Free The Single Dad's Marriage Wish (Bachelor Dads) by Carol Marinelli

with upset relatives. He suggested you, given how you’d spoken to the father as well and got him to make sense. Vince was just all over the place. I couldn’t make head or tail of what he wassaying. I’m going cold thinking that they might have stopped the resuscitation just—’
    ‘They wouldn’t have,’ Charlotte said kindly. ‘Just knowing the facts made it a lot easier to continue.’
    ‘Coffee-break, Charlotte,’ Helen called briskly as Charlotte entered the swing doors, every last shred of the morning’s chaos jut a memory now, the ever-efficient Helen wasting no time in getting the resuscitation area back into shape for the next visitor.
    ‘Do you want to talk now?’ Charlotte offered. ‘We could go to the interview room—it’s a bit more private than the staffroom.’
    ‘Don’t you need a coffee?’
    ‘Caffeine’s caffeine.’ Charlotte grinned, holding up her half-drunk bottle of cola. ‘Whatever way it’s delivered. Come on.’
    ‘I just didn’t know how to calm him down,’ Cameron explained, after telling his side of the story and sounding more than a touch embarrassed. ‘Vince kept asking me how his son was doing, what was happening, if he’d done the right thing—only I couldn’t get him to explain exactly what he’d done, and it just seemed tactless to ignore his questions when he was so desperate for information.’
    ‘I find the best way is to explain the urgency of the situation,’ Charlotte offered. ‘That for now, to help their relative, answers will just have to wait—and even if you do appear tactless at the time, you can always go back and explain why afterwards. If they start to digress, just tell the family or whoever that for the moment you need some very direct answers to some very specific questions and don’t be afraid to ask them.’
    ‘It’s hard, though,’ Cameron sighed. ‘How long have you been doing this?’
    ‘I’ve been in Emergency for six years,’ Charlotte smiled, ‘and, honestly, talking to relatives does get easier. You should go and sit in as much as you can when someone else is trying to get a rapid history or break difficult news. Not only will you pick up some tips, you’ll see for yourself ways not to go about it.’
    ‘So how old does that make you?’ Cameron asked as they stood up to go.
    ‘Twenty-eight,’ Charlotte groaned. ‘Inching ever closer to the big three-oh!’
    ‘Thanks for your help.’ Cameron grinned. ‘I owe you a drink.’
    ‘You do,’ Charlotte responded.
    ‘How about Saturday?’
    Hamish walking past at that very moment shouldn’t have mattered a jot—only somehow it did. And Cameron’s invitation had very little to do with her flushing and unbecoming shade of purple.
    ‘Sorry.’ Cameron grimaced. ‘I didn’t realise he was around.’
    ‘Who?’
    ‘Hamish,’ Cameron answered—and even if it was the correct answer, Charlotte had no idea how it should be the obvious one. ‘I heard you two were sharing a house—I guess I should have checked you were just housemates before asking you out!’
    ‘We are,’ Charlotte replied. ‘There’s absolutely nothing going on between us…’
    ‘You’re sure about that?’
    ‘Positive.’ Charlotte nodded.
    ‘So—there isn’t a problem if I pick you up on Saturday.’
    ‘Actually, there is one!’ In a fabulous impersonation of Cassie, Charlotte beat her blush and shook her head. ‘I’ve already got plans.’
    She did have plans!
    A serious lie-in, a few hours’ shopping and then some serious dancing!
    Despite the rather ominous start, her first week at Adams farm had turned out well. Her day spent with Bailey had been invaluable: getting to know the little boy in his own surroundings had been the right move and when Hamish had knocked on her door at two in the morning with a grizzling Bailey, apologising that he had to go into work, Bailey hadn’t kicked up a fuss when his father had left—in fact by the time the first weekend came around Charlotte