The War Hero's Locked-Away Heart

The woman, her smile broad like a beacon, ran waist deep into the water and helped drag the surfer to solid ground. Which was just as well, because as Adam met her large kohl-rimmed eyes again the earth seemed to tilt. Just a little.

Or maybe it was the shock of the cold air, the shifting of the sand. His leg pinching again. ‘Give me a hand to lay him down. He’s breathing, but he swallowed a good part of that ocean.’

Before he could give her more instruction, she’d flipped the surfer onto his side and was kneeling at his face, assessing the wound like a pro. ‘Hey, Lukas. Lukas?’

Slowly their patient focused on her, then coughed. ‘What …?’

‘It’s Skye. It’s okay. You’re safe now. You okay? Took a good dunking, eh?’

Sky? Adam frowned. What kind of name was that? Curious, too, that it was the one thing that spooked him. Sky. Open air. Nothing but a long way down to a hard landing. And pain. He shuddered.

Sky. For a name? But it went with the territory. Unconventional. Unpredictable. And right now shivering in a flimsy black sports top and matching running shorts. Sea water had slicked her clothes to her body. Fascinating.

He bent down to help her assess the surfer. Not that she looked like she needed help. She was calm and focused. Unlike him. She was distracting. He was distracted.

In every rescue mission he’d ever undertaken he’d never allowed himself to be distracted. Never. ‘Okay, Lukas. Let’s have a good look at you. Got a whack from the board?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Nasty business.’ She smiled again at the surfer. Seemed she had enough smiles for everyone, and a few to spare.

But she looked like she really cared for Lukas, like she wanted him to feel better. Like she wished she could take away his pain. Unlike his own automaton reactions. He knew how to follow strict army orders. First priority: action. No time for emotion. But she managed to mix the two with great effect.

She peered into the boy’s face, got him to focus on her. ‘Great surf today, though. Bet you caught a few good ones, eh?’

Lukas nodded and managed a weak smile. ‘Awesome. But I lost the board. I think it smashed on the rocks.’

‘Never mind, better the board than you. Sean says the change of seasons is the best time to surf. Something about the moon or the equinox. Makes no sense to me.’ Her bubbly chattering seemed to put the lad at ease.

As she spoke she ran confident, slim fingers across his forehead, probing the wound and feeling for damage. Obviously trained in medical examination and filled with genuine concern. Not the kooky, useless type he’d pegged her as. Served him right to make huge assumptions based on his past experience with women.

‘How you manage it I don’t know. I tried it once and ended up face-planting in the shallows. I had sand burn for weeks. Never again. But you make it look so easy.’

Fleetingly, as he watched her fuss around Lukas, Adam felt a keen sense of loss on what he was missing out on. Human contact. Warmth. Sharing things. It had been so long since a woman had given him the slightest fuss he wondered if it was time to start dating again.

Then he cast that ridiculous notion aside. One messed-up marriage was enough.

No, he was looking for simplicity. Just him and nature. Settled in serene Atanga Bay. Well, that’s what he’d heard anyway. Near drownings excepted.

She continued with her gentle chatting. ‘I’ve phoned for an ambulance, Lukas. But you know what it’s like, it could take time.’ She turned to Adam, fixed him with those striking dark eyes. The short black hair intrigued him. So unlike the willowy blondes he usually dated. Had dated. ‘They’re always overworked and short-staffed, I’m afraid.’

‘Same story wherever you go.’ But not short-staffed any more. He opened his mouth to contradict her. Thought better of it. It would take too long, and he didn’t want to get embroiled in a conversation. And, heck, what did it matter? He hadn’t shared an iota about himself with anyone for years. Why would he start with her?

And yet her smiling eyes stirred something in him. Something which would be better left well alone.

‘You holding up, mate?’ He looked at Lukas. Did a mental check as he tried to do a blood sweep through the surfer’s wetsuit. Bit difficult with a second skin. Still, it’d work as a pressure aid while they sorted him out.

‘I’ll just check your vitals again.’ Skye took a quick pulse rate. He’d only known her two minutes and they were working in pure harmony, an understanding of the essentials hovering between them. Not just distracting, but unsettling too. ‘Your heart’s pumping a bit quicker than I’d like, but I reckon you’ll live.’ She squeezed the guy’s hand. ‘We just need to get that head to stop bleeding.’

Adam curled his T-shirt into a knot and held it against the wound to stem the blood flow. ‘Sorry about this, mate. It was clean on this morning, I promise.’ That mustered a weak smile from his patient. ‘You’re going to need a few stitches in that head. Any pain anywhere else?’

Lukas twisted to sit up and held out his right hand. ‘My arm hurts.’

‘Let’s take a look.’ Adam helped peel the wetsuit to waist level, scanning Lukas’s body for any signs of damage or internal bleeding. Then examined his arm, aware that Sky had put herself between Lukas and the ripping wind. She looked more bedraggled than a puppy at bath-time, with those accentuated huge eyes. She was covered in damp sand and her clothes were dripping wet, her arms blue with cold.

He threw her his jacket and she wrapped it round their patient’s shoulders. ‘Sky? It’s starting to get dark and if we’re not careful we’ll all have hypothermia too.’ Not a great start to day one of the rest of his life.

She shivered, but smiled. Again. Didn’t her mouth hurt with all that grinning? Then she rubbed her hands up and down Lukas’s shoulders. ‘He’s right. We don’t want you to get too cold, or go into shock. You need to get warm.’

Patient first. Was she a nurse? A doctor? A local?

Did she live here? His mouth dried.

Stupid. Of course she did, hence the nagging about the rocks. If she was medical their paths were bound to cross. He shook his head, tried to clear his waterlogged brain. She was trained and skilled and here. That was all he needed to know. Any more was unnecessary detail.

A few minutes in her company had proven her curves, her weird charm and her megawatt smile were bad for his equilibrium. Four years on from a broken marriage, a broken life, and he’d only just got his equilibrium back. So he would muster polite. Nothing more.

He felt along Lukas’s arm, noticed the bruising and swelling, the wincing as he touched the forearm. ‘Pain here? What about here? It’s swollen. Could be a fracture, hard to tell with the naked eye. You’ll need an X-ray—’

A siren cut him off. He followed Sky’s gaze to the main road and watched with relief as an ambulance drove down the small boat ramp. He hauled on his jeans and helped Lukas to stand.

Within minutes they’d handed over and lifted their patient into the back of the van. As he shook hands with the ambulance officer Adam decided to come clean. It would be strange turning up to work on Monday morning knowing they’d all shared this rescue and them not knowing his identity.

If he was going to settle here—and he was going to settle this time—he’d need to give more of himself than name and rank. Truth was, opening up after everything that had happened often proved hard.

He spoke to the AO first. ‘I guess you should know, I’m Adam. Adam Miller. Paramedic. I start on Monday, at Wellsford base.’

‘Hi, Adam. Thought there was a look of expertise to this job. What a welcome, eh?’

‘Lucky I was here. Just one of those things.’

‘There I was thinking I was dealing with an average Joe and all the time you’re a medic in disguise.’ Sky blinked up at him. ‘Are you going to live here, or closer to the base in town? Have you got a family here too?’

He turned his surprise at her inquisition into a cough. He’d forgotten how small-towners liked to chat. In retrospect maybe moving to Auckland would have been a better choice. He could have lost himself in the anonymity of crowds. ‘I’m renting up the road.’

‘We’re very pleased to have you.’ Dan, the AO, shook his hand. ‘Kick back a bit and get out of the rat race? Atanga Bay’s usually pretty quiet, but the towns round about keep us busy. Now they’ve extended that motorway we get our fair share of MVAs.’

Adam helped Dan close the van doors. ‘Judging by the hairpin bends, I’m not surprised.’

‘You’re ex-army, is that right? No wonder you made mincemeat out of those waves. Quite the hero.’

‘I don’t think so.’ Hero? No chance. Adam swallowed back his usual dismissive retort and the memories of his last day in action. He forced himself to be friendly. It had been so long he’d almost forgotten how. ‘Before I joined up I was a surf lifeguard. I just follow my instincts.’ He caught Sky’s glance and remembered the importance of a positive debrief. ‘And Sky was great too.’

‘Our Skye is great. And we’re all going to miss her.’ The AO winked at the shivering woman and wrapped an arm round her shoulders. ‘How long to go now?’

She peered up at him, her fists all screwed up like a kid’s at Christmas. Her lips were slightly parted, her mouth soft. A wave of something unfamiliar washed over Adam. He ignored it. Put it down to adrenalin.

‘Four weeks, three hours and …’ She glanced at her watch, and laughed. A light, unencumbered sound, something he hadn’t heard much, or done himself, in a very long time. ‘Thirty-two minutes. Not that I’m counting. Much.’