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?’
‘If we haven’t found those dream people by the time we’re...oh...say, thirty-five...let’s marry each other.’
‘Why would you want to marry me?’
‘I might be desperate by then.’
‘Cheers, mate.’
‘Oh, come on...it was a joke.’
‘Your idea of getting married is a joke.’
‘No... I’m serious. Let’s make a pact. If we’re both still single when we’re thirty-five, we’ll marry each other. Okay?’
She’d drained her glass of champagne, pushed her hair out of her eyes and given him a curiously intent stare. And then she’d done it. Agreed to the pact.
‘Okay. You’re on.’
‘So it’s a pact? Signed and sealed?’
‘It’s a pact. But now I need to go to sleep.’
Ancient memories but good ones.
Yes. It was extraordinarily good to see Kate again. Best of all, he had discovered that she lived close enough to his new home town that they would be able to see each other whenever they both had some free time.
Unless she had a boyfriend, of course. Thanks to Matteo’s conversation with Georgia last night, he now knew that Kate wasn’t married and that she was sharing a house with Georgia, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t someone else in the picture. Why wouldn’t there be? Kate was gorgeous, with that impressive intelligence shining from those bright, blue eyes. And he liked that her hair was a bit longer these days. The blonde bob almost touched her shoulders and had a bit of a swing to it.
Not that it would be a problem if she had a significant other in her life. It could mean that Luke’s circle of friends was about to expand, in fact. Maybe they could even double date. He and Matteo had had a lot of fun doing that in Milan. Nothing serious, mind you. Matteo might be dead keen to settle down and start a family of his own with the woman of his dreams but Luke had abandoned any such fairy-tale long ago. At about the same moment he’d learned that his marriage was a complete sham. As he’d remarked so bitterly to Kate, he had no intention of ever losing his head—or his heart—over a woman again.
Still...he wasn’t getting any younger. It would be a shame to miss out completely and spend the rest of his life caring for other people’s children...
* * *
The noise coming from the other side of the door was enough to make Kate and Georgia share a startled glance.
A party? At this time of the day?
Georgia pounded on the door. ‘Ambulance,’ she yelled.
There was no response, so she opened the door. They walked straight into a living room and there were at least half a dozen