She sifted through the applications, disappointed that there were so many good doctors interested in joining her in the practice. If there’d been no one, Sam would have been forced to stay.
No, he wouldn’t, she told herself crossly, he just would have found her another locum.
His new series was due to start filming in London at the end of September and she knew that he and Polly had already had several meetings about the content of the series. There was no question of him staying.
‘This guy’s perfect. He interviewed the best and he has all the right experience.’
‘He’ll leave after five minutes.’
She looked at him in exasperation. ‘What is going on, McKenna? We’ve had a really high quality of applicants. Fantastic doctors. And you’ve rejected the lot of them.’
Sam toyed with his pen, a dangerous look in his eyes. ‘This was my father’s practice. I care about who takes it over.’
‘But you don’t care enough to do the job yourself,’ Anna snapped, and then caught herself. She’d been trying not to quarrel with him. ‘All right. What’s wrong with this guy?’
The gleam in Sam’s eye intensified. ‘I didn’t like him.’
‘Well, I liked him a lot.’
For some reason that seemed to anger him even more. ‘Your judgement is faulty.’
‘OK, I’ve just about had enough of this!’ She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. ‘What the hell is wrong with you?’
He glared back. ‘Nothing’s wrong with me.’
‘That’s rubbish.’ Temper blurred her vision. ‘Whatever I do, you yell at me! You’re crabby and irritable and generally bad-tempered.’
He scowled at her. ‘I am not bad-tempered.’
‘I haven’t heard you laugh for days and we clash on everything.’
‘So what’s new about that? We’ve always clashed on everything.’
‘Not since—’ She broke off and swept her hair away from her face, her colour high. Their physical relationship was something that they just didn’t talk about.
‘Since we made the stupid mistake of sleeping together? Well, you were right about that.’ He gave a crooked smile. ‘It changed everything.’
Her heart skipped a beat. ‘So is that why you don’t come near me any more? Because it was such a stupid mistake?’
To her utter mortification she burst into tears and Sam cursed fluently.
‘OK, stop that, Riggs. Don’t cry.’ He lifted his hands and for a moment she thought he was going to touch her for the first time in days. Then his hands dropped to his sides again and a muscle worked in his jaw. ‘I can’t stand it when you cry. That’s a low trick. It’s a girly trick and you don’t do girly stuff.’
She didn’t need reminding of that.
If she did more ‘girly stuff’ then he probably wouldn’t be leaving.
Anger and frustration burst free inside her. ‘I’m crying because I hate you. I hate you, McKenna.’ She sniffed loudly and scrubbed the tears away with the back of her hand. ‘I really hate you for making me feel this way.’
His hands were still by his sides but she noticed that his fists were clenched. ‘What way?’
‘Angry.’ She blew her nose hard. ‘And—and—as if I could strangle you with my bare hands. And sad.’ Her eyes filled again. ‘You make me sad.’
He was looking at her in horror. ‘Sad?’
‘Yes, sad. Because what we had was good and it couldn’t last.’ She blinked and sniffed again. ‘Oh, damn. This is all so stupid. It’s fine. I’m fine. The sooner you go, the better. At least I get to run this practice in peace, without your input. Your ideas never work anyway, McKenna. You’re always wrong.’
‘I’m never wrong.’ He frowned and raked long fingers through his hair. ‘And my ideas always work. Which one didn’t work? Name one that didn’t work.’