LITMIR.BIZ

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      Part of him was on edge, waiting for Hestia’s favourite song to start playing and haunt him, but he forced himself to smile because he didn’t want Anna to feel bad. She was trying so hard to help him, and he appreciated that she was trying to take the sting out of the festive season for him. And she clearly loved being out here on the rink, in the middle of the crowd among all the lights and with cheerful Christmas pop songs belting out.

      All they needed now was for it to snow. Not the stuff that would settle and make all the pavements slippery enough to cause mayhem, but a few light, fluffy flakes that melted when they touched the ground, making the rink magical. And how weird was it that the idea actually appealed to him?

      Then he realised that a child just in front of them was down on the ice, crying. He took Anna’s hand and gestured over to the little boy. ‘I think we should go and offer some help.’

      She nodded, and they skated over.

      ‘I’m Jamie and this is Anna. Can we help?’ Jamie asked the little boy’s mother.

      She looked grateful. ‘Thank you. I need to get him back on his feet before someone skates into him.’

      Jamie helped her pick him up, but the little boy wouldn’t stop crying. He was holding his arm, not letting anyone touch it. And Jamie had the strongest feeling he knew what had just happened.

      ‘I’m a doctor,’ he said gently. ‘Can I have a look at your arm?’

      The little boy shook his head.

      ‘What’s his name?’ Anna asked.

      ‘Adeoye—Ade for short,’ the boy’s mum said.

      ‘Ade, does it hurt here?’ Jamie asked, pointing to his own wrist.

      Ade nodded, still sobbing.

      ‘When you slipped over,’ Jamie said, ‘did you put your hands down first to stop yourself falling flat on your face?’

      Ade nodded, but this time he spoke, his voice almost hiccupping through the tears. ‘It really hurts.’

      Jamie could see that the boy’s wrist was an odd shape and, given what Ade had just told him, he was pretty sure it was a Colles’ fracture. ‘Does it feel tingly or numb?

      Ade shook his head.

      That was a good sign. ‘Do you feel dizzy or sick?’

      ‘A bit,’ Ade admitted.

      ‘OK. That’s probably the shock of falling.’ Jamie turned to Ade’s mother. ‘I think he’s broken his wrist—it’s a special kind of fracture called a Colles’ fracture.’

      ‘It’s really common when someone falls over onto an outstretched hand,’ Anna said. ‘We see a lot of them at the hospital when it’s icy.’

      ‘I can’t do anything to help you here, because Ade will need an X-ray to check whether any of the bones need manipulating back into place before they put the cast on,’ Jamie said. ‘If you take him to the emergency department now, they’ll do an X-ray and put a back slab on to keep his wrist stable overnight, then they’ll probably put a lightweight cast on tomorrow morning.’ He smiled at her. ‘I’m an orthopaedic surgeon, for children, so I do a lot of this sort of thing.’

      Ade’s mother bit her lip. ‘Will he be in a cast for long? He’s got the school Christmas concert in a couple of weeks.’

      ‘I’m sure they won’t mind him being in a cast,’ Anna said, ‘and at least you’ll have time to alter any costumes around the cast, if you need to.’

      ‘If it’s a straightforward fracture,’ Jamie said, ‘he’ll have a cast on for four to six weeks, and then he’ll need to do exercises every day to get his wrist properly mobile again.’

      ‘I’d better get him to hospital,’ she said.

      ‘St Thomas’ is the nearest emergency department to here,’ Jamie said. ‘I worked there for a bit. They’re really nice. It’s about ten minutes from here in a taxi and twenty on foot.’

      Ade’s mother looked at her son, who was still guarding his arm. ‘I’ll call a taxi now.’

      ‘We’ll help Ade with his skates while you make the call,’ Anna said, ‘and we’ll wait with you until the taxi gets here.’

      She was a natural with children, Jamie thought, telling the boy a stream of terrible jokes to distract him from the pain and even managing to make him laugh. Ade’s mother thanked them when the taxi arrived, and then Anna looked at Jamie. ‘Review time, then. Stop now, or have another skate?’

      There was a hopeful look on her face, and he was pretty sure which one she’d choose. ‘Another skate,’ he said. ‘And then I’m guessing it’s hot chocolate?’

      ‘That sounds utterly perfect,’ she said, smiling at him.

      And how crazy was it that his heart suddenly felt as if it had done a backflip?

      This wasn’t supposed to happen. It wasn’t part of their deal. They were colleagues, sort of on the way to becoming temporary friends. They weren’t supposed to get close and personal.

      She was the first woman since Hestia to make him feel like that. Her warmth and her huge, huge heart just drew him. Yet, at the same time, he was pretty sure that Anna was hiding some deep sadness in her own past. She deserved more than he could give her. So he forced himself to keep things light.

      Until the moment when she stumbled and he caught her so she didn’t fall.

      She looked up at him, those beautiful sea-green eyes wide and her lips very slightly parted.

      And he knew then that it would be, oh, so easy to dip his head slightly. Brush his mouth against hers. Wrap his arms round her, and then deepen the kiss until they were both dizzy…

      Was it his imagination, or was she staring at his lips, the way he was staring at hers? Did she feel the same thing? Did she want him to kiss her?

      His tongue felt as if it had been glued to the roof of his mouth. He couldn’t say anything, do anything but try to resist this insane urge to kiss her.

      But if he didn’t resist… What then? Would she kiss him back?

      He could hardly breathe.

      Could he?

       Should he?

      And then she said, ‘Thank you for saving me.’

      Her voice broke the spell and brought his common sense back into play. No. Of course he shouldn’t kiss her. He needed to be sensible.

      ‘You’re welcome,’ he said. ‘More skating?’

      At least if he had to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other, he wouldn’t be thinking about how it would feel to kiss her. How her skin would feel against his. How she was tall enough to be a perfect fit in his arms…

      ‘More skating,’ she said.

      He didn’t dare glance at her expression to find out if she looked relieved or disappointed. Kissing was absolutely not an option. This wasn’t a date.

      He just needed to concentrate on his footwork and the music. So far, he’d been lucky and they hadn’t played That Song. Hopefully they’d already played it enough times earlier in the evening. Two more songs, and he’d suggest they get hot chocolate and leave.

      Anna knew she was really making an idiot of herself. Fancy almost falling at Jamie’s feet, like the poor little boy who’d slipped over earlier.

      And then, when he’d grabbed her to steady her, it had felt as if she’d been galvanised.

      Propinquity, that was

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