Читать книгу The Celebrity Doctor's Proposal - Sarah Morgan - Страница 5

‘I CAN manage without you just for the summer. I want you to go off and breathe mountain air and forget all about medicine and your patients.’ Anna turned off the motorway and followed the signs for the airport. She was all brisk efficiency, mentally ticking off things to be done when she got home. There were lots of them. Too many. Her life was manic, but she loved it that way. ‘And when you come back your lungs will be better and you’ll be totally refreshed and raring to go.’

At least she hoped he would be because she couldn’t keep this pace up for much longer.

David McKenna glanced across at her with a tired smile. The smile said it all. ‘We both know that that isn’t true. The truth is that you should be looking for a new partner. I’m getting too old for this, Anna,’ he said gruffly. ‘Your dad and I set up the practice almost thirty-five years ago. It’s time for new blood.’

‘That’s right.’ His wife, Elizabeth, nodded agreement, a determined look in her clear blue eyes as she leaned forward from the back seat to join in the conversation. ‘It’s time for us to enjoy retirement and our grandchildren.’

Anna glanced in her rear-view mirror and laughed. ‘You don’t have any grandchildren.’

‘Not yet,’ Elizabeth agreed placidly as she settled back in her seat and adjusted her seat-belt. ‘But it’s going to happen shortly.’

Anna carefully fixed her eyes back on the road and clamped her jaw closed. Safer to do that than voice an opinion on that particular subject. The McKennas only had one son and he showed absolutely no inclination to settle down. He was far more interested in pursuing a glamorous career as a high-profile media doctor and dating everyone female.

And he drove her nuts. Always had done. Always would do.

Anna ground her teeth and tightened her grip on the steering-wheel. The mere thought of the man was enough to raise her blood pressure to dangerous levels. Every time she turned on the television, Sam McKenna was on the screen, giving his opinion on something medical. Dr Smooth. Dr Handsome. She doubted he even remembered what it was like to be a real doctor. He’d spent far too long in front of the cameras to remember how to diagnose anything other than an ingrowing toenail.

Reminding herself that dwelling on Sam McKenna wasn’t good for her health, she turned her attention back to the present and braked neatly as a car cut in front of her. ‘You can’t possibly talk about retiring, David,’ she said briskly, adjusting her speed to ensure a safe following distance. ‘The patients love you and you’re a brilliant doctor. And you know you enjoy it. You just need to get yourself well again.’

The practice needed him. The practice he and her father had built from nothing. She needed him. She didn’t want her life to change. She liked it just the way it was.

David looked at her thoughtfully. ‘It will be interesting to see how you find working with the locum I’ve arranged,’ he said idly. ‘We both know you’ve been carrying the lion’s share of work for months now. You might find you prefer a younger person who can share the load fairly.’

Anna shot him a quick glance, her brown eyes searching. There was something in his tone that wasn’t quite right. But the look he gave her seemed completely innocent so she decided that she must have imagined it.

‘I don’t want younger,’ she said firmly, flicking the indicator and turning towards the airport. ‘I want you. With all your experience. Which reminds me—we’ve been so busy, you still haven’t told me anything about this locum. You just arranged it all. I hope he knows something about medicine.’

But she wasn’t really worried. She trusted David’s judgement in everything. If David thought the locum would cope then she had no doubt that he would.

‘Of course he does. And you’ve been far too busy to bother you with the details,’ David said vaguely, glancing at his watch and casting a pointed glance at his wife. ‘We don’t have time for you to dither in the airport, dear.’

‘I never dither,’ Elizabeth protested with dignity, and her husband smiled.

‘So why are we late?’

Anna glanced at them fondly as she pulled up outside the terminal building. Since her own parents had died, Elizabeth and David had stepped into the role. And why not? David had been at medical school with her father. They’d worked together for all those years and she’d taken over her father’s role in the practice when he’d been forced to retire because of ill health. It was hardly surprising that the McKennas regarded her as a daughter.

Suddenly filled with an awful feeling that her whole life was about to change, and hating the thought, Anna switched off the engine and turned towards them. ‘I want you to be careful,’ she said urgently, undoing her seat-belt and reaching across to hug David. ‘I want you to rest and take it easy. I couldn’t bear it if anything—’ She broke off, a lump in her throat, and David hugged her back, as understanding as ever.

‘Nothing’s going to happen to me, Anna, so stop worrying,’ he said gruffly, stroking her long, dark hair with an affectionate hand. ‘It was just a nasty dose of pneumonia brought on by mixing with too many ill patients! I’m recovering well and I’m intending to see my grandchildren grow up.’

Anna sniffed and then gave him a shove. ‘You’re definitely getting senile. I keep telling you, you haven’t got any grandchildren.’

‘Yet.’ Over the top of her head, David winked at his wife. ‘Gather your belongings, woman. Time to get this show on the road.’

Anna pulled away from him, feeling as though something momentous was happening. Suddenly she really, really didn’t want them to go. Which was utterly ridiculous, she told herself firmly, since this whole sabbatical idea had been her brainchild.

What was the matter with her?

She wasn’t the sentimental sort. She was practical and efficient and she really tried not to let emotions get in the way. David and Elizabeth needed a break and it was great that they were finally having one. She should be delighted. It was just the last few months, she decided, stepping out of the car and walking round to retrieve the luggage from the boot. She’d been working too hard. Not having enough time off.

Suddenly she envied David, taking a long break.

She tugged one of the cases from the boot, the reality of her life looming large in her brain. ‘David, you still haven’t told me about this locum and I—’

‘Oh, no!’ David peered into the boot and pulled a face. ‘Don’t say we forgot the green case. Elizabeth, did you remember to bring the green case from the bedroom?’

‘It’s here.’ Anna shifted the luggage. ‘Under the blue one.’

She dragged it out and added it to the pile on the pavement.

‘Thank goodness for that. It contains all my reading matter.’ David rummaged in his pocket for his glasses. ‘All right, now, have we got everything? Tickets, passports, money—’

Anna tried again. ‘About this locum—’

‘Surgery door keys? Did we give Anna the spare set?’ Elizabeth fussed in her handbag and Anna realised with a mixture of frustration and affection that neither of them was taking the slightest bit of notice of her. They were already on holiday. Far away from life in a Cornish fishing village. Far away from her and the practice.

David patted his other pocket and smiled. ‘I left the spares on the kitchen table. Now, we really need to dash.’ He leaned forward and kissed Anna on the cheek. ‘No need to come in with us. It was wonderful of you to bring us this far. I hate goodbyes and you have to get back to the needy.’

He waved a hand at a porter, who immediately brought a trolley and loaded the bags.

It was only after the glass doors of the terminal building had closed behind them that Anna realised that he’d left without answering her question about the locum.

She gave a sigh of exasperation and settled herself back in the car, ready for the long drive back to Cornwall. She knew nothing about the doctor David had appointed to cover his absence, except that it was a man. But perhaps it didn’t matter. She didn’t really need to know the details. Just that he was going to turn up.

Knowing that the summer holidays were almost upon them, Anna just hoped he liked hard work. Because he was going to get it in spades.

‘Do you think she’s guessed?’ From inside the privacy of the terminal building, David watched Anna’s little car pull away. ‘She kept asking and I kept evading the question. Now she thinks I’m going senile.’

‘She was joking. If she’d guessed then we wouldn’t be standing here now,’ Elizabeth said calmly. ‘You know what our Anna is like when she loses her temper. We’d be lying in pieces on the pavement and the fire brigade would be on their way.’

David rubbed a hand over the back of his neck and cast her a dubious look. ‘I hope we’ve done the right thing. Just because you and Anna’s mother always had this thing about our children marrying each other …’

‘You and Philip had the same dream,’ Elizabeth reminded him firmly, ‘and don’t think Susan and I didn’t know it. You wanted to hand the practice over to the two of them. You still do.’

Her husband shot her an impatient look. ‘Well, of course I do. It would be perfect. The only thing that isn’t perfect is that they can’t stand the sight of one another. I have to admit that, much as I would like this whole plan to work, I can’t see how it is going to.’

Elizabeth delved into her handbag for a mirror. ‘They’re both strong characters. Neither would want an insipid partner for the journey through life. They suit each other. It’s just that they’re both too stubborn and blind to see it themselves and that’s just because they’ve never been forced to spend time together. Hopefully, by the time we return, they’ll have discovered that they can’t live without each other.’

David pulled a face. ‘They might kill each other first.’

‘Possibly.’ Elizabeth gave a womanly smile and checked her lipstick. ‘But I don’t think so. Now, that’s our flight they’re calling. Are you ready?’

David cast a glance through the window again but Anna’s car was long gone. ‘There are going to be fireworks in Cornwall tonight,’ he muttered, and his wife clipped her bag shut and gave him a little push.

‘Then it’s just as well we’ll be in Switzerland. Now, stop worrying. Everything is in place and we can do no more. We have to leave the rest up to fate and the chemistry that has always been there between those two. Oh …’ She gave a smug smile. ‘And then there’s the whole of the village, of course. I’m sure they’ll be only too happy to give fate a helping hand.’

Anna drove home, mentally listing all the urgent jobs that had to be done. Too many jobs, not enough time.

She just hoped the locum was a good swimmer because he was going to be thrown right in the deep end with no buoyancy aid.

The sun blazed down on the car, the sea sparkled and Anna turned up the volume on the radio. Cornwall in the summer might be a crazy place to work but it was a beautiful place and she’d never want to live anywhere else. She smiled and the smile lasted for the time it took for her to pull up outside the surgery.

She was met by a film crew and her smile went out like a light.

For a moment she just sat in her little car and stared at the big van and the cameras and then finally she opened the door and ventured outside.

‘Are you Dr Riggs?’ A man with a microphone scurried over to her and she nodded.

‘Yes. Is there a problem? What’s going on here?’

‘Just hold it right there.’ The man held up a hand to halt her movement and gestured to the cameraman. ‘We want to get some footage of you greeting Dr McKenna. Wait just a moment …’

Footage? Of her greeting Dr McKenna?

To the best of her knowledge, she’d just waved Dr McKenna off at the airport and there was only one other Dr McKenna that she knew of, and he wasn’t …

She glanced at the film crew again and shook her head in denial.

Oh, no. No. No. David wouldn’t have done that to her. He couldn’t …

Ignoring the man’s plea for her to stay put while they prepared to shoot, she slammed her car door and stalked across the small car park towards the group of people gathered by the entrance, a suspicion growing inside her.

‘McKenna?’ She growled his name like a threat and the people moved to one side. But she had eyes only for one person.

Cool blue eyes swept over her and his mouth tilted slightly. ‘Riggs. What an unexpected pleasure.’

He was as handsome as the devil and his arrogance drove her nuts.

‘Unexpected?’ She slammed her hands on her hips and glared at him. ‘This is my surgery, McKenna, so how can my presence here be unexpected? What is unexpected is the fact that you’re standing outside it. You’d better have a damn good reason for causing a disturbance.’

He lifted a dark eyebrow in that lazy, careless way that always drove her mad. ‘Nice to see you haven’t changed. I have to confess that I thought you’d leg it once my father told you that I was coming,’ he drawled. ‘Never thought you’d show up to greet me. I’m flattered, Riggs. And touched. I obviously mean more to you than I thought.’

‘Greet you? I’m not greeting you, and you need to move yourself and that van …’ she stabbed a finger towards the offending vehicle, her dark hair swinging over her shoulders as she turned her head ‘… from my car park before I have it towed away. I have a surgery starting in an hour and at the moment there is no room for my patients.’

‘Our patients,’ he corrected her mildly, not moving an inch, ‘and you’re going to have to learn not to swear while the cameras are here. You’d be amazed how little it takes to get complaints from viewers. They like their doctors wholesome and clean-living. No sex or swearing.’

She opened her mouth to make a sharp observation about his reputation for the former and then stopped herself. It wasn’t worth it. She really didn’t care about his sex life. And anyway, something he’d said was jarring inside her head.

She stared at him, drew breath and finally mentally reran the last few sentences. ‘Hold on.’ She lifted a hand as if to ward him off. ‘What did you mean when you said that your dad should have told me you were coming? Tell me he didn’t know you were coming. Tell me this isn’t what I think it is.’

Surely David wouldn’t have done that to her.

He couldn’t …

Sam leaned impossibly broad shoulders against the wall and looked at her, a trace of amusement lighting his blue eyes. ‘He’s been nagging me for more than three months, Riggs. Finally he resorted to emotional blackmail. ‘‘I need this break, Sam, and if I can’t find a decent locum I can’t leave poor Anna.’’’

His imitation of his father was so good that if she hadn’t been so horrified, Anna would have laughed. Instead she gaped at him. ‘Locum? You’re the locum?’ Her voice cracked and all her important bodily functions like breathing and staying upright suddenly seemed threatened. It had to be a joke. ‘You have a sick sense of humour, McKenna.’

He shrugged. ‘Better a sick sense of humour than no sense of humour at all.’ He gave her a meaningful look. ‘Now, enough chatting. You can thank me later.’ He straightened and waved a hand to the cameraman who was still hovering. ‘In the meantime, we have work to do.’

She clenched her fists in her palms. He was implying that she had no sense of humour. He’d always accused her of being too uptight. Of not knowing how to relax. Of planning every detail of her life.

‘What I mean is, there is no way your dad would arrange for you to be the locum,’ she said, her teeth gritted as she spoke. ‘He knows we’d kill each other.’

‘That possibility does exist,’ Sam agreed, stifling a yawn and moving past her with a loose-limbed stride that betrayed absolutely no sense of urgency. ‘However, I reckon that if you stay in your space and I stay in mine, we should just about manage to coexist without significant injury.’

‘Wait a minute.’ She elbowed her way past the cameraman and planted herself in front of Sam again. Strands of dark hair trailed over her face and she brushed them back with an impatient hand. ‘If you’re really the locum, why are they here?’ She glared at the film crew as if they were a disease and he muttered something incomprehensible under his breath.

‘They’re here because I have a job to do,’ he said bluntly. ‘Normally I’d be in London, filming a new series. It seems I’m spending the summer in Cornwall so we’ve had to make some changes to the programme. We’ve had to adapt. You ought to try it some time.’

At that point, the woman who had been hovering at a tactful distance stepped forward. ‘It’s going to be brilliant, Dr Riggs.’ She reached out and shook Anna’s hand. ‘I’m Polly. I’m the producer of this series of Medical Matters. When Sam told us he was going to be working down here, we decided to do a whole series on summer health. It will be fantastic. We can look at taking care of yourself in the sun, first aid—everything families should know before they go on holiday.’

Warm and friendly, she listed her ideas with enthusiasm, and in normal circumstances Anna would have liked her immediately. But these weren’t normal circumstances. And she couldn’t like anyone who looked at Sam McKenna with such blatant adoration.

‘This is a busy practice,’ she said crisply. ‘We work flat out to cater to the needs of the locals and at this time of year our numbers double because of the tourist population. We don’t have time for film crews.’

‘But that’s the beauty of it,’ Polly said cheerfully, ‘Sam already knows the score. He’s used to being filmed all the time. There’ll be very little intrusion, I can assure you.’

‘The patients won’t like it.’

‘The patients will love it,’ Sam predicted dryly, lifting a hand and shielding his eyes from the sun. ‘And if they don’t, they don’t have to take part. They always have the right to refuse to be filmed. But I can tell you now that they won’t.’

‘We’re going to do a variety of different things,’ Polly explained eagerly, ‘a straightforward Medical Matters from the surgery, which is our usual format, but we’re also going to film on location, do some first-aid stuff on the beach—that sort of thing.’

‘It sounds as though you’ve got it all worked out,’ Anna said frostily, her eyes on Sam who simply shrugged. ‘We need to talk, McKenna. And we need to do it now.’

Polly glanced towards the cameraman who was still hovering. ‘Perhaps we should film you discussing it—it might be interesting.’

‘Well, unless you want to film something which needs a warning for bad language and violence, I suggest you switch off the camera and go and have a cream tea in the village,’ Anna said sweetly, her eyes still blazing into Sam’s. ‘You and me. Inside. Now.’

Without waiting for the sharp comment that she knew would come, she turned and strode to the front door, unlocking it and letting herself in. Functioning on automatic, she switched off the alarm and picked up the post, aware that he was behind her.

‘Don’t you have a receptionist any more? What happened to Glenda?’ He peered behind the empty reception area with a frown and she gritted her teeth.

She didn’t need his comments on the way the surgery ran.

‘Glenda is sometimes a bit late,’ she muttered, dropping the post behind Reception, ready for Glenda to sort out when she arrived. ‘She’ll be here in a minute.’

‘Late?’ He frowned, his expression suddenly thoughtful. ‘But she used to be the most punctual person in the world. Really dedicated. Why would Glenda be late?’

Anna bit her lip. She’d asked herself the same question a few times lately and she was steeling herself to address the matter with Glenda. But there was no way she was discussing this with Sam McKenna.

‘It’s really none of your business,’ she said coldly, and he gave a dismissive shrug.

‘Fair enough. Just didn’t sound much like the Glenda I used to know, that’s all.’

‘Well, you haven’t exactly been spending much time around here lately and people do change,’ Anna said tartly.

He ran a hand over his jaw, his expression thoughtful. ‘Have you tackled her?’

She gave an impatient sigh. ‘No. No, actually, I haven’t. If you must know, I haven’t had time to breathe or eat in the last few months, let alone sit down and get cosy with the staff.’

His eyes narrowed and his gaze swept her face. ‘That bad, huh?’

She gritted her teeth again and cursed herself for showing emotion in front of Sam. He would waste no time throwing it back at her. ‘Not bad. Just busy. And if it’s all right by you, I’d like to drop the subject now. When I need your advice, I’ll ask for it.’

‘No, you wouldn’t.’ He hooked his fingers into the pockets of his jeans and lounged against the reception desk. He had a lean, athletic physique, honed to perfection by his obsession with dangerous sports. ‘You wouldn’t ask my advice if you were hanging off a cliff by your fingernails. You’re so crazily independent, Riggs, that you’d drown rather than ask someone to throw you a lifebelt.’

‘Then it’s a good job I’m not drowning,’ she said coldly, walking through to the reception area and automatically picking up some scattered toys and returning them to the basket. ‘And for your information, I’d take the lifebelt as long as you weren’t the one throwing it. Now, are we going to sort this problem out?’

He shrugged and stifled a yawn. ‘What’s there to sort out? You need a locum. I’m here.’

She straightened one of the chairs. ‘As far as I’m concerned, those two statements are not linked.’

He drew a breath and she lifted a hand to indicate that she hadn’t finished. ‘What I need, McKenna, is a serious doctor willing to do some serious work. What I don’t need is some image-hungry film-star medic with an over-inflated ego which is going to get in my way every time I try and see a patient.’

To her surprise and immense irritation, he smiled. An all-male, sexy smile that tugged something deep in her pelvis.

Damn, he irritated her.

Completely aware of that fact, he straightened up and strolled towards her, a dangerous gleam in his blue eyes as they swept her face. ‘Oh, boy, oh, boy, I really do unsettle you, don’t I, Riggs? Why is that, I wonder?’

‘Do you want a list?’ She backed away, trying to maintain her personal space. ‘And I can’t imagine this is exactly your idea of heaven either. Why did you agree to it?’

His blue eyes glittered. ‘I told you. Emotional blackmail on the part of my father. He was ill. He needed a holiday. He couldn’t find anyone else. That kind of thing. Tugs at the heart.’

‘You don’t have a heart.’

He grinned. ‘Ouch. Been reading my press cuttings again, Riggs?’

‘Hardly.’ Her glance was impatient. ‘The way you run your love life—or should I say sex life—is your business. But the practice is my business. Your dad certainly never mentioned to me that he was having trouble finding anyone.’

Sam gave a careless shrug. ‘Well, the fact is I’m here now. Make the most of me.’

She angled her head and lifted an eyebrow. ‘Excuse me? I’m supposed to be honoured that you’ve graced us with your presence? Let me tell you something, Dr Charm, I’m not at all convinced you’ll know a real patient when you see one. You see, here in real life surgery land, the problems aren’t staged.’

His gaze didn’t flicker. ‘Is that so?’

‘What happens when you deal with something that doesn’t make good television? Are you going to pass them through to me? Or do you grab a textbook?’

He examined his fingernails thoughtfully. ‘You really aren’t going to make this easy, are you, Riggs?’

She bit her lip. Somehow he made her feel small, childish. ‘It’s just that this practice is busy,’ she said wearily, sweeping her dark hair away from her face and risking eye contact. ‘I need proper help. Heavy-duty help.’

Sharp blue eyes searched hers. ‘My dad hasn’t been pulling his weight, has he?’

She didn’t trust herself not to give too much away so her own eyes slid from his, away from that penetrating gaze that saw too much. ‘Your dad is a good doctor. The best.’

‘But he hasn’t got the stamina that he used to,’ Sam said softly, running a hand over the back of his neck and giving a frustrated sigh. ‘Damn. It’s hard, watching your parents grow older. You have this vision of how they are and you never want it to change. I always knew this moment would come, but that doesn’t make it any easier.’

She frowned. ‘What moment?’

His hand dropped to his side and his glance was ironic. ‘The moment when I have to decide whether to go into the family business.’

‘You mean, take your father’s place?’ She stared at him in horror. ‘You can’t possibly be serious! You don’t need me to remind you that you couldn’t wait to leave Cornwall at the earliest opportunity. Even if we go along with your dad’s plan, it’s only short term. No one suggested it was for ever. He’s coming back …’

Sam looked at her. ‘And when he does, he’ll retire and spend his days fishing.’

Anna shook her head. ‘He won’t retire.’

Sam gave a sigh and stabbed long fingers through his dark hair. ‘He has to. We both know that. And you being stubborn about it isn’t going to change that fact.’ He paced over to the reception area. ‘But while he’s working out how to break the news to you that this is all too much for him and he doesn’t want to do it any more, we’ll get the place in order. And work out a plan. Things are going to have to change around here.’

Anna felt as though she’d been doused in cold water.

She didn’t want things to change. She loved the way the practice was now. She loved working with David. They understood each other.

Was Sam right? Was David really planning to tell her that he was going to retire from the practice?

She sank onto the nearest chair, her legs suddenly wobbly. It was a moment before she realised that Sam was pressing a glass of water into her hand.

‘Drink something,’ he said roughly. ‘You’ve obviously been working too hard. You look done in. You’re pale and you’ve got black rings under your eyes. You always were too stubborn to ask for help. I’m going to get rid of the film crew for now and then come back and we can work out what’s to be done.’

Anna took a sip of water and found her voice. ‘Whatever’s to be done,’ she muttered, ‘I really, really don’t want to do it with you, McKenna.’

He was the last person in the world that she could imagine developing a good working relationship with.

He laughed and rose to his feet in a fluid movement. ‘Likewise. But seeing as that is what fate has decreed, I’d say we’re both in for an interesting summer. Looks like we’re going to be meeting at dawn. Swords or pistols?’