LITMIR.BIZ

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and their management now appeared simple.

      ‘We think you might have a kidney stone,’ Luke said. ‘And it’s blocking your ureter and causing this pain. We’ll give you something for the pain and then we’ll take you to hospital. Are you allergic to anything that you know of?’

      ‘No.’

      Matteo was already going through the motions of drawing up the morphine.

      ‘What dosage are you administering?’ one of the judges asked.

      ‘We’ll start with five milligrams,’ Luke replied. ‘We can top that up if the pain scale isn’t reduced to less than five.’

      The judge nodded. ‘The drug has been administered.’

      Matteo began tidying up and Luke was checking their briefing sheet that gave a list of available hospitals and means of transport. They needed to choose the most appropriate option, which ranged from leaving the patient where he was, transport by helicopter or ambulance to the nearest general hospital, a higher-level hospital or a specialised centre.

      Matteo dropped the packages of IV gear back into his pack and turned to pick up the blood-pressure cuff.

      To his horror, he could see that their patient now seemed to be having trouble breathing and he was clutching at his chest.

      ‘Luke...’ The word was a warning. He reached out to take the man’s pulse. ‘Do you have chest pain, sir?’

      Their patient didn’t respond. His head fell back against the pillow and he was gasping for breath.

      Luke was still processing this unexpected twist in their scenario.

      ‘Do we see any skin changes?’

      ‘You see redness appearing,’ a judge said. ‘And hives.’

      Nothing more than a glance between Luke and Matteo was needed.

      ‘Anaphylaxis to morphine,’ Matteo agreed quietly. ‘I’ll get a bag of fluids up. And we need some adrenaline, stat.’

      They both worked swiftly to counter a potentially fatal situation, administering drugs, getting their patient on oxygen and a cardiac monitor. Within a couple of minutes the judges were nodding with satisfaction and declared the scenario complete. They just wanted to ask some questions.

      ‘What is your hospital of choice for this patient?’

      ‘Hospital A,’ Luke told them. ‘They have an internal medicine department and an intensive care unit and they are the closest.’

      ‘And what is the most important information to pass on about your patient?’

      ‘That he has a previously undiscovered allergy to morphine. We will write it on his notes and make sure the information is received by everyone we speak to. We will also advise the patient that it would be a good idea to wear a Medic-Alert bracelet from now on.’

      ‘That was good.’ Matteo slapped Luke on the back as they left the house. ‘I might not have thought of recommending the bracelet.’

      ‘I was too slow to spot the change in our patient’s condition. Well done, you.’

      Matteo grinned at his friend. ‘We make a good team.’

      ‘We’ve got a break now, haven’t we? About an hour?’

      ‘We should use it to do the driving test.’

      ‘Okay.’ Matteo was looking forward to this test. He might work on helicopters now but his early years as a paramedic had been on the road and he loved the challenge of driving fast and doing it well.

      A gravelled area beside the river that ran through this village had been cordoned off for this part of the competition and a line of orange road cones marked the course. They could see an ambulance completing the test as they arrived, clouds of dust billowing as it snaked around the cones at high speed and then came to a sudden halt between the cones marking the end of the course.

      Another car was waiting for its turn.

      The car with the Scottish flags.

      And there it was again...

      Distraction. A delicious buzz of anticipation at the knowledge he would be seeing Georgia again.

      It had always been a given that he would thoroughly enjoy coming to this competition again.

      A smile took over his face as he spotted Georgia sitting in the driver’s seat of the girls’ vehicle. He just hadn’t realised how much better it would be this time.

      ‘Cute,’ he murmured.

      The swift glance from Luke held a note of surprise. Or maybe concern. Did he think that Matteo was here to chase women rather than focus on their performance? He thought fast, putting a casual smile on his face as he shifted his gaze from the woman in the driver’s seat. ‘I didn’t notice that before.’

      The look of surprise increased as Luke raised his eyebrows. ‘You mean Georgia? Or Kate?’

      Okay. Maybe his interpretation of that glance had been accurate.

      He hoped his laugh was as casual as his smile.

      ‘Oh, the girls are both cute but that wasn’t what I was looking at. Have you seen what is tied to the front of their car?’

      It was a stuffed toy bear that was wearing a kilt and holding a set of bagpipes.

      Matteo rolled down his window and pointed to the toy, raising his voice so that Georgia could hear him. ‘He is going to get dirty, I think.’

      ‘All part of the fun.’ Georgia was grinning at him as she called back. Holding his gaze.

      Mio Dio... That smile. The sparkle in those eyes. It was enough to make Matteo’s breath catch. For an odd warmth to ignite in his gut and then spread all the way through his body.

      What was it about this woman that was so different?

      So compelling?

      Could Georgia feel this same unusual level of attraction? Possibly not, by how focussed she clearly was on what she was about to do.

      ‘Which one of you is going to do the driving? You’re only allowed one person in the vehicle.’

      There was a hint of something in her eyes. A challenge perhaps? Or did she want to watch him showing what he was capable of?

      His lips twitched in a suppressed smile. He would be more than happy to demonstrate any skill she might be interested in—and he was apparently good at many things that women liked...

      But did Luke want to do the driving?

      No. His companion was already unclipping his safety belt.

      ‘You do it,’ he said to Matteo. ‘You’ve got far more experience with emergency driving skills than I have. I’ll wait with Kate.’

      ‘Cool.’ Matteo nodded as Luke got out of the car. He could focus now.

      He needed to know exactly what was required to make sure he aced this particular test.

      He needed to make sure he impressed Georgia...

      * * *

      ‘You’re a bit quiet, Georgie. Not worried about the next task, are you?’

      ‘Not at all. I was just thinking about that driving test. I could have done better.’

      Georgia wished she’d done better. She might not have been able to see his face but she’d known that Matteo was watching her and the effect had been to make her very uncharacteristically self-conscious. Clumsy even. She had felt his gaze on her like a physical touch of his hand on her skin and the hyperawareness it had created had messed with her concentration. How embarrassing had it been to send those road cones flying on her first attempt at the serpentine? It wasn’t until she had been able to shut him out of her

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