Page 26 of A Doctor's Promise
“Your hat is pretty. The man doctor will like it,” she said, grinning.
Edie rolled her eyes at Anna and tried not to blush. The last thing she needed was Anna’s trail of thoughts taking her there and then blurting it out when Finn was present.
“Let’s go, Anna,” she said, hoping that buying a bucket and spade would be distraction enough.
The three of them ran up the sand together and back up the slope to the cafe and small shop. Edie peered in through the window of the cafe and saw Finn and Mary deep in conversation. Anna ran on ahead to the shop, so Edie felt it safe to stick her head around the door of the cafe and check how they were doing.
“We’re okay, thanks Edie,” Mary said over her cup of tea. “Anna looks like she’s enjoying herself. She’s not normally a fan of the sand because she can’t bring Monty the bear with her. But today seems different. Thank you. I’m sorry I can’t be down there with you.”
Mary looked paler than she had when she arrived. Edie shot a look at Finn.
“It’s okay, you know, you can talk about how hideously ill I look in front of me, I’m used to it,” Mary chuckled. “I’ll be okay though. I’m just glad Anna has someone to play with instead of having to worry about me. It’s a nice change.”
Mary started coughing and Edie held her hand up to stop her trying to talk anymore.
“It’s my pleasure, Mary. Anna is a delight to be around. I’d better go and find her before she spends all her pocket money on a bucket to finish our castle with.” Edie looked at Finn. “You’re in good hands, Mary. Make the most of the rest.”
Finn gave her a smile that would have melted her heart, was it not already completely thawed, and headed back out to find Anna.
“This one, Auntie Edie, please,” Anna said, holding up the largest castle shaped bucket Edie had ever seen.
She didn’t question the girl on her familial term, she didn’t want Anna to feel unsettled. Edie knew that Anna was testing what felt right in her own world, and Edie just had to let her.
“I’m not sure it’s big enough,” Edie teased, and Anna laughed.
Edie wouldn’t let Anna pay for it when they took it to the till point. She said Anna could treat herself to an ice-cream later and that the castle belonged to both of them, so it was only fair that Edie paid for it because she earned more pocket money than Anna did. There were no arguments on that point from the young girl, who skipped out of the shop with her new bucket and spade in hand.
“It’s amazing, thank you Auntie Edie,” Anna said, throwing her arms around Edie’s legs and covering them sand.
The castle was finished. It sat regally atop the mound they had both worked so hard on. A few pebbles that Edie had gathered, framed the windows and the large door. And Anna had even tried to fill the moat with water, so it now looked dark and murky, just like a real moat.
“It’s fit for a princess,” Edie said, rubbing the girls head. “Great team-work.”
“Can we go and find mummy now?”
Edie nodded, glad that Anna had brought up the idea as she had been thinking the same thing herself.
“Let’s take a photo of the castle first, so we can show it to Mummy and to Finn, I mean, Doctor Cooper.”
Edie took out her phone and, trying not to make it all sandy, and held it out in front of her.
“Let’s get all of us in the picture too,” she said, coaxing Anna around beside her and trying to get Archie to sit still.
She held up the camera and took a snap of the castle, her and Anna smiling brightly at their creation, and Archie’s lolloping tongue. She felt her heart soar at what they had managed to achieve in the few hours they had been together. Then wondered, anxiously, what Finn and Mary had been discussing.
11
“One eighteen pm, I’m calling it,” Finn said, dejected. He pulled away from the operating plinth and closed his eyes to offer a moments respect. “Well done, everyone. We had another difficult job today, and unfortunately the cancer won again. Keep positive and we can beat this. We have one last chance during these initial trials to prove that surgery can be a possible way to treat these awful cardiac tumours. Without this, we know the survival rate is non-existent, so it’s all for the good, even though what’s happened today is sad. See you all again next week. Could you close up and prep for the family, please?”
He walked away from the table, peeling off his gloves and depositing them in the contamination bin. His heart felt heavy, not only with the death of the second patient, Mr Bates, but also for what this might hold for his own future. He needed to find Edie. They needed to talk about Mary and Anna. They still hadn’t spent any time alone together, and Finn had felt his resolve melting away with each day that passed. He had felt so strongly towards Edie, she had lifted his spirits and his wall with her kindness and her gentleness, but also with her steely determination and the way she had stood up to him. Not to mention how utterly beautiful she was. The way her eyes flashed with the purples of the woodlands, her dark hair glossy and flowing, and the way she had looked reading quietly at the cafe not noticing Finn was watching. It had all cemented the initial shock of how he had felt when he’d first laid eyes on her. Not since his wife had Finn felt this strongly about a woman.
She wasn’t in her office when Finn knocked gently at the door. He’d changed out of his scrubs and was looking casual in jeans and a t-shirt. The attire had drawn a few raised eyebrows as he’d walked between the operating theatre and Edie’s office. People weren’t used to seeing him in anything other than smart clothes or blue surgical scrubs. The double takes had almost made Finn laugh at people’s incredulity that hewashuman after all. And when he’d smiled at them, their faces had been a joy.
Finn was still chuckling to himself as he tried Edie’s office door and found it open. Then he remembered why he was there, and his attitude sobered once more.
“Edie?” he said, quietly, but the office was empty. “Where are you?”
He wracked his brains to see if he could recall her diary plans, and he was pretty sure she hadn’t booked anything in for today. Not least because they would possibly have the family of Mr Bates to talk to; and now they did, Finn wasn’t sure he was up to it. The rise and falls of emotion were more draining to him than the actual surgery. At least in the cool clinical theatres he could switch off his thoughts and concentrate on the task in hand. Outside of the theatre, and Finn’s thoughts had been spiralling around much quicker recently. There were the memories of his wife and unborn child that he had so thoroughly pushed down he rarely thought about them now. And still, even ten years later, it hurt as much as it had done the night they both died. Then there was Edie. And the confusion at the prospect he could learn to love another person. This surgical trial had a lot to answer for.
