He shifted his mouth from side to side in a contemplative manner. ‘Leaving my burnt groin aside for the moment, is your offer to help my sister shop a genuine one?’
She was momentarily nudged off course by his rapid change of subject. ‘Yes, of course it was,’ she answered. ‘I love shopping and would be glad to help.’
‘Good,’ he said. ‘What about we meet Saturday morning in the city at the Market Street entrance to the Queen Victoria Building, say, at ten?’
‘That would be fine,’ she said. ‘I’m not on call and I was going shopping anyway.’
‘Right, then,’ he said as he got to his feet. ‘Let’s go and chase down a cup of coffee. There’s a café just outside the hospital grounds. I don’t know about you, but I hate the cafeteria stuff.’
‘So only the designer blend will do, huh?’ Georgie said with a pert look. ‘Don’t tell me you’re a bit of coffee snob?’
He held her gaze for a couple of beats. ‘A cup of decent coffee now and again isn’t going to break my budget,’ he returned as he held the door open.
Georgie brushed past him in the door, her nostrils widening to take in the clean male scent of him, her stomach clenching and unclenching at the thought of him holding her close as he had last night. Her body could still feel the hard imprint of his. She had lain awake for hours thinking about him, wondering how she was going to cope with working alongside him for a whole year without falling in love with him. She even wondered if she was starting to do so now. Overhearing his conversation with his mother and witnessing the tender concern he had for his sister was enough to melt any hardened female heart.
The café he took her to was a popular coffee chain, one that had opened up recently. It was buzzing with the second-wave morning crowd but they still managed to find a small table at the back once their coffees were ready.
Georgie kept the lid on her latte and the risk of another spill. No doubt second degree burns would be next and an examination mandatory, so she sipped her coffee through the tiny spout instead.
‘About last night.’ they said in unison.
‘You go first,’ they said, again in unison.
Georgie looked at him and smiled at exactly the same time as he did. ‘I really didn’t mean to toss my coffee in your lap like that,’ she said. ‘I admit I was tempted to throw it in your face but I wouldn’t have done it no matter how provocative you were being.’
‘Was I being provocative?’ he asked with an all-too-innocent look.
She gave him a mock frown. ‘You know you were.’
His mouth stretched into a guilty-as-charged grin. ‘All right, I admit it. Sorry, but I can’t seem to help it. You press all my buttons for some reason.’
Georgie examined the plastic lid of her coffee cup. ‘I guess we didn’t exactly meet under the best of circumstances,’ she said, running the tip of her index finger over the brand name embellished there.
‘No, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a good working relationship,’ he said. ‘You did a good job this morning, especially considering your lack of experience.’
Georgie could feel herself glowing again under the warmth of his praise. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I was really nervous.’
‘You didn’t show it.’
‘I was shaking in my shoes.’
‘As long as your hands are steady I don’t care what your legs are doing,’ he said, and then after a tiny pause added, ‘I’ve been thinking about that patient we operated on this morning, Mrs Tander. I can’t help thinking her injuries were inconsistent with the details we were given about the accident.’ ‘Have you spoken to the police?’
He drummed his fingers on the table for a moment before he answered. ‘Not yet. But I’m considering it. I don’t want to create suspicion unnecessarily—it would cause a lot of distress to the family. But the husband escaped with minor bruising—strange, considering he was the driver. That sort of head injury can be caused by hitting the steering-wheel if airbags aren’t fitted or didn’t inflate.’
‘Her side hit the tree,’ Georgie pointed out. ‘It’s not unreasonable that she would take the brunt of the impact.’
‘I know, but I have a gut feeling about this.’
She raised her brows at him. ‘You’re starting to sound like Rhiannon,’ she told him. ‘She’s into feeling and intuition and other things heading towards the paranormal. She even consults a clairvoyant regularly.’
‘No kidding?’ he said with a crooked smile as he casually hooked one arm over the back of the vacant chair beside him.
Georgie had to tear her eyes away from the bunching of his biceps. ‘Yes, her name is Madame Celestia,’ she said trying not to stare at the sexy tilt of his mouth. ‘Rhiannon is totally convinced the woman has special powers. She even had the gall to consult this woman on my behalf. I would have been really angry if I believed for a minute any of it was true.’
‘What did this clairvoyant say about you?’ he asked.
‘She said I was going to marry a blonde doctor,’ she answered with a can-you-believe-it roll of her eyes.