A Very Special Proposal

by Josie Metcalfe

  ‘Definitely scary,’ she said with a shudder. ‘I thought it was bad enough when I was the most senior member of staff available one night when we had a multiple RTA, a heart attack and a precipitate prem birth all arrive at once.’

  ‘And you’re instantly convinced that you can’t remember a single thing and every one of them is going to die and it’ll all be your fault,’ he suggested, and felt an answering grin spread across his face when she burst out laughing.

  The laughter was cut short by a muted sound that had Amy scrabbling inside her bag for her mobile phone.

  He saw her expression change when she caught sight of the number displayed on the screen.

  ‘Damn,’ she muttered, and pulled a distinctly unladylike face as she pressed the button to answer the call.

  The conversation was just cryptic enough for him to know that she was speaking to another man, but the surge of jealousy hardly had time to gather before he realised just which man had invaded the private cocoon that had surrounded the two of them since they’d left the fundraiser.

  ‘No, Father,’ she said on a sigh, and he was assailed by an emotion very different from jealousy—something far darker. ‘I’ve already left the hotel.’

  Zach couldn’t hear what the man was saying but he could imagine.

  ‘No, Father, I’m not coming all the way back just to meet one of your business colleagues. There’s no point in—’

  ‘I said no, Father,’ she repeated quietly but firmly, using the same tone he’d heard when she was dealing with one of their more difficult patients. ‘I’ll speak to you soon.’

  Zach could just imagine how that was going down with her over-protective father, especially knowing that she was in his company.

  ‘No. Not tonight,’ she said decisively, clearly intending to end the conversation any moment. ‘It’ll be far too late to ring you by the time I get home. Enjoy the rest of your evening.’

  As he watched, she deliberately pressed the button to end the call, cutting her father off in mid-splutter, then, equally deliberately, pressed the button to turn the phone off completely before dropping it into her bag and closing it.

  Only then did she cover her face with both hands. ‘How embarrassing!’ she muttered, then gave vent to a sound that was a weird combination of a shriek and a groan.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ‘SOMETIMES, I could almost hate my father,’ Amy muttered under her breath for the umpteenth time that week as she watched Zach disappearing around the corner.

  After all those months of sitting starry-eyed next to him in a classroom, and all those years of ‘what if’ fantasies, she’d finally been sitting in Zach’s car on a starlit night…and her father had phoned her.

  ‘Checking up on me as if I were still a schoolgirl, for heaven’s sake!’ she growled between clenched teeth as she signed off on the treatment she’d given her latest patient, pausing in her litany of complaints just long enough to check that the quantities of drugs she’d given for pain relief had been recorded accurately. She’d never be able to forgive herself if someone was given an accidental overdose on the strength of her own poor record-keeping.

  ‘Problem, Amy, girl?’ queried a voice at her elbow, and she looked up into Louella’s frowning face.

  ‘No…well, nothing more than the usual…my father sticking his nose in where it isn’t wanted,’ Amy grumbled, knowing that Louella wouldn’t rest until she ferreted out whatever was worrying her; she just couldn’t help her nurturing side coming out, even in a busy department.

  Louella snorted, having heard the same complaint several times since Amy had started working in A and E. ‘There are some that don’t seem to understand that people can’t be treated the same as figures on a balance sheet, moved about from one column to another to make the answer you want. Can’t you get your mother to stop him interfering?’

  ‘Some hope!’ Amy scoffed. ‘She’ll be standing on the sidelines, cheering him on. She’d like nothing better than to see me waltzing up the aisle again, on the way to producing a clutch of picture-perfect grandchildren for her to boast about to her fellow committee members.’

  ‘And you don’t want that?’ Louella probed gently as she led Amy towards the staff lounge and a reviving drink. ‘Is it that you don’t want children at all, or is it still too soon to think about marrying again? You don’t mind my asking, do you?’ she added hastily. ‘Just tell me to mind my own business if I’m opening the wounds, only…well, you never speak about your husband, so no one quite dares to mention…’

  ‘It’s not that I don’t want children,’ Amy admitted in a rush, suddenly needing to speak honestly about her tangled feelings, the way she never could with her mother. Usually, the two of them worked opposite shifts, with Louella preferring to work while her children were asleep, but for the next week she’d done a swap with another member of staff, and Amy was just learning the delights of having a confidante. ‘If it had been just my decision, we’d have started a family almost straight away, but Edward…’ She paused, suddenly realising that to say any more would be disloyal to her husband. His reasons for delaying their first child—waiting until they’d both got their professional lives running smoothly—had seemed perfectly rational at the time.

  She sighed. ‘It’s just that the two of them keep arranging blind dates for me, and it’s getting more and more embarrassing. I hate it because I have absolutely nothing in common with their candidates, most of whom are connected to my father’s business in some way, and we have nothing to say to each other. It’s especially awkward with my parents sitting there listening to every word we say, as though they expect an engagement to be announced within the first half-hour.’

  ‘Grim! So, what are these men like, girl?’ Louella demanded with a chuckle as she handed over a steaming mug and settled herself into the opposite corner of the slightly shabby settee. ‘Are they wealthy? Good-looking? Sexy? All of the above?’

  ‘I presume they’re all relatively wealthy, otherwise my father wouldn’t look at them as possible sons-in-law, but as for good-looking or sexy…that hardly matters if they can’t hold a conversation about anything other than money. I’m hard-pressed not to yawn in their faces halfway through the meal.’

  ‘Oops! Definitely not good for the male ego!’ Louella laughed aloud this time. ‘So what are you going to do about it?’

  ‘There’s not a lot I can do,’ Amy said glumly. ‘I manage to duck as many “command performances” as I can—working on A and E helps there, because I can always fudge the number of hours I spend on duty to avoid them. But as I can’t cut my parents out of my life completely, they still manage to ambush me as I arrive at each ‘do’ and tell me that they’ve arranged for me to sit beside their next candidate…’ As they had the other evening when Zach had come to her rescue.

  ‘Well, how about practising a bit of preventative medicine, then?’ Louella suggested. ‘You’ll have to take your own man along each time, so they can’t do it to you.’

  ‘That’s all very well in theory, but as I haven’t got any suitable candidates lined up…’

  ‘Amy, girl, I don’t believe that for a moment. You’re beautiful and far too slim for a woman of my size to be happy standing beside you, you’re intelligent and you’ve got a good job. If you weren’t sending out keep-off vibes, you could have them standing in line, wanting to take you out. What about starting with Zach?’ Louella proposed with a wicked grin. ‘Tall, dark and handsome—he’d be perfect!’

  ‘Perfect for what?’ Zach demanded suspiciously as he came within earshot at just the wrong moment. He completely buried Amy’s muttered, ‘Chance would be a fine thing!’

  ‘The perfect candidate for Amy, girl to fend off—’

  ‘Louella! Don’t!’ Amy interrupted hastily, only too aware that there were far too many pairs of ears all around them and mortified that Zach might feel obliged to take her out as a charity case. He’d already made his preference very clear by avoiding her ever since that night
. It would only make everything so much more embarrassing if Louella were to speak to him about it.

  And why had she expected anything else? she thought, cross with herself that she obviously hadn’t grown out of that teenage crush, even after all this time.

  Nevertheless, there was a definite irony in the fact that the situation hadn’t changed for either of them, she thought as she rinsed out her coffee-mug and made her way to the door. She was still hopelessly longing for him to discover that she was the love of his life, and he was still totally disinterested.

  ‘Dr Willmott! What a lovely surprise!’ exclaimed a hearty voice almost as soon as she emerged into the reception area, and even as she turned to face the florid man bearing down on her she could feel her heart sinking. ‘Fancy seeing you here, my dear,’ he gushed.

  ‘Mr Spruitt-West,’ she said, hoping her smile looked a little more genuine than it felt, especially as the man was surrounded by a coterie of the hospital’s administrative bigwigs.

  ‘Geoffrey, my dear. Do call me Geoffrey,’ he invited, sidling far too close to her for her peace of mind. She cringed when she saw the expression in his protruding pale eyes and the way he licked his lips as he examined her from head to foot. ‘I was just saying how sad we were that you left us, but we understood that there would have been far too many memories of dear Edward for you to stay.’

  And it hadn’t just been the memories she’d been hoping to leave behind, she thought darkly, remembering all too clearly that ‘dear Geoffrey’ hadn’t been the only one of her former colleagues to assume that a relatively young widow might be feeling lonely and wanting a little comforting.

  ‘You’ve settled in well, I hope?’ He gave a cursory glance around the department but Amy doubted that he’d actually focussed on anything. He had a different agenda and she had a sinking feeling that she knew exactly what it was.

  ‘Very well, thank you,’ she said with a smile that included his similarly grey-suited companions, wondering idly whether grey suits were part of a uniform you were expected to adopt once you reached a certain level of the hospital hierarchy. Edward had worn something very similar even before his appointment had been confirmed…

  Another picture leapt into her head and she had to suppress a grin at the thought that she couldn’t imagine Zach ever conforming quite so eagerly. She wouldn’t be the least bit surprised, when the time came, if he was the only consultant arriving on a motorbike, sporting head-to-toe leather.

  ‘I’ve travelled up here to present a paper tomorrow evening, but I’ve got a free evening tonight,’ her former colleague bulldozed on, finally coming to the point of this ‘accidental’ meeting. ‘If you let me have your new address, I could call for you to take you out for a meal. Would seven o’clock leave you enough time to change after you finish work?’

  Seven millennia wouldn’t be enough time for her to want to go out with this louse. Apart from the fact that the thought of spending any time with him made her skin crawl, he was a married man. Didn’t it matter to him that Amy not only knew that he had a wife but had met the poor woman at nearly every social occasion the hospital had put on for the last five years?

  ‘I’m so sorry, Mr Spruitt-West, but I already have plans for this evening,’ she said coolly, glad that she didn’t have to tell him that even putting a load of laundry through the machine was infinitely more attractive than spending a single second in his presence.

  His bloated face darkened with anger that she was daring to turn him down yet again, and in front of so many witnesses. Was that why he’d made the invitation here, believing that she would meekly agree rather than cause any unpleasantness?

  ‘Oh, but surely—’ began one of the more obsequious administrators, but Amy wasn’t about to let a mere paper-pusher interfere in her life.

  ‘I’m sorry, gentlemen,’ she interrupted hastily, taking several steps away from the group so that she was almost talking over her shoulder to them. ‘As you know, we’re severely understaffed in the department and if we’re to have any hope of keeping to the government’s performance targets, I really must get back to work. We wouldn’t like the hospital to have to pay thousands of pounds in penalty fines—that would just make the problems worse, wouldn’t it?’ And she spun on one heel and made for the closest treatment room, regardless of the fact that she had no idea if there was even a patient in there.

  She shouldered her way briskly thought one of the doors and nearly cannoned into Zach just inside the room.

  ‘Sorry,’ she said through gritted teeth, then drew in a deep breath and blew it out slowly and deliberately, grateful for some strange reason that he was the only person to see the way she’d lost her cool. At least she’d held it together when she’d been face to face with that loathsome toad.

  ‘Really?’ he asked, and for the first time in over a week she saw a gleam in those dark eyes. ‘How sorry?’

  ‘What? Well, I’m definitely sorry that it wasn’t him that I nearly flattened with the door,’ she muttered darkly. ‘Obnoxious, slimy…’

  ‘But what about me?’ Zach demanded. ‘What about my narrow escape? What about my hurt feelings? What about my fear that I was about to be permanently injured by your thoughtless actions?’

  Amy took one glance at his pathetic attempt at looking…well, pathetic, and she couldn’t stop the smile lifting the corners of her mouth. If there was anyone less pathetic than this prime specimen of manhood…

  ‘Thank you,’ she said, surprised that he’d managed to lift her mood so easily.

  ‘For what?’ Now he was making an equally pathetic attempt at looking innocent.

  She sent him an old-fashioned look and he dropped the pretence. ‘I couldn’t help hearing your parting shot,’ he admitted, and shook his head. ‘You were always quickwitted, ABC, but you’ve obviously been honing the edge of your tongue. It’s sharp enough to clip a hedge.’

  The picture his words conjured up inside her head made her laugh out loud.

  ‘One of my more private accomplishments,’ she agreed, playing along with his foolishness.

  ‘So, will it be gratitude or guilt?’ he demanded obliquely, when the laughter faded and the ensuing silence stretched just a little too long between them.

  ‘Will what be…?’ She shook her head. ‘You’ve lost me, I’m afraid.’

  Under his breath he muttered something about working hard, but it was said too softly for her to hear, and before she could ask him to repeat it, he was speaking aloud again. ‘Will it be gratitude for lifting your spirits, or guilt for nearly putting me in ICU that makes you agree to come out with me?’

  Amy felt her eyes widen with disbelief and her pulse definitely stuttered for several beats before starting again at twice its normal rate. Strange how very different her reaction was to two similar invitations in the space of a few minutes, she thought, even as she shook her head.

  ‘Neither,’ she said, fighting to keep a victory grin off her face. After avoiding her for so long, he’d cracked before she had, but it had been a close-run thing. She’d actually been starting to think she was going to have to make the first move to build a comfortable working relationship with the stubborn man.

  His face fell, and this time she knew that it wasn’t a feigned expression because it took him several telling seconds to bring it under control.

  ‘Neither gratitude nor guilt would persuade me to go out with you, but…’ She paused significantly, wondering if she dared to continue, wondering if he would think she had completely taken leave of her senses.

  ‘But…?’ he repeated warily, one dark eyebrow raised in exactly the same way he used to face down his teachers so long ago.

  ‘But…’ She tilted her chin up and deliberately met those dark, all-seeing eyes. ‘I might be persuaded if you promised to take me for a ride on your bike.’

  Yes! she exulted when she saw the shock he hadn’t been able to hide.

  ‘You want me to…? You want to…?’

  Incoherence? She d
idn’t think she’d ever heard him at a loss for words, especially when he’d been her teenage idol.

  ‘Well? Yes or no?’ she challenged urgently, spurred on by noises in the corridor outside the room and all too aware that they were unlikely to have it to themselves for much longer. The department was far too busy for rooms to remain idle for any length of time.

  ‘When?’ he demanded bluntly, his own eyes flicking swiftly towards the doors, telling her he was equally aware of their limited time.

  ‘Tonight?’ She would certainly rather be out on the back of Zach’s noisy beast than waiting for her underwear to finish spinning. ‘As soon as we finish work?’

  The decision was made with barely a pause. ‘You’re on…on two conditions.’

  ‘Two?’

  ‘First, that you’ll let me provide you with the right safety gear…helmet and so on.’

  ‘Agreed. And second?’

  ‘That you’ll tell me what had you in such a temper that you nearly assaulted me with that door.’

  ‘Assaulted!’ she spluttered, but didn’t have time to say any more as the door in question was thrust urgently towards them, closely followed by a swiftly moving trolley.

  Zach grabbed her arm to pull her out of harm’s way and held on even when she would have moved away, pulling her back against the lean strength of his body so that she was aware of him with every molecule.

  ‘Yes or no?’ he demanded softly, his breath warm against the side of her neck. ‘And bear in mind that this is a deal-breaker. No conversation, no ride.’

  How did he know that she’d intended trying to slide out of that part of the bargain? The last thing she wanted to do when she was finally living one of her fondest fantasies was to have to talk about her slimy former colleague.