She wouldn’t settle for less.
‘I need to get on, Craig.’
‘Of course you do, what with a busy morning in the surgery and a busy afternoon at Dr MacNeil’s. I’ll just finish up here and get out of your way.’ He beamed at her. ‘Is seven too early to start tomorrow? I like to get the heavy stuff done before the sun comes up.’
‘Seven is fine. Thanks, Craig.’
One of the problems of living in a small community, Evanna reflected as she stepped over the rubble and walked into her kitchen, was that everyone was far too interested in everyone else.
She just hoped that no one said the same thing to Logan.
The next week passed in a blur as the surgery handled an unprecedented number of tourists.
‘I feel as though I’m running an A and E department,’ Logan grumbled as he and Evanna cleared up after stitching yet another child who had slipped on the rocks. ‘That was a nasty cut.’
‘He was rock-pooling and he should have been wearing shoes and not flip-flops. I suppose he just didn’t have any grip, which was why he slipped.’ Evanna dropped the stitch cutter into the sharps box. She’d been making a supreme effort to behave naturally with Logan and it seemed to be working. At least he’d stopped asking her if anything was wrong.
‘People leave their brains behind when they’re on holiday. I heard from the hospital today about Alison Winchester. They kept her in for a night and then followed her up before she went back down to London. She was still suffering aches and pains but no other effects that they can see. They’ve written to her GP.’
‘That will be a first for him. I bet a GP in London would know even less about an adder bite than I did.’ Evanna walked across the room and washed her hands. ‘Did they manage to find the snake, by the way?’
‘Funnily enough, yes. The park ranger rang me last week. They’ve relocated the family.’
‘Mr and Mrs Adder.’ Evanna laughed, yanking paper towels out of the holder. ‘Somewhere homely with a nice view, I hope. Hot and cold running water.’
‘Somewhere that no one is going to tread on them again, I hope,’ Logan said dryly, sitting down and hitting a key on the computer. ‘Am I finished here?’
‘For now. Janet told me that you have three house calls. Doug is feeling really dizzy and wondered if you’d call on your way home. I suspect it’s the heat or maybe his tablets, but it’s worth checking. You know how worried he’s been since they discharged him from the hospital.’
‘Patients are always worried after a heart attack and it’s still relatively early days for Doug.’ Logan picked up a set of results and scanned them. ‘How’s Sonia’s blood pressure at the moment?’
‘It’s still on the high side but her urine is fine and she has no swelling.’
Logan pulled a face and leaned back in his chair. ‘I still feel uneasy about her, Evanna. I’d rather she was in hospital.’
Evanna felt a twist of sympathy. ‘It’s natural that you’d worry after what happened with Catherine, but so far there isn’t an indication to admit her. I’m calling on her every day and if there’s any change, we’ll transfer her to the mainland in plenty of time.’ Her eyes met his and she knew what he was thinking. That night, the horrible storm, losing Catherine because the helicopter hadn’t been able to reach the island.
‘Logan…’ She hesitated, unsure whether to speak or not. ‘You know that there was nothing else you could have done, don’t you?’
‘Yes.’ His voice was harsh. ‘But knowing that doesn’t make it any easier to live with.’
‘I know that. I was there, too.’ Evanna swallowed, remembering the night with a shudder of cold panic. ‘And I ask myself every day whether I could have done something different. Whether I should have spotted something.’
He ran a hand over his face and let out a long breath. ‘There was nothing, we both know that. Catherine had an undiagnosed cardiac problem. Even if she’d been in hospital, the outcome would have been the same.’
‘You were amazing, Logan.’ She bit her lip, desperately wanting to comfort but not knowing how. ‘You saved Kirsty and look how bonny she is.’
‘Yes.’
Evanna hesitated. ‘You should go out more, Logan. I’ll babysit for you so that you can have dinner or something.’
He lifted an eyebrow, a flicker of humour in his blue eyes. ‘With whom, exactly?’
‘I don’t know.’ Evanna blushed, wishing that she’d never brought the subject up. It was bad enough thinking of Logan with another woman, without actually putting a face and name to someone. ‘I just think you need to get out. Have a social life.’
He frowned. ‘I have a social life. I see Kyla and Ethan. Meg and the cousins. You. We’re always eating together and spending time on the beach.’
Her heart skipped. ‘I know that. I was talking about…romance.’