every single moment at work near him. Forty-odd hours a week.
She tried to school her face into neutral and stared at his hands, hoping that she could think of some suitable response quickly enough to stop Anna asking questions. But looking at his hands was a bad, bad move—because she could still remember the pressure of his fingertips against her skin. Still remember what those hands had done to her. Why couldn’t she get him out of her head?
‘Holls? Are you all right?’ Anna asked.
‘Uh—yes. I hit traffic problems so I didn’t get back from Liverpool until pretty late last night. I, um, just need some sleep,’ Holly prevaricated. It was true, up to a point. What she really wanted was time to think, not time to sleep. She gave a huge yawn and hoped it didn’t look as fake as it felt.
Give me time. Give me space to deal with this, she begged. And, right on cue, her pager bleeped. She checked it. ‘Sorry. Gotta dash. Catch you later, Anna, David.’ She gave them both her best smile and left the rest room with indecent haste.
‘Fancy you two knowing each other. Still, at least we don’t have to warn you that Holls isn’t as scary as she seems,’ Anna said.
David frowned. Holly—his Holly—scary? Surely they couldn’t be talking about the same person. Holly had been the epitome of ‘sweet sixteen’. She’d been lovely. A little shy, but once David had got to know her he’d discovered her sense of fun.
Holly Jones, scary?
‘She tells it like it is, and God help you if you make a stupid mistake,’ Anna said, rolling her eyes. ‘But if anyone needs help, she’s the first one to offer.’ She smiled. ‘But I expect you already know all this.’
‘Yes,’ David lied. Maybe he’d been so in love with her that it had blinded him to her real self. If anyone had told him that Holly would dump him without an explanation, he’d have scoffed. He and Holly had told each other everything, even the secret dreams nobody else had known about.
Obviously he’d never really known her. Because the Holly Jones he remembered had planned to be a GP—so she could get to know her patients properly and look after them from cradle to grave. He’d felt the same. They’d even talked about having their own practice, a husband-and-wife team.
Even though he’d chosen his speciality years after their break-up, he hadn’t been able to face a GP rotation. Instead, he’d chosen emergency medicine, where he could do the best for his patients but he could stay uninvolved. He could walk away.
‘Right, now you’ve finished your coffee, I’ll show you round the rest of the department,’ Anna said.
‘Thanks.’ He smiled at Anna. So what if Holly was back in his life? She was probably married—to someone her family thought suitable for her—and used her maiden name for professional purposes. And even if she wasn’t married, David was older and much, much wiser. He wasn’t going to let her get close ever again.
As for her smile making his heart turn over, that was just a reflex action. He hadn’t thought of Holly for ages.
Ha. Who was he trying to kid? At the weekend, when he’d moved into his tiny flat round the corner from the hospital, he’d unpacked a few boxes and come across an old photograph of the two of them together. A photograph he should have thrown out years and years ago. He’d looked at her sweet, shy smile and wondered what she was doing now. Had she become a doctor? Was she married to another GP, with four children and a houseful of cats and dogs and hamsters, living the life they’d always planned, only without him?
Now he knew at least one of the answers. She was a doctor. An emergency specialist. They were going to have to work together and put the past behind them. Somehow.
‘It’s my stomach, doctor,’ Lucy said, doubling over as another spasm hit her. ‘It hurts so much.’
‘Lie back, try to relax and I’ll take a look,’ Holly said gently. ‘Breathe for me. In, out, in, out.’
Gradually Lucy calmed and lay back against the bed.
Holly bared Lucy’s abdomen and palpated it gently. ‘Tell me when it hurts,’ she said.
Lucy flinched wherever Holly touched her. ‘It hurts all over.’
An acute abdomen could mean one of about a dozen things. Holly had to narrow things down. Fast. ‘Have you had any other symptoms?’
Lucy grimaced. ‘I thought it was just a bug—the usual thing, a temperature and a headache and feeling a bit sweaty and tired. I’ve had that horrible summer cough and that makes everyone a bit breathless, doesn’t it?’
‘Maybe,’ Holly said.
‘It’s so hot in here,’ Lucy said, then shook her head. ‘Sorry. I’m trying not to whine.’
‘You’re not feeling well,’ said Holly. ‘And we all think we need air-conditioning, too.’
‘I was going to see my GP. I was starting to think maybe it was the menopause, even though I’m not quite forty.’
‘Because of the sweats?’
‘And my periods are next to nothing,’ Lucy said. She smiled wryly. ‘And I’ve been getting PMT. I mean, really bad PMT. Oliver’ll tell you, I’ve been a monster.’ Her hand tightened round his. ‘But then I got this pain in my stomach.’
‘I thought it might be her appendix so I brought her here,’ said Oliver, Lucy’s husband.
‘Have you been sick at all?’ Holly asked.
Lucy nodded. ‘And I’ve had a bit of a tummy upset. It might have been something I ate.’
‘She’s been eating like a horse lately,’ Oliver said.
‘I don’t think it’s appendicitis,’ Holly said. She checked Lucy’s temperature and pulse. Lucy’s pulse was definitely up—more than Holly had expected from the fever. ‘Have you had any other pains lately?’
‘She won’t admit it, but she’s had chest pains,’ Oliver said.
‘I am not having a heart attack. Will you stop nagging me, Oliver?’ Lucy said crossly. ‘Besides, I’m managing my weight so my heart’ll be fine. I’m on that new diet and it’s actually working.’ Despite the fact that, according to Oliver, Lucy had been eating a lot more than usual.
‘Have you lost much weight?’ Holly asked.
‘A stone and a half. It’s falling off,’ Lucy said. ‘First time ever.’
‘Probably because you never stop. She’s always on the go,’ Oliver added wryly. ‘She’s just been promoted to head teacher.’
‘So I need to put the hours in,’ Lucy said defensively.
‘I need to do some blood tests to rule out some possibilities,’ Holly said. ‘I’ll be back in a second.’ She smiled and left the cubicle.
‘Miche—just the woman I wanted,’ she said, spotting the staff nurse. ‘Can you give me a hand running some tests, please?’
‘Sure.
