Rescuing the Paramedic's Heart
Page 16
A second nurse and a doctor arrived and Poppy was asked to wait outside as the room filled with hospital staff.
She stood in the corridor, watching through the window, feeling further and further removed from Ryder. She pressed her hand against the glass and rested her forehead on the window and waited and watched as the medical staff ran through their tests.
She waited, hoping he’d ask for her.
But what if he didn’t?
She sat in a chair in the corridor as the minutes passed.
She had finally found her voice but what if she didn’t get a chance to use it? What if he didn’t want to hear what she had to say?
Time passed and still no one came to call her.
What if they really were over?
* * *
‘Do you want to stop and grab dinner somewhere before we go home?’ Poppy asked Lily as she reversed her car out of the car park.
‘I thought you weren’t feeling well?’
Poppy had been out of sorts all day. She’d cancelled a shift at work, called in sick, which was something she’d never done, because she knew she knew she wouldn’t be able to concentrate. She wasn’t ill but she did feel nauseous. She knew it was nerves, anxiety, and she knew she’d brought it on herself. She was worried she’d really mucked everything up with Ryder and that there was no way back.
She hadn’t seen him since she’d left the hospital last night. When she’d had to leave. Ryder hadn’t asked to see her and then he’d been taken off for more scans while she’d waited. Visiting hours had ended before he’d returned to his room and she’d had to leave. She had no excuse to stay. She wasn’t family, she wasn’t his next of kin, she was nothing.
And she’d heard nothing from him today. Nothing at all.
The best she could get had been updates from Lily when she had been at work.
Thanks to Lily, Poppy knew Ryder was okay. He had some bruising but he’d been cleared of any serious injuries and the swelling of his brain was reducing.
She had intended on going to the hospital once visiting hours started, only to receive a second phone call from Lily telling her that Ryder had discharged himself.
She’d waited, hoping for a call, but Ryder had disappeared.
After that, she hadn’t been able to sit still. She’d gone for a surf and called into the lifeguard tower, pretending to visit Jet but really hoping that Ryder might have gone there, but all the activity had done nothing to ease her anxiety.
She’d been happy to collect Lily when she had called saying her car had a flat battery and she needed a lift home. Even the detour to the supermarket had been a welcome distraction.
‘I’m fine,’ Poppy said in reply to Lily’s question. She was still anxious but she didn’t feel like going home to stare at the walls while praying that Ryder would get in touch with her.
‘Can we drop the shopping off first?’ Lily asked. ‘That way I can get changed before dinner.’
Poppy nodded and headed home. She parked the car and checked her phone, hoping Ryder might have messaged her and she’d missed it, even though she knew that was unlikely as she’d been checking her phone every few minutes for the entire day.
She saw Lily watching her. ‘I’m sure he’ll be in touch, Poppy.’
Poppy wished she felt as confident.
‘I’ll take the shopping in,’ Lily told her. ‘Why don’t you pour us both a drink while I get changed and I’ll meet you on the deck and we can work out what to do about dinner.’
Poppy shoved her stubbornly silent phone in her pocket and locked the car. She followed Lily into the house and continued through the kitchen, grabbing two glasses and an open bottle of wine from the fridge, and stepped out onto the deck.
The sun had set and fairy lights glowed around the balcony railing. A nest of candles glowed on the table and soft music played through the outdoor speakers. Daisy must be home, she thought.
She turned to go back inside to grab a third glass and jumped as she heard a voice in the semi-darkness.
‘Hello, Poppy.’
‘Ryder!’
He stood up from his seat in the corner of the deck.
Why was he here?
‘Is everything okay?’ she asked.
‘Everything is fine.’
‘You’re okay?’
‘I’m fine,’ he said as he took two steps towards her, closing the gap while she stood, stunned and surprised and fixed to the spot.
As her eyes adjusted to the gloom she could see the bruises on his face but his blue eyes were clear and bright and if she ignored the cuts and bruises he looked like his old self. His face was bruised but he was still gorgeous and, best of all, he was here and he was smiling.
She studied him closely. She wanted to touch him, she wanted to feel his face, to make sure he was really real and in one piece, but she didn’t want to hurt him and she didn’t want to overstep any boundaries that she might not be aware of. ‘Are you really all right?’
He nodded as he lifted the wine and the glasses from her hand and put them on the table beside the candles. Her heart skipped a beat as his fingers brushed against hers.
‘I was so scared,’ she said.
‘I know.’
‘How do you know?’
‘I heard you. In the hospital.’
Oh, God, how much had he heard?
‘I thought you were asleep.’
‘I’m glad I wasn’t. I wouldn’t know what you were thinking if I hadn’t woken up to the sound of your voice.’
‘It was easy to talk to you when I thought you were asleep.’
‘Do I frighten you that much?’
‘No, but the way you make me feel scares me.’
‘Why?’
She couldn’t speak. She’d been desperate to see him but now the old familiar fear that her love wouldn’t be wanted haunted her and made her mute.
‘Be brave, Poppy,’ he said. ‘Tell me how you’re feeling.’
But she couldn’t do it. Not yet.
‘If you’re scared, how about I go first?’ As always, he knew exactly what thoughts were in her head. She still had no idea how he did that. ‘Sit with me and I’ll tell you what I’m thinking. How I’m feeling,’ he said as he guided her to the seats. ‘Do you want me to start off?’
She nodded.
‘It hurt to know your house was more important to you than I was. I was upset that you chose to work instead of spending the weekend with me.’
Poppy’s heart sank like a stone. That was not what she had hoped or expected to hear. ‘Oh, Ryder, I never meant to hurt you.’ She was distraught. Mortified. ‘I wish I could take it all back.’ But she knew she couldn’t. It was too late for that. It was done.
‘But what hurts the most is that you can’t share your feelings with me.’
‘I’ve ruined everything, haven’t I?’
He smiled at her. ‘I’m not going to give up on you that easily. Not after waiting twelve years. I fell in love with you when I was seventeen. Did you know that?’
‘No.’ Her heart lightened a little. ‘I loved you too.’ Past tense was easier. She could do this. ‘Do you think how we felt was real?’
‘I do. I think how I feel now is real too.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Take my hand, close your eyes and tell me what you feel.’
He held his hand out to her and she took it. She closed her eyes as he wrapped his fingers around hers and joined them together. ‘I can’t tell where I finish and you start.’ They were one. ‘I feel like this is where I belong. With you,’ she said as she opened her eyes again.
‘This is exactly where you belong. You’re home. We’ve come home to each other. Home isn’t always a house. It’s a place where you are safe and loved. Where the people who matter to you are. Hom
e is a feeling. I understand your need for security and stability but you can get that from things other than a house. There are other ways and there are things that are more important.’
‘Like?’
‘Like love. You need love, Poppy. You need someone to love you. And that someone is me. I love you.’
‘You love me?’
‘I do. With every last battered and bruised piece of me. And now it’s your turn.’
He loved her! The idea made her heart sing with delight. The knowledge made her brave.
‘I was scared that you wouldn’t love me. That you would think I’m not worthy of love.’
‘Why on earth would you think that?’
‘My parents never seemed to love us and I never believed you would love me,’ she admitted. ‘No one seems to need me and I didn’t want to need anyone either. I loved you before and you left me and broke my heart. I didn’t want to be in love again, I didn’t want to be vulnerable.’
‘I’m not going to hurt you.’
‘But you are going to leave me. You’re going back to Perth.’
He shook his head, wincing slightly at the movement. ‘I don’t want to go anywhere without you. I’ve been waiting twelve years to find my way back to you. What happens next is up to you. You said you loved me before. Do you think you could love me again?’
‘You were my first love and I’ve always kept a piece of you, the idea of you in my heart.’ She took a deep breath. This was it. The biggest moment in her life. ‘I’ve never stopped loving you. I loved you then and I love you now.’
‘That wasn’t so hard, was it?’
Ryder was laughing and Poppy laughed with him. ‘Not as hard as I thought. It might even get easier with practice.’
He tugged on her hand and pulled her close. ‘I’m pleased to hear that and just so you know, I’m not going anywhere. I’m not going to hurt you, or leave you. Not ever. I promise.’
‘But what about Perth?’
‘There will be other jobs. It doesn’t matter to me where I work or where I am as long as you are with me. Nothing matters as long as we’re together.’ He kissed her as if they’d been apart for months, not hours, and only let her go to say, ‘So, where will we go? Here, Perth or Brisbane?’
‘Brisbane?’
He nodded. ‘If you have your heart set on going back to Brisbane, I could look for a job there instead. I don’t want you to have to choose between me and your house again.’
Poppy laughed. ‘Don’t worry. I’ve learned my lesson. I’ve spoken to Craig and told him to put the house on the market.’
‘You have?’
She nodded.
‘Are you sure?’
‘I’m positive. It’s done. I had a moment of clarity the other night, watching you walking out my front door. You were right. It’s just a house. My home is with you, wherever you are. I know that.’
‘So, we have a plan. Our plan. For now we will stay in Sydney and I will be yours. I will be the one who makes you happy. I will be the person you depend on. The one you turn to. The one who makes you smile and laugh. The one who loves you.’
‘That sounds perfect.’ She was grinning from ear to ear.
‘Which leaves just one more thing,’ he said as he stood up from the seat and got down on one knee.
‘What are you doing!?’
‘Something I had planned to do this weekend before you moved the goalposts. This isn’t quite how I envisaged this would go but I don’t want to wait. I need to prove to you that I am committed, that I am here for you, always, no matter what,’ he said. ‘Poppy Carlson, I have loved you for as long as I can remember. I have never loved anyone the way I love you and I want our love to last a lifetime. I want to be by your side for eternity. Will you marry me?’
Tears welled in Poppy’s eyes but she was smiling as she pulled Ryder to his feet.
‘I gave you my heart twelve years ago,’ she said, ‘and now I give you the rest of me. Everything I am, everything I have, I give to you. I give you my heart, my body and my soul, now and for ever.’
She took a deep breath. She was still scared but she knew she could do this. With his love she could be brave, she could be happy, she could be anything she wanted. She looked into his eyes and said, ‘I love you, Ryder, and I always will. We belong together and I don’t ever want to be apart again. I never thought I cared about being married but if I get to be married to you then I will gladly spend the rest of my life by your side. You have brought me home and so, my love, my answer is yes. Yes, I will marry you.’
She could hear people clapping as she kissed him and then they were both enveloped in the arms of her siblings. Daisy was crying, Lily was smiling and Jet was high-fiving Ryder.
‘What are you all doing here?’ Poppy hadn’t realised they’d had an audience. She’d been aware of nothing except Ryder.
‘I asked them to come,’ Ryder told her. ‘I was hoping you’d say yes and I thought you might want to celebrate with your family.’
‘You all knew about this?’
All three of them nodded.
‘Your car didn’t have a flat battery, did it?’ she said to Lily, realising her siblings had all had a hand in the evening’s events.
Lily shook her head. ‘I needed an excuse to get you out of the house to give Ryder time to get here and prepare the surprise.’
Ryder took her hand and said, ‘I know you don’t like surprises but I thought you’d be okay with this one.’
Poppy smiled through her tears as she gazed at him. ‘I’m definitely okay with this one. It couldn’t be any better. It’s perfect,’ she said as she wrapped her arms around him and whispered into his ear, ‘You’re perfect and I love you. Now and always.’
* * *
Look out for the next story in the Bondi Beach Medics quartet
Coming soon
And if you enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from Emily Forbes
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Keep reading for an excerpt from A Wedding for the Single Dad by Meredith Webber.
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A Wedding for the Single Dad
by Meredith Webber
CHAPTER ONE
‘WHO THE HELL are you?’
‘Says the man lying in a creek bed and lucky to be alive! Shoulder bad? Possibly dislocated, from the look of things,’ Lauren said, hoping she sounded cooler and more in command than she felt. There’d been something about the very English male voice that had made the demand sound more abrupt than it might otherwise have.
Something about it, too, that had skittered down her spine.
She’d come expecting injury, but not an enormous man—at least six foot two or three—with night-dark tousled hair and a chippy attitude.
She smiled at him to cover her own uncertainty—she just didn’t do skittery spines.
‘I’m your friendly neighbourhood rescuer, Lauren Henderson, although what you were doing flitting around up there in Henry’s home-made flying machine I can’t imagine.’
She’d drawn closer to the man by now, and he didn’t look any smaller. From his snapped retort—‘It’s an ultralight!’—it was clear he also wasn’t any happier.
‘Which doesn’t answer the question, but I guess I’d better have a look at you. There’s a team trudging up the path somewhere behind me, but even on a stretcher you’ll be more comfortable if I get your shoulder back into place before they carry you down.’
She approached him fairly tentatively, and not only partly because of the rocky terrain—the dangers of wounded wild beasts were featuring in the forefront of her imagination...
There was no sign of blood, which didn’t rule out the possibility that he wasn’t lying in a puddle of it, and his eyes—an unusual dark blue—were alert.
Too alert?
‘Apart from your shoulder, are you in pain?’ she asked, easing her backpack off her shoulders and setting it to one side as she knelt beside him.
‘I fell out of the sky! Of course, I’m in pain. Ouch!’
Lauren had been feeling around his head as he muttered at her, and touching the slight lump on the back of his skull had caused the ‘ouch’.
‘Can you move your legs and your good arm?’ she asked, and although he groaned as he did it the three limbs moved fairly normally.
‘Well, let’s get your shoulder sorted,’ she said, ‘before the others get here.’
‘What do you mean—get it sorted?’
The man was in pain, so she bit back a smart retort.
‘Pop it back into place. You’ll still need to be carried out and have it X-rayed when you get to civilisation, because there will be damage to the cartilage and tendons.’
She’d removed ‘the magic green whistle’, as football players called the handy device, while she was speaking, and now passed it to him. ‘Take about six breaths,’ she said.
Dark blue eyes narrowed suspiciously. ‘What’s in it?’ he asked.
‘Methoxyfluorane,’ she said calmly, getting herself into position beside his left shoulder, prepared to lift his arm whether it hurt him or not. But the man was in a lot of pain—she had to grant him a little leeway...
Also, he was very intriguing and very attractive. And quite possibly—probably—her new neighbour. Henry’s nephew or great-nephew, she seemed to remember...
She watched him breathe in the pain-relief drug and hid a smile as it obviously started to work, relaxing the tension in his body.