Locked Down with the Army Doc Read online

  *

  She started doing chest compressions, letting her doctor mode send her into automatic pilot while every other part of her being screamed out loud.

  She loved him. She hated him. She couldn’t possibly be with him. But did she really want to live without him when he’d connected with her in ways she’d never felt before?

  The pain in her chest was immense. Stress, fear and terror all at once.

  She could feel the movement of his chest beneath her palms. His color hadn’t improved. He wasn’t breathing. She couldn’t feel the beat of a heart beneath her hands.

  A tear dripped down her cheek and landed onto his chest.

  This couldn’t be how this ended. It just couldn’t be.

  She wouldn’t let it.

  She couldn’t let it.

  CHAPTER TEN

  ONE SECOND HE was trying to contain himself; next second he was watching the mass of boulders and tree slide toward them as he dived on top of Amber.

  He couldn’t remember anything after that.

  Except that his chest hurt. A lot.

  And so did his shoulder. And so did his head.

  He blinked, then squinted at the bright white that met his eyes.

  A face appeared above him. “Oh, you’re back to the land of the living. About time. I know someone that will be pleased.”

  His brain was still trying to focus. She was vaguely familiar. “Please don’t make me do neuro obs on you, Jack. You haven’t exactly been the easiest patient these past few hours.”

  She winked at him and something flooded into his brain. “Lana?” The ER nurse who had been sent out with him and Amber.

  Amber. This wasn’t a flood; this was a tidal wave. “Amber? Where’s Amber?” He tried to sit up in the bed, yelping as his shoulder let him know who was in charge.

  Lana smiled. “Oh, good. No neuro obs. You do know who we are.” She pointed to his shoulder. “You dislocated that. It will probably be sore for a few days. And you’ve got a few cracked ribs where someone got a little overenthusiastic when you needed CPR.”

  “What?” He sagged back on the bed and put his hand on his chest. That was why it was so sore.

  “As for Amber.” Lana nodded over her shoulder. “Don’t let it be said we’re not accommodating. She’s just back from Theater. Her ankle needed to be pinned. She’s just about ready to wake up.”

  Jack turned his head to the side. There, in the bed next to him, lay a very pale-faced Amber, her dark hair fanned around her, doing her best impersonation of Snow White.

  He shook his head, but, no, even that hurt. Lana walked over and lifted a cup with a drinking straw. “Try some water. Then we can chat. Do you need some more analgesia?”

  He shook his head. “What…what happened? Last thing I remember was the landslide.”

  Lana nodded. “I think I’ll leave Amber to discuss that with you. She used a few choice words.” Lana laughed; her eyes were twinkling. “Give me five minutes to wake her up.”

  Lana pressed a button and the top of Jack’s bed rose behind him, giving him a better view of the room. From the noise outside, the hospital was still crazy. He should be helping. He shouldn’t be in here as a patient.

  But he couldn’t deny the pain in his chest. His heart gave a leap as he heard a few quiet words from the bed next door. He could hear Lana speaking to Amber. “Yeah, I’m the girl with all the gifts. I’ve been in the ER, Maternity and Surgical in the last day. I just go wherever I’m needed.” Lana glanced over her shoulder and gave Jack a wink. “Here, have a little drink and I’ll sit you up. Your partner in crime has woken up too.”

  “He has?” Jack’s breath caught at the tone of her voice. She sounded almost…happy?

  Lana stepped back and glanced from one to the other as she placed a buzzer next to Amber’s hand. “Okay, people, things to do. Ring if you need me.” She was laughing to herself as she walked out of the door.

  For a few seconds there was silence. And Jack was glad of it. He was just so glad to see her there. Seeing that giant amount of earth moving toward them had terrified him. There had been no chance to move Amber out of its path. He might have had a chance to run for it. The firefighters next to him had run like lightning, carrying the patient in the rescue litter. He only hoped they’d managed to get out of the way of the landslide.

  “You made it,” he finally said, his voice breaking a little.

  “Of course I made it,” she snapped. “I haven’t finished being mad at you yet.”

  He rested his head back against the pillow, closed his eyes and smiled. Just the way he liked her.

  “What are you smiling at?”

  He put his hand to his chest. “I’m just thanking someone up above that we’re both still here.” He opened his eyes again. She was too far away to reach out to. But that didn’t stop him wanting to.

  She cleared her throat. “I’m still mad at you.”

  He met her gaze. Somehow he’d never seen anyone look quite so beautiful. “I get that. Do you think being mad could last a lifetime?”

  Confusion swept her face. “What are you talking about?”

  He breathed slowly, then winced. He should have remembered about the ribs.

  “Are you okay?”

  He shook his head. “Just feels like someone has been tap-dancing on my chest. I broke a few ribs, and dislocated a shoulder. I still have no idea how we got out of that.”

  She blinked. Her eyes looked wet. “Sorry. My technique might be off.”

  Something clicked in his brain. “You did CPR on me?”

  She let out an exasperated laugh. “Well, you’d shielded me from a landslide. It would have seemed kind of bad to leave you there when you—” her voice broke “—you weren’t breathing.” He saw her try to take a deep breath. “Blue really isn’t your color.”

  His brain was trying to compute. He’d just figured that one of the search and rescue guys or gals had pulled him from the landslide.

  She kept talking. “How could I walk away? You tackled me to the ground like you were some kind of superhero. Then you just threw a coat over us and didn’t let go all the way down the mountainside.”

  He wasn’t imagining it. A tear was sliding down her cheek.

  “Some people are worth holding on to,” he said softly.

  Amber shook her head. “But we’re wrong for each other. You don’t believe in me. You second-guess me. You make me feel as if I have to prove myself around you.” Her head-shaking got fiercer. “That’s not what love is about. That isn’t how someone who loves you should make you feel.”

  He could see it. The pain on her face that had been etched there since he first met her—always just hiding beneath the surface as she slipped on her bravado and her game face.

  “Is that how I make you feel, or is that how you already feel, Amber?” he probed gently. “Because I think you’re a wonderful doctor. I’ve seen you in situations that should be completely out of your comfort zone and taking it in your stride. Am I a control freak? Yes. I’ve lived the past eight years in a place where discipline and control is everything. But where acting first is sometimes the only chance you get. I know that. I recognize that.

  “I’ve had a situation where everything was out of my control and I woke up the next day having lost someone that I loved. How do you think I felt when I saw you put yourself in danger? Did I overreact? Probably, yes. Will I do it in future? Maybe. It doesn’t make me a bad person. It makes me know that I feel again. That I love again. Do you think I could bear waiting to see if something might happen to you? I saw that ground start to move, felt the rumble beneath my feet, and there was no way I was letting go of you.” He could feel his hands start to shake again. It was almost as if all his emotions were finally coming to the surface.

  “Love isn’t perfect, Amber. I don’t even know if I’m any good at it. I just know I want to try. And I want to try with you. I know we’re right at the beginning. I know anything can happen from here. I just want
you to give me a chance. I just want to try.”

  “You love me?” She said the words in disbelief.

  “Of course I love you. What’s not to love? You fight with me. You tell me I snore. You tease me. You make me work harder. You challenge me at every turn.” He gave her a smile. “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone so perfect for me in my life.”

  Tears were tumbling down her cheeks. “But…but…”

  “But what?”

  He fumbled around the edge of the bed until he found the button that lowered the side. He swung his legs to the edge of the bed and waited a few seconds while his head spun, then yanked the blood-pressure cuff from his arm.

  The first step was shaky. The second was determined. Nothing would keep him from being by her side. He reached the edge of her bed.

  “Tell me how you feel, Amber. Tell me how you feel about me. I might be completely crazy here.” He lifted his hand to the bandage on his head. “Maybe I’ve got a head injury.” Then he took his hand back down to his chest. “Or maybe I’m finally listening to my heart.” He reached over and brushed one of the tears away from her cheek. “I’ve spent the last two years focused on work. Locking myself away from everything and everybody.” He held up his hands and smiled. “Here. This place.” He laughed and shook his head, ignoring the pain. “We came here expecting a busman’s holiday. Expecting the beauty and wonder of Hawaii. Instead we got this. A hurricane. Chaos. A landslide.” He moved closer and took one of her hands in his. “I’m glad, Amber. I’m glad. Because something brought us together. And whatever you want to do in the future, wherever you want to be—” he smiled at her “—I’m just praying you’ll let me tag along.”

  He moved his other hand over hers too. “I’m not your father, Amber. I’m not your ex. I’ll never be those people. I’m Jack Campbell from a tiny mining village in Scotland. Auchinleck. I’ll teach you how to say it. I’ll take you there. I can promise I’ll introduce you to things you’ve never seen before.” As his mind filled with the thoughts of his village back home and the characters it was filled with, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “They’ll love you. Just like I do.”

  Amber’s tears were flowing; she started to laugh. “I wanted to shout at you. I’ve wanted you to wake up so I could tell you how mad I was at you.”

  He leaned one arm on the side of her bed. “And what exactly were you mad about, Dr. Berkeley?”

  It seemed as though all her emotions welled up at once. “I… I was mad because you put yourself at risk to try and save me.” She was struggling to get the words out. “I was mad because you were trying to stop me doing something dangerous… I was mad because I was scared to do it…but I didn’t want to be. I was mad because I constantly felt as if I had to prove myself to my father. To earn his respect. To earn his approval. To show him I could do it. To show him I was capable. And… I… I…” She stopped talking and sucked in a deep breath. Her tear-filled eyes met his. It was almost as if something had just clicked into place. He could see the glimmer of recognition in her gaze. She squeezed his hand. “And… I don’t need to do that with you.”

  He could see her whole change in stance. Her shoulders went down as if the tension had left her body. “I don’t need to do that with you,” she repeated in a whisper.

  “No.” He smiled. “You don’t, Amber. I’ve got your back. I’ll always have your back. You specialize in infectious diseases. How much of that have you got to do in the last seven days? Have you complained? Have you said no? Not once. You’ve put your head down and got on with it. And have you stopped when you were scared? When you put yourself in a situation where you could be electrocuted? When you put yourself in the path of the landslide?” He cupped her cheek. “Who would do that, Amber?” Then he laughed again. “What normal, sane-minded person would do a thing like that?”

  She started laughing too. “Jack Campbell, I do believe you may be a bad influence on me.”

  He fumbled around, looking for her button to lower the bedside. “Where is this dang thing? Ah…finally.” He put the side down and moved closer, wincing as his ribs let him know he wasn’t quite as healed as he might want to be. He put one hand on his side. “Dr. Berkeley, I believe we may need to talk about your technique.”

  “Hang the technique.” She smiled as she put her hand around his head and pulled him closer. “You’re alive, aren’t you?”

  He moved closer, inches away from her lips. “I believe that might put me in your debt.”

  She licked her lips. “You bet it does. You don’t think I saved the man I love for anyone else, do you?”

  Before he could ask her to repeat that, she kissed him.

  And he had absolutely no intention of stopping that…

  EPILOGUE

  One year later

  EVERYTHING WAS PERFECT. The beach was perfect. The brightly colored flowers in her wedding bouquet were perfect, and the overwater bungalows in the perfect green sea in front of them were perfect—especially when she knew one of them had their names on it.

  “Ready?”

  Her mother stood in front of her dressed in a bright orange dress, complete with an over-the-top hat on her head. So right for the mother of the bride.

  Amber stared down and wiggled her pink-painted toenails in the yellow sand. They were always going to come back to the place they’d met to cement their union. Hawaii had recovered well and returned to the beautiful lush state it had been on the morning she’d first arrived. She ran her hand across her pale cream wedding dress. She’d opted for a three-quarter-length dress, lightweight, with lace across her décolletage and shoulders with cap sleeves. Covered enough for a bride but quirky enough that she could get away with being barefoot. Her only jewelry was her gold locket.

  She nodded and breathed slowly. “Oh, yes. I’m ready.”

  Her mother stepped in front of her and put a hand on each shoulder. “I always wondered if I’d have to tell my daughter not to make the same mistakes I did. You have no idea how happy I am that I don’t need to do it. I love Jack. He’s perfect for you. Grumpy sometimes. Doesn’t let you get away with anything. But most importantly he adores you, Amber. I see it in his eyes every time he looks at you. Work hard at this marriage, honey. You found a keeper.”

  Tears threatened to spill down her cheeks. She leaned forward and hugged her mom, almost sending the bright orange hat tumbling down the beach in the light winds. “Thank you, Mom, for everything. You’ve always been my biggest supporter and I love you.”

  “Come on, Amber! Are you stalling, girl?”

  The broad Scots voice of Jack’s dad drifted down the beach. His family were waiting in the shaded area, tugging at the collars of their shirts in the searing heat. They’d been ecstatic to come to Hawaii for the wedding, even though it was a long flight. It was a small wedding with only a few other members of Amber’s family, and a few of the residents they’d met in Hawaii. Lana, Jamal and Ron were all waiting patiently for things to start, as were Aaron and Zane—who’d both made a good recovery from meningitis—both with their respective parents.

  Amber laughed and turned around, catching her breath at the sight of Jack waiting for her in his kilt. “Oh, wow.”

  Her mother gave her hand a squeeze. “Yip. Wow. Let’s not keep your handsome man waiting. These Scots guys can’t seem to manage the heat,” she joked.

  Amber met Jack’s gaze. She’d never been so sure of anything in her life.

  He gave her his trademark cheeky grin. His heavy dark kilt was swaying in the breeze from the ocean and his cream open-necked ghillie shirt outlined his muscled chest. As she walked toward him, he held out his hand to her.

  She handed her flowers to her mother and he took both her hands in his so they were facing each other.

  “You’ve still got a few seconds,” he whispered. “If you want to do the runaway bride, you should do it now.”

  She smiled at the celebrant who was waiting to start the ceremony as she let go of Jack’s hands, slid
her hands around his neck and stepped closer.

  “Where would I run to? I’m exactly where I want to be, with exactly who I want to be with. Now and always.”

  The celebrant gave a short laugh. “Hey, folks. Aren’t you supposed to wait for me?”

  Jack winked. “Just give us a minute. We’ll be right with you,” he said as he bent to kiss his bride.

  And the guests all applauded, even though they weren’t quite husband and wife.

  And everything was just as it was destined to be.

  *

  If you enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from Scarlet Wilson

  Resisting the Single Dad

  A Family Made at Christmas

  The Doctor and the Princess

  A Royal Baby for Christmas

  All available now!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from The Brooding Surgeon’s Baby Bombshell by Susan Carlisle.

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