Emergency: Mother Wanted

He was the stuff of fantasies…

Obviously she wasn’t the only one who thought so if the soft sigh from the female doctor sitting next to her was anything to go by.

‘Wow! I thought doctors only looked like that in American movies. Tell me I’m not going to be working with him every day. I’ll never be able to concentrate. I’m Fiona, by the way.’

Keely quickly introduced herself and picked up her pen. She wouldn’t be able to concentrate either.

She shrank further into her seat as she remembered the way she’d behaved towards him as a teenager. The things she’d said to him. Like the night she’d proposed—

She suppressed a whimper of horror as she recalled that night. How totally humiliating. How on earth was she going to convince him that she wasn’t a dippy teenager any more?

At least she looked different. Her blonde hair was shorter and somewhere along the road she’d grown a chest. And she was twenty-four now, for goodness’ sake. Hardly the child who’d thrown herself at him all those years before. Maybe he would have forgotten all about it.

Staring at Zach was making her insides feel strange so she stared down at her lined pad instead and decided that the thing to do was to concentrate on making notes. It was certainly a better alternative than looking at Zach’s broad shoulders—not that it was guaranteed to keep her mind on her work. There had been at least four occasions at school when she’d been given detention for scribbling ‘Keely loves Zach’ all over her notebook instead of paying attention.

Keely loves Zach…

Only she hadn’t loved Zach, she told herself firmly, tapping her pen on the page as if to emphasise the point to herself. Not really. She’d just been a vulnerable, impressionable teenager and he’d been drop-dead gorgeous and very kind to her. A recipe for emotional disaster when you were sixteen.

She gave herself a mental shake and a sharp talking-to. She didn’t have anything to worry about. She was a completely different person now. A grown woman and a fully qualified doctor about to take up her position as casualty officer in the accident and emergency department. She was long past the age of suffering from childish crushes. All she had to do was keep their relationship professional and prove to him that she was an excellent doctor.

With a determined expression on her delicate features she concentrated hard on that deep, sexy voice, making notes as he spoke about the medico-legal aspects of working in the A and E department, the importance of good note-taking and liaison with GPs.

He was a good speaker, using just enough humour to keep their attention and just enough drama to make his talk interesting. Everyone was paying attention. Especially the women.

‘He’s unbelievable. I don’t think I can work next to that man every day without throwing myself at him,’ Fiona said dreamily, and Keely gave a wry smile. If her brother and sister were to be believed, women had been making fools of themselves over Zach since the minute he’d arrived at medical school, and probably long before that.

And hadn’t she done exactly the same thing herself?

With a sigh her mouth softened into a smile and she remembered the first time her brother had brought Zach home to stay.

It had been love at first sight. On her part at least. Not on Zach’s, of course. By all accounts he’d been used to cool, sophisticated women, and she’d been a smiley, chatty schoolgirl. He wouldn’t have even thought of her in those terms. But still they’d been friends. And maybe they could be friends again—

She pulled herself together to find everyone in the lecture theatre staring at her expectantly.

‘Dr Thompson?’

Oh, help! He’d asked her a question and she’d missed it. She’d been so intent on planning how to make him see her as a mature, qualified doctor that she hadn’t been listening.

Her face heated and her palms were suddenly sweaty. So much for wanting him to take her seriously.

‘I asked you to tell us where you worked last, Dr Thompson.’ He repeated the question calmly and she swallowed.

‘Medical,’ she said breathlessly, glancing round with a self-conscious smile, relieved when he turned his attention to another of the new SHOs.

‘I bet he’s fantastic in bed,’ Fiona said in an undertone. ‘Look at those shoulders, those muscles, those legs—I feel faint just thinking about it.’

Keely felt faint, too, but for different reasons. This was never going to work. Zach was going to treat her the same way everyone else back in London had. As just another member of the Thompson clan, instead of as an individual. All the usual pressures would be there, the expectations—only with Zach it would be even worse because he was bound to remember her as a scatty teenager.

Was he going to think she wasn’t up to the job?

With a long sigh she stared hard at her pad. Unlike her companion, she didn’t want to look at Zach’s body. She already knew how good it looked and the only way she was going to be able to work with Zach was if she didn’t look at his body.

Suddenly she realised that everyone was standing up and shuffling papers. The lecture was over. It was time to start work. And Zach Jordan was walking towards her…

She stood up and clutched her notepad to her chest, aware that her new colleagues were melting discreetly into the background.

‘Hello, Keely.’ The tone of his deep voice told her immediately that he knew exactly who she was and she felt hideously self-conscious. What on earth should she say? Sorry I wasn’t listening when you asked me a question. Sorry I proposed to you last time I saw you.

‘Hello, Dr Jordan—I mean Mr Jordan.’ She’d suddenly remembered that he was a surgeon and corrected herself hastily.

A smile touched his mouth. ‘Just Zach will do fine,’ he murmured. ‘We’re very informal in A and E.’

‘Right—well, what a surprise to see you.’ She stroked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear and smiled brightly, wondering what it was about those blue eyes that made her revert to a stammering teenager. ‘I had no idea that you’d be working here.’

‘And is that a problem?’ He gave a quizzical smile which made her knees feel weak and her heart misbehave.

‘Problem?’ Her voice squeaked slightly and she cleared her throat. ‘No—of course it’s not a problem. Why would it be a problem?’

She could think of a hundred reasons, starting with the physical effect he had on her. Just being in the same room as him brought her close to physiological meltdown.

‘So what are you doing here?’ He tilted his head speculatively. ‘You’re a long way from home, Keely Thompson.’

That had been the general idea when she’d chosen the Lake District.

‘After six years in London I needed a change,’ she said quickly, ‘and I love mountains.’

She flushed under his steady regard, remembering that he’d always been perceptive. Could he read her mind? Did he know the real reason she was here? Had he guessed that she’d needed some space to make her own decisions, away from the influence of her family?

‘Right.’ He continued to watch her thoughtfully. ‘And how are Prof and the twins?’

The inevitable question.

‘Oh, you know,’ Keely pinned a smile on her face, her response automatic. ‘Fine. They’re fine. Doing very well as usual.’

‘I lost touch with Stephen,’ Zach confessed, his blue eyes disconcertingly sharp as he looked at her. ‘Doubtless he’s made it to the top?’

Of course. Where else was there for her family?

‘Professor of Immunology,’ Keely muttered, still managing to maintain the smile. Just.

‘And Eleanor?’

‘Consultant Oncologist in London.’ The smile was slipping but he didn’t seem to notice.

‘And the Prof? Is he retired?’

‘Dad?’ Keely’s cheek muscles were aching and she gave up smiling. ‘Oh, come on, Zach! Dad will never retire. His whole life revolves round being a professor.’