Falling for Her Forbidden Flatmate
Author
Alison Roberts
Reads
15.8K
Chapters
17
In the first installment of Alison Roberts's A Tale of Two Midwives duet, when a midwife has to move in with her best friend's brother, she discovers just how tempting forbidden fruit can be… LIVING WITH TEMPTATION To escape her abusive ex-husband, midwife Grace will move to the other side of the world. Even if it means sharing an apartment with her best friend's brother. Yet while obstetrician Jock's cheeky charm and boy-next-door good looks are difficult to ignore, Grace feels safe in the knowledge that the guarded playboy is firmly off-limits. Although, as their friendship grows, so does their attraction… Succumbing to their physical desire is inevitable. But what happens when she finds herself falling for her flatmate?
PROLOGUE
IT WAS THE noise that made her turn her head, but it was what she thought she could see that made the chill run down Grace’s spine like a trickle of ice-cold water—so shocking it made her gasp.
‘What’s wrong, Grace?’
‘Did you see that?’
‘What?’
‘I think someone was looking in our window.’
‘You’re not sure?’
Grace frowned. It had almost been more of a feeling than anything visual. ‘I just saw something out of the corner of my eye and then it was gone...’
As if someone had moved fast because they didn’t want to be seen?
‘It was probably just a branch on that tree in the street moving. This storm’s moving in fast. Listen to the wind and rain—who’d be mad enough to go out in this just to look through people’s windows?’ Jenni smiled. ‘And how good is it that we’ve both had the day off and we can stay warm and dry?’
But then Jenni’s brow creased with concern.
‘You’ve been jumpy ever since we heard that gossip about your ex. News that comes through any hospital grapevine should always be taken with a grain of salt, you know.’
‘I know. And you’re right. I’m just on edge.’ Grace blew out a steadying breath as she got up from the couch. Perhaps physically moving would quell the upside-down sensation in her stomach? ‘Why should it bother me anyway? I’m not surprised wife number two has walked out on him.’
She knew exactly why it would have happened and it was too hard to not have memories trying to escape the place where she’d done her best to lock them away. That could well be the reason she’d imagined something menacing lurking in the shadows.
Grace moved swiftly to the windows and pulled the curtains closed, shutting out the darkness. It was only late afternoon but the days were short and could be bleak in the tail end of a Scottish winter.
The small gas fire was providing welcome warmth indoors but Jenni, her flatmate, who was curled up on one end of the couch with a laptop open on her knees, still had a blanket draped around her shoulders.
‘Come and look at this, Grace. Jock’s sent some more photos.’
A distraction was exactly what was needed. Grace sat beside her friend, picking up a corner of the blanket so it was around both of them. Maybe this was what she really needed—to remind herself that moving all the way from London to Glasgow to do her midwifery training had been the best thing she’d ever done, because she’d met Jenni, who was her best friend ever and now they lived together and worked at the same maternity hospital and...
...and Grace was finally starting to feel genuinely safe for the first time in far too long.
‘Oh...’
The sound was one of longing because what Grace was seeing on the screen was so idyllic. A deep blue sea that was calm enough to be reflecting the rugged-looking hills of the nearby tree-covered islands. A sky that was as blue as the sea with not a cloud to be seen. The photo had been taken looking over the stern of a small boat.
‘And look at this...’ Jenni clicked on the arrow.
The next image had a pod of dolphins following the boat, leaping over the foam of the wake. It made Grace smile.
‘They look so happy, don’t they? I love dolphins.’
‘Jock’s just as happy. He says it’s paradise. Mostly...’
‘Only mostly? Just how fussy is your brother?’
‘Apparently they’re so short of midwives that he’s having to do some perfectly normal deliveries himself and he says he didn’t train to be an obstetrician for so many years just to catch babies.’ Jenni shook her head. ‘He says it’s messing with his love life and his fishing, and that wasn’t part of the plan when he moved to New Zealand.’ She closed the laptop. ‘I think he’s sending me all these postcard pictures to try and entice me to go and join him. He even took photos of all the spare bedrooms in the house that’s available for hospital staff.’
‘And you’re not tempted?’ Grace could hear the wind rattling the window in this tiny living room of the terraced house they shared. At least, she hoped it was the wind...
‘It’s a tiny little town at the top of the South Island. Almost a village, and I’m never going to live in a place that small again. You couldn’t have a night out without the entire town knowing about it, and where’s the fun if you can’t meet anyone new, anyway?’
Grace shook her head. ‘Didn’t you say that Jock seems to find a new girlfriend every other week or so?’
‘True. The only long-term commitment he’s going to make won’t be to any woman. It’ll be to that boat he’s bought. Going out fishing is his favourite thing to do.’ Jenni shuddered. ‘I hate boats. I fell out of one once, when I was about seven or eight. Jock will deny it, but he totally pushed me.’
‘I thought twins were supposed to be lifelong soul mates?’
‘He thought it was funny.’ Jenni was smiling now. ‘It kind of was, I guess. It was summer and we were living in a place that had a huge pond. One of the better foster homes we got sent to because we got to stay together.’ Her tone was overly bright. ‘Want to get something delivered for dinner? Like a pizza with the crust that’s stuffed full of cheese?’
‘Sounds good.’ Grace knew when a subject needed to be changed. She pulled out her phone. ‘What’s the name of the town where Jock works?’
‘Picton. It’s where the ferries go in and out, getting from the North Island to the South Island. They have to go through the Marlborough Sounds, which have hundreds of islands which are apparently the tops of an ancient mountain range that sank into the sea.’
‘And it’s got a hospital big enough to need an obstetrician and midwives?’
‘I think it covers quite a big population but it’s spread out. Some of the islands are inhabited. Jock says that sometimes the midwives have to go to home visits or deliveries by boat.’
Grace was scrolling through more images on her phone. ‘It looks amazing.’
‘It’s totally on the other side of the world. Who on earth would want to go there? Unless you were really into boats, of course.’
Grace glanced up—towards the windows, where a draught was making the curtains billow gently. ‘I can think of other reasons the other side of the world might be a good place to live,’ she said quietly. ‘It would make it a lot harder for someone to find you, wouldn’t it?’
Jenni was silent for a moment. ‘Well, Jock would be thrilled if you wanted to apply for a job there. I’d miss you like crazy, but—’
‘But you’d have to come and visit, wouldn’t you?’ Grace interrupted. ‘You’ve been saying for ages that you must go and visit Jock one of these days.’
Jenni blinked. ‘You really like the idea, don’t you?’
‘I wouldn’t want to live with your brother, mind you. He sounds like he thinks any single woman is fair game.’
‘Hey...if I told him you were out of bounds you’d be as safe as houses. Apart from you, Jock is the only person on earth that I would trust with my life.’
There was a much longer silence this time. One that was full of things that hadn’t been spoken about since a night of wine-fuelled confessions between two new best friends. Stories of children who had never been wanted and a woman who’d been trapped in a desperately unhappy situation. The bonding of two women who’d learned that courage and determination could get them where they wanted to go.
But they both knew, all too well, that it was dangerous to assume nothing else could go wrong.
‘You know I’ll support you whatever you want to do,’ Jenni said quietly. ‘But do you really think he would come looking for you? Just because he’s single again?’
Grace didn’t answer because her phone was vibrating in her hand. She closed the webpage but didn’t answer the call. Instead, she held the screen so that Jenni could see the message that said No caller ID.
It was most likely one of those automated calls from a scammer but Grace felt another one of those shivers run down her spine as she caught Jenni’s gaze. Her fingers moving to find the setting that would block the caller.
‘Probably not,’ she said softly. ‘But the real problem is that I’m thinking about it again. I’m not going to let that happen. And if making a fresh start on the other side of the planet is what it takes, then that’s what I’ll do.’
