he think her smile was for him? She supposed he would. He had no reason to think she was smiling to herself about the unfolding tableau.
She had to admit he had a really lovely smile. A crease appeared on either side of his mouth, running down to his jaw. They framed his lips and accentuated his square jaw, and the brooding expression in his eyes was replaced with laughter. It was all too easy to keep smiling back at him in return but she needed to remember that she wasn’t one of the young, impressionable nurses and she had to remember that he wasn’t Dr Tall, Dark and Handsome to her. He was Dr Disturbing-her-peaceful-life.
Annie wiped the smile from her face as he drew nearer but she hadn’t completely forgotten Tori’s warning to play nicely.
‘Good morning,’ she greeted him. ‘Are you finding your way around all right?’
‘Yes. Everyone’s being very helpful,’ he replied, but he looked at her for a moment longer than he needed to and Annie could almost hear the unspoken words. Except for you.
Well, that was too bad for him. She imagined he was used to getting his own way but that didn’t mean he deserved to. And if Tiffany and the other nurses on this ward were the yardsticks then she didn’t doubt the females on staff were being extremely helpful.
‘Where is the crew?’ she asked, choosing to ignore his unspoken implication.
‘They’re busy doing their own checks. They need to do some run-throughs before we start—lighting, sound, that sort of thing.’
She’d expected to see him with an entourage. ‘How many of them are there?’
‘Only a few,’ he answered. ‘Liam, the cameraman, Keegan for sound and lighting, and you met Gail, the producer.’
‘No make-up?’
‘No make-up.’
That would explain why he looked so good in the flesh. Dr Tall, Dark and Handsome wasn’t made up for the cameras. The thought didn’t make her feel any better. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about men who were so good looking.
She’d thought his nose was slightly too long but standing directly in front of him now even that looked perfect and she knew she’d just been searching for flaws. It was hard to fault him physically.
‘Apparently our production budget is very modest, which is why the network can afford to be generous towards the hospital. We don’t have a lot of expenses.’
‘What about your fee? They must pay you?’ She remembered his sleek silver sports car and the words were out of her mouth before she realised how rude she sounded. ‘Sorry, ignore that, it’s none of my business.’ She was desperate to change the subject and she looked around quickly, searching for another topic of conversation.
The nurses, having all come out of the woodwork, were now milling around, pretending to look busy, but Annie could see they were all there to check Caspar out. She remembered how he’d known everyone in the meeting yesterday and wondered if his extensive knowledge included the nurses.
‘Do I need to introduce you or have you memorised everyone’s names?’ she asked as she gestured towards the nurses.
‘I didn’t have time to learn everybody’s name, just the most important ones,’ he replied as he zeroed in on her with his green eyes. He was watching her intently and she felt as though he was putting her under the microscope.
‘So what was that little party trick all about?’ Annie was vaguely aware of the ward phone ringing as she tried to concentrate under the force of Caspar’s gaze.
‘Which one?’
‘That stunt yesterday, knowing who we were?’
‘It wasn’t a stunt. I figured I was going to be at a disadvantage. You know each other already but I’m going to be working with you all and the quicker I get everyone straight in my head the faster I’ll settle in. I like to be prepared.’
‘Dr Simpson?’ Ellen, one of the more experienced midwives, interrupted them. She had answered the phone and she covered the mouthpiece with her hand as she spoke to Annie. ‘I have one of your patients on the phone, Kylie Jones. She says her waters have broken. Do you need me to pull up her file?’
Annie shook her head. ‘No, that’s all right.’ She knew Kylie. ‘Is her husband home?’
‘I’ll check,’ Ellen replied, but within a few seconds she was shaking her head. ‘He’s not due back until next week.’
Annie knew that Paul Jones worked in mining, which meant he worked away for two weeks before coming home for two. ‘Tell her we’ll send an ambulance for her. She needs to be in here. If she’s up to it she can contact Paul while she’s waiting so he can organise to get home as soon as possible.’
Annie turned to Caspar. She couldn’t believe she was about to ask this of him.
‘Kylie is thirty-three weeks pregnant with twins. I’m going to need your help.’
‘Of course.’ He grinned at her and the sparkle returned to his eyes. Annie felt that funny warmth rush through her, as though his smile was the match and her belly was full of dry tinder. ‘I thought you’d never ask,’ he said as he pulled his phone from his pocket.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Calling the camera crew.’
‘What? No!’ she protested.
‘What do you mean, “no”? This is what we’re here for.’
Annie disagreed. ‘Why do you want to film Kylie? What’s the point? You have no back story, no history with her.’ And I don’t want a camera crew in my delivery suite.
But Caspar wasn’t going to back down easily.
‘We can do all that afterwards,’ he said, unperturbed. ‘We can follow her story and follow the babies’ progress.’
Somehow she’d known he wouldn’t give in. ‘These babies are premature,’ she argued. ‘They have to survive first.’
As she debated the situation she realised that from the television perspective it probably didn’t matter if the babies survived or not. Either way it would be high drama. But to his credit Caspar didn’t point that depressing fact out to her. In fact, he seemed to try to make an effort to reassure her.
‘I am a paediatrician, this is what I do. You have to trust me, I am very good at my job and just like you I swore an oath to do no harm.’ His brooding expression was back, his green eyes darker now, his jaw set. ‘This is a perfect story for the show—a premature delivery of twins with the father not able to make it for the birth. It’s in my best interests to make sure it has a happy ending and then we’ll be able to film an emotional reunion scene as well.’
‘You’re forgetting something,’ Annie argued. ‘I’ll be in the delivery suite and I haven’t given my permission to be filmed.’
Caspar shrugged. ‘We’ll keep you out of the shot. It’s Kylie and the babies we want. We can use voiceovers,
