‘I’m sure you’ll do it brilliantly,’ Cary said, and something about his tone told her their tea break was coming to an end.
‘Are you going to the Burns supper?’ she said, as she placed the stethoscope box in her bag, finding she wanted to detain him a little longer.
‘Hadn’t planned on it.’
Why had she asked him that? Now he’d think she was angling for him to go with her.
‘I’ll probably do my party piece then bolt as soon as the food’s served,’ she quipped.
‘I doubt you’d get away with that.’
‘Oh, yeah.Carenza.’
Cary had said her nemesis’s name at exactly the same moment she had. They both smiled at that.
‘Cary?Repair for you!’ came Sachin’s voice from the triage desk all the way over by the entrance.
Someone, Alice didn’t know who, immediately shushed him and hissed, ‘Can you no’ see he’s busy!’
The spell, however, was broken. Cary’s expression had changed. He was brushing away crumbs, making to stand up.
‘Are you going to the surgery today?’ he asked. ‘Sure you’re up to the walk back?’
‘I might just go home and take a nap. Day off, and all that.’
She was on her feet now too, hating the feeling of leaving the fireside. She could have stayed there all day.
‘Good thinking. And you’ll be back here at nine tomorrow morning for the tree planting and the garden project launch, right?’
Alice shook away her surprise. ‘That’s tomorrow? Of course! It had slipped my mind, what with the Burns stuff, and everything.’
There was a pause, during which Alice couldn’t remember how you’re supposed to act when leaving a friend after they’ve given you a present and taken you to tea, and you’ve had a spectacular panic attack right in front of them. ‘Cheerio, then,’ she tried, in her best Cairn Dhu accent. Cary’s lips spread into another lovely smile.
‘We’ll make a local of you yet!’ came a voice. One of the café ladies was back to clear the tray. She handed Alice a bag. ‘Macaroon bar, for later,’ the woman said with a conspiratorial air and a pat of Alice’s hand.
‘Thank you, Ms…’
‘Senga Gifford,’ the woman said, lifting the tray. ‘You looked fit to drop back there for a wee minute. What you need is some home baking and a good night’s sleep, by the looks of you.’ The woman’s appraising eyes took her in from her head to her boots. ‘A waif!’ she said, not entirely sympathetically. ‘Mind you, we’re a haven for waifs and strays of all kinds here, aren’t we, Cary?’
She didn’t give him time to answer, talking over him. ‘On that subject, can you not convince yer man here,’ she bobbed her head, indicating Cary, ‘to take on one of the stray puppies they found last week, down at the hotel?’
Alice had heard all about the pups from Gracie. She wasn’t sure how to take the ‘your man’ thing and didn’t think it was polite to protest about Cary being no such thing. Luckily Cary had found his voice.
‘Ms Gifford, I already told you, I can’t take a dog home. Dinah would go spare. She doesn’t like dogs.’
Senga tutted and hobbled away with the tray and Alice suffered a moment’s confusion when she could have sworn a stab of jealousy was lodged in her chest at the mention of this Dinah. But why on earth should she mind if her new friend had someone at home, probably a nice homely woman who could have as many of Cary’s apples and pretty wood carvings as she wished for? It was definitely none of Alice’s business what this man got up to in his private life.
‘Dinah’s my rescue cat,’ came Cary’s clear, calm voice, dissolving away her runaway thoughts.
‘I guessed that,’ she lied, wishing she wasn’t like this.
‘Did you want to pop in and see the puppies?’ Cary said, suddenly. ‘They’re in the mill house kitchen.’
‘Well…’ She’d have feigned a glance at her watch if she’d been wearing one. ‘Maybe just for a minute,’ and she added a nonchalant shrug as if to say she could take puppies or leave them, while deep inside she thought there was nothing else she’d rather do, just so long as the gentle Cary Anderson kept talking to her.
As they left, a muttering line of disappointed locals queuing up at Cary’s workstation watched them go.
21
