Dr. Zinetti's Snowkissed Bride (10 page)

‘Of course it's real. You think I got a boob job when no one
was looking?' Snappy and irritable, Meg toed off her boots and wriggled her feet into the gold shoes. ‘Ouch, ouch, ow! They hurt. Do people seriously wear these things?'

‘Yes, because they look fantastic.' Ellie stared down at Meg's feet. ‘They also look tight. I'll fetch you a bigger size. Wait there. Don't go anywhere.'

‘Trust me, I'm not going anywhere wearing this totally embarrassing dress with these things on my feet. There's half a metre of snow on the ground. I'm going to get frostbite.' Wincing, Meg dragged off the shoes and flexed her toes. ‘Why do women do this to themselves?'

Fortunately the next pair Ellie brought her was an improvement. ‘How do they feel?'

‘As if I'm tipping forwards. I'm going to fall on my face.'

‘You just feel like that because you're not used to heels, but you're going to be fine. Now, hair…' Ellie pulled a clip out of her bag and twisted Meg's hair into a knot at the back of her head. ‘Looking good.'

‘Looking weird.'

‘It looks weird because you're just not used to seeing yourself like that. Meg—you're really beautiful. Why do you hate the way you look?'

Meg thought for a moment. ‘Actually, I don't hate the way I look. Not really. It's men who hate the way I look.'

‘You're talking about one man, Meg, not men in general.' Ellie's voice was tight and there was a flash of anger in her eyes. ‘One man didn't like the way you look. And if I ever bump into him I'll break his nose and reposition his features.'

‘You won't bump into him. You have two kids and he's allergic to anything remotely domestic.' It pleased her that finally she could talk about him without feeling as though she was going to fall apart. ‘Last thing I heard, he was living it up in Ibiza. Dancing on the beach every night with women
who spend most of the day getting ready for the night.' The sort of women she'd never understood.

Ellie pulled her into a tight hug. ‘With any luck he'll catch some vile disease and his vital organs will drop off. He's history, Meg. It's over and done. And you've protected yourself for long enough. Get out there. Have fun.'

Meg stood frozen in her grasp. ‘It isn't fun for me. I can't make people understand that. To me, a ball, a dance, a party—whatever—just isn't fun. It's non-stop stress. Am I wearing the right thing? Is everyone staring? Is everyone laughing at me? The answer to the first is almost always no, and the answer to the second two is almost always yes.'

Ellie sighed and tightened her grip. ‘You're as rigid as my cat in a temper. Hug me back. It will make you feel better.'

Knowing when she was beaten, Meg hugged and instantly felt better. Friendship, she thought. Friendship was good. ‘For a girl who straightens her hair and wears make-up, you're all right, Ellie.'

‘I'm more than all right. And you're going to be more than all right, too. Dino isn't taking you because of your hair or your make-up, Meg. He's taking you because you're
you
. It's you he lo—likes. Remember that.'

Meg pulled away. ‘Stop turning this into a big romance. It's one night, that's all. El, this dress is too tight. I can't sit down.'

‘It's not tight. It's perfect. And you won't be sitting down, you'll be dancing. Or kissing. I want to be there when Dino first sees you. I know you don't wear much make-up, but this dress needs some make-up.'

‘That's the dress's problem, not mine.'

‘Do you even own make-up?'

‘Of course.' Meg thought about the ancient tubes at the back of the bathroom cabinet. ‘Somewhere. Everything has probably dried up by now.'

‘If you haven't worn it for years, it will be the wrong make-up. We'll start fresh. Not because you need it, because you don't, but because wearing it will make you feel better.'

An hour later they were sitting in a coffee shop surrounded by bags.

‘I honestly can't see myself wearing glitter on my eyes. I'll look like something that fell off the Christmas tree.' Meg poked the foam on her cappuccino. ‘And the lipstick is too dark. I look like a vampire.'

‘You look great. I'm really excited! I've been dying to see you take a chance on a man.'

‘I'm not taking a chance. I'm just going to a Christmas ball, for goodness' sake. We're talking about one date, not a future.'

‘Every future starts with one date. You're so wary of everyone, Meg. Matt from Orthopaedics asked you out loads of times, but you said no. Last year it was that really nice doctor from New Zealand whose name escapes me—Pete, that's it. You turned him down too. This is the first time you've said yes. You must really like Dino.'

Meg's palms were damp. Realising that she
did
really like Dino made her want to hyperventilate with panic. How had that happened?
How had she lowered her guard enough to let someone in?
‘Dino?' Her mouth was dry and she struggled to keep her voice casual. ‘He's fine.'

‘Fine?
Fine?
He's completely, insanely
gorgeous
. Do you know how many of the nurses are trying to get his attention all the time?'

Meg pushed her cup away, feeling slightly sick. ‘Yes. Yes, I do know.'

‘So you should feel really special. He wants to go with you. He really likes you. You have so much in common. For a start, you both love the mountains.'

‘Yes, but being in the mountains is different from being
on a date. I'm not worrying about how I look all the time. I'm just me.'

‘And it's just you he's invited to the ball,' Ellie said logically. ‘So it's no different. It's just that you'll be doing it in a dress. And it's a gorgeous dress. You're going to have a great time. I know you are.'

Meg gave up trying to make Ellie understand. Instead, she shifted the focus of the conversation. ‘What are you going to wear?'

‘No idea. I have a red dress that I bought before I had the children so if I can still fit into it, I might wear that. Then I have a black one that is good for “fat” days.'

‘Wow. More than one dress.' Meg made a joke of it, but deep down she was in full-on panic mode. Maybe she could develop flu. Or maybe her mum could be persuaded not to babysit. Or maybe… With a sigh, she slumped in her chair. It was no good. She was going to have to go.

The whole thing was her worst nightmare.

A
T LUNCH TIME
on the day of the ball, Dino slammed his way through the doors of the emergency department, his bleep sounding and his phone ringing simultaneously. ‘Is someone trying to get hold of me?'

‘Dino, thank goodness.' Unusually flustered, Ellie pushed equipment into his hands. ‘There's a car stuck in snow on the Wrynose Pass. They can't go forwards and they can't go back. You need to go and help. Meg is going with you. I've packed everything I think you'll need.'

‘How about a winch?' Dino lifted an eyebrow. ‘Since when did we start operating a vehicle recovery service?'

‘It's not the vehicle you're recovering, it's the woman inside. She's very pregnant. She was on her way over the pass to stay with her mum, because it's closer to the hospital and she's afraid of being snowed in, but she's now stuck in the snow. Before you say anything, no, it isn't funny.' Ellie stuffed two more blankets into his arms. ‘Do you want the rest of the good news?'

‘That was good news?'

‘This is her second baby. The first one was a precipitate delivery. Thirty minutes from start to finish.'

Dino rolled his eyes. ‘In that case, she needs to be airlifted.'

‘The helicopter has just been grounded—they've found a
fault. They're trying to get another one but in the meantime the only vehicle that can get you up there is the mountain rescue ambulance. Meg's already outside, waiting for you, revving up the engine.'

Dino strode towards the door and flung the extra equipment into the back of the four-wheel-drive vehicle that was used by the mountain rescue team. ‘I'm driving.'

‘No way.' Meg fastened her seat belt. ‘I'm already sitting at the wheel. Get in, macho man.'

‘I'll get in when you move into the passenger seat,' Dino drawled, leaning across and undoing her seat belt. ‘Move over. I'm not kidding.'

Meg tightened her grip on the wheel and refused to move. ‘Chauvinist.'

‘Actually, you're wrong. If it were Ben or Sean sitting in the driver's seat, I'd still move them. I'm Italian. I don't like being driven. Move, Meg, before this woman gives birth in a snowdrift.'

With a sigh, she flounced across into the passenger seat. ‘Fine. I'm only doing this because we can't waste any more time. Just don't come squealing to me for help when you've slid off the road because you don't know the bends of the Wrynose Pass. If you're in the wrong gear, you'll never make it.'

‘I'll make it.' His hands confident on the wheel, Dino headed along the valley and turned onto the narrow road that led to the beginning of the pass. A snow plough had clearly been along the road before them and the snow was banked high against the stone walls that bordered the fields. ‘Why did they pick this route?'

‘Because they were desperate and panicking. The forecast for the next few days is really awful. They were afraid that if they waited any longer, they'd be snowed in. One of the disadvantages of living in a remote area.' Meg tucked her hair under
her hat and sorted through the equipment. ‘Watch yourself on this corner, the road suddenly gets a lot steeper and there's only room for one car. There are passing places, but most of them haven't been cleared since last night's snowfall.'

Dino glanced at her. ‘How many times have you driven this road in winter?'

‘Plenty. See? You should have let me drive. I know every rabbit hole.' She gave him a cheeky smile. ‘The best way to get good at something is to practise. I practised. Driving the mountain passes is one of the best forms of entertainment.'

He was tempted to suggest a few other forms of entertainment that were less life threatening, but he decided this wasn't the time or the place. As they crested the top of the slope, he felt the back wheels of the ambulance slip and heard Meg gasp.

‘Relax.' Dino handled the vehicle carefully, feeling the way it responded. ‘I'm going to put chains on for the next hill. It's too slick and there's a drop on the right.' He jumped out and fastened the chains to the wheels. The landscape around them had been transformed by the heavy snow and a few abandoned vehicles lay half-buried by the side of the road. It took him less than five minutes to finish the job but that was long enough to freeze his hands.

The snow fell onto the windscreen in big fat lumps and Dino jumped back into the driver's seat, flicked on the wipers and turned the heating up to full. ‘That should improve the grip. It's cold out there.' He flexed his fingers. ‘I think the mountain rescue team will be called out tonight.'

‘If that happens, we'll miss the ball.' Meg checked her phone for messages and he had a feeling that was exactly what she was hoping would happen.

‘I'm flattered to know you're looking forward to our date,
tesoro
.'

‘I warned you I wasn't good at that sort of thing. Look, I've said I'll go. What more do you want?'

‘Enthusiasm?'

She bit her lip. ‘I've bought a dress, so I suppose it would be nice to at least have the chance to wear it.'

‘A dress?
Bene.
I look forward to seeing your legs for the first time.' Because he was concentrating on the road, Dino didn't see her frown. ‘Is that the car? The red one.'

‘Yes, looks like it.' Her voice was strange but when he glanced at her she simply glared at him.

‘Keep your eyes on the road or you'll drive off it.' She turned back to look out of the windscreen, narrowing her eyes to see through the falling snow. ‘The guy is waving. Why is he waving? He ought to just stay in the warm until we get there. There's no reason to—' She broke off and turned her head slowly. ‘Oh, no—do you think…?'

‘Possibly, knowing our luck,' Dino gritted, ‘but if I drive any faster than this we'll end up in the ditch alongside them. Get on the phone and check on the helicopter situation. Failing that, get the police to meet us at the head of the pass.'

‘Any excuse to break the speed limit.'

Dino smiled. ‘I'm Italian. That's enough of an excuse.'

While Meg made the necessary calls, he negotiated the switch back turns of the mountain pass and finally pulled up by the red car. Normally it would have been a dangerous place to stop but today, with the world transformed into a white, faceless desert, they were the only people on the road.

‘Quickly.' His door was dragged open by the man who had been waving his arms at them. ‘Are you the doctor? What the hell took you so long? I'm going to put in a complaint when all this is over. The baby's coming. I'm not kidding. God, you have to do something.' He choked the words out, hyperventilating, and Dino closed his hand over the other man's shoulder, trying to calm him down, choosing to ignore the rudeness.

‘Breathe slowly. Deeply. That's better.' He jumped down from the vehicle and found himself in snow up to his knees. The cold immediately clamped his ankles and seeped through his clothing. ‘When did her contractions start?'

‘About ten minutes ago. I think it's the stress. We never should have left. But I took our little boy to his grandmother's a couple of days ago to give Sue a rest, and Sue was fretting, wanted us all to be together at her mother's for Christmas. If we hadn't left we would have been stranded, and—'

‘Hi Mike, it's me.' Meg struggled through the snow and slapped the man on the back. ‘Stop panicking. It's all going to be fine, I promise. We just need to get our equipment and then we'll sort her out. Go back and sit with Sue. And stop looking so worried or you'll scare her. Looking at your face is enough to make me go into labour and I'm not even pregnant. Everything is going to be fine.'

The man sucked in two deep breaths and swore. ‘It isn't fine, Meg.' His voice was savage and he was clearly on the edge. ‘Not every woman is tough. Sue isn't good in cold weather at the best of times. She's delicate and feminine—nothing like you.'

Dino saw Meg's face change.

‘Right,' she said tonelessly, ‘then we'd better get her out of there, hadn't we? It will be fine, Mike. Trust us.'

‘Don't patronise me with all that false reassurance stuff. We're stuck on a mountain pass in the snow and my wife is in labour,' Mike snapped. ‘There's nothing fine about it.'

‘All right. If I admit we're in trouble, will you stop whining and let us do something about it?' Meg grabbed her bag out of the mountain rescue vehicle and staggered under the weight. ‘We're here, and we're good at what we do. Dr Zinetti here has an Olympic gold medal.'

Mike rubbed snow from his face. ‘Olympic gold medal? Do they award one of those for delivering babies?'

‘Men's downhill, you idiot. Go back to Sue. We'll be with you in a minute.' Meg gave him a push. ‘And smile. Tell her everything is going to be OK. We're right behind you.'

As Mike struggled back to the car through the snow, Meg reached into the vehicle for a spare coat. ‘What a total idiot. That guy always did have a low burn threshold. Maturity doesn't seem to have improved things.'

‘You know him. Is he an ex-boyfriend?' Dino only realised how cold his tone was when she sent him an astonished glance.

‘Do you really think I'd hook up with a wimp like him? We went to school together. He was as spineless then as he clearly still is now. The sort who has to have a really, really fragile woman in order to feel big and manly.' She paused, her hand on the strap of her bag. ‘What's the matter with you? You look as though you're about to thump someone. What is your problem? I know Mike can be beyond irritating, but you just have to take a breath. To be fair on him, you'd be tense, too, if your wife were about to give birth in a snowdrift.'

Dino fastened his jacket. ‘He was rude to you.'
And that had triggered a primitive response far beyond anything he'd experienced before.
‘I didn't like it.'

‘I didn't like it much either, but that's life. Some people are rude.' She didn't say anything, but he knew that Mike's nasty comment had hurt her feelings.

Knowing that this wasn't the time or place to deal with it, Dino made a mental note to tackle the subject later.

‘So let's check on your friend, Sue. What did the air ambulance say?'

‘Still grounded, but paramedics are going to be waiting for us at the head of the pass so we just have to deliver the baby and get them back up this hill.' Surefooted, she picked her way through the deep snow to the car.

‘I'm not sure the relevance of telling them about the
Olympic gold medal.' Dino used a ski pole to measure the depth of the snow. ‘Being able to ski downhill at stupid speeds in tight Lycra isn't much of a qualification for delivering a baby outdoors with a wind chill of minus fifteen.'

‘I was trying to impress him. He was one of those sporting jocks at school. Football captain—that sort of thing. Appreciates manly sporting endeavour.' She stopped for a moment to take a breath. ‘Winning a gold medal shows grit and determination. A will to succeed and be the best. Not to mention a certain recklessness that might just come in useful given the situation we're in.'

‘I'm never reckless with my patients.'

‘Today, you might not have a choice. Come on.' Meg pulled open the car door and slid inside quickly. ‘Sue? Fancy bumping into you here—I've been dying to catch up with you for ages, although this wasn't quite what I had in mind.'

Hearing Sue giggle, Dino gave a smile of admiration. No matter who the patient was, Meg always seemed to put them at ease. Even with Mike, she'd managed to control the situation.

Putting his head inside the car, he had his first glimpse of the woman. Short red hair framed a face that was as white as her husband's, and Dino saw instantly that ‘delicate' was a fair description. Any thinner and she would have risked being blown away by a gust of wind. Against her slender limbs, her swollen belly looked grossly disproportionate. ‘Sue, we need to get you to the ambulance. There's more room and we have better equipment.'

‘I can't move. Honestly, I can't move. There's too much pain and I'm scared of the snow. I might slip and that would hurt the baby.'

Dino bit back the comment that being born in a snowdrift wasn't going to do wonders for the baby either, and tried to
give her the reassurance she so clearly needed. ‘I won't let you fall, I promise.'

‘I really don't—'

‘Sue, I've been timing your contractions.' Meg's voice was firm. ‘They're coming every two minutes, fast and furious. We really have to move you to the ambulance. We're going to wait until the end of the next contraction and then we're going to get you out of the car and on your feet.'

‘I won't get across there before the next contraction starts.' Sue's voice was reed thin and shaky and Mike swore and punched his fist into the seat.

‘Can't you see she can't walk? Just get a helicopter or something!'

‘She can walk if she does it between contractions.' Meg wrapped an extra coat around Sue's thin shoulders. ‘All right. Get ready to swing your legs out of the car. I'm going to help.'

Sue shrank back. ‘These boots are new. They're an early Christmas present from Mike. I'm going to ruin them if I walk in the snow.'

Hanging onto his patience with difficulty, Dino exchanged a fleeting glance with Meg. ‘I'll carry you.'

Sue's eyes widened and she looked at his shoulders. ‘You'll put your back out.'

‘No, I won't.' Ignoring Mike's blustering, Dino moved to the car door. ‘Slide forward. Put your arms around my neck—that's it.' He swung her into his arms. Checking his footing carefully, he trudged his way through the snow to the four-by-four in less than the two minutes it took for another contraction to start. Meg was already there, opening the doors at the back, and moments later Sue was safely inside what was a comparatively warm place, her new boots dry and untouched by the snow.