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He leaned forward, looking into those blue eyes and then whispering in her ear, ‘Kristie, I don’t care if the world knows we’re kissing.’ And he meant it. He glanced at Gerry on the bed. They still didn’t know how this would all turn out for Gerry. If he had medical insurance he’d get shipped home once his treatment was complete. But chances were Rhuaridh wouldn’t see him again anytime soon. Gerry might not be fit enough to travel like he had been.
He had to admire the canny old rogue. He’d seen the opportunity to film and taken it. Something flashed into Rhuaridh’s head. Something he hadn’t really processed earlier.
‘Gerry asked you to film—and you did. We don’t know how this is going to play out yet, Kristie.’ He was serious. The IV drug Gerry was currently on could cause heart arrhythmias. It could also lead to small clots being thrown off while the heart was trying to re-perfuse. There were no guarantees right now. ‘I’m not sure this is footage you should use.’
He left the words hanging in the air.
She blinked and her body gave a tremble. When she spoke her voice was shaky, ‘I’m a terrible person. You know I want Gerry to be okay, don’t you?’
He nodded and she continued, ‘And I was still angry when he asked me to start filming, so I just automatically did. I’ve left the camera running at times without actually being behind it. I’m not even sure exactly what’s been shot.’
Rhuaridh slid his hand over hers. ‘I know what you’re thinking. You need to take a breath. Take a moment. If Gerry is fine, then you’ve covered his work. You can show what happens to people in an island community when there’s no possibility of getting off the island. This is a fact of life here. Gerry’s had an alternative treatment for his heart attack. We hope it will work. If it does, you have footage.’ He squeezed her hand. ‘If it doesn’t, then you stay some extra days and we’ll shoot something else.’
He was trying to give her an alternative. The last thing he wanted was for her to be forced to use footage that would prove to be heartbreaking for her. He whispered again. ‘No one needs know it’s there.’
She shook her head. ‘But it is. Our cameras don’t need to go back to the studio to be uploaded. Everything uploads automatically to our server. Even if I don’t want to use it, Louie probably will.’
‘Surely he’s not that heartless? You told me he was the guy that held your hand while you were at the hospital.’ He leaned forward. ‘Footage of us kissing? That’s nothing. But if something happens to Gerry? No way. He couldn’t use that. He wouldn’t use that.’ Rhuaridh wasn’t quite sure who he was trying to convince. Her or himself.
She leaned back in against his shoulder and put her hand up on his chest. ‘I hope so,’ she whispered in reply, as both of their eyes fixed on the pulse, pulse, pulse of Gerry’s monitor.
CHAPTER TEN
February
TRAVELLING WITH SOMEONE else felt all wrong. Thea was nice enough, but clearly obsessed. She had around one hundred Scottish travel books and couldn’t seem to understand there wasn’t time to drive around all the rest of Scotland before they got the ferry to Arran. It seemed she hadn’t quite grasped the size of Scotland, or the terrain. By the time they docked in Arran, Kristie had a full-blown migraine.
The last few days at the helpline had been hard. Someone had called and kept hanging up after a few minutes. Every time it had happened, Kristie’s thoughts flooded back to her sister. This could be someone like Jess. Someone who needed to be heard but couldn’t find the words.
She’d struggled with it so much but she dealt with her feelings by continuing to work on the book she’d started writing a couple of months before. It had been years since she’d tried to write things. Last time she’d done this she’d been in college. But all of that had been pushed aside as her course work had taken priority. Now this story seemed to be shaping itself. All of it was fiction. None of it was based on a real person. Instead, it was an amalgamation of years of experiences. But it all felt real to Kristie. Even though this show was the thing the whole world was excited about, this story was the thing that kept her awake at night—that, and thinking of a hot Highland doc.
