The Doctor's Wife For Keeps

‘We certainly saved the baby. And the judges looked happy.’ Kate checked her watch and then opened the back hatch of the car. ‘We’ve only got ten minutes to locate our next task. We’d better get a move on.’

But Georgia had paused. She was waving. ‘Look—there’s Matteo and Luke in that car. They must be next.’

‘I wonder how long it’ll take before they figure out their patient isn’t downstairs.’ Kate felt a sudden urge to help Luke out. To give him a clue...

‘It’s no wonder it’s against the rules to talk about the scenarios until it’s all over.’ Georgia slung her kit into the back. ‘And I got the feeling that Matteo is as much a stickler for the rules as you are, Kate. You two would get on very well.’

‘I’m not here on a man hunt. What’s the matter? Don’t you like him?’

Georgia shrugged. ‘He’s cute but there are a lot of fish in this particular sea and today is not the day to be casting my net.’

Kate snorted. She knew Georgia quite well enough to know that she wasn’t the least bit serious about finding a casual sexual partner just for fun. This was just bravado, that was all. Was she trying to prove to the world that she was over the last disaster and more than ready to move on?

Pausing for a moment, before climbing into the driver’s seat, Kate turned her head to look at the car parked a little further up the road. She lifted her hand in greeting and, by the instant response as he raised his, she knew that Luke had been watching her.

A weird frisson of something she couldn’t identify rippled through her belly. Was it a little disturbing to have someone from her past suddenly appear in her life like this? As if Luke was some kind of ghost?

Or was it just nice to have reconnected with an old and very dear friend?

Yeah...that had to be it. Because the feeling was too pleasant to be a warning.

* * *

‘Look...they’re coming out of the house.’

Luke found himself hunkering down in his seat a little. It was pure coincidence that they were the next team for this particular scenario but, oddly, it felt like he was pushing himself back into Kate’s life or something. Stalking her, even? Was she as pleased to see him as he’d been to see her?

Maybe not. It had been Georgia who’d spotted them and waved. Kate had seemed intent on putting her gear back into the car and checking her watch. Of course she would be making sure she was going to be on time for the next task—that was so like Kate. Responsible and reliable. And she was taking this contest seriously, as she did everything she became involved with.

It looked as though she was going to get in the car and simply drive off, but then she paused and looked straight at him and there was a smile to go with her wave.

Luke let out a breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding as he raised his hand in response. A sigh of something like relief as something clicked back into place. The connection of their friendship, perhaps, where he didn’t have to worry about how his actions might be interpreted. A place he could relax in and simply be himself.

‘Be nice to have an idea of what we’re heading into,’ he said. ‘They weren’t giving away any clues, were they?’

‘And neither should they,’ Matteo said sternly. ‘That would be dishonest.’

‘Not exactly.’ Matteo liked to have his English improved. ‘Dishonesty is when you fail to tell the truth. Breaking the rules of the competition to give someone else an advantage would be dishonourable rather than dishonest.’

‘Hmm...’ Matteo absorbed the correction. ‘They are both unacceptable.’

‘Too right they are,’ Luke agreed.

The first scenario was initially confusing but, as soon as they discovered that the party was a red herring, the two men worked well on their paediatric resuscitation. In the next task, they found a man who’d summoned an ambulance because of sudden back pain and nausea. Diagnosing a case of kidney stones was easy but there was a twist in the case because the man had an anaphylactic allergic reaction to the morphine they administered for pain relief.

The twist was unexpected but Matteo spotted the first symptoms within seconds and they both reacted swiftly, attaching a bag of fluids to the IV line already in place and drawing up and administering drugs to counteract the reaction. Then they had to answer questions from one of the judges about which of the available hospitals they would be transferring their patient to.

‘Hospital A,’ Luke told them. ‘They have an internal medicine department and an intensive care unit and they are the closest.’

‘And what is the most important information to pass on about your patient?’

‘That he has a previously undiscovered allergy to morphine. We will write it on his notes and make sure the information is received by everyone we speak to. We will also advise the patient that it would be a good idea to wear a medic alert bracelet from now on.’

‘That was good.’ Matteo slapped Luke on the back as they left the house. ‘I might not have thought of recommending the bracelet.’

‘I was too slow to spot the change in our patient’s condition. Well done, you.’

Matteo grinned at him. ‘We make a good team.’

‘We’ve got a break now, haven’t we? About an hour?’

‘We should use it to do the driving test.’

‘Okay.’ The driving test was something they could do at any point of the day. A gravelled area beside the river that ran through this village had been cordoned off. A line of orange road cones marked the test area. They could see an ambulance completing the test as they arrived, clouds of dust billowing as it snaked around the cones at high speed and then came to a sudden halt between the cones marking the end of the course.

Another car was waiting for its turn.

The car with the Scottish flags.

‘Cute.’ Matteo grinned. ‘I didn’t notice that before.’

Luke raised his eyebrows. ‘You mean Georgia? Or Kate?’ He wasn’t sure he liked the idea of Matteo being attracted to Kate. Then he shook the reaction off. Why not? Matteo was a great guy and the best friend he’d had since Kate had vanished from his life. He’d make some lucky woman an ideal husband and father for her children and, if Kate felt the same way, he should do his best to make it happen.

But Matteo was laughing. ‘Oh, the girls are both cute but that wasn’t what I was looking at. Have you seen what is tied to the front of their car?’

No. Because Luke had been looking at Kate who was standing beside the car, talking to Georgia who was in the driver’s seat. He glanced at the stuffed toy bear that was wearing a kilt and holding a set of bagpipes.

Matteo rolled down his window and pointed to the toy. ‘He is going to get dirty, I think.’

‘All part of the fun,’ Georgia called back. ‘Which one of you is going to do the driving? You’re only allowed one person in the vehicle.’

Georgia was clearly the one doing the test for their team. Luke glanced at Matteo and unclipped his seat belt.

‘You do it,’ he said. ‘You’ve got far more experience with emergency driving skills than I have. I’ll wait with Kate.’

‘Cool.’ Matteo was already focussed on what Georgia was doing to see what his turn would involve.

Luke walked over to where Kate was standing, well away from where the dust clouds would drift.

‘How’s it all going?’ he asked.

‘Great.’ Kate’s expression was animated and she opened her mouth again as if she couldn’t wait to tell him about something but then it snapped shut and the excitement faded into disappointment. ‘But we can’t talk about it yet.’

‘No.’ It was a moment longer before Luke turned away from watching her face. Did she have any idea how much of what she was thinking was revealed in how quickly her expressions could change? He’d forgotten that about conversations with Kate. Forgotten how entertaining it was.

They both watched Georgia as she careened through the serpentine, knocking over a couple of cones.

‘She’s a bit wild.’

‘Enthusiastic,’ Kate conceded. ‘But she’ll get another go. The team before us had three goes.’

So they had a few minutes, then. And nothing to talk about?

‘Where did you say that you’re working in Glasgow? At the Western?’

‘No. The Eastern. We’re a specialised maternity and paediatric hospital. Best PICU in Scotland.’

Luke nodded. ‘Yes...some of our surgical cases have been transferred there. Are you based in PICU?’

‘No. I’m on the wards as a senior paediatric registrar. I do the occasional shift in Emergency as well.’

‘Are you happy?’

Kate’s eyes widened. ‘With the job? Of course. I’ve always loved working with kids.’

Luke wanted to know what that flicker in her eyes suggested. That she wasn’t happy with her life away from work?

‘I remember,’ was all he said. ‘You had a rapport with small people right from the start. How come you haven’t got some of your own now? You never said last night...’

‘Huh? Some of my own what?’

‘Kids.’

‘No.’ Kate’s gaze slid away from his to watch Georgia’s second attempt at the course. ‘I will, though. One day. It’s certainly still part of the grand plan.’

There was a wistful note in her voice. A flick of a glance that made him wonder if she was hearing the echoes of that champagne-doused conversation. Remembering his plan to have a stellar career and find the woman of his dreams to share the glory with?

His breath came out in a soft snort. Ah, well...he was well on the way to the career he’d dreamed of, at least. He flicked a glance back at Kate.

‘So you’ve got a potential father lined up?’

Kate shaded her eyes against the sun. ‘That’s better, Georgia, but you’re too slow now...’

‘A partner?’ Luke persisted. ‘A boyfriend? Any kind of significant other?’

Kate sighed, sounding a little exasperated. ‘No.’

Luke was silent for a moment, digesting the information, as Georgia circled back to where the officials were standing. They seemed to be having a discussion about whether she would have another attempt.

So Kate was single.

This was good, he decided. It meant that there were no barriers to them spending some time together and he didn’t have to find someone so that they could double date.

This was more than good. It was excellent.

‘And you’re thirty-five...’ Oh, help. Had he said that aloud?

Judging by Kate’s dismissive snort, she had heard the impulsive statement.

‘I can’t believe you even remember that, given how drunk you were at the time.’

Kate had been just as enthusiastic about opening that second bottle of champagne. And she obviously remembered the pact...

‘Anyway, it’s null and void now. You got married.’

‘Hey... I made a mistake.’ Luke kept his tone light. ‘You don’t need to rub my nose in it.’

‘Sorry.’ Kate offered him a smile. ‘Good thing you didn’t have kids, I guess. Or did you?’

‘No. Thank goodness. It was a clean—and complete—breakup.’

There was a moment’s silence. Georgia was lining up to have what would probably be her last attempt at the driving test. Matteo was leaning out of his window, watching carefully.

Kate was also watching carefully but Luke couldn’t resist the opportunity to tease her a little.

‘The pact didn’t have any sub-clauses that I remember,’ he said. ‘Didn’t we solemnly declare that if we were both still single when we were thirty five, we would marry each other?’

The glance Kate gave him over her shoulder was dismissive. ‘Thanks, but I intend to give it a bit more time. I haven’t given up on true love yet. My soul mate is out there somewhere—I just haven’t found him yet.’

Luke had to groan. ‘You don’t really believe in that, do you? Finding ‘the one’?’

He could see her shoulders stiffen. And her voice was cool. ‘Maybe I want what you and Nadia had.’

‘No.’ The word came out with unexpected vehemence. ‘You don’t.’

‘It was great when it started, though, wasn’t it? I’d never seen you so happy.’

There was that wistful note again and Luke’s brain broke the rules and dredged up a memory of what it had been like to be so in love. How magic it had been. He shut down the memory instantly. He didn’t need that kind of magic in his life now because that was all it was. A spell. One that could be reversed with no more than a click of someone’s fingers to leave devastation in its wake.

Kate broke the silence. Maybe she realised she’d stirred up something unpleasant for him because her tone was gentle.

‘You just found it with the wrong person,’ she said.

‘And you think you can find the right one?’

‘I hope so.’

‘How will you know?’ Luke was genuinely curious.

‘I don’t know exactly,’ Kate admitted. ‘I guess I’ll have to trust my instincts.’

‘Good luck with that.’ Luke was more than happy to leave this conversation. He was relieved to see that Georgia was driving back towards them, passing Matteo who went to take his position at the start. ‘I really hope you’ll find him,’ he added. ‘And that you’ll live happily ever after.’

Kate smiled at him. ‘So you agree that the pact is null and void, then?’

Luke shrugged. ‘I’m over the whole marriage thing, anyway. Been there, got the T-shirt. Friendship’s better.’ He smiled back at Kate. ‘Seems to last a lot longer, too.’

He could see sympathy in Kate’s eyes. And something more. Something warm.

‘You’re right. True friendship is the most important thing in the world.’ Her breath came out in a sigh as she smiled again. ‘It’s really good to see you again, Luke.’

‘Likewise. We’ll have to make sure we don’t lose touch when we get back home. I’m still a fish out of water in Scotland. I haven’t had time to meet anybody, apart from the people I work with, yet. I haven’t been anywhere or seen anything, either.’

‘I haven’t done much sightseeing myself,’ Kate told him, as Georgia joined them. ‘I’m sure there are some great places to go in Scotland.’

‘Are you kidding?’ Georgia sounded offended. ‘It’s the most beautiful country in the world. We’ve got the most gorgeous lakes and forests and more castles than could ever wish for.’ She grinned. ‘The weather can be a bit grey and wet, of course, but it’s summer now. You’ll get at least three days of sunshine.’

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