Hollywood Hills Collection. Lynne Marshall

didn’t need it.

      And it was one of the things she had loved about Zack. He hadn’t raised his eyes at her ways, he had let her be, and she missed him so much.

      So much.

      Over and over she tried to tell herself it had just been a few weeks, that you couldn’t fall in love in that time, and certainly it wasn’t love if it was unrequited.

      ‘I’m fine now,’ Freya said, and put down the little cup but she knew she was going to throw up. ‘Honestly.’

      Please, go now, she thought.

      Freya walked to the toilet and closed the door and she wished Stephanie would leave as she threw up the tea as quietly as she could.

      No, Freya thought, she hadn’t overdone her run—the nausea and dizzy spells were for different reasons altogether.

      How the hell could she ever tell Zack that she was pregnant?

      Freya put on her grey dress with capped sleeves and did her hair and make-up and then she had another glass of tea and that one was nice.

      Feeling a whole lot better, she arrived at the meeting room.

      ‘Where’s Zack?’

      ‘He’s talking to your good friend Mila about another patient.’

      Freya ignored the dig and James got down to business and said he would, as of today, be starting to put out the feelers for a new cardiac surgeon to replace Zack. ‘Already?’

      ‘Well, if they have to give notice. I just asked Zack if he’d go on a month-to-month contract but he said no, he’s out of here at the end of March.

      ‘And it’s February today.’ James said.

      So it was.

      ‘Morning.’ Zack came into the meeting room with no apologies for being late and she and James shared a small smile.

      He was such an arrogant bastard.

      Even down to the fact they were having this meeting in a meeting room when usually they’d be in James’s office for such things.

      Zack played second fiddle to no one.

      ‘I can’t stay long,’ Zack said. ‘I’ve got a patient that’s not doing well on NICU.’

      ‘I heard,’ James said. ‘Are you going to operate?’

      ‘I don’t know. I’ve just spoken with Mila and we’re trying to schedule Bright Hope patients. I want to squeeze an ablation onto the end of the Sunday list on the fourteenth.’

      ‘That’s Valentine’s Day.’ James raised an eyebrow. ‘Won’t you want to be finishing up early?’

      ‘Same as any other day to me,’ Zack responded. ‘I’m an incurable unromantic.’

      James took a call and it would seem that it was a personal one because he excused himself and took it outside the office, leaving Freya bristling beside Zack.

      ‘Can you not do that?’

      ‘What?’

      ‘Consistently point out...’ She was so incensed. ‘I get you don’t do romance but your little digs are unnecessary.’

      ‘I wasn’t digging, Freya.’ Zack gave a bored eye-roll at her drama. ‘I’ve used the same line for ten years. I’m not changing anything for your benefit.’

      That was a dig at the breakfast she’d made him.

      Oh, yes, it was because there was a small smirk on his lips as she opened her mouth to argue.

      Then she closed it and then, to hell with it, she said it. ‘I’d run out of coffee.’

      ‘What on earth are you talking about?’ Zack asked.

      He knew full well!

      ‘You overthink everything,’ he said.

      ‘No, I don’t.’

      They were sulking and turned on and now staring ahead as they sniped, and both wanted to be down on the floor.

      He had told James with absolute certainty that he would not be staying on after March, but the certainty had been in his voice only.

      ‘Freya.’ James came back into the meeting room and his voice had them both turn around. ‘That was Red.’

      ‘Red?’ Freya frowned. ‘Why would he call you?’

      ‘Because he can’t get through on your phone.’

      Red had James’s number in case Freya was away and there was an emergency.

      ‘He thinks you ought to go home. Cleo’s not well,’ James told her. ‘I’ll drive you.’

      ‘I don’t need you to drive me,’ Freya snapped, and got up. ‘I can drive myself.’

      But she’d run to work this morning.

      ‘What’s going on?’ Zack asked James when Freya had left, as if he didn’t know, as if just last week a fat pug hadn’t been asleep on his feet and then stood on his chest, baring her teeth at him.

      ‘Her dog’s not well,’ James said. ‘She’s a vicious little thing.’

      Freya or Cleo? Zack nearly said, but stopped himself. It was getting harder and harder to separate things, and he was glad when James gave up on the meeting.

      ‘Can we do this tomorrow?’ James asked.

      ‘I’m in Theatre all day tomorrow.’

      ‘Well, I’ve got a list this evening.’ James was distracted and so too was Zack. ‘We’ll work out a time later.’

      ‘Will she be okay?’ Zack asked.

      ‘Cleo?’ James said, and Zack frowned as if he had no idea who James was talking about. ‘Oh, you mean Freya. I think so, though you never really know with Freya. She always says that she’s fine.’

      Zack found her coming out of the changing room, where Freya had left her phone.

      ‘You haven’t got your car,’ Zack said. ‘Do you want me to drive you?’

      ‘No, thank you,’ Freya said. ‘You’re busy today. I’ll get Stephanie to call for a car.’

      Stephanie did so. ‘Are you still not feeling well?’ she enquired, and Freya wished she was more like Zack and simply didn’t answer questions that she didn’t want to.

      ‘I’m much better. Thanks for all your help this morning,’ Freya said. ‘I just got a call and my dog’s sick.’

      ‘Cleo?’

      ‘Yes.’

      Freya knew that Red wouldn’t call without good reason and she was right.

      The vet was there and Cleo lay on the sofa and her little tail thumped when she saw Freya.

      ‘She got all breathless,’ Red said, and then the vet told her things weren’t going to get better.

      ‘She’s comfortable. We can take her back to the clinic and put her on some diuretics...’

      ‘No.’ Freya shook her head. ‘She hates being away from here.’ It was why she didn’t put her in boarding kennels and why she’d be grateful forever to Red because in the last year of an old dog’s life she’d stayed home every night.

      It was time, but not for Freya.

      ‘Can I have a day with her?’ Freya asked. ‘Can you do it here?’

      ‘I’ll come by with Kathy at the end of surgery,’ he said, and Freya nodded. Kathy was her favourite nurse at the vet’s.

      She thanked the vet and she thanked Red and saw them all out, and