The Doctor's Diamond Proposal

The ghost of a smile flickered around his lips. ‘Lady Grey it is.’ He looked up at the waiter. ‘A pot for two, please.’

‘Sandwiches or cakes, sir?’ The waiter’s gaze turned to Alex as Leo deflected the question her way.

‘No, thank you. Not for me.’ Dealing with Leo was taking all of her concentration. She wasn’t sure she could manage cake crumbs as well.

Leo was shuffling through the papers in front of him on the table. ‘Right. So your charity is called Together Our Way?’

‘Yes.’

‘No acronyms? Something a bit more snappy?’

‘No.’ Defiance bloomed suddenly in her chest. If they were going to do this, she was going to have to learn to stand up to Leo’s steamroller tactics. ‘We like to be referred to by our full name because it’s the way we do things.’

‘Yeah, I got that. And you’re...’ He caught a sheet from the pile which Alex recognised as her own CV. ‘A qualified physiotherapist, and you founded Together Our Way to help young people with disabilities participate in sport.’

‘Yes. I’ve brought some photographs with me that I think best show...’

‘Later, maybe. I’d like to ask a bit about how the charity’s run first.’ He didn’t even look at the pile of photos that Alex had pulled from her bag. ‘From what I can see here, you’re managing on a shoestring. You work three days a week as a physiotherapist and you don’t take a salary from the charity. And you just have one part-time paid employee, who called me back yesterday to arrange this meeting. From what Rhona says, she seems to be doing rather more than I’d normally expect from a part-timer.’

‘When people give us money, they want to see it spent on our core aims, not our running costs. We have an arrangement with Rhona that suits us both—she has family commitments and we give her very flexible working hours, and in return she’s very committed to us. And we have a network of very enthusiastic supporters.’ Alex had photographs of them as well, but she doubted that Leo would want to see them.

He nodded. ‘And you have your own office?’

‘Yes. It’s a loft room. The law firm that owns the building wasn’t using it and they let us have it free of charge.’

‘That’s good of them. And what do you do for them in return?’ His eyes seemed to bore into her, both tempting and cajoling at the same time.

‘The senior partner’s son takes part in one of our training programmes.’

‘And this boy—he fulfils your standard criteria for this service?’

Anger seized hold of her. Alex knew the exact position of the photograph in the pile, and she snatched it out, dropping it onto the table in front of Leo. ‘He was born without the lower part of both legs. Like most five-year-olds, he loves running and playing football. His name is Sam.’

Leo glanced down at the photograph, his face suddenly softening. As he reached out to touch it with his fingertips, Alex saw the melting blue eyes of the young man she’d once met.

‘It looks as if Sam’s pretty good with that ball.’

‘He is. What he doesn’t have in speed, he makes up for with tactics.’

‘Well, I hope I’ll get a chance to see him play.’ It was just a glimpse of compassion—a brief acknowledgement that Leo really did understand what Together Our Way was all about. But it was enough to stop Alex from giving up on him completely and putting her involvement in this project up for review.

And then the moment was gone. The tea arrived, and Leo took that as a cue to resume his questioning. The way the charity was run. Exactly what they spent their money on. How many volunteers they had, how they dealt with Health and Safety. He was nothing if not thorough and, although Alex struggled to keep up with him, he seemed content with her answers.

‘And now that I know all about you—’ his smile became melting again ‘—it brings me to the question of 2KZ’s planned involvement.’

* * *

Maybe he’d been a little hard on her. There was actually no maybe about it, but Alex hadn’t let him walk all over her and Leo respected that. And the delicious surprise of seeing her again...

Had been shockingly tempered when he realised that she had been through so much in the last ten years. An accident, losing her leg. But she’d turned that around. And, out of respect for her, he’d concentrated on her achievements.

If it had been anyone else, he would have allowed the personal to oil the wheels of the professional. But Alex clearly didn’t want to put their relationship on that level. She hadn’t called him back ten years ago. And even though she’d known it was him, she’d left it to her assistant to call him and arrange this meeting. Leo wasn’t prone to holding grudges, but that looked like a pretty definite expression of intent.

He’d reacted like an iceman, shrinking from a flame. Ill-prepared, because of an emergency with one of the patients at his GP’s surgery, he’d asked the questions he needed to ask and kept his feelings to himself.

And his feelings weren’t a part of this equation. If Together Our Way was slightly amateurish in its approach, its heart was quite definitely in the right place. It was an organisation that his show could make a big difference to, and Leo seldom turned down a challenge.

‘As I said, the spotlight we’re proposing is a little different from the one first offered.’ This was the sticking point. ‘The intention now is that I’ll be hosting a representative from Together Our Way as a guest on my medical phone-in show, once a week during the whole of February. I’m assuming that it will be you?’

Panic flared in her eyes, and Leo felt another little piece of him melt in response. Clearly the idea that she’d be talking live on the radio hadn’t registered with Alex the first time he’d mentioned it.

But she rallied beautifully. ‘Yes. It’ll be me.’

‘I’m trying to get some ten or fifteen minute slots on our Community Affairs programme in addition to that. That’ll involve me spending some time with you, and seeing your work first-hand. I assume you have no objections to that?’

‘We’d welcome it. What do you have in mind?’

‘I’ll be making reports, and probably writing a few articles for our website. And there’ll be an outside broadcast...’ He fell silent. He could see from her face that Alex had an issue with that, and he waited for her to put it into words.

‘Would you be happy to fit in with our way of doing things? Our first priority is the young people we serve, and if we needed to change that emphasis to accommodate you we’d have some difficulty.’

She’d have no difficulty in changing; she just wasn’t prepared to do it. Good for her. ‘We’d be there to observe. Low-profile isn’t my usual approach, so I’ll be giving those muscles a little much-needed exercise.’

Her pursed lips reminded him of a severe version of a kiss. ‘That’s part of what we do. Help exercise under-used muscles.’

‘We’ll stay flexible, then.’ He imagined that Alex was just as used to acting on her own initiative as he was, and that might be interesting. Even so, it was time to flex the muscles he did use regularly and remind her who was in charge of this project.

‘2KZ has broadcast to the whole of London for more than thirty years now. Interviews with young people appeal to our listeners and we know how to do them appropriately and with all the necessary safeguards and permissions. We give our listeners what they want, and outside broadcasts are very good for ratings.’

Another disapproving look. Maybe he needed to mention that ratings weren’t just a number on a spreadsheet; they represented hearts and minds. She might deal in hearts and minds but she couldn’t reach them without his domination of the ratings lists.

Despite all that disapproval, she came to the right decision. ‘That sounds excellent. As long as our young people are properly supported and safeguarded, I think an outside broadcast would certainly be something we’d be keen to do.’

‘Good. Anything else?’

‘Yes, would you mind if we featured the spotlight on our website?’

‘We’d welcome it. We can provide you with artwork if that’s of any help. I’ll have our in-house designer get in touch with... You have a web designer?’

‘That’s me, actually.’ She shrugged. ‘I’m afraid it’s not very professional. One of those standard template designs...’

He’d looked at her website briefly and had been very favourably impressed. ‘If you like, I can set up a call with our designer. She’s got a lot of experience with liaising with other organisations we partner with, and a conversation might be helpful.’

‘Thank you. I’d be grateful for any suggestions she has.’ Alex paused, squeezing her hands together. She seemed to have something else on her mind.

‘If there are any other issues, now’s the time to raise them. We have a very tight schedule on this.’

‘I’ve never been on the radio before...’ And she was clearly terrified at the prospect.

‘That’s what I’m there for. I ask a few questions, to steer things in the right direction, and step in when you dry up...’ He couldn’t help smiling when Alex’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Everyone dries up first time. It’s expected.’

‘Right. I’ll try not to do it too much.’

‘Be yourself. Don’t think about it too much; just say what you want to say. There’s a seven second broadcast delay, which allows us to catch anything too bad before it airs. It’s supposed to be so that we can cut any profanity, but it works pretty well if you suddenly find you’ve forgotten what you were about to say.’

‘I won’t forget. This is really important to me, and I want to do it well.’

Leo nodded, taking a sip of his tea. ‘That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. Hold that thought and you’ll be fine.’

* * *

He seemed to have loosened up a bit, which was good, because the giddy chicane of Leo’s questioning, and his efficient, autocratic way of doing things, had left her almost weak with exhaustion. He took a thick card from his jacket pocket and handed it to her.

‘Here’s my number. I dare say that our PR department will be bombarding you with all kinds of details that don’t really matter. If you want to cut through all of that, give me a call.’

Alex looked at the card. It was printed with Leo’s name and a mobile phone number. She’d never met anyone who had personal calling cards before. ‘Thank you. But I don’t want to bother you...’

‘You won’t be. It’s always better to sort things out direct, and we don’t have any time for messing about.’ His gaze raked her face but he said nothing more. Perhaps he’d called her, ten years ago. Maybe she should explain why she hadn’t called back, but Alex couldn’t think of a tactful way to approach that conversation.

‘Yes. Thank you. Can I give you my number?’ Alex rummaged in her bag and found the box of cards with the charity’s contact details, scribbling her own name and mobile number on the back and handing it to him.

‘Thank you.’ He glanced at the card and put it in his pocket, seeming to relax a little now that the business of the afternoon had been despatched. ‘It’s good to see you again, Alex. If I’d known it was you, I’d have come in costume...’

‘Then I’d have had to do the same.’

His lips twitched into a smile. Pure, seductive charm, which rushed straight to her head. ‘That would have been the one and only thing which would have persuaded me to leave home looking so outrageously foolish.’

Alex had rather liked outrageously foolish. Clearly Leo didn’t any more.

‘It’s just as well you didn’t know, then.’

She grabbed her bag, wondering if she was supposed to leave now, and he stood immediately. Leo was done with her now, and about to move on to the next thing on his agenda.

It wasn’t until she was walking away that Alex realised that there was one thing he hadn’t asked, one thing he hadn’t done. Her CV stated quite clearly that losing the lower part of her right leg in a car accident and her subsequent rehabilitation had inspired her to study physiotherapy and then to found Together Our Way. But, even though his questions had been searching and thorough, he hadn’t brought the subject up, nor had his eyes wandered to where the prosthesis was hidden beneath the fabric of her trousers.

She should be pleased. Alex sometimes had to struggle to get people to see past her accident and the loss of her leg, and that was exactly what Leo had done. It was chastening, though. He might have remembered her, but it seemed he cared so little about her that he hadn’t even mentioned it.

* * *

Leo watched her go, wondering if the tremble of his limbs was some kind of delayed shock. The last time she’d walked away from him, he hadn’t seen her for another ten years. He had no doubt that this time would be different, but he still couldn’t help feeling that he wanted to call after her.

But running after Alex was a very bad idea. She was committed and clever, and the amount she’d achieved in the last ten years was nothing short of extraordinary. When she smiled at him the warmth in her eyes was mesmerising, reflecting all the possibilities that he no longer had it in his heart to believe in. Ten years ago, he’d been as much in love with her as it was possible to be after only one night together, but now love wasn’t on his agenda.

The memory of the night they’d met, the dizzy rush of blood to his head, the tingle as all his senses went into overdrive, almost overwhelmed him. But all that was in the past. He just couldn’t contemplate a relationship, that bond that required his full commitment, his full attention.

He looked at his watch and signalled to the waiter for the bill. He’d have to leave now, if he wasn’t going to be late for his next appointment.

Leo stood, stretching his limbs. There really was no choice about this. If he pulled out, then 2KZ had no other suitable applicants who could respond at such short notice. If she pulled out, then Together Our Way would lose a golden opportunity to increase public awareness about their work. And if his association with Alex didn’t look as if it was going to be all plain sailing, then he’d deal with that as it happened.

CHAPTER THREE

LEO KEPT HIS PROMISES. A letter, confirming what they’d discussed, arrived at her office the next morning. When the negotiations over the outside broadcast had stalled, he had called and spoken to Alex about it, then gone away and sorted the whole thing out within ten minutes. He was perceptive, intelligent and he made things happen.

She listened to his radio show without fail, telling herself that the sound of Leo’s voice was an incidental pleasure and that preparing herself for what was to come was the real object. The on-air version of Leo was slightly different from the one she’d met, still astute and probing but not so confrontational, his gentle charm putting people at ease and encouraging them to talk.

Afraid to trust in either the public face or the private one, she left most of the liaison to Rhona, picking up her normal duties in return. Two weeks, a week—and then there was no avoiding it. Everything was arranged, and the following Monday saw the first of her guest appearances on the Dr Leo Cross medical phone-in show.

Alex had arrived at the radio station at six, two hours before the show was due to start. Half an hour had been taken up with a short induction from one of the production assistants, and then she’d been taken to an empty studio to have a look around. Leo was due to arrive at seven, but Alex was reliably informed that he was always late.

‘What are you reading?’ She’d given up looking at her watch and was sitting alone in the restroom, trying to read, when she heard Leo’s voice.

‘Oh... It’s the latest thing apparently, for teenagers.’ She tilted the cover towards him and he nodded. ‘I like to keep up. It’s actually pretty good.’

He smiled, and suddenly warmth zinged in the air between them. He was dressed in jeans and a dark blue sweater that looked far too soft to be anything other than cashmere. However hard Alex tried to look at him dispassionately, he still took her breath away.

He slung a leather jacket down onto a chair and sat down. ‘How are you feeling? Nervous?’

Sick with nerves. That must be probably pretty obvious. ‘A little...’

‘You’ll be fine. Once we get started, the hour will go too fast and you’ll be wanting more time.’ He was leaning towards her, his elbows on his knees. This was clearly Leo’s pep talk for beginners and, strangely, it seemed to be working. Now that the dreaded time had come, and he was here, she felt better about everything.

‘So... What are we going to say?’

Leo shrugged. ‘No idea. I’ll introduce you, we’ll take a few calls and we’ll talk. That’s the thing about phone-in radio—there’s no script.’

‘You like that? The uncertainty?’

He grinned. ‘Yeah. Keeps me on my toes. You’ll be just great, trust me. And if you’re not, then I’ll just interrupt and steer things back on course.’

‘Right. Thanks.’ She’d rather be just great, and not need Leo to save the day. But then that might be a bit too much to ask on her first time.

The door burst open and Alex jumped as the production assistant who’d showed her around popped her head around the door. ‘Leo... Fifteen minutes.’

‘Okay, thanks. We’re ready.’ He turned to Alex as the door closed again. ‘Just relax. It’s a conversation between you and me. Concentrate on that, and the one person out there who’s listening.’

‘One person?’

‘Yeah. Just visualise someone you know, and talk to them. You’ll be surprised how well that works.’

‘I’ll try.’ Alex wondered who Leo visualised. Maybe he’d been doing this long enough not to need anyone. ‘Was it this nerve-racking for you? Your first time?’

He shook his head. ‘Nah. I didn’t have any nerves left to be racked. I was so numb with fear that you could have knocked me over the head with a brick and I probably wouldn’t have noticed. And I wasn’t tipped in at the deep end, like you. I’d been volunteering on a student helpline for years, and done some spots on local radio in connection with that.’

‘That must have been pretty tough. Manning a helpline at the same time as you were studying and working at the hospital.’ Leo hadn’t said anything about a helpline ten years ago, and Alex had thought they’d talked about almost everything in their lives.

‘It was something that meant a lot to me. You make time for the things that are important.’ His face seemed to harden a little, as if the memory was difficult.

‘And you’ve stayed here. Even though you’re on TV now.’ It seemed a little odd that he should hang on to this, when he obviously had other opportunities. Leo didn’t seem the type for sentimentality.

‘Yeah. I like talking to people.’ He shook his head, as if to clear it, and then grinned. ‘You’ll see.’

He ushered her through to the studio, giving her time to get settled. The producer hurried in, putting a few sheets of paper in front of him, and then the call for silence and the ‘On-Air’ light glowed red.

She hardly heard the music that heralded the start of the show, hardly saw what was going on around her. Then she felt Leo’s fingers brush the back of her hand. His gaze caught hers and he smiled, then started the introduction.

‘And tonight I have Alex Jackson with me. She’s the founder of Together Our Way, a charity which helps young people with all kinds of disabilities participate in sport...’ He glanced down at the paper the producer had put in front of him and frowned suddenly. ‘Alex is going to be on the line with me here, and so if you’ve got any questions for her then you know the number to call...’

The jingle for the phone number started to play and Leo took the opportunity to scrunch up the paper in front of him, tossing it towards the control room. It bounced off the glass and dropped to the floor and then suddenly, seamlessly, Leo was talking again.

‘To start us all off, I’m going to ask Alex a few questions about Together Our Way. And, just in case anyone accuses me of monopolising her time here, she will be right here with me every Monday for the next four weeks, as part of our Charity Partnership Project...’

Suddenly his gaze was on her. The smile on his lips, the look in his eyes, said that he was talking just to her. ‘Alex, how long since you founded your charity...?’

He’d given her an easy one to start with. ‘Five years.’

‘And in that time you’ve made yourselves felt. How many sports fixtures are you planning next month?’

‘We have eight. But our own sports meetings are just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve been working with schools and clubs, advising them on how their sport can be fully inclusive, and we’ve developed a training day for group leaders. Mostly, though, we work with the young people themselves, to help...’

Suddenly, her mind went blank.

‘I imagine that there’s a bit of confidence-building to be done.’ Leo’s eyes were suddenly warm and soothing, dark as a blue Mediterranean sea.

‘Yes, that’s right. Many of our young people need assistance with special equipment or training, but it’s also a matter of showing everyone what’s possible.’

‘So you’re out to capture hearts and minds?’ Somehow, he made it seem as if it was his heart and his mind that were the ones in question and that they were just waiting to be captured.

‘Yes. I think that’s the aim of any charity, isn’t it? Money’s vital to us, of course, because we couldn’t do what we do without it. But hearts and minds are just as important.’

‘And I see that the charity’s run on a shoestring, so all the donations you receive go straight into your work.’

He was feeding her lines, bringing up all the points that Alex wanted to highlight. She smiled a thank you. ‘Yes, that’s right...’

* * *

Alex felt as if she’d run a marathon. It had only been an hour, but she was exhausted, her heart thumping in her chest. All the same, Leo had been right. She was eager for more, and had been disappointed when he’d announced that this was all they had time for tonight and handed over to the next presenter.

‘Did we speak to everyone?’ Leo had said that there were callers waiting but Alex had been unable to gauge how many, or whether they’d been able to speak to them all.

‘There are always people who don’t get through. Some of them try again.’ Now that they were off-air, Leo seemed suddenly more guarded.

‘But... They may be in trouble. They might need someone to talk to...’

‘Yeah, a lot of them do. We have procedures to deal with that. You needn’t worry about that side of things.’

She couldn’t—wouldn’t—let him give her the brush-off like this. ‘I’m... I’m sorry Leo, but that’s not the answer I’d hoped for.’

Alex was expecting some kind of reaction; Leo clearly wasn’t used to being challenged by anyone around here. But she hadn’t expected a smile.

‘What answer were you hoping for, then?’

She took a deep breath. ‘That there’s some way that I could get back to the people who didn’t get through.’

He leaned forward, flipping a switch on the console in front of him. Alex’s headphones went dead and she realised that, even though the sound engineer in the control room seemed to be paying no attention to it, their conversation could be overheard. She slipped the headset off and laid it down.

‘The call-handlers take names and numbers from everyone, and they always ask what the caller wants to say.’

‘And they make a note of that?’

‘Yes, they do. And they pass the list on to me.’ That seemed to be the end of it as far as Leo was concerned. He was the trustworthy one, the one who got things done, and he was ready to steamroller over anyone who questioned him.

Maybe she’d deserved it. Maybe he had called her all those years ago, and he still remembered that she hadn’t called him back.

‘Look, Leo. I think there’s something... We need to clear something up.’

‘What would that be?’

He gave so little. It was questions all the way with Leo, and she was starting to wonder whether he wasn’t hiding behind them.