Kristie was standing at the side, dirt smudged on her cheek and on the knees of her trousers. Rhuaridh reached out, took her hand and led her off to the side, pulling her down next to him on a large overturned tree trunk that had fallen over years before.
‘Are you okay? I’m sorry that I left you.’
She gave a small shake of her head, fixing her gaze on the view ahead.
He hadn’t let go of her, enclosing one of her slim hands in both of his. She moved her gaze to meet his.
He held his breath. He couldn’t help it. All he could focus on was the blue of her eyes. The hand he held between his was trembling slightly and he gave it a squeeze. ‘I didn’t mean to leave you alone so long. I thought the ambulance would only be a few minutes.’
Her voice was quiet. ‘You had to go and check on the boy. I know that.’ She gave a weak smile, ‘You’re a doctor. It’s your job.’
‘But it’s not yours,’ he replied, his voice hoarse.
She’d been shaking. She was pale. Pieces were falling into place. Now he understood why she’d seemed distracted in the hospital. He’d thought she either wasn’t that interested or had just had her mind on other things.
She’d been nervous. She’d been scared. And he’d missed it.
‘Why don’t you tell me why you don’t like hospitals, Kristie?’
She licked her lips and shook her head. ‘It’s not something we need to talk about.’
She looked him straight in the eye and pulled her hand free from his, lifting it to touch his cheek. ‘You just scaled part of a rock face and walked through a waterfall, Dr Gillespie. Some people might call that superhero material.’
‘What would you call it?’ The words were out instantly. Instinct. His gut reaction to that question. Because he really wanted to know the answer. He wanted to know exactly what Kristie Nelson thought about him.
If he’d thought for a few more seconds he’d have realised she’d just avoided his question. The one that might get to the heart of who she was.
‘I haven’t quite decided yet,’ she whispered, the edges of her mouth turning upwards. ‘But things are looking up.’
Her hand on his skin was making his pulse race. His eyes went instinctively to her mouth. The mouth he wanted to kiss.
He moved forward, all rational thoughts leaving his brain as his lips firmly connected with hers. She reacted instantly, leaning in towards him and sliding one hand up the side of his neck. He knew she needed comfort. He knew she needed reassurance. This seemed so obvious, so natural and it looked like Kristie thought so too.
Her skin was cold, but her lips were warm. Sweet. Responsive. She didn’t seem to mind they were sitting on a log in the middle of the damp countryside. She didn’t seem to mind at all, and as her hand raked through his hair he could almost feel the temperature rising around them.
But little alarms were going off in his brain, like red flags frantically waving. How could he kiss her when he knew there was something else affecting her?
He took a deep breath. He reluctantly pulled back. For a moment, neither of them spoke—just stared at each other as if they couldn’t quite believe what had just happened.
Rhuaridh pressed his lips together for a second, doing his best to collect his thoughts. The ones he was currently having involved sweeping Kristie up into his arms, into his car and away from this whole place. But she’d said something. She’d revealed a part of herself that she hadn’t before and every instinct told him that he had to try and peel back more of Kristie’s layers.
‘Wow,’ she said softly as a hint of a smile touched her lips.
‘Wow,’ he agreed. His timing was all wrong. He looked at her steadily, keeping his voice even. ‘Kristie, I do think we need to talk.’
There was a flash of momentary confusion in her eyes. He could almost see the shutters going down again, as if she knew what was about to come next.
He kept going. ‘I think the reason you don’t like hospitals is important. I think, when I work with someone, if something significant has happened in the past that affects how they feel or think about something, I should know. I should know not to expose them to a situation that they might find hard.’
She pulled her hand back as if she’d been stung. ‘Is that what we’re doing, working together?’
It was the way she asked the question—as if those words actually hurt—that made him catch his breath. He could hear it in her voice. The unspoken question. Was that all it was? Particularly after that kiss...
But she didn’t wait for an answer. She just brushed off her trousers, stood up and walked away...for the second time.
CHAPTER SIX
October
SHE CLOSED HER social media account. Will they? Won’t they? seemed to be everywhere she looked. She’d even been invited on a talk show to discuss her blossoming ‘relationship’ with Rhuaridh Gillespie, the world’s hottest Highland doc.
‘I’m going to kill you, Gerry,’ she muttered.
He was staring out of the ferry window at the thrashing sea, rubbing his chest distractedly. ‘No, you’re not. You’ve got the most popular show on the network. You love it.’
‘I don’t have time to love it. I can’t get a minute of peace.’ She rubbed her eyes and leaned against the wall.
‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.
She sighed. ‘There was a call last night.’ She rubbed her hands up both arms. It was cold. Scotland was much colder than LA, but that chill had seemed to come out of nowhere. ‘It was hard. I don’t know if I helped. I’ve spent the whole journey wondering if...’ Her voice trailed off.
Gerry touched her shoulder. ‘Don’t. You volunteer. You counsel. You’re the person who listens in the middle of the night when someone needs to talk. You do the best that you can. That’s all you can do.’
She put her head back on the wall. Fatigue sweeping over her. ‘I know that. But I can’t help but worry.’
‘You don’t look that great,’ said Gerry.
She closed her eyes for a second. ‘I don’t feel that great. I forgot to take my seasickness tablets. I’ll be fine when we land.’
The truth was she was nervous, and a little bit sad. She wasn’t quite sure what to say to Rhuaridh. She’d felt the connection. And she was sure he had too.
Didn’t their kiss prove it? But that had been fleeting. Rhuaridh had stopped it almost as soon as it had started. And then he’d pressed about the thing she didn’t want to talk about. Wasn’t ready to talk about.
And it had haunted her for the last month. Her head even felt fuzzy right now. She loosened the scarf she’d wound around her neck. It was irritating her. They’d started filming earlier, following up on Ross, the instructor with the head injury last month, who’d had em
ergency surgery. He was staying in Glasgow, recovering well, even though he was pale with a large part of his hair now missing. The young boy, Kai, had his leg in a cast but took great delight in showing them just how fast he could get about on his crutches.
Thank goodness those two parts of filming were wrapped up. It would mean they would need less footage whilst on Arran. She closed her eyes, part of her not wanting to spend too much time in Rhuaridh’s company and part of her aching for it.
She was so confused right now. And who was making all that noise? She shivered, pulling her coat closer around her. Rhuaridh. Sometimes thinking about him made her angry, sometimes it made her feel warm all over. Her mind would drift back to that second on the beach...then that second sitting in the woods together. Her life currently felt like a bad young adult romance novel.
‘Kristie. Kristie.’ Someone was shaking her. ‘We need to go. Here, give me the keys. I’ll drive.’
‘What? No?’ She stood up and promptly swayed and sat back down. Had she actually fallen asleep?
Gerry was looking at her oddly. ‘You’re sick,’ he said, holding out his hand for the car key. ‘I’ll drive. It’s the same place as last time.’
She thought about saying no. She knew Gerry didn’t like driving ‘abroad’, as he put it. But she was just so darned tired. She pushed the keys towards him. ‘Okay, just once. And don’t crash.’
* * *
‘Kristie? You need to drink something.’
She moved, wondering why the bed felt so lumpy, trying to turn around, but her face met an unexpected barrier. She spluttered and opened her eyes. Dark blue was facing her. What?
She pushed herself back, trying to work out why there was a solid wall of dark blue in the bedroom in the cottage.
The voice started again. ‘Kristie? Turn back this way. You need to drink something.’
Her brain wasn’t making sense. Was she dreaming?
She moved back around again. Opening her eyes properly. They took a moment to focus. Directly ahead was a flickering orange fire. She pushed herself up, the material underneath her unfamiliar, velvety to touch. She looked down. She wasn’t in her bed in the cottage. In fact, she didn’t recognise this place at all. ‘What? Wh...where am I?’