His Summer Bride: Becoming Dr Bellini's Bride / Summer Seaside Wedding / Wedding in Darling Downs

CHAPTER THREE

‘I’M SURE I’d have been all right if we’d stayed at home,’ Jack Logan said. His breath was wheezy, coming in short bursts, so that Katie frowned. ‘There was no need for you to bring me to the hospital,’ he added, struggling to gulp in air as he spoke. ‘It’s your day off. You shouldn’t be tending to me.’

‘You’re ill,’ she said firmly. ‘And I’m your daughter, so of course I should be looking after you.’ He was a proud man, not one to ask for help, and up to now she had been cautious about stepping in where she might not be wanted. Today, though, he had reached a point where medical intervention was imperative. ‘You need to see a doctor right away so that we can get your medication sorted out. You can’t go on like this. I won’t let you.’

He didn’t answer and she suspected his strength was failing fast. She wrapped an arm around him, supporting him as she led him to a chair in the waiting room. The emergency department was busy at this time of the day, just after lunchtime, but she hoped they wouldn’t have too long to wait. Her father’s breathing was becoming worse by the minute, and it was worrying her.

She paused awkwardly, scanning his features. ‘You have your tablets with you, don’t you…and your inhaler?’

‘Yes.’ He eased himself down on to the padded seat, dragging in a few difficult breaths and giving himself a minute or two to recover.

‘Perhaps you should have a few puffs on the inhaler now. It might help a bit.’ She watched as he fumbled in his pocket for the medication. ‘Will you be all right for a minute or two while I go and have a word with the clerk on duty?’

He nodded. ‘I’ll be fine. I don’t need to be here.’

She made a wry face and turned to walk over to the reception desk. He was stubborn and independent, but she wasn’t going to let him get away with trying to bamboozle her. He was in a bad way, and he needed help…maybe even to be admitted to hospital.

She gave the clerk her father’s details. ‘He’s gasping for breath and I believe he needs urgent treatment. His medication doesn’t seem to be working properly.’

The clerk glanced over to where Katie’s father was sitting. ‘I’ll see if we can have him looked at fairly quickly, Dr Logan. If you’d like to take a seat, I’ll have a word with the triage nurse.’

‘Thanks.’ Katie went back to her father and sat down. ‘We shouldn’t have to wait too long,’ she told him. ‘Just try to relax.’

In fact, it was only a matter of minutes before they were called to go into the doctor’s room, and Katie was startled to see Nick coming along the corridor to greet them. He looked immaculate, as ever, with dark trousers that moulded his long legs, a crisp linen shirt in a deep shade of blue, and a tie that gave him a businesslike, professional appearance.

She hadn’t expected to run into him so soon after their meeting at the hotel. It threw her, coming across him this way, and for a moment or two she wasn’t sure how to respond.

‘I didn’t realise that you worked here,’ she said, frowning. ‘I’d somehow imagined that you worked at one of the bigger city hospitals.’

He smiled. ‘I prefer this one. It has all the up-to-date-facilities, and I’ve been familiar with it since childhood. It’s become like a second home to me.’

He lent her father a supporting shoulder. ‘I’m sorry to see that you’re having problems, Jack,’ he murmured. ‘We’ll go along to my office where we can be more private.’ He turned and called for a nurse. ‘Can we get some oxygen here, please?’

‘Of course.’ The nurse hurried away to find a trolley, while Nick led the way to his office.

Nick waved Katie to a leather-backed chair by the desk, and then turned his attention to Jack.

‘Let me help you onto the examination couch,’ he said quietly, pumping the bed to an accessible height and assisting Jack into a sitting position, propped up by pillows. ‘I see you have your inhaler with you. Is it helping?’

Jack shook his head. ‘Not much.’ He leaned back against the pillows and tried to gather his breath. His features were drawn, his lips taking on a bluish tinge.

Nick handed him the oxygen mask and carefully fitted it over his nose and mouth. ‘Take a few deep breaths,’ he said. ‘We’ll soon have you feeling better, don’t worry.’

Katie watched as Nick examined her father. He was very thorough, listening to his chest, taking his blood pressure and pulse and asking questions about the medication he was taking. All the time he was efficient, yet gentle, and she could see that he was a doctor who would put a patient’s mind at ease whatever the circumstances. He set up a monitor so that he could check Jack’s heart rate and blood oxygen levels. Katie saw that the results were way out of line with what they should be.

‘Excuse me for a moment,’ Nick murmured. ‘I’m going to ask the nurse to bring a nebuliser in here. We’ll add a bronchodilator and a steroid to the mix to reduce the inflammation in your airways, and that should soon make you feel a lot more comfortable.’

He went to the door and spoke to the nurse then returned a minute or two later, coming to stand beside the couch once more. ‘Your blood pressure is raised,’ he said, ‘so I think we need to adjust your tablets to bring that down… and also perhaps we should question what’s happening to bring that about.’

‘I dare say I can give you an answer on that one,’ Katie remarked under her breath. Her tone was cynical, and that must have alerted Nick, because he began to walk towards her, obviously conscious that she wouldn’t want her father to hear.

‘You know what’s causing it?’ he asked.

‘I think so. You and your father have been pushing him to sell the vineyard, and he’s worried about making the right decision. It’s tearing him apart, thinking about giving up the one thing that has kept him going all these years.’

Nick raised dark brows. ‘You’re blaming my father and me?’ He, too, spoke in a lowered voice.

‘I am. Who else would I blame?’ She returned his gaze steadily. ‘His health is failing, yet you bombarded him with paperwork and tried to persuade him to hand it over. He was looking at the papers this morning when he was taken ill. The vineyard means everything to him, and you’ve set him a huge dilemma. I don’t believe he’s in any state to be dealing with matters such as this.’

‘I hardly think you can lay the blame at our feet. Jack has been ill for a number of years, and his lung function is way below par. As to causing him any distress, all I can say is that if he didn’t want to consider our offer, he only had to say so.’ His eyes darkened. ‘He’s perfectly capable of making his own decisions.’

Katie stiffened. He hadn’t added ‘without his daughter’s interference’, but the implication was there, all the same.

The nurse appeared just then with a trolley, and Nick broke off to go and set up the nebuliser. ‘Just try to relax and breathe deeply,’ he told her father, his manner soothing. ‘It’ll take a few minutes, but your blood oxygen levels should gradually start to rise. In the meantime, I’m going to go and glance through your medical notes and see where we can make changes to your medication.’ He halted as a thought had occurred to him. ‘Katie’s obviously concerned about you. Do you mind if I discuss your medical history with her, or is it something you would rather I kept private?’

Jack shook his head. ‘That’s fine. Go ahead. There’s nothing to hide.’

‘Okay.’ Nick checked the monitor once more, before saying quietly, ‘I’ll also arrange an urgent appointment for you with your respiratory specialist.’

‘Thanks,’ Jack said. He looked exhausted and seemed relieved to be able to just lie back and let the drugs do their work.

Nick came back to the desk and glanced towards Katie as he sat down.

‘He should start to feel better once his airways expand.’ He accessed her father’s medical notes on the computer, and then said quietly, ‘You seem very concerned over this matter of the vineyard. Have you been out to see it?’

She nodded. ‘He took me on a tour a few days ago. I was very impressed, completely bowled over by it, in fact. So much work has gone into making it what it is now. It’s something to be proud of.’ She looked at him through narrowed eyes. ‘I can’t see any reason why he would want to let it go.’

His mouth made a crooked shape. ‘I’d say it was possibly becoming too much for him to handle, but it’s probably better if we leave off that discussion for a while. It isn’t getting either of us anywhere, is it?’

She clamped her lips shut. Nick glanced at her briefly, and then said, ‘Your father’s heart is taking a lot of strain—the effect of years of lung disease.’ He lowered his voice as he studied her. ‘I wonder if you realise just how precarious his situation is becoming.’

She nodded, her mouth making a downward turn. ‘I’d guessed. I suppose I just needed to have it confirmed.’

He checked the drug schedule for a moment or two on the computer, and then stood up and went back to her father. ‘How are you feeling?’ he asked.

‘Much better.’ Jack managed a smile. ‘You’ve taken good care of me, as always. Thank you for that.’

‘You’re welcome. It’s what I’m here for.’ Nick glanced down at his chart. ‘I want to prescribe some tablets to ease the workload on your heart, and I think we’ll arrange for you to have oxygen at home. If you give me a few minutes, I’ll go and see if the respiratory specialist is around. It’s possible he might be able to come and see you while you’re here, and that way we can finalise the details of your medication in one go.’

‘Okay.’ Jack nodded. ‘I’m not going anywhere for a while.’

Katie could see that he was looking much better. ‘The colour is coming back into your face,’ she said, going over to him as Nick left the room. ‘You had me worried there for a while.’

His glance trailed over her. ‘You worry too much. Your mother was the same. I used to say to her, life’s too short to be fretting about this and that. Seize the day—as they say. Make the most of it where you can.’

Katie’s mouth flattened. ‘I suppose that was back in the days when you were getting along with one another… before it all went wrong.’

‘I… Yes..’ He hesitated, shooting her a quick, cautious glance. ‘It hasn’t been easy for you, has it, Katie? We tried to make a go of things, you know, your mother and I, but there were problems… For one thing, my job took me away from home so much.’

Katie was unconvinced. ‘Your job obviously meant more to you than we did, because one day you went away and never came back.’ Even now, her heart lurched at the memory. ‘Mum was devastated, and I could never understand why you left us that way. You were living thousands of miles from us. I was eight years old, and suddenly I’d lost my father, and my mother was in pieces. You disappeared from our lives. For a long time I thought I’d done something wrong and it was all my fault that you’d gone away.’

He frowned, his grey eyes troubled. ‘I’m sorry, Katie. I should have handled things differently; I know that now.’ He pulled in a deep breath. ‘But your mother and I were going through a bad time, and the atmosphere was incredibly tense between us. There were lots of bitter arguments. Back then I thought it would be for the best if I stayed away. I thought it would be easier, less painful.’

She gave a short, harsh laugh. ‘You were wrong. It might have been better for you, maybe, but as far as I was concerned a card here and there at birthdays and Christmas was hardly going to make up for the lack of a father. Did you really think it would? And as for presents that you sent—well, they were great but it just made me realise that you didn’t even know me. I appreciated the gifts, but I couldn’t help thinking that a visit would have been more to the point. But it never happened. I thought perhaps you didn’t care.’

It was as though her words had cut into him like a knife. He caught his breath and seemed to slump a little, his features becoming ashen, and Katie looked on in dismay, a rush of guilt running through her. What was she thinking of, having this discussion with him in here, of all places? She had gone too far way too far... He might have a lot to answer for, but he was ill, after all, and she was layering him with anxiety that could bring on respiratory collapse. She ought to have known better.

‘That was thoughtless of me,’ she said in an anxious voice. ‘I didn’t mean to do anything to aggravate your condition.’

‘It’s all right.’ He paused, sucking in another breath. ‘It was something I struggled with all the time—leaving you. I kept meaning to come back to see you, but somehow the longer I left it, the harder it became. I thought… if I came back to see you…’ he started to gasp, fighting against the constriction in his lungs ‘…you might be all the more upset if I left you once more. You were very young.’

Katie’s expression was bleak. ‘Let’s not talk about it for the moment. You’re ill, and we should concentrate on making you more comfortable. Keep the mask over your face. Take deep breaths and try to relax.’

‘What’s going on here?’ Nick came into the room and hurried over to the bed. ‘What happened?’ He checked the monitor, and Katie could see that her father’s heart rate and respiratory rate had increased to dangerous levels.

‘It was... We were just talking. It’s my fault,’ she said in a halting tone. ‘I said some things I shouldn’t have said.’ She had berated Nick for causing her father stress, and then she had done exactly the same thing, hadn’t she?

She pressed her lips together. Wasn’t this all part of the problem she had battled with since she had come out here? There was so much resentment locked up inside her, but none of it could gain release… not when her father was so ill. It was frustrating, an ongoing dilemma that could have no end. No matter what he had done, she would have to be inhuman to ignore his condition, wouldn’t she?

‘No, no…you mustn’t blame yourself,’ her father said, cutting in on her thoughts. ‘It’s only right that you should say what’s on your mind. I let you down.’

Nick gave her a thoughtful glance. Perhaps he was curious about what was going on between them, but he said nothing. Instead he checked the monitors once more and handed her father a couple of tablets and a drinking cup. ‘Take these,’ he said. ‘They’ll bring your blood pressure down and calm your heart rate. Then you need to rest.’ He sent Katie a warning glance and her face flushed with heat.

‘It isn’t Katie’s fault,’ Jack said, after he had swallowed the tablets. ‘The old ticker isn’t what it used to be. There isn’t much more that you doctors can do for me—you know it, and I know it.’

‘I never give up on a patient,’ Nick said, his tone firm. ‘You’ll be fine if you take things easy. Lie back and give the medicine time to take effect.’

They sat with her father for several more minutes, watching as his breathing slowly became easier.