Paramedic Partners Read online

  ‘No. Not yet. But I hope to be soon. I’ve done my year as a trainee and am almost at the end of a second year as an ambulance technician. As we both know, the next step is to take my paramedic exams.’

  ‘Who looks after the boy while you’re working?’ he questioned. ‘His father?’

  ‘Er…no. My brother and his wife live nearby and she looks after Josh, along with her own two children, while I’m at work.’

  He nodded.

  ‘I see.’

  Selina was observing him warily. What was he doing? Assessing her to see if she would be pulling her weight when they were on call-out? Or what?

  ‘How old is Josh?’

  ‘Nine,’ she replied briefly, ‘and he’s an only child.’

  She was beginning to feel as if it was time that she did a bit of probing of her own.

  ‘Where have you moved from?’ she asked casually.

  ‘I’ve been living and working down south. This is my first experience of a northern city. I’d hoped to settle here a couple of weeks ago to give me some breathing space, but something cropped up and I only arrived yesterday.’

  ‘And you’re already on the job!’ she exclaimed. ‘That seems a bit much.’

  He shrugged as if it was of no consequence. ‘My contract said that I start today, and today it is.’

  She was giving him directions and he said, ‘I take it that working in the inner city is enough. You don’t choose to live there?’

  ‘That’s correct. I live in a Pennine village that isn’t too far away for commuting and is a better place to bring Josh up in.’

  When they stopped outside the neat stone cottage, which had seemed like a paradise when Dave had been around and now was just a place to live, Kane settled back into the driving seat and said, ‘I’ll wait. Do whatever you have to do. If any calls come through, I’ll radio back to base and explain what’s happened and where I am.’

  Selina hesitated. The least she could do was invite him in.

  ‘Don’t wait out here. You can make yourself a drink while I’m changing.’

  ‘You’re sure?’

  ‘Yes.’

  He opened the door and stepped onto the pavement, observing the house as he did so.

  ‘Nice. Have you always lived in the area?’

  She nodded, wishing as she did so that he would leave it at that.

  He did and, after directing him into the kitchen and showing him where she kept tea, coffee and suchlike, she went into the hall and took off the drab raincoat.

  Selina paused for the briefest of moments as the bikini was revealed. She sighed. It seemed like a lifetime since she’d padded out into the garden to sun herself.

  Framed in the mirror opposite was a woman with straight golden hair fastened back in a ponytail, slender almost to the point of being too thin, with violet eyes behind long lashes and a kind mouth.

  The men on the unit often joked that she should be on the catwalk instead of the paramedic treadmill, but she only laughed when they said it. Ever since she’d joined the St John’s Ambulance Service while still at school Selina had known where she was heading.

  But her mother’s long illness, her father’s incapacitation until he, too, had passed away and then becoming pregnant with Josh almost as soon as she and Dave had married had put a hold on career plans until a couple of years ago.

  At that moment the kitchen door swung back and Kane Kavener was standing there with the coffee-jar in his hands.

  ‘It’s empty. Shall I er…?’ His voice trailed away when he saw her, and there was something in his glance that made her face grow warm.

  ‘Open a new one? Yes. You’ll find one in the cupboard,’ she said quickly, and with an about-turn she ran up the stairs.

  Within seconds she was back down, dressed in a white cotton top and denim cropped trousers, and carrying a small holdall.

  He put down the mug he was holding and with the other hand replaced the photograph of Dave and herself that he’d picked up from the window shelf.

  ‘Your husband?’ he asked casually.

  ‘Yes,’ she told him quietly, ‘and if you’re wondering why he isn’t here when his son is asking for him…’

  He raised his hand with palm outwards to halt the flow of words.

  ‘Not my business. It just seemed a shame, that was all. Josh wanting him and him not being there, but fathers have a living to earn. They can’t always be around.’

  ‘Dave is dead,’ she told him tonelessly. ‘He died of cancer a year ago.’

  Kane’s face went slack. ‘I’m sorry. So sorry! It must be very hard for you.’

  ‘It is,’ she said simply. ‘But there has never been anyone to tell us that life is fair, has there?’

  ‘No, indeed,’ he agreed soberly.

  Wishing that she’d been a bit less upfront with her affairs, she said, ‘Are you ready?’

  ‘Of course…and make sure that you lock up this time.’

  Not another word passed between them on the way back but Selina thought that she’d said enough already, considering they’d only met hours ago. But at least he would have her sussed for when she turned in for duty—he would have found out her circumstances sooner or later.

  Kane Kavener hadn’t been very forthcoming about himself, though, had he? A quick glance at his inscrutable profile was a reminder that if she’d been upfront about herself to the man who was to be her new partner, he wasn’t prepared to paint a picture of himself for her.

  When he stopped on the hospital forecourt he spoke for the first time.

  ‘I’m told that you’re due back on duty the day after tomorrow, and that would have been our first day together, but obviously your son’s accident will have changed that.’

  Selina nodded.

  ‘Yes. I’ll be staying with Josh until he comes out of hospital and will want to be with him the first few days after he comes home while he adjusts to the plaster cast and moving around on crutches. Once that’s sorted he’ll be all right with my sister-in-law, Jill.’ She cast an anxious glance at the door marked OUTPATIENTS. ‘Just as long as there are no unforeseen complications from the accident.’

  ‘I hope that won’t be the case for both your sakes,’ he said gravely, then added, with his voice lightening, ‘Can I take it that you won’t be bossing me about when we start working together?

  She gave a weak smile.

  ‘You mean like this morning?’

  ‘Hmm. Although I do admit there were extenuating circumstances.’

  ‘You’ll have to wait and see, won’t you?’ she said smoothly, and on that note she opened the door and was gone.

  Josh had just been settled into the children’s ward when she got there, and now that his leg was more comfortable and his cuts and bruises had been treated he was feeling more cheerful and ready to enjoy the novelty of the situation he found himself in.

  When Selina appeared at his bedside he looked up at her with the bright blue eyes that were so like Dave’s and said, ‘I know that Dad is dead, Mum. I don’t know why I said what I did.’

  ‘You were hurt and frightened, my darling,’ she said softly, ‘and wanted your dad as well as your mum. It was understandable, and although Dad isn’t with us anymore he’ll be watching over you somewhere, I’m sure.’

  He was smiling.

  ‘Do you think they have traffic accidents in heaven…like when they get onto the wrong cloud or have a skid on the Milky Way?’

  Selina laughed and there was relief in it because he was joking about Dave now, not crying for him.

  Gavin had gone off duty. By now he would be home and would have told Jill what had happened. Her sister-in-law, who was also her closest friend, would be horrified.

  By nine o’clock that evening Josh was fast asleep after his distressing day, and one of the nurses on the children’s ward said, ‘He’s happy enough with us, Mrs Sanderson. Why don’t you go home and get some rest? We’ll ring you if there are any problems.’

  ‘All
right,’ she agreed reluctantly, ‘but I’ll be here by six o’clock in the morning.’

  * * *

  Gavin and Jill lived in a big Victorian semi by the village green and, before letting herself into the cottage, Selina called in to see them.

  ‘How awful for you both!’ her petite sister-in-law said, hugging her close. ‘Whatever were the school thinking of to let Josh run out on to the road like that?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Selina said sombrely, ‘but I have a feeling that it might have been his own fault. He tells me that when the ball went over the wall his friends were all urging him to go and get it and while the playground supervisor’s back was turned he lifted the chain off the gate and ran out. But even so I shall be having a talk with the headmaster once I’ve calmed down.’

  Gavin sighed. ‘Show a boy a ball and he undergoes a complete change of personality. How is he now?’

  ‘He was asleep when I left him, but I’ll be back there first thing.’

  * * *

  In the double bed that she’d once shared with Dave, Selina found she couldn’t sleep. Pictures of the day’s happenings kept going through her mind like shots from a horror movie, and mingled with them was the memory of the meeting with her new partner, Kane Kavener.

  Where was he sleeping tonight? she wondered. He would have finished the day shift at seven o’clock and what then? Gone for a meal? Finished his unpacking? Or was there someone waiting for him, eager to hear how his first day had gone?

  Why had she been in such a hurry to tell him she was a widow? she asked herself. She hated the sound of the word. For one thing it was a reminder that Dave wasn’t around any more, and for another it was like having a badge pinned on her, indicating that she was once again available. A marriageable woman. But not without strings attached. The ‘string’ in her case was an adorable fair-haired boy, whom she could have lost if a certain motorist hadn’t been driving slowly…and hadn’t clapped on his brakes as fast as he had.

  Maybe at the back of her mind, when she’d said what she had, had been the memory of a couple of passes that men had made at her in recent weeks.

  She’d quickly rebuffed them and afterwards had thought tearfully that she hated being in the position of a lone woman.

  And so why should it be any different with him? she asked herself. She didn’t know. But something about Kane had told her that he wasn’t the chatting-up type. And why, for heaven’s sake, was she taking it for granted that he might be even remotely interested in anything concerning her?

  In the end she got up, showered, made herself a quick breakfast in the summer dawn, then set off for the hospital once more.

  * * *

  Josh was discharged on Sunday morning, and as he swung himself along the garden path on a small pair of crutches Selina was just glad to have him home again.

  ‘One of the paramedics came in to see me last night after you’d gone, Mum,’ he’d said earlier when she’d arrived on the ward.

  ‘Really! Which one?’

  ‘The new one…Kane.’

  ‘That’s strange!’ she exclaimed. ‘He would have been off duty by then.’

  ‘Mmm, he was. He brought me some comics and sweets…and told me to look where I was going in future. He asked where you were and I said you’d gone home to have a rest.’

  ‘I see.’

  She didn’t really. It had been a kind thought, but was it because he was sorry for them both?

  Jill, Gavin and their three-year-old twin daughters called round in the afternoon, and after the tension of the last few days it was nice to have the house filled with noise and laughter.

  ‘So what about next week?’ Jill asked as they were leaving. ‘When are you going back to work?’

  ‘Not until I’m happy to leave Josh,’ she told her. ‘You’ve got your hands full with the twins and I don’t want to make life difficult for you.’

  ‘You won’t be,’ Jill told her serenely. ‘We’re used to having him around and the twins are fascinated by the crutches.’

  ‘Then in that case I might go in on Tuesday. I should have been on nights today and tomorrow, but the station officer has arranged for one of the other trainees to fill in for me. Which means that I’ll be going back to day shifts.’ She paused and then added meaningfully, ‘With my new partner.’

  ‘And who might that be?’ Gavin asked.

  ‘The paramedic who came out to Josh.’

  ‘So you’ve already met?’

  ‘Yes, we’ve already met,’ she said glumly.

  He laughed.

  ‘And what did he think of your trendy outfit?’

  What had he thought? she wondered. Especially when he’d seen what had been under the raincoat.

  ‘Cheer up, sis,’ he said reassuringly. ‘Wait till he sees you in action. You’ll knock him cold.’

  ‘I hope not,’ she said with gloom still upon her. ‘He’s not exactly the warmest person I’ve ever met.’

  CHAPTER TWO

  AS HE’D let himself into a soulless flat in a high-rise block in the city centre on the Friday night, Kane’s mind had been on his meeting with Selina Sanderson earlier in the day.

  First there’d been the ride in the ambulance when, mother of the victim or not, he’d wanted to throttle her for trying to take over.

  At that time he hadn’t known who she was, and he’d been thinking ever since what a bizarre way it had been of getting to know each other.

  Then there’d been the brief visit to her home and the glimpse of what she hadn’t been wearing beneath the raincoat. She was quite something in an understated way, he thought as he filled the kettle at a well-used stainless-steel sink.

  It was sad that she’d lost her husband so young. Even more sad had been the youngster crying for the dad he wasn’t ever going to see again.

  As he soaped himself under the shower it occurred to him that it was the first time in days he’d thought about anyone but himself.

  It had taken the frantic young mother and the injured child to make him take a good look at himself, and he wasn’t too chuffed at what he was seeing.

  You need to snap out of it, he told himself. It’s over and done with. You came out of it with your reputation untarnished, so what’s the problem?

  It didn’t make him feel any less angry, though, and future working partners of the opposite sex would be kept at a wary arm’s length…even if they were leggy, blonde and appealing.

  He’d never had trouble with women before. They were attracted to him for some reason and he’d had some pretty interesting relationships.

  Yet they’d never lasted. There’d never been anyone that he’d wanted to make a commitment to. Of all things, he didn’t like to be pursued and that was how it had been with Eve Richards.

  It still made his skin crawl when he thought about what she’d done, even though it had come to light that there’d been extenuating circumstances.

  He’d decided to move as far away as he could get from her, and when she’d found out Eve had complained that she’d been sexually harassed by him.

  If he hadn’t been so devastated it might have been amusing, as she had been the one guilty of that. From the moment she’d been assigned to him as an ambulance technician she had been like an infatuated limpet. Touching him whenever the opportunity arose. Buying him gifts. Inviting him out to lunch. And in the end blatantly asking him to sleep with her.

  If she’d been the last woman on earth he wouldn’t have wanted to do that. She was reasonably attractive in a sloppy sort of way, but definitely not his type, and in the end he had asked for her to be partnered with another woman.

  The station officer had been sympathetic, but new rotas and staff shortages had meant that the move had been a long time coming and in the end Kane had decided that the only thing to do had been to remove himself from her orbit.

  There was a hysterical scene when she knew he was going and the next thing was the complaint against him. It was his word against hers and he knew wit
h a sinking feeling that a woman was often believed in that sort of situation.

  But where the station officer had been slow in the first instance, he moved quickly when the complaint was made and had the authorities delve into Eve Richards’s records.

  They discovered that she’d been treated for a severe mental disorder in the past and it had been overlooked when she’d applied to join the ambulance service.

  It made him feel less angry with Eve but furious with those responsible for him having to endure such harassment, even more so because their patients could have been put at risk by her unstable behaviour.

  For weeks he didn’t know whether he was coming or going. Whether he would be suspended. Whether the position in the north that he’d accepted would be lost if he couldn’t take it up on the date specified.

  A date for a disciplinary hearing was set and it was very near to the time when he was due to move to Cheshire to start the new job. He was summoned to attend and did so, angry at the kind of limbo he found himself in.

  However, the medical evidence regarding Eve’s state of mind was so conclusive that before he knew it he was cleared of the charge.

  The relief was exquisite, and though those in authority tried to persuade him to stay he was adamant that he was leaving.

  And now here he was. In a dingy flat which was all he could find at such short notice.

  He wondered if he would have been so aware of its shortcomings if he hadn’t been to Selina’s cottage in the delightful Pennine village. Maybe he ought to move in that direction when he started house-hunting…just as long as no one was going to get any wrong ideas.

  With mother and child still on the edge of his consciousness, he popped in to see the boy on Saturday night when his shift was over.

  It was done on impulse. He’d gone to buy an evening paper and had ended up buying comics and sweets at the same time, and as the hospital was only a few minutes’ walk from the flat he went round there with them.

  There was no slender blonde beside the bed and he didn’t know whether to be glad or sorry. Josh told him that his mum had just left after being there all day, and that he was going home next morning.

  ‘Good for you,’ Kane said with one of his rare smiles. ‘I’ll bet your cousins are looking forward to seeing you again.’