The Package Deal: Nine Months to Change His Life / From Neighbours...to Newlyweds? / The Bonus Mum

* * *

Paihia. A massive army clearing tent. People with clipboards, emergency personnel everywhere, reminding them both that they were bit-part players in a very big drama.

‘Ben’s hurt,’ Mary managed, as a woman wearing medic insignia on her uniform met them off the chopper. ‘I’m a nurse. He had a dislocated knee that I managed to put back in but it needs checking for possible fractures. He also had a bang on the head. I’ve pulled the cut together with steri-strips but it probably needs stitches.’

‘We’ll take it from here,’ the medic said. ‘And you?’

‘I’m fine.’

‘Can you come this way, sir? Would you like a wheelchair?’

‘I don’t need help,’ he growled. ‘I need to find my brother.’

‘Your brother is?’

‘Jake Logan. One of the yachties.’

‘You’re part of the round-the-world challenge?’ Her face cleared. ‘Thank God for that. They’ve lost so many, the organisers are frantic.’

That was a statement to make him feel better. Not.

‘Jake...’ he managed.

‘The organisers have evacuated all survivors to Auckland,’ she said. ‘I don’t have names.’ She hesitated. ‘We’re sending a chopper with a couple of patients needing surgery in about ten minutes. If you let me do a fast check on your leg and head first, I can get you on that chopper.’

He turned and Mary was watching, still with that grave, contained face. The face that said she was moving on.

‘Go, Ben,’ she said. ‘And good luck.’

‘Where can I find you?’

‘Sir...’ the woman said.

The chopper was waiting.

‘I need an address,’ he told Mary. ‘Now!’

‘Email me if you like. I’m MaryHammond400 at xmail dot com.’

‘MaryHammond400?’

‘There’s so many of us I got desperate.’

‘There’s only one of you.’

She smiled. ‘It’s nice of you to say so but there are millions of Marys in the world. Good luck with everything, Ben. Email me to let me know Jake’s safe.’

‘I will. And, Mary—’

‘Just go.’

‘Give me the quilt,’ he told her, and she blinked, and he thought bringing the quilt into the equation, a touch of practicality, threw her.

‘You want it for a keepsake? You can’t have it.’

‘I’ll have it restored for Barbara and send it back to you,’ he told her. ‘And I don’t need keepsakes. Thank you, Mary 400. Smash ’em Mary. Mary in a million. I don’t need keepsakes because I’ll remember these last few days forever.’

* * *

She watched the chopper until it was out of sight. She hugged Heinz. She felt...weird.

She should feel gutted, she told herself. She felt like the man of her dreams was flying out of her life forever.

Only he wasn’t. She even managed a wry smile. He’d been a dream, she decided, a break from the nightmare of the past. She was glad she’d made love with him. Abandoning herself in his body, she’d felt as if she’d shed a skin.

Was she now Mary 401?

‘What can we do for you, Miss Hammond?’ Another official with a clipboard was approaching, bustling and businesslike. ‘Your American friends who own the island are frantic. We’ve fielded half a dozen calls. Would you like to ring and reassure them?’

‘I’ll do that,’ she said, still feeling weird. ‘I’ll tell them their quilt’s safe.’

‘Is there someone else we can contact? You live in Taikohe. Can someone collect you?’

‘Are the normal buses running?’

‘Yes, but—’

‘Then I’ll take a bus.’

‘I’m sure we can arrange someone to drive you. We have volunteers eager to help.’

‘Thank you but no.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I need to put this behind me. Somehow life needs to get back to normal.’

CHAPTER SEVEN (#ulink_f0fb0c4e-b6ed-53ff-8eb7-dc6c57cfe33c)

New York

‘MR LOGAN, THERE’S a Mary Hammond on the line, asking to see you. I told her you were fully booked but she says her business is personal. She’s only in the country until Monday.’

Ben was knee deep in futures. The negotiations were complex and vital.

His secretary’s words made the figures in front of him blur.

Mary Hammond.

Mary.

‘Put her through.’