Sure Thing Read Free Page B

Barney’ll be fine here till then. I’ll text you. Give our love to Rosie.” He hangs up and turns to me. “Did you get all that?”
    “I think so. Sounds as though Rosie’s come through it all right. Thank goodness.”
    “Thank you, Ashley. If you hadn’t spotted her, got the air ambulance out, who knows? You did well. Nathan asked me to pass on his thanks, but I expect he’ll tell you in person when he sees you.”
    Somehow I doubt he’ll thank me. I may well have got the air ambulance out, but I also left her up there with the paramedics, I didn’t stay with her in the helicopter. Nathan Darke is fiercely protective of his daughter, would definitely have expected more from me. At the very least I should have stayed with her until he or Mrs Richardson arrived at the hospital but I put my own needs first. There was also Barney to take care of, I suppose, but I can’t help thinking he’d have made his own way home perfectly safe despite Rosie’s worries on that score. I rather think Nathan will have a few choice remarks for me when he next sees me. Despite our ‘truce’ of sorts, I know perfectly well what he thinks of me. What he really thinks of me.
    My doubts must have been obvious because Tom catches my chin in his palm, strokes my face gently, his expression puzzled.
    “What is it, love? Why look so worried? Rosie’s fine.”
    I give myself a mental shake, push Nathan Darke from my thoughts. If he wants to have a go at me he will. And I’ll survive it. Again. I know I did the best I could yesterday, in the circumstances, and as long as Tom thinks I did good then I’ll settle for that. And clearly he does. I stare at him. His face is serious, as though this is of much more significance than it seems to me. I can’t see why. Anyone would have done what I did. It was just a phone call, just a matter of dialing nine-nine-nine. I try to explain, to say that.
    He shakes his head. “But that’s not all you did, is it. You went all the way up there, waited with her, brought her dog home.”
    I snort at that. I abandoned Rosie with strangers, even if they were highly trained air ambulance staff, and I hardly brought Barney home. I didn’t even manage to bring myself home.
    “You put yourself in danger, took a huge risk to help a little girl. Nathan knows it, I know it. Take credit for what you did yesterday.”
    “I’m just glad it all turned out okay, that Rosie’s fine, and that you found me when you did. I thought I’d be stuck there all night. And I’m so grateful I had Barney with me.”
    “Me too. Or I might not have found you till this morning. And that could have been too late.” He reaches for me, pulls me into his arms, buries his face in my hair.
    I hear him breathing, breathing me in.
    I wait a few seconds while the significance of his words sinks in. “Why? What do you mean? How did you manage to find me? In fact, how did you even know I was up there?”
    He lets go of me, eases himself up against the headboard. I scramble up after him, snuggle against his chest. He loops his arm over my shoulders, idly sliding his hand under my hair to stroke my back.
    “Okay, here’s how I knew. I coordinate the fell rescue team in this region so I get informed as a matter of routine every time there’s any sort of incident in my patch. Yesterday afternoon I had an email telling me an eight-year-old female had been airlifted from the moors. It didn’t take much to work out it was probably Rosie. Especially when I checked with control and found out the name of the informant, one Ashley McAllister. The incident report was logged at two thirty-seven, and the air ambulance reached the casualty at three thirteen. Left the scene at three thirty-two.”
    Fell Rescue. Bloody hell. Makes some sort of sense though. Not that Tom seems like much of a fell walker to me, he always uses his Land Rover or the quad bike. I comment to that effect, not that I want to be too picky, though, considering.
    He just