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‘Don’t be daft.’ The words came out sounding more irritated than Kate had intended. ‘We’re friends. Or we were. It’s so long since I’ve seen him that we’re practically strangers now.’
She averted her gaze as she finished her sentence. It was so far from the truth. But she couldn’t admit to Georgia how it made her feel to see Luke again. She hadn’t quite got her own head around it yet.
It seemed that Luke had followed her example and got a non-alcoholic drink for himself as well. Clearly he wanted to be as competitive as possible tomorrow as well. Kate had to hide a smile as they touched glasses.
Game on...
‘Cheers,’ she said. ‘I have to say, you’re probably the last person I would have expected to run into here. Have you changed specialties and gone into emergency medicine?’
‘No. I’m still a paediatric surgeon but I do specialise in trauma cases. It’s Matt’s fault I’m here.’
‘Snap,’ Kate told him. ‘Georgia entered me as a birthday present. She said I needed some adventure in my life.’
‘And do you?’ There was a question in Luke’s eyes that went far deeper than the amused query.
Was her life going the way she had planned it out so carefully? Was she happy?
She was saved having to find an answer by Georgia leaning closer. ‘So how do you two boys know each other?’
‘I did a stint in a hospital in Milan,’ Luke told her. ‘I got lost one day trying to find my apartment and this ambulance pulled up beside me. Matt was driving.’
‘I’d seen him in the emergency department of the hospital,’ Matteo put in. ‘I’d stayed with a child I’d brought in who’d been hit by a car and Luke had been called for a surgical consultation.’
‘He gave me a ride home,’ Luke continued. ‘And then he said he’d pick me up again after he finished his shift because he knew where the best beer in Milan was.’
‘Italy,’ Kate breathed. ‘How exciting. Did Nadia love living there?’
Matteo was staring at Luke. ‘Who’s Nadia?’
‘My ex-wife.’
‘Ah...the cheating cow?’
‘That’s the one.’
It was Kate’s turn to stare at Luke. ‘Oh, my God...you and Nadia split up?’
Luke was eyeing Matteo’s beer as if he was regretting his decision on drinks. ‘Yep.’
‘But...’
Everybody turned to stare at her and Kate bit her lip. ‘Sorry,’ she muttered. ‘It’s just that you guys were so in love...’
Luke snorted. ‘Yeah...well, I won’t be making that mistake again, believe me.’
‘It kind of cures you,’ Matteo offered. ‘When the wife you love turns out to have been shagging every other man she met. I’m with Luke on this one. If someone cheated on me or lied to me like that, I would never let her name pass my lips again either.’
Kate wanted the floor to open up and swallow her. Poor Luke... And she’d made things worse by opening her big mouth and reminding him of something it was obvious he would rather forget. Good grief...he hadn’t even told Matteo his wife’s name? Just referred to her as ‘the cheating cow’?
And something else was trying to push its way into her consciousness.
The fact that Luke was single again?
No. She was too old and wise to allow any seed to grow in that long-ago abandoned space. She’d been romantically invisible back then. Why would that have changed?
What needed to change was the subject. Fast.
‘How long were you in Milan?’
‘Two years. And then I won a consultancy position six months ago. In Edinburgh.’
‘No way...’
Luke blinked. ‘What’s so surprising about that? Did you think I was going to stay a registrar for ever?’
Kate shook her head. ‘It’s not that. I’m a consultant too. In Glasgow.’
Luke laughed. ‘You mean we’ve been living fifty miles from each other and we had to travel halfway across Europe to catch up?’
‘Not even fifty miles. Georgia and I live in Brackenburn—halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh. I work in the Eastern Infirmary in Glasgow and Georgie’s a paramedic at a rescue base in Edinburgh.’
‘Do you have helicopters?’ Matteo asked Georgia.
‘Yes. Two. I don’t get to go up in them very often, though. Only when they’re short of staff. You?’
‘I’ve been a flight paramedic for eight years now. I love it...’
Kate and Luke weren’t listening to the conversation between their partners. People around them were starting to move, which meant that the time for finding out exactly what tomorrow would bring was getting close.
But they were both sitting very still. So much had happened in the years since they’d last seen each other. Kate wanted to know more and she was saddened by more than a hint of bitterness in Luke’s tone when he’d confirmed that his marriage was over. How could that have happened to one of the nicest people she had ever known?
Maybe something of what she was thinking was showing in her face.
‘What about you, Katy?’ Luke asked quietly. ‘You happily married now? Got a couple of kids at home? That was the plan, wasn’t it?’
Kate dropped her gaze. There was something a little shameful about admitting that she had failed to achieve her most important personal goals. She didn’t say anything, simply shaking her head as she reached for her glass to finish her drink.
‘We’d better get going,’ Matteo said. ‘It’s time...’
Kate stood up, more than happy to leave this conversation behind for the moment.
But Luke stayed where he was for a moment, staring up at Kate.
‘It was your birthday in March,’ he said.
‘It always is.’ Kate grinned. ‘Two weeks after yours, in fact.’
‘Yeah...so we both turned thirty-five.’
Was he trying to rub in the fact that she was still single? That parenthood was probably still years away? That she might get into her forties and get past the point where it might be even possible?
She could feel defensive hackles begin to rise. Maybe, thanks to his own unfortunate experience, Luke had changed from being the nicest person in the world.
But he was grinning. And he didn’t have to say a word for Kate to realise that he hadn’t been trying to remind her that time was ticking on.
He was reminding her of something else. Something they’d agreed on after that legendary night of celebrating their final results as they’d graduated as fully fledged doctors. Something she hadn’t thought about in at least five years.
Because it had become redundant the moment that Luke had got married.
Surely he didn’t think it could be reinstated because he was single again?
No. Kate turned away with a dismissive shake of her head.
‘The pact’ was no longer in existence.
CHAPTER TWO (#ua7fcba53-dff0-5697-b62c-02e5c137cd55)
‘I THINK WE’RE HERE.’
Kate looked at the two-storeyed village house they were parked in front of. The door was shut and there was nobody to be seen trying to flag down medical assistance. She had programmed the satellite navigation system with all the GPS coordinates of their daytime tasks herself, however, so she was confident that no mistakes had been made.
‘We’ve got ten minutes. We’ll knock on the door at precisely seven forty-five. You might want to turn off the light.’ The portable flashing light on the top of the SUV was plugged into the car’s cigarette lighter. ‘We don’t want to flatten the battery while we’re on scene.’
‘Roger that.’ Georgia pulled the plug from the socket. She smiled at Kate but then her face scrunched into a grimace. ‘First scenario. You nervous?’
‘I wish we had some idea of what we’re going to. The name doesn’t give us much of a clue, does it? “Sweetheart”?’
‘Maybe it’s got something to do with sugar. A diabetic emergency, maybe?’
‘Good thinking.’
‘Or...’ Georgia wiggled her eyebrows. ‘Maybe it’s a young couple who are madly in love and they were having morning sex in the shower and one of them has slipped over and hit their head on the side of the bath.’
Kate didn’t want to think about people who were so crazy in love they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. She’d never experienced that kind of love. Why was it that the balance always seemed to be tipped far too much in one direction? The people she fell in love with never felt the same way but if she was only mildly interested she could guarantee that the guy would fall head over heels for her and become suffocatingly attentive.
She checked her watch. ‘Five minutes.’
‘Do you think another team is still in there? Luke and Matteo, maybe?’
Kate didn’t want to think about Luke, either. Not when thinking about the past could be a distraction. She had every intention of beating his team in this competition. It was her turn, after all. Payback for him getting better marks in finals.
He’d been so gracious about that, hadn’t he? Toasting her with that excellent champagne he’d brought with him. The first bottle, that was. The second bottle had been a bad idea because it had culminated in concocting ‘the pact’ but the evening had been all about celebrating their graduation to start with. And each other’s success.
‘I owe it all to you, Katy. If you hadn’t been my study buddy and I hadn’t been trying so hard to keep up with your brilliance for the last few years, I’d probably have been at the bottom of the class.’
Not true, of course. Luke had one of the sharpest minds she’d ever had the pleasure of arguing with and, if she’d had the edge on remembering everything she learned, Luke had been better at the practical skills in those days. More confident, with surprisingly nimble fingers. It was no surprise that he had become a surgeon and Kate had no doubt that he was excelling in his field. Did those skills extend to an environment outside of an operating theatre? How much had Matteo taught him about front-line emergency procedures?
‘Time?’
‘Oh, help. It’s seven forty-six.’ How had that happened?
Both Kate and Georgia leapt from the vehicle, slamming the front doors to go around to the back and collect the well-stocked kits that Georgia’s Edinburgh ambulance station had provided for them. She’d been distracted, Kate realised, by thinking about Luke.
It wasn’t going to happen again.
* * *
‘We’re early.’
Luke grunted. Eight-fifteen was their start time for the scenario with the odd name of ‘Sweetheart’ but he’d been determined not to risk disqualification by being late at any of the tasks they’d been set for the day. Especially now, when he had the added incentive of competing with Kate.
Her turn to win?
He found himself smiling. Whatever the result, this competition had just become a lot more fun.
The smile faded, however, as he looked around them at the quiet street dotted with small, village houses. ‘Doesn’t look like much.’ A bit disappointing, in fact. He’d expected to have something like a car versus pedestrian scenario for the coordinates in the middle of this small town. ‘You sure we’re in the right place?’
‘Sì. Assolutamente.’ Matteo pointed through the windscreen. ‘That car parked over there is a competitor. It’s got the numbers. And a light on the roof, like ours. And the flags are...’
‘Scottish,’ Luke murmured. There was only one team representing Scotland here and he knew who that was.
That smile was resurfacing. How astonishing had it been to run into Kate here, of all places in the world?
And how good had it been to see her again?
It made him realise that he’d been lonely ever since he’d taken up his new position in Edinburgh. He’d missed his mate, Matteo, who’d been so good for him during his time in Milan as he’d licked his wounds after escaping the disaster that his marriage had been. Focusing so completely on work in Edinburgh had left no time to try and make new friends, which was probably why he’d taken up Matteo’s invitation to join him for this competition.
And while it had been great to catch up with his mate, seeing Kate again was on a whole new level. They had history—heart-warming history—that made her like family.
He hadn’t thought about that ‘pact’ for years.
Not until last night, that was, when Kate’s avoidance of answering his query about whether she was married with kids yet had reminded him of how much time had passed. Plenty of time to have achieved the ‘plan’.
The plan they’d discussed that night after graduation, over that really great bottle of champagne.
‘Me? I’m going to start my stellar career and find the woman of my dreams to share the glory. What about you, Katy?’
‘Oh... I’m going to have a brilliant career, too. And I’m going to find the man of my dreams and get married and have a couple of the world’s most gorgeous children...’
And then they’d polished off that second bottle and things had become a whole lot more mushy. The ‘plan’ had morphed into the ‘pact’.
‘You’re my best mate, Katy. I love you to bits.’
‘Love you, too, mate.’
‘Tell you what...’
‘What?’
