I'll Leave You With This by Kylie Ladd

Author:Kylie Ladd [Ladd, Kylie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781760146429
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia

Clare

2004

‘So how did you do this?’ Clare asked, bending over the dressing she had been sent to change. It was almost the end of her shift and she was running behind, still had medications to dispense and an IV to check. She hadn’t yet had a chance to read the file of this new patient.

‘Chainsaw accident,’ he replied.

Clare winced and glanced up, taking him in properly for the first time. He was relatively young, still in his twenties, probably not much older than she was.

‘Seriously?’ she asked. ‘Are you a lumberjack or something?’

The patient laughed. ‘You got me,’ he said, ‘hence the beard. They’re compulsory in the business.’ He reached up to stroke it, the springy brown mass bouncing back beneath his touch.

It was certainly lavish, Clare thought. There could be whole ecosystems living quite happily in that thing, though at least it looked clean.

‘Nah,’ he went on, as she bent once more to her task. ‘I’m a landscaper. Landscape designer, if I’m trying to impress you. Which I might be.’

Clare smiled without looking up. Not many people tried to impress her. She eased the old dressing back, expecting the worst, but there were only a dozen or so stitches along the lower leg, neatly spaced and looking clean and dry.

‘I was thinking A Nightmare on Elm Street when you said chainsaw accident. This is barely a daydream.’ The joke was weak and she knew it, but to her gratification the patient laughed again.

‘I know. I’m a disappointment. Girls are always telling me that.’

Clare changed her gloves and prepared to clean the wound. Was he flirting with her? That had never happened on her old ward. She missed paediatrics, missed the children, and had resented being transferred to general medical, but maybe it wouldn’t be all bad.

‘I was lucky,’ the man in the bed continued. ‘Stupid but lucky. I was cutting up a tree for my dad. It wasn’t that big and I was in a hurry, so I didn’t bother putting the guard on . . . The chainsaw hit a knot and kicked back. I could have taken an arm off.’

Clare nodded. ‘You could have. Or your nose.’

‘And ruined these good looks. What a loss to the world!’

Clare smiled. He was no oil painting – heavyset and slightly balding, despite the verdant growth on his face – but his eyes were kind. ‘I’m sure it would have been,’ she said, reaching for a new dressing. ‘I’m Clare, by the way. How long are you in for, do you know?’

‘Joel,’ he replied. ‘Only a few days, I think, just to make sure it heals okay. Apparently it’s in a bad spot.’

‘Yeah, the shin can be tricky,’ Clare agreed. ‘Poor blood flow, thin skin . . . It will definitely scar, I’m afraid, but maybe that will increase your chances. With the ladies, I mean. You can tell them you fought off a shark.’ She flushed as she said it. With the ladies. That wasn’t her usual bedside manner. Was she flirting back? Who even was she?

‘Good plan.

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