From the Night Shift to Forever by Annie Claydon

Author:Annie Claydon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-11-29T15:26:05+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

IT HAD BEEN a good night’s work. It had been great for Robbie too, a chance to get back to doing something that she valued. Joel regretted the kiss, though.

Regret was the wrong word. It had been wonderful, and finding that it was a great deal more wonderful than he’d ever imagined just opened the floodgates on a whole raft of possibilities. What it might be like to wake up with Robbie. To go to sleep with her. All the things they might do together in between waking up and going to sleep.

But he couldn’t. The secret that had stood for so many years between him and his family still seemed to surround him. He’d kept lovers at arm’s length, and refused to dream about a family of his own because of it. If he couldn’t bring himself to see the reproach in Robbie’s eyes when he told her, then the secret would just corrode their relationship, the way it had corroded all the others in his life.

They played the same music on the way back to London in the car, but neither of them sang along. Joel dropped Robbie off at her apartment just after dawn and she smiled the way she always did. But he stayed in the car, and she didn’t ask him up.

They did all the same things. Joel brought Robbie to work and then took her home again. They exchanged notes on patients, and in the brief moments when there was time for a break they even found themselves drinking coffee and grabbing a sandwich together. But something was missing. They were both being far too friendly, far too polite, and the light in Robbie’s eyes had died.

Then Tom and Babs happened. Right at the start of their shift, Joel saw Robbie ushering a middle-aged couple into a cubicle and there was something about the way they were walking close and Robbie was walking right behind them as if to shield them from view that caught his eye. Then he saw a couple of nurses, laughing behind their hands. And then Robbie approached him.

‘Got a minute?’

‘Yeah, I’m just waiting for some X-rays to come back. What is it?’

‘I need a bit of help. I have to lift a patient and I can’t do it. But you mustn’t laugh.’

‘Okay...’ Laughing at patients wasn’t the norm, although every A & E department had its share of stories about unlikely injuries.

‘So... I’m just going to say it. Tom’s hand is glued to Babs’s bottom. I need to help Babs into a comfortable position where I can get at them to dissolve the glue.’

‘Right. This is what we spent seven years studying for, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, it is.’ The corner of Robbie’s mouth twitched. ‘They’re so sweet. If anyone should be glued together it’s Tom and Babs, but I’m really worried about the possibility of burns. I looked at the clothing label on Babs’ skirt and it doesn’t contain cotton, but I still think it’s best to get them apart as soon as possible.

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