Page 42 of Prognosis Irreconcilable Differences

Jacqui opened her eyes. ‘You don’t need me, Nate. Trent Fertility shares are an overnight success.’

To hell with the shares! She was wrong. Dead wrong. He’d always needed her. He loved her.

Hell...he loved her.

Nathan stilled momentarily. Man! What a stupid, blind idiot he’d been!

He loved her.

He just hadn’t realised it until her case was packed and she was set to walk out the door again. He’d been angry at himself and her when she’d fled to Serendipity for those few days, but now the thought of her leaving — for good —gripped him in a cold panic, chilling him to the bone.

He’d thought something was building between them again. That they’d recaptured some of their magic. But he hadn’t suspected it was love.

His heart crashed in his chest. Everything depended on what he said next. And he doubted, given her tense stature, that a declaration of love was the right strategy. He was likely to get it thrown back in his face. She would see it as a desperate ploy instead of what it was.

The truth.

He cleared his throat. ‘You were right.’

Jacqui frowned. Right about what? ‘Really?’

Nathan could bear her back no longer, and gently placed his hands on her shoulders, applying enough pressure to turn her to face him. His breath caught in his throat.

God, she was beautiful. ‘I miss medicine. I miss being a doctor.’

All week he’d been searching his office for the same exhilaration that he’d found during his operation to remove Jeremy’s spleen. The thrill, the utter elation of helping another human being. Saving a life. The same thrill he’d always felt when catching a wet newborn or telling an infertile couple they were pregnant.

And when he hadn’t found it he’d pushed himself a bit more. Stayed later, worked harder. God knew there’d been enough to keep him occupied. But no matter how long he’d sat at his desk, how many nights this week he’d crawled into bed exhausted for a few measly hours’ sleep, the emptiness had persisted.

It was past time to admit defeat. Jacqui was right. He was a doctor. First and foremost a doctor. Sure, he could play at being a businessman, but it was never going to fill the gaping hole that had been steadily deepening over the years as he’d tried to be something he wasn’t.

Tried to live his father’s dream.

And if he could finally admit it to himself, he could certainly admit it to the woman he loved. The woman who had opened his eyes. Made him look into himself. Kept at him, not letting him hide inside his comfort zone.

Maybe it was the key to convincing her that he had changed. That he was worth sticking around for.

Jacqui blinked, stunned by his admission. She opened her mouth to say something — anything. But nothing came. He looked overwhelmingly handsome in his business suit, with the knot of his tie loosened and pulled to one side. She dragged her gaze from the broadness of his shoulders, and from carnal thoughts of how good they looked without the suit.

‘I realised this week at work. It’s been such an intense week. Full on. And I hated it. It used to be thrilling. It used to be heady.’

Jacqui smiled. Maybe he was finally getting it. ‘Like it was the other night,’ she said quietly. ‘With Jeremy.’

Nathan nodded. She looked so damn calm, with that I-told-you-so gleam warming her toffee gaze. It wasn’t right that he should want to kiss her this badly when she’d been right and he’d been a blind fool.

When she was walking away. Again.

‘Like it was with Jeremy. Yes.’ He accepted his judgement had been in error with complete humility. ‘I felt energised, I knew what I was doing, and it was exciting and exhilarating. I felt...complete. I felt whole.’

Jacqui knew she should be grinning like a crazy woman. Wasn’t this what she’d been saying to him all along? He’d finally given in to his destiny. But, contrarily, she wanted him to say that she completed him. That she made him whole.

As he did her.

It hurt so much inside right at that moment that she had no idea where she dredged up the huge smile that split her face. It must have come from the deep, dark depths of her utterly joyless soul, but it arrived at the appropriate time and she was grateful.

‘Oh, Nate,’ she said, grasping his lapels in a familiar gesture that almost broke her heart. ‘Are you sure?’

He nodded. ‘I’ve never been surer of anything in my life. I mean, it’s going to take me a while to step back from the business side of things, and I’ll have to juggle both for a while until I can appoint a CEO, but I know what I want now.’

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