He was back in his very personal trainer mode. Was this the real bond between them? The only bond apart from the intense physical attraction? It wasn’t disappointment that ambushed Harriet this time. It was more like...fear.
She swallowed whatever it was. ‘Let’s do that,’ she said. ‘Let’s start this afternoon. And then...maybe we can go back to my place and...um...have dinner?’
‘Oh, we’ll have something all right.’ Jack’s smile told her that food was a very unimportant item on the agenda. He gave her hand another squeeze and then let go, tilting his head to peer under the table. ‘You’re wearing your trainers. Let’s head somewhere nice and see what your leg thinks about a very gentle re-introduction to jogging.’
‘I’m up for it.’ Harriet slipped her phone—and those photos—back into her bag. ‘But don’t say anything to Blake yet, okay? Not until I’m sure I’m ready.’
* * *
It was nearly a month before Harriet felt she was nearly ready to put her hand up to be on the team again.
A month where she and Jack had been spending more and more of any free time they had together. Time when they were learning that, despite any difference in their ages or backgrounds, they had more in common than they might have believed.
‘You like rom coms? No way... I would have guessed action movies for sure. Testosterone and guns.’
‘I like them, too. But I grew up with a bunch of sisters, don’t forget. I got outvoted every time it was movie night at home.’
Their beach walk that day, with some jogging on firm sand, had become a competition to identify the best romantic movie they had ever seen and the arguments, punctuated by a lot of laughter, had made it so much easier to cope with any pain from pushing herself physically.
Eating together became a real pleasure as they discovered they loved the same kind of food, especially the less healthy treats. Hot, crusty bread with butter and raspberry jam. Fish and chips. Chocolate fudge brownie ice cream.
‘We’ll have to do twice as much jogging this week, babe...’
And as for the sex...
It took only a look to ignite a desire that seemed to be growing instead of being slaked. Just a touch or maybe a lick to change the pace from a deliciously slow exploration to an urgent need to reach that point of absolute bliss as soon as possible. The time after that was even better, in a very different way, when they could lie together, skin to skin, with their limbs tangled, and they could just breathe and feel the beat of each other’s hearts.
That had become the time that Harriet loved the most. The place she would choose above anything else if she needed to feel protected.
Loved.
But while Jack told her in a dozen different ways, through his touch or his thoughtfulness or even simply his smile, how much he cared about her, he’d never actually said the words. Neither had Harriet but it didn’t seem to matter. They were together and their bond was getting stronger every day. They hadn’t advertised their relationship in any way but it was only a matter of time before others were aware that this was a great deal more than friendship. And maybe it was something that needed to happen slowly so that people got used to it and nobody would say anything that had the potential to dislodge the foundations of what they were building around them.
* * *
‘What’s going on with you two?’
‘Huh?’ Jack didn’t take his eyes off Harriet. She was several metres off the ground and the next hold on the wall was one she needed to access with her left foot. It was a good-sized boulder but this was still going to be a real test of whether she could trust the damaged muscles in her leg to take enough of her weight. She was safe enough, of course. As a certified climbing wall instructor, Jack had tied her into her harness himself, with a figure-eight follow-through knot. He was clipped to a floor anchor and he had control of her ropes as her belayer.
‘We’re just doing a bit of training,’ he added. ‘Harry’s giving the orange route a go tonight.’ He was giving her a little rope with his guide hand as he spoke, his other hand ready to act as the brake in an instant, to limit the distance she could fall if she missed her footing. Or her leg wasn’t up to this new challenge.
‘I’m not talking about the climbing,’ Blake murmured. ‘I was watching you when you were getting ready and... I dunno... I got the feeling there’s something going on.’
Jack said nothing. He was too focused on what Harriet was doing to respond anyway.
‘Keep your arm straight,’ he called. ‘Find your centre of gravity and keep it close to the wall. Step with your toes and push off with your leg, don’t pull with your arms.’ He held his breath for a moment as her foot landed on the boulder and Harriet twisted a little to stay balanced. He could feel his own muscles tightening as he willed her leg to be strong enough to push her upwards and he let out a huff of breath as she succeeded.
He adjusted the ropes he was holding once again. ‘Keep going, babe. You’re doing great...’
‘“Babe”...?’ He could hear Blake’s grin around the word. ‘I knew it... You and Harry, huh?’
‘Yeah...’ Jack slid a quick sideways glance at his friend. ‘Me and Harry.’ His tone was almost a challenge but their relationship couldn’t be used as an excuse not to let Harriet back on the team, could it? Not when Blake and Sam had hooked up to the ultimate degree and were both still team members.
Blake shook his head. ‘Should’ve seen that coming, I guess. What with all the time you two have been spending together lately.’ He was still grinning. ‘Puts a whole new spin on personal training...’
‘That’s all it was to start with.’ Jack was watching Harriet again as he handled the ropes. She was almost at the top and had to be tired but she was smashing this challenge. The way she had with pretty much every challenge he’d ever seen her take on.
And he was so proud of her he could burst.
‘How ’bout that?’ he said, as Harriet let out a whoop of triumph on reaching the last set of holds. ‘Is she awesome, or what?’
‘Amazing,’ Blake agreed. He waved at Harriet as she relaxed into her harness, enjoying her success before starting her descent. ‘I can’t believe how well she’s managed to rehabilitate herself.’
‘Hey, Jack?’ Harriet called. ‘I’m ready to come down now.’
He gave her the rope she needed slowly and steadily. ‘She’s ready for more than this,’ he told Blake. ‘She’s ready to come back on board for the team.’
Harriet landed on the floor and began to unclip herself from the ropes.
‘It’s lucky you’re here to see this,’ Jack added as he moved towards her to help. ‘Maybe you can invite her back yourself and save her having to ask.’
Blake made a grunting sound but he stayed where he was, watching as Jack helped pack up the gear they’d been using. Then he walked towards them.
‘Looking good, Harry,’ he said. ‘Well done.’
‘I know, right?’ Harriet was beaming. ‘I can’t believe I just did that.’ Her gaze swerved to Jack and he knew he was smiling just as hard. ‘You were right... I can do it.’
Jack turned his head and raised an eyebrow at Blake to go with his pointed look.
Blake cleared his throat. ‘Reckon it’s time we had you back on board for the team,’ he said. ‘If you want to be.’
Harriet’s grin faded until her face was as serious as Jack had ever seen it. Her eyes were still shining but he suspected it could be from an unshed tear or two. He could feel a bit of lump in his own throat. How amazing was this, to see the person you loved this much achieving a huge milestone towards being the person they most wanted to be?
Harriet didn’t say anything, she simply nodded.
‘There’s a team meeting next Wednesday, then,’ he added. ‘And make sure you’ve got your pager with you from now on.’ Blake made it sound as if a callout could happen
at any moment. Which, of course, it could. ‘Jack? You fancy shooting a few hoops before you go?’
‘Next time, mate.’ Jack looped his arm around Harriet’s shoulders. ‘We’ve got a spot of celebrating to do right now.’
It was Blake’s turn to raise an eyebrow. ‘Sam thinks you guys are just good friends,’ he muttered. ‘How come she doesn’t know about the benefits bit?’
Harriet was smiling again. ‘I haven’t seen her for a while. She’s too wrapped up in being a new wife, I think. Tell her I’ll call her soon.’
Jack picked up the coils of rope and the harnesses and led the way to the equipment room. Was that all this was as far as Harriet was concerned? A friendship...with benefits?
Maybe it was time to tell her how he really felt. But what if it was too soon? The seed of doubt was disturbing but undeniable. Harriet hadn’t even told her best friend what was going on yet and Jack knew that girls spent an awful lot of time discussing important emotional stuff. Had she not told Sam because it wasn’t important enough yet? Because she wasn’t sure that what he could offer was as much as Pete had given her?
It was getting harder to close down the urge to push things forward but Jack knew he had to try. This was too important to risk damaging.
CHAPTER EIGHT
LIFE WAS ALMOST back to normal.
But everything felt so very different.
The ache in her leg was so familiar now that it was just a part of day-to-day reality. Soaking it in a fragrant, hot bath at the end of a long day had become one of life’s new pleasures.
With a deep sigh, Harriet rested her head against the back of the bathtub and closed her eyes. She needed to make the most of tonight’s soak because she wouldn’t get one tomorrow with the team meeting being the focus of the evening.
Yes...everything was the same, but different. A year ago she’d thought she’d had everything she wanted in her life. A job she loved, the added excitement of being part of the SDR team, great friends and a relationship that seemed to be heading for forever. But life could change in a heartbeat, couldn’t it?
Even now, she could relive that instant in time when her life had been shattered so convincingly. Standing at the bottom of that cliff on a team training day, having completed her abseil some time ago, she was watching Sam take on the challenge. Holding her breath, because she really wanted her friend to ace this and get to achieve her dream of being accepted into the team. She’d actually seen the moment that rockfall had started and she’d been terrified that one of those boulders was going to hit Sam as it bounced down the cliff. And then she’d heard the warning shout and Jack had grabbed her arm and then her hand and he had tried to pull her to safety. She’d tried to run but...she’d tripped, ripping her hand from Jack’s grip, and she’d fallen and...
Harriet’s eyes snapped open. The jolt of pain that had just flashed from her ankle right up to her back had to be imaginary. Just a nightmarish flashback. She hadn’t thought about the day of the accident with a clarity like this in months. She’d almost forgotten that it had been Jack who’d tried to save her.
She’d never thanked him for that, had she? The time between the rock hitting her and waking up after her surgery was a bit of a blur but she knew she’d been looking for the people that mattered most to be with her. Pete. And Sam. That Jack had now become the most important person in her life was a twist of fate that would have been unimaginable that day.
But it was also one of life’s new pleasures.
No...it was way more than that.
The pieces of her life had been put back together. She was coping with her beloved job in the ICU and now had the excitement of knowing that she would be part of the next callout for the SDR team, but her relationship wasn’t simply a bonus. It had been Jack’s support—his belief in her—that had made it all possible.
She wouldn’t be the person she was right now if she didn’t have Jack in her life. And she couldn’t imagine life without him in it.
He was working on the road tonight but maybe he would call her later, if his crew got a quiet spell between calls. Maybe she would tell him that she’d remembered how he’d tried to save her that day and thank him. Tell him that, while she hadn’t had a clue at the time, it was one of the things she loved about him.
Or maybe not...
He had to be the one to say it first, didn’t he?
Why? Because that would give her the confidence to take that final leap of faith? To let her get rid of the fear that giving someone that kind of trust was too much of a risk?
Jack would be taking a risk as well. Blake had certainly seemed surprised the other night at the gym when he’d realised that there was more than friendship going on between her and Jack. Did that have something to do with the age difference? He didn’t believe it was serious either, or why would he have made that comment about it being a ‘friendship with benefits’? Jack hadn’t said anything to dismiss that idea and it seemed like they’d both simply pushed it out of sight and out of mind for the rest of the evening, as they’d celebrated her renewed status as a member of Bondi Bayside’s SDR team.
It was coming back to haunt her now, though. As much as any memories of the accident did. Was that how Jack saw their relationship? Had he just been a bit carried away by the moment, after that first kiss, when he’d said that the gap in their ages wouldn’t matter a damn when they were old and grey?
No. He’d also said that his family would be thrilled to know he had a ‘proper’ girlfriend, and he’d been right. Only last night they’d been to have dinner with his older sister, Talia, her husband Mark and their three gorgeous small children, who’d cuddled up to their Uncle Jack and accepted their new ‘Aunty Harry’ without a beat of hesitation.
There’d been a moment when Talia had been busy with something in the kitchen and Mark had gone to get some beers from the fridge in the garage, having handed the youngest of his offspring, Minny—the cutest six-month-old ever—to Jack. Harriet had had to shuffle over to make room for the baby’s siblings, who’d crowded onto the small couch to join them and share in the cuddles.
They’d all been laughing as Talia had poked her head through the door to see what the commotion was all about. She’d laughed as well.
‘Suits you,’ she’d said. And then she’d disappeared into the kitchen again. ‘You may as well get used to it, I guess.’
Jack had caught her gaze and he’d wiggled his eyebrows and she had grinned back even though she’d been trying to gently extract some small sticky fingers from her hair.
Of course they both saw kids in their future. It was a question of ‘when’, not ‘if’. And how beautiful would those babies be, with Jack as their father?
But he was only twenty-eight. It could be years before he felt ready for that role. And Harriet was thirty-four, nearly thirty-five. Was that hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach, as she remembered the moment, her biological clock starting to tick? It was probably true that this kind of age gap meant nothing when you were older but they were at a stage of their lives when it could create an issue and put pressure on a relationship.
Harriet sat up and pulled the plug from her bath. The water was getting cool but she had no desire to top it up. To do so would invite tapping even deeper into those insecurities she’d never quite squashed about the wisdom of allowing this relationship to develop. The bottom line was that she would trust Jack with her life.
Maybe she just needed to start trusting him with her heart as well.
* * *
‘So...you and Jack...’ Sam had waited only until Blake and Jack headed to the bar to get their drinks and some snacks before grinning at Harriet. ‘When were you going to tell me?’
‘We haven’t spent any time together since you got back from your honeymoon.’
‘I know... I’m sorry. I’m a bad friend. But not as bad as you, keeping a secret like this. I
do still have a phone, you know.’
‘I know. And I’m sorry. I guess I was waiting to see if it was really going to last.’
‘Why wouldn’t it? He’s obviously crazy about you.’ Sam lowered her voice. ‘And he’s gorgeous.’ She cast a glance over her shoulder to check that the men were still in the queue. ‘So when did it start?’
‘Um...’ Harriet almost blushed. ‘At your wedding...’
Sam gasped. ‘No way...you mean when you disappeared and were worried about your leg and I sent Jack to try and find you?’
‘Mmm...’ Harriet couldn’t help smiling. ‘He found me.’
‘And I didn’t suspect a thing at breakfast the next day. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.’
‘It felt a bit weird for a while,’ Harriet confessed. ‘You know...with the age difference.’
‘Oh, pfft...’ Sam made a dismissive movement with her hand. ‘If the age gap was the other way around, nobody would blink an eye, would they?’
‘I guess not.’ Harriet tilted her head to warn Sam that their drinks were on the way.
‘Anyway. I’m thrilled. Couldn’t happen to two nicer people. I’m so happy for you.’
‘Happy about what?’ Blake put a glass of wine in front of Sam. Jack was carrying one for Harriet.
‘That Harry’s back on the team, of course.’ She caught her husband’s look and her lips twitched. ‘Okay... I’m also happy to have it confirmed that Harry and Jack are an item.’ She raised her glass in a toast and then grinned at Blake. ‘Are you making an announcement under “new business” at the meeting tonight?’
He laughed. ‘Only if Jack and Harry really want me to.’
Jack’s gaze caught Harriet’s. There was laughter in his eyes but a question as well. About whether she was ready for the whole world to know how they felt about each other. The warmth in this look suggested that he was more than ready and Harriet felt suddenly completely confident. In him. In them. In their future.
‘Why not?’ she said, holding his gaze.
‘Ah...because we have actual team business to deal with?’ Blake shook his head. ‘And I don’t want word to get around that the SDR is really a secret dating agency.’
Rescued by Her Mr. Right Page 11
