by Kate Hardy
Mr Fellowes went on to answer the unspoken question. ‘She came home to help her sister look after their grandmother when she became ill. Lovely woman, Betty Butler. Her girls did her proud.’
Which sounded as if Toni and her sister had been brought up by their grandmother. Which was none of his business, Ben reminded himself. He wasn’t going to ask what had happened to her parents, or why her grandmother had needed looking after, or if her grandmother was still around. It was nothing to do with him.
‘She’d do anything to help anyone, our Toni.’
Which told him that the nurse practitioner was kind as well as being popular. He felt another twinge of guilt. Maybe he’d overreacted a bit about the dog. Or maybe he’d overreacted because he’d noticed the colour of her eyes and his awareness of her had spooked him slightly because he hadn’t noticed small details like that about anyone for the last two years.
‘That’s good to know,’ he said neutrally, and guided the conversation back to the ulcer on Mr Fellowes’ lower leg that refused to heal.
* * *
Toni dropped the blood sample into the surgery. She wasn’t sure if she was more relieved or disappointed not to see the new GP again, which unsettled her slightly. If he was a hotshot London doctor like Sean had been, he was the last person she wanted to spend time around. And yet there was something about him that drew her.
She shook herself, and drove to the car park by the beach. She changed into her running shoes, slung a bag over her shoulder with two bottles of water and a bowl for the dog, then clipped his lead on and took him to the dog-friendly side of the beach before letting him off the lead again so he could bound along the sand.
The tide was halfway out; she followed the dog down to the shoreline, enjoying the freshness of the slight breeze coming off the sea and the swishing sound of the waves against the sand. Running produced the usual endorphins; by the time they’d run along the shore and then back to the car park, she was feeling much less grumpy than she had after her run-in with Ben Mitchell.
She picked up a home-made apple pie at the beach café and a sausage for Archie, then clipped the dog into his harness on the back seat and drove to her sister’s house.
Stacey greeted her with a hug. ‘Perfect timing. The kettle’s hot.’
‘Lovely. I’m dying for a mug of tea. And I brought pudding.’ Toni kissed her sister and handed over the apple pie. ‘How’s my best niece?’ she asked, lifting Scarlett out of her bouncy chair and giving her a cuddle.
Scarlett giggled and plastered a mushy kiss to Toni’s cheek. ‘Tee-to!’
Scarlett-speak for Auntie Toni; Toni was so glad she’d stayed in Norfolk and had the chance to watch her niece grow up instead of going back to London, when maybe she would only have seen her sister once a month and missed all the important milestones in her niece’s development.
‘How’s your day been, Stace?’ Toni asked.
‘Good. We had toddler group this morning, and Mary brought her guitar in. Then we went for a picnic in the park. How about you?’
‘My usual Monday afternoon at The Beeches,’ Toni said. ‘Archie brought a smile to a few faces.’
‘That’s good. Though it must be bittersweet for you, going back and knowing Gran isn’t there any more,’ Stacey said softly.
Toni nodded. ‘It is. And I know you miss her, too.’ There was a lump in her throat. ‘She would’ve adored Scarlett.’ Except Betty Butler had died from pneumonia, the month before Scarlett was born. In some ways Toni had been relieved, because at last her grandmother was out of pain and confusion; but in others she’d been devastated. Another link to the past severed. If only Betty hadn’t developed dementia. If only their parents hadn’t died. They would all have loved Scarlett so much. And it must be even harder for her sister with all the might-have-beens.
‘Yes.’
Hearing the slight crack in her sister’s voice and knowing they were sharing the same regrets, Toni changed the subject. ‘The new doctor started at the practice today.’
‘What’s he like?’
Toni wrinkled her nose. ‘Your age, I’d say. Tall, dark and grumpy.’
‘Not handsome?’
‘I didn’t notice.’ It was a slight fib. Ben Mitchell was very nice-looking. Or he would be if he actually smiled. And his eyes were the same green as the sea on a spring day. Not that she should be focusing on that.
‘But grumpy?’ Stacey shook her head. ‘I can’t imagine Ranjit offering a place to someone grumpy. Someone like that just wouldn’t fit in at the practice.’
Ranjit Sidana, the head of the practice at Great Crowmell, was one of the nicest-natured men either of them had ever met, always full of smiles.
‘We clashed a bit.’ Toni rolled her eyes. ‘Over Archie. He didn’t approve of the dog being at the surgery.’
‘Maybe it was first-day nerves,’ Stacey suggested. ‘You know what Gran would’ve said. Give him time to settle in before you judge him.’
‘I guess.’
‘So what do you know about him? Is he married? Single? Any children?’
Toni heard the hopeful note in her sister’s voice and sighed inwardly. ‘I have absolutely no idea. All Ranjit told us about him was that he’s moved here from London.’
‘Like you did.’
‘From another practice, rather than a hospital.’ And the reason why he’d moved from the capital to a quiet country practice was none of her business. ‘Even if he isn’t involved with someone, I’m really not interested, Stacey. You don’t have to hope that he’s a potential date for me. I don’t want to date anyone.’
Stacey squeezed her shoulder. ‘You know I worry about you being alone.’
‘I’m not alone. I live in the same village as the best sister and brother-in-law and niece in the world, I have plenty of friends locally, and I have Archie to keep me company at home.’
Stacey raised an eyebrow. ‘Thank you for the compliment, but you know what I meant. Surely you’d like to share your life with someone who says more than just “woof”?’
Toni laughed. ‘There’s an awful lot to be said for talking to someone who doesn’t answer back.’
As if to emphasise her point, Archie wagged his tail and licked Stacey’s hand and then Scarlett’s foot, making the little girl giggle.
‘I swear you trained him to do that on purpose.’ But Stacey was smiling. ‘Just don’t let Sean the Smug put you off finding happiness with someone else. Not all men are like him.’
‘I know they’re not.’ But she hadn’t managed to pick anyone who felt right before him, either. ‘I’m doing just fine on my own, Stacey. I live in my favourite place in the world, I love my job, and I have my family and friends nearby. I don’t need anything else.’
‘Hint taken, and I’ll stop nagging,’ Stacey said.
For now, Toni thought. She knew her sister’s motives were good, but her life really was just fine as it was. Toni felt very much part of the village where she’d grown up and she had absolutely no regrets about coming here from London. She had a great life; she didn’t need to date someone.
She didn’t need to prove her judgement to herself, either. Of course she knew that not all men were as selfish and demanding as her ex. But if she was honest with herself she knew that the two men she’d dated before him had been just as single-minded and just as selfish as Sean. Sometimes she wondered if she subconsciously picked men who just couldn’t give her love and security so it wouldn’t break her heart when things went wrong. She’d already lost too many people who really mattered at too young an age. Sean had given her an ultimatum: dump her grandmother, or be dumped. That one had been very easy, and she was done with ultimatums.
Single and happy. That was her. And that was the way she intended to stay.
‘Let’s get you back down in your chair, Miss Beautiful,’ she said to her niece, ‘and I
’m going to help your mummy cook dinner.’
‘Din-dins,’ Scarlett said, and beamed.
CHAPTER TWO
ON TUESDAY MORNING, Ben was in early for the weekly team meeting. ‘I made brownies,’ he said, taking the lid off the tin and putting it in the centre of the table.
‘Thank you. Good choice,’ Ranjit, the head of the practice, said with a smile.
Everyone except Toni took a brownie; Ben sighed inwardly. Obviously he’d annoyed her enough that she was going to ignore his peace offering. Well, he’d had it with women who were snippy. He’d put up with it from Karen—until he’d learned the bitter truth—and he wasn’t going to bend over backwards to please Toni Butler.
Once they’d gone through the morning’s agenda, Ranjit asked, ‘Is there anything that anyone wants to bring up?’
‘Yes—we need someone out at The Beeches today, please,’ Toni said. She looked at Ben. ‘That’s the local nursing home. Forty beds; and they’re set up for patients with dementia. We need to follow up Liza’s UTI and Renée’s lithium levels.’
‘Can you do the follow-up for us, Ben?’ Ranjit asked. ‘It’d be useful for you to meet Julia and her team.’
‘Sure.’ He looked at Toni. ‘Do you do a regular practice visit, Nurse Practitioner Butler?’
‘Toni,’ she said.
Oh. So she was thawing slightly. Good. He wouldn’t go out of his way to make friends with her, but a decent working relationship would be good both for the team and for their patients.
‘Our practice’s regular visit is on Thursdays, though obviously we pop in whenever we’re needed as well.’ Her grey eyes were very clear. ‘I visit The Beeches on my Monday afternoons off with Archie. He’s a therapy dog. I bring him to the surgery with me on Monday morning because I go straight from here to the nursing home.’
‘A therapy dog.’ He hadn’t expected that.
‘No doubt you disapprove of that, too,’ she said.
He blew out a breath. Maybe he’d asked for that, because he’d reacted badly to the dog yesterday. But she’d been snippy with him, too. ‘No. I’ve seen studies showing that having a pet visiting can really help elderly people, especially those in residential care.’
‘Exactly. It helps the residents—even a small observational study by the manager at The Beeches last year showed that a visit from Archie helps with the residents’ moods and helps with their social interaction with the staff as well as each other. It gives the residents something to talk about other than their illness, and even the ones who don’t really hold a conversation any more smile when they see him. The residents all really look forward to Mondays. And obviously it’s done in a supervised environment, we know that none of the residents is allergic or afraid of dogs, and we’re very aware of infection control. There’s a policy at the home as well as here.’
She’d just covered everything he’d brought up yesterday. Clearly what he’d said still rankled. He knew what he needed to do. ‘I apologise,’ he said, ‘for snapping at you yesterday.’
She inclined her head in acknowledgement. ‘But you don’t like dogs.’
Now she’d brought it up... ‘No. Obviously I’d never hurt one, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to spend time with one.’
‘I get that not everyone’s a dog person,’ Toni said. ‘But Archie is a genuinely nice dog. He’s passed a very thorough assessment—he can be stroked and handled by anyone and he’ll take treats gently and wait patiently. Plus he doesn’t jump up, paw people or lick them too much.’
And Ben could guess exactly why that was part of the assessment. ‘Because elderly people have very frail, thin skin.’
She smiled at him, then. A genuine smile. And Ben was shocked to realise that it made him feel as if the room had just lit up. This wasn’t good. He didn’t want to be attracted to anyone. His life was on an even keel again and he wanted it to stay that way.
He needed to keep his thoughts on his job. ‘All right. I’ll go to the home at lunchtime, as soon as my surgery finishes,’ he promised.
‘Thank you.’
Now she was smiling rather than scowling at him, Toni Butler was seriously pretty. She didn’t wear a ring on her left hand, but that meant nothing; she could still be in a serious relationship with someone without being married. He wasn’t going to ask and start the gossip mill working, either. She was his colleague. End of. And, even if she was single, he’d learned his lesson the hard way. Relationships were just too fragile, too easily broken. Like his heart. He’d only just finished putting himself back together after Karen and Patrick’s betrayal, and he had no intention of setting himself up for a repeat of all that heartache.
* * *
Toni was always a little bit suspicious of people who didn’t like dogs. She didn’t understand that mindset. But she knew she hadn’t really given Ben Mitchell a chance; she’d let herself react to him as if he was like Sean, expecting her to do things his way with no discussion, so she’d been combative with him rather than trying to find common ground, the way she normally would.
Of course not all men were like her ex.
But Ben was as self-assured as Sean had been, something that instinctively made her wary. Plus he was the first man since Sean who’d made her look twice. When he’d smiled back at her in the staff meeting and lost that brooding look, he’d been breathtakingly beautiful—green eyes, dark hair that flopped over his forehead, and an incredibly sensual mouth. He could have rivalled any film star. She really hadn’t expected to be so attracted to him.
But she knew that romantic relationships never worked out for her, so she had no intention of acting on that attraction. A good working relationship was all they needed. End of.
* * *
After his shift, Ben tapped the address of The Beeches into his satnav and headed out to see the patients.
When he introduced himself to Julia, the manager, she said, ‘Ah, yes. You must be the new doctor at the practice. How are you settling in?’
‘Fine, thanks. Nurse Butler said you had a patient who needed to be seen about a possible UTI, and it made sense for me to come and introduce myself because I’ll be seeing you on some of the regular Thursday morning visits,’ he said.
‘Good call. Thank you.’ She smiled at him.
‘I’d also like to say hello to Renée, even though her blood test results aren’t back yet,’ he said.
‘Of course. Toni’s filled you in on all the patients’ histories?’
Yes, but it was useful to go over it again in case he’d missed anything. ‘I’m happy for you to tell me whatever you think I need to know,’ Ben said.
After he’d seen the two patients Toni had been worried about, Ben made time to meet the charge nurse, who was responsible for the drug round, and introduced himself to all the residents who were in the lounge.
‘I agree with you about Renée. We’ll review her medication as soon as her bloods are back and ring you,’ he said to Julia in her office at the end of his visit. ‘And I agree with Toni that we should give Liza a low dose of antibiotics for the next six months to put a stop to the UTIs. I’ll get the prescriptions sorted out so they’ll be ready for collection later this afternoon.’
‘Thank you,’ Julia said. ‘Nice to meet you, Dr Mitchell.’
‘Ben,’ he said with a smile.
Once he’d sorted out the prescriptions and some admin back at the surgery, he headed for the supermarket on the way home to pick up a couple of pints of milk. As he walked into the chiller aisle, he saw Toni putting a bottle of milk into her trolley.
‘Hello,’ he said.
‘Hi.’
No dog, he noticed. But of course dogs weren’t usually allowed in supermarkets, so he stopped himself asking something clueless. Instead, he opted for polite small talk. ‘Doing your weekly grocery shop?’
‘My neighbour’s, actually,’ she sa
id. ‘Shona came off her bike awkwardly three weeks ago and broke her arm.’
‘That’s kind of you to do her shopping.’
Toni shrugged. ‘She’d do the same for me. Great Crowmell is the kind of place where people look out for each other.’ She smiled. ‘Right now she has Archie sprawled all over her lap, enjoying having a fuss made of him.’
The dog. She was very much a dog person, and he really wasn’t. ‘Uh-huh.’
She bit her lip. ‘You and I rather got off on the wrong foot yesterday. Look, if you’re not busy this evening, why don’t you come over for dinner? I’m a reasonable cook.’
Awareness flickered through him, and he stifled it. She wasn’t asking him to dinner because she was attracted to him. She was asking him because she was trying to get their professional relationship onto an even keel. Which would be a good thing, and he’d accept purely on that basis. Because he really wasn’t interested in starting a relationship with anyone. Karen had hurt him deeply. He wasn’t letting anyone that close again, even if Toni was as nice as she seemed. ‘Thanks. Dinner would be great,’ he said.
‘You’re welcome to bring your partner, too, and any children,’ she said. ‘Just let me know how many I’m cooking for.’
Partner and children. Not any more. It had left a huge hole in his life that he tried to fill with work and studying. It hadn’t worked, which was why he had moved here, hoping that a fresh start would help. He pushed the thought away. ‘Just me.’
‘It’s just me and Archie at my place.’
So she was single, too—and clearly not in the market for a relationship. He was glad that they’d cleared that up. Established boundaries. ‘OK. Can I bring pudding?’ Then he remembered her refusal of his brownies. ‘Um—that is, do you eat pudding?’
She grimaced. ‘Ah. You must’ve noticed I didn’t take one of your brownies this morning. Sorry, it wasn’t anything personal.’ She gave him a rueful smile. ‘My sister says I’m weird, because I’m about the only person in the world who doesn’t actually like chocolate cake.’
