One Kiss in Tokyo...

And he did.

CHAPTER FIVE

HER SKIN FELT ITCHY, as if it prickled when she walked down the corridor at work.

She’d never felt self-conscious at work before. She could see her colleagues standing at one of the desks, talking in low voices. Were they talking about her? Did they know?

Then she saw who was standing among them. He was telling them some kind of story and his arms were waving around just like he did when he was excited.

A little shiver ran down her spine. She knew. She knew what he did when he was excited. Was that a good shiver or a bad shiver?

He leaned back and laughed and caught her eye. No. That was a shiver. One that sent electric pulses around her body.

She fixed her eyes on the floor and kept walking towards the treatment room. Her cheeks were warm and she wasn’t normally the kind of girl who blushed. She wasn’t normally the type of girl to lose sleep after a few kisses. Her lips had tingled for most of the night and when she’d taken her jacket off she’d caught a whiff of his aftershave. Just how close had they got?

She’d pulled back, laughing again, after the second kiss. Her stomach was doing backward flips and, with a mixture of alarm bells going off in her head and imaginary white unicorns charging around before her eyes, she wasn’t quite sure what to think.

He’d looked thoughtful when she’d stepped back and hadn’t pressed things any further. He’d slipped his hand into hers and they’d taken the subway back to the base.

Her skin had trembled as he’d walked her to the door of her house. She had felt like a teenager again, waiting for Don to throw the front door open and demand an introduction. But Avery was much cooler than she’d expected, he’d squeezed her hand and dropped a kiss on her head before walking away.

Don had been engrossed in his computer but had stood up when she’d appeared. ‘Coffee?’ he asked as he walked to the kitchen. ‘I think I’ve missed dinner.’

No explanations were asked for. She was an adult. He didn’t generally ask for a list of her activities. But once he realised she might be seeing a colleague she was quite sure Avery’s file would fall across his desk.

Lily, one of the other nurses, looked up as she walked in. ‘Katsuko—great. Can you check some diamorph with me? I’ve got a patient with a fractured femur and the Entonox gas is wearing off fast.’

Katsuko nodded, pleased to have something—anything—to do that would distract her. Checking controlled medicines was an everyday part of the job. She counted the vials, drew up the prescribed amount and locked up the cupboard. The patient in cubicle three was wincing as he moved. They double-checked his name and date of birth before administering the injection. ‘Who are you on shift with today?’ asked Lily.

Katsuko shook her head. ‘Not sure. Haven’t had the handover yet.’

They rounded the corner. Lily beamed. ‘Oh, lucky you. It’s our very own superhero, Avery. I kind of like him. He’s fitting in well.’

The words were easy for Lily and she threw them out without a second thought. She was happily married, with her first baby on the way, and was currently seeing the world through a pink or blue hazy glow.

She’d been put onto night shift for the last part of her pregnancy as she hadn’t been sleeping well and the night shifts were generally a little quieter.

Katsuko kept her gaze somewhere else. ‘Yeah, he seems fine.’

Lily gave her a nudge. ‘More than fine.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ It must have come out sharper than she’d meant because Lily looked surprised.

‘Nothing.’ She picked up her bag and stretched her back. ‘Time for me to go. Keep an eye on my patient, will you? They’ll be here to collect him soon for Theatre.’

Katsuko nodded and headed over to the desk for the handover report. It was swift. Twelve patients in the department. One for theatre, three kids with minor ailments, four elderly patients with a variety of chest conditions, one guy with an anaphylactic reaction to something and three other adults with minor ailments. The staff shared the patients out between them and got to work.

She was trying her absolute best to be cool. She was always calm and collected at work—nothing usually fazed her. So why did she feel like a bumbling wreck?

She messed up a sterile trolley while doing a simple dressing, then tripped over her own feet while walking to the treatment room.

The whole time she was working she was constantly looking over her shoulder, wondering where Avery was, and if anyone would notice something between them.

It was a couple of hours before he finally spoke to her. ‘Katsuko, there’s an ambulance bringing in one of the servicemen’s teenagers. Can you give me a hand?’

Her response was automatic. She walked over to the sink to wash her hands. Avery walked up behind her, his hand brushing against her bum.

‘Don’t!’ she snapped.

They were at work. She was a professional. She wasn’t the kind of girl to be caught in a compromising position in the treatment room or in the store.

At least that was the excuse she was letting bump around in her head.

It was nothing to do with the fact his kiss had driven her crazy. It was nothing to do with the things she’d shared with him—things she would never normally tell people. She’d worked with some of the people here for years and had never really shared about her grandmother. She could almost feel herself retreating a little. Trying to take back some of what she’d said.

Avery raised his eyebrows at her but didn’t say a single word. He gave her a little hip-bump and washed his hands at the sink too. Katsuko grabbed an apron and some gloves and walked out to the receiving door. ‘Do you know what’s wrong?’

He frowned. ‘Not clear. No accident. Sleepy and agitated.’

Katsuko joined in his frown. It wasn’t exactly anything to go on. ‘Age?’ she asked. It could be anything. Alcohol, drugs, infection—the list was endless.

The ambulance appeared in the distance with the siren blaring. ‘Nineteen.’

As it pulled up, Avery moved quickly to open the doors and pull the trolley towards him. The wheels automatically snapped down and allowed them to pull the trolley straight inside. The ambulance technician was talking rapidly in Japanese.

Katsuko walked alongside, translating as best she could. ‘This is Jay Lim. He’s nineteen. Came home last night and told his mother he wasn’t feeling too well and went to bed. When she tried to wake him for breakfast this morning she realised something was wrong and called an ambulance.’

‘Let’s take him into Resus.’

She wasn’t

surprised at those words. Although the report seemed bland—the condition of the patient wasn’t. The technician shot out another round of words.

‘Respirations high, forty, heart rate one-forty, and blood pressure one hundred over fifty-five. He’s been aggressive and extremely tired. They haven’t understood all of what he’s saying.’

As soon as they hit the resus room Katsuko started hooking up the monitors for Jay. She turned to the technician and asked a quick question.

Her eyes met Avery’s as she glanced at the oxygen saturation. ‘No history of asthma so we can put him on oxygen.’

Frank Kelly hurried into the room. ‘What do you need?’

‘I need bloods—lots of them—and set up an IV.’

Avery turned back to Katsuko. ‘Can they give us anything else?’

She looked over at the technician, asking swiftly in Japanese. A few seconds later she turned back to Avery. ‘He’s a keen windsurfer and was away for the last two nights at a competition.’

‘Any chance he used drugs or alcohol?’

‘The technician said they’ve had no report of that.’

He was the ultimate professional. She was starting to cringe at snapping at him a few minutes ago. A quiet word was all it would have taken. It was hard enough to fit in. The last thing she wanted was to give her colleagues anything to talk about.

Avery moved around the teenager quickly, pulling out his stethoscope and listening to his chest. He lifted his hand. ‘Ask the technician to hang around for another few minutes.’

He carefully examined Jay’s head and checked his pupils as Jay tried to bat him away. Then he checked his ears, which nearly earned him a punch.

‘No chance he could have an undiagnosed head injury from the surfing?’

She asked again. ‘Nothing reported.’

This was baffling her just as much as Avery.

He looked up. ‘What’s his temperature?’

She lifted a tympanic thermometer as she asked the technician. It was unusual he hadn’t mentioned it in the handover. The technician shook his head. ‘They couldn’t get near his ears to get a temperature. He does feel warm to touch.’