Melting the Argentine Doctor's Heart / Small Town Marriage Miracle (36 page)

‘That was quick.’

He stood up and came over to her, taking her hand to lead her over to the sofa. He had switched on the gas fire and the room felt warm, too warm, in fact. Emma sank down onto the cushion, feeling slightly faint, although maybe it was the ambiguity of the situation that was causing her to feel like this rather than the temperature. She needed answers and she needed them now.

‘Look, Daniel, I.’

‘I know how difficult …’

They both spoke at once and both stopped. Emma bit her lip in an agony of frustration. They would get nowhere if they carried on this way.

‘You first.’ Daniel sat back in his seat and regarded her gravely. ‘What were you going to say?’

‘Just that I don’t understand why you pushed me away if you loved me, as you claim to have done.’

‘The simple answer is that I was afraid,’ he said quietly.

‘Afraid?’ Emma looked at him in confusion. ‘What of?’

‘Of hurting you. Of ruining your life.’ He stared down at the floor for a moment and his expression was bleak when he looked up. ‘Of you ending up hating me.’

Emma didn’t know what to say. She stared at him in silence, too shocked by the statement to dispute it. Daniel sighed heavily as he reached for her hand and linked his fingers through hers.

‘I decided it was better if I drove you away rather than run the risk of that happening, Emma. Maybe I was wrong but I did it with the best of intentions. I did it for you and I hope you will believe that.’

‘It’s hard,’ she said shakily. ‘You hurt me so much, Daniel. At the time I didn’t know if I would ever get over what you’d done, and now you tell me that you did it for me—’

She broke off, unable to disguise her scepticism. She hated to think that he might be lying to her but what else could she think? She had offered him her love and he
had rejected it in the cruellest way possible. How could that have been to her advantage?

She went to stand up, not sure if she could sit there and listen to any more, but he pulled her back down beside him. His tone was urgent now, the look he gave her filled with desperation.

‘I’m not explaining this very well, so it’s no wonder that you’re confused. But what I said was true. Sending you away seemed like the only thing I could do to protect you.’

‘Protect me? From what? I loved you, Daniel. I wanted to be with you and told you that. Surely you must have known I was telling you the truth?’

‘Of course I did!’ He gripped her hand so hard that she winced and he swore softly, under his breath, as he released her. Standing up, he went over to the window and stood there, staring out across the garden. And when he spoke his voice echoed with so much pain that it brought tears to her eyes.

‘I knew you loved me, Emma, and that was what scared me, the fact that you loved me so much you were willing to give up your dreams to be with me.’ He turned and she could see the regret in his eyes. ‘I couldn’t let you do that, my darling. It was too great a risk, you see.’

‘No, I don’t see. I don’t understand what you mean, Daniel.’ She leant forward beseechingly. ‘I would have been happy to give up my plans to become a surgeon if it had meant we could be together.’

‘I know you mean that but can’t you see that it would have driven a wedge between us eventually?’ He came
back and knelt in front of her. ‘You admitted only the other day that you would have regretted giving up surgery, so how long do you think it would have been before you’d blamed me for making that decision?’

She started to demur but he shook his head. ‘No, I’ve seen it happen before, Emma. It was the reason why my own parents’ marriage failed. My mother was just starting out as a barrister when she met my father. He was in the diplomatic service, which meant he was posted overseas for long periods of time. It would have been impossible for Mum to pursue her career after they married so she gave up the law.’

‘But surely she must have thought it all through, weighed up the pros and cons before she made her decision?’

‘Of course she did, and I suppose she thought that being with Dad was more important than anything else.’ He shrugged. ‘Sadly, it didn’t work out that way. Mum became increasingly resentful about giving up her career. My childhood was one long round of arguments about it, in fact. It was a relief when I was sent to boarding school because it meant I didn’t have to listen to my parents fighting.’

‘It must have been horrible for you,’ she said quietly, and he shrugged.

‘It wasn’t a happy time. Mum was bored and frustrated, and Dad felt guilty because if it hadn’t been for him, her life would have been very different. The sad thing was that they really loved one another in the beginning but it wasn’t enough.’

‘And you believe it wouldn’t have been enough for us either?’ Emma said flatly.

‘No, I don’t think it would have been. I think that in time you’d have regretted giving up so much for me.’ He squeezed her fingers. ‘I knew how much surgery meant to you, you see. That’s why I discounted the idea of moving to Scotland to be with you while you did your training.’

‘You would have done that for me?’

‘Yes, willingly, if it had been the right thing to do. The problem was that I knew you would need to devote all your time and energy to your work. Surgery isn’t an easy option and I would have been an unnecessary distraction.’ He sighed. ‘That’s why I told you that my career meant more to me than our relationship. I wanted to protect you, Emma, and, if I’m honest, I wanted to protect myself as well. I couldn’t have stood it if one day I’d seen resentment in your eyes when you looked at me because you’d failed to achieve your ambitions.’

Daniel took a deep breath. He had no idea how Emma was going to react to what he had told her and the strain made him feel as though every nerve had been stretched to breaking point. He literally jumped when she finally spoke.

‘Why didn’t you tell me all this, about your parents and everything, five years ago?’

He looked up but it was impossible to guess what she was thinking and his nerves seemed to tighten that bit more. ‘Because I was afraid that you would persuade me that none of it mattered, that what had happened to my parents would never happen to us,’ he told her simply.

‘Maybe it wouldn’t have done. Maybe we could have worked things out somehow. The trouble is that you weren’t prepared to give us a chance, were you?’

‘I wasn’t prepared to take any risks,’ he corrected, his heart sinking when he heard the bitterness in her voice.

‘But it wasn’t just your decision, Daniel. It was mine too, only I wasn’t allowed to decide what
I
wanted. You took things out of my hands and that was it.’ She stood up abruptly. ‘Maybe I can’t say for certain that our relationship would have lasted, but I would have liked the chance to try and make it work. You denied me that opportunity and no matter how well intentioned your motives were, you didn’t have the right to do that. You didn’t trust me, Daniel. That’s what it all boils down to. And that hurts more than anything else.’

She left the room and Daniel heard her footsteps walking along the hall. He wanted to go after her and beg her to believe that he had done it for her benefit but he knew how pointless it would be. She needed time to come to terms with what he had told her, time to work out how she felt about him now that she knew the truth.

He put his head in his hands as a wave of despair washed over him. He had to face the fact that Emma might not be able to forgive him for what he had done. He might lose her again for telling her the truth, just as he had lost her before for trying to protect her.

It was a busy morning. As well as having to deal with an exceptionally long list, Emma was summoned to the
police station at lunchtime to make a statement about what had happened the previous evening.

She stuck determinedly to the facts. How she had felt when she’d realised that Daniel was missing wasn’t the issue and the police didn’t need to know about that. However, when she left the station an hour later she felt both physically and emotionally drained. Recalling the moments when she’d thought Daniel had been hurt had brought back all the horror.

She made her way to the nearest coffee shop and sat down at a table, wondering what she was going to do. She loved Daniel so much, but discovering that he hadn’t trusted her to know her own mind five years ago hurt unbearably. The fact that he had chosen to end their relationship rather than try to make it work made her wonder if he really understood what love meant. Maybe he’d thought he’d loved her then as he thought he loved her now, but did he? Really? Was he even capable of the depth of love she felt for him?

By the time she left the coffee shop, her head was throbbing from trying to work it all out. It had started to rain heavily and the traffic was moving at a snail’s pace as she drove through the town. Emma grimaced as she glanced at the dashboard clock. She was going to be late for evening surgery if she didn’t get a move on.

She managed to pick up speed once she left the town. There were a lot of cars on the road, probably visitors to the area who were driving around to avoid getting soaked. She overtook a car and caravan combination then had to slow down again when she found herself
stuck behind a tractor. The road was too narrow to overtake and she had to wait until it turned off before she could put her foot down. She crested the bridge over the river and breathed a sigh of relief. Just another couple of miles and she’d be home.

The thought had barely crossed her mind when she felt the car suddenly skid when the tyres hit a patch of mud lying on the road. Turning the wheel, she tried to correct the sideways movement but to no avail. There was a horrible scrunch of metal as the car hit the side of the bridge, followed by a loud bang as the driver’s airbag exploded. The noise was deafening so that it was several minutes before Emma realised that someone was knocking on the side window. The man gestured for her to unlock the door, which she did.

‘Are you all right?’ he demanded, bending so he could peer into the car.

‘I think so.’ She tentatively tried moving her arms and legs. ‘Yes. Everything seems to be working OK.’

‘What about your neck?’ he said quickly when she went to unbuckle her seat belt. ‘You can’t be too careful when it comes to neck injuries. That’s what they say on the television, how you should always make sure a person’s neck is properly supported. Maybe you should sit there until the ambulance arrives in case you do yourself any damage.’

‘Oh, but I don’t need an ambulance,’ she protested. ‘I’m fine, really.’

‘Best to make sure,’ the man insisted. ‘Anyhow, I’ve phoned them now so it would be silly not to let them check you over.’

Emma sighed. She could hardly refuse to let the paramedics treat her, seeing as they’d been summoned. She dug her phone out of her pocket and called the surgery, briefly explaining to Ruth what had happened and that she would be back as soon as possible. She had just finished when the ambulance arrived so she turned off her phone while she answered the crew’s questions.

They examined her thoroughly, checking how her pupils responded to light and making sure that she hadn’t been unconscious at any point before finally agreeing to let her get out of the car. The driver’s door was jammed against the wall so she had to slide over to the passenger seat to get out and was surprised to find how shaky she felt when she stood up. The accident had caused quite a long tailback of traffic on both sides of the bridge, too. Emma grimaced as she turned to one of the paramedics.

‘I seem to have created havoc,’ she began, then stopped when she spotted a figure running towards them. Her eyes widened in shock when she realised it was Daniel.

‘What are you doing here?’ she began, but he didn’t let her finish. Sweeping her into his arms, he stared down into her face and she was stunned to see the fear in his eyes.

‘Are you all right, Emma?’

‘I’m fine,’ she told him shakily.

‘Are you sure?’ He glanced at her car and she saw the colour leach from his face when he saw the state it was in.

‘Quite sure. Aren’t I, guys?’ She glanced at the
paramedics, who added their endorsement to her claim. Daniel took a deep breath and she felt him shudder.

‘Thank heavens for that. When Ruth told me you’d been in an accident …’

He couldn’t go on but she understood. He’d been as terrified about her as she’d been about him the night before. All of a sudden the doubts she’d had melted away. Daniel loved her, he really and truly did. It was the most glorious feeling to know it for certain once more.

Reaching up, she kissed him lightly on the lips. It was no more than a token but she could tell he understood what it meant when she saw his eyes blaze with joy. Emma could feel the same sense of happiness and wonderment bubbling inside her as they thanked the ambulance crew. A couple of the other drivers helped Daniel push her car off the road so that the traffic could start moving again. Once that was done, Daniel phoned the local garage and arranged for the car to be collected.

‘That’s it, then. Let’s get you home.’ He put his arm around her waist as he led her back to where he had left his car part way up the lane. Emma slid into the passenger seat, smiling as he bent and dropped a kiss on her lips.

‘Mmm, what have I done to deserve that?’ she teased.

‘Nothing. Everything.’ He kissed her again then closed the door and walked round to the driver’s side. He started the engine then turned to look at her. ‘I love you, Emma. I know you were hurt this morning when I told you why I had ended our relationship. I did what I
thought was right, although now I can see that I shouldn’t have made the decision all by myself. I just hope that one day you can find it in your heart to forgive me.’

‘There’s nothing to forgive. You were trying to protect me, Daniel, because you loved me.’

‘Yes, I was. Maybe I went about it the wrong way but it was the only way I could think of at the time.’ He took her hand and raised it to his lips. ‘You meant the world to me then, Emma, just as you mean everything to me now.’

‘And you mean the world to me, too, so let’s not waste any more time.’ She leant over and kissed him softly on the cheek. ‘From now on any decisions about our future shall be made together. Agreed?’