Chapter Thirty-Four
“I was concerned when Moira said they’d found the truck abandoned in the center of the flooded gully.” His dark blue gaze lasered through her when Alex looked up from behind the check-in desk.
Self-consciousness heated her cheeks. Emma felt like a schoolgirl caught out with the wrong boy after curfew. Brushing the back of her hand across her flaming face, Emma avoided Alex’s penetrating stare. Why should she feel like she’d been dishonest? She’d never promised Alex anything more than an attempted truce. And all he’d ever asked of her was friendship. How she lived her life outside of the clinic was none of anyone’s business. “The rutted out road washed away before I realized it. I had no idea flood waters could rise so fast.”
“Saints be praised! Yer all right.” Moira rushed out from behind the door to the storage closet and crushed Emma against her buxom, lavender-scented bosom. “We thought for sure ye’d washed out to sea when we couldn’t find ye anywhere near the truck.”
Peeling herself out of Moira’s pillowed embrace, Emma grabbed the fretting woman’s fluttering hands. “I’m fine, Moira. I’m all right and I’m so sorry about Alfred’s truck. I promise I’ll pay for all the repairs.”
“Pshaw!” Moira huffed, squeezing both Emma’s hands as though fearing Emma might evaporate into thin air. “The important thing is yer alive and well. Many a wretched soul has drowned when that passage overflows from the heavy rains.”
Remembering the roaring ferocity of the water, Emma struggled to slow her hammering heart before it pounded out of her chest. A weak smile trembled at the corners of her mouth while Emma inhaled a calming breath. “Luckily for me, my friend Torin came along. If not for him, I probably would’ve drowned.”
“Torin.” Alex spit the name as if it was a curse. “The man from the pub? The one ye threatened to kill if he showed up at your croft again?”
Emma snapped around at the heated edge to Alex’s tone, growing uneasy at the sudden irritation firing from his eyes. Choosing her words with selective care, Emma did her best not to over-think his reaction. Alex was just concerned about the clinic’s investment. It would be expensive to set up another grant to secure a pediatrician from overseas.
“Ye threatened to kill a man?” Moira whispered, her eyes rounding in wide-eyed surprise behind her pearlized spectacles.
Emma stifled the urge to roll her eyes. Moira took everything too literally. “I didn’t mean it when I said I was going to strangle him—and both Alex and Torin knew that.”
“Ye seemed fairly certain ye wanted nothing to do with the man when ye stomped your way out of the pub,” Alex challenged with an accusing frown.
Aggravation tightened her jaw. Disbelief stoked the flames of irritation flowing through her veins. What the hell was wrong with him? He was behaving like an alpha dog protecting his trees from somebody else’s piss. “Look, Alex. All I know is Torin saved my life. He showed up when I needed him the most. Why are you so hostile this morning? I thought we’d called a truce.”
Alex straightened behind the counter, a non-committal mask shuttered over his face as though someone had flipped a switch. “I am not hostile. I was merely concerned for the future of the clinic. I don’t appreciate our investment endangered. If we lost ye, we dinna have the funds to lure another pediatrician to the Isle.”
“Well, that makes me feel so much better.” Emma snatched her white lab coat off the hook and yanked it on. What a nice guy. No wonder the man was still single. There couldn’t be a heart beating inside his chest. He must’ve come equipped with nothing more than a calculator. “I’m sorry I worried you about your investment. But life tends to be dangerous sometimes and we can’t always control what crosses our path.”
His mouth tightened into an accusing sneer as Alex knotted his hands atop the counter. “Aye, Dr. Maxwell. I agree ye couldna help the storm washing away your path but ye have definite choices when it comes to the company ye keep.”
“Look. I don’t know who you think you are but you have no right lecturing me about choosing my friends. We may have called a truce the other day but if you keep up this line of conversation, the cease fire is over.” Emma straightened her collar with an irritated yank then jammed both fists into her pockets. She was in no mood for some territorial male, especially one with a confused idea of ownership.
“Moira, will ye talk some sense into her?” Alex barked out the words as though shouting life-saving orders during triage. “I canna deal with the woman!” Clearing the countertop of the stacks of files, he stomped down the hall to his office and slammed the door.
“I think he needs to be medicated.” Emma stared down the hallway at the dark-blue door separating them from the sullen doctor. “What the hell is his problem? Was he that worried about the possibility of funding another doctor?”
“Are all American women as dense as you?” Repositioning her fleshy support-hose encased legs, Moira grunted as she stooped to gather the scattered files.
“Moira!” Emma couldn’t believe Moira’s scolding tone. The ever-patient always-smiling grandmother never raised her voice to anyone but Alfred. Was everyone in a lousy mood today?
Red-faced and huffing, Moira straightened, hugging the armload of papers to her chest. “Can ye no’ tell that he likes ye? Have ye never seen jealousy before?”
“Jealousy? How can he be jealous? We barely made it to speaking terms before the cease fire ended.”
Jerking her chin down with a decisive nod, Moira fixed Emma with a tight-lipped scowl. “Aye. Jealousy. I told ye from the verra beginning that Dr. Mac would find ye a tempting lass.” Pointing a handful of files first toward the closed office door down the hall and then back to the center of Emma’s chest, Moira’s voice pitched slightly higher as her temper fueled her words. “And even an inexperienced woman such as yourself should know that no man likes for anything to be taken right out from under his nose…whether he’s laid claim to it or not!”
Emma shifted her gaze from Moira’s frustrated face to the dark-blue door at the end of the hall. Doubt weighed heavy in the pit of her stomach, unfurling its claws into a raging beast of uneasiness churning into her chest. She didn’t need or want Dr. Alex Mackenzie’s interest. Life was complicated enough right now just trying to sort out her existence with Torin. She needed to nip this conversation in the bud before it went any further. “I hope you’re mistaken, Moira, because I don’t believe in getting involved with co-workers. Many a medical facility has suffered when staffers have become more interested in chasing each other than doing the job at hand.”
The color faded a bit from Moira’s cheeks as she tapped the edge of the papers on the counter. With a disgruntled shrug, she pursed her lips while stacking the files into a tidy pile. “I’m verra sorry to hear that, Dr. Emma. I think ye’re missing a fine opportunity to get to know a verra special man.”
Poor Moira. Emma heaved a weary sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose. The woman suffered from a terminal case of cupiditis. If she wasn’t neck deep in a matchmaking scheme, Moira wasn’t happy. With a glance toward the still closed blue door, Emma blew out another heavy sigh. And apparently, she’d convinced Alex he needed to give chase. What a freaking mess that she really didn’t have the time to deal with right now. “I appreciate the fact that Dr. Mackenzie is a fine man, Moira. And I respect him for his work. But I am adamant about not dating a co-worker. It’s just not a good idea.”
“Fine.” Moira waddled around the counter and plopped down into her overly padded rolling chair. Adjusting her glasses to the end of her nose, she bobbed her head up and down while glaring at the flickering computer screen. “Your first patient will be here anytime. Ye’d best review the file while you’re having your coffee.”
Great. Now Moira was mad at her too. The day was off to a brilliant start.