swim for it,’ he teased as she approached them.
She rolled her eyes, but he didn’t miss the slight smile on her lips. Esme skipped off to view the ship’s departure through the railings.
‘Thanks for that—she seems a bit happier now, at least,’ Sara said with a sigh.
Her green dress blew against his legs. ‘She’s going to have a great time,’ he assured her.
‘She’s bullied, you know. The kids call her names because of the central line in her neck. I got her the camera so she could make a video diary—show people she can live a normal life, doing stuff like this. I thought she could put it on her donor page.’
Sara swept her blonde hair behind her ears, following Esme with her eyes. Fraser thought again how messed up it was that they hadn’t found a donor for her yet. ‘That’s a great idea.’
‘I don’t want anything to ruin this trip for Esme, Fraser.’
‘Neither do I.’
‘What’s this doing here?’ Dr Renee Forster had walked over and was pointing down at Sara’s suitcase in the middle of the deck. ‘Everything OK?’
‘She spilled some water on it downstairs,’ Fraser said quickly. ‘She thought the sun would dry it off faster.’
Sara held up her hands. ‘Silly me. But it worked; it’s already dry.’
Renee raised her eyebrows. ‘I see. Good to have you both on board. You know each other well, I take it?’
‘We did a long time ago.’
Sara shifted uncomfortably on the spot and he tried not to smirk.
‘We dated for six months, actually,’ he said. ‘We’re in a kind of the-one-that-got-away situation.’
Sara turned to him in shock, but he shrugged his shoulders. Staff on these cruises had no secrets. And anything that needed to be addressed was bound to come out, one way or another.
As the ship finally pulled away to the cheers of the crowd, the thought made him anxious almost as much as it thrilled him.
‘CAN I HAVE pizza tonight?’ Esme asked. ‘Because we’re on holiday?’
Sara finished unhooking her daughter from the dialysis machine. ‘Sorry, sweetie, but you already know that’s not a good idea. Your diet should stay the same, so you’re not poorly.’
Esme groaned and laid her head down heavily on the pillow.
‘I know it’s hard,’ Sara sympathised. ‘There’s a lot of great food on this ship.’
That was an understatement. The food on the Ocean Dream was unlike anything she’d ever seen or tasted. Each buffet was like a dream, with everything from lobster sushi rolls to king crab soufflé, to marinated steaks and more cakes than she could count.
‘If I can’t have pizza, can I have ice-cream? Just a bit?’
Sara turned off the dialysis machine and readjusted the lines from Esme’s catheter. ‘We’ll see. You have to stop pointing that thing at me!’ She play-swiped at the camcorder lens that was pointed at her face.
‘Dr Fraser doesn’t mind being on camera.’
‘Yes, well...’
Sara snapped off her gloves a little too loudly. She was burning to know more about Fraser—why he’d left the family practice, how often he did these cruises, whether he’d met anyone else since her. Especially that. But she didn’t want to appear as if she was invested in anything Fraser Breckenridge had going on any more.
She’d meant what she said. Esme came first. She was all that mattered. Besides, they were professionals, and Renee was already looking between them like Cupid eyeing up the perfect target for an arrow.
Fraser had asked if they could talk privately once they reached Aruba and left the ship. She’d refused, maintaining she was there to concentrate on her work and Esme, not dwell on their past relationship. But a mish-mash of memories had kept her up the last two nights—things she hadn’t thought about in years.
‘Code Blue. Is anyone close to the casino? Can we get help in the casino, please?’
The Tannoy was practically screaming. Jess stood up from her chair in the corner. ‘Code Blue in the casino? That’s just next door!’
‘Take Esme to the playroom, will you?’ Sara unhooked another dialysis patient beside her and hurried outside.
The flashing lights and jingling slot machines in the ship’s casino launched an attack on her senses. She gripped her Ocean Dream branded medical case harder as she started down an aisle, waiting for her eyes to adjust.
‘Sara! Over here.’
People were being ushered away by a security guard wearing the ship’s smart grey uniform. Fraser was crouched on his haunches over a large balding gentleman in his mid to late fifties.
‘What happened?’ She dropped to her knees beside him. It could have been the sight of him, knee-deep in an emergency, but her heart immediately upped its pounding.
‘Cardiac arrest. Help me intubate him. I’ve already called for a stretcher.’ He paused for a beat to meet her eyes. ‘They said he won some pretty big money. He obviously got so excited he collapsed.’
Sara felt stabs of adrenaline, as if she was hot-wired to Fraser as he started CPR. Nosy onlookers in cruise ship attire and enough bling to sink the ship stood out against others who were happily still playing on the slot machines, only feet away.
She finished fixing the Ambu-bag and an oxygen cylinder, then quickly lifted out the nasal tubes. Fraser took over. His Adam’s apple rose subtly above the collar of his white shirt and she followed it up to the dark line of stubble around his jaw as he pumped on the rich man’s hairy, tanned chest. A Rolex watch caught her eye. A golden wedding band.
Fraser held the man’s head back so she could help, and she lifted his puffy eyelids, noting the pale green irises. Behind her a slot machine dispensed more coins with a happy jingle. So bizarre.
She inserted the tube into the man’s trachea slowly, while the efficient blur that was Fraser administered more CPR. His biceps flexed through his shirt. Sweat glistened on his neck. Someone was talking about a stretcher. It was close. But she could barely hear a thing against the pinging and spinning and chinking of the coins.
‘Go again!’
Holding the man’s head on her lap, she put two fingers to his neck as Fraser commenced with another set of compressions. His hair was falling almost into his steely blue eyes. He was completely focused.
She held her breath. Still no movement under her fingers. Fraser watched her shake her head and used the Ambu-bag for rescue breaths. Their shoulders
