‘What the heck is going on here?’ Joe stood in the doorway, stethoscope hanging round his neck, frown deep over his eyes.
Just great.
Rose’s heart thrummed. She hoped it was out of embarrassment for the chaos happening in the room, and not for any other reason. But every time she saw him her heart did a funny thing. Maybe she should see her specialist and get checked over? Maybe. Maybe she should just admit she had a sneaky crush on Dr Thor, despite all her reasons not to get involved with anyone…especially a family-orientated one, no matter how good-looking. Or how downright grumpy.
‘It’s my fault. We spilled some water and Janice slipped in it.’
‘I am so sorry this happened. Are you okay?’ He helped Janice into a chair and did a quick triage assessment. As always, his manner with his patients was impeccable.
‘I’m fine, honestly. It’s fine. Just get Maisie’s cast on and we’ll get out of your hair.’
‘Yes, definitely.’ Rose rolled her sleeves up, took the bowl to the sink to fill it with water but felt the pressure of Joe’s gaze on her the whole time. Seemed things were destined never to run smoothly between them, no matter how many times they started over. She turned and gave him a What do you want? glare.
Steely blue eyes glowered back at her. His humourless mouth ground out, ‘Can we talk?’
She nodded curtly towards Maisie. ‘When I’m done here.’
‘When will that be?’
She checked the wall clock. ‘I have a blood pressure check that was due at eleven.’
‘It’s now eleven forty-five.’
‘I am aware of the time, Dr Thompson.’ Trying to soften her voice so as not to alarm her patients, she turned away from them. ‘After that I have a diabetes check and a wound dressing. I’m working as fast as I can.’
His nod was sharp. ‘When you’re free then. Whenever that’s likely to be.’
‘Yes. Of course.’ She felt as if she was supposed to snap her heels together and salute. Sir! Which was exactly what she’d been trying to leave behind. Oh, what had happened to the friendly community practice she’d been promised? Still, she’d only committed for a month to see whether she liked the locum life or whether she needed to retreat to the comfort of home. At this rate, the month could easily turn into a matter of days.
But then, Rose wasn’t a quitter.
She was also not afraid to stand up for herself.
For the next hour she worked hard and efficiently and caught up without rushing her patients. But unfortunately that meant all too soon she had to go and face Joe and no doubt the reprimand he’d been planning.
She found him in his clinic room. In contrast to his lovely home, this space was clinical, bare, apart from a copy of a photo in his house: him, Katy and that pretty woman she assumed was Katy’s mum.
It was entirely his space. Masculine. She ignored the little skip in her heart as she walked into his room and breathed in his scent. Saw the rash of blond hair, strong hands typing hard on the computer. And, for a brief moment, she wondered how they’d feel around her waist, tugging her towards him. Or on her face.
Ridiculous. Her cheeks heated at the thought. This fresh north country air was making her feel strange. Altitude sickness? Did that make you a little crazy? Hormonal? She made a mental note to look it up later in one of her medical books. She swallowed. ‘Er… You wanted to see me?’
‘Rose.’ He swivelled to face her. ‘About earlier—’
‘I know, I know. It was a health and safety issue. The floor was wet—there should have been a sign up.’ She sighed. She’d learnt over the years that it was better to hold her hands up and accept there could be room for improvement—that usually took the wind out of the other person’s sails. She’d so wanted to give a good impression and it was all going wrong. ‘Things have been off all morning.’
His eyebrows rose above those bluest of blue eyes. ‘Usually, Maxine—’
‘Well, she isn’t here and I think everyone’s in a bad mood because of it. I get that, I really do.’ Rose softened her voice. Of course he knew Maxine wasn’t here and how wonderful she was. He was related to her. ‘So, we’re all trying to do our best out there. Beth’s a great stand-in receptionist and she worked hard to get the system up and running as soon as possible but—’
His hand went up. ‘Please, stop. Stop talking.’
‘Oh.’ She clamped her mouth shut, well aware she had a habit of talking rapid-fire when she was embarrassed. ‘Sorry.’
‘I was going to say, usually Maxine has a welcome lunch for our new staff…but I’ve been too snowed under to organise it today and now it’s almost time for the afternoon clinic to start. Can we do it tomorrow?’
‘Oh.’ No telling-off. No stern words. Now it was her turn to have the wind taken out of her sails. He’d wanted to make her welcome. Heat radiated from her, she was sure. ‘I have sandwiches; it’s fine.’
‘No, it isn’t. We try to make our new staff feel at home and I know that hasn’t happened for you. And I was also going to ask you how it’s all going. I think I caught you at a bad moment earlier?’
‘Yes. I don’t usually try to redecorate treatment rooms with plaster-of-Paris…or drum up extra work by injuring patients’ relatives—that’s a first, even for me.’ That drew a very small smile from him. Go on. A little more—smiling is easy. It won’t break your face. ‘I’m getting to know the ropes but I haven’t got a locker or a computer log-on; I’m still using Maxine’s.’
‘Okay. My fault. Human resources is under my jurisdiction. We share the partner load—Dr Jenny, Dr Alex and I—it’s easier if we all take responsibility for one or two things each. So, I’ll sort you out a locker and a log-on. Maxine would usually do it, but leave it with me. I’ll work it out. I’ll just have to get the system to talk to me.’ His mouth twitched up. ‘Judging by this morning’s performance, it could be interesting.’
What was interesting was his smile. Such a rarity, but a thing of beauty when it happened. It made his whole face brighter, smoothing away those shadows under his eyes and lightening the blue pupils to a mesmerising colour, like the sky that first day at the top of the mountain. Dazzling. Clear. Endless.
She dragged her gaze from his, all the better to concentrate. ‘Do computer glitches happen a lot?’
He shook his head. ‘Not for a long time.’
‘So maybe it’s just me then. I’ve jinxed the place, clearly.’ She laughed; it could be true. ‘First Maxine getting sick, then the computers going down and then the water on the floor.’
He laughed too. A deep rumble that had just the faintest smidgeon of joy in it… Then it was gone and she wondered whether she’d imagined it. But he shook his head. ‘I don’t believe in jinxes.’
‘Then perhaps it’s pure bad luck, not a jinx.’
‘I don’t believe in luck either. You do things and they have consequences. Cause and effect.’
‘What about magic, make-believe, romance, coincidence? I like to think things happen for a reason.’ How else could she explain what had happened to her seven years ago? Getting sick had been overwhelming and near fatal, but it had opened her eyes to how shallow her life had been. That experience had been life-changing in so many ways, she refused to believe it was just something dull like simple maths: one plus one equals two.
‘I’m a doctor, Rose. We do science, not romance.’ Joe shook his head again. ‘And fate? No. I don’t believe in that either.’