Stranded with the Paramedic
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Sue MacKay
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9
CHAPTER ONE
‘HEY, BROOKE. I don’t know when, or if, I’ll get to join you. But it won’t be today. The ferries are cancelled, and there’re no flights into Blenheim either. Add to that, Wellington Airport’s on an extreme weather alert.’
‘No surprises there.’ Brooke shivered as the gale slammed into the house, almost as if it knew it was being talked about. ‘This weather is unbelievable,’ she told her sister. ‘I’m amazed we’re even having this conversation. I had no power or cell phone coverage for most of the night. It came back on ten minutes before you rang.’
‘The weather app looks as though it’s going to get a whole lot worse yet. You stay safe, you hear?’
Saskia was wearing her big sis hat, the one that said, I’m always here for you, Brooke.
As she was for Saskia. ‘Not a lot I can do about anything. The rain’s torrential, and the house shakes with every blow. The wind’s like nothing I’ve known, and that’s saying something.’ Having spent her childhood in Wellington, the world’s supposedly windiest city, she was used to gales, but this one was something else. ‘Seriously, sometimes I think the house is going to take to the sky.’
‘Jeez, Brooke, I don’t like the thought of you dealing with that on your own. Wish I was with you.’
‘No, you don’t. You’d be changing your knickers every five minutes.’ Brooke managed to laugh even as the large bay window overlooking the storm-tossed sea sounded as though it was about to implode. So much for taking a relaxing break from her hectic job over in Nelson where she worked as an advanced paramedic.
Saskia laughed. ‘True. I am such a scaredy-cat when it comes to storms.’
Brooke was meant to be having a week with her sister, lazing around catching up on what they’d both been up to over the past few months. Brooke sighed. As much as she was comfortable with her own company, she’d been looking forward to spending time with Saskia. They never shut up when they got together, always had plenty to say. Her sister was one of the few people in her life who hadn’t tried to make her do things their way. She and their dad. Saskia never came up with nasty surprises like their mother used to do such as ‘You’re changing schools today’. It might have been because she was being bullied, but some warning would have made the change less stressful and given her time to get used to the idea.
Like the morning when she awoke to be told she wasn’t playing with her friends. Instead, she had an appointment with the dentist to have six teeth removed because they were growing wrong. No one had mentioned there was a problem when she’d first gone to the dentist with her mother. The surprises didn’t stop there. Not all so drastic, but each one undermining her confidence and taking away her right to face her own problems. Their mother used to say it was her way of protecting her girls from unnecessary worry. Eventually, as she grew older, Brooke understood where her mother was coming from, but her mother couldn’t accept that was not how she liked to face these things. She preferred to be prepared.
Her ex had been no better. In fact he had been worse, surprising her with shocks such as ‘I’ve found somewhere better to rent and we’re moving on Friday. You’ll have to take time off work to pack up the house.’ There had been another instance when he’d flipped her life overnight, and by then she’d had enough so she had packed her bags for the last time and left him. She should have done it sooner but in her book loving someone meant accepting them for who they were, even if it meant giving up some of her own dreams. Up to a point, and she’d reached that point then. It seemed she was always having to stand up for herself. Even her first boyfriend used to hide what he was up to from her, not telling her he intended going offshore as soon as he qualified as a doctor until one day she overheard him talking about it to another medical student. No wonder she found trusting people difficult.
Saskia cut through her memories. ‘Who else is in the bay that you could spend the night with?’
‘I’m fine, really.’ Who was she trying to convince? It was a little creepy sitting here, listening to the weather beating down on the house so fiercely, hearing the boards groan and the roof creak. But there was nothing she could do about it. She’d cope without knocking on doors for a bit of company. She had a pile of books to read, and the fire was cosy.
Plus, she was still having much-needed time out from work. This break was essential for her sanity. The weather wasn’t wrecking that, although the beach walks looked as though they were off the menu at the moment as well as the talking she and Saskia would have done. Recently, along with a shortage of qualified paramedics, there’d been an abundance of patients with severe injuries that had tested her skills to the limit. A couple hadn’t been saved, which got her down at times. It didn’t always pay to be too caring. Would she have been happier to still be working in a laboratory sitting behind a microscope and not having to front up to people while dealing with their health issues? No way.
Strange how she’d always liked the idea of working in the medical world, and because she’d loved science at school and always got top grades she’d thought being a lab technician would be the ideal career. The problem was that she loved being involved with people and the lab just wasn’t right for her. Test tubes and microscopes were kind of dull, even though the work was fascinating. After working as a volunteer ambulance officer in her spare time Brooke had quickly known where she wanted to be, and had become a full-time crew member on the ambulances, advancing up to an advanced paramedic in little time. It seemed she’d found her niche—hands-on helping people was a perfect fit.
‘You still there, Brooke?’
‘Yeah.’ Miles away. ‘The only lights I saw before we lost power during the night was next door in Mike and Paula’s place, and a car there I don’t recognise. It was bucketing down when I got up an hour ago, so I haven’t gone to check to see if Lloyd’s here. I’ll go shortly. I presume he’s tucked up inside.’ Old Man Duggan had lived in the bay since well before their parents bought the small, basic beach house next door to him thirty-odd years ago and it was a family thing to always knock on his door whenever they came here for a break.
‘It’s not like he’d have his lights on,’ Saskia said. The old man went to bed when the sun went down, summer and winter.
‘It was spooky not being able to see what was going on in the dark,’ Brooke admitted. There were no such things as streetlights out in the Sounds so the only light at night was from the stars and moon, which were notable by their absence due to the dense cloud coverage.
‘Stay in contact,’ her sister said. ‘We know what major slips have done to that road before. They’re saying this is a one in one hundred years storm.’
The only road giving access to the area cut along the edge of the hills rising above the sea and didn’t always remain in place when bad weather struck, bringing landslides spilling across the road.
‘Don’t panic if you don’t hear from me. It’s more than likely there’ll be other power outages before this is over.’
Right then the lights flickered.
Brooke held her breath.
Flick, flick.
The light settled, became constant again.
‘Talk about tempting fate.’ Outages had happened all too often in the past for her to think today would be any different. Besides, if this storm was battering the rest of Marlborough, the power company would be crazy busy.
‘What happened?’
‘Power nearly went off. Right, the gas bottle’s going to need changing soon so I’d better go get the spare from the shed. I’m not looking forward to getting blown about and saturated to the skin.’ It looked a bit spooky out there too. While it was daytime, outside was dark as dusk. ‘Talk later, if we can.’
Placing her phone alongside the lantern she’d put out along with matches last night, ready in case of problems, Brooke got the shed key, slipped into gumboots and a rain jacket and headed out into the maelstrom. Should’ve done this when I first arrived yesterday, she thought as a gust shoved her sideways. So much for being prepared for the worst-case scenario, something they’d been taught as kids by their father. Unlike their mum, he always prepared them for the worst, which was something their parents never agreed about, thereby causing a bit of friction at times, their mother thinking they should just get out there and enjoy themselves without worrying about anything. Dad believed staying at the beach might be all about having fun but remembering that things could go wrong when the weather decided to flick from good to bad was equally important. Saskia was Brooke’s opposite; she always avoided problems until they could no longer be ignored. But she still supported Brooke in her decision to face up to those same problems.
When she’d arrived last night the wind had seemed to be abating, so she hadn’t worried about getting the gas bottle. Instead, wanting to keep warm throughout the night, she’d replenished the firewood inside the house from the stack by the garage, then called it quits, needing food more than anything else, having missed lunch. Within hours of that decision, the storm had picked up to become more ferocious than she’d believed possible.
All around the property and in the neighbours’ places, trees groaned and creaked as though their branches were about to fly off. Small branches and twigs were scattered across lawns, snagged in fences and hanging from washing lines. Water poured down from the hills, and a small torrent cut through the lawn where she was headed. It reached her ankles when she tried to stride across what was usually firm ground. The soil sucked her feet downwards. It was unbelievable. She shivered, tucked her arms around her waist and, head down, pushed on.
The ground felt as though it was moving, but that had to be her imagination. How could it move? It was the water, wind and rain making this feel foreign, nothing like the place she’d known all her life and spent wonderful summer holidays lying on the grass in the sun, wearing a bikini and working on getting a tan.
Splat. Brooke landed on her backside in mud. Great. Shoving upright, she took more tentative steps towards the shed in the back corner of the property. Her feet went from under her. This time she landed on her side, her thigh taking the brunt of the impact. How come it was such a hard landing when water and mud were supposedly soft? On all fours, she pushed up and back onto her feet. Did she really need the gas bottle so badly? If the storm went on for much longer then yes, she did. What had she been thinking, not doing this last night when it would have been easier? And safer. She shivered. This was no picnic.
Slowly, one step at a time, she finally made it to the shed.
‘Hey there. Are you all right?’ A male voice reached her during a brief lull in the wind.
It wasn’t a voice she recognised. The owner of the car at Mike’s? ‘I’m fine. Getting a gas bottle. Do you need something?’ she yelled back.
‘Just checking up on people,’ came the shouted reply.
That was nice of him, whoever he was. He certainly wasn’t a regular, she knew them all, so he must be staying next door. Moving away from the shed to go around to the side door, her feet once more shot out from under her. This time she managed to keep her balance. ‘I am so over this,’ she groaned. She’d be turning black and blue all over.
‘Wait there. I’m coming to help.’
‘I’m fine,’ she muttered, saving her energy for crossing to the door. Then she swore. The key was no longer in her grasp. Which fall had she lost it in? Looking over the ground she’d skidded over, she couldn’t see the yellow plastic tag holding the key. ‘Where is it?’
She tried the door in case someone had forgotten to lock it. Yeah, well, that was wishful thinking. Rule number one: whenever leaving the beach house make sure everything’s locked. So, back the way she’d come, head down, this time scanning the mud and lawn. It was going to be a longer fifty metres than it had been on the way over.
Deep rumbling made her pause and look around. What was that? The ground seemed to shake. An earthquake? In the middle of all this? No way. That would be nature having much too big a laugh. But mud was rushing at her, pouring around her feet, up to her ankles, while her chest was thudding hard. Storms were bearable, but earthquakes were her nightmare. The lack of control and fear of what damage could be caused always turned her into a blithering idiot during one of those. But there hadn’t been an earthquake. It was the storm dealing more blows she had no control over.
Crack, bang, smash.
The kowhai tree next to the shed bent towards her, a large branch snapping off as though it were a twig, hitting the ground hard, sending water and mud in all directions, a lot of it over Brooke as she tried frantically to get out of the way of the rest of the tree. Too late. The trunk landed beside her, branches entangling her legs and dragging her down into the muddy water, taking her down the sloping lawn towards the usually quiet creek that was now more like a river. She swore as her body tensed. This was ridiculous. She’d been taken down by a tree and if the noise was anything to go by there was more trouble coming. She needed to get away from here. Yeah, right. Like her feet were helping. Or her legs with their shaky muscles.
Get a grip.
‘Hey.’ That voice again. ‘I’m here.’ Then he swore. Must be catching.
At least she wasn’t alone, which made her feel infinitesimally happier. If she was in trouble, far nicer to be there with someone else. Even a stranger was preferable to being alone. She might have toughened up when it came to men but nature could still undermine her resolve to cope with anything that was thrown her way. There was just no fighting nature, no winning against storms or quakes or seas that could devour a person in an instant.
Weird how she was moving, out of control, being pushed further down the lawn by the sheer volume of water and mud and getting closer to that torrent that was normally a small creek. It only ended up in one place—the sea—where thunderous waves were pounding the shore. Something wound around her arm, pulled against the flow. Something strong and determined to keep her from disappearing further down the way. Something soft yet firm. Human.
‘I’ve got you.’ A man. ‘Try digging your feet in to get a purchase on the ground.’
Easy said when everything was so slippery. Was she going to get out of this at all? Safely?
‘You can do it.’
The deep male voice beside her ear gave her confidence, something she hadn’t realised she’d lost in the last few scary seconds. Brooke shoved one foot hard against the slithering ground, gained some purchase. Then she shoved even harder with the other and felt a brief shot of relief as that too dug in deep. Pushing upward, she came upright against the man saving her from sliding further down what had only minutes ago been an overgrown lawn. When she tried to pull a foot free to take a step, her foot came out of her boot. ‘Great.’ She reached down to tug the gumboot out of the mire. No easy feat, but eventually it was swinging from her hand.
‘Let’s go carefully. We’ll do this together. Put your arm around my waist and hold on tight. I’ve got you.’ The guy’s voice was deep and edgy, but he seemed to know what he was doing.
Which made her relax further. She wasn’t in this mess on her own, not that it was dangerous now, mostly annoying. Then she looked around her and shuddered. It could become bad very quickly, the way the water was streaming down the hillside. She’d seen the results of heavy rain in this area before and wasn’t silly enough to believe a massive landslide couldn’t happen here.
‘Right.’
Let’s do this.
She placed her arm around him and began the laborious job of getting out of the mud, one squelching step at a time.
Whoever he was, Brooke wasn’t worried that she was about to be abducted so he could have his wicked way with her once they were free of the mud. For starters, she’d belt him around the head if he even so much as looked as if he might try. Right now, she was more interested in getting onto safer ground. She’d find out who he was later.
‘We need to go the other way.’ Her house was in front of them. There was a new river running between her family’s house and Old Man Duggan’s. ‘I want to go check on my neighbour, make sure he’s all right.’
‘Let’s wait until this torrent is done with wreaking havoc all over the show. I’d hate to be caught in a further rush of water, or mud and trees,’ her rescuer said as he turned them back towards her place.
He mightn’t be from around here but apparently he was more aware of what was going on than her, because she hadn’t noticed other trees now bouncing down the slope.
‘Good call.’
‘I thought so.’ He sounded almost light-hearted. Almost. Some tension was underlying his words, and definitely in the arm gripping her close to his body. Then he slipped, and she was going down with him as his arm held onto her.
Digging her feet in hard, she tried not to topple. ‘I’ve got you,’ she repeated his earlier words.
He barked a sharp laugh as he struggled not to fall flat on his face. ‘Yeah, right. Think I weigh a load more than you.’ His feet did a couple of quick slides but he remained upright. ‘Thanks. This is getting ridiculous.’
‘Come on. A few more steps and we’ll be out of the worst.’ The unscathed part of the lawn was close, unless there was something she wasn’t seeing in the whirling leaves and pieces of bark being thrown around by the wind.
‘You’re right.’ Her companion pulled her along, hell-bent on getting free of the mud. Sensible man.
Suddenly they were standing on terra firma, not being sucked into the mess that used to be a tidy grass yard. ‘Thanks for coming to help me out of that,’ she said. ‘To think when I arrived here yesterday I thought I’d mow the lawns when the rain let up today.’
‘Chance would be a fine thing. It’s going to take a digger to clear away all the debris.’
‘As far as I know, there isn’t one anywhere near here. A guy has one in a bay further along the road, but he’ll probably be busy clearing storm damage there once the rain and wind stop.’ Brooke began crossing to the house. ‘Let’s get out of this.’
On the porch she shrugged out of her coat and hung it on a peg by the door. Relieved to be safe, she turned to the man who’d helped her and tensed. He was drop-dead gorgeous. Even when covered in mud splatters and with his sopping-wet hair flattened on his skull, he was—stunning. Lifting her arm, she was about to wipe a splodge of gunk from his cheek, but realised just in time how stupid that would have been. He was a stranger. She did not touch strangers—except in her work, trying to help someone. So what was it about this man that had her wanting to run her hand over his face? It must be a reaction to the last few minutes, worrying about getting back to the house in one piece.
Taking a step back, she tried for normal, which was hard to do when her heart was suddenly beating as if a wayward drummer had taken over. ‘I’m Brooke Williams. Are you staying in the cottage next door?’
He nodded. ‘My name’s Danny. I came a couple of days ago with Paula and Mike. They went back to Blenheim yesterday morning, and I’m staying to enjoy the quiet for another couple of days. Except—’ He gave a wistful glance over the yard. ‘Nothing quiet about this.’ There was a definite Aussie twang going on in his voice.
‘You’re not the only one hoping for some relaxation. We were going to have some quiet time. My sister was meant to come over from Wellington, but that’s not happening any time soon.’
Too much info, Brooke. You don’t know this man.
But he had come to help her and didn’t look evil.
‘I wouldn’t want to be crossing the Cook Strait in a plane or ferry. It’d be diabolical at the moment.’
‘Everything’s cancelled. You said you were checking up on people. Who else is staying in the bay?’
‘As far as I could ascertain, only the man in that house beyond yours. I was coming this way when I saw you heading across to your shed. Thought you must’ve needed something important to be out in the weather so figured I might be able to give you a hand.’
‘That was kind. I had intended getting the spare gas bottle but must’ve dropped the shed key when I slipped.’ The remaining boot wasn’t coming off easily. It was moulded around her foot. Using the top of the step as leverage, she pulled hard and finally it shot off, sucking at her foot as it went.
‘Is there a spare key? I could get the tank for you.’
‘Thanks, there is, but I’ll make do in the meantime.’ She’d go light on using the stove top. ‘You’d only get into the same trouble I did.’ She mightn’t be so good at hauling him out of the mud as he’d been with her. Now she had time to really look him over there was a lot standing before her. At least two metres tall, she reckoned. Her head barely reached his shoulder. Hard to see his outline with the heavy wet weather gear he wore, but he didn’t appear to be carrying excess weight. More fit and muscular, if what she’d felt when he had his arm around her holding her tight was anything to go by. ‘I still want to check up on Lloyd though.’
‘Let’s see what happens over the next hour. The weather might clear a bit and the water running off the hill might slow some, then we can tackle getting to the house and possibly your shed.’ His mouth was sexy when he smiled. There was a cheeky twinkle in his eyes now they were out of the rain and safe from the sliding mud. ‘So you’re on your own?’
Forget sexy or beating heart or good-looking. ‘I think I’ll go inside now. Thank you once again.’ She put her hand on the doorknob, ready to go in and lock him out. She didn’t feel vulnerable, but she also wasn’t stupid enough to take any risks. He was a stranger, and if that smile was anything to go by, a right charmer when he put his mind to it. There were other people in bays along the road if she had concerns, but it wouldn’t be easy getting around at the moment. Attracting someone’s attention if she needed to would be near impossible, especially with the likelihood of phones not working.
‘Hey, I’m sorry if that sounded bad. I was merely thinking that you might prefer to join me rather than see this out alone.’ He stepped off the porch onto the path. ‘I only had your safety and comfort in mind.’ Danny sounded genuine. What was more, he looked it.
Brooke felt awful for doubting him. Kicking her boot aside, she said, ‘It’s me who should be apologising.’ She needed to accept not all people came with hidden agendas. ‘I’m used to hanging out here on my own. My parents own this place, and my sister and I also like to spend time here together for catch-ups whenever our busy lives give us a break,’ she said in a bid to be friendly. ‘We’ve been coming here since we were toddlers.’
Talking too much now, Brooke. He doesn’t need your life history.
‘What I’m saying is I’m fine on my own.’
