Falling for the Brooding Doc

by Annie Claydon

  ‘We’re talking about Tamara. I can see that she’s facing some enormous obstacles. How does she feel about the way forward?’

  ‘The medical aspects of her rehab are just one part of the challenge. Tamara knows she wants to maintain her sporting activities, but the problems she’s been having with her prosthetic have eroded her confidence.’

  Laurie frowned. ‘When you get that right she should find that she has a lot of options. Some runners who use blades are faster than those who don’t.’

  ‘In addition to what we can do for her medically, we’d like to help her explore all of those options. And help her get back to full fitness.’

  Laurie closed the folder, clearing her throat. This young girl, trying to make the right choices in life, was uncomfortably close to home and tugging at her heart. She opened the next folder.

  ‘Adam Hollier.’ He was just a year older than Tamara.

  ‘Adam’s sustained a stress fracture to his foot...’ Ross stopped suddenly, looking at her as she felt her cheeks flame. Did he somehow know about her father, and the way he’d pushed her? Was Ross actively trying to break her down?

  ‘Over-training?’ She managed to get the two words out.

  ‘There’s no indication of that. As with Tamara, we need to address the medical issues, but also resolve how his injury has been caused. He’s a bright kid and he knows that a susceptibility to this kind of injury may hamper him in the future, but he’s so focussed on taking up sport as a profession that he can’t see any alternatives.’

  Laurie flipped the cover of the file shut. Slowly and deliberately, giving herself some time to think, she put the folders back onto Ross’s desk. ‘Can we take a break from this meeting? For a moment?’

  ‘Sure. You want...coffee?’ He took one look at Laurie’s face and shrugged. Clearly he saw that she didn’t.

  ‘I want to ask you why you chose these two patients. Did you imagine that they’d be the most challenging for me? In which case, I think you should get your motives straight—you’re here for them, not for me. We’ve already agreed that I’m going to take charge of my own treatment.’

  He thought for a moment, obviously turning her words over in his mind. ‘Honestly—’

  Simmering anger came close to the boil. ‘I find that being honest is always good. Particularly when you’re dealing with a doctor-patient relationship and deciding whether the doctor in question has the resources to help a patient.’

  ‘You’re suggesting that this is all an experiment? That I’ve chosen a set of challenging patients for you and I’m going to stand back and see what happens?’ His expression tightened into a dark frown. ‘That couldn’t be further from the truth. If you have issues that mean you’re not able to help these kids, I expect you to say so.’

  He’d boxed her into a corner. Or maybe Laurie had done that all by herself, but however she’d managed to get here she had to move. As she got to her feet, she felt pain shoot from her hip down into her leg, and almost stumbled. Ross started forward and she glared him back down into his seat.

  ‘I think...’ She wasn’t entirely sure what she thought, but pacing seemed to help. ‘Did you know that I was over-trained by my father? Well past the point of exhaustion at times. That I had to go to court in order to go and live with an aunt when I was fifteen?’ It wasn’t exactly a secret, the facts were a matter of record, and she’d been questioned about it more than once at press conferences.

  ‘No, I didn’t know that.’ Something that looked like tenderness bloomed in his eyes, and Laurie ignored it.

  ‘Well, it caused a lot of problems for me. Kids generally come with families, and I don’t have much of an interest in trying to work out that kind of relationship. It’s not my thing.’

  ‘Fair enough. I’m not asking you to be a family counsellor, we already have a partnership with a very good one.’ He paused for a moment, as if waiting to see whether Laurie was interested in that kind of counselling herself, and she bit back the temptation to tell him that there was a lake outside and he was welcome to go and jump in it.

  ‘So what makes me the obvious choice for these two patients?’

  ‘In my experience, teenagers come equipped with accurate radar. They know who really understands what they’re going through, and they know who’ll fight for them as well.’

  ‘You’re not trying to make my life easy, are you?’

  He had the temerity to smile. ‘Why would I? And if you believe that you can’t help these kids, for whatever reason, we’ll take another look at the list...’

  Ross laid his hand on the pile of folders, pulling them back across his desk. In that moment a fierce protective flame ignited in her chest. Adam and Tamara were both facing a difficult and uncertain future, and Laurie knew how much that hurt. She really wanted to help them, and if Ross thought that she could...

  ‘I didn’t say that.’ She walked back to his desk, grabbing the folders. She had to pull a little before he’d let go of them. ‘I’ll take them.’

  ‘The meeting’s back on again? That’s your official answer?’ A flicker of I-told-you-so humour danced in his eyes.

  ‘Yes, it’s official. I’ll read through their histories and come back to you with some ideas. And unofficially...’ She planted her hand on his desk, leaning towards him. ‘You have a lot of good ideas, Ross. But you could try not to be so darned smug about them.’

  Laurie didn’t wait for him to answer. She marched from the room, hearing the door bang behind her.

  CHAPTER THREE

  WHEN A TAP sounded on the door, Ross wondered if it was Laurie coming back to make peace with him, and decided it probably wasn’t. He was pretty sure that when Laurie banged anything shut behind her, it stayed shut. Then Sam popped her head around the door and he motioned for her to come in.

  ‘Have you decided on annoyance therapy?’

  ‘Um... Not sure. Ask me another.’ Whatever Sam asked him was unlikely to be as challenging as Laurie’s questions, or to ignite any flames of confused feelings.

  ‘How about I just saw Laurie coming out of your office, looking like thunder and clutching some patient files to her chest as if she was going to punch anyone who tried to take them away from her?’

  Good. That was good. The way she’d pulled the files from his grasp had told Ross he’d made the right decision. Laurie had something to give these kids and she knew it.

  ‘We had a full and frank discussion.’ The upshot of which had left a nagging doubt. ‘Do I come across as smug?’

  Sam had the grace to laugh at the idea. But then Sam always thought the best of everyone. ‘Did Laurie say that?’

  ‘She mentioned it.’ The more Ross thought about it, the more it bothered him. He could take an insult, but Laurie had got under his skin and her opinion of him mattered rather more than it should.

  ‘I’ve known you a long time, Ross. I remember when you were working to expand the clinic, and...dealing with other things.’

  ‘You can say it, you know. I was there too, I know what happened.’

  He’d come back here after qualifying as a doctor, newly married and with such hope for the future. Sam had been the clinic’s first employee, taken on as the place had begun to grow, and it had been inevitable that she, Ross and Alice would all become friends.

  Sam smiled. ‘I saw how much you struggled when Alice left you. It was a hard blow for you, being told you’d never be able to have a family, and you worked through that disappointment. You built the clinic up, and made that your family instead.’

  ‘Was it that obvious?’ Ross did see the clinic as a replacement for the wife he’d lost and the children he couldn’t have, but it still stung a bit when Sam said it.

  ‘I knew what was going on because I knew both you and Alice. I don’t think anyone else knew the details, but it wasn’t so very difficult to see that you were in pain.
If you seem a little...proud of yourself over the way the clinic’s turned out, it’s because there was a time when you had nothing else, and you put everything you had into it during those early years.’

  Ross shot her a grin. ‘Is that your way of saying that I am smug? Give it to me straight, Sam.’

  ‘It’s my way of saying that you could ease off a bit on Laurie. You’re not her doctor any more and you don’t need to pretend that your past has been all plain sailing. And, no, “smug” isn’t the first word that comes to mind in describing you, Ross...’

  * * *

  Ross hadn’t asked whether ‘smug’ was the second word that came to mind. Sam probably wouldn’t have told him anyway as her approach generally consisted of dangling a few ideas and then allowing them to ferment. And this idea was fermenting at such speed he felt almost intoxicated by it.

  He set aside the question of why this mattered to him so much. Why Laurie mattered to him. Why having her in the same room brought a tang of excitement, even if she was generally challenging him.

  Ross had seen her from the window of the clinic, sitting in one of the wooden seats on the paved area outside the guest apartment, with a mess of papers on the table in front of her. He should go and make peace with her.

  But there was no need. When he approached her, Laurie smiled. One of those radiant, mischievous smiles of hers, which couldn’t possibly be anything other than genuine.

  ‘May I sit?’

  ‘Of course.’ She waved him to a seat.

  ‘I want to apologise.’

  She wrinkled her nose. ‘Really? I’d rather you didn’t, because then I’d have to apologise back.’

  He felt the muscles across his shoulders loosen suddenly. ‘Then we’ll put this morning behind us?’

  She nodded. ‘Since it’s two o’ clock, I think that goes without saying.’

  Never let the sun go down on an argument. Ross dismissed the thoughts of all the nights he’d curled up on the couch when Alice had thrown something at him and shut him out of the bedroom. He should take Laurie’s attitude for what it was and not make comparisons.

  ‘I’d like to explain, though...’ Laurie shook her head in a clear gesture that he didn’t need to. Maybe not for her, but Ross wanted to for himself. ‘Bear with me, eh?’

  ‘If you want.’

  ‘Setting this clinic up...was hard. I had to go out and find contacts who would refer patients here, and I was in the middle of a messy divorce. This place became my family and...if I’m a little too hands on at times that’s something I probably need to work on.’

  Her gaze searched his face. Laurie clearly wanted more, but Ross wouldn’t give it. His decision to stay well clear of any potential romantic involvement had already taken a beating in the face of her golden eyes and indomitable spirit, and discussing the matter might only tempt him to change his mind.

  ‘Maybe I’m a little hands off at times.’ She gave him a grin that told him there was no maybe about it.

  He wanted to tell her that she should never change. That her stubbornness was delightful when combined with her laughing honesty. But it was too great a step to take because it came from his heart, and his head told him that Laurie was still in danger of cutting off her nose to spite her face where her injury was concerned. That should be his one and only priority.

  ‘Have you thought any more about your potential patients?’

  ‘You mean the ones that you suggested, and who I’m not reckoning on letting you take away from me?’ She stuck her chin out in an obvious challenge.

  ‘Yeah. Those. I’m planning on going to see Adam tomorrow afternoon in London. It would be great if you have time to come along.’

  ‘It’ll only take half an hour to pack. And I’d like to come, it’ll give me a start on getting to know him.’

  Ross nodded. ‘Tamara will be arriving the day after tomorrow.’

  ‘Good. Are just two patients going to be enough to fill my time for four afternoons a week?’

  ‘I’m hoping you’ll be spending quite a bit of time with each of them. And if you do find yourself at a loose end, there are plenty of clinic activities you can get involved with.’

  ‘Ah. Those would be the ones I haven’t had anything to do with over the last week.’ She shot him a wry smile.

  ‘Yes. Those.’ Ross smiled back. ‘There are a few outreach activities just for staff as well. We go to the Lakeside School sports day every year, that’s a couple of weeks from now.’

  ‘Okay... I’ve got to ask. What’s your involvement with a school sports day?’

  ‘We’re part of a community here. We take an interest in what local schools and sports centres are doing and offer our advice and help on a pro bono basis, if they need it. The sports day is a good opportunity to go along and get to know people.’

  Laurie nodded. ‘That sounds like something I’d expect of you. Socially responsible.’

  ‘It’s actually a lot of fun. We dress up.’ Ross had left the part that he reckoned Laurie might find the most challenging till last.

  She shot him a sceptical look. ‘Dressing up isn’t really my thing.’

  ‘Okay. Well you don’t have to dress up, you can just come along. You’ll be missing out, though, we’ve built up a few good costumes over the years. I usually go as the Mad Hatter.’ Ross backed off from the idea and the effect was almost immediate. Laurie’s lip began to curl in an expression of mischief.

  ‘Where are these costumes?’

  ‘We have them stored in one of the basement rooms. I can let you have the key if you’re interested.’

  ‘I’ll do you a deal. I’ll come in fancy dress if you let me choose your costume. The Mad Hatter doesn’t really suit you.’

  That sounded like a challenge. And Laurie’s challenges were rapidly becoming both awkward and delicious.

  ‘Yeah. I could probably do with a change. Why not?’

  * * *

  I’ll dress up if you let me choose your costume. Laurie rolled her eyes at her own terrible judgement. That had to be one of the worst ideas she’d had in ages.

  She watched Ross’s retreat. When he walked away from her, she could stare, without risking being caught. There was a lot to admire about him, even from the back.

  He was sucking her in. Into the life here at the clinic, the way everyone looked after everyone else as if it was an extended family. Tempting her to depend on him, to accept his judgement as sound. All the things that felt so hazardous.

  She’d escaped the sticky tendrils of her own family. Escaped her father’s heavy-handed attempts to control every aspect of her life, her training and her career. She couldn’t give anyone control over her life like that again. Particularly not Ross, because it was so darned tempting to let him.

  So she challenged him. Every time, and at every turn. Even that seemed to bring out the warm mischief in his eyes, and Laurie suspected that he didn’t much mind. That was just as well because she wasn’t going to stop any time soon.

  If that meant choosing the most embarrassing costume she could find for him then so be it. It might be classed as petty, but it was a lifebelt in stormy seas, something to buoy her up and allow her the self-determination she’d fought so hard to attain.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ROSS HAD BEEN wondering what Laurie was doing ever since their train had arrived at London Euston Station and they’d gone their separate ways. Whether she would really just go home or whether she had another secret agenda. Ross told himself that Laurie could have as many agendas as she liked, as long as she did the job he was paying her for, and worked towards healing her own injury. Secret was far too emotive a word, everything else was her own business.

  The minicab drew up outside the small block of flats in London’s docklands, at ten to two. The driver opened a newspaper, nodding abstractedly when Ross told him he might be a little w
hile.

  Being ten minutes early was just a matter of the London traffic being lighter than usual, but if he’d thought that he might catch Laurie unawares then he would have been disappointed. She answered the door of her top floor flat wearing a pair of dark slacks and a white top, the neutral colours accentuating the vibrant red of her hair and her tawny eyes. It wasn’t so very different from the attire he’d seen her in for the last week, but presumably this was what Laurie classed as her ‘doctor clothes’.

  It all became a little clearer when she beckoned him inside, asking him to wait in the living room while she checked that all the windows were closed before she left. There was an almost military neatness about the place, with none of the piles of books and mementos that adorned his own sitting room. Just space, and light, and everything in its own place. This was how she’d managed to juggle a career as a doctor with her sporting achievements, with the kind of ruthless organisation that made sense of having different clothes for her two different identities.

  He walked over to the window. There was a magnificent view of St Katharine docks, with small boats moored by the old dockside and a couple of white sails scudding past in the distance.

  ‘Tempting view, eh?’ Her voice sounded close behind him, and Ross jumped.

  ‘I can see why you like it. How long have you been here?’ Ross wondered whether the tidiness might be just as the result of having just moved in.

  ‘Six years. It’s a very handy location as it’s close to where I work, and my rowing club is nearby too.’

  Ross nodded, trying not to scan the rest of the room for clues about Laurie’s life. There wasn’t much to be had from it anyway.

  ‘You’re ready to go, then?’

  ‘Yes, all set.’ She walked out into the hallway, grabbing her suitcase and ushering Ross out of the flat.

  * * *

  He’d deliberately not given Laurie any more details than the ones included in the file, wanting to see how she would handle her first meeting with Adam. The minicab drew up outside a comfortable semi-detached house and Laurie’s suitcase was retrieved from the boot. Ross paid the driver and led the way up the front path.