'Well, that's easily solved. You can move in with me if you like,' Nicky said quickly. 'Our cottage isn't large but we've got a nice spare room which you're very welcome to.'
'That's really kind of you...' the lump in her throat grew bigger '...and if I get desperate I might take you up on it but, frankly, I think I'd be better off on my own.'
She felt so utterly miserable about Zach and Phoebe that she knew she'd be lousy company and she didn't want to have to keep putting on a brave face.
Nicky looked concerned. 'Are you sure you'll be all right staying with Zach until you find somewhere?'
'Oh, yes. We're on different shifts this week,' Keely said glumly. 'We overlap at work in the afternoons but we won't be seeing each other at home. I should survive.'
Or at least she hoped she would.
Thankfully they were incredibly busy over the next week, which helped Keely survive the trauma of seeing Zach every day and not being able to touch him.
It was still difficult.
She tried not to look at his familiar dark features, tried not to torture herself with memories of what they'd shared.
As for Zach, he seemed tired. Which didn't really make sense, she mused. To her knowledge he hadn't had any late nights and he hadn't been on call. So why did he have fine lines around his blue eyes and. why was he so uncharacteristically impatient with people?
'Ouch,' said Nicky one morning after all of them had been on the receiving end of his biting sarcasm. 'I'm going for a cup of coffee to get out of the line of fire.'
'He's never normally like that,' Adam grumbled, looking quite white after the dressing-down he'd just received from the consultant. 'I don't know what's the matter with him.'
'I do,' Nicky said softly, glancing at Keely and giving her a knowing look. She waited until Adam left the room and then lowered her voice. 'I think you'll find that our handsome consultant isn't finding it as easy to give you up as he thought he might. Hang in there, kiddo, you might just find that this has a happy ending.'
But Keely knew there was no chance of that. If he wanted to have a relationship with her, why didn't he just say so? He must have guessed how she felt about him.
No. The only reasonable explanation was that he really didn't want to pursue anything between them.
At home they were like polite strangers—behaving as if their night of incredible passion had never happened.
If only she didn't have to see him every day, Keely thought glumly. It just reminded her of all the reasons why she'd fallen for him in the first place. He was such a brilliant doctor that watching him in action was enough to make anyone fall for him. And they did. She could hardly fail to notice that most of the nurses cast covert glances in his direction all the time—and some of the female doctors, too!
His skill and intuition as a doctor was brought home to her later that afternoon when a young woman was admitted having fainted in the shops.
'She just collapsed on me,' her husband said, the anxiety showing in his face. 'She's never fainted before to my knowledge. Never.'
'Right, well, let's get her on a trolley and examine her,' Keely said, frowning slightly as she looked at the woman. She was ashen and slightly sweaty and Keely didn't like the look of her at all.
'Nicky, let's get Zach in here, please,' she said in a calm voice and the A and E sister left the room quickly, obviously picking up just how worried Keely was.
Zach was by her side in a matter of minutes, his handsome face serious as he questioned the husband.
The woman moaned softly, opened her eyes and then gave a little shriek and clutched her stomach.
'Oh, help me...'
'Is that where it hurts?' Instantly Zach's eyes flickered to the husband. 'Could I ask you to wait outside, please, while I examine your wife?'
The husband frowned and clutched his wife's hand. 'I'd rather stay.'
'I'll call you back in straight away,' Zach said gently, 'but I just need to take a look at her. I'm sure you understand.'
Nicky took the husband by the arm and led him out of Resus, and Zach immediately turned back to the woman.
'Does it hurt anywhere else?'
'My shoulder,' the woman gasped, and Keely stared at her, baffled. Zach's questioning was obviously aiming in a certain direction but at the moment she couldn't see what it was.