LITMIR.BIZ

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This isn’t your battle.’ Richard gave a long sigh and rubbed his forehead with the tips of his fingers. ‘We all want to help, but she won’t accept more than we’ve done already. I suspect that what she really needs is friendship. She must be very lonely. Your mother and I keep inviting her round but she always refuses.’

      ‘I make a good friend,’ Joel said softly, and his father frowned.

      ‘No, Joel! I don’t want—’

      ‘Relax, Dad.’ Joel put a hand on his father’s shoulder, a confident smile playing around his firm mouth. ‘You need to learn how to chill out! You’re getting too old for all this stress.’

      ‘Too old!’ His father choked and spluttered and Joel grinned.

      ‘Trust me, Dad! I’m not going to hurt Lucy. I promise.’

      But he’d like to hurt the person who’d done this to her.

      His mind still churning over the possibilities, he turned on his heel and sprinted down the stairs before his father had time to warn him off again. One thing was sure: he was going to get to the bottom of what was behind the sadness.

      It was the blue-eyed doctor from the accident.

      Lucy stopped breathing and stared as he came down the stairs, long limbed and staggeringly handsome.

      Oh, no, no, no, no!

      Why hadn’t it occurred to her before?

      The Whittakers all had those same blue eyes, and Richard had told her that his son had worked on the air ambulance, so she really should have guessed.

      Joel.

      Joel Whittaker.

      Why did this have to happen? She loved Richard, and Michael and Nick were both friendly and non-threatening. But as for Joel…

      She swallowed hard as she stared into those glittering blue eyes.

      Joel was one hundred per cent predatory male and there was no way she would be able to work with him if he looked at her the way he had this morning.

      The way he was looking at her now.

      She hadn’t thought she’d ever be attracted to a man again and the strength of her reaction to him shocked her.

      But she didn’t want to feel that way. It just confused her.

      ‘Hello, again.’ He paused at the bottom of the stairs and gave her a friendly smile that she had to admit was more boyish than predatory. ‘Ros said you needed someone to see a patient?’

      She looked at him blankly. It hadn’t occurred to her that he’d be starting work straight away.

      ‘Is there someone you’re worried about?’ he prompted her, and she backed away from him, flustered.

      ‘Yes, but I just wanted to run an idea past someone. It’s probably stupid, and I know how busy you all are, and—’

      ‘Lucy.’ He interrupted her gently, his eyes searching. ‘You can run it past me. I’m a doctor, too, remember?’

      As if she needed reminding! His impressive performance at the scene of the accident was still uppermost in her mind. If it hadn’t been for him, she dreaded to think what might have happened.

      ‘Can we go into one of the consulting rooms?’ She glanced over her shoulder towards her treatment room. ‘I don’t really want to talk in the corridor.’

      He was instantly professional, his blue eyes keenly interested. He strode ahead of her, pushed open Michael’s door and stood to one side to let her in.

      Closing the door behind them, he stayed with his back to the door, watching her carefully. ‘Go on, then—fire away.’

      She swallowed. ‘Kawasaki disease. Have you ever come across it?’

      He nodded slowly. ‘Once, when I was doing paeds, but it’s pretty rare. Why? Do you think we’ve got a case?’

      Lucy looked at him and started to relax. At least he hadn’t laughed or scoffed or tried to tell her that she was overstepping her role.

      ‘I’m probably completely wrong—tell me some more about it. It’s not in the textbook I keep in the treatment room.’

      Joel took a deep breath and paced across the room to the window. ‘Kawasaki disease—otherwise known as mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome—first reported in 1967 in Japan. It’s thought to be related to a viral infection and usually affects children under the age of five.’ He turned to face her, a frown touching his brow. ‘What signs and symptoms does the child have?’

      ‘She’s had a temperature for the last five days. She saw Michael once at the beginning, but he thought it was viral, and now she’s got a nasty peeling rash on the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet,’ Lucy told him. ‘And her tongue looks like a strawberry. That’s what made me think of it, to be honest. I just remembered the strawberry tongue bit from my training. One of those useless bits of information that stay with you.’

      ‘Clearly not useless,’ Joel said softly, walking back across the room and opening the door. ‘Michael’s gone out on a call so I’ll take a look at her with you.’

      ‘They couldn’t get an appointment to see one of the doctors today, so she thought she’d ask me about the rash,’ Lucy said as they walked to the treatment room. ‘I’m probably being ridiculous. It’s probably nothing.’

      Joel pushed open the door of the treatment room and Lucy introduced him to Millie Gordon and her mother.

      Despite the temperature, which was clearly making her feel ill, Millie’s eyes widened. ‘I thaw you on the television,’ she lisped, and Joel grinned at the little girl and squatted down in front of her so that their eyes were on the same level.

      ‘You did?’

      She nodded her head. ‘My mummy thinkth you’re gorgeouth.’

      Millie’s mother turned a deep shade of pink and Joel threw his head back and laughed, clearly not in the slightest bit embarrassed by Millie’s indiscretion.

      ‘Well, that’s nice to know.’ He was totally confident and relaxed. ‘I need all the fans I can get.’

      Lucy glanced between them, confused, and then suddenly remembered what the paramedic had said. ‘You were on television?’

      Mrs Gordon looked at her in surprise. ‘You mean you haven’t ever seen Helicopter Doctor? It’s on every Tuesday at seven p.m. It’s the most exciting thing on television! We haven’t missed a single episode in our house. Even my husband enjoys it. Although not,’ she said with a blush, ‘for the same reasons as I do. Dr Whittaker is the nation’s heartthrob,’ she added in an undertone to Lucy.

      The nation’s heartthrob?

      Was he?

      It was easy enough to understand. Those gorgeous blue eyes and that killer smile must have had the female viewing public falling to their knees. Combine it with some heroic roadside rescues and he must seem irresistible.

      Seemingly indifferent to his growing national reputation, Joel examined the little girl thoroughly, keeping her entertained with stories of life on the air ambulance as he took a good look at her.

      ‘She’s had a temperature for five days now and she’s very cranky,’ Mrs Gordon said softly as Joel checked Millie’s mouth and her eyes.

      ‘Any diarrhoea?’

      ‘Some, yes.’ Mrs Gordon frowned. ‘What do you think it is?’

      Joel straightened and crossed his arms across his broad chest. ‘It could be a number of things,’ he said quietly. ‘There’s no point in me listing them for you, but Sister Bishop here suspected something called Kawasaki disease and I think she’s right. Some people think that it can come on after a viral infection. It may

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