Joanna Neil - A Consultant Beyond Compare

‘Oh, I…uh…Thank you.’ Katie tried to accept it with good grace. ‘It must have dropped out of my bag when I was looking for my phone. I thought I had put everything back.’ He was wrong-footing her at every turn, and she found herself wishing for all the world that she could rewind the day and start over again. Maybe she would do things differently, given the chance.

She flicked through the pages of the small notebook. ‘I’m so glad that you brought this back to me. I would have been lost without it.’

‘You’re welcome.’ He nodded to Jessica and then turned, as though he was getting ready to leave, causing Jessica to raise her brows behind his back and gesticulate wildly to Katie as though she was wrong to let him escape. When Katie didn’t react, Jessica shook her head, and obviously thought she was a hopeless case.

Katie frowned. Then, just in time, she recovered herself and said quickly, ‘Do you have to go right now? I think Jess would be glad of the chance to talk to you for a while, and there’s some tea in the pot. You could help yourself to some supper, too, if you like. There’s plenty left.’ She drifted a hand over the tabletop. ‘I made too much pizza, and there’s plenty of salad, if you would like some. Please, sit down and help yourself. I expect you’ve been too busy these last few hours to think about food.’

He seemed to hesitate, but only for a moment. ‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘I must say it’s been a while since I’ve eaten, and this does look good.’ He pulled out a chair and sat down, then frowned at the triangular segments of the pizza. ‘Did you really make this yourself?’

Did he have to doubt everything about her? Katie bit back a withering retort and managed to send him a sweet smile instead. ‘Yes, I did. It isn’t all that difficult, you know.’

He bit off a corner section, savouring the combined flavours of melted cheese, tomato and herbs, and gave her a quizzical look in return. Perhaps he had decided to ignore the underlying thread of sarcasm in her voice, because he concentrated instead on finishing off his food while parrying questions from Jessica.

He circumvented the more personal queries, but answered others. She wanted to know what exactly he did at the hospital, and what his meeting would have been about if he had managed to get to it in time.

‘I’m in charge of the A and E department at South Lake,’ he told her. ‘I started off there as a registrar, but now I’ve moved up the ladder and I’m a consultant. I’d like to progress even further, and perhaps take charge of a bigger unit, but that all depends on how I get on in this post. I have to go to lots of meetings so that I can keep in touch with what’s going on in other hospitals in the area.’

Jessica was enthralled and, considering that she had been his reluctant detainee earlier, that said something about the man’s charisma.

Katie poured tea and handed him a cup. ‘How is the man we found at the side of the road doing? Have they managed to stabilise his condition?’ She chose her words carefully, because she didn’t want to upset Jessica in any way, and perhaps he realised that, as he answered in a fairly guarded manner.

‘When I left, they were taking him along to Intensive Care. They found the source of his internal injuries and he went to Theatre to have that put right. It’s going to be a question of time now more than anything. Time for him to heal, and for the swelling around his brain to ease.’

Katie’s gaze was troubled. It didn’t sound too good, but at least she felt that they had done all they could for the man. ‘I dread to think what would have happened if we had just driven past him. It’s all because of Jessica that we stopped to investigate in the first place.’

He nodded. ‘You did really well,’ he said, giving the young girl an encouraging smile. It was a smile that lit up his face and gave Katie a glimpse of features that she had not noticed before now. His mouth was perfectly formed, she saw, his teeth were straight and gleaming like pearls, and his eyes were pure heaven, filled with dancing lights that would have sparked any woman’s dreams to flame.

She brought herself back to reality with a jerk. What was she thinking? How could she allow herself to even contemplate falling for any man, let alone this one? He was nothing if not sceptical of her, and here she was, slipping into a well of elusive imaginings about him. What was wrong with her? Emotions, especially those between men and women, from her experience, were fragile things, as light and insubstantial as mist. Trust in them and you could be hurt. She had to get a grip.

‘I have to go,’ he said, wiping his fingers on a paper serviette and unfolding himself from his chair. ‘It’s getting late and there’s still a lot I have to do before morning.’ He said goodbye to Jessica, who beamed him a smile in return.

‘I’ll see you out,’ Katie murmured. Her pulses were pounding and she had a fight on her hands to bring them under control. This was madness. She didn’t even like the man. She didn’t know him, for heaven’s sake, so why on earth was she getting herself into a fever over him?

‘Thanks for the supper. It was delicious, and exactly what I needed.’

‘It was the least I could do. Thank you for returning my notebook.’

They walked out into the hallway and he stopped at the door and looked directly into her eyes. ‘Will you reconsider coming to work with me?’

She shook her head. ‘No…I’m sorry, but I can’t. I need a break from medicine. It’s too frantic, too harrowing. I don’t want to go there.’

He looked at her oddly. ‘I think you’re making a big mistake. Whatever it was that made you doubt yourself, you need to get back in there. Face up to your demons and stop them from getting the upper hand.’

‘I don’t have any demons. I just need a change.’ What did he know about it? Facing up to the traumas of the past was much easier said than done, wasn’t it? She saw him to the door. ‘Goodbye, Alex,’ she murmured.

‘Goodbye?’ He gave her a slight smile. ‘We’ll see.’ He inclined his head to her and then went out of the door, walking briskly along the path to where he had parked his car at the roadside.

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