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Cassidy looked cross. He made it all sound so simple. ‘I like it here. I like it where I live. I don’t want to move to...’ she lifted her fingers in the air ‘...sunnier climes. I want to stay here...’ she pointed her finger to the floor ‘...in Scotland, the country that I love. And I have priorities here—responsibilities—that I couldn’t take care of in another country.’ She folded her arms across her chest.
‘So I made myself a rule. My next other half will be a big, handsome fellow Scot. Someone who wants to stay where I do. Not someone from the other side of the planet.’
The words hung between them. Almost as if she was drawing a line in the sand. Brad paused for a second, trying to stop himself from saying what he really thought. Should he say straight away that he would never stay in Scotland either? That he wanted his life to be wherever his daughter was—and he was prepared to up sticks and go at a moment’s notice?
No. He couldn’t. That would instantly kill this flirtation stone dead. And that’s all this would ever be—a mild flirtation. Why on earth would what she’d just said bother him? He was merely looking for a distraction—nothing more. Something to take his mind off another Christmas without his daughter.
‘Just because someone is from Scotland it doesn’t mean they’ll want to stay here. There have been lots of famous Scots explorers—David Livingstone, for example.’ He moved forward, leaning in next to her. ‘Anyway, that’s a pretty big statement, Cassidy. You’re ruling out ninety-nine per cent of the population of the world in your search for Mr Right. Hardly seems fair to the rest of us.’ He shot her a cheeky grin. ‘Some people might even call that a bit of prejudice.’
‘Yeah, well, at least if I think about it this way, it saves any problems later on. I don’t want to meet someone, hook up with them and fall in love, only to have my heart broken when they tell me their life’s on the other side of the planet from me.’ Been there. Done that. ‘Why set myself up for a fall like that?’
‘Why indeed?’ He’d moved right next to her, his blue eyes fixed on hers. She was right. Cassidy wanted to stay in Scotland. Brad wanted to go wherever in the world his little girl was. A little girl he hadn’t even told her about. Anything between them would be an absolute disaster. But somehow he couldn’t stop the words forming on his lips.
‘But what happens if your heart rules your head?’ Because try as he may to think of her as a distraction, the attraction between them was real. And it had been a long time since he’d felt like this.
She could see every tiny line on his face from hours in the Australian sun, every laughter line around the corners of his eyes. His hand was still resting on her arm, and it was making her tingle. Everything about this was wrong.
She’d just spelled out all the reasons why this was so wrong. He was from Australia. The other side of the planet. He was the worst possible option for her. So why, in the space of a day, was he already getting under her skin? Why did she want to lean forward towards his lips? Why did she want to feel the muscles of his chest under the palms of her hands? He was so close right now she could feel his warm breath on her neck. It was sending shivers down her spine.
She didn’t want this to be happening. She didn’t want to be attracted to a man there was no future with. So why couldn’t she stop this? Why couldn’t she just pull away?
Ding-dong.
Both jumped backwards, startled by the noise of the bell ringing loudly. Even Bert awoke from his slumber and started barking.
Cassidy was still fixed by his eyes, the shiver continuing down her spine. A feeling of awakening. ‘Pizza,’ she whispered. ‘It must be the pizza.’
‘Saved by the bell,’ murmured Brad as he stood up to answer the door. At the last second he turned back to her. A tiny little part of him was feeling guilty—guilty about the attraction between them, guilty about not mentioning his daughter, and completely irritated by her disregard for most of the men in the world.
Her mobile sounded, and Cassidy fumbled in her bag. ‘Excuse me,’ she murmured, glancing at the number on the screen.
She stepped outside as he was paying for the pizzas and pressed the phone to her ear. ‘Hi, it’s Cassidy Rae. Is something wrong with my grandmother?’
‘Hi, Cassidy. It’s Staff Nurse Hughes here. Sorry to call, but your gran’s really agitated tonight.’
Cassidy sighed. ‘What do you need me to do?’ This was happening more and more. Her good-natured, placid gran was being taken over by Alzheimer’s disease, at times becoming confused and agitated, leading to outbursts of aggression that were totally at odds with her normal nature. The one thing that seemed to calm her down was hearing Cassidy’s voice—whether over the phone or in person.
‘Can you talk to her for a few minutes? I’ll hold the phone next to her.
‘Of course I will.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Hi, Gran, it’s Cassidy. How are you feeling?’ Her words didn’t matter. It was the sound and tone of her voice that was important. So she kept talking, telling her gran about her day and her plans for the week.
And leaving out the thoughts about the new doctor that were currently dancing around in her brain.
Brad sat waiting patiently. What was she doing? Who was she talking to outside in that low, calm voice? And why couldn’t she have taken the call in here?
More importantly, what was he doing?
Getting involved with someone he worked with hadn’t worked out too great for him the last time. He’d had a few casual dates in the last year with work colleagues, but nothing serious. He really didn’t want to go down that road again.
So what on earth was wrong with him? His attraction to this woman had totally knocked him sideways. Alison had been nothing like this. A few weeks together had proved they weren’t compatible. And the pregnancy had taken them both by surprise. And although his thoughts had constantly been with his daughter, this was the first time that a woman had started to invade his mind.
His brain wasn’t working properly, but his libido was firing on multiple cylinders. Which one would win the battle?
CHAPTER THREE
11 October
CASSIDY’S fingers hammered on the keyboard, responding to yet another bureaucratic email.
‘What’s up, girl?’ As if by magic, Brad was leaning across the desk towards her. ‘You’ve got that ugly frown on your face again. That usually spells trouble for the rest of us.’
Cassidy smiled. For the last ten days, every time she’d turned around he’d been at her elbow. His mood was generally laid-back and carefree, though a couple of times she’d thought he was going to steer a conversation toward something more serious. She turned the computer monitor towards him. ‘Look at this. According to “customer care” principles, we’ve got to answer the ward phone on the third ring.?
?
‘Since when did our patients become “customers”?’
‘Oh, don’t get me started. I just replied, pointing out that patients are our first priority on the medical unit and I won’t be leaving a patient’s bedside to answer the phone in three rings.’
‘Are you still short-staffed?’ Brad looked around the ward, noting the figures on the ward and trying to work out if everyone was there.
Cassidy pointed to the board. ‘There were seven staff sick last week, but they should all be back on duty either today or tomorrow.’ Her frown reappeared. ‘Why, what are you about to tell me?’
Brad walked around to her side of the desk and wheeled her chair towards him. ‘I was going to invite you to breakfast. It’s Saturday morning, the ward’s pretty quiet, so it seemed like a good time.’ He pulled a face. ‘Plus, those five empty beds you’ve got are about to be filled. I’ve got five patients coming into A and E via the GP on-call service who will all need to be admitted.’
Cassidy stood up. ‘So what’s this, the calm before the storm?’
‘Something like that. Come on.’ He stuck his elbow out towards her. ‘You’ll probably not get time for lunch later.’
Cassidy handed over the keys to one of her staff nurses and headed down to the canteen with Brad.
There was something nice about this. The easy way they’d fallen into a friendship. She’d mentioned her front door was jamming and he’d appeared around at her flat to fix it. Then they’d walked to the Botanic Gardens a few times on days off and taken Bert out in the evenings. Even though they were tiptoeing around the edges of friendship, there was still that simmering ‘something’ underneath.
‘I see you actually managed to put some clothes on today.’ She ran her eyes up and down his lean frame, taking in his trousers and casual polo shirt. ‘I was beginning to wonder if you actually owned any clothes.’
They’d reached the canteen and Brad picked up a tray. ‘It’s a deliberate ploy. If I live my life in scrubs then the hospital does my laundry for me. And I haven’t got my washing machine yet.’
