The Magic of Christmas
Penny stepped closer. ‘Why?’
‘It alters protein binding and lowers the amount of active free tricyclic drug.’ Christian injected the sodium bicarbonate and looked up. ‘How’s his blood pressure?’
‘Dropping,’ Lara murmured, her eyes on the screen.
‘Can we elevate the foot of the trolley? And let’s give 1 milligram of glucagon. Jane, can you ring the physicians? He’s going to need to be admitted.’
They worked to stabilise the patient and then the physicians arrived.
Christian went with Jane to talk to the man’s wife and Lara helped transfer the patient to the ward.
When she returned to Resus, Christian was in the room, finishing the notes.
‘Will he live, do you think?’ Lara felt a rush of sadness as she thought about the man lying still and unresponsive on the trolley. ‘I hate to think of anyone feeling that desperate. It must be awful for his wife.’
‘She’s blaming herself. It’s the usual question of “what if?” What if she’d come home earlier from shopping? What if she’d decided to go on another day? It’s hard for her.’ Christian finished writing and walked across the room to the sink. ‘Let’s hope he’ll be OK.’
‘Christmas can be a difficult time of year.’
‘Yes.’ His answer was surprisingly terse and she studied his profile, remembering what he’d said about his wife leaving at Christmas.
‘Did she leave before or after?’
He took a long time washing his hands and, for a moment, she wondered if he’d even heard her question. Then he turned off the water, dried his hands and turned to look at her. ‘After. Just.’ He gave a short laugh that was markedly lacking in humour. ‘I think she imagined that the children might be so pleased with their presents that they wouldn’t notice that she wasn’t around.’
Lara couldn’t bear to think about how awful it must have been. ‘They must have been very shocked.’
‘To begin with, Aggie didn’t really see a difference because her mother was always jetting off to different parts of the world so her absence wasn’t a rarity. It took a while for it to sink in. But Chloe…’ He broke off and his mouth tightened. ‘Chloe was devastated. For weeks she seemed to shrink into herself and then she just quietly got on with her life.’
‘And you?’
‘I applied for this job and we moved house.’
‘Based on the principle that three major life changes are better than one?’ She pulled a face. ‘You certainly believe in piling on the stress, Dr Blake.’
‘I thought moving house might be good for all of us. And the house is nearer to the girls’ school.’
‘And was moving a good thing?’
He dried his hands. ‘I think so.Apart from the fact that Chloe is far too quiet, they seem more stable.’
‘And what about you? How are you?’
‘It isn’t about me.’ He frowned, as though he considered the question strange. ‘It’s about the children. They didn’t choose to be in this situation.’
‘And you did?’
Something bleak flickered in his eyes. ‘No. But I should have foreseen it. We were a disaster waiting to happen. My wife wasn’t good at relationships. And apparently I’m not an easy man to be married to. That’s got to be a flaw. You might want to remember that one, Lara.’
She sighed. ‘Sorry, but that would only count as a flaw if I was planning to marry you. Given that my longest relationship is three dates, I think that’s an unlikely scenario. I need a flaw that will kill the chemistry stone dead. I thought your chocolate restraint was bad, but apparently it isn’t bad enough.’
They looked at each other for a long moment and Lara felt her mouth dry and her heart bump hard against her chest.
It didn’t matter what they said or did, the chemistry was there, sizzling away like a high-voltage power cable.
She wanted to kiss him. Just once. To satisfy her curiosity.
And perhaps he read her thoughts because he drew breath sharply and a muscle flickered in his hard jaw. ‘Lara—there are some instincts and urges that should be ignored. This is one of them.’