‘It is a great place,’ Zach agreed, frowning thoughtfully. ‘But it’s hardly the best springboard for a fast-track medical career.’
‘You seem to know rather a lot about her.’ Sean gave him a keen look. ‘Did you have an affair with her?’
Zach choked on his coffee. ‘For goodness’ sake, Sean! She was sixteen years old and I was twenty-four! What sort of man do you think I am?’
Sean grinned. ‘A woman’s dream—if the gossip is to be believed. According to the nurses, you’re now top of the list of the most eligible bachelors in Cumbria.’
‘Oh, for Pete’s sake, Sean!’ Zach shot him an impatient look and put his mug down on the table with a thump. ‘Since when did you start listening to women’s gossip?’
‘Since I lived with three of them,’ Sean said ruefully. ‘I’m decidedly outnumbered in my home and work life so I’ve decided to give in gracefully and adopt some of their habits.’
‘Well, whatever gossip says, rest assured that I have more self-control and decency than to seduce sixteen-year-olds.’ Zach was careful not to reveal the slight uneasiness Sean’s words had prompted.
If it had been left to little Keely, they most certainly would have had an affair. She’d had a massive teenage crush on him.
A ghost of a smile hovered around his firm mouth as he remembered the night she’d proposed to him. Turning her down without hurting her fragile ego had been one of the hardest experiences of his adult life.
What would she be like now? And would she have recovered from her teenage crush on him? If she hadn’t then they were going to be in trouble.
Zach gave a short laugh, picked up the mug and finished his coffee. Of course she would have recovered. That was years ago, for goodness’ sake, and he hadn’t seen her since that night. He’d kept away—more for her sake than his. He’d decided that the sooner he removed himself from her life, the sooner she’d get over him and start fancying boys her own age. Which was probably what she’d been doing ever since.
‘So come on, Mr Eligible Bachelor, bring me up to date.’ Sean leaned back in his chair, a slow smile spreading across his face. ‘Who’s the lucky woman at the moment?’
‘I thought you were one of the few people I could trust not to interfere with my love life,’ Zach growled, irritation sizzling through his veins. This was one topic of conversation guaranteed to ruin his day. ‘I have enough of it from your wife and the nurses in this department, without getting it from you, too.’
Sean looked at him calmly. ‘Ally thinks it’s time you got married.’
Zach closed his eyes and counted to ten. He loved Sean’s wife dearly but he wished she’d stop trying to arrange his life. ‘For the record, I am perfectly satisfied with my love life.’
‘From what I’ve heard, you don’t have a love life,’ Sean said bluntly, ‘just a sex life.’
‘And since when was that any of your business?’ Zach’s blue eyes flashed a warning and Sean must have heard the threatening note in his voice because he gave a lopsided smile and lifted a hand.
‘All right, all right. Calm down. I’m just saying that sooner or later you’re going to have to take a risk and get back into a proper relationship.’
Sean was as direct as ever and Zach felt his hackles rise. Why did everyone feel they knew what was best for him?
‘I have no intention of doing anything of the sort. I like my life as it is.’
There was a slight pause. ‘It wasn’t your life I was thinking of,’ Sean said gruffly, not quite meeting his eyes. ‘It was Phoebe’s.’
Zach swore under his breath and stood up suddenly, the chair scraping on the floor as he pushed it away. ‘Phoebe is fine.’
‘Zach, she’s not even three years old,’ Sean said quietly. ‘She needs a mother.’
Zach closed his eyes and the breath hissed through his teeth. Damn. Why did it still hurt so much? Why? It had been more than a year now. Were his battered emotions ever going to recover?
Sean gave a sigh and rubbed his forehead with long fingers. ‘Look, tell me if I’m out of line, but—’
‘You’re out of line,’ Zach said coldly, dropping his empty mug into the washing-up bowl. ‘And, please, tell Ally I don’t need her advice on my love life. And I certainly don’t intend to get married again. There are some things you only do once in a lifetime.’
Sean studied his coffee. ‘You say that now because you don’t think you’ll ever meet anyone again, but you will. Perhaps sooner than you think.’
Zach rolled his eyes. ‘And I suppose this is the part where you tell me that you and Ally are having some people to dinner and I’m the available single man?’
Sean shook his head and grinned. ‘I know when I’m beaten. I’m just going to let nature take its course. Once you meet Keely I’m sure you’ll revise your opinion on romance.’
‘Keely?’ Zach blinked, thrown by the change of subject. ‘What on earth has she got to do with this? Keely’s a child, Sean.’
Why were they talking about Keely all of a sudden?
‘A child?’ Sean lifted an eyebrow and a ghost of a smile played around his mouth. ‘She might have been a child when you last saw her but, believe me, that was no child that I interviewed. Your “child” has grown into a woman. And a very beautiful woman.’
Zach scowled. ‘You shouldn’t be making sexist comments about the doctors who are coming to work for you.’
‘I wouldn’t dream of making a sexist comment when I’m working,’ Sean defended himself smoothly, ‘but you and I are off duty at the moment and as your friend I’m just telling you that your little Keely is a knockout. Sweet, sexy and honest as the day is long.’
‘Then I’m sure she’ll make some lucky man very happy,’ Zach said shortly, ‘but it isn’t going to be me.’
Firstly, whatever Sean said to the contrary, he couldn’t think of Keely as anything other than a child and, secondly, he knew he would never, ever find another woman he wanted to marry. How could he after Catherine?
WHAT had she done to deserve it?
Keely Thompson stared in disbelief at the man standing at the front of the lecture theatre.
She always helped old ladies across the road, she fed the birds in winter, she donated time and money to a charity for the homeless, she never told lies and she rang her mother regularly.
All in all she was a pretty responsible citizen and she definitely—most definitely—didn’t deserve to bump into Zach Jordan again. Which proved that people didn’t always get what they deserved, she thought gloomily, shrinking down in her seat and staring at her notepad. They got what they were given, and she’d been given Zach Jordan. Out of the blue, with no warning, and as her boss. Well, not exactly as her boss, but as a senior colleague, which was almost as bad.
When he’d walked through that door to deliver the lecture she’d felt as though she’d been hit by an express train. She’d been expecting one of the junior consultants from the accident and emergency department. She certainly hadn’t expected Zach.
But it was Zach. And as it looked as though she was going to be a senior house officer in the same department as him, she had to come to terms with the fact that he was going to be under her nose. On a daily basis.
She