She looked down and grinned. She was wearing a soft white frock, but had covered it with a green theatre gown from the hospital linen supply.
On someone else it might have looked ridiculous. It didn’t look the least bit ridiculous on Tess.
‘You don’t have an apron,’ she said accusingly. She looked around the flat. ‘In fact, you don’t seem to have a lot, Dr Llewellyn. Do you believe in a nice, spartan existence?’
‘It’s what I like.’ Holy heck, he was out of his depth here.
‘But you like your dog?’ Someone-it must have been Tess-must have fed Strop, or maybe he’d eaten one pie too many to appreciate the smells Tess was conjuring up. He was lying full length under the table, gently snoring. Now Tess motioned out the window, towards one truly magnificent, hand-built doghouse. It was about four feet in length, painted in gold and red, with magnificent Greek lettering across the front.
“‘Stropacropolis”.’
‘You built that?’ Tess asked, awed.
‘He had a broken hip when I got him,’ Mike said weakly. ‘It was the least I could do.’
‘And, like Jacob, you always do the least you can do. I can see that about you.’ Tessa’s eyes were warm. ‘You know, Dr Llewellyn, I think I’m beginning to like you. Very, very much.’
‘Good. I mean…great.’ Mike clipped his words, desperately precluding further discussion. Domesticity was threatening to swamp him here. The feeling that this was right. That this was how it could be. That he was beginning to like this woman right back…
He walked over and scooped up a finger-load of fried onions, trying to shake off the feeling of unreality. Tess hauled the pan away with the firmness of a matriarch.
‘No, you don’t. Go and wash while I cook the steak. I’ll bet you’re all covered with patient or antiseptic or something disgusting and I won’t have my steak compromised. Do you like it medium or rare? I don’t do well done. It’s a crime to burn meat like this.’ She motioned to Mike’s steaks-two enormous T-bones. ‘We believe in steak in the US but I haven’t seen steak like this for years.’
‘Welcome to Australia, then, Dr Westcott.’ Mike smiled faintly and went obediently towards the bathroom. As ordered. He walked slowly, though, and looked back over his shoulder at the slim girl presiding over his stove in her theatre gown and vivid curls. Good grief!
Mike did more than just wash. He changed from his tailored work trousers to casual jeans and open-necked shirt, taking the time to try and calm his thoughts. He emerged to his kitchenette to find Tess, minus her theatre gown now, attractively demure in her lovely white dress. She looked every inch the hostess as she served up two laden plates, with Mike her invited guest.
And Mike’s pleasant, calm thoughts, which he’d taken such pains to achieve, got all stirred up again. He didn’t speak. Even if he could have thought of something to say, he wasn’t given the chance.
‘Sit down,’ his own personal matriarch ordered. ‘I hope you don’t mind me opening your wine. Hannah gave me the key to your apartment from the nurses’ station. She looked at me every which way when I said we were eating together. Sort of with a “you too” look in her eye. And she wasn’t very nice. Have you two had a relationship?’
Mike’s eyebrows hit his hairline.
‘No! I mean, I don’t see what business it is-’
‘So there’s never been anything between you? Don’t let your steak get cold,’ Tess added kindly, as Mike sank down at the table. ‘It’s fabulous.’
‘No.’ Mike chopped into his steak and took a large mouthful of meat. His eyebrows rose even further. The wine marinade Tess had used on the steak was magnificent. ‘Tessa, this is great.’
‘It is, isn’t it?’ she said warmly. ‘We
‘Not like this we don’t,’ Mike said warmly. The sensation of coming home to this was almost taking his breath away.
‘So tell me why Hannah Hester looked at me like she’d enjoy taking me out at dawn with a pistol apiece-with hers loaded and mine jinxed so it’d blow up in my hand.’
‘I have no idea.’
‘You haven’t gone out with her?’
‘Tessa, I don’t know what business of yours my relationships are. What have you put on this steak? It’s marvellous.’
‘Red wine, garlic, lemon juice and a few herbs. Nothing special.’ Tessa’s face was serious as she spoke and he could see her mind wasn’t on the meat. ‘Mike, Hannah says I should make arrangements for Grandpa to move into the nursing home. She says its impossible for him to stay on the farm and she says I’ll go around the twist here in a matter of months. She thinks I won’t stay.’
‘Yeah?’ Mike sliced another piece of steak and it followed its predecessor. His smile faded to match Tessa’s look of seriousness. Hannah Hester was an interfering busybody whose chief skill was upsetting relatives. If it wasn’t so hard to find good nurses he’d sack her on the spot. And she’d upset Tessa…
The silence continued, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. He watched Tessa’s face as they ate, and finally he probed. ‘Hannah’s really upset you?’
‘Worse than that,’ Tess said. She finished the last of her steak and pushed her plate away. ‘She upset Grandpa by talking right in front of him. She treated him as if he wasn’t there, and any nurse worth her salt knows better than to think stroke victims can’t hear. No matter how paralysed they are.’
He frowned. ‘Tess, Hannah’s a fine nurse.’
‘She might be fine with her clinical skills, but she’s not good with people. In fact, she’s awful.’
Mike sighed. He could only agree. ‘Tess, this place, well, it’s a closed community. I know Hannah’s not great. It’s as if she has a permanent chip on her shoulder and, try as I may, I can never seem to get her onside. I’ll speak to her, but I can’t afford to sack her and she knows it. Well-trained nurses are like hen’s teeth around here. They’re so scarce they hardly exist.’
‘I know that,’ Tess said tightly. ‘That’s the reason-the
‘I see.’ He grinned. ‘I can just see the pair of you, slugging it out in the hospital corridor. Very professional.’ His smile faded again. ‘Seriously, Tess, you need to get along with the only professional staff the valley has. You value their skills, and in time you learn to undo the damage an uncaring person can do.’
‘Yeah.’ Her smile was back again now in force. ‘I know. And I think I did. I told Grandpa he had to get better now, just to prove Hannah wrong. It’s given him another motivation-as if he didn’t have enough already.’
‘See? You’re learning.’
‘Yeah, well, as long as she’s just not being hurtful to Grandpa to get at me. Because she’s jealous.’
‘Well, that’s just plain ridiculous,’ he said firmly attacking his steak again.
‘Why is it?’ she asked slowly. ‘Why is it ridiculous for Hannah to be jealous?’
‘She has a boyfriend.’
‘Did she have one when you first came back here?’
‘No, but-’
‘Then maybe she fell for you.’
‘Women don’t fall for me.’
Tess raised her eyebrows and said nothing. She finished her steak, carried her plate and wineglass to the sink, set her plate down and then stood and eyed Mike thoughtfully as he finished.
He could sense there was something coming here. Something really important. She had that ‘major impertinence’ look in her eye he was beginning to know. This woman didn’t understand the meaning of the word personal.
And finally she said it.
‘You’re sure you’re not gay, Dr Llewellyn?’ She frowned into her wineglass and then fixed him with a speculative look. ‘I know. You’ve told me you’re not gay, but you’re kind and you’re sensitive and you’re good-looking. You make good money and you drive a smashing car. So how that combination hasn’t been grabbed and held onto…’ She brought her eyebrows together and her eyes probed his-as though sticking an insect on a pin for examination. ‘Are you
He might have known. He grinned. ‘No, Dr Westcott, I am not gay,’ he said firmly. He rose and carried his plate
