Georgie's Big Greek Wedding - By Emily Forbes Page 0,4

hand and walked over to the edge of the pontoon, away from Nigel, his wife and the crewman, who was still hovering waiting for any further instructions. Georgie followed him, she didn’t think she could do anything else. Her feet seemed to be behaving independently of her brain, following his lead.

He leant on the railing and Georgie could see each bony prominence of his vertebrae where his spine curved as he bent forward.

‘Are you happy to monitor him and make that call if necessary?’

Her frown deepened. ‘Of course.’ She had no problem with that but she wondered why he was handing total patient care over to her.

‘I flew out to the reef on a helicopter charter,’ he explained, ‘and I’ve just been told it needs to take off as there’s another chopper coming in onto the landing pontoon shortly. But I can stay to help monitor Nigel if you like. I need to know what you’re comfortable with before I tell him what’s happening. I could come back on the catamaran with you if you’d prefer.’

Did he think she couldn’t handle things? Was that why he’d offered? He didn’t need to do her any favours.

‘Thank you but I can manage. I’m used to working in these conditions,’ she said as she looked around the pontoon and the expanse of water surrounding it. ‘Well, perhaps not these exact conditions, but I’m certainly used to coping outside a hospital environment. If I’m at all concerned I’ll call QMERT in. They can do an evacuation from the catamaran if things get really dicey. It’s fine. Go.’

Go and let me concentrate. She knew it would be better if she was left to work on her own. After all, she’d wanted to be in charge.

There was a stretcher fixed alongside the stairs that led to the upper deck, and she instructed the crew to bring it to her as she swapped places with the doctor. She watched him as he gathered his things and boarded the little dinghy that would ferry him across to the helicopter pontoon.

She watched him as he left her to monitor Nigel. That wasn’t an issue. She was more than capable. She didn’t need his help. She could work more efficiently without the distraction. But as the dinghy pulled away from the pontoon, she wondered where he was from and, as he raised a hand in farewell, she realised she had no way of finding out. She didn’t even know his name.

CHAPTER TWO

GEORGIE parked her car beside the airport building that was the headquarters for the Cairns division of QMERT. She climbed out and pulled her white singlet top away from her body, looking for some respite from the heat. A quarter to eight in the morning and the north Queensland humidity was already stifling. She could feel the perspiration gathering between her breasts. She’d been in the tropics for months now but after moving from the cooler climes of Melbourne she still hadn’t got used to feeling hot and sticky ninety per cent of the time. But despite the sometimes intolerable humidity she was thoroughly enjoying her secondment to the Queensland Ambulance Service and QMERT.

And the weather wasn’t always so oppressive, she reminded herself. It had been remarkably pleasant out on the reef yesterday. It was only on the mainland that she noticed the humidity. The scenery yesterday had been very pleasant too, she recalled with a smile. It had been a pity the cute doctor had left before she’d got his name.

She still hadn’t decided whether she was more annoyed or intrigued by him. She had to give him credit for his quick reaction to the crisis yesterday. Nigel had made it safely back to the Cairns hospital and he had the doctor to thank for that. She supposed he’d only been doing what he’d been trained for and she couldn’t hold that against him. But, still, she wished she knew who he was.

She’d kept her eyes peeled last night when she’d gone out to dinner with her brother and sister-in-law, hoping she might see him wandering the streets of Cairns, but her search had been fruitless. She shrugged. She’d expected nothing less really, it had been a rather vain hope. But it had been her only hope. The only way she might see him again. More than likely he was just a tourist, just someone passing through Cairns, someone she was never likely to see again. But that idea was strangely disappointing.

She shook her head, trying to clear