Page 21 of Twin Surprise for the Italian Doc

And today had been one to remember. A huge pile-up on one of the motorways just outside Milan with critically injured people who’d needed to get to a major trauma facility in less time than any ambulance was capable of. They’d had to land their helicopter on the motorway, more thanonce, in a tight space that the police had managed to create in the middle of a traffic jam that would be making national headlines tomorrow.

Matteo Martini leaned back into the body-shaped dent on his favourite couch, his laptop on his knees, thoroughly enjoying one of his regular catch-ups via Skype with Luke. They’d just had a very interesting conversation about 4D magnetic resonance imagingand the implications that such an advance in technology could give the world of medicine.

And then the conversation got more personal.

‘What’s happening in your life?’ Luke asked.

Matteo shrugged. ‘Nothing exciting. Same old.’

‘How did the date work out last week? With...um...what was her name again? That nurse?’

‘Marcella.’ Matteo wasn’t proud of the fact that it was an effort to remember.‘It was okay. I think she only wanted my body.’

Luke laughed. ‘Lucky you.’

Yeah... It had been a welcome release after several weeks of abstinence.

But it had also been disappointing because that was all it had been.

Because she hadn’t been Georgia Bennett?

No... He wasn’t going to think about her. He had dismissed her from his life in the instant he’d learned that she’d been cheating onsomeone to be with him.

He was still angry.

Still felt cheated on himself, in fact.

No. It was more than that.

He had given away a piece of his heart.

And he wanted it back, dammit.

He was only half listening to Luke telling him how good things were between him and Kate now. About the new adventures they were sharing. He was happy for his friend, he really was. It was just unfortunate thatthe new woman in his life was such close friends with the woman Matteo was determined to forget.

A bubble of something he couldn’t control put her name on his lips. Maybe it was the mention of having gone out dancing because it dragged him back to that time on the dance floor in Rakovi. To the time when he’d been so sure that he’d found the only woman in the world who he wanted to spend the restof his life with.

‘Did Georgia go too?’ He had to fight to keep any hint of bitterness from his tone. ‘And her...her boyfriend? Are you double dating?’

Thinking about the man who was lucky enough to have Georgia in his life created a tightness in his chest that made it noticeably more difficult to suck in a new breath.

When some of that initial anger had burned off, he’d actually thought oftrying to contact Georgia. Of getting her number from Luke, via Kate.

But then what?

Would he knowingly set out to break an existing relationship?

Would he want to be with a woman who would leave someone else for him?

Of course not. You’d spend the rest of your life with the suspicion that the person you were devoting your life to was capable of cheating on and abandoning you if a better prospectcame along.

‘No.’ Luke was sounding a little puzzled. ‘I haven’t seen Georgia since Kate and I have been together. We meet somewhere. Or Kate comes to my place.’

‘Why don’t you go to hers?’

‘I don’t know.’ Luke frowned. ‘I guess because she hasn’t suggested it yet.’

‘Maybe Georgia disapproves.’

---