The Firefighter to Heal Her Heart. Annie O'Neil
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possible. “Time’s up. I’ve got an assembly to prepare for.” She shuffled them both out of the nurse’s office and shut the door behind her with a satisfying click.
Discussing her love life, or lack of one, in front of the students, let alone the son of her new—her only—friend here in Engleton wasn’t on the agenda. She leaned heavily against the door, allowing a slow breath to escape her lips. A breath she hoped carried away some of the ache she felt whenever she confronted the idea of moving on.
Yes. She’d loved Eric with all of her heart, an over-the-moon-and-back-again young woman’s heart, but she’d never even got the chance to have her wedding day, let alone share the birth of her son. Now, at the ripe old age of twenty-eight, Liesel had a daily wrestling match with the feeling that she was “finished” in the romance department.
It had all happened so fast. A whirlwind love affair in an American ski resort. The spontaneous proposal. Their surprise pregnancy. Losing Eric. Never having the family that she had only just begun to imagine.
She started at the tap-tap-tap against the door.
“I know you’re in there, Liesel. I can hear you breathing.”
Despite herself, Liesel giggled. Being friends with Cassie gave her little glimpses back to the “old Liesel.” The free-spirited young woman she used to be.
Cracking open the door, she allowed her friend access to one of her eyes. “Friend or foe?”
“Friend, you noodle! C’mon,” she pleaded. “Open up!”
Liesel pulled open the door while simultaneously grabbing a light jumper from the hook on the wall. “Make it fast. I’m afraid I’ve got to get going down to the gym for an assembly. The principal just told me about it fifteen minutes ago.”
“Cool your rockets. I’m heading the same way.”
“Your class is coming?”
“You could put it that way.” Cassie adopted her best nonchalant voice. “Or you could say that my class is coming to your date.”
Liesel stopped in her tracks.
“Cassie Monroe! What have you done?”
“Oh-h-h-h …” Her friend was fastidiously avoiding eye contact now. “It might have been me who volunteered you to help with a little demonstration.”
“What demonstration?”
“The first-aid demo for the first, second and third years. It was meant to be a ladders demonstration, but …” Cassie used her best cheerleader voice.
“But what?”
“Now, that, I don’t know exactly. All I know is it has turned into a first-aid demo.”
“And who exactly is leading today’s first-aid demo?”
“Oh, I think he might have a familiar face.”
Liesel felt her body go rigid as Cassie pushed open the door to the gym. Smack-dab in the center of the room a certain sandy-haired fireman was kneeling on the floor, setting up his kit. Seeing Jack again had the same effect on her nervous system as it did on the no-longer-dormant butterflies in her tummy. They were going crazy.
“Oh, no, you don’t!” Cassie caught her arm as Liesel tried to turn and leave. “You’re the Murray River Valley school nurse and I don’t think there is anyone better placed to help our local CFS crew inspire young minds.”
“But—”
“Nope. I don’t want to hear it.” Cassie gave her a quick hug and a push. “Now, go and put on a good show for my class. They just might be the future doctors of Engleton. Back in a tinkle!”
Liesel watched as her friend hastily retreated down the school corridor. If there was one thing she definitely knew about Cassie, she was persistent.
Jack first caught a glimpse of the familiar auburn curls through the gym door. As Liesel virtually hurtled through it, he felt bushwhacked anew by her fresh-faced beauty. Her petite features instantly made him feel like a klutzy brontosaurus who’d been charged with protecting a tiny and exquisitely beautiful tropical bird. His modus operandi at these gigs was usually big and loud, but something about her made him want to ratchet things down a notch.
“Are you the set of helping hands I was promised?”
“I’m afraid so.”
Jack took on board the microscopic flinch as she made eye contact with him. What had provoked that?
“Apologies for the last-minute setup. The CFS are trying to do as much outreach in the local schools as we can and after we met the other day I realized we hadn’t done a demonstration here in ages.” Too obvious?
She squinted up at him, waiting for more information.
“I’m trying to score a few more points locally before I turn in my outreach stats to the big boys in Adelaide.” Too macho. Definitely too macho.
“What exactly are we meant to be doing today? I heard a rumor it was going to be snakes and ladders.” Liesel crossed her fingers behind her back, hoping that demonstrating anything involving body contact was off the agenda. She was beginning to feel a little giddy in Jack’s presence and feeling that way—particularly in front of the student body—was definitely not in the rulebooks.
Jack rose to his full height, arms spreading out in front of him as if preparing to sell his wares to Liesel. “Ahh. Well, HQ decided today was the day all the ladders would be checked out by one of their techs. Safety-first bureaucracy, and all that.” He gave her a knowing look and she couldn’t help but nod along. The world of school nurses was weighed down with thick ledgers of mind-numbing paperwork. It was little wonder his was, too.
“This is what we’re going to do today.” He waved an arm across everything he’d been laying out on the gym floor. “It’s what you find inside a proper first-aid kit—one you’d find at a school, in a restaurant, the science lab. I know these kids are too little to reach one, let alone use it, but we can try and make it fun.” His eyes twinkled down at hers and if she wasn’t mistaken she saw the beginnings of a wink form, reconsider, then withdraw. Shame. Her butterflies were just about ready for another whirl round her tummy.
Liesel knew her eyes were meant to be following Jack’s to take in the array of splints, plasters, bandages, wipes and protective glasses—a deluxe edition of first-aid kits. Instead, they were working their way from one of his long-fingered hands along his golden-haired forearm—she had a weakness for a well-defined forearm. Tanned, well-toned, his definitely measured up. Her eyes slid up and over the biceps filling his short-sleeved CFS T-shirt to a set of awfully broad shoulders—
“Like what you see?”
Heat instantly spread across her cheeks. Obviously. She hadn’t ogled anyone from such close range in years. Three years, to be exact. A twist of guilt knotted up her butterflies and as she looked up at him she realized in an instant he was referring to the contents of the first-aid kit.
Doubly embarrassing.
Even if he hadn’t seen her do an ocular tiptoe up his arms and on to the expanse of his shoulders, he would be sure to spy the flush of embarrassment continuing to heat her cheeks. Say something, you idiot!
“It’s great. You’ve really got the full Monty here.”
She clapped a hand over her mouth. The full Monty! Her brain did a whiz-bang dress and undress of the unsuspecting man in front of her and before she could stop it, Liesel felt herself succumbing to a full-blown case of the nervous giggles.
Jack had no idea what Liesel was finding so funny but was glad to see, whatever it was, that it brought a happy glint to those kitty-cat eyes of hers. He took a swipe at his chin. Maybe he still had some egg yolk on there from this morning’s egg and bacon roll.
“I’m