‘Felicity, I’ve got someone on the phone I’d like you to talk to. Ms McIntosh is a lawyer, so put on your best face.’ She handed her phone over to shaky fingers. ‘Go on,’ she nudged when Fliss just stared at the instrument. ‘Introduce yourself.’ Then Sienna walked away, and straight into Harry. ‘Hi,’ she managed around the lump building at the back of her throat.
‘Did you get called in?’ It was a demand, not a question.
‘No.’
‘Getting your concussion checked out by someone else?’
‘No.’ Amy had done that earlier.
‘So why are you here and not dealing with that list?’ His gaze dropped, cruised down over her fitted sea-green blouse to her even more fitted white jeans. He blinked. ‘You’re not working, are you?’
‘Nope. I came in to arrange for Anna to talk to Felicity about a holiday job in her legal office.’ She really wanted to go eavesdrop on Fliss’s side of the conversation.
‘Why doesn’t that surprise me? You doing something kind for a patient outside of here? Sorry for being a prat.’ Harrison’s gaze turned in the same direction as hers.
‘She needs someone to believe in her, someone outside of this place, and not her mother. A stranger who can tell it to her like it is and expect her to pull her weight.’
‘Anna will certainly do that.’ Harry smiled. ‘Watch out.’
Fliss flew towards her. ‘Doc Sienna, I’ve got a job.’
Bracing for the slam coming her way, Sienna laughed. ‘You’re not meant to run around here.’
Warm arms surrounded Sienna with a thump. ‘Thank you, thank you. Ms McIntosh’s so nice. She said I can go see her tomorrow after school and she’ll show me what I’ll be doing.’
Swallowing the stab from her ribs, Sienna warned, ‘Anna’s a hard taskmaster.’ She was also a softie behind that bulldog exterior, but best Fliss worked that out for herself.
‘I don’t care. I’ve got a job.’ Fliss danced on the spot. ‘Woo-hoo.’
A warm hand spread between Siena’s shoulder blades. ‘Well done, Felicity.’
‘Doc Harry? Did you hear that? I’m going to work for Doc Sienna’s friend. How cool is that?’
‘Very cool.’ Harry high-fived Felicity with his other hand.
Slapping his hand, Felicity did a little jig. ‘I’m going to ring Mum. She’ll be so happy for me. Thanks again, Doc Sienna.’ She raced away.
‘Fliss?’ Sienna called after her. ‘My phone?’
‘Oops, sorry, forgot.’
With her phone back in her pocket Sienna felt a rush of pure happiness. She’d done something good for this girl that wasn’t medical. Now she really should go and do the same for herself. What brand of cycle would she buy this time? She could top up the insurance pay-out that would turn up in her bank account during the next month and get something swankier than the last one.
‘Si?’ Harrison stood in front of her. ‘Feel like coffee?’
‘Haven’t you got a helicopter waiting on the roof?’
‘We’re grounded while the guys fly to the maintenance yard to get something tightened. I said I’d make my own way back to base in an hour.’
‘Then coffee sounds good.’ Thank goodness she’d put an effort into her clothes that morning, and hadn’t chucked on the usual plain skirt and shirt. If the way Harrison’s eyes kept giving her the once-over was anything to go by, she’d got her outfit right.
He might be in her life short-term but she would make the most of whatever he had to spare. Starting with coffee. ‘Not the hospital cafeteria, please?’
‘Wouldn’t dream of it, fuss-pants.’
There was a skip in her step all the way to the café along the road from the hospital, but once they were seated with large bowls of steaming cappuccinos in front of them, her excitement died. ‘The helicopter wasn’t about to fall out of the sky, was it?’ Harry being in an accident was not allowed.
‘Not at all. We could’ve operated non-stop all day but it’s been quiet and the pilot wanted the job done.’
‘What happens if you’re needed? When you think it’s quiet is usually when the calls start coming in thick and fast.’
Harrison nodded. ‘True, but another crew is on standby. They’ve been doing training exercises all morning so they’re up to speed if necessary.’
She could relax. Harry hadn’t been in danger. And here he was, sharing coffee in a café—with her. ‘I’m going shopping this afternoon.’
‘What for?’
‘A new bike. Think I’ll get something a bit more geared than my last one.’
‘So you can fly off the side of a hill faster than last time?’ He was laughing but she didn’t miss the flicker of concern cross his eyes.
‘Good brakes are the first prerequisite.’
‘Can you buy focus by the packet?’ He sipped his drink.
Heat flooded her cheeks. ‘I was focused.’
‘Just not on the road.’
‘You are such a stirrer, Harrison Frost.’ And she liked it despite how he’d somehow figured out he was the cause of her accident, and enjoyed rubbing it in. ‘There’s nothing wrong with my focus.’ Except when he was around. Like now. How long had her phone been ringing? ‘Excuse me. I don’t usually get calls during the day—it might be important.’
‘Go ahead.’
Anna’s number showed on the screen, then a text pinged into the box. ‘It’s Anna, saying she’s looking for
ward to helping Felicity.’ Phew. ‘Mission accomplished.’
‘Go you,’ Harry said quietly, all the while watching her with something like care for her in his eyes.
* * *
‘The humidity has to be at least eighty percent,’ Harry grumbled at his own shadow as he slouched up his steps and opened the front door, tipping backward as a wave of hot, heavy air expelled from inside. Heat he could handle, but this humidity did him in. Everyone at work had been complaining while patients had been fractious, unlike their usual grateful selves at being airlifted to hospital.
Opening every door and window wide didn’t placate him, nor lighten the sultry heat. Shucking out of his sweaty clothes to pull on a clean set helped his mood a little. The first mouthful of a cold beer helped a lot. He’d been grumpy all afternoon since he’d left Sienna at the café. He hadn’t wanted to go back to work and leave her. All because of one kiss.
Kisses weren’t meant to unravel a man. At a basic level they were the prelude to sex. At best they were exciting and tempting, and enjoyable. But to knock him off his feet with need and a longing for more—more than sex? It had never happened since Celia; shouldn’t be happening now.
He wanted another Sienna kiss.
He needed the follow-through.
He longed to be with her, holding her, touching, talking. Being together.
He had to stay away. Or lose his mind over her, in her.
Sure you haven’t already lost it?
Somehow he had to get a grip or the next few weeks were going to be unbearable. First he’d phone Lance and take up the job offer. A year in Melbourne wasn’t what he wanted but it would give him something to focus on, because living in his home city wasn’t a walk in the park, and would need constant attention to detail to keep out of his mother’s firing line. There wouldn’t be time to think about a certain sexy, hot, kind, lost lady.
But he still had time to put in here first.
‘Harrison, you in there?’