Bella was another one of those strong Graham women. And a much wilder one than his Katie.
He could understand perfectly well why Oliver had been attracted to Bella, but for the life of him he couldn’t imagine Oliver seeing her as the chosen mother of his child. Even with his peers, the surgeon came across as being a bit pompous sometimes. Stuffy, even.
Man, but he’d love to be a fly on the wall when he got the news that Bella was carrying the Dawson heir.
And that thought was enough to propel Connor to his feet and into the house. They’d had plenty of time to talk and he had to make sure that Kate started looking after herself. Here it was after 8p.m. and he knew she hadn’t had a bite of dinner yet. He didn’t want Bella upsetting her either. Besides, Bella was part of his family now. They would find a way through this mess.
Together.
9
Something wasn’t quite right.
Oliver couldn’t put his finger on what it was but it was bothering him. His registrar gave him a sideways glance as they stood in front of the CT scan they were examining.
‘Problem?’
Oliver gave his head a definitive shake. ‘Looks straightforward to me. Burr holes here and here…’ He indicated the spots. ‘Lifting the bone flap over this area should give us clear access to the clot.’
‘Right. I’ll go and get scrubbed.’ But the registrar gave him another odd glance, as if he could tell that something was bothering Oliver.
And something was, but it wasn’t anything to do with any of the cases that were lined up for neurosurgery today.
It was Bella who kept sneaking into his head. He could banish her, of course, and get on with his job, but she kept coming back. Leaving this odd, unsettled feeling behind.
Ever since he’d got back from Melbourne a week ago, since he’d come so close to kissing her again when she’d been walking past wrapped in that towel and looking so deliciously damp, she’d been… different. Not that he’d seen that much of her. Some days he didn’t see her at all, in fact, and despite the plausible reasons his mother offered, he was beginning to think she was deliberately avoiding his company. And when he did see her, she was most definitely quieter.
Subdued, almost. More grown up or something.
And, as ridiculous as the word seemed when describing Bella Graham, she seemed moredignified.
He hadn’t heard her singing. Or laughing, come to think of it. He certainly hadn’t seen her dancing.
Boyfriend hassles, perhaps?
Not that it was any of his business. And he certainly had no right to feel put out by the notion that there were other men in Bella’s life.
Othermen?
Good grief, where had that come from? As ifhewas in Bella’s life?
Oliver scrubbed in with his usual attention to detail. A short time later, gowned and gloved, he supervised his registrar making the burr holes in the shaved area of their patient’s head. It wasn’t until the bone flap had been lifted and the dura exposed that he held his hand out for the surgical scissors required to snip through the protective covering of the brain.
For a good while then not a single thought of Bella intruded. The clot that had been pressing on this woman’s brain after the head injury she’d sustained in a car accident was carefully extracted. There was no new bleeding to be seen and closing the wound was uneventful. The registrar was left with the task of replacing the bone flap and stitching the scalp back together. With her head swathed in bandages, the woman would go back to the ICU for observation and Oliver could check in on her before they started their next case. Stripping his gloves off as he left Theatre, he gave his mask a tug but only the top string broke, leaving it dangling around his neck.
Like a bib.
Like Bella’s had been that day he’d growled at her for coming into his theatre in such slap-dash fashion.
And there she was again.
Okay, maybe itwashis business if she had boyfriend issues that were making her unhappy. What if it wasn’t a boyfriend? What if she was becoming bored with her new job of being his mother’s private nurse?
That was a real possibility, wasn’t it?
Bella was made for adventure. For doing wild, irresponsible things that involved lots of noise and movement and laughter. She might be doing an astonishingly good job of helping his mother in her rehabilitation, but how long could such a confined routine appeal to a free spirit like Bella?
She might decide to leave and head off on that overseas trip she was so keen on having, and where would that leave his mother? And him?
