Riley.
She thought of his face as he’d left tonight. He knew what he was facing and she knew it hurt something deep within.
Where had that come from? She thought about it, remembering the whole quote. Donne.
Riley would like to think he was an island, she decided. He
He couldn’t stay solitary-it was hurting too much-and if he had to be connected… Could she find a link?
He didn’t want a link. Last night shouldn’t have happened.
She hugged herself in the chill of the night and gazed out to sea a while longer. She should go back to bed.
Riley was out there, facing a nightmare.
She’d wait here until he got home.
Stupid or not… she’d wait for however long it took.
Like a lovesick teenager…
Or a woman who was starting to see exactly where her home was. Who could heal, and heal herself in the process.
Jake was already in the chopper, and Mardi arrived thirty seconds later. Ten minutes later they were hovering over Devil’s Teeth.
One look at the sea told them there was no hope for a happy outcome. Searchlights were already playing over the base of the cliff. Police were searching the rocks-cautiously as the sea was huge-but the outcome was inevitable
Two hours later, just on dawn, they found what they were looking for and it gave them no joy at all. There was no use for Riley’s medical skills. He retrieved the body, then he and Mardi worked to disguise the worst of the damage before they landed on the clifftop.
The family was waiting. The family was always waiting, Riley thought grimly, as he watched the tragedy play out. Ambulances, police cars, desolation, all the accoutrements of heartbreak.
The chopper landed but there was no surge forward. No one wanted to take the first step, to be first to acknowledge death.
And in the end Riley’s medical skills were needed. The man’s mother-in-law, an elderly Greek lady, collapsed with shock. Riley was about to board the Squirrel but the paramedics called him back. Two minutes later she arrested.
They got her back but only just.
One ambulance left with the elderly woman inside. The second ambulance drove off more slowly, carrying its sad cargo. Finally the Squirrel could leave. Mardi and Jake sat up front. Riley sat in the back and gave in to grey.
One death and the ripple effects stretched outward. He’d just watched a wife become a widow. He’d watched a mother-in-law nearly lose her life. He’d watched children and family and friends, all gutted.
He’d watched paramedics and emergency service personnel take on this load of tragedy and carry it with them. Every one of them had a family. Every one of them was exposed to the same kind of grief they’d seen tonight, the type of grief he saw over and over.
Joyce had it right, he thought. Joyce cared for the community as a whole. She put her life into working for the people she cared about, but she’d never let herself be part of that other scary thing, the thing that ripped everyone apart.
He had a daughter. A pregnant daughter. In a while he’d have a grandchild.
He was thirty-eight years old. The concept of being a grandfather was ridiculous.
It didn’t matter how old he was. The concept of being a grandparent was still ridiculous. Terrifying.
And then there was Pippa.
Pippa of the warm body, of the huge smile, of the heart that gave and gave. Pippa who’d given herself to him- was it only last night?
She was back at his house. His home?
Waiting for him?
No one ever waited for him. No one ever would-not if he could help it. His was a solitary world and he liked it like that.
But he had a daughter.
And Pippa was… not waiting?
His solitary world was starting to seem besieged.
CHAPTER NINE
AT DAWN Pippa helped Amy feed a still sleepy Baby Riley. Amy and baby went back to sleep. Exhausted, Pippa abandoned her sentry duty and crawled into bed. When she woke it was ten and Baby Riley was squawking for her next feed.
The jaundice might well recede without the need for phototherapy, she thought, but mostly she thought… had Riley come home?
She padded down the passage and just happened to glance into Riley’s bedroom on the way.
No Riley.
Were they still searching, or was he needed at the hospital?
She flicked on the radio to the local news and listened to the account of last night’s tragedy.
A drowning followed by a heart attack. In an understaffed hospital that could be enough to keep him busy for hours. Or was he was staying out because of her?
Was she making herself more important than she was?
Keep busy, she told herself. Don’t think about him.
Easier said than done.
She helped Amy bathe Riley Junior, encouraged her to feed again then settled them both to sleep in a patch of sunshine.
Lucy and Adam arrived. They’d walked round from their hotel. Lucy’s legs were swollen. To fly for almost twenty four hours at full term… There were reasons for regulations.
She settled Lucy on the settee, raised her legs, massaged her swollen feet, working on getting circulation happening.
Sent Adam out for supplies. Made sandwiches.
Riley still didn’t return.
The place was like home without its hearth. Maybe that was a dumb thing to think but there it was. He should be there.
‘I can’t believe Dad lives here,’ Lucy said, relaxing a little. ‘This place is like a barn. Has he only just moved in?’
‘He’s lived her for six years,’ Pippa said. ‘But he’s a guy.’
‘I resent that,’ Adam retorted. He was also relaxing-maybe because Pippa was obviously caring for Lucy, and being twenty and the only one to care for a very pregnant girlfriend was truly scary.
‘Your dad needs posters,’ Amy said, hopping into her third sandwich. ‘Pippa rang up this really cool poster shop when I was in labour and next thing we had posters everywhere. The nurses said the poster shop’s huge.’
‘But I don’t have any money,’ Lucy said sadly. ‘Mum’s cut me off without a penny. Adam’s broke, too. But it’d be great to decorate this place.’
And Pippa couldn’t help herself. She’d run out of things to do. She couldn’t just sit still and wait for Riley.
