Stranded with the Island Doctor by Annie Claydon

Author:Annie Claydon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-05-12T21:07:33+00:00

* * *

Every nerve-ending was tingling. Nothing hurt. Rafe couldn’t feel the scrape on his arm any longer and the cut that Mel had stitched for him had stopped throbbing. He felt as if he’d just been struck by lightning and then risen to his feet, the possessor of superpowers.

It was all nonsense, of course. Rafe knew full well that it was possible to fall in love after a first kiss, he’d done so with Annu, but their first kiss had taken considerably longer to get around to. Twenty hours was a different matter. How could you love everything about someone when you knew almost nothing about them?

But the feeling just wouldn’t listen to sense. He felt like a man who could defy the usual laws of science, or human psychology, or love, or whatever else was involved in what he and Mel had just done. That kiss was the only true thing, the only absolute that he had to rely on.

Zeena was so dozy now that she hardly responded when he took her blood pressure, opening her eyes only when the cuff tightened on her arm. Haroon was almost asleep too, and Rafe operated the controls on the reclining chair by the bed, telling him to get some rest while his son was being weighed and examined.

While he was waiting for Mel, he flipped through Maddie’s notes. Clear and concise, they covered all of the things that an ophthalmic surgeon might want to know from a referring doctor.

‘How are you with examining for cataracts?’ Mel’s voice interrupted his reverie, her soft-soled shoes not making a sound on the tiled floor.

‘Fair to middling. In the course of my general practice I’ve seen quite a few kids with cataracts.’

He couldn’t help staring at her. Mel had re-fixed her hair and was pulling on a disposable apron and gloves, ready to work. Her eyes seemed a little wider and her mouth a little redder. If it was at all possible she was a little more beautiful, and Rafe couldn’t help but notice every last thing about her. The way she moved. How she smiled down at the baby in the cradle, her finger gently brushing his cheek.

‘That trumps my experience. I tend to concentrate on the mothers.’ Mel was somehow managing to look at him without directly returning his gaze. It was a talent he should try to emulate.

‘Okay, so you’ll hold him while I do the examination?’

She nodded, picking the baby carefully up from his cradle, shushing him and rocking him gently when he started to fret. Rafe took the ophthalmoscope from its case, dimming the lights.

‘Okay, little man. Open your eyes for me...’ Mel moved the baby into a vertical position against her body, and he saw the shadow of her smile in the darkened room. ‘There he goes.’

It was tricky to find the right angle without getting too close to her and in the end Rafe gave up, and found his cheek resting against her shoulder. But Mel didn’t

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