‘We do?’
‘We do.’
‘Then, Georgie, I will see you later,’ Charlie said as he followed Juliet from the room. Once they were out of earshot, Juliet did not hold back.
‘You promised you would not try to unsettle my patient. She has made her decision and there is no point in you questioning them now.’
‘Your patient? Georgina is my patient and has been for nineteen weeks since the quads were identified.’
‘Well, she’ll be your former patient unless you promise to cease this interference.’
‘Since when does advice to my patient constitute interference?’ he asked as he headed in the direction of his office.
‘From where I’m standing that’s exactly what it is and I won’t stand for it. So please back off or I’ll be forced to go to Oliver Darrington and ask to have you removed if he wants me to stay.’ Juliet kept up with his fast pace.
‘Is that a threat?’
‘I’m not sure... I guess if you don’t accept your behaviour to be tantamount to undue interference then I really don’t have to acknowledge whether mine is a threat.’
‘I said in front of Georgina that you have the opportunity to save her babies. They chose your procedure. It’s now in your hands. A fact. And as for the team expecting the unexpected, that is my way of saying they are experienced and the Abbiatis have nothing to worry about. My words were designed to bring comfort to the quads’ mother and by the look on her face they did just that. Did she look panicked?’
Juliet considered his words and began to think she might have overreacted again. ‘Well, no.’
‘That’s because I know my patient, I’ve been treating her for almost three months now and I have built a good rapport with her.’ He stopped outside his office.
At that moment, an orderly appeared wheeling a trolley laden with boxes. ‘This is the last of the archived records, Dr Warren. A desk is being brought up from storage along with a chair and a sofa. Oh, and I’ve asked the cleaning crew to freshen up the office next door for the Aussie doctor as you requested and the flowers you ordered will be here first thing tomorrow. I’m sorry the office wasn’t cleaned up this morning when you asked but we’ve been flat out. I wasn’t sure if she’d arrived yet but it will be all done by lunchtime.’
‘I guess your office will be ready for you to move in tomorrow, then, Juliet,’ Charlie said as he left Juliet alone with another onslaught of thoughts.
Each one of them making her feel smaller by the minute. She had once again misjudged Charlie and in the process demanded something he had already planned on providing. Before he graciously asked her out to brunch to give her the good news. Suddenly she thought the ogre’s shoes were more befitting her feet.
* * *
Juliet collected Bea without trying to find Charlie and offering to thank him. He had already organised an office for her before she’d made the demand earlier in the day. She felt foolish and thought better than trying to make amends yet again. She had made a habit of offending him that day just as he had of offending her the day before. He had made an effort to be courteous but the orderlies hadn’t been able to deliver. The fact she did not have an office was not his fault.
And the flowers he ordered? What on earth did that mean? After the disastrous start to the day, and the terrible ending, he still wanted to make her feel at home with flowers. This man was more of a riddle by the minute. Just when she thought she had worked him out, he surprised her. Only this time it was a nice surprise and an extremely humbling one for Juliet.
Somehow she would make amends. But exactly how would take some time to figure out.
‘Mummy!’ came the little voice. ‘I have a friend. Her name’s Emma.’ A little girl with flaming red hair and a toothy grin was holding Bea’s hand. ‘We played yesterday. And we played today. She’th such a good drawer. Her mummy’th a doctor too.’
‘Hello, Emma.’
‘Hello,’ the little girl replied in the softest voice.
‘Can Emma come home and play?’
‘That would be lovely one day if her mummy says yes, but just not today, Bea, because we have to find another place to live. Somewhere with a nice bath and your own room.’
Bea studied her mother’s face for a minute. ‘Okay, Mummy,’ she finally said with a smile. ‘Bye Emma. See you tomorrow.’
‘Bye, Bea,’ the little girl replied before she ran back to the toys on the play mat in the centre of the room.
Juliet popped her daughter’s woollen cape over her shoulders and led her to the car they had hired that morning. She was happy that Bea had made a new friend so quickly. She definitely had much better social skills than her mother, Juliet thought.
‘I’ve found two houses that might be nice so we might just pop in and see them. A man with the keys is meeting us at the first one in half an hour. We can’t stay in the hotel because it doesn’t give us much room and the bath just won’t do. It might be nice to have your own room—perhaps one day this week Emma might come over and play.’
‘I hope so,’ Bea said as she looked out of the window at the buildings as they drove down the main street of the town.
Juliet suddenly spotted a quaint tea room. ‘Would you like something to eat?’
‘Yeth, please.’
‘Let’s see if this little restaurant has Devonshire cream tea,’ she said as she checked her rear-vision mirror, then pulled the car over and parked.
‘What’th that, Mummy?’
‘Scones and jam and cream.’
‘Yummy!’
* * *
Almost an hour later and quite full on the fluffy scones, homemade raspberry jam and freshly whipped cream, Juliet and Bea arrived at the first house. It was a fully furnished cottage only ten minutes from Teddy’s. She pulled her small sedan into the lane beside the house, unsure of where else to park, and walked briskly around to the front gate. The lettings agent was already there. He looked about sixty years of age with a happy face with a ruddy complexion, strawberry-blond hair and wearing a tweed coat and a scarf.
‘Good afternoon, Dr Turner. I’m Eugene Parry.’
‘Hello, Eugene,’ Juliet said as she approached him with her hand extended. ‘Please call me Juliet.’
‘Certainly, Juliet,’ the man said as he unlocked the front door of the thatched-roof cottage. ‘It’s a lovely little place, this one. Just came back on the market for renting a week ago after the temporary bank manager left. They found a local to fill the role so the other one headed back to London leaving this vacant and you can have it on a monthly basis. No need for a long-term contract.’
Juliet stepped inside and was immediately taken by how cosy the home felt. It was small but very pretty inside.
‘Two bedrooms, as I said, and an eat-in kitchen along with this sitting room,’ Eugene said as they stood in the middle of the carpeted room. It was a little cold but Juliet knew with the flick of a switch the heating would change that quickly. ‘There’s a lovely garden room out the back, which is delightful in summer but not so nice in the chilly weather. Oh, and there’s a bath and shower in the newly renovated bathroom.’
Juliet was happy to hear those words and took Bea by the hand to look around. The pretty tastefully wallpapered sitting room more than met her requirements with a large floral sofa and a big leather armchair, a coffee table and a large television. The master bedroom was very simply decorated in tones of blue, with a queen-sized bed and attractive blue-and-cream-striped curtains and a cream damask quilt cover. A free-standing dark wood wardrobe took up one corner of the room and the other corner held a matching large dresser with an oval mirror.
‘Where’th my room?’
‘Let’s go and find out.’
And they did. And it was just perfect. It was painted in tones of peach and there were two twi
n single beds and a white dresser and robe. The curtains were peach floral with yellow window ties. And there was a four-foot fluffy yellow rabbit sitting under the window beside a toy box.
‘The owners have two granddaughters and they used to come and stay but now they’re all grown up so they’ve left it here for others to enjoy.’
‘I like it, Mummy.’
‘I like it too. We’ll take it.’
* * *
Aware that the next few days would be hectic leading up to the surgery, Juliet decided, once she had signed the rental agreement, to leave the hotel and move into the cottage immediately. The estate agent was happy as the hospital provided a reference and a guarantee. So Juliet was approved instantly. He had given her the keys and explained how the heater and the stove worked and left.
‘Well, Bea, it looks like we have our own little home for the next few weeks. I’ve rented it for a month so we can stay here for Christmas and New Year’s Eve.’
‘Do we have milk and biscuits?’
Juliet smiled at Bea’s funny random question and the look of worry on her daughter’s face. ‘We will get some milk and biscuits and a few other things. In fact, we should go now and stock the pantry before the shops close.’
Together they locked up, hopped back into the car and headed off to fill the cupboards and refrigerator with all they would need.
And as she drove into town Juliet realised she was no longer anxious about being so far from home. Despite her topsy-turvy relationship with Charlie Warren she was suddenly feeling quite at home in the Cotswolds.
Without warning she began to question if in fact it was because of him that she was feeling so at home.
CHAPTER EIGHT
IT WAS FIVE o’clock in the afternoon when they returned. Bea was napping on the sofa, with the heater warming the house, and dinner for two was cooking in the oven. Juliet had bought half a dozen small pork chops and decided to roast them with root vegetables. She thought they could have leftovers the next night. The house was quiet and the delicious aroma of the cooking made her think of home. She looked at her watch and did the mental arithmetic and quickly realised it was one in the morning back home. While she knew her parents loved her, one a.m. was not the time to test the depth of those feelings. She would wait until morning. She had called from the airport to tell them she was safe and since then they had each sent texts. There was nothing else to report. Nothing had happened. They hadn’t really met anyone. As she put her feet up on the ottoman and leant back into the softness of the cushions, she realised that technically wasn’t correct. Bea had met her new best friend, Emma.
And Juliet had met Charlie. Complicated, handsome, argumentative Charlie. She closed her eyes for a moment.
Who was he really?
And why was he making her think about him when he wasn’t around? For almost five years, she had not given a man another romantic thought, until now.
Dinner was lovely and they both ate well, then Juliet washed the dishes before she gave Bea a nice warm bath, paying particular care to keep her cast dry. As she wrapped her daughter in a fluffy bath sheet before slipping her into her pyjamas, Juliet smiled at the little girl and thought how strong she had been. She couldn’t have been more proud of her daughter. She didn’t fuss or complain about it at all. Bea just worked around the cast and made the best of it. She was indeed a very special little girl. Despite having her own room, and thinking it was very pretty, that night she decided to sleep with her mother in the big bed. And after her favourite story, they both fell asleep around eight o’clock.
Bea dreamt about a princess who fought dragons and won...and Juliet’s sleep began with a dream of Charlie.
* * *
It was close to ten when Charlie stood staring into the darkness from his kitchen window. The tap was running and steaming water was filling the sink where he had placed his dinner dishes but it was as if he were somewhere else. Somewhere other than in his home alone, the way it was every night that he didn’t work late at the hospital. The silence made him feel even more solitary but that night he chose not to have the noise of the television. He didn’t want white noise providing pretend company. He suddenly felt as if he wanted something more. The lightness of heart that he felt when he was near Juliet and Bea was something he had not expected. And something he could not fully understand nor thought he deserved. He lifted his gaze to see the haze of the full moon trying to break through the heavy clouds just as he was trying to step out from behind the guilt that was burying him. But he knew he had as much chance as the moon had.
* * *
The next morning was an early start. Along with meeting with Georgina and Leo, Juliet wanted to brief the surgical team to ensure there were no questions around the procedure. Bea needed help to dress in a stretch knit track suit and then after a hearty breakfast of porridge and honey the two set off for Teddy’s.
‘Ith the hothpital really called Teddy’th, Mummy?’
Juliet smiled as she drove. ‘Yes, it is.’
‘Like a teddy bear?’
‘Yes, just like a teddy bear.’
‘That’th silly. It’th a hospital for babies, not for teddy bears.’
Juliet laughed along with her daughter as she turned into the hospital car park. She loved that Bea could see the funny side of life at an early age. She had taken after her grandfather with that trait and clearly the ability to make friends quickly. After the uncomfortable situation with Charlie the day before, Juliet knew she was most definitely missing that skill.
But worrying about being friends with Dr Charlie Warren was not about to take precedence over what mattered and the reason she had travelled to the teddy bear hospital.
The day would be busy and she had a lot to accomplish. From a risk-management viewpoint, she needed to have contingency plans in place should the babies react poorly to the procedure. While she saw no reason for it not to proceed smoothly, guaranteed success was never a given and Juliet was always prepared for both the best and worst scenarios and everything in between. Should the laser surgery initiate early labour, she wanted Charlie on the team. She just had to ask him and then wait for the lecture about unnecessary risk she knew would follow. Despite this, she would not exclude him from the theatre as she valued his skills as an OBGYN. She just hoped and prayed she didn’t need to call on it.
Her mind’s focus was on ensuring that it went like clockwork. There were four babies, two parents and four grandparents who were stakeholders with a heartfelt interest in the surgery being successful. Not to mention Oliver Darrington and the board who had covered the cost of her temporary relocation. The surgery would not be lengthy but it would be intricate. She intended on spending time letting the theatre staff know exactly how she operated and what she needed. She knew this would not be the first laser surgery procedure at Teddy’s, but she would not take any chances with miscommunication around the operation on these babies. The staff needed to be fully aware of her expectations. She wanted Lily and Rose to grow up with their brothers, Graham and Rupert. And she would do everything in her power to make sure that happened.
It was not until she saw the black motorbike parked outside the hospital that her thoughts returned to Charlie. At least that was what she told herself, when the butterflies returned to her stomach at the sight of the shiny black road machine. She knew it wasn’t the truth because she had fallen asleep thinking of him, dreamt of him and then woken with his handsome face firmly etched in her mind. She hoped he had cancelled the flowers for her office after the words they had shared the previous day. She wanted him to be spiteful and give her reason to dislike him. She didn’t want to believe that underneath the gruff exterior lay a good heart. She had told herself for too many years that a man like that didn’t exist and she didn’t want to doubt herself.
After dropping Bea at the crèche and watching her daughte
r and her new best friend, Emma, hug each other excitedly, Juliet made her way to her office. She knew it was adjacent to Charlie’s office. She walked past with her laptop computer under her arm ready to settle into her new workplace. As his door was ajar, against her better instincts she felt compelled to look inside. She crossed her fingers that he was not there and she did not have to address her poor behaviour first thing in the morning. This time her wish came true. Charlie was nowhere in sight. But she knew that she would have to face him. Soon. Avoiding him would only last for an hour or so as they needed to consult further on Georgina and the quads, but it would give her time to find the right words to say. An apology on her behalf was deserved. She just wasn’t sure how to deliver it.
Her second wish was that the flowers were not in her office. Bracing herself, she opened the door. There was no floral arrangement in sight. Unexpectedly her heart fell. She had no idea why. It was her wish that he’d cancelled the order so she could hold that against him. But part of her had apparently, and unconsciously, hoped he wouldn’t. She’d hoped he would be gallant and still have a beautiful bouquet waiting for her as a welcoming gesture. She hadn’t expected it, until she’d heard about it. And at that moment she’d realised that deep inside Dr Charlie Warren was a gentleman. Despite her knowing they came from opposite sides of opinion, the fact that he had arranged an office for her and even thought of flowers made her believe in chivalry.
If only for a second.
But the lack of flowers, she knew, was fed by her own actions. She tried to remind herself it was only flowers, but the fact there were none still stung. For a few wonderful moments when she’d realised he had gone to the effort and trouble for her, she had felt special.
White Christmas For The Single Mom (Christmas Miracles In Maternity #3) Page 9