Tempted by the Hot Highland Doc

by Scarlet Wilson

  ‘But there must be another way? A smaller boat? A helicopter? What if there’s a medical emergency?’

  The man gave her a look. ‘To take a smaller boat out in this weather would be suicide. As for emergencies, everyone on the island knows that this can sometimes happen. If the doc can’t fix it, it can’t be fixed.’

  She stepped back. He’d got her with that word. Suicide. She’d been desperate. She’d been ready to run around the harbour to try and charter a smaller boat. But she wouldn’t do that now. Not after that word.

  She looked out through the glass at the ferry terminal. She couldn’t even see Arran on the horizon, just the mass of grey swirling storm, and hear the thud of the pouring rain.

  Another month without seeing Rhuaridh again?

  It had never seemed so long.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  December

  HE WAS WAITING at the ferry terminal. It was ridiculous. She would be driving the hire car but he still wanted to see her. Two months. Two months since their second kiss.

  Sometimes he felt guilty, thinking he’d taken advantage. But from the stream of messages they’d exchanged since then, there had been no indication that she thought that.

  Was it possible to actually get to know someone better by text, email and a few random video chats? Because it felt like it was. He’d learned that Kristie’s favourite position was sitting on her chair at home, in her yoga pants, eating raisins.

  She’d learned that he was addicted to an orange-coloured now sugar-free fizzy drink that some people called Scotland’s national drink. He didn’t let many people know that. She’d also laughed as she’d watched him try to follow a new recipe and increase his limited kitchen menu, and fail dismally.

  It was only when he was standing on the snow-covered dock that he realised he’d no idea what car she would be driving this time. But she spotted him first, flashing her headlights and pulling to a stop next to him in the car park.

  ‘Hey!’ She jumped out of the car with a wide smile on her face. At first she looked as if she was about to throw her arms around him, but something obviously stopped her as she halted midway and looked a bit awkward. Instead, she held out her hands. ‘Snow,’ she said simply as she looked about.

  She lifted her chin up towards the gently falling snow, closing her eyes and smiling as she spun around.

  Gerry got out of the car and looked mildly amused.

  ‘You’ve never seen snow before?’ asked Rhuaridh.

  ‘Of course I haven’t,’ she said, still spinning around. ‘I live in LA. It’s hardly snow central.’

  Rhuaridh looked over at Gerry. ‘What about you?’

  Gerry shook his head. ‘Don’t worry about me. I spent three months filming in Alaska. I know snow.’

  Rhuaridh smiled as he kept watching Kristie. He’d never realised this would be her first experience of snow. ‘It’s not even lying properly,’ he said. ‘Give it another day and we might actually be able to build a snowman or have a snowball fight.’

  ‘Really?’ She stopped spinning, her eyes sparkling.

  He nodded. ‘Sure. Now come on, I’m taking you two guys to dinner in the pub just down the road. Let’s go.’

  ‘Good for me,’ said Gerry quickly, climbing back into the car.

  Kristie stepped up in front of him. ‘You don’t have to do that,’ she said, still smiling.

  She was so close he caught the scent of her perfume. It was different, something headier. ‘But I want to.’ He slid his hand behind her, holding her for the briefest of seconds. ‘I might have missed having you around.’

  ‘Good.’ She blinked as a large snowflake landed on her eyelashes. ‘Let’s keep that up.’

  * * *

  Part of her was excited and part of her was laced with a tiny bit of trepidation. Louie was massively excited. It seemed he’d taken over production of the episode where she’d been unwell and had included footage of Rhuaridh looking after her, interspersed with a few repetitions of their previous interactions.

  It wasn’t her favourite episode because it felt so intrusive. The whole episode was literally dedicated to the relationship between them, rather than the life of a Highland doc. But Louie had argued his case well. ‘The viewers have been waiting for this. They want it. And what else have we got to show them this month? You didn’t exactly do any filming on the island, we were lucky Gerry actually filmed anything at all.’

  She knew in a way he was right. But when she’d taken on this role, she hadn’t realised the story would become about her too.

  Watching the scenes where Rhuaridh had been looking after her had brought a lump to her throat. He was so caring. So quietly concerned. It was a side of him she hadn’t seen before. And the way that he’d looked at her at times had made her heart melt. Thank goodness Gerry hadn’t been around to film their kiss. She hadn’t told him about either of the times they’d kissed. He was already looking at her a bit suspiciously—as if he suspected something—so she didn’t plan on revealing anything more.

  The pub that Rhuaridh took them to was warm and welcoming, panelled with wood. Every table was taken and the pub was full of Christmas decorations—twinkling lights, a large decorated tree and red and green garlands underneath the bar. Rhuaridh insisted they all eat a traditional Scottish Christmas dinner—turkey, stuffing, roast potatoes, tiny sausages, Brussels sprouts and mashed turnip all covered in gravy. ‘This is delicious,’ said Gerry. ‘A bit more like our Thanksgiving dinner. But I like it. I could eat more of this.’

  Kristie leaned back and rubbed her stomach, groaning. ‘No way. I couldn’t eat another single thing.’

  Rhuaridh was watching them both with a smile on his face. ‘Well, I’m still trying to make up for the fact you spent a few days here eating hardly anything.’

  ‘Are you trying to take care of me, Dr Gillespie?’ she teased.

  He shook his head. ‘No way. You’re far too difficult a patient.’ There was a twinkle in his eyes as he said the word. He glanced at Gerry, obviously not wanting this conversation to become too personal. ‘What are your plans for filming this time? Do we need to make up for lost time?’

  Kristie shifted a little uncomfortably, not quite sure how to tell him about the episode that would go out in a few weeks, but Gerry got in there first. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said with a wave of his hand, ‘we’ve got that covered. We had some old unused footage and just mixed it with the fact that Kristie was pretty much out of action.’

  ‘Oh, okay.’ Rhuaridh seemed to accept the explanation easily. ‘So what about this time?’

  Kristie had given this some thought. ‘We’ve got quite a bit of footage of some of the patients in the cottage hospital. Christmas is a big deal. I know we’re not actually here for Christmas Day, but it might be nice if we could get some film of how the staff deal with patients who they know will have to stay in hospital for Christmas.’

  Rhuaridh lifted his eyebrows. ‘You mean, you actually want some heart-warming stuff for Christmas instead of some kind of crisis?’

  Gerry laughed. ‘If you can whip us up a crisis we’ll always take it, but I think we were going to try and keep with the season of goodwill. On a temporary basis, of course.’

  Rhuaridh looked carefully at Kristie. ‘Do you feel okay about filming in the hospital?’

  Gerry’s eyebrows shot upwards. He had no idea that she’d shared her secret with the doc. Kristie cleared her throat awkwardly, trying to buy a bit of time. But she could come up with nothing. It seemed that honesty might be for the best.

  ‘He knows about Jess. I told him.’

  She couldn’t decipher the look Gerry gave her. ‘Okay, then,’ he said simply.

  She took a few moments. She’d thought about this when Louie had suggested it. Everything previously had seemed like a diktat—it had been required for the show so she’d had to grit her tee
th and get on with it. She’d been so fixated on how she felt about hospitals, deep down, that she hadn’t taken the time to reconsider how her perspective might have changed a little. ‘We’re talking about the older patients who are too sick to get home. You know I met some of them before?’

  Rhuaridh nodded.

  She smiled as things seemed to click in her mind. ‘I actually really enjoyed talking with some of them. They’re not patients. They’re people. People who’ve lived long, very interesting lives and have a hundred tales to tell. Maybe we should try and film an update on a few of the people we’ve spoken to before—and maybe we should ask them about Christmases from years gone by. How did people normally celebrate Christmas on Arran? Are there any special traditions?’

  Rhuaridh and Gerry exchanged a glance and looked at her, then at each other again.

  Gerry leaned over the table. ‘What do you think’s happened to her?’

  ‘I think she’s turned into some kind of Christmas holiday movie. You know—the kind that play on that TV channel constantly at Christmas.’

  Kristie laughed and nudged both of them. ‘Stop it, you guys. Maybe I’m just getting into the spirit of things. First time I’ve seen snow. First time I’ve been in a place that’s cold at Christmas. All my life I’ve spent my Christmases in sunshine next to a pool. Give a girl a break. I’m just getting in the mood.’

  As soon as she said the words she felt her cheeks flush. She hadn’t quite meant it to come out like that. Gerry didn’t seem to notice, but she knew that Rhuaridh did as he gave her a gentle nudge with his leg under the table.

  ‘It’s settled, then,’ said Gerry as he raised his pint glass towards them. ‘Tomorrow we go be festive!’

  * * *

  Arran in the snow was truly gorgeous. He hadn’t paid much attention before because snow in winter was the norm here. But somehow, seeing it through Kristie’s eyes gave him a whole new perspective on how much the whole island looked like a Christmas-card scene.

  Now, as he looked out of the window as they pulled up at the hospital, he took a deep breath and let himself love everything that he could see. He always had loved this place, but the break-up with Zoe had left him living under an uncomfortable cloud. Her words had continued to echo in his head.

  ‘It’s an island in the middle of nowhere. There’s not a single thing to do on that place. How anyone can stay there more than one night is beyond me. I’d be bored witless in the first week.’

  Those words had continued to wear away at him. The place where he’d grown up and loved hadn’t been good enough for the woman he’d loved at that time. He hadn’t been good enough for her.

  His loyalties had felt tested to their limit. The loyalties and love he had for the place he’d called home, and his loyalties to his profession, his future dreams, and the woman he’d lived with.

  For the first time he actually realised what a blessing it had been that things had come to a head.

  He’d always wondered if the move to Arran again was just a temporary move—to fill the gap until someone else could be recruited for the GP surgery. But in the last two months things had changed and he couldn’t help but wonder if the TV show was the cause of that.

  For the first time in for ever there had been applicants for the GP locum weekend cover posts that had been advertised for as long as Rhuaridh had been here. That was why he’d had cover the last time Kristie had been here. Other GPs were taking an interest in Arran. He’d had some random emails, one asking about covering Magda’s maternity leave, and another from a doctor who wanted to complete his GP training on the island. That had never happened before.

  Before, he’d felt he was stuck here.

  Now he knew he was choosing to stay here. And that made all the difference.

  Kristie had a piece of red tinsel in her hair. ‘Are we going in, or are we sitting here?’

  He smiled. ‘Let’s go. I’m going to review a few patients while we’re here.’

  Gerry tagged behind a little, almost like he was giving them a bit of space. Rhuaridh wondered just how much the cameraman suspected. He’d been so tempted to give Kristie a kiss when she’d first arrived that he wondered if Gerry had noticed that.

  Rhuaridh watched as Kristie entered the hospital. Her footsteps faltered a little but she held her head up high and ran her hand along the wall as she entered the building. It was like she was using it to steady herself. He paused for a second, then stopped worrying about who was around and who would see.

  She’d shared with him why she was antsy around hospitals. She’d shared a part of herself. He walked alongside her and took her other hand in his, giving it a squeeze. She looked down—surprised—then squeezed back. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to.

  They carried on down the corridor.

  They were only in the hospital for a few minutes before one of the nursing assistants grabbed Kristie and persuaded her to help put up some more decorations.

  ‘We can’t put them in the clinical areas, but we can put them at the entrance and in the patients’ day room.’

  ‘No tree on the ward?’ he heard Kristie say. She looked quite sad.

  Rhuaridh shook his head. ‘Infection control issues. Also allergies—they harbour dust. Health and safety too—they could be a fire risk.’

  ‘Phew.’ Kristie let out a huge sigh. ‘How do you remember so many interesting rules and regulations?’ She rolled her eyes. ‘And here was me thinking that Christmas decorations would have a place in hospitals—to improve mental health, lift spirits, and to help orientate some of the older patients to time and place.’

  He raised his eyebrows. ‘Touché. What have you been reading?’

  ‘Lots.’ She smiled. ‘I’m not just a pretty face.’ Her words hung there as they smiled at each other, then she glanced over her shoulder as the nursing assistant appeared with another box. ‘Or just an objectionable reporter,’ she added quickly.

  He pointed to the half-erected tree. ‘This has been here for as long as I have. And, Ms Objectionable Reporter, the stuff you say about lifting spirits and orientating to time and place is right. But...’ he paused ‘...our biggest issue in this season is winter vomiting—also known as norovirus. If we end up with that?’ He held up his hands and shook his head. ‘There’s a huge outbreak cleaning protocol, and something like this would have to be taken down and disposed of if it had been in a clinical area.’ He gave a shrug. ‘Better safe than sorry.’

  She picked up a piece of sparkling green tinsel and draped it around his neck. ‘Aw, it’s a shame. Maybe you could impersonate the Christmas tree instead?’

  ‘Ha-ha. Now, don’t you have patients to film?’

  ‘Don’t you have patients to see?’

  The nursing assistant’s head turned from side to side, smiling at the flirtation and teasing going on before her very eyes. ‘Glad to see you two are finally getting on,’ she said under her breath.

  It gave Rhuaridh a bit of a jolt and he nodded and strode towards the ward. ‘Catch up if you can,’ he shouted over his shoulder.

  He spent the next hour reviewing patients, writing prescriptions and watching Kristie out of the corner of his eye. She seemed easier, relaxed even. By now everyone was used to Gerry hovering around in the background with the camera.

  It was nice to see her that way. She had a long conversation with one of the older men who was recuperating after a hip operation. She tried a few Christmas carols with a couple of the female patients. She helped put out cups of tea and coffee, and was particularly interested in the range of cakes that appeared from the hospital kitchen.

  ‘It’s like a baker’s shop,’ she said in wonder.

  The nurse near her nodded. ‘We find that often appetites are smaller when patients get older. Our kitchen staff are great. The cook was even in earlier, asking people what their favourites were. That’s why we
have Bakewell tarts, Empire biscuits and fairy cakes.’

  Rhuaridh heard Kristie whisper, ‘Don’t you get into trouble about the sugar?’

  The nurse shook her head. ‘Not at this point. Calories are important. Look around. Most of our patients are underweight, not overweight. We’d rather feed them what they like than look at artificial supplements.’

  Kristie flitted from one patient to the next, squeezing hands and making jokes. Occasionally he glimpsed a far-off look in her eye that didn’t last long. The patients loved her.

  But the more he watched, the more he had nagging doubts. He couldn’t pretend he didn’t like her. The whole world could see that he did. But was the whole world also laughing at him? After all, what would a gorgeous girl from LA find interesting about a Scottish island? There were no TV studios, no job opportunities. Most of the time during winter half the island shut down. There was no cinema. No department stores—only a few local shops. There was one slightly posher hotel with a swimming pool, gym and spa but there wasn’t a selection to choose from. And there were only two hairdressers on the entire island. Kristie had already told him she loved trying different places.

  Zoe’s words echoed around his head. Boring. Dull. Nothing to do.

  He hadn’t been able to maintain a long-term relationship with a woman in Glasgow just over fifty miles away. How on earth could he even contemplate anything with a woman from LA—five thousand miles away? He must be losing his marbles.

  Just at that moment, Kristie leaned forward and pressed her head against that of one of the older, more confused patients. He could see she was talking quietly to him. His hands were trembling, and Kristie put her own over his, squeezing them in reassurance. She pointed to the Christmas tree through the doors. She was orientating him to time and place.

  And that was it. A little bit of his heart melted. Did it really matter if this would come to nothing? Maybe it was time for him to start living in the here and now.