‘Thank you, Doctor.’ Mr Goodman headed off.
Brooke headed over to the doctors’ station to transfer her notes to the computer. Her friend Kelly was there too.
‘Welcome back! Finally got here, then?’
‘Yeah... Hey, why didn’t you tell me that our new boss was Jen’s husband?’
Kelly smiled. ‘Because I knew how guilty you felt about not calling in on him, and I thought that if you knew he was going to be your boss then you would just fret for weeks about starting work and today was going to be hard enough for you! How is Morgan? Did she settle into the crèche okay?’
‘She screamed her head off, which caused me to get upset, and that allowed our kind new Major to take great pleasure in letting me know I’d sprung a leak.’ She patted her chest and raised an eyebrow at her friend.
Kelly laughed. ‘Pads are in now, though, right?’
Brooke smiled. ‘Pads are most definitely in. They might be the most unsexy thing a woman ever has to wear, but they don’t half make your boobs look good.’
She pushed out her chest to emphasise their impressive size to her friend, unaware that at that moment Matt had come up right behind her.
He cleared his throat and Brooke instantly hunched over and spun in her chair to smile at him, cheeks flaming. ‘Hi.’
There was a ghost of a smile on his face. ‘How’s everything going, Dr Bailey?’
‘Erm...yeah...good, I think.’
She could hear Kelly sniggering behind her and made a mental note to kick her under the table later. How many more times would she get to embarrass herself in front of him? So far she’d cried, leaked milk everywhere, worn poo-stained clothes and thrust her breasts out on show like an amateur glamour model. What must he think of her?
‘How are things with you?’ she asked awkwardly, trying to fill the silence.
He smiled, and she briefly wondered why he didn’t do that more often. It transformed his face completely. He was a good-looking guy, but holding that stern, stoic I-am-not-amused pose did nothing for him. But smiling? Genuinely smiling? He could compete with the best of those heartthrobs stuck on Jen’s locker.
‘I’m good, thank you.’
‘That’s great.’ She smiled back, wondering what to say, what to do.
Why was this so awkward? She didn’t normally have difficulty getting on with colleagues or superiors. Why was talking to him so different?
In her scrubs pocket, her phone trilled. Not wanting to check her phone with him standing there, she continued to grin at him, waiting for him to say or do something.
‘Kelly, I’d like a quick word, if I may, when you’re free?’
Kelly nodded. ‘I’ll be five minutes.’
‘I’ll be in my office.’ And Matt turned on a dime and headed off.
Brooke let out a breath she hadn’t been aware she was holding. Then she turned to Kelly. ‘Wow. Way to go, Brooke. How come he calls you by your first name but calls me Dr Bailey?’
Kelly grinned. ‘Probably because of my stellar good looks and beauty and because he wants to get in my pants.’
Brooke gaped. ‘What?’
Her friend laughed. ‘I’m kidding! We’ve been working together for weeks now—he knows me more than you. This is your first day. He’s just being polite. He hasn’t met you properly over a packet of chocolate biscuits and a good mug of tea in the staff room yet.’
‘And he has you?’
In her mind she could still see him striding away. Tall. Straight-backed. Determined. A man on a mission. He didn’t seem the type to bond over a chocolate biscuit. Not with normal civilians, anyway. She wondered what he was like with his patients. Warm and fuzzy?
I don’t think so.
‘Absolutely. You don’t know the man until you’ve shared your deep and darkest secrets over a good brew.’
She sighed. ‘He doesn’t seem the type to do that. He seems quite standoffish to me. At least on duty, anyway.’
‘It’s hard for him.’
Brooke looked at her friend sharply. ‘It’s hard for us all.’
‘He’s stepped into his wife’s shoes. Taken her post. And he knows that we all knew her, that we all lost her, and most of all I think he’s frightened of you.’
‘Me? Why?’
‘You were her best friend. Everyone here knows how close you two got. And when Jen did get a call from him, from the deepest darkest jungle that Costa Rica could offer, and got to tell him about her day...she talked about you.’
‘She did?’
‘Of course she did. Jen loved you very much. She loved us all, but you the most. And he knows that of all the people in the world, you had a special place in his wife’s heart. Apart from him, you were the one who comforted her, who gave her a soft place to fall when he could not. Who looked after her as she carried his child.’ Kelly smiled. ‘You’re different to the rest of us mere mortals. He doesn’t know how to be with you yet.’
‘He doesn’t have to be afraid of me. We both loved her.’ All the sweet things Kelly had said had caused a lump to appear in her throat.
‘He’ll call you, Brooke. When he’s ready.’
‘He’s keeping me at a distance on purpose?’
Kelly nodded, then grinned. ‘Perhaps he needs to.’
Brooke gave her friend a questioning look. She was being ridiculous! She was no threat to anyone. Never had been, never would be. Men didn’t need to worry about her. They never had. Not her father, not Eric, not anyone.
Major Matt Galloway was the least likely man she would want to get too close to. He was abrupt and controlling and...and...
And she’d sworn never to have another man control her ever again. Not after the way Eric had become. That had been bad.
‘Do you need to wear make-up?’
‘Why have you put on perfume?’
‘I really don’t think you should wear that dress.’
‘Cover up more.’
‘Were you flirting with that guy?’
She shuddered just thinking about him.
No. Brooke was never going to get involved with another man again. They were too much trouble. Look at Eric! Look at her father! Every man there had ever been in her life had let her down. Walked away when she needed them the most.
It had made her self-sufficient. Taught her that she could stand on her own two feet. Getting pregnant with Morgan and becoming a single mother had taught her that she could do anything, but most of all it had shown her that she didn’t need anyone else.
And most definitely—most importantly—she knew that she did not need, or want, the approval or attention of her new boss Major Matt Galloway.
‘Well, he has nothing to fear from me. My heart most definitely has a “Do Not Enter” sign.’
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