Every part of his body wanted to keep living on the adrenaline. To keep going, to find the next person to help. But the truth was, his muscles ached. The aroma coming from the food in his hand was tempting. And the thought of sitting down for five minutes didn’t seem quite so alien as it might have. Particularly when he was with Amber.
He nodded. “Okay, then—you win. But five minutes. There’s probably still a whole host of people that need help. The damage from the hurricane seems huge.”
He followed Amber down the corridor. Every room they reached seemed packed with people, some sitting, some lying on the floor. Amber frowned as they struggled to find somewhere to sit.
Suddenly Jack had a brain wave as they kept walking. He bent toward her ear. “I have an idea. Back this way, I think.”
Two minutes later he found what he was looking for. The janitor’s storeroom. He nudged the handle with his elbow to open the door. Sure enough, it was empty, even though it was tiny. There was a metal cage packed with supplies. A large chair in one corner and a mop and bucket in the other. Amber turned toward him. “Good call. Now let’s sit down.”
He thought about being polite for a second, then realized they were past that point, so he let her sit down first, then crushed in next to her.
She laughed as he joined her, giving him a last glimpse of those bright blue eyes as the door slowly closed behind them.
“Oops,” giggled Amber as they sat in the pitch darkness. “I guess there’s no light in the store cupboard.”
“I guess not,” agreed Jack. “Looks like we might need to eat in the dark.”
“I can do that. I can eat anywhere. I’m so hungry,” said Amber.
Within a few minutes their eyes started to adjust to the darkness, the only light being the thin strip at the bottom of the door from the corridor outside.
Amber finished eating and set her paper plate on the floor, sagging back into the chair. Jack finished too and clashed shoulders as he rested back beside her.
“Do you think this is really a chair for one?”
“I don’t care.” Amber waved her hand. “After the day we’ve had, I’m happy to share. Hey, do you think we should have gone back to the hotel?”
Jack shook his head. “I was wondering though—we weren’t the only doctors at the conference. There were lots of others. I wonder if anyone has thought to draft them in to help.”
Amber sighed. “Please tell me that in an emergency situation, some of them will have volunteered like we have. It can’t possibly just be us.”
She stretched out her arms in front of her, then clasped her hands to stretch out her fingers too.
“Are you stiff? Sore?” It suddenly struck him that he’d asked Amber to do things today that were totally out of her comfort zone. When was the last time she’d had to support an airway? And she’d done it expertly—just like checking broken bones and assessing a potential head injury.
“I’m just trying to stretch out the sore bits,” she confessed. “I thought my hands were going to cramp at one point when I was supporting the airway.” She shook her head. “And we definitely didn’t need that to happen.”
Jack smiled at her. “You did well today, Amber. Better than others that I’ve worked with in the past.”
It took her a few seconds to answer. “Thanks… I think. Truth was, I was worried. I thought I might forget everything and have to ask you to remind me. But once I started, everything just kind of fell into place.” She let out a sigh. “Maybe the director was right. Maybe I should do more field missions.”
“The director?”
“Of the DPA. He’s been at me for a while, telling me it’s time to do some more field missions.”
“I thought you’d already done some.”
She nodded slowly. “Oh, I have. But I’ve always been part of a team. I’ve always had other medics and nurses around me. I’ve never actually been the one in charge. I guess I’ve just been a little afraid.”
Now he was curious. He shifted onto one hip so he faced her a little better. “Afraid of what? You’re a capable and competent doctor.”
Her head dropped and her hands kneaded together in her lap. “Amber?” he pressed.
She let out a long slow breath. “I know I am. I know that I’m capable at what I do. Infectious disease is my comfort zone. I like it—more than that, I enjoy the work. The variety. The locations.” Her head lifted and even in the dark he could see her meet his gaze. “But…” Her voice tailed off.
“But what?” He couldn’t understand why she would doubt herself.
She leaned her head back against the chair, her eyes staring out in the darkness. “I guess I’ve spent my life feeling as if I wasn’t good enough.”
Jack shook his head. “Why on earth would you think that?”
She blinked and he thought he could catch a glimmer of moisture in her eyes. “It was just the life I was brought up with,” she said slowly. “My father was obsessed with his work as a surgeon. My mother and I barely saw him. Even when we did, he would spend his time at home, studying journals or taking hospital calls. My mother was basically a widow on the day that she had me. It was never a marriage, and he was never a father.”
Jack held his breath at the intensity of her words. He could hear the pain in her voice. The rawness of it all. This obviously ran deep.
He remembered small parts of their original conversation at breakfast. He still couldn’t really get his head around it. “Surely, he was proud of the results you got to get into medical school, then the fact you qualified?” He put his hand on his chest. “I don’t have kids, and would never want to push them in any direction, but if any of my kids went after their dream and achieved it, I would be over the moon for them. Isn’t a parent’s job to be proud of their kid?”
Her voice cracked. “Maybe. In an ideal world. Instead, I had a father who never seemed to notice or acknowledge me, or my mother, and now, after he’s gone, I feel as if my mom wasted forty years of her life on someone who never loved or appreciated her.”
He reached out and took her hand in his. He could tell how upset she was by this. “But she got you. And I bet she’s prouder than you can ever imagine. I can’t second-guess your parents’ relationship, but she probably has a whole host of reasons for why she never left. But now? Now she can pursue whatever she wants, and know that her daughter has her back.” He squeezed her hand. “And I’m sorry about your dad. When did he die?”
Amber cleared her throat. “A couple of years ago. It was ironic, really. The surgeon had an aortic aneurysm. He could have been screened at any point, but hadn’t found the time.”
Jack nodded. He didn’t need to ask any questions. As a fellow surgeon, he completely understood how fatal a ruptured aortic aneurysm was.
He couldn’t help but try and lighten the mood. “So, runaway bride, are you still dead set against dating doctors?”
It was almost as if something in the air changed between them instantly.
Her voice rose in pitch. “Oh, we’re going down that road again, are we?”
“Yeah, well. It seems I’ve got five minutes on my hands.”
“Okay, then. So, I’ve had a lifetime’s experience of an almost vacant father, then a follow-up with the jerk of the century.”
Jack gave a little laugh. “Yeah, the guy you left in full tuxedo standing at the end of an aisle.”
She gave a smothered laugh too. “Yip. But I did it because he was a butt-licking, using social climber.” She turned to face Jack, their faces just a few inches apart. “It seems I have terrible taste in men.”
His lips automatically turned upward. He could smell a hint of her floral scent. It had been there earlier, but after the day they’d had, he would have expected it to vanish. But, as they sat together with their bodies pressed close, he could smell it again. If he reached up right now he could touch her cheek—the way he should have done after he’d met her in the bar. But in a way, it was probably better that he hadn�
��t. At least now he knew why this intriguing, smart, sassy woman wanted to brush him off. And although her exterior was sassy, her interior was entirely different. How many people actually knew that about Amber?
“Hey,” she said quietly. “I’ve spilled a whole lot more than I ever usually do. What’re your dark secrets? You’ve just told me that you’ve got no kids. Well—none that you know of. But what else don’t I know? After all, I have spent the night with you. Will I get messages at some point from a wife, an ex-wife, a girlfriend, and have to reassure them that actually nothing happened between us?”
He sucked in a breath. Even though his eyes had adjusted, they were still in the dark. He could see her profile, her eyes and her eyelashes, all highlighted by the tiny strip of light at the bottom of the door. There was something so private about this—even though they were in an evacuation center with around two thousand other people. They’d found a tiny little spot where they could be alone. And he was grateful for it.
Even though they were in the dark, he closed his eyes. It seemed easier somehow. “I’m single. I’ve never been married. I don’t have an ex-wife.”
Even as he said the words out loud, he knew how they sounded. As if he were telling part of a story but not it all.
“But…”
He sucked in another breath. “But then there was Jill.”
Amber’s voice was a little more high-pitched than normal. “Jill? Who is Jill?”
“Jill was my girlfriend. For just over a year.” He let out a wry laugh. “Though she didn’t like to be called that. She preferred The Boss.”
Amber’s voice was wary. It seemed she’d picked up on the fact he was using past tense. “Sounds like someone I would like.”
The words struck a chord with him. Jill would have liked Amber. He could imagine them as friends. Jill would certainly have put Amber straight about her choice in men—him included.
“She was good. She was…great.” This time it was more difficult to suck in a deep breath. He never really discussed Jill. Not with those who’d served with her, nor with her family after the funeral. It just made everything too real. Too human.
“I was sick. I was operating on a soldier who’d lost his lower limb. It was a tricky op—long—and I started to have abdominal pain. I just ignored it and kept going. By the time I finished I collapsed. My appendix had ruptured.”
“What? For crying out loud, Jack, how much pain must you have been in? Wasn’t there anyone who could take over from you?”
He winced. “Probably. But the guy on the table was a friend. And he’d already lost so much. I knew how he would feel when he woke up. I also knew that he’d want to get back on his feet. I had to do the best surgery I could to give him a chance of a prosthetic limb. I didn’t want him to have to spend the next eighteen months needing revision after revision, when I could take the time to try and get things as good as they could be.”
Amber nodded slowly as if she understood. “So what happened next?”
Jack squeezed his eyes closed again. “When I was in surgery…there was a retrieval—when something’s gone wrong in the field they sometimes send out a medical team to bring back the injured. It can be the difference between life and death.” They were still holding hands, but this time her other hand closed over his, holding it tight, supporting him to continue. “I was always the person that went. Except this time—this time I was in the operating theater on the table. So Jill went. She was an army-trained medic and she was good. As good as any doctor. But they never made it. Their vehicle hit an IED.”
Amber didn’t hesitate for a second. She pulled her hands away from his and wrapped her arms around his neck, enveloping him in a bear hug and pressing her face next to his. Her breath warmed the skin at the bottom of his neck. “Oh, Jack. I am so, so sorry. That’s cruel. I can’t even begin to imagine how that feels.”
He stayed there. He let her hug him. He let her hug him in a way he’d never really let anyone hug him since it happened. He’d had a few awkward hugs at the funeral from Jill’s mom, dad and sister. But he’d only met them on a few occasions briefly. He didn’t really know them the way that he’d known Jill.
So it just hadn’t felt right. Not when he was so busy building a shell around himself. One that wouldn’t let him feel. One that would let him channel all his emotions and energies someplace else.
The sensation gripped him so much it was almost a physical pain. Amber just kept holding him. She didn’t let go. And after what seemed like forever, the tension in all his muscles that he permanently held tight finally started to dissipate. He was so conscious of her cheek against his. She didn’t seem to mind the fact his bristles must be scraping her skin.
He could feel the heat emanate from her body, and after the fierce winds of the hurricane it was like a warm comfort blanket. Only trouble was, the reaction his body was having was nothing like a warm blanket. It was more like a spontaneous firework.
And his head was trying to work out what was going on around him.
It had happened again. He’d actually felt something.
It had happened on the bleachers, when Amber had lifted her head and just stared at him. The connection had been like a punch to the stomach. The way she’d held his gaze, even though they’d been in the middle of something major, and just looked at him. Unflinchingly. As if she’d seen more than was actually there, and buried deep down to find the rest.
He hadn’t really wanted to believe it then. He’d been holding his hands against a man’s side, trying to stop him bleeding to death. For the last two years his mind had never been anywhere but on the job.
But for the briefest few seconds those big blue eyes had connected with something, tugged at something inside him, in a way he hadn’t expected.
Or had he? The last few days had been crazy. He’d been attracted to her as soon as he’d seen her sashaying across the room and slaying potential suitors with a mere look. From her casual, unhindered and sparkly chat in the bar, to her professional, passionate, presenting face she’d shown at the conference. To her dismissal of him at breakfast when she’d found out he was a doctor, to the moment that he’d stepped forward and pressed his head against hers because it had just felt as if she’d needed it.
In every subtle way, he’d found himself drawn to this improbable woman. Someone who, it turned out, had just as many layers as he had.
He didn’t even know where to start anymore.
But his body seemed to.
He lifted his hand to her face and touched the side of it gently, pulling back from their hug just enough to give him room to maneuver.
He should ask permission. Because his brain was so muddled he clearly wasn’t thinking straight. So he just kept his hand on her soft cheek, tilted her head up toward his and put his lips on hers.
He was hesitant. But Amber wasn’t. As soon as he brushed against her lips she ran her fingers through his hair at the back of his head, urging him closer, and her mouth opened to his. What started as tentative and questioning progressed quickly. Amber Berkeley knew how she wanted to be kissed. His hands tangled through her hair, tugging it from the ponytail band. His kisses moved from her lips to her ear and neck, but she was too impatient for that, pulling him to her mouth. She changed position, straddling him on the chair so she was on his lap, letting his hands run up and down the curves of her waist. Her hands moved from his neck to his chest, resting there while they continued to kiss.
There was a noise outside. A shout that permeated the dark world of the storeroom they’d claimed as their own. They both froze and pulled apart, listening to see if the shout would return.
This time it was Amber who pressed her forehead against his. She let out a light laugh. Her breath warmed his skin as she whispered, “Just so you know, I don’t date doctors.”
He laughed. “Just so you know, I don’t kiss on the first date.”
She tapped his chest. “This isn’t the first date. This is about the third. And anyway, it
doesn’t matter because—”
“I don’t date doctors.” He said it simultaneously with her. “Well, that’s a relief.”
Amber climbed off him as another shout came from outside. “Think we should see what’s happening?”
He nodded as he picked their food containers from the floor. “Let’s face it. Someone’s going to need something from the store cupboard eventually.”
He thought for a second she was going to say something else as her hand paused on the door handle, but her head gave the tiniest shake and she pulled it open toward them.
There were more people in the corridor outside, but if anyone wondered what they were doing in the store cupboard, no one mentioned it. Jack walked over to the main entranceway. A number of firefighters and police were gathered there, comparing maps and discussing next steps.
“Give me two minutes,” said Amber. “Lana’s just given me a wave to check someone over.” He nodded as she disappeared.
“Anything I can help with?” Jack asked as he approached the main desk.
“Oh, there you are.” Jamal walked up behind them and handed over the radio. “Ron was wanting to talk to you.”
Jack turned the dial on the radio and put it to his ear, checking in with Ron. “Where do you need us?”
One of the firefighters turned around as he heard the instructions Jack was given. He waited until Ron was finished then gestured Jack over toward the main table.
“We’re getting short of drivers. We can give you a vehicle. But at this point you’ll be on your own.” He pointed to part of the map. “There’s been some flooding around the coastal areas. We’re more inland here, but we think there has been around twelve inches of rainfall during the hurricane—and the rain hasn’t stopped yet. There’s still a chance of flooding from swollen rivers and rain coming off the hills.”
The firefighter looked at Jack a little warily. “It might be better to wait until daylight.”
Locked Down with the Army Doc Page 11