The woman in the mocha dress warned, ‘Julie…’
‘What? I’m only being polite.’ Julie gave him an approving look. ‘You’re way hotter than any doctor I’ve ever seen, except maybe the ones onGrey’s AnatomyorER. Some of those doctors are insanely hot.’
‘Julie, you just got married,’ the woman in the mocha dress said. The crowd had dispersed now and as she crouched down again, Noah did his best not to stare, not to take in the silky soft skin and the way her dress showed enough decolletage to be classy and sexy rather than tacky.
Kate, with a bit of a laugh at Noah being quizzed, asked Julie to let them ask the questions rather than the other way round.
‘I’m sorry,’ Julie groaned. ‘You’re trying to do your job.’ But to Kate in a lower whisper, she added, ‘Seriously, how do you concentrate working with him?’
‘He’s new,’ Kate laughed. ‘But I think I’ll manage to control myself.’ Although she was having a hard time not grinning from ear to ear at Noah’s expense.
Julie was coherent, with injuries that appeared minor, and although Noah knew minor could mask bigger problems, he didn’t think that was the case here. He wondered whether the caller had panicked and made the incident out to be worse than it was, which triggered the HEMS desk who triaged all emergency calls to deploy the air ambulance. And looking around at the crowd, he expected alcohol had been involved and fuelled the call.
He frowned, whether at himself or whoever had made the call, it was a toss-up. It was something he was trying to manage, not making snap judgements because of his own family history. He needed to get on top of it really so that he could do this job without bias, but sometimes his personal feelings crept right on in and did their best to interfere.
The woman in the mocha dress was still on the case if anyone tried to get closer to see the action. He almost smiled; she reminded him of a bouncer at a club anticipating trouble before it happened. Not a bad person to have here with them for backup, he supposed.
The chatter in the room had simmered a little at the presence of more medical people when the road ambulance crew arrived. The paramedics offered their assistance and the decision was made by both crews that this time round the patient didn’t require transportation by air.
Kate put a hand on Julie’s arm. ‘I know it’s your wedding day but you should go to the hospital in the road ambulance for a thorough check, make sure nothing has been missed.’
‘I’m fine,’ Julie insisted before recalling her name, date of birth, today’s occasion, the name of the prime minister, although there’d been a few sniggers there because she didn’t come up with it straight away. She assured both Kate and Noah that that was usual for her.
‘I mean it,’ Julie insisted. ‘Ask me anything aboutLove Islandand I’ll tell you whatever you need to know.’
‘Not a fan myself,’ Noah smiled as he packed everything back into the kit bag.
The goddess in the mocha dress talked to Kate while Noah spoke with the road ambulance crew to hand over the patient.
Noah attracted the attention of another woman as he zipped up the last of the bags so they could head back to the helicopter. She was a friend of Julie’s apparently; she wanted to know whether Julie would get to go on her honeymoon. He told her he wasn’t sure but the signs were all good and he successfully managed to bat a couple of personal questions about himself away when she asked him if he was new to town and whether he was married.
Kate didn’t miss a chance to tease him, even though they’d only met this evening. ‘You’re popular, although that woman might have left you in need of medical attention. I reckon you’d have passed out with the amount of perfume she has on. That or you’d have suffocated by cleavage.’
‘I don’t think I’ll hang around to find out,’ he grinned, hoping the red team were this friendly when he joined them officially.
‘Oh, I don’t know, look at that bar,’ she said in a low whisper with a discreet glance that way. There appeared to be more variety here than in some of the London bars he’d been to. She gasped and nudged him, looking to the far corner of the room. ‘There’s even a roulette wheel, look! It’s like small-scale Vegas in here.’
The words were out of his mouth before he had a chance to filter. ‘Yeah, small-scale Vegas with too many rich people taking resources from someone who actually needs an air ambulance.’ He cringed. He should’ve said it more quietly, kept his opinions to himself rather than letting his personal experiences creep back in again. It was damn hard to do, though.
‘Not for us to decide.’ Kate hoisted one of the bags onto her back. ‘We get a job and we go.’
‘She’s right,’ came a female voice from behind them. It was the woman in the mocha dress and she smiled at Kate then glared at him. ‘It’s not for you to say what jobs require your attention and which ones don’t.’
Shit. He really had spoken too loudly.
‘I apologise,’ he said. He was riled because of personal history and he shouldn’t hold the rich responsible for all of the world’s evils. But still, he could lay some of it at their feet to make himself feel a little bit better when he needed to, couldn’t he?
The woman hadn’t finished.
‘I wouldn’t mind if I was a time waster; give me hell for that.’ She had her hands on her hips now.
‘Maya…’ Kate began.
‘You know me, Kate, I wouldn’t do that.’ Before Kate could say a word, the woman continued her rant. ‘It was me who made the call; I thought it was worse than it actually was. I’ve seenenough and heard enough about head injuries to know they can be catastrophic.’
‘You’re a nurse?’ he asked.
‘Oh, this ought to be good,’ Kate mumbled before she left him to sort this out for himself while she radioed in to let the HEMS desk know they were clear and available.
