EXTRACT FROM THEIR CHRISTMAS VOWS
Today was the first day of the rest of her life, and Callie
Grogan was determined that nothing would go wrong.
At the cusp of dawn she left her car in the parking area
and stood to stare across at the hangar looming adjacent
to the building which housed the air ambulance base on
the outskirts of town. Streamers of mist whispered
low over the icy ground, while frost edged the fences and
the bare branches of the trees and bushes around the perimeter. A
line of mini-icicles hung off the gutters along the roof
line of the single-storey building. Her breath misted
the air and she stomped her feet, wishing she had pulled
on an extra pair of socks before putting on her boots. As
it was, she was wearing thermal underwear, a pair of jogging
bottoms and a long-sleeved fleece under her flight suit. Yes,
it was winter in Scotland, but she hadn't expected Strathlochan
to be this cold.
A grey, wet November had given way to a December which
had brought with it a blast of unexpected cold. Winter
had taken a firm grip with hard frosts, fog, ice, and even
the threat of early snow. Not ideal conditions for
flying, but ones that increased the need for emergency
care with an upsurge in accidents and weather-induced incidents.
Under a lowering sky, the hangar doors peeped open, and
as she approached the building she could see the engineering
crew, who had worked on routine maintenance overnight,
preparing the helicopter for the day's work. When
the threat of ice lifted, they would steer it out onto
the forecourt, from where they could take off within a
couple of minutes of an emergency call coming in.
Callie felt a renewed burst of excitement. She couldn't
wait to begin her shift. After a terrible eighteen
months, this was her chance for a whole new life. She
was healthy. She'd thrown herself into work, determined
to be the best she could possibly be. She was also
alone. But that was nothing new. Aside from
the brief misjudgement with Ed, she had always been alone. From
now on she always would be. It had taken time, she
had been at her lowest ebb, but she had put her life back
together. Now she planned to make the most of the
unexpected opportunity moving to Strathlochan had given
her.
She had been working as a paramedic in Glasgow when she
had learned of the new air ambulance base opening further
south, and she had lost no time in applying for a position. Having
completed her additional training and safety courses to
work on the helicopter, she had imagined she would have
to spend time on the road ambulances before a vacancy became
available. The news that she was top of the list
and headed for the flight team straight away had delighted
her. Until she had arrived in town and heard all
about the playboy doctor who was to be her flight partner. Frazer
McInnes.
Callie had been in Strathlochan for a week now. A
week that had thankfully coincided with Dr McInnes's holiday. A
week which had been full of learning, orientation and finding
her feet. Several times she had been out on flights
as an observer. She had spent time with the land
ambulance crews, whose base was combined with that of the
fire rescue service and was situated a few hundred yards
along the road from the air base, with easy access to the
town and the motorway. After learning her way around
the area with them, she'd visited the hospital, especially
the A and E department, familiarising herself with the
layout so she would be prepared when delivering a casualty
for urgent treatment.
She had known what a long and fine tradition the Scottish
ambulance service had in providing medical air cover throughout
the country, both to the mainland and the islands, with
helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. How the new
air ambulance base in Strathlochan had come into being
was something she discovered from her new boss, Dr Archie
Stewart, during their first detailed briefing.
'The publicity surrounding the Sir Morrison Ackerman's
funding of the new self-harm and eating disorders clinic
near the town sparked local campaigns for further investment
in Strathlochan's medical facilities,' Archie had explained. 'Strathlochan
has grown immensely over the years, and serves a large
rural population scattered over a vast area, not to mention
the busy motorway, road and rail links that pass through. The
region is on the edge of the existing air services, which
means having a helicopter based here significantly cuts
down response times. It has been running for six
months now, and has paid for itself time and again, saving
umpteen lives.' Archie Stewart's pride in the achievement
of his staff had been evident. 'Our operation is
affiliated to, yet separate and run slightly differently
from, the main air service in the rest of Scotland. We
have our own shift patterns and we're crewed along the
lines of the successful HEMS unit in London, with a pilot
and a flight trauma doctor teamed with a specially trained
flight paramedic.'
Callie had learned that there were three full-time crews
who worked three days on, three nights on, and then had
three days off – night work and bad weather seeing
crews using the all-terrain road vehicle rather than the
helicopter. There was a relief crew, and individual
relief staff, who filled in for holidays, illness and emergencies.
'The helicopter can fly at night, but landings are dangerous
if the pilot cannot see obstacles, cables and so on, so
we tend to avoid it unless absolutely necessary,' Archie
had explained. A smile had creased his weathered
face. 'You'll find we're a good team, here – like
a second family ... We work together, watch
out for each other, socialise together. You're a
part of that now, Callie.'
A second family. Except she didn't even have a first family. She
never had done. Having always been alone, on the
outside looking in, this was a chance to experience what
it was like to belong. If only she could let down
some of her protective barriers. That was easier
said than done – especially after Ed, and all she
had been through these last months – but she knew
she needed to try and be more social, to make an effort
to fit in to her new home in Strathlochan. So she
had gone out one evening last week, enjoying a drink with
her new workmates and meeting up with colleagues from the
hospital and other emergency services at their favourite
hangout, the Strathlochan Arms. The banter had been
friendly, the welcome warm.
Despite her wariness with people, she had particularly
bonded with Annie Webster, one of the A and E doctors. It
gave Callie hope that she had been right to come here,
putting her troubled past behind her. However, the
gossip about Frazer McInnes, the doctor Archie had paired
her with, worried her. One hungry-looking casualty
nurse had been outspoken on her views of the alleged romeo,
but her unsubtle comments about Frazer's supposed prowess
and love-them-and-leave-them lifestyle had made Annie roll
her eyes in distaste.
'Take no notice of Olivia and her claimed conquests, Callie. She
has her eye on every man around here under sixty, but that
doesn't mean they return her interest. Frazer may
be one of Strathlochan's most sought-after bachelors, and
he certainly enjoys a good time, but he's a lovely guy. He's
also a great doctor,' Annie had reassured her.
At least, Callie assumed the words had been meant as reassuring. They
just hadn't entirely had that effect. Everything
she had heard about Frazer McInnes made her nervous and
brought fresh waves of doubt. She would keep up her
guard and reserve judgement until she met him. And
today was the day. All her struggles and preparations
had led her here, to the moment she would begin her exciting,
long-dreamed-of new job as flight paramedic, when all the
extra training and hard work she had done would pay off. Professionally. Personally
she still had a very long way to go.
Hesitating outside the entrance, she twisted the narrow
gold band on her ring finger before sliding it off and
fixing it to a chain around her neck, out of the way for
work. She didn't like what it said about her, the
fact that she was insecure enough to wear it, using it
as an emotional shield, a protective screen. She'd
hoped she had come further than that these last eighteen
months. Apparently not. A shiver – one
that had nothing to do with the cold – rippled down
her spine.
Hearing noises in the hangar, she pulled herself together
and sucked in a steadying breath, trying to calm the nerves
that were rampaging inside her. Time to head inside
and prepare for her first proper shift. And face
her first meeting with the man who would be her work partner
for the foreseeable future.
*
Dr Frazer McInnes jogged across the frosty car park towards
the base, his Border terrier, Hamish, trotting at his heels. If
the forecast was to be believed – and from the icy
blast that had greeted him this morning, it was – he
had arrived back in Strathlochan after ten days in Perthshire,
climbing Monroes with friends, just in time.
He loved this time of year – the run up to Christmas,
the festive spirit, the parties, the fun – but it
also brought a lot of hard work, and the extra-harsh weather
this December was a warning that there could be even more
problems than usual ahead of them. Not that hard
work bothered him. He loved it. Loved what
he did. The buzz of being a flight doctor, of never
knowing what was going to happen next, always brought a
burst of adrenalin. It was what everyone said about
him – that he worked hard and played hard. As
far as he was concerned, life was for living, and he always
planned to live it to the fullest.
The holiday had been great, but he had a smile on his
face as he pushed through the door, anticipation at being
back with the team and getting on with the job bubbling
inside him. Hearing chat and laughter coming from
along the corridor, he stowed his belongings in his locker
and then made his way to the crew room, where the team
going off-shift were preparing to hand over to his own
before heading for home. He paused for a moment,
soaking up the atmosphere, sketching a wave to his pilot,
Craig Dalglish, who was helping himself to a mug of coffee
in the refreshment area which housed food and drink supplies,
a fridge-freezer and a microwave. The rest
of the large but comfortable room was filled with easy
chairs, sofa, tables, a work space, a small pool table,
a piano, shelves of books and a TV with assorted DVDs.
As Hamish, unofficial base mascot, made himself the centre
of attention and reacquainted himself with his adoring
public, Frazer glanced around the room, his smile broadening
as he spied his quarry. In her forties, married with
two teenage boys, Mel Watson was his friend and colleague. They
had a great working relationship and were always playing
pranks on each other. In fact, he owed her for that
last practical joke before his holiday, and with her rear
end pointing straight at him as she bent over to reach
something, he'd been gifted with the perfect opportunity
to get his own back. It was way too much temptation
to resist.
Silently, he moved up behind her and teasingly fondled
her shapely curves. For a millisecond unease nudged
his brain that the delectable feminine form beneath his
hands wasn't as familiar as it should have been. The
next moment ...
Bam!
The blow caught him unprepared. Delivered with surprising
force and accuracy, it drove all the air from his lungs
and dropped him like a sack of potatoes. Stunned,
he landed on his backside, a grunt of shock escaping as
he sprawled unceremoniously on the floor. His assailant – not Mel,
he registered now it was far too late – spun round
and glared at him, fists clenched at her sides, her feet
planted hip-width apart as if readying for battle. Wow! If
he had managed to regain any breath at all, he would have
lost it all again just looking at the unknown woman. In
her late twenties, she couldn't be more than five feet
four, and that was being generous, so how on earth could
her legs possibly seem to go on forever? The yellow
Nomex flight suit she wore was a good two sizes too big,
masking the female shape he had all too briefly felt beneath
his hands and swamping her small frame. Short dark
brown hair, layered and feathery, framed delicate features,
a cute nose and lush, rosy lips, while the most amazing
eyes he had ever seen – surely they couldn't really
be purple? - fizzed with fire and fury.
Silence descended on the room for several drawn-out moments.
Then his colleagues laughed uproariously at his plight. Their
reaction, however, made the woman even more angry, and
he regretted the flash of humiliation he could see in her
eyes. He'd never do anything to show someone up. This
had all been a ghastly mistake. His hand went to
the point of pain at his midriff, where her elbow had delivered
the killer blow, and he tried to suck some much-needed
oxygen back into painfully-starved lungs so he could speak.
But she didn't wait around to concern herself with his
apology ... or his recovery. Instead, she stepped
around him, giving him a wide berth, then marched from
the room. It was an impressive march, too, for such
a tiny thing. Now he had seen the whole impressive
package, he couldn't understand how he had ever mistaken
the stranger for the taller, more robust Mel, who was also
at least a decade or more older than the firebrand who'd
just decked him. As he sat there, bemused and bewildered,
his friends' merriment continued at his expense. Only
Hamish came to check on his well-being. Thankful
for at least one display of loyalty, Frazer scratched the
dog behind the ears, his fingers sinking below the harsh
outer coat to the softer one below.
'Trust you to make such a great first impression, Frazer,'
Craig, the pilot on his flight team, tormented him.
'Yeah, I wish I wasn't going home,' Rick Duncan, a paramedic
coming off-shift, added with evident enjoyment. 'I'd
love to be around for the fireworks to come. You've
met your match now, buddy!'
Still winded, Frazer frowned. 'Who was that?'
'The new flight paramedic.'
A sick feeling of dread settled inside him at Craig's
grin. 'Whose?'
'Yours!'
'Damnation.' Groaning, he levered himself up off
the floor, his dignity well and truly shot to pieces.
Their Christmas Vows
Margaret McDonagh
Mills & Boon Medical Romance
In the CHRISTMAS WEDDINGS anthology
Paperback – November 2007
ISBN: 978 0263 865738
Copyright © 2007
Margaret McDonagh
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher.
Cover copyright © 2007 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited
The edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
For more romance information surf to: www.eHarlequin.com
Artwork by Jim
Wylie |
