Unlocking The Italian Doc's Heart

The only thing he needed to deal with now was his inappropriate feelings towards Jenna.

Every time his hand brushed against hers at work, he felt a tingle all the way down his arm. When she smiled, it made his heart feel as if it had just skipped a beat. And this was crazy. He didn’t want to get involved and he knew that she didn’t, either.

He really didn’t understand why he was reacting to her in this way. It would be easier if she’d turned out to be a gossip, or an ambition-driven bitch who trampled on her colleagues to get a promotion—the kind of person he wouldn’t want to be within a mile of. But she was warm, sweet, great with their patients and parents, and he’d seen her patiently explaining something to one of the junior doctors.

* * *

And he had to admit he was attracted to her. Physically as well as intellectually. The problem was, he’d been here before with Georgia. He’d fallen in love with someone he thought loved him back—and she’d let him down in the worst possible way. He’d pretty much come to terms with the fact that Georgia had left him for someone else; although it had hurt, he could understand that if you loved someone that much it just took you over and you couldn’t help your feelings. But taking their daughter away had hurt him more deeply than anything he’d ever known. He had no intention of risking that sort of pain again.

Besides, for someone as nice as Jenna to be single and adamant that she wasn’t looking for a relationship, he’d guess that she’d been let down by someone in the past. Something to do with her year off work, perhaps. Not that he could be intrusive and ask.

So he’d have to keep his feelings under control. Remind himself that relationships weren’t for him, and he was Jenna’s colleague. Maybe they could become friends—but he wasn’t sure he could even handle that.

Strictly professional was the order of the day.

On Saturday afternoon, Lorenzo walked to the local high school and signed in, then followed the signs to the sports hall. Jenna was already there. He noticed that her hair was caught back in a scrunchie, the way it was at work, and he wondered what it would be like if she took the scrunchie out. Would her hair fall over her shoulders in wild curls?

Worst of all, he found himself wondering what her hair would look like spread over his pillow...

Oh, for pity’s sake. This was a charity danceathon. This wasn’t the time or the place to start fantasising about Jenna Harris. She was off limits and they had work to do. He shook himself mentally, then went over to her. ‘Reporting for duty, as promised,’ he said with a smile. ‘What do you need me to do?’

* * *

Jenna looked up at Lorenzo and her heart skipped a beat. Instead of the formal shirt, tie and dark trousers he always wore on the ward beneath his white coat, he was wearing jeans and a T-shirt. It made him look younger and more approachable; and she was horrified to find that she was actually reaching out to put her hand on his arm.

Absolutely not.

This wasn’t the deal. He was helping out. He was here as a new colleague and nothing more. She needed to keep this strictly professional.

She shook herself. ‘Hi. Thanks for coming to help.’ He’d asked her what she wanted him to do. Her head was suddenly full of all sorts of inappropriate phrases. She managed to get a grip on herself—just—and said, ‘There’s a table over there with all the raffle prizes on it. If you wouldn’t mind taping raffle ticket numbers to the prizes, and then folding the rest of the raffle tickets for the box, that would be great.’ She handed him a book of raffle tickets and a roll of sticky tape; her fingers brushed against his and a shiver ran down her spine.

Was it her imagination, or had his eyes just widened slightly?

Or was she reading too much into it?

This really wasn’t the time or the place.

Tickets, she reminded herself sharply. ‘We’re just using the ones on the right-hand side of the ticket page that end in a zero to stick on the prizes, but all the left-hand tickets go in the box, folded so you can’t see the number.’

‘Which means there’s a one in ten chance of winning a prize. That sounds reasonable,’ he said, and went off to sort out the raffle table.

Nathan from the Emergency Department was helping the members of Maybe Baby to set up the stage and wire up the sound system ready for the sound check; the local pub was setting up the bar to one side of the hall; and a stream of parents of their former patients came over to her to check where she wanted the food set out.

All the time, Jenna was incredibly aware of Lorenzo’s presence. This was crazy. The last thing she needed in her life right now was any kind of complication. She was busy at work and with her studies, and she liked her life just as it was.

Yet a little voice kept echoing in her head. What if...?

What if she could have what Lucy had? Someone who loved her and a family of her own?

She shoved the thought away. Apart from anything else, she had the strongest feeling that Lorenzo had been hurt in the past—hence his insistence on not wanting a relationship. And, given the way her judgement had let her down so badly over Danny, how could she be sure that she wouldn’t be making just as much of a mistake with Lorenzo?

She was just going to have to ignore that little voice and listen to her common sense instead.

* * *

Once Lorenzo had sorted out the raffle tickets, he joined another team in setting out chairs for the people who’d just come to watch the dancing or who needed a break from the dance floor.

‘It’s really good of you to do this,’ Jenna said, coming over to him. ‘I feel a bit guilty, roping you in to help when you’ve been working at the hospital for barely a couple of weeks.’

‘It’s fine. I wasn’t doing anything special at the weekend anyway—plus it’s a nice way to get to know the team outside work,’ he pointed out.

‘It’s still appreciated,’ she said.

He had to muster every gram of professionalism when she smiled at him. What on earth was the matter with him? It was anatomically impossible for your heart to do a somersault, so feeling that it had just happened was utterly ridiculous. He needed to get a grip.

‘Is there anything else you need me to do?’ he asked.

She shook her head. ‘I’m just handing out the cash floats to the hospital-run stalls, and then I’m going to change into my dancing shoes.’

‘Then I’ll do my best to sell raffle tickets,’ Lorenzo said.

When the danceathon started, Lorenzo was surprised to discover just how good the band was. Keely, one of the senior nurses in their department, had a beautiful voice and could easily have made a career out of singing. Nathan, one of the porters in the Emergency Department, was the DJ who did an hour’s slot between each set the band played; and, in between sorting out the music, the band and the DJ all joined in with the dancing.

‘You’ve done more than your fair share on the raffle, Renzo. I’ll take over while you take a break. Go and have a dance,’ Laney, one of the nurses on their ward, said with a smile, taking the box of tickets and the cash box from him.

It looked as if he didn’t have much choice, even though dancing really wasn’t his thing. He stood on the edge of the dance floor, moving awkwardly to the music and wondering how long he’d have to be there before he could justifiably go back to the raffle table, and then Jenna was there beside him.

‘Hey. You’ve finally come to join us on the dance floor?’ she asked.

‘Laney bullied me into it. I did warn you that not all Italian men could dance and I have two left feet,’ he said with a rueful smile.