Kitabı oku: «Daring To Date Her Ex», sayfa 3
‘She’s okay now?’
‘Yeah, she’s been clear for four years now. Ava’s home is with me, but she spends a lot of time with my parents. It seems to work.’
He still hadn’t answered the most important question. ‘And what about you?’
‘Me?’ He put his hand on his chest, as if to check that he was really the object of her concern. ‘What about me?’
He’d lost his brother and sister-in-law. His mother had been seriously ill, and he’d given up his own dreams to take on the challenge of caring for a grieving six-year-old. ‘It was a lot for you to deal with as well.’
Lucas shook his head. ‘Not as much as Ava or my mother. They were the ones …’ His words tailed off into a remembrance of grief.
‘You always seemed to want to go to Bangladesh so much.’
‘I did, once upon a time.’ Did he class his time with her like that too? A distant fairy story, which had no bearing on reality?
‘But not now?’
He turned to look at her, his gaze searching her face. ‘No, not now. We all have dreams, and then we grow out of them.’
They were almost the hardest words she’d heard tonight. ‘Is that why you asked me here? To meet Ava?’
‘You rang me.’ He seemed to relax the tight grip he had on his emotions a little. ‘I’m glad you came. Ava remembers you and she’s been wanting to see you again.’
No mention of his own feelings. It was as if the tragedy of losing his brother and the sudden responsibility of a child had quenched the passion that had so defined Lucas. Seeing him so changed … It would almost have been better never to have seen him at all.
‘It’s been good to be here.’
* * *
There was something he needed to get out of the way. Lucas told himself that it was all about their professional relationship and nothing about the personal. ‘I wouldn’t have blamed you if you’d refused to work with me. After the way that I left.’
‘I always knew what you wanted to do. I supported you in that.’ She shrugged, as if it really didn’t matter.
He’d had time to reflect on the mistake he’d made in breaking up with her, and he knew now that it did matter. ‘I called you. Before the funeral. I couldn’t get through on your mobile and I didn’t want to leave a message. So I tried the house you used to share.’
‘What did they say?’
‘That you’d gone abroad. That you wouldn’t want to speak to me.’
She took a deep breath and a gulp of her wine.
‘I didn’t blame you, Thea. I’d half expected you to refuse to speak to me.’
She shook her head. ‘That was … I got drunk one night and said it to the girls I lived with. I didn’t mean it. Of course I would have spoken to you.’
‘Where did you go?’ Suddenly it was important that he knew.
Her gaze was on his face now and her cheeks were starting to burn red. ‘I went to Bangladesh. It was my last summer before I started work and I thought it would be nice to drop in and see where you were staying. For a bit of a holiday …’
It was all falling into place. An exquisitely timed tragedy. He had left Thea, planning to spend a fortnight with his family before going to Bangladesh. And in that fortnight everything had changed. Sam and Claire had died. And however casual she made it sound, there was no doubt in his mind that Thea had decided to go to Bangladesh to find him.
‘I’m sorry I missed you.’
‘It wasn’t your fault. I’m just sorry that I never knew about Sam and Claire.’
He didn’t deserve her forgiveness, but he couldn’t find a way to tell her that. It was almost a relief when she reached briskly for the pile of papers that she’d propped on the windowsill behind her.
‘Thanks for tonight, but I’m really tired. Could I call you tomorrow morning to discuss our reply to the newspaper article?’
That would be good. There were far too many questions swimming in his head at the moment to concentrate on anything. ‘Yes, of course. I’ll be around all morning.’
Thea felt sick. She stopped the car, wondering whether it would be better to reach for the empty shopping bag under the seat, stick her fingers down her throat and get it over with.
Probably not. The feeling was in her chest and nothing to do with her stomach.
He’d had good reasons for not being on that plane. He’d called her. If she’d known either of those things, what had happened next might have been very different. Instead, she’d been too proud to contact Lucas and had continued on a path that would lead to disgrace.
She switched on the car radio and then thought better of it, punching the ‘off’ button. The radio had turned into something like a game of Russian roulette, never knowing whether the next track would be the one which reminded her of Lucas.
Just drive. Go home. Get some sleep. She had put her life back together again, piece by piece, but Thea knew that it was still a shaky structure. And Lucas had already broken her heart once. Long and slow, bit by bit, from the moment he’d left her to the time she’d realised he wasn’t in Bangladesh. If she was going to keep it all together now, she had to somehow stop caring about him.
CHAPTER FOUR
Week Three
SHE LOOKED LOVELY, almost like the young woman he’d once known. Apart from her hair, and Lucas was getting used to that and actually thought it rather suited her. It was just that he remembered when it had tumbled down her back. When he’d let it slide through his fingers. The night she’d lain on her back while he’d brushed it out in a shining circle around her head. It had been as if they’d been making love on golden sheets.
No more fairy tales. Thea was more like a pageboy than a princess now, seeming to go out of her way to be inconspicuous. A ferocious, committed pageboy, and today a rather glamorous one, who wore a neat, dark jacket and skirt instead of her usual trousers. Her gleaming hair was brushed in a don’t-mess-with-me arrangement and she had a little make-up on. Small changes that were killing Lucas, because at this moment all he wanted to do was mess with her.
The press conference was at two that afternoon, and Thea had disappeared just when he wanted to do a final run-through of the answers to all the expected questions. No one in the department had seen her, she wasn’t in the canteen, and the incident team’s office was empty.
Not quite empty. There was no answer when he called her name but a rustle and the sound of laboured breathing from behind a door in the corner told him that someone was there. Lucas didn’t think he’d ever actually opened that door, reckoning that it was probably a cupboard of some sort.
It was. A large store cupboard, intended to hold the medical supplies for the adjoining clinic. When Lucas opened the door, Thea was perched precariously on the windowsill, breathing into a paper bag.
‘Thea?’ He advanced towards her and she almost shrank from him, her breath coming faster now. Lucas stopped, three feet away from her. ‘Are you all right?’
Of course she wasn’t. Her breathing was fast and irregular, overfilling her lungs with oxygen. The paper bag didn’t seem to be helping at all, because she could hardly hold it to her lips.
She couldn’t speak but she motioned him away angrily, as if it was his fault that he’d seen the weakness behind her veneer. Lucas put the sheaf of papers he was carrying onto one of the shelves that lined the wall and walked slowly towards her. Even that seemed to spook her.
‘Can you walk?’
She ignored him completely. Even if she could walk, she obviously wasn’t intending to go anywhere with him. Lucas turned and flipped the lock on the door, wondering how incriminating it would look if anyone found them locked in a store cupboard together. As long as her boss didn’t hear of it, he was probably in the clear.
‘You’re all right.’ He held the crumpled paper bag to her lips. ‘Just breathe.’
Her eyes were wild, the way he’d used to love them, but she did what he asked. Lucas counted out the breaths, his hand light on her back as reassurance, and slowly she began to calm.
‘Would you like some water?’
She just looked at him so Lucas fetched the bottle of water he’d been carrying with his papers. Held it to her lips and she sipped a little, gratefully.
‘What’s going on, Thea?’ Once upon a time she would’ve told him. Things were different now.
‘I’m okay. Just a little tired.’
‘Yeah. Pull the other one.’ He said the words gently. ‘Tired doesn’t give you panic attacks.’
‘I just need a minute. Don’t fuss.’
So that was how she intended to play it. As a doctor, there was little more that Lucas could do, and he had no intention of rekindling their relationship. Nothing said they couldn’t be friends, though. He sat down beside her on the windowsill, put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a hug.
He felt her stiffen and then relax. Lucas had thought he remembered how good her body felt against his, but he hadn’t. It was almost impossible to hold her without kissing her.
His lips formed the shape of a kiss into the air above her head. A fragile thing that died as soon as it was born, instead of leading into a smile and then something delicious. Lucas held her for a few moments more and then gently drew back.
‘Are you going to tell me what’s going on?’
She shook her head. ‘No.’
‘Okay, then. Keep it to yourself.’
That got the ghost of a smile from her. ‘We should make a move. You don’t want to be late for your public.’
‘You need to rest.’
‘I do not.’
‘Have it your own way. I’m not taking you into a press conference wondering if you’ll be whipping out a paper bag to breathe into any moment. It’s not the most reassuring look.’
‘You don’t need to wonder. I’ve had my moment.’
She seemed steady enough now, if a little washed out. Lucas got to his feet. ‘Stay here. I’ll handle it.’
‘We agreed that you and someone from the hospital should attend. Provide a cohesive response.’
‘Michael Freeman’s here. I’ll ask him to stand in.’
A look of alarm crossed her face and he sat down again, wondering if he was going to need the paper bag again.
‘You will not. This is my job.’
‘Something to prove?’
‘Yes, of course I do. Don’t tell me that you’re any different.’
Thea wasn’t fearless, never had been. Only those with no understanding of the consequences of a situation were completely without fear. But this was the response she’d always given to things that frightened her. She faced them, just to show who was boss.
‘I need to know, then.’
She shrugged. ‘I don’t much like the idea of sitting in front of a crowd of people and being photographed. I’ve never been at a press conference before.’
‘Well, it’s not much like TV. No shouting and flashing bulbs, they’re usually quite civilised.’ He grinned. ‘The ones I give are, anyway.’
‘That’s a relief.’
He chanced another question. ‘I hope you didn’t mind that I let Ava have your photograph to put on her board.’
For a moment she truly didn’t see the connection, and then understanding dawned on her face. ‘Of course not. It was nice to see it again.’
He nodded. ‘So you don’t mind old photos—just new ones.’
She looked at him with that blank expression that signalled something she didn’t want to talk about. ‘Something like that.’
‘Okay. I’ll figure it out.’
Half the puzzle had fallen into place, leaving the other half even more tantalisingly unknown than before. Everything that Thea did now seemed focussed on not drawing too much attention to herself. All he needed to know now was why that was so important to her.
‘Look, let’s just go and get this done.’ The old Thea surfaced suddenly. The one who didn’t let anything get in her way, not even him. If she had the assembled newsmen as firmly under her spell as she did him, they’d have nothing to worry about.
‘Wait a minute …’ He walked to the door, listening to make sure that no one was outside. He didn’t have a plan for what he might do if he heard anything.
She slid past him and opened the door, to reveal an empty office. ‘I don’t imagine anyone’s got a problem with our inspecting the stockroom, have they?’
He followed her outside, grinning. ‘No. I don’t imagine they have.’
Thea braved it out. She didn’t feel all that brave and she was embarrassed that Lucas had found her having a panic attack in a cupboard, but he seemed to take that in his stride. He didn’t leave her side, ushering her to her seat and sitting down next to her. His bulk, the way he naturally drew everyone’s attention and seemed to absorb it with ease, was reassuring. She could do this. There would be no repeat of Bangladesh, no shouting, no name-calling. This was just a group of men and women, with notepads and voice recorders, who asked all the expected questions.
‘Splendid!’ Michael Freeman was smiling as they left their seats and the crowd in the room started to mingle. ‘I thought that went very well.’
‘Thanks.’
‘You showed a collaborative working relationship, with everyone in agreement as to the best way to proceed.’ Michael fixed her with a questioning look.
‘That’s how it is, Michael.’
‘You’d tell me if it wasn’t.’
‘Of course. This is too important—’ Thea broke off as a reporter with a camera appeared right in front of them.
‘Can I have a picture?’
‘Delighted. You’re from …?’ Suddenly Lucas was there, and it seemed that the camera was no longer pointing her way. Thea realised that she’d instinctively taken a few steps back, shrinking from the lens, and that Lucas had put himself in between her and the cameraman.
‘The local paper. You commented on our article.’
‘Ah, yes. I thought that was going to print over the weekend.’ Lucas’s smile took on a hint of confrontational charm.
‘We held it until today, so that we could include what’s been said at the press conference. In the interests of fairness.’
‘That’s good to hear.’ Lucas shot a quick look in her direction and started to steer the cameraman away from her. ‘Michael, perhaps you’d like to be in on this one?’
Michael raised his eyebrows but followed dutifully, leaving Thea to make her escape before anyone else could catch her. It would be a while before anyone noticed she’d gone and by then she’d be up on the ward and away from the circus of curious eyes and jutting lenses.
CHAPTER FIVE
Week Four
THEA SURVEYED THE empty waiting room. Three TB nurses had been working at full tilt all day to keep the numbers in the waiting room down, but it hadn’t been easy. There were forms to be filled out, questions from worried parents and real and imagined symptoms to be investigated and advised on.
Lucas had seemed to expect all this, and was standing by to help when the flood of people wanting a doctor’s advice had threatened to overwhelm Thea. He was relaxed and cheerful, his sleeves rolled up in a certain indication that he meant business, his demeanour inviting the world in general to tell him what was on its mind. She’d seen a new side to him today. Passion, tempered by professionalism.
‘That’s everyone?’ He gave a farewell nod to a woman who’d gone into his consulting room looking as if she was on her way to a funeral and come out again looking as if she was vaguely considering going to a party.
‘That’s it. You were a long time with that last patient.’ Everyone else had packed up and gone home, leaving Thea to try and make some inroads into the pile of paperwork on her desk.
‘She was telling me all about the new leisure centre that’s been built just down the road. Apparently they’ve got a dance studio down there with a proper sprung floor.’
‘Really? They do classes?’
‘Yeah, apparently. Thinking of going?’
For a moment his smile tempted her and Thea considered the prospect. She hadn’t danced for ages, and suddenly she missed it. But she had no partner.
‘I don’t have the time these days.’ Thea picked up her pen and then threw it back down again, deciding that she’d get through the stack of files much quicker if she took them home with her and had something to eat first. ‘Besides, I’d rather take a course that’s more practical. Something like self-defence maybe.’
‘You’re worried about your safety?’
Thea ignored the question. She really didn’t want to get into that.
Lucas shrugged, and let it go. ‘Would you like a lift? I’ve got my car with me today.’
She couldn’t think of a good reason to say no. Other than the truth, and it wasn’t for him to know that she was enjoying working with him far more than she should. Thea returned his smile. ‘Okay, yes. I could do with a lift tonight, I’m tired.’
They locked the door of the clinic and walked to the car park. ‘If you find a good self-defence class, let me know. I might suggest it to Ava.’
‘Okay. Ava and I could go together perhaps.’
‘I think she’d like that. I’m all for it.’
He drove slowly towards the hospital gates, stopping to let an ambulance through to the forecourt of the A and E department. As he stopped again to let someone run across the crossing in front of him, the screech of brakes and a dull thud sounded from somewhere. Something right at the periphery of her vision, moving fast, made Thea instinctively shrink back in her seat, one hand flying up to shield her face.
The engine shrieked in protest as Lucas changed gear and reversed, fast. A large chunk of metal hit the road a few feet in front of the car, just about where Thea had been sitting a few seconds ago. There was a moment of silence and then the sound of someone shouting.
‘You all right?’ Lucas had instinctively flung one arm protectively across her.
‘Yes. Are you?’
‘Yeah.’
He wrenched his door open, and Thea followed suit, practically tumbling out of the car. An ambulance had been turning right into the hospital, across a lane of traffic, and it looked as if it had been hit by a car coming the other way. Its side had been stoved in, and the impact had pushed it out of control and into one of the brick pillars that supported the gates.
People were running. A group of nurses who had been chatting and laughing together, off duty for the night, had dropped their bags and coats and were legging it across the road towards a silver car, which had spun across two lanes of traffic and crashed into someone’s front wall. Lucas sprinted past her and Thea followed him.
‘The ambulance driver … he called to her, before making his way around to the back of the vehicle. There was a doctor already running to the car, and Thea opened the driver’s door of the ambulance.
‘Are you all right?’ The driver seemed dazed, but she had been held firmly in her seat by her seat belt and protected by the air bag.
‘Think so. He came out of nowhere …’ The young woman suddenly snapped back into coherence, and she twisted around to look through the glass into the back of the ambulance. ‘Dave? My partner’s in the back.’
And he would have been sitting right where the ambulance had taken the most impact. ‘There’s someone back there already.’ Thea leaned over and released the woman’s seat belt. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Lisa. I’m okay, you don’t need to go through all that with me.’
‘Indulge me.’ Thea helped Lisa down from the cabin and walked her to a bench by the hospital gates. ‘Sit.’
Lisa rolled her eyes but did it anyway. Thea beckoned to a nurse who had just arrived to help and left her trying to keep Lisa under control while she hurried to the back of the ambulance.
Lucas was struggling with the doors, which had been bent out of alignment by the impact. She could hear someone crying for help now from inside. One great heave, accompanied by a roar of effort, and the doors opened and Lucas levered himself upwards into the back of the ambulance.
Inside, a man was sitting upright on a carry chair, still secured in place by the straps across his body. On the other side, where the impact had been, it was a different story. The wall of the ambulance was twisted and buckled, and a man in uniform, who had to be Lisa’s partner Dave, was lying on the floor. In the silence, the beep of a monitor sounded loudly.
‘Help him. Please, help him …’ The man on the chair was conscious and seemed lucid, more worried about the crew who had brought him here than himself. Thea scrambled up into the ambulance to get a better view, as Lucas quickly checked Dave out. He wasn’t breathing and already going into cyanosis. Blood covered his face and the front of his shirt, and his jaw was obviously broken.
‘We won’t get a line in to intubate. You’ve done a temporary crike before?’ Lucas looked up at her.
‘Yep.’ A cricothyroidotomy was easier to do than a full tracheotomy in an emergency situation, and the results were more reliable. This close to the hospital, the question of how long it would remain stable was irrelevant.
Lucas had already located the kit and broken it open, half filling the cannula with sterile saline. Handing it to Thea, he moved Dave’s head back.
Her hand shook. She’d done this before, but never with the thought that a whole hospital full of medical professionals would be assessing her every move the next morning. The sudden thought that she might fail, and what she’d say to them if she did, paralysed her.
‘You’re good to go, Thea.’ Lucas’s voice was calm.
Dave was going to die if she didn’t do this. That was more important than anything that anyone could possibly say to her afterwards. She positioned one hand around Dave’s neck, holding both sides of the airway, and slid the needle in. Bubbles rose into the body of the cannula, indicating that she’d found the airway.
She held the needle in place, while Lucas removed the syringe and attached the oxygen tube. After an agonising moment Dave’s chest began to rise and fall.
‘Looks as if there are some chest injuries as well.’ Lucas glanced up at the paramedic who was outside the doors of the ambulance, talking to the other passenger, keeping his attention away from the lifesaving procedures that she and Lucas were undertaking. ‘We need to get him out of here as soon as he’s stable.’
‘We’ll be ready to move him in a few minutes,’ the paramedic replied quickly and then turned his attention back to his charge. There seemed to be no lack of resources at this particular accident scene.
Lucas opened Dave’s bloodied shirt, and she caught sight of a little gold St Christopher around his neck. She swallowed hard, pulling her gaze away, concentrating on the injuries she could see. Dave’s breathing was fast and shallow, and his chest was rising and falling unevenly.
‘Flail chest?’ She nodded to the area that seemed to be moving in the opposite direction of everything else.
‘Yep.’ Lucas covered the area with a wad of dressing, keeping his hand firmly over the area. Dave’s breathing stabilised, and Lucas gave a grim smile of satisfaction. ‘Is the gurney here yet?’
‘We’re ready.’ A call came from outside, and Lucas acknowledged it with a nod.
‘Okay. We need to do this carefully. You’ll make sure the needle doesn’t move?’ His gaze met Thea’s for a moment.
‘Yes. You keep up the pressure on his chest. The guys will move him.’
The tricky business of getting Dave out from where he lay on the floor of the ambulance and onto a gurney was accomplished with the minimum of fuss. His colleagues carried him carefully to the entrance of the A and E department, Lucas walking on one side, keeping pressure on his chest, and Thea on the other.
Jake Turner was ready for them inside, ushering them to a cubicle. Thea waited patiently, concentrating on her part of the effort to keep Dave alive for long enough to get him to surgery. When her turn came to be relieved of her duties, her arms would hardly respond from the effort of keeping them in one place for so long.
‘Okay, we’re going to take him down now.’ The beep of the monitor, assessing Dave’s heart rate, was fast but reassuringly regular. Intravenous drips were already in place, and Jake had assessed all Dave’s injuries. ‘Good work, everyone.’
It had taken three quarters of an hour and seven people, all working together, to get Dave this far. They’d bought enough time to give the surgeons and the intensive care staff a chance to do their work.
‘Okay?’ Lucas had stripped his surgical gloves off and was washing the blood from his forearms, using the basin in the now-empty cubicle.
‘Yeah.’ Thea realised that she was trembling. ‘Just a bit stiff.’
‘I’m not surprised, the way you were bent over.’ He pulled a towel from the dispenser, leaving the tap running so that she could wash. ‘You know him?’
‘I’ve seen him around, that’s all.’ She heaved a sigh. ‘He’s one of us, though.’
‘Yeah. Makes it harder. Knowing that everyone’s going to have an opinion by tomorrow, whatever you do.’
She shivered. ‘Don’t.’
He was wiping his hands, looking at her thoughtfully. ‘Doing something is the reason we became doctors.’
Thea had thought that in Bangladesh. She’d done something when no one else would, and had been condemned for it.
‘Yeah.’ She shook her head. This was an entirely different situation. Lucas had been there and he’d been with her all the way. And Dave was in surgery now, with a good chance of pulling through.
‘Cup of tea?’
‘I want to wait, see if there’s any news.’
‘That’s what I thought. So we’ll have a cup of tea while we do it.’ A commotion from outside made Lucas’s head jerk round and he strode to the door of the cubicle. As he opened it, Lisa’s voice rose above the others’.
‘How many times have I got to tell you? I’m all right. I’m going …’
One of the A and E nurses was trying to pacify her. ‘You need to wait here until a doctor can see you. And everyone’s busy right now.’
‘Yeah, well, I’ve got somewhere I need to be right now. And I’m quite capable of working out if I have a concussion.’
‘No, Lisa, you’re not. I know you think you’re okay, and you probably are, but you’ve just been in a major accident. If it was anyone else, you’d be the first to tell them that they needed to see a doctor.’
The nurse wasn’t having much success. Lisa had turned abruptly away from her and was about to walk away when Lucas blocked her path.
‘Hi. I happen to be a doctor.’
Thea supposed that she really should have done the examination herself, as she was employed by the hospital and Lucas wasn’t. But Lucas had exactly what Lisa needed at the moment, an easy, joking manner and the ability to make her see sense without ramming the regulations down her throat.
‘Wait …’ He was working carefully and thoroughly, and had got to the point of checking the reaction of Lisa’s pupils to light. ‘Don’t look up until I tell you.’
‘You were about to tell me.’ Lucas and Lisa had been battling their way through the whole examination.
‘No, I wasn’t.’ He paused for about two seconds. ‘Look up, please.’
‘Everyone loves a smart-arse.’ Thea suppressed a smile as Lisa took the words right out of her own mouth.
‘Yeah, and everyone loves a patient who knows better than they do.’ Lucas chuckled.
‘I’ve had a few of those in my time.’
‘Yeah, I’ll bet.’ Lucas flipped off the penlight. ‘Okay, well, I’m disappointed to tell you that I can’t find anything wrong with you.’
Lisa slipped off the gurney, sliding her feet back into her heavy boots. ‘Sure you didn’t miss anything?’
Lucas shrugged. ‘I can try again, if you want.’
‘Nah. Thanks, though. I’ve got to go and see what’s happening.’
‘Dave’s not going to be out of surgery for a while yet.’ Thea spoke quietly.
‘Yeah, I know.’ Lisa twisted her lips together.
‘Why don’t you have a cup of tea with us?’ Lucas looked around to see whether anyone was waiting for Lisa, but no one seemed to be.
‘I want to find out what happened.’ Lisa’s face took on a sullen look, and suddenly it hit Thea. She’d been busy worrying about whether her own actions would stand the test of scrutiny, and not even thought that Lisa had been driving when the accident had happened.
‘Wait here, Lisa.’ She rose from her seat.
‘I’m going—’ The argumentative tone sounded in Lisa’s voice again.
‘Sit. Down.’ Both Thea and Lisa started, and Thea almost sat down, even though Lucas’s words were directed at Lisa. She supposed that bringing up a teenager had honed the sudden command in his voice.
Lisa sat back down on the gurney.
‘Stay there. If you don’t do as you’re told, I’ll admit you.’
‘What for?’ One last trace of Lisa’s defiance remained.
‘I’ll make something up. I don’t suppose you have a cough?’
Lucas fetched a cup of tea for Lisa, keeping his eye on the cubicle door. Thea had bolted, obviously on a mission to get whatever information she could, and he wasn’t about to let Lisa make a break for it in the meantime. Ten minutes later Thea returned, a grim smile on her face.
‘Okay. There’s no news on Dave yet, but there’s something else …’ She sat down next to Lisa on the gurney. ‘The other driver was drunk. There were a couple of eyewitnesses, who both said they saw you turning into the hospital and that the other guy came round the corner and shot the lights, going straight into you. There was no way you could have seen him.’
Lisa stared at her for a moment, and then clapped her hand over her mouth, squeezing her eyes shut. ‘Oh. Thank God.’ She shook her head. ‘No … I don’t mean that …’
‘I know what you meant.’
Lisa slumped against Thea, the tough exterior of an experienced ambulance driver suddenly dissolved. ‘I thought it was my fault.’
Lucas just managed to hook a cardboard bowl from the pile and thrust it into Thea’s hand before Lisa was sick. It was a short, sharp reaction, and Lucas got rid of the bowl while Thea looked after Lisa.
‘Ugh.’ Lisa took the paper towel that Thea proffered and wiped her mouth. ‘Is the driver all right, then? The car looked as if it was a complete wreck.’
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