The squall passed and the helicopter rode the rough air to move further towards the open sea. They were over the shipping lane between Rangitoto and Takapuna beach now—the track that the big container and cruise ships took to gain entry to the city’s harbour. Fortunately, there was no sign of any large vessels. Unfortunately, there was no sign of any smaller ones either.
‘The swell’s getting big enough to make it hard to see,’ Zac said. ‘Turn on the sun, Monty.’
The night sun was a light attached under the nose of the helicopter that had the strength of thirty million candles. Below them, the white foam of breaking waves on the big swells covered the inky blackness of the deep water below.
Summer’s stomach sank and then rose with every air pocket that Monty negotiated. Her heart just kept on sinking. They weren’t going to find the Mermaid. It would get thrown onto rocks and there would be no way to rescue Dylan. Or Flint.
‘There…’ Zac’s shout was triumphant. ‘Nine o’clock.’
‘Where?’ Summer’s heart was in her mouth now. ‘I can’t see them.’
‘Wait…’
The water rolled and, yes…there she was, riding the swell. Still afloat but clearly without power. Being washed towards the rocky coastline.
Monty was on the radio instantly, relaying the coordinates to both the coastguard and the team ready to mobilise on shore.
‘Can you get me down?’ Summer’s hand was already on her harness, her gaze on the winch cable that would need to be attached.
‘Bit dodgy…’ Monty’s tone was a warning. ‘You sure about this, Summer?’
‘No.’ It was Zac who spoke—the word an appalled exclamation. ‘I’ll go down.’
‘The coastguard’s not far away,’ Monty said. ‘They’ll be able to get someone on board.’
‘My brother’s down there,’ Summer responded. She surprised herself with how calm she sounded. ‘He’s just a kid. He must be terrified.’ She caught Zac’s gaze and held it. Flashing through her head was the memory of the last time they had faced the possibility of a tricky winch job—when they’d been called to that young forestry worker with the chest injury. When the question of how much she really trusted Zac had been raised. When she’d known how much she wanted to trust him and she’d wanted the chance to demonstrate that trust. Wanted the kind of bond that could only be forged by meeting—and winning—a life-threatening challenge.
She should have been careful what she’d wished for…
But here it was.
‘Please, Zac…’ Her voice was almost a whisper but seemed magnified by both the internal microphone system and the desperate plea in her tone. ‘I need you to winch me down.’
He didn’t want to do it. She could feel the strength of how much he didn’t want the responsibility of her life dangling on the end of a wire. Trying to time the descent so that she didn’t meet the deck of the boat as it came up on a rising swell. She could break her legs. Get tangled on the mast. Smash her head against the side of the boat…
He could refuse and that would be an end to it.
But he knew how much she needed to do this.
And he had to know she would only ask because she trusted him completely.
‘Okay…’ The word was almost a groan. ‘I’ll do it.’
It was possible to lock into his training and keep things completely professional up until the moment when Summer stepped off the skid to dangle in the air below the helicopter. Monty had just as much responsibility for keeping her safe but it felt as if he had her life in his hands.
And he couldn’t let anything happen to threaten that.
Right now, the pain of knowing she had doubted his word was utterly irrelevant. She was trusting him with her life.
And he loved her…
How could he have even believed for a moment that he would prefer to live without her in his life?
Nothing mattered other than keeping her safe. Keeping Dylan safe. Even keeping Flint safe because Summer loved him.
And he loved her…
The tense minutes of the descent had sweat trickling down his spine beneath the layers of safety gear.
‘Minus six metres.’ Summer sounded remarkably calm. ‘Five…four…no, five…’
It was so hard to judge with depth perception changed by the artificial light, let alone the heaving sea changing the actual distance. They had to time the swells and wait for the moment when they could—hopefully—get the meeting of Summer’s body and the solid deck of the boat exactly right.
And, somehow, they did.
There was an awful moment as Summer fell on landing and slipped across the sloping deck. It looked as if she would go overboard or potentially get caught and he would have to fire the charge that would cut the cable and prevent the helicopter being pulled from the sky. How had she managed to find a handhold and release her connection to the cable at the same time? But there she was, clinging to a handrail and holding the cable clear as she gave the signal to wind it back in.
‘Take it up, Zac…’ Her words were a breathless but relieved statement. ‘I’m good.’ He must have imagined the grin because he couldn’t possibly see from this distance, but he could still hear the words despite how quiet they were. ‘Thanks, mate…’
And then she disappeared into the interior of the yacht and, only seconds later, the lights of the coastguard boat could be seen approaching. There was nothing more that the helicopter crew could do except provide light as another difficult mission was launched to take the disabled Mermaid under tow and get her back to safety.
It was over.
Every bone in Summer’s body ached.
Her heart ached now, too. For a while, she had forgotten the finality of the way Zac had looked at her when they’d been in the emergency department with Shelley and Felix.
Fear had taken over. And then the adrenaline rush of the rescue mission. By the time the Mermaid had been safely towed into port, the helicopter had long since landed, which was just as well as the storm had well and truly broken. Dramatic forks of lightning and crashing thunder were a background for getting Dylan safely back to the hospital and his father.
He stayed glued to Summer’s side as they walked towards the ward.
‘Dad’s going to be so mad at me, isn’t he?’
‘No. He’s going to be too relieved that you’re okay. Like I am.’
The look that passed between them acknowledged the bond that had been forged under circumstances neither of them could ever forget. In the moment she had climbed into Mermaid’s cabin to find a terrified boy crouched in a corner with his arms tightly around a big black dog and she had put her own arms around both of them for a long wordless hug.
There were more hugs in that hospital room. And words of reassurance from both Jon and Summer that Dylan wasn’t being banished. That they were a family now and nothing was going to be allowed to break that.
Yes. A poignant joy had taken over from the fear.
The dramatic start of the storm had settled into steady, drenching rain by the time Summer and Flint were given a ride home by Monty, who had come to pick them up from the coastguard’s base.
And it was then that Summer realised she had no home to go to. The Mermaid couldn’t be towed back to her marina until the weather improved.
‘Come home with me,’ Monty said. ‘We can collect your gear from the boat tomorrow.’
But Summer shook her head. Because the fear had returned. The overwhelming relief that her brother and her dog were safe was wearing off. The joy of knowing she had a real family again was also being pushed into the background. What if she had lost Zac from her life? She hadn’t seen him for hours now. Hadn’t heard from him either, but then her phone had got wet during that rough ride back on the coastguard vessel and it was completely dead.
As dead as that dreadful message in the look that Zac had given her when she’d been seeking reassurance? As dead as the future she had started to dream of? One that had included children
that they would take to the beach and build sandcastles with. Teach them to paddleboard so that they could stand up one day and wave at their great-grandmother, who would be watching from her deck.
Ivy…
The yearning for the kind of wisdom and warmth and humour that only Ivy Mitchell could dispense was suddenly overwhelming.
‘I need to go to Takapuna,’ she told Monty quietly. ‘Down by the beach. I’ll show you which house.’
The rain was so heavy that both she and Flint had runnels of water cascading off them by the time the knock on Ivy’s door was answered.
Not by Ivy.
It was Zac who wrenched the door open but that was all he did. He simply stood there, staring at her. She could see the breaking tension in his face. Relief. Love…?
‘For heaven’s sake, Isaac…what are you thinking? Get them inside…’ Ivy tugged her grandson away from the door. ‘Come in, darling. Oh, my goodness. You’re completely soaked…’
Flint stayed where he was as Summer moved.
‘You too,’ Ivy ordered and Flint stepped cautiously onto the polished floorboards, puddles gathering under every paw. ‘I’ll get towels. Isaac, take Summer downstairs to your place. She needs a shower.’ She waited until they were both at the head of the internal staircase, Summer’s hand tightly encased in Zac’s. ‘And a proper hug,’ she called after them. ‘Don’t forget your manners. I’ll see you both in the morning.’
It was an instruction they should both have been able to laugh about as soon as they closed the door to the rest of the world behind them but neither of them was even smiling.
Zac pulled Summer into his arms and held her so tightly she couldn’t breathe.
‘Don’t ever scare me like that again,’ he growled. ‘I thought…. Oh, my God…I thought I was going to lose you.’
It didn’t seem to matter that he was getting wet. Or that she couldn’t breathe. The hope that this meant Zac still loved her as much as she loved him was enough to survive on. Summer never wanted to move. She wanted to feel his heart beating against her cheek like this and feel his arms around her like the strongest, safest protection ever.
It was Zac who released the hold enough to move and see her face.
‘Are you okay? You didn’t get hurt?’
‘I’m fine.’
‘And Dylan?’
‘He got the fright of his life but he’s okay, too. He’s with Dad—waiting to get taken back to the west coast tonight.’
The breath that Zac released was a long sigh. ‘And Flint’s good. He’ll get dried off and we’ll be lucky if there’s any bacon for us at breakfast. That’s all that matters.’ His mouth quirked into a crooked smile. ‘I’m not sure what Gravy meant by a “proper” hug but a hug is not quite what I’m thinking about right now.’
Summer’s gaze dropped from those gorgeous dark eyes to the mouth that she loved almost as much. Her eyes drifted shut as her lips parted to murmur agreement but the only sound that emerged was a whimper of need as Zac’s lips found hers.
And, for a very long time after that, the need for a shower or anything else was completely forgotten.
It was a time for a reunion—both physical and emotional. A time to celebrate a bond that could survive testing times and only become deeper.
Stronger.
A time for the kind of honesty that provided the glue for that kind of bond.
‘I’m sorry I doubted you,’ Summer whispered in the quiet hours of the night, as she lay in the warmth of Zac’s embrace. ‘It was only for a moment.’
‘You weren’t the only one.’
‘Everybody knows the truth now. And I don’t think it was about Felix that made me feel that way. I just couldn’t help feeling that there was something you hadn’t told me.’
‘There was.’ Zac was silent for a long moment. ‘Because it’s something I’ve never told anyone. Nobody knows, except for Gravy. I don’t even like thinking about it.’
Summer waited out the new silence. Only her fingers moved where they lay splayed on his chest—an almost imperceptible caress of encouragement. She was being invited into possibly the most private part of Zac’s life, here.
‘It wasn’t the accusation that I was the father of Shelley’s baby that shocked me the most,’ Zac told her. ‘It was the idea that I could have pushed her down any stairs. My stepfather…he was abusive. Violent. I could never hurt a woman. Ever…’
‘I know that,’ Summer said softly. She pressed her lips against the soft skin close to her face. ‘I couldn’t trust you any more than I do now. I love you so much.’
‘Not as much as I love you.’ Another soft sigh escaped Zac. ‘So much I can’t begin to find the words.’ He moved, bending his head so that he could place another tender kiss onto Summer’s lips. A kiss that was enough to move them onto a new space. One that accepted the past and made it part of a foundation instead of a barrier.
‘Gravy’s got a dream,’ he told her then. ‘She wants to live long enough to throw confetti at our wedding and drink too much champagne at the reception. She wants dogs tracking sand into the house and babies playing in the garden and on the beach. She even mentioned a paddleboard or two propped up by the shed.’
‘Ohh…’ Summer was smiling but she could feel tears gathering in her eyes.
Tears of joy.
‘You like that idea too?’
The question was almost shy.
‘It sounds like the best idea I’ve ever heard.’ It seemed an effort to draw in a new breath and it seemed as if the whole world was holding it with her. ‘Do you?’
She didn’t really need to ask. She could feel the answer in the way Zac was holding her. The way he pressed his lips against her hair.
But it was still good to hear the words. So, so good…
‘I don’t think I could come up with a better one.’ But then his voice took on a wicked edge as his lips found hers yet again. ‘Or maybe I can,’ he murmured. ‘Just for now…’
*****
ISBN: 978-1-474-00473-2
DAREDEVIL, DOCTOR…HUSBAND?
© 2015 Alison Roberts
Published in Great Britain 2015
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited
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