toddler didn’t seem to mind being captured. With another gurgle of laughter he wrapped his arms around the nurse’s neck. She planted a kiss on the curly head and then turned to take him back to where he was supposed to be—presumably the paediatric area. The moment she became aware of her audience was very obvious. Her eyes widened and her smile was fading as she caught her bottom lip between her teeth.
Then her gaze collided with Blake’s and a flush of colour instantly stained her cheeks.
And, for the second time in a single day, he was blindsided.
She’d had her face half covered the first time he’d seen her so he hadn’t realised...
He hadn’t realised that this was the most beautiful woman he’d ever clapped eyes on in his entire life.
Sun-kissed blonde hair and the bluest eyes imaginable. A cute little nose and a generous mouth clearly designed for smiling—or for being kissed...
He couldn’t drag his gaze away from her.
She was tall and slim, as well. A model masquerading as a nurse. A Disney princess who probably had a tiara and frothy ball gown tucked away in her locker.
He was still staring as she hurried away with the toddler peering over her shoulder. As if mocking him, a small hand was waving at Blake.
‘Oh, dear...’ Emily murmured. ‘She’s not having the best first day, poor thing.’
Blake’s inward breath made him realise that he hadn’t taken one for a while. ‘Who is that?’
‘Samantha Braithwaite. She’s come here from Sydney Central with impeccable references including postgrad qualifications in trauma management.’
There was a moment’s silence, then, possibly because Blake’s tone had finally filtered through to his colleague.
‘Oh, no...’ Emily sighed. ‘Do I have to warn her of your reputation?’
Blake grinned at her. ‘Do I have a reputation?’
She laughed. ‘Go away. Do your work. What you do in your personal life is none of my business.’
He pretended not to hear her final murmur as he headed for cubicle three.
‘And thank goodness for that...’
‘OH, MY GOD, Harriet. I can’t go back tomorrow...’
Ignoring the glass of wine her friend had put in front of her, Sam buried her face in her hands.
‘Don’t be daft. It’ll be fine.’
‘Everybody thinks I’m an idiot.’
‘That’s not true and you know it.’
Sam reached for her glass and took a long sip. Okay...maybe not everybody thought that but one person certainly did and he wasn’t just one of the senior doctors in her new department and therefore her boss.
He was, quite possibly, the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen in her entire life. Emily had been quite right that Blake Cooper looked different in his scrubs. When she’d seen him later today, thanks to chasing that wayward toddler, his hair was pulled back, sleek against his head, the length of it hidden in a kind of knot at the back. And, without the distraction of those rock god tresses, it was his eyes that grabbed attention. Eyes that were so dark you couldn’t distinguish the pupils. Brooding eyes.
Drop dead sexy...
But also capable of delivering a withering glance. As they had, in that first moment he’d noticed her thanks to that unfortunate bedpan incident.
Sam was staring at her glass of wine, now. ‘Has it ever occurred to you that chardonnay looks a lot like urine?’
Harriet let out a peal of laughter that made heads turn in this trendy wine bar with its glorious view of the beach.
‘Let it go.’ She was grinning.
‘I can’t. I practically threw a full bedpan of the stuff at the feet of one of Bondi Bayside’s top emergency consultants. You were there. You must have seen the way he glared at me.’
Pushing her fingers into her hair loosened strands that escaped the coil she had created so carefully in the early hours of this morning. She pulled the clip from the back of her head and let the rest of it escape as well. Maybe that would help her try and move on from her disastrous day.
‘I think he had other things on his mind,’ Harriet told her. ‘Honestly, he’ll have forgotten all about it by tomorrow. And, if he hasn’t, he’ll make a joke about it.’
Sam finally picked up her glass and took a sip. ‘Why were you there, anyway?’
‘I heard someone screaming for help in the car park. And then I saw Blake leaping over the fence like some hero in an action movie. Joining in was automatic—it was like a training exercise for the team or something.’
‘But you don’t work in ED.’
‘I mean the SDR. I’ve told you all about that. Wasn’t it one of the reasons you wanted to come and work on this side of town?’
Sam nodded. She’d long been envious of Harriet’s involvement with the Specialist Disaster Response team. How exciting would it be to get dispatched as a first response to major incidents like floods or fires or an avalanche, maybe? To be working in the field facing the kind of challenges that you’d never experience in a nice, safe emergency department. She fully intended to try and join the team herself and, given that she wasn’t a firefighter or a paramedic, the first step in that ambition had been to become a member of Bondi Bayside Hospital’s staff.
Her heart had just sunk a little, however. Had Harriet just made her aware of a possible fly in the ointment? A fly the size of an albatross?
‘Blake’s in the SDR?’
‘Are you kidding? It was pretty much his baby right from the start. He told me once that he’d been planning to join Médecins Sans Frontières. He’d been through the selection process and was just waiting for his first posting but then his mum had a stroke and she’s pretty dependent on him now so he couldn’t go anywhere. He had a mate in the fire service who got him into USAR and that’s when he came up with the idea of a medical team that could add another level of skill to a first response.’
‘USAR?’
‘Urban Search and Rescue. I’ve done a course myself. You learn how to find victims in situations like collapsed buildings. It’s awesome. I think most firies do it and a lot of paramedics. Not so many doctors or nurses but it’s attracting more interest now. You have to do it if you’re in the team. Blake’s actually one of the regional instructors now. Plus, he’s winch-trained for helicopters. I’m thinking of doing that training myself, actually. Bit scary, though...’
Sam was nodding but her thoughts were skidding off in another
