‘Then that’s your problem, not mine. And now I’m going home. It’s been a long day.’ She walked up to him and lifted her chin, her eyes flashing into his. ‘Excuse me.’
There was a tense moment when she thought he was going to reach for her, but then the door behind him opened and he was forced to step aside.
Emma stuck her head round. ‘Oh, great, you’re still here.’ She smiled at Sally. ‘Bryony is on the phone. She said to tell you that she’s in the car park if you want a lift home.’
‘Thanks.’ Without glancing in Tom’s direction, Sally walked confidently out of the room, casting a smile at Emma. ‘See you tomorrow.’
She didn’t want to talk to him. Didn’t want an intimate conversation. She just wanted him to treat her as a colleague, nothing more.
That was all she could cope with.
CHAPTER THREE
TOM watched the staffroom door close behind the two women and fought the temptation to put his fist through the window.
He was boiling with frustration, aggravated to the point of explosion by the less than satisfactory exchange with Sally. There were things he needed to say and she wasn’t allowing him to say them.
But could he really blame her for that?
He ran a hand over his face and cursed softly. All day he’d been aware of her and it had disturbed his concentration more than he cared to admit.
She’d always played havoc with his emotions.
He prowled over to the window and stared moodily down into the car park, his jaw tightening as he saw Sally opening the door of his sister’s car and sliding inside.
He saw a flash of long leg, a glimmer of blonde hair and then she vanished from sight.
For now.
He comforted himself with the fact that Sally Jenner wasn’t going anywhere. She’d made the decision to come home so she was obviously planning on staying around. Which meant that he had plenty of time to engineer the conversation he was determined to have.
His mouth tightened as he watched Bryony drive off.
And the first thing he was going to do was talk to his sister.
* * *
Sally settled into her seat and gave a self-satisfied smile. ‘Thanks for the lift. Excellent timing. It’s hard to make a dramatic exit on a mountain bike.’
Bryony caught the smile and laughed. ‘From the look on your face, I gather you won that round.’
Sally took a steady breath. ‘Well, I didn’t make a fool of myself. You would have been proud of me. I was Miss Cool.’
And somehow she’d managed to pretend an indifference that she hadn’t felt.
Seeing Tom had affected her even more than she’d imagined it would.
Bryony waited for her to fasten her seat belt and then drove off. ‘I would have liked to have seen his face when he saw you.’
‘He was shocked,’ Sally said softly, recalling the look in his eyes with a slight shiver. ‘And disconcerted, I think.’
‘Never seen my big brother disconcerted about anything before,’ Bryony said dryly, shifting gears and slowing down as she approached the exit of the hospital. ‘I wish I could have been there.’
‘Well, fortunately Emma was,’ Sally told her. ‘That wasn’t a meeting I would have wanted to have in private.’
‘So what did he say?’
Sally moistened dry lips. ‘He wants to talk.’