Joanna Neil – His Summer Bride: Becoming Dr Bellini's Bride / Summer Seaside Wedding / Wedding in Darling Downs (страница 12)
A shadow crossed his eyes. ‘And that’s why you never came over here until now.’ He looked at her with new understanding. ‘You were waiting for him to come back to you.’
She lowered her head. ‘It wasn’t going to happen, was it? So eventually I decided that if I was to make peace with myself, I had to come and find him and sort out my demons once and for all.’
He slid an arm around her shoulders. ‘I’m sorry that you had to go through all that,’ he said quietly. ‘It must have been a terrible time for you.’ He drew her close and pressed a light kiss on her forehead. ‘It seems almost unforgivable that he should treat you that way, and yet I know Jack is a good man at heart.’
Katie didn’t answer. She couldn’t. She was too conscious of his nearness, and it brought up all kinds of conflicting emotions within her. Everything in her told her that this man was some kind of adversary. He was a threat to her father, and a danger to her peace of mind, and yet when he touched her like this, she was instantly lost in a cotton-wool world of warmth and comfort.
His arms were around her, his body shielding hers from all that might hurt her, and the searing impact of that tender kiss had ricocheted throughout her whole body. She didn’t want to move, or speak. Why couldn’t she stay here, locked in his embrace, where the world stood still and she might forget her worries?
‘Do you think you can find it in you to forgive him?’ Nick murmured. ‘He’s very ill, and there may not be too much time left.’
‘I don’t know.’ She gave a faint sigh. The spell was broken and she straightened, gazing down into the water of the pond. Fish darted among the green fronds, oblivious to the troubles of the world around them. If only she could find such inner peace.
She took a step backwards. ‘I should go,’ she said. Nick was the last person she should look to for comfort. He could well turn out to be even more of a heartbreaker than her father.
‘IS YOUR father really considering selling his vineyard to the Bellini family? That seems very strange to me.’ Eve Logan sounded doubtful at the other end of the line. ‘I haven’t had a lot of contact with him over these last few years, but I did gain the impression that the business meant an awful lot to him. I wouldn’t have thought it was something he would give it up lightly.’
‘No, probably not,’ Katie agreed. ‘When I spoke to him the other day he said he hadn’t thought it through yet, or words to that effect. I’m wondering if the Bellinis are putting undue pressure on him. He isn’t well, and I have the strong feeling that he isn’t up to it.’
‘Then perhaps it’s as well that you’re over there and able to look out for him.’
‘Yes, maybe.’
Katie cut the call to her mother a few minutes later and gazed around the apartment. She was feeling oddly restless. Ever since her visit to Nick’s home several days ago, she had been suffering from what she could only think of as withdrawal symptoms, and it was all Nick’s fault.
That kiss had been the lightest, gentlest touch, and it surely had been nothing more than a gesture of comfort and understanding, but the memory of it had stayed with her ever since. Nick had a compelling, magnetic charm that could surely melt the stoniest heart, and she was proving to be no exception.
It wouldn’t do at all. She was off men… they could string you along and lead you into thinking that everything was perfect, and then throw it all in your face with the biggest deception of all. No. Every instinct warned her that it would be far better to steer clear of Nick before he could work his magic on her. He spelled trouble and that was something she could definitely do without.
It didn’t help that she managed to catch a glimpse of his house every time she headed along the main highway on her way to or from the hospital. Today had been no exception. Nick’s home was beautiful, a jewel set in the golden, sand-fringed crown of the California coast.
Annoyingly, against all her better judgement, her thoughts kept straying to him. What was he doing. was he there, sitting outside on the upper deck, watching the seagulls perch on the distant bluffs?
But she wasn’t going to waste any more time thinking about him. Enough was enough, and she had work to do. The dishwasher needed emptying and there was a stack of ironing waiting for her… though with any luck she could finish her chores and still have time to wander down to the beach and take in one of the glorious sunsets that were the norm around there.
She set to work, but she was only halfway through her ironing pile when the phone rang.
‘There’s been a surfing accident just a mile from where you are,’ her boss told her. ‘Darren Mayfield, a fourteen-year-old, was knocked unconscious and had to be pulled out of the water. The ambulance has been called, but you’ll probably reach him before it arrives. A nasty head injury, by all accounts.’
‘I’ll leave right away,’ she told him, unplugging the iron and heading for the door. Her medical bag was in the hall, ready for such emergencies, and the rest of her supplies were in the car.
The boy’s level of consciousness was waxing and waning by the time she arrived on the beach. ‘Do you know anything about what happened to him?’ she asked his mother, who was waiting anxiously by his side.
‘He came off his board when one of the big waves hit,’ the woman said, her voice shaky. ‘The board sort of rose up in the air and then crashed down on him. We had to drag him out of the water. There’s a gash on the back of his head and he’s bleeding... He hasn’t come round properly since we brought him to shore.’ Her lips trembled. ‘He keeps being sick, and I thought it was just concussion, but it’s more than that, isn’t it? He should have recovered by now.’
‘I’ll take a look,’ Katie murmured, kneeling down beside the boy. ‘How are you doing, Darren?’ she asked quietly. ‘Can you hear me?’ She waited, and when there was no response she added, ‘Do you know what happened to you?’
He still didn’t answer, and Katie began to make a swift but thorough examination. ‘He’s unconscious,’ she told his mother, after a while. ‘I’m going to put a tube down his throat, and give him oxygen, to help with his breathing, and then I need to stabilise his spine to prevent any more damage being done.’ She carefully put a cervical collar in place, before checking the boy’s heart rate once more. It was worryingly low, and his blood pressure was high, both signs that the pressure within his brain was rising. That didn’t bode well.
Suddenly, Darren’s whole body began to shake, and Katie reached in her medical bag for a syringe.
‘Why’s he doing that?’ his mother asked in a panicked voice. ‘What’s happening to him?’
‘He’s having a seizure,’ Katie answered. It was yet another indication that this boy was in trouble. ‘I’m going to inject him with medication that will help to stop the fit.’
By the time the paramedics arrived, she had put in place an intravenous line so that fluids and any further drugs could be administered swiftly and easily. ‘We need spinal support here,’ she told the men, keeping her voice low so as not to worry the boy’s mother any further. ‘He has a depressed skull fracture, so we need to phone ahead and tell the trauma team what to expect. They’ll most likely need to prepare him for Theatre.’
She spoke to the lead paramedic as they wheeled Darren into the ambulance a few minutes later. ‘I’ll ride along with him in case there are any more complications along the way.’
The paramedic nodded. ‘You go ahead with Mrs Mayfield and sit by him. I’ll call the emergency department and keep them up to date.’
‘Thanks.’
Katie looked at her patient. He was deathly pale and she was deeply concerned for this boy as she sat beside him in the ambulance. She had placed a temporary dressing on the wound at the back of his head, but it was bleeding still, and she was worried about the extent of the damage.
The journey to the hospital seemed to take for ever, though in reality it was probably only about fifteen minutes, and as soon as they pulled into the ambulance bay, Katie was ready to move. The paramedics wheeled Darren towards the main doors.
‘He had another seizure in the ambulance,’ she told the doctor who came out to greet them, ‘so I’ve boosted the anti-convulsive therapy. I’m afraid his blood pressure is high and it looks as though the intracranial pressure is rising.’ Again, she spoke quietly so that the boy’s mother wouldn’t be unduly alarmed, but to her relief a nurse stepped forward and gently took the woman to one side.
‘We’ll get an x-ray just as soon as we’ve managed to stabilise his blood pressure,’ a familiar voice said, and Katie was startled to see Nick appear at the side of the trolley. He was wearing green scrubs that only seemed to emphasise the muscular strength of his long, lean body. Her heart gave a strange little lurch.
He listened attentively to the paramedic’s report and was already checking the patient’s vital signs, scanning the readings on the portable heart monitor that Katie had set up. Then he looked at Katie and gave her a quick smile. ‘Hi,’ he said.