‘Sorry?’
‘You said you had to go.’
She opened her mouth to argue. Had he just accused her of running off? But instead of challenging him, she threw him a very disparaging look, and as she marched off, Jasmine knew she didn’t need cold tea bags on her eyes—she was through crying.
Her mum was right—it was completely hereditary.
The Masters women had terrible taste in men!
Still, even if she would have liked to avoid him it was impossible at work. Everywhere she went she seemed to be landed with him, but she refused to let him get to her, refused to give him the satisfaction that she was running off.
But worse than the department being busy was the times it was quiet and though she had no idea who knew what, she nearly bit on her gums when Lisa gave her a very sweet smile.
‘Could you give Jed a hand, please?’ Lisa said, even though there were five other nurses sitting around. ‘He’s stitching a hand and she won’t stay still on the trolley.’
‘Her name’s Ethel,’ Lisa added. ‘You’ll get to know her soon, she’s one of our regulars.’
‘Sure.’
She painted on a smile and walked into Theatre.
‘Hi, there, Ethel, I’m Jasmine.’
‘Who?’
She was an angry old thing, fuelled on sherry and conspiracy theories, and she made Jasmine laugh.
‘Why would they knock the hospital down?’ Jasmine asked patiently, when Ethel told her the plans were already in and had been approved by the council.
‘Prime real estate,’ Ethel said. ‘Imagine how many townhouses they could put up here.’
‘Have you been talking to my mum?’ Jasmine grinned.
‘All money, isn’t it?’ Ethel grumbled for a while and then spoke about her children, who, from the age of Ethel, must be in their sixties at least. ‘They’re just waiting for me to go,’ Ethel said bitterly. ‘Worried I’m spending their inheritance.’ She peered at Jasmine. ‘Have you got children?’ she asked.
‘None,’ Jasmine happily lied.
‘Husband?’
‘Nope.’
‘Good for you,’ Ethel said. ‘Dating?’
‘Nope.’
‘Quite right, too.’ Ethel said. ‘They’re no good, the lot of them.’ And she ranted for a few minutes about her late husband. ‘They’re all liars and cheats and if they’re not now then they’re just waiting to be. Nasty, the lot of them—except for the lovely doctor here.’
She caught Jed’s eye and they actually managed a slightly wry smile.
‘No, we’re all horrible, Ethel,’ Jed said. ‘You’re quite right not to listen to their sorry excuses.’
And if he’d looked up then he’d have seen Jasmine poke her tongue out.
‘How’s your mum?’ Jed asked, when Ethel gave in and started snoring.
‘Doing well,’ Jasmine said. ‘She should be home on Monday.’
‘How are you?’
‘Good,’ Jasmine said, and hopped off the stool. ‘It looks like she’s sleeping. Just call out if you need a hand.’
‘Sure,’ Jed said, and carried on stitching as Jasmine went to wash her hands.
She knew he was just trying to irritate her as he started humming, knew he was just trying to prove he was completely unbothered working alongside her.
And then she realised what he was humming.
A little song that was familiar, a little song about a little runaway, and when he looked up at her furious face he had the audacity to laugh.
‘You’d better go,’ Jed said. ‘It sounds busy out there.’
There were maybe five patients it the department.
‘Or do you need to pop up to visit your mum?’
He teased her with every excuse she had ever made over the last couple of days whenever he had tried to talk to her.
‘Or is it time to pick up Simon?’
And then he got back to humming his song.
‘I’m not avoiding you or running away.’
‘Good,’ Jed said. ‘Then I’ll be over about eight.’
‘I don’t want to argue.’
As soon as she opened the door to him, Jasmine said it. ‘I don’t want raised voices …’
‘I didn’t come here for that,’ Jed said. ‘And I wouldn’t do that to Simon and I certainly wouldn’t do that to you.’ He saw her frown of confusion as she let him in. ‘You are right, though—I didn’t fight fair.’ He said it the moment he was inside. ‘And I’m not proud of that. I didn’t give you a chance to explain. I didn’t give us a chance.’
He took a seat. ‘And I get it that there were things that you couldn’t talk about easily. I’ve thought about it a lot and I can see how impossible it was for you—after all, if you and Penny had agreed not to tell anyone …’ He looked up at her. ‘You could have told me—I would never have let on.’
‘Perhaps not,’ Jasmine said, ‘but when I thought you two might have been seeing each other …’ She looked at him. ‘Penny insists nothing ever happened.’
‘It didn’t.’
‘Apparently Greg walked in on you two once?’ She wanted to believe her sister, but deep down she was still worried that it was Penny protecting her all over again.
‘Greg walked in on us?’ Jed gave a confused shake of his head, raked his fingers through his hair and pulled on it for a moment, then he gave a small smile as realisation hit. ‘We had words once.’
‘Words.’
‘A lot of words. It was a couple of months ago,’ Jed said, ‘before you were around. In fact …’ he frowned in recall, ‘… it was the same day as your interview. We had a busy afternoon and there was a multi-trauma that I was dealing with and Penny just marched in and tried to take over.’
‘I can imagine.’ Jasmine gave a tight smile.
‘And then she questioned an investigation I was running—Mr Dean was there and I think she was trying to …’ he shrugged, ‘… score points, I guess. I don’t do that.’ Jasmine knew already that he didn’t. ‘And I don’t mind being questioned if it’s merited, but, as I told Penny, she’s never to question me like that in front of a patient again or try and take over unless she thinks I’m putting a patient at risk.’ Jed looked up at her. ‘Which I certainly wasn’t and I told her that.’
‘Oh!’
‘And I asked her to explain her thought process, her rationale behind questioning me,’ Jed said. ‘Which Penny didn’t take to too well.’
‘She wouldn’t.’
‘Your sister’s lousy at confrontation, too.’ Jed smiled. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘Oh, she is,’ Jed assured her. ‘She only likes confrontation when it’s on her terms. You should remember that next time she starts.’
And Jasmine found she was smiling.
‘Greg walked in on us, actually, we were in the IV room, and, yes, I guess