the tower and go all the way down to the bottom. Her brain was refusing to process his name. Refusing to do anything.
Oh, help.
She couldn’t step back. Couldn’t step forwards, either, and let the team down.
Why, why, why had she agreed to be the first person down? Whatever had possessed her? Why had she thought it would boost her confidence in herself? She must’ve been mad. No way could she do this. She was stuck.
Then another man joined the instructor at the edge. ‘Hi.’
She’d never seen him before. The part of her mind that wasn’t completely frozen in fear thought how gorgeous he was, with eyes colour of melted chocolate, dark hair, and an olive complexion. He reminded her a bit of an actor she had a huge crush on and her friends in the department were always teasing her about.
‘I’m Marco.’
And his voice was even more gorgeous than his face: just the hint of an accent, incredibly sexy.
He’d introduced himself to her. Now she was supposed to speak. But, just like her feet, her mouth was frozen and it wasn’t going to let any proper words out.
‘You’re Sydney, yes?’
‘Uh.’
Clearly he took the little squeak of fear as meaning yes. ‘OK. What we’re going to do now is sing together, Sydney.’
What? How on earth was singing going to help her frozen feet move?
‘How about Tom Petty’s “Free Falling”?’ he suggested.
Not funny. So not funny. And just what any of her colleagues would’ve suggested. Clearly climbing people shared the same kind of dark humour as medics. Falling. Uh. She gave him a look of pure loathing.
He grinned. ‘At least you’re not doing this face down, tesoro. That’s a bonus. And singing’s going to take your mind off it and help you down, I promise.’
He sounded a lot more confident than she felt.
‘If I start, will you join in?’
She managed a nod, and in return got a full-wattage smile. If her knees hadn’t been frozen, they would definitely have gone weak.
‘That’s great, tesoro. You’re going to sing with me. And you’re going to keep your right hand behind your back, holding the static line, and just take one tiny step back. You’ll feel yourself go down a little bit, but don’t worry, that’s fine—it’s just the tension in the ropes letting you move. The line’s going to take your weight. And then you move your right hand out to your side, and it’ll give you the slack to start walking down. If you need to stop, just move your hand behind your back again. Got it?’
She nodded again.
‘Excellent. Do you know the song “Walking on Sunshine”?’
She could almost hear it in her head, infectious and upbeat, a real summer anthem.
Another nod.
He smiled and began singing. To her amazement, he even hummed the intro, mimicking the tune of the brass section—and then she found herself joining in.
They got to the first chorus. ‘One step back,’ he encouraged during the bit where he was meant to sing the ‘woh-ohs’.
Somehow she did it. Took a step backwards.
Everything lurched, but then it was stable again.
And he was still singing. Still keeping her company. Still with her.
She could do this.
Her voice sounded thready, but she was singing back. And she was walking. Not on sunshine, but against brick.
How she actually got down the building was a blur, but at last she was at the bottom. Her legs were shaking, so were her hands, and she could barely unclip the harness and move out of the way so the next person could abseil down the building and land safely.
‘So are you going next?’ the instructor asked.
‘Me?’ It had been a while since Marco had abseiled. But a building in the middle of London was going to be a lot safer than the last abseil he’d done at home, down the cliffs in Capri. Apart from anything else, they didn’t have to worry about the tide coming in and causing problems with landing.
He glanced at his watch. Well, it’d be almost as quick as taking the lift. And nobody was going to notice any creases in his suit caused by the abseil harness once they were in the thick of things in the emergency department. ‘I’m not on your list,’ he warned, ‘so it’s going to put you off schedule.’
‘Not as far off as we would’ve been if you hadn’t talked Sydney down,’ the instructor pointed out. ‘So are you next?’
He wasn’t technically part of the department for another half an hour, and he didn’t have a sponsor form; but that wasn’t a problem. He’d sponsor himself for the same amount as any of the other registrars had raised. He grinned. ‘Yeah, I’m next. Thanks.’
It didn’t take long to buckle on the harness. And going over the edge, he felt the whole adrenalin rush as he stepped backwards into nothing. It was the first time he’d really felt alive since Sienna’s death.
By the time he reached the bottom of the tower, the rush had filled his entire body.
And the first person he saw when his feet touched the ground was Sydney. The woman he’d talked over the edge. The woman who’d been full of fear, and still looked slightly dazed.
He unbuckled the harness. ‘Hey. Are you OK?’ he asked softly.
OK? No. Sydney was still shaking all over. ‘Yes,’ she lied.
Then she made the mistake of looking up. It was him. Mr Gorgeous from the top of the tower. He’d just done exactly what she’d done, and he wasn’t a nervous mess. He wasn’t even breaking a sweat.
Get a grip, she told herself, and took a deep breath. ‘Thanks for talking—well, singing—me down.’
‘No problem.’ He looked concerned. ‘Are you sure you’re all right?’
‘I have to be—I’m on duty in a few minutes.’ And she would be OK. She never let anything get in the way of work.
He touched her face gently with the backs of his fingers. ‘I take it this was your first time?’
She nodded. ‘And last. Next time one of our consultants gets a bright idea, I’m paying up and bailing out.’
He smiled. ‘The adrenalin rush hasn’t kicked in yet, then.’
‘What adrenalin?’
‘Look up,’ he said softly.
She did, and saw someone slowly walking
