* * *
Jack’s excitement only grew as the ferry moved through the Hauraki Gulf towards the sprawling city of Auckland.
‘Look, Mummy. There’s so many boats.’
‘They’re yachts, hon. See the sails? They call Auckland the “City of Sails” because so many people have yachts.’
‘Does my dad have a yacht?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘I’ll ask him,’ Jack said happily.
For the next few minutes they watched the pleasure crafts crowding the harbour waters and then the lovely harbour bridge as it drew steadily closer, but Abby wasn’t really taking much notice.
She didn’t know if Tom was into sailing. She didn’t know anything about what his life away from work was like now. He was probably addicted to adventure sports like abseiling or parachuting. How would a child fit in with any of that?
What if he did have a yacht? Auckland had one of those ‘four seasons in one day’ types of climate. Tom could sail off with Jack on a lovely sunny morning and then a storm could blow in and they could end up in big trouble in the open sea and Jack could fall overboard and...and drown...
Oh, for God’s sake. Abby gave herself a mental slap. Give him a chance, she told herself, without immediately envisaging a disaster.
Tom was meeting them off the ferry today. They would drop their bags at the motel where Abby and Jack were to stay the night and then they would have the rest of the day together.
Abby swallowed her concerns and smiled at Jack as he turned his imaginary binoculars onto her.
She would give Tom a chance. It was going to be interesting to see what he’d come up with for them to do today. More than interesting. Nerve-racking, because it was possible that three people’s futures could be influenced in a major way by what happened today.
* * *
‘Where are we going, Dad?’
‘To the motel. To drop off your bags.’
‘Why can’t we stay at your house?’
‘Because you need a bed of your own and my house is too small.’ Tom had to avoid a sidelong glance to where Abby was sitting in the front passenger seat of his car. Abby wouldn’t need a bed of her own. Damned frustrating to think of her sleeping in a motel tonight but he was treading slowly here. Carefully. Because of Jack.
She wouldn’t even be here today if it wasn’t about Jack spending some time with him, would she?
But it was so good to see her again.
He’d had his doubts. Of course he had.
There’d been a definite ‘Oh, my God what was I thinking’ moment when he’d stepped back into the familiar comfort of the house he shared with Moz and had realised that if he and Abby and Jack became a family, it would mean losing almost everything that was familiar and comfortable. That wave of...fear, almost, at the thought of such a different future had been thankfully receding a little more every day.
Even his long-held fear that having a family would somehow hold him back in his work was fading, too. He wasn’t being any more cautious in what he did. If anything, he might be pushing the boundaries a tad further just to prove a point. He certainly didn’t feel like his wings were being clipped in any way and yet there hadn’t been a single day—a single hour, in fact—that he hadn’t thought about Abby.
And Jack, of course. The relationships were very different but they were equally intense. Was one more important than the other?
Maybe the difference was that his relationship with Jack was simply there and all he had to do was make it as good as it could be. He was Jack’s father and always would be.
A relationship with Abby, however, would have to be earned. And it might be harder to do that the second time around, because he had to try to undo the damage that had been done. When he’d made her feel like she wasn’t as important as his career. That he didn’t want her in his life because she would hold him back from being the person he wanted to be.
Whatever. It was important that they both have a good day today and Tom had given the matter a great deal of thought ever since Abby had texted to let him know she was bringing Jack to visit.
‘Where are we going now?’ Jack asked, as Tom drove them away from the motel.
‘To the zoo.’
‘What’s a zoo?’
‘Jack!’ Abby sounded astonished. ‘You know what a zoo is. Don’t you?’
There was silence from the back seat.
‘Jack?’
‘I wanted Dad to tell me,’ said a small voice.
Tom caught Abby’s gaze and they shared a flash of something. Amusement tinged with apology on Abby’s part and amusement mixed with maybe pride on Tom’s part. It was something warm and adult that understood what was going on in a small boy’s head. Something very poignant about Jack having to confess his attempt to connect with his father.
Tom shifted his gaze to the rear-view mirror so he could see Jack. ‘Auckland zoo is special,’ he told his son. ‘It’s been there for nearly a hundred years and it has hundreds of different sorts of animals and birds.’
‘Has it got lions?’
‘Yep.’
‘And tigers?’
‘Yep.’
‘And monkeys?’
‘Loads of monkeys. And chimpanzees and orangutans and I’m not sure but there might be gorillas, too.’
‘What else?’
‘Have you ever seen a giant weta?’
‘Ew...’ Abby made a face. ‘We get those at home. I’m not so keen on big bugs.’
‘There’s meerkats. There are people tunnels and you can climb through them and pop up into these Perspex bubbles and there you are, in the middle of the meerkat enclosure.’
‘Oh, I’d love to do that.’ Abby grinned. ‘What do you think, Jack? Wouldn’t that be fun?’
‘Mmm. What else is there, Dad?’
‘Have you ever seen a hippopotamus?’
‘No-o-o...’ Jack’s eyes were round. ‘I’ve never seen a hit...a hittopopamus.’
‘Hippo-pot-amus,’ Tom said slowly.
‘Hitto-pop-amus,’ Jack said, even more slowly.
‘Close enough,’ Tom said. His gaze slid sideways and this time there was pure amusement in the shared glance with Abby. The odd nerves that had been plaguing him about whether the zoo was the best idea for a day together disappeared completely.
This was going to be great.
* * *
Abby knew she’d never be able to decide what her favourite moment of this day had been because they were all so different and they each had their own magic.
Just walking along the miles of pathways, being parents and each holding the hand of the small boy between them, had been special.
‘Swing,’ Jack had commanded. ‘Make me a monkey.’
And Tom and Abby would share a glance and mouth a silent count of three and then both lift Jack’s feet off the ground in a big, forward swoop that made him shriek with delighted laughter.
The meerkats made them all laugh and shared laughter was absolutely the best, Abby decided.
Then again, the private, telepathic kind of laughter that passed between Tom and Abby with Jack’s continued inability to pronounce ‘hippopotamus’ gave her heart an even more memorable squeeze.
And the bliss had been almost overwhelming when it had surfaced as she’d watched Tom eating an ice cream and catching a drip on the cone with his tongue. It had come supercharged with a hefty kick of desire, this time, thanks to the reality of his physical presence, and it had only got stronger as Abby had sensed the way he’d been watching her eat her ice cream.
Jack had been oblivious to the atmosphere above his head but Abby had barely noticed the alligators because she’d been concentrating so hard on trying to get her wayward thoughts under control.
In the end, however, there had really been only one moment that had stolen the limelight from them all, due to its significance.
They’d had afternoon tea at a café and had then wandered to a lovely grassy area near a band rotunda. Maybe they were all reluctant to head for an exit and finish their day at the zoo. The grass was long enough to be soft and tickly and there was a gentle slope under a tree that Jack spotted.
‘Wanna see me do a roll, Dad? All the way down the hill?’
‘Sure do.’
They both sat on the grass in the shade of the tree and watched Jack roll down the slope.
‘I remember doing exactly the same thing when I was about his age,’ Tom said with a note of wonder in his voice. ‘It was a hell of a lot of fun.’
‘Nothing to stop you doing it again,’ Abby said with a grin.
Tom grinned right back. And then he simply turned sideways, lay down and started to roll, gathering speed fast.
‘Look out, Jack, Dad’s coming after you.’ Abby had trouble shouting because she was laughing so hard.
But then Tom reached the bottom of the slope and rolled right into Jack and caught him in his arms, and her laughter died as she watched the rough and tumble between a father and his son as if it was an instinctual thing.
It was such a pure moment. A joyous moment.
Okay, there had to be a potential for Jack to get injured, but Abby wasn’t thinking about any future catastrophe. She was absolutely in the moment and it felt utterly safe. Even if something did go wrong, Tom was here and he would look after them.
He would always look after them and keep them safe.
And Abby realised that she’d spent the whole day amongst wild animals. There’d even been a leopard or a cheetah or some big cat being walked around on a leash by a handler and not once today had she imagined something horrible happening.
Well, she’d thought about Tom’s imaginary yacht and Jack falling off and drowning but that had been before she’d been in Tom’s company.
Before she’d felt so...safe.
Before she’d felt like she’d come home.
Yes, Abby knew perfectly well that there would be heartbreak if she lost Tom but if she didn’t accept that future risk—something that might never actually happen—then she could never have this now.
And this now was absolutely perfect.
It was in this ultimately memorable moment that Abby gave Tom her heart.
Completely and for ever.
Even if they didn’t end up being married or together as a family, it was too late to lock her heart up and constrict her life by trying to keep it safe. Her heart was Tom’s. For better or worse, for richer or poorer. In sickness or health or even death.
He was her man just as decisively as Jack was her son.
Their son.
Her smile was misty as she watched Tom and Jack coming back up the hill on all fours, being tigers, maybe. Tom got to her first and flopped onto his side, propping his chin on his hand.
She was still smiling and Tom smiled back.
‘Have I ever told you how gorgeous you are?’
He looked pretty gorgeous himself, with his hair all rumpled and bits of grass stuck in it. With his dark eyes still alight from the fun of the rough and tumble.
Or were they alight with something else?
They were so close. Abby could just lean forward and snatch a kiss. The sudden gleam in Tom’s eyes suggested both his understanding and agreement and a tiny quirk of his lips was an irresistible invitation, but just as Abby tossed her braid over her shoulder so it wouldn’t flop into Tom’s face, a small human missile landed on top of him from the other side.
‘Gotcha.’
‘Oof...’ Tom wrapped his hands around Jack’s midriff and lifted him as if he weighed nothing. ‘You sure did get me, buddy.’
Jack waved his arms and wriggled his legs but Tom’s hand held him securely out of harm’s way and then he tickled him and Jack shrieked with laughter and wriggled harder.
Abby could only laugh as well, tucking the disappointment over losing that kiss somewhere deep enough for it not to matter.
There was plenty of time.
Wasn’t there?
* * *
Talk about bad timing.
Abby had been about to kiss him when that human missile had found its target.
Tom put Jack down and looked at his watch. ‘If we head away now, we’d have time to drop into the rescue base. Would you like to see where I work, Jack?’
‘Yes. Can I have a ride in a helicopter?’
‘I’m not sure about that. Not today, anyway,’ Tom added, as Jack’s face fell. ‘You could sit in one, though, and pretend you were driving.’
‘Do I get a helmet?’
‘I’m sure we can manage that.’
‘Let’s go.’ Tom held out his hands to tug his parents from where they were still sitting on the grass.
So they went. Tom’s crew was off duty but Moz was apparently there talking to a mechanic who had been called in to look at a helicopter. Frank was using the gym and Fizz was there, too, apparently watching Frank use the gym. Was there something going on that he didn’t know about?
‘Can’t stay away from the place, can you? Fizz, this is Abby and this is Jack. My son. I told you about him.’
‘Yeah...’ Fizz grinned at Jack and then eyed Abby.
‘Abby, this is my crew partner, Fizz.’
Abby eyed Fizz.
Frank caught Tom’s eye and grinned. Both men could feel the wary vibe that had sparked instantly between the two young women.
‘I’m working out,’ Fizz said to Tom. ‘See?’ She opened her hand to show him a soft ball in her palm. ‘Building up strength in my wrist.’
She was still wearing a protective bandage on her wrist, although the stitches were long gone and she’d been back on active duty for the last two weeks.
Jack’s eyes were round. ‘What happened to your hand?’
Fizz laughed, her gaze flicking towards Abby before moving to Tom. ‘Your dad broke me.’
Tom cleared his throat—an annoyed sound. There were small ears here that might not detect a joke.
‘Fizz hurt her arm when we were out on a job,’ he told Jack.
‘Yeah...’ Fizz grinned at Jack again. ‘We had to crawl into a crashed car at the bottom of a cliff with waves crashing around us. It was awesome. D’you want to be a helicopter paramedic when you grow up? Like Dad?’
‘Yeah...’ But Jack was biting his lip. He didn’t sound confident, and why would he, when Fizz was making it sound so dangerous?
‘Let’s go and see a helicopter,’ Tom said.
‘The BK’s out on a job,’ Frank said. ‘MVA up north. It’ll be a while.’
‘Backup’s on site?’
‘Yeah. The mechanic’s going to have a look at that faulty fuel gauge. Moz is a bit worried it might be more than that.’
‘They won’t mind if Jack sits in the pilot’s seat for a few minutes?’
‘Might come and see how things are going myself.’ Frank picked up a towel and mopped his face.
Fizz threw the soft ball into a bucket of hand weights. ‘Me, too.’
The base manager was in the staffroom as they all trooped through.
‘You must be young Jack,’ he said. ‘My word, you look like your dad, don’t you?’
‘Yep.’ Jack stood on tiptoe to make himself taller. He stepped closer to Tom, who put his hand on his son’s head.
He’d never felt so proud in his whole life.
‘I’ll bet you—’ The base manager broke off his sentence as a signal announced an emergency radio message coming in. He moved swiftly towards his office and, with the door open, they coul
d all hear as he picked up the microphone.
‘Rescue Base One. Go ahead.’
‘Rescue Base One, we have a priority one call from Kaimotu Island. I’ll patch you through.’
Priority One meant a life-threatening emergency. They all knew that, apart from Jack, but the little boy went as still as everyone else as they listened. Could he feel the professional interest from Frank and Fizz? The alertness with which he himself was now listening? Or was it the flash of fear on his mother’s face as she heard Ginny’s familiar voice?
‘Rescue One? We have a twenty-three-month-old boy, Blake Taggert, who’s choking. Came in with a GCS of eight and deteriorating vital signs. Dr McMahon’s tried to remove the obstacle with Magill forceps but without success. We’re going to secure his airway with a cricothyroidectomy but we need urgent backup and evacuation.’
The base manager shook his head. ‘Hold on.’ He released the button so that Ginny couldn’t hear him and turned towards Tom, looking rueful.
‘It’s a no-go for us. We’ll have to see if the air force can help. It’ll be an hour before the chopper’s clear of that MVA and the backup’s out of action.’
‘They might not have started working on it yet. It’s only a fuel gauge.’
‘Kind of important when it’s a distance that’s pushing fuel capacity,’ Frank reminded him.
‘And it would be out of order,’ the base manager snapped.
‘I’d go with you.’ Fizz had a sparkle in her eyes. An interesting mission with the added frisson of potential mechanical problems? She wanted in.
Was she crazy?
Was he crazy, even thinking about what he was thinking about?
Abby would think so. But when he caught her gaze, her eyes were shining, too. With tears.
‘Poor Ruth,’ she whispered. ‘She must be frantic. Imagine if it was Jack and we were that far away from backup?’
That did it.
‘I’ll go,’ Tom announced. ‘If Moz is okay with the mission.’ He was quite confident that the pilot would be prepared to take a small risk in a situation where a child’s life was at stake. And the base manager might grumble and fuss but he’d find a way to bend the rules.
‘Cool,’ Fizz said.
‘But no more crew,’ Tom added. ‘The less weight we have the less fuel we’ll need so the gauge problem won’t be such a major one.’
MIRACLE ON KAIMOTU ISLAND/ALWAYS THE HERO Page 30