The Doctor's Billion-Dollar Bride, page 17
‘Tell me,’ he said, his eyes not leaving her face. ‘If you can.’
She winced and stared down at the crumpled letter. ‘Nothing to tell,’ she muttered. ‘Sordid little story. Kids on the beach late at night, a fumble in the dark that got out of hand, a teenage pregnancy.’
‘At fifteen?’ He closed his eyes. ‘I can’t imagine. Your parents?’
She gave a hollow laugh. ‘I wasn’t their daughter. I never had been, not really. They tried really hard to have a baby and then they had their daughter, Joy. She died at birth. So they adopted me but I was never... Joy. I was their duty. Everything I did...well, I just wasn’t Joy.’
‘Oh, love...’
She shrugged. ‘Enough. They did their duty by me but we weren’t close. Anyway, I was dumb. I didn’t even realise I was pregnant—or maybe I did, I just blocked it out until I was six months gone when my gym teacher guessed and phoned my mother. And then...’ She closed her eyes. ‘I remember... I came home from school and she hauled me to the doctor and then there was this interminable weekend where they wouldn’t even talk to me. They were...well, they were committed to a religion that pretty much told them I was a whore. So, on the Monday, instead of school they packed me into the car and drove me to Melbourne. To my aunt’s.’
‘Your aunt.’ He hesitated, trying to think this through. Trying to imagine himself in her place. ‘Hell. Was she good to you?’
‘You’re kidding. She was as puritanical as my parents. I was the fallen woman and I gather... I learned later that they paid her.’
‘Oh, love...’
She shook her head. ‘It didn’t matter. I coped. I buried myself in my books and my...unreality. My parents didn’t even come when...when Hali was born. A thirty-six-hour labour and then a Caesarean. And then, while I was still so fuzzy, there was talk and talk and talk, my aunt talking at me, about what was best for the baby, about what was the only course, talking about the disgrace I’d brought to my parents, and I knew I had no support, no way to keep her. I guess...there was just no one. So she was adopted and I was enrolled in boarding school. I never went home—my parents couldn’t bear the shame. From then on, I spent my holidays with my aunt. There was nothing left for me but...but study. Oh, and surfing. I could catch a bus from my aunt’s—an hour to the nearest surf but it was worth it. I was a loner but that was okay. No one judged me while I surfed.’
‘Jodie!’ This was like something out of a nightmare. Did parents really react like this? How could they?
Jodie’s face said it was all too real.
‘Afterwards, I tried to ask for contact,’ she whispered, speaking almost to herself. ‘But of course I was too young to push past barriers I didn’t understand, too young to even know how to go about it, and the things I apparently signed...’ She shrugged. ‘By the time I realised I could fight it, I wondered what right I had to mess with a life I didn’t deserve. But then...somehow...’ She hesitated and for the first time she looked directly at him. ‘A few weeks back it suddenly seemed like I might try again.’
And there was something in her face...
‘Because of us?’ It was hardly a whisper.
And her eyes filled with tears. ‘Maybe,’ she managed. ‘Maybe I realised I didn’t want to be a loner any more. Maybe...maybe I found the courage not to be?’
And then he was out of the chair, around the table, kneeling before her. Hell, he hadn’t realised he could kneel. Probably it hurt—who cared, who even noticed? But he was cupping her face in his hands, searching her eyes, seeing...truth.
‘Because of us?’ he asked again, because it was so important.
‘Seb, I don’t want... I never thought... I don’t need you.’
‘Really?’ he murmured and there was something in his heart that said this was right, this was true. And with that thought so much fell away. Priorities that had been instilled since birth.
Surely love needed to come first. Surely everything else could follow. This was Jodie.
His love.
‘Then that’s a shame,’ he said softly, ‘because I sure as hell need you.’ He was looking into her eyes, seeing what he must have known all along. That this woman was strong, true, wonderful. This woman was a woman in a million. This was the woman he wanted to spend his life getting to know.
‘Jodie.’ It was all he could do to get his voice to work but this was important. So important. ‘Why did you agree to marry me?’
‘Because of your work,’ she murmured. ‘I knew how much it meant.’
‘So the million...’
‘It’s already given away.’
‘What...?’
‘There’s an organisation, set up in rural Queensland, supporting young mums, helping them keep their babies if they want. Giving them mothering skills. Helping with their continued education.’ She took a deep breath. ‘With my million... Okay, it’s a drop in the ocean, but it’s not only you who’d like to save the world, Seb Cantrell. But we can’t keep on. You can’t keep on. You’ll kill yourself. Surfing saved me. What’s going to save you?’ She took a deep breath, swiped more tears away and took a deep breath.
‘Seb, I love you. I’ve figured that out and it’s...it’s changed my world. But I can’t watch you kill yourself with what you’re trying to achieve. I’ve spent fifteen years not needing anyone. I’m damned if I’ll...’
‘Jodie,’ he said, very softly now. ‘Shut up.’
She tugged back a little, her expression changing. ‘What?’
‘I love you too.’
‘You...’ She shook her head. ‘You can’t. There’ll be someone...more worthy...’
‘You’re kidding me, right? A woman better than you? A woman who’s had a baby when you were too young to cope, but who’s managed just fine. Who’s faced down her parents’ cruel judgements. Who’s coped with love and loss, who’s built a career, who’s become a surfer with skills so extraordinary she even teaches. A woman who dives into rocky surf to save a geriatric megalomaniac without even thinking. A woman who crawls into smashed buses and helps me save lives. You’re a... what? You’re a woman in a million.’ He paused and frowned. ‘Jodie, have you answered that letter?’
‘I... No.’ She was thrown off-kilter. ‘I...’
‘You received it ten days ago and it’s lain on the table ever since. You ignored it...’
‘I didn’t ignore it. At least...’ She shook her head, almost wonderingly. ‘I forgot about it,’ she confessed.
‘You forgot the most important thing?’
‘I... It wasn’t the most important thing. You were dying.’
‘I didn’t die.’ He grinned then, and everything was suddenly in its right place. He was kneeling before the woman he loved with all his heart. Everything else—his medicine, Al Delebe, Cantrell Holdings—they needed to fit around this, he thought, and it was suddenly a vow. It would take more delegating, more trust, more determination, but if he didn’t have Jodie...if he didn’t share her life as well as asking her to share his...
And with that knowledge came the certainty that he’d have to step back. Changing the world was all very well, but Jodie was part of that world.
No. Right now, it seemed that Jodie was his world.
‘Jodie, will you marry me?’ It was a simple request, said humbly, said with such love, such conviction that even Freya, nosing around under the table—she could smell cake—paused and raised her head to listen. It seemed the whole world was hanging on these next few moments.
‘Seb...’
‘Really marry, I mean,’ he said, and there was urgency in his voice. ‘You married me the first time so my world could continue. Now, I’m asking if I can be part of your world. Yes, the work I do is important, but surely it can be delegated. Part of that will mean sharing my life with you. And me sharing your life. Living on this island, meeting your daughter, training Freya, learning to surf—because hell, there’s no way you can keep that to yourself, I want—no, I need to share that as well. It’s going to be tricky. There’ll be so much we need to work out, but if we can...for now, please, Jodie, will you marry me?’
There was a long, long silence. His hands were cupping her face. She was looking into his eyes and there were so many questions, so many answers, silently spoken in that gaze.
And finally, blessedly, wonderfully, she smiled, her eyes brimming with unshed tears.
‘Yes,’ she said, but her voice was muffled with emotion.
It didn’t matter, for after that there was no need for words for a very long time.
* * *
A wedding. A man, a woman and two witnesses, or three if you counted a dog—Misty and Angus and Freya—but no one else. A simple ceremony in the island chapel, because it seemed that this time the vows needed to be made in a place where such vows felt sacrosanct. But these were simple vows, made to each other, with no need for priest or celebrant.
There were no costumes this time. No finery. The bride wore shorts and a simple white blouse. Her legs were bare, her hair free and flowing. The groom wore chinos and a casual shirt. The bride carried a tiny bouquet of wattle, picked that morning from their cottage garden. The groom had attached a sprig to his shirt.
‘I, Jodie, take thee, Seb, to love and to honour, from this day forward...’
‘I, Seb, take thee, Jodie, to love and to honour, from this day forward...’
These were vows meant only for each other. These were vows that would last a lifetime.And then, as Angus and Misty beamed mistily and held tightly to Freya, who was threatening to surge forward and show her own appreciation, as the flautist Misty had sneaked into the church vestry piped a simple, perfect version of Ed Sheeran’s Perfect, as the vows they made echoed and faded into the walls of the sunlit chapel, Seb Cantrell and Jodie Tavish smiled at each other and then walked hand in hand out into the sunshine. To begin the rest of their lives.
EPILOGUE
IT WAS DONE. She’d arranged to meet her daughter.
After that first letter Jodie had written back, offering to go to her, to meet wherever they suggested. But, amazingly, Miriam and Bob Holt had replied saying they lived in one of Brisbane’s outer suburbs and would love an excuse to take the ferry across to Kirra Island.
‘Let’s make it informal,’ Miriam had suggested. ‘We could bring a picnic, go the beach? Hali’s very tense, but if she could tie in a swim it might help break the ice. She has a little brother, adopted four years after Hali, and they both love the sea. If they could play in the surf, make it mostly about fun, meeting you might not feel so nerve-racking?’
It was a good idea, but for Jodie there was no way the day could be anything but nerve-racking. But Seb was beside her and so was Freya. They’d checked to make sure there were no family allergies, but it seemed no one was allergic to dogs. No one was allergic to anything.
So on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon, a month after their true wedding, Seb and Jodie headed to one of Kirra’s most beautiful beaches and settled down to wait.
They had offered to meet the ferry, but there was no way six people and a dog could fit in the beach buggy—maybe one day they’d need to do something about that? So Jodie and Seb had driven to the beach alone, and Mack was under instructions to collect and deliver...whoever came.
The taxi pulled up right on time. Jodie walked up the track to meet it—and came face to face with her daughter.
Hali. Fifteen years old. Blonde, skinny, freckled. Tall for her age. Trying to smile through nerves. Behind her were her parents and a kid brother, smiling nervously as well.
‘I guess...you must be my birth mum,’ the girl managed, because Jodie was clearly unable to say anything at all. And then she gave her a shy smile. ‘I’ve wanted to meet you. We’ve all wanted to, for a long time.’ She waved across to her brother, a gangly kid, all arms and legs. ‘Josh met his birth mum when he was eight. She wasn’t much interested though. Why didn’t you want to meet me until now?’
Trust a teenager to get right to the point. This was such a huge question.
In her imagination, Jodie had thought this could take many meetings, maybe with a counsellor present, someone professional to unpack the emotional baggage threatening to overwhelm her. But she had Seb and Freya. Seb was by her side and his hand was gripping hers, warm and strong, and Freya was nosing forward, sniffing Hali, and Hali was stooping to pat her.
Miriam and Bob were standing back, letting their...their daughter...take the lead. Both of them were smiling.
And finally, Jodie found her voice. ‘I didn’t know how to,’ she managed. ‘Hali, I was so scared. I had you three days after I turned fifteen—that’s younger than you are now—and I didn’t know what to do. I... I didn’t have parents who loved me. I felt alone and frightened and all I knew was that... I wanted you to have parents who loved you. Parents who wouldn’t let you be alone and frightened. And Hali...until now I didn’t feel... I didn’t feel old enough or brave enough to follow through. I was so ashamed that I couldn’t keep you. That I couldn’t care for you. I didn’t even feel like I had the right to have a daughter.’
What followed was a long silence, where Hali seemed to take this on board and consider. Everyone seemed to hold their breath as Hali surveyed Jodie from head to foot—until finally she seemed to come to a decision. And, teenager-like, her decision was blunt.
‘That’s cool,’ she said, and then she said tentatively, ‘And my...birth father?’
‘He was a kid too. I haven’t kept in touch, but he knows about you. If you want, maybe we can figure out a way...’
‘You didn’t love him?’
‘I was a kid, Hali. I didn’t...’ Deep breath. ‘I didn’t know what love was.’
‘But you know now?’
That was easy. Seb was right here—and she was here for Seb.
‘I do,’ she said, and it was a vow all on its own.
But Hali was losing interest. ‘Fair enough,’ she said, but she was now looking around the cove. She saw the sea glistening through the palms, she saw the golden sand—and she saw Seb and Jodie’s surfboards, which were permanently on the roof of their buggy.
‘Do you surf?’ she demanded.
‘I do,’ Jodie said again.
‘I never have,’ Hali said wistfully. ‘And you?’ She turned to Seb. ‘Do you both surf?’
‘I don’t surf very well,’ Seb admitted, and Jodie felt him tug her close. ‘But Jodie’s teaching me.’ He hesitated, looking from Jodie to Hali and back again, then seemed to come to a decision. ‘Jodie’s the best teacher. If we can organise it, maybe she can teach you?’
‘And me?’ Josh piped up eagerly from the background. ‘We’re family. If you’re going to teach Hali, then you have to teach me.’
‘Fair enough,’ Seb said, grinning, as Jodie’s insides seemed to turn to mush. Was this what it meant for a heart to melt? And then, as Seb kissed her lightly, then released her to untie the boards from the buggy, her heart melted even more.
‘I guess it’s just the way things are,’ he was saying. ‘Family... Isn’t it where we find it? And how lucky are we that we have?’
* * *
If you enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from Marion Lennox
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All available now!
Keep reading for an excerpt from Falling for the Trauma Doc by Susan Carlisle.
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Falling for the Trauma Doc
by Susan Carlisle
CHAPTER ONE
CALLEE DOBSON STEPPED to the rail along the back turn of Churchill Downs Racetrack. She inhaled the damp, Louisville, Kentucky, morning air. The smell of dirt, hay and horses filled her nose. These she knew well from childhood. Leaning her arms along the railing, she watched the track in anticipation. The early morning run, the breeze as it was called, when the horses practiced, was the best part of the day. A girl could be taken off the horse farm, but the horse farm couldn’t be taken out of the girl.
Having a veterinarian for a father, she loved the animals, but her place was with humans. Her father hadn’t taken it well when she’d turned to human medicine just as she had been accepted to veterinary school. Years later he still wouldn’t discuss her decision.
As the head of the medical clinic located in the stable area on the Churchill Downs grounds, she had the best of both worlds. Working in what was called the backside, she cared for the people who lived and worked there.
The thunder of hooves grew. She leaned forward. The sound became louder and louder.
Someone came to stand beside her. Callee glanced to her right. It was a man wearing a cowboy hat. She did a double take. Could a man be more out of place? She checked the track again. No horses yet. Covertly she studied the stranger. He wore a collared shirt in light blue with the cuffs rolled up a couple of times over his forearms. Jeans covered his long legs. He lifted a foot and braced it on the bottom rail. She blinked twice. His cowboy boots were dark brown. She grinned. Who was this guy? He must’ve gotten lost on his way west.
His vivid blue eyes that almost matched his shirt commanded her attention. “Mornin’.”
The man’s drawl reminded her of thick warm caramel flowing over a hotcake. For a second she came close to licking her lips. She did love a good Southern drawl on a man. Joe had had a drawl when he could speak. Her chest tightened. She didn’t want to think about that.
