Ben was in the staffroom when Heather arrived at work. It was the first time she’d seen him since the previous week because he’d been off sick. He grinned when she went into the room.
‘Hi. Remember me?’
‘Just about. How are you, anyway? You certainly look a lot better than you did the last time I saw you,’ she replied as she hung her coat in a locker.
‘I’m feeling marvellous. One hundred per cent fighting fit, and raring to go!’
Heather summoned a smile. ‘Let’s hope you still feel like that at the end of the day.’
‘Oh, I shall.’ Ben suddenly frowned. ‘You don’t look so good this morning, though, Heather. Is something wrong?’
‘No, I’m fine.’ She turned away when she felt tears welling into her eyes. Reaching into her coat pocket, she found a tissue and blew her nose. ‘I didn’t get much sleep last night.’
‘I expect you were upset about what happened yesterday,’ Ben said sympathetically as he picked up the morning paper. There was a report of the river rescue splashed all over the front page and Heather quickly averted her eyes when she saw the photo of Ross.
‘It’s a real tragedy, isn’t it? It must have brought it home to you what a dangerous job Ross does.’
‘It did,’ she said stiltedly, trying to keep a grip on her emotions. How ironic that she should have managed to conquer her fears at last all to no avail.
‘I’m not sure if I could do a job like that. It takes tremendous bravery to put your life at risk on a daily basis.’ Ben sighed. ‘Although the hardest thing, I imagine, is knowing what it could do to those you love.’
‘What do you mean?’ Heather queried.
‘That it’s one thing to accept the risk but something entirely different to know that you’re putting your wife or girlfriend through hell every time you go to work.’
‘Do you think so?’ Heather said slowly, her mind racing. Had Ross been worried about hurting her if anything happened to him? Was that the real reason why he’d told her that he wanted to end their relationship? Maybe she was grasping at straws but it seemed to make a lot of sense.
‘I don’t just think so, I know it’s true.’ Ben shrugged when she looked at him. ‘Just over a year ago I found out that I had cancer of the colon. It came as a complete shock because you don’t expect something like that to happen when you’re my age. The consultant I saw was pretty upbeat about my chances but he made it clear there was no guarantee the treatment would work.’
‘I had no idea!’ Heather exclaimed, forgetting her own problems for a moment.
‘I prefer not to talk about it,’ he explained. ‘Anyway, at the time it happened I was going out with someone I was really keen on but I decided it wouldn’t be right to continue seeing her when the future was so uncertain. I was trying to protect her in my own way, but she took it very badly and that is something I regret.’
‘Didn’t you explain why you’d decided to end your relationship?’ Heather asked slowly, churning over everything Ben had said.
‘No. She’s a doctor, too, and I knew she would only try to convince me that we could get through it together.’ He shrugged. ‘In a nutshell, I wasn’t prepared to run the risk of ruining her life so I told her that I’d met someone else.’
‘It must have been hard for you, though.’
‘It would have been worse if I’d had to watch her giving up her career to look after me,’ he said firmly. ‘All right, so the treatment was a success but the cancer could come back. I thought it had, in fact, because of all the trouble I’ve had recently, but it turns out that I’ve had a particularly virulent stomach bug. But I’m not sorry I ended things with Holly because at least it means she’s been able to get on with her life without having to constantly worry about me.’
Abby arrived at that point so Heather let the subject drop. It was clear that Ben didn’t want the staff knowing about his problems and she could sympathise with him. It was a surprisingly quiet day, which meant that she had more time than she would have liked to think about what had happened. She couldn’t shake off the feeling that there was a lesson to be learned from what Ben had told her. Had Ross ended their relationship because he’d wanted to avoid the risk of her getting hurt?
By the time her shift came to an end, Heather couldn’t stand it any longer. She needed to speak to Ross and find out if her suspicions were correct. She left the hospital, hailed a taxi and asked the driver to take her to Hexton fire station. Maybe she was setting herself up for a great deal of disappointment but if there was a chance that she and Ross could work things out, she wasn’t going to let it slip away!
Ross had spent the day with various high-ranking officials. The river police had phoned early that morning to say they’d recovered two bodies from the Thames. He had been asked to identify Baz Russell to spare Baz’s widowed mother the ordeal. He’d agreed immediately because it had been the last thing he’d been able to do for his young colleague.
He was clearing away some papers at the end of his shift when he glanced out of the window and saw a taxi drawing up. He gasped in astonishment when he saw Heather getting out of the cab. He hurried downstairs and met her at the door, feeling his heart pounding when he saw how solemn she looked.
‘Are you all right?’
‘Fine. I just wanted a word with you, Ross.’
‘I really cannot see what we have to talk about,’ he said shortly, struggling to keep a grip on himself. Just seeing her again had thrown him completely off track. It was all he could do not to sweep her into his arms and tell her that he hadn’t meant what he’d said, and that would be wrong. He had to think about Heather, not himself.
‘I disagree. I think we have a lot to talk about, starting with the reason why you lied to me.’
There was a hint of defiance in her voice that made his heart kick up a storm when he heard it. ‘You didn’t make a mistake about your feelings, did you, Ross? You are in love with me. You can deny it all you like but we both know it’s true. You love me every bit as much as I love you!’
‘Heather, I…Oh, hell!’ He groaned as he pulled her into his arms because he simply couldn’t find the strength to lie to her again. ‘Of course I love you!’ he ground out between clenched teeth. ‘I worship you, Heather, but that doesn’t mean this is right!’
She drew back and looked steadily at him. ‘Because you’re afraid of breaking my heart if anything happens to you?’
She touched him lightly on the cheek and there was such love on her face that Ross’s knees turned to water. ‘But don’t you know that you are going to break my heart if you send me away? I love you, Ross. I need you. I know there are no guarantees about how long we shall have together, but that just makes it more important that we don’t waste a single second.’
‘And you really and truly believe you could cope with the thought of me being in constant danger?’ he said huskily, hardly daring to believe what he was hearing.
‘I can cope with anything so long as I have you.’
Ross didn’t know what to do because it was obvious that she was telling him the truth. He glanced round as one of the crew shouted goodnight to him. He could see the interest they were attracting and knew that they couldn’t discuss this there. He handed Heather his car keys.
‘Will you wait in the car while I finish clearing up?’
‘Of course.’ She smiled at him and he could feel warmth envelop him because she’d made no attempt to hide her feelings.
Ross hurried back inside in a daze and handed over to the officer in charge of Blue Watch. It took him barely five minutes to change out of his uniform. Heather smiled when he opened the car door.
‘You were quick.’
‘I didn’t want to keep you waiting.’ He started the engine then glanced at her. ‘Shall we go to my flat?’
‘Yes, please. It’s about time I saw where you live, don’t you think?’
There was a note of warm amusement in her voice that made his skin prickle with
anticipation. It was all he could do to keep his mind on the road when it kept racing ahead to what would happen when they reached his flat. Neither of them said a word on the way there, as though they both sensed how superfluous small-talk would be.
Ross parked the car then led the way up the stairs to the third floor and unlocked his front door. Heather stepped inside and looked around with obvious interest, but the last thing Ross was concerned about was her opinion of his decor. He closed the door with an impatient thud that made her turn to look at him and what she must have seen on his face made her smile.
‘Shall we talk now or later?’ she murmured provocatively.
‘Later,’ he bit out, and reached for her. Their bodies collided with a jolt and he groaned when he felt the firmness of her breasts against his chest. All she had on was a thin cotton blouse and he could feel the hardness of her nipples digging into him. He cupped her breasts in his hands, stroking her nipples with the pads of his thumbs until she gasped. When he started to unbutton her blouse she didn’t protest but he could feel her trembling.
The first button slid through its buttonhole then a second and a third before he had to pause because his heart was beating so fast that he felt quite dizzy. He pushed apart the collar of her blouse and kissed her throat, the upper curve of her breasts, the valley between them, and gained a little strength from the taste and feel of her, enough at least so that he could continue. The last button was finally undone and he pushed the blouse off her shoulders and let it slide down her arms. She was wearing a white lace bra and the sight of her pearly skin gleaming through the delicate net made him groan out loud.
‘You are so beautiful, Heather. I know I should be sensible but I want to make love to you so much!’
‘I want it, too, Ross.’ She framed his face between her hands and looked at him. ‘I love you. I want you. I know why you tried to split up and I love you all the more for caring so much about me. But I won’t be truly happy unless we can be together.’
He pressed butterfly soft kisses over her parted lips. ‘It’s what I want more than anything but I couldn’t bear to think what it could do to you if anything happened to me. You’ve suffered enough pain in your life, my darling.’
‘Losing Stewart like that was dreadful,’ she admitted honestly. ‘It was even worse because I was pregnant and I felt so guilty about not having told him. But if I let you go because I’m afraid of what might happen then I would be giving up, and I know Stewart would hate that because he was always such a positive person.’
‘Do you think you could ever come to love me as much as you loved him?’ he asked shakily because she’d sounded so sure of herself.
‘There will always be a special place in my heart for Stewart because he was Grace’s father and I loved him, but my feelings for you, Ross, are very different. You make me feel things I’ve never felt for anyone before….’
Her voice tailed off as she stood on tiptoe and kissed him. Ross held her tightly, knowing how close he had come to losing her. He returned her kiss then swept her into his arms and carried her into the bedroom and laid her on the bed. He finished undressing her then quickly undressed himself and lay down beside her.
‘I love you, Heather. I love you so much that it’s hard to find the right words to tell you how I feel.’
‘Then don’t try.’
She slid her arms around his neck and pulled him down towards her. ‘Just show me how you feel instead….’
Six months later…
‘Heather, are you ready? We don’t want to be late.’
Ross looked round as the door opened. His niece was being christened that day and he and Heather had been asked to stand as godparents for little Emma Louise. He whistled appreciatively when he saw how lovely Heather looked in the elegant pale blue suit she had chosen to wear for the occasion.
‘Wow! I’m speechless.’
‘You always were better with actions than words,’ she teased, crossing the room to kiss him. She backed away when he went to draw her into his arms. ‘I thought you said we were late?’
‘Not that late.’ He stole another kiss then sighed regretfully. ‘I suppose I’d better behave myself or I’ll spoil your lipstick.’
‘You already have but I don’t mind.’ Heather turned to peer into the mirror. She carefully removed a smudge of lipstick from the corner of her mouth then straightened the lapels of her suit. ‘You do realise that it’s our anniversary today, don’t you? We’ve been married for one whole month.’
‘I know and it gets better every day.’
He slid his arms around her, kissing the nape of her neck and groaning as he felt his body immediately respond to her closeness. ‘Feel what you do to me?’
‘Mmm.’ She smiled at him in the mirror. ‘Are you sure we haven’t got a few minutes to spare?’
‘I wish we had but Kate will have my guts for garters if I’m late. I’ve had strict instructions that it’s the duty of the godparents to be on time.’ He grinned wickedly. ‘I think she had an idea we might get sidetracked, which is why she issued the warning. Still, I suppose I should be grateful that she’s back to her normal, bossy self!’
‘You should.’ Heather laughed. ‘Ah, well, I suppose we shall just have to wait until after the christening to have our celebration.’
‘What celebration?’ Ross demanded. ‘Don’t tell me your mother has decided to marry David. That will make it two weddings and a christening all in the space of a few months!’
‘It’s definitely on the cards but, no, that isn’t the reason why we shall be celebrating tonight.’ She turned and put her arms around him and he saw the excitement in her eyes. ‘I’m pregnant, Ross.’
‘Pregnant? But how…when…?’ He stopped and gulped. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes.’ She frowned. ‘I know we weren’t planning on having a baby just yet but you are pleased…?’
‘Pleased? I’m thrilled! It’s the most wonderful thing that could have happened!’
He swept her into his arms and spun her round. Heather laughed as she clung to him. ‘You’re making me dizzy!’
‘Sorry.’ He set her carefully down on her feet. ‘When is the baby due?’
‘In a little under eight months’ time.’ She smiled at him. ‘I did a test as soon as I suspected I might be pregnant. I couldn’t wait to tell you.’
‘I’m so glad. It means we’ll have even more time to look forward to the baby’s arrival,’ he said thickly, dropping a kiss on her lips.
They both looked round when Grace came running into the room. Ross picked her up, holding her close as he looked at Heather over the top of the child’s head. ‘I love you so much, Heather.’
‘I love you, too,’ she whispered, her heart in her eyes.
‘And me,’ Grace demanded.
Ross laughed as he kissed the little girl’s cheek. ‘You, too, poppet. Mummy and I love you very much.’
He put Grace down and took Heather into his arms again. ‘Thank you for making all my dreams come true. I never knew it was possible to be this happy.’
‘And thank you for making me see what I was missing out on,’ she whispered. ‘You really are my hero, Ross.’
Reaching up, she pressed a kiss to his mouth. Ross groaned as he drew her to him. Maybe they could spare a few minutes to celebrate….
ISBN: 978-1-4603-5751-4
SAVING DR. COOPER
First North American Publication 2003
Copyright © 2003 by Jennifer Taylor
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