Once they’d done the social niceties, they started on the ward round. Ryan let Georgie lead, because he wanted to see how she worked.
He was pleased to notice she was great with the children and with any parents who happened to be visiting, greeting them warmly and listening to what the children said about how they were feeling. Before each patient, too, he noticed that she checked Alistair’s knowledge of symptoms and treatments, and she let him take the lead on a couple of the more straightforward cases—just as Ryan would have done.
Warm, confident, capable and good at training. She was the perfect paediatric doctor, he thought. And then he had to suppress the thought that popped into his head about how she might be great with him, too. Not happening, he reminded himself.
After the ward round, Ryan worked with Alistair in clinic, but he’d made sure to invite Georgie and Parminder to lunch, too, to help Georgie get to know the team a bit better.
‘So you don’t like football or rugby?’ Alistair asked Georgie over lunch.
‘I don’t like sport, full stop,’ Georgie admitted. ‘Watching or playing.’
Alistair looked aghast. ‘How do you keep fit, then?’
‘I make sure I walk ten thousand steps a day,’ Georgie said, flashing the watch on her wrist, which doubled as a fitness tracker, ‘and in London I did a Zumba class with my best friend.’
‘I go to a Zumba class,’ Parminder said. ‘It’s on Monday nights. Do you want to come with me next week?’
‘Thanks, I’d love to,’ Georgie said, smiling broadly.
‘You could come training with me, too, if you like,’ Alistair offered.
‘Al, you big show-off, of course she doesn’t want to train with you.’ Parminder rolled her eyes. ‘He does triathlons,’ she told Georgie. ‘That’s just radge.’
‘Radge?’ Georgie asked, mystified.
‘Crazy,’ Ryan supplied. ‘It’s Edinburgh slang.’
‘And Al is the living definition. Miles of running, miles of cycling, and then a freezing cold swim—for miles. Totally radge,’ Parminder said.
‘Ye’ve a lot to learn, hen,’ Alistair said, hamming up the accent. ‘Anyway, I’m not the only one with radge tendencies. There’s Ryan tromping through the hills with his wee dawgeh even when it’s stoating.’
‘Stoating?’ Georgie asked, wondering if her colleagues were making up words just to tease her, or if she was going to have to learn a whole new language up here.
‘It’s stoating when the rain’s coming down so hard that it’s bouncing back off the ground,’ Alistair said.
‘And remember this is the dog who chewed Clara’s favourite shoes,’ Parminder added. ‘Three pairs of them.’
‘I replaced them all,’ Ryan protested. ‘Though it’s not my fault if Clara leaves her shoes where Truffle can get them.’
‘Just be warned, hen. That wee dog’s not to be trusted,’ Alistair said in a stage whisper. Then he smiled. ‘So what else did you do for fun in London?’
‘Music, theatre and history,’ Georgie said promptly.
‘Well, you’re a wee bit late for the Fringe,’ Alistair said. ‘But there are good theatres and music venues in the city.’
‘And there’s loads of history,’ Parminder added. ‘Have you been to the castle yet?’
‘On my first morning here,’ Georgie said with a smile, ‘and I loved it.’
‘And there’s Mary King’s Close—part of a seventeenth-century street that was buried when they built the Royal Exchange,’ Alistair added. ‘You might like that. If you don’t mind the ghosts...’
Ryan groaned. ‘Don’t start on about non-existent things, Al.’
‘He doesn’t believe in Nessie, either, poor man,’ Alistair confided to Georgie. ‘No romance in his soul, that one.’
‘Talking of romance, you have to visit Doune Castle,’ Parminder said. ‘I take it you’ve seen Outlander?’
‘I love that series,’ Georgie said. ‘My best friend Sadie and I binge-watched it together. You can’t get better than a gorgeous man in a kilt.’
A dark, brooding Scotsman. She couldn’t help looking at Ryan, who was the epitome of a brooding Scotsman. He was sitting right opposite her. If she moved her foot, she’d be touching his: and the thought made her feel hot all over.
Georgie had going all pink and flustered—and yet again Ryan noticed how pretty she was. His libido seemed to have taken over his brain; he could imagine how he could make her all flustered, with little teasing kisses that would make her as hot and bothered as he felt right now.
Think of cool things, he told himself.
Going ankle deep into a hidden puddle.
Trudging across the hills with Truffle when the wind and the rain wouldn’t let up.
And how soft Georgie’s mouth was...
Oh, help. He really needed to get a grip.
‘A kilt and a plaid.’ Parminder fanned herself.
‘Don’t forget a jacket and cravat,’ Georgie said.
‘And boots,’ Parminder added with a dramatic sigh.
‘Gorgeous men in period costumes. Totally irresistible,’ Georgie said.
Ryan had a kilt. Zoe had bought it for him years ago, to wear at a wedding. Why he’d even packed it when he’d left their house, he had no idea.
He shoved the thought away. He was not dressing up in a kilt to bowl Georgie over. They were colleagues. They were at work. Focus, he told himself.
Parminder laughed. ‘Seriously, Georgie, Doune Castle is spectacular and so are the views. With or without a man in a kilt.’
‘It’s already on my list,’ Georgie said with a smile. ‘I was planning to go exploring a bit on my day off.’
So why, Ryan thought, did he have to mess it up by saying, ‘Maybe I could drive you at the weekend and show you around the area a bit?’
Georgie’s eyes widened. ‘I can’t ask you to give up your time off.’
Which was his cue to back off. But his mouth seemed to have other ideas. ‘Dogs are allowed at some of the historic places, and Truffle’s always up for a walk somewhere different. There’s the beach, too.’
‘Edinburgh has a beach?’ Georgie looked surprised.
‘Several. There’s loads of golden sand at Portobello,’ Parminder said.
Shut up, shut up, Ryan told himself. But the words came spilling out despite himself. ‘Then maybe we could go to the seaside on Saturday and Doune Castle on Sunday—or whenever
