‘And that’s why he had pains in his joints?’

Alex nodded. ‘It’s known as “the bends”.’ He didn’t follow his dive tables closely enough. He spent too long on the bottom and came up too fast. It could have been worse. He’ll be OK once they’ve sorted him out at the dive centre.’

Tina smiled. ‘In all the rush and panic, I didn’t even have the chance to introduce you to our new staff nurse. This is Jenny. Jenny Phillips.’

Alex’s blue gaze was decidedly cool as it flickered in her direction. ‘We’ve met,’ he said shortly, and turned on his heel and left the room without further conversation.

Tina stared after him, visibly shocked. ‘What’s got into him?’

Jenny ripped open a giving set and unravelled it ready so it could be attached to a bag of saline quickly if the next patient required it. She had absolutely no intention of confessing, but she knew exactly what had got to Alex Westerling.

Her.

* * *

Jenny enjoyed her first day more than she’d anticipated. It had helped that she’d been incredibly busy and that had prevented her from dwelling on her problems with Alex.

But she found working so closely with him distinctly unsettling as she tried to reconcile the doctor she saw in action with her preconceived views on the man.

Her head buzzed with conflicting signals.

She’d dismissed him as careless and shallow but as a doctor he was obviously extremely talented and well regarded.

The entire staff seemed to worship him.

How would they react if they knew what he was really like? she wondered as she collected a very contented but tired Daisy from the hospital crèche and drove out of town towards Alex’s home. What would they say if they knew how badly he’d treated Chloe? They only saw the capable, self-assured doctor and obviously he behaved in a suitably responsible fashion when he was at work. They didn’t know that he was a man with so few morals that he was capable of leaving a young girl pregnant.

Her mouth tightened as she parked the car outside the cottages and lifted the baby out of the car seat.

From his comments, it seemed as though he was going to do everything possible to dodge his responsibilities towards Daisy.

In a way she was glad that he’d contacted his lawyer. She had every confidence that he would produce concrete evidence to show that Alex Westerling was Daisy’s father.

And then surely he wouldn’t refuse to be part of her future?

* * *

Alex let himself into the house, dropped his bag on the polished floor and threw his jacket over the nearest chair.

He was hot, tired and seething with irritation following another fruitless discussion with hospital management over staffing levels in the A and E department.

It was high summer, the place was flooded with tourists and everyone was worked to the bone.

In theory he had the weekend off—the first one for a month—but he was well aware that there was every likelihood that he’d be called in to help if things became too stressful for the staff.