first time in a long time he’d ever wanted to feel a connection to a woman.
Sure, he’d dated on a few rare occasions, but nothing had been serious. He’d never introduced anyone to Drew. It was almost as if he didn’t want to let anyone into that part of his life.
Would he ever feel ready to change that?
The doors opened at the end of the corridor and Jessica walked through. She looked absolutely exhausted. There were black circles under her eyes and her skin was even paler than it had been earlier.
He was on his feet in an instant. ‘Jess? How did it go?’
She reached out to touch his arm, her brown eyes fixed on his. ‘The next few hours will be crucial. We’ve done everything we can. Lily’s temperature is coming up gradually. Now it’s just wait and see. I’ve just spoken to her parents.’ Was that a tear in Jess’s eye?
It was there—written all across her face—how much those words pained her. How much she hated it that things were out of her control. The only thing left to do was wait.
She flicked her head from side to side. ‘I need to get a report on all of the other kids. I need to find out how they are all doing.’
‘No.’ He rested his hand on her shoulder. ‘You need to take a break. Come and sit down. Have a coffee, have something to eat. You must be running on empty, you know that can’t be good for you.’
He could see the struggle in her eyes. ‘I just can’t, Callum. There were twelve kids in that accident. I’m the consultant on call. They’re my responsibility.’
Callum glanced at the notes in his hand. ‘Four have already been discharged. Another four have been admitted to the paediatric unit with mild hypothermia, a head injury, and some bumps and scrapes.’
Her eyes widened. ‘How do you know all that?’
He gave her a little smile. ‘It’s part of the investigation after any major incident for the rope rescue crew. I always need to find out the outcomes for the victims. We need to look over everything that we did to make sure there were no mistakes.’
‘And were there?’
He frowned. ‘Apart from our doctor ending up in the Clyde? And your nurse fracturing her ankle?’
A little smile danced across her weary face. ‘I don’t think you have much control over tides and currents—no matter how much you want to. And Jackie? That’s my responsibility. It was me who asked her to come on the rescue.’
He shook his head. He hadn’t been able to shake the picture from his mind of Jessica falling into the icy river. It had made him feel sick to his stomach and would have to form part of his investigation.
‘It’s my job to make sure everyone is safe at the rescue site. It’s my responsibility, not yours.’
Her shoulders relaxed a little. This was probably the first normal conversation she’d had all day. ‘Do you want to fight me for it?’
‘Will I win?’ he quipped.
‘Did you ever win?’ she quipped back equally quickly.
He smiled. This was the Jess he’d once known.
He glanced at his notes. ‘What about the other kids? I know about Marcus and Lily, but that still leaves another two.’
‘One was Rosie, she was on the bus next to Marcus. The other is a little girl called Kelly. Both have broken limbs and were taken to surgery by the orthopaedic surgeon.’
‘I’ll need to follow them up for the report.’
She paused for a second, as if trying to find words. ‘It was nice to see you today, Callum, even though it wasn’t the best of circumstances. I’m glad you’re doing well.’
Something sparked in his brain. She was just about to say goodbye. And he didn’t want her to. He didn’t want this to be the last time he saw Jessica Rae for another thirteen years.
‘But how are you doing, Jess?’ The words were out before he had a chance to censor them. Should he really be asking her something like that?
Her eyes lowered, breaking contact with his. Had he offended her? He could see her taking a deep breath.
‘If you need any assistance with the investigation, feel free to come back and talk to me.’ It was a deliberate sidestep. a deliberate attempt to move the conversation back to something more professional.
‘I’ll need a statement from you about the events.’ He would. It wasn’t a lie. Any event like this always needed information from all the professionals involved. Not least the one who had landed in the middle of the Clyde.
‘That’s fine, but can we do it some other time? I really want to check on the kids.’
What she needed to do was to rest. She looked as though a long night’s sleep would do her the world of good. But he already knew that wasn’t going to happen.
‘Of course we can do it some other time. I need to follow up the adults at Glasgow Cross—I’ll do that tomorrow. Then I’ll come back here to see how the kids are doing.’ He hesitated, just for a second. ‘Will you be available at any point tomorrow?’
He was hopeful. He was more than hopeful. This might be work, but more than anything right now he’d like to see Jessica again. Any way he could.
She nodded. ‘Leave it until later in the day. I’ll be busy first thing in the morning with ward rounds and reviews.’
He gave her a little smile and he couldn’t help the words that came out of his mouth. ‘I’ll see you then.’
There was a moment of hesitation, a flicker of something going through her eyes, and it struck straight at his heart. Was it panic? Was it fear?
Her shoulders had pulled back a little, moving away from him, and the urge to reach out and pull her back towards him raced through his mind.
Why would the simplest of words cause this reaction? Jessica had always been a fun-loving, gregarious young woman. And even though he hadn’t seen her in thirteen years this seemed wrong to him. Out of character.
But did he even know Jess’s character any more?
It took a few seconds, but Jess seemed to gather herself and gave him the slightest flash of her brown eyes. ‘Tomorrow’s fine, Callum. I’ll see you then.’
She turned and walked down the corridor. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from her.
Now, when she was wearing only thin green theatre scrubs, he could see that her weight loss was dramatic. He flinched, remembering having seen the outline of her ribs on the riverbank. Now he could see her legs and hips. Hips that had been pressing up against his earlier.
He’d reached the bottom of the corridor, near the nurses’ station in A and E. He recognised one of the sisters—they’d gone to a few study days on some aspects of community safety.
He walked
