Her Boss and Protector

She stared up at him distractedly. ‘No, I didn’t…I thought perhaps I could manage without it for a while, but things didn’t turn out that way, and now I need to check in my handbag.’

He sent her a quizzical look, and she realised that she wasn’t explaining herself very well. ‘I thought I’d put my auriscope alongside all my other equipment,’ she added, ‘but it wasn’t so. I seem to have mislaid it. It’s very strange, because I know that I had it with me last night at home.’

He sent her a pitying look. ‘Organisation isn’t your strong point, is it?’

She made a face. What had she expected from him? His opinion of her hadn’t been good from the outset, had it? ‘Believe it or not,’ she said, ‘I’m usually quite good at sorting things out and knowing where to find things. I can usually put my hands on whatever I need within a moment or two.’

‘Really? You amaze me,’ he said, going over to the coffee-machine and filling up a mug with the hot liquid. ‘Does this ability not quite stretch to things like medical equipment and breakfast times?’

She disregarded his comments while she continued to search in her bag, and after a minute or two she exclaimed in triumph, ‘Found it.’ She brought out the auriscope from the depths of her handbag. ‘How on earth did it get in there?’

It seemed fairly clear cut that the children had had something to do with it. They had been curious about everything while she’d been trying to sort out her medical kit. Perhaps one of them had slipped the instrument into her bag instead of putting it back in the case, where it belonged.

Then, belatedly, it dawned on her what Callum had said. She stared at him. ‘What do you mean, breakfast times? What do they have to do with anything?’ Was he still having a go at her about the milk episode?

He took a long swallow of his coffee. ‘I guess they’re just another item on the list of things that you have problems with. At least, Connor seems to think so.’ She stared at him blankly and he went on, ‘He was quite put out because you had forgotten to buy any more wheaty flakes, and that meant he was going to go to school hungry.’

‘When did he tell you that?’

‘This morning, when he came round to my house with his empty cereal bowl.’ He made a faint smile. ‘He wanted me to fill it up for him. He said Rebeccah wasn’t too fussed about what she had to eat, but he didn’t want to go without his wheaty flakes if he could help it. I gathered that he wasn’t too impressed with the contents of your kitchen cupboards.’ He sent her a thoughtful glance. ‘I suppose your organisational skills don’t extend quite as far as the weekly shop.’

She blinked, ignoring the sarcasm. ‘You’re surely not telling me that he came round to you again?’

He nodded. ‘He certainly did. Luckily, I had done my weekly shop, and the cereals just happened to be on my list. He was pleased about that. It seems that I’m flavour of the month with him at the moment in that respect, but I get the impression that you’re about halfway down the league table. You have some catching up to do.’ There was a glint in his blue eyes as he said it.