Page 63 of Doc Defence

“That’s amazing,” Hel said enthusiastically. She was delighted for her friend.

“And they’re making dresses for my two lovely bridesmaids.” Clara clapped her hands together.

“What?” Hel blinked and blinked again.

The bridesmaids were her and Sadie. The nicest dress she had ever bought was from David Jones, and she was sure Clara just said she would be given a made-for-her designer dress.

“Yeah. I wanted to see your face when I told you. Oh, hang on.” Clara grabbed her phone off the table and snapped pictures of Hel and Sadie, who both had very similar expressions of surprise on their faces. She passed it across. “Here, have a look.”

Hel broke her stupor to take the phone. She frowned. She looked like a surprised fish. Freezing, she felt the warm heat of Frost as he leaned across so he could look as well. When she didn’t move to the photo of Sadie, he leaned even further in and swiped across for it. When his fingers grazed hers, she got even more flustered.

Frost only had to be near her, and she could feel his proximity. This was not happening. He was leaving. It was only a few months until the end of the season, and then he would be out of her life. She needed to pull herself together.

Hel’s eyes focused on the photo of Sadie, and she smirked. Her friend had been caught mid-cheer and had her mouth wide open, with something that looked very like a partially chewed bit of burger visible.

Thrusting the phone to Sadie, she sniggered. “For once, I come off better than you in the terrible photo wars.”

Sadie snatched the phone, peering at the screen. “Clara, that’s awful. Why would you do that?” She picked a fry up off her plate and threw it at Clara, hitting her friend between the eyes.

Sadie laughed in delight at her shot, and Hel joined in.

“Hey,” Clara exclaimed.

“You deserved it! We both look ridiculous in those photos,” Hel admonished her friend.

“You do.” Clara chortled. “Although you’re getting designer dresses made for you, which is probably worth one bad photo each.”

Hel and Sadie glanced at each other, the anaesthetist speaking first. “It is.”

“Fine,” Hel conceded. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Frost’s shoulders shuddering as he contained his laughter.

CHAPTER 21

FROST

Frostwashavingablast at the pub quiz. The banter around the table was hilarious. He was finding out some very entertaining things, including the fact that the fake beard Taylor wore was either called the Face Ferret or Bruce the Beard.

Sadie clutched her sides as she chortled and told him the story of Taylor’s first pub quiz, where the whole thing was about Superman, a movie role he had played.

“Hel had a picture of Taylor in his spandex propped next to her for the whole evening, declaring it her ‘boyfriend’ blissfully unaware he was sitting so close.” Sadie was almost falling off her seat as she wheezed with laughter.

Frost glanced across at Hel. She was smiling and chuckling along, but he could see a tightness around her eyes, a slight flush on her cheeks, and her leg bounced under the table. She was embarrassed and trying to pretend she wasn’t.

Reaching down, he put his hand on her thigh to stop the nervous bounce and give her some reassurance. She froze under his touch, and for a second, he worried he had overstepped, but she didn’t make any move to push him away. She relaxed under the contact of his hand, and her body leaned toward him.

He really liked her. It made him wish he wasn’t leaving. He wanted to come to the pub quiz with her ridiculous friends. He wanted to wake up every morning when she had to go to work and make sure she ate breakfast and took a packed lunch with her. He wanted to be with her in the evenings while she told him crazy stories about some of the characters she looked after that day at work.

Reality crashed in on him, and he drew his hand back. He had accepted the NHL contract and was leaving Australia.

He felt cold when he wasn’t touching her anymore, and he frowned down into his lemonade, why did it feel wrong to not be in contact with this woman?

Hel glanced across at him, a quizzical expression on her face as if she could tell he had a lot going on in his mind, and asked, “Do you want another drink?”

Frost dragged himself out of his maudlin thoughts, looked down at his still half-full lemonade glass and shook his head. “No, thanks. If you want another drink, take my credit card. It’s my turn to buy.”

Hel scoffed at him. “I live in your house rent-free, and you buy most of the food. You’re not buying me drinks as well.” She pushed back her chair and announced to the table. “Does anyone need a top-up?”

A couple of the others accepted, but most shook their heads. There was only one more round left of the quiz, and as it was a weeknight, he guessed they weren’t going to hang around long after.

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