‘That’s wonderful.’ Tori knew she wasn’t sounding as enthusiastic as the news warranted. ‘I miss you, Sas.’
‘It’s not long till the wedding and our plans to emigrate to New Zealand are really taking shape. I’ve persuaded Ben that living north of Auckland will be perfect. He can commute into the city to work. You’d better start keeping an eye out for properties near you.’
‘Maybe you should have this house. It’s too big and spooky for just me.’
‘Yeah…’ Sarah was laughing. ‘You could fit Matthew and all his kids in there.’
‘Don’t joke! The thought of taking on someone else’s family is a recurring nightmare. You know I had quite enough of foster-children when I was growing up.’
‘Hey—I was one of those foster-kids.’
‘You were different.’ Tori had to swallow a lump in her throat. ‘It’s so good to talk to you, Sas.’
‘Are you all right, Tori? You sound…I don’t know…lonely.’
‘Who, me? The ‘‘out on the town’’ party girl flitting from one romantic adventure to the next? Lonely? Hello-o-o!’
‘So what romantic adventures have you not been telling me about, then? The last one I knew about was Robert, and that was a disaster!’
‘He was the last one,’ Tori admitted. ‘How sad is that?’
‘So get out there and find someone new,’ Sarah ordered. ‘You obviously like Matt.’
‘Matt’s out of the question.’
‘Why?’
‘You know why. He’s got four children and no life!’
‘You don’t have to marry him.’
‘He doesn’t seem the type to do anything less than serious. And he’s too nice for me to want to make his life any more complicated. Besides, I don’t want to spend my time off with a bunch of kids.’
‘He must escape occasionally.’
‘Only to work, from what I can make out.’
‘So maybe he needs a chance to have some fun.’
Tori was silent. That thought wasn’t totally original, was it?
‘And at least he’s been upfront about the kids, which is more than Robert was. And he doesn’t have a wife tucked away either.’
‘Hmm. He’s too ugly.’
‘I’ve seen him, remember?’
‘Oh…so you have.’
‘When are you seeing him again?’
‘I’m not seeing him. We’re—’
‘Just good friends,’ Sarah interrupted. ‘You already said that. So when are you going out on the road with him again?’
‘Tomorrow, actually.’
‘A night shift?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Have fun.’
‘I’ll do my best.’ Tori was still smiling well after the phone call had ended. She wouldn’t have to try hard. The easy conversation, the humour and the growing friendship made her look forward to his company to the extent that Sarah’s suggestion appeared to have some merit.
Later, turning yet again on her pillow as she tried to settle into sleep, Tori decided against offering anything more than friendship, however. There was just something too inherently decent about Matt to contemplate an affair with no strings. Or maybe she just liked him too much.
She had never had a really close male friend without a physical relationship or the desire for one interfering with the friendship on one or both sides. Adding sex to their relationship would be the fastest way to ruin what was promising to be the best friendship Tori had ever had with a man. No matter how attractive Matthew Buchanan was, it wasn’t worth the risk.
‘And that,’ Tori whispered aloud to herself, ‘is that. End of story.’
CHAPTER THREE
IT DIDN’T turn out to be much fun after all.
The prospect of another night on the road as an observer with Matt and Joe had been the highlight of Tori’s week. The shift started with great promise and the priority-one callout to a car v. pedestrian resulted in an adrenaline-pumping, high-speed obstacle course through rush-hour traffic with Matt’s impressive driving skills tested to the limit.
The job was a fizzer, though, and it was almost embarrassing to turn off first the siren and then the beacons, having been informed by the owner of a secondhand furniture shop that the ‘victim’ had dusted himself off and walked home. Matt and Joe seemed quite philosophical about it, smiling and waving at the group of wide-eyed children who had gathered to watch. Matt blipped the siren in farewell as they pulled away and a small boy could be heard crowing with delight as the noise from the vehicle faded.
The second call, over an hour later, was to a ‘sick person’ who was apparently unwell enough to also require a priority-one response.
‘I’m dying,’ he told the crew as he lay on his bed with a damp cloth covering his eyes.
‘Don’t think so,’ Joe said cheerfully. Matt pulled a blood-pressure cuff from the kit and winked at Tori.
‘What’s been happening?’ he queried.
‘My head hurts. My eyes hurt. I’ve got a sore throat. I ache all over and I feel dizzy when I try and stand up.’
‘Anyone else in the family been unwell recently?’
‘My wife had the flu last week but she wasn’t this sick.’
Tori glanced at the woman standing in the doorway of the bedroom with a toddler balanced on one hip and an older child holding her free hand. She probably hadn’t had time to be that sick.
‘Have you seen your GP?’
‘No-o-o.’ The man groaned rather dramatically. ‘I’ve been too sick to try and get out of bed.’
His wife sighed wearily. ‘They don’t do house calls any more.’
They listened to their patient’s chest, which was clear, took an ECG, which was normal, and pricked his finger to test his blood-sugar levels—also normal. They recorded a normal blood pressure and a slightly elevated temperature. They noted a clean medical history and absence of any prescribed medications.
‘You’ve got the flu, mate,’ Joe told him finally. ‘You need to rest and keep your fluid intake up. If you take some aspirin or a cold and flu preparation, it’ll help the aches and pains. A day or two in bed and you’ll be as right as rain.’
‘But…you’re supposed to take me into hospital, aren’t you?’
‘We can take you if that’s what you really want,’ Matt said, ‘but you’ll be in a very bright, busy, noisy emergency department. You’ll be well down any priority list and it could take hours to see a doctor, who will probably send you straight home again with the same advice we’ve just given you. By then it’ll be about 2 a.m. and you will have missed a good few hours’ sleep.’ Matt’s tone became much less forbidding. ‘Why don’t you try and get some rest at home and see how it goes? You can always call us back if things get worse.’
‘Can I?’
‘Of