French Fling To Forever. Karin Baine

he felt obliged to continue. It was absolutely nothing to do with him getting a kick out of seeing her fired up.

      Once Henri had made sure his coronary patient was stable he went to his office to strip off his scrub top. He could shower at home, but for now a clean shirt would help peel away the layers of stress from the day.

       I know there’s one in here somewhere.

      He pulled open drawer after drawer, until a light tap on the office door interrupted his shirt search.

      ‘Come in.’

      ‘Dr Benoit…’ Lola’s voice trailed off as she caught him half-naked. Her wide eyes registered his state of undress, then shot towards the floor, the ceiling—anywhere but his bare chest.

      ‘What is it?’ he snapped, miffed by her visual dismissal. A white T-shirt rolled up at the back of his bottom drawer saved him from self-doubt and he pulled it on over his head.

      ‘Angelique and Gabrielle are here. I…er…thought you would want to know.’

      She scuttled away but Henri caught up and grabbed her arm.

      ‘Where are they? Is something wrong?’

      Lola let out a yelp and wrestled out of his grasp. ‘They’re outside. Gabrielle has taken a tumble at school, but insists she’s fine, and Angelique wants to talk to you about Bastien’s birthday. I’m just making sure you aren’t too busy to see them.’

      Lola backed away, rubbing the skin on her arm where he’d grabbed her.

      Henri immediately regretted being so rough. He hadn’t meant to scare her, but the thought of the girls in trouble had made him act without thinking.

      ‘I always have time for my family.’

      ‘In that case I’ll show them in.’ Lola frowned at him, making no attempt to hide her displeasure at his behaviour, and rightly so.

      ‘Thank you, and…er…sorry about—’ He gestured towards her arm when he realised Sorry for manhandling you would sound totally inappropriate.

      ‘It’s okay.’ She managed a half smile before she opened the door to let Angelique in.

      Gabrielle followed her mother inside and Henri spotted the red marks crisscrossing her pale skin. Emotion overwhelmed him once again. ‘What the hell happened?’

      ‘It’s just superficial,’ the rational voice of his junior assured him, even though he could see that for himself.

      It didn’t stop him from worrying.

      ‘Gabrielle? How did this happen to you?’

      His niece gave an exaggerated tut. ‘I keep telling everyone it’s no big deal. I fell over. End of story.’

      Henri knew he wasn’t getting the whole picture when she turned her face towards the wall and refused to look at him.

      Out of the corner of his eye he could see Angelique’s shake of the head, meant only for him—an indication that he wasn’t to pursue the matter any further. It wasn’t in his nature to stand idly by and pretend things was okay when they blatantly weren’t, but in parental matters he had to defer to his sister.

      ‘At least get a cold compress for that eye to stop the swelling.’

      ‘I’ll do it when I get home.’ An eye roll accompanied the insinuation that he was being a fusspot.

      ‘I actually wanted to talk to you about Bastien’s birthday. He’s changed his mind about a pirate party and decided he wants a dinosaur cake instead.’

      The uncle/niece stand-off ended with Angelique’s intervention and a completely different tangent in the conversation.

      Now Henri was the one rolling his eyes. His young nephew changed his mind more often than Angelique changed costumes. The never-ending parade of after-school activities as he bored easily with one and moved on to the next attested to that. There wasn’t time for a dull moment with him around, and Henri’s life was the better for it. Without his sister and the kids to occupy his thoughts he’d probably be just another self-absorbed playboy, like so many he’d met in the profession.

      ‘Surely that’s an easy fix and not one that warrants Dr Roberts’s time?’ Lord knew what Lola must think, being called away from her patients to deal with trivial family matters. Especially when he’d called her out on her first day of placement for doing exactly the same thing.

      ‘Not as straightforward as you might think at such short notice, and Lola has offered to help out. She thought we should get your approval before moonlighting as our personal cake decorator.’

      There was definitely more than a hint of sarcasm there as his big sister was forced to change the dynamics of their relationship by asking his permission to do anything. Lola stood quietly waiting for his approval and he got the impression she’d been strong-armed into helping.

      ‘You dance and bake?’

      He was learning something new about her every day. Probably more than he should. Events seemed to be conspiring against him—and his rule about not fraternizing with his A&E colleagues outside of work. He had doctor friends, of course, but he preferred not to muddy the waters between himself and the junior staff.

      Apart from friendships becoming strained when he had to exert his authority at work, there was also the temporary nature of their position here. There was little point in forging new relationships which detracted from his family responsibilities only for them to move on to their next placement. Not that he was anticipating spending any more time with Lola than was normal—she just seemed to be there, everywhere he turned.

      ‘I do one much better than the other.’

      The woman in question flushed pink as she underplayed her talents, but Henri had seen her in action.

      ‘Well, I know you can dance…’ He watched the bloom rise in her cheeks at the reminder that he’d seen her moves in all their glory.

      Until that moment when he’d witnessed Lola giving herself over to the music he’d never seen the beauty of burlesque. Thus far it had represented everything he hated about life after his parents’ deaths—the financial struggle and the guilt he harboured for being Angelique’s responsibility when she was nothing more than a kid herself. That perception had altered when he’d watched burlesque empower a shy doctor before his eyes. It had brought Henri some understanding of his sister’s insistence that she danced for no one but herself.

      If it hadn’t been for Angelique coughing, Henri might have forgotten he and Lola weren’t alone in the room.

      ‘So, Lola can make the cake and you will pick it up from her house tonight, Henri—yes?’

      ‘Wait…what?’

      ‘Great. You two can sort out the details and Gabrielle and I will go and buy the rest of the party supplies. Thanks again for offering to help out.’

      Angelique swallowed Lola into her embrace in that gregarious manner which made it impossible to say no to the woman. The mere mention of culinary skills and Henri’s unassuming colleague would have been a lamb to the slaughter in her presence. And even he now found himself roped into paying Lola an out-of-hours visit when it was the last thing he wanted to do.

      Still, it wouldn’t do to make a scene and have her think there was an issue. It was simply a matter of keeping his nephew happy. He’d have a discreet word with his sister later, about not putting him into compromising positions with his staff in future.

      Lola watched open-mouthed as the French tornado blasted back out through the door, taking her offspring with her and leaving a trail of destruction in her wake. Henri was frozen to the spot, probably wondering what the hell he’d agreed to. Somehow Lola’s offer to bake a cake had led to an appointment with Henri at her apartment. Her safe haven was about to be breached by the one man who could bring her temper to a boil