New Boss New Year Bride by Lucy Clark Read Free Book Online Page B

usually there after work. Chatting and the like. If you don’t feel completely comfortable just walking into the pub like that, ask Josiah to go with you.’
    ‘Joss usually goes to the pub at night, too?’
    Bub shrugged. ‘Five nights out of seven—give or take a day or two.’
    ‘Does he have family in town or in the area?’
    ‘Josiah? No, darl. His people are all in Perth or scattered around in the major cities.’
    ‘I wonder why he came here in the first place?’ Melissapondered, and hadn’t even realised she’d spoken the words out loud until Bub answered her.
    ‘Why don’t you ask him?’
    ‘Huh?’ Melissa’s eyes widened with mortification. ‘Oh. Well. It’s really none of my business.’
    ‘We’re a small community, darl. All living in each other’s pockets. Secrets don’t usually stay secret for long. I will tell you, though, that when he moved to town he was a right little recluse. Didn’t do him any good. One night, as we couldn’t get him to the pub, we brought the pub to him.’
    ‘What? Really? How did you do that?’ She smiled, intrigued by the story.
    ‘Everyone grabbed a beer and walked over to where Josiah was living at the time, which wasn’t far away from the old clinic near the train station. We all went down there with our beers, and Wazza hooked up a keg, and then we sat on the ground and made him come out to chat with us.’
    ‘And did he?’
    ‘Too darn right he did. Ya see, he was only getting to know us as patients, not as people, and in a community like this it’s important to get to know the people first. This isn’t some big hospital where everyone is a number. We respond better when we know that our docs are really interested in us—when we can get to know them, too. To see that they’re just people and we don’t need to be afraid of them.’
    Melissa was surprised and a little confused. ‘Is someone afraid of me?’
    Bub shook her head. ‘Ya missing the point, darl. The pub is like our community hall. Even though we actually do have a community hall,’ Bub added as an aside, ‘and we do use it—but that’s not what I meant. At the pub we all gather and mix, and it’s where we can all be ourselves. All equals. All needing to quench our thirst. Everyone’s the same. From the lowest-paid to the highest. In the pub there’s no hierarchy. There are just mates.’
    Mates. Melissa had sighed over the word. It would be nice to have some more…mates.
    Melissa had written up the new medication for her patients and then left Bub to care for them. She was an exceptional nurse, and also appeared to have her finger on the pulse of what was happening in the community. Taking her advice would be the right thing to do—and besides, it meant she could get to know her colleagues much better.
    Her thoughts turned from Bub to Joss and the kiss they’d shared. A simple, ordinary New Year’s kiss which had completely rocked her world. That had never happened to her before, and she had found it extremely difficult to stop thinking about it. The man made her tingle whenever she saw him—and now he was waiting for her in the kitchenette.
    Tingles or not, he was her colleague, and hopefully her friend, and that was all there was ever going to be between them. She’d had one broken heart and she wasn’t in the market for another.
    Melissa took a deep breath and slowly let it out, effectively calming herself down before she rounded the corner into the kitchenette. The instant she saw him the tingles returned anew.
    ‘Milk? Sugar?’ he asked as he finished pouring her a cup of tea.
    ‘Just milk, thanks.’ She watched as he stirred the liquid in her cup before handing it to her. ‘Ahh, thank you. I need this.’ She walked over to the table and sat down, sipping gratefully at the tea.
    ‘Busy?’ Joss watched as she sat. She was dressed in a pair of three-quarter-length trousers which outlined her hips and slim legs. The top she wore was pale blue and highlighted