to alert the crew when there’s a boat in trouble.’ Tom leant forward and pointed through the windscreen. ‘Look! You can see the trail of smoke it’s left behind.’
Hannah leant forward to look then felt her breath catch when she realised how close they were. There was just the tiniest space separating them and it shrank even more when Tom suddenly turned and she found herself staring into his eyes. She felt a shiver run through her when she saw his eyes darken, turning from sapphire blue to midnight in the space of a heartbeat. When he bent towards her she didn’t move, couldn’t have done so when it felt as though she was drowning in their indigo depths…
Charlie started to cry when a second rocket exploded and the spell was broken. Hannah took a quick breath as she turned to reassure him, but her heart was racing out of control. If they hadn’t been interrupted would she have let Tom kiss her? Because that was where they’d been heading.
Her heart sank as she realised that she would have done. She would have let Tom kiss her, kissed him back, and there was no point denying it. On the contrary, she needed to face the truth, admit that she was deeply attracted to him, and do something about it.
She couldn’t get involved with Tom. It was far too soon after what had happened between her and Andrew. Discovering that the one person she should have been able to rely on had let her down had knocked her for six and it would be a long time before she could trust anyone again. Then there was Charlie. She intended to focus all her time and energy on making sure that everything possible was done for him. The child may have been let down by his father but he wasn’t going to be let down by her too.
Hannah took a deep breath. Nothing was going to happen between her and Tom, not now. Not ever.
Tom could feel the heat that had been pooling in the pit of his stomach turning to ice. He couldn’t believe what had happened. One minute he’d been looking through the windscreen and the next…
He swore under his breath as he reached for the door handle. He had come within a hair’s breadth of kissing Hannah. That was bad enough, but the fact that he appeared to have so little self-control where she was concerned was far more worrying. He knew that she wasn’t right for him but it hadn’t stopped him. He would have kissed her and to hell with the consequences because kissing her had seemed more important than anything else. It made him see how dangerous the situation was. Hannah could turn his world upside down, if he let her.
‘I’ll walk from here. It’s not far now and it’ll be quicker than waiting for the traffic to clear.’ He opened the car door, using that as an excuse not to look at her. He didn’t appreciate feeling so vulnerable. He had always been in control before, of himself and his relationships, but it appeared that he was putty in her hands.
The thought of her hands being anywhere near him was too much. Tom shot out of the car, pausing briefly, as politeness dictated, to thank her. Maybe he should have simply cut and run but he needed to take charge of what was happening, be proactive rather than reactive. ‘Thanks for the lift, Hannah. I appreciate it.’
‘It was nothing.’
Her voice was husky and he felt the hair all over his body stand to attention. Even though he really didn’t want to have to look at her, he couldn’t resist. The lump of ice rapidly melted again when he saw the stunned expression on her face. In that second he knew that if he had kissed her, she wouldn’t have stopped him!
Quite frankly, it was the last thing he needed to know. Tom slammed the door and headed off down the hill as though the hounds of hell were snapping at his heels. In a way they were, because it would be his own version of hell if he allowed the situation to gather momentum. He took a deep breath as he weaved his way through the crowd that had gathered to watch the lifeboat being launched. He was attracted to Hannah, more attracted to her than he’d been to any woman. She seemed to push all the right buttons, or maybe that should be all the wrong ones because he certainly didn’t want to feel this way. He was happy with his lot, enjoyed his life free from complications…
Didn’t he?
Tom’s mouth thinned. He wasn’t going down that route. He had to do what was right and for him that meant living his life unencumbered by a wife and a family. It was the only way he could guarantee that he wouldn’t turn out like the rest of the Bradburys.
He didn’t intend to leave behind a string of broken marriages and tawdry affairs. He didn’t plan to break any hearts or ruin any lives. So maybe he’d thought he could buck the trend once, be the one member of his family who could make a marriage work, but he’d soon discovered he was mistaken. How long had his engagement lasted? Two months? Three? Definitely no longer. As soon as he’d realised he was losing interest, he had broken it off.
It had been a salutary lesson, however, and one he needed to remember. Attraction could and did wane. Maybe he was attracted to Hannah at this very moment, but in a week or so’s time it could be a different story. It wasn’t fair to Hannah to start something that was doomed to failure. It wasn’t fair to him either! He didn’t need this kind of pressure. He didn’t need the worry of constantly wondering if he would hurt her. He wanted to get on with his life and enjoy it, and if that meant staying single then so be it.
Hannah gave Charlie his tea then knelt on the rug and played a noisy game of cars with him. Charlie loved it when they crashed into one another, laughing loudly when his red plastic fire-engine sent her little white ambulance skittering across the floor.
‘You’re going to be a demon driver when you grow up, my boy,’ she smilingly admonished him as she retrieved both vehicles.
Charlie gurgled happily as he sent the toy fire-engine spinning across the room closely followed by the ambulance. Although the casts on his legs meant he couldn’t crawl, he had developed his own technique for getting about which involved shuffling on his bottom. Hannah chuckled as she watched him make his way towards the toys.
‘You’re a determined little chap. I’ll say that for you.’ She went to help him get the ambulance, which had rolled under a chair, then paused when someone knocked on the front door. ‘I won’t be a second, darling,’ she said, veering off to answer it. There was a young man outside wearing bright yellow oilskins and he smiled uncertainly at her.
‘Are you Dr Morris?’
‘Yes, that’s right. What can I do for you?’
‘I’m Billy Robinson, one of the lifeboat crew. Tom asked me to fetch you. We’ve got two casualties at the station and he needs a hand.’ He looked past her and grinned when he saw Charlie. ‘Tom said you had a little ‘un and to bring him along. There’s plenty of folk there who’ll be more than happy to look after him for you.’
‘In that case, of course I’ll come,’ Hannah agreed immediately. ‘I just need to fetch my bag from the kitchen.’
She hurried back through the tiny sitting-room into the equally compact kitchen. Her medical bag was on the table and she quickly checked that she had everything she needed. When she went back, Billy was holding Charlie, who was laughing happily up at him.
‘He seems to have taken to you,’ Hannah observed as she shut the front door.
‘Oh, I’m well used to kids,’ Billy told her cheerfully. ‘There’s seven of us at home and I’m the oldest, so I’ve done my share of babysitting.’
Hannah laughed at the rueful note in his voice. He seemed a pleasant young man and she didn’t have any qualms about letting him carry Charlie the
