Читать книгу Medical Romance October 2016 Books 1-6 - Amy Andrews - Страница 32

CHAPTER FIVE

FELICITY ALWAYS ARRIVED at work at seven in the morning. The practice didn’t open until eight but she liked to grab a cup of tea and set things up at a leisurely pace. She liked to go through each of the doctors’ appointment books as well as her own to mentally prepare herself for the day.

This morning she was here at seven because she hadn’t been able to sleep. She’d driven into town deliberately after dark yesterday so no one could just drop in for a chat. She’d spent three days in Adelaide, trying to figure out a strategy to deal with Callum, and she still wasn’t any closer.

She wasn’t worried that anyone would find out. She didn’t think Callum would be indiscreet. He didn’t look like the kiss and tell type.

But she knew. Her body knew.

She’d been okay with acting so wildly outside her usual character when it had been a one-off. And she’d been fine to walk away from it and get back to the life she knew, loved and understood. The place, the people, the work that defined her. But with him constantly reminding her of something sizzling and exciting?

Constantly derailing her contented life?

She didn’t need that kind of disquiet. She’d been lucky. She’d already had her big love. She didn’t need some crazy, hot thing with a guy who was here for two months making her question all she held dear.

And even if she’d been actively looking for a man—which she wasn’t—Callum did not fit the bill. She was only interested in long-term prospects and she was perfectly happy to wait. For it to happen when it happened. If it happened.

There wasn’t any rush despite what every woman of a certain age in Vickers Hill thought.

The kettle boiled and Felicity shook herself out of her reverie. She was getting way ahead of herself. Catastrophising as usual. Also being a little egotistical. Like she was so freaking irresistible. Just because the man had ravished her in bed all night didn’t mean he wanted anything more from her or that he wanted to carry on while he was here.

She was making way too much of it. It was two months, for Pete’s sake. She could do anything for two months. They’d talk, set some rules and then she’d be cool, calm and collected. Polite. Professional. Friendly even. Vickers Hill was a great place to live in the middle of a famous wine region—she could play tour guide.

Felicity heard the back door open and glanced at her watch. She frowned. Dr Dawson was early today, he didn’t usually arrive until seven thirty sometimes. Now he was cutting back his hours a little on his countdown to retirement he left it as late as a quarter to eight.

Felicity had worked for Luci’s father for four years and would be grateful to him for ever for employing her when she’d fled back to Vickers Hill, licking her wounds post-Ned.

She turned to greet him, a smile on her face, knowing he’d come straight to the staffroom for a cuppa. But it wasn’t Dr Dawson. It was Callum standing in the doorway, all long legs and wide shoulders, looking devastating in a dark suit and patterned tie.

Her stomach dropped. Her fingers tightened around her mug. She swore muscles between her legs tightened in some kind of Pavlovian response as heat coursed to all the erogenous zones he’d taken his sweet time getting to know.

So much for being cool, calm and collected. If her body was any hotter she’d be smoking. ‘Oh. Hi.’

He nodded, his gaze guarded, reminding her of the brooding guy in the café that day. ‘Hi.’

Awkward.

But, then, she’d always known it was going to be.

‘You’re early,’ she said, to sever the stretching silence. ‘You know you don’t start till one each day, right?’

She knew he’d been in a couple of times already, orientating himself to the practice, because she’d been talking to Luci, who’d rung to tell her that Callum’s brother Seb had turned up on her doorstep in Sydney and he was now living with her, but had also mentioned Callum dropping in to see her father and introduce himself to everyone.

He shrugged. ‘Thought I’d get settled in.’ He walked into the room and set the small plastic crate he was holding on the dining table. ‘I also wanted to go over the clinic charts for this week. You know...’ he gave a half-smile but it was strained and tight ‘...be prepared.’

Felicity nodded stiffly. Oh, yeah, he was a regular Boy Scout.

In any other person, she would have been impressed by the diligence but she’d thought she’d have more time to get her game face on this morning so she wasn’t feeling terribly charitable.

‘You’ll have access to the appointment calendar on your computer in your office,’ she said. ‘I’ll send you an invite to join but I’ll just grab the printout now.’

It was her chance to temporarily escape and get herself together. He didn’t try to stop her and for the thirty seconds it took her to snatch the list of today’s appointments off the reception desk she was grateful.

She needed a breather. To hit the reset button.

She stared down at the list, not really seeing it. The Dawson general practice was one of two in Vickers Hill. There were two GPs. Bill Dawson was the original and had founded the practice almost forty years ago. About twenty years later he’d taken on a partner—Angela Runcorn—because the work had been too much for one and he’d wanted to have a woman for his female patients to have a choice. He and Angela each owned fifty percent of the practice.

Four years ago, and this was why Felicity had been employed, he’d taken on a part-time GP—Meera Setu. Meera and Felicity ran the afternoon specialty clinics together, which freed up a lot of appointment time. Monday was ortho clinic, Tuesday was diabetic, Wednesday was babies and Friday was immunisation. There was no clinic on Thursdays as it was Felicity’s day for home visits.

But, with Meera going on maternity leave last week for two months, Dr Dawson had needed a replacement and had advertised for a locum. Given that it was for such a short amount of time, Felicity hadn’t paid much heed to the process other than encouraging Luci to go to Sydney to do her course and pushing her to do the house swap with Callum when the possibility had been floated.

Except she’d only heard him being referred to as Dr Hollingsworth. And she’d never bothered to find out Callum’s last name when she’d been getting naked with him between her sheets.

She made a mental note to always find out a guy’s full name before doing the wild thing. Because now she’d be working closely with Dr Wild Thing every day.

Like right-hand woman close. And it all could have been avoided had she stopped to find out the basics—like his name!

‘Here it is,’ she said, injecting a lightness into her tone as she re-entered the staffroom.

He was at the sink, spooning coffee into a mug. She placed the list on the table next to the crate because there was no way she was getting any closer to him when she didn’t have to.

‘Thanks,’ he said, picking up his mug and leaning his butt against the counter, his feet casually crossed at the ankles, which pulled the fabric of his trousers tight across his thighs.

‘I’ll forward you the email folder with all their electronic charts in a bit.’

‘Thank you.’ The silence built again. ‘I checked up on Jock. They transferred him to hospital in Sydney and put in several stents. He’s doing okay.’

Felicity nodded. ‘Yes. Thanks. I spoke with the hospital this morning.’

Thankfully a noise in the hallway outside alerted her to someone else arriving and Felicity almost kissed Dr Dawson as he sauntered into the staffroom, his usual chipper self.

‘Ah, Flick.’ He smiled as he embraced her in a warm hug that smelled of the starch Julia, Luci’s mum, always ironed his shirts with. ‘Good to have you back. We almost fell apart without you.’

Felicity laughed, ignoring Callum in her peripheral vision. ‘I’m sure Courtney caught on pretty quickly.’

Dr Dawson chuckled in that way of his that made other people want to join in as he pulled out of the hug. ‘Now, then, I see you’ve met Cal. I think you two are going to get along famously.’

Felicity smiled at her boss then nodded in Callum’s general direction. ‘Yes. Callum and I have met.’ She couldn’t bring herself to call him Cal—he’d always be Callum to her.

‘Oh, call him Cal,’ Dr Dawson said. ‘That’s right, isn’t it, son?’

At almost seventy Bill called every male under forty ‘son’. It was his term of endearment.

‘Cal’s fine,’ Callum said, ambling over to the table and sitting down. ‘Most people call me Cal.’

Dr Dawson nodded, looking pleased with himself. ‘You’re bright and early. If you’re trying to impress me, it’s working.’

‘Thought I’d look at the clinic appointments for the week. Familiarise myself with some charts.’

‘Jolly good idea.’ Dr Dawson nodded. ‘Must do the same myself. Better get to it. Monday morning is always a madhouse here. I’ll just make myself a cuppa and do the same thing.’

‘I’ll make it and bring it in for you, Dr Dawson,’ Felicity offered.

She loved Bill Dawson almost as much as she loved her own father but he made an unholy mess in the kitchen and, like a lot of men, seemed completely blind to it. Also, Callum was a little too close for comfort now.

‘Oh, no, Flick. Julia would rouse on me if I made the nurses get me a cup of tea.’

Felicity smiled. She knew that was the truth. Julia Dawson had been a nurse for over twenty years before Luci, her change-of-life surprise package, had come along. She’d worked part time on Reception for many years at the practice once Luci had gone to school and still helped out when things got hectic.

There was no greater advocate for the practice nurses than Bill’s wife.

‘I’m offering,’ Felicity said, shooing him away from the sink as she approached. ‘It’ll be our little secret, I promise.’

Dr Dawson capitulated easily. ‘Thank you.’ He grinned. ‘I’ll see you later, Cal,’ he said, moving towards the door. ‘Don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions. Pop your head in or ask Angela or even our girl Flick. She knows more than all of us put together.’

Felicity kept her back turned, fiddling with the mugs as she snorted self-deprecatingly, which produced more chuckles from Dr Dawson as he exited.

She was excruciatingly conscious of Callum’s gaze burning into her back as she made two cups of tea. When she was done she picked them up and finally turned to face him. It was disconcerting to find him still watching her, his brow crinkled, his mouth set in a brooding line.

‘I used to be a Cal,’ he said. ‘Felt like one too. The life of the party. The centre of the world. The man of the moment. I used to be like that.’

Felicity wasn’t sure what this was about. Was he annoyed all these days later that she’d told him he didn’t look like a Cal? Because he didn’t—not to her mind. Especially not now. Or was he trying to explain why he hadn’t introduced himself as Cal right out of the blocks?

Or did he just miss that Cal guy and want to reminisce? She had to admit to being curious about him herself.

It was hard to figure out what he meant. He was so tense and shuttered, so hard to read. ‘What happened?’

He shrugged, looking down into his mug. ‘Life. Stuff.’

She nodded. She didn’t know what he wanted her to say. Did he want her to push or leave it alone? Something had obviously happened to Callum to change him.

Was that why he was here? In the middle of freaking nowhere? Fourteen hundred kilometres from his amazing harbourside apartment that Luci had raved about?

‘You’re a long way from home,’ she murmured.

‘Yeah.’

Felicity almost gave up. It was like pulling teeth. But she’d always been stubborn. ‘Because you wanted to trade water for wine? Or...because you’re running away?’

He glanced up from his mug, piercing her with his eyes. Running away it was.

Best she remember that.

‘Because I’m newly trained and thought some rural experience would be good.’

It was a sound reason. Most GPs who locumed in rural areas and weren’t from rural areas did so for the experience. Somehow, though, she didn’t think that’s what was going on here.

But whatever. It wasn’t any of her business.

‘Right. Well...’ She looked at the mugs in her hand. ‘I better deliver this, we open in fifteen minutes. I’ll email you those files in a bit. Have you been set up on the computer?’

‘Yes.’ He nodded. ‘Thanks.’

Felicity gave him a weak smile as she headed towards the door. ‘No worries. Just yell if you need anything.’

But she hoped like hell he didn’t.

* * *

It was almost three hours later before Felicity got around to emailing the file, although she had managed to send the appointment calendar invite through to Callum before things had got too crazy.

In the mornings Felicity was a general dogsbody. From receptionist to nursing duties, she was a jack of all trades and Mondays were always busy. It was like medical conditions multiplied over the two-day break. Plus there was a new doctor starting so that always brought out the rubberneckers hoping for a glimpse.

Not that anybody had seen Callum yet, he was keeping his door firmly closed. A fact that didn’t deter the Vickers Hill grapevine. They didn’t need a sighting today. It was already in full swing because Mrs Mancini had spied him at the local supermarket, buying groceries at the weekend, and had declared him a bit of a catch.

She was surprised Mrs Mancini hadn’t arrived with her gorgeous granddaughter who was a teacher at the local public school and who she’d been trying to marry off for the last two years. Three patients had already arrived bearing gifts of food for him.

Felicity picked up the plate of shortbread Mrs Robbins had brought with her. Her shortbread won the blue ribbon at the district fête every year and had been known to make grown men weep.

She took it with her to Callum’s office. As far as she knew, he hadn’t surfaced all morning and it was for him after all. She wanted to check he’d received the file and needed to get in there to set up for the orthopaedic clinic that started at one. There were three lots of plaster due to come off today and the plaster saw wasn’t in the treatment room so it was probably in his office somewhere.

Also they needed to talk. Before the clinic. There were things to say. Although she wasn’t sure how to start.

That’s where the shortbread came in. If it all went badly, at least she could console herself with sugar.

She knocked on the door and opened it when she heard a muffled, ‘Come in.’

Even dulled, his voice did wicked things to her pulse.

Damn. She was in trouble if his voice could make her legs weak through a closed door.

‘Hey,’ she said as she opened the door and shut it behind her then walked towards him all businesslike, concentrating on the plate of shortbread. ‘I come bearing gifts.’

She glanced at him as she drew level with his desk and was pleased she was close enough to a chair should she collapse into it. Glasses. He was wearing glasses. Sexy glasses. The kind of trendy, designer wireless frames that hunky male models wore in advertisements for optometrists.

She wouldn’t have thought he could look any sexier. She’d seen him naked, for crying out loud. But she’d been wrong. Callum with glasses was a whole other level.

‘You wear glasses?’

It was possibly the dumbest thing she’d ever said. She might as well have said she’d carried a watermelon.

He peered at her over the top of those glasses. ‘So do you.’

‘Oh...yes.’ She absently touched the frames she’d pushed to the top of her head. ‘Just for reading and computer work.’

‘Same here.’ He took them off and tossed them on his desk and Felicity wished he’d put them on again.

He stared at her, obviously waiting for her to say something. ‘Did you want something?’ he asked, looking pointedly at the plate of shortbread.

His tone was brisk. Not unfriendly but businesslike. It appeared she wasn’t going to have to worry about any lines they’d crossed. He’d obviously retreated as far as he could.

It was just the bucket of cold water she needed.

‘I came to check you’d received the file I sent you and to bring you these. Mrs Robbins made them for the new doctor. They’re the best in the district. You also have a jar of Mrs Randall’s rosella jam and Cindy Wetherall has made you a mulberry pie.’

He blinked. ‘But...why?’

The incredulity in his voice would have been comical had it not been utterly genuine. Felicity shrugged. ‘It’s the country. That’s how we welcome newcomers. Also there’s a rumour going around town that the new doc is hot so you’ve gone to the top of the eligible list.’

‘Eligible?’

‘Yes, you know. Marriage, babies, the whole enchilada. We don’t get a lot of new blood around here.’

His face morphed from mystified to horrified, which was another salient warning. He looked like two rusty forks would be welcome about now.

Obviously marriage and babies were not on his agenda. Or not in Vickers Hills anyway.

‘What did you think you were going to get when you traded the city for the country?’

If her voice was a little on the tart side she didn’t care. Honestly...for someone who’d come across as intelligent and articulate on the train, he was being rather obtuse.

‘Not this.’

‘Well...you’d better get used to it.’ She plonked the plate of biscuits down. ‘You’re going to be well fed around here.’

He looked at them like they were a bomb that could possibly detonate at any moment. Oh, for Pete’s sake... She had the strange urge to pelt him with one.

‘Anyway... Did you get the files?’

He put his glasses back on and her pulse gave a funny little skip despite her annoyance. He looked at his computer screen. ‘Thanks, yes. I’ve figured out the system and I’ve been reviewing all the charts for the week.’

He was being thorough. That was good. Being prepared and focused. Doing his homework.

But she still wanted to pelt him with shortbread.

‘It looks pretty light,’ he said, his eyes still glued to the screen. ‘I’d see double the amount of patients in an afternoon in Sydney.’

There was no criticism in his voice. He was being matter-of-fact but it irked Felicity. She bit her tongue against the urge to tell him he could turn right around and go back to his precious Sydney.

It appeared their talk wasn’t going to be necessary. It was obvious he didn’t want to be here. She’d been worrying about nothing.

‘Trust me, it’ll take us all afternoon.’

‘Okay. The clinic usually starts on time?’

‘Yes. There are no appointments between twelve and one so we can have lunch then afternoon clinics start at one on the dot.’

‘That’s very civilised.’

Felicity gritted her teeth. Again, his tone wasn’t critical but anger stirred in her chest anyway.

She supposed they didn’t get time for lunch in Sydney.

‘Well, you know what they say, the family that eats together stays together.’

He glanced at her. ‘And you’re all family here.’

Why did he make that sound like they were some kind of cult? ‘Well...yes.’ Where the hell was the charming guy from the train? The one she’d slept with?

Talk about a Jekyll and Hyde!

He nodded as if he was absorbing her answer before returning his attention to the screen. Felicity had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. ‘Do me a favour? Have a look around here for the plaster saw when you’re done with the charts?’

She’d planned on looking for it herself but frankly she didn’t want to be around him any longer than she had to be. And she didn’t need the temptation of a plaster saw in her hand when she felt like causing him physical harm.

‘Sure,’ he murmured, still focused on his computer.

Felicity wasn’t sure if that was his way of dismissing her or not but she took her leave anyway.

She had no idea if he noticed.