a bad day, because the air-conditioning had broken down and the temperature in the kitchen was almost too much to bear.
She gave Matt an apologetic smile. ‘I should get on,’ she murmured. ‘I’ll see you later, back at the house, and perhaps you can tell me all about how you got on in A and E.’
‘Will do.’ Matt drank his coffee, tilting back his head and draining every last drop. ‘I’d better head off, anyway. I don’t suppose Lucy will have given a thought to getting anything in for supper. Her head’s in the clouds these days.’
Jade leapt to her friend’s defence. ‘It’s not her fault, you know. She has a lot on her mind.’ ‘Don’t we all?’
Matt left the café and Jade concentrated on clearing tables. Her boss obviously didn’t like to see her standing around talking to the customers but, as far as she could see, no new people had come in off the street.
No sooner had that thought crossed her mind than the main door swung open and a group of men entered. There were four of them, all smartly dressed in suits, shirts and ties, and one of them was the very man she’d just been talking about, Ben Langley.
He walked towards an empty table and sat down. On the wards, he gave the impression he was someone you could rely on. And here he was no different. He had that look of a man who was totally at ease with himself and everything around him … calm, yet purposeful.
She studied him surreptitiously as she waited for the group to settle down. A head taller than she was, he had dark hair and features that somehow compelled you to look, and look again. His eyes, she recalled, were a pleasing mix of grey and blue, and he had a way of looking at you that made it seem that you had his full attention.
And he was looking at her right now. She gave a faint start, her cheeks flushing with heat because he had caught her out, watching him.
His gaze was fixed on her, and she gave herself a mental shake. Get a grip, she chided herself inwardly. He was just looking at her because he wanted to order some food, and she was the waitress, for heaven’s sake.
He smiled as she walked over to the table. He had a naturally warm and friendly manner that automatically drew everyone in. She’d been aware of it from the start, and it had been fairly obvious that all the nurses had fallen for him straight away. Then again, the number-one rule for junior doctors was for them to make friends with the nursing staff if they were to make any headway in the job, and he had managed that for sure.
She drew in a deep breath. It was highly embarrassing that he and his friends should find her working here, of all places—in an instant her street cred had gone right through the floor.
‘Hello. What can I get for you?’ she asked. She gave them all a welcoming smile and let her glance roam fleetingly over his friends.
‘Steak burger and fries for me,’ the fair-haired one said. ‘I’m starving.’ He checked out her long, chestnut-coloured hair and gave her an appreciative smile.
‘I’ll have the toasted cheese sandwich,’ the young man sitting next to him said. ‘No expense spared, you see,’ he added in mock humour. ‘We’re celebrating our first day in new placements—at the hospital across the way,’ he added by way of explanation.
She nodded, but Ben said softly, ‘She knows all about placements, Jack. She’s one of us.’
Jack’s eyes widened. ‘Really? How come I’ve not seen you around?’
‘We’re in different year groups, perhaps?’ She gave a light shrug and concentrated on writing down the orders.
‘Maybe you can tell us what you’ve been up to so far this year,’ Jack said in a musing tone. ‘We could swap notes. It’s always good to have some insight into other specialties. I started on the renal unit today.’
‘Jade’s a fifth-year student,’ Ben explained, and she glanced at him. He remembered her name? It didn’t mean anything, of course. Perhaps he was good at that sort of thing. She’d remembered his name because he was the kind of man you didn’t forget.
‘That’s right,’ she murmured, adding for the benefit of the rest of the group, ‘I started in Paediatrics today, alongside Ben. I’d really like to stay and swap notes, but unfortunately I’m already in trouble with my boss for standing around talking.’ She pulled a face. ‘I can feel him glaring at me from the kitchen.’
‘Oh, dear.’ Ben acknowledged that with a sympathetic smile. ‘Then we’d better hurry up and decide what we want to eat.’ He studied the menu along with his other friend and gave her their order a moment or two later.
Jade tucked her notepad into her pocket and walked over to the kitchen. She hoped Ben wasn’t following her progress. The wretched uniform was sliding up over her hips again and it took all her willpower to resist the urge to tug it back down.
‘Here we are,’ she said a short time later, setting down the plates of food. ‘Burger and fries, toasted cheese sandwich, baguette and crepes. I’ll bring your drinks along in a minute or two.’
‘Thanks.’ Ben accepted the plate of savoury crepes she put before him. His friends began to tuck in, chatting to one another, while Ben put his food to one side for the moment and looked at her. ‘It’s good to see you again,’ he murmured, letting his gaze drift over her and making her suddenly conscious of the way her skirt clung to her and of the hint of cleavage displayed by the cotton top of the uniform. ‘I expect we’ll soon get used to working alongside one another. The first day in a placement is always a bit unnerving, isn’t it? But you seemed to be coping well enough.’
‘Did I?’ She gave a soft laugh. ‘I suppose it was okay once I managed to spend time with the patients. Everything else seemed to fade into the background then. Apart from when the consultant came to do his rounds. That was a bit scary.’ She looked at him, a small frown in her green eyes. She doubted he had any such problems.
At the end of his working day he seemed perfectly relaxed. He had removed his jacket, and where he had rolled back his shirtsleeves she saw that his strong forearms were lightly bronzed, covered with a smattering of dark hair.
‘He put you on the spot a bit, didn’t he, asking about the baby’s stridor?’ His voice was deep and low, smoothing over her like comforting hot chocolate. ‘I thought it was a bit unfair of him, really, to do that to you on your first day.’
She nodded. ‘You’re right. His questions left me flummoxed for a while, I must say. To begin with, I wondered if the strange noises the baby was making when he breathed in were to do with a respiratory problem, but at least I did get it together enough to suggest that we should check out his throat as well as his chest.’
‘And that was the right thing to say, as things turned out.’ He smiled, a full-on smile that curved his well-shaped mouth and glimmered in the depths of those smoky, grey-blue eyes. Caught unawares, Jade’s heart did a funny little flip-over in the middle of her chest.
‘Yes.’ Her voice was husky. What on earth was the matter with her? She hadn’t reacted this way to any man since she’d met Ewan. And her experience with him had surely been enough to warn her to keep her emotions under control.
She brought her mind back to the baby at the hospital. She’d learned that the infant was struggling with a ‘soft’ larynx, a condition where the immature cartilage folded inwards on inhalation, causing an airway obstruction.
