by Annie O'Neil
It seemed ridiculous, but Liesel felt as though she was drawing new stores of confidence and positive energy each time their eyes locked. The surges of certainty she felt about her nursing skills when she was with Jack were exactly what she’d been missing at the A and E unit. It felt amazing. Was this what change felt like?
Liesel suddenly felt like turning a thousand thoughts into action. Finding a permanent home for herself and her son. No more relying on her mother and father. She wanted to push the limits on her nursing skills, really find out what she was capable of. Maybe even reconsider Jack’s offer to go down to the CFS? At the very least, she knew she wanted to explore whatever it was that was zinging between her and Jack. A glimpse, a light touch, a brushing of lips... She pressed her eyes shut, the memory of their aborted attempt at displaying CPR pinging front and center in her mind’s eye.
Her body felt as though it was awakening after a long, long winter. Her loose cotton top made of eyelet fabric played over her skin, bringing out a shiver of heightened awareness. When she had pulled on the royal-blue top that morning, the last thing in the world it had seemed was sexy, but now, fully aware of Jack’s glances back into the cabin of the vehicle, it suddenly felt sensual. The tiny holes in the fabric exposing miniature flashes of skin. Had he noticed? Her eyes pinged wide-open. She really wanted him to notice. She felt like dancing. And kissing. Was he feeling the same way? Or was she just hallucinating this entire “thing” between them?
Her eyes intuitively flickered to the vehicle’s rearview mirror. There they were. Those bright blue eyes. Watchful. Assured. And giving her a long, slow wink.
* * *
Jack loved moments like these. The successful handover to the emergency department. A moment to know you’d done your job and done it well.
Cassie was at the reception area, giving her son’s details, and the emergency department doctor was giving Kevin a once-over before shifting him onto a hospital gurney.
“Looks like you saved this young fellow’s life. How long have you been an emergency medical responder?”
“I’m not.” Jack shook his head regretfully. “I started the training in Adelaide, then got a transfer before I could complete it.”
“Then how did you learn this trick?” The doctor pointed at the tip of the rubber glove, still doing its job in Kevin’s chest.
Jack shifted his eyes from the ED doctor’s approving gaze to Liesel. He tipped his head in her direction. “It was this talented young woman here.”
“Impressive.” He nodded approvingly at Liesel then called behind him for a couple of medics to help with a transfer. “Have you been in the Country Fire Service long?”
Jack watched Liesel stiffen at the question then try to laugh off her reaction. “Not me. I’m just the school nurse.”
“But where’d you learn that technique? I’ve seen it on the internet, but only from North American sources.”
Liesel went quiet for a moment, her fingers playing along the rail of Kevin’s gurney. “Someone from America taught me.”
Jack didn’t know who that someone was, but from the change of her tone they had been pretty important to her. He’d heard she’d worked in America through Cassie, but had she also left her heart there? He hoped not. He knew a relationship was the last thing he needed right now, but logic didn’t stop him from hoping Liesel was available. If he were a finger-crossing man, he’d be doing it right now.
“You’ve got a lot of valuable training behind you for a school nurse. We could easily use you here at the Valley Med or on the EMR team. Blimey, I’m surprised Jack here hasn’t recruited you yet.”
“Believe me, I have tried. She’s rebuffed my every advance.” He leaned against a nearby pillar, crossing his arms over his chest and hoping he looked more casual than keen. Because he was more than keen. On a number of levels.
“Did that include convincing this young man to detach a lung for you?” The doctor grinned down at his new patient, who, to Jack’s surprise, gave him a half-wilted thumbs-up.
“Deal’s a deal, mate.” Jack played along. “You’re guaranteed a spot on the cadet force as soon as you’re up and running.”
At that Liesel nearly choked. She knew it was a fiction, but still! Besides, the reminder of Eric had served its purpose. She was giving this sort of stuff a wide berth for a reason. Right?
“I appreciate the effort, Kev, but I could’ve saved you the trouble. If I wanted to be recruited, I would be in uniform already. Keep it low level next time, all right?”
“He’s all checked in.” Cassie breathlessly appeared by her son’s hospital gurney.
“Right! Let’s get to an exam room, see about getting this glove out of Kevin’s chest and try to reinflate that lung.” The doctor gave Jack and Liesel a final nod of thanks before wheeling the gurney down the hall.
* * *
If he had thought he’d stood a chance to get her into the CFS before, Jack was hearing loud and clear that she wasn’t interested. What was stopping her, exactly? She obviously had the skills and her crisis management was top rate. He watched as Liesel’s feline eyes followed Kev’s gurney through to the double doors leading to the surgery department. Pure class. And seemingly intent on turning him down.
She was clearly talented. What was holding her back? Was it worth one final push? He’d have to test the waters with care.
He shook his head. What was wrong with him? Was he doing this for the station or for himself? Both, definitely—but the fact that he kept pursuing her was a pretty big clue that the scales were definitely weighted in one direction. If he recruited her, then he was guaranteed to see her all the time and that was an idea he liked the sound of. A lot. Then again, if relationships were off-limits, having her in his crew would be like having the best bottle of wine in the world uncorked in front of him and being told he couldn’t have any.
He tried to shrug off the maze of conflicting thoughts. Fine wine, he concluded, was worth waiting for.
“I guess I’d better get you back to school, miss.” Jack unfolded his arms, pushing himself away from the pillar with his foot.
“We’re back to ‘miss,’ are we? After all we’ve been through?” He could tell she’d been going for a jokey tone, but there was more meaning behind the light words and her bright smile.
“Liesel.” His voice had gone deeper than he’d anticipated and the space separating them suddenly seemed minute. He could smell the wildflower freshness of her skin as the whir of activity surrounding them seemed to still to a slow-motion hush. In seconds he could be holding her in his arms, willing whatever made her so very sad to go away. He watched as a soft flush rose to her cheeks and as suddenly as the moment had come between them, it flashed away.
Liesel glanced at her watchless wrist, laughed and then scanned the room for a clock.
“It’s just past four,” Jack interrupted, even though her search for a clock had given him more time to drink her in.
“I think I’ve missed the final bell.” Liesel threw him a yikes expression and shrugged.
“Good.” Jack scooped up her small hand and tucked it into the crook of his arm. “That means I can take you out for a congratulatory milk shake.”
“I really should get back...”
She wavered just enough to give him the confidence to have another go.
“C’mon, we can pick up a couple of shakes and I’ll show you my favorite spot on the river.”
He could see she was tempted. Even though he saw the hints of that pinky blush coloring her cheeks again. He could guarantee that if she really knew what he was thinking, her color would definitely deepen. Him, Liesel, a warm spring evening down by the river. Anything could happen...
“I’ve got to pick up Liam.”
Jack stopped in his tracks. Liam! Of course. He was an idiot to forget. “Where is he?
We could pick up the little man and bring him along.”
“Really?”
Jack nodded his head in the affirmative, loving it when he saw the sparkle in her eye. If just a fraction of that was for him—
“You’re sure you wouldn’t mind? He’s just at the school nursery. The latest they can keep him is four-thirty.”
“I guess we’d better hit the road, then.”
* * *
Liesel felt as if she was floating on a big, bouncy cloud of happiness. She tried to wipe the dreamy expression off her face as she tucked in Liam but as she replayed the evening’s picnic down by the river, keeping the smile off her lips proved impossible.
She pulled the door to her sleeping son’s room shut and began to tiptoe back to the veranda. Jack had insisted on waiting out there, settling into a cushioned deck chair to “keep an eye on the river,” even though she’d insisted he was welcome to come in.
“It wouldn’t be proper,” he’d said, as if he were a character in an English costume drama. Old-fashioned manners, straight-up-her-alley good looks... He’d even wiped a dab of mustard off her chin after a particularly greedy mouthful of artisan sausage. Who knew a tiny gesture could get her all shivery?
It was absolutely ridiculous how she reacted to his slightest touch and how spending time with him seemed to blur the rest of the world into a fuzzy haze. Considering she’d had just about every single one of her danger-zone buttons pushed that day, it was a wonder she hadn’t just accepted his last-minute offer to opt out of the picnic, be dropped off at home and crawl into bed with Liam curled up beside her and a hot mug of chamomile tea.
It appeared Jack knew her better than she knew herself. A picnic by the river, her son whooping it up with all the kookaburras before devouring his tea, not to mention a first-rate chocolate milk shake to recharge her batteries. Maybe it was as simple as having a couple of hours off not to think about Kevin and the high anxiety she’d felt as she’d dealt with his collapsed lung.
As she looked back on the afternoon, she was beginning to see that instead of feeling a terror that she’d stepped into hostile territory by reverting to her trauma nurse days, she should feel confident and proud of what she had done. This was twice now that she’d been forced out of her comfort zone and had found herself...comfortable. And, truthfully, she hadn’t been forced out of her comfort zone. She just hadn’t fled—which had been her default position up to now. She was a good nurse and using her skills came naturally. Kevin could have died if it hadn’t been for her quick diagnosis and treatment. A technique she wouldn’t have known about if it hadn’t been for Eric.
She pressed her eyes shut, willing herself to have the strength to always love Eric but somehow move forward. She knew she had to. Not just for Liam but for herself. It was just a question of when.
Ha! So much easier thought than done.
She opened her eyes again, quietly making her way into the kitchen to drop off Liam’s nighttime bottle. She turned in the growing darkness of the kitchen, eyes adjusting to the remains of the evening’s light.
She could see Jack’s silhouette through the screen door. He’d hitched a hip up onto the veranda’s railing, his long back supported against a post, looking as happy as could be, while the sun set beyond him among the tangle of gum and eucalyptus trees.
If time were her plaything she would’ve stayed there for ages. Just looking at him made her feel all zingy with feminine response. Not bad for a five-meter gap. She had never seen someone who looked more comfortable in their own skin. He stretched an arm across his body, pulling his knee up along the railing. The movement cinched up the T-shirt, which didn’t do a very good job of disguising his well-defined biceps. Her eyes ran along the broad spread of his shoulders and slipped up to his face. As if he felt her watching him, he turned and met her gaze. She felt herself soften, a warm swirl of heat gathering in her belly.
“This is an amazing place you’ve got here.”
“I wish it were mine.” Liesel pushed the screen door open, praying he hadn’t seen how much she’d been ogling him.
“It’s my parents’ place. They bought it a few years ago to be their retirement fund.” Jack raised a curious eyebrow. “You know, a holiday cottage for people wanting to spend some time out in wine country, or enjoy the river.”
“Wise move. They sound like good folk.”
“They’re great. I can’t imagine what I...what we—I mean, Liam and I—would’ve done without them these past few years.”
“Oh?”
Jack raised an interested eyebrow. Liesel wavered. They were having such a lovely evening. She didn’t want to go there. She didn’t want to rehash recent history when all of the sudden the future seemed like something she could begin to imagine.
“They’re brilliant grandparents!” Good dodge, Liesel! She shifted her gaze away from Jack’s. “Anyhow, we need to move on come summer so they can collect their holiday rent—but I can’t tell you how grateful I am for their generosity.” Liesel smiled warmly.
Before Eric, before Liam, she’d been the opposite of a planner. She’d traveled all around the world, seeking out youthful thrills, pushing her nursing skills to the limit and scraping the bottom of her savings account to make ends meet.
It was hard not to feel wistful about the young woman she had been not so long ago. Young, brave, ready to make a difference. Undefeatable. So much had changed.
“They say you don’t choose your family, but it seems your parents did a pretty good job of endowing you with their sensibilities. You’re lucky to be so close.”
Was that a hint of sadness in his eyes? Or the setting sun? Hard to tell, but something flashed there.
“They do a mean yabby bake. My parents.”
Jack swung round, planting both feet solidly on the wooden floor. “Do they now? That sounds like a bit of a challenge.”
“I thought you were a city boy.” Liesel accepted the dare, relieved just to be having fun again. “What do you know about a good old-fashioned yabby bake?”
“I’ve spent a bit of time on the river.”
“Oh, yeah?” Liesel dismissed the second twitch of darkness she thought she saw flash across his eyes.
“Yeah. I live on a houseboat.”
“Seriously? I always wondered what type of person lived on a houseboat.”
“Well, you’re looking at a Class A example.”
Liesel couldn’t help but give a snort of laughter. She doubted there was anyone alive who could make living on a houseboat seem sexier than Jack.
“You doubting my status as Old Man Murray River?”
“You bet I am.”
“Then you’d better prove it to me.”
Liesel merrily crossed the veranda toward him, hand extended. “I bet you I can out-yabby you any day of the week.”
Jack rose to his full height, reaching out a large hand to meet her much smaller one. A crackle of electricity zigzagged up her arm and played across her chest as their fingers connected.
“Winner picks the prize?”
Had his voice gone husky? Liesel’s eyes met his. The deep lake blue of them was so inviting she felt as if she could dive straight in. If she could stop the world right now, she would.
“Within reason.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
“What kind of man do you take me for?” He closed the space between them with a deliberate step. The honeysuckle breeze wove between them, almost tangibly filling in the ever-decreasing pockets of space. Liesel felt her breath quicken. Her eyes flicked to his chest. Still gorgeous, but safer than his eyes.
“A pretty nice one.” Lame! That was pathetic, Liesel!
“That’s a relief.” Jack reversed his stride, still holding her hand as he sat back down on the veranda railing. She found herself willingly responding to the gentle
tug on her arm and stepped into the opening between his legs. She and Jack were at an easy eye level. Tiny crinkles appeared round his eyes as his face softened with a slow smile. Her fingertips twitched with a desire to trace along them. The air between them felt alive with the pleasurable tension of sexual attraction. Her gaze dropped to his lips. She felt another ribbon of heat tease its way through her, swirling in slow undulations below her waist.
A parrot called in the distance. A burst of laughter sounded from across the river. A family playing a board game? It was all a blur. The only thing Liesel was fully aware of was Jack. It was all she could do not to slip a hand, both hands, into that thick blond hair of his. Explore it with her fingertips then draw them down along his neck, thumbs grazing the strong angles of his jaw before feeling her way toward the well-defined spread of shoulders.
Her eyes flickered back to his. She felt her lips part, her tongue wetting her bottom lip then retreating, unprepared to make the first move. She hadn’t done this for a long time. Standing here, in the thickening silence, everything felt incredibly new. A first-time experience. A sudden longing flooded her entire body. A desire to move forward, to experience new things. Jack’s bright blue eyes sought—what was it, permission? She didn’t know what hers were saying in return, but as her back made the smallest of arches toward him, as if being tugged in his direction, he tipped his head down and, oh, so gently rested his forehead on hers.
They stood like that for a moment, as if each of them was trying to let their mind catch up with what their body was calling out for.
He was so close. So perfectly close.
Liesel felt Jack’s fingers unwrap themselves from around her hand then slip one by one onto her waist. It was all she could do not to roll her hip toward him and whisper, “More.” She felt his breath on her cheek. A physical ache began to pulse through her. As if reading her mind, Jack’s fingers guided her in closer, her hips grazing the sides of his parted thighs. The fabric of her skirt suddenly felt incredibly thin, hot sparks of heat on her hips and thighs teasing at her very core.