laughed, ignoring Callum in her peripheral vision. ‘I’m sure Courtney caught on pretty quickly.’
Dr Dawson chuckled in that way of his that made other people want to join in as he pulled out of the hug. ‘Now, then, I see you’ve met Cal. I think you two are going to get along famously.’
Felicity smiled at her boss then nodded in Callum’s general direction. ‘Yes. Callum and I have met.’ She couldn’t bring herself to call him Cal—he’d always be Callum to her.
‘Oh, call him Cal,’ Dr Dawson said. ‘That’s right, isn’t it, son?’
At almost seventy Bill called every male under forty ‘son’. It was his term of endearment.
‘Cal’s fine,’ Callum said, ambling over to the table and sitting down. ‘Most people call me Cal.’
Dr Dawson nodded, looking pleased with himself. ‘You’re bright and early. If you’re trying to impress me, it’s working.’
‘Thought I’d look at the clinic appointments for the week. Familiarise myself with some charts.’
‘Jolly good idea.’ Dr Dawson nodded. ‘Must do the same myself. Better get to it. Monday morning is always a madhouse here. I’ll just make myself a cuppa and do the same thing.’
‘I’ll make it and bring it in for you, Dr Dawson,’ Felicity offered.
She loved Bill Dawson almost as much as she loved her own father but he made an unholy mess in the kitchen and, like a lot of men, seemed completely blind to it. Also, Callum was a little too close for comfort now.
‘Oh, no, Flick. Julia would rouse on me if I made the nurses get me a cup of tea.’
Felicity smiled. She knew that was the truth. Julia Dawson had been a nurse for over twenty years before Luci, her change-of-life surprise package, had come along. She’d worked part time on Reception for many years at the practice once Luci had gone to school and still helped out when things got hectic.
There was no greater advocate for the practice nurses than Bill’s wife.
‘I’m offering,’ Felicity said, shooing him away from the sink as she approached. ‘It’ll be our little secret, I promise.’
Dr Dawson capitulated easily. ‘Thank you.’ He grinned. ‘I’ll see you later, Cal,’ he said, moving towards the door. ‘Don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions. Pop your head in or ask Angela or even our girl Flick. She knows more than all of us put together.’
Felicity kept her back turned, fiddling with the mugs as she snorted self-deprecatingly, which produced more chuckles from Dr Dawson as he exited.
She was excruciatingly conscious of Callum’s gaze burning into her back as she made two cups of tea. When she was done she picked them up and finally turned to face him. It was disconcerting to find him still watching her, his brow crinkled, his mouth set in a brooding line.
‘I used to be a Cal,’ he said. ‘Felt like one too. The life of the party. The centre of the world. The man of the moment. I used to be like that.’
Felicity wasn’t sure what this was about. Was he annoyed all these days later that she’d told him he didn’t look like a Cal? Because he didn’t—not to her mind. Especially not now. Or was he trying to explain why he hadn’t introduced himself as Cal right out of the blocks?
Or did he just miss that Cal guy and want to reminisce? She had to admit to being curious about him herself.
It was hard to figure out what he meant. He was so tense and shuttered, so hard to read. ‘What happened?’
He shrugged, looking down into his mug. ‘Life. Stuff.’
She nodded. She didn’t know what he wanted her to say. Did he want her to push or leave it alone? Something had obviously happened to Callum to change him.
Was that why he was here? In the middle of freaking nowhere? Fourteen hundred kilometres from his amazing harbourside apartment that Luci had raved about?
‘You’re a long way from home,’ she murmured.
‘Yeah.’
Felicity almost gave up. It was like pulling teeth. But she’d always been stubborn. ‘Because you wanted to trade water for wine? Or...because you’re running away?’
He glanced up from his mug, piercing her with his eyes. Running away it was.
Best she remember that.
‘Because I’m newly trained and thought some rural experience would be good.’
It was a sound reason. Most GPs who locumed in rural areas and weren’t from rural areas did so for the experience. Somehow, though, she didn’t think that’s what was going on here.
But whatever. It wasn’t any of her business.
‘Right. Well...’ She looked at the mugs in her hand. ‘I better deliver this, we open in fifteen minutes. I’ll email you those files in a bit. Have you been set up on the computer?’
‘Yes.’ He nodded. ‘Thanks.’
Felicity gave him a weak smile as she headed towards the door. ‘No worries. Just yell if you need anything.’
But she hoped like hell he didn’t.
* * *
It was almost three hours later before Felicity got around to emailing the file, although she had managed to send the appointment calendar invite through to Callum before things had got too crazy.
In the mornings Felicity was a general dogsbody. From receptionist to nursing duties, she was a jack of all trades and Mondays were always busy. It was like medical conditions multiplied over the two-day break. Plus there was a new doctor starting so that always brought out the rubberneckers hoping for a glimpse.
Not that anybody had seen Callum yet, he was keeping his door firmly closed. A fact that didn’t deter the Vickers Hill grapevine. They didn’t need a sighting today. It was already in full swing because Mrs Mancini had spied him at the local supermarket, buying groceries at the weekend, and had declared him a bit of a catch.
She was surprised Mrs Mancini hadn’t arrived with her gorgeous granddaughter who was a teacher at the local public school and who she’d been trying to marry off for the last two years. Three patients had already arrived bearing gifts of food for him.
Felicity picked up the plate of shortbread Mrs Robbins had brought with her. Her shortbread won the blue ribbon at the district fête every year and had been known to make grown men weep.
She took it with her to Callum’s office. As far as she knew, he hadn’t surfaced all morning and it was for him after all. She wanted to check he’d received the file and needed to get in there to set up for the orthopaedic clinic that started at one. There were three lots of plaster due to come off today and the plaster saw wasn’t in the treatment room so it was probably in his office somewhere.
Also they needed to talk. Before the
