A Proposal to Remember

‘Fine. We’ll arrange some sandwiches for after that.’

‘I carry my mobile,’ she said crisply, ‘so if you need to consult on anything, you can call.’

‘I’ll remember that.’

* * *

Damn, the man was annoying!

The emergency surgery was a good idea. She’d suggested it herself, months ago, but David had been resistant to changing their current set-up. In fact, he was pretty reluctant to institute any changes at all. He and her father had run the practice a certain way and since she’d joined him as his partner, David had expected her to fit in.

Anna frowned. To begin with that had been fine. She’d been finding her feet as a new GP and had been only too grateful to fall into a familiar structure. But as she gained confidence she’d seen things—things that needed to be changed. Things that would have improved the care for their patients.

But she’d learned to sneak changes in gradually, and the emergency surgery wasn’t one that she’d tackled for a while. Unfortunately Sam was right about that one. She should have done it ages ago.

Then he wouldn’t have had the satisfaction of thinking that it was his idea. She hated it when he was right about anything.

But one thing he wasn’t right about was the filming, she told herself firmly. It would seriously disrupt the practice and make the patients feel uncomfortable.

She pondered the subject all the way through morning surgery, all the way through her house calls and all the way back to the surgery.

By the time she walked into the bright, airy reception area, she’d made up her mind that the whole thing was a mistake.

And leaving Sam alone had been a mistake, too. She should never have allowed him to finish his surgery without her there. What if something had happened? Something that he wasn’t qualified to handle? He was too arrogant to admit that he needed help and he’d probably got himself into serious difficulties. David had one or two tricky patients.

Preoccupied with these thoughts, it came as a serious surprise to her to find Sam laughing with Glenda as the receptionist tidied up from the morning.

He didn’t look like a man who’d had a stressful morning.

Anna dropped her bag and looked at him expectantly. ‘So how was your surgery?’

‘Good. There were one or two cases that would have made interesting television.’

She shot him an impatient look. ‘Do you think of everything in terms of camera angles?’

‘Not everything, no.’ He winked at her suggestively

. ‘Just my work.’

She chose to ignore that, just as she chose to ignore most of the things he said. ‘See anything interesting?’

‘Fiona Walker’s dog has been on the rampage again.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘One day she’ll learn that it isn’t the sweet little thing she thinks it is.’

Anna winced. ‘That dog has kept her going since her Bill died last year.’

‘I know that,’ Sam said steadily, ‘but it needs a muzzle. Fortunately the bite wasn’t severe. They wanted to report it to the police but I promised that I’d talk to Mrs Walker.’

‘You did?’ Anna couldn’t hide her surprise. ‘Why would you do that?’

‘Because, as you said, that dog is her life.’

‘You don’t know anything about her life.’

‘I was brought up here, same as you and my mother writes to me,’ Sam reminded her dryly. ‘Endless gossip about harbour life. I know everything about everyone, not just Mrs Walker. I know that Doris in the gift shop had her gall-bladder out last winter, I know that her mother and grandmother have both had hip replacements and that the Stevensons are getting a divorce. I know that Hilda still gets eczema and Nicola Hunt is—’

‘All right, all right.’ Anna cut him off, hiding her surprise. ‘I just didn’t think those sort of details interested you.’

‘All part of harbour life.’