Daredevil, Doctor...Husband?

by Alison Roberts

‘Hurt,’ Zac finished for her. ‘Summer wasn’t that much older than you are, Dylan. How would it make you feel if your dad decided he wanted to go away and make another family? With someone else?’

  ‘She could have come too.’ Dylan’s feet were almost buried in the sand now.

  Zac’s hand moved discreetly between the towels. Summer felt his fingers close around hers. Offering support. An ally. Telling her that Dylan might not believe she had deserved her father’s continued love but he did. Telling her that she had his love now as well. She had to swallow hard and scrunch her eyes shut so that the full feeling in her heart didn’t escape as tears.

  ‘She had to look after her mum,’ Zac said carefully. ‘Her mum got sick.’

  ‘My mum was sick.’ Dylan’s voice wobbled. ‘She…she died.’

  ‘So did Summer’s mum.’

  There was something different this time in Dylan’s gaze when he raised it to meet Summer’s. Almost…respect?

  Zac gave her fingers a squeeze and then let go, as discreetly as he’d made the contact. He must have been able to sense how big this moment was but, yet again, he knew how to lighten things and make it seem no more than a natural step forward.

  ‘It’s cool living on a boat, isn’t it?’

  ‘I guess. But it doesn’t go anywhere.’

  ‘It could.’ Summer was happy to move away from anything intense. ‘The sails aren’t any good but it’s got a motor. I turn it on every so often to make sure it still goes. I should do it tonight, in fact. I’ll let you turn it on, if you like.’

  Dylan didn’t respond. He had rolled onto his side and was tickling Flint’s tummy.

  Zac smiled. ‘You didn’t really mean it when you said you didn’t like dogs, did you?’

  A skinny bare shoulder gave a single shrug.

  Zac’s tone was as light as it had been when he’d mentioned the boat. ‘Sometimes, when things are tough, we say—or do—stuff we don’t really mean. Sometimes it’s good to just forget about them and start again.’

  They all lay there in silence after that. Silence that made it easy to hear Ivy’s call from the terrace above.

  ‘Yoo-hoo! Are you lot coming inside for some lunch?’

  They got to their feet and gathered damp towels to shake the sand out of them. Walking up to the house, Zac took Summer’s hand. Flint was on her other side with Dylan close beside him.

  The boy looked up at Summer. ‘Do you reckon Flint’ll sit on my board one day, too?’

  It was another one of those moments to treasure. Zac’s hand was warm around hers. She had her beloved dog by her side and she knew she was about to make her little brother smile.

  ‘I reckon you can count on that. Maybe next time we go out, even.’

  Going out on the boards wasn’t going to happen again any day soon. A summer storm was brewing and the next day the wind came up and the sky darkened ominously.

  ‘We’ll go and visit Dad after lunch,’ Summer said. ‘We can go shopping this morning and find him some presents. Some nice things to eat, maybe, seeing as he’s feeling so much better. Hospital food’s not up to much.’

  ‘Zac said I could go and see where he works and he’d show me some cool stuff. Like the saw they use to cut people’s chests open.’

  ‘Did he? Okay…we’ll have to see how busy they are in Emergency, though. We can’t get in the way if Zac’s in the middle of saving someone’s life.’

  Dylan’s nod was serious. ‘I wanna do that one day. I think I’m going to be a doctor like him.’

  ‘You could be a paramedic, maybe. We get to save lives too, you know. And being on the helicopter is pretty exciting.’

  Dylan’s grin was sympathetic. ‘Zac gets to do everything. He’s the best.’

  Summer had to grin back. ‘Yeah…I think so, too.’

  The best boyfriend. The best lover. And he would be the best father for any children she had.

  Oh, yeah…she was so nearly ready to trust that much. Maybe the only thing in the way was to deal with the ghosts still haunting her past.

  It was time to talk to her father. Properly.

  The opportunity came later that day when Zac appeared during their visit to Jon and told Dylan he could have the promised tour of the emergency department.

  ‘You want to tag along, Summer?’ he asked.

  ‘No, I’m good. I’ll stay.’

  The sudden tension in the room advertised that the significance wasn’t lost on anybody. Dylan hesitated, clearly feeling protective of his father. He eyed Summer.

  ‘Is that cool, Dad?’

  ‘It’s fine, son. Come back and see me later.’

  Summer gave Dylan a smile intended to reassure him that she wasn’t about to start being mean. Zac got the message, even if Dylan didn’t. His glance, as they left, told her that he was impressed she had chosen to stay and have her first time alone with her father. Proud of her, even?

  It was impossible to know how to start. Summer fiddled with the supply of grocery items she and Dylan had chosen to bring in. Fruit and biscuits and ginger beer. She held up a packet of sweets.

  ‘Do you really love sour worms?’

  ‘No. But Dylan does.’

  ‘Ah…that might explain the salt and vinegar crisps, too.’

  ‘No. I do love them. Might need a beer to go with them, though.’

  Small talk seemed to be exhausted at that point. Summer finally sank into the chair beside the bed as the awkward silence grew.

  It was Jon who broke it.

  ‘I can’t tell you how sorry I am, love. About what happened to your mum. About not being there. I know you think it’s my fault that she died…’

  Summer shook her head. ‘I did, I guess. But I’m a bit older and wiser now. I get that people make their own choices. And I know Mum wasn’t the easiest person but…she really did love you…’

  ‘I know that. I loved her, too.’

  ‘Not as much as you loved her…’

  ‘Elsie?’ Jon’s smile was sad. ‘That was a very different kind of love. We’d grown up together. We started dating when we were fourteen. We were always going to be together.’

  Summer’s jaw dropped. ‘So why did you marry Mum?’

  Jon lay back against his pillows, his eyes closing. ‘Elsie’s family had moved to Australia and she was a couple of years younger than me. She was going to come back to New Zealand as soon as she turned eighteen. And then we were going to get married.’ His breath escaped in a long sigh. ‘I was nineteen. Elsie had been away for more than a year and I…I was lonely. Not that that’s an excuse but there was this big surf comp and a party afterwards and your mum was there and she…she made it clear how keen she was on me and…’

  ‘And she got pregnant?’

  ‘Yes. I had to tell Elsie and…and she was devastated. Said she never wanted to see me again. It was the worst time. Your mum was in love with me and she said she couldn’t live without me and she really meant that. I was scared she’d hurt herself if I left and, besides, there was a baby involved and I wanted to do the right thing by everyone. And then you came along and I found a new kind of love that I thought would always be enough. I didn’t think I’d ever see Elsie again but she turned up for a comp when you were about eight or so. And it was still there. The way we felt about each other.’

  Summer was silent. How would she feel, she wondered, if she and Zac were forced apart and then she met him again years later? Would she still feel the same way?

  Yes, her heart whispered. It would never change.

  ‘We tried,’ Jon said quietly. ‘And, when it became too hard to stay away from each other, we still tried not to let it hurt you or your mum.’

  ‘Did she know?’

  ‘I think so. But she chose not to believe it. I think she thought that if she simply refused to believe it, it wouldn’t be true. Her mental health was always a bit fragile. She had a stay in hospital after you were born with postnatal depression. I had about three months of looking after you b
y myself and…it might sound horrible but I’d never been happier. You were my little girl and I loved you to bits. I never, ever wanted to make life hard for you.’

  Summer had tears trickling down the side of her nose. ‘I’m sorry, too. For shutting you out. And the longer I did it, the easier it seemed to just leave it all behind and not go back.’

  ‘Ah…don’t cry, love.’

  ‘But Dylan was right. I was mean to you.’

  ‘You were a kid. And you were protecting your mum. That’s not something to be ashamed of.’

  Jon stretched out an arm and Summer was drawn from her seat and into a hug that took her back in time. Back to before the tragedy of losing her mother. Back to a time when she and her father had shared so many magic moments. Like the moments she had had with Zac and Dylan so recently. The bonding family moments.

  They didn’t get wiped out, did they? Maybe they got covered up but you could find them again and how good was that?

  ‘I kind of like having a brother,’ Summer admitted when they finally stopped hugging and both blew their noses and regained some composure. ‘He’s a nice kid.’

  ‘He’s very like you were at that age.’

  Summer smiled. ‘Yeah…he’s got seawater in his veins, too.’

  ‘Has it been okay—having him to stay?’

  ‘I think he likes the boat. And he loves Flint. And Zac.’

  ‘You and Zac—is it serious?’

  Summer’s nod was shy. It was as serious as it could be, wasn’t it? She couldn’t wait to tell Zac about this conversation. About the moment when she knew she had forgiven her father because she recognised that his love for Elsie had been the way she felt about Zac. That being with anyone else would be living a lie.

  ‘It must be getting in the way a bit, having a kid brother on the scene.’

  ‘It’s fine. It won’t be for ever.’

  ‘It could be a while longer, though. They say I’m healing well but I won’t be up on my feet for a week or so and I won’t be going home any time too soon. I’m worried about Dylan missing too much school. I’ve got friends who’ve offered to have him stay. Parents of his friends.’

  ‘He’d be worried about you.’

  ‘It’s not that far. Someone could drive him over almost every day for a visit. If I send him home, he won’t be interfering in your life so much.’

  It was unfortunate that Zac and Dylan arrived back in the room at precisely that moment. Just in time to hear those last words.

  Zac’s eyebrows shot up. Dylan visibly paled.

  ‘Are you sending me away?’ he demanded.

  ‘I’m just thinking about all the school you’re missing. Come and sit down and we’ll talk about it.’

  ‘I don’t want to go away. I like being here. I like Flint and…and paddleboarding and stuff.’ Dylan glared at Summer and her heart sank. She hadn’t been included in why he wanted to stay. Of course he must think she’d been complaining about him interfering with her lifestyle but that wasn’t true. She needed to talk to him as well. She cast a helpless glance at her father.

  ‘I’ll explain,’ he said quietly. ‘Don’t worry.’

  But Dylan’s face had shut down. He shoved his hands in his pockets. And then he frowned.

  ‘Oh, no…where’s my phone?’

  ‘You had it downstairs. You were taking a photo of the rib spreaders, remember?’

  ‘I must have left it there.’

  ‘I’ll go and look. I have to get back to work, anyway.’

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ Summer said. ‘And then I can bring the phone back. You stay here with Dad, Dylan.’

  It was a relief to be alone with Zac. ‘He’s got the wrong idea,’ she told him. ‘I’d said how good it was having him but Dad thinks he’s getting in the way of us being together.’

  Zac’s glance as he pressed the button for the lift gave Summer a jolt of sensation deep in her belly.

  ‘I guess there is a bit of truth in it,’ she admitted, as the door closed behind them.

  ‘You think?’

  They were alone in the lift. Zac caught her chin with one hand and ducked his head to place a lingering kiss on her lips. By the time the lift doors opened on the ground floor, Summer’s legs were distinctly wobbly.

  Oh, yes…they needed some time alone together. Soon.

  ‘I had the kit open in my office to show him,’ Zac said. ‘I reckon that’s where the phone will be.’

  They had to go through the emergency department to get to the office. To Summer’s surprise, she heard someone calling her name.

  ‘Kate… what on earth are you doing here?’

  ‘I had to come in with Shelley. Felix broke his leg. It looks like… Oh, it’s all such a mess, Summer. I’m so glad you’re here…’

  Kate’s gaze shifted to the man by her side and there was no way Summer could avoid this.

  ‘This is Zac,’ she said quietly. ‘Zac Mitchell.’

  The door to the resus area behind Kate opened further and Mandy appeared. Summer could see into the room properly now. A young woman was sitting on the bed. She was crying and she had a small, limp boy in her arms. A boy who had dark curly hair and big dark eyes.

  A boy who looked remarkably like Zac?

  CHAPTER TEN

  A PART OF Summer’s brain had frozen.

  She couldn’t think straight and it was frightening. To be able to do her job, she had to be able to think straight no matter how many things were happening at once or how horrible those things might be.

  But this was different. This involved a person she was intimately involved with and this time she couldn’t step back and try to cloak herself with a clinical perspective, the way she’d been able to do when she had to deal with treating her father.

  This was about Zac. And whether she’d been right in following her heart and giving him her trust. It had been given; there was no question about that. It had been given totally in that moment of connection with her father when she’d recognised that the strength of how she felt about this man would last a lifetime.

  But even that truth seemed to be outside the anaesthetised part of her brain. Or maybe she couldn’t catch it because too many other things were demanding her attention.

  Kate had taken hold of her arm and her tone was urgent. ‘I tried to call an ambulance but she said she had to take Felix to Auckland General and just put him in the car and took off. All I could do was follow. And now she won’t let anyone touch him. Mum and Dad are on their way but…’

  Rob was coming towards them, stripping off gloves. ‘Right,’ he said. ‘I’m clear. We’ve got a two-year-old with a query fractured femur.’

  ‘His GCS is down,’ Mandy told the consultant. ‘I’m worried about blood loss.’

  Rob gave a curt nod. ‘Children compensate too well to start with. Let’s get a type and cross match stat, in case we need some blood products.’

  ‘Do you need a hand?’ Zac’s voice was quiet. Calm. It made Summer think of the way she had been when faced with treating her father. At least Zac was managing to function professionally. His brain hadn’t frozen.

  Rob nodded. ‘Hang around for a minute. Just in case.’ He turned back to Mandy. ‘Has the paediatric orthopaedic team been paged?’

  ‘Yes…’ Mandy lowered her voice. ‘And we might want to page Psyche, too.’

  ‘What?’ Rob was instantly on the alert. ‘Why?’

  ‘It’s a bit odd. She hasn’t let anyone else touch him since she carried him in. She got hysterical when we tried so that’s why we got her to carry him in here.’

  Rob looked past Mandy. And then took a second look and stepped further into the room. ‘Shelley, isn’t it? Didn’t you work here not so long ago?’

  ‘Hi, Rob. You remember me?’ Shelley’s tears evaporated as she smiled. ‘Not the best way to have a reunion, is it?’

  ‘This is your son?’

  ‘His name’s Felix.’

  ‘We need to look after Felix.’ Rob moved
closer but didn’t try to touch his young patient. ‘He’s hurt his leg, yes?’

  ‘I don’t want anyone to hurt him.’ Shelley’s hold on the toddler tightened and the child whimpered.

  The sound made Summer feel ill. It was the first sound she had heard Felix make and it wasn’t the normal cry of a child in pain. She knew to worry a lot more about the quiet ones. Especially when they seemed so quiet and well behaved in a frightening situation. And this injury was serious. She could see how swollen the small thigh was and the odd angle of his lower leg. The colour of his foot wasn’t good, either. Urgent treatment was needed.

  Kate was still holding onto Summer’s arm as she moved closer to Rob so she was forced to move as well.

  ‘There’s been a series of accidents recently,’ she said. ‘Some bad bruises. Shelley said it’s because he keeps falling off the new bike he got for Christmas but…’

  The look in her eyes said it all. Even Shelley’s own family were suspicious that the injuries weren’t accidental.

  ‘Trampolines are dangerous.’ Shelley’s voice was calm. ‘I told Mum and Dad he was too young to have one but they went ahead and bought it, didn’t they?’ She bent her head over Felix and rocked him in her arms. ‘It’s all right, baby. Everything’s going to be all right…’ She started humming a song.

  Rob stepped back from the bed, his face grim. ‘Yep. Page Psyche. And we’ll go ahead with treatment without signed consent if we have to. Let’s see if we can get an IV in and I want to get that leg splinted properly before we do anything else to try and prevent any more blood loss.’

  He turned back to Shelley. ‘We need you to sign a consent form, Shelley, so that we can treat Felix. You know the drill, don’t you?’

  Shelley stopped singing. She nodded without looking up. ‘That’s why I had to come here,’ she said. ‘I don’t think I can bring myself to sign a form that means you’re going to hurt my baby. His father can do that.’

  ‘His father?’ Rob looked sideways as if he expected to see someone else in the room but there was only Zac, standing near the door, Mandy, who was wheeling the IV trolley closer, Summer and Kate, who leaned in to whisper in her ear.

  ‘I didn’t mean to tell her that Zac was back in the country,’ she said. ‘It just slipped out…’