Snowbound With The Single Dad

‘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 over to her. ‘Hi, Miriam, how’s things?’

The older woman looked up and shot him a friendly smile. ‘Hi, Callum. I take it you were dealing with the kids in the minibus?’

He nodded. ‘Not the best day of my life. One of your doctors was out helping us—Jessica Rae?’

Miriam looked confused for a second then waved her hand. ‘Oh, you mean Jessica Faraday. I know she’s reverted back to her maiden name but I can’t get used to it. She’s fabulous. One of the best consultants we’ve got. The kids were certainly in safe hands with her.’

Callum could feel himself furrowing his brow. ‘Jessica Faraday? She was married?’

Miriam finished typing something on the computer. ‘Yeah.’ She was distracted, concentrating on the words in front of her.

‘But she’s not now?’ Callum couldn’t help but probe. Curiosity was killing him.

Miriam met his eyes. ‘Sadly not.’

Things just didn’t work out for me.

Jessica’s words echoed in his brain. He still didn’t know what they meant, and it just didn’t seem right to be asking someone else. It didn’t matter that Miriam was a colleague—one he’d spoken to on many occasions—he just didn’t feel he could ask anything personal about Jess.

It was an invasion of her privacy. He had no right to ask anything about her. It didn’t matter that his curiosity was currently burning so fiercely in his stomach it would probably cause an ulcer.

Suddenly he was conscious of what he’d just done. He’d been around hospitals long enough to know that even the simplest and vaguest questions could be entirely misinterpreted.

Miriam had gone back to her paperwork—not in the least interested in why Callum was asking questions about Jessica. Thankfully, she had a hundred other things to worry about. The last thing he needed was rumours starting to spread in a hospital. He didn’t want anyone to get the wrong impression.

What was the wrong impression?

He had no idea what he thought about all this.

All he knew for sure was that the haunted look in Jessica’s eyes was going to stick in his brain for the rest of the day. And probably most of the night.

This was wrong. He shouldn’t be thinking about her at all.

He had Drew to worry about. His little boy was his entire life and he didn’t want anything to get in the way of that. He wouldn’t let anything get in the way of that.

The custody battle had been fiercely fought, sapping all his energy and strength. And whilst he’d been on dates in the last year or so, no woman had really attracted his attention. No woman had ever been introduced to his son.

And that was way he intended to continue.

He should walk away.

He should run.

But somehow he knew that come tomorrow afternoon he would be right here.

Right here, waiting for Jessica.

CHAPTER FOUR

CALLUM STARED AT the clock and pulled out his cellphone again. How is Drew? he typed.

Drew had been clingy last night. Definitely not normal for him. He hadn’t wanted to go to bed and had just said he didn’t feel good.

After a day stuck in the freezing-cold Clyde, all Callum had wanted to do was hold him close. So he’d broken all his own rules and let Drew come into bed beside him.

There hadn’t seemed to be anything obvious wrong with Drew. His temperature hadn’t been raised. He hadn’t had a rash. But he’d had a restless night and when he’d stirred his porridge around his plate that morning Callum had looked at the pale little face and had known he couldn’t send him to school today.

Thank goodness for good friends. Julie and Blair were always willing to help out any way they could.

His phone buzzed.

Not eating and a little tired. But managing to watch the TV. Don’t worry. Julie.

Don’t worry. Fat chance.

The door next to him opened. Jess. He stood up straight away and walked over to her. ‘How are you? Are you okay?’ She looked a little better today. There was some colour in her cheeks, her caramel-coloured hair hung in waves around her shoulders and her pink woollen jumper gave the illusion of some curves.

There it was again. The little surge he’d felt yesterday when he’d seen her. That buzz of attraction. He hadn’t imagined it. He hadn’t imagined it at all.

She gestured down the corridor. ‘I’m fine. Honestly. No ill effects.’ She gave him a little smile. She was definitely a little more relaxed today but, then, Parkhill was her comfort zone.

‘How are the kids?’

Her expression was still serious. ‘We’ve still got two in ITU, both serious but stable. Four were allowed home yesterday, another four were kept for observation overnight but are being discharged today. The last two will be in for a few days, both have different kinds of fractures.’

He gave her a knowing smile. ‘Busy day, then?’

She let out a little laugh. ‘What? No way. We’ve only had another thirty admissions on top of the accident yesterday. It’s practically been a walk in the park.’

‘Thirty? Is there some kind of outbreak?’

She nodded. ‘Yip.’ She handed over a set of case notes to the secretary next to them. She folded her arms across her chest. ‘It’s called a Scottish winter.’

‘What do you mean?’

She gave a little shrug. ‘It’s like this every year. Asthma and chest infections flare up and there’s always an outbreak of norovirus somewhere. Public health had to recommend closing two nurseries yesterday.’ She waved her hand. ‘We’ve got a baby with chickenpox in ITU. Oh, and the usual slips, trips and falls. We’re thinking of putting a sign on the door of ward 1C saying Only people in fibreglass may pass these doors.’

He couldn’t help the smile dancing across his face. ‘It’s that bad?’

She gave a little sigh. ‘It’s just how things are. That, and all the parents that come to the desk and give it laldy.’

He smiled. ‘Now, there’s a word I haven’t heard in a while.’

She rolled her eyes. ‘It’s the most accurate description. I said it the other day to one of the Spanish registrars and he was totally lost. Thing is, it’s never the parents with the sickest kids who cause a scene, it’s the ones who probably shouldn’t even be in an A and E department and don’t think they should be waiting.’

‘We get our fair share in the fire service too. Last month it was a guy who called 999 every time his house fire alarm went off.’

‘Did he have a fire?’

Callum shook his head. ‘Nope. He just kept burning his toast and thought we should come out.’

‘Thank goodness. I thought it was just us that got the crazies.’

He looked over at her. Although her outward appearance had improved since yesterday, he could still sense the tiredness in her body.

‘Are you sure you want to do this today? We can do it some other time if it doesn’t suit you.’

She shook her head. ‘You’re going to need the statement at some point and it’s probably best I do it while it’s all still fresh in my mind.’

‘Have you got time for a coffee?’

She glanced at her watch. ‘Actually, I’ve got a couple of hours.’ She looked around her. ‘Can we get out of here for a little while? I need to cover for someone tonight so I’ll be here until tomorrow.’

He bit his tongue. From the look of her she’d already covered last night too. Did she really need to do it again? the thought of getting her out of this place was very appealing. Maybe some fresh air and a change of scene would lessen the tiredness in her eyes. There was no way he’d say no to her.

‘Sure. As long as you don’t mind travelling in a fire and rescue vehicle.’

Her eyes widened. ‘You’ve got a fire engine sitting outside?’ He could hear the edge of excitement in her voice. It was almost everyone’s childhood dream to ride in a fire engine.

He laughed. ‘No, I’ve got the four-by-four. But I’m on call and can be paged at any time, so I need to be ready to go.’

‘Oh.’ She looked a little disappointed. ‘Does that mean you can’t go anywhere?’

He shook his head, his heart clenching a little as he realised she’d looked a little sad at the prospect. ‘Of course I can. But let’s not go too far. That way, if I get paged I can drop you back here quickly. Is there somewhere local you’d prefer?’

She nodded. ‘There’s an Italian coffee shop that does great food and some killer carrot cake about five minutes’ drive from here. Just let me grab my bag and coat.’

He stood for a few seconds until she reappeared at his side, wearing a thick purple wool coat and pink scarf. He smiled. ‘I take it you came prepared today.’

‘After yesterday? I’ve honestly never been so cold. The first thing I did last night was put on the fire, find the biggest, snuggliest pair of pyjamas I could and pull my duvet in front of the fire.’

The picture was conjured up in his head instantly. Snuggly pyjamas might not be the sexiest nightwear he would normally think of for a woman, but it still brought a smile to his face.

They walked outside into the cold air and she automatically moved a little closer to him, letting his body shield her from the biting wind. It was all he could do to stop his arm reaching out to wrap around her waist.

He felt on edge. He hadn’t seen her in years. She had a whole other life he knew nothing about. Little things started to edge into the corners of his mind. Who did Jessica have to snuggle up to after a stressful day at work? Had she spent the night alone in front of the fire?

Curiosity was killing him. Particularly after the comment Miriam had made the previous day about Jessica reverting to her maiden name.

He had a burning sensation to find out why. It suddenly seemed really important—even though it shouldn’t. Did Jessica feel the nervous edge that he did?

But Jess seemed relaxed around him. She shot him another smile as she climbed into the car. ‘You would have been horrified. I even resorted to bedsocks last night!’

‘Were they pink?’ He started the car and pulled out of the car park.

‘How did you guess?’

‘Because some things don’t change.’ Pink had always been her favourite colour. The words had come out before he’d had time to think about them. Because nothing could be further from the truth. Things had changed, for both of them—probably more than they could ever have imagined.

Thirteen years was a long time.

There was silence for a few seconds, as if she was thinking the same kind of thoughts that he was.

She gestured to the side. ‘This way.’ She waited until he changed lanes. ‘I guess I always did like pink,’ she said quietly. She touched the collar of her coat. ‘I’ve even got a pink coat, I just didn’t wear it today.’

Another little memory sparked into his brain. Jessica’s wardrobe. She’d had the biggest array of clothes he’d ever seen. He shot her a smile. ‘Knowing you, you’ve probably got a coat for every colour of the rainbow.’

She tilted her head to the side as if she was racking her brain. ‘Emerald green.’

He raised his eyebrows.

‘That’s the colour I’m missing. I need to get an emerald-green raincoat and the rainbow will be complete.’ She pointed in front of them. ‘It’s just over here. Pull in to the left.’

He halted just in front of the Italian-style coffee shop, walking around and opening the door for her.

The heat hit them as soon as they walked inside, along with a whole host of mouth-watering smells.

He pulled out a chair and helped her off with her coat, before sitting across from her and bringing out his array of paperwork. But his brain wasn’t focusing on the paperwork.

Taking Jessica out of her own environment felt a little odd. It felt personal but this was business. A professional meeting. Nothing more, nothing less. No matter how casual it seemed.

No matter how easy it seemed.

Why did he have to keep reminding himself about that?

He pointed to the menu. ‘What do you recommend?’

‘Anything and everything. There won’t be a single thing in here that you don’t like.’

The waitress appeared at their side.

‘Just a latte for me, please.’

‘No.’

He couldn’t help it. Her thin frame was too much for him. He was resisting the temptation to just order her some mushrooms, a portion of lasagne and some garlic bread. Things they used to eat together a long time ago and he knew that she liked.

He couldn’t help but wonder who was looking out for Jess right now. Surely her friends had spoken to her quietly and told her she’d lost too much weight? It didn’t matter that he hadn’t seen her in years, he couldn’t stand by and say nothing.

The waitress looked a little taken aback. Callum’s eyes ran down the menu. ‘You need more than just coffee. Order something else.’

He could see her take a deep breath, getting ready to argue with him. But he shook his head, the smallest of movements, then reached over and touched her hand. ‘Don’t.’

He kept his gaze steady. They’d been friends for such a long time. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t seen her in years. It didn’t matter that fate had thrown them together. He had no idea what had happened in the last few years for Jess—and she might never tell him. But he could focus on what was in front of him.

The one thing he could do something about.

And she knew him. She knew him well.

She would know that he would never cause a scene, but she would also know that when he was determined, there was no way around him.

Her brown eyes were fixed on where his hand was touching hers. Was she annoyed? Did she think it inappropriate? Because he’d only done what had felt natural—and it didn’t feel inappropriate to him.

He could see the long exhalation of breath, the relaxing of her shoulders, then she lifted her long dark eyelashes to meet his gaze.

The long dark eyelashes that used to tickle his cheeks.

The thought came out of nowhere, triggering a whole host of memories in his brain. Now, they could be inappropriate.

Jess’s fingers moved under his. She looked at the waitress. ‘What’s the soup?’

‘Minestrone or tomato and herb, both served with crusty bread.’

Jess pressed her lips together. ‘I’ll have the minestrone. Please.’ She handed the menu over.

‘I’ll have the same—the soup and a latte.’ Something fired in his brain and he remembered what she’d said in the car. ‘And carrot cake—for both of us, please.’ It wasn’t what he would normally eat at this time. The paperwork was still in front of him. But right now it was the least of his concerns.

Would she tell him what had happened to her in the last few years? And, in return, would he be able to tell her about Drew?

He took the bull by the horns. ‘You’re thin, Jess. A lot thinner than you used to be. I’d rather have bought you a three-course meal than a plate of soup.’

‘Who said I was letting you buy it?’

He smiled. There it was. The spark that had seemed missing at times. The spark that took him back thirteen years.

Every now and then it flared, reappearing out of nowhere. Then the thin veil would come back down and the Jessica that he had once known would disappear.

He leaned back in the chair. Sparring with Jess now felt as natural as it had years ago. ‘Oh, you’re letting me. I can assure you of that.’

‘Still a stubborn bossy boots, then, Callum?’

‘I had a very good teacher,’ was his automatic response. But it only took a second to know what he really should do. He stretched across the table and took both her hands in his. ‘Actually, I’m still a concerned friend.’

He could sense her pull back a little. See her wariness at his actions.

‘We haven’t seen each other in years, Callum. We lost touch. You’ve no idea what’s happened in my life and I’ve no idea what’s happened in yours. If that accident hadn’t happened yesterday, our paths might never have crossed again.’

‘And that would have been a real shame.’ He shook his head. ‘I’m not glad the accident happened. I’m not glad those kids were injured. But I am glad our paths have crossed again. It’s nice to see you.’ His voice was low and the words said quietly. He hoped she could see the sincerity in his eyes.

She paused for a moment then said, ‘It’s nice to see you again too.’ She gave him a little smile. ‘You always were a pest when it came to food.’ She had a glint in her eye, and he could see her visibly relaxing, sinking a little further into her chair and leaning her elbows on the desk so they were closer.

His reaction was entirely natural—he leaned forward too. ‘Jessica Rae, I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.’

She raised her eyebrows, her smile spreading across her face. She placed her head on her hands. ‘What about the cookie incident, then?’

He stifled a laugh.

The memories came flooding back. A visit to the cinema with Jess asking him to hold her coffee and cookie that he’d bought her while she went and washed her hands. They’d been running late and the film had already started by the time they’d fumbled to their seats. It had taken Jess a few minutes to lift the napkin from her purchase and the scream she’d let out had caused the whole cinema to jump in shock.

‘It was only a tiny nibble.’ He shrugged his shoulders.

‘It was a giant-size bite! And then you let me think that it was the boy behind the counter—you were going to let me go and complain.’

He couldn’t stop laughing now, with the still indignant look on her face thirteen years later. ‘Just as well the crumbs gave me away, then.’

Jess started to laugh too. Her shoulders shook as she bent forward and then threw her head back. Jess didn’t have a delicate, polite laugh. It was loud and wholehearted, as if it came all the way from her toes.

There was something so nice about this. The way her skin glowed and her eyes sparkled when she laughed like that. The ease and familiarity of being with someone you felt comfortable around. Someone you shared a history with. Someone who made you feel as if you could look into their eyes and trust what they said.

Someone who wouldn’t run out on you and your child.

Where had that thought come from?

The door to the café opened and a woman and her child bundled in out of the cold. The little boy’s nose was glowing red underneath his woolly hat. He looked around the same age as Drew.

Callum pushed all thoughts of Drew’s mother out of his head and leaned forward to pass a comment to Jess. But the expression on her face stopped him dead.

She’d gone from hearty laughter to deathly pale—almost as if she’d been caught unawares. He bit his tongue, stopping himself from asking what was wrong.

He had to give her time. He had to give her space. If Jess wanted to tell him something she would.

There was silence for a few seconds as he could see her gathering herself.

She nodded at his paperwork. ‘This could take some time. Shouldn’t we get started?’

The barriers were going up again. She was closing herself off from him. Going back to business as usual. ‘What do you need from me?’

The waitress appeared and put down two bowls of steaming-hot minestrone and a basket of crusty bread. ‘I need you to relax for a bit. I want to see you eat. Once you’ve finished we’ll do my paperwork. I need a detailed statement from you.’

He didn’t want the veil to come down. Because when it did Jess had the strangest look in her eyes, almost vacant, as if she was removing herself from the situation. It was obvious that she wasn’t feeling any of the same strange sensations that he was. His brain was currently mush.

Being around Jess was flaring up too many memories in his mind. Sharing memories with Jess was both warming and setting off alarm bells in his head. He’d been awake most of the night, thinking about all the good times that they’d had together.

He hadn’t even told her about Drew yet. And did he want to? He had no idea what he wanted to do about any of this. Could he be friends with Jessica or was it just a recipe for disaster? He’d just have to wait and see.

CHAPTER FIVE

IT WAS THE middle of the night. The snow had given way to sleet and was currently battering the windows in the old Glasgow hospital.

Whilst the ward was dark, most of the windows were adorned with festive lights. A Santa, a snowman and a reindeer stood out twinkling against the black night sky outside. A tree with multicoloured lights flickered at the end of the ward, and strings of icicles were hanging from most of the windows outside the ward bays.