Summer of Love

by Marie Ferrarella

  ‘I was just taking a breather,’ he replied, hoping he sounded calmer than he felt.

  He had managed to stay out of her way for the remainder of the weekend. It had been almost midnight when he’d got back to the house and she’d been in bed. There’d been no sign of her when he’d got up that morning either, although he hadn’t lingered. He had skipped breakfast and come straight to the surgery, making do with a cup of coffee to tide him over. If he’d had his way he would have avoided seeing her for the rest of the day too, but obviously that wasn’t to be. Now all he could hope was that the decision he’d made yesterday to behave calmly and professionally around her for the next couple of weeks would see him through.

  ‘It has been busy,’ she agreed evenly. Closing the door, she came over to his desk and handed him a file. ‘Would you mind taking a look at this for me? I’m afraid it’s got me stumped.’

  ‘Of course.’ Daniel took the file and quickly read through the patient’s notes. His brows rose when he noted how many times the man had visited the surgery in the past two months. ‘Alistair Grant is either an extremely sick man or he’s a complete hypochondriac. You could fill a textbook with the variety of symptoms he’s presented with recently.’

  ‘Exactly.’ She leant across the desk and selected a sheet from the file. ‘Uncle Jim sent him for a whole battery of tests last month and they all came back clear.’

  ‘Hmm.’ Daniel placed the file on the desk, trying to ignore the leap his heart gave when her hand brushed his as she passed him the test results. Ruthlessly, he battened it down, refusing to allow himself even the tiniest leeway. He was going to treat Emma as a colleague from now on, even if it killed him!

  ‘Does he seem genuine to you?’ he asked, sticking determinedly to the matter under discussion.

  ‘It’s hard to say.’ She grimaced. ‘I only met him today so I don’t have any real idea of what he’s like as a person.’

  ‘So he hasn’t lived in Avondale all that long?’

  ‘No. Apparently he moved here three months ago.’

  ‘And almost immediately began visiting the surgery on a regular basis.’ Daniel frowned as he picked up the patient’s file again and flicked through it. ‘How come we don’t have any notes from his last GP?’

  ‘He’s been working abroad ever since he left university. He told me that he assumed his notes would be still at the practice his parents use but they’ve been unable to find them. Ruth has contacted the university to see if they were transferred to their medical centre but so far she’s not heard back from them.’

  ‘That’s a shame. It would have been helpful to see if he had a history of visiting his GP on a frequent basis.’

  ‘It would. To be honest, it’s not a situation I’ve come across before. Most people who are undergoing surgery have been seen by several doctors before they reach us. That tends to weed out any malingerers.’

  ‘Would it help if I had a word with him?’ Daniel offered. ‘I’m not saying I’ll be able to tell if he’s making it up, but it might deter him if he knows we’re dubious about the claims he’s been making.’

  ‘Would you mind? I’d hate to make any hasty assumptions about his credibility and overlook something serious.’

  Daniel heard the relief in her voice and immediately stood up. He would do anything to help her, he thought as he followed her to the door. He sighed as they walked along the corridor together. If only he’d thought about that on Saturday night. Making love with Emma may have been wonderful, but it had caused problems for him if not for her. She might be able to chalk it up to experience but he certainly couldn’t. Just for a second his head reeled as he recalled how sweetly responsive she had been when he’d held her in his arms before he forced the thought to the deepest, darkest reaches of his mind. He couldn’t afford to think about that or he wouldn’t be able to function!

  Alistair Grant was sitting in the chair exactly where Emma had left him. A thin young man in his late twenties with sandy-coloured hair and a pale complexion, he cut a rather pathetic figure. Emma smiled at him as she went into the room.

  ‘I’m sorry to have left you sitting here, Alistair. This is Dr Kennedy. He would like to have a word with you to see if he can get to the root of your problems.’

  ‘I hope somebody can.’ Alistair stood up to shake hands. He sat down heavily again as though he didn’t have the strength to remain on his feet for very long. Propping himself against the edge of the desk, Daniel regarded him thoughtfully.

  ‘You seem to have been through the mill recently, Alistair. I’ve read your notes and you’ve had a lot of distressing symptoms in the last few months, it appears.’

  Emma took her seat behind the desk, leaving it up to Daniel to take the lead. She had to admit that the case had her stumped and she would value his help. She listened attentively while he asked Alistair how his health had been in general over the past year.

  ‘I was fine right up until a few months ago,’ Alistair assured them. ‘I never had anything wrong with me before that apart from the odd cold.’

  ‘Dr Roberts told me that you’ve been working abroad. Were you ill while you were there or did it all kick off when you came back to England?’

  ‘When I moved to Avondale, actually. I’d only been here a couple of weeks when I started feeling really rough—tired and as though I had no energy. Then I started with all these aches and pains, the headaches, etcetera.’

  He sounded really despondent and Emma frowned. If he was making it up then he was extremely convincing. By the time Daniel finished talking to him, she could tell that he was as perplexed as she was.

  ‘I have to admit that it’s got me baffled, Alistair. I know you’ve had a whole range of tests done, but I’d like to send you for more blood tests and see what they show up. Where were you working when you were abroad, by the way?’

  ‘South Africa was the last place but I’ve been all over in the past few years—India, China, various parts of Africa. I’m a civil engineer so I go wherever the job takes me.’

  ‘Are you working here at the moment?’ Emma put in.

  ‘Yes. I’m overseeing the building of a new wind farm. We’re due to start in a couple of weeks’ time so I’ve been doing a lot of the ground work beforehand.’

  ‘I imagine there was opposition to building a wind farm around here,’ Daniel suggested.

  Alistair sighed. ‘There was. It’s taken years to get the go-ahead and there’s a lot of folk who still aren’t happy about it. One of the local farmers in particular has caused us a great deal of trouble—dumping loads of manure and old oil drums in the middle of the track to block our access, that sort of thing. Last week he even warned some of the men off with a shotgun. When we called the police, he claimed it was all a misunderstanding and that he was out shooting rabbits.’

  ‘It can’t be easy, dealing with that kind of behaviour!’ Emma exclaimed.

  ‘It isn’t, although it wouldn’t be so bad if I felt a bit more up to it,’ Alistair stated ruefully.

  ‘Well, let’s hope we can get to the bottom of this as soon as possible,’ Daniel said encouragingly. ‘Bearing in mind where you’ve been working recently, I’d like you screened for some of the more obscure tropical diseases as well. It could be that you’ve picked something up overseas and that’s what’s causing the problem. We’ll arrange for a blood sample to be sent to the School of Tropical Medicine in Liverpool and see if they can come up with any answers.’

  Emma printed out a form for bloods to be taken at the hospital, adding a request for samples to be sent straight to Liverpool. She handed the form to Alistair who thanked her rather wearily and left. She frowned as the door closed behind him. ‘I don’t think he’s making it up, do you?’

  ‘No. It didn’t seem like it to me either,’ Daniel agreed. ‘Let’s hope something shows up in the next lot of tests because it’s very puzzling.’

  ‘Fingers crossed.’ She reached for the button to buzz through her next patient, not want
ing to appear as though she was keen to detain him. However, he was way ahead of her.

  ‘Let me know when the test results come back, will you?’ he asked as he strode to the door.

  ‘Of course.’

  Emma summoned a smile but it was galling to know how eager he was to avoid spending any time with her. He had stayed away from the house all day on Sunday, only returning when he’d been sure that she would be in bed. She had heard his car turn into the drive well after midnight and had hurriedly switched off her lamp, afraid that he would think she was waiting up for him.

  It was obvious that Daniel was keen to avoid a repeat of what had happened on Saturday night. She was too but for a different reason. She was afraid of getting emotionally involved but that wasn’t something he would worry about. Daniel simply didn’t want any complications in his life. Maybe he had told her that she was more beautiful than any woman he had ever known but talk was cheap: actions said far more. And he had proved beyond any doubt that he didn’t care a jot about her.

  CHAPTER TEN

  THE week wore on and Daniel found to his dismay that he couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened between him and Emma. It wasn’t so bad while he was working, he could focus on his patients then. However, when he was on his own, that was when the real problem started.

  It was as though Emma had invaded his mind and every time he relaxed his guard, thoughts of her popped into his head. He kept remembering in glorious detail how it had felt when they’d made love and it was driving him mad. He longed to tell her how he felt yet he knew he couldn’t do it. How could he confess that making love to her had touched his heart and his soul when it was clear that she didn’t feel the same way?

  In an effort to retain his sanity he spent an increasing amount of time away from the house. Fortunately the weather had improved and with the nights getting lighter, he was able to go walking after evening surgery ended. He became quite familiar with the various footpaths surrounding the town, although he was careful not to stray too far afield. It was while he was out one evening that he came across the search and rescue team tending an injured walker. When Mike Harding asked him if he would take a look at the woman’s ankle, Daniel readily agreed.

  ‘It looks to me very much like a Pott’s fracture,’ he declared after he’d examined her. He glanced at Mike and grimaced. ‘When she fell, she broke her fibula and either broke the tibia as well or tore the ligaments, resulting in a dislocation of the ankle. It’s a nasty injury.’

  ‘Can you help us put a splint on it, Doc?’ Mike asked. ‘We certainly don’t want to cause any more damage.’

  ‘Of course.’ Daniel gave the woman some Entonox™ to help with the pain then helped Mike fit an inflatable splint to support her ankle. He accompanied the team back to their Land Rover, shaking his head when Mike thanked him profusely. ‘I was happy to help.’

  ‘I still appreciate what you did, Doc. That’s twice in a very short time that we’ve been glad of your services. How’s that young lad doing, by the way? Have you heard?’

  ‘Do you mean Jack? He’s been moved from Intensive Care and by all accounts is making an excellent recovery.’

  ‘Which he probably wouldn’t be doing if you hadn’t been on hand to help him.’ Mike shook his head when Daniel demurred. ‘No, credit where it’s due, Doc. You saved that kid’s life and that’s a fact. It’s just a shame that you aren’t going to be here long term. We could do with someone like you to call on, especially as we’re coming up to our busiest time of the year. I don’t suppose you’d consider moving here permanently, would you?’

  ‘Nice idea, although I’m not sure my colleagues in London would appreciate me jumping ship,’ Daniel told him with a laugh to disguise how touched he felt by the request.

  ‘Pity. You’ve fitted in really well around here. Everyone’s said so. And they don’t always take kindly to outsiders, believe me.’

  Mike sketched him a wave and drove off. Daniel made his way back to the house, thinking about what the other man had said. Despite the problems with Emma, he had enjoyed working in the town far more than he had expected. Not only had he enjoyed being part of such a close-knit community, he had dealt with a far wider variety of cases than he normally would have seen. With the nearest hospital being so far away, the surgery was the first port of call in an emergency and it had been good to test his skills.

  He knew that if circumstances had been different, he would have been tempted to ask Jim Haynes if he was still interested in taking on a partner. There was certainly sufficient work for a second doctor; in fact, he couldn’t imagine how Jim was going to cope on his own when he returned to work. However, he also knew how Emma would feel about the idea. He would be the last person she would want working here.

  It was a dispiriting thought. Knowing how Emma felt about him hurt, even though he refused to examine the reasons why it was so painful. He knew that she would take care to ensure their paths never crossed in the future and it was hard to accept that once she left, he would never see her again. Even though he knew it was for the best, he was going to miss her.

  Emma found it difficult to put what had happened between her and Daniel behind her. The fact that he never once alluded to it should have helped but it didn’t. She found it deeply hurtful that he’d been able to dismiss the fact that they had slept together.

  In an effort to make the remainder of her stay in Avondale bearable, she made a point of keeping out of his way outside working hours. It wasn’t difficult. Daniel had taken to going for a walk after evening surgery finished, which meant he was rarely at home. She did wonder if he was avoiding her too but decided she was being fanciful. Daniel had demonstrated very clearly that he had very few feelings for her, so why would he feel that he needed to keep out of her way?

  Another week passed and the surgery was busier than ever. There was a steady influx of tourists arriving in the area and they added to the number of people wanting to be seen. Emma couldn’t help wondering how her uncle was going to cope when he returned to work. Although he was making excellent progress, according to her aunt, running a busy practice with all that it entailed was very different from convalescing. She couldn’t bear to think that Uncle Jim might put his health at risk out of a sense of duty and decided to speak to Daniel about it. She managed to catch him on his way out to some house calls on Friday lunchtime.

  ‘Have you got a minute?’

  ‘Yes, of course. What’s up? Problems?’

  He put his case on the desk and turned to face her. Emma felt her heart give a little jolt and swallowed. The weather had been exceptionally warm that day and he’d shed his jacket and rolled up his shirtsleeves. The pale blue cotton set off his olive-toned skin and provided the perfect foil for his dark brown hair. He looked big and vital and so gloriously male that she was suddenly aware of her own femininity in a way she hadn’t been since the night they had made love.

  The thought wasn’t the least bit welcome. She hurriedly drove it from her mind and concentrated on what she’d come to say. ‘I’ve been thinking about what’s going to happen when Uncle Jim comes back to work.’

  ‘You mean how he’s going to manage on his own?’ Daniel said immediately, and she looked at him in surprise.

  ‘Yes. How did you know that’s what I meant?’

  ‘Because I’ve been thinking about it too.’ He gave her a tight smile. ‘It doesn’t take a genius to see that he’s going to be pushed to keep up with the workload here. Quite frankly, it’s way too much for one person.’

  ‘It is. He needs someone to help him, ideally another partner, but I can’t see that happening, can you?’

  ‘It could take time to find the right person,’ Daniel said slowly. ‘And it isn’t something we can organise without your uncle’s consent.’

  ‘No, it isn’t. And if Uncle Jim is as choosy this time round as he was the last time he advertised, it could take for ever.’ She sighed. ‘It’s hard to know what to do, isn’t it?’

&
nbsp; ‘How about a locum?’ Daniel suggested.

  ‘Do you think we’d find anyone willing to work here, though?’

  ‘I can’t see why not. Oh, I know Avondale isn’t exactly a mecca for bright lights and a wild social life, but neither is it the back of beyond. And at this time of the year—when the weather is fine—it might be an attractive proposition for someone.’

  ‘It’s worth a try,’ she said slowly. ‘I don’t suppose you know any reliable agencies who provide locum cover? It’s not something I’ve had to deal with.’

  ‘I’ll get onto our practice manager and ask her for some phone numbers,’ Daniel assured her. ‘We often need locum cover so she keeps a list of agencies.’

  ‘That would be great. Thank you. Should we tell Uncle Jim what we’re planning when he phones?’

  ‘Oh, yes, I think so, don’t you?’ He shrugged. ‘If I were in his shoes, I’d expect to be kept up to date with what was going on here.’

  ‘I only hope he doesn’t object,’ Emma said anxiously. ‘You know how touchy he can be about his patients, wants to be sure they receive first-class care, et cetera.’

  ‘Leave it to me. I’m sure I can convince him it will be in everyone’s best interests if he has help, if only during the summer months.’

  ‘That’s probably the best way to sell the idea to him,’ Emma agreed. ‘Even Uncle Jim will have to admit that it’s hard to cope when there are so many visitors in the area.’

  ‘And once he’s admitted that, it should be easier to make him see that he needs help at other times of the year as well.’

  ‘Take it one step at a time, you mean?’ she said, frowning as she considered the idea and realised that it had a lot of merit.

  ‘Yes.’ Daniel sighed. ‘Trying to push your uncle into admitting that he isn’t up to running the practice on his own any longer will only make him dig in his heels, so we’ll take things slowly, let him discover for himself that he needs help.’