Page 4 of Prognosis Temporary

Then he turned back for her. ‘Thank you,’ he murmured, holding out his hand.

Callie’s gaze locked with his and the world gave a giddy kind of shift — not something she welcomed, standing on a bridge. But, damn, the man was sexy. That frank gaze, those lips curled into a slight smile, his height and breadth solid and reassuring, that low murmur oozing over her like warm honey.

The background noises faded, their surroundings dimmed, time and motion coalesced in one electric moment. And if they’d been in a bar she would have taken his hand and led him to the nearest dark corner.

But they weren’t.

Jesus.They were on a bridge — that damned bridge, for crying out loud — surrounded by what seemed like a hundred policemen. She ignored the hand.

‘All in a day’s work.’

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‘Hey, Zack, how’s itgoing?’ Callie pressed her phone to one ear as she blindly hooked a hoop earring into her other.

‘Good thanks, Aunty Cal.’

Callie smiled at her ten-year-old nephew’s chirpy greeting. It was great to hear her little man’s voice. Since he’d gone back to live with his mother a couple of months ago she hadn’t known what to do with herself. Some of the anxiety that had knotted her stomach over the heart-wrenching decision had dissipated, but after eight years in her care, it was hard to let go entirely.

‘How’d you do in the cross-country today?’

‘I came second! You should have seen me, Aunty Cal.’

Her heart strings twanged painfully. She hadn’t missed a school event since he’d started pre-school six years ago. But she was trying to step back, give Aleisha a chance to bond with her son.

‘Mummy said I ran like the wind.’

Callie gripped the receiver hard. Her brother, Zack’s father, had been an athletics champion at school. He’d had such promise. Until everything had gone wrong.

‘I bet you did, Za Za,’ she said with a smile.

The nickname fell easily from her lips but sat uneasily in her churning gut. She wanted him here with her again with a startling ferocity. She wanted to put her arms around his skinny shoulders and hug him tight.

Like the polite little boy she raised him to be, he asked, ‘How was your day, Aunty Cal? How many people did you help?’

She smiled again marveling at how grown-up he sounded. Callie knew that Zack was very proud of the way his aunt helped people like his father — even if he didn’t really have an understanding of what that meant.

‘Zillions,’ she joked, and laughed as Zack’s boyish giggle warmed her down the phone line.

He was too young to tell him about her day. About her morning on the very bridge his father had thrown himself off eight years earlier. Zack had never really known his dad and that wasn’t the way Callie wanted him to remember Andy anyway.

She hung up a few minutes later just as a horn beeped outside. Callie looked at her watch. Argh! She was running late and two earrings did not make her dressed for dinner!

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Callie thought shemust have actually conjured up the commanding redhead from the bridge sitting at the restaurant table when she arrived. After all, he hadn’t really been out of her head since that morning.

‘We meet again,’ he murmured, rising from his chair, a smile playing on his mouth, his eyes taking a run over her body that was far from the brief scrutiny he’d afforded her earlier.

Callie wished she’d worn a dress now instead of pin-striped trousers teamed with a soft, white, blouse. Sure it sported a deep V neckline and the collar was huge and she knew it looked kinda sexy wearing it up like she was but her khaki wrap dress was a real show stopper.

Then she frowned. What the hell? She didn’t dress to impress any man – certainly not this one.

‘Oh...hi.’ Callie slid a look at her boss. What the hell, Geri?

Geraldine raised an eyebrow. ‘You’ve met?’

‘Er...yes, um...He...That is...’ She gestured to the guy standing across from her with that floppy fringe and that voice and that stare and whose name she still couldn’t remember.

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