Laura Iding - Snowbound With The Single Dad

He smiled. This was the Jess he’d once known.

He glanced at his notes. ‘What about the other kids? I know about Marcus and Lily, but that still leaves another two.’

‘One was Rosie, she was on the bus next to Marcus. The other is a little girl called Kelly. Both have broken limbs and were taken to surgery by the orthopaedic surgeon.’

‘I’ll need to follow them up for the report.’

She paused for a second, as if trying to find words. ‘It was nice to see you today, Callum, even though it wasn’t the best of circumstances. I’m glad you’re doing well.’

Something sparked in his brain. She was just about to say goodbye. And he didn’t want her to. He didn’t want this to be the last time he saw Jessica Rae for another thirteen years.

‘But how are you doing, Jess?’ The words were out before he had a chance to censor them. Should he really be asking her something like that?

Her eyes lowered, breaking contact with his. Had he offended her? He could see her taking a deep breath.

‘If you need any assistance with the investigation, feel free to come back and talk to me.’ It was a deliberate sidestep. a deliberate attempt to move the conversation back to something more professional.

‘I’ll need a statement from you about the events.’ He would. It wasn’t a lie. Any event like this always needed information from all the professionals involved. Not least the one who had landed in the middle of the Clyde.

‘That’s fine, but can we do it some other time? I really want to check on the kids.’

What she needed to do was to rest. She looked as though a long night’s sleep would do her the world of good. But he already knew that wasn’t going to happen.

‘Of course we can do it some other time. I need to follow up the adults at Glasgow Cross—I’ll do that tomorrow. Then I’ll come back here to see how the kids are doing.’ He hesitated, just for a second. ‘Will you be available at any point tomorrow?’

He was hopeful. He was more than hopeful. This might be work, but more than anything right now he’d like to see Jessica again. Any way he could.

She nodded. ‘Leave it until later in the day. I’ll be busy first thing in the morning with ward rounds and reviews.’

He gave her a little smile and he couldn’t help the words that came out of his mouth. ‘I’ll see you then.’

There was a moment of hesitation, a flicker of something going through her eyes, and it struck straight at his heart. Was it panic? Was it fear?

Her shoulders had pulled back a little, moving away from him, and the urge to reach out and pull her back towards him raced through his mind.

Why would the simplest of words cause this reaction? Jessica had always been a fun-loving, gregarious young woman. And even though he hadn’t seen her in thirteen years this seemed wrong to him. Out of character.

But did he even know Jess’s character any more?

It took a few seconds, but Jess seemed to gather herself and gave him the slightest flash of her brown eyes. ‘Tomorrow’s fine, Callum. I’ll see you then.’

She turned and walked down the corridor. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from her.

Now, when she was wearing only thin green theatre scrubs, he could see that her weight loss was dramatic. He flinched, remembering having seen the outline of her ribs on the riverbank. Now he could see her legs and hips. Hips that had been pressing up against his earlier.

He’d reached the bottom of the corridor, near the nurses’ station in A and E. He recognised one of the sisters—they’d gone to a few study days on some aspects of community safety.

He walked over to her. ‘Hi, Miriam, how’s things?’

The older woman looked up and shot him a friendly smile. ‘Hi, Callum. I take it you were dealing with the kids in the minibus?’

He nodded. ‘Not the best day of my life. One of your doctors was out helping us—Jessica Rae?’

Miriam looked confused for a second then waved her hand. ‘Oh, you mean Jessica Faraday. I know she’s reverted back to her maiden name but I can’t get used to it. She’s fabulous. One of the best consultants we’ve got. The kids were certainly in safe hands with her.’

Callum could feel himself furrowing his brow. ‘Jessica Faraday? She was married?’

Miriam finished typing something on the computer. ‘Yeah.’ She was distracted, concentrating on the words in front of her.

‘But she’s not now?’ Callum couldn’t help but probe. Curiosity was killing him.

Miriam met his eyes. ‘Sadly not.’

Things just didn’t work out for me .

Jessica’s words echoed in his brain. He still didn’t know what they meant, and it just didn’t seem right to be asking someone else. It didn’t matter that Miriam was a colleague—one he’d spoken to on many occasions—he just didn’t feel he could ask anything personal about Jess.

It was an invasion of her privacy. He had no right to ask anything about her. It didn’t matter that his curiosity was currently burning so fiercely in his stomach it would probably cause an ulcer.

Suddenly he was conscious of what he’d just done. He’d been around hospitals long enough to know that even the simplest and vaguest questions could be entirely misinterpreted.

Miriam had gone back to her paperwork—not in the least interested in why Callum was asking questions about Jessica. Thankfully, she had a hundred other things to worry about. The last thing he needed was rumours starting to spread in a hospital. He didn’t want anyone to get the wrong impression.

What was the wrong impression?

He had no idea what he thought about all this.

All he knew for sure was that the haunted look in Jessica’s eyes was going to stick in his brain for the rest of the day. And probably most of the night.

This was wrong. He shouldn’t be thinking about her at all.

He had Drew to worry about. His little boy was his entire life and he didn’t want anything to get in the way of that. He wouldn’t let anything get in the way of that.

The custody battle had been fiercely fought, sapping all his energy and strength. And whilst he’d been on dates in the last year or so, no woman had really attracted his attention. No woman had ever been introduced to his son.

And that was way he intended to continue.

He should walk away.

He should run.

But somehow he knew that come tomorrow afternoon he would be right here.

Right here, waiting for Jessica.

CALLUM STARED AT the clock and pulled out his cellphone again. How is Drew? he typed.

Drew had been clingy last night. Definitely not normal for him. He hadn’t wanted to go to bed and had just said he didn’t feel good.

After a day stuck in the freezing-cold Clyde, all Callum had wanted to do was hold him close. So he’d broken all his own rules and let Drew come into bed beside him.

There hadn’t seemed to be anything obvious wrong with Drew. His temperature hadn’t been raised. He hadn’t had a rash. But he’d had a restless night and when he’d stirred his porridge around his plate that morning Callum had looked at the pale little face and had known he couldn’t send him to school today.

Thank goodness for good friends. Julie and Blair were always willing to help out any way they could.

His phone buzzed.

Not eating and a little tired. But managing to watch the TV. Don’t worry. Julie .

Don’t worry. Fat chance.

The door next to him opened. Jess. He stood up straight away and walked over to her. ‘How are you? Are you okay?’ She looked a little better today. There was some colour in her cheeks, her caramel-coloured hair hung in waves around her shoulders and her pink woollen jumper gave the illusion of some curves.