Unlocking The Italian Doc's Heart

‘Coach always makes us put sun cream on before training,’ Maddie said.

‘That’s good. So we’ll admit you to the ward now,’ Lorenzo said, ‘and try and get you all ready for football camp. Once you’re home, we’ll see you every few months to see how you’re getting on and if we need to change your medication at all.’

Once Jenna had got one of the nurses to settle Maddie on the ward, she arranged the tests that Lorenzo had recommended. The EMG confirmed Lorenzo’s diagnosis; and she noticed that he gave up his lunch break to sit and chat to the little girl about football.

Lorenzo Conti was definitely one of the good guys.

She liked the way he worked, reassuring both their patients and their parents; and with him she really felt part of a team. It felt as if she’d worked with him for years, rather than only a couple of days. Which was crazy. She couldn’t have that kind of rapport with him so soon.

In their afternoon break, she caught him just as he was heading for the staff room. ‘I owe you cake for helping me with Maddie,’ she said.

‘You really don’t. I was just doing my job, the same as you,’ he said with a smile.

‘You taught me something new today and I appreciate that, plus I happen to know you didn’t have a lunch break—you spent it talking to Maddie about football,’ she pointed out.

He shrugged. ‘Maddie was fretting and I wanted to help her settle in to the ward. We had a fabulous argument about whether Italian football players were better than English ones, and that really cheered her up.’

Jenna could just imagine. Lorenzo had worked out the best way to take the little girl’s mind off her illness and played his part with gusto. He was the kind of colleague it was a joy to work with. ‘I just want to say thank you—I didn’t want you to think I’m taking you for granted,’ she said.

There was an odd expression on his face, but for so briefly that she thought she might have imagined it.

‘I know you’re not taking me for granted. We’re colleagues. I’m just doing my job,’ Lorenzo said. ‘You really don’t need to buy me cake.’

Then a really nasty thought hit her. Did he think that she was coming on to him? But she wasn’t. ‘I’d make the same offer to any of my colleagues who helped me like that,’ she said. ‘Regardless of gender or age.’ And she hoped he’d follow through with the rest: regardless of marital status, because it was a platonic offer rather than a come-on.

‘It’s fine,’ he said.

‘Well, thanks. I really did appreciate your help,’ she said. ‘I thought Maddie might have some kind of rheumatology issue, but I haven’t come across JDM before.’

‘To be fair, I’ve only seen one case, and I wasn’t the lead doctor in the case,’ Lorenzo said.

‘I’ll look it up in my books tonight after salsa class.’ She smiled. ‘Which is a double-win situation for me, because it means I can find out what I need to know for Maddie’s treatment, and revise for my paediatrics exams.’

Lorenzo stared at her. ‘You’re, what, three or four years younger than me?’

‘I’m thirty-two.’

‘Three years, then. I’m surprised you’re not through all your exams already.’

‘That’s because I took a year’s sabbatical,’ she said.

‘Sabbatical?’

His voice was soft and gentle, and Jenna almost confided in him about why she’d taken time off work. Then Danny’s voice echoed in her head: ‘You’re going to be a surrogate mum for your sister? That’s the most stupid idea I’ve ever heard. What about your career? How can you throw all that away just for a kid that you’re not even keeping?’

She didn’t think Lorenzo was anything like Danny, but the situation wasn’t exactly the easiest to explain. She didn’t want him thinking that either she was a saint—because she was far from that—or the naive idiot Danny had called her when she’d refused to give in to his haranguing. ‘Life throws up unexpected stuff, sometimes,’ she said with a smile, fudging the issue.

* * *

Lorenzo had seen Jenna work with their patients. He knew she was competent, and also she was confident enough to admit when something was outside her experience, as Maddie had been today—so he didn’t think she’d taken a year off because she’d been struggling with her work and needed to think about her future. So why had she taken a year’s sabbatical? Had it been a career break to have a baby, perhaps?

Though, in his experience, when his colleagues had children, they tended to talk about them. Jenna hadn’t said a word about having children of her own.

Maybe she’d had a child, then lost it.

He knew how that felt, and he didn’t talk about it. He could understand why someone just wouldn’t want the constant reminders of the empty spaces in their lives. So he wasn’t going to push her about it. Besides, she’d hit the nail on the head about his own situation. Unexpected stuff. In his case, it had been something he’d been too naive and stupid to work out for himself. That his wife had cheated on him with her ex, and the little girl he’d believed was his was actually another man’s daughter. ‘Very true,’ he said. ‘Life can be unexpected.’ And sometimes it took you a while to pick yourself up and dust yourself off again. ‘If you want anyone to test you on stuff before the exams, give me a yell.’

‘Thanks. That’s kind.’ She smiled at him, and he had to damp down the urge to lace his fingers through hers and suggest something more personal than simply exam revision.

This was ridiculous. They’d both said that they weren’t in the market for a relationship. After Georgia, he’d lost his capacity to trust.

Yet something about Jenna Harris drew him. Her warmth, her verve, her kindness.

He was going to have to be careful about this. Really careful.

Because he really didn’t want to risk his heart again.

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