by Sarah Morgan
‘Alcopops. It appears she lost consciousness quite early on in the evening, but they all assumed she was drunk.’
‘Presumably they were all too drunk to notice the difference,’ Josh said wearily. ‘Remind me to have a word with Doug, our community policeman. They need to keep a closer eye on the beach in the evenings. OK, folks, let’s give her that sodium bicarb.’
There was a flurry of activity and one of the nurses glanced at the machine with a frown. ‘She has severe tachycardia, Josh.’
Kat looked at the machine and noticed that the girl’s heart rate was incredibly fast.
‘Let’s give her 5 milligrams of metoprolol IV,’ Josh instructed calmly, his blue gaze flickering first to the machine and then back to the girl on the trolley. ‘Her blood pressure is going up, too. Let’s try some nifedipine and then we need to get a CT scan before we transfer her to Intensive Care. My guess is she’ll show cerebral oedema.’
‘Kat?’ Paula popped her head round the door at that moment and held out a piece of paper. ‘There’s the number you were after.’
‘You’re a genius!’ Kat took the paper and smiled at the woman. ‘How did you do it?’
Paula gave a modest shrug. ‘Appealed to the conscience of the little dark-haired one. She’s not such a tough nut as the other one.’
Kat read the number on the paper and gave a sigh. ‘I suppose I’d better phone and tell them where their daughter is.’
‘Is that the parents?’ Josh checked the ECG reading and then glanced across at her. ‘If so, you definitely need to call them. They need to get down here. After the CT scan we’re transferring her to Intensive Care. She’s going to need ventilating. Do you want me to ring the parents or are you OK with that?’
Kat shook her head. ‘I can do it.’
Just about the worst job in the A and E department, she reflected, but she could do it.
She called the parents, gave them the barest information but tried not to worry them, and then returned to Resus to find that they were preparing Holly for a CT scan of her brain.
The girl was unconscious now and something about her pale face tugged at Kat’s heart.
She turned to Josh. ‘Will she be OK, do you think?’
He gave a shrug. ‘Who knows?’ His voice was hard. ‘Drugs aren’t to be messed with.’
‘Weird really…’ Kat frowned. ‘This place is so far away from the streets of London and yet you have the same problems as a big city.’
‘In some ways we have more problems.’ Josh scanned a blood result that someone handed him. ‘That looks a bit better. Where were we?’ He glanced at her, momentarily distracted from their conversation. ‘Oh, yes, the problems of living in a seaside town. Unfortunately, because we have such good surfing beaches, inevitably we attract a pretty lively crowd. A young crowd. Generally it’s all pretty harmless but not always, and there are always unscrupulous individuals out to make money from the unwary. The main problem is usually alcohol. Teenagers come down here to surf and party and they over-indulge. Saturday nights are the worst.’
Kat gave a rueful smile. ‘I can imagine.’
He looked at her. ‘It won’t be anything you haven’t seen before. Teenagers behave like teenagers. It’s just the setting that’s different. Are the parents coming?’
‘They’re on their way,’ Kat told him. ‘They live about two hours away. They didn’t even know Holly was here. The girls said they were having an extended sleepover with a friend at home and then caught the train down here.’
Josh winced. ‘Ouch. Well, they always say that your sins will find you out.’
Finally the patient was transferred, but that seemed to be a signal for the whole of Cornwall to have accidents and the rest of the day was frantically busy.
By the end of her shift Kat’s feet were aching, her head was throbbing and her stomach was rumbling from lack of food.
And she’d thought London was busy…
Josh let out a long breath and glanced at the clock. ‘Long day. I’m conscious that we didn’t have a chance to talk at all. Or eat. Why don’t we go for a drink? There’s a lovely pub a very short drive from here. Sells great food. I can answer all those questions you haven’t even had time to ask.’
Kat stiffened, immediately on the defensive. Was he asking her out? ‘I don’t think so. I don’t—’ She broke off and he lifted an eyebrow in that slightly mocking, sexy way designed to test the resolve of the strongest female.
‘You don’t what?’ His voice was soft. ‘You don’t drink? You don’t drink with colleagues? Or you don’t drink with me? Which is it, Dr O’Brien?’
Her mind went completely blank. She wasn’t used to playing games with men and she had a feeling he was playing games. ‘I have to get home.’
‘And is there someone at home waiting for you, Kat?’ His eyes scanned her face and she felt something shift in her stomach. An awareness that she instantly dismissed.
‘Archie.’ She said the name firmly as if to remind herself as much as him. ‘Archie is waiting for me. Thanks for today, Dr Sullivan.’
Even though they hadn’t had time for a conversation, she’d learned a great deal just from watching him work. She’d seen enough to know that, whatever else he might be, Josh Sullivan was an excellent doctor. He used instinct as well as experience and training, and those instincts were obviously good.
‘Call me Josh.’ He smiled, and there was more than a hint of the pirate in that smile. ‘We’re very informal here, but I’m sure you already know that.’
She did know that, but somehow calling him Josh implied an intimacy that she didn’t want.
There was no way she was becoming intimate with Josh Sullivan.
* * *
Prickly, Josh thought as he walked towards his office to make a start on the mountain of paperwork that awaited him. If he had to find one word to describe Kat O’Brien, it would be ‘prickly’. Like a thorn bush, it was impossible to get too close without risking physical injury.
He sprawled in the chair and narrowed his eyes as he mentally examined the facts.
She was fine from a professional point of view. More than fine. She’d handled those teenagers extremely well and, from what he’d seen so far, her clinical skills were excellent—but the minute they moved from the subject of work the barriers had come up and she’d frozen him out.
Was that because of Archie?
Josh leaned forward and flicked on the computer. The fact that she was obviously involved with someone disappointed him more than he would have anticipated.
She wasn’t available, he told himself firmly, pushing away memories of her body in the black wetsuit. All right, so she had legs to die for and curves designed to drive a man out of his mind, but she was already taken, so as far as Josh was concerned that was the end of it. He didn’t poach.
Katriona O’Brien was a colleague, nothing more, and that was the way she was going to stay.
CHAPTER THREE
KAT paid the babysitter and then tiptoed upstairs and peeped round the door of the bedroom.
‘You can come in,’ a sleepy voice said from the bed. ‘I’m not asleep.’
She slid inside and sat on the bed, wincing as she sat on a plastic boat. ‘Well you should be asleep, young man!’ She moved the boat and added it to the pile of toys in the box by the bed. ‘It’s really late.’
‘I wanted to stay awake until you came home.’
She winced, wrestling with the guilt that went hand in hand with single motherhood and the need to earn a living. ‘I got held up at the hospital.’
‘Lots of people having accidents.’ He nodded wisely. ‘Did you fix them?’
She smiled at the question. ‘I did my best. How was your day at summer camp? Did you meet anyone nice?’
Because it was the summer holidays she’d been forced to find Archie somewhere to go during the week, and fortunately she’d found a wonderful children’s ‘camp’ run by a team of teachers from the local primary school. Gi
ven that Archie would be attending the same school from September, it had seemed like an ideal solution.
‘I did magic.’
‘What sort of magic?’ Unable to resist touching him, she smoothed his hair gently, thinking that in the dark like this, snuggled in pyjamas covered in boats, he still seemed like her baby. But she knew he was growing up very fast and she was making the most of every single moment. ‘How did you get to be six? Tell me that. Last time I looked you were still a baby.’
‘Magic.’ Archie looked at her, his eyes huge. ‘Did you know that I can make myself invisible whenever I want to?’
‘Really?’ Kat looked impressed. ‘Wow, I bet that’s really useful.’
He nodded. ‘I did it today in camp. Twice.’
She lifted a hand to free her hair and it tumbled in waves over her shoulders. There was a frown in her eyes as she listened to him. ‘Are you having problems making friends, sweetheart?’ She’d worried like mad about uprooting him but Archie was such a friendly child she’d assured herself that he’d soon settle in. ‘Who did you eat lunch with?’
‘A boy called Thomas.’ Archie sighed. ‘He turned me into a chatterbox.’
Knowing that her son never stopped talking, Kat hid the smile. ‘How did he do that?’
‘Well, he kept talking to me so I had to talk back instead of listening to the captain.’
Kat smiled. The summer camp was run along the lines of a ship with a ‘captain’ and ‘mates’. They were obviously very creative.
‘And did the “captain” tell you off?’
Archie shook her head. ‘Not once I explained I’m not normally a chatterbox. Anyway…’ he stifled a yawn ‘…camp is different to school. No one tells you off. It’s cool.’
Relieved that he was obviously enjoying himself, Kat felt herself relax. At least that was one less thing to worry about. ‘And what did you do?’
‘They taught us knots. The bunny runs round the tree and goes back down his hole. Or something like that.’ Archie wriggled further under the covers. ‘I had chicken nuggets for lunch. With curly chips.’
‘Delicious.’ Kat thought of her own day. Lunch had been nothing more than a hopeful thought and a few chocolates from a box a patient had left for the staff. Her stomach was growling in protest. She tucked the lightweight duvet round her son and stood up. ‘You need to get some sleep now. I’ll see you in the morning.’
‘Can we go to the beach?’
‘Not tomorrow because I’m working and you’re in camp. But on Saturday…’ she smiled and bent to kiss him ‘…we’ll spend the whole day there. And you’ll love it.’
‘Sandcastles?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘Big ones?’
‘Definitely.’
‘And a picnic?’
Kat flicked on the nightlight. ‘And a picnic. Now, go to sleep or you’ll be far too tired to be any fun.’
‘Mum?’ His voice stopped her in the doorway.
‘What?’
‘Can we go sailing? Please? In a real boat? I’ve learned the knots in camp.’
Kat scanned the room, her eyes taking in the curtains covered in boats, the blue duvet covered in boats and the various plastic boats that littered the bedroom. Ever since he’d been able to express an opinion, Archie’s preference had been for boats.
Unable to resist him, she bent to kiss her son one more time. ‘Sailing is pretty expensive,’ she said softly, ‘but we’ll see what we can do, I promise.’
What she needed was to save the life of someone with a boat, she thought as she left the room. Maybe a boat trip would suffice. She’d read somewhere that there were basking sharks off this part of the coast. Maybe they could take a trip and see some sharks.
Resolving to look into it as soon as she had a free moment, she walked downstairs to the tiny kitchen that overlooked the back of the house. She almost laughed out loud with delight. She still couldn’t believe that she could actually see the beach from her kitchen! And to think that only a few days ago the only view she’d had been of peeling paintwork and grimy London, a view that could have been described as nothing short of uninspiring.
Despite the fact the sun was about to go down, the beach was still surprisingly crowded. Wondering whether they were locals or tourists, she filled the kettle and reached for a mug. Next to her cottage she could see the converted lifeboat station, but there were no signs of life. She stared at the building with an emotion nothing short of envy. What sort of person owned a house like that? Obviously someone who loved all things nautical and couldn’t bear to be far from the sea.
As well as the boat on the slipway, there were several surfboards propped casually against a wall and something that looked like a mast lying nearby. Whoever owned it was obviously very trusting, she reflected, wondering why he or she wasn’t worried about theft. Her stomach rumbled again and she reached for a loaf of bread.
Toast.
It was all she seemed to eat these days, she thought regretfully as she dropped two slices into the toaster. Either that or fish fingers, if she happened to be cooking for Archie. Whichever way you looked at it, her food certainly couldn’t be described as gourmet.
She made herself tea, buttered the toast and sat down at the little table that she’d bought for the kitchen. A book of accident and emergency medicine lay open from earlier that morning, and she reached for it and flipped through the pages.
She wasn’t a complete rookie when it came to A and E but still she’d felt slightly out of her depth that day. When that teenager had come in semi-conscious it wouldn’t have occurred to her that drugs might have been involved. First day, she reminded herself, taking a bite of toast and flicking to the chapter on poisoning, determined to read more about the effects of MDMA. She wanted to understand why Josh had ordered the tests he’d ordered and made the decisions he’d made.
He was a good doctor. She took another bite of toast and scanned the book, taking in everything, making a mental note of the questions she wanted to ask Josh the next day.
Josh.
She finished her toast and sat back, allowing herself to think of Josh Sullivan for the first time since she’d arrived home.
Over the years she’d trained herself not to notice men. Not to react or respond. It was a part of herself that she’d shut away. But with the best will in the world it was impossible not to notice Josh. He was a man born to be noticed by women. And it wasn’t just because of the amazing body, she thought, remembering the moment when he’d tugged off his shirt on the beach. She gave a faint sigh that was entirely feminine. If it hadn’t been for years of training and self-discipline in the area of masculine attraction, she would have swallowed her own tongue. No, it was more than the body. It was the whole man. The wicked blue eyes, the dangerous smile, the curve of his mouth, the casual self-confidence…
And he knew how to talk to women. He had that way of giving his whole attention, a way of making a woman feel as though she was the only person in the room, the only person that mattered.
Kat shook herself mentally and picked up her empty plate. What was wrong with her? She was far too experienced and cynical about the male sex to be taken in by a handsome face and a killer smile. They’d been standing in Resus for most of the day, probably in the most sterile atmosphere it was possible to find. And if she thought that was even close to romantic then she had too much time on her hands. She needed to keep busy. It was the one thing she did really well and fortunately Archie was more than willing to help. No mother of an active six-year-old boy could be anything but busy.
Her life was sorted.
It was tidy. It was neat. She was the one in control.
No way was she going to risk spoiling all that for a man.
* * *
The next day was just as busy.
Kat dropped Archie with Mary, the woman she’d found to mind him before and after camp, had a brief chat and then drove the short distance to the hospital. She still couldn’t believe that l
ife was being so kind to her. She had a job, she had a cottage that was perfect, if on the small side, and she had found a wonderful woman to help care for Archie. Like all working mothers, she found the issue of reliable childcare a problem and the fact that someone like Mary was prepared to help her out had relieved her load considerably. She was a remarkably young grandmother with time on her hands, and once Archie was at school in September, she would be the one to pick him up on the days when Kat was working. All in all, it was an excellent arrangement and a load off Kat’s mind.
A and E was already heaving when she walked though the doors.
‘Kat, you’re needed in Resus,’ Josh barked as he strode away down the corridor.
Kat blinked, wondering whether the guy ever went home. Certainly no one could ever accuse him of shirking, she thought as she dumped her bag in her locker and quickly changed into the theatre scrubs that they all wore for work. If she’d thought Cornwall would be a rest after working in a busy London A and E department, she was fast revising her ideas.
Less than a minute later she hurried into Resus and was handed a lead apron.
‘Put this on,’ Josh ordered. ‘We’re just X-raying her chest and pelvis.’
Kat did as he instructed then dragged on some gloves and stuck close to Josh.
He turned to her, his blue eyes sharp and alert. ‘Are you confident intubating a patient?’
Kat bit her lip. ‘I’ve never done it. Well—only on a mannequin.’
‘Mannequins are good but they’re no substitute for the real thing.’ Josh picked up a laryngoscope. ‘Obviously if it’s less than straightforward you call the anaesthetist, but it may be that you’ve called them anyway and they’re tied up so you need to be able to do it yourself if the need arises.’
Kat thought back to the day before when she’d seen him intubate a patient. ‘You make it look easy.’
A smile flickered across his face. ‘I’ve had lots of practice, unfortunately. And don’t forget that sometimes it’s easier than at others, of course, and don’t forget that it’s always easier in the controlled environment of an operating theatre than it is in the mayhem of A and E.’