Miracle Times Two

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‘Hello. I’m sorry to disturb you so early, Dr Carterton, but you wouldn’t happen to know where Jenny Barber might be?’

‘What?’ He could feel the unexpected heat of a blush searing up his throat and into his face, hardly able to believe that the woman in question was still curled sleepily against him as if she was totally unaware that the two of them were wrapped around each other, completely naked.

‘Oh, I’m so sorry!’ the voice on the other end of the line exclaimed. ‘That must have come out of left field, especially this early in the morning. And I didn’t even tell you who I am … and I probably woke you up, too. I’m so sorry!’

‘You didn’t wake me,’ Daniel reassured the flustered woman. ‘How can I help?’

‘This is Fiona Tarbuck. I’m a Staff Nurse in Cardiac ICU and I’m trying to track down one of the nurses from your unit—Jenny Barber. You wouldn’t happen to know where she is, would you? We’ve tried her landline in her flat and her mobile but there’s no answer on either phone. Either she’s switched them off, or else her battery’s …’

Daniel’s attention had been caught by the woman’s introduction.

‘CICU?’ he questioned, interrupting her rambling speculations.

‘Yes, that’s right. Unfortunately, her father was brought in during the night and her mother’s been trying to contact her to let her know. Apparently, their daughter’s not on duty, today, but one of your staff suggested she might have told you what she was going to be doing on her day off?’

‘No, she didn’t say, but—’

‘In that case, I’m very sorry to have disturbed you,’ she interrupted before he could find the words he needed. How could he say he’d pass the message on without ruining Jenny’s reputation for ever by revealing that she was here in his arms?

When the voice was swiftly replaced in his ear by the buzz of a finished call he was left with the task of finding a new set of words—the ones that would break the news that her father was in CICU.

‘Daniel?’ A concerned frown had appeared, deep enough to pleat the smooth skin of her forehead as she’d tried to follow his cryptic questions and answers. ‘You said CICU. That wasn’t about Aliyah’s husband, was it? Please tell me he hasn’t taken a turn for the worse,’ she begged, her empathy for their patient completely transparent.

He hated the fact that the news he had to break would cause this caring woman even greater stress, but he had no option. If her father’s condition was serious—and the very fact that he was in CICU was proof that it very well could be—then every moment’s delay could jeopardise her chance of reaching his bedside in time.

‘I’m sorry, Jenny,’ he began, desperately fighting the urge to wrap her tightly in his arms in an attempt to soften the blow. ‘That was CICU—as you probably gathered. They’ve been trying to reach you to—’

‘Me?’ she echoed, clearly startled, then panic flared in her eyes. ‘Who …? What …? Not Dad?’ she gasped in sudden comprehension, her body totally rigid against him.

‘Unfortunately, yes,’ he confirmed. ‘He was taken ill during the night.’

‘What happened?’ she demanded, suddenly frantically fighting her way out from under the cosy nest of bedclothes, still apparently uncaring of the fact that she was utterly, tantalisingly naked.

‘I’ve no idea of the specifics,’ he admitted, battling the urge to gaze his fill of her beautiful body in case it was the last time he ever got to see it—all those lean, slender curves that set his pulse throbbing anew with the urgent need to trace them and savour them and. ‘The Staff Nurse didn’t go into it,’ he admitted as he forced himself to drag his eyes away, turning to reach for clean underwear in the top drawer beside the bed. ‘All I know is that they haven’t been able to reach you on your landline or your mobile and wondered if I had any idea what you were planning to do today.’

He was already slipping his feet into his shoes while he thrust his arms into a clean shirt, having long ago perfected the knack of speedy dressing. When he turned back to her, Jenny was still trying to find the last of the clothing he’d tossed aside so cavalierly in his urgent need to have her in his arms and in his bed.

‘And I was here, with a flat battery in my mobile,’ she wailed, self-recrimination obvious in her voice. ‘Oh, Daniel …!’

‘Hey, Jennywren!’ he soothed, discovering her second shoe buried under the pillow that had been tossed to the floor some time after midnight and handed it to her. ‘She didn’t say the situation’s urgent, so don’t automatically assume the worst.’

‘But she was ringing round trying to find me … she rang my boss, for heaven’s sake!’ she exclaimed. ‘That hardly sounds like “Oh, it’s all right, Mr Barber, patients confuse indigestion for heart attacks all the time”,