A Mother for His Twins (5 page)

‘Hmph.’ Theatre Sister wasn’t at all happy and a few minutes later the first few opening bars of ‘Johnny B. Goode’ came through the speakers.

They worked on, stabilising their patient’s fracture before Jasper did a final check and announced himself satisfied. He left Allan to close the wound and headed out with Jennifer, both of them degowning.

‘Is there more?’ Jasper slumped into a chair. ‘Please say the answer is no.’

‘I’m not sure.’ She walked over to the phone on the wall and called through to the nurses’ station. ‘Is Maryanne there?’

‘Yes. I’ll put her on,’ the nurse said. While Jennifer waited, she looked over at Jasper who had his hands laced behind his head and his eyes closed. He was stretched out across the chair, his long legs crossed at the ankles, but the way he was lounging made the top of his scrub shirt rise up and his scrub trousers dip down. Her eyes were automatically drawn to the firm muscles of his lower abdomen and she realised that although she liked his firm arms and broad shoulders, the rest of him seemed to be just as fine. Nice.
Very
nice.

Jennifer turned her head, averting her eyes as she spoke to the registrar on the phone, but Jasper couldn’t believe she’d just given him a thorough once-over. It had been brief yet breathtaking; careful yet caressing, sweet yet sensual. She may have given him a quick appraisal earlier, when they’d been teasing Sara, but this had been real. Desire had flared in her eyes and it was obvious that she liked what she saw. As far as he was concerned, it had been a long time since any woman, sneaking a glance at him, had made him feel as though he were a teenager again, but that was how he felt.

He watched Jennifer as she quickly reached for a piece of paper and pen and scribbled some notes down. Even in baggy theatre scrubs, she looked good. Her hair was still pulled back into that bun, the style she’d worn day in, day out, and while it might be practical, especially when they were in Theatre, he was becoming more than curious to find out what she looked like with those dark locks of hers flowing free and lovely.

When she hung up, he sat up straighter in his chair. ‘What’s the verdict?’

‘Theatre One. Patient requiring open reduction and internal fixation of three fractured limbs.’

‘Really?’ he groaned, his body heavy with fatigue.

‘I’ll take it.’

‘No, it’s all right. I can do it.’

‘Seriously, Jasper, it’s fine.’

‘It’s all right,’ he repeated, meeting her gaze. ‘Can’t have the new boss thinking I’m a wimp.’

Jennifer smiled. ‘Hardly.’ She held out a fist towards him. ‘I’ll play you for it.’

‘Pardon?’

‘Rock, paper, scissors?’

He blinked, doing a double-take. Was she serious? First he discovered she liked rock ’n’ roll when she operated and now she was making a decision about who was going to do an operation by using the rock, paper, scissors method. She was…enigmatic.

‘Is there anything else urgent that needs doing?’

‘Just triage cases.’

He thought for a moment then nodded. ‘The registrars can handle those.’ He stood and held his hand out palm up. ‘Paper. Paper wraps rock.’

‘Hey, we hadn’t started,’ she complained, but stopped short as Jasper actually wrapped his hand around her fist. The touch was enough to ignite the flame that had been on a slow burn for the past two weeks.

Jasper looked into her eyes, not removing his hand. ‘Why don’t we both do it? We’ll get through it faster.’

‘Uh…actually…’ Jennifer sucked in a breath. His hand was warm and comfortable and she liked it far too much. She swallowed and cleared her throat. ‘Why don’t you head home? I can deal with it. Shouldn’t be too much longer and, well, you know, I have my music to keep me company. Go
home and get some sleep. The girls will no doubt wake up bright and early tomorrow.’

‘It’s fine,’ he said, leaning in a little. It was as though he could see her reaction to his nearness and he wanted to prolong it. ‘The girls are asleep and I’m more than used to being woken up bright and early after only a few hours’ sleep.’

His eyes were becoming intense now and Jennifer knew she wasn’t strong enough to handle it. It was as though this thing between them was slowly increasing in intensity. Something that was more than either being colleagues or friends. She wasn’t sure what it was and she didn’t know if she wanted to find out.

Edging back, she removed her hand from his touch and took a few steps away, needing distance. Her mind searched for something to say but for a few seconds it appeared to be blank. Thankfully, she recalled what he’d just said and almost pounced on it.

‘Come to think of it, where
are
your girls? I mean, you’re here at work. Do they have a day-care lady or a friend who looks after them at night?’

‘They’re with my parents.’

‘Oh, of course. I forgot your parents usually look after them. Sara did mention that. So, do your parents live close?’

Jasper thought of them living on the first floor of his house. ‘Uh…you could say that.’

‘So the girls have a room at their house and just sleep over when necessary?’

He shrugged nonchalantly. ‘Something like that.’

‘Jasper, you’re being coy.’

‘Coy?’ He laughed at that. ‘Men aren’t
coy
. Only women are coy. I’m being…deliberately evasive.’ He shook his head and chuckled. ‘Coy. What a word. You do make me laugh, Jennifer.’

‘I think that’s a compliment.’

‘It is.’ His tone and his look were equally as expressive. He stared at her for a moment, as though not sure what to say next.

‘Oh.’ Jennifer wasn’t used to getting such direct compliments. In fact, she wasn’t used to getting compliments, full stop.

‘And if you
must
know,’ he continued, ‘my parents live with us.’

‘You still live at home?’ She was surprised at that, her lips twitching with amusement.

‘No. No,’ he said firmly. ‘I said my parents live with us. There’s a difference.’ He looked around them but there was no one else about. ‘I’ll have you know that I moved out of home a long time ago. I bought my own house, got married, had a couple of kids, then when Elisha died, I remodelled the house so that my parents could sell their big rambling home and move in. It’s an arrangement that works well for everyone, especially the girls.’

‘Fair enough.’ She was touched that he’d explained because it showed her he really was willing to cross that line between the professional world and the personal one they were both so desperate to keep separate. Jennifer knew she’d been crossing the line more often than not of late and to know he was willing to do it too made her feel a little more comfortable.

‘So are we going to get this next patient done so we can both go home?’

‘I guess so but honestly, Jasper, you can go now and—’

‘Paper beats rock.’ He took her hand in his, wrapping his fingers loosely around hers again, watching the way her eyes flared with a spark of excitement before it was quickly veiled. ‘Remember?’

Jennifer’s breath caught in her throat not only at his touch but at the look in his eyes. It was deep, rich and seriously intimate. Where his touch had been mildly playful before, this time it was as sensual as if he’d brushed a thumb across her lips. His body was close to hers, closer than before, and as her heart rate increased, she found it was becoming increasingly difficult to breathe.

‘Jasper?’ His name was a confused caress on her lips and as his eyes dipped to take in the lush fullness of her mouth, her breath caught in her throat. ‘Don’t look at me like that,’ she whispered hoarsely.

‘Why not?’

‘Because you make me sizzle and I don’t know how to deal with that.’

‘Sizzle?’ His resolve to keep things light, to keep on ignoring the enormous tug he continually felt towards her, was beginning to crack. He’d felt the tug of something new and exciting between them since the first moment they’d met—even before they’d discovered their external connection—and he’d worked extremely hard to ignore it. So, it seemed, had Jennifer. When she said things like that, it was enough to make his logical thought processes shut down and instinct take over—and his instinctive reaction was to press his mouth firmly to hers and show her what it would really feel like to sizzle.

The phone on the wall rang and both of them sprang apart, startled and jumpy. They stared at the inanimate object for a moment before Jasper snatched it up. ‘Eddie,’ he said into the receiver.

It was the distraction Jennifer needed and she quickly walked from the room, heading to Theatre One, hoping Jasper would change his mind and decide not to join her because right now she wasn’t sure she could deal with him being so close when she was supposed to be concentrating on a patient.

Never before had she had this problem. Never had she been unable to focus her mind on her work, as she’d experienced a few times thanks to Jasper Edwards and his overwhelming, enigmatic presence.

She’d scrubbed and had just started working when he entered the room. Again she felt him before she saw him and was surprised at her own intuitiveness where he was concerned. She found it difficult to meet his eyes and so simply kept her gaze down and on the job, wanting to get this night over and done with so she could sneak quietly into Sara’s house, wrap herself up in her blankets and just disappear.

Thankfully, at some time during the two hours they spent working on their patient, Jennifer began to relax and realised that as there was currently nothing she could do about the obvious attraction she felt towards her handsome colleague, she’d do well to simply push it aside.

‘Finally!’ Jasper pulled off his gloves, mask and gown, putting them in the appropriate bins and heading out of Theatre with Jennifer not far behind him. ‘Have we beaten the sunrise?’ he wanted to know as they walked towards the changing rooms.

‘Uh…I think we might have but not by much.’

Jasper stopped outside the door marked M
ALE
and looked at her. ‘Listen, Jennifer, I know this is no doubt against the unwritten rules we seem to have made and I don’t want you to feel pressured at all but…would you like to come over for breakfast?’

‘Over?’

‘To my house.’

‘House?’ Her brain seemed incapable of rational thought and it didn’t help at all when his lips started tugging upwards.

‘Sure. We’ve both been up all night long and could do with some breakfast.’

‘Breakfast?’

Jasper’s lips beamed into a full-blown smile and she wished they hadn’t. ‘Yes. Obviously spending a busy night in and out of Theatre affects your powers of speech—or at least the power of forming sentences. Breakfast. The meal you eat at the beginning of the day?’

‘Hmm.’ She nodded slowly, still totally mesmerised by his smile.

‘Anyway, the girls would like to see you and after breakfast we could wander down and see if Mr Attenburgh is happy for you to see the house.’

‘Oh!’ Jennifer covered her mouth with her hand. ‘The house! I’d totally forgotten about the house and my appointment.’

‘I didn’t. I called him before going into my first theatre case and told him we’d reschedule.’

‘Thanks.’ She sighed, unable to believe she’d forgotten. She’d tried several times in the past fortnight to view the house but various obstacles and problems had kept delaying her. Now she simply wanted to get it over and done with. If it was as perfect as Jasper seemed to think, hopefully she’d be able to settle and move in quickly.

But first things first. Jasper had asked her over to his house for breakfast. Her first reaction was to accept instantly but her second was to weigh up the pros and cons. His nearness was starting to do things to her she wasn’t sure she could control in such a personal and comfortable setting and that in itself was scary enough. Control had been her close friend for many years but it was also sort of exciting to have that little bit of spontaneity in her life. Besides, not only would she have the opportunity to see over the house and get that crossed off her list but she’d get to see Jasper’s girls again. She’d enjoyed playing with them when they’d been at Sara’s house and she
had to admit she was becoming more curious about Jasper Edwards—the man, not the surgeon.

Jasper could see her internal struggle. ‘I’ll make you pancakes,’ he offered temptingly.

Her eyes glazed over for a moment, then he saw the beginnings of a small smile. ‘Really?’

‘I make them light and fluffy.’ He almost had her. He was reeling her in and he was loving every moment of it.

‘They’re my favourite.’

‘There you go, then. I’ll even do bacon and eggs to give breakfast a bit more of a…sizzle.’ He waggled his eyebrows up and down as he spoke and Jennifer looked away, surprised when she felt her cheeks suffuse with colour.

‘Don’t, Jasper.’ Her words were barely audible but he heard.

‘Don’t what?’

‘Tease. I…I didn’t mean to say that.’

‘What? That I make you sizzle?’

‘Stop it.’ Even his words, the way he was looking at her now made her start to sizzle once more. If she was totally honest with herself, she would accept that she wanted to spend more and more time with him and she wanted to do that as far away from her life at the hospital.

‘Why?’ Jasper checked the corridor, pleased to find it still deserted. He reached out and placed his hand lightly on her shoulder. When he spoke, his tone was soft, intimate. ‘You’re the first woman who’s ever said that to me. That I make her sizzle. I liked it.’

When she didn’t say anything else, he gave her shoulder a little squeeze before dropping his hand. ‘It’s just breakfast, Jen. The girls will be there, so will my parents. It’s not as though it’s a date or anything. Think of it more as eating food together in a non-hospital environment.’

‘Like the other night?’

‘Exactly.’

He was right. She was over-thinking things again, something she’d promised herself she’d try not to do. She wanted to have breakfast with him, she wanted to see his girls again and she wanted to take a look at the house. Spending all of that time with Jasper would be an added bonus…and to top it all off he’d called her Jen. Wasn’t that the first sign of acceptance? The move from colleagues to good friends?