her life had become. And on the days when she felt herself spinning a little close to the edge, knowing they had each other kept her grounded.
And that day would be no different.
Whatever the world threw at her, she would face it head-on.
She had to do that for Tommy.
‘YOU’RE PRETTY.’
Molly lifted her bright blue eyes from the keyboard at the reception desk that had been officially hers for four hours. Her lips instinctively curved upwards to form something close to a smile at the unexpected compliment. It was the last thing she’d expected to hear. Pretty was nowhere close to how she felt. In her mind, bedraggled would have been a more accurate call but she was trying not to think about her appearance and just get on with the job at hand. She was warm and dry and that was an improvement on the start of her day. Grooming had not been a priority that morning but hearing the young woman’s compliment definitely lifted her spirits.
‘Thank you. I think you’re very kind to say something so sweet,’ Molly told the young woman who had fronted the desk. ‘I think you’re very pretty and I love your red boots.’
The young woman, just like Molly’s brother, Tommy, had been born with Down’s syndrome and just like Tommy, she appeared to be relatively independent, by virtue of her attending the surgery without a caregiver by her side. Molly noticed she was wearing designer jeans and a red jumper under her checked woollen overcoat that also looked as if it had been bought at a high-end store. Her short blonde hair was in a bob style and the flat red ankle boots completed the outfit. She was quite the young fashionista.
‘Thank you. Red is my favourite colour in the world.’
‘I must agree. Red is lovely,’ Molly told her, then continued. ‘May I have your name, please?’
‘Lizzy Jones,’ the young woman said. ‘My boyfriend likes red. He didn’t like red before he was my boyfriend. Now he likes red.’
Molly smiled at the thought of the young man changing his favourite colour to match his girlfriend’s taste. Young love was so sweet and naive and something to be treasured as it rarely stayed that perfect. When the rose-coloured glasses came off the real man was rarely as perfect as he once seemed. She hoped for Lizzy’s sake her boyfriend remained as lovely as he was at that moment.
‘Do you have a boyfriend?’ Lizzy asked, breaking Molly’s train of thought.
‘Um...no, no, I don’t.’
‘You should have a boyfriend. It’s nice. You can share lunch and hold hands.’
‘I will give it some thought,’ Molly said politely, all the while thinking quite the opposite. Boyfriends, fiancés, they were all the same. They brought heartbreak and disappointment and she was not going back there. Not ever.
‘My dad doesn’t know I have a boyfriend.’ Lizzy giggled then covered her mouth with her hand. ‘I will tell him maybe next week or maybe at Christmas.’
‘It’s a long time until Christmas,’ Molly told her with her eyebrow arched slightly.
‘Mmm...maybe next week. I don’t know.’
‘That might be a good idea to let your father know you have a boyfriend. He might like to meet him. I’m sure he’s very nice.’
‘Shh,’ Lizzy said with her fingers at her lips and looking a little anxious. ‘You can’t tell when you see him.’
‘Don’t worry, I won’t, I promise,’ Molly replied with a smile, wondering if Lizzy’s father was parking the car or running late to meet her. Whatever the case she hadn’t hesitated to reassure the young woman. She had become visibly agitated and needed reassurance that her secret was safe. Molly could see no purpose in announcing to a complete stranger that his daughter had a boyfriend when it might be nothing more than puppy love. And none of her business.
‘Okay,’ Lizzy said before she crossed the room and made herself comfortable on a waiting-room chair.
Molly sensed Lizzy was quite at ease with being in the practice, almost as if it were a second home to her. She checked the appointment schedule. Forty-five minutes had been allocated for Lizzy Jones, which was unusual considering the pace of the morning, and there was no reference to patient notes available online. She wasn’t listed as a new patient but she wasn’t in the records management system either. Molly found all of it unusual and decided she would raise it with Ryan later.
There were no other patients waiting as they had been running early and the previous patient had just left. Molly glanced up periodically and noticed Lizzy had taken off her overcoat and neatly placed it on the chair beside her. She was happily swinging her legs and glancing around at the paintings on the wall. Sometime in the ensuing minutes while Molly was processing correspondence Lizzy made her way back to the reception desk.
‘Are your shoes red?’ Lizzy asked excitedly.
Molly jumped with the surprise of having the young woman upon her again without warning. Then she cringed at the thought of her mismatched shoes. As a knee-jerk reaction to feeling more than a little self-conscious she placed one foot on top of the other. Quite purposely squashing the solo bow on her left foot.
‘Umm...’
Before she had a chance to finish her reply a deep male voice came from somewhere close behind her.
‘Well, Lizzy, I’m looking at them now and they’re definitely not red. Actually, it would appear that Miss Murphy couldn’t quite decide whether to wear blue or black shoes today...so she chose one of each colour and threw in a bow of sorts...but only on one of them.’
‘That’s funny,’ Lizzy said with a wide grin that further lit up her happy face.
‘Well, funny’s one way to describe it,’ the male voice countered. ‘Another would be odd. Quite literally.’
Molly didn’t turn. She was only too well aware it was her boss of four hours. The far too perfect Dr Ryan McFetridge. Charcoal-eyed, raven-haired, six-foot-two, sole general practitioner to the wealthy and privileged who happened to need a temp office manager at the same time that Molly needed a job, any job. It was her only option to ensure she and Tommy were not evicted by the week’s end. And that morning as she had stood in the rain watching the bus pull away a tiny part of her had feared that might happen.
‘Do you like to mix it up?’ the deep voice continued, bringing Molly back from her unsettling thoughts.
Molly drew a deep breath, plastered on a smile and spun to face her boss. His perfect smile made the picture even more ridiculous. And made her feel even more self-conscious. She was bedraggled and he was standing so close with his leading-man looks, not to mention a voice as smooth as melted chocolate. She knew the type. He had playboy written all over him. But he didn’t impress her. Not in the least. Molly Murphy had sworn off men...and nothing was going to sway that vow.
‘Or was it a case of dressing in the dark?’ he continued as he stepped to the side a little and, opening one of the filing cabinets, began sifting through old hard-copy case notes. After finding what he wanted,
