‘I’m sure we’ll sort something out that will benefit us both,’ Maxi came in smoothly. ‘Jacob’s just being his usual cautious self.’
Loretta’s gaze skittered curiously between the two medical officers. ‘Am I missing something here?’
‘We worked together in England,’ Maxi said, keeping the patter going but flicking Jake a don’t-you-dare look. ‘But I’m sure I’ll settle in here. I love the place already.’
‘Well, it’s not at its best at the moment,’ Loretta said sadly. ‘But what a godsend to have another doctor—and no offence, Jake, but my guess is that the ladies of Tangaratta will be making a beeline for Dr Somers’s surgery.’
‘Excellent.’ Maxi beamed. ‘I’ll look forward to meeting my new patients.’
Jake bit back a squawk of unbelief. She’d outgunned him without blinking an eye. Hell! And he’d thought she needed protecting! He turned to the charge, his expression carefully neutral. ‘Loretta, do you have the charts for Bernie Evans and Karryn Goode, please?’
‘Mr Evans has perked up. We’ve pushed fluids into him for most of the afternoon,’ Loretta said, proffering the files. ‘But I think we should keep him overnight. He was in a right old state when the meals-on-wheels folk found him. If it hadn’t been their day to call…’
Maxi opened her mouth and closed it again quickly. She was full of questions and suggestions but wisely kept them to herself. She guessed she’d already stretched Jake’s patience a little too far.
‘And Karryn wants to go home.’
‘We’ll have to see about that.’ Jake ran his eyes over his patient’s chart. She’d recovered well after the birth of her baby boy. Maybe he’d let her go and maybe he wouldn’t. ‘OK, thanks, Loretta.’ He lifted a hand in acknowledgment. ‘We’ll find our way.’
‘Where to now?’ Maxi asked eagerly. They’d walked from the nurses’ station and turned the corner into a short stretch of corridor.
‘Nowhere.’ In a quick, precise movement Jake angled himself in front of her so she was almost pressed against the wall. He stared down at her, his look unreadable. ‘Just what are you trying to prove here, Maxi?’
‘Sorry?’ She blinked uncertainly at him.
‘Pretending to be the locum. And what’s with the “I love the place already”,’ he mimicked.
Maxi winced. Had she really sounded like that? Almost simpering? She shook her head, biting the soft inside edge of her bottom lip. ‘It was a silly, spur-of-the-moment thing.’
His dark brows came together. ‘You’ve hardly been in the place five minutes. How could you have formed any opinion?’
She shrugged, wrapping her arms over her chest and kneading her upper arms.
‘Max, this isn’t some kind of mind game!’ Jake’s voice was laced with frustration. ‘This is about real patients with real needs!’
Maxi’s heart thumped. Had she gone too far? ‘I know that, Jacob.’ She swallowed uncomfortably. ‘I know.’
‘Then why give Loretta the impression you’re the locum?’
‘Your receptionist happened to mention the locum hadn’t arrived and I thought…well, I thought, why not? It was out of order,’ she admitted, her green eyes soulful and large. ‘I’ll rectify things with Loretta before we leave.’
‘You won’t,’ Jake said, his tone implacable. ‘If you want to be taken seriously, just start thinking of a plausible explanation for your sudden departure, when the time comes.’
‘But—’
‘Maxi…’ he warned.
She hesitated. Then lifted her shoulder in a dismissive shrug. ‘Whatever you say.’ A beat of silence. ‘So, do you want me to just make the tea while I’m here or am I allowed to speak to the patients?’
‘Just drop it, please.’ Jake’s gaze narrowed on her flushed face, the angry tilt of her small chin. ‘For the time you’re here, you’re a VMO—a visiting medical officer. With all the responsibility the title carries.’
‘Oh.’ Emotions began clogging her throat. His generous approach to what could have turned into a messy situation took her by surprise. And yet it shouldn’t have, she allowed. He’d always played fair. ‘I appreciate that—thank you,’ she said quietly.
‘You’re welcome.’ He began walking again. ‘Now, come and meet Karryn.’
Maxi felt a sudden overriding sense of caution. ‘I wouldn’t want the midwife to feel I was going over her head.’
‘You wouldn’t be. Sonia’s not around anyway. She left this morning to check on a couple of expectant mums on outlying properties.’
Maxi inclined her head towards the files. ‘May I see Karryn’s notes, then?’
Handing the chart over, Jake said, ‘I’m not sure I want her to go home just yet.’
They held a mini-consult in a nearby small treatment room. After Maxi had speed-read the patient’s history, she said musingly, ‘Karryn’s twenty-nine and this was her third pregnancy, right?’
‘Yes.’
And the delivery had been straightforward, Maxi noted. There’d been no excessive bleed and only a minor repair necessary. And twenty-four hours post-partum, her obs were well within the normal range. Maxi brought her gaze up. ‘So, why don’t you want her to go home?’
‘They live miles out of town, for starters.’ Jake hitched himself against the treatment couch. ‘She has a child of six and another four. The eldest, Belinda, goes to school. The four-year-old, Nathan, is home with Mum. Plus now she’ll have the new baby. And no one around for back-up.’
‘Are you concerned she’ll overdo?’
‘No question.’ Jake rubbed a finger along the bridge of his nose. ‘Karryn and her husband Dean are trying desperately to keep their property viable. For the last few months Dean has been away most of the day sinking water bores, and right up until she delivered the baby Karryn had been doing the feed drop for the cattle.’
‘I see.’ Maxi made a moue of conjecture. ‘So, fill me in here, Jacob. What does that entail? And when you say cattle—how many does that mean, a dozen or fifty?’
‘Nearer four hundred head.’
‘OK…’ Maxi refused to be thrown. ‘So, how physical is it for Karryn, then?’
‘It’s physical, time-consuming and iffy with the set-up they have to use. She takes the Land Rover with a trailer attached. She’s had to take Nathan with her. Now she’ll have to take the baby as well. They’ll be in safety harnesses but just the thought of it scares the hell out of me.’
‘It’s obviously a struggle,’ Maxi agreed. ‘But it’s the physical part that
