Dr. Zinetti's Snowkissed Bride
Autor
Sarah Morgan
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9
CHAPTER ONE
‘I CAN’T believe you f-found me. I’m s-so cold, Meg. Are we going to d-die?’
The boy’s words were barely audible above the angry shriek of the wind and although she’d been standing still for less than two minutes, Meg could feel the icy fingers of cold reaching inside the padded layers of her high-performance jacket.
Normally she would have relished the opportunity to pit her wits against the vicious weather, but she hadn’t planned on doing it with a badly injured teenager.
‘We’re not going to die, Harry. I can’t possibly die yet because I haven’t done any of my Christmas shopping…’ She raised her voice so that he could hear her, knowing he needed reassurance almost as much as he needed emergency medical care. ‘And there’s a lump of mouldy cheese in my fridge I keep meaning to throw away. If my mum finds that, she’ll kill me, so we need to get back home as soon as we can.’ Ignoring the voice in her head reminding her that the wind chill decreased the temperature to minus fifteen and that the teenager had nasty injuries, Meg tore open the top of her backpack and dragged out the equipment she needed. ‘I’ve called the rest of the mountain rescue team. They’re on their way. In the meantime, I’m going to get you out of this wind and keep you warm.’ As if challenging that promise, the wind gave a furious howl and buffeted her body. She reached out and steadied herself with her gloved hand, putting her body between the wind and the boy.
Behind them were snow-covered layers of jagged rock and beneath them the side of the mountain fell away into a deep ravine where icy water formed a death trap, waiting to finish off what the rocks and the wind had started.
Meg pulled the collar of her jacket over her mouth and tried to catch her breath, ignoring the nagging worry that it was going to be impossible to evacuate him from this treacherous site with the wind so high.
Her priority had to be shelter. The rest could wait. If she didn’t get him out of this biting wind in the next few minutes, there wouldn’t be anyone alive to rescue.
She gave a whistle and Rambo, her German shepherd search-and-rescue dog, nosed his way over to the boy and sat in front of him, offering still more protection from the wind while Meg found what she needed.
‘Right, Harry, prepare for luxury.’ She shouted to make herself heard. ‘What we need now is a nice, warm living room with a roaring log fire and a pretty Christmas tree, but this is the best I can do at short notice.’ She flipped the portable tent she’d removed from her backpack and for a terrifying moment the wind caught it and almost pulled her off her feet. ‘Oh, for… I need to eat more chocolate. I’m not heavy enough.’ As she felt her feet lift off the snow, Meg yanked the fabric hard and managed to anchor it. Within seconds she and the injured boy were inside. ‘Unfortunately no log fire and no Christmas tree,’ she panted, brushing the snow away from her face, ‘but this is better than nothing. All right, now I can look at you. What have you been doing to yourself, Harry? You look like an extra from a cheap horror movie.’
It was worse than she’d thought. In the fading light she could see the wicked gash on his head and the purple bruising spreading across his skin.
Harry lifted his bloodied hand to his head. ‘Is it bad?’
‘I’ve seen worse.’
‘But you work in the emergency department, so that’s not much comfort. You see people with half their bodies missing.’
‘You’re going to be fine, Harry.’ Meg pulled off her glove and undid the straps of her backpack. ‘You’re going to have a bit of a headache tomorrow, but it’s nothing that a few days in bed won’t solve.’ She kept her voice matter-of-fact, but she was listening to his responses, watching for any signs of confusion or disorientation as a result of the head injury. ‘Were you knocked out?’
‘I—I think so.’
‘Do you know what day of the week it is?’
‘Yes, it’s Sunday,’ he mumbled, ‘and I’m going to be in a shit load of trouble for going out into the mountains.’
‘Harry Baxter, you are not supposed to swear in public.’
He closed his eyes and leaned back against her backpack. ‘Aren’t you going to yell at me and ask me what I thought I was doing, coming up here on my own?’
Aware that hypothermia could kill him long before the head injury, Meg was busy covering him with extra layers. Another scarf. A coat. ‘That’s your mum’s line, sweetheart. Rambo and I just do the rescuing. We leave the lecturing to others.’
At the mention of his mother, Harry’s face went from white to grey. ‘She’s going to be worried sick. I told her I was only going out for an hour.’
‘Yeah, well, that’s part of being a mum. Goes with the territory.’ Meg examined the wound on his head, took a photograph with her phone and then covered the injury with a sterile pad held in place with a bandage.
‘Why are you taking photographs of me?’
‘Because it will save the trauma team having to remove the dressing to see the wound. Just a precaution.’ In case he needed to be taken straight to Theatre.
The tent flapped against her and Meg pushed back against the fabric, relieved they had at least some protection from the raging blizzard. They weren’t exactly cosy, but at least they were out of the deadly wind. ‘When you’re a mum, you sign up for worry on a long-term basis. Someone on the MRT will have called her and told her we’ve found you. There’s not much else I can do for your head, so I’m going to take a look at this arm of yours now. Tell me what happened when you fell. Can you remember?’
‘I slipped on a patch of ice and fell over the edge of the gully. I remember falling and falling and then I smacked my head against a rock.’ The boy opened his eyes and looked at her dizzily. ‘When I woke up I had blood on my face and my wrist was a really funny shape. I could see the bone.’
Meg kept her expression neutral. ‘Right. Well, that’s something we’re going to need to fix. You can’t go around with a wrist that looks like that—you’ll gross everyone out.’
His face was a strange shade, now somewhere between white and grey. He clutched her arm with his good hand. ‘I thought I was going to die on my own here. I couldn’t believe it when I heard Rambo barking. You’re so cool, Meg. Dog-girl.’
Meg moved aside the extra layers and gently pulled up the sleeve of his jacket so that she could take a better look at his injuries. ‘Harry, when you’re a bit older you’ll realise that calling a woman “dog-girl” isn’t going to win you hearts.’ There was an obvious fracture of the bone, his wrist shaped like a dinner fork. ‘I don’t mind “wolf-girl” but I draw the line at “dog-girl”, if it’s all the same to you.’
‘That’s what I meant. I know that’s what the mountain rescue team call you because you and Rambo are such a good team. And you’re so fit—not fit as in fit…’ He coloured, backtracking wildly as he realised how his words could be construed. ‘I mean fit in the sense that you run up the mountains without even getting out of breath, and…I…’ His voice tailed off and his eyes drifted shut.
‘Talk to me, Harry!’ Meg felt a stab of alarm as she looked at the bruising on the side of his face. ‘Tell me what you want for Christmas.’ Had he lost consciousness? Had he—?
‘At the moment?’ He kept his eyes closed, as if it were too much effort to open them. ‘Just to be lying in my bedroom. I have a funny feeling I’m never going to see it again.’
‘You’re going to see it.’ Meg dug her hand into her backpack and pulled out the first-aid kit she always carried with her. ‘Although if your room is anything like my Jamie’s, I bet you can’t see the floor anyway. What is it about boys and untidy rooms?’
‘I can find everything in the mess. I like mess.’ His voice was faint. ‘Meg?’
‘Right here, honey.’
‘We’re not going to make it, are we? No one is going to be able to get us down from here. Tell me honestly—I really want the truth. I’m thirteen now, not a kid.’
Still a kid, Meg thought, a lump in her throat. ‘We’re going to make it, Harry. I promise you that.’ But it wasn’t going to be easy. Looking at his badly injured wrist and the swelling on the side of his face, she felt her heart lurch. There was no way she was going to be able to walk him off this mountain. And he was right about the bone. It was sticking out. She took another photograph for the trauma team, quickly emailed it to her colleagues in the emergency department and then covered the wound with a sterile dressing and bandaged it in place. Outside the tent the wind howled and suddenly she felt horribly alone. What had started out as a relaxed training walk for her and Rambo had turned into a deadly storm and a seriously injured casualty at risk of hypothermia.
If she hadn’t decided to walk today…
Pushing aside that thought, she pulled out a thermometer and checked his temperature. It was dropping and she’d used every layer she had. She was just wondering whether she could risk giving him her jacket when she heard Rambo bark.
Meg felt a rush of relief. ‘He’s telling me that reinforcements have arrived. That must be the mountain rescue team. You just hang in there for a few more minutes, Harry. We’re going to get you something for the pain and then get you out of this ravine.’
Tucking the coat around him, she went on her hands and knees and poked her head out of her tent. Through the swirling snow she saw powerful male legs, and then a man squatted down to her level and she found herself staring into glittering dark eyes that made her heart flip.
‘Well,’ he drawled, ‘if it isn’t wolf-girl.’
Meg was so relieved to see him that for once she didn’t react. ‘Dino, thank God you’re here! Where are the rest of the team?’
‘Just me so far.’ His voice calm, he swung his backpack off his back. ‘But quality is always better than quantity. Except in my case, you get both.’ He gave her a sexy wink. ‘Relax. What you need is a big, strong man and here I am so your worries are over, amore. I will handle everything now.’
Meg gave him a withering look. ‘I’m not, and never will be, your amore. And I don’t need you to handle anything. I can handle it myself. I’ve been handling it while you’ve no doubt been out to a fancy restaurant for Sunday lunch with some skinny blonde.’
With a maddening smile, he pushed past her into the tiny tent. ‘She was brunette.’
‘This tent isn’t big enough for you and me,’ Meg gritted, but he ignored her, his leg brushing against hers as he settled himself next to the injured boy. His wide shoulders pressed against the flimsy tent and there was barely room left to breathe, but that didn’t seem to bother him. And, for once, it didn’t bother her either. Not that she would ever have admitted it, but she was really relieved it was him.
Dino Zinetti might be too good looking for his own good, he might drive her crazy and make her feel horribly uncomfortable, but he was also a skilled doctor and an experienced mountaineer.
‘You chose lovely weather for your trip, Harry.’ He sat next to the injured boy, the same eyes that had been seducing her moments earlier now sharp and focused, the sexy smile replaced with a reassuring one. ‘You seem to have got yourself in a spot of bother. You’re lucky wolf-girl happened to be out today on one of her lone walks.’
Harry’s lips were turning blue. ‘I made a mistake. I called her dog-girl.’
‘Ah…’ Dino’s eyes crinkled at the corners. ‘In a couple more years I’ll give you some tips on the right and wrong things to say to women.’ His tone was relaxed and easy, in direct contrast to his fingers, which were working swiftly, checking pulse, pupils and other signs. ‘Do you know if you knocked yourself out?’ He questioned the boy, interspersing reassurance with questions designed to aid his clinical judgement.
‘He might have done. GCS of fifteen when I got here but that’s a nasty gash on his head. I think he needs a CT scan. Do you reckon the helicopter might still make it, or is the weather too bad?’ Cramped in the confines of the tiny tent, Meg found it unsettling to be pressed so close to him. ‘Are we going to have to wait it out for a few hours?’
‘You want to leave this place?’ Smiling, Dino checked Harry’s pupils, asked him another couple of questions and then turned his attention to the broken wrist. ‘Are you telling me this isn’t the most romantic place you’ve ever spent a night? A beautiful woman, alone with two strong men?’
‘One strong man. I don’t think I count.’ Harry gave a weak smile. ‘You’re pretty smooth, Dr Zinetti. When I’m older, I want to be like you.’
‘Trust me, you don’t.’ Meg squashed herself against the tent to make as much space as possible. ‘Not unless you want to walk around with a permanent black eye courtesy of all the women who have punched you. Dr Zinetti is Italian so that’s how he gets away with being so politically incorrect. You don’t have that excuse. And you do count, Harry.’
‘I don’t think so. I don’t feel too good…’ Harry’s eyes drifted closed and this time didn’t open again.
Meg felt her heart do an emergency stop. Instead of focusing on not allowing any of her body parts to touch Dino, she concentrated on Harry. ‘He—’
‘Take a breath, wolf-girl,’ Dino said calmly. ‘There’s a spare jacket in my backpack and a space blanket. Get them both on him because his temperature is dropping and I don’t want to add hypothermia to his list of problems. Time to call in the cavalry.’ He reached into his pocket and pulled out a satellite phone while Meg tucked the extra insulation around the injured boy.
As Dino talked to the search-and-rescue team, giving GPS co-ordinates, she was thinking about how worried Harry’s mother would be.
‘They’re going to scramble a helicopter.’ Dino rocked back on his heels, frowning as the tent flapped against his back. ‘I think he needs a faster trip to hospital than we can give him on a stretcher.’
‘The wind is too high for the helicopter.’
‘It’s dropped slightly. They’re going to give it a try, although of course it won’t be easy given that we’re in a gully.’ He gave a humourless smile. ‘Let’s hope the winchman likes a challenge. Is Rambo all right with noisy helicopters?’
‘Of course. He’s flown in them more times than you.’ Meg was looking at Harry, worried about his pallor. ‘Dino—’
‘I know. I see. I agree with you that we need to get him to hospital and do a CT scan. I’ve rung the department.’
‘Who is on duty this evening?’
‘Sean Nicholson. And the helicopter crew picked up Daniel Buchannan when they received our call.’
In the confines of the tent, their faces were close. She could see the thickness of his eyelashes and the beginnings of stubble on his jaw. It was a face so handsome that no woman passed him without taking a long, covetous look. Except her. Resolutely, she looked the other way. The day she started noticing that he was handsome was the day she was in trouble. So he had sexy eyes. So what? ‘So you’re not going in the helicopter?’
‘No. I’m staying with you, wolf-girl.’ Suddenly those sexy eyes were deadly serious. ‘What were you doing up here, Meg? Hardly the weather for an evening stroll. Blizzard, drifting snow, wind chill…’
‘Perfect evening for a walk.’ Meg didn’t bother telling him that was how she liked the weather. Wild and crazy. She’d given up explaining herself to people years before. ‘Anyway, you should be thanking me. If I hadn’t decided to walk, I wouldn’t have found Harry. I didn’t plan to come up this far but Rambo picked up the scent.’
‘You should be at home, baking cookies or painting your nails.’
Even though she knew he was intentionally trying to wind her up she was still shocked by the emotion that rushed through her body. Why did comments like that still bother her so much? Reminding herself that it had been nothing more than a flippant remark on his part, Meg pulled a face. ‘I’d rather be blown off a ridge in a force-nine gale than paint my nails. Not that I expect you to understand that. The women you date can’t walk and blink at the same time. The one today—could she talk and eat her lunch?’
‘Jealous, amore?’
‘No. I’d rather poke myself in the eye with a fork than have a romantic lunch with you.’
‘Is that so? You have strange aspirations, Meg Miller.’ Humour in his eyes, Dino watched her for a moment and then turned back to Harry, checking his temperature and other vital signs again. ‘His GCS is dropping.’
‘Perhaps we should—’ Meg broke off as Dino put a hand on her arm.
‘Listen. No wind. Must be the eye of the storm.’
All she could hear was the throb of blood in her ears. She told herself it had absolutely nothing to do with the touch of his hand on her arm and the fact that they couldn’t move without brushing past each other. Forcing herself to focus, she realised that the tent was no longer flapping so violently. ‘I can hear the helicopter.’ She stuck her head out of the opening and saw lights approaching high above them. ‘They’ll have to hover above the gully.’
‘I’ll make sure everything is strapped down.’ Dino crawled out of the tent to help the helicopter crew and Meg’s gaze lingered on his shoulders. She was an athlete, she told herself. It was natural that she’d admire honed muscle and a powerful physique.
He stood on the narrow, snow-covered path, ready to assist the winchman. As the helicopter hovered above the narrow gully, the downdraft caused the sides of the tent to flap and whip up the new snow. Given the potential hazards, there was no wasted time. The winchman was lowered out of the helicopter and together the three of them strapped Harry securely to the stretcher, protecting his back and his neck. As he was winched back up into the helicopter, Dino held the guide rope to help prevent the potentially lethal swing of the winch rope into the sides of the gully. Once Harry was safely inside the helicopter, the crew released the guide rope and disappeared into the darkness.
Meg felt the adrenaline drain away and relief take its place. It was almost weakness, this response after the event, and she slid back inside the tent and sat for a moment, breathing slowly, trying not to think of all the alternative scenarios that tried to destabilise her sense of calm.
What if she hadn’t found him?
What if Dino hadn’t come?
She covered her face with her hands, dimly aware that Dino had gathered up the guide rope and was now back in the tent with her. ‘I’ve known Harry since he was born. My mum knows his mum. I used to go round and help bath him when I was a kid.’
‘Lucky Harry.’ Dino stowed the guide rope in his backpack and then gently removed her hands from her face. ‘You did well, wolf-girl. You probably saved his life.’
‘Well, I don’t paint my nails or bake cookies, but I have some skills.’ But maybe her skills weren’t enough in this case. What if he had a depressed skull fracture? What if they didn’t get him to hospital fast enough? Now that the immediate crisis was over, the fear that had been pressing against her threatened to overwhelm her. Suddenly she wanted to lean against that broad chest and just sob. She didn’t care that he was a notorious heart-breaker and that she’d been resisting his advances for months. She just wanted to feel those strong arms close around her. ‘Dino—’
‘It’s a good job I am here, no? A weak, feeble girl like you is going to need a big strong guy like me to help you out of this mess.’
Her traitorous desire to lean on him vanished instantly. ‘Do you honestly think I need your help?’ Anger stoked the fire inside her that had burned down to no more than a few glowing embers. ‘I don’t need any help from you.’
‘Sì, of course you need my help.’ He started piling the equipment back inside his bag. ‘You are too small and delicate to walk down this mountain without assistance. The wind has dropped, but not for long. You wouldn’t be fit enough to walk as fast as you’d need to. We will stay the night here, and I will protect you.’ His mouth curved into a slow, sexy smile. ‘It’s just you, me and this little private room. This isn’t quite how I pictured our first night together, but I can be flexible. Do you have any mistletoe?’
Anger flushed away the worry about Harry. ‘If I had any mistletoe all I’d do with it is force-feed you the berries. I’m not in the mood, Dino—’
Without warning, he leaned towards her and for one breathless, heart-stopping moment she thought he was going to kiss her. His eyes glittered dark with sexual promise and Meg felt something she never let herself feel. She felt strangely disconnected, as if she were being controlled by some invisible force outside herself. Then she came to her senses and gave him a hard shove.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’
‘You said you weren’t in the mood,’ he purred. ‘I was going to put you in the mood.’
‘I meant that I wasn’t in the mood for your flirting,’ she croaked, ‘not—anything else.’ It was disconcerting to realise that her hands were shaking. She knew that if she’d been standing up, her knees would have been shaking, too.
‘That’s what you meant?’ Those sexy eyes teased her. ‘Then you need to be more specific when you communicate.’
Her lips were tingling and the blood was rushing around her body. ‘Don’t ever do that again, Zinetti!’
‘Do what?’ Dino smiled and trailed a finger over her cheek. ‘I haven’t done anything yet. Maybe this is a good moment to teach you all the practical applications of the use of body warmth in the prevention of hypothermia.’
Meg skidded to the furthest point of the tent, too aggravated by her own response to notice his brief, satisfied smile. ‘I wouldn’t spend a night cosied up with you if we were the only two people left on the planet. I’d rather die of hypothermia.’
‘Beautiful Megan.’ His voice was soft. ‘A woman like you should have a man in her life, but you do everything alone.’
‘That’s the way I like it.’
‘Because you are afraid?’
It was like dropping a lighted match into a haystack. ‘Dino.’ Meg hauled the anger back inside herself. ‘You’re the one who should be afraid. Get out of my tent. I want to go down, now. I can’t stand another five minutes stuck on this rock face with a smooth-talking Italian. You’re more lethal than the weather.’
To her surprise he didn’t argue with her. Instead, he helped her pack up the equipment with his usual ruthless efficiency and then switched on the headlamp on his helmet.
Meg was so furious, so tumbled up inside that she barely noticed the steep descent. Dino stayed a metre in front of her all the way down, which gave her plenty of time to glare at his shoulders and plan various methods of revenge. Maybe she’d do something really embarrassing when he was surrounded by a bunch of nurse groupies. Maybe she’d even give him that kiss he’d been teasing her with. She could fry his brain and teach him a lesson. Just because she didn’t paint her nails, it didn’t mean she didn’t know how to kiss, did it?
They trudged and stumbled through the deep snow and the inky darkness until they reached low ground and all the time Rambo panted alongside her, his shape a reassuring presence in the vicious weather.
It was only as they were striding across the safety of the valley floor that the adrenaline ceased to pump round her body and her brain started to work properly. And then she realised what Dino had done.
She stopped for a moment, cursing herself for being dense and slow.
Dino turned with a frown. ‘Not a good place to stop, wolf-girl. Something wrong?’
‘You did that on purpose, didn’t you?’ The wind gusted, almost blowing her over. ‘You made me angry, you—’
With a maddening smile, Dino shrugged and carried on walking.
Meg glared after him, feeling like a fool. He hadn’t wanted to kiss her. It had just been a ploy to stop her worrying about Harry. She strode after him and caught up with him at the car. ‘There are times when you really drive me mad, Dr Zinetti.’
‘I rely on it. Need any help with that backpack?’ He slid his own off his back and threw it into the boot.
‘I can handle my own backpack.’ She spat the words. ‘And I can handle myself up a mountain. I don’t need you—’ She almost said ‘messing with my head’ but just in time she decided that she didn’t want him to know that the thought of kissing him filled her with anything other than feelings of boredom.
‘You were going to cry, wolf-girl, and I didn’t want a hysterical woman on the mountain with me. I’d rather deal with ten fractured skulls than one hysterical woman.’
‘I was not hysterical and I was not going to cry.’
‘You were getting really wobbly and there’s no way I could have got you down this mountain in that feeble state.’
‘Feeble!’ Meg took a breath as the extent of his manipulation sank in. ‘You never intended us to spend the night on the mountain—’
‘I enjoy extreme mountain survival as much as the next macho guy…’ he closed the boot ‘…but I was worried about you. You don’t exactly carry much body fat. Keeping warm would have been a challenge. Talking of which, we need to get out of this wind.’
He’d goaded her and then he’d almost—and she’d almost— ‘I hate you.’
‘No you don’t.’ He placed an arm on either side of her so that her back was pressed against the car, with no opportunity to escape. ‘You’re afraid of what you feel for me, amore, and that’s understandable because it’s very powerful.’ He dragged his gloved hand over her cheek, a thoughtful look on his face. ‘Interesting, isn’t it? Wolf-girl, who never lets a man near her, suddenly feeling the chemistry.’
For a moment, Meg was transfixed by those night-black eyes. ‘No, it isn’t interesting. The last thing I need in my life is a Mediterranean macho man. You’re not my type and I’m certainly not yours.’
‘You don’t know me well enough to make that judgement.’
‘Maybe I don’t want to know you.’ She shoved at his chest but he didn’t budge. ‘Dino…’
Rambo growled low in his throat and Dino smiled and released her.
‘I have more sense than to come between wolf-girl and her wolf.’ He spoke quietly to Rambo in Italian and Meg felt her stomach flip because, although she wouldn’t have admitted it in a million years, the words sounded so lyrical and sexy.
‘He’s protecting me.’
‘I know. He’s an excellent dog. But you don’t need to be protected from me. I’m not the enemy.’ Not remotely afraid of the dog, Dino stroked Rambo’s head gently. ‘He’s never growled at me before.’
‘You’ve never pinned me to the car before.’ She tried not to show how flustered she felt. It was as if his powerful body had imprinted against hers. Even though he’d moved she could still feel it, hard and heavy. ‘He growled at you because I pushed you and you didn’t move. He was giving you a warning. Which makes two of us.’
‘Will he let you give me a lift? I left my Lamborghini outside your cottage.’
‘You drove the Lamborghini in this weather?’ Meg glanced at the ice and snow covering the road and then back at him in disbelief. There was a devilish gleam in his eyes and his face was breathtakingly handsome in the moonlight. ‘The roads are lethal.’
‘Like you, I love a challenge.’
And that was why he was dangerous. Like her, he loved the adrenaline rush. ‘I’m tempted to let you walk from here to the brunette who is probably waiting for you at home. The cold air will do you good.’
‘No one is waiting for me at home, Meg. And I’m going to the hospital. They’re overstretched and I want to check on Harry.’
Feeling really stupid, Meg let out an exasperated breath. ‘You see? It’s things like that I find really infuriating! Just when I’m ready to dismiss you as shallow you do something really—really…’ She floundered and then shrugged. ‘Decent. Go on. Get in before I change my mind. Rambo, don’t eat him. He’s going to help Harry. That’s the only reason we’re letting him live.’
Trying not to think about the moment when he’d almost kissed her, she drove her four-wheel drive down the narrow roads that led towards her cottage. ‘I can’t believe you drove the Lamborghini.’
‘I was at lunch, remember? With a woman.’
‘So the Lamborghini is an essential part of the Zinetti seduction technique?’ For some reason it irritated her and she changed gears viciously. ‘Do some women really fall for that?’
‘All of them. Could you slow down before you kill us both?’
‘I’ve driven these roads since I was a teenager. You must mix with some shallow women.’
‘I do my best. You drive too fast, Meg.’
‘Coming from someone who owns a Lamborghini and a Ferrari, that’s a bit rich. Don’t tell me—you’re such a chauvinist you hate being driven by a woman.’
Dino’s fingers were gripping the seat. ‘I hate being driven by anyone.’
‘That’s because you’re a control freak.’
‘Sì, I admit that. I like being the one in charge.’ He glanced towards her, laughter in his eyes. ‘I like to be the one on top, so to speak.’
‘Well, that confirms I’m not your type, because I like to be the one on top, too.’ Meg increased her speed, taking pleasure from his sudden indrawn breath. ‘Two control freaks together is a recipe for disaster.’
‘Or a recipe for explosive passion. Shall we find out which it is?’
Just for a moment her concentration lapsed and she felt the wheels of her four-by-four lose traction as she hit ice. She resisted the impulse to hit the brakes and steered into the skid, regaining control of the car within seconds. ‘That was fun.’ Her heart was pounding and her mouth was dry. ‘At least it shut you up. Are you all right?’
‘You mean apart from my heart attack?’ His sardonic drawl made her smile and she slowed her speed.
‘Why did you leave your car outside my house?’
‘When Harry’s mother realised he was missing, she called the team. Then she called your mother because she remembered that the gully is a favourite walk of yours and Harry often watches you and Rambo training up there. She hoped you might already be out, which you were. I dropped by to get your route from your mother.’
Meg tightened her grip on the wheel. ‘So this is all my fault because he followed me?’
‘No. It’s Harry’s fault. He went for a walk in the winter without the right equipment.’
‘He was unlucky.’
‘No, he was lucky.’ Dino pulled off a glove and flexed his fingers. ‘You found him. Could have been worse.’
She was concentrating on the road but she could feel him looking at her. ‘It was Rambo who picked up the scent. I didn’t even know he was missing.’
‘We were about to call you when you called us.’
‘So how come you got to us so quickly and the others didn’t?’
‘I was about to head into the mountains myself. I guess we spend our free time the same way.’
‘So your date didn’t end the way you wanted it to.’
He smiled. ‘It ended exactly the way I wanted it to.’
Which meant what, exactly? He’d already said the brunette wasn’t waiting for him at home. Trying not to think about it, Meg pulled up outside her cottage. ‘Home, sweet home. And you’re still in one piece.’
‘Miracles do happen. Thanks for the lift. Are you working tomorrow?’
‘Yes. Look, Dino…’ She hesitated, torn between getting away from him as fast as possible and doing the right thing for Harry. ‘Don’t take the Lamborghini. We’ve had so much snow in the past few hours and your car isn’t good in bad weather. I’ll drive you to the hospital. If they’re as busy as you say, they could probably use my help as well as yours. Just give me time to explain to Mum and see Jamie.’
Meg slid out of the car and crunched her way through layers of snow to the front door of her cottage. She stood for a moment, looking at the lights burning in the windows and the rose bush groaning under the weight of snow by the front door. In a few more months it would be frothy with white blooms, turning her home into something from a picture postcard. The summer tourists who overran the Lake District like a million invading ants had been known to stop and take photographs of her house because it was so quintessentially English. To her it was home and she loved it. Now, with Christmas only two weeks away, there was a wreath on the door and scarlet berries on the holly bush. And mistletoe.
Meg frowned.
Who had added the mistletoe?
The door opened before she even started to delve for her key and her mother stood there, an apron tied round her slim waist, a mug in her hand. ‘I’ve made you hot soup, Dr Zinetti. You need something to warm you before you go back to the hospital.’
‘Molto grazie. You are truly a life saver, Mrs Miller.’ Dino emerged from behind her and took the mug in his gloved hand, the steam from the soup forming clouds in the freezing air. ‘I’m grateful.’
‘I’m the one who is grateful. You brought my girl safely home.’
‘I brought myself home, Mum. Do I get soup, too?’ Irritated, Meg dragged the hat off her head and immediately saw Dino’s expression change as he followed the crazy tumble of her hair with narrowed eyes.
She tensed, thinking that he was probably comparing her messy, tangled hair to the smooth, blow-dried version he’d stared at across the lunch table a few hours earlier. For a moment she wished she’d left her hat on and that thought annoyed her because she’d long ago come to terms with who she was. When other girls in her school had been learning about lipstick and moisturiser, she’d been learning to map read and use a compass. While they’d spent their weekends shopping for clothes, she’d been up on the mountains. Her only interest in clothes was whether they were wind resistant and weatherproof. She knew about wicking layers and the importance of not wearing cotton. She didn’t know whether grey was the new black or whether jeans should be straight cut or boot cut. And, more to the point, she didn’t care.
Meg turned away, irritated with him for looking and even more irritated with herself for caring that he’d looked.
What could have been a decidedly awkward moment was broken by her mother’s disapproving tone.
‘Megan, I found mouldy cheese in your fridge.’
Meg gritted her teeth and vowed never to let her mother babysit again. ‘Is Jamie still awake?’
‘Mummy?’ Right on cue a small figure dressed in a Batman costume barrelled into her, crushing her round the waist. ‘We decorated the house. We’ve put mistletoe everywhere.’
‘I’d noticed.’ Why was everyone suddenly so obsessed with mistletoe?
‘Grandma says the berries are magic. If you stand under them, exciting things can happen.’
‘Is that right?’ Meg dropped to her knees and hugged her son. Immediately she felt her mood soften and the tension in her limbs evaporate. He smelled of shampoo and bedtime and his smile was the best thing she’d seen all day.
As long as she had him, everything was all right with her world.
‘Hey there, Batman.’ Dino was smiling. ‘Have you saved Gotham City lately?’
‘Loads of times.’ Jamie wrapped his arms round Meg’s neck, shivering in the thin costume he insisted on wearing to bed but grinning up at Dino anyway. For some reason that Meg didn’t even want to think about, in the months that she’d been working alongside Dino, her son had developed a serious case of hero-worship for him. ‘Why? Do you need any help?’
‘When I do, you’ll be the first person I ask. I need to get back to the hospital.’ Dino retrieved his car keys from his pocket.
‘Did you drive the Lamborghini? Wow, that’s so cool. It looks like the Batmobile. Can I sit in it?’
Meg tensed. ‘No, Jamie, you—’
‘Just for a minute—pleeease?’
Anticipating Dino’s inevitable rejection and Jamie’s subsequent disappointment, Meg shook her head. ‘Dino has to go, Jamie. He’s a very important doctor and he’s needed at the hospital. And, anyway, I know you love cars but the temperature is minus five and you’re in your Batman costume. You need to get back inside.’
‘Batman doesn’t feel the cold.’
‘You heard Dr Zinetti, he has to get back to the hospital now. Another time, perhaps.’ Having made his excuses for him, she expected Dino to leave, but instead he handed his empty mug back to her mother.
‘Does Batman have a cloak or some sort of coat? Anything you could wear over your outfit?’
Jamie frowned. ‘I’m not cold. Batman is tough and strong.’
‘I know,’ Dino didn’t miss a beat. ‘But the neighbours might be watching and you don’t want them to know who you really are. A superhero likes to keep his identity a secret.’
Jamie turned his head and looked at the neighbouring cottages. ‘You think they might be watching?’
‘I think you can’t be too careful when you’re saving the world.’ Dino’s expression was serious. ‘If you have something warm that will cover up who you are, we could sit in the Batmobile for a few minutes and discuss tactics.’
‘Really?’ Jamie’s face lit up like the lights on a Christmas tree. ‘Wait there.’ He sped into the house and returned moments later in his warm ski jacket, trainers on his bare feet. In his hand was a plastic Batman figure. Seeing the excitement in his face, Meg frowned.
‘Jamie, you can’t—’
Ignoring her, he hurled himself at Dino, who caught him with a laugh, swung him round and then lifted him onto his shoulders and carried him to the car.
Gripped by a fear that she couldn’t control, Meg watched as cracks appeared in her tightly controlled life. Jamie’s delighted giggles cut through the night air and she plunged her hands into the pockets of her coat, resisting the temptation to snatch him back. Keep him from harm.
‘Dino is good with him.’ Her mother handed her a mug of soup. ‘I can’t believe he’s actually managed to get Jamie to wear a coat. It’s more than I’ve been able to do all day. This is worse than the Tarzan phase when he ran around in nothing but his underpants for two whole months.’
Meg found it difficult to move her lips. As much as it pained her to admit it, she agreed—Dino was brilliant with Jamie, and that was a whole big problem in itself. ‘Yes.’
‘It’s a pleasant change for Jamie to have a man about the place. They look good together, don’t they? Doesn’t it warm your heart to see it?’
‘No, actually.’ Meg had never felt colder in her life. ‘It just reminds me how little Jamie knows about the real world.’ How easy it was to be hurt. The more you gave, the more you could lose.
‘Chill, Megan.’
Meg turned her head to look at her mother. ‘Since when did you start speaking like a teenager?’
‘Since I started working at the youth group,’ her mother said cheerfully. ‘I love it. They’re so vibrant and full of hope. Gives me something to do when I’m not helping you with Jamie. Oh, look at Jamie jumping in the seat! He’s enjoying himself, Meg. He likes Dino. And Dino likes him.’
‘Yes, because it suits him right now. And will until the next female distraction walks across his path and he has someone better to play with than my son. What then?’ Meg’s tone was savage. Her worries suddenly overflowed, like a river bursting its banks. ‘Presumably I’m the one who is going to have to explain to Jamie why Dino doesn’t have time for him any more. I’m going to have to break it to him that men often have a short attention span.’ She shivered as Dino fired up the engine, indulging her son’s passion for supercars. The Lamborghini gave a deep, throaty growl and Jamie bounced around in the passenger seat in paroxysms of delight.
Aware that her mother was staring at her in astonishment, Meg licked her lips. ‘Sorry,’ she croaked, ‘I’m tired. Maybe that was a bit of an overreaction.’
‘Just a bit? Megan, you’re a basket case when it comes to men.’
‘I know.’
‘Just because Hayden couldn’t keep his trousers zipped, it doesn’t mean all men are the same. You need to move on, Megan.’
‘I’ve moved on. I’m living a good life with my child.’ Huddling down inside her coat, Meg watched as Dino switched off the engine and let Jamie play with the wheel for a few minutes, pretending to be a racing driver. ‘Why does Jamie have to be interested in cars? It’s the one thing I know absolutely nothing about.’
‘He’s a little boy.’ Her mother’s face softened. ‘A gorgeous, fantastic boy and you have to help him grow into a gorgeous, fantastic man. That’s your job. Part of that is letting him mix with men.’
‘He does mix with men.’
‘I’m not talking about the mountain rescue team. They treat you as one of the lads. I’m talking about man-woman stuff. He needs to see men as part of your life. When did you last go on a date?’
‘You know I don’t go on dates.’ She blew on her hands to warm them. ‘And there’s no way I’m introducing a string of men to Jamie. What happens when they dump me? Jamie gets hurt. No way.’
‘Maybe they wouldn’t dump you. Have you thought about that?’
Meg stared straight ahead, her breath forming clouds in the freezing air. Her brain fielded the memories that came rushing forward to swamp her. ‘My job is to protect my child. That’s what mothers are supposed to do.’
‘Are you protecting him? Or are you protecting yourself?’ Her mother’s voice was casual. ‘Talking about protecting yourself, it’s lucky Dino was able to find you and help you out on the mountain today.’
‘I didn’t need his help. I could have managed on my own.’
‘Megan, when are you going to realise that you don’t win awards in this life for managing on your own?’ Her mother looked tired suddenly. ‘You’re a fantastic mum, but Jamie needs a man in his life and, frankly, so do you. It’s time you stopped shutting everyone out. If you can’t bring yourself to trust another man quite yet, at least make a New Year’s resolution to have sex.’
‘Sex?’ Scandalised, Meg shrieked the word just as Dino scooped Jamie out of the car.
It echoed through the silence, the sound somehow magnified by the cold emptiness of the night.
Across the snow Dino’s eyes met hers.
And she knew she was in trouble.
