A Gift to Change His Life
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Emily Forbes
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CHAPTER ONE
THE SUN WAS starting to drop in the sky, casting shadows over the sand as Jet steered the jet ski past the surf break, parallel to the beach. He kept an eye on the ocean, paying close attention to the three rips that were starting to run as the tide turned.
The jet ski had been launched as a precaution as the late afternoon swell picked up. The long blue rescue boards were hard to manoeuvre over large waves, making it difficult for the lifeguards to get out past the break in an emergency. The motorised ski was faster to respond in big seas but not easy to use when the water was crowded as it was today.
It was the last week of spring, less than five weeks until Christmas, and Bondi Beach was busy. Not anywhere near peak capacity, which could regularly reach forty thousand people at the height of summer, but busy enough to keep the lifeguards on their toes. School had ended for those students in their final year, exams were over and the graduates were making the most of their new-found freedom. Those who hadn’t ventured off to the popular hot spots of Bali, the Gold Coast and Byron Bay mingled with the university students, backpackers, tourists and families.
Jet scanned the waves, lifting one arm to shield his eyes from the afternoon sun, as he looked for anything untoward and any sign to indicate swimmers who might get into difficulty—those who weren’t strong swimmers or who had overestimated their abilities as well as those who’d been drinking. Alcohol was banned on Bondi Beach but there were several bars in close proximity and Jet knew there would be plenty of beachgoers who had smuggled alcohol onto the sand. While he’d been living in Bondi and working as a lifeguard for the local council for the best part of five years, he had grown up in Byron Bay on the north coast of New South Wales and he’d been part of many end-of-school parties so he knew from experience it was easier to avert disaster than to have to respond to it.
He reached the south end of the bay near Bondi Icebergs, turned the ski one hundred and eighty degrees and headed north. The one-kilometre stretch of beach curved around on his left, bookended by two rugged headlands, while the distinctive circular lifeguard tower held centre stage.
‘Jet? We’ve got a swimmer in trouble near the middle break.’ Gibbo’s voice came through the radio that was slung across Jet’s chest. ‘Hands have gone up.’
He pressed the button through the waterproof casing to reply. ‘On my way.’ He opened up the throttle on the ski and cut through the water.
He scanned the water, looking for raised hands, looking for something to guide him to the site of trouble. Middle break was several hundred metres away and, while he wanted to cover the distance as quickly as possible, he needed to take a wide berth, adding metres to the journey, but his trajectory allowed him to avoid the swimmers and surfers.
There was a man in the water with his hand in the air. He could see people looking in his direction and although he couldn’t hear them over the noise of the jet ski it was obvious they were calling for help. He slowed the ski and cut the engine as he drifted in amongst the swimmers. Two swimmers were treading water while they supported a third man between them. The man’s face was grey, his eyes were rolled back in his head and he wasn’t breathing.
Jet turned around on the seat to face the back of the jet ski and reached into the water. He grabbed the man under his armpits and pulled him onto the rescue mat that was attached to the rear of the ski. He didn’t know what had caused the man to lose consciousness and the possibility of a spinal injury hovered in the back of his mind. He hoped he hadn’t been speared into the bottom of the ocean by a large wave as there was no option but to drag the man onto the sled and get him back into shore. He couldn’t be treated here.
‘Can you climb on too?’ He nodded at one of the swimmers who had been assisting in the water. ‘I need you to hold him onto the board for me, make sure he doesn’t fall off.’
The man nodded and Jet helped him out of the water before getting on the radio and calling the tower. ‘We’ve got a resus,’ he said. He knew Gibbo would call for an ambulance and send lifeguards down to the water’s edge to assist Jet. They would have work to do before the paramedics arrived. ‘Send a couple of rescue boards too,’ he added. The men who had helped in the water would be fatigued from their efforts. Jet had no idea how competent they were; if they weren’t strong swimmers they might need help to get back to the beach and it was always better to pre-empt that rather than wait for another call. Things could turn very nasty very quickly in big seas.
Jet’s heart was pounding as he steered the ski towards the sand. There were so many things that could go wrong, and his mind was racing as he sifted through the scenarios. He knew he had to focus. He’d made a decision and now he had to work out what came next. He would still need to get his patient off the rescue mat and onto the beach for treatment. He needed help but he could see one of the lifeguard buggies racing along the shoreline, coming to meet him. The ATV came to a stop in line with Jet’s path and Bluey and Dutchy, two of his fellow lifeguards, were waiting for him as he drove the jet ski onto the sand. A third lifeguard ran past; he was carrying a blue rescue board and was heading into the ocean to check the other swimmers.
Jet jumped off the ski and with Bluey and Dutchy’s help lifted the unconscious man off the mat and carried him out of the shallow water and laid him on the hard sand beside the buggy.
He still wasn’t breathing.
Jet held his fingers over the man’s wrist at the base of his thumb, feeling for a pulse. He moved his fingers around, searching, but there was nothing.
Bluey held the man’s head while Jet and Dutchy rolled him onto his side. Salt water poured out of his mouth but he didn’t regain consciousness.
The man who had helped bring the patient into shore had followed Jet and the other lifeguards up the beach. ‘Do you know him?’ Jet asked.
He hadn’t stopped to ask that in the water; there hadn’t been time and it hadn’t mattered then but now he’d like more information. Starting with whether the patient had any pre-existing health conditions. But the other man shook his head.
‘Do you have any idea what happened?’
Another shake of the head.
If they weren’t going to get any additional information they’d have to treat the patient as best they could.
They rolled the patient back into a supine position so that Jet could begin CPR. Bluey got an airway in and attached a bag ready to pump air into the man’s lungs between Jet’s compressions.
Dutchy had fetched the kit containing the defibrillator from the buggy and was preparing it for use while Jet counted out his compressions. Dutchy worked around Jet, wiping the patient’s chest, drying it off so he could stick the defibrillator pads on.
Jet lifted his head as he continued the compressions. He looked towards Campbell Parade, hoping to see the flashing lights of an approaching ambulance, but a crowd had gathered to watch the resuscitation effort and they’d formed a wall of people, obscuring his view.
Jet counted to thirty and took a break while Bluey squeezed the bag and Dutchy stuck the defibrillator pads onto the patient’s chest. He put his hands back on the patient and resumed his pressure while Dutchy plugged the defib leads into the machine.
‘I think I’ve got a pulse,’ Bluey said as Jet sat back, listening to the defib’s instructions.
‘Analysing rhythm.’
‘No shock advised.’
‘Yep, definite pulse,’ Bluey confirmed.
They rolled their patient onto his side again and this time he vomited and opened his eyes as the crowd clapped and cheered.
Above the noise of the crowd Jet heard the ‘toot-toot’ of the horn of a second buggy and the wall of people split as the ATV pushed its nose through. Jet could see Ryder Evans, his future brother-in-law, at the wheel, with two paramedics on board.
He recognised the first; Alex often partnered with Jet’s sister Poppy, who was Ryder’s fiancée, but today she wasn’t the other paramedic. The other paramedic, while female, was petite with dark hair. She was the complete opposite to Poppy, who was tall and fair like Jet.
Bluey had strapped an oxygen mask over the patient’s nose and mouth and was talking to him, telling him what had happened.
Jet stood up, stretching out his tall, lean frame. He rolled his shoulders to ease the fatigue as Ryder hit the engine’s kill switch and Alex and the second paramedic jumped out of the buggy. He frowned as the female paramedic leaned into the back of the ATV and lifted a medical bag out. There was something familiar about her, about the way she moved, but he didn’t think he knew her. He wondered if it was just the adrenalin in his system after the rescue and resuscitation heightening his senses, increasing his awareness. His heart was still racing and blood was pumping around his body.
He had a sense of déjà vu as he watched her and a name popped into his head. Mei.
Was it her?
She was wearing sunglasses and a navy cap with ‘Ambulance’ stitched across the front. Her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail, her skin was smooth and lightly tanned and her lips were full and pink but that was all he could see of her. It wasn’t enough to be certain it was her. He hadn’t seen her for years—would he really recognise her after so much time?
She paid him no attention as she gathered her equipment and Jet decided he must be mistaken. He must be confusing her for someone he knew a long time ago.
She knelt in the sand beside the patient as Alex walked over to Jet. Jet knew he needed to give him an account of the incident and of the treatment they had given but he continued to watch the other paramedic while he spoke to Alex. For reasons he couldn’t explain he found it impossible not to.
The lifeguard beeped the horn on the buggy and the crowd parted to let them through. This was Mei’s fifth day on the job as a Bondi paramedic and her third callout to the famous beach. Although she’d grown up around Bondi she wasn’t a fan of the beach, but it was becoming apparent that attending to incidents here would become a regular part of her new job. She’d experienced a traumatic incident in the water when she was young and had tended to avoid the beach after that but, despite this, she had applied for a transfer to Bondi Ambulance Station as it would halve her commuting time. Traffic in Sydney could be a nightmare and working closer to home would give her back precious time to spend with her daughter instead. As a single mother she figured that commuting time could be better spent on more important things.
She hopped out of the buggy, stretching her legs over the blue rescue board hooked along the passenger side, leaned into the back of the ATV to grab her kit bag from beside her colleague and glanced towards the patient. She’d been glad to hear the patient was an adult male; she found dealing with children hard, especially ones around the same age as her daughter. The patient was lying in the recovery position and her heart skipped a beat when she looked that way, but it wasn’t the patient who got her all flustered but one of the lifeguards at the scene.
Tall, blond, tanned and lean, he was standing beside the patient. The late afternoon sun shone on him, appearing to deliberately single him out. It was a silly notion, the sun must have been falling on dozens of people but to Mei it felt as if the sun was purposely, and solely, landing on just one person.
Jet.
She’d last seen him eight years ago in Byron Bay on the New South Wales central coast and last she’d heard he had moved to Hawaii. What was he doing on Bondi Beach?
All those sleepless nights she’d spent wondering where he was. All those years when she’d pictured him travelling the world, surely he hadn’t been right here, in her own backyard?
What did this mean? Was it fate or fortune? Was his presence going to turn her life around or simply upend it? Whatever happened, she had no doubt it would be life-changing.
The sun made his bronzed skin glow and his golden hair shine. It might have been eight years since she’d seen him, but she’d thought about him every single day with a trace of anger mixed with regret. She waited now for those familiar feelings, but it was nervous excitement that she felt instead. He was even more gorgeous than she remembered and seeing him in the flesh made her heart race and her hands clammy. Her knees wobbled and her breath caught in her throat, just like the first time she’d seen him. They’d been on a beach and he’d been lit by the glow of a bonfire instead of the sun, but she still hadn’t been able to take her eyes off him.
But she couldn’t afford to let her attention be diverted. Not now. Not again. She had a job to do.
Perhaps he wouldn’t recognise her, she thought as she walked towards the patient. She had never forgotten him, but she didn’t for one moment expect the same could be said for him. She was wearing sunglasses and a cap, and her uniform was hardly flattering. She suspected she couldn’t look more different than the eighteen-year-old girl she’d been when they’d first met. There was no reason for him to remember her. If he didn’t recognise her, if he didn’t speak to her, she knew she’d be able to maintain focus.
She kept her head down as she went to the patient and knelt in the sand. She and her partner had been given a brief outline of the incident—a successful resuscitation on a middle-aged man.
She could hear Jet summarising the incident for her colleague, Alex. His voice was deep and it coursed through her like music. She felt as if her nerves were guitar strings and each word and syllable plucked at the strings and reverberated through her body. It was an unexpected but pleasant sensation.
But she had other things to focus on, so she tried to block him out. She would work out later how to deal with this surprising turn of events.
She unzipped her bag as she got the patient’s name—Paul—from a second lifeguard who had introduced himself as Bluey.
‘Paul, my name is Mei; I’m a paramedic.’ She talked quietly to him, asking him to squeeze her fingers as she checked for spinal injuries. His grip was strong as he followed her instructions.
She clipped an oximeter to his finger and moved her hands to the soles of his feet. ‘Push down against my hands,’ she said, relieved to feel responding pressure.
‘Do you remember what happened?’ she asked the patient as Alex squatted beside her. She resisted the urge to turn her head to see if Jet was still there. She couldn’t be concerned about his whereabouts right now.
‘Not really. The last thing I remember is a tightness in my chest and difficulty breathing and then I woke up here.’
‘He was found floating in the water by some surfers,’ Alex told her. ‘The priority was getting him to shore.’
She knew what Alex was implying—the priority had been getting Paul out of the water, not looking for spinal injuries.
‘Muscle strength is normal,’ she said, letting her partner know she had checked. She had done a couple of shifts with Alex, but they were still getting familiar with working together and she knew he couldn’t assume that she had performed the right checks. ‘But we can pop a cervical collar on, just to be safe.’
Alex nodded and grabbed the collar. ‘Just popping this on as a precaution, mate,’ he said as he slid it under Paul’s neck and fastened the Velcro straps.
‘Have you got any history of heart problems?’ Mei asked Paul. ‘Are you on any medication?’
‘No.’
Their priority now was to get Paul stable enough to transfer him to hospital. He needed a cardiac assessment.
‘We’ll need to take you to hospital. Is there anyone with you?’
‘My son is here.’
Mei looked around and saw a young man crouching in the sand to her left, watching the proceedings anxiously. She knew it must be a distressing experience for him. ‘If you’ve got all your things you can come with us,’ she told him.
She packed up their equipment as Alex organised the lifeguards to help them roll Paul onto a spinal board, ready to be moved to the buggy.
She knelt in the sand by Paul’s right shoulder. Alex was to her left, ready to support Paul’s head as they rolled him. Bluey knelt opposite Mei with Ryder beside him. She felt the air stir as a fourth person knelt beside her. She didn’t need to turn her head to know it was Jet. He smelt warm and salty; he smelt of the sun and the sea; he smelt just like she remembered.
Mei kept her gaze fixed on the spinal board, which she held across her knees, ready to slide it under Paul when Bluey and Ryder turned him. Jet reached for the handles in the edge of the board. His fingers brushed against Mei’s, making her heart skitter. She kept her eyes averted—she wasn’t brave enough to look at him.
Ryder and Bluey had their hands on Paul’s shoulders, pelvis and knees, ready to log roll him. ‘On three,’ Alex issued instructions.
‘One, two, three.’
Mei and Jet slid the board under Paul before the others rolled him back.
The moment Paul was safely on the board Jet was on his feet, leaving a void of empty air beside Mei. The air stilled and the energy that had been buzzing around her dissipated as Jet moved away.
She knew she was being ridiculous, but her memories were flooding back. This was the same reaction she’d had to him all those years ago—immediate and completely out of her control. It had been all-consuming, leaving her feeling distracted. Eight years ago, she’d let herself get carried away. She had been looking for excitement, for adventure after graduating from high school and she was overwhelmed by her reaction to Jet and had given herself over to him willingly. But eight years ago she’d been young, naïve and impressionable. None of those things could be said about her now.
She couldn’t afford to be irresponsible any more. Her life now was rational, measured. She had responsibilities and commitments; there was no room in her life for fantasies, infatuations or affairs.
She had consigned Jet to history and she’d like him to stay there, even though she knew that was impossible.
There was no way she could ignore him, or the fact that he had changed her life. He had given her the most precious gift. One he had no idea about. They had a daughter. It wasn’t a secret she’d intended to keep from him but Jet had disappeared and now, eight years later, she knew she was about to change his life.
They carried Paul to the buggy and loaded him on, ready to transport him across the sand. Bluey drove her, Alex and their patient back to the promenade. Several lifeguards then helped carry the stretcher to the ambulance, but Jet wasn’t among them. He stayed down at the water’s edge but, even so, Mei’s breathing didn’t return to normal until she shut the rear doors, closing Alex in with their patient, jumped into the driver’s seat and headed to Bondi General Hospital.
She was disappointed but relieved that Jet hadn’t recognised her; she wasn’t ready to revisit their history. She knew it was inevitable but she needed time to prepare.
She needed to work out how to deal with this unexpected turn of events, but she had time. She had two night shifts coming up and then four days off. She had time to put things in perspective before she would see him again.
She knew what the end result needed to be—she just had to decide the best way to get there.
Jet stood and watched as Bluey drove down the beach towards the lifeguard tower. The crowd had dispersed and he had a clear view of the buggy as it headed into the distance with the paramedics and their patient. He turned around, knowing he had work to do, but that didn’t stop him from wondering about the petite, dark-haired paramedic.
He was disconcerted as he tried to marshal his thoughts. She looked familiar, she felt familiar, but she didn’t seem to recognise him. Had it been her?
He helped Ryder pack up the equipment, picking up the detritus and returning the oxygen cylinder and mask to the second buggy. Job finished, he grabbed a drink of water.
‘I haven’t seen that paramedic before,’ he said, trying hard to sound offhand. ‘Have you?’
‘Nope,’ Ryder replied. ‘She said she just transferred to Bondi Station a week or so ago. Why?’
‘She looked familiar. Did you get her name?’
‘May.’
Mei.
It had to be her. Didn’t it? But she didn’t seem to recognise him. Was it a coincidence? Was that sense of déjà vu simply a figment of his imagination?
He didn’t think so—he wasn’t given to flights of fancy. But he figured time would tell. The paramedics were called to Bondi Beach frequently, so he’d find out soon enough.
‘Do you know her?’ Ryder asked.
‘I’m not sure.’
He could see from Ryder’s expression that his answer wasn’t a satisfactory one, but he didn’t want to share his thoughts. Something made him hesitate. It had been years since he’d seen Mei—maybe he was mistaken—and he wasn’t about to have a discussion about a girl he once knew eight years ago. Ryder would want details. Jet had a reputation for brief dalliances and Ryder would be curious to know what it was about a girl from all those years ago that made her unforgettable. Jet wasn’t sure he’d be able to explain.
‘I can ask Poppy about her if you like? Or you can. They must have met at work.’
He knew Ryder was fishing but there was nothing he was prepared to say.
Ryder and Jet had grown up together but Ryder had moved from Byron Bay to Perth when they were seventeen. He had left before Jet met Mei and he had never mentioned her to his friend. He wasn’t about to mention her now either.
The past was the past. Their relationship had been a fleeting one, like all Jet’s relationships. Work and training took up his time. He had been twenty, happily drifting along with vague plans to become a professional surfer. Mei had been eighteen and on holiday in Byron Bay celebrating the end of her school days with friends. They had been chalk and cheese. She was driven, focused and determined but naïve. She had a plan; she set goals that she knew she would achieve. He was a dreamer, a risk-taker, he had no real plans; his priorities were to have fun and spend his days surfing and he’d figured life would take him where he needed to go. But, despite their differences, there had been instant attraction and amazing chemistry and nothing else had mattered.
He wasn’t even aware of their differences initially and, to be honest, didn’t care. He was interested in her physically, not in her mind. At least not at first, but over the course of seventy-two hours she had challenged him and changed him. And he had changed her.
They had parted ways at the end of the weekend, content to return to their different lives having had a taste of other things, having had their horizons expanded. Mei had experienced spontaneity, she’d relaxed and had perhaps learnt not to be her own harshest critic, that the world wasn’t going to end if she took five minutes to enjoy herself. He had learnt that he would need to set some goals and apply himself if he wanted to achieve international surfing success. He’d realised that most people who achieved their dreams had an element of talent, determination and effort to thank, and didn’t rely solely on good fortune.
The one thing they did have in common had been loneliness. It wasn’t that that drew them together, that had been purely and simply chemistry, but their loneliness had given them a bond, an understanding of each other and that connection had made them feel safe enough to share their thoughts with each other in a way he knew he had never done before.
It was crazy to think that a girl he’d met on the beach in Byron Bay, at a party he hadn’t even planned on attending, had managed to have such a profound effect on him.
He had never had a serious relationship, not then and still not now. He’d never felt comfortable expressing his feelings so he’d never been able to give women what they craved—his emotional side. He could share himself physically but opening up emotionally was difficult and he knew it was a barrier to forming a lasting relationship. He told himself he was fine. Told himself he didn’t have time, but he craved the attention and recognition he’d never received from his parents.
He’d wanted someone to take him seriously, someone to believe in him. His parents had never been ones to show pride or love or to shower him or his sisters with praise or affection and it was something he longed for. He hated the fact that he felt that way, but he knew that the only way he would get that attention was through his sporting endeavours.
But Mei had been different. Mei had made him feel seen.
They might have been young, and they might have only spent a weekend together, but she had learned more about him in those seventy-two hours than any other woman and taught him more about himself than anyone else ever had.
She’d made him want to be a better person, to strive to achieve. She had made him realise that he couldn’t keep hoping for his parents’ praise, that he had the chance to set his own goals, to chase his own dreams and to do it for his own satisfaction. Mei had set him on his own path, had freed him to be himself. He hadn’t achieved everything he wanted, not yet, but she had been partly responsible for making him who he was today. He wondered what would she think of that.
But that was a long time ago. He wasn’t that twenty-year-old with unrealistic expectations any more. He had a career as a lifeguard, which would serve him well for the next few years while he chased his dream of qualifying for the Ironman World Championships. His dreams of becoming a professional surfer had been relatively short-lived and he’d discovered he was far better suited physically to the rigorous, gruelling competition that was the professional Ironman.
He was about to turn twenty-nine; he had years before he needed a serious relationship. In fact, he wasn’t convinced he needed one at all and right now he had other things to concentrate on, including two Ironman events in the next month. Mei belonged in the past. He had no time to devote to thinking about her. He was looking forward, not back.
‘Do you want me to find out more?’ Ryder repeated when Jet didn’t respond. ‘I’ll see Poppy tonight. We’re going to look at that rental.’
Ryder and Poppy’s relationship was moving at a rapid pace. Apparently they’d had some sort of connection back when they were teenagers, unbeknown to Jet or the other Carlson siblings, but they’d only officially been together for a few weeks. Jet couldn’t understand the urgency, but he didn’t begrudge Ryder and his sister their happiness. Ryder made Poppy happy, he was a good guy and Jet was glad to welcome him as a brother-in-law. But he didn’t envy them. As selfish as it might seem, he was quite content with his bachelor lifestyle.
He shook his head in reply to Ryder. ‘Nah. It doesn’t matter. I’ve probably got her confused with someone else.’
‘I can believe that.’ Ryder laughed as he let the subject drop, just as Jet had intended. His relationships might be fleeting but they were also numerous and he knew Ryder would believe that he’d lose track.
But he knew it was her.
That sense of déjà vu. The spark he’d felt when his hand brushed hers.
He’d been waiting for a sign that she remembered him, but she’d ignored him completely, seemingly unaware of him. He wasn’t used to that. He was used to women noticing him and his ego was bruised to think she’d forgotten him.
That, or the alternative—that she knew exactly who he was but had chosen to ignore him—wounded his pride and he vowed to get her attention.
