by Annie O'Neil
“Impressive.” Brodie pulled himself up to sit, making sure a pillow was tucked beneath her head as he did so. “I’ll give you a pound for every patient you see using only that voice.” His light tone showed he was oblivious to her shift of mood.
Live in the moment, Kali. It’s the only thing you have in your power.
“I think I’ll use my Dr. O’Shea voice and save all my other voices for you.”
“Well, that’s very generous.” He popped a kiss on her forehead. “So many hidden talents, Kali! I wonder what other hidden treasures I’ll uncover over the next two weeks.”
“Two?” she squeaked. Was that it?
“Just under, actually.” He frowned. “Not so long now, my little whip-poor-will.”
Kali bit into the inside of her cheek. There it was again. The reminder that she wasn’t staying. She turned away from Brodie, snuggling into the warmth of his embrace so he couldn’t see the complex emotional maze she was navigating. It seemed absolutely mad...but a mere fortnight here on Dunregan with Brodie and she felt the safest and happiest she had since she’d left the family home all those years ago.
It was the first time she’d felt whole. As if Kali O’Shea was a real person and not a name she’d had to invent so she could never be found by her father and the man he’d arranged for her to marry.
Brodie made a contented mmm...noise and tugged her in closer. It was almost ridiculous how good she felt with him. A crazy thought entered her head. She knew that if in some mad turn of events Brodie were to ask her to stay, she would say yes.
Her gut, heart, the tips of her toes were telling her that this feeling she was experiencing right now—this deep, instinctive peace she was feeling—was the elusive “it” she’d heard so much about when people spoke of love.
Which, of course, was utter madness.
Particularly given the fact they’d all but been living in a self-contained lust cocoon, all safe and cozy, tucked away from the world and all its problems. Problems just waiting to be dealt with...
She heaved a silent sigh, turned around to face Brodie. His eyes opened just enough to give her a flash of their cornflower-blue brightness before shutting with heavy-lidded contentment. She traced a finger along his cheekbone and bounced it to his lips. Eyes still closed, he gave her fingertip a kiss. A kiss she transferred to her own lips with a smile. He rolled over to face the window and she cuddled into him for a cozy spooning. His body and her body matching with a made-in-heaven perfection.
It was probably just as well she only had a couple of weeks left on Dunregan. Getting too attached would only mean lying to this gorgeous man beside her. There was no way she was going to burden him with the complexities of her past. The family she’d been forced to leave behind. The father who had irrevocably betrayed her trust.
Brodie abruptly flung the duvet to the side, as if cued by the universe to remind her how fleeting their time together was.
Only two more weeks.
He leaped out of bed and she rolled into the warm spot he’d left behind as he stood at the windows, facing the expansive sea view.
“Is that snow?”
“Oh, my gosh!” Kali scrambled out of bed, pulling on Brodie’s discarded rugby jersey, and joined him, expertly stuffing the dark thoughts to the back of her mind.
Outside the window, big fat flakes were floating down from a gray sky completely unencumbered, ultimately finding purchase on a bit of slate, the deep green tines of a fir tree, or the dock she could see stretching out to the edge of the bay the house had been built on. It would take some time for a thick blanket of snow to build up—but the still beauty of the scene took her breath away.
“How beautiful...”
“Always see the bright side of things—don’t you, my little Miss Sunshine?”
If only you knew!
“It’s mesmerizing to watch.”
“And dangerous.”
“You always see the dark side of things, don’t you, Mr. McGloomy?” Her lips twitched.
Brodie held her gaze as if daring her to break character. Soon enough her lips broadened into a wide smile.
“I suppose so. But with you here...” He tugged her close, wrapping his arms around her so that they both faced the wintry scene. “It’s impossible not to see what’s right with the world.”
If she could preserve this moment in time she would.
Together they stood, enjoying the wintry scene, before a clock somewhere down on the ground floor bonged out the fact that it was high time for them to get ready for work.
“Back to reality?” Kali quipped—not really minding a jot. If this could be her everyday reality she would take it in an instant.
“Right, my beauty. We’d best get a move on.” Brodie dropped a kiss on top of Kali’s head. “All those sick people for you to see, and I’ve got to figure out how on earth to build a boat.”
“I’m sure there’s a video on the internet,” Kali teased, disappearing into the bathroom.
She stopped when the reflection of a woman caught her eye in the mirror. A happy, tousle-haired woman, her lips peeled apart in a wide smile.
It was, she realized with a start, herself. The woman she never thought she’d have a chance to be. Plain ol’ happy.
* * *
“That’s an interesting approach.”
“Johnny! I didn’t see you there.”
Brodie put down the sander and wiped his brow with his forearm before shaking hands with his old classmate. It might have been snowing all morning, but he was feeling the satisfying warmth that came from physical labor.
“I was just going to clamp the...uh...the sheer clamp to the front bit. The bow.”
“You’ve not really got a clue, have you, Brodie McClellan?” Johnny asked with a friendly guffaw. “I’ve built nine of these skiffs since you took yourself off to get your fancy medical degree, and I can spot a man who doesn’t have the first idea how to put together a boat from a mile off. Had to run up here from the docks to set you straight.”
“Why’d you have to build so many? None of them watertight enough to float?” Brodie gibed back.
He’d missed this. Just being able to blether with his schoolmates. The folk who knew him best. Although Kali was coming up a very close second...
“All of them, you cheeky so and so,” Johnny mocked, quickly starting the one-two, one-two fist jabs of a man ready to clock another one in the jaw.
“So, are you going to stand there waiting for a fight that’s not going to help, or are you going to help me?”
Brodie handed him a clamp. Not that he knew if it would be useful, but it was to hand.
“I’m guessing they didn’t teach you anything useful like shipbuilding down at your medical school, then?” Johnny teased the clamp expertly into place and put together two bits of the boat Brodie had thought would forever remain apart.
“Right before the diseases of the liver lecture,” answered Brodie with a grin.
Johnny ran a practiced hand along the golden grain of the planks and started reorganizing them into a more recognizable pattern. A boat shape.
“So, it’s looking like your trip to Africa didn’t kill you, then,” he said, after a few moments of turning Brodie’s “workshop” into something that actually looked like a workshop.
“Nope. You’re stuck with me.”
Johnny looked up from the woodpile, mouth agape. “For good? You’ve moved back to the island?”
Brodie’s gut instinct was to laugh facetiously. But the hint of hope in his friend’s eyes made him check himself. Johnny was a through and through islander. And, truthfully, the idea of staying, whilst not exactly growing on him, was distinctly more appealing than it had been a few weeks ago.
“You’ve definitely got me here for the foreseeable fu
ture.” Brodie chose his words tactically. He still had an out if he wanted one.
“That’s good to hear.” Johnny nodded his approval. “We always thought you’d bugger off to some exotic country for good once your dad passed.”
“We?”
“Helen and I. You remember Helen from school?”
“Of course I do! Seared into my brain, the lot of you.” Brodie mimed branding his brain. “Looks like she’s keeping you well fed.”
“Aye, that’d be about right.” Johnny patted his gut appreciatively. “Her steak bridies won me over years ago. I can’t get enough of them. It’s what inspired her to start the bakery. She makes a mountain of them every Hogmanay, remember?”
“I don’t think I’ve been to yours on New Year. Not since you shacked up with Helen anyway.”
“Hey, that’s my wife you’re talking about. I made an honest woman of her.”
“Well, congratulations to you both! Belated, they may be, but no less heartfelt.” Brodie shook his friend’s hand, genuinely happy for him.
“No one’s made you bend your knee, then?”
“No,” Brodie answered quickly. Too quickly. He’d been too busy trying to outrun his past ever to think about starting a future. A flash of Kali lying in his bed, hair fanned out on the pillow, came to him. If he were the type to settle down...
Johnny examined the wood again, giving it another once-over with hands that had known more than their share of physical labor. “We reckoned none of us were good enough for you—that’s why you had to go off seeking your fortune elsewhere.”
Brodie shook his head. “No, that’s not even remotely true, Johnny. I’m just—” He looked up to the dark skies, still ripe with snowfall, and sought the right words. “I suppose I just wanted to see what the world had to offer.”
“And now, like a wise man, you’ve come back to Dunregan. The home of Western civilization!”
They laughed together, their eyes taking in the tiny village hardly a stone’s throw from the clinic. Butcher, baker and a newsagent/post office/coffee shop on one side. Pub, grocery and a charity shop supporting the Lifeboat Foundation on the other. And, of course, the Dunregan Bakehouse. What more did a village need?
“What’s the wee girl like? The locum you’ve got in for all the folk who still think you’ve got the touch of death about you?”
“Ha! You never minced words, did you, Johnny? Kali? She’s fine. Great, in fact.”
In more ways than one.
Memories of their nights together were very likely the reason why he had made next to no progress on his skiff. Since when had he become a daydreamer?
“Well, I guess I’ll find out in a minute.”
“Everything all right?”
Johnny nodded. “Just a wellness checkup for my diabetes. It’s pretty much under control now, but Helen always badgers me into coming for these annual checkups.”
He gave a women, eh harrumph, and turned toward the clinic.
“Good to see you, Brodie. Perhaps we’ll catch up at the pub one of these nights, eh? And I’ll come along and lend you a hand on that boat of yours later this afternoon, if you’re still here. Make sure you don’t sink when you put her out to sea.”
Johnny winced the moment the words were out of his mouth.
“Oh, mate, I’m so sorry—I didn’t mean—”
For the first time in he didn’t know how long, Brodie took the joke at face value. It wasn’t a dig about his mother and the dark course their sailing trip had taken.
“Not to worry. I could do with your wise counsel. It’s an excellent idea.” And he meant it. “See you soon?”
“Soon.” Johnny nodded affirmatively.
They shook hands again and Brodie watched him disappear into the clinic.
It was good of Johnny to stop by and have a word. He’d been so engrossed in his sanding he wouldn’t have noticed if his old school pal had walked straight on by. But that wasn’t the Dunregan way. You saw someone you knew—you stopped and you chatted. People looked after each other as they had done in small communities like this from the dawn of time. Tribal.
He watched his breath cloud and disperse as he huffed out a laugh. He would bet any amount of money this was the type of moment his father had been hoping he would have when he’d made him promise to stay. Clever sod. It was easy enough to stay at arm’s length from the people he’d grown up with when he was thousands of miles away. But receiving offers of help on a boat he didn’t have a clue how to build...? That was humbling. And it was starting to tease away at the very solid line he’d drawn between himself and those who’d chosen to stay.
He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket before the ring sounded. He tugged it out and took a look at the screen, eyes widening when he saw who it was.
“Callum?” He stepped out of the shed, moving his eyes up to the mountains as if he could see his brother. “What’s going on?”
“There’s been a wreck.”
“What kind of wreck?” Brodie felt his heart rate surge. Was his brother all right?
“I’m fine,” Callum said, as if reading his mind. “But you better get up here—with help if you can—the Taywell Pass road.”
“What’s happened?”
“The snow’s right thick up here and a lorry towing a huge load of logs has jackknifed, taking out two oncoming cars as he went. One’s flipped and the other is on the edge of a wee loch. Get the fire brigade up as well. We’ll need the Jaws of Life. And make sure you’ve got tow ropes in your four-by-four.”
“Do you have your medical kit on you?”
“Only the small bag. I was taking a new bike for a ride down the mountain in the snow.”
“Have you got your four-by-four? We can put patients in it if necessary.”
“No, just the bike.”
Brodie heard his brother give a sharp gasp.
“Callum, are you all right?”
“Fine. Quit your fussing and get up here.”
Brodie headed toward the rear entrance of the clinic.
“Right. Ten, twenty minutes max—I’ll be there with reinforcements.”
“Make it fast, Brodie. The truck driver’s in a bad way. Probably internal bleeding. And there’s a wee laddie trapped in one of the cars as well.”
“Did you ring the air ambulance?”
“Not yet. I wanted to find out your ETA.”
“Give them a ring. At least as a heads up.”
“Aye—just get a move on, Brodie.”
He didn’t need telling twice. His brother had said he was fine, but there was something off in his tone.
Brodie hung up the phone and yanked open the clinic door. In a matter of moments he’d got Caitlyn to cancel the rest of Kali’s appointments, put Ailsa in charge of ringing the volunteer fire brigade and coordinating with the ferry captain in case they needed to hold the ship for patients needing hospital care.
He grabbed his own portable medical kit and loaded a couple backboards and everything else he thought would be useful in the cab of his vehicle.
“Where do you want me?”
Kali appeared at the back of the clinic, her new winter coat zipped right up to her chin.
“Passenger seat for now. We can fold down the seats in the back if we need to transport anyone.”
“Is there not an ambulance?”
“You’re looking at it.” Brodie pulled a blue light attached to a wire out of his glove box and clamped it to the top of his four-by-four.
“Brodie?” Johnny stuck his head out through the back door of the clinic. “I hear you’re wanting the fire brigade?”
“Aye.” Brodie jumped into the four-by-four.
“That’s me.”
“What happened to Davie Henshall?”
&nbs
p; “Retired, pal. See you up there as soon as I get a couple of the other lads together. Won’t be long.”
He waved them off and disappeared back into the clinic, only to be quickly replaced by Ailsa running to Kali’s side of the car.
“Here you are, dear.” She handed over three flasks. “Hot water if you need it. There’s tea bags and sugar and things in the glove box.”
“Thanks, Ailsa.” Brodie leaned across Kali whilst shifting the car into gear. “We’ll give you an update when we get there.”
As he hit the road, driving safely but with intent, Brodie could feel his suspicions increase. The call from his brother ran in his head on a loop, refusing to offer up any clues. He would’ve told him if something was wrong. Wouldn’t he...?
Even to think of suffering another loss constricted his throat. That was what this island did. Take and take and take.
He swore softly under his breath.
Stop thinking like a petulant teenager. Life’s not perfect anywhere and Dunregan’s no different. It’s the home your parents loved as much as they loved each other. And you. You’re alive. Practicing medicine, which you love. There’s a beautiful woman sitting right next to you who could light up your life for the rest of your days if you let her. Now, go find your brother.
* * *
Concentrating didn’t begin to describe how deep in thought Brodie looked. He was navigating the snow-covered roads with the dexterity of someone who could’ve walked the island blindfolded. The landscape seemed a part of him. Even more so right now.
“You all right?” Kali finally broke through the deepening silence in the car.
“Fine. We’ll be there in just a couple of minutes. I was just trying to work through how we’ll sort everyone.”
“Triage, you mean?”
“Yes.”
“You must be used to this sort of thing with all of the work you’ve done out in the field. With Doctors Without Borders.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
Brodie wasn’t giving anything away. She wasn’t going to lower herself by getting insecure, but this Brodie was an entirely different one from the sexy man who’d pinned her against the wall in the supplies cupboard earlier that morning for a see-you-at-lunchtime snog. Maybe this was Work Brodie, and she was confusing his refusal to engage in conversation with his concentration over what was to come.