laugh sounded more like a snort. ‘Somehow I don’t see that as prophetic.’ She folded her arms and glared at her friend. ‘And as for tennis, what’s wrong with being champions three years running?’
Amber laughed out loud. ‘I rest my case,’ she said. Cate acknowledged the hit with a wry smile.
Amber went on. ‘Our regional CEO is officially filling in for Mr Beamish.’ She looked at Cate. ‘He said to call him Noah, which made me laugh a bit as we’ve probably got a flood on, but he doesn’t seem too bad.’
‘The man’s a walking calculator!’ Cate stood up and paced the room.
Amber looked up with interest. ‘Then he’s a well-packaged calculator.’ She shrugged. ‘I’d almost welcome his slippers under my bed if I wasn’t off men.’ She raised a quizzical eyebrow at Cate. ‘Struck a few sparks yesterday, did you?’
That was the last thing Cate wanted Amber to think. ‘No.’ The word came out louder than she’d intended and Cate fought not to blush. ‘It’s not a matter of liking or disliking. The guy is a threat to Riverbank—and if he had his way our hospital would be downgraded to cottage hospital status.’
Amber blew a raspberry. ‘You don’t know that.’
Cate didn’t meet Amber’s eyes. ‘Well, I don’t want to find out the hard way. Can we leave Noah Masters, please?’ Cate sat down. ‘What else is happening here today?’
Cate couldn’t mind Amber’s teasing. She couldn’t remember a time when Amber hadn’t been in her life. They’d shared rag dolls and horse blankets since kindergarten. Experience told Cate that something else was bothering her friend.
Amber smiled but Cate still felt she was stalling, which wasn’t like her. ‘Let’s get you home. Is something wrong, Amber?’
All amusement left Amber’s face and she sighed. ‘I’ll start with the bad news.’ She put her hand out to cover Cate’s. ‘Iris Dwyer is our critical patient and her friends are with her in the palliative care room, but her son hasn’t arrived yet.’
Iris…Cate fought back the sudden dread and managed a professional nod to Amber. But her mind whirled. Iris, not Iris! There was only one reason a patient would be admitted to the hospital’s soothing palliative care suite with its very comfortable bed, and Cate didn’t want to think about it.
Iris was the sort of woman every girl would have loved having as a mother-in-law. She was certainly everything Cate wanted to be—independent, with a home and farm and a loving son to care for. Mr Dwyer had died some two decades earlier and, far from withering, Iris just seemed even more determined and in control.
And now that would change. Cate acknowledged the sympathetic look from Amber. Iris and Brett had been a big part of her life before the break up of their engagement.
‘Brett’s mother has terminal cancer?’ Cate shook her head in disbelief. ‘Why didn’t I know she was sick? Why wouldn’t she tell me? Maybe I could have done something…’
Amber understood. ‘Don’t feel bad she didn’t tell you. Iris has always been a self-sufficient woman. She must have preferred it that way. I don’t think she told anyone before she came in here.’ Amber shot a look at Cate to watch for her reaction to the next news. ‘Brett will be here soon.’
Cate sniffed. ‘Why isn’t he here now? He’d better get here in time…’ Cate was still reeling from the more devastating news.
Amber sighed. ‘You take too much on yourself, Cate. Nobody knew about Iris’s illness. She went to Theatre this morning for an abdominal mass and it was an open-and-shut case. Nothing they could do. She’s been running the farm up until her admission and it looks like she’s organising the way she dies just as efficiently.’
A cold lump settled in Cate’s stomach and the back of her throat scratched as she fought to control the surge of emotion that welled. Brett had better make it. While her ex-fiancé was quite capable of behaving less than responsibly, she’d always enjoyed the company of his forthright and capable mother.
Cate sometimes wondered if her fondness for Iris had been half of her attraction when Brett had come back on the scene.
Amber touched her arm. ‘How do you feel about seeing Brett again?’
Cate gave a tiny shrug—that was unimportant by comparison. ‘Like a fool for ever agreeing to marry him. But apart from that, I feel sorry that he’s going to lose his mother.’ Cate blinked away the sting in her eyes.
‘There’s a hard time ahead for him,’ Amber said with a catch in her voice, and Cate remembered that her friend had always had a soft spot for Brett. She could have him.
‘Poor Iris.’ Cate blinked the sting out of her eyes and met Amber’s sympathetic gaze. ‘You need to pick Cindy up from preschool. I’ll find the rest out when I go up and see her later on the ward.’
Amber nodded and glanced at her clipboard. ‘Iris is our most critical. The other patients in Medical are slowly improving, which means they’re pretty much the same as they were when you went off yesterday. They have two spare beds.
‘Theatres are running to time, and Theatre Sister asked, as you were doing a quick shift, if you could take Theatre call tonight as it’s her husband’s birthday.’
Cate shrugged at the chance of having her eight-hour break between shifts broken by an unexpected theatre case, as it had the last time she’d done the quick shift. ‘No problem. Have you marked it down yet?’
‘No. But I didn’t look for anyone else. Marshmallow centre—that’s you—but at least a lot of people owe you favours!’ Amber grinned and wrote down Cate’s name for the call.
‘Surgical?’ Cate took the theatre list Amber handed across and scanned the list of operations that had been that morning.
‘No spare beds so any emergency admissions or accidents will cause a reshuffle of beds or early discharge.
‘Children’s Ward has three in with gastroenteritis so don’t play with them if you want to spend time helping in Maternity,’ she teased.
‘And how is Maternity?’ Cate settled in the chair.
Amber flicked her reading glasses back up her nose. ‘Just how you like it. They have babies coming out of their ears and two more in early labour.’
Cate nodded. ‘I love it when it’s like that.’
Amber rolled her eyes. ‘Intensive Care has three in, all day-two myocardial infarcts, who are progressing well. And last, but not least, Emergency is surprisingly quiet for the moment, but we all know how that can change in the blink of an eye.’ Amber put her reading glasses in her case and handed over the clipboard and the large bunch of keys. ‘Have fun with Noah Masters. I’ll look forward to the next instalment of Cate versus Goliath.’
Amber stretched up and hugged Cate. ‘I’m sorry about Iris.’
Cate returned the pressure. ‘She’s a wonderful woman and deserves more—but thanks.’ She pushed Amber towards the door.
Cate shivered in sympathy
