a sigh as he shut away memories fresh enough to have the potential to derail him.
It was impossible to hear what Mandy was saying now but it was obvious she was informing Dr Walters that he had asked to see her. Maybe that he’d been waiting a long time. He felt the intensity of the glance that came his way and saw how her eyes widened just enough to advertise surprise.
OK, it had been a slight exaggeration to say he knew her. That he was a friend. But they would hardly have paged her otherwise, would they?
She was frowning now. Quite possibly displeased at having her busy schedule interrupted by something this random. She would be trying to make sense of it. Wondering whether she had, in fact, ever met him before.
Dylan could sense imminent dismissal. He couldn’t let that happen so he did something that almost always achieved the desired result.
He smiled at her.
Who the hell was he?
Attractive young men did not generally sit in the ED and smile at her as if…as if just seeing her was enough to make him happy. His curly hair was far too long and he was wearing a black T-shirt beneath a leather jacket that looked old and very soft. His blue jeans were so faded the knees were white and did those scuffed-looking toes belong to cowboy boots? He probably had a gold ring in one of his ears.
While he didn’t look at all put out to be holding a baby, Jane had the distinct impression he would look even more at home holding a guitar. Sitting by a camp fire, maybe, with a gypsy caravan in the background. Certainly not the type of person she ever encountered in her limited social circle.
‘He said he knew me?’
Mandy nodded. ‘He’s got a baby with him. Her name’s Sophie and she’s about four weeks old. Such a cutie—’
‘Is the baby sick?’ Was he a parent of a recent patient? No. The last neonate she’d been called to see had been a couple of weeks ago. A newborn boy with a cleft palate serious enough to make feeding an issue.
‘No.’ Mandy shook her head this time. ‘At least, I don’t think so. All he said was that he really needed to see you.’
‘And he’s been waiting how long?’
‘A couple of hours? Maybe more. I rang Theatre as soon as he arrived but you were just starting a case.’
A long, complicated case. The end of a back-to-back load that had left Jane with aching muscles and a strong desire for a hot shower and a break she couldn’t afford to take. A ward round that would probably keep her in this building until 8 p.m. was waiting. She should have sent her registrar to deal with this. Irritation at precious time being wasted surfaced.
‘And you’ve let him take up a cubicle space in Emergency for that whole time?’
Mandy flushed. ‘He was so…I…’
Jane could feel her lips pressing themselves into a thin line. He’d smiled at her, hadn’t he? Of course Mandy would have melted under a smile like that, especially when it belonged to a tall, more than slightly disreputable-looking young man with a mop of unruly black curls and a cute baby in his arms.
Why was he here with a baby?
Jane made the mistake of taking a second glance. She didn’t know him and she certainly wasn’t a friend. For whatever reason, this man had lied in order to see her and now he was sitting there, taking up valuable space in a busy department with the most unrepentant smile she had ever seen. Charming, maybe. Irresponsible, definitely.
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake,’ she muttered. ‘Fine. I’ll talk to him.’
She’d talk to him all right. He was going to get an earful of just how busy clinicians in this hospital were. How short-staffed nurses were. How unhelpful it was to take up space that could be used by someone who genuinely needed it.
Just who did he think he was?
What did he think he could possibly have to say to her that would justify the kind of arrogance he was displaying? Demanding to see her.
He was still smiling as Jane marched into the cubicle. She didn’t bother pulling the curtain.
‘Hi.’ He stood up, adjusting the burden he held carefully.
Jane said nothing. He had three seconds, max, to say something that might get him off the hook. And if he didn’t manage that, he was going to feel the brunt of every frustration and extra bit of pressure she’d been under for the entire week. Jane was drawing in a long, slow breath. Ready to let loose.
‘Meet Sophie,’ the stranger said, holding out the bundle in his arms. ‘Your daughter.’
CHAPTER TWO
‘EXCUSE me?’
Jane whisked the curtain shut behind her. Mandy was watching but hopefully she had been too far away to hear that extraordinary introduction. She turned back to what now felt like a small space. There was a narrow bed and a single chair beside it. A baby’s car seat with a handle was on the floor beside the chair and it had a bag inside it with what looked like a nappy poking through the zip. The rest of the space was taken up by a very large man holding a very small baby. Jane glared at the man.
‘What did you just say?’
‘This is Sophie,’ the stranger repeated patiently. At least he spoke more quietly this time. Maybe Jane’s horrified whisper had made him realise his mistake.
‘Sophie McKenzie,’ he continued. ‘I’m Dylan McKenzie. My older brother was Josh and he was married to—’
‘Izzy,’ Jane finished for him, her tone hollow.
A tiny silence fell in which the name seemed to hang in the air despite the busy sounds from outside the curtain. A patient groaning in the next cubicle. A child shrieking a little further away. The rattle of an IV trolley going past and the general paging system requesting a doctor in Resus 1 immediately.
Izzy. Jane’s best friend. At times wild, always passionate, the life of any party. The person she’d loved enough to go way further than an extra mile for. Her fellow student, flatmate…the sister she’d never had.
Dylan was watching her. He had dark blue eyes, Jane thought irrelevantly. And black hair and fair skin. Irish colouring but his accent was Scottish. Josh had been Scottish, too. Working abroad as a registrar when he’d met Izzy and they’d fallen madly in love.
‘The love of my life,’ Izzy had said more than once. ‘My soulmate. This is death-till-we-part stuff, Janey.’
The expression in those dark blue eyes looked horribly like…sympathy.
‘Where is she?’ Jane’s voice came out sounding strange. A kind of soft croak. She knew, dammit. This was why the emails had stopped and the phone messages hadn’t been returned. She still had to ask. ‘What’s happened?’
‘I’m so sorry.’ The accent became stronger as his voice dropped. ‘But Izzy died. A month ago now.’
Jane
