Part 17 (2/2)

Charlie rubbed a hand through his hair and stared at the key dangling from her outstretched fingers. This was making him crazy. First his father and then this? It was too much for one morning. She looked so self-righteous. So businesslike. What did tie-dye Carrie think of it? Didn't this bombsh.e.l.l affect her at all?

'There'll be an outcry. This centre will close over my dead body,' he warned.

She hoped so, she really did. But the words wouldn't come. This conversation had dealt the fatal blow to their relations.h.i.+p...friends.h.i.+p...kissing-buddy thingy-whatever the h.e.l.l it was. As hard as it was, it was necessary for them to both move on. He had a chance with his ex and she had a life with Dana to get on with.

She went for a nonchalant shrug. 'That's not my concern. Goodbye, Charlie. I hope you and Veronica are very happy.'

The light flippant delivery cost her dearly. She walked past him, her head held high, her back erect, her fingers squeezing the laptop bag handle with a death-like grip. She didn't want to go. But she couldn't stay, either.

Charlie watched Carrie disappear and realised the awful truth. She was ruining him twice. She wasn't only going to take the centre away but she'd also walked away with his heart. He had fallen in love with her.

It had crept up on him unawares but it was there nonetheless. No wonder he hadn't been able to stop thinking about her. No wonder the women at the club the other night had left him cold. He'd been fooling himself that it was l.u.s.t-a combination of pinstripes and abstinence. But as she walked away and an intense pain ripped through his gut, he knew it was deeper than that. Much deeper.

Deeper than anything he'd ever felt before. Sure, he'd loved Veronica but, looking back, he wasn't so sure he'd liked her very much. His father had liked her so that should have been a clue from the start. And to finally have his father's approval had definitely helped keep the thing between them going.

But Carrie was different. She had facets to her character that Veronica had never had. And he loved each one. The businesswoman, the re-emerging doctor, the generous lover, the devoted mother. She was multi-dimensional and complex and he couldn't bear the thought of living his life without her.

His feelings were so intense that not even her proposal to shut the centre, to tear his heart out, could dampen them. Now he'd opened the floodgates, his love was gus.h.i.+ng through his system unabated. Not that admitting it helped. It seemed today, more than ever, their problems were completely insurmountable.

He pulled up a chair and sank into it. h.e.l.l-it wasn't even eight o'clock yet!

Two days pa.s.sed. Two long, slow, agonising days. Charlie relived their last words over and over. He relived the phone call from his father over and over. Every d.a.m.ning word. Her glib 'I hope you and Veronica are happy' rang in his ears.

He wished she'd given him the chance to explain. She hadn't had the benefit of years of similar conversations with his father. She didn't know the best way to deal with them was to tune them out. He'd hardly been paying attention for most of it. But his words came back at him repeatedly. His noncommittal replies. His bored tone. His evasive comebacks. None of that inflection, the grimacing, the rolled eyes would have been obvious from the other side of the door. No wonder she thought he was interested in his ex.

Between that and exploring avenues to keep the centre open he'd had plenty on his mind. He rubbed his hands through his hair. He felt like he had after Donny had first stabbed him with the syringe. Powerless. In limbo all over again. His options removed. His freedom denied.

He stood and paced around his desk. No. No more. Hadn't he decided just last week that he was reclaiming his life? That he wasn't going to wait around any longer? Carrie had challenged him to get a life and he'd taken her up on that. Was he really going to let circ.u.mstances block him again?

It had taken him a long time to build up the centre. To gain the trust of locals and authorities alike. And it had taken him for ever to find his soul mate. And he'd be d.a.m.ned if he was going to give up on either of them without a fight.

Two things he knew for sure. He wanted the centre and he wanted Carrie. The thought of being a father to Dana was completely terrifying, but he knew Carrie's daughter had wormed her way into his affections, despite his concerns, and he wanted to be a part of her life, too. A part of both of their lives.

OK, Carrie didn't love him. Yet. And he knew he'd be foolish to push that. That she would need time to be certain of his love for her and Dana. And slow would be good to ease into a relations.h.i.+p with Dana. If they took things slowly, maybe the prospect of being a father wouldn't be so daunting?

But he had to be let in first. He may have only known her for a short time, but her goodbye had seemed very final to him. He paced a bit more, trying to think of a way to reach out to her.

It came to him a few moments later. Of course. The centre. She was good with figures and she knew the financial state of his workplace much better than he did. Surely she'd be interested in helping him to find a way to make it work? No, scratch that-more than make it work. He wanted to go grander. He wanted the expansion, d.a.m.n it!

OK-she'd been sent here to do a job. And she'd done it. But was it how she really felt deep down? If he'd been a betting man, he would have wagered against it. Surely, with her own personal journey back to medicine so intimately linked with the centre, she could be persuaded to help?

He picked up the phone and dialled her home number without giving himself time to change her mind. A young woman answered.

'Hi, you must be Susie. This is Charlie.'

'Ah, Charlie. Dana talks about you non-stop.'

Charlie smiled. Nice to know he was in one of the Douglas women's good books. 'Is Carrie in?'

''Fraid not. She and Dana are spending a few days at her mum's place.'

'Oh, right...OK, then. If you hear from her, tell her I called.'

Charlie replaced the phone in the cradle. d.a.m.n it! What now? He had to see her. It had been two days and he was going mad without her. He rose from his desk and stalked out of his office. The area was deserted and the jukebox was blissfully silent.

He sat in Angela's chair at the reception desk and opened the bottom drawer, reaching for the phone book. He flipped through the pages until he came to the 'D' section then thumbed through, locating Douglases. Carrie had mentioned last weekend the suburb where her parents lived.

Charlie found four Douglases listed and prayed that Carrie's parents were one of them. He'd grabbed his stuff and locked up the centre. He would visit each address until he found her. He started the Datsun and prayed they didn't have an unlisted number.

Carrie was grateful, as she sat beside her mother, that her father had volunteered to bath Dana tonight. Her heart had been so heavy the last few days that any help getting through the day was appreciated. Coming to her parents' had been a good idea. It was a distraction for Dana, whose incessant chatter about Charlie was heartbreaking. And a distraction for her, too. Someone to talk with to take her mind off being in love with someone who didn't love her back.

Her mother put her arm around Carrie's shoulders and the brave demeanour Carrie had been putting on since she'd arrived cracked into a thousand pieces. 'Why, Mum? Why? I should never have got involved.'

'Oh, darling.' Meryl Douglas stroked her daughter's fringe. 'We don't get to choose if or who we fall in love with.'

'Dana's going to hate me,' Carrie wailed, dissolving into tears. 'She adores him.'

Carrie despised herself for this weakness. After Rupert she'd vowed she'd never cry over another man and here she was, five years older but obviously not any wiser. d.a.m.n Charlie. d.a.m.n him to h.e.l.l. It wasn't fair to worm his way into her life, wake her from her sleep, show her a better existence and then deny her the right to claim it.

Charlie pulled up at the fourth residence not at all confident that he'd have any luck here, either. The house was a typical Brisbane champher-board, high-set house. It was plain, nondescript, the paint a little worn in places. But it was neat, the gra.s.s clipped short, garden beds decorating the fence borders. An ancient-looking, floppy-eared Irish setter adorning the bottom step hobbled towards him as he pushed open the gate. It sniffed the hand that Charlie offered and licked it.

'h.e.l.lo, there, boy,' Charlie crooned, scratching the sweet spot behind the dog's ear. 'Is Carrie here?'

The dog looked at him myopically and Charlie chuckled.

He took a deep breath, climbed the steps two at a time and knocked on the door. His blood pounded through his ears.

The door opened. 'Charlie!'

Charlie looked down to see Dana's adorable face staring back at him. She'd obviously not long had a bath as her hair was damp and she was in her tie-dye pyjamas. She threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his leg. Charlie felt his heart would burst it swelled with so much love for the little blonde-haired, blue-eyed cherub who had captivated him from the very beginning. He reached down and picked her up, settling her on his hip.

'I missed you, Charlie.'

'I missed you, too, Sleeping Beauty.'

'Dana?'

A woman who must have been Carrie's mother approached. They had the same hair and the same whiskey-coloured eyes.

'Granny, this is Charlie.'

Charlie felt the lump in his throat grow bigger. Dana had introduced him like he was Superman, and he knew he would leap tall buildings for the daughter of the woman he loved. Could he be a good father to her? Her trusting eyes made him believe he could.

'h.e.l.lo, Mrs Douglas,' Charlie said politely.

'I take it you'd like to see Carrie?'

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