A Single Dad to Rescue Her

by Sue MacKay

  He swept her into his arms and walked to the couch. ‘Don’t stop,’ he growled as he found her spot. Then, ‘Yes, you’d better stop. Now,’ he growled. ‘Oh, Kayla, seriously. Stop. We’re doing this together. No, I mean you first.’ His finger was moving on her, fast, slow, fast.

  Her hand was following his moves. Yes, they were together. She was so close.

  ‘Whoa.’ Jamie’s head shot upwards. ‘Stop. Protection.’ He rummaged in his jacket pocket, removed a foil packet.

  She could’ve laughed if she wasn’t so near to exploding. He hadn’t taken his jacket off. Shoving at it, she forced it off his shoulders, down his arms so he could shrug out of it without taking his intense eyes off her. They were smouldering with lust. And something else hovered. A depth of his feelings for her, for this moment. It gave her something to hold onto. ‘Give me that.’ Taking the condom, she began sliding it on, slowly, slowly, until he growled.

  ‘Just do it, Kayla. I can’t hold out much longer.’

  Slowly, slowly, she teased with her hand.

  He took over, placing his hand over hers and pushing down so he was encased before touching her again, hard and fast, and they were together, a rhythm of their own that became ever faster and then Jamie was inside her and she was shuddering and crying and falling into a deep hole of heat and stars. So magical she knew she’d never be the same again.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ‘KAYLA, IT’S ZAC. We’ve got a search going down and we need a medic. You available right now?’

  ‘Absolutely. Fill me in.’ Kayla headed for the laundry and her boots.

  ‘Two people missing after a kayak was hit by a jet-ski on Lake Wakatipu. We’re taking the police launch out.’

  ‘I’ll meet you at the jetty. You want Jamie too?’

  ‘He’s with you?’ Zac didn’t sound surprised.

  Had they been that obvious last night at the wedding? Probably.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Jamie asked, right behind her. ‘We got a job?’

  ‘Missing kayakers on Lake Wakatipu,’ she answered, handing the phone over.

  ‘Zac? I’m available.’ As he listened he looked down at his clothes and grimaced. ‘I’ll change while you drive,’ he said in an aside to her.

  Great, now Zac would get the picture if he’d been in any doubt. ‘Let’s go.’

  ‘Yes, bossy pants.’

  ‘Nothing wrong with my pants.’

  ‘I like what’s in them best.’ They raced out to his car, and he pinged the locks to grab a bag out of the boot before tossing her the keys.

  She gunned the motor and headed away before he’d got his door shut. ‘Zac didn’t say how long these people have been missing.’

  ‘Can’t have been too long if the accident was reported immediately. Surely they won’t be hard to find.’ His trousers disappeared over the seat and those long legs were briefly visible, taking up all the space in the front.

  Kayla grinned. Her legs had felt dainty lying between Jamie’s when she’d woken that morning. ‘Let’s hope they’ve made shore.’ Trying to ignore the undressing going on, or at least have some capacity for concentrating on what was important as she drove, she ran through a list of things to do when they found these people. Not if. That wasn’t allowed to enter her thinking.

  Zac had the motor idling as she and Jamie climbed aboard the boat. ‘We’ve got everyone possible out looking for these people.’

  ‘You wearing your police or your S and R cap?’ Jamie asked Zac, already scanning the surface they were motoring through.

  ‘Both. There are half a dozen boats out searching with locals, cops and Search and Rescue members on board, some on shore as well. I waited as we might need a medic. It seems whoever was riding the jet-ski has done a runner. There’s no way he or she could’ve hit the kayak and not known.’

  ‘I can’t believe anyone would do that. What if someone’s sustained serious injuries?’ Bracing against the thumping of the aluminium boat, Kayla pulled the first aid pack out of the cupboard to check through the contents. Doing this kept her calm and ready for anything. When they were in position she’d join those on deck looking for any sign of life.

  Reports came through intermittently on the radio. No sightings so far, and the frustration was mounting in everyone involved in the search. Kayla stepped out into the chilly breeze and picked up a pair of binoculars to start studying the choppy water, the trick being to look for a movement or shape that was out of the ordinary, not to over-search everything in the viewfinder. It was a slow, methodical job, and kept them all busy until they reached the spot where the kayak had been found, and proceeded along the lake’s edge.

  Zac explained, ‘If you have to go ashore, Kayla, Jamie will go with you.’

  ‘When you take over as Chief of Operations you rub it in, don’t you?’ Jamie laughed, searching the water and the lake edge.

  The radio crackled. ‘We’ve got someone. On land. Male. Unconscious.’

  ‘Co-ordinates?’ Zac listened. ‘We’re almost on top of you.’

  Kayla took the handpiece. ‘Is he breathing?’

  ‘Yes. Very shallow.’

  ‘Have you laid him on his back?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Tilt his head back to allow more air into his lungs. Keep a watch on his breathing—it can stop quickly.’

  ‘He’s not responding to stimulus.’

  Not good. ‘Try CPR for one minute. I’ll be there ASAP.’

  ‘What do you want me to do when we get there?’ Jamie had already got the medical pack over his shoulder.

  ‘I’ll take over CPR if required. First I want to get water out of his lungs. I’m presuming he swallowed some or he’d be breathing properly.’ She added, ‘We’ll need the rescue chopper, Zac.’

  ‘Onto it.’

  It felt like for ever, though it took only a couple of minutes to get to shore and clamber off the boat where one team member was waiting. ‘Right here.’ The woman indicated a large rock formation. ‘I’d say he crawled away from the water before losing consciousness.’

  Kayla dropped to her knees beside the lifeless-looking man and reached for his wrist, huffing in relief when she felt a light pulse. Better than nothing. ‘You can stop the CPR, Simon, while I check for injuries.’

  ‘Thank goodness. That CPR’s no walk in the park.’

  Jamie nodded. ‘I agree. I can lift a power pole off a person in the heat of the moment but ask me to pump someone’s chest for twenty minutes and I’m buggered at the end.’

  ‘You wouldn’t give up though,’ Kayla said as she felt the man’s chest, arms and then legs.

  ‘True. We’ll take over while you two get back to searching,’ Jamie said to the others who’d been working with the man. He definitely had his second in command cap on.

  ‘Roll our man towards you, Jamie. I need access to his back to listen to his lungs.’

  As soon as Jamie had him on his side the guy coughed and water spewed out. ‘How could he breathe with that in his lungs?’

  ‘I never understand how lucky some people get. Not that he’s out of trouble yet. But I can’t find any other injuries, which is good. We need to keep him breathing and wait for the chopper.’ Kayla reached for the man’s wrist. ‘Pulse still weak. Tilt his head back again, Jamie. I’ll do some compressions and then we’ll roll him on to his side again to see if there’s more water in his lungs.’

  Overhead the sound of rotors beating up the sky was getting louder, filling Kayla with relief. Never too soon for help to arrive. ‘That was quick.’ They must’ve been hovering in the air already, expecting urgency to be the main factor with anyone the rescuers found.

  Becca was lowered to the ground and sent the hook back up for the stretcher. ‘Hi, there. What’ve we got?’

  Kayla filled her in on the scant details. ‘Let’s hope we find
the second person in as good nick.’ In other words, alive.

  ‘You staying out here?’ Becca asked.

  ‘Yep, I might be needed when the second person’s found.’

  Jamie packed up the pack and slung it back over his shoulder.

  ‘I saw that,’ she growled.

  ‘What?’ he asked with false nonchalance.

  ‘Stop being a bloke. That shoulder still hurts so I’ll carry the pack.’ She reached to take it off him, but Jamie stepped back. ‘Or use the other one.’

  ‘I’m fine. Anyway, I am a bloke. Or hadn’t you noticed?’ There was a cheeky gleam in his gaze.

  ‘No comment.’ She laughed. She’d noticed all right. More than once during the night. At the moment his height shrank hers while his shoulders blocked the wind coming from the lake, and his ‘help anyone who needed it’ attitude won her over every time.

  Of course he put his kids before others, but he did the same for anyone needing help. Look how he’d had her back on the day the mountain had done its number on her. He’d held her hand and encouraged her to hang in there when she couldn’t always focus on where she was. He’d made sure she was safe until the chopper had flown her off the mountain, and then he’d visited her in hospital. Yeah, this man had what it took.

  A keeper.

  Like Dylan. Gulp. Why did he have to pop into her head right after a night of over-the-top lovemaking that had caused her to feel as though she belonged with Jamie? Because she was more than comfortable with him. Could be she’d begun to let go of the past and by popping into her mind Dylan was reminding her of what had been? Their relationship had been wonderful, but it was gone. Though not entirely. She’d never forget Dylan and their special moments, no matter what came her way from now on.

  Leaping onto the boat when Zac brought it alongside, Kayla reached for the binoculars, ready to focus again on what they’d come for from the moment they pulled away from the shore. She had to stop thinking about Dylan. It wasn’t fair on herself or any man she became close to. And it would never be right to compare him and Jamie. But there were certain attributes she looked for in a man, and they both had them. Caring about other people was right up there.

  ‘Take a pew.’ Jamie gently pressed her down onto the steel seat at the back of the boat. ‘Give those legs a rest.’

  Now that she’d stopped working with her patient she was beginning to feel an ache niggling in her right leg, which might have something to do with last night’s workout. She grinned. Nothing to do with her injuries; they were months old and it was past time for them to get in the way of anything she did. ‘Okay.’

  ‘What? No argument?’ One bushy eyebrow lifted in her direction.

  ‘Saving it for something important.’ He was too observant. She put the binoculars to her eyes to keep Jamie from reading her mind and seeing how relaxed he made her feel, how hopeful for the future she was becoming. So much for never looking at another man or thinking she might not be able to get close to one again. He was knocking that idea down piece by piece. It was early days. He was special, but they were still getting to know each other. From her experience with Dylan, and watching Mallory fall for Josue, she knew true love was often an instant connection that only improved with time.

  But she needed to get to know Jamie better before she threw in the idea of children and her worry about not being able to have any. She’d mentioned it to him before, but not in the context of their relationship.

  ‘Zac, slow down,’ Jamie called. ‘Over there, just beyond those willow trees.’

  ‘Where?’ Kayla was up, looking across the expanse of water to the lake edge.

  ‘See. Blue amongst the bushes.’

  ‘Why don’t people wear a colour that stands out?’

  ‘He or she looks lost, dazed.’ Jamie reached for the pack. ‘Ready, medic?’ His smile went straight to her gut.

  ‘Absolutely.’ She focused on the person they were getting closer to. ‘There’s profuse bleeding on the side of the head. It’s a woman.’ The figure dressed in a wet body-hugging sweatshirt and sports trousers was definitely female. ‘Hello? Can you hear me?’ she shouted over the idling motor.

  No acknowledgement flared in the dull eyes looking around as though unsure why she was where she was.

  Zac brought the boat close and Jamie grabbed a branch on the willow so the engine could be turned off.

  Kayla slipped into the ankle-deep, freezing water and moved towards their second victim. ‘Hello? I’m Kayla. A paramedic. This is Jamie, a rescuer.’

  No response.

  Reaching the woman, she went to take an arm and stopped. It hung at an odd angle. ‘Broken below the elbow.’

  Jamie took the other arm gently to lead the woman across to a fallen tree trunk a metre away. ‘She flinched when she sat.’

  ‘Could be severe bruising on her legs or buttocks.’ Had she been hit by the jet-ski or the kayak as she’d been tossed out? The head wound suggested something had hit her hard. The woman had been walking so hopefully that meant her spine wasn’t injured. ‘I’m going to check her vitals, and then I think the best plan is get her on the boat so Zac can take us back to town.’

  ‘You don’t want another chopper?’

  Kayla was looking at the head wound, and not liking what she saw. ‘She needs a doctor urgently and by the time another helicopter gets to us we’ll almost be back to town.’ As they’d found the second person there was no reason to stay out here any longer. ‘Unless there’s one already in the air?’

  Jamie shook his head. ‘Not from what I heard.’ He was holding the woman upright as she swayed on the log. ‘We need the stretcher. She can’t go into the water on her feet. Can you hold her while I get it?’ He looked over to the boat. ‘Forget that. Zac’s bringing it.’

  That’s where a good team worked well. ‘Pulse is rapid. Her breathing’s erratic.’

  Kayla talked to the woman while she examined what she could see. ‘I’ve got you. Jamie and Zac will place you on a stretcher.’ It was an old habit to talk to a patient even if they couldn’t hear her. She liked to think either her words or the caring tone of her voice got through in some way. ‘We’ll get you in the boat and take you to hospital.’

  ‘Zac, can you put the stretcher on the ground so Jamie and I can lift her onto it?’

  ‘Sure can.’

  ‘Jamie, on the count.’

  Blink. The woman was staring at her as they lowered her.

  ‘Hello. I’m Kayla, a paramedic.’

  ‘Where am I?’

  ‘By the lake,’ she answered.

  ‘What happened?’

  As Kayla placed the woman’s broken arm over her belly, she told her, ‘You were kayaking and thrown into the lake by a passing jet-ski. Do you remember that?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘What’s your name?’

  ‘Lucy Moran.’

  Good start. ‘Right, Lucy. Is there pain in either of your legs?’

  The woman’s brows met. ‘Not really.’ She moved her feet. ‘One foot doesn’t move properly.’

  ‘Wriggle your toes,’ Kayla ordered. ‘Tell me if you feel anything.’ She couldn’t see movement because of the woman’s aqua shoes. Those would be removed once aboard the boat.

  ‘Everything feels normal,’ Lucy replied.

  ‘What about your head? Any pain? Don’t shake it,’ Kayla cautioned.

  ‘Big headache. That’s all,’ Lucy said, keeping very still.

  Yet she didn’t remember what had happened. ‘Did you hear us talking when we arrived? Feel me touching your wrist? Before you opened your eyes?’ Kayla added for clarity.

  ‘I’m not sure. I don’t think so.’

  Then her eyes widened. ‘Where’s Avery? My boyfriend.’ Tension began tightening Lucy’s body. ‘Is he all right?’

  Under Kayla’s finge
rs Lucy’s pulse was increasing. ‘That who you were kayaking with?’

  Lucy was thinking, her brows knitted together again. ‘What happened?’

  ‘You tell me,’ Kayla answered, needing to find out if there was a head injury at play. Lucy might’ve hit the water hard head-first. Apparently it was a sit-on kayak so the occupants hadn’t been stuck underwater, trying to get free.

  ‘I’m thinking. Yes, Avery and I hired a kayak yesterday to go camping on the other side of the lake.’

  When she went quiet again, Kayla made up her mind. ‘Let’s go. I can’t find any other injuries apart from that head wound and the fractured arm.’ But the head wound worried her. Odd how Lucy had gone from dazed to aware so quickly, and was now rapidly fading again.

  ‘Not good?’ Jamie asked quietly.

  She shook her head. ‘I’m worried.’

  The moment Lucy was loaded on board Zac had the motor running and Jamie untied the rope holding the boat in place. ‘Let’s go,’ he said, then knelt down opposite Kayla. ‘What can I do to help?’

  ‘Try getting Lucy to talk while I deal with that head wound. I don’t like her going under.’ She called to Zac. ‘Give the ambulance station a buzz, will you? Tell them Lucy’s GCS is thirteen.’ She began cleaning the wound, taking care not to cause pain.

  ‘You feel anything where Kayla’s touching your head, Lucy?’ Jamie asked.

  She blinked. ‘What?’

  Jamie frowned. ‘I’m taking your shoes off, Lucy.’

  Blink.

  ‘Wriggle your toes, Lucy.’

  ‘No problems there,’ Kayla noted as Lucy responded. Maybe it was shock causing her to wander in and out of full consciousness.

  ‘See what you can find out about the accident,’ Zac suggested.