Twin Surprise For The Italian Doc

She had a job to do now that had nothing to do with small people and the fragment of that dream that the extras in this scenario had prompted was easy enough to push aside.

But it was a reminder that it was still there. Getting stronger with every passing week. If she was going to achieve even a part of that dream she was going to have to do it soon.

And having a kid you could take to school had to start in a very different place.

With having a baby.

And that brought her straight back to the plan she had just abandoned on moral grounds—of using this competition as an opportunity to start that journey to parenthood.

Georgia dismissed that line of thought easily as well as she taped the cannula to their patient’s arm as evidence that an IV line had been established.

As they monitored the effects of their treatment, she tried to think of anything they might be missing that could be another twist in this scenario.

‘She’s not wearing a Medic-Alert bracelet, is she?’

‘No.’ Kate moved the collar of the shirt their patient was wearing. ‘Or a necklace.’

‘Can you check her bag? Or the drawer in her desk? It would be useful to know what medication she’s on. Is she using insulin or medication to lower her blood sugar? She might have overdosed.’

Kate did find a packet of tablets in the teacher’s bag but they weren’t what they might have expected.

‘These are antidepressants, aren’t they?’

‘Yes.’

The woman lying on the floor began to move and she groaned softly.

‘Your patient’s blood glucose level is returning to normal,’ one of the judges said. ‘What is your plan for transport?’

Georgia thought fast. ‘We will transport her to hospital. She has no one here to watch her and we don’t know what her normal regime is for her diabetes control.’

‘Which hospital do you choose?’

‘Hospital B.’

‘Why?’

‘Because it’s a higher-level hospital and there are psychiatric services available. The fact that she’s taking antidepressants suggests that there are additional issues for this patient that might be affecting her control of her disease.’

The judges nod was pleased. So was Kate’s.

‘Good job,’ she whispered, as they left the scene. ‘I probably would have picked Hospital A because it was the closest. And I might not have thought to check her bag either.’

‘You get patients delivered to you with a handover of any available information. I guess I’m just used to searching for clues.’ Georgia shoved the bulky pack of gear into the back of the car. ‘It’s one of the things I love about my job—getting to play detective on scene along with being the medic.’

Matteo shared her passion for this job. He was probably as good at playing detective on scene as he was at emergency driving. They’d never run out of fascinating things to talk about, would they?

Oh, boy...this was getting worse. She was actually thinking in terms of for ever? Of growing old together and still not running out of conversation?

‘You have to deal with all the distractions, too,’ Kate added. ‘Those kids were doing my head in to start with.’

The bunch of children was being ushered back into the building now, probably to prepare for the next scenario. As Kate and Georgia drove away, they spotted a car they recognised heading towards the school.

‘I think those boys are stalking us.’

Kate’s lips twitched as if she was trying not to smile. ‘Just coincidence.’ But she turned her head to watch the car disappear. ‘I wonder how they’ll cope with finding a riot going on.’

Georgia lapsed into silence. Matteo would cope very well. He probably wouldn’t even need to shout at the children to get their attention and gain control of the scene. He’d only need to smile at them and they would be eating out of his hand because they’d know how much he loved kids.

And he did love kids. A large part of the conversation they’d had over drinks last night, when Kate and Luke had been talking quietly, had been about his family. About how much he adored his sister’s children and what a thrill the recent birth of a new nephew had been. It sounded as if the entire Martini clan had been at the hospital to welcome that new arrival and Georgia hadn’t missed the way Matteo had spoken about his other sisters and his mother. She could have sworn he’d actually had tears in his eyes at one point. Family was clearly of the utmost importance in his life.

And wouldn’t he make the best father? He would be totally devoted to his children and there would be a huge, extended family in the wings to make every milestone a glorious celebration.

If that was what Georgia was looking for, Matteo would be perfect.

A few years ago even, when she’d still had the dream that she could find her perfect partner and be totally confident that her own children would never face the kind of fear that had poisoned her own childhood, Matteo would have stood out as being exactly what she was searching for. Gorgeous and confident and super-smart. She’d been more than impressed to learn about his postgraduate qualifications in resuscitation and aeromedical transportation.

But the last remnants of that dream had come crashing down in the wake of the brutal ending of her last relationship. Her heart had been broken for the last time and she knew not to trust that tiny flutter of hope that had come from nowhere when she’d seen this gorgeous Italian for the first time.

His passion for his family was actually a massive negative in the grand scheme of things because if the worst happened, she would be facing an army of opponents if she wanted to protect her children. And she knew that fighting even one could be too many.

It was an automatic gesture to turn her arm a little whenever this memory surfaced. To see the jagged scar that remained from the arm that had been so badly broken when she was only five years old. To feel a shiver of that terror when her birth father had arrived to claim her and the struggle to drag her from her mother’s arms had turned vicious.

Not that it had surfaced much in the last few years, because Georgia had believed she would choose a good man and could rewrite history, but her choices had proved untrustworthy. And, okay, maybe Rick had only been verbally vicious when he’d ended their relationship but that had been more than enough to stir the memories. Her ‘father’ had been just as quick to cause pain with words as anything physical.

And Italians had a reputation for having quick tempers, didn’t they? Imagine having to face an entire family of angry Italians?

Kate’s voice broke into her thoughts. ‘Penny for them?’

‘Huh?’

‘You’re miles away. What’s up?’

‘I’m just hungry,’ Georgia said. ‘It must be time for lunch, isn’t it?’

Kate checked their schedule.

‘Yep. We’ve got a break for over an hour.’

Finding a parking space near the main buildings of the ski resort, the two women handed over their vouchers to receive another meal featuring dumplings.

Georgia felt suddenly weary.

‘I feel like I’ve been on a full shift already,’ she told Kate. ‘And we’re only a third of our way through the competition. At least we get a break after this. I’m going to try and catch a nap.’

After they’d eaten, they went outside into the sunshine and found a grassy patch to lie on that was shaded by a huge tree. Georgia closed her eyes and hoped that Kate would think she had fallen asleep.

She just needed a little quiet time and maybe she could stop the unsettling thoughts that were only a distraction to why she was really here and then she could focus completely on winning this competition.

Childhood memories of the trauma of being forcibly taken from her mother, the intervention of child protection services and then being moved from one town to another until her father’s death had finally freed them from the threat that had never gone away but were of no help to her concentration.

Stupid dreams of finding ‘the one’, like Kate still had, were just as useless.

The plan of launching her new future as a single parent by choosing her baby daddy at this competition were well and truly being laid to rest.

Because, if she had the choice, she wouldn’t be able to choose anyone other than Matteo?

And he would end up finding out, wouldn’t he? He was best friends with her best friend’s friend and secrets had a nasty tendency to get revealed eventually.

Besides...she liked him.

She really liked him. Too much to consider the kind of deception that would end up haunting her for ever.

Her breath escaped in a small sigh as she turned her mind back to the tasks they had already completed today. The baby resuscitation. All those little scamps creating havoc in the schoolroom.

And thinking about those children produced an idea that Georgia hadn’t ever considered before.

Perhaps she didn’t actually need to have a baby herself. There were always children who needed adoption or fostering. Children who were having to live with the kind of trauma she knew about all too well.

She’d be good at that.

With another long, outward breath, Georgia relaxed into the companionable silence she was sharing with Kate.

Yes. That was an idea that merited a lot more thought in the near future. When this competition was over.

CHAPTER THREE

IT WAS ALL over bar the shouting.

All tasks had been completed and the rest of the twenty-four-hour period after the lunch break had been jam packed with challenges and excitement.

The bus-crash scenario where they’d needed to triage so many injured people, including the woman who was trapped and losing a dangerous amount of blood. They’d dealt with a cardiac arrest and a young man having a stroke, whose acting had been superb. Even as Georgia had been asking her initial questions, his speech had become slurred and his face had started to droop on one side. The impressively set up scenario of a mass shooting incident in the last couple of hours had been responsible for finally using up any remaining ounce of her energy.

Skipping breakfast, she and Kate had gone to their room to grab a few hours’ sleep but it hadn’t been enough. When the alarm sounded to remind them it was time to go to the competition debrief, Georgia couldn’t drag herself out of bed.

‘You go,’ she mumbled. ‘Tell me all about it later.’

The extra sleep had been exactly what she’d needed. By the time the competitors gathered in the town square for the prize-giving ceremony, Georgia was refreshed and ready for anything. Standing in the crowd beside Matteo was adding considerably to the anticipation. More than once, she found her gaze caught by his as she glanced up and their eye contact was a conversation all in itself.

A reminder of a conversation anyway.

‘I intend to win.’

‘So do I.’

‘Do you always get what you want, Georgie?’

‘Not always...’

But her heart skipped a beat as the announcement became imminent for their section of the competition.

‘And the winner is...Scotland...’

There was a split second as Georgia sucked in an astonished breath where she was still locked in a moment of that silent communication with Matteo and she saw something change in that gaze.

He was impressed with her.

More than that. He had to be disappointed that he and Luke hadn’t won but she could swear he actually looked proud of her and, in that instant, that meant more than anything else could have.

She wanted to be the person that this man was proud of.

Because it made her feel as if she was a better person than she’d ever been before.

But then her lungs were full of air, and happiness laced with her own pride tipped into something that had to be let out, and Georgia emitted a rather unprofessional squeal of delight, threw her arms around Kate and squeezed her best friend as hard as she could.

Even then, in that moment of pure joy, she was aware of a longing to feel Matteo’s arms around her in a hug like this but there was no time for that. They had to weave their way through the sea of people and applause, to make their way to the stage and receive their trophy. The pace, and the excitement, didn’t stop there either.

After the prize-giving came the convoy that was the highlight of this ceremony, where every ambulance and Jeep or makeshift emergency response vehicle put their lights and sirens on and drove through all the surrounding villages, throwing toys and sweets to the crowds of children lining the roads to enjoy the spectacle.

Georgia recognised the cute little boy from the schoolroom scenario and leaned further out of the window as they sped past to make sure her gifts landed as close as possible to his outstretched hands. When he caught the soft toy bear in a kilt that had been on the front of their car, amidst a shower of boiled sweets in the colours of the Scottish flag, she let out a whoop of satisfaction.

Matteo, who was driving, turned his head with a frown of disapproval at the danger she was putting herself in, but he was laughing at the same time.

He knew exactly how much pleasure she was getting by pushing both the limits of safety and the rules for this traditional convoy that, astonishingly, she’d just had to remind Kate of—no alcohol, no speeding and no leaning out of vehicles. It seemed that Kate was a little drunk on adventure, possibly for the first time in her life, but Georgia knew that Matteo was as addicted to this kind of adrenaline rush as she was.

Sharing that kind of personality trait would have given her an instant connection with anyone but there was more to it as far as Matteo was concerned. Not that she wanted to think about that right now. She just wanted to enjoy the delicious sound of his laughter. And his voice with that fabulous accent. And the fact that she could make the most of it all for the next few hours as all the competitors and their supporters, the officials and army of volunteers for this competition were treated to an evening of food and wine and dancing.

It was Matteo who brought a chilled bottle of champagne to the table that Georgia and Kate were sitting at, having loaded plates with offerings from one of the many barbecues being used. The long, rustic table was crowded with their new friends from places like New Zealand and Croatia and there was already a generous supply of drinks available, but that bottle of champagne instantly became the star.

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