Andrew shrugged. ‘No worries. It’s up to you, of course. It was just a suggestion. But I can understand you might not want to be alone with me overnight.’ This time there was a definite challenge in his dark eyes.
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Caitlin retorted. ‘That’s got nothing to do with it.’ She returned his stare. ‘Anyway, I’m sure you’d prefer to have your house to yourself?’
She couldn’t help but ask the question. Despite herself, she was desperately curious about Andrew’s love life. She found it almost inconceivable that he wouldn’t have a woman somewhere.
But it seemed that Andrew wasn’t fooled by the forced casualness in her voice. He grinned, his teeth a flash of brilliant white against his dark skin.
‘Are you asking?’ he drawled. ‘What is it you’d like to know about my love life, Dr O’Neill?’
‘Of course I’m not the slightest bit interested,’ Caitlin said, flustered. ‘It was just a friendly question from one colleague to another. I’m assuming that we can be friends?’
He leaned forward. ‘I don’t know Caitlin. What do you think?’ he said softly. Then he smiled and stood up. ‘Let me know what you decide,’ he said. ‘If you decide to stay we can go in my car, if not, we’ll need to take two.’
He left Caitlin sitting, her heart thudding in the most disconcerting manner. She felt she had been thrown a challenge, but what exactly it was she had no idea. Somehow the only thing she felt sure of was that no man had ever made her feel like this before. Perhaps the safest course was to keep as far away from Dr Andrew Bedi as possible. And the safe course was always what Caitlin preferred.
‘Of course you should stay over,’ Brianna insisted when she and Caitlin were on the veranda, enjoying the evening breeze. The children were in bed, dinner had been cleared away, and it was the first opportunity the sisters had had to catch up. ‘Why shouldn’t you?’
‘Well, first off, the whole point of me being here is to spend time with you,’ Caitlin said, smiling at her sister. ‘We’ve missed so much time already. Secondly, it feels a bit strange, spending the night at Andrew’s place. A bit too familiar, if you see what I mean.’
Brianna smiled wickedly. ‘Putting the first reason aside for the moment, and remembering I don’t want people behaving differently around me, it’s the second that intrigues me. Don’t you feel safe around Andrew? C’mon, ‘fess up. What’s going on?’
‘Absolutely nothing is going on!’ Caitlin protested. Then catching her sister grinning even more disbelievingly, she laughed. ‘I can’t help it, Bri. There’s just something about him I find unsettling.’
‘Nothing to do with the fact that he’s gorgeous, has a body to die for, and is actually a really nice guy?’
‘And, as you keep reminding me, unavailable.’
‘Hey,’ Brianna said, growing serious, ‘I thought you weren’t looking for a serious romance.’
‘And I meant it. And somehow I don’t think that’s what Andrew wants either. Anyway, all of this is nonsense. I’m only here for a few months, and then it’s back to Ireland. I really want the professorship and nothing and no one is going to stand in my way.’
‘Hey, I’m not the one who’s stressing. If there’s nothing between you and Andrew, I don’t see why you don’t take him up on his offer.’
‘I’ll sleep on it,’ Caitlin conceded. ‘But you’re right, we’ve spent enough time discussing Andrew Bedi.’
For the next few days, Caitlin was kept busy. She loved the ambiance of the hospital. The staff all went out of their way to make her feel welcome and she was impressed by the standard of care the hospital offered. She saw Andrew several times during the day. Often he’d be in Theatre with her for the more complex cases, and she found that they had an easy understanding when they worked together. Patricia’s baby was improving every day. Caitlin was delighted when one day she found Patricia in the special care nursery, holding her baby in her lap. All the tubes had been removed and the blue tinge which had worried everyone so much had disappeared and had been replaced by a healthy pink.
Caitlin bent over the sleeping baby.
‘She looks great,’ she whispered.
‘I can’t believe how much she’s improved in the last few days,’ Patricia whispered back. ‘I’ll never be able to thank everyone. Especially Dr Bedi. He’s been in to see her every day, at least twice, and as for the nurses—nothing has been too much trouble.’
‘Have you decided on a name yet?’
‘Do you have a middle name?’ Patricia asked.
‘Yes, I do. It’s Colleen.’
‘Colleen,’ Patricia said, savouring the name. ‘Then that’s what I’m going to call her. Colleen—after you. It’s a beautiful name and I think it suits her perfectly.’
Caitlin was touched by the gesture. ‘I suppose you couldn’t call her Andrew.’ She laughed. ‘When do they think you’ll get her home?’
‘Colleen’s to stay in for another week or two. At least until she puts on some weight. I’ve taken a room close by and the my boys are coming to stay with me. I’ve missed them so much. This way, I’ll be able to see Colleen every day, as well as the other kids.’
By Thursday, Colleen had put on another two ounces, and Andrew told Caitlin he was confident enough about her progress to leave her in the safe hands of his colleagues while they were up north. On Friday morning they met as agreed at the hospital entrance. Caitlin was still undecided whether to stay the night at Andrew’s place, but had packed a small bag, just in case.
‘If you decide against staying,’ Andrew said, ‘I’ll drive you back. But you should make the most of the opportunity while you can.’ He grinned at her. ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be perfectly safe.’
Caitlin chose to ignore him, throwing her bag into the small boot and climbing into the car beside Andrew. Although it was still early, the morning sun was already scorching. Before long, they had left the city behind. As they drove, Caitlin couldn’t stop herself exclaiming in awe and admiration. With the ocean on one side and mountains on the other, the scenery left her breathless. Andrew had let down the hood and Caitlin revelled in the cool breeze as they drove.
‘To think that back home it’s pouring with rain,’ she said. ‘When I spoke to Mum this morning she said it hadn’t stopped for the last few days.’
‘Sometimes it gets so hot,’ Andrew replied, ‘that we’d do anything to have your weather for a day or two.’ Then he looked at her and grinned. ‘But only for a day or two.’
The clinic was in one of the health centres on the outskirts of town. By the time they arrived it was almost nine, and Andrew just had enough time to show Caitlin around before he disappeared to see his first patient.
The clinic nurse explained to Caitlin that they only scheduled the higher risk pregnancies and the first-time mothers for the specialist clinics. All other patients saw the midwives and were admitted to the hospital in Brisbane only when they were near their delivery dates.
Her first couple of patients were straightforward. Excited new mums booking in with their first pregnancies. But neither of them were quite as excited as Caitlin’s third patient. Amy Jordan was a pretty blonde with anxious blue eyes and a tentative smile. Her husband, Richard, looked slightly dazed.
Caitlin looked at her chart. Amy had had three rounds of IVF. The first two had been unsuccessful, but today after a third round, they were attending the clinic for a pregnancy test. The nurse had slipped the result to Caitlin along with the notes.
‘Congratulations.’ Caitlin smiled at her. ‘Your test is positive.’
The couple in front of her just stared, looking as if they hardly dared believe what Caitlin was saying.
‘Excuse me,’ Amy said. ‘But did you say the test was positive?’
‘Yes, but remember it’s very early days.’
But nothing was going to wipe the smile off Amy’s face. She turned to her husband. ‘Did you hear what the doctor said? We’re pregnant!’ Her voice was low, hushed wit
h barely contained excitement, as if she couldn’t quite believe the news.
Then her husband jumped to his feet and, pulling his wife into his arms, swung her in a circle. The happy couple laughed, then as soon as Richard deposited Amy back on the floor she burst into tears. She sobbed for several minutes while her bewildered husband looked on helplessly.
‘I don’t know why I’m crying,’ Amy sobbed. ‘I’m so happy. I’m going to have a baby. After all this time!’
Caitlin smiled and passed Amy a box of tissues, giving her time to let the news sink in. As she watched the couple crying and laughing while they hugged, Caitlin wondered for the first time what it would feel like to want a child so much. She had never felt the need for children before, but what if, like the couple in front of her, that decision was taken out of her hands and she couldn’t have children? How would that feel? She shook her head. What had prompted the thought? In all the years that she had been working as an obstetrician, she had never really considered a future where she might want kids. Why was the thought entering her mind now? She shook her head to clear it as Richard spoke.
‘We’ve been trying for a baby for so long,’ he told Caitlin. ‘When it didn’t happen at first we weren’t too bothered. We just concentrated on having fun and setting up home together. But then after three years and it still hadn’t happened we began to get worried, so we went to see our gynaecologist. He suggested IVF. This was to be our last go. If it failed we’d agreed to give up and get on with our lives.’ His voice dropped. ‘I’m going to be a dad. I can’t believe it!’ Caitlin could see he was struggling to stop his voice from breaking.
‘As I said, it’s very early days. We’ll only truly know if the pregnancy is continuing at the first scan.’ She made a note on the chart. ‘I want you to come and see me in Brisbane in a few weeks for your scan. Will you do that?’
Eventually Amy and Richard left the consulting room. Even through the closed door, Caitlin could hear the cries of delight from the nursing staff mingling with those of the ecstatic couple. The next few weeks would be anxious ones she knew. Getting pregnant was only one stage in the difficult IVF journey. She desperately hoped that this couple at least would have the outcome they so badly wanted.
The rest of the day passed quickly. Most of the other patients were straightforward, except for the last woman, a patient who was thirty-six weeks pregnant and who the nurses wanted Caitlin to scan. They told Caitlin that they were a bit concerned that the baby wasn’t the right size for its dates. Sure enough, when Caitlin scanned the baby she thought that the baby’s heart looked abnormal. Unsure and concerned, she asked Andrew for a second opinion, thinking that it was lucky that he was the visiting paediatrician as she had remembered his special interest was in cardiac problems.
After examining the scan for a few minutes, he took Caitlin to one side. ‘I think you’re right,’ he said. ‘It looks as if there is a heart defect. But we need a better quality of scan before we can be sure. Although this machine is adequate for most stuff, we really need to scan her again with the one back at the hospital before I can check all the heart chambers properly.’
Not for the first time, Caitlin wondered about her chosen specialty. One minute you’d be giving patients the best news they had in years, the next you could be giving parents the worst possible news.
‘I’ll arrange for her to be seen at the Queensland Royal on Monday,’ Caitlin said. ‘We can scan her again then. But it doesn’t look good, does it?’
Andrew shook his head. ‘But there is no point in worrying them before we know exactly what we are dealing with here. And, if there is damage to the heart, at least we can make sure that we have the paediatric cardiac team available at delivery. Good call. If it hadn’t been picked up and she had gone into labour up here, it could have been a different story.’
‘I’ll speak to them,’ she said.
‘We’ll speak to them together,’ Andrew said.
They returned to the patient, who was waiting anxiously, holding tightly to her husband’s hand.
‘Dr Bedi and I think it’s possible that your baby has something wrong with its heart.’ The patient, a young woman in her early twenties, went pale.
‘Try not to worry too much at this stage,’ Andrew said quickly. ‘The abnormality could be something fairly minor. Like a hole in the heart, for instance.’
Seeing that this alarmed the patients even further, Caitlin added hastily, ‘I know that sounds as if it’s serious, but often it doesn’t need treatment and the children go on to live normal productive lives.’
‘And even if it turns out to be something that requires surgery, the fact that we know about it in advance means that we will have the full paediatric cardiac team standing by,’ Andrew added. ‘On the whole, it is very lucky that Dr O’Neill picked it up at this stage. It means that we can monitor your baby for the rest of the pregnancy and ensure that it gets the attention it needs at the right time.’ Andrew hunkered down and held the woman’s hand. ‘I know it sounds scary right now, but you’ll have to trust us. The first step is to arrange for you to be seen at the Queensland Royal and have a detailed scan on Monday. Dr O’Neill will arrange that for you, and we’ll both see you then. Okay?’
The worried couple looked a little reassured but Caitlin knew that they would have an anxious wait over the weekend. She was very glad that Andrew had been there to check the scan with her. His experience and knowledge meant that he was able to reassure the patients much better than she would have been able to, had she been on her own. But it wasn’t just his medical experience that she valued. Seeing the way he spoke to the patients, his obvious sympathy and understanding of their anxiety, at odds with the macho image he presented so much of the time, was revealing another side to a man that she was finding herself increasingly drawn to. More and more she was beginning to realise that she wasn’t just attracted to Andrew because of his dark good looks and sex appeal, she was increasingly finding herself warming to Andrew the man. And, as her
heart tripped, she knew that spelled danger.
* * *
Later, once Caitlin and Andrew had finished writing up notes and making arrangements for the patients who needed to be seen back at the Queensland Royal, Andrew turned to Caitlin.
‘Hungry?’ he asked.
‘A bit,’ Caitlin replied, realising that these days, whenever she was around Andrew, food was the last thing on her mind. ‘Idon’t know about you, but I didn’t have time for anything at lunchtime except a quick coffee and an apple.’
‘I managed a sandwich,’Andrew replied, ‘but that’s not enough for a busy man. I need something more substantial.’
‘What do you have in mind?’ Caitlin asked.
‘There’s a great seafood restaurant a few minutes’ walk from my house. If you would agree to stay the night, we could stop at my place and grab a shower first. What do you think?’
‘Dinner sounds good, but I don’t think I could be seen anywhere without a shower,’ Caitlin said. ‘Or a change of clothes. So, okay, I’ll stay. Why not? I might not get another opportunity to explore the Sunshine Coast.’ Or another chance to see where Andrew lives, to learn more about the man who you can’t seem to get out of your mind. The voice in her head was back. Caitlin chose to ignore it.
Andrew’s house was a wooden affair built on stilts. As Caitlin followed him up the steps to the main door she stopped and looked behind her. His house overlooked a stretch of beach that seemed to go on for miles. Apart from a solitary figure walking a dog, the white sands were deserted. Andrew’s house was only one of about five as far as Caitlin could see.
‘How on earth did you manage to find this place?’ Caitlin said.
‘My parents gave it to me,’ Andrew said, turning to stand by Caitlin as she admired the view. ‘It was their first home when they came to Australia over thirty years ago. Land out here was cheap back then, nobody wanted to live so far away from the city. And then before it became popular the government de
clared it a national park. No one else can build here.’
‘I see why you come here as often as you can,’ Caitlin said. ‘I can’t imagine a more beautiful place to live.’
Although he tried to hide it, Caitlin could tell that Andrew was pleased by her genuine admiration.
‘I love it here,’ he said. ‘It’s where I learnt to kite board and waterski and windsurf.’ He pointed to a small cove to the right of the house. ‘I keep my speedboat over there.’ He turned to Caitlin. ‘I don’t suppose you fancy having a go?’
‘What, right now?’ He couldn’t be serious surely? It wouldn’t be long before it would be dark.
He grinned. ‘You should try kite boarding in the moonlight,’ he said. ‘There’s nothing to beat it. Just you, the sea and the moon.’ He looked directly into her eyes. ‘Don’t you ever want to stop holding back and just let yourself go? Just have fun? Try new things? Don’t you get just a little bit tired of being so, well, serious all the time?’
Caitlin took a sharp intake of breath. There was no mistaking the challenge in his deep brown eyes. Well, she would show him.
‘Of course I know how to have fun,’ she said defensively. ‘I have fun all the time.’ But as she frantically searched her mind for the last time she’d had fun, she realised that apart from the trip to the Green Mountains with Andrew she couldn’t remember. She had been working so hard for so long, she had forgotten how to take time for frivolous activities. ‘Right, then,’ she said decisively. ‘You’re on.’
Andrew looked at his watch. ‘I’ll book dinner for eight—that will give us an hour or so on the water and time to change.’
‘What?’ Caitlin yelped. ‘You mean go out now? I was thinking some time in the future.’
‘No time like the present,’ Andrew replied. ‘Of course, if you’re scared…?’
Caitlin had had about enough. Leeches and jellyfish aside, there was very little she was scared of. Well, very little she was going to admit to in front of this Neanderthal.
Hired: GP and Wife / The Playboy Doctor's Surprise Proposal Page 25
