Single Father, Wife Needed Page 2

  At that moment the door to the café opened and a man strolled in. He was taller than average, with lean features and a suggestion of stubble on a firm jaw that hinted at the stubborn. His hair was dark and slightly too long at the back, just touching the collar of the blue linen shirt that he wore tucked into a pair of light-coloured trousers. He had broad shoulders and blue eyes that were sharply observant, and all the females in the café turned to stare as he pushed the door shut with the flat of his hand and strolled towards the counter. ‘Hi, Meg. Can I have a round of toast, please?’ He spoke in a deep, sexy drawl and the coffee cup slipped out of Evanna’s shaking fingers and clattered onto the table, spilling the contents.

  Kyla uttered a sharp expletive and reached for a pile of napkins, dropping them on the table as she tried to staunch the flow of coffee. ‘You’re over him?’ She kept her voice low so that no one else could hear. ‘If you’re over him, Evanna Duncan, why are you dropping things when he walks into a room? Plan A obviously isn’t working so I hope to goodness you have a decent plan B worked out in that head of yours, because it might be time to make the shift. For goodness’ sake—how much coffee was in that cup? It’s like a lake here.’ She mopped frantically but Evanna didn’t even notice. She was too busy trying to control the frantic shaking of her limbs.

  ‘I don’t— I can’t—’

  ‘Evanna?’ Kyla dropped more napkins on the soggy mess, but her sharp whisper held a note of concern. ‘You’re as white as chalk—are you all right?’

  No. She wasn’t all right. Her pulse was thundering at a ridiculous rate and she knew that if she’d tried to stand, she would have sunk to the ground in a heap.

  Oh, no, no, no! She’d thought she had her feelings well and truly under control. She’d thought—

  Her thoughts froze altogether as Logan strolled over to them, a smile in his wicked blue eyes.

  ‘So this is where both my nurses are hiding. Now that I’m here, we could have a practice meeting. It’s long overdue.’

  Evanna found it almost impossible not to stare. She’d always found it impossible not to stare at him. In primary school, when she’d been just five years old, she’d gazed at him from the corner of the playground—stared at the dark-haired, blue-eyed god who had come to collect Kyla from school. In secondary school she’d drunk in every detail with the dawning awareness that came with the onset of womanhood. And then he’d left the island to train as a doctor and had returned only for holidays and she’d stared at his photograph—the one taken on the beach during the summer that he’d been a lifeguard. His chest was bare and bronzed and he was laughing into the camera.

  She still had the photo.

  ‘Evanna.’ His mouth moved into a smile and her gaze was drawn to his mouth. It was firm and sensual and, in her opinion, designed for kissing. Not that she’d know, she thought miserably as she tore her eyes away, because Dr Logan MacNeil had never kissed her and was never likely to. He’d kissed just about every girl on the island, but never her. He just didn’t think of her that way. In fact, it was probably true to say that he didn’t notice her at all. She was part of the island he’d grown up on, as much part of the scenery as the beaches and the mountains.

  ‘Can I join you?’ He spoke in that deep voice that always turned her knees to liquid and made her think of sex and seduction.

  ‘Of course. Hi, Logan.’ She struggled to keep her voice casual and quickly moved her hands to her lap so that he couldn’t see them shaking.

  Her reaction was pathetic, she told herself. About as pathetic as hanging onto an ancient, dog-eared photograph.

  Kyla scrunched up the saturated napkins and stood up to throw them in the bin, casting a long, meaningful look in Evanna’s direction.

  ‘Well, I’m certainly glad to see you home, Evanna.’ Logan sat back as Meg placed the toast and coffee in front of him. ‘I’ve missed you, desperately. Every moment that you were away seemed like an hour.’

  Evanna’s hands clenched in her lap and she felt an involuntary dart of pleasure at his words. He’d missed her? ‘R-really? You missed me?’

  ‘Yes, really. How can you doubt it?’ He spread butter on his toast with those long, lean fingers that she knew were so skilled with patients. ‘It’s the summer. Glenmore Island is heaving with tourists and every surgery is packed. Not the best time for one of my precious nurses to go swanning off to the mainland for a month, even if it was part of her professional development.’ He smiled the smile that had every woman on the island reeling. ‘Of course I missed you. Did you think I wouldn’t?’

  Professional development.

  He’d missed her at work. Evanna gritted her teeth and looked away from that charismatic smile. It was always about work. She was his practice nurse and nothing more.

  She swallowed down the disappointment, reminding herself that she’d always known that. Hadn’t she just spent an entire month dissecting their relationship in minute detail? Hadn’t she been brutally honest with herself about the way he saw her? The answer was yes to both questions, so why did hearing him confirm her analysis hurt so much? If anything, she should take it as confirmation that she was doing the right thing. And no matter how hard it turned out to be—and she knew it was going to be incredibly hard—she was going to move on.

  Kyla sat down again. ‘Evanna had a good time on her refresher course.’ Her tone was cool and pointed, and Logan glanced up from buttering his toast.

  ‘Good.’ He bit into the toast and lifted a hand in greeting to one of the locals who was strolling along the quay. ‘It’s busy out there today. Day-trippers as well as the usual tourists. The lifeguards are going to be busy on the beach. Let’s hope it’s a quiet one. There’s a wind blowing so I wouldn’t be surprised if the lifeboat sees some business today.’

  Kyla’s fingers drummed on the table. ‘She met lots of people.’ She emphasised each word carefully, as if English wasn’t his first language.

  Logan dragged his eyes from the window, obviously alerted by something in his sister’s tone. ‘Who did?’

  ‘Evanna. On her course on the mainland, she met lots of people.’

  Evanna blushed. ‘Kyla…’

  But Kyla was still looking at her brother, a dangerous light in blue eyes that were exactly like his. ‘She’s been away for a month, remember?’

  ‘You’re moody today. Of course I remember.’ Logan buttered the second piece of toast. ‘Why wouldn’t I? We’ve all been covering her clinics because the agency nurse they sent was hopeless. As I said, it’s good to have you back, Evanna.’

  Kyla gritted her teeth. ‘She went out a lot. Met a lovely registrar. Really nice guy. Good-looking. They got on brilliantly.’

  ‘That’s good to hear.’ Logan finished his toast, licked his fingers and rose to his feet, his eyes on the street. ‘There’s Doug McDonald. Excuse me. I’ve been trying to catch up with him all week. Since he had the heart attack he’s afraid to push himself and I think he needs to do more. Perhaps he could go to your exercise class, Evanna? People always seem to like doing that. I suppose they have confidence because the instructor is a nurse. See you in surgery this afternoon. Janet’s booked you a full clinic.’ He patted her arm and walked towards the door, pausing by a table to exchange a few words with the couple that ran a small guesthouse near one of the island’s best beaches.

  ‘You see?’ Evanna’s voice was soft and she blinked several times to clear her vision. ‘I’m just a piece of medical equipment. His practice nurse. He feels the same way about me as he does about the ECG machine. We’re both useful tools that help his life run smoothly. If he could, he’d plug me into the electricity supply to make me function more efficiently.’

  Kyla was simmering with frustration. ‘I’m starting to think my brother is thick.’

  ‘He isn’t thick. He’s very clever, you know that. He just isn’t interested and that’s fine.’

  ‘It isn’t fine. How can you say that it’s fine?’

  Because it had to be. Wh
at choice did she have? ‘You can’t make someone love you, Kyla,’ Evanna muttered, reaching down to pick up her bag. Suddenly she just wanted to go home. Back to the peace and tranquillity of her little cottage. She needed to get her thoughts back together before she started work. Needed to rediscover some of the strength and resolve she’d found during her time on the mainland.

  She dropped some money on the table for her coffee just as the door opened and Fraser stood there, his hat askew and his face scarlet. ‘Dr MacNeil!’ He was breathless from running. ‘I saw— You have to come—now.’ He snatched in another tortured breath and Logan turned swiftly, concern in his eyes.

  ‘Fraser? What did you see?’ He strode over to the boy and put a hand on his shoulder. ‘You must have run like the wind to be this out of breath. It’s all right. Calm down. Now, what’s happened?’

  Fraser waved a hand towards the beach beyond the harbour. ‘Drowning.’ He sucked in a breath. ‘Kid in a rubber dinghy thing. Fell in.’

  Without wasting time on questions, Logan left the café at a run with Fraser at his heels.

  Evanna and Kyla followed, dodging the throngs of tourists ambling along the quay before sprinting down the steps onto the sand.

  ‘He’s gone!’ A young woman holding a tiny baby was running up and down the sand at the edge of the waves, frantically scanning the water. ‘He was in the boat and now he’s gone!’

  ‘I saw him.’ Fraser backed away from the mother and moved closer to Logan, instinctively seeking protection from the woman’s mounting hysteria and the baby’s howling. ‘We were up on the cliffs. He leant out of the boat with this bucket thing and a wave caught the boat and he fell. Straight down.’

  The woman’s wails turned to screams and Logan took Fraser to one side, his tone urgent.

  ‘Where, exactly?’ He was ripping off his shirt as he spoke. ‘And how long ago did he fall?’

  Fraser shrugged. ‘About two minutes? We started running down as soon as it happened. The wind’s blowing off shore so I suppose it was probably there.’ Fraser pointed. ‘You want me to go in and look?’

  ‘No. I want you to stay right here.’ Logan thrust his clothes into Fraser’s hands and handed him a mobile phone. ‘Call the coastguard on that and then go to my car and get my bag. Here are the keys. Then stay here with Evanna and do everything she says. Everything.’

  ‘OK.’ Fraser nodded importantly and punched the number into the phone. ‘I’ll give them the details. Be careful, Dr MacNeil.’

  Logan looked at Evanna, his ice-blue eyes sharp and alert. ‘Beach duty.’

  She nodded, reading his mind. He wanted her to coordinate efforts on the beach. He didn’t want any of the tourists plunging into the waves on a rescue mission, because they were likely to get into trouble. He didn’t want little Fraser going in. He wanted her to give support to the mother and then help the rescue services.

  Logan lifted the buoyancy aid that he’d grabbed from the top of the beach and ran with a long-limbed, athletic stride towards the sea. At any other time she would have admired the strength and power of his body but the crisis was unfolding in front of her. The mother was screaming now, a thin, high-pitched panicky noise that cut through the air like a knife. A crowd had gathered in the way that humans always gathered when they scented disaster.

  Kyla moved them back. ‘Come on, now. Nothing to see.’ Her tone was clipped. Efficient. ‘Move right back, please. Go to the far end of the beach. Right back. That’s right. We’re going to need to land a helicopter here.’

  Fraser was speaking to the coastguard on the phone and Evanna turned to the mother and slid an arm round her shoulders.

  ‘You poor thing. You must be frantic with worry but try and calm down so that we can ask you some questions,’ she said gently. ‘How old is he?’

  ‘Six.’ The mother gave a gulp and jiggled the baby to try and soothe it. ‘He’s just six. Jason. He’s so little.’

  ‘And he was in some sort of boat?’

  ‘I only turned my back for a minute. I was changing the baby.’ She sucked air in and out of her lungs, her eyes wild. ‘It was just a minute.’

  And a minute was more than long enough when water was involved, Evanna thought as she squinted towards the sea. ‘What boat?’ She couldn’t see a boat. Only a small toy blow-up boat of the sort that people used in swimming pools.

  ‘There! That’s it.’ The mother pointed to the toy. ‘We bought it in the beach shop on the quay.’

  ‘He was in that?’ Evanna couldn’t quite believe that anyone would have considered such a flimsy toy sufficient protection for a child in open water and her shock must have sounded in her voice because the woman stiffened defensively.

  ‘He was just playing near the shore. I thought he was fine. It was just for a minute…’ The woman was sobbing again, clutching at Evanna who supported her and glanced towards Fraser with a question in her eyes.

  He slipped Logan’s phone into the pocket of his jeans and gave her a thumbs-up.

  Evanna smiled her approval and watched as he sprinted across the sand, arms and legs pumping as he went to fetch Logan’s bag. ‘The lifeboat is on its way.’

  The baby was red in the face from howling and Evanna glanced towards Kyla. She gave a nod and strode up to the woman.

  ‘Let me take the baby,’ she offered briskly. ‘One less thing for you to worry about.’

  ‘I don’t want to let her out of my sight.’

  ‘Kyla is a nurse at the local practice,’ Evanna said quickly. ‘We both are.’

  ‘Oh—in that case, I know I’m just upsetting her.’ Struggling with her own sobs, the woman handed the baby over and Kyla expertly tucked the squalling child against her shoulder and walked away.

  Evanna calmed the woman as best she could and watched as Logan dived into the waves. He cut through the water with a powerful front crawl, reached the little boat and then made a guess as to where the boy might have fallen.

  ‘Wow.’ Fraser was standing beside her, Logan’s bag at his feet, his eyes wide with hero-worship as he stared. ‘Dr MacNeil must be diving down to look below the surface. He’s a brilliant swimmer, isn’t he, Nurse Duncan? He got a bronze Olympic medal, didn’t he? And he saved that kid two summers ago and it was all over the papers. I’m going to be a lifeguard when I’m older, like he was. And a doctor. He’s so cool.’

  Evanna tried to look relaxed but the tension gripped her like a vice. ‘He’s a good swimmer, Fraser,’ she agreed, as much to reassure herself as the little boy and the mother.

  The woman was clutching Evanna’s hand. ‘We had a terrible night,’ she whispered. ‘The baby cries all the time and my husband and I are both exhausted so I said I’d bring them both down to the beach for an hour to give him a chance to catch up on some sleep. When Jason asked if he could take the boat in the sea, I didn’t even think it would be dangerous. I imagined he’d just stay by the shore.’

  ‘It shelves quite deeply here and the currents are strong,’ Fraser said solemnly, and Evanna saw the woman’s face pale. And then noticed something.

  ‘There. Can you see the lifeboat?’ She lifted a hand and pointed. ‘They’ll be able to help in the search.’

  ‘But if he’s at the bottom of the ocean…’ The woman choked on the words.

  Then Logan’s head bobbed above the water for a few seconds before he disappeared again, this time further out to sea.

  Three times his head appeared and then disappeared and on the fourth occasion he came up holding the body of the little boy.

  ‘He’s got him. Cool.’ Fraser’s voice was triumphant but Evanna saw what the mother immediately saw. That the little boy was limp and lifeless.

  ‘Spread out your rug,’ Evanna ordered. ‘Dr MacNeil is going to need somewhere to put him. And get all the layers you can find.’

  ‘It’s August.’ The woman looked at her blankly and Evanna saw the shock in her eyes.

  ‘It doesn’t make any difference that it’s August. The sea is still
freezing and we’re going to need to warm him up. Fraser.’ Evanna looked at the boy. ‘You and your friends clear a spot for the helicopter to land. You know the drill. Everyone to secure everything that moves. Go. Move.’

  But she spoke the last few words to the air because Fraser had already sprinted off to do what needed to be done.

  Logan strode out of the water, carrying the boy level in his arms. ‘I’m going to try tipping him upside down.’ His expression was grim. ‘He was stuck on the bottom. He must have caught his foot in seaweed. It took me several goes to free him.’

  ‘No!’ The mother was screaming with horror and another holidaymaker took her to one side and put her arms around her, giving the medical team space to work.

  ‘Evanna?’ Logan’s voice was sharp as he laid the boy flat on the rug. ‘Did you get my stuff from the car?’

  ‘Fraser did. It’s all here.’ She flipped open the case. ‘His name is Jason and he’s six years old. Do you want to start CPR?’

  ‘Not yet.’ Logan felt for a carotid pulse. ‘I’m hoping he’s just bradycardic. Come on, Jason. Wake up, for us. Damn. He’s in respiratory arrest.’

  ‘Logan—’

  ‘Respiratory arrest precedes cardiac arrest in drowning. He’s got a pulse.’ Logan started to examine the boy more thoroughly, his hands swift and skilled. ‘Did Fraser manage to bring the oxygen?’

  ‘It’s here.’

  There was a clacking sound overhead as the helicopter arrived but Logan was focused on Jason, leaving others to deal with the arrival of the helicopter. ‘He’s breathing but his core temperature is thirty-four degrees. We need to warm him up. What layers do we have?’

  Evanna reached forward and covered the boy, noticing that his face was chalky white. ‘Do you want to aspirate his stomach?’

  Just then the boy screwed up his face and started to cough violently, and Logan gave Evanna a swift nod. ‘We have lift-off. Jason? Speak to me. You’re worrying your mother. Wake up.’

  The boy’s eyes fluttered open and he started to cough again.