worked. What had she told him earlier, that it was a case of once bitten and twice shy? Well, that applied doubly in this instance. She would never make the mistake of falling for her ex-husband again!
The operation progressed remarkably smoothly, given all the problems they faced. Sophie had to admit that she was impressed by Liam’s expertise. He handled the delicate operation of stitching up the hole in the patient’s right ventricle with a skill and panache that she’d rarely witnessed during her time in Theatre. By the time it came round to closing the patient’s chest, she was confident about the outcome.
‘You did a great job,’ she said sincerely as Liam administered the drugs which would reverse the anaesthetic. The patient was now ensconced on a proper hospital trolley and would shortly be moved to the sick-bay.
‘Thanks, but I couldn’t have managed without your help, or Charlie’s for that matter.’ Liam smiled as he stripped off his mask. ‘You two make a great team!’
‘All part of the service, Doc,’ Charlie observed cheerfully then chuckled. ‘Wait till I tell my missus that I assisted at an operation. She’s mad keen on all those hospital dramas on the telly and she’ll be really impressed!’
‘And so she should be.’ Liam clapped the steward on the shoulder. ‘Remind me to buy you a drink as a thank you.’
‘I’ll hold you to that, Doc.’ Charlie suddenly grimaced. ‘And now I’d better get that trolley back to the kitchen. The chef is going to be less than impressed when he finds out what it’s been used for.’
‘If you have any problems, just give me a call and I’ll sort it out,’ Liam told him. He turned to Sophie after the steward left. ‘Rather a baptism of fire, wouldn’t you say?’
‘I would. A bit more exciting than handing out tablets for sea-sickness.’
‘Just a bit!’ Liam chuckled, a throaty sound which made the tiny hairs on her arms stand to attention. ‘I’d forgotten about your dry sense of humour, Sophie. You always did make me laugh.’
‘Not always,’ she said, bending to pick up the bag of rubbish because she didn’t want him to see how much that comment had stung. In the weeks leading up to their divorce they’d had very little to laugh about and the memory still had the power to hurt.
‘No. We had bad times, too, didn’t we? Far too many of them at the end. But it wasn’t like that in the beginning, was it? We seemed to spend most of our time when we were together having fun.’
‘Did we? I really don’t remember.’
She quickly sealed the sack and elbowed her way out of the door. She wasn’t sure what the procedure was for disposing of surgical waste so she turned round to ask Liam and felt her heart ache when she saw the sadness on his face. Was he thinking about how much joy they’d found in one another’s company? She might have claimed not to remember how wonderful it had been, but it had been a lie.
She was filled with a sudden and overwhelming sense of loss. Liam had been her whole world at one time and she’d been his. How had they allowed themselves to lose all that they’d had?
LIAM took a deep breath but the pain in his heart wouldn’t budge. His mind seemed to be awash with memories of all the wonderful times he and Sophie had enjoyed together. He had honestly believed that he’d found his soul mate when he’d met her, and that they would be together for ever, but it had all gone so terribly wrong.
Why hadn’t he tried harder to make her understand that nothing had happened between him and Amanda that night? he wondered sickly. If he hadn’t allowed his pride to get in the way, they might never have got divorced. Granted, they would still have had to work through their grief over Zoë’s death, but it had been Sophie’s belief that he’d had an affair which had brought things to a head. He’d made a terrible mistake by not making her listen to him, but maybe it wasn’t too late to rectify matters.
He’d actually opened his mouth when it struck him what he was doing. He was trying to patch things up with Sophie not because he wanted to draw a line under the past but because he hoped they could recapture the magic they’d once known. Fine, but where did that leave him and Julia?
Liam’s head swam so that it was a second before he realised that Sophie had spoken to him. ‘I’m sorry. What did you say?’ he said huskily, praying that she couldn’t tell how shocked he felt. Julia was a wonderful woman and he both admired and respected her. It made him feel like the lowest form of pond life to even consider letting her down.
‘I asked what I should do with this waste.’
‘Just leave it there for now. I’ll check with Mike Soames and find out what the procedure is for disposing of it.’
Liam saw her frown when she heard the tremor in his voice, and hastily cleared his throat. It had been a temporary lapse, he assured himself, a small blip on the route to everlasting happiness which he would achieve once he and Julia were married. It was natural that he should feel rather…nostalgic about the past, but it certainly didn’t mean that he didn’t love Julia. How could he not love a woman who was as self-sacrificing and dedicated—not to mention beautiful—as Julia was?
He took swift advantage of the return of common sense. ‘Everything else can be left for the cleaners. Once we’ve moved the patient into the ward, that’s basically it for tonight.’
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