The Perfect Wife and Mother?. Caroline Anderson
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with a no-strings, sex-for-the-sake-of-it affair, O’Connor, he thought drily.
Oh, damn.
He rolled onto his front, smashed the pillow into submission and shut his eyes. He’d deal with it on Monday.
Ginny wasn’t sure how to face Ryan on Monday morning. She was sure that her feelings for him were written all over her face in letters ten feet high, and she had no intention of revealing her stupidity to him. It was hardly his fault, after all, that she had managed to fall in love with the man.
She had a choice, of course. End the affair before she was hurt, or let it run its course. She was there for a year. Ryan had made it clear that he wanted no emotional involvement with her, so the choice was hers, really, so long as she could keep her feelings secret.
So, what was the choice? Hurt now, or have a lot of fun and hurt later? Some choice.
So she dressed for power, in a practical but ultra-feminine dress with a scooped neckline and button-through front, and had to spend the day fighting off all the conscious male patients between fifteen and eighty-five.
And Ryan.
He found her during a lull and called her into his office, and without preamble he pulled her into his arms and kissed her thoroughly. Then he buttoned her coat shut.
‘It’s too hot,’ she protested, and one brow arched in comment.
‘You don’t say,’ he drawled softly. ‘That’s why I did it up.’
She laughed, a little breathlessly, and his fingers cupped her jaw with infinite tenderness and he kissed her again.
‘I want you,’ he murmured.
‘Mmm. Lunchtime?’
His eyes widened. ‘Where?’
‘My room?’
He looked tempted. ‘There won’t be time,’ he said regretfully.
‘Tonight?’
He shook his head and she was conscious of a hideous disappointment. ‘I’ve got the kids to think about. I have to pick them up from their babysitter. Don’t worry, we’ll find time somehow—soon.’
His bleeper squawked and he picked up the phone, his eyes still on hers. ‘O’Connor. Yes, I’m in the department. I’ll come now.’
He put the phone down. ‘Duty calls,’ he said with a wry grin. ‘Keep the coat done up.’
She grinned and let him go, then followed him out.
She did as he said for a while, but then it got too hot and she was too busy and the buttons gave way to comfort. By lunchtime the coat was off too, and she was wearing just the dress with her stethoscope round her neck.
Ryan walked past the cubicle where she was treating a patient, stopped dead and reversed and looked pointedly at her chest.
She threw him a sassy grin and carried on, and as he walked away she could have sworn she heard a little growl erupting from his chest.
She stifled the chuckle and drew her attention back to her patient. ‘Now, Mrs Robson, how did you say you cut yourself?’
He was right about lunchtime. They were rushed off their feet, and any plans they might have made to creep away for a quiet interlude would have been abandoned anyway.
Things were still fairly hectic when a woman was brought in who had fallen onto her outstretched hand and broken her arm. She was brought in in a wheelchair, obviously in a great deal of pain and suffering from shock.
Ginny examined her arm quickly and found that there was a very weak pulse in her wrist and the area over the back of her thumb felt dead.
That indicated damage to the nerve and blood supply down her arm, and would need surgical intervention. Ginny ordered an immediate X-ray, and as soon as the plate was in front of her she could see the damage caused by the fall. The humerus had split lengthwise in a nasty spiral fracture, and the sharp end of the lower part had rammed up into the nerves and blood vessels with the force of the fall. The woman would need an operation very quickly to sort out the blood supply and avoid potentially horrendous problems resulting from the disrupted circulation.
She called the orthopaedic registrar on take, and a few minutes later a good-looking young man appeared in the corridor.
‘Who wants me?’ he said with a grin, and the nurses ribbed him mercilessly.
‘You’re married, Zach, behave,’ they teased.
The sister sent him in to Ginny, and she showed him the plate.
‘Ow. That’s quite a break. Is this your arm?’ he said to the patient, squatting down to bring himself to her eye level.
‘Yes—oh, it’s so sore.’
‘I’m sure. Don’t worry. We’ll have you sorted out in no time. When did you last eat?’
‘Breakfast. I’m on a diet so I skipped lunch.’
‘What about a drink? Can you remember when you had the last one?’
‘About eleven o’clock. I was on my way home after doing the shopping when I fell off the bus.’
‘Is that how you did this?’ His fingers were gently examining her hand, which also showed signs of cuts and bruises. ‘Poor you. That was a nasty fall. Let’s get you up to Theatre, then, and sort you out. Any allergies or problems with anaesthetics?’
She shook her head, and Zach stood up.
‘OK. Let’s have her on a trolley, I think, and with that arm supported on a pillow like it is, and we’ll get her fixed up as soon as Theatre’s free—about ten minutes, Robert said.’
Ginny nodded. ‘Do you want her up there for the anaesthetist now?’
‘Yes, I think so. We’ll get that pain sorted out first. I’ll ring Theatre, if I may?’
‘Of course.’
She filled in the paperwork while he went off to the office to phone, and then she put the notes on the trolley with the patient and went along to the office to find out what was happening.
Ryan was there, lounging in the doorway and chatting to Zach.
‘So, no emergencies over the weekend?’ Zach said with a grin. ‘No fires or floods or burglars?’
Ryan looked a little uncomfortable. ‘No, no emergencies. We went over there on Saturday evening and checked it out.’
Ginny’s eyes widened. Zach owned the barn? Oh, Lord.
She felt hot colour creeping up her neck, and turned away so that Ryan didn’t catch her eye because, as sure as eggs, if he did she’d start to giggle.
She thought Zach would latch onto the ‘we’ like a limpet, but he didn’t, and Ginny realised that he must have thought Ryan was referring to the children. She let her breath ease out, and turned back again.
‘Your patient’s all ready for you, Zach,’ she murmured, and slipped away before she could become embroiled in any further conversation about the barn.
Ryan came and found her a few minutes later. There was a lull and she was in the staffroom with her feet up, grabbing a cup of coffee. For the moment, at least, they were alone.
He poured a cup of coffee and came and sat at right angles to her, next to her feet.
‘You could have told me the barn was his,’ she said softly. ‘I nearly died.’
He chuckled. ‘I didn’t think of it. I forgot you’d meet him around the department. Yes, it was a bit tricky, wasn’t it?’
‘Would they mind?’
He shook his head. ‘No—I’d just rather keep it more discreet.’
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