Rescued by Her Mr. Right

by Alison Roberts

  ‘Oh?’ Jack had something he wanted to ask Blake, too. ‘Shoot.’

  ‘We’ve set a date for the wedding. Two months from today. On Hamilton Island.’

  ‘Wow...’ But Jack’s jaw dropped. Blake Cooper getting married in an exclusive island playground for the rich and famous? It didn’t fit, somehow.

  Blake’s face acknowledged the reaction. ‘Yeah, yeah... I know. But it’s for Sam, you know? Or rather her family. She’s the only kid they’ve got left and money’s no object.’

  Jack put his water bottle down and picked up the ball. ‘Guess you’ll have to grin and bear it, then. Tough job, but you know...’ He bounced the ball and grinned at the SDR teammate and leader who’d become a good friend over the last few years. ‘Someone’s gotta do it.’

  ‘Glad you understand.’ Blake dropped his bottle onto his towel. ‘Because I want you to be my best man.’

  Jack’s hand slipped on the ball and it rolled across the court. ‘What?’

  ‘I need a best man. Harriet’s going to be Sam’s bridesmaid and...’ Blake shrugged. ‘I don’t have that many good mates. You’ve got the short straw. D’ya reckon you could put up with a free trip for a weekend? A few hours on a beach, possibly dressed in a penguin suit?’

  Someone had caught the escaping ball and sent it rolling back. Jack stopped its track with his foot but didn’t stoop to pick it up.

  ‘I’d be honoured, mate. Let me know the details and I’ll juggle my shifts if I need to.’

  ‘Hey...’ Blake’s face was serious as he gave Jack a friendly punch on his arm. ‘Appreciate that. Wanna shoot a few more hoops?’

  ‘Sure...’ Jack swooped on the ball and bounced it again, this time moving further onto the court. This was the best opportunity he was ever going to get for what he wanted to ask Blake.

  ‘So... Harriet’s going to be bridesmaid, huh?’ He kept bouncing the ball, ducking away from Blake’s attempt to intercept.

  ‘Yep. She’s Sam’s best mate.’

  ‘She’s doing well with her recovery, isn’t she?’

  ‘Amazingly well.’ Blake grimaced as he missed another attempt.

  ‘She did well at the HUET training last week, too.’

  ‘Sure did. Some of those photos were awesome.’

  ‘No... I meant she did well when she got in the pool for an escape.’ Jack took advantage of Blake’s distraction to stop, aim, and send the ball through the hoop after a good smack against the backboard.

  ‘What are you talking about?’ This time Blake reached the ball first and was already moving out of Jack’s reach.

  ‘After we’d finished, I stayed behind with the crew and we took her through a vertical escape. And then a sideways one.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because she thinks her days of being on the team for real are over.’ Jack had his arms up to try and deflect Blake’s attempt at a goal. ‘It was my idea. Because I don’t think they have to be.’

  Blake took aim and scored. ‘Come on, Jack... You know what it’s like out there. There’s no way she’s going to get up to speed again.’

  They both dived for the ball but it was Jack who got there first. He didn’t try and run with it, though. He stopped still and tried to catch his breath.

  ‘What would it take?’ he asked. ‘To prove you wrong?’

  Blake shook his head. ‘You had enough? Shall we hit the showers?’

  Jack wasn’t about to let the subject drop. ‘How ’bout a five-kilometre hike?’ he suggested as they picked up their towels and bottles. ‘A hundred-metre sprint or an open-sea swim?’ His gaze travelled as they turned towards the exit. ‘How ’bout the orange track on the climbing wall?’

  Blake was frowning. ‘What’s this about, Jack? You know as well as I do that she couldn’t do any of those things.’

  ‘I reckon she could get there. She’s determined enough. Maybe all she needs is the right training programme and a good coach.’

  ‘PTs are expensive. And who knows how long it would take—even if she’s actually physically capable of getting there, which I have my doubts about. You saw that injury, man. She’s lucky to have kept her leg.’

  ‘As you said yourself, she’s doing better than anyone expected already. And PTs don’t have to be pricey. I’d do it for free.’

  Blake was about to open his locker. Instead, he turned and stared at Jack.

  ‘You’d do it?’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘How much spare time have you got, mate? Have you any idea what you’d be taking on?’

  ‘I think so.’

  Blake kept staring. ‘This is important to you, isn’t it?’

  Jack turned away from the scrutiny and opened his locker. ‘Yep.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘She’s part of the team. We’re like family.’

  ‘Haven’t you got a real family?’

  ‘Are you kidding?’ Jack pulled a clean towel and soap from his locker. ‘I’ve got family coming out of my ears. Aunties and cousins and nieces and nephews. Whole tribe, like any good Island family.’

  ‘But you want to help Harry.’

  Jack paused as he was turning away. ‘Yeah...’

  She hadn’t had that kind of family, had she? He hadn’t known that she’d been adopted but it had been more shocking to learn that she hadn’t been allowed to have a dog. It was heartbreaking to wonder just how lonely she might have been as a child and that only made him more determined to help her now, if she’d let him.

  Blake followed him to the showers. ‘You’ve got a big heart, mate. But...’

  ‘But what?’

  ‘Don’t go getting her hopes up too much, okay? Keeping her off the team if she’s not up to it is for her safety as much as anything else.’

  Jack nodded. ‘But...you’ll keep an open mind? If she can prove herself, you’d consider putting her back on the roster?’

  Blake shrugged. ‘Sure. I’d be stupid not to. She used to be one of our best.’

  Jack put his face under the spray of water, letting it sluice the sweat away. He was unaware of the smile on his face. What he was aware of was confidence that this could happen. With his help, and a hell of a lot of work from Harriet, she could get there.

  And, maybe, he wanted that to happen almost as much as she did.

  * * *

  ‘So...are you up for it?’

  Harriet needed to suck in a slow, deep breath. Slow, because it needed to get past a rather large lump in her throat. Deep, because she needed the time to get her head around the enormity of this.

  How much time and effort had Jack put into this plan?

  He’d set the goals, in order of her own priority. To walk without a limp in time for Blake and Sam’s wedding and to be fit enough to go back to her position as an ICU nurse. He’d also added a goal that she’d considered out of reach.

  To be an active member of the SDR team again.

  He’d also come up with a list of physical achievements that would be enough to convince Blake and the other team committee members that she was capable of meeting any challenges the team was likely to face. Things like long walks, climbing, abseiling and swimming but he’d gone a lot further than that, by making a step-by-step plan of how to achieve an acceptable level of performance without risking injury to her leg.

  Spreadsheets. Actual spreadsheets were on the table in front of her in this corner of this trendy beachside wine bar that was close to Bondi Bayside Hospital, and where he’d suggested they meet for a drink after work.

  ‘I can’t believe you’ve done this,’ she said, finally. ‘It’s...mind-blowing...’

  ‘We can get too much downtime when it’s a quiet day on the choppers.’ Jack reached for his tall glass of lager with a shrug that suggested it wasn’t a big deal. ‘I’m not studying for anything at the moment so
it’s been kind of nice to have a project.’

  A project? She was a project—like a high school assignment?

  She could choose to be offended, Harriet realised as her gaze flicked up to catch Jack’s.

  Or...she could choose to feel...honoured?

  There was nothing patronising about the way he was looking at her.

  Jack cared. It was as simple as that.

  And he believed in her.

  That statement alone had been enough to get her underwater in that diving pool, strapped into a harness in a metal cage that she knew would soon have several metres of water above it. A place where it was quite possible that her disability could put both her, and Jack, in danger.

  But this was bigger than that.

  She’d been head over heels in love with her fireman, Pete Thompson, and had been well on the way to happily committing to spending the rest of her life with him until the accident that had marked the beginning of the end of their relationship.

  He would never have seen her as any kind of ‘project’. In fact, in a blinding moment of clarity, Harriet could see exactly why their relationship had faded into oblivion. Because she had no longer been able to fulfil her role in making his achievements the focus of their life together. She was no longer capable, or even interested, in being his support crew for surfing competitions. Appreciating the dedication he put into keeping his body in perfect shape had gone out the window as well, because it only rubbed salt into the wound of her own imperfections. Without the shared bond of the physical aspects of their relationship, like surfing and sex and the SDR team, there had been nothing left.

  That wasn’t love, was it?

  When you loved someone, it had to go deeper than that. You had to care about someone enough to help them to be the best person they could be, even if it meant sacrificing something yourself.

  She would have sacrificed whatever it took to help Pete if he’d been in her position. But he’d just walked away in the end.

  And here was Jack. Just a friend. Not a lover or even someone who’d been an integral part of her life. A friend that she hadn’t treated well at all, in fact, but he’d put all this time and effort into a plan to help her regain what she’d lost. To help her become the person she wanted to be again.

  Yeah... Harriet caught her bottom lip between her teeth. Blinked a few times to make sure she wasn’t going to embarrass herself by shedding tears over the fact that someone cared this much about her.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said quietly. ‘This is...quite possibly the most amazing thing anyone’s ever done for me.’

  ‘So...you’re up for it, then?’ Jack’s smile lit up his face.

  ‘I’ll start tomorrow,’ she promised. ‘With the walking. Increased hill work and then uneven surfaces and soft sand. Ten minutes for the first week and then twenty for the second.’ She was tracing the boxes on the spread sheet. ‘Good grief...you’ve even suggested the places to go to for some rocky surfaces or the soft sand.’

  ‘I’ve used a few of them myself.’

  ‘And I’ll re-join the gym.’ Harriet nodded. ‘And factor in some swimming time.’ It wouldn’t be hard to find the time. Her life had become rather empty in the hours she wasn’t at work.

  ‘I’ve got my roster here, too.’ Jack fished a folded piece of paper from his pocket. ‘Let’s find at least two or three slots a week that I can work with you.’

  Harriet shook her head. ‘God, Jack... I wouldn’t ask you to do that. You’ve done enough already. I’ve got a plan now. My goals are broken down into steps that I can aim for.’ She smiled at him. ‘I can do this.’

  ‘But I’m your personal trainer, remember?’

  ‘You’ve got your own life. I wouldn’t expect anyone to put that much time into my rehabilitation.’ Even if they had chosen to be her life partner. Like Pete. ‘Unless I was paying them, of course...’

  Jack looked offended. ‘I’m not asking to be paid, Harry. I want to do this.’

  ‘But...why?’

  ‘You’re part of my team. Feels like you’re part of my family, you know? And we’re friends, aren’t we? We enjoy each other’s company?’

  ‘Yes, of course. But...’

  ‘Stop with the “buts”. I like keeping fit myself. We can combine the sessions. Like when you’re walking, I can be running. When you’re on the sand, I can get a swim in.’

  ‘But what about your social life? I don’t want to interfere with that.’

  ‘My social life? You mean my family?’ Jack grinned. ‘We could make that work, too. Look...’ He pointed to a slot on his roster. ‘This Saturday here? That’s my grandma’s birthday and there’s a whanau party at a beach that would be perfect for you to swim at because the surf’s usually really gentle. We could go early and get a training session in. See?’ His grin was triumphant. ‘There’s always a way to make things work.’

  ‘So I’d be crashing your family party?’

  ‘You haven’t met my whanau. Everybody’s welcome. Anyway...that’s weeks away. We need to get your sand walking skills up to speed before then, what with our weekend away at Hamilton Island on the agenda.’

  ‘Our weekend? You’ve been invited to the wedding?’

  ‘Better than that. Blake asked me to be his best man.’

  ‘Oh...that’s brilliant.’

  ‘I know. You and me as the support crew. Team wedding, huh?’

  ‘I’ve been looking at pictures of the island with Sam to help her choose the wedding venue.’

  ‘There’s a choice?’

  ‘Huge choice. There’s a yacht club with different decks and a chapel or grassy spots on hilltops. One beach needs a helicopter to get there but I reckon they’re going to choose another beach, which looks perfect. White sand, blue ocean and a backdrop of all the other islands.’ Harriet’s smile was dreamy. ‘It just looks incredible and I can’t wait to go.’

  ‘That’s that, then.’

  ‘What is?’

  ‘Sand training starts tomorrow. I’ll meet you straight after work, okay?’

  ‘You don’t have to do this, Jack.’

  ‘I know that. I told you that I want to. Did that rock damage your hearing as well as your leg?’

  ‘Just as long as you know that it’s not an obligation. You can stop if it gets to be any kind of a nuisance.’

  ‘Done.’ Jack held his drink up in a toast. ‘Just as long as you know that the same rules don’t apply to you.’ He clinked his glass against hers. ‘You don’t get to stop if it’s any kind of a nuisance. I may be new at this personal trainer business but I have my standards. If you’re in, you’re in for the long haul.’

  It was that sacrifice thing again. Jack had already done so much by making this detailed plan but here he was offering to give up a significant portion of his free time in the near future to help her try and become the person she used to be—maybe even a better version?

  Harriet had to blink again and it was a challenge to find a smile that wasn’t stupidly wobbly.

  ‘I’m in.’

  CHAPTER FIVE

  SHE WAS IN PAIN.

  Jack could recognise the signs now, despite how well Harriet managed to conceal it. He could see the crinkles appear at the corners of her eyes or the tiny frown line deepening between her eyebrows. He could hear it by the note of extra cheerfulness that was in her voice.

  Most of all, though, he could sense it. As if he was feeling the pain himself and it made it hard to push her that little bit further when what he really wanted to do was...

  Was to take her in his arms and hold her for a moment.

  To tell her how much he admired her courage. How proud he was of the way she was continuing to face this struggle.

  What he would do was exactly what he’d been doing for weeks now. He would push her until he knew that she was on the point
of admitting defeat and then he would stop the session and let her know that she’d done a great job. Before she uttered anything negative about her current abilities. That point was close now so he was watching her carefully and he saw the briefest hesitation as she gathered her resources to tackle the last, steep part of this hillside track.

  He held out his hand.

  ‘Last bit,’ he told her. ‘We don’t want to overdo it.’

  Her fingers grasped his and he could feel her letting him take most of her weight as she took the oversized steps these rocks provided.

  ‘We’ll stop and rest,’ he said. ‘And then take the easy route down, nice and slowly.’

  Harriet merely nodded, lowering herself carefully to sit on the edge of a boulder.

  Jack slipped off his backpack and opened it to produce two bottles of water and a bag of snacks.

  ‘My sister made this track mix for me,’ he said. ‘Might have a bit much chocolate in it but there’s lots of seeds and nuts and dried fruit as well.’

  Harriet picked out a large chunk of chocolate. ‘I think I like your sister.’ She didn’t put it into her mouth straight away. Instead, she closed her eyes and blew out a long breath. ‘That was a tough one,’ she admitted.

  ‘You couldn’t have done it a few weeks ago.’

  ‘I didn’t think I was going to be able to do it today.’ Her words were slightly muffled by chocolate. ‘I almost gave up back there.’

  ‘I know...’ Jack caught her gaze as another surge of that pride squeezed his heart. ‘But you didn’t. Go, you.’

  ‘I would have if I’d been on my own.’

  ‘There you go, then. Having a personal trainer is good for you.’

  ‘Mmm...but is it good for you?’ Harriet was reaching for the snack bag.

  ‘Are you kidding? I probably wouldn’t have come out at all this morning. It was a bit of a big night last night.’

  ‘Oh?’ Harriet grinned at him, another piece of chocolate poised in her fingers. ‘Who was she?’

  Jack focused on getting a handful of nuts and fruit from the bag. The question was...what...annoying?