things in Casualty more or less under control, Lindsey decided to take the early lunch. She needed to get her head together. In the staffroom she collected the minestrone she’d brought from home and reheated it in the microwave. Ignoring the chat going on around her, she took her soup to a table near the window and buried her head in a magazine.
Halfway through her meal she stopped and raised her head to look out of the window. She’d have to say something to Dan. She couldn’t just pretend nothing had happened. But how to handle it?
It wasn’t as though they had any kind of relationship outside the hospital. What did she really know about him anyway? She knew he’d worked in New York and, more recently, he’d left one of the big teaching hospitals in Sydney to come on staff here in this rural city of Hopeton. But beyond that? Except for the fact that Dan Rossi kept very much to himself—and that alone was an achievement in an environment where you were thrown together all the time—she knew next to nothing about his personal life. But she remembered his first day vividly.
She’d sneaked a quick peek at him as the team had assembled for the start of the shift. Her quick inventory had noted his hair was dark, very dark and cut short, his eyes holding a moody blueness, the shadows beneath so deep they might have been painted on. His shoulders under his pinstriped shirt were broad. She had taken a deep breath and let it go, realising as she’d done so that she’d been close enough to smell he’d been shower-fresh. In the close confines where they worked that mattered to Lindsey.
Then he’d caught her looking. And it was as if they’d shared a moment of honesty, a heartbeat of intimacy. His mouth had pulled tight then relaxed. He’d almost smiled. Almost but not quite.
And for what it was worth the vibe was still there between them. But it seemed to Lindsey that for every tiny bit of headway she made with Dan Rossi on a personal level, he took off like a world-class sprinter in the opposite direction.
She blew out a long breath of frustration, slamming her magazine shut as she got to her feet. Why was she even bothering to try to find out what made Dan Rossi tick? After her last boyfriend had cheated on her so spectacularly, she’d questioned her judgement about men. How did you work out which of them to trust and recognise those who were into game-playing? And right now, after the rotten morning they’d had, it was all too heavy to think about.
* * *
Leo’s was five minutes away from the hospital, the unpretentious little café drawing the hospital staff like bees to puffy blossoms. Chef Leo Carroll kept his menu simple. And he’d done his market research, opening at six in the morning to accommodate the early shift who just wanted a coffee and a bacon roll. Lunch began at noon and lasted until three. Then Leo closed his doors, cleaned up and went to play guitar at a blues bar in town.
Dan settled into one of the comfortable side booths and stretched out his legs. Already he could feel the tension draining from him. Nathan’s continued support had steadied him in ways that were incalculable. Dan recalled the day he’d flown into Sydney from the States. He’d been standing feeling a bit bemused in the passenger lounge, getting his bearings, when he’d heard his name called. He’d spun round and found himself looking into a familiar craggy face lit with a lopsided grin.
‘Nate!’
Before Dan could react further, he’d been thumped across the back and enveloped in a bone-crunching hug that had almost undone him. ‘Glad you made it back in one piece, dude,’ Nathan had said gruffly.
Dan had swallowed. ‘How did you know I’d be on this flight?’
‘I have my ways.’ Nathan had tapped the side of his nose. ‘Now, come on, let’s move it. I’m short-term parked and it’s costing me a fortune.’
Dan had booked into a boutique hotel near the harbour, intending to stay there until he could find an apartment. As they’d driven, Nathan had asked, ‘Do you have some work lined up?’
‘Starting at St Vincent’s in a week.’
‘Still in Casualty?’
‘It’s what I do best. You still in Medical?’
‘It’s what I do best.’ Nathan had shot him a glance. ‘Uh—not going to see your folks, then?’
‘Not yet.’ His family lived in Melbourne and while he loved and respected them, he just wasn’t up for receiving their sympathy all over again.
A beat of silence.
‘I’ve met a girl.’ Nathan’s embarrassed laugh eased the fraught atmosphere.
Dan spun his friend an amused look. ‘Serious?’
‘Could be. Think so. She’s a flight attendant. Samantha Kelly—Sami.’
‘Get out of here!’ Dan leaned across and fist-bumped his friend’s upper arm. ‘Tell me about her.’
‘She’s blonde.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Funny, sweet, smart...you know...’
‘Yeah. And she’s got you wrapped around her little finger. Nice one, mate. I hope it works out for you and Sami.’
‘Uh—if it doesn’t pan out for you in Sydney,’ Nathan said carefully, ‘you could come across the mountain to us at Hopeton District. Get some rural medicine under your belt. We’re always looking for decently qualified MOs.’
‘Mmm—maybe.’ Dan gave a dry smile. Nathan went on to enthuse about the vibrant country city a couple of hours from Sydney across the Blue Mountains.
‘And would you believe you can still fossick for gold around Hopeton?’ Nathan concluded his sales pitch emphatically.
And six months later Dan had taken everything on board and made the move and now here they were, with Nathan’s and Sami’s wedding just a week away and he was Nathan’s best man.
Dan looked at his watch just at the moment Nathan burst through the door.
‘Sorry I’m a bit late,’ he apologised, sliding his big frame onto the bench seat opposite. ‘Would you believe I’ve just had to cannulate three old coots on the trot—no veins to speak of, dehydrated as hell. Why don’t old people drink water, for God’s sake?’
‘Because it’s a generational thing,’ Dan said patiently. ‘They drink tea. Probably have done so since they could hold a cup.’ Dan turned his attention to the short menu. ‘We need to get a wriggle on. What are you having?’
‘If there’s pasta of some description, I’m your man.’
‘There is,’ Dan said. ‘And I’ll have the steak pie.’
Leo was there in a flash to take their orders. ‘Won’t be long, Docs,’ he promised, batting his way back through the swing doors to his kitchen.
Nathan sent a narrowed look at his friend. He was well aware of the significance of the day in Dan’s life. ‘How’s it going?’ he asked quietly.
Dan’s mouth bunched into a tight moue. ‘Getting there, as they say.’
Nathan
