Daring to Date Her Boss

‘Okay.’ Charlie went outside once more and Tyler sent her a brief, sympathetic glance.

‘I’d better leave you to get on. It looks as though you have your hands full.’

She nodded, giving him a regretful look. ‘Like I said, it should all be sorted out over the weekend.’

She stood up, testing her foot against the hard floor. ‘That feels good,’ she said. ‘It must be all the padding you put in there. Thank you so much for helping me out. And thanks for the milk—I appreciate it. You’ll have earned yourself a thousand brownie points with Caitlin.’

He smiled. ‘You’re welcome.’ He left by the kitchen door, and she heard him saying goodbye to the children as he left. As she glanced out of the window, she saw him briefly pat Boomer on the head.

She looked disconsolately at the mess around her. There couldn’t have been a worse time for the landlord to pay them a visit, but that wasn’t the worst of it, was it? They shared the same profession. She was a doctor, too. How would it be if he heard about her application for a job at the hospital where he worked? She couldn’t see that going down too well.

For all that he’d been pleasant to her and he had helped her out, she suspected that he didn’t think very much of her lackadaisical ways. There was no point suggesting that she would put everything right...she had a strong feeling that, left to him, he would have organised things properly from the start, and everyone, probably even the dog, would have been given a job to do to help out.

Still, she couldn’t help wishing things had been different. After all, he was the kind of man women dreamed of, and she was by no means immune...even though she’d sworn off men. He’d made her body tingle just by being near... And when he’d rested his hand on her bare leg...phew.

She sighed. Maybe it was just as well she’d made a bad impression on him. It would nip things in the bud from the outset...because she really ought to have learned her lesson by now. After all, it was only when you got to know men that things started to go wrong.

CHAPTER TWO

‘CHARLIE, WILL YOU hurry up, please? We need to get a move on or we’ll be late.’

Saskia looked around the kitchen, mentally ticking off a list in her head. ‘Becky, don’t forget your PE kit—you need to take that with you as well as your backpack.’

‘Yeah, okay.’

‘Do you have everything you need, Caitlin?’ She peered into the hallway to look at the teenager, who was frowning at her hair in the mirror and trying to brush loose strands into place, something she’d been doing for the last several minutes. ‘What about your geometry set—did you remember to put it in your bag? Perhaps I should have a quick look, just to make sure.’

Caitlin whipped the backpack away from her before Saskia had a chance to investigate. ‘I can sort my own things out,’ she said, turning away and pressing a hand against her forehead as though her head was aching. ‘I don’t need anyone checking up on me.’

Saskia winced. So far, nothing was going to plan. Her vision of a smooth, hassle-free morning getting ready for this first day of the school term was dissolving with every minute that passed. Caitlin had been tetchy ever since she’d dragged herself out of bed, and when you added in Becky’s insistence on taking time to go outside to pet her lop-eared rabbit, and Charlie’s complete oblivion to everything going on around him, getting them all organised and ready was rapidly turning into a stressful situation.

‘Charlie, can you switch off that computer game? We’re leaving right now.’

It must be great for Tyler next door to simply ease himself into his sleek, shining BMW and head off for the hospital without a care in the world. She’d seen him leave his house about half an hour ago, perfectly groomed, dressed in an immaculate dark suit, his hair crisply styled. She’d caught the glint of a cufflink as he’d reached to open the car door. His whole life was probably streamlined.

She shepherded everyone towards the front door, but as they were about to leave Becky said urgently, ‘Saskia—wait. I think Boomer’s being sick in the kitchen. I can hear him.’ The little girl went back in there to take a closer look. ‘Yeuw! It’s got lots of bits of tissue in it.’

Saskia sighed. Tyler certainly never had to deal with anything like this, did he? She looked at Charlie. ‘Have you been feeding Boomer paper towels again?’

He shook his head vigorously, but she noticed he couldn’t quite meet her eyes.

‘It’s bad for him,’ she said firmly. ‘And it’s not helping us either, because now I have to stop and clean up after him when we’re already pushed for time. Perhaps you’d better come and give me a hand. Go and let him outside in case he needs to be sick some more.’

A few minutes later she settled Boomer down in his bed in the kitchen and they finally started out on the walk to school. It was a good thing the primary and secondary schools were on the same site, Saskia reflected. At least it made things a little easier.

Of all the mornings to be delayed, this was the worst, because as soon as she had dropped off the children she was supposed to go for her interview at the hospital. She really needed that job, and she was more than a little anxious about it. In fact, she was beginning to feel quite apprehensive. There was money coming in from her brother’s bank account to pay the rent, but now she had three extra mouths to feed and the bills were mounting up. Her savings would only take her so far.

Arriving at the school a few minutes later, she gave Becky and Charlie a hug and told a still fractious Caitlin she hoped she’d have a good day. She would have hugged her, too, but the teenager made it clear she didn’t want any demonstration of affection, especially not in front of the other students.

She was about to leave when someone said, ‘Ah, Miss Reynolds—or should I call you Dr Reynolds? I saw you helping Charlie to find his peg in the cloakroom a little while ago and realised you must be the newcomers to our school.’

Saskia glanced at the woman who had approached her. She was tall, with medium-length dark hair cut in a stylish bob, and there was an undeniable look of authority about her. ‘Hello. Yes, that’s right. I’m Dr Reynolds.’

The woman smiled. ‘I’m Elizabeth Hunter, the headmistress—I’m so glad I managed to meet up with you.’ She was keen to talk to Saskia about the children’s parents and how their accident might have affected the youngsters. ‘We want to be as supportive as possible,’ she said.

‘Thank you. I appreciate that. It has been a difficult time for them, but I’m hoping that if we let the children talk about their worries it might help.’ Saskia spoke to the headmistress for a few minutes, wanting to ease the children’s transition into their new school as best she could but conscious all the while that the clock was ticking and she needed to get away to the hospital.

At last, though, she was free to rush away to keep her appointment. Glancing at her watch, she realised with growing alarm that there was no way she was going to make it to the interview on time.

Perhaps it had been a mistake to walk to school. It had taken a lot longer than she’d anticipated, with Charlie dawdling and Becky stopping to search for wild flowers in the hedgerows, but this was a small island and she’d hoped she might get away without buying a car. Walking, she’d reasoned, would at least give them the opportunity to enjoy the green hills and valleys along the way and let them take in the view of the bay and the bustling harbour in the distance. Now, though, she still had a further ten minutes’ walk ahead of her.

The hospital, she discovered, was relatively small, a pleasing, white-painted building, with a deep, low-slung roof. Alongside it was a health centre and a pharmacy. She hurried through the automated glass doors at the entrance.

The receptionist was talking to a young woman, a slender girl with chestnut hair arranged into an attractive braid at the back of her head. She was a doctor, Saskia guessed, judging by the stethoscope draped around her neck.

‘Hello. Can I help you?’ The receptionist broke off their conversation so that she could attend to the new arrival.

‘Oh, hello. Yes, thanks,’ Saskia said, a little out of breath from her exertions. ‘I’m Dr Reynolds. I’m here to see Dr Gregson.’

‘Oh, yes,’ the woman answered with a smile, ticking her name off a list on her desk, ‘you’re the nine-fifteen appointment. They’re waiting for you. If you’d like to come with me, I’ll take you along to the office.’

The woman doctor glanced down at her watch and made a face. Noting her reaction, Saskia almost did the same. She could guess what she was thinking. She wasn’t making a very good start.

‘Just tell Dr Beckett that I’d appreciate his involvement in the new cardiovascular clinic, would you?’ the doctor murmured. ‘Perhaps he might be able to spare me a few minutes later today?’

‘I’m sure he’ll make the time,’ the receptionist answered.

She walked with Saskia along the corridor. ‘Here we are,’ she said, knocking lightly on a door marked in bold, black lettering ‘Dr James Gregson’.

A gravelly voice responded, ‘Come,’ and Saskia pulled in a deep breath before going into the room. She took in her surroundings in one vague sweep.

A large, mahogany desk dominated the room, and behind it sat a well-dressed, distinguished-looking man who studied her with interest over rimless reading glasses that sat low down on his nose. There were two other, younger, men on either side of him, some small distance away, seated at an angle to the table.

One of them had his head down, immersed in studying papers in a manila file, and for a dreadful moment, as she stared at the top of his dark head, Saskia felt a wash of stomach-lurching familiarity run through her. Her heart began to thump, increasing in tempo as though she’d been running. Could this really be her new neighbour?

‘Dr Reynolds, it’s good to see you. Please, come in and take a seat.’ Dr Gregson stood up and waved her to a leather chair in front of the desk. He was a man of medium build, with square-cut features and dark hair, greying a little at the temples. Above the glasses his brown eyes were keen, missing nothing.

‘Let me introduce you to my colleagues,’ he said. ‘This is Dr Matheson—Noah Matheson. He’s our man in charge of the minor injuries unit.’

Dr Matheson stood up to shake hands with her. He was young, handsome, in his early thirties, tall, lithe, and it was obvious right away that he was most definitely taken with Saskia. Interest sparked in his hazel eyes as he drank in the cloud of her Titian hair and his gaze skimmed her slender, curvaceous figure. She was wearing a cream-coloured suit with a pencil-line skirt and a jacket that nipped in at the waist. It was a feminine outfit yet at the same time businesslike, and it gave her a fair amount of confidence to know that she looked her best.

‘It’s a pleasure to meet you,’ Noah said, holding onto her hand for a second or two longer than was strictly necessary.

‘And this is Dr Beckett—Tyler Beckett. He’s in charge of Accident and Emergency.’

Her spirits plummeted, her worst fears confirmed.

Tyler stood up and clasped her hand firmly in his. His glance moved over her, clearly appreciative. His smile was warm, welcoming, and she relaxed a little. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all. He looked terrific, lean and flat-stomached, every bit as good as the first day she’d seen him. The jacket of his suit was open, revealing a deep blue shirt teamed with a silver-grey tie. His cufflinks were of the same silver-grey pattern.

‘Dr Reynolds and I have already met,’ he said, addressing his colleagues. ‘It turns out that she’s a neighbour of mine.’ He looked into her green eyes, adding in a low voice, ‘I didn’t know the name of our applicant until this morning, and even then I wasn’t sure it would turn out to be you.’ His well-shaped mouth made a faint curve. ‘Perhaps I should have guessed as time went on. It sort of fitted somehow.’ He didn’t look at his watch, but she caught his drift all the same.

He released her and she sat down carefully. She cleared her throat. ‘I must apologise for being so late,’ she said, looking from one to another. How much should she tell them? ‘I had a few unavoidable domestic issues to contend with this morning—and then the dog was sick just as I was leaving the house. Um...on top of that, I didn’t realise quite how long it would take me to walk to the hospital.’ She winced inwardly. She was babbling, wasn’t she, saying too much? They didn’t need to know all that. ‘It was my mistake, but I’ll be certain to make better arrangements from now on.’

‘I’m sure you will.’ Dr Gregson picked up a folder and leafed through it, saying after a while, ‘Would you like to tell us a bit about your last post? You worked at a hospital in Cornwall, I believe?’

‘That’s right.’ She was on much safer ground with this. ‘I started off there as a senior house officer in the A and E department. I had to deal with all kinds of emergencies, both traumatic and general. A good percentage of my patients were youngsters.’

‘That’s valuable experience. Good...good...’ Dr Gregson riffled through his papers. ‘Your references are all in order from what I can see, and your qualifications are impeccable. You’ve specialised in emergency medicine and paediatrics, as well as spending some time in general practice—that’s excellent, exactly what we’re looking for.’ He glanced at her. ‘It’s a little unusual, though, to mix hospital work with general practice, isn’t it?’

She faltered briefly, caught on the back foot. ‘Ah...that’s true, of course...but...initially I wasn’t sure which specialty appealed to me the most.’ She squirmed a little. Tyler Beckett would never be unsure of himself, would he? ‘I enjoyed working in a GP’s surgery for a year, but after attending several emergency cases during that time I realised that’s what I wanted to do more than anything.’

Dr Gregson nodded. ‘I see.’ He turned to his colleagues. ‘Do you have any questions you’d like to put to Dr Reynolds?’

Tyler nodded. ‘I do have one query,’ he said, his tone sober. ‘Ah...about these references...’ He was sifting through his copy of the paperwork, and she glanced at him, sitting stiffly upright, suddenly on alert.

‘Is there a problem?’

‘Not a problem as such... I’m just a little concerned about one aspect of your work that hasn’t been mentioned here...’

She frowned. ‘I can’t think of anything I might have left out.’

He gave her a direct look. ‘No, except—there was an occasion when you lost a patient, I believe. Would you like to tell us about that incident...about what happened?’

Saskia sucked in a sharp breath. ‘But how did you...? I thought—’ She broke off, uncertain where this line of questioning was coming from.

Noah frowned, sending Tyler a questioning, disbelieving look, as though he couldn’t fathom why his colleague would want to upturn the apple cart this way.

‘It’s just something your previous consultant mentioned.’ Tyler used a soothing voice, as though he wanted to put her at ease. ‘I didn’t fully understand the implications and I thought you might be able to clear it up for us.’

‘M-my consultant?’ She gazed at him in consternation, her green eyes troubled.

‘Yes. It just happened that I rang the hospital in Truro this morning,’ he explained, ‘to enquire about a patient of mine who was recently admitted, and I was put on to Michael Drew. He was your consultant, wasn’t he?’

Michael. The breath left her body in a soft gasp and her stomach began to churn. She might have known this would come up to bite her. She’d made a mistake, getting involved with Michael. In the end he’d been more than just her consultant, and that’s when things had started to go downhill, hadn’t they?

It had been fine at first. They’d dated for a time, and she’d enjoyed his company, but eventually, when she’d realised he was becoming too controlling, she’d called a halt to things between them. Michael hadn’t taken it well, and eventually the situation between them had deteriorated to a point where life at work had become intolerable. That was partly why she’d made up her mind it was time to look around for another job.

And now this... It looked as though Michael had thrown a spanner into the works at the worst possible time. She hadn’t been able to avoid giving his name for a reference, and he’d assured her that she had nothing to worry about. But now—what could he have said to Tyler? Clearly their break-up still rankled with him, and although she’d hoped he would be adult about things, she really wouldn’t put it past him to try to make life difficult for her.

Tyler watched the variety of expressions flit across her face. He said quietly, ‘When I realised who he was, that you and he had worked together, we got to chatting, and that’s when he mentioned your patient. He only brought it up as a humorous anecdote.’

Her mouth made a wry twist at that and he paused momentarily. ‘He said you’d lost her and there was a big hue and cry until she was found again. But by then she needed treatment for another condition.’

He rested his hands on top of the file, lacing his fingers together. ‘It might have seemed slightly amusing afterwards, when the worry was over, but I’m sure you can see why this has to be cleared up, can’t you? We need to be reassured that our patients are going to be in the best possible hands.’

‘Yes, of course, I understand perfectly.’ Saskia moistened her lips, unhappily aware that Noah and Dr Gregson had both straightened and were paying her close attention. ‘The truth is I didn’t find anything at all humorous about the situation at any time, when it was going on or afterwards. And I didn’t lose her—not exactly.’

‘So, what happened?’

‘She was a woman in her sixties suffering from what appeared to be dementia. A passer-by had brought her into the hospital because she’d had a fall and hurt her arm.’

She was silent for a moment, remembering the hectic activity in the emergency unit that day. ‘We were very busy in A and E that morning, and we were short-staffed. Some of the nurses were off sick with a bug that was going around. I didn’t have anyone to assist me, but I was keen to do further tests on my patient—alongside my concerns over her arm I wasn’t absolutely convinced she had dementia. Anyway, I asked her to stay in the treatment cubicle while I went to find a porter to take the blood samples over to Pathology. But when I came back to see her a couple of minutes later, she’d gone walkabout.’

‘That was tough luck,’ Noah sympathised.

She nodded. ‘It was worrying. We couldn’t find her anywhere nearby. Then it occurred to me that she might have wandered outside into the hospital grounds so I followed the stairs to the exit. I found her sitting on the bottom step, nursing a swollen ankle. Apparently she’d missed her footing.’

Tyler’s mouth made a wry shape. ‘It just wasn’t her day, was it?’

‘No, unfortunately, it wasn’t.’

‘So, what was the final diagnosis?’ he asked. His expression was thoughtful, his blue gaze skimming her features as though he was trying to weigh her up.

‘She had a thyroid problem—her body was producing too little of the hormone, causing symptoms that mimicked dementia. And to add to her troubles she had a cracked bone in her forearm from the earlier fall, along with a sprained ankle from taking the stairs.’

Dr Gregson gave her a reassuring smile. ‘Well, I think you’ve cleared that up for us nicely, Dr Reynolds. Thank you for that.’ He looked at her over his glasses. ‘And it’s good to know that you weren’t prepared to accept things at face value.’

She inclined her head briefly and tried to breathe slowly and steadily. That had been a deeply uncomfortable few moments. Tyler was clearly a stickler for getting things right, but she might have hoped he’d be less thorough in following up every detail arising from her application. Did he have to dot every i and cross every t? Michael could very easily have ruined things for her.

‘You’ll certainly need to be on the ball in this job,’ Dr Gregson remarked. ‘It isn’t quite the same as being on the mainland where you have all manner of resources to hand. Those patients who are too ill to be managed in our small hospital have to be flown over to Cornwall for treatment.’

‘I’m sure I’ll be able to handle whatever’s asked of me, Dr Gregson. I’ve had to cope with a huge change of circumstances recently but I think I’m dealing with it.’

Noah was clearly interested in this. ‘Do you want to tell us more about that?’

She closed her eyes fleetingly, wishing she could take back the words and steeling herself against the pain. ‘My brother and his wife were involved in a nasty road accident.’ She took a deep breath. ‘They’re both in hospital in Truro at the moment—and it’s beginning to look as though they’ll be there for some time.’

Tyler frowned, leaning forward in his seat. ‘You didn’t mention this to me before, at the house.’

‘No—perhaps I should have, but it was painful for me to talk about it. I was still getting over the shock. I still am.’ She hesitated, then went on, ‘They were preparing to move over here for Sam’s job—he works for the wildlife trust and they wanted him as part of their team in the Isles of Scilly. Sam was bringing his family over that day so that they could see the house—they were going to rent before they decided where to make a permanent home. They wanted to spend some time looking around the island, but before they could get here they were in collision with a lorry that took a bend too wide. Luckily, the children escaped relatively unhurt, though they were traumatised, of course.’

‘I’m sorry.’ Tyler was genuinely concerned. ‘That must have been devastating for you. And I suppose you’ve taken over caring for the children in the meantime?’

‘That’s right. That’s why I came over here, and it’s the reason I’m looking for work.’

‘Is there no one else who can care for them?’ Noah was full of compassion and understanding, although at the same time it seemed he sensed there was an opportunity to be explored here. ‘Is there no one to support you—you’ve no ties?’

Tyler sent him a sharp look and Noah checked himself, drawing back.

Saskia shook her head. ‘Not right now...at least, not close by.’ She guessed Noah was never one to let the grass grow under his feet. With his looks and easygoing manner he’d probably left behind a string of female conquests who’d fallen for his charms.

‘I admire your sense of loyalty,’ Tyler said, frowning as he glanced through the paperwork once more, ‘and I can see why finding work here must be important to you...but hadn’t you handed in your notice before your brother’s accident?’

Saskia’s shoulders lifted awkwardly. Didn’t he ever miss anything? ‘I’d already decided I wanted a change.’

‘Wasn’t that a little irresponsible—to leave your job on a whim?’

She flattened her lips briefly. She wasn’t about to go into detail about her failed relationship. ‘Perhaps it was,’ she conceded, ‘but the way I saw it there’s pretty much always a need for emergency doctors in the UK.’

He nodded. ‘On the mainland, maybe. I think you’ll find there’s not quite the same demand out here, though.’

‘Yes, I’m starting to realise that.’ Her heart sank. This wasn’t going at all the way she’d hoped. From the doubts he was expressing it looked very much as though he didn’t want her for this job, and she could hardly blame him.

For someone as thorough and organised as Tyler Beckett it would go against the grain to take on a young woman who appeared to work on impulse and followed wherever her heart led.

She didn’t know how many people they had interviewed for this post, but she guessed she wasn’t the only candidate. There had been at least three names on the receptionist’s tick sheet.

‘I did have another job in mind in Cornwall at the time,’ she ventured, ‘and I was about to be interviewed for it, but all my plans had to change after the accident.’