Surprise Twins for the Surgeon by Sue MacKay

Author:Sue MacKay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-06-06T14:50:18+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘HOLD THIS FOR ME, will you?’ A doctor held out a saline bag to Alesha.

‘Sure.’ She took it and waited patiently while the young woman inserted a needle into the back of their little patient’s hand to give the boy much-needed fluid after a severe bout of vomiting that had left him dehydrated.

On the other side of the bed the boy’s father watched, his face ashen, and his eyes bleak with worry. ‘I hope it wasn’t the chicken he ate for lunch that’s made him so sick. He started throwing up not long after and hasn’t stopped since.’

It could very likely be food poisoning. Undercooked chicken was always risky. ‘Was the chicken bought from a takeout place, or home-cooked?’

‘I was cooking it last night for dinner when my mother phoned to ask us to go round for a meal. I turned the element off and left the pan with the lid on to cool down, and put it in the fridge when we got home.’

The doctor looked up. ‘How late was that?’

The man winced as though he was about to get told off. ‘About one in the morning.’

The temperature had been unusually high yesterday. ‘You wouldn’t have had air-conditioning running while you were out, would you?’ Alesha asked and got a nod from the doctor.

‘If only I had it.’ The father reached for his lad’s hand, wound his much larger one around it. ‘Sorry, Charlie. Your dad’s such a fool.’

Alesha felt for him. ‘Don’t say that. You made a mistake, but that doesn’t make you a fool. It’s just that chicken has to be cooked right through, no pinkness at all.’

‘I’m still learning to cook since my wife died. She was a champ in the kitchen, could make the dullest of foods tasty. I’ve got a long way to go to be half as good.’ The poor guy had more than enough to deal with without beating himself up over his cooking skills.

‘Sounds like you’re trying and that’s what counts.’

The doctor had the needle in and was attaching the tubing to it that led from the bag Alesha held. ‘I think your boy is going to be fine once we get some liquid into him as well as all those nutrients that come with it.’

Alesha took a quick glance at her watch. The day couldn’t go any slower if it tried. She hung the bag from the steel frame and smoothed the damp curls off Charlie’s forehead. ‘There you go. You’ll be chasing your football before you know it.’

‘I’m going to run some blood tests,’ the doctor said.

‘I’ll get the kit.’ Alesha slipped around the curtain and walked the length of the children’s ward to the storeroom.

‘How’s it going?’ Cherry asked as they passed in the hall.

After five weeks Alesha already loved this job, and had been hoping the nurse she was covering for really didn’t want to return at the end of her maternity leave. Though today that idea felt tiring. ‘I’m looking forward to knocking off.’ Half an hour to go and she’d be able to give into the exhaustion dragging at her.

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