had always come first and from the moment he and Karen had parted, he’d only ever spent one night with any woman.
The fact he’d achieved the pinnacles of surgical success and had now lost it all didn’t seem enough of a reason to change his habits. Financially he was secure and the threat of poverty was long gone but, hell, he was still learning how to be blind. He didn’t need any distractions from conquering the dark and living an independent and meaningful life.
‘Hey, Tom, as well as being totally hot, she’s an awesome teacher.’
Jared’s enthusiasm for Hayley rang out loud and clear and Tom’s jaw instinctively tightened. ‘I’d appreciate it if you referred to her in terms of a surgeon and a teacher.’
‘Sorry. I’m not gonna steal her from you, dude. I’d never do that.’
The apology in the young man’s voice was unmistakeable and Tom regretted being short with him. He still wasn’t totally certain why he had been. Yes, this morning had been amazing, but now it was over.
‘Besides,’ Jared continued, ‘she’s a bit old for me, but she’s perfect for a bloke like you who’s nearly forty.’ He made the number sound ancient.
Tom gave a strangled laugh. ‘I’m thirty-nine, thank you, and if you keep on about it I’ll buy Chinese instead of pizza.’
‘You’re the same age as my dad.’ The teasing had vanished from Jared’s voice, leaving only regret.
Tom flinched. He hadn’t meant to remind the boy of his absent father or of his tough home life. He turned toward the sound of his voice and smiled. ‘I’m thinking two large La Dolce Vita specials with the lot.’
‘And a garlic pizza. Order them now and make sure they throw in the gelato because last time you let them rip you off and you don’t want me saying you’re getting old and soft.’
Tom’s mouth tweaked up into a smile. ‘Just drive the damn car, Jared.’
AS THE tinny beat-bop music filled the operating theatre, Hayley looked up from the screen, which showed the magnified image of Mrs Papadopoulos’s stone-filled gallbladder and she asked, ‘Is that my phone?’
The moment the four little words were airborne, she wanted to pull the words back. She’d forgotten that Jenny wasn’t scouting for this operation.
‘I’ll check,’ said Suzy.
Dread crawled along her skin. Why did it have to be Suzy? For the first time in days Hayley willed that the phone call not be from Tom.
It was close to the end of a long shift—twelve midnight to twelve noon—the result of a crazy idea from someone in Administration who thought it might help diminish the surgical waiting list. It meant the team had a foot in both the night shift with its emergencies and the elective routine of the day shift morning.
‘Answer it quickly, Suzy.’ Theo rolled his eyes as if the sound was burning his ears. ‘Hayley, of all the ringtones that state-of-the-art phone of yours has, why did you choose that one? You have to change it.’
‘ I can’t.’ She dropped her gaze back to the screen as she manoeuvred everything into position in preparation to sever the gallbladder from its anchoring stump. ‘I accidentally washed my lovely phone and now it’s tucked up in rice in a vague hope it might work again. Meanwhile, I’ve bought a temporary cheap phone and it only comes with one ringtone and one volume.’
‘My ears are aching already.’ With a gloved hand Theo held out a kidney dish.
Hayley dropped the badly scarred gallbladder onto the silver monometal and tried not to glance around at Suzy and ask who was calling. It had been five days since she’d seen Tom. Five days since she’d experienced the best sex of her life and then slept the most deeply she could ever remember, but since she’d left his apartment there’d been no messages, no texts, no emails, nothing. Just one long and empty silence that dragged through each day, seemingly extending it way beyond its twenty-fours.
Get over it. He never said he’d call. You never expected him to call.
Logically, she knew that they’d only acted on their simmering attraction and had come together to defuse the stress after a huge operation—that meant it had been a one-off fling. This sort of thing happened between staff occasionally, especially after a life-and-death situation. It was a type of coping mechanism—a way to share the crisis with the only other person who really understood exactly what had happened and the ramifications of how close it had come to going horribly wrong.
At least I had him.
She bit her lip as she realised with a hollow feeling that she now had something in common with Suzy. She’d used Tom and she’d let him use her. Not that she wanted to keep Tom as hers, or at least she didn’t think she did, but she hated that she’d allowed herself to become a phone vulture. Twenty-four hours after leaving Tom’s penthouse, she’d started circling her phone, constantly waiting for it to either ring or beep with a message, and when either of those two things happened, diving for it and hoping it was Tom. Now she’d even allowed her guard to fall and had asked out loud in front of her gossipy staff.
It’s time to get a grip.
Her reaction to the whole Tom situation was totally new to her and, if she was honest, scared her just a little bit. She’d certainly never been this jumpy or spent this much time thinking about Richard or Sam. Or any other man.
‘Dr Grey’s phone.’ Suzy’s voice held the same thread of dislike that was always present when she spoke to Hayley, but never seemed to be in attendance when she spoke to the other staff. ‘Oh, hello.’ Warmth suddenly infused her voice. ‘It’s Suzy Carpenter.’
Hayley heard the change in her tone and panic made her swing around.
Suzy mouthed, ‘Lachlan McQuillan.’
Relief rolled through Hayley that it wasn’t Tom and she wasn’t about to become the target for gossip.
Suzy continued talking to Hayley’s counterpart on the other side of the surgical registrar’s roster. Lach usually called Hayley for a handover just prior to starting his shift.
She let Suzy flirt with the Scot while she stitched up the four small incisions she’d made. ‘David, I’m done. Thanks, everyone.’ She stepped back and stripped off her gloves, leaving the nurses to clean up and the anaesthetist to extubate the patient before handing her over to the care of the recovery nurses.
Suzy was still talking to Lachlan when Hayley put out her hand out for her phone. Suzy glared at her before purring down the line, ‘See you at Pete’s soon.’
The nurse slapped the phone into Hayley’s hand before stalking off, and Hayley rubbed her temples as she put the phone to her ear. Lachlan was just coming back after two days off so the chances of Suzy catching him at Pete’s anytime soon were slim.
‘Hey, Lach, it’s been a quiet night, but if you can keep an eye on Mrs Papadopoulos’s blood pressure for me, that would be good.’
‘Not a problem, Hayley, lass. Enjoy your sleep.’
‘Study more like it. I’ve got two days off and the exams get closer every day.’
‘Aye, they do. It’s a shame you missed Finn Kennedy’s talk on the surgical considerations of gunshot wounds this morning. The man might be a devil to work for but he knows his stuff.’
‘Have you operated with him?’ Hayley hadn’t told anyone what had happened in the OR with Finn because everyone was allowed a bad day, but it still niggled at her and she wanted another person’s opinion.
‘Aye, last week. He makes it all look so easy while the rest of us struggle just to finish the job.’
So