Love in a Sandstorm (Pine Harbour Book 6)

by Zoe York

  Another few months and maybe he’d find her again. If she went back to Vancouver, he could visit around a west coast race.

  He turned his attention back to the screen. Any second now, they’d see a dinosaur, and if he had any luck at all—

  Jenna gasped and leaned closer.

  Man, he had more luck than he deserved.

  He stretched his arm back and wider, opening up the side of his body so she could fit herself against him.

  She leaned in, and each gasp brought them closer together. So too did some yawns, and by the second hour of the film, she was nodding off. He shifted his hand back a bit, so she wouldn’t fall forward, and he watched her doze. Every few minutes, she’d make a valiant effort to open her eyes, and she’d mumble an apology, but he didn’t care.

  He was enjoying her napping leaned up against him way more than he should.

  By the end of the movie, his pulse was heavy with awareness. Her body felt just right, her slim, soft curves moulding around his hard edges. But all good things must come to an end.

  He stood first and offered her his hand. He’d take any excuse to touch her even if she didn’t need help, and she hung on to his fingers for a few beats after rising, so he was pretty sure he wasn’t alone in that desire.

  Before he could offer to walk her back to her tent, someone called her name, and she twisted around. Then she gave him a tentative look. “Can you hang around for a minute? I won’t be long.”

  “Of course.” He grinned. “I was going to offer to walk back with you.”

  “I’d like that.” She grinned back. “A lot.”

  She crossed the tent to speak to the man who’d called out her name. As they spoke, she shot Sean a quick glance, then another. Her lips pulled together in a thinking frown then she nodded.

  When she returned, her steps were slow. Distracted.

  “Everything okay?”

  She nodded. “Yes? I think so.” She hesitated then shook her head. “It’s late. We should get going. The morning will be here before we know it.”

  Well damn, she’d piqued his curiosity, but whatever it was, it wasn’t his business.

  He let her lead him outside, but despite her change of subject, she wasn’t moving quickly. She stepped to the side, letting most people get ahead of them before they started walking. With each step, their arms brushed, and after a minute, she just took his hand.

  He squeezed her fingers gently. “Thanks for the movie invite. I had fun.”

  She looked up at the night sky first, before dragging her gaze back down to earth, and him.

  Then she smiled. “Me, too.”

  The tent lines where the workers slept were only a short walk away, so too quickly for his liking she stopped again and dropped his hand. But then she turned to face him, her smile growing, and at the same time, they both went in for a hug.

  He folded his arms around her, hyper aware of people milling about. They weren’t alone, not really, and this wasn’t the place for anything more. But damn, Jenna felt good with her cheek pressed hard against his shoulder, her breath warm on his neck.

  He squeezed her tight before reluctantly letting her go. “I’ll see you in the morning?”

  She nodded and rubbed her hands together. “Yes, bright and early. Actually…” She glanced around. “Our vacation scheduling here is constantly in flux because it depends when we can get a replacement. Back at the community tent, that was my medical director, Sami. He’s secured someone to cover me for the next two weeks.” She looked back at him and smiled. “So I’m on holidays as of Friday.”

  He didn’t even need to think about it. “Come with me.” That had better be where she’d been leading with that. Hope sparked in his chest that tomorrow might not need to be goodbye. “I’m going to Spain, but that’s flexible. Wherever you want to go, we could do the backpacking thing. I’ve got some reservations, but I’m sure they’re changeable. We can do whatever you want.”

  “Spain sounds fantastic.” She nodded again. “I want that.”

  He wanted too. In a big way.

  “Because life is short,” she added.

  He grinned. “Yeah, I like that answer a lot.”

  “Is this crazy?”

  “Definitely up there on the list of never-thought-I’d-suggest-this ideas.”

  She laughed. “But…”

  “But life is short,” he echoed. And this felt right. He laced his fingers through hers. “We can talk more about this tomorrow. I have a loose plan for this leave, so we’ll figure out if any of that sounds good to you.”

  “Like what?”

  “The Rock of Gibraltar. Siestas and sangrias.” And now one hot, amazing woman.

  Click. Just like that, something slipped into focus for Sean.

  “That sounds perfect.”

  He leaned in and brushed his fingertips against her cheek. He wanted to tell her he’d stay here until her leave started, but his CO would have his head for loitering around a refugee camp. “I fly to Naples day after tomorrow. I can wait there until you arrive, and then I can get you a seat on my flight to Seville. I promise not to do anything fun until you arrive.”

  “No, have all the fun for both of us.” She smiled at him. That smile was something else. Full of promise and nervous excitement.

  They had two weeks together. All of a sudden, he felt light as air. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Bright and early.”

  Every time she smiled, he wanted to kiss her. The curve of her lips, the way her cheeks turned into pink apples and her eyes danced—it was all irresistible. But this wasn’t the time or the place. So he shoved his hands in his pockets to keep himself from touching those cheeks, that hair, or the long stretch of her neck. He nodded as he stepped back. “Until then.”

  She swayed side to side. “Just a few hours.”

  “Sweet dreams.” Another step back, but he didn’t turn. He couldn’t stop looking at her, at her mouth. Fuck it, he should just—

  “You too.” She raised her hand and, with an unsteady shift of her feet, she spun away.

  It was a small comfort that she’d had just as much trouble ending their awkward good night as he had.

  But a kiss would have been better.

  He stood at the end of her little lane and watched as she quickly made her way to a tent halfway down, her head ducked low.

  Tomorrow. He’d kiss her tomorrow.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  SEAN MISSED the comparative simplicity of planning a reconnaissance raid against insurgents.

  At four the next morning, he was woken up by the communications officer who had the good grace to look chagrined as he handed over the expanded itinerary that had just arrived from Ottawa.

  “It’s the middle of the night,” Sean grumbled as he pulled on his shirt.

  “Not back home.”

  Sean sighed as he scanned the document. More media were on the plane than originally anticipated, and they all wanted their own angle on the story. Sean’s job had just gone from keeping an eye on things to actively mediating four different competing interests.

  “So now there will be a camera crew visiting the hospital with the PM right after breakfast? Has anyone given the clinic staff a heads up about that?”

  “As you say, it’s the middle of the night. You were my first stop.”

  Sean resisted the urge to point out that he was barely attached to this mission and to the best of this guy’s knowledge had no reason to be the person best suited to delivering this news. Except he knew Jenna, so…fine.

  He glanced at his watch. “Two hours until the PM arrives.” One hour after that for him to meet with the camp administrators over breakfast, which meant in three hours, the hospital would have the eyes of a nation on it. “I think the hospital staff would appreciate being informed of the change before he’s on the ground. Excuse me.”

  He grabbed a headlamp and headed for the door.

  JENNA MADE it through the night without an urgent page
, but she still woke up at an insanely early hour. She lay in the dark for a few minutes, willing herself to go back to sleep, but the combination of seeing Sean again—she should have kissed him last night, damn it—and the professional stress of having a political delegation at the camp today made for a lot of complicated, very awake feelings.

  It was never too early to review cases, though.

  At the hospital, she found she wasn’t the only one up. Sami, the Egyptian-Canadian medical director, was already in the office.

  He didn’t look up from the charts he was working on. “Sabaah al-khair.” Good morning. He must think she was one of the local staff.

  “Sabaah an-noor,” she replied carefully, proud of herself for remembering the appropriate response.

  He jerked his head up and laughed. “Morning, Jenna. That sounded pretty good.”

  She laughed. She hadn’t picked up much of the language yet, to her frustration. The women she saw either spoke English—and were eager to practice it—or turned immediately to the translator. Nobody was keen for her to struggle through a medical conversation in a language she spoke like a toddler, and she didn’t blame them.

  Plus almost everyone in this camp was resigned to the reality they wouldn’t be returning home, and their future almost certainly lay in a far-away, English-speaking country like Canada.

  “You’re up early,” she said, going to the hot plate to make herself some coffee.

  “Couldn’t sleep. I’ll be happy to get today over with.”

  “Mmm.” She yawned. Maybe she should have given sleep more of a chance before coming in. “Are you nervous about meeting the prime minister?”

  He wrinkled his nose. “Nervous isn’t the right word. I want to say all the things that need to be said. I guess I’m worried I won’t get a real chance to speak to him.”

  She nodded. “I’ve met—”

  A loud knock interrupted them. The staff office was just inside the entrance to the trailer complex, and Jenna had locked the door behind her.

  Sami was on his feet and running to the door before Jenna put down the coffee pot, but it wasn’t a medical emergency. Milly must have hustled from the other direction, because the next thing Jenna heard was, “Hey, mate! We’re closed, you know? Don’t be banging on the door like that. Patients are sleeping.”

  Jenna grinned. Milly was bad-ass. The wards were on the other side of the clinical space, so the knocking surely didn’t wake them, but whoever the offender was, they’d think twice next time. The veteran nurse didn’t take bullshit from anyone, from doctors to military personnel to patients. But under all her gruff bark, the woman had a heart of gold.

  Jenna wanted to be Milly when she grew up.

  “My apologies,” said a familiar voice, and now Jenna was running, because oh my God, it was Sean.

  She skidded to a halt in the doorway.

  He was in uniform already, although his hair was sticking out at funny angles from under his beret. “Captain Foster of the Canadian Armed Forces. I’m looking for the clinic staff.”

  Sami introduced himself with a quick handshake. “Sami Bahar, medical director, and this is Milly Anderson, a senior nurse.”

  “Who is going back to take care of patients, if you’ve got this,” Milly said, sniffing to make it clear she didn’t care for the interruption, she didn’t care who Sean was.

  Sean gave her a bashful smile that went a long way, Jenna was sure, then pulled a rolled up piece of paper from his pocket and held it out to Sami. “There’s a revised itinerary for the PM’s visit today. It’s more extensive than previously understood.”

  Jenna groaned, and Sean swivelled towards her. “Morning,” she said with an apologetic grimace to Sami for interrupting. “A change in the itinerary?”

  Sean nodded. “Sorry to be the bearer of unexpected news.”

  Sami finished reading it over, then handed it to her without saying a word.

  That wasn’t a good sign.

  She took it and skimmed the page. She didn’t have Sami’s tact. “Seriously?”

  When she glanced up, Sean gave her a rueful smile. “I thought it might be worth a middle of the night visit.”

  Instead of a quick stop at a clinic in the camp mid-afternoon, the Prime Minister of Canada was now bringing reporters and a camera crew to her hospital. Right after breakfast.

  “Thank you.” Sami glanced back toward the rear trailer. “I need to go prep the nursing staff.”

  “Is there anything I can do to facilitate this?”

  Jenna shook her head at the same time Sami held out his hand. “No, but I appreciate the heads up,” he said. “We’ll manage with the visit however it pleases the delegation.”

  Sean waited until Sami left then he stuffed his hands in his pockets. He’d done the same thing the night before, and again she was struck with the urge to tug them out and weave their fingers together. “Will there be any problems with the media? Anything I should know? If anyone might be uncomfortable on camera. Patients, maybe?”

  “Sami knows how to manage that. We’ll pick a couple of cases who don’t mind being interviewed.”

  Sean nodded. “And if you need anything, just give the secret signal.”

  She laughed. “We don’t have a secret signal.”

  “We should definitely come up with one.” He winked, which did dangerous things to her insides. He was both funny and kind, trying to ease this change in plans for the hospital staff, but also her individually.

  She gave him an appreciative smile as she reached for the door handle. “Go away. I need to brush my hair and find a nicer shirt.”

  He let her herd him out of the hospital in the chill early dawn.

  It was extra brr this morning. She wasn’t exactly looking forward to the weather heating up since it would quickly get to oppressive and sticky, but the few days that it would be balmy and spring-like would be nice. Right now she was grateful for the worn hoodie she had on over her scrubs.

  “Tap your forefinger to your thumb.”

  “Sean, we’ll be fine.”

  “I know.” He hopped off the steps and into the hard packed dust. “And your hair is perfect, by the way.”

  She’d braided her hair before bed, so she left it like that when she woke up. It was a mess. But the way he looked at her didn’t feel polite. “Thanks,” she whispered.

  She needed to go see her patients. No more flirting.

  Why weren’t her feet moving?

  He took a few steps backward, a grin growing on his handsome face. Square jaw, bright eyes. She could lose herself in him if she weren’t careful. “I’ll see you later, Jenna.”

  She lifted the paper he’d handed her in the air, something eager bouncing in her chest. “In an hour and a half, in fact.”

  He flashed her another brilliant grin before nodding and turning on his heel. His uniform pulled tight across his shoulders and narrowed to his hips in an exaggerated V shape that woke her up better than coffee. Hello again, Captain Hottie. What nice long legs you’ve got.

  She dragged in a shuddering breath before shutting and locking the clinic door.

  “Are you done flirting with the handsome young man?” Milly asked as they scrubbed up.

  Done? She’d barely started. “For now,” she said with a smile. “He’s transiting through. Leaving tomorrow.”

  “Heading into Iraq?”

  Jenna’s grin stretched so wide it hurt her cheeks. “To Italy, actually. He’s on leave for the next eighteen days.”

  “Is that a fact?” Milly chuckled. “Any chance you’re going to meet up with him when you take your own flight out of here?”

  “Maybe.”

  “You sly hussy!”

  Yep. Her cheeks were aching. “It just sort of…happened.”

  “I bet it did. That one’s a looker, he is.”

  She sighed happily. And in a few days, he’d be all hers.

  “But—”

  She held up her hand, cutting Milly off. “I know.
Be careful. We’re just having fun.”

  That was true, although there was more to it than that. Fun didn’t really encapsulate all that Sean promised.

  The last four months had drained Jenna's emotional well. A trip to Spain with Sean would be both adventure and attention, a chance to take two weeks to refill her soul. Yes, there was a little voice in her in the back of her mind that warned her, again, that she could lose herself in this man. That it might become more than adventure and she needed to be careful about that.

  If there was any lesson she’d learned growing up, it was that she needed to be careful around men—and that her future would be of her own making.

  Her mother had been dealt a bad hand. Eve Kowalczyk found herself pregnant and alone at eighteen, then again at twenty-seven when she was just starting to get ahead a bit. Two ex-boyfriends who didn’t want to be fathers. A host of others who weren’t interested in being step-dads too.

  Jenna’s mother didn’t get a partner in life, but she did get two dependents, and not a lot of opportunity handed to her to make their life comfortable.

  Jenna had been adamant she wouldn’t fall into the same trap. She wouldn’t want too much, and she wouldn’t get carried away by impossible dreams. She could have adventure, as long as it fit inside her responsible career.

  She hadn’t been prepared for how draining the placement would be. So yes, she was going to have some fun. Reset her expectations so when she returned, she could do the job that was needed. Give herself a good shake.

  And that was all that would happen in Spain, no matter what.

  IF SEAN HAD WORRIED about the hospital staff’s ability to be camera-ready in an hour, his fear was misplaced. When he escorted the prime minister and the Canadian delegation to the hospital after breakfast with the camp administrators, Sami and Jenna were both waiting. They both wore broad smiles, their statements smooth and rehearsed.

  The PM had clearly prepped well for this, asking smart, pointed questions of both Canadian practitioners. The conversation flowed smoothly, and cameras clicked steadily. Sean was startled to feel a stab of irrational jealousy at the way Jenna looked at the handsome, young prime minister. The leader of their country had a magnetism that was…well, at the moment it was annoying.