Rescued by Dr. Rafe (9 page)

Then Mimi. She was hanging back, fidgeting in one corner of the garage.

‘What time shall I pick you up tomorrow?'

‘Eight would be fine. If you get any sleep.' She seemed determined to leave him in no doubt that he was being petty and that thought was unexpectedly warming.

‘Eight it is. Make coffee.' He turned, walking away from her to the SUV.

‘You'll need it. They tell me those mattresses in the on-call rooms are like boards.' She flung the words after him and Rafe hid a smile. It seemed that cold acceptance wasn't Mimi's style any more.

CHAPTER TEN

M
IMI
WAS
ALMOST
surprised when she saw Rafe's SUV draw up outside the cottage at eight sharp. She'd slept last night, but it was only a long day and a very full stomach that had facilitated that. This morning she'd woken early in a fever of uncertainty as to whether Rafe wouldn't decide that she was surplus to requirements and that he'd be much better off working alone today.

She'd drawn the curtains back carefully, leaving a small chink next to the wall so that she could watch for him without standing at the window. Aware that pulling them straight might produce a telltale curtain-twitch, she left them as they were and ran into the kitchen. It wouldn't do to let him know that she was anything less than one hundred per cent confident that he would come. Unless he didn't, in which case she'd decided to text him and tell him that she hadn't expected him anyway.

It seemed an age before the doorbell rang. She almost took up her position at the window again, wondering if he'd changed his mind and driven off. But he was there, on the doorstep. Unshaven and looking slightly the worse for wear, but a night at the hospital would do that to you.

‘I'm just making breakfast. Care to join me?' She made the request seem as off-the-cuff as she could manage.

‘Yeah. Thanks.'

He followed her into the kitchen, taking off his coat and putting his phone on the table. Mimi set two places, taking juice from the fridge and setting the coffee machine to brew. The croissants were warming in the oven, and she piled them on to a plate and set it on the table.

‘Charlie bought them for me. He got me some shopping yesterday.' There was enough for two here, and Mimi didn't want to give the impression that she'd gone out of her way. In fact, she'd already been out this morning, catching the local bakery when it opened at seven.

Rafe nodded. ‘They smell good. I couldn't face the canteen this morning; I was going to pick something up when we got on the road.'

‘You can't work without a good breakfast.' Mimi wondered whether that sounded as if she was mollycoddling him. Whenever she wasn't working, she'd always sent him off in the morning with a good breakfast and a kiss.

‘Neither can you.' He motioned her to sit. ‘I'll get the coffee.'

Mimi sat down, watching as he walked over to the coffee machine. He had a kind of grace, an economy of movement that served to emphasise the gestures he did make. Unshaven suited him. Jeans and a sweater suited him. Everything suited Rafe.

‘Aren't you going to ask me how I slept?' He was leaning against the countertop, his arms folded, his lips twitching in a half-smile.

‘Do I need to?'

‘Not really. Just thought you might like to make the point.'

‘All right.' She couldn't help shooting him her most innocent look. ‘Sleep well?'

‘Nope. I've got an ache in my shoulders you wouldn't believe.'

Time was that she'd offer to massage them for him. But then time was that he wouldn't have even mentioned it, considering that any aches and pains were his to deal with. It was an odd form of sharing, but nonetheless a break in his stubborn self-sufficiency.

‘I dare say it'll ease once you get moving.'

He turned back to the coffee, grinning. ‘Dare say it will.'

* * *

It was a busy day again. A good day. As long as they both kept up the pace, working as hard as they could, not leaving room for anything else, they were able to slip into the kind of relationship they'd never enjoyed when they were sleeping together.

Although Rafe was the doctor on the team, he was standing back, letting her take the lead with their patients whenever possible. Mimi could feel her confidence growing, and she was beginning to live for his quiet nods of approval.

By four o'clock she was aching from long hours spent in the car and her head was buzzing with both exhilaration and fatigue. Rafe stopped by a coffee shop, overlooking a pretty village green. ‘Time for coffee?'

‘Definitely. I'll get it.'

By the time Mimi had queued, passed the time of day with a couple of people and returned to the car, he was gone. She could see him over the road, sitting on a bench under a tree which was usually three feet away from the banks of the river which snaked through the green space but was now on the water's edge.

‘You've got something to explain to me?' When she sat down next to him and handed him his coffee, Mimi saw that he had a pad of paper balanced on his lap.

‘Nope. We're on a break.' He gave her one of his most gorgeous smiles. The one that said the world could wait for a moment. This was Rafe's safety valve. Some people talked things out of their system, a couple of her colleagues had their own blogs, but Rafe seemed to have developed the capacity to just change gear, leave it all behind for a while and divert all of his attention to something else.

‘So what
are
you doing?'

‘I'm making a boat.' He tore a leaf from the pad and started folding.

Mimi put the coffee down on the bench between them. When talking about things just sent you round in circles, sometimes Rafe's solution was the better one. It was usually a great deal more fun.

‘Give me a sheet, then.'

Rafe's boat turned out to be a complex, double-hulled affair which took more than one sheet of paper and sported a sail. Mimi stuck to a basic coracle shape, but she could make three in the time it took for Rafe to make his one.

They walked to the water's edge. Like a pair of kids with nothing else to do but mess around with paper boats. Mimi carefully placed her boats and, as the surface of the pond rippled in the breeze, two of them floated towards his.

‘Watch out, Rafe, my pirates will be boarding you any minute...' She grinned up at him.

‘No, they won't.' He picked up a stick, nudging his boat away from hers, and it began to drift slowly toward the centre of the pond. ‘And anyway...'

He produced a wrap of paper from his pocket. ‘What's that?'

‘Duck food. My secret weapon.' He gave her a Machiavellian grin. ‘Found it in the glove compartment.'

He'd been feeding the ducks without her. Of course he had. She couldn't have expected Rafe to go five years without taking time out to feed the ducks.

He tipped a measure into his hand, and then hers. Then threw some of the food into the water. ‘Here they come...'

A large green and blue duck was making for the food, diving for it as it sank beneath the surface. Another well-aimed throw hit one of Mimi's coracles and the duck tipped it upside down in its eagerness to get at the food.

‘Hey! Two can play at that game.' She aimed for Rafe's boat and it wobbled slightly on the water as the grains hit it. ‘Come on...' She urged a smaller brown speckled duck on, which was paddling across the water towards it.

‘No, no, no...' Rafe clapped one hand to his forehead as his boat lurched and relaxed as it righted itself. ‘Yesss...'

They were both laughing. Rafe managed to lure another duck towards her second boat and it nudged its beak inside before lifting it out of the water entirely. The little brown duck was making his boat wobble dangerously, but somehow it survived the onslaught.

Mimi still had one boat left, caught amongst the roots of a tree. Picking up a fallen branch, she clambered across to nudge it out on to the water. Leaning out to free the boat, she felt herself begin to tip.

‘Rafe...!' A knee-jerk reaction—screaming for him before she knew quite what she was doing. And, by the same instinct, he was there, pulling her back from the water's edge.

He didn't let go. Mimi dropped the stick, turning in his arms.

‘Nearly...' He was holding her tight. In a sudden, controlled movement, he threatened to spin her backwards into the water, and then pulled her back again. Mimi clung to him.

‘You wouldn't...'

‘Is that a dare?'

She knew better than to dare Rafe, particularly when he was in this mood. He might not actually push her in, but he'd find some way of dangling her so close to the water that she'd be hanging on to him, begging him not to.

‘No.' She tightened her grip on his jacket.

‘Because a dare would be...' Something melted in his eyes. The reserve that had been keeping them both safe.

‘Dangerous...' She whispered the word.

‘Yeah. Very.' He didn't let go of her. And Mimi couldn't let go of him.

Getting wet was the least of her worries. Rafe had her in his arms and the look in his eyes... Suddenly nothing was impossible. A vision of their naked limbs, twisted languidly together, flashed into her imagination, making her heart pound.

He was so close. His lips a whisper away. If he kissed her... If he
didn't
kiss her, she was going to kiss him.

‘Please... Let me go.' If he didn't move away now, she wasn't sure that she could. And kissing him would only open up old wounds, not heal them.

Wordlessly he moved back, holding on to her hand as she stepped away from the precipice. Steadying her when she almost tripped over a tree root.

‘Ready to go back to work?' His gaze was thoughtful. Tender.

‘Yes.'

He glanced over her shoulder and Mimi followed his gaze. There was no trace of the remaining boats, both of them having been scuppered by the ducks.

‘What do you reckon?' He was searching in his pocket for something. ‘A gaggle of ducks?'

She grinned. ‘No, I think that's geese.' Rafe had changed gear again, turning away from the things that threatened to hurt them. But this time he seemed intent on bringing her with him, lightening her load.

Mimi picked up the empty coffee cups as Rafe tapped a search into his phone. ‘A sabotage of ducks?'

He chuckled. ‘Yeah. Actually, it's not as good as that. It's a paddling or a waddling. Depending on whether they're in or out of the water, presumably.'

Mimi strolled to the car with him as he laughed over the list of collective nouns he'd found on the Internet. A murder of crows. A parliament of owls.

It was time to go back to work.

* * *

This was going to be the last call of the day. If it hadn't been for the fact that each call meant that someone was in trouble then Mimi would have been sorry.

‘They should be on the road, here somewhere.' She leaned forward, straining to see through the rain and the darkness. A light shone briefly and disappeared. Then describing an arc, up ahead of them.

‘I see them.' Rafe slowed to a crawl in the teeming rain as the car headlights illuminated a figure standing in the middle of the road, signalling with a distress lantern. Another figure was sitting, hunched over, in the shelter of a tree by the side of the road, and a few yards further up a car was nose-down in the ditch.

The white rear number plates reflected in the glare of the headlights and Mimi saw that it was a European registration, with a D under a circle of stars to denote the country. ‘What's that? German?'

‘Yep. Hope they speak English.' Rafe stopped the car and got out, jogging towards the figure in the road, and Mimi followed.

It was a woman. She spoke a hurried sentence that Mimi didn't understand, and Rafe frowned in incomprehension.

‘Wir werden ein Krankenwagen.'

The woman gave her an uncomprehending look and Mimi tried again, hoping that the woman might get her drift. If she didn't, then Mimi was going to have to call the translation service.

‘Ich brauche einen Arzt.'
She smiled, jerking her thumb towards Rafe, and the woman raised her eyebrows. ‘Um...
Sprechen Sie Englisch?
'

‘
Ja...
Yes, I speak English.
Danke
.' She caught Rafe's sleeve, pulling him towards the figure by the side of the road. ‘My husband is hurt. Please can you help us?'

The woman's English was slightly accented, but seemed fluent enough. It was common to find that people under stress spoke first in their own language, and that calming them down would improve their English no end.

Mimi found the woman's hand and took it. ‘The doctor is here and he will help your husband. Do you understand?'

‘Yes... Yes, I understand.' The woman watched as Rafe hurried over to the man by the side of the road.

‘I need you to help us.'

‘Yes. What can I do?' The woman looked frightened and stressed but she was keeping it under control.

‘My name's Mimi. Yours?'

‘Annaliese.'

‘Okay, Annaliese. I want you to help translate for us. Can you do that?' If her husband was hurt, then it was important they hear everything he had to say.

‘Yes, I can do it.'

‘Good. Thank you.' Mimi led Annaliese over to where Rafe was kneeling in the mud next to the man. ‘What is your husband's name?'

‘Leo,' Rafe answered. He'd already got that far and it seemed that he'd also checked the man for any life-threatening injuries as well. ‘He's been moving around but I'll put a neck brace on him anyway, and then I think it's best we get him over to the car.'

Annaliese translated quickly for her husband but he was already trying to get to his feet.

‘All right...' Rafe laid a hand on his shoulder. ‘Stay still for one minute. Let us help you.'

Mimi jogged back to the car to fetch the neck brace and, when Rafe had fastened it securely, they got him on to his feet. With one at each side to support him, they walked him slowly over to the SUV, sitting him in the back seat. He was wet through and shaking.

‘It's ten minutes to the hospital.' Mimi looked at Rafe. She knew that he was weighing up all the factors. It was impossible to treat him effectively here, and the quickest way to get him warm was to go straight to A and E.

‘Yeah. He seems alert and I can't find any signs of major injury.' Rafe considered the question for a brief moment. ‘We'll take him now?'