Harlequin Medical Romance July 2021--Box Set 1 of 2, page 22
“There’s a suite waiting for both of you, but we need to keep her in the exam room for a few hours of observation,” she said to Siobhan, trying to pull her focus back to her patient. “You’re welcome to stay with her until then.”
“Can she keep the dog with her?” asked Siobhan.
Willow hesitated. Dogs typically weren’t allowed in exam rooms, but Roni’s French Bulldog had settled down considerably, curling quietly into her lap. She smiled and touched a finger to her lips. “I suppose it’s fine. But keep it quiet.”
As they left the exam room together, Theo said, “Wow. Is it typically like this, with the press?”
“Actually, it’s extremely rare. We all take discretion very seriously here. My guess is that someone on Roni’s team leaked the information that she was coming. It may not even have been an intentional leak. Some of our patients get so much scrutiny from the press that a careless word, dropped at the wrong time, can tip off the news media to things they aren’t supposed to know. Fortunately, we do have excellent security personnel. They’re very good at keeping the sharks away. As are you apparently. I want to thank you for helping me out with the reporter back there.”
His eyes grew stormy again, and for a moment she thought she saw a trace of the anger that had clouded his face earlier. But it quickly passed as he said, “The important thing is that you’re all right.” He searched her face carefully. “You are all right, aren’t you?”
“I’m perfectly fine.” Despite herself, she rubbed her arm. It did still hurt a bit. The reporter’s grip had been firmer than she’d realized. She hoped she wasn’t going to have a bruise.
Theo frowned. “If they’re going to be that bold, we should talk to Nate about increasing security for the staff as well as for Roni.”
“Certainly, if it makes you feel better. But I know Nate. He won’t tolerate an intrusion into a patient’s privacy without swift action.” And then, in spite of herself, she laughed as she remembered her own first week at the Island Clinic, just over a year ago. “If you think that was bad, you should have been here last year. We had an entire K-pop group.”
“K-pop?”
“Korean pop music. Picture five teenage boys, all on the verge of international stardom. Some of the dance moves they do are pretty complex, and apparently they’d been attempting an illegal pyramid formation on a high stage that collapsed, resulting in multiple compound fractures. Their manager didn’t want word getting out that they’d been practicing moves banned in Korea, so he had them flown here for absolute privacy.”
“But word got out they were here?”
“Through no fault of ours. One of the boys posted a picture of the view from his room online, and a fan from the island realized he was probably somewhere on St. Victoria. It’s a small island, and with every woman under twenty on the lookout—well, it was only a matter of time before they determined by process of elimination that the band members were here.”
“It was bad, huh?”
“Never underestimate the detective work of teenage girls. Every young woman on the island started trying to get a glimpse of them at the clinic. One of them actually succeeded by disguising herself as a delivery driver. But don’t worry. After a while you’ll see that these kinds of incidents are really extremely rare.”
“I see. So...does this mean you’ve come around to the idea of us working together?”
She told her stomach to stop doing flip-flops. “I suppose it won’t hurt to give it a try. You made a good call with Roni back there. And I liked how you discussed her treatment with her.”
“How’s that?”
“You told her that the odds were good that she would feel better soon, but you didn’t make any false promises. You were confident, without overselling or twisting the truth.”
He nodded. “That’s important with cancer patients. Everything’s about what the odds are. You have to talk about chances, rather than promises. And you have to talk about statistics without making a person feel like one.”
She was certain he was speaking from his experience as a patient. How important it must be to him, she realized, to be able to use his firsthand knowledge of how it felt to have cancer to help his patients.
Nate’s words from earlier that morning came back to her: I think you’re going to like Theo Moore. She wondered if that could possibly turn out to be true.
She broke from her reverie to notice that he was staring at her.
“What is it?” she asked. She looked at her nurse’s coat, trying to see if she’d spilled coffee somewhere.
“It’s just...” He took a deep breath, and his words came rapidly, as though he were forcing himself to push them out. “Speaking of statistics. I was wondering. What are the odds you might have dinner with me later this week?”
For one brief, wild moment, she almost thought that Theo was asking her out on a date. But then she realized that couldn’t possibly be the case. Given the circumstances between the two of them, a date was out of the question.
Still, it couldn’t hurt to clarify. “When you say, ‘have dinner with me,’ what exactly do you have in mind?”
He gave her a quizzical look. “Well, I suppose by ‘have dinner,’ I’m anticipating that there’d be food involved, most likely eaten in the evening, and the ‘with me’ part implies that it’d be the two of us, eating that food together.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, but it’s just dinner, right? It’s not...a date?”
“Oh, no, not at all,” he said without any hesitation. “I hope it didn’t sound as though I was suggesting a date. Especially considering our situation. My priority is getting to know Maisie, after all.”
She blushed. Of course he hadn’t intended to suggest a date. He’d traveled four thousand miles and uprooted his life for the chance at being involved with his daughter; the last thing any reasonable man in his situation would do was put everything at risk with romantic entanglements. And she had no reason to believe he was attracted to her.
She was glad he couldn’t read her thoughts, because in spite of the fact that she knew perfectly well that it would be a mistake to date Theo, her spirits had plummeted when he’d explained he was asking her to dinner with no romantic intentions whatsoever. While she wished he hadn’t jumped to clarify his lack of interest in her quite so quickly, it was probably fortunate that his intentions were strictly platonic. She was too busy, and the risks were far too high. Life was complicated enough without adding heartbreak. Not to mention how confusing things could be for Maisie. Even if Theo had been interested in her, he’d have been off-limits to Willow for that reason alone.
But Theo was right about one thing. She needed to get to know him better. He was clearly making a concerted effort to build a life for himself on St. Victoria. If she intended to give him a fair chance, then she’d need to see him more often.
Maybe dinner wasn’t such a bad idea.
“I suppose it couldn’t hurt,” she said.
“I should hope not. Who knows? It might even be fun.”
Dammit. His hazel eyes positively twinkled when he smiled like that. Despite herself, she smiled back, even as her mind continued to resonate with phrases like off-limits and totally inappropriate and probably not even interested, anyway. She told herself to listen to the wisdom of those words.
“What time?” she heard herself say.
* * *
Four days later found Theo trying, desperately and unsuccessfully, to remove dog hair from his suit trousers.
He didn’t have a dog, but he did have an unexpected guest. When he’d leased the house, a large, energetic dust mop that he suspected was a Labrador-poodle mix had been making itself comfortable on the porch. The real estate agent had explained that the Caribbean had a serious problem with strays, and had offered to call animal control. But Theo had a soft spot for dogs, and this one was friendly. And there was something about the dog’s thin frame that touched his heart. The dog needed to get its strength back, just like him. He’d taken to feeding it each morning, although he wouldn’t let it into the house. As much as Theo was determined to make his life on St. Victoria work, he didn’t want the dog to get too attached if he had to leave.
The dog had no such reservations. His enthusiastic greetings had left Theo’s one good pair of trousers covered with fur.
Theo wanted to look presentable for his dinner with Willow, but so far, his attempts were not going well. His once wavy hair still stuck out at odd angles around his head. Except, of course, for the persistent spray that seemed to insist on falling directly over his forehead and into his eyes, no matter what he tried to do with it.
He told himself that there was no reason to be so nervous. It wasn’t as though he was getting ready for a date. He was glad he’d clarified that with Willow from the start, although he still cringed at the awkward way his words had come out.
She’d lost no time in making certain that their dinner was not a date. He knew she’d been wise to do so, and he’d kicked himself for suggesting dinner in the first place. Why not lunch? Why not a coffee after work? Either of those would have accomplished his goal of getting to know Willow better, thereby bringing him that much closer to getting to know Maisie.
But his words—What are the odds that you’ll have dinner with me?—had spilled out before he’d had time to think of something that might sound less like a date.
His feelings, especially his unspoken attraction to Willow, had betrayed him. He couldn’t think of a worse idea than becoming romantically involved with Willow. His relationship with Maisie was completely at her discretion. After years of not knowing if he’d ever see his daughter, he couldn’t allow anything to put his chance to get to know her at risk. Which meant that he had to ignore what he might feel for Willow. He’d already spent the first years of his daughter’s life without her. If he and Willow were involved, and things became complicated, he couldn’t risk losing Maisie again.
He wondered if things could have been different if he and Willow had met under more normal circumstances. He couldn’t deny that he was physically attracted to Willow. He was entranced by the way the waves of her dark brown hair fell against the curve of her neck. And she held herself with such presence: though she had a petite frame, she projected a quiet authority that he imagined she’d developed over her years as a nurse. But it was her warmth, more than anything, that had led him to feel more attracted to her than to anyone he’d met in years. Granted, he’d gone on a very scant handful of dates since his illness was diagnosed four years ago. But even before the diagnosis, he couldn’t remember being so struck by any woman’s warmth and gentleness. Even back in her kitchen, when she’d been in the middle of explaining that she wasn’t certain if he could see his own daughter, she’d expressed such genuine compassion. There was so much he wanted to know about Willow. He wanted to learn where that compassion came from, and who else in her life she might turn that compassion toward. From what he could tell so far, she shared it with everyone.
He was afraid that the more he got to know Willow, the more certain he would be that he wanted her in his life. And no matter how much he wanted her, Maisie was the priority. Even if Willow felt something for him—and he didn’t think she did—but even if she was as interested in him as he was in her, he was certain she would agree that their daughter had to come first.
He caught a glance of himself in the mirror as he threw on a crisp, white shirt and did up the buttons. He’d always been on the muscular side, but now his body looked positively gaunt, the missing muscle all too evident after years of treatment. Pale skin, uncontrollable hair. It felt like a cancer survivor’s body, but it didn’t feel like his body.
He wished it didn’t feel as though there was so much riding on this dinner. He reminded himself, for what felt like the millionth time, that this wasn’t a date. And yet the nervous feelings he had were so similar to the worries he typically had before a date. What if he couldn’t think of anything to say? What if she hated the restaurant he’d picked? What if she decided she hated him, and he never got to know Maisie?
Stop panicking, he told himself firmly. You got through cancer. You can get through this.
* * *
He still hadn’t returned his doctor’s message from when he’d first arrived on the island. He’d been too nervous thinking about his upcoming dinner with Willow to spare a thought for checking in with his doctor. And he wanted some time to enjoy being in remission, before getting into a routine with his follow-up appointments. He needed to live his life. Which, at this moment, meant screwing up his courage and heading to the French Indian fusion restaurant in Williamtown where he was meeting Willow.
He took a deep breath and stepped out onto the veranda. The dog padded toward Theo with hopeful eyes, and leaned against his legs.
“I suppose a little more fur can’t make a difference now,” said Theo, scratching behind the dog’s ears. “Wish me luck, old fellow.”
In response, the dog thumped his tail twice on the porch. Theo decided to interpret this as a good sign. He was going to need all the help he could get.
* * *
Willow couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so nervous. Her mouth was dry, and as she sat across from Theo and tried desperately to think of something to say, it was all she could do to keep her hands from shaking.
Relax, it’s not a date, she tried to tell herself. But somehow, it had the feeling of one.
Theo looked perfectly comfortable in his white, button-down shirt, while she’d simply thrown on an old sundress with a light shawl. But even on an un-date, as she referred to it in her mind, it was horribly awkward trying to think of something to say. She couldn’t imagine how they would begin to feel comfortable with each other.
It didn’t help that his hair, once again, fell just over his forehead. Just try not to look at his hair, and control yourself, she thought. It might have been a while since she’d had an evening out with another adult, but she had a feeling running her fingers through Theo’s tousled hair in the middle of a crowded restaurant wouldn’t do anything to reduce the awkwardness she felt.
When she’d first met Theo, his smile had caught her attention. Later, she’d found that she was quite taken with his eyes. But now, as she watched him peruse the menu, she realized that his hands were quite slender. Steady, careful hands.
Dammit, she thought. Was there anything about him that wasn’t attractive?
She racked her brain for something besides his appearance to talk about. Work. Ask him how work is going.
It was difficult, because she felt as though her mouth was full of cotton, but she managed to squeak out, “How are you adjusting to the clinic?”
He seized upon the question with an eagerness that made Willow suspect that he’d probably been searching for something to talk about, as well.
“It’s fascinating. Although I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to working with celebrity patients. I have to admit that it’s not exactly the clientele I’d always imagined working with.”
“Well, you’ve made quite an impression on Roni Santiago. Providing health care to the rich and famous might just be your calling.”
“Perhaps. I suppose life is full of surprises. Speaking of which...sorry, again, for taking a job at your workplace. I never meant to make you uncomfortable.”
She shrugged. “Don’t worry. It was a surprise at first, but I should have anticipated it. There aren’t too many options for oncologists on one small island.”
He seemed to relax a bit at her words. “I’m glad you feel that way, because I think I might really like working at the Island Clinic. With so many unexpected changes, it hasn’t always been easy to move forward with my career.”
She realized that he was referring to the cancer. “I’m sure it couldn’t have been easy to hold down a job consistently while you were ill.”
“It wasn’t. It’s why I’ve mostly been in research positions, even though my passion is working directly with patients. One of the best things about the Island Clinic is that I get to do some clinical work on the side.”
“You couldn’t find something like that in England?”
“Oh, I could. But then, you see, I learned that my daughter had moved here. Finding her was the priority.”
His jaw had that determined set to it again. Willow felt a twinge of guilt at having treated him with such suspicion at first. She didn’t trust him yet. But she found that she wanted to.
“Is it hard to live so far from the rest of your family?” he asked.
“There’s no other family. My parents died when I was very young, so I was raised by my grandmother, who passed away just after Maisie was born.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“It’s all right.”
He gave her a rueful smile. “Now there’s a phrase I know all too well. Along with ‘It’s fine’ and ‘Don’t worry about it.’ That’s my set of typical stock phrases for when someone asks a big question without realizing it, and then tries to apologize.”
“Does that happen often?”
“Speaking as a cancer patient, it happens all the time. Sometimes all people can say is ‘I’m so sorry,’ and then all you can say back is ‘It’s all right.’”
She thought about that for a moment. Her response to Theo’s question had been automatic. He was right; it was what she almost always said when people found out about her parents. And she was certain it was what he usually said when people learned he’d had cancer.
“I suppose I’ve been an orphan for so long that it just doesn’t feel unusual to me,” she said. “My parents died in a car accident before I was even a year old. Growing up, I did often wonder what they were like. I was lucky that I at least had Gran to tell me about them. But then, I always felt lucky to have Gran.”
“So she was there to fill their shoes.”
