‘Probably.’
She looked so worried that Mac gave a sigh. ‘She’s a sweet lady, I grant you, but it isn’t our job to care for her until her bones heal.’
She lifted an eyebrow. ‘That’s a cop-out.’
He inhaled deeply. She was doing it again. Making him feel guilty. ‘What do you expect me to do? Move in with all my patients?’ His tone was testy but he couldn’t help it. ‘Our job is to patch them up, Louisa. Someone else has to sort out the other stuff.’
‘But I don’t believe the ‘‘other stuff’’, as you call it, can be so neatly separated,’ Louisa said calmly, tucking the X-rays under her arm. ‘A patient is so much more than just a broken wrist.’
Mac’s eyes narrowed. ‘You’re too idealistic. This is the real world, Louisa. Too many patients, too few staff. If we mend the broken bones then we’re doing well. We certainly don’t have time to sort out the rest of people’s lives.’
She gave him a smile designed to melt the heart of the most hardened cynic. ‘You’re working too hard, Dr Sullivan. You’ve developed tunnel vision. These patients of yours are human beings, not bones. And Alice is your neighbour.’
‘You can drop the ‘‘Dr Sullivan’’. If you’re going to abuse me, you may as well use my first name,’ he said dryly, and she chuckled.
‘All right, but I still think you’re working too hard. Someone needs to reintroduce you to the world.’
‘And you think that’s you?’
She grinned, undeterred by his cool tone. ‘Maybe.’
They walked back to Alice who looked at them anxiously. ‘Well?’
‘We’re going to put that wrist in plaster,’ Mac said briskly and Alice gave a gasp of horror.
‘But it’s Christmas! How will I cook?’
How the hell did he know? Mac stared at her, bemused and totally at a loss to know how to answer the question. Then Louisa intervened, slipping her arm round the old lady and giving her an impulsive hug.
‘Don’t worry, Alice,’ s
he said firmly, ‘we’ll work something out. You’re just down the road from us and we’re having a massive turkey so there’ll be plenty over. I’ll cook it and Dr Sullivan here will drop it round to you both. A thank you for all the times you cooked for him.’
Mac felt his jaw drop.
Alice’s face brightened. ‘You two are living together? Oh, that’s lovely.’
Mac spread his hands and stifled a sigh of exasperation. ‘Mrs Ford—’
‘Please, call me Alice, dear.’
Mac blinked. No one had ever called him dear before. ‘Alice—’ he tried again ‘—we are not living together.’
‘At least, not in the biblical sense,’ Louisa said cheerfully, giving Alice a saucy wink. ‘I’m just doing his shopping and cooking and generally sorting out his house. Everything a wife would do with none of the perks.’
Mac closed his eyes.
‘Well, that is good news.’ Alice chuckled. ‘I can’t wait to tell Vera.’
Great. Now he was going to be the talk of the village once again. Just when he’d managed to get them off his back.
‘I’m off duty in ten minutes,’ Louisa was saying, ‘and as soon as you’ve had your wrist plastered I’m going to take you home via the shops so that I can pick up those presents of yours. You can wait in the car. Do you have a list?’
Mac opened his eyes and stared at her in disbelief. It was one thing to worry about what happened when a patient was discharged, quite another to offer to cook her lunch and do her Christmas shopping. He ran long fingers through his dark hair. ‘Louisa...’
She smiled at him, her brown eyes twinkling. ‘Calm down, Dr Sullivan, or you might burst something important. I’ll just take Alice to the fracture clinic and then I’ll take her home. One of the perks of living in the same village.’
Alice gave a sniff. ‘You’re a kind girl,’ she said gruffly, and Louisa shook her head.