hardly old, and there are quite a few ways I could describe your behavior, Brodie—but your way is the most polite.” Ailsa’s muffled voice came from his chest. “Now...” She pushed back and looked him square in the eye. “Let me get on with my day, will you?”
As she disappeared into her office so, too, did the smile playing across his lips. Here he was, blaming the islanders for the situation he was in, when truthfully all his frustration came from the fact that he loved his father and his work and right now the two were at odds. Not one part of him was looking forward to the year ahead.
Truthfully? He needed Kali O’Shea more than he cared to admit. If he could convince her to stay she might be the answer to all his prayers. A comrade in arms to help him get through the thicket of weeds he was all but drowning in.
He jogged his shoulders up and down.
Right. Good.
Time for what his father had called a “Starty-Overy, I’ve Done A Whoopsy.” His behavior this morning had been childish. He might as well give it the childish name. Then start acting his age and focus on winning over the mysteriously enigmatic Dr. Kali O’Shea.
* * *
Kali tapped at her computer keyboard a second time. Then pressed Refresh. And again.
Weird.
There didn’t seem to be anyone next in the queue. She stuck her head round the corner into the office where Brodie had been lurking... Okay, not exactly lurking. He’d been “on hand” in case she needed any information. But it had felt like lurking.
“Hey, does the computer system get jammed sometimes?”
“All the time is more like it,” he answered with a smile.
Her stomach grumbled. Kali’s hand flew to cover it, as if it would erase the fact it had happened.
“Er...”
“Hungry after only seeing three patients?” Brodie teased.
“Something like that. I was too excited for my first day at work to eat breakfast.”
“Only fifteen more patients to go before lunch!”
“Or...” She drew out the word and thought she might as well push her luck. “I do seem to recall an offer of a cup of tea and a biscuit.”
He blinked, dragging a tooth across one of those full lips of his. Distracting. Very distracting.
“Would you like it if I put on a pinny and pushed a wee cart along to your office for delivery, Dr. O’Shea?”
A flush of embarrassment crept up her cheeks. He was an experienced doctor. Her superior. Had she pushed that envelope too far?
“Ach, take that nervous expression off your face, Dr. O’Shea. I’m just joshing you.” He stood up from his desk and gave her shoulder a squeeze. “A nice cup of tea is the least I can do an hour after I promised it.”
He dropped her a wink and her tummy did a flip. The sexy kind.
Oh, no. Not good. Not good at all.
“Right, well...I guess I better check with Caitlyn who’s next.” She gave the door frame a rap, as if that was the signal for action. Then didn’t move.
“Anything good this morning?”
“Depends upon your definition of ‘good,’” she replied with a smile. She liked this guy. He was a whole load nicer than Dr. McCrabby from this morning. “A prenatal check, a suspected case of the flu—which thankfully wasn’t more than a really bad cold—and a check on a set of stitches along a feisty four-year-old’s hairline. Rosie Bell, I think her name was.”
“That’s her mother. The daughter is Julia.”
“Right—that’s right. I mean, of course you know it’s right—you know everyone.” She stopped herself. She was blathering. “The stitches were just fine. She had them put in on the mainland, at the hospital, there...so...that was a quickie. Everyone has been incredibly welcoming...”
So much for no more blathering.
A shadow darkened Brodie’s eyes for a moment. He abruptly slipped through the doorway and headed down the hall. “Best go get my pinny on and leave you to it, then, Dr. O’Shea.”
“Thank you,” she said to his retreating back, wishing the ground had swallowed her up before she’d opened her big mouth.
But it was the truth. Everyone had been really welcoming and it felt amazing! Never in her adult life had she been part of a community, and this place seemed to just...speak to her.
Her tummy grumbled again.
Dinner.
She would ask Brodie to join her for dinner and then maybe she would stop saying the wrong thing all the time. Fingers crossed and all that.
“Who’s next, please, Caitlyn?” Kali stuck her head into the receptionist’s room, willing herself onto solid terrain. Seeing patients was the one thing in the world that grounded her. Gave her the drive to find some place where she could settle down and play a positive role in her patients’ lives.
“Sorry, Dr. O’Shea... I’ve been trying to send it through on your computer screen. I’ve not yet got the hang of the system with all of these patients showing up like this.”
Kali peeked beyond Caitlyn and out into the busy waiting room.
“It’s not normally like this?”
“Well...” Caitlyn used her feet to wheel herself and her chair over to Kali, lowering her voice to a confidential tone. “Since I started last week it’s all been mostly people here to see Auntie Ail—I mean, Sister Dunregan. But most of the people who canceled appointments when Unc—Dr. McClellan came back seem to have all magically turned up now they’ve heard you arrived...”
“I only got in last night.”
“Aye, but you were on the public ferry, weren’t you?”
Kali nodded. It was the only way onto the island unless you owned a private helicopter. Which she most assuredly did not.
“Word travels fast round here.”
Kali laughed appreciatively as the outside door opened and another person tried to wedge her way onto the long window seat bench after giving Caitlyn a little wave in lieu of checking in.
“Hello, Mrs. Brown. We’ll see what we can do, all right? You might have a wee wait,” Caitlyn called.
“That’s fine, dear. I’ve brought my knitting.”
“So people are just coming along and trying their luck?” Kali’s eyes widened.
“Something like that.” Caitlyn nodded. “No harm in trying, is there? Hey!” Her eyes lit up with a new idea. “I bet you’ll get in the paper!”
