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“Don’t mind me,” she snapped, and wrenched off the quilt, heedless of their dignity. “Out, please. I need to pack.”

“Fran, I can explain—“

“I don’t doubt it, Stella, but I’m not sure I can be bothered to listen.” She ignored their struggles for modesty and snatched down her big sports bag from the top of the wardrobe.

She didn’t have many clothes – just as well, really, she thought, cramming them all in as Daniel and Stella made themselves scarce. She dumped the overful bag by the door, stuffed the rest of her things into a few carrier bags and unplugged her television from the sitting room.

A couple of pictures came off the wall and into a cardboard box that was lying around courtesy of the sobbing Stella. A few other treasures and her wash things from the bathroom joined them, but the majority of her stuff she couldn’t be bothered with. Let Stella have it, along with everything else.

Her milk, her clothes – her boyfriend.

She ferried her things down to her car, bumping the heavy bag down the endless stairs, and when she made the last trip she found Daniel waiting at the bottom.

“Fran, what are you doing?”

She gave him a withering look. “I would have thought you’d forgone any right to ask that,” she said tartly, and shouldered past him to her car. He opened the boot for her, and she dropped in the last three carrier bags and slammed the bootlid shut.

“Goodbye, Daniel. Have fun with Stella – you can go back to bed now. In fact, why don’t you move in? She needs a new flatmate and you obviously get along just fine.”

She drove off without a backward glance, and within minutes was headed out towards the M11 and sanity. She rang Jackie an hour later as an afterthought from a service station, and asked if she could borrow her sofa again for the night.

“Sure. Are you OK? You sound a bit strange.”

“I’ll live. My flatmate, on the other hand, will probably die of food poisoning or a sexually transmitted disease if there’s any justice. I’ll see you in an hour or so.”

She hung up, and getting back in the car, she drove the rest of the way feeling much calmer. The nearer she got to Suffolk the better she felt, and by the time she arrived at Jackie’s flat a little after eleven, she was beginning to feel positively cheerful.

“I’ve had Xavier on the phone about you,” Jackie told her as she carried in her overnight bag. “I think, if you’re going to be around, he’d like to talk to you.”

“Good. I need a job – and I need a home. I just found my flatmate and the man I thought was my boyfriend in my bed together, so I’ve left for good. I’m now officially homeless as well as jobless. Beat that for a week’s work.”

Jackie looked guilty. “Oh, Fran, I’d love to have you here, but there’s this new man in my life – he’s called David, and he’s really gorgeous, and I’ve got great hopes—“

“And you don’t want me cramping your style. Don’t worry, I won’t. I’ll be gone as soon as possible – if I can’t get a live-in job, I’ll get a flat in the next day or two. You won’t be stuck with me, I promise.”

* * *

With that promise ringing in her ears, she went to work with Jackie in the morning and phoned the surgery. Dr Giraud was busy, she was told, but he’d ring her back as soon as he was available.

She flicked through a few other options Jackie offered her while she waited for Giraud to return her call, but there was nothing of interest. Elderly ladies, doubtless charming in their way but too far removed from the bustle of the workplace for Fran’s taste. No, she didn’t want a one-on-one job – too intense, too claustrophobic. She needed variety. Xavier Giraud’s practice and children would be a happy balance, she’d decided – if he’d consider her.

The phone rang, and Jackie answered it and waved her through into her office at the back. She picked up the receiver.

“Hello? Fran Williams here.”

“Miss Williams? It’s Xavier Giraud. I gather from Jackie you might still be interested in my vacancy.”

She thought again what a gorgeous voice he had, rich and mellow. It brought something to life inside her.

“I’d like to talk to you again,” she said. “I’m sorry if I sound indecisive but it’s so far from what I’ve done up to now and I do want to be sure.”

“It’s rather a strange job,” he said, “but don’t let me put you off.” His soft chuckle tingled over her nerve endings, and she had to struggle to concentrate on the rest of their conversation. She arranged to see him at eleven, then hung up and went through into the front of the agency, his voice still echoing in her head.

And not only his. She could hear Jackie talking, and someone else. It was a voice she was sure she knew, and as she turned the corner she stopped dead. There in a wheelchair by the desk was a man with the sexiest smile and the bluest eyes she’d ever seen.

“Well, if it isn’t the bodacious Sister Williams,” he said, and smiled.

“Well, if it isn’t the accident-prone Mr Nicholson,” she replied, smiling back. “It’s good to see you alive.”

“Do you two know each other?” Jackie asked, fascinated, and Josh chuckled.

“Let’s just say we met over a red-hot needle a little while ago.”

“How is the chest?” Fran asked.

“Oh, the chest is fine – it’s healed beautifully. Unfortunately, though, the rest of me is lagging behind a little, hence my visit here. I need a nurse.”

Jackie smiled at her encouragingly, and Fran sat down, the light dawning.

Josh Nicholson needed a nurse – and Jackie wanted her to take the job.

Xavier wanted her to take his, too, and she was torn.

Are you available at short notice? It’s just that I’m stuck for cover for the children at the moment, and I’m having to take the afternoons off, and it’s really not fair on my colleagues.

You do know, by the way, that my daughter doesn’t walk or talk?

He’s a wonderful father, by all accounts, and he’s gutted by his inability to help her.

Josh’s eyes blazed a challenge, though, and that fascinating mouth was curved in a sexy, taunting grin.

Which job? she thought.

Which man?

Instinctively she realised that it was one of those crossroads in life, a moment of snap decision when either path could be interesting but only one could be travelled.

But which one?

Josh was trouble with a huge T. He should still have been in hospital, but he’d obviously discharged himself with a whole catalogue of injuries, not least the fixator on his lower right leg, the cast on his right arm and the short haircut that indicated a head injury. Despite the sexy grin and the wicked twinkle in his eyes, she knew instinctively that he would be a difficult and opinionated patient.

Xavier Giraud, on the other hand, with his dead wife and damaged children, was going to be very emotionally challenging and arguably needed her very much more.

Not that Josh wouldn’t be a challenge, too, in his own way, although the challenge there would be outwitting him before he could hurt himself and keeping boredom at bay so he didn’t take stupid risks.

But the girl – that poor, tragic, motherless little girl, and her brother, inevitably lacking attention because their father couldn’t do everything at once – and the father, struggling alone to keep all the threads of his family and work together. How long could he go on alone? He needed her.

Josh needed her.

And Jackie was eyeing her expectantly.

Which way was she going to go…?

Follow Fran’s double destiny in:

ASSIGNMENT:SINGLE MAN – Tender Romance™ NOVEMBER 2002

ASSIGNMENT:SINGLE FATHER – Medical Romance™ DECEMBER 2002