susie had been allocated because she was staying for the opening ceremony tomorrow and the gala dinner the five-star resort restaurant was hosting later? Stella knew the location because that was where they’d excitedly taken the purchases of new clothes and make-up for the styling session that afternoon. But she also knew that Susie was going to be sharing the cabin with other staff from the base hospital. She would hardly want to explain herself to strangers if they had already arrived.

  No. Susie turned off the wide track that led from the beach, one fork going to the camp dormitories, dining hall and activity rooms, the other leading to the newly built eco-cabins in the rainforest. She doubled back towards the beach on a much smaller track, confident she knew one of the best thinking spots around.

  Sure enough, hidden between the overturned timber hulls of a couple of ancient dinghies, Stella was sitting. A hunched figure scraping a meaningless pattern in the sand with a piece of driftwood, oblivious to the view of the ocean and small islands that advertised their presence in paradise. Beside her, with big brown eyes peering anxiously beneath golden dreadlocks, sat Garf. Close enough to cuddle but respectfully keeping his distance for now. The dog seemed, in fact, to be enjoying the view Stella was ignoring.

  Susie slid down the side of a dinghy to a squat rather than a sitting position, being as careful as Garf not to intrude too forcefully into Stella’s space. She couldn’t assume she was welcome. Maybe it was only on her side that the relationship had become so much more than that of therapist and patient.

  ‘Hey,’ she said gently. ‘You OK, hon?’

  The only answer was a sullen sniff.

  Susie picked up a handful of the fine white sand and let it drift through her fingers. ‘Dr Wetherby’s taken your dad off to see the medical centre. He thought you might want a bit of time to yourself.’

  ‘I do. Go away.’

  ‘I think your dad’s had a stressful day getting here,’ Susie offered. ‘He got a bit of a shock seeing you all dressed up, that’s all. He’ll get over it.’

  ‘No, he won’t.’

  ‘We won’t let him stop you going to the disco.’

  ‘I don’t want to go.’

  She didn’t really expect Susie to believe that, did she? Maybe she didn’t realise that her exchange with fourteen-year-old Jamie had been overheard that morning.

  ‘You going to the disco?’

  ‘Dunno. Maybe.’

  ‘You should. It’ll be choice.’

  ‘Yeah… OK…’

  ‘Cool. See you there, then.’

  Even if she had been aware of Susie listening, Stella wouldn’t have known that, in the wake of Jamie’s grin, her face had been the picture of every teenage girl in existence who was experiencing her first crush.

  And Susie had used that secret as an emotional key to get through the last barrier and get Stella walking properly. The day had snowballed from then on. The hugely successful physio session, the shopping and the make-over. A crescendo of excitement that had just been shredded.

  A flash of anger resurfaced.

  ‘Your dad’s wrong,’ Susie said firmly. ‘He only said that about how you look because he doesn’t realise you’re growing up. It’s not what the other kids will think, believe me.’ Not what Jamie would think, but she couldn’t say that.

  Stella hunched into a tighter ball. ‘It doesn’t matter. I don’t care.’

  Using the side of the other dinghy as a climbing frame, Stella clambered upright awkwardly. She picked up her crutches without looking at Susie. ‘Who wants to go to a stupid disco anyway?’

  The hunched shoulders, resentful tone and total lack of eye contact was achingly familiar.

  They were right back to where they’d been at the start of this week.

  Back to square one.

  Susie watched miserably as Stella moved slowly over the sand.

  Something wonderful had been happening in the last few days. Something that had filled a lonely space with magic and created more joy than she had known her career could provide, but that new, hopeful space had just exploded, thanks to a human bomb. Even Garf’s head on her knee wasn’t enough to comfort her.

  Susie straightened her legs, giving Garf a quick scratch under his chin as she stood up. She watched as two boys ran onto the beach, past Stella. They weren’t camp kids but Susie had seen them hanging around in the last day or two and she didn’t like the look of them at all.

  ‘Hey, Zach, look!’ One of them shouted. ‘It’s one of those cripples from the kiddie camp.’

  ‘Crip-ple!’ His mate taunted loudly. ‘Hop-along! Go back to the forest with all the other freaky frogs!’

  Laughing, the teens in their designer board shorts kept loping onto the beach, oblivious to the hurt they might have caused.

  Susie’s hands bunched into fists. She started moving, intending to intercept the boys and give them a piece of her mind, but from the corner of her eye she could see another group of young people arriving. These were camp kids and Jamie was leading them.

  He must have heard the taunting and Stella would have to know he’d heard it, which would only have made it even more cutting. The tall, lanky body of the teenager, bronzed by so many hours in the surf, was gathering speed. Tousled, blond-streaked hair bounced. Susie could see why he was catching the attention of the girls.

  And not just the girls. With a delighted woof and an apologetic glance up at Susie, Garf abandoned her to join the fun.

  She watched the way Jamie bent to welcome the dog by ruffling his soft coat. Should she try and enlist the boy’s help in boosting Stella’s self-esteem? Could she do it without making it look contrived? Should she even try? Susie knew the answer to that one but desperation might have tipped the balance if her thoughts had not been interrupted by the ringtone of her mobile.

  It was Charles.

  ‘Could you spare a few minutes to come to my office?’ he asked. ‘Alex would like to talk to you.’

  ‘I’m not at all sure I would like to talk to him.’ Susie was still watching Jamie. He had caught up with the strange boys and was clearly saying the kind of things Susie had been planning to say. She smiled. Stella knew how to pick them, didn’t she?

  ‘Susie!’ Charles’s tone had a glint of amusement. Understanding. But it was also a reprimand. Charles wouldn’t have suggested the meeting unless he thought it would benefit the people he cared about.

  Like her.

  And Stella.

  Susie sighed. ‘I’m on my way.’

  CHAPTER TWO

  ‘IT’s the perfect solution.’

  ‘I agree.’

  The latest arrival in the office wasn’t looking quite so convinced.

  ‘Let me get this straight,’ Susie said slowly, still looking at Charles. ‘You want me to spend the weekend in the penthouse suite at the resort that was reserved for Stella and Mr Vavunis? And Mr Vavunis is going to use my cabin?’

  ‘Call me Alex.’

  He hadn’t noticed how astonishingly blue Stella’s physiotherapist’s eyes were but, then, he hadn’t taken much notice of her physical appearance at the jetty, had he? Or was it because they were now tucked away in the neutral décor of this air-conditioned space in the new medical centre and the competition from the vast blueness of the sky and ocean had been removed?

  Whatever. The expression in those eyes was not impressed and she made no acknowledgement of the invitation to use his first name. Dammit! He knew he’d been rude earlier but it could hardly be considered unprovoked and he certainly wasn’t going to jump through hoops in order to call a truce.

  ‘It’s the closest eco-cabin to the girls’ dormitory,’ Charles said calmly. ‘A compromise that would allow Stella to spend time with her dad but still be close to her mates.’ An eyebrow quirked. ‘It’s also the last available two-bedroomed cabin.’

  ‘But what about Mike and Emily?’

  Alex suppressed a sigh. He had anticipated a delighted acceptance of the plan he and Charles had come up with over their beer. What woman wouldn’t want to exchange a simple hut in a forest for the ultimate in luxury? But no. Miss Jackson was going to be difficult.

  Again.

  He tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair. ‘Mike and Emily?’ he queried.

  ‘Mike’s one of our helicopter pilots,’ Charles supplied. ‘Also a paramedic. Emily’s an anaesthetist at our base hospital.’

  ‘My best friend,’ Susie put in.

  ‘And?’ Alex couldn’t see the relevance but he couldn’t miss the note in Susie’s voice that spoke of fierce loyalty to the people she called friends. He could approve of that.

  ‘And they’re coming over for tomorrow’s opening,’ Susie continued. ‘They’re going to be sharing my cabin.’