going to be seduced by words or loneliness. This was a business proposition. They’d walk their dogs—presuming Minnie was a dog—then shop, and that was it.
‘I’m worried about that baby.’
Alex’s opening remark as they left the office reassured Annie. The business side of things had been confirmed.
‘She’s been through so much,’ he continued, putting his hand behind Annie’s back to steer her into the lift. ‘And she was really down when she came in. Can a child in such a debilitated state survive another major operation?’
‘But you must have seen so many children like Amy. There must be plenty of cases where you’ve been called in after a previous operation hasn’t worked.’
He nodded, and escorted her out of the lift.
‘Of course, but I still worry every time. It’s one of the reasons I’d like to see more trained paediatric cardiac surgeries, and units set up specifically to handle congenital heart disease. CHD is the most common of all congenital conditions and the long-term survival rate of children who have surgery is excellent. It’s not a question of allocating blame in an operation that’s gone wrong. I understand the difficulties a cardiac surgeon who operates on adults ninety-nine per cent of the time must face when he sees a neonatal heart. But it needn’t happen—he wouldn’t be forced to operate—if there was a paediatric cardiac surgeon within reach.’
‘But would that have made a difference to Amy? Having someone more skilled to do the op?’
They were outside the hospital now, walking towards the crossing, and Alex paused and looked down at Annie.
‘Are you really interested or just making conversation?’ His voice made a demand of the question and she frowned at him.
‘Of course I’m interested. What are you thinking? That I’m asking questions so I’ll sound interested in your job? That it’s a way of showing interest in you? As if!’ Scorn poured like hot oil over the words. ‘I’d like to remind you that it’s my unit, too, but I can’t run it effectively if I don’t know as much as I possibly can about it.’
Alex saw her anger reflected in her eyes, and wondered how an intelligent man like himself could always find the wrong thing to say to a woman.
But walking with Annie—talking about work—had made him feel great—comfortable, relaxed and at ease with the world. Then his pessimism had surfaced, and with it memories of women who’d shown interest in his work early on in a relationship, then had blamed his job for the breakdown of the same relationship.
Not that this was a relationship. Other than purely work-related…
Not yet, hope suggested.
Maybe not ever, pessimism reminded him, giving an extra nudge with a reminder that she’d lied about not having met him before.
Unless she really didn’t remember…
Damn his pessimism! Right now he had to make amends to his colleague.
‘I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that. Of course you’re interested.’
They resumed their walk, but he’d lost the conversation. It was being with Annie that was the problem—being with his ghost. The kiss, if it had done nothing else, had confirmed that.
But it had done something else. It had stirred his blood and not a little lust, so he’d walked home determined to get to know her better. Actually, he’d walked home with phrases like ‘woo her and win her’ running through his mind, but in the sober light of day he had modified these aims.
In the sober light of day he’d also found his tattered list of the delegates at the congress, and had gone through it once again, searching among delegates and partners for an Anne, or Annie, even Joanna and Annabel—any name that might conceivably be shortened to Annie.
He hadn’t found one, and couldn’t help but wonder just who she was.
Get to know her first, he’d decided, yet now here he was, treating a simple question with suspicion.
‘So, are you going to answer me, or shall we continue this walk in silence?’
‘What was the question?’
‘I asked about Amy. Would it have made a difference if she’d had a paediatric cardiac surgeon do the first two ops?’
Alex set aside thoughts of stirred blood and lust and concentrated on his reply.
‘I couldn’t say that. So much can go wrong. There are risks involved in all operations. But I firmly believe we can cut down on the percentage of risks with more specialists and specialist units.’
They’d reached his gate and Annie stopped.
‘I want a shower, and need time to write a shopping list if we’re shopping straight after we drop off the dogs. Say half an hour? You’ll be going past my gate to get to the park so I’ll wait for you there.’
‘You’ll wait for me?’ he teased, eager to rebuild the relaxed atmosphere they’d shared early in the walk.
‘Yes, I’ll wait for you. I don’t subscribe to the “women are always late” theory. I find, in fact, that women are more likely to be on time than men.’
She walked away from him, leaving him wondering just where things stood between them.
Not relaxed and easy, that was for sure! Her pert retort had underscored that point.
CHAPTER FIVE
ANNIE managed to stay angry with Alex until she saw him emerge from his front gate twenty-five minutes later. Though it wasn’t Alex emerging from the gate that made her laugh, but the little black bundle of curls trailing along behind him on the end of a lead.
Alex Attwood had a spoodle! A designer-bred spaniel-poodle cross, clearly still a puppy as it was the size of a large guineapig. The little thing cavorted along behind him like a curly black wig caught up on a rat on speed.
‘I hope you’re not laughing at my dog,’ Alex said, though the corners of his mouth were twitching as if he understood her mirth. ‘And you know the old joke about a little dog killing a big dog. Tell your Henry he’ll choke to death if he tries to swallow Minnie.’
But Annie didn’t have to tell Henry anything. He was sitting at her feet, forty kilograms of Rottweiler muscle and bone, gazing at the little spoodle with love-struck eyes, while she yipped and yapped about his feet, and explored him as if he were a new kind of doggie toy.
‘She’s gorgeous,’ Annie said, kneeling down to pat the excitable little creature. She covered Henry’s ears with her hands and added, ‘I fell in love with these dogs at the pet shop, but really needed something big and fierce.’
Loyalty made her add, ‘Not that Henry’s all that fierce, it’s just his size that frightens people.’
‘I can see he’s not that fierce,’ Alex said gravely, and she looked down to see Henry was now lying down, so the little dog could lick his face and climb across his back.
