The Doctor Claims His Bride (8 page)

She spoke first. ‘That’s Robbo, right?’

He checked the display and nodded. ‘I have to go.’ His eyes, full of concern, caught hers. ‘Will you be OK?’

Please, stop being so caring, it’s all too hard to resist
. She walked him to the door. ‘I’m fine.’

He hesitated at the threshold. ‘Mia…’

She put her hand on his back, her fingers meeting taut muscle and corded tendons. ‘Go.’ She pushed him gently out the door, her fingers wanting desperately to grip his shoulder and haul him back.

*

Mia pulled into the clinic car park half an hour later than expected, dreaming about a cool shower followed by a tall iced drink of soda water and lemon. But she knew that the daydream was as close as she was going to get to either of them for a few hours. Although it was Saturday, she was behind in the stock take and ordering, and if she was to have the drugs she needed come Monday, she had to fax the order to Darwin today. Then she had to mow the clinic grass, grab a shower and be at the church by four for Susie’s eldest daughter’s wedding.

She glanced down, grimacing at the mess that was her clothes and was thankful it was Saturday and no one was around. She ducked into the staff entrance. Flynn wasn’t due in for an hour, not that time meant anything to him but she could be pretty certain that he wouldn’t be early. The second clinic truck was still parked so his plane hadn’t landed.

She pulled open the door, crossed the threshold and walked straight into a solid wall of muscle.

Flynn.

Her hand shot out and gripped his upper arm, as much to stop her knees from buckling as to steady herself.

‘Hello.’ His smiling greeting vibrated with deep laughter as his keen hazel gaze roved lazily from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. ‘You’ve been having some fun, lying around. When did you dye your hair red?’

Mini-explosions of heat detonated inside her as his stare touched and torched every part of her. Every red-dust-covered part. Heat morphed into a fire of longing which streaked through her, pooling deep inside her,
stalling her brain and reducing her leg muscles to quivering jelly.

‘Someone took the tarpaulin out of the truck and I had to change a flat tyre out on the Bathurst road. The only way I could get to the spare tyre was to crawl under the truck.’ She tossed her dust-impregnated hair in her best attempt at a haughty look, but her lips twitched in a smile. ‘Only a man could decide it was a great idea to put a spare tyre under a car where it gets covered in filth.’

Dimples carved into the dark stubble on his cheeks. ‘At least it isn’t the wet season, although they tell me mud is great for the skin.’ His voice dropped to a low rumble. ‘People pay to get covered in the stuff.’ He leaned forward and pulled a twig from her hair, his fingers gently brushing her scalp.

White lights flickered in front of her eyes and an image of Flynn, naked and covered in mud, stole all coherent thought. Somehow she made her feet step back, away from his aura, away from his scent of sunshine and soap, and away from temptation.

‘I’m off to mow the grass so I’m just going to wash off a bit of dust so I can put on sunscreen.’

He grinned. ‘Oh I don’t know, the locals will just think you’re ready for a ceremony and you overdid it on the red.’

She put her hands on her hips in mock indignation. ‘Ha-ha, very funny, turtle man. I believe the indigenous ceremony is tomorrow after the church service.’

His easygoing grin slid off his face and his cheekbones suddenly seemed stark and pointed, giving him a hard look. ‘What church service?’

She couldn’t hide the disbelief in her voice and she knew her expression must be one of stupefaction. ‘Susie’s daughter’s wedding.’ She threw up her hands. ‘I swear blokes just tune out. How could you have forgotten? It’s all Susie’s been talking for the last few weeks. That’s why you’re back this weekend, right, instead of being on Barra?’

A muscle twitched in his neck and then he smiled, although it didn’t quite reach his eyes. ‘That’s right, it’s at four o’clock. I was just testing you.’

Testing she’d remembered?
A spasm of fear gripped her before her rational brain overruled it. No, surely not. He had no idea about her mother and inherited fronto-temporal dementia. He was probably just covering for his own memory lapse.

‘You better get going, then, if you want to beat the bride to the church.’ The words came out crisp and efficient before he turned and walked down the corridor.

She made her way into the bathroom, her brain buzzing. What was that all about? One minute he was flirting with her and the next he’d closed down. Perhaps he’d been embarrassed that he’d forgotten the wedding? She wouldn’t have thought that would have embarrassed him but, then again, she didn’t really know what made him tick.

But she knew he made her body quiver with longing.

A couple of weeks had passed since Flynn had cooked her dinner.
Since he held you in his arms
. She sighed against the thought she’d tried so hard to let go of, but couldn’t. Her dreams were full of Flynn—his firm arms around her, his taut body against her, his lips
seeking her lips—and she woke up hot, bothered and aching with unfulfilled need for him.

She loved and hated the dreams in equal measure.

She quickly filled the basin with warm water and pumped soap into her hands, squishing it between her fingers. Flynn flew in and out of her life and had in a few weeks turned it completely upside down. She loved being a RAN on Kirra. It was everything she needed and wanted—remote and working solo having been the key attractions. But when Flynn was on the other islands she found herself counting the days until he returned to Kirra.

His arrival always generated a lightness inside her, a sense of anticipation and excitement that she’d never expected to experience again. He brought a shining light into the darkness that had been her past year. She craved that lightness. She craved him.

He gave you comfort, that was all
. His arms around her after the incident with Joel had been the act of a caring man, a colleague and perhaps a friend. And that was all it could ever be because she was a walking time bomb and no man wanted her. Steven had been proof of that.

She sloshed water onto her face and up her arms, and watched the dust turn it the colour of rust. She stared into the mirror as rivulets of water left streaky marks on her face. Flynn hadn’t tried to kiss her again. Since that night he’d been nothing more than a colleague.

She reminded herself that this was a good thing and she should just accept it and move on. But her thoughts kept returning to the glimpse of hurt she’d seen in his eyes just before he’d gone to the police station.

He kept his own counsel. She realised that he’d never
mentioned his family and he didn’t take off to Darwin once a month like most of the other non-indigenous community workers did to meet their girlfriends, boyfriends, wives and family.

And yet he was very much a part of the Kirra community, well respected and loved. He coached the kids in footy, he was ‘turtle man’. He belonged in so many ways.

Her first image of him as a maverick crocodile hunter, a stand-alone guy, clashed with the caring doctor and the enthusiastic community member she’d got to know. Good men like Flynn were usually married with adoring wives and gorgeous children.

So why wasn’t he?

‘Mia, I need a hand.’ Flynn’s voice called her name from the treatment room.

She grabbed a towel, dried her face and hands, pulled a patient gown over her filthy clothes and went back to work.

‘We’ll have you feeling better soon.’ Flynn tousled the hair of nine-year-old Alice and kept a smile on his face as he inwardly sighed. He could have her feeling better soon but making her better was a different thing entirely.

The sick young girl looked at him forlornly as she lay on the examination couch, her knees up under her chin.

‘What’s up?’

He glanced up as Mia walked into the room, her face scrubbed clean of outback dust and her cheeks pink with good health. The familiar rush streaked through him, the one he got every time he saw her, even when she was filthy and bedraggled. Dirt couldn’t dim her innate beauty and neither had her grief.

It was a tough gig, losing your family in one go. He assumed it had been a car accident. But despite her loss she still managed to glow with a life-affirming energy and it radiated from her eyes, her mouth, the sway of her hips…

He ran his hand through his hair. He’d been convinced he could shut out his attraction but Mia had moved into his mind, taken up residence in his thoughts and dreams, and despite numerous resolutions to move her out he’d been pathetically unsuccessful. He’d resisted beautiful women before but Mia was different. Strength and vulnerability—he found the combination captivating.

But it had to stop.

He’d hated it that he’d flown back to spend the weekend on Kirra because of Mia, completely forgetting about Susie’s daughter’s wedding. Had his mind been more focussed he would have stayed on Barra this weekend, like he’d originally planned.

It was a lapse like this that really drove home that the time had come for life to go back to normal, to the uncomplicated way it had been before Mia had arrived.

And it started now with a teaching session. The moment that was over, he’d create a reason to fly to Barra. No way was he going to stay on Kirra for the wedding.

He beckoned Mia forward with his hand. ‘I want you to examine Alice and tell me what you think she has.’

Mia’s large blue eyes blinked in puzzlement. ‘Is this a test? Something you’re expecting me not to know?’

He grimaced. ‘There’s every chance you won’t have seen this down south.’

‘Is her mother with her?’

‘No. Her uncle brought her in and he’s outside.’

‘And he won’t be able to come in.’ Understanding washed across her face and she walked over to a cupboard and pulled out a worn teddy bear in green scrubs. Then she returned to their patient. ‘I’m Mia, Alice, and I’m going to have a look at you. Would you like to hold my doctor bear while I do it?’

Alice stared and then extended her chubby hand, grabbing the bear and clutching it tightly to her chest.

As Flynn expected, Mia started by taking the child’s temperature with the ear thermometer.

‘It’s high. Thirty nine point four.’ She immediately recorded it on the chart. She then examined Alice’s glands, and checked for eye and nose discharge. Turning to Flynn, she said, ‘There’s some evidence of nosebleeds.’

Flynn nodded. ‘Every sign builds a diagnosis.’

Mia returned her attention to her patient. ‘Alice, I need you to say, “Ah.”’

Alice stared at her.

Mia glanced at Flynn.

‘Alice is from the north of the island and very little English is spoken.’ Flynn pulled out a chair and sat astride it to watch how Mia would handle this.

Mia tapped Alice on the shoulder and then tapped her own shoulder and said, ‘Ahh.’

The girl obediently opened her mouth and Mia, using a tongue depressor and a pen torch, examined her tonsils.

A deep furrow appeared on Mia’s forehead as she dropped the tongue depressor into the bin. She studied
the girl’s face very carefully. ‘I think she has a twitch or it could just be her being stressed by being here.’

Flynn nodded, deliberately noncommittal.

Horizontal lines crinkled across the bridge of her nose and suddenly she screwed up her face and said, ‘Ouch, ooh,’ and patted down her own body.

Alice nodded and pointed to her ankles, her knees and her elbows and then her stomach.

Mia laid her down with the teddy and tucked a sheet around her middle, leaving her arms and legs exposed. She started to examine the girl’s limbs. ‘I can feel raised bumps in clusters on her joints which move.’ She flicked on the light and peered carefully. ‘She also has scabies.’

Flynn smiled. ‘Well spotted.’ He saw Mia’s shoulders relax slightly. He knew she’d feel like this was an exam but it was really important she could diagnose this condition.

‘Her joints are all swollen. It could be rheumatoid arthritis.’

‘It could be.’ Flynn deliberately gave no hints.

Mia’s short, abrupt laugh sounded stressed. ‘This is as bad as my final exams.’

‘You’re doing fine.’

‘But I know I haven’t nailed it yet.’ Mia shot him a smile—a mixture of determination and challenge with a spark of something he knew was just for him.

A picture thudded into his mind of Mia lying next to him, her eyes shining with laughter and lust. His blood immediately pounded hard and fast and he breathed out slowly, filling his mind with every reason why he couldn’t act on this attraction. His body ignored him.

Mia sat Alice up and showed her the stethoscope and then listened to her heart. ‘I can hear a diastolic murmur.’

She was getting close but he’d seen doctors get it wrong.

Mia stroked Alice’s hair and then she came and sat down next to Flynn, her eyes perceptive and keen. ‘Does she have rheumatic fever?’

He nodded slowly. ‘She does. You did well.’

She half smiled and half grimaced, as if making the correct diagnosis was, in fact, the wrong thing.

He understood how she felt. Sometimes being right didn’t give you a buzz of satisfaction.

Mia bit her lip. ‘You’re right, I’ve never seen it before. Mind you, I hadn’t seen too much scabies either, although down south the kids all seem to get molluscum contagiosum.’ She glanced back to Alice, who clutched her bear close. ‘Poor little thing, no wonder she’s feeling so sick.’

He rubbed his chin. ‘Current thinking is that scabies is the cause.’

Mia started. ‘But I thought rheumatic fever followed a strep throat infection. How do skin mites fit into the picture?’

He leaned forward, enjoying having such an enthusiastic student. ‘Untreated scabies causes skin infections and streptococcus is the culprit. Alice has scabies and her body is busy fighting the strep bacteria, but certain body tissues are similar so we get antibodies fighting heart values and joints.’

Mia nodded, following his line of thought. ‘And that’s rheumatic fever.’

‘Yes, but the strep also causes glomerulonephritis, which leads to kidney disease.’