Page 75 of Prognosis Bad Timing

Carrie flinched at the disgust in his voice. He made it sound like the dirtiest word in the dictionary. She lifted her chin. ‘Yes. Expedient.’ To hell with him.

‘I thought you’d changed. I thought you’d started to see past the bottom line.’

His barb found its mark. She had changed, Carrie knew he could see it, too. She’d changed so much in her time here.

But that didn’t alter the facts.

‘My job is to look after the hospital’s money.’

Charlie strode to the door and whipped it open. He pointed to the teenagers that were already lining up for their first game of pool. ‘What are these kids going to do? Where are they going to go?’

‘That data is not required by the board —’

‘Data?’ he interrupted furiously, slamming the door closed. ‘They’re people!’

Carrie swallowed. ‘Rest assured, as with any report, I will also state the reasons against closure.’

Dear God, she sounded so pompous. So bureaucratic.

Charlie couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The centre was the heart and soul of this needy community. He couldn’t allow this to happen.

It was madness.

‘Is this because of us?’

It took a brief moment for the full implications of his statement to sink in to Carrie’s consciousness. ‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Well, let’s see. You haven’t mentioned a word to me once about the state of play and then this morning you overhear a phone call and now you’re shutting me down?’

Carrie stiffened. ‘I resent your inference. This was a professional investigation. What happened between us privately has absolutely no bearing on the outcome.’

‘You sure there isn’t a little vengeance in there?’

Carrie stared at him, at his indignation, and her heart ached. But she didn’t need to stick around and be insulted. Have her integrity called into question. She’d been down that road once in her professional career and had barely survived.

She wasn’t about to let Charlie do it to her again.

Picking up her laptop, she fished around in her pocket for the locker key he had given her the first day. ‘You will be receiving official notification in due course.’

Charlie rubbed a hand through his hair and stared at the key dangling from her outstretched fingers. This was making him crazy. First his father and then this? It was too much for one morning. She looked so self-righteous. So businesslike.

What did tie-dye Carrie think of it? Didn’t this bombshell affect her at all?

‘There’ll be an outcry,’ he warned. ‘This centre will close over my dead body.’

She hoped he was right, she really did. But the words wouldn’t come. This conversation had dealt the fatal blow to their relationship - whatever the hell it was. Now it was necessary for them to both move on. He had a chance with his ex and she had a life with Dana to get on with.

Carrie affected a nonchalant shrug. ‘That’s not my concern. Goodbye, Charlie. I hope you and Veronica are very happy.’

The light flippant delivery cost her dearly. She walked past him, her head held high, her back erect, her fingers squeezing the laptop bag handle with a death-like grip.

She didn’t want to go. But she couldn’t stay, either.

Charlie watched Carrie disappear with his heart in his mouth and realised the awful truth. She was ruining him twice. She wasn’t only going to take the centre away but she’d also walked away with his heart.

He had fallen in love with her.

It had crept up on him unawares but it was there nonetheless. No wonder he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. No wonder the women at the club the other night had left him cold. He’d been fooling himself that it was lust — a combination of pinstripes and abstinence. But as she walked away and an intense pain ripped through his gut, he knew it was deeper than that.

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