Always (Time for Love Book 4) (4 page)

Tracy was a true romantic. She’d said that even though her first marriage with their dad didn’t last, it didn’t mean that love didn’t work. She might have had her heart broken, but she hadn’t given up on love. And she’d found her second husband, who’d made her very happy. Unfortunately, their time together was cut short by illness.

Ash could only hope his mother would find someone else again. He worried about her living alone in a big house—like she worried about him still not having someone special in his life. He’d never taken a girlfriend home to meet his mum. Unfortunately, he had no doubts she’d be putting more pressure on him to do so now that Amanda had gotten engaged.

He rang the bell and Amanda opened the door.

“Hey, sis. Sorry I’m late,” he said, kissing her on the cheek. “Things were a bit crazy at the clinic again today.”

“Why? Didn’t you get a temp to fill in for your morning shift receptionist who’s on leave?” Amanda asked as they made their way to the back of the house.

“We did. But we got a call from the husband of our afternoon shift receptionist. She’s having pregnancy complications, so her doctor has ordered her to finish up with work even though she’s only six months along.”

“Oh, that’s not good.”

“I know. I spoke to her on the phone. She’s fine, but it’s better if she stays home and doesn’t tax herself to ensure she carries the baby to full term.”

“So you only had one receptionist today, and she was a temp?”

“Hello, Ash!” Tracy interrupted from the kitchen.

“Hi, Mum,” Ash said as he entered the room, only to freeze in surprise. His mother had three extra helpers. Connor he was expecting to see. But not Gemma. And Brenna.

It was funny how, when he’d been so committed to avoiding her, she kept on turning up when he least expected it. A couple of days after their get-together at Connor and Amanda’s place, Amanda had invited him for dinner. He should have guessed that Amanda had also asked the rest of the gang to come, but only Brenna was able to make it that night. Then, last weekend, he’d thought they were only having a boys’ night in at Jeff and Sarah’s house to watch the Formula One race. But the girls had hung around there, too. It was like fate was conspiring against him with his intentions to stay away from Brenna. At least he was relieved to notice that Lance was nowhere about.

“Dinner will be ready in a few minutes, darling,” Tracy said.

“Okay,” he responded. “Glad to see you girls here tonight,” he said to Brenna and Gemma.

“We haven’t seen your mum for so long, so we thought we’d invite ourselves and hear about her trip,” Brenna answered with a smile as she stirred a pot.

He went to kiss his mother before turning to the other women. Gemma, who was making a purée of something, offered her cheek as she continued to work the blender. When he got to Brenna, his breath hitched. She dropped the ladle she was holding to give him a big hug and a kiss. Sure, her lips only landed on his cheek, but as usual, it didn’t stop his stupid body from reacting.

“Glad to see you again, Ash,” Brenna murmured.

“You too,” he responded, unable to help himself from squeezing her tight. He shook his head at himself, annoyed that his self-control was deserting him again. Honestly.

Before he did anything more idiotic, he let go of her and hurried to Connor, who was a picture of concentration as he carefully chopped some carrots.

“Is this the first time you’ve done that, bro?” he queried.

Connor sighed. “Apparently I’ll get in trouble if I don’t cut them in equal length.”

“At the speed you’re going, we won’t be eating till midnight.”

“Think you can do better?” Connor asked with a challenging grin.

“Better? That would be an understatement—”

Amanda bumped Connor away from the chopping board with her hip. “
I’ll
take over. You two can sit over there and just watch us, or you guys will end up engaging in some silly game when we should be cooking.”

“Is Ash as hopeless in the kitchen as I am?” Connor asked hopefully, kissing Amanda’s forehead as he handed her the knife.

“Nope,” Ash answered. “I’m a decent cook.”

“Unfortunately for you, honey, Ash
is
a decent cook,” Amanda told Connor. “But both you guys have had a difficult day at work, so you can have the night off. We got this.”

“So what’s the problem at the clinic, Ash?” Tracy asked.

Ash sat on a stool and updated them about the situation at the laser eye surgery clinic he’d set up three years ago.

“We did get a second temp from the agency today,” he said. “But unfortunately, she’s even more inexperienced than the first one. With four doctors working out of the clinic, we need people who can hit the ground running, but temps like that are few and far between, especially at short notice. So Dora—my admin manager—has been tearing her hair out.”

“When’s your receptionist coming back—the one who’s overseas?” Brenna asked.

“In two and a half weeks, so that’s still a long time. We’re worried that patient records might not be getting updated, or that surgeries and consults aren’t being scheduled properly.”

“So are you saying that the temps you were given by the agency didn’t know how to use your system?” Brenna queried.

“Oh, they’ve used the system before. It’s their inexperience at handling a busy medical clinic that’s the problem. They couldn’t seem to multi-task, and were constantly asking questions every minute.”

“Hey, I can help,” Brenna said, sounding excited.

Ash stared in surprise at Brenna’s animated face. “What do you mean?”

“We have a lull at work before we get cranking again for major events before Christmas. My boss has been constantly reminding me that I have way too many annual leave days up my sleeve. She suggested I take some in the next few weeks. So why don’t I take a couple of weeks off work and help out at your reception? As long as Dora’s there to guide me, I can help steady the ship. You know I’ll do a good job.”

Ash shook his head. It wasn’t that he doubted Brenna could do it. She was an event manager for a company which organised major conferences and international events. She dealt with deadlines, difficult people and problematic logistics every working day. Doing reception work in his busy clinic would be a walk in the park for her in comparison. “Thanks, Bren, but no. You should take your leave days,
but not to work
.”

“But I want to do it,” Brenna insisted. “And I can help get your other temps organised.”

Tracy chuckled. “I can still remember the time when Bren organised this whole kitchen when she was about fourteen. I thought I had everything in its proper place, but she made it so much more efficient.”

“I remember that,” Gemma said. “And she wouldn’t let any of us help.”

“That was because she dropped and broke three of Mum’s favourite plates and was making up for it,” Amanda said, laughing. “Anyway, Ash, if you’re desperate for someone who can hit the ground running, you know Brenna’s your girl.”

Ash shook his head again. “It’s a receptionist job. She won’t get paid her usual—”

“Oh, Ash. You know it’s not the money,” Brenna interrupted. “I don’t want to take time off work only to twiddle my thumbs. I could start helping you guys out from Monday.”

“Don’t be silly, Bren. You’re not taking time off from your job to work at my clinic. Your leave days are for breaks and relaxation. Save them for those.”

“But I have plenty, and I’m being asked to take some soon. I don’t need the break,” she said stubbornly. “I’m not stressed. Like I said, this is a quiet time at work for us.”

“So shouldn’t you be taking advantage of this quiet time to do things you enjoy outside of work?” he countered. “In a couple of months, you’ll be very busy again. It doesn’t make sense for you take on the stress at the clinic.”

Brenna left the stove to walk to where he was sitting. She stood in front of him—close enough that her leg touched his knee. “I’m sure I’ll enjoy working at your clinic, Ash. And I’d love to see what your days are like first-hand,” she said, her eyes wide and pleading.

He felt himself melting.

Damn it, Ash. Look away.

But he couldn’t. Not when Brenna Ward was staring at him with those beautiful brown eyes which were urging him to agree. Not when his knee was enjoying the contact with some part of her body. Not when she seemed to want to do something for
him
.

“Why do you want to do it?” he croaked, hanging on to a sliver of the self-control that was being rapidly wiped out by her proximity.

“I want to help you. And I think it’ll be fun,” she said, grinning and doing little claps with her hands.

Unbidden, his lips tugged up at her expression. “Hey, I didn’t hear me say yes.”

“But you’re going to,” she said with certainty.

He frowned. Was he that obvious? “No.”

“Oh, come on, Ash. Please?” Brenna said, blinking rapidly.

His eyes widened. Was she batting her eyelashes at him on purpose? She’d never done that to him before.

“Okay, I’ll mention it to Dora tomorrow,” he heard himself say.

“Good,” Brenna said with an utterly cute smile. She leaned down and kissed him on the cheek, then went back to her cooking.

“I still don’t understand why you want to do it,” he said, gathering back his composure that she’d so easily shredded with a look.

Brenna shrugged. “It’s a different kind of challenge. Besides, how could I resist when chaos is calling to be put to order? I’m already looking forward to it.”

Ash raked his hair, cursing himself for being so pathetic. Seriously, he’d have to work harder on his self-control. How on earth would he be able to continue cutting out his romantic feelings for her if she’d be around him every day for the next two weeks?

B
renna caught Gemma narrowing her eyes at her as she walked back to the stove.

“Sneaky,” Gemma whispered. “Have you been planning that for days?”

Brenna grinned as she checked her simmering dish. “No. I saw an opportunity and jumped on it.”

That Ash had caved in to
her
made her happy. It meant he was affected by her little flirtation, right? She hoped so.

It had been so long since she’d spent time with Ash outside of group get-togethers, so she was thrilled that she was going to see him almost every day for two weeks without his sister and the rest of their friends hanging around.

She smiled at herself, now fully accepting her feelings for Ash.

Ash being a brother figure had been comfortable and familiar, and she’d been scared of letting that go. But things had changed. The fact that her friends—especially Amanda—weren’t against the thought of her and Ash together was giving her the courage to face her feelings and act on them.

Since that day at Bondi Beach, Ash was all she could think of, and she couldn’t seem to stop herself. Even her tug-an-earlobe ritual had lost its potency. She’d literally had dreams about him almost every night—some of them were so vivid she still blushed every time she recalled those hot dreams where she’d run her hands and tongue on that sexy body of his. She’d been daydreaming about him throughout the day, too! How crazy was that? More than one workmate had commented she’d been off the planet lately. And now here she was, volunteering to use her annual leave days to help out in his clinic for two weeks.

Yeah. She’d gone bonkers for sure. One minute, she was lamenting how her relationship with Lance was going nowhere, then the next minute she was being swept away by intense feelings for Ash. It excited and frightened her in equal measure.

She’d toyed with the idea of straight up asking him out on a date. After all, wasn’t her New Year’s resolution to make the first move? But every time she’d played different scenarios in her head on how to approach him, an image of Ash walking away always inserted itself—just like he had at Amanda and Connor’s when he’d left early... to be with Sophie.

“That looks ready, doesn’t it?” Tracy said over her shoulder.

Brenna jumped, her face heating up. She was mindlessly stirring the pot, not paying attention to her cooking. “Yeah. I’ll serve it up now.” She switched off the stove and got a serving dish from a cupboard.

“It’s such a pity Bec and Sarah couldn’t join us tonight with their men,” Tracy said. “The one thing that marred my overseas trip was the fact that I missed Bec’s wedding. If only I hadn’t booked and paid for my trip before Bec announced the wedding date...”

“Bec understands, Mum,” Amanda said. “And I have plenty of photos on my iPad that you can have a look at tonight. Their official wedding shots won’t be available for a while.”

“Oh, I’m looking forward to seeing them,” Tracy replied. “Can we start looking through them during dinner? Those photos which made it to the magazines were beautiful. I know they were paparazzi shots, but I’m so proud to see you guys in one of them. Unfortunately Ash wasn’t in it.”

“I know,” Ash said with feigned disappointment. “I missed my five minutes of fame by not sticking close to the famous and powerful Carmichael brothers while the paparazzi were clicking away.”

“Let me get my iPad,” Tracy said. “My pictures from my trip are all in there too.”

The rest of them set the table while they waited for Tracy.

“You know, Ash, you’ll get another chance at fame when Sarah and Jeff get married,” Amanda said. “Those guys are following Bec and Zach’s lead of not worrying about whoever’s taking pictures during their wedding. They’d rather have their wedding photos make it to the front page of the gossip rags than have some outrageous story about them appear instead.”

“Did you read the one where they suggested that Gemma is Greg’s new flame?” Brenna asked.

“Really?” Ash said. “Which magazine? I haven’t seen that.”

Gemma chuckled. “It was only because Greg was my partner groomsman, so they got a shot of us walking together. You know how they speculate that every woman seen hanging on Greg’s arm is someone he’s supposedly sleeping with? At least I was all dolled up in a pretty bridesmaid’s dress when I had one of my pictures make it into a magazine.”