The Midwife's New-found Family

‘Misty.’ She nodded at his chest and looked at him for tacit permission before she touched it. The jagged scratches were red and welted but she couldn’t see any pieces of shell in the wound. She rested her hand over the wounds and felt the heat of inflammation.

‘Look at your poor chest.’ A sudden mad impulse to kiss her fingertips and pat his wounds better made her straighten away from him. What on earth was the matter with her? This man was an unknown entity and after today she’d never meet him again. She glanced at the blood on her fingers and admonished herself.

She stood and nodded towards the en suite she could see across the room. ‘May I use that?’

‘Of course. And there’s antibiotic powder on the shelf we could use.’

After washing her hands, she used a small clean towel to blot the blood from his chest and then puffed the powder onto his wounds. She stood back and tried to think what else she could do for him, but her mind was suddenly blank so she returned the towel and the powder to the tiny bathroom. When she returned at least she’d thought of something. ‘Is your tetanus booster up to date?’

‘Yes,’ he said quietly, ‘and scratches are a small price to pay.’ He patted the bed next to him.

Seconds later Misty found herself sitting hip to hip with him and she had no idea how she’d got there as he slipped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer in mutual comfort. They sat there side by side, contemplating his lucky escape.

It did seemed weirdly appropriate to hold each other at the memory of the event and surprisingly she drew the comfort he had intended from the gesture.

Suddenly she felt at ease with this man whose life had hung so precariously in the balance that very afternoon, and with the heat of his skin against hers came the reinforcement of the knowledge of his survival. The satisfaction grew that this man was here safe and solidly warm against her, and the other world outside the house seemed a million miles away.

He turned and dropped a gentle kiss, warm and fleeting, on her lips, and it was over before she could begin to avoid it, unlike the impact. Her lips seemed to vibrate with the memory and she mashed them together as if to blot the imprint out because the thrumming continued in decreasing waves.

She felt suspended in time and his voice floated over her. ‘Thank you for saving my life, Misty.’ She could do nothing but stare back at him. His eyes were as blue as the ocean he’d come from and his gaze roamed her face. She could feel heat beneath her skin under his scrutiny and suddenly there was a clawing tumble of unbidden sensations in her belly.

She blinked and broke eye contact as she looked away. ‘Let me see your back.’

Ben closed his eyes and twisted his body so she could see.

He sighed. At least one of them had their feet firmly on the ground. Perhaps it was his concussion but he was having difficulty concentrating on anything else but her beautiful mouth and luscious body pressed against his. This was a damn inappropriate time to start dreaming about what she would look like with her shirt off.

Then she touched his back with those slender mermaid’s fingers of hers, and not being able to see her hands on him made it more erotic than it should have been. He could imagine her leaving luminous trails on his skin, like lines in the water at night.

He shifted uncomfortably as desire stirred beneath the towel and he turned and reached across to capture her hand to still her fingers.

He looked down at her hand. Such long fingers as they lay in his. Such invisible strength within them. She must have a heart as strong as a lioness’s. He had no doubt that was her secret.

There was something pure and golden and unselfish about Misty that shone so brightly even someone as jaded as he could see her worth.

His grip tightened and unconsciously he inched her back to face him until their sides touched again. And then he froze. What was he doing?

His head ached, his chest hurt and he’d nearly died. And he owed his survival to this woman.

All the more reason to act on the moment, his inner demon suggested unhelpfully.

He did not need another complication in his life and from the little he’d seen of her he had no doubt this woman could be extremely complicating.

There seemed a certain naiveté about her that warned him he was the much more experienced of the two of them, but it also unmanned him.

‘Thank you, Misty. I think you’d better go.’

Her eyes widened and he saw the moment she realised what he meant. Heat dusted her cheeks and she stood up quickly and looked around the room as if she’d forgotten where the exit was.

He smiled at her disorientation even as it showed him more than anything that he’d done the right thing. So she could feel it too, he thought.

He stood to follow her to the door when without warning the room tilted away from him like the deck of a ship.

A rush of cold doused him and then nothing as he fell backwards.

Misty managed to reach out and guide him sideways and back onto the bed, but even lifting his muscled legs reminded her of the struggle she’d had to get him out of the water.

She bent to lift his lids but his eyes flickered open again and he blinked groggily as he tried to sit up.

His face shone like alabaster even in the dim room. ‘What happened?’

‘You fainted. I think you should stay down, Ben. I’ll call an ambulance so they can check you out at the hospital.’

He lifted his hand and rested it over his eyes. ‘I don’t need a hospital. It would be a wasted trip for emergency services when they could be saving someone else.’

Misty stilled. ‘That’s ridiculous.’ She ticked off his symptoms on her fingers. ‘You’ve lost consciousness twice from a head injury, had a respiratory arrest, and are probably brewing pneumonia. You need to be observed.’

Ben rubbed his forehead. ‘I’m fine. I just need to sleep.’

Misty couldn’t help her hands going to her hips and she stood over him and glared. The man was exasperating. ‘You might never wake up.’

He didn’t look like he cared and she felt the sting of tears behind her eyes. ‘Imagine the waste of energy today for me.’

Ben sighed. ‘I’m sorry, Misty. You’re a darling. But I’m not going anywhere. Especially to a hospital!’ Finality rang in the last four words.

Misty stamped her foot and he winced at the noise. Then she felt guilty. Her voice dropped to nurse-speak. ‘Come on, Ben. Be sensible. I can’t just leave you.’

He sighed. ‘So observe me for another hour, or the four required, and then when you feel satisfied you can go. Or stay in a spare room and leave in the morning.’

Misty glanced at her watch. Four hours. It would be dark by the time she left but what choice did she have? She did not want to read in the paper about a man found dead in his beach house.

She could stay until she was sure he was fine. She wasn’t expected until tomorrow and would at least know he was going to be OK before she departed. She looked around but there wasn’t a chair in the room, which left only the bed. She’d drag in a chair from somewhere.

Ben had moved while she’d been going over her options. ‘So how did you stumble across me in my hour of need? The beach is usually deserted.’

Misty rarely spoke about her gift and she hesitated at sharing such a personal subject with a stranger. Now was not the time to get into a discussion that would probably end with Ben thinking her fanciful.

‘Just luck. I’ll get a chair.’

Ben lifted his arm and pulled a pillow across from the pile at the top of the bed and put it by his side. His weary eyes twinkled despite his exhaustion.

‘Here. Lie down next to me. I’ll put a wall up so I don’t attack you.’

‘I don’t think so,’ Misty said, and went to explore the house to find a seat. There was a huge old recliner in the next room that looked incredibly comfortable but it would never fit through the door into Ben’s room.

Then there were the driftwood chairs on the verandah that looked fabulous but when she sat on them they were like bony park benches with knobs and bends in uncomfortable places. She couldn’t lounge on them for four hours.

The kitchen had high-backed bar stools and she sighed as she carried one through.