He gave Brie his best smile. ‘Don’t worry,’ he told her. ‘I’ll look after you.’

  * * *

  Being this close to Jonathon Morgan was...well, it was disturbing, that was what it was. On several levels.

  One was that Brie was being driven faster than she would have believed possible through the heavy traffic of a big city on a busy weekday. Jonno’s driving wasn’t just fast, it was very clever. He seemed to have the ability to sense a complication like a panicked driver swerving the wrong way having just noticed a vehicle with lights and sirens right behind him, someone deciding to plough on through a junction to get out of the way, a delivery truck driver who threw open his door without looking and even a dog that had apparently appeared from nowhere. It was kind of like riding a roller coaster, Brie decided. Scary but undeniably rather thrilling.

  On top of that, it felt as if fate was throwing them together. How weird was it that her crew partner had been injured on her first shift, there weren’t any other gaps that needed filling on other crews and Jonno was on the rapid response vehicle that the station manager had decided to put her on for some extra experience.

  Or had Jonno had something to do with that decision? Brie suspected it was not a common way to provide a rookie paramedic with some additional training.

  Most of all, though, it was disturbing because it wasn’t just the experienced, confident driving that was exciting.

  It was being this close to Jonno. Thinking that perhaps it had been his idea that she rode along with him because he wanted to be this close to her? To pick up where he’d left off seven years ago, perhaps? Not that that was going to happen but it was, admittedly, flattering to think it might be even a part of the motivation behind this unexpected change in her duties.

  The way Brie was feeling was like an emotional coin that kept flipping. Excited but then scared. Delighted but then super wary. Wishing she could be somewhere else—as far away as possible—but then feeling privileged to be this close and to have an opportunity to learn from the best.

  There was nothing to suggest that Jonno had chosen to have her work with him either, and no hint of anything other than professional communication, but there hadn’t exactly been any time for that to happen yet. This call had come in within minutes of the news that she would be second crew on this rapid response vehicle and this particularly fast ride was going to put them first on scene to a three-year-old child who had potentially swallowed a dangerous amount of his grandfather’s heart medication.

  ‘Just one or two tablets of a calcium channel blocker like this one can be lethal to a ten-kilogram toddler,’ Jonno said, giving a bus driver a wave as he overtook the vehicle that had been pulled out of their way. ‘Cardiovascular medications are among the top twenty-five drugs for potentially toxic ingestion, but they’re the third most common substance resulting in the death of a child under five years old.’ He gave Brie a sideways glance as they turned off the motorway and headed into a residential suburb. ‘What sort of symptoms should we be concerned about?’

  ‘Cardiac effects to the heart rate and/or rhythm?’

  ‘Yep. What else?’ Jonno killed the siren as they found the street they were looking for.

  Brie tried to remember her training module on poisoning. ‘Blood pressure changes,’ she said. ‘Hypotension?’

  ‘Yep. That’s the most common symptom. Worst case scenario is a cardiovascular collapse so we’d better be prepared for anything.’ Jonno switched off the beacons on their vehicle, turning his head to peer at house numbers.

  To her relief, there was no sign of an imminent cardiovascular collapse as they entered the house. The toddler was sitting happily in front of the television, in fact, watching a children’s programme.

  His mother was a lot less happy. ‘I’m so glad you’re here,’ she said. ‘I’m worried sick about George...’

  ‘So what’s happened?’

  ‘I was getting my dad’s pills ready for today. He’s got dementia and he lives with us. So I had all the pills out to put into the little boxes and I heard him calling out in the bathroom.’ George’s mother looked distressed. ‘He’d got confused over how to flush the loo and he was getting upset because the taxi was coming to take him to the day care group he goes to. Anyway... I was in there for a minute and then the taxi arrived, so he needed help to get to the gate, but I could hear that George was happy singing along with his programme. And then I came in here and there were pills everywhere from the bottle of Dad’s heart medicine. I don’t know how many are missing.’

  The quirk of Jonno’s eyebrow let Brie know he wasn’t too worried himself yet. He went to crouch down by the little boy.

  ‘Hey, George. Is this a good show?’

  George nodded. He pointed at the screen, where people dressed in colourful animal costumes were singing a song.

  ‘I hear that you’re a good singer.’ Jonno sounded impressed.

  George nodded again. ‘I can touch my tummy!’ he sang, along with someone in a penguin costume. His singing was enthusiastic but not at all tuneful. ‘Pat, pat, pat...’

  Jonno was grinning. It was easy to tell what the next line of the song was going to be, thanks to the actions of the person dressed as a tiger. ‘I can touch my head,’ he sang. ‘Pat, pat, pat...’

  ‘Have you noticed anything unusual about his behaviour?’ Brie asked.

  ‘No. But I know he’s eaten some of the pills. I had to wipe some white stuff off his chin and I found a half chewed-up pill on the floor. See?’

  ‘Can I see the label on the bottle? And the pill organiser? I should be able to see how many might be missing.’ Brie had to smile as she saw that both Jonno and George were now doing the actions to the song, along with singing the lyrics.

  ‘I can touch my toes, pat, pat, pat...’

  Her smile wobbled then. Because she had a sudden image in her head of Jonno on the floor, playing with a child like this, only it wasn’t with a patient. It was with his own son...

  How much would Felix love to have a daddy who would engage with him like the way Jonno was with George? How much was missing from his life because he only had his mum and his nana?

  Brie shoved the thought aside, focusing on the job at hand. She was confident Jonno would be quite satisfied with the information he was getting from his somewhat unique method of interacting with a young patient. If Brie had been using the paediatric assessment triangle of appearance, work of breathing and circulation, she would be confident that George’s vital signs were all within normal parameters. He clearly had no issues with his breathing if he could sing like that, his skin colour was good and he seemed to be behaving like any other happy child would. On the other hand, she was unsure of what they would do next.

  ‘I’m pretty sure there are two pills missing, not counting the half chewed one,’ she reported to Jonno.

  ‘Are they slow release?’

  Brie checked the bottle. ‘Yes.’

  Jonno stood up, leaving George to pat his ears by himself. ‘Let’s give his face and hands another wash,’ he suggested to the mother. ‘Just in case there’s something still on his skin. I’m going to call for someone to come and take you into hospital as well, so that George can be monitored for a few hours.’

  ‘Oh, no... Do you think he’s really sick?’

  ‘He seems absolutely fine,’ Jonno assured her. ‘But, because the pills are slow release, if he has swallowed any, it could take longer for any symptoms to show up. I’m sure you’ll be happier to be somewhere that people can keep a close eye on George. While we’re waiting, Brie and I will see if we can get an ECG, just to make sure his heart’s doing exactly what it’s supposed to.’

  Brie opened the pouch on the side of the defibrillator to find the packet of electrodes as Jonno made a call requesting an ambulance to transport mother and child to hospital.

  ‘I’ve got a new game,’ Jonno told George as his mother was wiping his face and hands with a damp cloth. ‘Can you touch your chest? Pat, pat, pat? Good boy... Do you want some special stickers to go on your chest?’

  George nodded eagerly.

  ‘Okay... Mum’s going to take your tee shirt off and then Brie’s going to help me put the special stickers on. Oh...look at that...’ A small white pill rolled out of the elastic waistband of George’s pants as the tee shirt was pulled out. Jonno picked it up and handed it to Brie. ‘Only one missing now,’ he said.

  George could see what he was holding. ‘Yucky,’ he said.

  ‘Sure is,’ Jonno agreed. ‘Did you try and eat them, George?’

  George avoided his gaze and shook his head firmly. ‘Too yucky.’

  Jonno’s lips twitched. ‘Time for the sticker game,’ he said. ‘Can you lie as flat as a pancake on the floor? Show me where the stickers are going to go? And Mum? Maybe you could pack a bag with some toys and snacks and things that you might need with a few hours in the observation ward?’

  By the time they had the ECG recorded, an ambulance had arrived to transport George and his mum to hospital.

  ‘He could still develop symptoms, couldn’t he?’ Brie asked as they headed back to station, having transferred the care of their patient and seen them both into the ambulance. ‘Especially for slow-release medications?’

  ‘They’ll keep a close eye on him for about six hours. If nothing’s happened by then, he should be fine. If something shows up soon, they may give him some activated charcoal but that should be within the first hour or so of ingestion.’

  Brie could see the ambulance turning onto the motorway ahead of them. ‘You’re really good with kids,’ she said. ‘I can imagine getting an ECG on most toddlers could be a bit tricky.’

  ‘Maybe I’ve never grown up properly myself.’ Jonno threw her a grin. ‘And I love kids.’

  Oh... Brie’s heart skipped a beat. She couldn’t help the flash of fantasy that was an extension of imagining Jonno playing with Felix. This time, it was an image of them all together. As a family...

  Maybe she should have tried harder to contact him.

  Maybe it wasn’t too late?

  Her mother was right. The longer she left it, the harder it was going to become.

  She took a deep breath and hoped she would be able to sound as if her question was simply a response to what he’d just told her.

  ‘So...you’ve got some of your own now?’

  ‘What...kids?’ Jonno sounded horrified. ‘Not that I know of. Thank goodness.’

  The fantasy crashed and burned.

  ‘I love them when they’re someone else’s,’ he added. ‘That way, they don’t mess with the stuff I love to do.’

  Brie managed to find a smile. ‘You mean travelling? Having adventures?’

  ‘Absolutely. And doing the kind of things that you’d never do if you had anyone dependent on you like a wife or kids. You know...like flying with one of those jet-pack wingsuits? Have you seen the video that came out recently of that guy flying beside a passenger jet in Dubai?’ The gleam in Jonno’s eyes advertised both admiration and envy. ‘Crazy...’

  Brie shook her head. ‘No, I haven’t seen it.’

  ‘I’ll show you later. I’ve got it downloaded on my phone.’ Jonno’s attention seemed to be caught by a hardware shop they were passing. ‘That reminds me. I’ve got to get some paint after work today. I’ve nearly finished stripping the wallpaper in my bedroom. Maybe I should get your advice about a good colour?’

  Brie looked out of her window to avoid meeting any glance that might be coming her way. At some point, it was inevitable that something was going to be said about the time that Brie had been in that room. About the unprecedented—on her part, anyway—passionate encounter they’d shared.

  The fact that they had a past history, albeit very fleeting, was there, simmering away between them beneath the professional veneer, as if they might both be waiting for a signal that it didn’t need to be a secret.

  ‘I didn’t have you pegged as a DIY type,’ she said lightly.

  ‘I’m not. I’d rather be racing planes like a superhero, to tell the truth. But I need to sell the apartment. It’s my last tie to Bristol and when it’s gone, I’ll be gone too. For good, this time.’

  Brie took a moment longer before she let him see her face. Any inclination to tell Jonno about his son right now was evaporating as convincingly as that snapshot of a happy family including a daddy for Felix. Telling him at all was becoming even more of an issue, in fact. Jonno had no intention of hanging around for very long at all so it would only break a little boy’s heart if he found out he had an amazing father, who actually was a superhero in real life, only to have him vanish again.

  ‘I’m only filling in as a locum here,’ Jonno added. ‘It’s a race to see whether I’ll get the apartment sold or be out of a job first. Not that it matters when the prize is the same—a fresh start. A new adventure. I’m thinking maybe Australia. Or New Zealand. Did you know that Queenstown, in New Zealand, is the adventure capital of the world?’

  ‘No, I didn’t know that.’

  ‘I haven’t tried bungee jumping yet.’

  ‘I’m happy to say that I never want to.’ It was easier for Brie to find a smile this time because it felt as if the decision of whether or not to tell Jonno he was a father was being made for her and it was proving to be a huge relief. Maybe she had the perfect excuse not to tell him, seeing as he was going to be on the other side of the globe very soon and would never be coming back. If Felix ever tracked him down in decades to come she could honestly say that keeping silent had been to protect him. To protect everybody involved, in fact, because the last thing Jonno wanted was to have a continued connection to Bristol.

  It’s my last tie to Bristol and when it’s gone, I’ll be gone too. For good, this time...

  ‘So...’ After the outbound journey from station on the way to the potential paediatric poisoning, it felt as if Jonno was driving super slowly now. His smile was just as relaxed. ‘What do you reckon? About the colour I should paint my bedroom? I’m thinking a nice strong colour like aubergine or a dark blue. Mind you, even a lurid pink or something would be better than the wallpaper that was there. Don’t suppose you remember those things that looked like upside-down pineapples?’

  And there it was...

  The window into one single night that had happened a very long time ago, but Brie could remember every single detail. Including the hideous wallpaper in Jonno’s bedroom and the first words he ever said to her that weren’t over the radio.

  * * *

  ‘You’re Brie, right? Like the cheese?’

  ‘Yeah...like the cheese.’

  ‘I feel like I know you... But I’ve never seen you before. How crazy is this?’

  ‘Same. I’ve heard your voice on almost every shift I’ve done.’

  ‘You’ve always looked after me. Dispatching me to the best jobs and trying to make sure we got enough of a break to get something to eat.’

  The noise of the rowdy private party happening in a local pub was all around them but, for Brie, it was nothing more than static. A fuzziness in the background of the real picture. She was meeting Jonno Morgan, a medic who was universally admired and respected throughout Bristol’s emergency services and...he fancied her.

  ‘I wish I’d known...’

  ‘Known what?’

  ‘How gorgeous you are...’ He touched her face with a single fingertip, tracing a line from her eyebrow to skirt her cheekbone and then slide to her mouth, where it paused for a heartbeat at the corner before skimming her bottom lip.

  ‘Same...’

  Brie knew she was blushing but she’d always been so shy when it came to talking to men. She would never have dreamed of flirting like this with anyone, let alone Jonno. Perhaps being dragged to this party by a friend from the control room without being given time to find an excuse had something to do with a new confidence. More likely, it was due to the second glass of wine she’d just finished—or had that been the third? The fact that Jonno was so attracted to her was probably due to the amount he’d had to drink as well, but Brie didn’t care. Because she’d never felt like this before. As if she was actually desirable—to someone like Jonno Morgan?

  ‘Let me get you another one of those.’

  Jonno’s hand was over Brie’s, about to take possession of the empty glass, but then it stopped and she knew why.

  She could feel it too. The jolt like an electric shock as their hands touched. The heat that was being generated by the prolonged contact.

  Brie couldn’t look away.

  ‘I want to kiss you,’ Jonno said, and he was probably shouting, given the noise of the party around them, but it felt as if he were whispering in her ear. ‘But not here...’

  He took the glass from her hand and put it down on the nearest table, and then his hand was holding hers again.

  ‘I live just round the corner,’ he said. ‘How ’bout we find somewhere quieter so we can get to know each other a bit better?’

  ‘But this is your party.’

  ‘Nobody will miss me. They’re all having far too good a time. And, hey...if it’s my party, don’t I get to choose to be with the person I most want to be with?’

  There was no one Brie wanted to be with more than Jonno. Who wouldn’t want to find themselves in a real-life fantasy with someone they’d had a crush on from the moment they’d heard their voice over the radio? They were both adults. Both single. She didn’t even have to worry about something as mundane as birth control because she’d been on the pill for months now, to try and regulate an annoyingly unpredictable cycle.

  Jonno bought a bottle of champagne on the way out. They held hands as they walked to his apartment. They drank the champagne and talked as if they’d known each other for years. They laughed about the upside-down pineapples on the wallpaper in his bedroom.