She hated the smug laughter Tamara was indulging in. ‘You’ve met Jason. What do you think?’
‘He’s doing well as a lawyer, owns his house and drives a top-of-the-range car that goes too fast. He’ll make the perfect husband for someone.’
‘Not for me.’
‘Just checking here. You’re turning him down at every opportunity because?’ Persistent was Tamara’s middle name since she’d found the love of her life and thought Kelli should do the same.
Kelli snapped, ‘He’s dull as dishwater.’
‘Doesn’t light your fire, huh?’
‘A wet blanket would ignite that faster.’
‘And Mac Taylor would set your whole world alight.’
The phone dropped out of Kelli’s suddenly lifeless fingers. ‘Damn you, Tamara,’ she growled, but not loud enough for the words to carry to the phone now lying on the footpath outside Auckland Central Hospital. Tam was her best friend but sometimes... Bending to pick it up, she glanced at her watch. ‘Got to go,’ she told Tamara in her top don’t-fool-with-me voice. ‘I’m going in to sign my next contract with Personnel and then get to work. Bye.’ She hung up before there was any more nonsense from her pal.
But moments later the phone rang and she didn’t have the heart to send the call to voicemail. ‘You’d better have something sensible to say or I’ll hang up again.’
Tamara just laughed. Again. ‘Ask Mac to partner you to the wedding. And before you cut off our friendship for life, think about it. You two were hot for each other at my wedding. The way you danced with him said more than I know you’re ever going to admit.’
Kelli jerked to a stop in the middle of the hospital entrance, yelling, ‘Are you out of your mind?’ She’d just spent six weeks working in Fiji on an exchange with Suva Hospital and if that hadn’t put Mac on the back burner then she was in trouble. Especially now she’d been bumped from day to night shift—Mac’s shift—all because another nurse had taken early maternity leave due to high blood pressure.
‘Only looking out for you, Kells, like you did for me.’
Tears pricked her eyes.
Thanks, girlfriend. Appreciate it. Would love some of what you’ve got but it isn’t going to happen. Not while I’m still afraid to reach out for it.
A quick slash across her face with her palm, a deep sniff, and, ‘Why is it when someone falls in love he or she wants the same thing for everyone else?’ People were bumping and nudging her as they streamed past. She was getting later by the minute. There was the meeting with Personnel—might be less complicated if she headed to the local supermarket and asked for a checkout job where she’d never see Mac—before her shift in the emergency department started at three. Very soon. It had been a full-on day, avoiding her mother and finishing unpacking from her time away.
‘Because love’s so good. Crazy good, wonderful. The sun shines even when it’s raining. Of course I want that for you.’ Tamara sang happiness.
‘You think I’ll get that with Mac?’ She’d like to. No, she wouldn’t. This was Tamara rubbing her up the wrong way causing these pointless ideas to surface. ‘Don’t answer that. I am not going to ask Dr Taylor to partner me to tea break, let alone anything else.’
* * *
Kelli’s heart stuttered as she strode into the ED. Shoulders back, hands forced to hang loose at her sides, butterflies under her ribs.
Where was he? Looking around, she tried to calm the churning going on in her belly. Mac would be somewhere in here. He never ran late for a shift, and now that he was head of department he probably arrived extra early.
She shouldn’t have come back. Doing a runner while she had the chance would’ve been the better option. The hospital board had sent her to Fiji to cover for a nurse coming here to upskill in emergency treatments, but no one on that board would’ve gone out of their way to track her down and haul her back if she’d done a bunk.
Too late, Sunshine. You’re back, with another contract covering the next twelve months all signed and kicking off right now.
Where was he?
‘Hello, Kelli.’
Bang. Right on cue. Slap between her ribs. That low, raspy voice raised images of a hot night in Sydney after Tamara and Conor’s wedding. Without any effort or cohesive thought, she usually felt Mac on her skin, under her skin. But her radar must’ve been temporarily turned off because she hadn’t noticed any change in the atmosphere until he’d spoken. Bracing herself, Kelli turned to face her heartache eye to eye. ‘Hi, Mac. How’s things?’
Mac was striding towards her, head up, back straight. ‘Oh, you know. Same old, same old.’ He shrugged as though life was a bit of a bore really. At least, she thought he was aiming for a casual movement to underline his comfort levels around her, but those muscles under his shirt were tight, tension rippling off them. ‘Except it’s not for you, is it? Shift change is at three, not fifteen minutes past.’
‘Sorry, but I didn’t ask to be bumped to the night shift,’ she growled. Two could play this game. He might be setting the tone but she could just as easily keep up with the play.
His head jerked up a notch. ‘I know.’ A conciliatory note creeping in? Better if it didn’t. Aggro would keep them apart, which was all she required of him. Unfortunately he hadn’t finished. ‘We had no choice but to bring you on board.’ Perhaps not conciliatory, more annoyed. ‘None of the other nurses would change and your return from Suva fitted in perfectly with our most experienced nurse having to take urgent leave.’
‘So they told me over the phone on Friday.’ Kelli didn’t blame Mac for the change in her working times. Despite being Specialist in Charge his hands would’ve been tied, and by the looks of him he was no happier about it than she was.
‘You only found out on Friday?’ He sounded appalled, which won him a point or two. ‘I told Personnel to get in touch with you more than a week ago.’
‘You didn’t think to phone me yourself?’
He swallowed hard. ‘Yes. I did.’
‘Yet you didn’t.’ Good one, Mac. Not a great start to their working relationship if he couldn’t even do that. Really went to show how little he thought about those kisses.
Mac had kissed her in ways that tricked her heart into thinking he might’ve found her attractive in some small way. But deep down she’d known all along she was blowing in the wind. Gorgeous, sexy hunks didn’t fall for her.
According to the school bullies, she had a lot in common with elephants, and not their phenomenal memories. When plastic surgeon Steve, now ex-fiancé, first came on the scene she was long past those jibes, until he offered to do breast and butt reductions free of charge.
And now there was Mac, a man who kept himself aloof from people all the time. A man who when asked if he was single by one of the nurses had replied tightly, ‘Yes, I am,’ and gone on with his work. His tone had been so raw no one had dared ask another thing. Yet for one night, away from home and work, sharing their closest friends’ special day, he’d been different. Funny, fun, relaxed. She’d been hypnotised and felt close to him. Far too easily, considering her heart had been on lockdown since the humiliation Steve had caused her.
Which was why she and Mac had to remain totally professional on the job. She was not going through that again. Rolling her shoulders, she muttered, ‘Guess we’ll do our best to knock along.’ And she’d do her darnedest not to remember that hot night in Sydney every time she came within breathing distance of him.
‘Kelli.’ Mac tapped her shoulder lightly. ‘I apologise. I should’ve been the one to tell you about the changes, even