Kitabı oku: «Saved By The Single Dad»

Praise for Annie Claydon

‘A compelling, emotional and highly poignant read that I couldn’t bear to put down. Rich in pathos, humour and dramatic intensity, it’s a spellbinding tale about healing old wounds, having the courage to listen to your heart and the power of love that kept me enthralled from beginning to end.’

—Goodreads on Once Upon a Christmas Night...

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

Dedication

Praise

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

EPILOGUE

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

JACK PUT HIS head down, trying to shield his face from the stinging rain. Behind him, his ambulance was parked on the road, unable to make it across the narrow bridge that was now the only way into the small village of Holme. Ahead of him, a heavily pregnant woman who should be transported to hospital before the late summer floods in this area of Somerset got any worse.

He and Mimi had been in worse situations before. They’d crewed an ambulance together for the last seven years, Mimi in the driver’s seat and Jack taking the lead in treating their patients. They were a good team.

But, however good they were, they couldn’t stop it from raining. The main road to the hilltop village was under three feet of water and this back road led across a narrow bridge that was slick with mud. Rather than risk the ambulance getting stuck halfway across, they’d decided to make the rest of the journey on foot.

There were still plenty of options. The patient wasn’t in labour yet, and maybe a four-by-four could bring her down the hill to the waiting ambulance. Maybe the storm would clear and the HEMS team could airlift her out. Maybe the support doctor Jack had requested would arrive soon, and maybe not. If all else failed, he and Mimi had delivered babies together before now.

His feet slid on a patch of mud and he gripped the heavy medical bag slung over his shoulder, lurching wildly for a moment before he regained his balance. ‘Careful...’ He muttered the word as an instruction to himself. Slipping and breaking his leg wasn’t one of the options he had been considering.

‘One, two, three...’ In a grim version of the stepping game he played with Ellie, his four-year-old daughter, he traversed the bridge, trying to ignore the grumbling roar of thunder in the hills. He’d wait for Mimi on the far bank of the river. She’d walked back up the road a little to get reception on her phone and check in with the Disaster Control Team, but they shouldn’t lose sight of each other.

He thought he heard someone scream his name but it was probably just the screech of the wind. Then, as the roar got louder, he realised that it wasn’t thunder.

Jack turned. A wall of water, tumbling down from the hills, was travelling along the path of the riverbed straight towards him.

His first instinct was to trust the power and speed of his body and run, but in a moment of sudden clarity he knew he wouldn’t make it up the steep muddy path in front of him in time. A sturdy-looking tree stood just yards away, its four twisting trunks offering some hope of protection, and Jack dropped his bag and ran towards it.

He barely had a chance to lock his hands around one of the trunks and suck in one desperate breath before the water slammed against his back, expelling all of the precious oxygen from his lungs in one gasp as it flattened him against the bark. A great roar deafened him and he kept his eyes tight shut against the water and grit hitting his face. Hang on. The one and only thing he could do was hang on.

Then it stopped. Not daring to let go of the tree trunk, Jack opened his eyes, trying to blink away the sting of the dirty water. Another sickening roar was coming from upstream.

The next wave was bigger, tearing at his body. He tried to hold on but his fingers slipped apart and he was thrown against the other three trunks, one of them catching the side of his head with a dizzying blow. There was no point in trying to hold his breath and a harsh bellow escaped his lips as his arms flailed desperately, finding something to hold on to and clinging tight.

Then, suddenly, it stopped again. Too dazed to move, Jack lay twisted in the shelter of the branches, his limbs trembling with shock and effort. He was so cold...

Mimi... He tried to call for her, hoping against all hope that she hadn’t been on the bridge when the water had hit, but all he could do was cough and retch, dirty water streaming out of his nose and mouth.

He gasped in a lungful of air. ‘Mimi...’

‘Stay down. Just for a moment.’

A woman’s voice, husky and sweet. Someone was wiping his face, clearing his eyes and mouth.

‘Mimi... My partner.’

‘She’s okay. I can see her on the other side of the river.’ That voice again. He reached out towards it and felt a warm hand grip his.

He opened his eyes, blinking against the light, and saw her face. Pale skin, with strands of short red hair escaping from the hood of her jacket. Strong cheekbones, a sweet mouth and the most extraordinary pale blue eyes. It was the kind of face you’d expect to find on some warrior goddess...

He shook his head. He must be in shock. Jack knew better than most the kind of nonsense that people babbled in situations like this. Unless she had a golden sword tucked away under her dark blue waterproof jacket, she was just an ordinary mortal, her face rendered ethereal because it was the first thing he’d seen when he opened his eyes.

‘Are you sure? Mimi’s okay?’

The woman glanced up only briefly, her gaze returning to him. ‘She’s wearing an ambulance service jacket. Blonde hair, I think...’

‘Yes, that’s her.’ Jack tried to move and found that his limbs had some strength in them now.

‘Are you hurt?’

‘No...’ No one part of him hurt any more than the rest and Jack decided that was a good sign. ‘Thanks...um...’

‘I’m Cass... Cassandra Clarke.’

‘Jack Halliday.’

She gave a small nod in acknowledgement. ‘We’d better not hang around here for too long. Can you stand?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Okay, take it slowly.’ She reached over, disentangling his foot from a branch, and then scrambled around next to him, squeezing her body in between him and one of the tree trunks. With almost no effort on his part at all, he found himself sitting up as she levered her weight against his, her arms supporting him. Then she helped him carefully to his feet.

He turned, looking back over the bridge to find Mimi. Only the bridge wasn’t there any more. A couple of chunks of masonry were all that was left of it, rolling downstream under the pressure of the boiling water. He could see Mimi standing on the other side, staring fixedly at him, and beside her stood a man who he thought he recognised. Behind them, the lights still on and the driver’s door open, was a black SUV.

‘All right?’ Now that he was on his feet, he could see that Cass was tall, just a couple of inches shorter than him.

‘Yeah. Thanks.’ Jack felt for his phone and found that he had nothing in his pocket apart from a couple of stones and a handful of sludge. ‘I need to get to a phone...’

‘Okay. The village is only ten minutes away; we’ll get you up there first.’ She spoke with a quiet, irresistible authority.

Jack waved to Mimi, feeling a sharp ache in his shoulder as he raised his arm. She waved back, both hands reaching out towards him as if she was trying to retrieve him. Moving his hand in a circular motion as a sign that he’d call her, he saw the man bend to pick something up. Mimi snatched her phone from him and looked at it for a moment and then turned her attention back on to Jack, sending him a thumbs-up sign.

‘Did you mean to park the ambulance like that?’ There was a note of dry humour in Cass’s husky tones.

Jack looked over the water and saw that the ambulance had been washed off the road and was leaning at a precarious angle against a tree. He muttered a curse under his breath.

‘I’ll take that as a no.’

Jack chuckled, despite the pain in his ribs. ‘What are you?’

She flushed red as if this was the one question she didn’t know how to answer. In someone so capable, the delicate shade of pink on her cheeks stirred his shaking limbs into sudden warmth.

‘What do you mean?’

‘None of this fazes you very much, does it? And you’ve been trained in how to lift...’ Jack recognised the techniques she’d used as very similar to his own. A little more leverage and a little less strength, maybe. And, although Cass didn’t give any orders, the men around her seemed to recognise her as their leader.

‘I’m a firefighter. I work at the fire station in town, but I’m off duty at the moment. On duty as a concerned family member, though—my sister Lynette’s the patient you’re coming to see.’

‘Then we’d better get going.’ Jack looked around for his bag and saw that one of the men was holding it, and that water was dripping out of it. He really was on his own here—no Mimi and no medical bag. He turned, accepting a supportive arm from one of the men, and began to walk slowly up the steep path with the group.

* * *

This wasn’t what Cass had planned. She’d hoped to be able to get Lynette safely to hospital well in advance but, stubborn as ever, her sister had pointed out that it was another two weeks before her due date and flatly refused to go.

The hospital was now out of reach, but a paramedic was the next best thing. And the floods had finally given her a break and quite literally washed Jack up, on to her doorstep.

Despite the layers of clothing, she’d still felt the strength of his body when she’d helped him up. Hard muscle, still pumped and quivering with the effort of holding on. It had taken nerve to stay put and hang on instead of trying to run from the water, but that decision had probably saved his life.

He was tall as well, a couple of inches taller than her own six feet. And despite, or maybe because of, all that raw power he had the gentlest eyes. The kind of deep brown that a girl could just fall into.

Enough. He might be easy on the eye, but that was nothing to do with her primary objective. Jack was walking ahead of her and Cass lengthened her stride to catch up with him.

‘Lynette’s actually been having mild contractions. She’s not due for another two weeks, but it seems as if the baby might come sooner.’ It was better to think of him as an asset, someone who could help her accomplish the task ahead. Bravery had got him here in one piece and those tender eyes might yet come in useful, for comforting Lynette.

‘Her first child?’

‘Yes.’ And one that Cass would protect at all costs.

‘Hopefully it’ll decide not to get its feet wet just yet. The weather’s too bad for the HEMS team to be able to operate safely tonight, but we may be able to airlift her out in the morning.’

‘Thanks. You’ll contact them?’

‘Yeah. Can I borrow your phone? I need to get hold of Mimi as well.’

‘Of course, but we’ll get you inside first. Who’s the guy with her?’

‘If it’s who I think it is, that’s her ex.’ A brief grin. Brief but very nice. ‘Mimi’s not going to like him turning up out of the blue.’

‘Complicated?’

‘Isn’t it always?’

He had a point. In any given situation, the complications always seemed to far outweigh the things that went right. Which meant that someone as gorgeous as Jack was probably dizzyingly complicated.

‘She’ll be okay, though? Your partner.’

‘Oh, yeah. No problems with Rafe; he won’t leave her stranded. He might have to tie her to a tree to stop her from killing him, but she’ll be okay.’ Despite the fact that Jack was visibly shivering, the warmth in his eyes was palpable.

Maybe Cass should have done that with her ex, Paul. Tied him to a tree and killed him when she’d had the chance. But he was a father now, and probably a half decent one at that. He had a new wife, and a child who depended on him.

‘I don’t suppose there’s any way we can get some more medical supplies over here?’ Jack’s voice broke her reverie. ‘Rafe’s a doctor and, knowing him, he’ll have come prepared for anything. I could do with a few things, just in case.’

Cass nodded. ‘Leave it with me; I’ll work something out. You need to get cleaned up and into some dry clothes before you do anything else.’

‘Yeah.’ The tremble of his limbs was making it through into Jack’s voice now. ‘I could do with a hot shower.’

‘That’s exactly where we’re headed. Church hall.’

‘That’s where we’re staying tonight?’ He looked towards the spire, which reached up into the sky ahead of them like a beacon at the top of the hill.

‘Afraid so. The water’s already pretty deep all around the village. In this storm, and with the flash floods, there’s no safe place to cross.’

She could count on the water keeping him here for the next twenty-four hours at least, perhaps more if she was lucky. He might not want to stay, but there was no choice.

‘I’m not thinking of trying to get across. Not while I have a patient to tend to.’

‘Thank you. I really appreciate that.’ Cass felt suddenly ashamed of herself. This guy wasn’t an asset, a cog in a piece of machinery. He was a living, breathing man and his dedication to his job wasn’t taken out of a rule book.

She reminded herself, yet again, that this kind of thinking would only get her into trouble. Paul had left her because she’d been unable to get pregnant. Then told her that the problem was all hers, proving his point by becoming a father seven months later. In the agony of knowing that she might never have the baby she so wanted, the indignity of the timing was almost an afterthought.

That was all behind her. The tearing disappointment each month. The wedding, which Paul had postponed time and time again and had ended up cancelled. Lynette’s baby was the one she had to concentrate on now, and she was going to fight tooth and nail to get everything that her sister needed.

* * *

Jack was taking one thing at a time. He fixed his eyes on the church steeple, telling himself that this was the goal for the time being and that he just had to cajole his aching limbs into getting there.

Slowly it rose on the horizon, towering dizzily above his head as they got closer. The church had evidently been here for many hundreds of years but, when Cass led him around the perimeter of the grey, weatherworn stones, the building behind it was relatively new. She walked through a pair of swing doors into a large lobby filled with racks of coats. At the far end, shadows passed to and fro behind a pair of obscure glass doors, which obviously led to the main hall.

‘The showers are through here.’ Cass indicated a door at the side of the lobby.

‘Wait.’ There was one thing he needed to do, and then he’d leave the rest to Cass and hope that the water was hot. ‘Give me your phone.’

She hesitated. ‘The medical bags can wait. You need to get warm.’

‘Won’t take a minute.’ He held out his hand, trying not to wince as pain shot through his shoulders and Cass nodded, producing her phone from her pocket.

‘Thank you. Tell her that we’re going back down to fetch the medical supplies. I think I know how we can get them across.’

It didn’t come as any particular surprise that she had a plan. Jack imagined that Cass was the kind of person who always had a plan. She was tall and strong, and moved with the controlled grace of someone who knew how to focus on the task in hand. Now that she’d pulled her hood back her thick red hair, cut in a layered style that was both practical and feminine, made her seem even more gorgeously formidable.

His text to Mimi was answered immediately and confirmed that it was Rafe that he’d seen. Jack texted again, asking Mimi to pack whatever spare medical supplies they had into a bag.

‘Here.’ He passed the phone back to Cass. ‘She’s waiting for your call.’

‘Thanks.’ She slipped the phone into her pocket. ‘Now you get warm.’

She led the way through to a large kitchen, bustling with activity, which suddenly quieted as they tramped through in their muddy boots and wet clothes. Beyond that, a corridor led to a bathroom, with a sign saying ‘Women Only’ hung on the door. Cass popped her head inside and then flipped the sign over, to display the words ‘Men Only’.

It looked as if he had the place to himself. There was a long row of handbasins, neat and shining, with toilet cubicles lined up opposite and bath and shower cubicles at the far end. The place smelled of bleach and air freshener.

‘Put your clothes there.’ She indicated a well-scrubbed plastic chair next to the handbasins. ‘I’ll send someone to collect them and leave some fresh towels and we’ll find some dry clothes. What size are you...?’

The question was accompanied by a quick up and down glance that made Jack shiver, and a slight flush spread over Cass’s cheeks. ‘Large will have to do, I think.’ She made the words sound like a compliment.

‘Thanks. That would be great.’

‘Do you need any help?’ She looked at him steadily. ‘I’m relying on you, as a medical professional, to tell me if there’s anything the matter with you.’

If he’d thought for one moment that Cass would stay and help him off with his clothes, instead of sending someone else in to do it, Jack might just have said yes. ‘No. I’ll be fine.’

‘Good.’ She turned quickly, but Jack caught sight of a half-smile on her lips. Maybe she would have stayed. Working in an environment that was still predominantly male, Jack doubted that she was much fazed by the sight of a man’s body.

He waited for the door to close behind her before he painfully took off his jacket and sweater. Unbuttoning his shirt, he stood in front of the mirror to inspect some of the damage. It was impossible to tell what was what at the moment. A little blood, mixed with a great deal of mud from the dirty water. He’d shower first and then worry about any bumps and scratches.

A knock at the door and a woman’s voice, asking if she could come in, disturbed the best shower Jack could remember taking in a long time. Hurried footsteps outside the cubicle and then he was alone again, luxuriating in the hot water.

After soaping his body twice, he felt almost clean again. Opening the cubicle door a crack, he peered out and found the bathroom empty; two fluffy towels hung over one of the handbasins. One was large enough to wind around his waist and he rubbed the other one over his head to dry his hair.

He looked a mess. He could feel a bump forming on the side of his head and, although his jacket had largely protected the rest of him, he had friction burns on his arms, which stung like crazy, and a graze on his chest from where the zip on his jacket had been driven against the skin.

‘Coming in...’ A rap on the door and a man’s voice. A slim, sandy-haired man of about forty entered, carrying a pile of clothes and a pair of canvas shoes. ‘Hi, Jack. I’m Martin.’

He was wearing a light windcheater, white letters on a dark blue background on the right hand side, in the same place that Jack’s paramedic insignia appeared on his uniform. When he turned, the word was repeated in larger letters across his back.

‘You’re the vicar, then.’ Jack grinned.

‘Yeah. My wife seems to think this is a good idea, just in case anyone mistakes me for someone useful.’

‘I’d always be glad to see you coming.’ Hope and comfort were often just as important as medical treatment.

‘Likewise. We’re grateful for all you did to get here.’ Martin propped the clothes on the ledge behind the washbasins. ‘They look nasty.’ His gaze was on the friction burns on Jack’s arms.

‘Superficial. They’ll be okay.’ Jack riffled through the clothes. A T-shirt, a grey hooded sweatshirt and a pair of jeans that looked about his size. He picked the T-shirt up and pulled it over his head so that he didn’t have to think about the marks on his arms and chest any more. ‘How’s my patient?’

‘Lynette’s fine. She’s over at the vicarage, drinking tea with my wife and complaining about all the fuss. She seems to have got it into her head that she’s got some say about when the baby arrives.’

‘You were right to call. At the very least she needs to be checked over.’

Martin nodded. ‘Thanks. Cass has gone to get your medical supplies. Goodness only knows how she’s going to manage it, but knowing Cass...’

Even the mention of her name made Jack’s heart beat a little faster. ‘She seems very resourceful.’

Martin nodded. ‘Yeah. Bit too resourceful sometimes. Now, important question. Tea or coffee? I don’t think I can keep the Monday Club under control for much longer.’

Jack chuckled. ‘Tea. Milk, no sugar, thanks.’

‘Good. And I hope you like flapjacks or I’m going to have a riot on my hands.’

‘You seem very organised here.’

Martin nodded. ‘This church has been taking people in for the last eight hundred years. Wars, famine, fires... Now floods. I’ve never seen anything like this, though, and I’ve been here fifteen years. Half the village is flooded out.’

‘How many people do you have here?’

‘Just a couple of families staying overnight. We’ve found everyone else billets in people’s homes. But everyone eats here, and we have an action committee...’ Martin shrugged, grinning. ‘That’s Cass’s baby. I confine myself to tea and sympathy.’

Jack reckoned that Martin was downplaying his own considerable role. ‘And hospitality.’

‘We’ve never turned anyone away before, and that’s not going to start on my watch.’ A trace of determination broke through Martin’s affable smile and was quickly hidden. ‘Anything else you need?’

‘A phone? I’d like to call home.’

‘Yes, of course. The landline at the vicarage is still working; you can use that.’ Martin turned, making for the door. ‘Come to the kitchen when you’re ready and I’ll take you over there.’