back on to Jack, sending him a thumbs-up sign.
‘Did you mean to park the ambulance like that?’ There was a note of dry humour in Cass’s husky tones.
Jack looked over the water and saw that the ambulance had been washed off the road and was leaning at a precarious angle against a tree. He muttered a curse under his breath.
‘I’ll take that as a no.’
Jack chuckled, despite the pain in his ribs. ‘What are you?’
She flushed red as if this was the one question she didn’t know how to answer. In someone so capable, the delicate shade of pink on her cheeks stirred his shaking limbs into sudden warmth.
‘What do you mean?’
‘None of this fazes you very much, does it? And you’ve been trained in how to lift...’ Jack recognised the techniques she’d used as very similar to his own. A little more leverage and a little less strength, maybe. And, although Cass didn’t give any orders, the men around her seemed to recognise her as their leader.
‘I’m a firefighter. I work at the fire station in town, but I’m off duty at the moment. On duty as a concerned family member, though—my sister Lynette’s the patient you’re coming to see.’
‘Then we’d better get going.’ Jack looked around for his bag and saw that one of the men was holding it, and that water was dripping out of it. He really was on his own here—no Mimi and no medical bag. He turned, accepting a supportive arm from one of the men, and began to walk slowly up the steep path with the group.
* * *
This wasn’t what Cass had planned. She’d hoped to be able to get Lynette safely to hospital well in advance but, stubborn as ever, her sister had pointed out that it was another two weeks before her due date and flatly refused to go.
The hospital was now out of reach, but a paramedic was the next best thing. And the floods had finally given her a break and quite literally washed Jack up, on to her doorstep.
Despite the layers of clothing, she’d still felt the strength of his body when she’d helped him up. Hard muscle, still pumped and quivering with the effort of holding on. It had taken nerve to stay put and hang on instead of trying to run from the water, but that decision had probably saved his life.
He was tall as well, a couple of inches taller than her own six feet. And despite, or maybe because of, all that raw power he had the gentlest eyes. The kind of deep brown that a girl could just fall into.
Enough. He might be easy on the eye, but that was nothing to do with her primary objective. Jack was walking ahead of her and Cass lengthened her stride to catch up with him.
‘Lynette’s actually been having mild contractions. She’s not due for another two weeks, but it seems as if the baby might come sooner.’ It was better to think of him as an asset, someone who could help her accomplish the task ahead. Bravery had got him here in one piece and those tender eyes might yet come in useful, for comforting Lynette.
‘Her first child?’
‘Yes.’ And one that Cass would protect at all costs.
‘Hopefully it’ll decide not to get its feet wet just yet. The weather’s too bad for the HEMS team to be able to operate safely tonight, but we may be able to airlift her out in the morning.’
‘Thanks. You’ll contact them?’
‘Yeah. Can I borrow your phone? I need to get hold of Mimi as well.’
‘Of course, but we’ll get you inside first. Who’s the guy with her?’
‘If it’s who I think it is, that’s her ex.’ A brief grin. Brief but very nice. ‘Mimi’s not going to like him turning up out of the blue.’
‘Complicated?’
‘Isn’t it always?’
He had a point. In any given situation, the complications always seemed to far outweigh the things that went right. Which meant that someone as gorgeous as Jack was probably dizzyingly complicated.
‘She’ll be okay, though? Your partner.’
‘Oh, yeah. No problems with Rafe; he won’t leave her stranded. He might have to tie her to a tree to stop her from killing him, but she’ll be okay.’ Despite the fact that Jack was visibly shivering, the warmth in his eyes was palpable.
Maybe Cass should have done that with her ex, Paul. Tied him to a tree and killed him when she’d had the chance. But he was a father now, and probably a half decent one at that. He had a new wife, and a child who depended on him.
‘I don’t suppose there’s any way we can get some more medical supplies over here?’ Jack’s voice broke her reverie. ‘Rafe’s a doctor and, knowing him, he’ll have come prepared for anything. I could do with a few things, just in case.’
Cass nodded. ‘Leave it with me; I’ll work something out. You need to get cleaned up and into some dry clothes before you do anything else.’
‘Yeah.’ The tremble of his limbs was making it through into Jack’s voice now. ‘I could do with a hot shower.’
‘That’s exactly where we’re headed. Church hall.’
‘That’s where we’re staying tonight?’ He looked towards the spire, which reached up into the sky ahead of them like a beacon at the top of the hill.
‘Afraid so. The water’s already pretty deep all around the village. In this storm, and with the flash floods, there’s no safe place to cross.’
She could count on the water keeping him here for the next twenty-four hours at least, perhaps more if she was lucky. He might not want to stay, but there was no choice.
‘I’m not thinking of trying to get across. Not while I have a patient to tend to.’
‘Thank you. I really appreciate that.’ Cass felt suddenly ashamed of herself. This guy wasn’t an asset, a cog in a piece of machinery. He was a living, breathing man and his dedication to his job wasn’t taken out of a rule book.
She reminded herself, yet again, that this kind of thinking would only get her into trouble. Paul had left her because she’d been unable to get pregnant. Then told her that the problem was all hers, proving his point by becoming a father seven months later. In the agony of knowing that she might never have the baby she so wanted, the indignity of the timing was almost an afterthought.
That was all behind her. The tearing disappointment each month. The wedding, which Paul had postponed time and time again and had ended up cancelled. Lynette’s baby was the one she had to concentrate on now, and she was going to fight tooth and nail to get everything that her sister needed.
* * *
Jack was taking one thing at a time. He fixed his eyes on the church steeple, telling himself that this was the goal for the time being and that he just had to cajole his aching limbs into getting there.
Slowly it rose on the horizon, towering dizzily above his head as they got closer. The church had evidently
