LITMIR.BIZ

       CHAPTER FIVE

      ‘HOME IN ONE PIECE, as promised,’ Mitchell announced as he stood holding his helmet beside the shiny black motorbike that had been their carriage home.

      Jade was already off the bike and in the driveway, putting distance between them quickly. His proximity during the ride home had been unsettling and now his silhouette against the light of the streetlamp was ridiculously appealing. She had to step away and stay away. If things were different she could see this night having a different ending too. Perhaps a kiss and the promise of another bike ride. But it couldn’t end any other way than a polite thank you, she thought as she looked wistfully up at the window where Amber was sleeping.

      But she wasn’t angry with Mitchell any more. That had subsided. He had his reasons and he was clearly smitten by Amber now. She hoped that their relationship would build over the years and deepen. His dedication to the babies in his care at the hospital and the empathy he had for their parents was clear, and it did raise her opinion of him. His absolute determination to see the tiny children survive against the odds was an admirable quality.

      And his gift to Amber of the locket to carry with her on her adventures all over the world was something that Jade had to admit to herself she would have appreciated a few years ago.

      Mitchell was not a bad man but he was still the wrong man for her and she couldn’t allow their truce to grow into something more. He was suddenly ticking every box. And some she hadn’t known had been there to start with.

      It was ironic that it scared Jade how safe she’d felt, taking a risk with Mitchell and riding the motorbike. In the past, she would take risks because she wanted to and because she didn’t care about the consequences, but with Mitchell it wasn’t like that. She felt protected by him. But she had to remember what was at stake. She had Amber to consider. And they would only be in Adelaide for a few weeks and Mitchell might not even stay that long.

      It would be over before it began.

      ‘Thank you for the lift.’

      ‘You’re most welcome, and if you need a lift in tomorrow morning I’m happy to oblige.’

      Mitchell could see that beneath Jade’s sensible exterior was a woman who could let her hair down. Tonight had proved it. She knew how to ride a bike. She’d leaned into the turns, she hadn’t been afraid. He hadn’t been teaching her anything that she hadn’t already known and he liked that about her.

      She was fun and adventurous but she was playing a safe hand of cards. He liked to shuffle the deck and take his chances and he suspected that once upon a time she had too. He just had to find that woman inside and draw her out so she didn’t raise Amber to be scared of her own shadow.

      ‘Thanks, but I’ll be fine to tram it in. I’m on an afternoon shift again tomorrow.’

      Perhaps she was more like him than she cared to remember. Independent, happy to have a good time and willing to enjoy what the world had to offer. Only time would tell, he thought as he said goodnight and rode off down the street.

      Her head felt light as she entered the house. She’d found the ride exhilarating. Mitchell had been in control of the beast of a bike, and she’d loved that. A little too much, she realised when she quietly climbed into her bed next to Amber’s and struggled to fall asleep. The feelings he’d unleashed during the ride had been unexpected. Freedom, fun and … desire. Jade had pushed these feelings to a place from where she’d thought they could never escape. And they hadn’t, until now. Until Mitchell had threatened to release all of them at once.

      Jade heard Mitchell’s motorbike roar past her window next morning and felt her stomach churn and chills run down her spine with the sound. Not ominous chills. Just the opposite. She had been so close to the sound only a few hours before and it had made her feel alive. Now she worried that she could grow to like the feelings he was stirring.

      She spent the morning with Amber, playing on the beach, trying desperately to push Mitchell from her mind. He was just a man and she had dated her fair share and ignored even more over the years. Yet the scent of his cologne so close to her and the feeling of her arms around his hard body as they’d ridden together were haunting her waking thoughts. He was making her question her safe life choices.

      Maureen decided she would take her granddaughter to the shops on Jetty Road to find a few ‘sparkly things’ when Jade left for work. Jade wasn’t entirely sure what ‘sparkly things’ meant but Amber was excited by the prospect so Jade was happy as she headed off for her second shift at the hospital.

      Her shift began at two. There was handover and she was informed of a new airlifted baby from Melbourne who would be in her care. She hadn’t been named yet so they referred to her as Baby Morey.

      ‘There was no alternative, considering they were short of incubators in Melbourne. The hospitals over there had a whole run of prem deliveries within a few days. They’re grateful the Eastern Memorial could accept her,’ Mandy told Jade as they neared the incubator. ‘She’s tiny but a fighter.’

      ‘Why didn’t the parents travel with the infant?’

      ‘The mother delivered her via Caesarean after a car accident,’ Mandy told Jade as they neared the incubator. ‘I saw the report that arrived. Four-car pile-up on the Tullamarine Freeway near the airport.’

      ‘Are the parents all right? Did they survive?’ Jade’s voice suddenly became shaky as her hands hovered nervously. She prayed they were both alive, she didn’t want to hear anything else. Déjà vu instantly made her skin crawl and her stomach knot.

      ‘They’re both stable and off the critical list. Her mother has a hairline fracture of her collarbone, a punctured lung and, of course, the postnatal effects of the Caesarean birth, and Cara’s father has damage to his vertebrae and a fractured hip. He’s in Spinal Injuries.’

      Jade swallowed hard. The infant they were attending had entered the world the same way Amber had three years previously. The time peeled away in an instant as she looked at the baby lying innocently in the incubator, completely unaware of what had happened, all the while holding tenuously to her own life. But she did still have her parents. However injured they were, they would pull through and be a part of her life. Jade was happy for the little girl.

      Mandy left Jade as she needed to tend to another tiny patient. NICU was at capacity, with all of the nursing staff, including Mandy, rushed off their feet. Jade was grateful the other nurse hadn’t had time to notice the tears welling in her eyes. Amber’s fight to stay alive and the battle her parents had lost hit home at lightning speed and brought emotions rushing to the surface.

      ‘The paediatrician had noted suspected respiratory distress, causing cyanosis, but I wasn’t convinced and I ran some additional tests,’ Mitchell told a small group of medical students as he approached the new arrival and Jade. ‘The bluish discoloration of the skin and nail beds would indicate respiratory distress but the degree of cyanosis was not proportional to what was shown in the X-rays that accompanied the baby from Melbourne. And it has not been decreasing with increased inspired oxygen and the tests quickly confirmed congestive heart failure.’

      He then turned his attention to Jade. ‘Nurse Grant, can you move Baby Morey to a radiant heat warmer within the next fifteen minutes so we can maintain her body temperature?’

      ‘Certainly,’ Jade replied, trying to blink away the tears before they ran down her cheeks and anyone noticed them.

      But

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