Daring to Date Her Ex Read online

  He also noted that the receptionist in the department for respiratory medicine directed him back downstairs again, when he identified himself as a consultant, sent by PHE. He would have to have a word with whoever was in charge here. Clearly no one had thought much about the logistics of having a potentially large number of clinic attendees walking from one end of the hospital to the other and then back again to find the place they were meant to be going.

  He found the room number he’d been directed to at the end of a long, dingy corridor. Ignoring the ‘Please Knock and Wait’ sign taped to the door, he walked straight in, the door handle turning and then coming off in his hand.

  She’d cut her hair.

  Suddenly every thought, each one of his resolutions to sort this mess out, was blanked from his mind. There was nothing else other than the unexpected realisation that Thea had cut her beautiful hair.

  For a moment she didn’t recognise him. That hurt even more than the corruption of the memory of Thea’s corn-coloured hair spread out like liquid sunshine.

  ‘Thea.’ He supposed he should say more, but right now that wasn’t an option.

  ‘Lucas.’ She seemed to be coping with the moment better than he was. Or perhaps that was just what he wanted to think. He was probably just a distant memory to her, and there was nothing for her to cope with.

  She walked towards him, stretching out her hand, more self-possessed than she’d been seven years ago. Thea had clearly learned to conceal her feelings, and that was yet another loss. Seven years ago she would have either rushed to hug him or aimed a punch at him. Either would have been better than this.

  ‘My door handle.’

  ‘Oh… Yes.’ He dropped the handle into her palm, careful not to brush his fingers against hers.

  ‘Thank you.’ She turned away, as if that was the only thing that interested her about him, and picked up a screwdriver from the windowsill.

  Lucas reminded himself what he’d come here to do, and where in the chain of command he intended to be. ‘I’m here to see Michael Freeman. He’s co-ordinating the TB response team.’

  She nodded, slipping past him and kneeling in front of the open door. ‘No, I am. Put your foot there, will you?’

  Lucas planted his foot against the door, holding it steady while she applied herself to screwing the handle back on again. ‘I’m the consultant from PHE.’

  The words generally had some effect on people, but they barely seemed to register. She gave a brief nod and yanked brutally at the door handle to test that it was now securely fixed.

  He had to stop this now. Thea didn’t seem to have any understanding of the gravity of the task ahead of them, and if she thought he was here to act as apprentice handyman it was time to disillusion her. ‘Isn’t there someone else who can do this? We both have more important issues to deal with.’

  She looked up at him for a moment. Her eyes were the same, dark and thoughtful, eyes that you could lose yourself in. That he had lost himself in once, on a very regular basis. Right now a spark of fire, or maybe just a trick of the light, turned brown to gold.

  ‘I could walk upstairs, find a requisition form, and wait two days for someone from Maintenance to come and fix it. And if you were going to turn up unannounced, you could at least have read the notice on the door…’ She got to her feet and turned away from him again.

  Annoyance gripped at his chest. Thea had never just walked away from him like that before, and it surprised Lucas that it was no easier to take now than it would have been seven years ago. The impulse to spin her round, take her off balance and kiss her rose from his heart to his head, and his head dismissed it out of hand.

  The roaring in his ears began to subside and professionalism took over. This was just another situation that he had to get on top of, and he had never failed to win hearts and minds when he needed to. Lucas put his briefcase down at his feet and knocked gently on the open door. She took her time in turning to face him, but when she did a touch of humour was tugging at her mouth.

  ‘Dr Lucas West. I’m looking for the head of the TB response team.’

  ‘Dr Thea Coleman. You’ve come to the right place.’

  They didn’t shake hands. It was probably best not to touch her just yet.

  ‘You look well, Thea.’ It was a pleasantry rather than a compliment. She seemed paler than he remembered her, and grey didn’t suit her as well as the vibrant colours she used to wear. Lucas pressed on. ‘Do you have some time to talk?’

  She nodded. ‘Of course. Why don’t we go for coffee?’

  He smiled at her. Thea had always been able to make him smile, even now. ‘That sounds good.’

  * * *

  One word had sounded at the back of her head, forming a long scream of disbelief. No-o-o.

  It had taken every ounce of Thea’s self-control not to run from the room. Lucas had taught her how to love and had then left her. Seven years, several oceans, and a lot of water under the bridge later, here he was. His dark hair a little shorter, and definitely tidier. Wearing a suit, of all things.

  A cold detachment, as if she’d taken a step back from the world and was no longer a part of it, came to her rescue. Someone else had taken the door handle from him and answered him back, while the real Thea had been shivering in a corner, screaming that this could not be happening.

  ‘How have you been?’ He followed her through the canteen and into the garden beyond, putting his coffee down on the bench between them.

  ‘Fine. You?’

  He nodded. ‘Fine.’

  That seemed to cover their personal lives for the past seven years. If he’d followed even a few of the dreams that he’d shared with her over the two years they’d been together, it was unlikely that his professional life had been as uneventful.

  ‘You have experience of dealing with TB abroad?’

  Something tightened his face into a mask. ‘I didn’t go abroad. Things happened…’

  He seemed disinclined to say what things could possibly have got in the way of what he’d considered his destiny. ‘I worked at a TB clinic in the UK for a while and now I consult. Better hours…’

  He stopped short as Thea choked on her coffee. The Lucas she’d known hadn’t owned a suit and had cared nothing for regular hours.

  ‘Are you okay?’

  He looked as if he was about to thump her on the back. ‘Yes, fine…’ Thea waved him away. ‘Where was the TB clinic?’

  ‘South London.’ He seemed to recognise the awkwardness of the admission and changed the subject quickly. ‘You’ve been working here since you qualified?’

  ‘No, three years.’ The other four were none of his business. Thea could practically feel herself retreating again behind the protective shell that she had learned to cloak herself with in the hard weeks before her return from Bangladesh. The Lucas that she’d known had been charming and unconventional, an idealist and totally committed to his goals. There was nothing of that man here.

  She stared hard at a clump of daisies in the grass at her feet, fighting for control. ‘I’ll let you have the case notes for the patient we have here at the hospital. You might like to see him.’

  He nodded, as if he understood that Thea had nothing more of a personal nature left to say. ‘Yes, that would be good. You’re thinking of working out of the room on the ground floor?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘It’s not very well signposted, and it’s a way away from the department. We may have to review that location at our first team meeting tomorrow morning. Can you come up with some alternatives, or should I speak with your head of department about that?’

  Like hell he would. ‘You can speak to me. I’m the liaison officer.’

  He gave a small nod. ‘In that case, I’d like to see some alternatives. Preferably in the department and with easy, well-signposted access. It looks as if we may be testing a large number of contacts, and I don’t want people having to wander around the way I did.’

  ‘I chose the clini
c on the ground floor because it has its own separate external entrance, which is a hundred metres from the bus stop in the hospital grounds.’

  ‘But if you come in at the main gates—’

  ‘No one does, unless they’re driving. The back gates are five minutes from the school. The department’s senior secretary is preparing a map that we can append to all the appointment letters, and she’ll get some temporary signage as soon as we agree on wording.’

  ‘And access to the department?’

  This must be new territory for Lucas. Seven years ago, Thea had usually been the one to back down, in the face of two years’ seniority in their studies and Lucas’s seductive charm. Things were different now.

  ‘There’s a stairway between us and the department. We have easy access to the X-ray department, and there’s a counselling suite next door, which I can annex for our use if we need it.’

  ‘You seem to have all the answers.’

  Not by a very long way. But she knew her own hospital better than he did at least. ‘It’s agreed, then?’

  A smile twitched at the side of his mouth, and Thea ignored it. ‘Yes. Agreed.’

  CHAPTER TWO

  Day Two

  THE MEETING CONVENED at eight o’clock the next morning, with Lucas sitting at the head of the table as if he owned it. He was indisputably at the helm, guiding them through the long agenda with the minimum of fuss. When Lucas put his mind to something, Thea had never seen him fail.

  ‘My office.’ Michael gathered up his papers from the desk, murmuring the words as he walked behind Thea towards the door, and she followed him out of the room. Her professionalism had slipped just once that morning. Lucas had made a joke and she’d responded a little too quickly and with a bit too much bite. It wouldn’t happen again but Michael didn’t miss much.

  ‘Any concerns?’ Michael had closed the door of his office behind them and waved her to a seat.

  ‘I don’t think so. This is much as I’d expected—’

  ‘You know Dr West?’

  ‘Yes.’ Thea gave up the pretence that she’d been clinging to all morning. She supposed that it would all come out sooner or later anyway. ‘I know him. He worked at the hospital where I trained.’

  Michael nodded her on. He obviously wasn’t done yet, and it was unlikely he’d let her out of here until he was.

  ‘We went out for a while. Two years, actually. I haven’t seen him since then.’

  ‘Hmm.’ Michael was obviously weighing up the information. ‘Ran its course?’

  ‘He had plans to work abroad. I’d only just finished medical school and had my two years’ foundation training still to do. I had my career to consider.’

  Michael looked about as convinced as Thea felt that this was all there was to it. ‘Okay. I won’t pry any further into things that don’t concern me. All I really need to know is whether you can work with him effectively.’

  Thea had been willing to put her career on hold for Lucas once. Once was enough. She wasn’t going to lose this job over something that had been over for seven years.

  ‘I always had a great deal of respect for Lucas’s abilities and I still do. I’m qualified for this job, and I want to do it well. I’m confident that the same goes for him.’

  ‘All right.’ Michael leaned back in his chair, a flip of his hand indicating that she was off the hook. ‘Go do it. Remember that my door’s always open.’

  * * *

  Lucas hadn’t failed to notice that Thea had followed her boss out of the conference room, probably responding from some signal from Michael. They’d been gone for ten minutes now, and he guessed that they were talking about him.

  Fair enough. It was pretty much par for the course that everyone talked about an external consultant, weighing him up, deciding how capable he was. Lucas took it for granted and concentrated on proving himself. But this was different. He was half expecting to be summoned to Michael Freeman’s office and discreetly informed that Thea would no longer be working directly with him, as if he posed some kind of threat to her.

  He waited. The half-open door of the conference room suddenly swung wide and Thea was in the doorway. ‘I’ve just spoken with Michael’s secretary. The microbiology results are in.’

  There was an assurance in her face that said that something had been discussed and a decision made. Whatever the details, Lucas couldn’t help but applaud the outcome, because it had brought her back to him.

  Responding to a silent alert, she consulted her pager. ‘Sorry, got to go. I’m needed up on the ward.’

  ‘Our TB case?’ When she nodded her assent, he picked up his papers and buttoned his jacket. He had heard all about the isolation procedures and the patient’s condition at the meeting, but he wanted to check on both. ‘I’ll walk with you.’

  Lucas fell into step beside her, following her through the twists and turns of the hospital corridors. She was walking so fast that he had to lengthen his stride to keep up with her. ‘Microbiology?’ Lucas reminded her.

  ‘Ah, yes. It’s been confirmed as TB—a partially drug-resistant strain, which has markers in common with a known strain found in the Birmingham area a year ago.’

  ‘I’ll get the notes on which drug regime worked best there. The patient has contacts in Birmingham?’

  ‘Not as far as I know. We got some details from the wife, but I was reckoning on interviewing her more fully after we’d liaised with you.’ She smiled suddenly and the Thea he knew broke from the shell of the woman she’d become. Eager for the task ahead and ready to face its challenges.

  After the bustling hospital corridors, the isolation suite was like an oasis of regulated calm. A nursing station gave access to four separate rooms, each entered via a small lobby. Dispensers at each door held protective masks, gloves and aprons.

  Automatically, Lucas’s gaze flipped to the pressure gauge at the side of the door. In order to eliminate the spread of airborne particles containing mycobacterium tuberculosis, the room should be kept under negative pressure.

  It was. The whole place seemed to exude a smug pride, telling him he could look as hard as he liked, everything was being done by the book. Quiet and efficient, even if the masks and aprons of the nursing staff did lend an impersonal touch.

  And then there was Thea. She approached the man in the bed, who was coughing painfully and being supported in a sitting position by a nurse. Lucas could hear the scrape of lungs that couldn’t do their job properly screaming for air.

  ‘Hey, there, Derek.’ Despite the mask, Lucas could see her smile. It leaked out of her, in her posture, the way she touched the back of his hand with her gloved fingertips. Her eyes. It struck Lucas that if the last thing he ever saw was her eyes, warm and full of compassion, then he’d be a happy man.

  ‘Not so good today, I see.’ Derek was fighting for breath and so Thea voiced both sides of the conversation. ‘Okay, let’s have a listen to your chest.’

  She nodded to the nurse, who helped her pull the gown away from Derek’s back. A careful, thorough examination seemed to confirm what was already obvious. Overnight, Derek’s condition had deteriorated, and the fluid on his lungs was now making it painful and difficult to breathe.

  ‘Good. You’re doing great.’ Thea helped the nurse settle Derek back onto the pillows. ‘I think that we can make you more comfortable, though.’

  That smile again. And suddenly, in response, Derek’s face seemed to throw off the anonymity of pain. He was no longer just a patient, defined by what treatment the hospital could give. He was a man in his thirties, sandy hair, blue eyes. Who had a wife and a job and a life outside these walls.

  And a sense of humour. Thea made a joke, the nurse laughed, and Derek’s eyes suddenly lit up. She patted his hand and gave him a wave, before sweeping out of the room, leaving Lucas to follow her.

  Outside, she was all business. Standing by the glazed wall of the isolation room so that Derek could see she was still there, she looked up at Lucas, her gaze seriou
s.

  ‘I was hoping that the pleural effusion would stay stable.’

  ‘We need to do a thoracentesis.’ Lucas provided the obvious answer. ‘You have a mobile ultrasound unit available?’

  ‘Yes. I’ll get it up here.’

  ‘The sooner the better. I think we should consider a drain as well.’

  She nodded.

  ‘He has no blood coagulation issues?’

  ‘No. And he understands what’s happening and is co-operative. We can keep him calm while we do the procedure.’

  Lucas nodded, removing his jacket. ‘I’ll need to take a look at the notes.’

  * * *

  They’d fallen so easily into the familiar pattern. Lucas in the lead, studying Derek’s notes and issuing instructions. Thea liaising with the ward sister and overseeing preparations. With two years’ seniority to her, that had always been the way of it.

  That had been the way of it seven years ago. Now this was her hospital. Her patient.

  ‘You’ll be sitting in on this one, then?’ She murmured the question quietly.

  For a moment he seemed lost for an answer. ‘You’ve done this procedure before?’

  What did he think she’d been doing for the last seven years? Lucas badly needed to catch up. ‘Yes, many times.’ She kept her voice low and professional, the barb in her words and not her tone. ‘Some of them in conditions you could barely imagine.’

  She might just as well have slapped him. The sting hit home and for a moment she saw hurt in his eyes. ‘This is not about scoring points, Thea. It’s about patient welfare.’

  ‘So you’re in the habit of questioning the competence of the doctors you work with?’ Seven years ago she would have screamed the words at him. Now they were uttered quietly, between clenched teeth.

  ‘Okay, I get it. This is your hospital…’ His lip curled slightly.

  ‘What the hell happened to you, Lucas?’ Thea flushed red as she whispered the words. It might be inappropriate, but so what? The question had been on her mind ever since she’d first laid eyes on him yesterday.