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Maggie’s look was as old as time. ‘Six feet plus of sex on legs, was it? That’s if we can believe Lauren.’
Darcie rolled her eyes and gave a shortened version of the missing email containing Jack Cassidy’s arrival details. ‘He didn’t seem too impressed with us,’ she added bluntly.
Maggie made a soft expletive. ‘Don’t you dare wear any of that rubbish, Darcie. You’ve been here. Done the hard yards when no other doctor would come outback. And how challenging was that for someone straight out of England!’
Darcie felt guilt a mile wide engulf her. Coming to work here had had nothing to do with altruism, or challenge. It had been expediency in its rawest form that had brought her to Sunday Creek.
She’d more or less picked a place on the map, somewhere Aaron, the man she’d been within days of marrying, would never find her. She knew him well enough to know he’d never connect her with working in the Australian outback.
It was that certainty that helped her sleep at night.
‘I couldn’t have managed any of it without you and the rest of the nurses,’ Darcie apportioned fairly.
‘That’s why we make a good team,’ Maggie asserted, picking up her bag and rummaging for her keys. ‘I can hang about for a bit if you’d like me to,’ she offered.
‘No, Maggie, but thanks.’ Darcie waved the other’s offer away. ‘Go home to your boys.’ Maggie was the sole parent of two adolescent sons and spent her time juggling work, home and family. In the time Darcie had been here, she and Maggie had become friends and confidantes.
Although it was usually Maggie who confided and she who listened, Darcie had to admit. Somehow she couldn’t slip into the confidences other women seemed to share as easily as the name of their hairdresser. ‘I’ll be fine,’ she said now. ‘And it’ll be good to have a senior doctor about the place,’ she added with a bravado she was far from feeling.
* * *
Jack was just putting the phone down when Darcie arrived back in her office. ‘All squared away?’ she asked, flicking him a hardly-there smile.
‘Thanks.’ He uncurled to his feet.
Taking a cursory look around her office, she moved to close one of the blinds.
‘So, what are the living arrangements here?’ Jack asked.
‘The house for the MD is being refurbished at present, so you’ll have to bunk in with the rest of us in the communal residence for now. At the moment, there’s just me and one of the nurses.’
‘That doesn’t seem like a hardship,’ he said, giving a slow smile and a nod of satisfaction.
Darcie felt nerves criss-cross in her stomach, resolving to have a word with the decorators and ask them to get a wriggle on. The sooner Cassidy was in a place of his own where he could strut his alpha maleness to his heart’s content, the better. ‘The flying doctors stay over sometimes too,’ she added, making it sound like some kind of buffer. ‘And now and again we have students from overseas who just want to observe how we administer medicine in the outback.’
He nodded, taking the information on board.
Darcie’s gaze flew over him. She’d waited so long for another doctor. Now Jack Cassidy’s arrival, the unexpectedness of it, seemed almost surreal. ‘Do you have luggage?’
‘There didn’t seem anyone about so I stashed it in what looked like a utility room on the way through.’
‘We’ve a small team of permanent nurses who are the backbone of the place.’ Darcie willed a businesslike tone into her voice. ‘Ancillary staff come and go a bit.’
He sent her a brooding look. ‘So, it’s you and the nurses most of the time, then?’
She nodded. ‘The flying doctors are invaluable, of course.’
‘Whoops—sorry.’ Lauren jerked to a stop in the doorway.
‘Lauren.’ Darcie managed a brief smile. ‘This is Dr Cassidy, our new MD.’
‘Jack.’ He held out his hand.
‘Oh, hi.’ Lauren was all smiles. ‘You arrived on the plane and there was no one to meet you,’ she lamented.
‘There was a mix-up with emails,’ Darcie interrupted shortly, fed up with the whole fiasco. ‘Did you need me for something, Lauren?’
‘Oh, yes. I wondered if you’d mind having a word with young Mitchell Anderson.’
A frown touched Darcie’s forehead. ‘I’ve signed his release. He’s going home tomorrow. What seems to be the problem?’
‘Oh, nothing about his physical care,’ Lauren hastily amended. ‘But he seems a bit...out of sorts for someone who’s going home tomorrow.’
‘I’ll look in on him.’ Darcie sent out a contained little smile.
‘Thanks.’ Lauren gave a little eye flutter aimed mostly at Jack. ‘I’m heading back to the station. Yell if you need me.’
‘What was your patient admitted for?’ Jack asked, standing aside for Darcie to precede him out of the office.
‘Snakebite.’
‘You know, he may just need to talk the experience through.’
Darcie shrugged. ‘I’m aware of that. I tried to find a bit of common ground and initiate a discussion about snakes and their habits. I knew Mitch would be able to tell me more than I could possibly know but he didn’t respond. I’d actually never seen a case of snakebite,’ she admitted candidly. ‘But I know the drill now. Compression, head for the nearest hospital and hope like mad they have antivenin on hand.’
‘Mmm.’ A dry smile nipped Jack’s mouth. ‘Much more civilised than in the old days. They used to pack the bite puncture with gunpowder and light the fuse. You can imagine what that did to the affected part of the body,’ he elaborated ghoulishly.
If he was hoping for her shocked reaction, he wasn’t going to get it. ‘Pretty drastic,’ she said calmly. ‘I read about it in the local history section of the library.’
Jack flashed a white grin. Oh, she’d do, this one. Clever, cool and disarmingly sure of her ground as well.
It was a real turn-on.
Uh-oh. Mentally, he dived for cover. He’d just untangled his emotions from one relationship. He’d have to be insane to go looking for a replacement so quickly. But as they began to walk along the corridor towards the wards, the flower-fresh drift of her shampoo awakened his senses with a swift stab of want as incisive and sharp as the first cut of a scalpel.
CHAPTER TWO (#ulink_4c97520e-d847-5d87-b45f-24bc58a3712c)
JACK YANKED HIS thoughts up short with a barely discernible shake of his head. He needed to get back into professional mode and quickly. ‘Give me the background on your patient.’
‘Mitchell is sixteen.’ Darcie spun her head to look at him and found herself staring into his eyes. They had the luminosity of an early morning seascape, she thought fancifully. She cleared her throat. ‘He works on his parents’ property about a hundred kilometres out. He was bitten on Monday last.’
‘So he’s been hospitalised all this week?’
‘It seemed the best and safest option. I’m still getting my head around the distances folk have to travel out here. If I’d released him too early and he’d had a relapse and had to come back in—’
‘So you erred on the side of caution. I’d have done the same. Where was he bitten?’
‘On the calf muscle. Fortunately, he was near enough to the homestead to be found fairly quickly and he didn’t panic. His parents were able to bring him straight in to the hospital.’
‘You don’t think he could possibly be suffering from some kind of PTSD?’
Darcie looked sceptical. ‘That’s a bit improbable, isn’t it?’
‘It can happen as a result of dog bites and shark attacks. How’s he been sleeping?’
‘Not all that well, actually. But I put it down to the strangeness of being in hospital for the first time.’
‘Well, that’s probably true. But there could be another reason why he’s clammed up.’ Jack’s lips tweaked to a one-cornered grin. ‘He’s sixteen, Darcie. His testosterone has to be all over the place.’
Darcie’s chin came up defensively. Same old sexist rubbish. ‘Are you saying he’s embarrassed around a female doctor? I was totally professional.’
‘I’m sure you were.’
She swept a strand of hair behind her ear in agitation. ‘Perhaps I should try talking to him again.’
‘Why don’t you let me?’
‘You?’
‘I’m on staff now,’ he reminded her. ‘And your Mitchell may just open up to another male. That’s if you’re agreeable?’
Darcie felt put on the spot. He’d given her the choice and she didn’t want to be offside with him and appear pedantic. And he was, after all, the senior doctor here. ‘Fine. Let’s do it.’
Jack gave a nod of approval. ‘Here’s how we’ll handle it, then.’
* * *
Mitchell was the only patient in the three-bed unit. Clad in sleep shorts and T-shirt, he was obviously bored, his gaze only intermittently on the television screen in front of him.
Following Jack’s advice, Darcie went forward. ‘Hi, there, Mitchell.’ Her greeting was low-key and cheerful. ‘Just doing a final round.’
Colour stained the youth’s face and he kept his gaze determinedly on the TV screen.
‘This is Dr Cassidy.’ Darcie whipped the blood-pressure cuff around the boy’s arm and began to pump. ‘He’s going to be spending some time with us here in Sunday Creek.’
‘Dr Drummond tells me you crash-tackled a snake recently, Mitch.’ Casually, Jack parked himself on the end of the youngster’s bed. ‘What kind was it?’
The boy looked up sharply. ‘A western brown. They’re deadly.’
‘They’re different from an ordinary brown, then?’
Almost holding her breath, Darcie watched her young patient make faltering eye contact with Jack. ‘The western is more highly coloured.’
Jack flicked a questioning hand. ‘How’s that?’
‘These guys aren’t brown at all,’ Mitchell said knowledgeably. ‘They’re black with a really pale head and neck. They’re evil-looking. The guy that got me was about a metre and a half long.’
‘Hell’s teeth...’ Jack grimaced. ‘That’s about five feet.’
‘Yeah, probably. I almost peed in my pants.’
‘Well, lucky you didn’t do that.’ Jack’s grin was slow and filled with male bonding. ‘I heard you kept your cool pretty well.’
Mitch lifted a shoulder dismissively. ‘Out here, you have to learn to take care of yourself from when you’re a kid. Otherwise you’re dead meat.’
Over their young patient’s head, the doctors exchanged a guarded look. This response was just what they’d hoped for. And it seemed that once started, Mitch couldn’t stop. Aided by Jack’s subtle prompting, he relaxed like a coiled spring unwinding as he continued to regale them with what had happened.
Finally Jack flicked a glance at his watch. ‘So, it’s home tomorrow?’
‘Yeah.’ Mitch’s smile flashed briefly.
‘What time are your parents coming, Mitchell?’ Darcie clipped the medical chart back on the end of the bed.
‘About ten. Uh—thanks for looking after me.’ He rushed the words out, his gaze catching Darcie’s for the briefest second before he dipped his head in embarrassment.
‘You’re welcome, Mitch.’ Darcie sent him a warm smile. ‘And better wear long trousers out in the paddocks from now on, hmm?’
‘And don’t go hassling any more snakes,’ Jack joked, pulling himself unhurriedly upright. ‘Stay cool, champ.’ He butted the kid’s fist with his own.
‘No worries, Doc. See ya.’
‘You bet.’ Jack raised a one-fingered salute.
* * *
‘Thanks,’ Darcie said when they were out in corridor. ‘You were right,’ she added magnanimously.
‘It’s what’s called getting a second opinion,’ Jack deflected quietly. ‘I imagine they’re a bit thin on the ground out here.’
‘Awful to think I could have sent him home still all screwed up.’
‘Let it go now.’ Jack’s tone was softly insistent. ‘You’ve done a fine job. Physically, your patient is well again. He’s young and resilient. He’d have sorted himself out—probably talked to his dad or a mate.’
She gave an off-centre smile. ‘And we can’t second-guess everything we do in medicine, can we?’
‘Hell, no!’ Jack pretended to shudder. ‘If we did that, we’d all be barking mad. Now, do you need to check on any more patients?’
She shook her head. ‘I’m only next door anyway if there’s a problem.’
‘Good.’ In a faintly weary gesture he lifted his hands, running his fingers around his eye sockets and down over the roughness of new beard along his jaw. ‘So, we can call it a day, then? I need a shower, a shave and a cold beer, in that order.’
‘Oh, of course. I should have realised...’ Darcie forced herself to take a dispassionate look at him. There was no mistaking the faint shadows beneath his eyes.
A sliver of raw awareness startled her. The fact that suddenly she wanted to reach up and smooth away those shadows, slowly and gently, startled her even more. Especially when she reminded herself that, for lots of reasons, her trust in men was still borderline.
* * *
The staff residence was next door to the hospital with a vacant block in between. Like the hospital, it was of weathered timber with wide verandas positioned to catch the morning sun and to offer shade during the hot summers.
