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‘And now here we are. So, how about we meet outside The Island Clinic entrance, any morning this week at eight? I seem to remember we were both always early risers.’
She flicked her tongue over her lips and pretended she couldn’t understand Liam well enough to know that he’d felt a punch of victory. His words had been designed to hit their mark. To remind her of the number of mornings they’d woken before their alarm and spent the last possible moment in bed, making love.
‘Liam—’
‘I seem to remember a St Victoria native once recommending that a good place to start would be the Beics.’
‘I didn’t think you ever listened to me,’ she said shortly.
‘I listened,’ he said with another smile.
‘Well,’ she scraped around for another excuse. Anything. ‘I didn’t think you’d have any free time. You’re usually buried in work.’
‘Aren’t you the one who always told me the pace of life was different, here on St Victoria?’ he challenged her. ‘And according to your chief, his focus is on quality over quantity.’
Yes, she could
well imagined Nate having given Liam plenty of challenging cases, but also a fair amount of downtime.
‘So let me know which morning suits you,’ Liam continued. ‘And I’ll see you then.’
Talia met his steady gaze right then, and didn’t know if what she saw in them was a promise or something far, far, greater. But, then, it didn’t matter. She stared at him for another long moment before finally pushing herself to her feet and picking up her still half-full coffee cup.
‘I’ll think about it,’ she bit out, wishing her heart wasn’t leaping around in such delight.
‘I’ll take that as better than a flat-out no.’
‘It isn’t a yes, either,’ she pointed out. Though she suspected they both new how tempted she was.
On all counts.
CHAPTER SIX
‘THE SURGEON SAID something about whirlpool signs? I just don’t understand exactly what he wants to do to Obi.’
Obi’s mother’s voice pitched upwards in panic and Talia fought to smother the irritation that swelled inside her at thought of the departing paediatric surgeon.
The guy was evidently in far too much of a hurry to get back on the helicopter that would take him out of the community hospital and back to the unmistakable luxury of The Island Clinic. Clearly, he was far too keen to return to fawning over all his A-list clientele, to take the time to simplify a complex procedure for a concerned mother.
He was a brilliant surgeon but not a very pleasant man who had never been a fan of The Island Clinic-St Vic’s outreach programme, which would bring eight-year-old Obi to The Island Clinic for her surgery.
It was why he wasn’t going to last long with Nate as Chief of Staff. Whereas Liam...
An image of Liam popped, uninvited, into Talia’s brain and she found it was impossible not to compare one man with the other. If this had been a cardiothoracic case, and young Obi had been one of his patients, Liam would never have left a panicked mother with a bunch of unanswered questions.
She heard that only the previous night, Liam had spent a good couple of hours with Lucy Wells, and her mother, Violet. Explaining things in detail and answering all their questions. He was so skilled at pitching things just right. Simplifying things just enough for a lay person, without becoming condescending.
Talia could never imagine the mother of one if his patients being so confused.
But Obi wasn’t Liam’s case, and letting her mind wander to him served no purpose other than to distract herself. Hastily she turned her attention back to Obi’s mother.
‘That’s why I’m here,’ Talia soothed quickly, reaching out to take the young woman’s hands in her own. ‘I’m your liaison between here and The Island Clinic, and I’m here to explain anything I can.’
Obi was a local girl who had been diagnosed at birth with congenital intestinal malrotation, but whose condition hadn’t previously been serious enough to warrant surgical intervention before now.
The girl had recently begun presenting with abdominal pain of a chronic and diffuse nature, and the team at St Vic’s had conducted a series of medical images to determine the position of the duodenum and the proximal small bowel, as well as looking for the ‘whirlpool’ sign typical of volvulus.
‘Sonography has revealed that a part of Obi’s gut has now twisted around on itself completely—that’s the whirlpool sign the surgeon mentioned—which has changed her medical status from asymptomatic to acute, and which now necessitates surgery. She will be flown to The Island Clinic tonight—we have family accommodation for you to stay, so don’t worry—and a nasogastric tube will be inserted through Obi’s nose into her stomach and placed on low intermittent suction; we will ensure any fluid or electrolyte deficits are corrected and she will be placed on broad-spectrum antibiotics before surgery.’
