Perhaps, if she hadn’t been so blind, so pig-headed...but, no, it was pointless hanging off the what-ifs.
‘Do you make house visits to all your patients, then?’
Talia swung around, but it was too late. Her body was already reacting, sparking, just from the sound of his voice.
She fought to rein it in and sound composed, was impressed when she even heard a bit of sass in her own voice.
‘Only when they’re an eighty-year-old woman who doesn’t book an appointment when I tell them to.’
‘I didn’t realise you were so dedicated.’
She glowered at him without realising it, and was gratified when he looked instantly remorseful.
‘I take that back. Of course I’ve always known you were dedicated, I remember several times how you rang up to check on patients who you didn’t think were taking proper care of themselves. I just meant I didn’t realise that you actually turned up at people’s homes.’
‘I couldn’t in North Carolina, I would probably have been arrested for harassment, or stalking, or something. But this is St Vic, we look after each other.’
Yet another reason why this place wasn’t as bad as she’d once felt it to be. And another nail of shame for her coffin of guilt.
‘What is it?’
Talia didn’t realise that Liam had closed the gap between them until she felt his hand on her shoulder. Worse was that look of concern on his face that made her want to break down and tell him everything. About her mother, her father, the lot.
She considered herself fortunate that pride reasserted itself just in time. Flashing him a beam so bright that it made her face literally ache, she forced out a light laugh.
‘It’s absolutely nothing. What are you doing here, anyway?’
He eyed her closely, but then he abruptly filed away whatever else he might have been going to say and suddenly she knew what he was going to say.
Her entire body started to fizz in anticipation—like she was some kind of teenager on a first date again.
‘I’m taking you out for a meal. You can choose the restaurant.’
‘I’m working,’ she told him primly, perhaps as some kind of payback for making her stew, alone, for so many days.
‘Your shift ended forty-five minutes ago,’ he replied evenly. ‘I know, because I’ve been waiting outside for the last hour.’
Oh.
‘Oh.’
She tried not to grin, but it was an effort. Especially when he told her he’d leave her to change but that he’d be waiting at what passed for Reception, and that he hadn’t eaten since breakfast.
She didn’t know why that should make her feel so special. Like he’d spent the entire day waiting for this moment. Like she wasn’t just an afterthought. It was all she could do to take her time heading to the locker room, showering and changing.
Throwing on her clothes and skipping through the hospital would only make her look too eager.
But soon enough they were walking out of the doors, her arm linked through his in a way they’d never done at Duke’s, so that all their colleagues could see they were together and Talia revelled, for the first time ever, in how that felt.
‘So, where are we heading?’
‘A little restaurant called Auntie Zinia’s. It’s homely but it’s good. I think you’ll like it.’
At least, she hoped he would.
* * *
‘This place reminds me of The Coals House, back in North Carolina,’ Liam told her, as he finished up the last mouthful of his Auntie’s Curry, with its island spices, coconut milk, almonds and cashew nuts. ‘Only the food is even better.’