Her Hot Highland Doc

by Annie O'Neil

  “I’m Helen, by the way.”

  “Nice to meet you. I’m Kali—”

  “O’Shea,” finished Helen with a laugh. “If you haven’t found out already, word travels fast in Dunregan. By my count, you’ve been here about a week now.”

  “Only three more to go!”

  The words were double-edged. She didn’t want to leave. Little bits of her heart were already plastered about the small harbor town. Once she got a chance to explore some more she was sure the rest of it would follow suit.

  “I guess you’ll know my being here is actually a bit pointless. With Brodie having the all clear.” It was hardly subtle, but they’d passed that point.

  “I thought he’d given up doctoring to build that boat of his?”

  Kali pulled a face. To say Brodie was making a success of turning the pile of planks into a boat would be...very kind. He’d eventually brought all the wood over and laid it out in a completely indecipherable series of piles in the open shed next to the clinic. Some nails had gone in. Some nails had been pulled out. The piles remained.

  “I’m no expert on boat building myself, but I get the feeling medicine is more of his forte,” she said as tactfully as she could. “But it keeps him busy while he waits for his patients to feel more comfortable about coming back to see him.”

  Helen laughed conspiratorially, but Kali saw a generous dose of compassion in her brown eyes.

  “I don’t think I ever saw him near the woodworking classes at school. Complete and total brainbox.” Distractedly she added a couple more scones to the box she was filling. “You know, I have an idea of someone who could lend a hand. In the meantime...” She flicked the lid shut, putting a Dunregan Bakehouse sticker in place to seal it as she did so. “I’ve got something special for you to try.”

  She put up her finger to indicate that she’d be back in a second and disappeared into the back.

  “Me?” Kali whispered to the empty room, a giddy twirl of anticipation giving an extra lift to her smile. She knew it was silly, but the gesture made her feel—better than welcome. As if she were part of something. A community.

  “Right. Give this a taste.” A piece of toast appeared in her eyeline. Thick cut, oozing with butter and a generous smear of soft cheese. “You’re all right with goat’s cheese?”

  “Absolutely. I love it.” Kali took the bread and was three bites in before she remembered Helen was expectantly waiting for a response. “This is the most delicious thing ever,” she said through another mouthful. “Ever!”

  “Really?” Helen’s eyes glowed with happiness. “It’s a new bread I’ve been working on. Hazelnuts and a mix of grains for all the island’s health nuts. I’m still debating about raisins. But it’s locally produced cheese so I thought I might put it on the board as a lunch offering. What with you being an outsider, I thought you’d give an honest response.”

  “It’s completely yummy.”

  And thanks for the reminder that I don’t belong here. Surprising how much it stung.

  “Thanks, Dr. O’Shea.”

  “Kali,” she corrected firmly. They were around the same age. And on the off-chance that she were to stay...

  Don’t go there. As long as your father is alive, you’ll always live a life on the run.

  “Thanks, Kali. It means a lot. And don’t worry about Brodie’s boat. We’ll get him sorted out—island-style.”

  Mysterious. But positive! Kali left the bakery with a wave, feeling a bit unsettled. Could a place do that to someone? Or, she thought, as an image of Brodie flickered through her overactive brain, was it a person that was unsettling her?

  “Look who made it all the way up the hill today!” Brodie applauded as Kali dismounted from her bicycle with a flourish. “A mere week on the island and you’re a changed woman!”

  Kali flushed with pleasure, glad her cheeks were already glowing with exertion.

  “It has helped that the wind isn’t quite so—”

  “Hostile?” offered Brodie.

  “Exactly.”

  Kali smiled at his choice of word, but now she officially needed to get indoors as soon as possible. No heat again in her house meant riding her bicycle and the pit stop at the bakery were the only ways she got warm in the morning. It was absolutely freezing! Which did beg the question...

  “How many layers are you wearing?”

  “You like?”

  Brodie did a little catwalk strut for her. Man, he had a nice bum. A nice everything. Even if it was covered in a million layers of down and fleece.

  “You’ll do.”

  Understatement of the universe!

  “So how is Operation Public Awareness going?”

  “Well, in terms of gathering in the crowds, you can see how well that’s going.” He swept his arm along the length of the empty street.

  “Mmm...could be the weather?”

  “Or could be they just prefer you,” Brodie replied, his tone lighter than a week ago, when even mentioning the cotton bud delivery had been enough to set him off. Keeping her distance had been easier when he was all grumbly.

  This Brodie... All rugged and tool wielding... Yummy.

  * * *

  “What’s in the magic basket today?”

  Brodie leaned toward the wicker basket he had helped Kali attach to the front of her bike with a whole pack of zip ties. Suffice it to say his stitches were better than his DIY skills.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?” She protectively covered the box with her hand, eyes sparkling with excitement.

  For a split second Brodie envied her the purity of emotion. Every joy he experienced seemed to come with conditions. Obligation after obligation, intent on dragging him down.

  Although lately...

  “Don’t open it yet.” He nodded at the box. “I bet I can sniff it out. I’ve got a nose that knows...” He tapped the side of it with a sage nod.

  Kali laughed, dimpling with the simple pleasure of silly banter.

  “It’s definitely not bridies hiding in there.”

  She shook her head, lips pushed forward in a lovely little guess again moue.

  “Too early for hot cross buns...”

  “Correct again.” She nodded. “That you’re wrong, that is.”

  “Scones.” He took a step back. “That’s my final answer.”

  “Is it, now?”

  The guess again moue did a little back and forth wiggle.

  Suggestive. Very, very suggestive.

  She unpeeled the sticker to reveal a pile of fluffy scones. Then snapped the lid shut again before he could get his hand in there to steal one.

  “Uh-uh.” She wagged a finger at him. “These are for later. For everyone.”

  “You know, you’ve got to stop spoiling us like this.”

  “Why?” She looked at him like he was nuts.

  “We just might get used to it.”

  “We?” she countered, with a flirty shift of the hips.

  “Me,” he admitted, not wanting to put words to the feeling of emptiness he knew was inevitable once she left.

  “Go on, now.” He shooed her off. “Run off to your lovely warm clinic whilst I freeze to death out here with my pile of wood.”

  * * *

  “Take your time,” Kali teased. “Gives me more time to steal all of your patients!”

  Her grin disappeared instantly at the sight of Brodie’s defenses flying into place, blue eyes snapping with anger.

  “I’m perfectly happy to come in and see patients. It is, after all, my name on the clinic.”

  The words flew at her like sharp arrows and just as rapidly her own walls of protection slammed down.

  Too soon.

  She’d let herself believe in the fairy tale too
soon.

  “I’m perfectly aware it’s a temporary posting, all right? I just—” She looked away for a minute, trying to ward off the sting of tears.

  She’d been too keen. Too enthusiastic about settling in. Brodie’s sharp reaction served her right. She’d fallen hook, line and sinker for the friendly island welcome. The frisson she’d thought existed with Brodie. Her heart had opened up to give too much faith too soon. Trusting people was always a mistake—how could she not know that by now? After everything she’d been through?

  Fathers were meant to look after their daughters. Care for them. Protect them. It had never occurred to her that he would choose a man with a history of violence to be her husband. Perhaps her father had fallen for the smooth public demeanor her “intended” had down to a fine art. The one that hid the fact he saw nothing wrong with hitting her to get what he wanted. Her hand flew to her cheek as if the slap had happened yesterday.

  She stamped her feet with frustration and forced herself to look Brodie in the eye. It was what people who were in control of their lives did. Met things head-on.

  They stood there like two cowboys, each weighing up whether or not it was safe to holster their weapons.

  From the looks of Brodie’s expression—a virtual mirror of her own—Kali was fairly certain they were both wishing they could swallow back their words.

  Had she been this touchy when she went to the Forced Marriage Protection Unit and pleaded for a new identity? She’d been so consumed with fear and a near-primal need to survive she didn’t really have a clue what sort of impression she’d given. If Brodie was feeling half the trauma she’d experienced, it was little wonder his temperament was whizzing all over the place.

  “I didn’t mean to stake some sort of claim on your clinic.”

  “And I didn’t mean to sound like such an ass.”

  She watched as Brodie raked his long fingers through his thatch of wayward blond hair.

  He met her questioning gaze head-on. “Start again...again?”

  There it was. That melt-her-heart-into-a-puddle smile.

  “Sounds good,” she managed, without too much of a waver in her voice.

  “Shall I make you a cup of tea?”

  Kali couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing. “The solution to everything? No, thanks, you’re all right. I don’t want to stand in the way of a man who’s got a boat to build!”

  Brodie shook off her refusal and commandeered her bicycle, hooking his free arm through hers as he did so, turning them both toward the clinic door. A small step in the right direction to start afresh.

  “Now, then, Dr. O’Shea, if I can’t make you a fresh cup of tea, I’m not going to be much good at building a boat, am I?”

  “I suppose not.” Kali giggled. “But how long is this going to take? It did take you about five hours to make me one on my first day.”

  “Well, lassie...” He increased his brogue, rolling his r’s to great effect, mimicking his auntie Ailsa. “Can you afford me a second chance to make you a nice cuppa tea within the hour, accompanied by a wee bit of Mrs. Glenn’s delicious shortbread?”

  “That would be lovely.” Kali smiled up at him, eyes bright, cheeks flushed with the cold and the cycle ride.

  * * *

  Brodie found himself fighting an urge to bend down and kiss her. But getting attached to Kali when he had no idea what his own future held... Bad idea.

  He unhooked his arm from hers, focusing on getting her bicycle into the stand at the back door. Wooing the locum was probably not what his father had had in mind when he’d hoped his son would fall in love with the island.

  Besides, Kali wasn’t here for an island fling—she was here to do a job. His job! And it rankled. Perhaps he wouldn’t go inside with her after all.

  “Right, then, here you are, Dr. O’Shea. Enjoy your day in the clinic. I’ve got a boat to build!” He gave her a silly salute he didn’t quite feel just as Ailsa poked her head through the door.

  “Oh, there you both are. I’ve been wondering if it was just me who was going to run this place today. Kali, you look like you’ve just been pried out of an iceberg!”

  Brodie took a closer look. “Are you shivering?”

  “No. Not really.” Kali’s lips widened into a wince, only succeeding in making her shivering more obvious.

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake!” cried Ailsa. “Come in out of the cold, would you? I’ve just put the kettle on. I’ll make us all a nice cuppa tea. And perhaps some of Mrs. Glenn’s delicious shortbread.”

  Kali and Brodie shared a glance, bursting into simultaneous laughter.

  Ailsa waved them off as if they’d each lost their wits. “Ach, away with the pair of you. Now, hurry up so I don’t heat up the outdoors more than the clinic.”

  * * *

  Kali gathered together the day’s files, tapped them on the top and sides so they all aligned, then picked them up to give them a final satisfying thunk on the desk.

  There.

  She’d done it.

  Another full day of seeing patients—and, she thought with a grin, it had all gone rather swimmingly.

  Brodie had been in and out of the tea room, reading various instruction manuals for an ever-growing array of tools. She’d chanced a glance out into the large shed when he’d come in for a cuppa and had smiled at the untouched pile of wood. But she wouldn’t have a clue how to build a boat, so she would be the last one to cast aspersions.

  Her phone rang through from the reception line.

  “Hello, Caitlyn, are you all ready to close up shop for the day?”

  “I am, but I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind seeing one last patient. Mr. Fairways has popped in. Says his hearing aid is acting up.”

  “Wouldn’t he be—” Kali was going to ask if he’d be better off seeing a hearing specialist, but remembered there was no hospital. “Absolutely.” It wasn’t as if she had anything else to do. “I’ll come out and get him.”

  She pushed through the door into the waiting room, where a wiry gentleman—an indeterminate fiftysomething, wearing a wax jacket and moleskin trousers—was leaning on the counter, speaking with Caitlyn. He looked familiar to her, but that was hardly likely seeing as she’d only been on the island for a week.

  “Mr. Fairways?”

  He continued to regale Caitlyn with a blow-by-blow account of the weather. Was that feedback she was hearing? She walked toward him. Yes. There was definitely feedback coming from one of his hearing aids.

  “Mr. Fairways?” She touched his shoulder.

  “Ah, hello there.” He turned to reveal a pair of deep brown eyes and the most wonderful mustache Kali had ever seen outside of a nineteenth-century photo. Or...had she seen him before? There was something familiar about him she couldn’t put a finger on.

  “So you’re the mad spirit who’s come up to join us on our fair isle?”

  Kali smiled. “Something like that. I understand you’re having a problem with your hearing aid?”

  A screech of feedback filled the small waiting room.

  “What was that, dear?”

  Caitlyn stifled a giggle. Kali shot her a horrified look. She couldn’t laugh at the patients!

  “I said, I understand you’re here about your hearing aid?”

  “I can’t quite understand your accent, dear. I’m here about my hearing aid.” He glanced at the window facing the street. “I see Young Dr. McClellan is taking a hand to building that boat.”

  “That’s what he says.” Kali smiled, then hid her flinch at another piercing hit of feedback.

  “What volume do you have your hearing aid on, Mr. Fairways?”

  “Eh?”

  “The volume?” Kali turned an invisible volume control near her ear.

  “Oh, it’s up as high as i
t’ll go! It was getting harder to hear so I ramped it right on up.”

  “That might be your problem.”

  “Eh?”

  Caitlyn out-and-out laughed. Kali hushed her, but not in time for Mr. Fairways not to take notice.

  “Oh, you’ll want to watch it, lassie.” He teasingly waggled a finger in front of the receptionist’s eyes. “You might be bonny now, but soon enough you’ll be all old and wrinkly like me—eyes not working so well, ears packed up and wondering what on earth people are talking about.”

  “Ach, away.” Caitlyn waved off his comment with a youthful grin. “You’re hardly an old codger, Mr. Fairways. My great-gran’s about twice your age. You’re obviously doing something funny to those hearing aids of yours, though, with the amount of bother they’re giving you.”

  “Since the day I was born, lassie. Since the day I was born.”

  “So you’ve always had hearing aids?” Kali asked.

  “Aye, well...”

  Kali smiled. She was getting used to the Scots’ all-purpose response. Never giving more information than absolutely necessary. She was hardly one to quibble with the tactic.

  “Why don’t you come down to my office and we’ll take a look?”

  A few minutes later Kali had eased down the volume on her patient’s hearing aids, syringed his ears and clipped away the long hairs that had accrued outside his ear canal. Once he had the hearing aids safely back in place Kali spoke at a normal volume.

  “There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with the hearing aids so far as I can tell, Mr. Fairways, but it’s a good idea to keep your ears as clear of hair and wax as you can.”

  “I know, dearie, but with no one to keep myself dapper for I sometimes forget.”

  “Well, you’re always welcome to come along and see me.” As the words came out of her mouth she realized they weren’t true. This was temporary. Just like so much in her life had been. Temporarily safe. Temporarily happy. Temporarily a normal woman doing her dream job with a hot Viking building...something or other just outside.