‘Don’t see any problem with that. I know who I am and I’m totally comfortable with people having a laugh at me. Believe me, I’d never have survived nine years on the trawlers if I couldn’t take the crap the guys threw at me. You’re fair game with some of those rogues if you get too serious about just about anything.’
He felt her shudder under his arm. ‘I’ve had a very sheltered life.’
‘Huh? You can say that after our drug-runner incident? Or having dealt with Friday and Saturday night revellers and their drunken angst in the ED?’
‘I guess.’
There’d been something else in her earlier comment. ‘A previous partner didn’t take kindly to being teased about his skills, or lack of?’ Her history concerning partners was a complete mystery, and likely to stay that way, he acknowledged to himself.
But Harper did what she’d done last Sunday on the beach. She blurted the truth quickly and emotionlessly. ‘My husband had a great sense of humour except when it came to anything about himself.’
Husband? Jeez. Cody shoved his free hand through his hair. He did not do having sexual relations, sexual anything, with a married woman. ‘I didn’t know.’
‘That I was married? I don’t tend to make a big deal of it. It’s an episode of my life I do not want to revisit.’ She looked up at him and now there was emotion lining her voice. ‘No point. What’s done is finished.’
Phew. Was married, not is married. He could breathe easily again. ‘How long have you been separated?’ He should quit while he was ahead, but he liked learning little snippets of information about her. Marriage wasn’t small, whether she’d separated or not. Okay, so he was nosey, or out to protect himself. He couldn’t decide which.
‘The divorce came through two months ago, right on the two-year anniversary of when we officially called it quits. I was in a hurry. If I wasn’t going to be married in the full sense of the word then I wanted out.’
‘I get that.’ I think. But then he’d never been there; he would never have the chance to see his marriage through or leave it. That had been taken out of his hands by the man who’d killed Sadie.
‘You ever been married? Or in a serious relationship?’ Harper asked.
Don’t want to go there. He could change the subject. But then he’d asked first. Which only went to show how much he lost the plot when he was around Harper. ‘Yes. Years back. It lasted six months and then she died.’
‘Cody.’ Harper spun around to stand in front of him, her hands resting on his cheeks. ‘I’m so sorry.’
His gut twisted at the sight of that genuine concern for him. Her hands were soft and gentle on his cheeks. He placed a hand over one of hers and lifted it to kiss her palm. ‘Me too.’ Another kiss, then he stepped back.
‘Don’t want to talk about it?’ There was no reproach in her eyes or her tone. Just a genuine concern that if he didn’t want to carry on this conversation she’d be okay with that.
‘Not really. It would spoil the day.’ Wrapping his hand around her soft small one, he swung them high. ‘I don’t want to do that.’
‘Then take me back to my place so I can change into something half-decent and we’ll go out for a drink and dinner. My shout.’
‘Yes to all of the above, except I’m shouting you.’ When she began to argue he covered her mouth with his and kissed her, long and slowly, long enough for her hopefully to forget whatever she’d been going to say.
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘WILL YOU LOOK at that?’ Tim, one of the doctors clocking off from night shift, whistled as Harper took the notes he was handing her about a patient in Resus. ‘Things get a little rough between you two over the weekend, did they?’ He glanced from Harper to someone behind her.
Turning slightly, Harper saw Cody strolling in, looking totally ready for the start of the week and not at all as if he’d spent most of the weekend making love with her or doing other energetic activities.
Then, ‘What did you say?’ Cody snapped, that nonchalance gone in a flash.
‘Joking, mate. Harper’s chin looks like it’s taken a nudge. What happened?’ His question was directed at her.
But she didn’t get a chance to answer.
Cody stepped up to Tim and growled, ‘Nothing like what you’re thinking.’
‘Take it easy.’ Tim stepped back. ‘I said I was joking.’
‘It’s not a joke to suggest someone has been rough with a woman.’
Harper grabbed Cody’s arm and pulled until he settled back down on the heels of his shoes. She shouldn’t be touching him at work, but she had to get him to see sense. Quickly. ‘Tim didn’t mean anything. He certainly wasn’t suggesting for one moment that you knocked me around.’ Dropping her hand, she handed Cody a file. ‘This patient’s ours. Go and get her. Now.’ She was talking to him as though he was a recalcitrant child, but he needed to get away from Tim and calm down.
‘Yes, doctor,’ Cody snapped, a flicker of hurt crossing his face before he all but snatched the file from her fingers. Tossing a glare at Tim, he turned to head for the waiting room.
Watching him stride away, his back über-straight, his head high, she said, ‘I was paddle-boarding and fell off—took a hit on the chin.’ What was bugging Cody, for him to go septic so fast? Had someone accused him of hitting a woman in the past? Surely not? He absolutely wouldn’t do anything remotely violent—he was the proverbial gentle giant, except when confronted with a gunman in Resus. She’d swear her career on that, but that didn’t mean someone hadn’t accused him of some such action to get attention or make his life uncomfortable.
‘Ambulance bringing in hit-and-run victim, male, twenty-four, cyclist. ETA fifteen—though it’s the start of the rush hour, so that might go out further.’ Karin had taken the call when Cody had headed for the waiting room on Harper’s instructions.
‘What’s the damage?’ Harper asked. Cyclists copped more than their share of shoulder injuries.
‘Probable fractured clavicle, fractured humerus—otherwise nothing obvious,’ Karin replied, unknowingly acknowledging Harper’s thoughts.
‘One for the orthopaedic crowd, then. You want to take him?’
Karin nodded. ‘Absolutely. Thanks.’
‘I’ll be within calling distance.’ She’d also look in on the situation regularly. Karin was a very competent registrar but it never hurt to make sure she didn’t have any problems with a patient. Now, where had Cody got to?
There he was, escorting an elderly man and woman into Cubicle Two. His face was strained, though he spared a smile when the couple said something to him. ‘Deep cut to thigh,’ he told Harper in a less-than-friendly tone as she approached. ‘Mr Gregory fell over the gardening fork and landed on some corrugated iron an hour ago.’
‘He shouldn’t have been digging the garden at all,’ the woman Harper presumed was Mr Gregory’s wife gr
owled. ‘He’s been told to leave it to our boys.’
As Cody eased the man onto the bed, Mr Gregory retorted, ‘I want to pick my veggies this summer, not next year. They never have time for a cup of tea, let alone to turn over the garden.’
‘Maybe that’s because you told them off last time they came to help.’
Okay, that was enough. Monday morning and crotchety patients—and nurses—was not how she wanted her week to start. ‘Right, Mr Gregory. I’m Dr White. Nurse Brand says you’ve got a deep cut which we will probably have to sew back together. Let’s take a look.’
While Cody removed the man’s trousers, Harper turned to the woman. ‘Mrs Gregory?’ She nodded and Harper continued. ‘Would you mind sitting over there? Thank you.’ Right, everyone was in their place and she could get on with her day. Except she glanced at Cody and her heart softened. Whatever that altercation had been about, it had shaken him. There was a white line around his mouth, and his eyes were sending out spears to anyone who dared look at him, which was mostly her at the moment. Well, I didn’t do anything wrong.
Cody looked up, those eyes wintry. ‘I’ll get the gear.’ He nodded at the wound he’d exposed on the old man’s thigh.
‘Thanks.’ She snapped on gloves and began to gently probe at the wound. ‘When you do something you do it well, don’t you, Mr Gregory? We’re going to have a load of stitches in here by the time you go home.’
He winced when she touched the wound again. ‘Yes, lass, I believe in doing a proper job, no matter what it is.’
‘I bet you grow fabulous vegetables.’ She chattered on to keep him occupied and hopefully not noticing too much pain. It also kept her mind off Cody and whatever his problem was.
‘Do you grow a garden, doctor?’
‘Can’t say I’ve ever tried.’ Could that be her next attempt to find something to do outside of work? No. She’d decided to give that up and focus on what she already had, hadn’t she?