‘Dr Cargill,’ he said formally. ‘Thanks for doing overtime.’
‘That’s OK,’ she said.
A beat of silence ticked past.
‘Was there something else?’ he asked.
‘I’m sorry I didn’t make it to the drinks thing,’ she said. ‘I hope you didn’t think I snubbed…everyone?’
‘I was only there for a couple of minutes myself.’
‘Oh…’ Her expression faltered for a moment. ‘Well, I got held up with a patient.’
‘Taking down their family tree, were we?’ he asked.
Her eyes blinked and then hardened like frost. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I diagnosed a blood disorder that had gone undetected for several months. I lost count of how many GPs the patient had seen. Not one of them performed a blood screen on her.’
‘It happens.’
She frowned at him. ‘How can it happen? How can someone slip through the cracks like that?’
‘GPs are pushed for time just like everyone else in the medical profession,’ Jake said. ‘The larger medical clinics are problematic because the patient doesn’t always see the same doctor each visit. There’s not much continuity.’
‘Then all the more reason to check and doublecheck,’ she said.
‘Testing every patient for every disease is expensive and time-wasting,’ he said. ‘Diagnostic skills vary between doctors, but mostly they get it right.’
‘Not in this case,’ she said. ‘That young woman’s outcome could be severely compromised.’
‘We can’t save everyone, Dr Cargill,’ he said. ‘There will always be people who slip through the system.’
‘I don’t want to miss anyone,’ she said. ‘It’s our job to diagnose and treat patients, not fob them off with a couple of painkillers.’
‘You can’t CT scan every patient who comes through the door,’ Jake argued. ‘Not on this campus, in any case.’
Her grey eyes challenged his. ‘Are you forbidding me from conducting the tests I deem appropriate?’ she asked.
‘I would hope your diagnostic skills are of a standard such that you don’t require exposing a patient to high levels of radiation in order to confirm your diagnosis.’
‘I’d rather not leave patients’ lives up to gut feeling,’ she said with an insolent look.
‘What do you mean by that?’ he asked.
Her grey eyes flashed at him. ‘You can’t possibly get it right all of the time,’ she said. ‘It’s not a matter of guesswork or intuition. We have to rely on cold, hard science.’
‘The human body isn’t an exact science,’ he said. ‘Patients don’t always give a complete history. Tests can be inconclusive. We need to be able to understand anatomy and physiology in order make a correct diagnosis.’
‘Will that be all, Dr Chandler?’ she asked stiffly.
Jake looked at her mouth and felt a tidal wave of raw, primal need course through him. He couldn’t stop thinking about that kiss. He thought of how soft her mouth was, how sweet it had tasted, how yielding it had been, how tentative and shy her tongue had been and then how brazen and uncontrollable it had become when she had let herself go. He thought of how her slim little body had pressed against his as if she had been tailored exactly to his specifications. He thought of how much he wanted to kiss her again, to move his hands over her creamy skin without the barrier of clothes. He wanted to run his hands through the chestnut silk of her hair, to breathe in its flowery fragrance.
He wanted her.
Had he ever wanted someone more? It was this wretched bet, that was what it was. It had to be. He’d been celibate too long. He wasn’t cut out for the life of a monk. It wasn’t that he was developing an attachment to Kitty. She wasn’t staying in Australia long enough to consider anything more than a casual fling. She would probably go back when her term was over and pick up again with someone from her side of the tracks—not someone with dependent siblings, not to mention the debt and drama that came along for the ride.
If she hooked up with him it would be a package deal. How long before she would get sick of sharing him with his siblings and nephew? His career was demanding enough. Having to spread himself so thinly didn’t make for ideal relationship-building conditions. He wasn’t emotionally available. He didn’t want to be.
He didn’t want to need someone so much he couldn’t function without them. He had seen it first-hand. His mother had been absolutely devastated by the desertion of his father. Jake had lain awake at night listening to her sob her heart out in the bedroom next door. It had taken her years to recover, and even then there had been a part of her that had never fully returned. She had gone from a vibrant and fully engaged mother to a person who trudged through life with resolution rather than joy.
Jake brought his gaze to Kitty’s defiant one. ‘That will be all, Dr Cargill,’ he said. ‘For now.’
‘SO HOW’S it going with your gorgeous boss?’ Julie asked when she phoned Kitty a couple of days later.
‘Next question.’
Julie laughed. ‘That bad, huh?’
Kitty paced the kitchen of her town house. ‘He’s the most maddening man I’ve ever met,’ she said. ‘I thought I was getting to know him a little bit. He’s really nice when he’s not playing the big bad boss. He was really supportive when we had this crazy emergency outside the hospital the other day. And he even told me about his family circumstances over dinner, and—’
‘Dinner?’ Julie said. ‘Hey, back up a bit. You didn’t tell me you had dinner with him. When was that?’
‘It wasn’t a date or anything,’ Kitty said. ‘We ran into each other and it sort of…happened.’
‘What sort of happened?’
Kitty closed her mind to that kiss. ‘Nothing happened,’ she said. ‘We just had a meal at his friend’s restaurant.’
‘And then?’
‘And then he walked me home.’
‘Did he kiss you?’ Julie asked.
‘What makes you think he would’ve kissed me?’ Kitty asked.
‘He’s a man.’
‘I’d rather not talk about it.’
‘So he did kiss you,’ Julie said. ‘How was it?’
‘I told you I’m not going to talk about it.’
‘I bet it was completely different from Charles.’
‘I’m not listening,’ she said in a singsong tone.
‘Are you going to see him again?’ Julie asked.
‘I can hardly avoid it when he works at the same hospital, can I?’
‘I mean see him as in see him.’
Kitty thought of how distant and formal Jake had been the other night at the hospital. It had been a stark turnaround from the intimate exchange they had shared. It was as if he had regretted talking to her about his family circumstances and his brother’s situation in particular. He had lowered his guard just long enough for her to glimpse some of his pain and frustration, but he had snapped the drawbridge back