Page 65 of Do Opposites Attract?

Resolutely he opened up his medical bag.

Suddenly his world went black.

Chapter Thirty

Following her visit to Catherine, Brianna had a troubled night’s sleep. She kept picturing a fourteen-year-old Mitch, lost and alone. A child who’d had to resort to squatting in strangers’ houses and fending for himself. Her heart ached at the thought. At least it helped explain his fierce independence, his reluctance to share his life with anybody else.

The next morning, when she’d finally given up on getting any more sleep, she tried to phone Mitch. Frustratingly his mobile was turned off, and his home phone just rang and rang with no reply. Where was the man when she needed to talk to him? It was so early in the morning she had to conclude he was either a very heavy sleeper, which she knew he wasn’t, or he wasn’t at home. Jealousy ripped through her, sharp and painful. Of course there could be any number of explanations for him not being at home. Being with another woman was only one of them, but it was the one that kept her mind occupied throughout her journey to work.

‘Sally, do you know where Mitch might be?’ Brianna asked the office manager as soon as she arrived in the office. She wondered if the other woman knew about their relationship, or lack of it, and felt slightly foolish. ‘I’ve tried his mobile and his home phone but not had a response from either.’

‘Didn’t we tell you yesterday? The team were called out again. There’s been an earthquake in Indonesia. I expect he’s knee deep in casualties at the moment.’

‘Damn.’ The words were out before she could stop them.

‘Is there a problem?’

Brianna smiled, recovering her poise. ‘No, no problem. I just wanted to follow up with him on this proposal with the army.’

With apparent casualness, Brianna walked slowly back to her desk. So Mitch was away again. Her first selfish thought wasat least he wasn’t with another woman. Then she remembered Catherine, who would at this moment be waiting for a call from her surrogate son. Sadly she’d have to let her know it would be a while before that happened.

Turning her mind to work, she mused that she’d never realised how therapeutic it could be. She’d always considered work a chore, something she didn’t have to do but thought she should. Since joining Medic SOS, all that had changed. She still didn’t have to work, but now she wanted to. It was a huge difference.

The next few hours flew by as she immersed herself in proposals for the next fund-raising ball. So great was her concentration she almost jumped out of her skin when her phone sprang into life.

‘Hi, Brie. It’s Melanie. I wondered if you fancied meeting me for lunch? I know what you working girls are like. I promise I won’t take up more than an hour, and you can stick to sparkling water.’

Wondering where the time had gone, Brianna rubbed at the back of her neck, tight from staring at a computer screen. ‘That sounds like exactly what I need. I’ll meet you at the Italian place in half an hour.’

Three quarters of an hour later, for she knew Melanie always ran late, Brianna sauntered into their usual haunt and found herself a table by the window.

‘Brie, darling. Sorry I got held up.’ Melanie finally arrived, a further five minutes later, gushing with all the usual apologies.

‘You always do,’ Brianna replied dryly, but gave her friend a warm hug.

‘How have you been? Did you go and see Catherine?’

‘Yes.’

Her friend’s eyes widened in delight. ‘So, what did you find out? Is Mitch a nasty scheming gold-digger after all?’

Melanie was smiling so wickedly, Brianna had to chuckle. ‘You know he’s not.’

‘Well?’

‘Let’s order first, then I’ll tell you everything.’

For the next half an hour, they talked and ate. And talked some more.

‘Well, how dramatic. Fancy being left orphaned, running away from the authorities and then being looked after by the person in whose house you’d been squatting. No wonder there’s such an air of mystery about the man. He’s had one heck of a life.’

‘And that’s just what we know from the age of fourteen. I dread to think what happened before that. Catherine wouldn’t say. I’m not sure if she knows the full story.’

Melanie finished off her salad and placed her knife and fork carefully back on her plate. ‘No wonder he found it so hard to mix in our world. It must be hard for him, coming from nothing. When I think of how Henry treated him, it makes me sick.’

Brianna sighed and pushed away the rest of her sandwich. ‘Well, I just hope he won’t be too cross with me when he finds out I went to see her.’

‘I had my reservations, as you know, but hearing what you’ve just said, you’ve done him a huge favour. He clearly cared for Catherine. When he knows she didn’t send the letter, they can find each other again. It’s a gooey, soppy, happy ending.’

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