she’d known him.
‘You need to rest,’ Luke told her.
They were close again. Too close. The temptation to kiss her again enveloped Luke with painful intensity.
‘I will,’ Amy said. ‘I’ll call Lizzie’s first, though, and see how Summer’s doing.’
‘I’ll check on her first thing. I’ll be back at work by 6:00 a.m.’
‘Maybe you should just stay here. You’re not going to get much sleep after walking home.’
‘I might go back to Lizzie’s and use the on-call room.’ The temptation was strangling Luke. He couldn’t stay here and keep his hands off this woman.
But he had to pause, once more, as he stepped out into the night because the soft sound of Amy’s voice was arresting.
‘He did love you,’ she said quietly. ‘Luca.’
There it was again. That name. That pronunciation. Pulling him…somewhere.
Somewhere he couldn’t go because he had no idea how to get there.
And it was too disturbing.
‘Did you really have no idea?’ Amy asked.
‘No.’ Luke could hear the trace of bewilderment in his own voice. ‘No idea at all.’
CHAPTER SIX
‘C HRISTMAS shopping, was it?’
‘Sorry?’ Luke turned on the water and picked up the small brush to start scrubbing in. It was 6:30 a.m. and the question from his registrar was baffling.
‘That huge carton I saw you coming out of the lift with. You looked as if it was something you were planning to hide.’
‘Mmm.’ Maybe he’d looked as furtive as he’d felt. Luke hoped he hadn’t been observed earlier, down in the bowels of St Elizabeth’s Hospital, following the directions of that cooperative cleaner to where the recycling and large items of rubbish were collected. ‘Definitely Christmas stuff,’ he said in a tone that would discourage any further questions.
‘Great time of year, isn’t it?’ his registrar said cheerfully. ‘Rather fun, hiding stuff and surprising people.’
‘Mmm.’ Luke paid careful attention to scrubbing beneath his nails. His registrar should know he wasn’t one for idle chitchat right before surgery when his focus was on what lay ahead. He certainly didn’t want to start thinking about that early morning mission because then he would start thinking about Amy. Wondering how he could present that box of decorations currently sitting in a corner of his office. Imagining the sparkle of pleasure he might see in her face.
And if he started to think about that, his mind would latch back on to what had kept him largely awake for the few hours he’d spent in the single bed the on-call room boasted. Back to that kiss. The way he had felt holding Amy in his arms. That spiral of desire—or was it actually need ?—had to be firmly damped.
The bright lights of the operating theatre suite should be far more effective than daylight even in restoring reality, and Luke would welcome the return to normality. He could hasten it, by a nudge in the right direction.
‘So you know what’s on the agenda this morning? For baby Liam?’
‘Three surgeries in one go, from what I could gather.’
‘Pretty much. An arterial switch, VSD closure and repair of an aortic coarctation.’
His registrar whistled silently and any thoughts of Christmas shopping were clearly dispelled. They were in for a long, hard session in Theatre.
Preparations to put the infant onto the heart-lung bypass machine were painstaking and time-consuming, complicated by having to leave access to the arteries that needed repositioning. It was nearly 8:00 a.m. when the tiny heart was stopped with the cold, high-potassium solution that would also protect the heart muscle while it was not functioning.
Luke was already deep within the zone that would enable him to operate with no lessening of precision for many hours. Cutting tiny areas of miniature vessels and placing stitches he needed magnifying goggles to visualise accurately. Coating every suture line with fibrin glue.
Short breaks to flex muscles and counteract strain were taken, but for
‘You need to rest,’ Luke told her.
They were close again. Too close. The temptation to kiss her again enveloped Luke with painful intensity.
‘I will,’ Amy said. ‘I’ll call Lizzie’s first, though, and see how Summer’s doing.’
‘I’ll check on her first thing. I’ll be back at work by 6:00 a.m.’
‘Maybe you should just stay here. You’re not going to get much sleep after walking home.’
‘I might go back to Lizzie’s and use the on-call room.’ The temptation was strangling Luke. He couldn’t stay here and keep his hands off this woman.
But he had to pause, once more, as he stepped out into the night because the soft sound of Amy’s voice was arresting.
‘He did love you,’ she said quietly. ‘Luca.’
There it was again. That name. That pronunciation. Pulling him…somewhere.
Somewhere he couldn’t go because he had no idea how to get there.
And it was too disturbing.
‘Did you really have no idea?’ Amy asked.
‘No.’ Luke could hear the trace of bewilderment in his own voice. ‘No idea at all.’
CHAPTER SIX
‘C HRISTMAS shopping, was it?’
‘Sorry?’ Luke turned on the water and picked up the small brush to start scrubbing in. It was 6:30 a.m. and the question from his registrar was baffling.
‘That huge carton I saw you coming out of the lift with. You looked as if it was something you were planning to hide.’
‘Mmm.’ Maybe he’d looked as furtive as he’d felt. Luke hoped he hadn’t been observed earlier, down in the bowels of St Elizabeth’s Hospital, following the directions of that cooperative cleaner to where the recycling and large items of rubbish were collected. ‘Definitely Christmas stuff,’ he said in a tone that would discourage any further questions.
‘Great time of year, isn’t it?’ his registrar said cheerfully. ‘Rather fun, hiding stuff and surprising people.’
‘Mmm.’ Luke paid careful attention to scrubbing beneath his nails. His registrar should know he wasn’t one for idle chitchat right before surgery when his focus was on what lay ahead. He certainly didn’t want to start thinking about that early morning mission because then he would start thinking about Amy. Wondering how he could present that box of decorations currently sitting in a corner of his office. Imagining the sparkle of pleasure he might see in her face.
And if he started to think about that, his mind would latch back on to what had kept him largely awake for the few hours he’d spent in the single bed the on-call room boasted. Back to that kiss. The way he had felt holding Amy in his arms. That spiral of desire—or was it actually need ?—had to be firmly damped.
The bright lights of the operating theatre suite should be far more effective than daylight even in restoring reality, and Luke would welcome the return to normality. He could hasten it, by a nudge in the right direction.
‘So you know what’s on the agenda this morning? For baby Liam?’
‘Three surgeries in one go, from what I could gather.’
‘Pretty much. An arterial switch, VSD closure and repair of an aortic coarctation.’
His registrar whistled silently and any thoughts of Christmas shopping were clearly dispelled. They were in for a long, hard session in Theatre.
Preparations to put the infant onto the heart-lung bypass machine were painstaking and time-consuming, complicated by having to leave access to the arteries that needed repositioning. It was nearly 8:00 a.m. when the tiny heart was stopped with the cold, high-potassium solution that would also protect the heart muscle while it was not functioning.
Luke was already deep within the zone that would enable him to operate with no lessening of precision for many hours. Cutting tiny areas of miniature vessels and placing stitches he needed magnifying goggles to visualise accurately. Coating every suture line with fibrin glue.
Short breaks to flex muscles and counteract strain were taken, but for
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