The Consultant's Adopted Son

by Jennifer Taylor

  Rose wasn’t surprised that Owen seemed to be avoiding her. After what he’d overheard her saying that morning it would have been surprising if he’d sought her out. However, it didn’t lessen her desire to explain the circumstances that had led to that unfortunate remark. She bided her time, and when she saw him going into the office she hurried after him.

  ‘Can I have a word with you?’ she asked, glancing over her shoulder to check that nobody was watching.

  ‘Sure.’ He opened the office door and ushered her inside. ‘If it’s about this morning—’ he began.

  ‘It is. I’m really sorry you overheard that, Owen. I don’t know what you must have thought…’

  ‘I didn’t think anything.’ He shrugged dismissively. ‘I’ve got better things to do with my time than worry about what people think of me.’

  ‘I’m sure you have.’ Rose summoned a smile, but she had to admit that she was surprised by his attitude. He didn’t seem to care how she really felt, and it was a shock after what had happened on Saturday night.

  Heat flowed through as she recalled how he had kissed her palm. It had been such a sensual kiss that she could still feel the imprint his lips had made on her skin. She curled her fingers over the spot, letting the tingle spread up her arm. Owen had cared what she’d thought on Saturday night, and she couldn’t believe the situation could have changed that much in the interim.

  ‘Is that it, then? There was nothing else you wanted to see me about?’

  Rose blinked when she heard a definite hint of impatience in his voice. Obviously he wasn’t keen to prolong the conversation. ‘No. I didn’t want you getting the wrong idea, that’s all.’

  ‘I didn’t.’ He treated her to a decidedly impersonal smile as he opened the door. ‘Thanks, Rose, but there’s no need to worry. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it, I promise you.’

  ‘Good.’ Rose fixed a matching smile to her mouth and left. She wasn’t sure what was going on but she certainly wasn’t going to beg him to listen to her. If he was happy to dismiss the incident then she was, too.

  She went back to work and spent the rest of the day dealing with her patients’ problems. Fractures, cuts, head injuries—it always amazed her what people could do to themselves. It was a busy day and, apart from her break times, she worked nonstop. She knew that she’d achieved a lot by the end of the day, but as she made her way to the bus stop after her shift was over she felt none of her usual sense of satisfaction at a job well done. There was a niggling feeling inside her that one problem hadn’t been resolved, and that problem was Owen.

  What was going on?

  Owen ended up working late even though he hadn’t planned on doing so. They were supposed to be getting agency cover that night, but the registrar who’d been booked to work for them never turned up. He got onto the agency but the office was closed and there was just an answering-machine to field any queries.

  He left a terse message and hung up, sighing when he realised that it was down to him to sort out the mess. Rob and Suzanne had wafted out of the building on a cloud of euphoria half an hour before. They were planning on spending a cosy evening together and he didn’t have the heart to ask one of them to come back to work. He ended up phoning a colleague from another department and called in a few favours, then went to find Charlie and explained that he would work the first half of the shift and that Lawrence Banks, one of the general surgical team, had agreed to cover the rest. Devinder was on duty that night so he would be there as well.

  Charlie laughed. ‘You must be going soft in your old age, Owen. It’s not like you to put the registrars’ love lives before their jobs.’

  ‘The mood that pair are in it’s probably safer for the patients to keep them well away from here,’ he retorted pithily.

  ‘Now, now, no sour grapes, please,’ Charlie said reprovingly. ‘There’s no need to spoil a beautiful gesture.’

  ‘I suppose not.’ Owen laughed. ‘And it was a bit unfair of me to say that. Suzanne seems to have taken on a new lease of life thanks to this budding romance.’

  ‘Some of Rob’s cockiness must be rubbing off on her.’ Charlie grinned. ‘The power of love, eh? It makes you feel all warm and tingly inside to witness it, doesn’t it?’

  ‘Speak for yourself!’ he retorted, not wanting the charge nurse to know that the comment had touched a nerve. Maybe love did make one feel all warm and tingly, but it also caused a lot of problems. He was very much aware that he hadn’t sorted out his own situation yet.

  There was no time to worry about it thankfully because they had a waiting room full of patients. He went into the office and phoned Daniel to warn him he was having to stay late, then got on with the job. Devinder was getting into his stride now that he was gaining more experience, so Owen was able to leave him to deal with the less complicated cases, but there were still a lot of people he needed to see himself. By the time the queue had been whittled down it was almost ten o’clock and he was flagging.

  He told Charlie to call Lawrence if he got stuck and left, grateful that the drive home was much less stressful at that time of the night. By the time he turned into his driveway he was ready to drop. Supper, drink, shower and bed, he promised himself as he let himself into the house. And maybe he would even delete a couple items from that list. He was too tired to be hungry and too worn out to make himself a drink, so shower and bed might be the best options.

  He went upstairs and tapped on Daniel’s door to tell him he was home. The boy was lying on his bed, reading a lurid-looking thriller that Owen guessed wasn’t part of his official college reading list. He forbore to say anything, though, because Daniel needed a break the same as everyone else did.

  ‘Did you see Rose today?’

  Owen was about to wend his weary way along the landing when Daniel shot the question at him, and his heart bumped as he stopped. ‘Yes,’ he said carefully, hoping the turmoil he was feeling wasn’t apparent in his tone.

  ‘Was she OK?’

  He shrugged, wondering where the conversation was leading. ‘She seemed to be. Why are you asking?’

  ‘Oh, no reason, really. I was just wondering, that’s all.’ Daniel paused and Owen could tell there was something bothering him.

  ‘Are you worried about what’s happening between you and Rose?’ he asked gently. ‘It’s been a big thing, you meeting her like this, so it’s understandable if you have some concerns.’

  ‘I don’t…well, not really.’ Daniel shrugged, making a brave stab at feigning indifference. ‘I just don’t want her to think that she has to keep on seeing me if it isn’t what she really wants to do.’

  ‘I’m sure Rose would tell you if she didn’t want your meetings to continue,’ he said firmly, even though his stomach had started churning.

  That was something else he needed to take into account, wasn’t it? What would happen if Rose decided at some point in the future that she’d had enough of motherhood? If he’d involved her in their lives, it would make the situation even more difficult—for him and for Daniel. He couldn’t bear to imagine Daniel’s pain if he grew used to having Rose around and she rejected him. He couldn’t bear to imagine his own pain if she did the same thing!

  He wished Daniel goodnight and went into the bathroom. Stripping off his clothes, he turned on the shower, then stood there with the water pounding down on his head. He and Daniel had had their hearts broken when Laura had died. Was he prepared to risk it happening a second time?

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  IT WAS ROSE’S last week at St Anne’s, and she was surprised by how sad she felt about leaving. She’d worked at other hospitals for equally long periods but she’d never felt this way before. It was partly because the staff had been so friendly, but mainly because of Owen. She didn’t want to leave him, especially when there were still so many unanswered questions about the way he had behaved towards her since the previous Saturday.

  Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday came and went, and Owen avoided her. Rose tried
to tell herself it was her imagination, but every time she entered the department he seemed to be on his way out. And when she was needed to work in Resus he always managed to send her on an errand—relatives needed reassuring, forms needed filling in, surgeons needed phoning. The excuses were endless. It was obvious that he didn’t want to talk to her and she could only assume that he’d had second thoughts about what had happened on Saturday night. He, too, was afraid of the repercussions it might have if they furthered their relationship, and even though she shared his concerns it was painful to find herself being shut out all the time.

  Friday rolled around and she went into work with a heavy heart. Fortunately, there was no time to dwell on the fact that it was her last day there because the department was heaving when she arrived. A school bus had collided with a delivery van and there were dozens of kids there who’d been injured.

  ‘Can you take this lot to the treatment room and patch them up?’ Charlie looked harassed as he led a convoy of teenage girls across the waiting area. Most had cuts on their faces because the windows of the bus had shattered and sprayed broken glass over them.

  Rose grimaced. ‘Some of those cuts look quite deep. Do we need the plastics reg down here?’

  ‘See how you go, and give him a call if you feel you need a second opinion—OK, OK! I’m coming!’

  Charlie hurried away to attend to another crisis. A group of teenage boys had started arguing, and Polly, the receptionist, was having a hard time keeping order. Rose briskly ushered her bunch towards the treatment room so they wouldn’t be tempted to join in the fray.

  ‘I’m going to see you all individually,’ she explained, lining the girls up by the door. ‘I want you to stay here until I call your name.’

  ‘I don’t want to be on my own,’ one girl wailed. ‘It’s going to hurt, isn’t it? You’re going to stick needles into us and stitch up the cuts and—!’

  ‘Fine! If you’d rather be seen together, you can all come in, but it will be a squash, I’m warning you.’ She opened the door and waved them into the room. ‘Put your school bags over there, then I’ll have my first victim, please. Who’s going to be the brave one?’

  They all giggled at that, and she was relieved to see that the girl who’d been so upset even managed a smile. One of the group stepped forward so Rose made her sit on the couch while she cleaned the cut on her cheek with antiseptic. The wound wasn’t very deep, and all it needed was a couple of butterfly strips to hold the edges together.

  ‘That’s you done. You can wait here for your friends, or go and get yourself a drink,’ she suggested, washing her hands. ‘There’s a vending machine in the corridor that sells cans of soft drink.’

  The girl decided to buy herself a drink, so that eased the situation a bit. Rose dealt with the next girl—another fairly minor cut—then she, too, left. The third girl had a much deeper cut on her neck, and Rose frowned as she finished cleaning it up.

  ‘This is going to need a couple of stitches, I’m afraid. I’ll need to numb the area first with a little local anaesthetic, though.’

  ‘Will it hurt?’ the girl asked, looking scared out of her wits.

  ‘All you’ll feel is a little prick when I give you the injection,’ Rose assured her. As a qualified nurse-practitioner she was allowed to give injections and do minor suturing, so she got everything ready and smiled reassuringly at the teenager. ‘It will be all over in just a couple of minutes.’

  She went to the couch but the girl—Tanya—shot to her feet. ‘No, I don’t want you to do it!’

  ‘It’s OK, there’s nothing to be scared about.’ Rose tried to reassure her, but the girl was terrified and pushed her away when she tried to calm her down.

  ‘Everything all right in here?’

  Rose glanced round when Rob poked his head round the door. ‘Tanya isn’t too happy about having an injection.’

  ‘Not my most favourite fun thing to do either,’ Rob observed cheerfully. ‘Mind you, it will score you loads of points with your friends.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Tanya demanded, looking a little starstruck at finding herself the centre of a young, good-looking doctor’s attention.

  ‘How many of your mates would have the bottle to sit there while they get stitches put in?’ Rob treated the girl to a megawatt smile and Rose tried not to laugh. Rob certainly wasn’t averse to ladling on the charm when it suited him!

  ‘Not many,’ Tanya replied scathingly.

  ‘Then you need to show them what wimps they are, and I know the perfect way to do it, too. Have you got a mobile phone with a camera on it?’ he asked. He carried on when Tanya nodded. ‘Then we’ll get your friend here to take some pictures. Your street cred will go right off the scale when your friends see them!’

  Tanya looked thrilled by the idea. She didn’t complain as Rose settled her on the couch again. One of her friends recorded every gory moment, from when the needle first went in to when the final suture was tied off. Everyone wanted their treatment recorded for posterity after that, so that Rose whizzed through the rest of the group in record time. Rob chuckled when she thanked him for his help after the girls had left.

  ‘It’s nice to know I can still make a maidenly heart flutter.’

  ‘Oh, I think you proved that all right! If I were Suzanne, I’d keep a very close eye on you, Dr Lomax.’

  ‘Suzie trusts me,’ Rob said firmly. ‘Knowing that the other person trusts you is one of the best things about being in a proper relationship, I’ve discovered. It makes a world of difference.’

  He hurried away as there were still a lot of people who needed to be seen. Rose went back to the waiting room but she couldn’t stop thinking about what Rob had said. It did make a difference when you knew that someone trusted you. Doubts wore away at a relationship and eventually destroyed it. Owen still had doubts about her. He might have apologised for the way he had treated her but he still wasn’t convinced that she wouldn’t hurt Daniel.

  And it wasn’t just Owen who had doubts either. She wasn’t convinced that it would be a good thing to get more deeply involved with him when it could affect her relationship with Daniel. She had only just found Daniel again and she certainly wasn’t willing to risk losing him. It left her with just one option, and that was to do nothing. She had to maintain the status quo and not start hoping for more than she had already achieved.

  Saturday arrived and Owen was glad that he didn’t have to go to work that day. It had been a stressful week and he desperately needed a respite from all the pressure. He didn’t feel good about the way he had deliberately avoided Rose but he hadn’t had a choice. He needed to keep his distance from her until he’d worked out what he intended to do.

  Daniel had arranged to meet Rose again at the café near the Serpentine, so Owen waved him off and then made a start on restoring some sort of order to the garden. Laura had been a much keener gardener than him, and he’d let things lapse since she’d died. At least it would take his mind off Daniel’s meeting with Rose. There really was no point wishing he could have gone to see her, too!

  He had just gone back inside the house to make himself a sandwich a couple of hours later when he heard the front door slam. He poked his head round the kitchen door and was surprised to see Daniel standing in the hall. ‘You’re back early. I didn’t think you’d be home for another couple of hours yet.’

  ‘Rose didn’t turn up.’

  Daniel didn’t say anything else as he ran up the stairs. Owen heard his bedroom door slam, then a second later music came thundering down through the ceiling. He had no idea what had happened, but it didn’t need a genius to tell him that his son was upset—and no wonder, too, if Rose hadn’t bothered to show up for their meeting.

  His mouth compressed as he hurried up the stairs, because it was what he had feared would happen. He’d always been afraid that Rose would let Daniel down and now it seemed that she had. He knocked on the bedroom door and went in, trying to remember that it was Daniel’s feelings th
at mattered, not his, but he couldn’t help feeling bitterly disappointed in her.

  ‘Are you sure you went to the right place?’ he asked, reaching for the remote control and lowering the volume on the CD player so he could hear himself think. His head was already aching at the thought of Rose’s perfidy without the music making matters any worse. Why had she agreed to see Daniel if she was going to let him down? Why had she made all those promises to him about putting Daniel’s interests first if she hadn’t meant them? And what other lies had she told if she’d told all those?

  ‘Of course I’m sure! We arranged to meet at the Serpentine café at eleven o’clock.’ Daniel glowered at him, but beneath the anger Owen could tell that he was deeply hurt. ‘I know you think I’m totally useless, Dad, but even I couldn’t make a mess of that!’

  ‘I don’t think you’re useless at all.’ Owen sat down on the end of the bed. ‘Maybe Rose got it wrong. Maybe she went somewhere else. Where did you meet her last week?’

  ‘The Tate Modern, and I tried there. And she wasn’t at the British Museum either. In fact, I tried every single place we’ve ever met, but she wasn’t at any of them!’

  Daniel stared up at the ceiling, but Owen could see the glimmer of tears in his eyes and his anger ratcheted up another half-dozen notches. How could Rose have done this to him?

  ‘Did you phone her? You had your mobile with you, didn’t you?’

  ‘Yes. I phoned her at home but she wasn’t in. And she didn’t phone me…although I’m not sure if I gave her my mobile phone number. Maybe she tried phoning here instead.’ Daniel leapt to his feet, a dawning hope on his face as he raced across the room. ‘You’ve been in the garden so you might not have heard the phone ringing. She might have left a message…’