Summer of Love Marie Ferrarella (easy books to read in english TXT) 📖

certainly didn’t want to remember the reasons why she had fallen in love with him. She needed to focus on the way he had treated her. She had been willing to give up her dreams for him but it hadn’t been enough. His career had meant far more to him than what she could have given him.

Pain lanced her heart and she took a gulp of her coffee then coughed when the hot liquid shot down the wrong way. Putting the mug down on the table, she tried to catch her breath but it felt as though her lungs had gone into spasm.

‘Are you all right?’ Daniel leant forward and looked at her in concern. ‘Emma?’

Emma tried to answer but there was no way that she could force out even a single word and she saw him leap to his feet. Moving swiftly behind her chair he slapped her on the back and with relief she felt the constriction loosen. Sucking in a deep breath, she finally managed to speak.

‘I’m all right now.’

‘Sure?’ He went over to the sink when she nodded and filled a glass with cold water and gave it to her. ‘Take a couple of sips of this.’

Emma obediently sipped the water then set the glass on the table, feeling embarrassed about having caused such a fuss. ‘Some of the coffee must have gone down the wrong way.’

‘Easily done,’ he said lightly, sitting down again. He slid the biscuit tin across the table. ‘Aren’t you going to have one?’

‘I’m not sure if I should risk it after what just happened,’ she said wryly.

Daniel laughed. ‘Go on—live dangerously. Anyway, I’m a dab hand at the Heimlich manoeuvre if the need arises.’

Emma grimaced as she selected a biscuit. ‘Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.’

‘Fingers crossed,’ he said, suiting his actions to his words.

Emma chuckled as she bit into her biscuit. Daniel had a real gift when it came to putting people at ease. Some of the doctors she had worked with seemed to enjoy feeling superior, but Daniel wasn’t like that. He cared too much about other people to want them to feel uncomfortable around him.

The thought surprised her because it didn’t gel with the image she had held of him for the past few years. If Daniel was the single-minded, ambitious man she had believed him to be, surely he wouldn’t care about anyone else’s feelings?

‘Penny for them.’

Emma looked up when he spoke, feeling her heart lurch when she saw the way he was watching her so intently. Why did she have the feeling that he really wanted to know what was troubling her? She had no idea but it was that thought which made her reply without pausing to consider the wisdom of what she was doing. ‘I was just thinking what a contradiction you are.’

‘Really?’ His brows rose as he picked up his mug of coffee. He took a sip of the hot liquid then placed the mug carefully back on the table. ‘In what way?’

‘Well, you’ve never made any bones about the fact that you’re very ambitious, have you, Daniel? And yet in some respects you don’t fit that bill.’ She shrugged when he looked quizzically at her. ‘You genuinely seem to care about people and it’s rare that the two go hand in hand.’

‘Of course I care. I wouldn’t have gone into medicine if I hadn’t.’

Emma frowned when she heard the edge in his voice, wondering if she had touched a nerve. ‘One doesn’t always follow the other,’ she pointed out. ‘I’ve worked with a number of doctors who openly admitted that they decided on medicine purely because it seemed like a good career choice.’

‘They’re the exceptions. Or I hope they are.’ He stared down at the mug he was holding. ‘In my opinion you can’t do this job properly unless you genuinely want to help people.’

‘So how does your desire to help people equate with wanting to go into private practice? Surely you could help far more people by working for the NHS?’

‘Rich people get sick too, Emma.’ He glanced up and she was surprised when she saw the sadness on his face because she wasn’t sure what had caused it. ‘Having money doesn’t protect you from all the usual ailments.’

‘I know that.’ She leant forward, suddenly impatient to get to the bottom of this mystery. The more she thought about it, the stranger it seemed that Daniel of all people should be so keen to follow this course. ‘And I’m not suggesting that people who can afford it shouldn’t have the right to choose to pay for their treatment. But setting yourself up in private practice doesn’t seem like something you would want to do. I just can’t understand it, if I’m honest.’

Daniel wasn’t sure what to say. If he admitted that he’d never had any intention of going into private practice, he would have to tell her the truth. How would she feel if he admitted that he had deliberately misled her? Hurt, angry, upset; she was bound to feel all of those things. But would she understand that he had been trying to protect her, stop her doing something she would regret?

‘What’s to understand?’ he said shortly, knowing it was a risk he wasn’t prepared to take. ‘Everyone has their aims in life, including you. What made you decide to become a surgeon?’

‘Because I saw how surgery could improve people’s lives when I did my rotations,’ she said simply. ‘That’s why I chose it.’

‘There you are, then. You chose your path and I chose mine. It’s as simple as that.’ He stood up abruptly, pushing back his chair so fast that the legs scraped across the tiles. ‘I think I’ll have an early night. Hopefully, a good night’s sleep will ease some of the kinks out of my aching muscles.’

‘Of course. I’ll see you in the morning, I expect.’

‘If I manage to drag myself out of bed.’

Daniel summoned a smile but it was a poor effort, he knew. He