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He inspected the outside with a critical eye. It was looking old and worn, even though it had only opened five years ago. He’d been too busy keeping it running to notice how drab it looked and there was never enough money for luxuries such as paint anyway. That was about to change.
Charlie strode through the front door, ignoring Angela’s cheery hello. He headed for his office, opening the filing cabinet, found the ‘E’ section and flicked through until he found the expansion plans for the drop-in centre. He shook his head at his complacency—he should have filed them under ‘P’ for prat.
He left his office and marched to the staffroom with a single-minded determination he hadn’t felt since before his marriage had fallen apart. He crashed the door open and stood staring at a startled Carrie.
‘Charlie?’
‘I have something to show you.’
Carrie watched him move towards her, carrying a long roll of paper in his hand. She noticed the gauze at the crook of his elbow as he drew closer. Pills and now blood tests? Or maybe he’d given a blood donation? ‘I’m kind of busy…’
‘Oh, you’re going to want to see this.’ Charlie pushed some coffee-cups aside and laid the plans out flat in the middle of the table. He placed a mug on each corner.
Carrie recognised architectural drawings when she saw them. But of what? She sighed and removed her glasses. ‘Building a house?’
Charlie laughed, leaning over the plans and admiring them again for the first time in a year. ‘Better. I’m remodelling the centre.’
Carrie stared at the plans. Was he mad? The centre was going under—big time. ‘These are…adventurous.’
He nodded. ‘Yes.’ Charlie straightened and pushed away from the table. He moved to the sink and flicked on the kettle. ‘For five years I’ve struggled to keep everything going on a shoestring budget. Offering limited services in an area that’s crying out for maximum support. And it’s not good enough. This idea…’he walked back to the table, leant over and poked a finger at his plans ‘…addresses all the areas that are sadly lacking at the moment.’
He pushed away again and paced back and forth, aware she was analysing the plans. He ran his hand through his hair. ‘I want to be able to provide full-time legal advice and have a full-time counsellor. I want to be able to run a needle exchange and a methadone programme and have another doctor or two so we can really provide a top-notch service.’
He walked back to the table and braced his hands on the back of a chair. ‘I want this to be a one-stop shop to meet all this community’s needs.’
Carrie stared at him, moved by the passion in his voice. By the excitement that was evident in every bodily nuance. He obviously cared for this community enormously. He looked invigorated and very, very committed. His grey gaze was earnest. She’d never seen him looking sexier.
But she wasn’t paid to be swept away by passionate ideals, even if they were being delivered so eloquently by a man who had pushed her against a door and kissed her breath away.
‘And where will the money come from?’
‘The bottom line again, Carrie?’
She heard the disdain in his voice and saw the contemptuous curl of his lips. ‘Yes, Charlie, The bottom line. Sorry to be so boring but a project of this magnitude…’ she tapped the plans with a pen ‘…takes serious cash.’ She didn’t have the heart to tell him that her investigation would probably lead to a recommendation of closure.
‘Once you’ve finished your financial analysis I’ll take everything to the hospital board. The plans and my ideas on funding them. This kind of project should attract a lot of monetary support from government, private and community sources.’
‘I don’t know, Charlie,’ Carrie said, her gaze returning to the plans. She chose her words carefully. ‘The drop-in centre is hardly a financial gold mine to start with. This will be a really hard sell.’
Charlie pushed away from the chair. ‘It’s a free clinic, Carrie. It’s not in our charter to make a profit.’
‘It’s not in your charter to lose money, either. If you do succeed in convincing them to do this, you’re going to need to keep your books better.’
Charlie grinned at her. ‘I’ll put a part-time bookkeeper in my proposal.’
Carrie shook her head as she watched him swagger out the door.
Charlie attacked the rest of the day with renewed vigour. He felt like he was starting afresh. The excitement he’d felt when he’d first had the plans drawn up returned. Formulating them shortly after his separation from Veronica had taken his mind off what had been happening in his personal life and he had worked on them day and night. Then a year ago his whole life had changed again in the blink of an eye, and he had put everything on hold. But no more. He intended to take his life back. No matter what it held.
