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Cam said, ‘Hi, guys. Meet Jenny Bostock.’ Guilt assailed him again, this time brought on by that desolation she was busy trying to hide, and knowing if it hadn’t been for his sons she wouldn’t be in whatever predicament she now found herself.
‘Dad, can we go to the shops?’
‘We saw Mum get out of a car at the end of the road.’
His heart crashed. They’d seen their mother? There was more likelihood of pigs flying by. Would this ever stop? As if it wasn’t enough that they’d broken this woman’s ankle, they thought they’d seen their selfish mother. When would the boys accept that that particular woman had no intention of ever returning? Even if she deigned to drop by because she’d had a rush of oxygen to the brain, she certainly would not want two eight-year-olds interfering with her career plans.
‘There isn’t time. You’re meant to be at the softball juniors’ Christmas party in an hour and you still have to clean your faces and put on decent clothes.’
The disappointment blinking out at him from two almost identical faces hurt as much as that broken ankle was hurting Jenny. Better he give it to them straight than have them walking up and down the short main street peering into every shop and café, looking for someone who was hundreds of k’s away in the North Island. He hated having to be the big bad ogre breaking their hearts by telling them that when it was their mother who’d caused their anguish.
He looked away, his gaze encountering Jenny’s as she drew in deep breaths of gas. This time he couldn’t read the expression in those green eyes at all. He didn’t try to guess because he wouldn’t be seeing her again. Whatever she was thinking didn’t matter.
Braden said, ‘We’ll be off as soon as we’ve got a splint on this here leg and loaded Jenny in the ambulance. You going to happy hour at the pub tonight?’
The fundraiser for the school swimming pool maintenance. ‘That depends on what time the boys’ Christmas do finishes and we get back here.’ He and the kids had become experts at socialising, being invited to just about every celebration happening in Havelock. Anything from a cat’s birthday to the theatre group’s finishing night was an excuse to have fun around here. Which was fine, except when someone took it into their head to arrange a function in Blenheim, a thirty-minute drive away. Not far except when appointments were stacking up or, like at this time of year, there were too many social engagements to attend.
‘Might see you later.’ Braden and Lyn shifted their patient onto the stretcher and rolled her across to the ambulance.
Cam followed, unable to walk away. ‘I hope all goes well for you at Wairau, Jenny. And once again, I’m sorry for my boys’ actions.’
Removing the gas inhaler from her mouth, she gave a semblance of a smile. ‘Accidents happen all the time. I should’ve been looking where I was going.’
This woman was very quick to forgive. Not many people would’ve said that. A genuine, good-hearted lady? Or was the laughing gas mellowing that despair that had been glittering out from those suck-him-in eyes?
Watching the ambulance pull away and head towards the intersection, he felt a tug of longing he hadn’t felt in years. Longing for what? Something about Jenny’s bravery had caused it, made him feel he should be following in his car, going to the ED with her. Holding her hand? Yeah, right. Holding a beautiful woman’s hand was so not on his agenda. He shrugged. Couldn’t deny feeling responsible for her.
If there’d been someone with her, or even meeting her at the other end, he wouldn’t be thinking like this. But it sounded like she was alone. So when she came out of hospital, where would she go? How would she get there? She hadn’t been carrying a bag, wasn’t wearing a jacket with pockets to hold money or credit cards. Or a phone. Just the keys she’d handed him to the car he had to retrieve and park at home. He swore, once, softly. He was going to have to deliver her bag to her.
He spied the boys carrying the cushions up the drive, flicking him worried looks from under their too-long hair, having obviously heard his bad language but not willing to tell him off as they normally did. At least they’d got the seriousness of the situation. He sighed. Time to get moving if they weren’t to be late for the party.
Oh, and note to self: arrange for two haircuts at the hair salon on Monday afternoon after school.
CHAPTER TWO (#u1f59fae2-6dbf-58a6-a68d-234b42b5378e)
JENNY STARED AROUND the ED and shivered. ‘I want out of here. Like now.’
Not going to happen. The ED specialist had told her what she’d already suspected—that he was waiting for an orthopaedic surgeon to come in and look at her X-rays, and who knew when that would be. Apparently the surgeon had been out fishing on Queen Charlotte Sound when the ED staff had eventually got hold of him.
Waiting patiently wasn’t her forte any more. And waiting in an ED was cruel. There’d been a time she’d loved nothing more than turning up for her shift in the emergency department. She’d thrived on the heightened anticipation brought on when waiting for the unknown to come through the doors, and by helping put people back together after some disaster had befallen them. ‘Yeah, well, you turned out to be useless at that, didn’t you?’
The ED was full to overflowing. The adjacent cubicle wasn’t completely curtained off, leaving her open to scrutiny from a blue-eyed toddler with curls to die for. A young man lay on the bed in obvious pain, after apparently coming off his farm bike and being pinned underneath for an hour until his wife had found him. The injuries couldn’t be life-threatening or he’d be in Theatre already.
‘Up.’ A very imperious tone for someone so young.
‘No, Emma, leave the lady alone.’ The child’s mother snatched her out of reach to plonk her on a chair by the man’s bed. ‘I’m sorry about that,’ said the harried woman.
‘No problem.’ Jenny dredged up a smile and watched as the little girl clambered off the chair the moment her mother’s attention left her.
‘You all right there?’ asked a chirpy trainee nurse from the other side of Jenny’s bed. Too happy for her own good. ‘Anything I can get you?’
Didn’t they teach nursing students not to tease their patients? ‘I’d kill for a strong coffee right about now.’
‘Nil by mouth, I’m sorry. At least until after Mr McNamara has seen you, and then only if you’re not having surgery.’
‘I totally get it. It’s called wishful thinking.’ Talk about getting more than her share of apologies today. Cameron Roberts had looked and sounded more than apologetic, with tiredness and stress blinking out at her from those coffee-brown eyes peeking from under a mass of wayward blond curls. Bet those gorgeous twins were more than a handful. Trouble and twins were synonymous. She had first-hand experience of that.
The nurse smoothed the already smooth bedcover. ‘If you want anything, call me. There are some magazines lying around somewhere but they’re years out of date.’
‘I’m fine.’ She could pretend, couldn’t she?
‘Great.’ The student flashed another smile and went to charm another patient, leaving her in relative peace to contemplate her situation. Which was looking rather dire.
Stuck. That’s what she was. Stopped in her tracks, all because of a boy on an out-of-control skateboard. He’d wrecked everything. Like she’d slammed into a brick wall and there was no way round. She’d wanted to yell at those boys, tell them they should’ve been looking where they were going, not shouting and taunting each other to go faster. She did remember turning to see what the noise was about seconds before the boy—Marcus?—had crashed into her. But in all reality she’d been miles away, unaware of much except that boat heading out and the sun on her face.
The boys had looked so repentant. They’d also appeared as if they’d had enough of being told off and wanted to be given a break. She totally knew what that was like. How many times had she and Alison driven Mum insane with their mischief? Cameron Roberts hadn’t known she knew what she was talking about. ‘Bet I could teach those boys a thing or two about being naughty.’
Then an image of Cam’s tired and frustrated expression slipped into her mind and she retracted that thought. The man didn’t need any more problems.
‘Emma? What’s the matter, baby?’ In the next cubicle the mother’s panic was immediately apparent. ‘Why’s she gone so red? Emma. She’s not breathing.’
Jenny swung her legs over the side of the bed, ground her teeth on the flare of pain. ‘I’m a doctor. Pass her here.’ One look at the child’s terrified face, which only minutes ago had been grinning at her, had Jenny reaching back to slam her hand against the emergency button on the wall behind her bed. ‘What was she playing with?’
‘I’m not sure. Cotton balls, I think.’
Grabbing the child from the distraught mother’s arms, Jenny ran a finger around the inside of her mouth, scooped out sodden cotton balls. Had the child swallowed any? ‘Does Emma have any allergies that you know of?’ she demanded.
‘No.’
Emma definitely wasn’t breathing. Instantly laying the child over her knees with her head hanging down, Jenny began striking the child firmly between the shoulder blades with the flat of her hand. Strike one. Two. Come on, baby. Breathe for me. Three. Please. Four. Please, please, please. Five. Where are the doctors? Check the resp rate. The tiny chest wasn’t moving at all.
Jenny knew the mother was screaming at her but she ignored her, focused on saving this little girl. Quickly standing on her good foot, ignoring the pain slicing up her leg, she held Emma around her waist and located her belly button with her finger.
‘What’s going on?’ A doctor raced into the cubicle, followed by two nurses.
At last. But handing over now meant wasting precious seconds. Jenny fisted one hand. ‘This child appears to have choked. No resp rate. I’ve done five back strikes.’ Oh. Tell him. ‘I am an ED doctor.’ I was an ED doctor. Her fist thrust upward into Emma’s abdomen. One. Two. Emma coughed hard and a small round object shot across the floor.
‘A lid off a pill bottle by the look of it.’ One of the nurses retrieved it from under the next bed.
The doctor took the now crying and bewildered child from Jenny’s arms and laid her on the bed. ‘Shh, sweetheart. You’re going to be all right.’ He looked over his shoulder at the crying woman and the frantic father trying to get off his bed. ‘Mum? Come and hold your little girl while I examine her. What’s her name?’
‘Emma.’ The mother scooped up her baby and held her tight.
‘Easy. I need to give her a complete exam. Nurse, bring me a child’s blanket. Jason, get back on that bed. You shouldn’t be moving. You’ll start that wound bleeding again.’ The doctor turned back to his little patient and gave her a quick but thorough going over. ‘She’s going to be fine, thanks to this doctor.’
The mother had lost all colour in her cheeks. ‘Thank you so much, all of you. If you hadn’t done what you did …’ She swallowed.
Jenny eased her butt back onto her bed. The pain in her ankle had intensified now that she wasn’t being distracted. ‘Don’t go there,’ she advised with a smile she hoped wasn’t a grimace as pain stabbed repeatedly. ‘Instead be glad you were here and not at home when it happened.’
Within minutes the department had returned to normal. Except for the hiccups in the next cubicle as the mother slowly calmed down, only muted voices could be heard once more.
With a sigh Jenny lay back. Talk about having the day from hell. But a broken ankle was low on the scale of urgency and really she was incredibly lucky. Euphoria nudged her despair aside. That child would’ve been saved by any of the doctors or nurses on duty but she’d done it. Her old instincts had kicked in instantly. She hadn’t had to spend precious moments trying to recall the procedure. It had been there, lying in some unused corner of her brain waiting to be summoned.
It was good to know she still had it, even though she wasn’t about to do anything stupid like go back to being a doctor. Yet the words ‘I’m a doctor’ had spilled off her tongue without thought. If she had stopped to consider that, she’d probably have handed Emma to another medic and lost precious seconds.
Wriggling further back against the pillows, she wondered what she’d do once she was discharged. Originally she’d planned on staying in Blenheim for a couple of nights and visiting the vineyards she’d gone to with Alison two years ago and having a glass of her sister’s favourite bubbly.
Did she still stop here until she was capable of getting around again? Doing what? Reading, eating, sleeping. Boring. What about going to Havelock? Her chuckle was humourless. Less than five hundred people lived there. So not her, a place like that. All too soon the locals would start saying hello, and then asking how her day was going. She shuddered. Face it. Stopping for more than three nights anywhere was so not her at the moment. But as of now she was no longer on the move.
Almost six months on the road hadn’t solved anything, hadn’t given her the forgiveness she ached for, hadn’t brought her any closer to accepting what had happened.
This road trip had just about run its course anyway. There were only two more stops to go. Yeah, well, like climbing mountainsides in the Kahurangi National Park was going to happen now. Saying goodbye to Alison might have to wait another year.
Tears welled up, spilled down her face. ‘So sorry, sis. I intended being at the place where you left me on the first anniversary.’ Now that final goodbye had been taken from her in a single hit. A little like Alison’s death. One fall off a mountainside and she’d gone. For ever.
‘You look like you could do with some company.’
Now, that wasn’t a memory. That voice was from three hours ago. Ducking her head further down to hide her face, she croaked around her clogged throat, ‘Dr Cameron Roberts.’ Who didn’t sound overly pleased to be here. Surprise, surprise.
‘You remembered, then. Most people call me Cam.’
She’d always had a phenomenal memory. Right down to the very last word Alison had ever said to her. She drew a deep breath, and put Alison to one side—for now at least. ‘You can’t find the location of the boys’ Christmas party?’
He sat on the edge of her bed without asking. At least he was careful not to disturb her broken foot. ‘Safely delivered and for once I’m not putting on the red suit and handing out parcels to over-excited kids.’
‘Sounds like fun all round.’ She looked up, momentarily forgetting about her tears.
‘Hey, you’re crying.’ He looked nonplussed, like crying women threw him.
Sure am. ‘Guess it’s just a reaction to finding myself in here, instead of enjoying that lunch down on the marina.’ Telling a virtual stranger the truth would sound like she was looking for sympathy and that was the very last thing she intended. She didn’t deserve it, for starters. ‘Don’t mind me. I’m fine, really.’
He looked relieved. Because the tears hadn’t become a torrent? ‘I hear you’re waiting for Angus McNamara to show up.’
‘Is he any good?’ Like, hello? What choice did she have?
‘You don’t except me to say otherwise, do you?’ Cam was still watching her closely, but now a small smile slowly appeared, like he wasn’t used to smiling.
‘Not really.’ He should try the smile thing more often as it turned an already good-looking face into something beyond handsome. Her stomach sucked in and her heart knocked gently against her ribs, as if to say, Hey, sit up and take note. He’s one cool dude. Except, dear heart, the man has a wife. Those boys mentioned seeing their mother. She shifted a little and groaned, grinding out, ‘You’d tell me if I’d be better off seeing a chainsaw specialist, wouldn’t you?’
Cam grimaced with her then told her, ‘Angus is very good.’ He swung her car keys between them. ‘The car’s parked in my garage, out of the way. I brought in your case. Thought you’d want a change of clothes some time.’ Thoughtful as well as a hunk. ‘It’s in the ED office until they know whether you’re having surgery or just getting a proper splint and crutches.’
‘Would you mind putting the keys in my case? Losing them would only give me another headache to deal with.’
‘Sure.’ Cam stared thoughtfully at a spot somewhere around his feet. ‘If you’re discharged, where will you go?’
She had no idea. ‘Yesterday I looked up motels in Blenheim and found heaps of vacancies so I didn’t bother making a booking. I’ll phone around when I know what’s going on here.’
‘You sure that’s what you want to do? You could catch a flight home as soon as they kick you out of here.’ The question in his eyes asked where home was.
She wasn’t answering it. ‘I’ll be fine. Lots of options, really.’ She played mental ping-pong. A motel where she’d have to get take-out delivered because of her inability to move around? Or a flight out to where? Which town would she settle in and pretend it felt like home until she was okay to move on again? According to some, home was where the heart was, and her heart was lost right now.
At the moment all her worldly possessions were locked up in a container in a storage yard in Auckland, no doubt going mouldy. She suspected that after her road trip she’d like somewhere new to start again.
‘I’ll leave you my numbers so you can call me if you want anything else out of your car.’
‘Thanks.’ The carton of medical journals could wait a month or so. The hiking boots, running shoes and camping gear were absolutely useless at the moment. Blink, blink. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. It’s a broken ankle, not a catastrophe, even if you are stuck here for a while. Her gaze drifted to Cam, over his expansive chest and on down to the long legs stretched half across the cubicle. ‘How did you manage to get behind the steering wheel of my car? Your knees must’ve been up around your ears.’
‘That’s something I’m used to. Though driving a sports car was a novelty, even if only for half a kilometre. The boys couldn’t believe what they were seeing when I pulled up at home.’
‘I can picture their faces.’ She continued checking him out. Why? She had no idea.
This guy spent time in the sun. His skin had a mouth-watering tan. Those calf muscles were well honed. Her stomach squeezed. Settle. The last thing she needed right now was to get interested in a man. She had nothing to offer anyone. She ran on empty all the time. Anyway, this particular man was taken. Remember? Remember. ‘You look fit. You run?’ Why was she even asking? He’d disappear any minute and that would be the end of that.
Surprise widened his eyes. ‘It’s the one thing that keeps me sane some days.’
She’d focus on his running, nothing else. ‘That can’t be easy with only a handful of short streets or the main highway to pound out on.’ An hour in Havelock had been ample time to get the idea of how small the place was.
‘I use Queen Charlotte Drive. The hill’s a bit of a grunter but the traffic moves at a far slower pace than out on the main road. Sometimes the boys cycle with me. I’d never take them on the main road. Too many large trucks rolling through all the time.’
‘Your boys are cute.’ Where was their mother? Had she gone to the party with them?
‘Don’t you dare tell them that. They absolutely hate anyone using the “cute” word.’ Another smile, more expansive this time, lifted his mouth into a delicious curve and lightened the brown of his eyes.
‘They’re strong-willed?’
Cam nodded his head slowly. ‘Unfortunately, yes.’
‘You’d want your kids to be pushovers?’ she asked, wondering exactly why he’d dropped by. She wasn’t his patient or his friend.
His sigh filled with sadness as the smile switched off and his gaze dulled. ‘They’re a funny mix of strong and soft. Kind of nice, I guess, but there are things I wish they were stronger about.’
If only she knew how to wipe away that look, bring back the warm smile. But it wasn’t her place. They were strangers who were going to remain so. ‘I’m sure all parents think that.’ How enlightening. Not.
‘You got kids?’ His question was nothing startling, fitted into their conversation, and yet it arrowed in for her heart.
‘No.’ She’d always hoped she’d get married and have a family. That had been part of her life plan, along with the medical career, the extended travel to Europe and watching Alison achieve her goal to become an international airline pilot. Except Alison had died because she had failed as a doctor. Her new life plan was waiting to be rewritten, but one thing she knew for certain was that having a family would be a part of it. Losing her sister had heightened that need.
‘Hello, Cam. Didn’t expect to find you here. You know my patient?’ A middle-aged man strode around the curtain and stopped at the end of her bed.
‘Not really. My boys are responsible for this. A skateboarding accident of no mean proportions.’
‘Ouch.’ The casually presented man turned to her. ‘I’m Angus, your surgeon.’
She held out her hand. ‘Jenny Bostock. Should I be asking if you caught any fish? Or will that make you go a little harder on me?’ Plastering on a smile she didn’t feel much like making, she watched closely to see how he reacted to her.
‘Your timing was perfect. Dinner’s ready and waiting in the fridge at home. Blue cod. The best fish in our waters, as far as I’m concerned.’ His friendly smile faded. ‘I’ve seen your X-rays. The lower tibia has a fine fracture, but it’s the talus that needs attending to, I’m afraid. You require plates to be attached.’
‘That’s what I expected.’ And didn’t want. But there was nothing she could do about it, except rewind the clock four hours and stay in her car, instead of walking around Havelock.
