Forrest. We meet again.’ Noah’s hands loosened as she stepped away a pace but he could still feel the aftershock of her surprisingly luscious body against him.
Noah redirected his gaze from the vulnerable line of Cate’s neck to her face as she straightened herself to look at him.
‘I’m sorry. I wasn’t looking.’ The slight catch in her voice sounded strange, coming from the tough cookie of yesterday. In fact, she looked like she was in some pain.
‘Did I hurt you?’ Noah tilted his head and then reached out to touch her shoulder. She winced and his brows drew together.
She brushed his hand away. ‘It’s an old bruise and I’ve just given it a reminder. I’m fine. Was there something I can do for you?’
She didn’t look as together today, but she certainly wasn’t any friendlier. It had been amazing how many little things he’d remembered about her. Like the way her blue eyes narrowed and then seemed to glow like flashing blue sirens when she was annoyed with him. And how the expressions on her face seemed to shift and change like the sea.
Enough. Noah compressed his lips. He’d spent too much time thinking about her last night and he wasn’t going to get bogged down today. But she was a challenge. He refocused on her question.
‘I’ve come up to see how the medical resident went with discharging non-critical patients. I assumed there would have been more clients able to go than we’ve managed to discharge.’
He watched her close her eyes for a minute to marshal her thoughts. When she opened them he was staring quite openly at her and she glared at him. He’d bet she couldn’t help herself. She’d be a dreadful poker player, he thought as he watched more emotions flash across her face when she spoke. ‘Those that are still here would be at risk if they were discharged. Until the rain stops we can’t guarantee that the community nurses will be able to take them on or that relatives will be able to get to them if they’re needed.’
There was that fire and passion for the patients again. He had to harden his heart. ‘So what you’re saying is that if it wasn’t raining you’d be happy to send them home?’ She would fight him all the way, but that wasn’t a problem. He felt more alive than he had for years—perhaps it was the country air he hadn’t looked forward to.
She did look determined, though. ‘What I’m saying, Dr Masters, is that an early discharge for these clients would most probably result in readmissions—which cost more money by the way—so nothing would be gained by putting them at risk.’ She folded her arms across her chest.
‘What about the risk here if you have an influx of sick patients and minimum staff to care for everybody? I’ll have a list of other possibles anyway, please, Sister Forrest.’
He watched her shrug and realised she probably thought he hadn’t heard a word she’d said.
Cate tilted her chin. ‘Then it’s on your head.’
‘That’s what my head is here for.’ His attempt at humour failed to draw a smile and she stared stonily back at him. He shrugged. He had other things to worry about. ‘I assume you’re aware that I’ve taken over from Mr Beamish in the interim as this hospital’s CEO?’
‘The news had made it to my desk, yes.’ She glanced at her watch.
Noah could feel his temper rise. So he was holding her up, was he? ‘I hope I can rely on your support during this unsettled time, then.’
‘Of course,’ she said. So why did he feel that her fingers must be crossed behind her back?
Then she said, ‘I always have the hospital’s best interests at heart.’ This time her voice wasn’t so meek. Her pager sounded and she tilted her chin before moving away.
Noah shook his head. Right. He’d have her support as long as she totally agreed with his plans, and he watched her turn the corner towards Intensive Care without looking back. But she didn’t know whom she was up against. He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully at the spot where she’d disappeared from view.
Cate couldn’t get away fast enough. Bumping into Noah Masters straight after seeing Iris had left her in turmoil. She’d actually felt comforted by his strong grip on her arms and her step back had been a defence against the inexplicable desire to stay and lean on him for a moment.
Of all the people to feel like leaning on! She needed to get a grip on things. Why hadn’t Brett come so she could stop worrying about it hanging over her head? She hoped it wasn’t going to be awkward to see Brett but it was the first time face to face since they’d broken their engagement.
Luckily she was busy. The rain continued and the calls from marooned staff members also flooded in. Cate glanced out of the corridor window as she made another trip to Maternity and realised that if the rain kept up she’d be one more person blocked by rising waters from going home. Though after her phone call to her parents earlier, she knew her brother was at home now. They said they’d manage fine without her. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
Cate pulled open the door to Maternity. Michelle and Leif were going home a day early with baby Lachlan and they were waiting to say goodbye. Early on Tuesday morning, Cate’s sleep in the nurses’ quarters had been interrupted to set up for an emergency Caesarean section when baby Lachlan’s descent through his mother’s pelvis had apparently stopped.
To everyone’s relief, he’d made his precipitous arrival in the normal way in the operating theatres before the surgeon had scrubbed his hands.
‘Lachlan looks much better this morning, Michelle. And so do you.’ The new parents looked up and smiled, and Cate’s day brightened to see the baby feed contentedly at his mother’s breast.
Michelle was small-boned and blonde, and she stroked her son’s thick crop of black hair. ‘Thanks, Cate. It’s amazing how much they change in just two days. He was so blue and his head was such a strange shape when he was born.’
Cate grinned as she remembered the marked moulding of Lachlan’s head caused by his squeeze through his mother’s pelvis. ‘I remember. Thank goodness babies’ skull bones are designed to do it. If he’d just tucked his chin in he would have made it much easier on both of you.’
Leif laughed. ‘And your sleep. He was such a cone head. When I asked if his head would change shape, the doctor said if newborn heads didn’t there’d be a lot of funny looking people walking around town. That’s when I knew he was going to be all right.’ They all laughed at the mental picture of a town full of people with misshapen heads. ‘Everyone has taken such good care of us.’
‘And so we should.’ Cate had gone to school with Michelle’s older sister. The beauty of working in a small town hospital was that she knew most of the patients or at least one of their relatives.
The new parents wanted to make sure they could make it home before their road was cut off.
‘Now, you’re sure you have enough supplies?’ Cate stroked Lachlan’s tiny hand as he lay in his mother’s arms.
Michelle reached up and kissed Cate’s cheek. ‘Leif’s picked up everything on the list this morning and we have enough stuff to last us a couple of weeks. Hopefully the flood won’t linger, but luckily our house is on a hill. At worst we’ll be on an island, but I want to be home if that happens.’
‘Of course you do. Good luck and hopefully the roads won’t be shut long. Remember to ring the ward if you’re unsure about anything to do with you, breastfeeding or Lachlan.’
Cate left them to pack the car in dashes through the rain, and got on with her own work, but she couldn’t help comparing her life to that of Michelle.
Michelle was five years younger than Cate’s thirty years. She already had a husband who adored her and a new son and her own tiny farmhouse on the outskirts of town. It sounded idyllic and Cate sighed.
Something was missing in her life and she could almost see herself ending up alone, with nothing