Saving Dr Cooper. Jennifer Taylor
ice-cool exterior. He sent up a silent vote of thanks that he was no longer attached to any monitors when he felt his heart kick up a storm. Did she have any idea how drop-dead gorgeous she was? he wondered giddily.
He cleared his throat but he could hear how rough his voice sounded even if Heather seemed blissfully unaware of the strain he was under. Keeping his hands by his sides and well away from her took an awful lot of will-power.
‘You did a great job on him, and on me, too. I just wanted to find a way to thank you properly and wondered if you’d consider having dinner with me one night.’
Ross was almost as shocked as Heather so obviously was when the invitation sprang from his lips. He certainly hadn’t planned on asking her out and would have set about it with a bit more finesse if he had. He saw her face close up and cursed his wayward tongue because it had just cost him an awful lot of ground he might never be able to make up.
‘Thank you, but that isn’t necessary, Mr Tanner. I was only doing my job. Now, if you’ll excuse me.’
She didn’t wait for him to reply before she hurried away. Ross didn’t try to stop her because there was no point. He had wasted the one and only opportunity he was likely to get and that was it. Finito.
There was a taxi dropping off a fare outside the main entrance. Ross got in and told the driver to take him home. He sank back in the seat as the cab headed down the drive, feeling so bad that he seriously wondered if he should have stayed in hospital after all. There was an ache in his chest which alarmed him until he realised it was disappointment at ruining his chance to get to know Heather and not the prelude to a heart attack. He wouldn’t get another opportunity…unless he came up with some sort of a plan to engineer another meeting with her.
A brilliant smile suddenly lit his face and a middle-aged woman, who had stopped on the kerb to let the taxi pass, blushed with pleasure as she received the full benefit of it. Ross didn’t notice her smiling back at him because he was too concerned about devising the perfect plan to see Heather again. It wouldn’t be easy but he’d find a way. There was too much at stake to fail!
‘WE’LL need to X-ray your wrist, Mrs Montgomery. I’m fairly certain that it’s broken and not just badly sprained, as you hoped.’
Heather smiled reassuringly at the elderly woman. Alice Montgomery had tripped over a paving stone whilst out shopping with her husband. The couple were obviously shocked by the accident so she decided to arrange for a porter to take the old lady to the radiography unit rather than ask her husband to take her. There was a small unit attached to the accident and emergency department so Alice shouldn’t have to wait too long to be seen.
‘I’ll get a porter to take you through to X-Ray. You can go with your wife, Mr Montgomery, or you can wait in Reception. I could ask one of the nurses to fetch you a cup of tea,’ she suggested, noticing how grey the old man looked.
‘It’s very kind of you, Doctor, but I’d prefer to go with Alice. We do everything together, you see.’
‘Of course. Why don’t you sit there and keep your wife company until the porter gets here? It could take a few minutes to find one who’s free.’
Heather left the cubicle but instead of going directly to the phone to summon a porter she went to the staffroom instead. Melanie was in there, making herself a cup of tea, and Heather smiled beseechingly at her.
‘Any chance that you’d make a cup of tea for the old man in cubicle six? He’s really shaken up and it might help to steady him. I’d make it myself only I’m a bit pushed this morning with Ben being off sick.’
‘No problem,’ Melanie replied cheerfully, dropping a tea-bag into a second mug and topping it up with boiling water from the kettle. ‘What’s up with Ben, by the way? Any idea?’
‘He’s suffering from a nasty case of diarrhoea apparently. Trish took the message.’ Heather grimaced. ‘Let’s hope it isn’t catching. The last thing we need is the rest of the staff going down with some bug or other.’
‘I doubt that will happen. Ben doesn’t get close enough to pass on his germs,’ Melanie observed ruefully.
Heather laughed. ‘I take it that you’ve had no luck with him?’
‘Nope! Not even a flicker of interest. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Maybe you could give me a few tips?’
‘Tips?’ Heather stared at the younger woman in surprise. ‘What do you mean?’
‘That if I had the same kind of effect on our dishy Dr Carlisle that you had on that fireman, I’d be a happy woman.’
Melanie picked up the mug of tea and headed for the door. She grinned as she eased past Heather. ‘I saw him talking to you, Heather. He’d obviously made a special detour down here to see you.’
‘I…um…Yes.’
Heather blushed. She’d tried to forget about Ross Tanner’s visit by concentrating on work, but Melanie’s teasing comment brought it all flooding back. She had been so shocked when he’d asked her out to dinner that she’d not even stopped to think. Her refusal had been instinctive yet all of a sudden she found herself wondering why Ross had invited her out. Had it been simply his way of thanking her, as he’d claimed, or because he was attracted to her, as Melanie believed?
The thought made Heather blush all the more and she heard Melanie laugh. ‘There’s nothing like a hero to make a woman go weak at the knees, is there, Heather?’
Fortunately Melanie didn’t wait for her to reply as she hurried away with the tea. Heather followed more slowly, taking several calming breaths to get herself under control. Maybe some women were attracted to the heroic type of man but she wasn’t one of them. If…and it was a very big if…she ever formed another relationship with a man then she would make sure he was someone who spent his working life safely ensconced behind a desk.
She had reached for the phone to ring for a porter when it struck her that a few days ago she wouldn’t even have considered another relationship. She’d had her work and Grace and they had been more than enough. Her throat constricted with a sudden attack of nerves. Although she hated to admit it, she couldn’t deny that meeting Ross Tanner seemed to have affected her thinking. What a good job it was that she’d refused his invitation to dinner.
It was Friday before Ross came up with a plan to see Heather again. It had been a busy week and Red Watch had been called out a number of times while they’d been on duty. They were off duty that weekend and Ross was looking forward to spending some time with his sister, Kate, and his nephews. It made a nice change, being part of a family, even if it was only for a couple of days.
The plan occurred to him while he was catching up with some of the never-ending paperwork. A memo from divisional HQ, reminding station officers about the need to keep on top of issuing fire certificates, had the same effect as a light being switched on. When was St Gertrude’s due for an inspection?
A quick check of the files told him that the hospital was scheduled for a visit that very month. Ross closed the filing cabinet drawer with a satisfied smile. If he could time his visit to coincide with when Heather was on duty, that would be the perfect opportunity to speak to her again. She couldn’t refuse to co-operate because all public buildings required an up-to-date fire certificate. And whilst he was dealing with the essentials he would try to draw her out. If he could just get past her defences then he might be able to get to know her better.
He sighed because there was no reason to imagine that Heather would want to get to know him.
Saturday was cool and blustery, a brisk May breeze sending the clouds scudding across the sky. Heather was off for the whole weekend but she was up before seven and had time to shower and dress in jeans and a long-sleeved navy T-shirt before Grace woke.
She