Kitabı oku: «Dr Zinetti's Snowkissed Bride», sayfa 2

‘He’s protecting me.’

‘I know. He’s an excellent dog. But you don’t need to be protected from me. I’m not the enemy.’ Not remotely afraid of the dog, Dino stroked Rambo’s head gently. ‘He’s never growled at me before.’

‘You’ve never pinned me to the car before.’ She tried not to show how flustered she felt. It was as if his powerful body had imprinted against hers. Even though he’d moved she could still feel it, hard and heavy. ‘He growled at you because I pushed you and you didn’t move. He was giving you a warning. Which makes two of us.’

‘Will he let you give me a lift? I left my Lamborghini outside your cottage.’

‘You drove the Lamborghini in this weather?’ Meg glanced at the ice and snow covering the road and then back at him in disbelief. There was a devilish gleam in his eyes and his face was breathtakingly handsome in the moonlight. ‘The roads are lethal.’

‘Like you, I love a challenge.’

And that was why he was dangerous. Like her, he loved the adrenaline rush. ‘I’m tempted to let you walk from here to the brunette who is probably waiting for you at home. The cold air will do you good.’

‘No one is waiting for me at home, Meg. And I’m going to the hospital. They’re overstretched and I want to check on Harry.’

Feeling really stupid, Meg let out an exasperated breath. ‘You see? It’s things like that I find really infuriating! Just when I’m ready to dismiss you as shallow you do something really—really…’ She floundered and then shrugged. ‘Decent. Go on. Get in before I change my mind. Rambo, don’t eat him. He’s going to help Harry. That’s the only reason we’re letting him live.’

Trying not to think about the moment when he’d almost kissed her, she drove her four-wheel drive down the narrow roads that led towards her cottage. ‘I can’t believe you drove the Lamborghini.’

‘I was at lunch, remember? With a woman.’

‘So the Lamborghini is an essential part of the Zinetti seduction technique?’ For some reason it irritated her and she changed gears viciously. ‘Do some women really fall for that?’

‘All of them. Could you slow down before you kill us both?’

‘I’ve driven these roads since I was a teenager. You must mix with some shallow women.’

‘I do my best. You drive too fast, Meg.’

‘Coming from someone who owns a Lamborghini and a Ferrari, that’s a bit rich. Don’t tell me—you’re such a chauvinist you hate being driven by a woman.’

Dino’s fingers were gripping the seat. ‘I hate being driven by anyone.’

‘That’s because you’re a control freak.’

‘Sì, I admit that. I like being the one in charge.’ He glanced towards her, laughter in his eyes. ‘I like to be the one on top, so to speak.’

‘Well, that confirms I’m not your type, because I like to be the one on top, too.’ Meg increased her speed, taking pleasure from his sudden indrawn breath. ‘Two control freaks together is a recipe for disaster.’

‘Or a recipe for explosive passion. Shall we find out which it is?’

Just for a moment her concentration lapsed and she felt the wheels of her four-by-four lose traction as she hit ice. She resisted the impulse to hit the brakes and steered into the skid, regaining control of the car within seconds. ‘That was fun.’ Her heart was pounding and her mouth was dry. ‘At least it shut you up. Are you all right?’

‘You mean apart from my heart attack?’ His sardonic drawl made her smile and she slowed her speed.

‘Why did you leave your car outside my house?’

‘When Harry’s mother realised he was missing, she called the team. Then she called your mother because she remembered that the gully is a favourite walk of yours and Harry often watches you and Rambo training up there. She hoped you might already be out, which you were. I dropped by to get your route from your mother.’

Meg tightened her grip on the wheel. ‘So this is all my fault because he followed me?’

‘No. It’s Harry’s fault. He went for a walk in the winter without the right equipment.’

‘He was unlucky.’

‘No, he was lucky.’ Dino pulled off a glove and flexed his fingers. ‘You found him. Could have been worse.’

She was concentrating on the road but she could feel him looking at her. ‘It was Rambo who picked up the scent. I didn’t even know he was missing.’

‘We were about to call you when you called us.’

‘So how come you got to us so quickly and the others didn’t?’

‘I was about to head into the mountains myself. I guess we spend our free time the same way.’

‘So your date didn’t end the way you wanted it to.’

He smiled. ‘It ended exactly the way I wanted it to.’

Which meant what, exactly? He’d already said the brunette wasn’t waiting for him at home. Trying not to think about it, Meg pulled up outside her cottage. ‘Home, sweet home. And you’re still in one piece.’

‘Miracles do happen. Thanks for the lift. Are you working tomorrow?’

‘Yes. Look, Dino…’ She hesitated, torn between getting away from him as fast as possible and doing the right thing for Harry. ‘Don’t take the Lamborghini. We’ve had so much snow in the past few hours and your car isn’t good in bad weather. I’ll drive you to the hospital. If they’re as busy as you say, they could probably use my help as well as yours. Just give me time to explain to Mum and see Jamie.’

Meg slid out of the car and crunched her way through layers of snow to the front door of her cottage. She stood for a moment, looking at the lights burning in the windows and the rose bush groaning under the weight of snow by the front door. In a few more months it would be frothy with white blooms, turning her home into something from a picture postcard. The summer tourists who overran the Lake District like a million invading ants had been known to stop and take photographs of her house because it was so quintessentially English. To her it was home and she loved it. Now, with Christmas only two weeks away, there was a wreath on the door and scarlet berries on the holly bush. And mistletoe.

Meg frowned.

Who had added the mistletoe?

The door opened before she even started to delve for her key and her mother stood there, an apron tied round her slim waist, a mug in her hand. ‘I’ve made you hot soup, Dr Zinetti. You need something to warm you before you go back to the hospital.’

‘Molto grazie. You are truly a life saver, Mrs Miller.’ Dino emerged from behind her and took the mug in his gloved hand, the steam from the soup forming clouds in the freezing air. ‘I’m grateful.’

‘I’m the one who is grateful. You brought my girl safely home.’

‘I brought myself home, Mum. Do I get soup, too?’ Irritated, Meg dragged the hat off her head and immediately saw Dino’s expression change as he followed the crazy tumble of her hair with narrowed eyes.

She tensed, thinking that he was probably comparing her messy, tangled hair to the smooth, blow-dried version he’d stared at across the lunch table a few hours earlier. For a moment she wished she’d left her hat on and that thought annoyed her because she’d long ago come to terms with who she was. When other girls in her school had been learning about lipstick and moisturiser, she’d been learning to map read and use a compass. While they’d spent their weekends shopping for clothes, she’d been up on the mountains. Her only interest in clothes was whether they were wind resistant and weatherproof. She knew about wicking layers and the importance of not wearing cotton. She didn’t know whether grey was the new black or whether jeans should be straight cut or boot cut. And, more to the point, she didn’t care.

Meg turned away, irritated with him for looking and even more irritated with herself for caring that he’d looked.

What could have been a decidedly awkward moment was broken by her mother’s disapproving tone.

‘Megan, I found mouldy cheese in your fridge.’

Meg gritted her teeth and vowed never to let her mother babysit again. ‘Is Jamie still awake?’

‘Mummy?’ Right on cue a small figure dressed in a Batman costume barrelled into her, crushing her round the waist. ‘We decorated the house. We’ve put mistletoe everywhere.’

‘I’d noticed.’ Why was everyone suddenly so obsessed with mistletoe?

‘Grandma says the berries are magic. If you stand under them, exciting things can happen.’

‘Is that right?’ Meg dropped to her knees and hugged her son. Immediately she felt her mood soften and the tension in her limbs evaporate. He smelled of shampoo and bedtime and his smile was the best thing she’d seen all day.

As long as she had him, everything was all right with her world.

‘Hey there, Batman.’ Dino was smiling. ‘Have you saved Gotham City lately?’

‘Loads of times.’ Jamie wrapped his arms round Meg’s neck, shivering in the thin costume he insisted on wearing to bed but grinning up at Dino anyway. For some reason that Meg didn’t even want to think about, in the months that she’d been working alongside Dino, her son had developed a serious case of hero-worship for him. ‘Why? Do you need any help?’

‘When I do, you’ll be the first person I ask. I need to get back to the hospital.’ Dino retrieved his car keys from his pocket.

‘Did you drive the Lamborghini? Wow, that’s so cool. It looks like the Batmobile. Can I sit in it?’

Meg tensed. ‘No, Jamie, you—’

‘Just for a minute—pleeease?’

Anticipating Dino’s inevitable rejection and Jamie’s subsequent disappointment, Meg shook her head. ‘Dino has to go, Jamie. He’s a very important doctor and he’s needed at the hospital. And, anyway, I know you love cars but the temperature is minus five and you’re in your Batman costume. You need to get back inside.’

‘Batman doesn’t feel the cold.’

‘You heard Dr Zinetti, he has to get back to the hospital now. Another time, perhaps.’ Having made his excuses for him, she expected Dino to leave, but instead he handed his empty mug back to her mother.

‘Does Batman have a cloak or some sort of coat? Anything you could wear over your outfit?’

Jamie frowned. ‘I’m not cold. Batman is tough and strong.’

‘I know,’ Dino didn’t miss a beat. ‘But the neighbours might be watching and you don’t want them to know who you really are. A superhero likes to keep his identity a secret.’

Jamie turned his head and looked at the neighbouring cottages. ‘You think they might be watching?’

‘I think you can’t be too careful when you’re saving the world.’ Dino’s expression was serious. ‘If you have something warm that will cover up who you are, we could sit in the Batmobile for a few minutes and discuss tactics.’

‘Really?’ Jamie’s face lit up like the lights on a Christmas tree. ‘Wait there.’ He sped into the house and returned moments later in his warm ski jacket, trainers on his bare feet. In his hand was a plastic Batman figure. Seeing the excitement in his face, Meg frowned.

‘Jamie, you can’t—’

Ignoring her, he hurled himself at Dino, who caught him with a laugh, swung him round and then lifted him onto his shoulders and carried him to the car.

Gripped by a fear that she couldn’t control, Meg watched as cracks appeared in her tightly controlled life. Jamie’s delighted giggles cut through the night air and she plunged her hands into the pockets of her coat, resisting the temptation to snatch him back. Keep him from harm.

‘Dino is good with him.’ Her mother handed her a mug of soup. ‘I can’t believe he’s actually managed to get Jamie to wear a coat. It’s more than I’ve been able to do all day. This is worse than the Tarzan phase when he ran around in nothing but his underpants for two whole months.’

Meg found it difficult to move her lips. As much as it pained her to admit it, she agreed—Dino was brilliant with Jamie, and that was a whole big problem in itself. ‘Yes.’

‘It’s a pleasant change for Jamie to have a man about the place. They look good together, don’t they? Doesn’t it warm your heart to see it?’

‘No, actually.’ Meg had never felt colder in her life. ‘It just reminds me how little Jamie knows about the real world.’ How easy it was to be hurt. The more you gave, the more you could lose.

‘Chill, Megan.’

Meg turned her head to look at her mother. ‘Since when did you start speaking like a teenager?’

‘Since I started working at the youth group,’ her mother said cheerfully. ‘I love it. They’re so vibrant and full of hope. Gives me something to do when I’m not helping you with Jamie. Oh, look at Jamie jumping in the seat! He’s enjoying himself, Meg. He likes Dino. And Dino likes him.’

‘Yes, because it suits him right now. And will until the next female distraction walks across his path and he has someone better to play with than my son. What then?’ Meg’s tone was savage. Her worries suddenly overflowed, like a river bursting its banks. ‘Presumably I’m the one who is going to have to explain to Jamie why Dino doesn’t have time for him any more. I’m going to have to break it to him that men often have a short attention span.’ She shivered as Dino fired up the engine, indulging her son’s passion for supercars. The Lamborghini gave a deep, throaty growl and Jamie bounced around in the passenger seat in paroxysms of delight.

Aware that her mother was staring at her in astonishment, Meg licked her lips. ‘Sorry,’ she croaked, ‘I’m tired. Maybe that was a bit of an overreaction.’

‘Just a bit? Megan, you’re a basket case when it comes to men.’

‘I know.’

‘Just because Hayden couldn’t keep his trousers zipped, it doesn’t mean all men are the same. You need to move on, Megan.’

‘I’ve moved on. I’m living a good life with my child.’ Huddling down inside her coat, Meg watched as Dino switched off the engine and let Jamie play with the wheel for a few minutes, pretending to be a racing driver. ‘Why does Jamie have to be interested in cars? It’s the one thing I know absolutely nothing about.’

‘He’s a little boy.’ Her mother’s face softened. ‘A gorgeous, fantastic boy and you have to help him grow into a gorgeous, fantastic man. That’s your job. Part of that is letting him mix with men.’

‘He does mix with men.’

‘I’m not talking about the mountain rescue team. They treat you as one of the lads. I’m talking about man-woman stuff. He needs to see men as part of your life. When did you last go on a date?’

‘You know I don’t go on dates.’ She blew on her hands to warm them. ‘And there’s no way I’m introducing a string of men to Jamie. What happens when they dump me? Jamie gets hurt. No way.’

‘Maybe they wouldn’t dump you. Have you thought about that?’

Meg stared straight ahead, her breath forming clouds in the freezing air. Her brain fielded the memories that came rushing forward to swamp her. ‘My job is to protect my child. That’s what mothers are supposed to do.’

‘Are you protecting him? Or are you protecting yourself?’ Her mother’s voice was casual. ‘Talking about protecting yourself, it’s lucky Dino was able to find you and help you out on the mountain today.’

‘I didn’t need his help. I could have managed on my own.’

‘Megan, when are you going to realise that you don’t win awards in this life for managing on your own?’ Her mother looked tired suddenly. ‘You’re a fantastic mum, but Jamie needs a man in his life and, frankly, so do you. It’s time you stopped shutting everyone out. If you can’t bring yourself to trust another man quite yet, at least make a New Year’s resolution to have sex.’

‘Sex?’ Scandalised, Meg shrieked the word just as Dino scooped Jamie out of the car.

It echoed through the silence, the sound somehow magnified by the cold emptiness of the night.

Across the snow Dino’s eyes met hers.

And she knew she was in trouble.

Chapter Two

‘MUMMY, what’s sex?’

Oh, brilliant. Cursing her mother for landing her in such deep water, Meg tucked the duvet around Jamie. ‘Well, sex can mean different things.’ This was one conversation she did not want to have right now—not while memories of Dino’s irresistible dark eyes were still fixed in her brain. ‘It can mean the same thing as gender—whether someone is male or female.’

‘So Rambo is male sex.’

‘That’s right.’

‘And you’re female sex.’

‘Right again.’

Jamie reached for his drink of water. ‘So what else does it mean?’

Meg wondered whether to simply change the subject and then decided that wouldn’t be right. This was part of being a single parent, wasn’t it? You dealt with these things on your own. ‘When a male and a female come together to make a baby, that’s called sex, too.’ She decided that was enough detail for a seven-year-old, at least for the time being.

‘Grandma thinks you should make a baby.’

Meg gulped. ‘No, Jamie, that’s not what Grandma thinks.’

‘Yes, she does. She’s told me loads of times she thinks you should get married and have more babies. She’s always talking about it.’

Meg contemplated calling her mother upstairs to sort out the mess she’d created. ‘Jamie, I’m not getting married.’ She took the cup from him and tucked the duvet around him. ‘Honestly, if I ever decide to get married, you’ll be the first to know.’

‘The man you’re marrying would be the first to know. I’d be second.’

‘Sometimes, my little superhero, you’re too clever for your own good.’ Meg kissed him on the cheek and then reached across and snapped the light on by his bed. ‘Which story do you want?’

‘Batman. So if you’re not getting married, why did you yell the word “sex”? And why was Dino laughing so hard?’ Jamie snuggled under the duvet, his hair still rumpled from play-fighting with the Italian doctor. His Batman toy was still in his hand. ‘I don’t get what’s funny.’

‘Nothing’s funny. I was talking to Grandma. She was being…well, she was being Grandma.’

‘She also told me it isn’t normal or natural for a young woman of your age to be on her own,’ Jamie parroted. ‘I pointed out I live here too, but apparently I don’t count.’

‘You count, Jamie.’ Meg picked up the book they’d been reading the night before. ‘Believe me, you count.’

‘I wouldn’t mind if you got married. Especially if you married Dino. That would be super-cool.’

Meg thought about the heat they’d generated in the small tent on the mountainside. ‘Cool’ wasn’t the word she would have chosen. ‘Jamie, I’m not marrying Dino. We’re not even…well…’

‘You’re not dating?’

‘What do you know about dating?’

‘It’s when a boy and a girl hold hands. Sometimes they kiss and stuff. I know you don’t do it.’

‘Right. Well, that’s because I haven’t met anyone I want to…’ she cleared her throat ‘…hold hands with.’

‘Maybe you will now we’ve hung all the mistletoe everywhere. Grandma says you just won’t let a man close enough to hold your hand.’

‘Grandma talks too much.’

‘But it could happen?’

Not in a million years. ‘Maybe—of course, you never know what will happen in this world.’

‘Could it happen by Thursday?’

‘Thursday?’ Meg blinked. ‘Why Thursday?’

‘Thursday is Dad’s Day at school.’ He sounded gloomy. ‘You’re supposed to bring in your dad or some other important man in your life and they’re all meant to talk about their jobs for five minutes.’

Meg felt as though ice water had been poured down her back. ‘There are lots of kids in your school whose parents have split up.’

‘Not in my class. Only Kevin and he still sees his dad every weekend. I’m the only one whose dad doesn’t actually visit. Freddie King says I must be a total loser if even my own dad doesn’t want to be with me.’ Jamie sat up and scrubbed his hand over his face. ‘I know you told me to be ass-ass—’

‘Assertive.’

‘That’s what I meant—assertive, but it’s hard to be assertive when he’s telling the truth.’ His little mouth wobbled.

‘It isn’t the truth, Jamie.’ Meg felt boiling-hot anger replace the freezing cold. ‘Dad didn’t leave because of you,’ she muttered thickly, pulling him into her arms and hugging him tightly. The plastic Batman dug into her back. ‘He left because of me. I’ve told you that a thousand times. He left before you were even born, so how could it have been about you? Technically, you weren’t even here.’

‘The thought of me was enough to scare him away.’

‘It wasn’t you who scared him away, it was me. I wasn’t who he wanted me to be.’ Meg eased him away from her. ‘Your dad wanted a really girly girl, and I’m, well, I’m not like that. I’ve never been that great with hair and dresses and make-up and all that stuff.’

But other women were.

Do you really need to ask why I had an affair with Georgina? Because she’s glamorous, Meg, that’s why.

Meg sat still, shocked by how much it could still hurt, even after more than seven years.

Jamie snuggled under the covers, clearly reassured by her words. ‘But you can do all the important things. You’re like Mrs Incredible. I mean, not with the stretchy arms, but you can climb, and slide down ropes and stuff. That’s cool.’

Mrs Incredible. Meg swallowed down the lump in her throat. ‘Well, you think it’s cool, but some people think it’s more important to know about the right shade of nail varnish than be able to rescue someone off a mountain in a blizzard.’ She stroked his head quickly and then stood up, too agitated to sit still a moment longer. She prowled around the tiny bedroom, picking up socks and more Batman toys, trying not to remember how hard she’d found it to fit in at school. She didn’t want her child to go through the same thing. She didn’t want him to feel that same sense of isolation. ‘It’s going to be OK, Jamie. Tomorrow I’m going to talk to your teacher and ask her what on earth she was thinking, having Dad’s Day at school. It just makes kids a target for bullying. We’ll sort it out, I promise. We’ll come up with a plan.’

Jamie was silent for a moment. ‘I sort of had a plan. I thought of something.’

‘Good. That’s what I like. A plan. It’s great that you sort things out by yourself. Tell me.’

‘I want to invite Dino.’

Meg froze. ‘To Dad’s Day?’

‘Why not? He lets me ride in his car, he’s always nice to me when we have to go the mountain rescue centre and that time at the hospital he let me wait in his office and got me a whole bunch of toys to play with. And he knows about cars and stuff. I like him. He’s nice.’

Nice? Meg thought about Dino Zinetti. Hair as dark as night, a mouth that was masculine and sexy and eyes that knew just how to look at a woman.

‘Nice isn’t the word I’d use.’

Jamie looked shocked. ‘You don’t think Dino is nice?’

‘I’m not saying he isn’t nice, honey.’ ‘Nice’ seemed like such an inappropriate word to describe a man as hotly sexual as Dino, but somehow Meg managed to get her tongue round it. ‘He is—er—nice, but, well…he’s just not the right person to take to Dad’s Day.’

‘It doesn’t have to be your dad. Just a man who is important in your life.’

And she didn’t let Jamie have a man who was important in his life, did she? This was all her fault. Torn apart by guilt, Meg stood still. ‘Jamie, listen, I—’

‘You work with him every day. Will you ask him, Mum? He just has to come for an hour and chat about what he does.’

Ask Dino to come to the school? Meg felt the Batman toy bite into her palm as she squeezed it tight. ‘He wouldn’t do that.’

‘He might. You didn’t think he’d let me sit in his car, and he did. You don’t know if you don’t ask.’

‘I can’t ask, Jamie.’

Jamie’s face fell. ‘OK. I’ll just go on my own. It’ll be fine.’

Meg felt like the worst mother in the world. ‘All right, I’ll ask him.’ The words were torn from her, dragged from inside her by the raw power of maternal guilt. ‘But he might be busy.’

‘I know. He’s a consultant in Emergency Medicine and he’s a member of the mountain rescue team and he won a gold medal in the men’s downhill at the winter Olympics when he was nineteen.’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘He won a gold medal. Didn’t you know?’

‘No,’ Meg said faintly. ‘I didn’t. We don’t talk about personal stuff that much.’

‘You should. He’s really cool, Mum. Did you know that when he was my age he could eat six doughnuts in under a minute?’

Meg thought of Dino’s athletic physique, a result of his active, outdoor lifestyle. ‘No, I didn’t know that either. Presumably he gave that habit up before he won the men’s downhill. Go to sleep now.’ Why on earth had she allowed herself to say she would speak to Dino? She’d rather dig a hole and bury herself in it. ‘Jamie, listen to me—’

‘I’m so glad you’re going to ask him, Mum.’ Jamie pulled the duvet up to his neck, a blissful smile on his face. ‘I was dreading school this week, but now I’m really looking forward to it. Dino’s the best. If he comes and talks to my class, Freddie will never tease me again. Do you know it’s only fifteen more sleeps until Christmas? Isn’t that great? I’ve written my letter to Santa. I did it with Grandma. We put it in the fireplace. Do you think he’ll take it tonight?’

Meg opened her mouth to tell him that there was no way she could ask Dino to Dad’s Day. ‘I’m sure Santa will take it. Is it really only fifteen more sleeps?’ Her voice was croaky and somehow she just couldn’t form the right words. ‘That is great. I guess I’d better start doing some Christmas shopping.’

Hi, Dino, what are you doing on Thursday?

Hi, Dino, don’t take this the wrong way, but would you consider…?

Meg rehearsed various ways of asking him as she walked through the main entrance of the hospital the following morning. As if she didn’t have enough pressure from her mother, now she had it from her son, too.

Why did she have to find a man? It was just nonsense. Jamie’s life was full of men. Just not one special man. And that was a good thing. Relying on one man could leave you flat on your face, as she’d discovered to her cost.

Jamie had already had one man walk out of his short life. She wasn’t going to allow it to happen a second time by encouraging him to spend time with a man as notorious for his unwillingness to commit to relationships as Dino.

They were doing fine, the two of them. They were a great team. She was the one in control of their future.

But she couldn’t shift the heavy weight of guilt and she’d hovered for an extra five minutes at the school gates, fighting the temptation to seek out Freddie and tell him to stop torturing her child. She’d stood and watched Jamie, a tiny figure, swamped by his warm jacket. The only boy in his class who wasn’t bringing a Dad to Dad’s Day.

She’d wanted to go into the school and yell at them for being insensitive, but Jamie had begged her not to. Now she was wishing she’d overruled him.

Should she have rung the school? Freddie’s mother? She worried about it all the way to work and was still worrying when she visited Harry in the observation ward. He was in a corner bed on his own. ‘Hey, layabout. I thought I’d say hi before I start work.’

His face brightened when he saw her. ‘Wolf-girl!’

‘Better not call me that. They’re funny about animals in hospital—they might throw me out. Here…’ Meg handed him a book she’d bought from the hospital shop, ‘I’ve no idea if you’ve read it, but I thought it had an interesting cover. Monsters ripping people apart. Perfect teenage reading.’

‘Thanks. Cool.’ Harry put it on his lap and reached for some chocolate from his locker. ‘Want some?’

‘At nine in the morning? No, thanks. I don’t mind being wolf-girl, but I draw the line at elephant-girl, and if I start eating chocolate for breakfast that’s what I’ll be. How’s your head?’

‘Hurts.’ Harry chewed. ‘But they did that scan thing and said my brain is all right.’

‘I know. No skull fracture. I rang last night to check up on you.’ She looked at his bedside table. ‘Who bought you the torch and the whistle? Your mum?’

‘Are you kidding? Mum’s never going to let me out of her sight again.’ He looked gloomy. ‘No, the torch and whistle were from Dr Zinetti. He dropped them off before he went off duty last night. Or it might have been this morning—it was definitely after midnight.’

He’d been at the hospital that late? Meg’s tummy gave a little lurch. ‘I suppose your mum was upset.’

‘She freaked out. I’m grounded. No more walks on my own. Dad went totally mental.’ He looked so forlorn that Meg took pity on him.

‘When you’ve healed, you can walk with Rambo and me.’

‘And me.’ The deep, male voice came from right behind her and Meg felt her heart bump against her chest. Was it the Italian accent? Or the fact that last night he’d got too close for comfort? Or was it just her mother’s fault for mentioning sex?

She closed her eyes briefly, feeling sick at the thought of telling him Jamie’s request. Imagining how he would interpret such an invitation, Meg slid lower in her chair. Could anything be more embarrassing?

‘Hi, Dr Zinetti,’ Harry grinned. ‘Thanks again for the torch and the whistle.’

‘Basic walking equipment.’ Dino sat down on the chair on the opposite side of Harry’s bed and helped himself to chocolate. ‘I’m going to run a survival course in the New Year. I’ve booked you on it, no charge.’

Harry sank back against the pillows. ‘No way will Mum let me go to that.’

‘Meg will speak to her.’ Dino winked at her. ‘Put in a good word. She’s going to be taking a session on training a search dog.’

Meg recoiled. ‘No, I’m not. No way am I standing up in front of a bunch of strangers and—’

‘You’re an important part of the MRT. We want you there.’ Railroading over her objections, he ate another piece of chocolate. ‘And you’re an expert at what you do.’

‘Yes, well, just because you’re good at something it doesn’t mean you can talk about it. I’m useless at speaking in public.’ She hated being looked at. Hated being the focus of attention. ‘My tongue ties itself in a knot.’

‘Does it, now?’ his gaze slid to her mouth and lingered. ‘I’m a doctor. I could look into that for you if you like.’