The Accidental Romeo

by Carol Marinelli

  And Marnie too.

  ‘Take care,’ Harry settled for instead.

  He had a drink before heading into Marnie’s office, and when he got there she was sitting with her head in her hands, just as he had in the car earlier, as if bracing herself for the news that her brother had died!

  ‘It’s a tendon!’ Harry said.

  ‘I know.’ Marnie looked up and there was a grimace on her face as she tried to force a smile. ‘I just came off the phone to my mother—you wouldn’t believe me if I told you how difficult that conversation was. She actually rang me and I caved and told her about Ronan’s accident.’

  ‘Oh.’ Harry was surprised. He’d got the impression they barely spoke. ‘I thought you didn’t...’ Harry halted. It was none of his business.

  ‘We may not talk about certain things,’ Marnie said, ‘but, as difficult as they can be, I love my parents very much.’ Marnie lifted her eyes to the ceiling. ‘Ronan’s accident is all my fault.’

  ‘Of course it is,’ Harry said calmly.

  ‘If she woke up tomorrow and the sky was purple, she’d be on the phone, blaming me.’

  ‘Well, if you’d just kept the tin-opener in the second drawer, all this could have been avoided.’ Harry wagged his finger and somehow made her smile, and then she looked away because Harry was usually in a suit. She didn’t think she’d seen so much of his skin before, at least, not this close up. His arms were very long but muscular too, and she could see just a smattering of chest hair when Marnie was rather more used to smooth. He looked tired yet there was a certain air of elation to him that Marnie didn’t quite understand.

  ‘I’ve managed to convince her to not visit till tomorrow, it would be after ten before she got here. How did the repair go?’

  ‘Very well,’ Harry said. ‘Kelly will be bringing him round to the obs ward soon....’ His voice trailed off as his pager went and Harry read the message, then asked if he could use her phone.

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘Hi, Mum,’ Harry said. ‘Yes, sorry about that, it took a bit longer than I thought. Put him on.’ Marnie tried to look away as he chatted to Adam but her eyes kept drifting towards him.

  To think she’d expected him to have a bit of a paunch by now—he had a very flat stomach and very muscular legs and, as he sat on the edge of her desk as he spoke, Marnie could see the hair on his arms.

  He was, as if Marnie didn’t already know, very, very beautiful.

  Dangerous too.

  Dangerous, because Marnie rarely opened up to anyone, yet with Harry she did too easily. Even the brief conversation about her phone call with her mother was far more than she would usually share and Marnie’s foot tapped, with tension rather than impatience, as Harry spoke on.

  She wanted to get away from him.

  She wanted to go home, just so she could give herself a good talking to.

  After speaking to Adam, he chatted at length to Charlotte, though he could see Marnie’s foot tapping in mid-air out of the corner of his eye, but then she stood and went and stared out of the window as Harry laughed and talked on. ‘What do you mean, it’s not fair?’ He spoke a little while longer and then said goodnight and put down the phone.

  ‘Charlotte’s jealous that Adam has got chickenpox,’ Harry said to Marnie, who was still looking out of the window. He watched her shoulders move in a small laugh and then wretched guilt at keeping him from his children caught up and Marnie turned her head.

  ‘Say it,’ Marnie challenged, her blue eyes glittering.

  ‘Say what?’ Harry frowned.

  ‘Go on,’ Marnie insisted. ‘Say whatever’s on your mind.’

  Harry gave a wry grin. ‘Such as...’

  ‘It’s different when it’s you or your family,’ Marnie offered, turning to face him.

  ‘That’s not what’s on my mind.’

  ‘Hypocrite, then?’ Marnie suggested.

  ‘No...’ He was walking towards her.

  ‘Just say it.’

  ‘You’re quite sure?’ Harry said, and it was at that moment exactly that she realised that Harry had something else on his mind, something very similar to what was on hers as she saw the burn of arousal in his eyes. ‘You’re quite sure that you want me to say what’s on my mind?’

  She looked at him properly then, saw the Harry she hadn’t seen in a very long time. There was an energy to him that had been missing, an energy that she hadn’t seen since a certain night in the doctors’ mess when he’d asked why she was leaving so soon—only this time it was potent.

  If he’d been on the other side of the desk, she might have had a chance to deny him. Might have been able to rein in common sense and come up with some witty retort that would end things before they were started.

  Except he was standing in front of her. She could smell the lust, the want, the need, and it was intoxicating and, quite simply, Marnie couldn’t resist. One small nod was all the affirmation needed for Harry to tell his truth.

  ‘I want you.’

  His mouth came down and crushed Marnie’s. He was so tall he had to, not just stoop but almost lift her to exert the pressure that this kiss demanded.

  Marnie was no stranger to lust but she’d never felt it as ferociously or as deliciously as this.

  Every snap, every snarl, every flirt, every tease was now being paid back tenfold by the probe of his tongue and the roaming of his hands.

  Or was it her hands? One was in his hair, messing it to the way she had first seen it, the other moving down over his arm, but only so she could force a space to get to his back and to the taut buttocks she had admired from behind on far too many occasions.

  It was lust uninterrupted, Marnie for once out of control, and she liked it.

  ‘I remember you now...’ He was opening the buttons to her navy dress and not for a moment did she think of halting him. Whatever was wrong in the world, this was the antidote and for now, this moment, they celebrated their discovery. ‘Harry...’ She could feel his arousal pressed into her; one hand was lifting her dress and he moaned into her mouth as he felt her soft thigh. As he slipped his hand higher, it was Marnie who moaned.

  ‘Not here...’ Marnie pulled back but her words were contrary to her actions; she was kissing his face, her hands lifting his top just to get to his skin, just to bury her mouth in his salty chest and taste him. ‘Not here...’ Marnie moaned again, and Harry almost came as he looked down at her licking her lips. ‘Harry.’ She was wrestling for control. Hell, she was the nurse unit manager, her mother could have changed her mind and arrived any minute, Kelly could knock at the door...

  ‘I don’t get involved with anyone at work.’

  ‘Not a problem.’ Harry turned the lock on her door and then picked her up and lifted her over to the desk. ‘I just resigned.’

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ‘YOU WHAT?’

  He was back to her mouth but now Marnie understood his earlier elation.

  ‘Harry? You can’t.’

  ‘I already have.’ He looked down at her breasts, pale in their bra, and he wanted to bury his face in them, to simply forget, but he knew then that the moment was over and, still breathless, still hard, still wanting, he did the right thing and started to do the buttons up.

  Yes, it had been about escape, Marnie realised, for a man who wasn’t thinking particularly straight, and it was time for her to steer things towards reason.

  ‘Harry...’ She was struggling to get her breath back too. His groin was still leaning into hers, her body still tingling and aroused, and it would be so much easier to dive back to his mouth, but instead she offered no resistance as he straightened up. In fact, she shivered a little at the coolness when he was gone.

  ‘I apologise.’

  ‘For what?’ Marnie attempted to laugh it off. ‘I
didn’t notice me doing much resisting, but I don’t think a quick shag on the office desk is going to solve things.’

  He smiled at her directness. ‘I don’t think anything is going to solve things,’ he admitted. ‘Might be nice to give it a try, though.’

  Marnie retied her hair and brushed her dress down then unlocked the door. ‘As if the person on the other side wouldn’t know what was going on!’

  Harry wanted to pull her down to his lap, perhaps take it more slowly this time, take her home even—after all, he had the house to himself. He didn’t want to think about what he had done—the handing-in-the-notice part, not the Marnie part. He’d love to think more about that! No, it was handing in his notice. His ten-past-five phone call to Admin that he didn’t want to examine, but Marnie refused to let it drop.

  ‘You love your job, Harry.’

  ‘I love it when I get to do it,’ Harry said.

  ‘So what are you going to do?’

  ‘Go private,’ Harry said. ‘Hand surgery...’

  ‘Will it be enough?’ Marnie asked. ‘Harry, you love this place...’

  ‘I love my children more,’ Harry said. ‘There will still be accident and emergency departments needing a consultant in a few years’ time—right now the children need some stability.’

  ‘You can give them that,’ Marnie said, horrified to think of the department without him. Harry and Dr Vermont were the lynchpins of the place. Yes, there were new doctors starting but they needed guidance.

  ‘It’s not up for discussion,’ Harry said. ‘The deed is done.’

  ‘How long’s your notice?’

  ‘Two weeks,’ Harry said, ‘but I’m not working it. I’m taking parental leave to look after the children.’

  ‘That’s it?’ Marnie said, understanding more and more where the emotion of the night had come from. Harry really was leaving the place.

  ‘That’s it,’ Harry said. ‘There will probably be a leaving do in a couple of weeks, which I’ll do my best to get to—’ his voice was wry ‘—providing I can get a babysitter.’

  ‘Harry—’

  ‘Leave it.’

  Sex would have been so much easier.

  Harry hadn’t cried since the night before he’d lost Jill. He hadn’t been able to, there had been two bewildered twins to look after and Jill’s shocked parents as well as his own—all his grieving had been done on the ICU ward before the machines had been turned off, yet, on this day, he was precariously close to breaking down.

  He loved his job—an A and E consultant was all he had ever wanted to be and it was killing him to walk away.

  Yet it was impossible to stay.

  ‘Come home with me?’ he said, looking at her very full mouth.

  She could feel his eyes there, wanted again the weight of his kiss, but not like this...

  ‘Harry, if I come home with you, it will be to talk some sense into you.’

  ‘You can talk sense into me over dinner.’

  She was tempted, so tempted, and that was the problem.

  She wanted dinner with Harry, and bed, and she wanted to know so much more about him. She looked into eyes that were as come hither as they had been all those years ago, only now it would be so terribly easy to say yes.

  Dinner with Harry would be lovely.

  Bed even better.

  There was just one little problem.

  Make that two.

  How could she best put it?

  ‘I’m busy tonight, Harry,’ Marnie said. ‘What about Saturday?’

  It hit Harry where she had intended to—right below the belt. Ardour faded as Marnie flexed the freedom muscle she guarded so fiercely. It would take a whole lot more than the occasional night off, babysitter permitting, to lure Marnie.

  ‘Saturday might be a problem.’

  Yes, she’d rather thought that it might.

  ‘I’m going to go,’ Harry said, but Marnie hadn’t finished discussing her favourite subject.

  Work.

  ‘Harry, you’re rushing into this decision—’

  ‘I’m not rushing into anything,’ Harry interrupted. ‘If anything, this is long overdue. I’ll come in and say goodbye to everyone when the time’s right, but now I need to take care of my kids.’

  He left her in the office, stunned from the news, from his kiss, from the sudden absence of Harry.

  He wanted his last walk through his department alone.

  ‘’Night, Harry,’ Kelly called.

  ‘’Night,’ Harry called back. ‘Thanks for your help with Ronan.’

  He nodded to Helen, the locum who was covering for tonight, and, yes, the place was going to struggle, but it would soon move on. Juan would be back and Dr Cooper would start.

  He’d just miss it so much.

  * * *

  Dr Vermont broke the news to the staff the next morning.

  ‘We all know what a struggle it’s been for Harry since Jill died. It’s not an easy decision to make but for Harry it must have been the right one.’

  Marnie felt terrible—she kept beating herself up, wondering if she’d just been a bit more flexible the outcome might have been different. And, on top of all that, over and over she kept remembering the steamy kiss they had shared. Yes, she fancied Harry, but the impact of him close up had shaken her more than she had thought it would. Still, she didn’t have much time to dwell on it. As the staff spilled out of the staffroom, all talking about the news of Harry’s sudden departure, Marnie walked straight into her parents.

  ‘Mum!’ Marnie gave her mother a smile and a kiss.

  ‘What was he doing, using a knife to open a can?’ Maureen accused.

  ‘You can’t blame Marnie for this.’ Ronan laughed and tried to sit up with one hand attached to a pole as Dr Vermont came over to visit the patients in the obs ward.

  ‘Mr Johnson,’ Dr Vermont said, and Marnie smothered a smile as her father stepped forward, because Dr Vermont was speaking to Ronan. ‘I hear everything went very well last night.’ Marnie took down Ronan’s hand from the pole and Dr Vermont checked the colour and sensation in the tip of Ronan’s heavily splinted finger. He asked Ronan to try and move the finger and Marnie watched with relief as the pink tip lifted just a little.

  ‘You can feel this?’ Dr Vermont checked as Ronan closed his eyes.

  ‘Yes.’

  Marnie let out a breath and then smiled as Ronan again said he could feel the touch of the needle as Dr Vermont checked the other side.

  ‘It’s doing everything it should,’ Dr Vermont said. ‘I’ll see you in two days and then...’ He hesitated as he looked at the address on the admission notes. ‘Do you do want to be followed up here?’ Dr Vermont checked. ‘I see that you live quite a distance away.’

  ‘Here would be great,’ Ronan said. ‘I can catch up with Marnie when I have an appointment.’

  ‘It’s the only way you’ll get to see her,’ Maureen Johnson muttered, and Marnie chose not to respond to her mother’s barb and stayed silent as Dr Vermont spoke to Kelly. ‘Could you schedule in some hand appointments for Mr Johnson?’ he asked, and then turned to Ronan. ‘If we book the next couple in, at least you’ll know what you’re doing.’

  He gave a few more instructions and then moved on to the next bed.

  ‘You can get dressed,’ Marnie said to her brother a little while later when Kelly had come off the phone.

  ‘I’ll give him a hand,’ Kelly said, as she pulled the curtains around the bed. ‘I’ve made the appointments. We’ll see you the day after tomorrow and then again on the twenty-third. Is that okay?’

  Ronan looked up at his sister, but thankfully the curtain swished past and Marnie had a second to collect herself before she answered for him.

  ‘The twenty-third’s
fine,’ Marnie said, and deliberately didn’t look at her mum as the one date they all dreaded was, for the first time in a very long time, mentioned.

  Trust the Irish to not make a fuss when it mattered!

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ‘THIS TOO WILL pass,’ Dr Vermont said. ‘It’s my favourite saying and one I’ve used often over the years working in this place.’

  It was two in the morning and Marnie was on her first night shift at Bayside. It had been difficult logistically without Harry as they struggled to cover the department but, more than logistics, he was sorely missed by everyone, including Marnie.

  Especially Marnie.

  She was missing him on a whole different level, though—the flirting, the teasing, just the fun of having someone as shamelessly male as Harry around.

  Not that she told that to Dr Vermont, of course. They were going through the doctors’ roster for the next couple of weeks and trying to cover the gaps as they ate Marnie’s chicken and mango salad that she had brought in from home.

  ‘I’ve been through staff shortages, work to rule, the whole lot,’ Dr Vermont continued. ‘And, though it feels like it will never end, invariably it does. It will all get sorted, and I’ll say it again—this is not your fault.’

  Dr Vermont was lovely and extremely practical when Marnie had confessed what was on her mind.

  ‘Even if you had let Charlotte, or was it Adam, lie on the sofa, this still would have happened.’

  ‘I was trying to make things easier for him,’ Marnie admitted. ‘I know I looked like I was being mean when I told him to go home a couple of times but I was trying to show him that he wasn’t completely indispensable...’

  Dr Vermont laughed. ‘Well, you did!’

  ‘I know.’ Marnie ran a worried hand over her forehead. ‘I was trying to prove to him that we could call the trauma team or the medics, that it didn’t have to all fall to him,’ Marnie explained. ‘I just wish that I’d handled things a little differently. I wish—’