and his overwhelming need to protect those he cared about. ‘Please, Maxine. It won’t take a minute.’
But, woefully stubborn as usual, she straightened and waved him back to his seat. ‘I’m fine, Joey. Don’t go bothering about me. I’ll pop the kettle on. The closed sign’s up, Jenny’s out on calls, Alex is still on annual leave and the nurses are at a vaccination update over at the community hub in Ambleside, so it’s tea for two. Oh…three if we count Rose.’
‘Rose?’
Maxine’s voice wafted down the corridor and he could picture her rolling her eyes, just so. ‘The new nurse.’
The one he was choosing not to see. Right. Too bad. She’d understand once she saw his task list and inbox. He checked the clock on his computer screen as he finished writing up the last patient’s notes. Five minutes before he was due at his first house call—a fifteen-minute drive away. Today, he was destined to run late for everything. Maybe he’d take a raincheck on that cup of—
‘Quick! Someone? Dr…er…er…?’ The woman’s voice, assertive but breathy, came from Reception. ‘Someone? Hello? Er… Crash call! Now.’
Crash call? Damn.
It took him less than five seconds to run up the corridor, but his heart rate trebled as he saw Maxine lying on the floor and a woman with white-blonde hair in a messy ponytail tilting his lovely receptionist’s chin back…about to breathe for her?
What the hell? ‘Maxine?’
‘She collapsed. Cardiac, I’m sure. She was clutching her chest.’ Amber eyes turned to him, then narrowed. ‘Oh. It’s you.’
‘Joe Thompson. Dr Joe Thompson.’ He nodded, then knelt next to Maxine with no hint of recognition or memory of their altercation this morning.
‘And I’m Rose.’ Great. He was the doctor she’d come to work with? The guy from the hill? The kind of pompous man she’d left behind, along with her old life. Still, if he was a stickler for the right walking gear he’d be picky about getting CPR technique right too. She just hoped they wouldn’t need it. ‘Faint carotid pulse. Dyspnoea. I caught her as she fell and lowered her to the floor, so no head or other bony injury.’
She looked down at the sweet woman who’d been showing her round the medical centre only a few minutes ago. They’d been getting on so well before this; Rose had been looking forward to working with her. She had a nice nature Rose had been instantly drawn to, and she also knew her way round the medical centre like an old hand. Maxine’s eyes flickered open and she winced. ‘Pain. Arm. Chest.’
‘Okay, Maxi. We’ll sort you out. Don’t worry; we’ve got you. It’ll be fine.’ The doctor’s face softened with affection and concern as he examined their unexpected patient. ‘Those damned onions, right? I’ll have to have a word with David.’
Onions? No. Rose blinked up at him and shook her head. It was some sort of cardiac problem. Clearly. What the hell kind of doctor was he? It was obviously cardiac and if anyone knew what that meant she did. She felt her own chest constrict and the long scar down her ribcage prickle in sympathy. ‘Er…the pain is central chest and radiating to the left and down her arm. She’s short of breath and has a weak pulse. It’s not gastric—’
He looked at her as if she’d spoken out of turn. ‘I am well aware of the symptoms.’
Yeah. Pompous was one thing, but misguided? Wrong, actually. ‘You alluded to it being gastric, and it’s not—’
Ignoring the rest of Rose’s input, he pointed down the corridor, his voice all business as he spoke. ‘ECG machine, portable oxygen and defibrillator are on a trolley in the treatment room. Down there. Second right. Bring it all here then call 999. Our full address is by the phone behind you, but shouldn’t be necessary as they know where we are.’
She gritted her teeth and did as requested as efficiently as she could, given she’d only had a brief whip round the place in preparation for a full induction tomorrow. But it gave her enough time to ruminate on her impression of her new colleague and boss. Bad enough that he’d taken umbrage at her clothing choices this morning, but he was also one hell of a grumpy dude at work too.
It was just a shame he was so damned good-looking and she would have to endure looking at those soulful blue eyes for the duration of her stay. Never mind the impressive height and shock of blond hair—had Vikings ever made it this far west? If so, here was their long-lost son. Dr Joe Thor Thompson.
Tall. Pompous. Sexy eyes. A tick list to avoid if ever there was one. Been there, done that. Not happening again.
By the time she got off the phone the doctor had managed to assist Maxine onto a gurney Rose had dragged up from the treatment room along with the resus trolley, assessed her blood pressure and oxygen saturation, fitted an oxygen mask over her face and was attaching a twelve lead ECG to her chest. ‘Breathing any better?’
Maxine shifted the mask so she could speak. ‘Bit.’
Thor leant in and spoke gently. Which seemed incongruous on such a gruff big man. ‘Your oxygen levels are a bit low, but once they come up we can take the mask off. How’s the pain? Out of ten?’
‘Eight.’
He nodded. ‘Then I’ll give you some pain relief. Nurse? Can you attach the leads while I do the needles?’
‘Sure.’ But then she wished she hadn’t agreed, because it was always difficult doing something for the first time in a new environment and her hands shook as she peeled back the sticky paper and placed the pads onto Maxine’s chest. She willed her own heart rate to slow and the trembling to stop, but no dice. Her body was betraying her today, and all the time she felt Thor’s eyes on her, assessing. Why was sticky paper so damned sticky? It wouldn’t drop from her fingers as she shook them. It attached itself to the wires and got in the way of…everything. She looked up and caught his gaze. ‘I’m sorry, it’s—’
‘Sticky. Yes.’ He didn’t move, didn’t blink, barely breathed as he waited. But she felt his irritation swaddle her like a cloying cloak and she wished the ground would open up and swallow her. Finally, she managed to get everything in place and she felt him sigh.
Clamping down her own frustration, she closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath. She would not let another man make her feel…less…ever again. She was good at her job. She was a great person, actually. She knew that, and it had been a long, hard journey to finally believe it.
But none of that was important right now; she had to work with this man regardless, and Maxine needed them both to get along if they were going to successfully care for her.
Their patient reached for Joe’s hand as the last lead was clipped on. The ECG machine bleeped and whirred, then traced her heart rhythm onto an LED display. Not good news: Maxine was in the middle of an acute cardiac event and needed urgent treatment and admission to hospital.
Joe nodded as he looked at the read-out. ‘Okay, sweetheart, it looks like you’re going to have to make a trip to Lancaster General because your heart isn’t doing what it should do. So, I need to get a drip in your arm so we can start the treatment here and some aspirin will help make the blood flow a bit easier. But first, pop this tablet under your tongue. Bad news is, I don’t think it was the onions after all.’
Maxine
