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‘You just threw it too high. We know better now. Granny’s shown me how to flip them properly.’ His daughter looked up at the sticky patch on the ceiling that he hadn’t quite managed to remove with normal detergent and water. ‘I’ll show you.’
‘Okay. Pancakes tomorrow. Now, eat up the porridge.’ And there. He’d given in to her again. How could he not? She was the light of his life, the reason he got up in the morning. Things could have been so different…
As he tipped the rest of the sludgy breakfast into his own bowl his gaze drifted outside again. Thick clouds darkened the sky as heavy raindrops pelted the windows. See? She’d be getting soaked right about now. Rude? No, sensible. Unlike sunburst hat woman, who had disappeared and taken what little was left of his good mood with her.
The irritation lingered with him for the rest of the morning. His sister would have told him he had a choice and that he could choose to be jovial. But now he was running forty minutes late and was choosing to be quietly efficient and, okay, he might well have come across as gruff to the patient who complained about being kept waiting. Jovial and work-smart didn’t figure in his picture right now. He was a man, after all; he couldn’t multi-task.
And as if he needed more proof of his inability to focus, every time he tried writing up his notes he stared at the screen and the image of sunburst hat woman filled his head. Gah. He’d been rude and she’d called him on it, rightly. But it had been for her own good. At least that was what he kept trying to convince himself. And those eyes… The memory of that unusual colour had lingered as long as his bad mood. Why had he gone outside to talk to her when women were off his agenda these days?
‘You want a cuppa?’ Maxine, his trusty receptionist, called through his open office door.
‘Brilliant. Yes, please, in my takeaway cup though, because I’m just heading out on the home visits.’
Maxine hobbled in on her arthritic legs. One day, too soon, she’d retire and he’d never find someone to truly replace her. She wasn’t just the face of Oakdale Medical, she was it, heart and soul. ‘You’ll come through to the staffroom first, though, Joey? The new locum nurse has popped in for a walk-through before she starts properly tomorrow and I want you to say hello.’
There was a glint in her eye that made him nervous. He wasn’t sure why. Maybe, because Maxine hadn’t had a glint in her eye for a long time. ‘Oh?’
‘We’ve got her for a month so we’ve got some breathing space to fill the vacancy. Be nice—I don’t want you scaring her off.’
‘I’m always nice.’
‘Hmm… No comment.’ She smiled and he remembered his sister saying Maxine needed a medal for putting up with him these last few years. No doubt she was right. He hadn’t exactly been a bundle of laughs recently. ‘Come and say hello at least.’
He probably should, and be thankful someone had turned up at all, given the scarcity of people wanting to work here in the middle of nowhere, but he had patients who needed him to visit them. ‘Would it be rude if I said no, and that I’ll meet her tomorrow? I’ve got too much to do before the afternoon clinic.’
‘Right you are. I’ll tell her. She’s lovely, so I’m sure she’ll understand. Actually, there’s something about her that seems…’ As she shook her head her nose crinkled. ‘Oh, nothing really. Just me being silly.’
‘Seems what?’ He didn’t want anyone upsetting his staff. But there he was, jumping to conclusions before he’d set eyes on the woman.
‘I don’t know…familiar, I suppose, although I’ve never met her before. She’s nice. Got a nice manner. Friendly.’ As she turned to leave she stopped short and inhaled sharply. ‘Oh. Oh.’
His gut clenched. ‘Everything okay, Maxine?’
She hunched forward and rubbed at her chest. Frowned. ‘Nothing. Don’t fuss. Just indigestion. I told David not to put onions in my sandwiches, but did he listen? No. And I ate them anyway, too quickly for my own good.’
‘You sure you’re okay?’ Pulse prickling with concern, Joe was halfway across the room, assessing her pallor and breathing rate. ‘What kind of pain is it? Come and sit down; let me look you over.’
She threw him the same look she’d been giving him for the last five years or so. ‘Since that accident you’ve been on a mission to save the world, Joseph Thompson. And you can’t. You’ve got to stop worrying about everyone and everything.’
‘I care about you, so sue me. Let me check you over. Sit down.’ He didn’t want to be reminded about the accident and his overwhelming need to protect those he cared about. ‘Please, Maxine. It won’t take a minute.’
But, woefully stubborn as usual, she straightened and waved him back to his seat. ‘I’m fine, Joey. Don’t go bothering about me. I’ll pop the kettle on. The closed sign’s up, Jenny’s out on calls, Alex is still on annual leave and the nurses are at a vaccination update over at the community hub in Ambleside, so it’s tea for two. Oh…three if we count Rose.’
‘Rose?’
Maxine’s voice wafted down the corridor and he could picture her rolling her eyes, just so. ‘The new nurse.’
The one he was choosing not to see. Right. Too bad. She’d understand once she saw his task list and inbox. He checked the clock on his computer screen as he finished writing up the last patient’s notes. Five minutes before he was due at his first house call—a fifteen-minute drive away. Today, he was destined to run late for everything. Maybe he’d take a raincheck on that cup of—
‘Quick! Someone? Dr…er…er…?’ The woman’s voice, assertive but breathy, came from Reception. ‘Someone? Hello? Er… Crash call! Now.’
Crash call? Damn.
It took him less than five seconds to run up the corridor, but his heart rate trebled as he saw Maxine lying on the floor and a woman with white-blonde hair in a messy ponytail tilting his lovely receptionist’s chin back…about to breathe for her?
What the hell? ‘Maxine?’
‘She collapsed. Cardiac, I’m sure. She was clutching her chest.’ Amber eyes turned to him, then narrowed. ‘Oh. It’s you.’
‘Joe Thompson. Dr Joe Thompson.’ He nodded, then knelt next to Maxine with no hint of recognition or memory of their altercation this morning.
‘And I’m Rose.’ Great. He was the doctor she’d come to work with? The guy from the hill? The kind of pompous man she’d left behind, along with her old life. Still, if he was a stickler for the right walking gear he’d be picky about getting CPR technique right too. She just hoped they wouldn’t need it. ‘Faint carotid pulse. Dyspnoea. I caught her as she fell and lowered her to the floor, so no head or other bony injury.’
She looked down at the sweet woman who’d been showing her round the medical centre only a few minutes ago. They’d been getting on so well before this; Rose had been looking forward to working with her. She had a nice nature Rose had been instantly drawn to, and she also knew her way round the medical centre like an old hand. Maxine’s eyes flickered open and she winced. ‘Pain. Arm. Chest.’
‘Okay, Maxi. We’ll sort you out. Don’t worry; we’ve got you. It’ll be fine.’ The doctor’s face softened with affection and concern as he examined their unexpected patient. ‘Those damned onions, right? I’ll have to have a word with David.’
Onions? No. Rose blinked up at him and shook her head. It was some sort of cardiac problem. Clearly. What the hell kind of doctor was he? It was obviously cardiac and if anyone knew what that meant she did. She felt her own chest constrict and the long scar down her ribcage prickle in sympathy. ‘Er…the pain is central chest and radiating to the left and down her arm. She’s short of breath and has a weak pulse. It’s not gastric—’
He looked at her as if she’d spoken out of turn. ‘I am well aware of the symptoms.’
Yeah. Pompous was one thing, but misguided? Wrong, actually. ‘You alluded to it being gastric, and it’s not—’
Ignoring the rest of Rose’s input, he pointed down the corridor, his voice all business as he spoke. ‘ECG machine, portable oxygen and defibrillator are on a trolley in the treatment room. Down there. Second right. Bring it all here then call 999. Our full address is by the phone behind you, but shouldn’t be necessary as they know where we are.’
She gritted her teeth and did as requested as efficiently as she could, given she’d only had a brief whip round the place in preparation for a full induction tomorrow. But it gave her enough time to ruminate on her impression of her new colleague and boss. Bad enough that he’d taken umbrage at her clothing choices this morning, but he was also one hell of a grumpy dude at work too.
It was just a shame he was so damned good-looking and she would have to endure looking at those soulful blue eyes for the duration of her stay. Never mind the impressive height and shock of blond hair—had Vikings ever made it this far west? If so, here was their long-lost son. Dr Joe Thor Thompson.
Tall. Pompous. Sexy eyes. A tick list to avoid if ever there was one. Been there, done that. Not happening again.
By the time she got off the phone the doctor had managed to assist Maxine onto a gurney Rose had dragged up from the treatment room along with the resus trolley, assessed her blood pressure and oxygen saturation, fitted an oxygen mask over her face and was attaching a twelve lead ECG to her chest. ‘Breathing any better?’
Maxine shifted the mask so she could speak. ‘Bit.’
Thor leant in and spoke gently. Which seemed incongruous on such a gruff big man. ‘Your oxygen levels are a bit low, but once they come up we can take the mask off. How’s the pain? Out of ten?’
‘Eight.’
He nodded. ‘Then I’ll give you some pain relief. Nurse? Can you attach the leads while I do the needles?’
‘Sure.’ But then she wished she hadn’t agreed, because it was always difficult doing something for the first time in a new environment and her hands shook as she peeled back the sticky paper and placed the pads onto Maxine’s chest. She willed her own heart rate to slow and the trembling to stop, but no dice. Her body was betraying her today, and all the time she felt Thor’s eyes on her, assessing. Why was sticky paper so damned sticky? It wouldn’t drop from her fingers as she shook them. It attached itself to the wires and got in the way of…everything. She looked up and caught his gaze. ‘I’m sorry, it’s—’
‘Sticky. Yes.’ He didn’t move, didn’t blink, barely breathed as he waited. But she felt his irritation swaddle her like a cloying cloak and she wished the ground would open up and swallow her. Finally, she managed to get everything in place and she felt him sigh.
Clamping down her own frustration, she closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath. She would not let another man make her feel…less…ever again. She was good at her job. She was a great person, actually. She knew that, and it had been a long, hard journey to finally believe it.
But none of that was important right now; she had to work with this man regardless, and Maxine needed them both to get along if they were going to successfully care for her.
Their patient reached for Joe’s hand as the last lead was clipped on. The ECG machine bleeped and whirred, then traced her heart rhythm onto an LED display. Not good news: Maxine was in the middle of an acute cardiac event and needed urgent treatment and admission to hospital.
Joe nodded as he looked at the read-out. ‘Okay, sweetheart, it looks like you’re going to have to make a trip to Lancaster General because your heart isn’t doing what it should do. So, I need to get a drip in your arm so we can start the treatment here and some aspirin will help make the blood flow a bit easier. But first, pop this tablet under your tongue. Bad news is, I don’t think it was the onions after all.’
Maxine seemed to have diminished a little. ‘Me neither. But I didn’t want to bother you.’ She pulled the mask away again and let Joe place the tablet under her tongue. Wincing, the older lady looked up at him and choked back a sob. ‘I don’t want to die, Joey.’
‘Shh. Let the tablet dissolve. You’re not dying here, that’s for sure, not on my watch.’ Once he’d secured intravenous access into her arm, as if it was the easiest thing in the world to do on an anxious woman with poor cardiac output and refusenik veins, he squeezed Maxine’s other hand, his voice an altogether different tone to the one he’d used with Rose. ‘We’re going to make you comfortable.’
‘But, what if I do die—?’
‘No, Maxine. Do not even go there. Save your energy for getting better, not thinking the worst.’ He drew up some morphine with very steady hands, handed the ampoule to Rose to check with barely a second glance at her, then he injected the painkiller into their patient.
When he’d finished Maxine struggled to sit up. ‘Call David.’
Joe nodded. ‘I will. And I’ll tell him to meet you at the hospital. Now lie back and start getting better.’
But she tried to sit up again, her hand trembling as she grabbed his arm. ‘I’m sorry. We’re short-staffed as it is.’
He gently eased her back against the pillow and stroked her hair. ‘Please, relax. Stop talking, stop thinking about everyone else and save your energy.’
‘Tell Katy I love her.’ Her voice was strained and thick with emotion, which seemed to take Joe aback.
‘Of course, but she knows it well enough.’ His eyes filled, but he shook his head, determined. One thing Rose realised now was that she’d grossly underestimated him. Yes, he was grumpy, but he had more than enough affection and compassion for this woman. ‘Don’t go talking like that. You hear me?’
‘And find someone to make you happy. Please. You need that in your life, Joey.’
What? A zillion questions fired in Rose’s brain. That was an odd thing for his receptionist to say.
He blinked. Shook his head again, his gaze sliding quickly to Rose and then back to Maxine. Clearly he hadn’t wanted her to overhear this conversation. ‘Right. I think I can hear sirens. Any minute now we’ll have the Lake District’s finest bursting through the door.’
And they did. And when they saw who the patient was there was a flurry of activity and a very quick turnaround with a promise of having her back behind the reception desk—as she was demanding—in no time. Joe wanted to accompany her in the ambulance but Maxine flatly refused, saying he was needed here and to just phone her husband. So he did, breaking the news in that soft, concerned voice he seemed to reserve for friends and not for new staff—but then, why should he?
And then there was just the two of them left to clear up the mess of syringes and sticky papers, and tidy up the reception area, which they did in silence because Rose didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t receive a terse reply.
Thank goodness the medical centre had been closed for lunch and the incident hadn’t played out in front of a clinic full of patients. She looked at the empty chair behind the desk and felt a chill shudder through her. They’d played the scenario down, but acute heart attacks were dangerous. Fatal in lots of cases, even if the patient survived the first bout of treatment. Hearts were tricky things and needed lots of looking after—physically and emotionally.
That was why she was here, after all, to make hers better.
Eventually, Rose couldn’t cope with the oppressive silence any more. She wanted to talk about Maxine, even if he didn’t. Talking about stressful things was a good thing, so the counsellor had told her. ‘She’s so sweet. I hope she’ll be okay.’
Thor turned and looked up from the desktop computer, as if suddenly remembering she was there. Steely blue eyes narrowed. ‘Yes.’
‘You’re going to miss her.’
‘Yes.’ He paused, looking as if he was working out what to say. ‘She’s my receptionist, but she’s also my mother-in-law.’
Oh. No wonder he was so concerned. Oakdale was a small community, so of course there’d be family members all working together, unlike at the big London hospital she’d trained at. People there were from all over the world, strangers working with strangers, mostly. She’d come here because the small community had appealed. That, and a weird comforting feeling she’d had when she’d read the description of the place. It had sounded magical, idyllic and just the thing for a broken heart. A new start, fresh air and lots of exercise to exorcise her past.
But why was his mother-in-law telling him to find someone to make him happy? That made no sense at all.
As if he could read her mind, he shook his head. ‘People say things they don’t mean when they’re in a panic.’
‘She was scared. It’s understandable. You think you’re going to live for ever, then something like this hits you out of the blue. It makes you rethink everything.’
‘Right, yes.’ He was nodding, but there was little emotion there. She expected a big sigh, at least. A rub of those skilled hands through his blond hair. A raised eyebrow or some sort of shared agreement that it had been really hard working on a friend. A discussion, maybe…some sort of virtual group hug that they’d done the right things in the emergency. Anything they could have done differently, better, things to be worked on for next time. But, no, nothing.
It was like talking to an automaton. But he was only like this with her, Rose noticed. With Maxine he’d been soft and sweet. Maybe she just needed to get to know him…or he needed to get to know her, before they could have cordial work relations. Maybe she just needed to hightail it back to the agency and demand to be placed somewhere else.
Instead, she took a deep breath. Because he must have been shocked by what had just happened; what else could explain his gruff manner? ‘Hey, why don’t you take a few minutes to debrief? Have a cup of tea or something? It’s okay to feel blindsided by this.’
He looked at her as if she had two heads. ‘I’m not blindsided. I’m short-staffed. And I’m running very late for my home visits. Again.’
And with that he was gone.
CHAPTER TWO (#u7bcfbc8d-ae08-57c3-a8a7-1048ef9f3981)
THE NEW NURSE was still there when he got back from his home visits, despite her not being due to start work until tomorrow. And every time he came into the waiting area throughout the afternoon to call a patient into his room, there she was, sitting on Maxine’s chair, chatting to the patients and other nurses as if she belonged there.
Her blonde ponytail bobbed as she laughed with Dennis Blakely, making the dour old man smile for the first time in living memory, those amber eyes sparkling as she shushed a crying newborn to sleep like some sort of baby whisperer. No longer wearing the orange hat or the red coat, she was dressed for work in a high-necked top and slim black trousers. Smart. Professional.
He wished she was still in the hat and coat…inappropriate for walking or work, but they matched her vibrancy.
As he watched her, Joe had the same feeling he’d had when he’d seen her on the mountain—as if something inside him was starting to wake up after a very long hibernation—he noticed her. And that in itself was the strangest thing, because he hadn’t noticed much these last few years. He’d been swimming through a fog of survival and grief so deep he’d barely managed to function, drowning really, spending all his energy on making sure Katy got through this well-adjusted and, above all, happy. As happy as she could be. As happy as he could make her.
So did noticing a pretty woman mean he’d moved on?
Panic hit him with force, like bullets pelting his body—his heart, his gut, his throat. He wasn’t sure he wanted to move on. Mostly, he didn’t want to forget.
But, regardless of what noticing her meant, he needed to apologise for being rude. Twice. Probably more. Maxine would have a fit if he didn’t and word got round he’d scared the new staff nurse away.
‘You still here?’ he asked her as he dropped blood forms and paperwork onto the large uncluttered desk, the last of the patients having just left. ‘I thought you didn’t start until tomorrow?’
‘After Maxine’s incident I wasn’t going to leave you so short-staffed, was I? I just helped out, learning the ropes.’ She looked up at him, her tone defensive, with little warmth in the amber gaze. ‘Dr Jenny said it was all right for me to stay on. Apparently, they’ll have someone to man the desk in the morning.’
‘Yes, of course.’ Good old Jenny—if it hadn’t been for her, Maxine and Alex, the place would have buckled under Joe’s flagging leadership and the mire of fog engulfing him. But the fog was lifting now, apparently, if noticing lovely eyes was anything to go by. Which was interesting and very inconvenient because he didn’t want to find her—or any woman for that matter—attractive. Especially one who was here on a temporary contract and destined to leave when her time was up. He’d already had his world blown apart by the loss of one woman and he had no inclination to open himself up to that again. ‘It’s fine by me.’
‘Good, because I’m not sure how you’d have got on with no one to cover the front desk during a busy afternoon clinic.’ She nodded. ‘Actually, it’s worked out well, because now I know how the place runs.’
‘I’m glad someone does.’
It was meant to be a joke, but it had been so long since he’d made one he wasn’t sure it hit the mark. It shocked him that he wanted to see her face light up the way it had this morning as she’d stretched her arms out wide and breathed in the fresh morning air on his mountain.
But she just nodded, all business. ‘It’s actually very straightforward. Maxine’s got systems in place for everything.’
‘I know. She’s a star and runs a very tight ship. I was…er…joking.’
‘Oh. I didn’t realise you knew how.’ This time she did smile, although it was a little hesitant and didn’t warm her eyes and he knew it was because all she knew about him was that he was bad company.
So now was his chance to make amends. ‘Look, can we start over? I’m sorry about this morning.’
