Partners by Contract by Kim Lawrence

were meant to be,’ she said softly. ‘I envy you, Con.’ Try as she might, Phoebe couldnot imagine her twin happy, living the life of a rural GP’s wife away from the bright lights she loved. If Penny had still been alive, would Con be here today...or would his life have taken a different route?
    Connor couldn’t help but reflect on the difference in her response compared with that of most of his friends and contemporaries when he’d tried to explain his decision to abandon a potentially exceptional career in surgery in favour of the more mundane rewards of general practice.
    His crutch slid to the floor with a noisy clatter and the brief moment of perfect accord was lost. Connor cursed gently under his breath and bent forward, but unable to retrieve it without losing his balance he straightened up, his face flushed with annoyance.
    Phoebe felt a surge of empathy for his frustration, but knew Con too well to offer sympathy that would be resented. She bent to pick up the crutch for him, their fingers briefly touching as she handed it to him. The vibration that tingled through her at the light contact was electric in its intensity. Phoebe’s hand dropped to her side, her fingers curling into tight a ball.
    ‘Thanks.’
    ‘Was Mrs Proctor very upset?’ she asked huskily, her heart thumping heavily against her ribs. If Con did come back to work, even in a restricted way, she was off. She had no choice. She just couldn’t function in the same environment as him.
    ‘More with herself than you, I suspect.’
    ‘I should have been more tactful.’
    ‘I don’t agree.’
    The forbidding tone in his voice made Phoebe glance up sharply, to discover his expression was equally stern.
    ‘She needed a wake-up call,’ he continued. ‘Things could have turned out much worse if you hadn’t acted soswiftly. I rang the ward earlier—Sam seems to be responding to the antibiotics.’
    ‘Now that he’s getting them,’ Phoebe snorted with a rueful shake of her head. ‘When he didn’t respond to the first course I just thought the infection was penicillin-resistant. It never occurred to me his mother wasn’t giving him the medication I’d prescribed.’
    A mild chest infection had turned to pneumonia, and when Phoebe had arrived in answer to an urgent call from Lyn she’d found a terrified mother and a limp, unresponsive child with severe breathing difficulties. ‘It’s not as if the alternative medicines she was pumping him full of did any harm...’
    ‘They just couldn’t cope with the infection.’
    Phoebe nodded. ‘He had a febrile convulsion in the ambulance, which didn’t help matters. I’m more used to mothers complaining when I don’t prescribe antibiotics for a viral throat or a cold. It didn’t occur to me that this one had serious concerns about what I was prescribing. I should have picked up on it. Some of the things she was saying...’
    ‘It’s always easy to see the signs with the comfort of hindsight. It wasn’t your fault, Phoebe,’ Connor cut in a shade impatiently. ‘So don’t beat yourself up. The kid’s going to be all right, that’s the main thing.’
    ‘You’re right.’
    The lines radiating from his eyes deepened attractively in amusement. ‘Almost always,’ he confirmed.
    ‘Only almost...?’ she teased with mocking, wide-eyed wonder.
    His embryonic smile abruptly faded. ‘You of all people should know I make mistakes, Phoebe,’ he returned harshly.
    The way his eyes drifted to her lips and stayed therewas all the explanation she needed—had she needed one. Connor was thinking about kissing, and one particular kiss!
    Will returned, whistling and jingling his car keys. ‘Still here, Phoebe?’ he said, looking surprised. ‘Changed your mind about dinner?’
    ‘Definitely not!’ Was running away habit-forming? If so, she was in trouble!
    * * *
    If it hadn’t been for the fact that she felt guilty about leaving Will in the lurch Phoebe probably wouldn’t have gone into