She murmured her thanks as she took it over to the window to read, although for a few seconds the words seemed to dance before her eyes. She had to stop this nonsense, had to stop reacting whenever Tom touched her. It was ridiculous to be this responsive to a man she barely knew.
The thought steadied her. She skimmed through the leaflet and nodded. ‘This sounds ideal. I’m sure Peter will feel a lot happier if he knows exactly where he’s going.’
‘Precisely.’ Tom followed her across the room, bending so that he could point out a paragraph that was particularly relevant. ‘They will even introduce him to the members of staff who’ll be looking after him. That’s probably more important than anything else. If Peter knows the nurses and doctors, etcetera, he’ll be less likely to worry.’
‘I’m sure you’re right,’ Hannah agreed tersely, anxious to put a little distance between them. She went to step back then realised that Tom had beaten her to it and already moved away. He smiled at her but she couldn’t fail to see the wariness in his eyes.
‘If I were you, I’d give them a call right away, Hannah. The sooner you get it organised the better.’
‘Of course,’ she murmured, wondering why he appeared so on edge. He’d probably realised that he’d been crowding her, she decided, impinging on her personal space. However, logical though it sounded, she wasn’t convinced it was the answer and it bothered her. ‘I’ll do it now, so long as you don’t think Simon will mind.’
‘Of course he won’t mind. He’s gone out on a call but, believe me, he would never have taken you on if he didn’t have faith in your judgement.’
‘That’s good to know.’
Hannah headed for the door, relieved to make her escape. Being around Tom seemed to confuse her for some reason and she didn’t appreciate feeling this way. She liked order in her life, not uncertainty, although she was trying not to be as rigid in her outlook as she’d used to be. As she had discovered when she’d been expecting Charlie, not everything went according to plan.
The thought still had the power to hurt. She couldn’t help feeling guilty about the way she had tried so hard to structure every aspect of her life. If she’d been more flexible then Andrew might not have been so uncompromising too, she thought for the umpteenth time, then sighed when she realised how unlikely that was.
‘So how do you feel about us holding the fort while Simon and Ros visit their daughter?’
‘I suppose it would make sense,’ Hannah said, pausing reluctantly.
‘But?’ He gave a short laugh. ‘There was a definite “but” in there if I’m not mistaken.’
‘Was there?’ He was far too astute, she realised with a sinking heart. She summoned a smile, keen to convince him that she wasn’t the least bit worried by the thought of them working together. ‘I suppose I’m a little concerned at the thought of being so new to the practice. It takes a while to find your feet and I wouldn’t like to make any major blunders.’
‘I’m sure you’re far too professional to commit any blunders.’
He returned her smile but once again she could see the wariness in his eyes. It struck her all of a sudden that if she had a problem with Tom then he had a problem with her too. The thought was unsettling because she didn’t want there to be any issues between them, nothing to make either of them more aware of the other, and she hurried on. ‘Let’s hope so. Anyway, what about you? Would you be able to delay taking up your new job?’
‘Yes, I expect so.’ He shrugged. ‘Benedict—he’s the director of the clinic I’m going to work at—is a friend from way back. I’m sure he would agree to let me start a few weeks later if I explained the situation to him.’
‘In that case, there doesn’t appear to be a problem.’ She gave a light laugh, determined to nip things in the bud. Maybe she did find him attractive but so what? She was a grown woman, a mother as well, and she wasn’t going to allow herself to get carried away! ‘If Ros and Simon do decide to go, I’m sure we’ll cope.’
‘I’m sure we will too,’ Tom murmured. He glanced round when the phone rang, hating the fact that he felt so relieved to be interrupted. He knew it was ridiculous to be so aware of her, but he couldn’t seem to stop. Even learning that she was a mother—a definite no-no in his book—hadn’t dampened his interest. As soon as he was near her, common sense flew right out of the window.
It was a worrying thought and Tom knew that he needed to take it on board. Normally, he was the one who called the shots, the one who was always in control, but not this time, it seemed. He needed to get himself back on track and there was no time like the present. He smiled coolly at her, hoping that she couldn’t tell how on edge he felt. ‘I’d better get that.’
‘Of course.’
She didn’t say anything else before she left the room so there was no basis for thinking that she was as relieved as he was to put an end to the conversation. Tom lifted the receiver to his ear and listened while the caller explained that the dog had eaten his prescription. It was the sort of anecdote he normally relished, but he found it difficult to concentrate that day. Was Hannah as confused by her feelings as he was by his?
‘Are you still there, Doctor?’
‘I… um… yes.’
Tom dragged his mind back to the missing prescription and told the caller to come into the surgery and collect another one. He printed it out and left it in the tray then headed out to the corridor. He had to stop thinking about Hannah all the time. If it did turn out that they would be working together for longer than expected then he needed to put things into perspective. It shouldn’t be difficult. He just had to remember that he was incapable of being faithful to any woman. He was genetically programmed to play the field like generations of his family had done before him. So long as he remembered that, everything would be fine, but if he ever imagined that he could break the cycle…
He cut off that thought. He couldn’t change who he was, couldn’t erase his heritage, the bad bits or the good. He had tried to do so once before and had failed miserably, and he certainly wasn’t going to try it again. No matter how tempted he was, he wouldn’t get involved with Hannah, especially when there was a child on the scene.
Children needed stability more than anything else. They needed people who would stay around while they were growing up and he couldn’t promise to do that. Oh, he might think he could but, if push came to shove, would he? Could he? Or would the family genes rise to the fore and he’d turn out exactly like the rest of them—incapable of making a commitment and sticking to it?
Tom squared his shoulders. It was a risk he wasn’t prepared to take. No matter how attracted he was to Hannah, she was off limits.
CHAPTER THREE
IT WAS just gone six when Hannah arrived at the nursery to collect Charlie. Simon had insisted that she and Tom should split her evening list, which meant she had managed to get away earlier than expected. Now, as she rang the bell, she found herself wondering why she had been so reluctant to let Tom help her. After all, the world hadn’t come to an end because he had seen some patients for her!
‘Oh, hi, Hannah. Come on in. Charlie’s in the playroom—we can’t get him out of the sand tray. He loves it!’
Lucy
