A wife for the baby doctor

by Josie Metcalfe

  ‘By the way, Josh,’ Caitlin called, catching him looking at Dani again, ‘you haven’t forgotten that your outpatients clinic starts in twenty minutes, have you?’

  He gave her a dismissive wave to send her on her way but doubted that it would have fooled her.

  Of course he’d forgotten about the clinic, and if he was being charitable to himself, he could excuse the fact on the grounds that he’d had that RTA delivery to do, but it wouldn’t be the truth. He didn’t have to look any further than the other side of the room, to the petite woman talking earnestly to a pair of tearful parents, to know where his concentration had gone.

  ‘I’m exhausted!’ Dani groaned aloud as she slumped back onto her bed, too tired even to swing her feet up from the floor.

  The gentle tap at the door was unexpected. She’d barely caught sight of her new neighbours in the last couple of days, let alone had a conversation with them. She certainly hadn’t made any friends who might call round.

  ‘Josh?’ she whispered, and suddenly found the energy to leap off the bed and drag frantic fingers through her hair.

  ‘Coming,’ she called, and the door swung open to reveal several smiling faces.

  ‘You did say “Come in”, didn’t you?’ the tallest of the group asked as they trooped into her room bearing an assortment of plates, glasses and bottles. ‘Well, it doesn’t really matter as we’re in now,’ she continued, making a bee-line for the desk and unceremoniously shoving aside Dani’s meticulously organised study notes to unload her burden.

  ‘Hope you like Thai,’ said another of the invaders with a smile as she held up a couple of carriers. ‘We got a complete selection, so there should be something you like.’

  ‘Yes, but…’ Dani might as well have tried to stop the wind blowing or a river flowing as stop this group from taking over her meagre space. At least the lively invasion had prevented her from feeling more than the first pang that it hadn’t been Josh coming to visit.

  ‘We would have been over on the day you moved in, but we couldn’t get ourselves organised in time, so this is your official welcome party.’

  ‘And it’s a perfect excuse not to do anything this evening other than eat, drink and gossip. Here, grab a plate and get stuck in before the rest of these gannets start eating,’ the tallest of the group instructed. ‘By the way, I’m Lucinda, or Luce for short, and I’ve just started a six-month rotation on Orthopaedics.’ She pulled a face as she brushed unruly dark hair back over her shoulder. ‘There’s far too much hammer and chisel work involved for my taste, apart from the fact I’m working with Neanderthals. Did you know the rumours are all true? Their knuckles do scrape along the ground as they walk!’

  ‘Oh, Luce, you’re dreadful! You’re only miffed because there aren’t any hunky sportsmen around—rugby-playing doctors or injured patients. I’m Magda, by the way,’ said the elegant young woman with the perfect dark bob. ‘I’ve just started on Paeds too, I’ve seen you in Neonatal. Don’t you think Mr Weatherby is just the most gorgeous—?’

  ‘Oh, give it a rest, Magda. You’ll be getting dirty rabbits on your tongue if it hangs out any further. Still, all the while you’re talking you’re not eating, so there’s more for the rest of us,’ said the third member of the group in a heavily accented voice. ‘I’m Tomasz,’ he announced with a cheeky smile and a flash of bright blue eyes between sooty lashes. ‘I’m working in A and E and I’m far hand somer than Mr Icy Weatherman because I’m available.’

  ‘In your dreams!’

  ‘No chance!’ hooted the others.

  ‘And the phrase you should have used is “dust bunnies”, not “dirty rabbits”, instructed the last member of the group in a soft Irish accent. She was at least ten years older than the rest and had the heavily freckled skin that went with her carroty curls. ‘I’m Marion and I’m only included in these feasts on sufferance because I’m not one of you lofty doctor types. I’m only here doing a three-month midwifery refresher. Can I pour you some wine? We only got white, I’m afraid, and it’s nothing marvellous. Strictly cheap and cheerful.’

  ‘Is there any other sort?’ Dani asked with a smile as she accepted a tumbler full of pale straw-coloured liquid. She wasn’t quite sure what to do with it because her other hand was already holding a plate full of steaming aromatic food and there wasn’t a single inch of space free to put anything down.

  Still, she wasn’t complaining. This was the sort of welcome she’d never dreamed of when she’d applied for the job. All too often, progress up through the ranks in a medical career meant uprooting yourself at regular intervals as you went on to a new post to take you up to the next rung, and leaving all your friends behind.

  ‘So, tell us everything,’ Luce said when they were all settled, some sitting on furniture while the unlucky ones sprawled on the floor with food and drinks balanced wherever they could find space.

  ‘Yes,’ agreed Phyl. ‘Who did you have to kill—?’

  ‘Or sleep with?’ Marion interjected with an eyebrow-waggling grin.

  ‘To get a job with Mr Drop-Dead-Gorgeous?’ Luce finished.

  ‘Ah, please!’ Tomasz complained. ‘Dani is as beautiful as a little doll but he is not so good-looking. He is not even tall and dark as I am. He is more like a lion while I…I am the sexy panther.’ His eyebrow-waggling was accompanied with a definite leer, but Dani couldn’t really have cared.

  Was Josh the reason for this show of friendship from her new housemates in the staff accommodation block? If so, they were going to be disappointed. They wouldn’t be getting any information to feed the gossip mill from her, especially not the fact that she and Josh had been brought up as brother and sister.

  ‘I’m sorry to let you all down, but there weren’t any unexplained deaths involved, or any illicit assignations. In fact, Mr Weatherby wasn’t even present at my interview.’

  ‘You mean you actually applied for the job because you wanted it and not because it was in Josh Weatherby’s department?’ Luce didn’t sound as if she could believe such a thing.

  ‘Oh, I applied because the vacancy was in his department—’

  ‘Aha! I knew it!’ Phyl exclaimed. ‘The man is totally irresistible. Those golden eyes make you feel warm right through, and when he smiles…’

  ‘And that was because the department has such a good reputation,’ Dani continued stubbornly, totally ignoring the interruption, ‘and the survival stats for the babies that go through there are the equal of any department in the country—and that’s in spite of the fact that they’re dealing with some of the most fragile preemies you can get.’

  ‘So…you are unimpressed by the older man,’ Tomasz decided, clearly delighted with his deduction. ‘You are more impressed with someone closer to your own age, perhaps…someone more available…someone closer to—’

  ‘Oh, Tomasz, give it a rest,’ Marion said around a mouthful of aromatic rice. ‘You’re going to give us all indigestion and we won’t invite you to join us again.’

  ‘Don’t worry about me, Marion,’ Dani reassured her. ‘I’ve had many years of learning how to fend off over-eager medical students. Somehow they always seem to see my lack of height as an indication that I’m childish and naïve, so I’m used to it. Anyway, as a last resort I can always introduce them to my much bigger brother. It’s amazing how well they behave once they’ve seen him,’ Especially once they realised that an adverse comment about harrassment from her-big-brother-the-consultant could do their careers a lot of harm. ‘He taught me to fight dirty, too,’ she added wickedly, with a pointed glance from her knee to his crotch.

  Tomasz looked predictably pained at the thought and the three women burst into laughter at his suddenly renewed interest in his food.

  ‘Well, I think it’s a waste of an opportunity,’ Luce mourned as she went back to the containers of food for a second helping. ‘You’re going to be working with him every day and he’s single, gainfully employed, heterosexual and gorgeous and you’re not interested in marryi
ng him.’

  Dani wouldn’t go quite that far. If Josh ever fell in love with her in any other than a brotherly way, she’d marry him so fast it would make everybody’s head spin. But that was about as likely as…well, as likely as her finally putting on a growth spurt and getting those model’s legs she’d always wanted.

  ‘What can I tell you?’ Dani said with a shrug, grateful that the light on her side of the room was subdued enough to hide the wash of heat that had flooded through her at the thought of marrying Josh—as if that was ever going to happen. ‘I’m only going to be working with him for six months and I’ve got an awful lot to learn before I can take my next lot of exams. I certainly won’t have time to chase him around the department, trying to get a ring on my finger.’

  ‘But it might have been fun,’ Marion teased, and her brogue made the idea seem even more enticing somehow.

  Perhaps that was why, once her room was her own again and she was tucked up under the covers, trying to sleep, all she could think about was chasing Josh around the department until he gave in and finally finished the kiss she’d started the night of her eighteenth birthday.

  The images must have followed her into her dreams because she woke up the next morning with her pulse racing, the bedclothes twisted around her body and a dreadful empty feeling around her heart with the realisation that none of her wild imaginings ever had a chance of coming true.

  Then she arrived on the unit and the first person she saw was Josh, emerging from the staff cloakroom, looking as if he’d only just woken up. Lust struck her hard and fast when she took in the rumpled hair and crumpled shirt and imagined waking up beside him and seeing him looking exactly like that. But even as she battled to stop herself from drooling, a deeper emotion wrapped itself around her heart when she saw how exhausted he looked.

  ‘Another long night?’ she asked, trying not to notice that he still dragged the fingers of both hands through his hair, the way he always had first thing in the morning, right from her earliest memories.

  ‘Very long. If it wasn’t one of them going through a crisis, it was another,’ he sighed. ‘I’ll go through it all with you at the morning meeting.’

  ‘Would a coffee help?’

  ‘The stronger the better, and preferably delivered intravenously,’ he said wearily. ‘Unfortunately, I’ve got some surgical procedures to do this morning.’

  ‘And the caffeine might induce a hand tremor,’ she finished for him. ‘I’ll find something else. Where will you be?’

  ‘In my office. I need to change my shirt then I’ll be making a start on some of the interminable paperwork, for my sins.’ He briefly pulled a wry face then smiled at her, giving her just a glimpse of a dimple as she turned away, hoping he hadn’t read her reaction to the idea that he was going to be stripping his shirt off in his office.

  ‘Dani?’ he called after her, and she looked over her shoulder to find him leaning back tiredly against the doorframe. ‘You do know you don’t have to do this? It’s not part of your duties as newest member of the team.’

  ‘You didn’t ask. I offered,’ she pointed out, wondering what he’d say if she were to tell him how much more she’d be willing to do for him. Probably run screaming in the other direction.

  She was glad she’d decided to come in to work early because that meant the café run by the league of volunteers wasn’t trying to cope with the sudden influx of staff going off duty when she arrived. Even so, it was close to fifteen minutes before she tapped in the access code at the entrance to the unit.

  ‘I come bearing gifts,’ she announced as she carefully balanced the laden tray one-handed to tap and open his office door…and nearly dropped the lot when she found him standing in the middle of the room naked to the waist, his arms raised as he vigorously towelled his hair.

  Only lightning-fast reflexes enabled her to maintain her hold on the tray, but even then some of the grapefruit juice slopped over the top of the glass and the pile of toast slid dangerously close to the edge of the plate. Meanwhile, she was taking full advantage of the fact that he hadn’t realised she was there, her eyes travelling greedily over the expanse of golden-brown skin stretched tautly over flat slabs of muscles across his chest and a prominently ribbed six-pack leading down to his lean waist.

  Where had all those muscles come from, and when? They certainly hadn’t been there when he’d taken her swimming in the summers during his medical training…or perhaps she just hadn’t noticed them then.

  Well, they were there now, and how! And so was the tawny silk that stretched in a swirling band right across from one tightly furled male nipple to the other. And his skin…It looked as if it would feel like the most expensive satin and the colour reminded her of butterscotch and fudge. As for the stray rivulets of water that purled their way down over the swells and hollows, she could imagine all to easily what it would be like to chase them with her tongue, following them all the way down to—

  ‘Dani! I didn’t hear you come in!’ Josh exclaimed, dragging her guilty gaze up to meet his. She was amazed to see more than a hint of colour darken the lean planes of his face and realised for the very first time that he might not be quite as immune to her as she’d always thought.

  Or was it the sort of reaction that any man would have when he caught a woman ogling him? She really didn’t have enough experience to know because, apart from some purely platonic friendships that had developed during her training, she’d never really been interested in anyone other than Josh.

  He gave the errant water droplets a cursory swipe with the towel before reaching for his shirt. ‘I’ll…uh…just get this on,’ he said, his voice strangely husky. ‘I thought dunking my head under the tap would wake me up a bit.’

  More food for thought, Dani mused, her pulse giving a strange little skip when she realised that he didn’t seem to want to meet her eyes…and he’d left his shirt uncharacteristically untucked.

  ‘Where shall I put this?’ she asked, suddenly realising that she was still standing there with a laden tray in her hands. ‘I got grapefruit juice, a pile of toast and a large mug of tea.’

  ‘Is there anything to go on the toast?’ He was just doing up the last button on the shirt, completely hiding that mouth-watering body under a professional façade. But she knew it was there now. She’d seen it in all its glory and…What had he asked?

  ‘You think I could live with you for all those years and not know that the only thing you want on your toast in the morning is Seville orange marmalade?’ She’d grabbed several miniature pots, knowing he liked the slightly bitter tang far more than sickly sweet jams for breakfast. ‘Shall I spread it for you?’ she offered, then cringed, only realising just how domestic the conversation sounded when the words were out of her mouth.

  ‘Aren’t you having any?’ he asked round the first eager mouthful. ‘It looks as if you got plenty.’

  ‘I’ll just stick to the tea. I had something to eat before I came to work.’

  ‘Don’t tell me. You had a big bowl of porridge, even though it’s the middle of summer,’ he teased.

  ‘Don’t you mock my porridge. It’s the ideal way to fuel yourself for a busy morning, and that’s what I would have eaten if the kitchen over in the staff residency hadn’t been left in such a state last night. I really didn’t fancy cleaning up a mess on an empty stomach, especially when none of it was mine.’

  ‘You’ve moved in there?’ He seemed surprised. ‘Why didn’t you find yourself a studio flat or something?’

  ‘It didn’t really seem worth all the effort of hunting for one when I’ll be moving on in six months. I asked around and was told that the chance of finding anything affordable within easy reach of the hospital is negligible. Anyway,’ she said defensively, ‘the staff accommodation isn’t that bad and it’s within walking distance, so it even saves me the expense of travel.’

  ‘That’s all very well, but I can remember all too clearly how noisy they can be. You’re never going to be able to get a
ny study done.’

  ‘I’ll manage somehow,’ she said firmly, knowing that she was probably sticking her chin out at what he’d always called a combative angle. ‘I’m not going to let a bit of noise set me off course at this late stage.’

  ‘Don’t bite my head off.’ He held up both hands. ‘I was only concerned that it might be too much to cope with on top of a stressful job. Anyway, it’s something to think about. And if you get stuck and it’s not working out where you are, you could always move into my spare room.’

  The expression on his face told her that he was almost as shocked that he’d made the offer as she was to hear it, especially in view of the way he’d been steering clear of her as much as he could in the department.

  ‘I’m sure that won’t be necessary,’ she said hastily, and he immediately looked so relieved that her pride was piqued. He should know that, no matter how awkward it might be, professionally, to have her under his roof, she wouldn’t be a bad housemate. They had both been taught to pick up after themselves by the same mother after all.

  Her obstinate streak put in an unexpected appearance and she heard herself adding airily, ‘But I’ll keep your offer in mind, thank you, just in case the study situation does become impossible.’

  It was only much later that she realised that she might have had a deeper subconscious reason for making sure that his offer hadn’t been completely turned down; that she had actually left herself with a good solid excuse to move in with the man who filled her thoughts nearly every hour of her day and an increasing number of her dreams. But if she were to move in with him so that they were sharing his personal space, too…well, wouldn’t the hospital gossips have a field day with that?

  CHAPTER FIVE

  A WEEK later Josh’s offer was seeming more attractive by the minute.

  Tonight the whole building seemed to be pulsating with the incessant beat of the music that was pounding in the common room on the ground floor.