The Doctor's Proposal Read Free Page B

fortune hunters!’
    He hesitated at that. For a moment he stopped being angry and forced himself to think. What had she said? Rory’s Uncle Angus . Not Kenneth, then. Rory. The nephew in the States.
    She was so indignant that he was forced to do a bit more fast thinking. OK, maybe he was out of line. Maybe his logic was skewed. Angus was one of his favourite patients, and telling him he had to go into a nursing home had been a really tough call.
    Kenneth might be nasty and unbalanced but there was no reason to assume everyone else was.
    Maybe these two really were family.
    He forced himself to think a bit more. Angus had talked affectionately of his nephew Rory. Jake remembered the old man had been devastated to hear he’d died.
    If Rory had been married, then this pair really were part of Angus’s family.
    Caring family?
    The idea that hit him then was so brilliant that it made him blink.
    â€˜You really don’t know Angus?’ he asked, thinking so fast he felt dizzy.
    â€˜I told you. No.’
    â€˜But you’d like to see him tonight?’
    â€˜Yes, but—’
    â€˜And maybe stay the night,’ he told her, ideas cementing. He hated leaving Angus. He needed a full-time nurse, but Angus refused point blank to have one. With the state of his lungs, leaving him by himself seemed criminal. He should be in hospital but he refused to go. There was a bed at the nursing home available tomorrow and the old man had agreed with reluctance that he’d go then.
    Which left tonight.
    If he could persuade these two to stay, even if they were after the old man’s money…
    â€˜I’ll introduce you,’ he told her, doing such a fast backtrack that he startled her.
    â€˜What, now?’
    â€˜Yes, now. If you promise to stay the night then I’ll introduce you.’
    She was staring at him like he had a kangaroo loose in the top paddock. ‘We can’t stay the night.’
    â€˜Why not?’
    â€˜Well…’ She looked at him in astonishment. ‘We’re not invited.’
    â€˜I’m inviting you. Angus needs his family now more than he’s ever needed anyone. Tomorrow he’s being moved into a nursing home but he needs help now. He has pulmonary fibrosis—he has severely diminished lung capacity and I’m worried he’ll collapse and not be able to call for help.’ He eyed her without much hope, but it was worth asking anyway. ‘I don’t suppose either of you is a nurse?’
    She eyed him back, with much the same expression as he was using. Like she didn’t know what to make of him but she was sure his motives were questionable.
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜I told you.’ He sighed and glanced at his watch again. ‘He’s ill. He needs help. If you want to see him…are you prepared to help? If one of you is a nurse…’
    â€˜Neither of us is a nurse. Susie is a landscape gardener.’
    â€˜Damn,’ he said and started turning away.
    â€˜But I’m a doctor.’
    A doctor.
    There was a long pause.
    He turned back and looked at her—from the tip of her burnt curls to the toe of her muddy foot.
    She was glaring at him.
    He wasn’t interested in the glare.
    A doctor.
    â€˜You’re kidding me,’ he said at last. ‘A people doctor?’
    â€˜A people doctor.’
    A tiny hope was building into something huge, and he tried frantically to quell it.
    â€˜You know about lung capacity?’
    â€˜We have heard of lungs in America, yes,’ she snapped, losing her temper again. ‘The last ship into port brought some coloured pictures. The current medical belief in Manhattan is that the lungs appear to be somewhere between the neck and the groin. Unless we’ve got it wrong? It’s different in Australia?’
    Whoa. He tried a smile and held his hand up placatingly.
    â€˜Sorry. I only meant—’
    â€˜Oh, it’s fine,’ she told him