‘Oh. Ouch. Remember when I said, be gentle with me? Yeah...that.’
Compared to the rounds and rounds of IVF she’d been through, the head wound was a walk in the park. Her hands, though—they were still frozen and cut and she just knew if he saw them he’d flip out. Because he was that kind of guy. The protective sort. The thought of which made her stomach constrict. She’d had one of them. A wonderful, amazing protective man who’d held her heart so tightly she couldn’t imagine giving it to anyone else. She didn’t need to, or want to. So she had no right to be thinking about Cal’s eyes or manner, let alone getting carried away with smelling his scent. ‘My fingers are starting to thaw out...you know that weird buzzy feeling?’
‘Aha. Only too well.’ He peeled her fingers open and sucked in a breath at the sight of her raw, bleeding skin. ‘You shouldn’t have carried such a heavy weight, or you should have put your gloves on to protect yourself.’
‘Should have, would have, could have. There wasn’t time, remember? None of it is important, anyway. Marty’s safe and Shane’s being looked at. That’s all that matters. Right?’
But he’d zoned out, looking at her wedding ring. He was all matter-of-fact when he spoke. ‘Yes, well, all fixed up now. How are your feet?’
She stamped her boots and wiggled her toes. Luckily she’d put extra-thick socks on today. ‘Feet are just fine. Thank you. I’m good to go.’
‘And I’m in charge of this shift now that Shane’s indisposed, so finally, just one last thing: you need to get a hot drink inside of you and something to eat before you do anything else. We need to debrief before the next call if possible. Definitely time for a break. Paramedic’s orders.’
‘I’m fine.’
‘You usually have blue fingers?’
Looking first at him then back at her hands, she realised there was no point in arguing. He was, in fact, right. She was still freezing and hadn’t had a drink in hours. She’d be no use to anyone like this. But she wasn’t letting him know that. And, if she was absolutely honest, she wanted a couple more minutes with him—it had been a strange day and debriefing was a great idea. With a theatrical sigh she rolled her eyes. ‘Definitely an older sib.’
* * *
Could have done a lot better. Cal looked at the inexpertly applied gauze on her forehead and inwardly cringed. It looked as if it had been stuck on by a kindergarten kid.
It was because he was cold; that was what he was telling himself, anyway. And not because there was anything going on here—like attraction. Given he was heading out of town soon, attraction was a spectacularly bad idea.
Because of her wound, her bobble hat was pushed back, so more tufts of dark, coffee-coloured hair stuck out around her face. She looked as if she’d been...well, as if she’d been on the top of a mountain in a hurricane. It was lucky she’d been there as an extra pair of hands—albeit damaged in the process. She’d coped well, but his heart had only just about started to beat normally again. The SARS training had given him confidence he’d have been able to deal with anything up there, but he hadn’t wanted to test it.
He paid for the flat white and handed it to her, wondering what this urge to chat with her was all about. He didn’t usually buy Shane a cuppa and debrief. Yeah, right...great chat-up line; that’d have them all laughing back at base. The closest they ever got to debriefing for real was a quick chat on the ride to the next emergency, scoffing a lukewarm pie and bad coffee from the petrol station.
They steered through the busy cafeteria and found an empty table. Once they’d settled in, he broke up his bar of chocolate and offered some to her. ‘Eat; you’ll be better with something inside you to bring up the blood sugar.’
She blinked. ‘You really do do a lot of bossing around.’
‘Sorry. Bad habit of mine. You’re not the first person to tell me that. It’s a kind of misguided attempt to look after you.’ Instead of analysing his faults—he was aware he had a few, because Finn made it his personal mission to highlight every single one of his brother’s shortcomings—he went for a change of subject. ‘So, you had a baptism of fire up there. You handled it all very well, though. Not bad for a newbie.’
Underneath the huge jacket, she bristled. ‘I’ve been a nurse for a long time. I’m just new at ED, that’s all. Well, I’ve been here a few months. But it’s a big learning curve, right?’
‘When you’re out in the field, yes. You don’t know what’s going to be thrown at you.’
She took a sip and seemed to settle a little. ‘I haven’t seen you here before, though.’
‘Different shifts probably, and I’ve been out at Wanaka a lot and with the SARS team. I’ve only been in New Zealand a couple of months all up.’ Which reminded him that spending what little time he had left talking to women he could never see again was pretty pointless. Although very nice. Actually, more than nice.
‘And you’re from...Scotland? Is that right?’
‘Aye.’ The familiar tug of responsibility tightened in his gut. He needed to get back there. Wasting another month here felt as if he were killing time. Time he could be using to sort Finn out. But, he’d promised to get as much training as he could and he didn’t want to go back unqualified, or to seem ungrateful to everyone who’d pushed him to come here in the first place. ‘Another month then I’m gone.’
She nodded before blowing on the steaming drink. ‘Of course you are.’
An odd reply. ‘What does that mean?’
‘The majority of people working in Queenstown are just passing through, so I’m not surprised you’ll be going, too. Where next? Aussie? Asia? The big OE we call it. Overseas Experience. A gap year?’
‘At twenty-nine, I’m a bit too old for a gap year. Honestly. No travelling, I’m going straight back home.’
She looked surprised. ‘So you did all your travelling before coming here?’
‘No. I’m not travelling. I came to do specialist search and rescue training. For my job. I have...’ And here was the thing—he was suddenly torn. The minute he’d been needed he’d pledged to spend the rest of his life looking after his brother. This trip had been the first glimpse of how life could have been, but nothing was going to stop him going back. Finn needed him. ‘I have responsibilities back home.’
Was he dreaming or did she look at his hand? For a wedding ring? Laughable. He had enough to do without taking on someone else. ‘Well, they’ll be glad to have you back, I’m sure.’
He smiled. She didn’t know the half of it. ‘I doubt it. But I’m going anyway. What about you? Obviously a Kiwi...?’
She smiled right back. Looked straight into his eyes, and he got a warm sensation swimming through him. ‘I’ve lived in Queenstown my whole life. Been out of the country a few times for holidays, but always came straight back here. It’s where my family is.’
‘You’re not one of those New Zealanders who has the travel bug, then?’
‘No. I need to stay here.’ At his raised eyebrows she continued, ‘Responsibilities too.’
‘Oh—?’ But of course. He’d noticed the wedding ring on her finger before. That was okay. He could do platonic. Yeah, platonic was good. Maybe then he wouldn’t be so mesmerised by her.
Odd, but she quickly drained her coffee and looked at something behind him, her eyes darting and dancing, kind of nervous, kind of sad. ‘Oh-oh, caught in the act. My boss is heading over. I’ve got to go.’
‘Hey,