Saving Dr Cooper. Jennifer Taylor

them be truly happy.

      ‘I’m busy.’

      The clipped tone of her voice cut through his thoughts like a hot knife slicing through butter, and he flinched. He wasn’t a man given to fanciful notions normally and it stunned him to find himself indulging in them now. However, he didn’t have the time to worry about it when he had more important matters to deal with, like making Heather listen to him for starters. From the look on her face, listening to anything he had to say was about as attractive an idea as plunging her hand into a nest of vipers!

      ‘I realise that so I won’t detain you. I just wanted to thank you for what you did the other day, Heather. For me and the kid. I believe he’s on the mend.’

      ‘Yes, so I believe.’

      Her expression softened so that Ross had a glimpse of the real woman beneath the ice-cool exterior. He sent up a silent vote of thanks that he was no longer attached to any monitors when he felt his heart kick up a storm. Did she have any idea how drop-dead gorgeous she was? he wondered giddily.

      He cleared his throat but he could hear how rough his voice sounded even if Heather seemed blissfully unaware of the strain he was under. Keeping his hands by his sides and well away from her took an awful lot of will-power.

      ‘You did a great job on him, and on me, too. I just wanted to find a way to thank you properly and wondered if you’d consider having dinner with me one night.’

      Ross was almost as shocked as Heather so obviously was when the invitation sprang from his lips. He certainly hadn’t planned on asking her out and would have set about it with a bit more finesse if he had. He saw her face close up and cursed his wayward tongue because it had just cost him an awful lot of ground he might never be able to make up.

      ‘Thank you, but that isn’t necessary, Mr Tanner. I was only doing my job. Now, if you’ll excuse me.’

      She didn’t wait for him to reply before she hurried away. Ross didn’t try to stop her because there was no point. He had wasted the one and only opportunity he was likely to get and that was it. Finito.

      There was a taxi dropping off a fare outside the main entrance. Ross got in and told the driver to take him home. He sank back in the seat as the cab headed down the drive, feeling so bad that he seriously wondered if he should have stayed in hospital after all. There was an ache in his chest which alarmed him until he realised it was disappointment at ruining his chance to get to know Heather and not the prelude to a heart attack. He wouldn’t get another opportunity…unless he came up with some sort of a plan to engineer another meeting with her.

      A brilliant smile suddenly lit his face and a middle-aged woman, who had stopped on the kerb to let the taxi pass, blushed with pleasure as she received the full benefit of it. Ross didn’t notice her smiling back at him because he was too concerned about devising the perfect plan to see Heather again. It wouldn’t be easy but he’d find a way. There was too much at stake to fail!