Rescued by the Dreamy Doc

It was actually kind of exhausting, this level of awareness. The slow but inexorable build of tension tightening every muscle, sizzling along every nerve ending.

All he wanted was to fast-forward to the end and the kiss that he knew, deep in his bones, was the inevitable conclusion.

It couldn’t happen fast enough.

CHAPTER TWO

AS THE evening drew to a close, Callie was aware of Sebastian becoming quieter, his gaze more intent as a weird kind of charge grew and then arced steadily between them. Like an approaching storm.

Laden. Ominous.

It enthralled and frightened her all at once. She knew she should get up and leave while she could but she felt powerless.

Even when Gerri called for a doggie bag for the massive pizza she hadn’t been able to finish and the others took their leave en masse, she was helpless.

Sebastian quirked an eyebrow at them. ‘Coffee?’

‘Kill for one,’ Gerri agreed.

‘That would be lovely,’ Callie murmured.

She should have declined. She knew that. But her fingers itched to push back the unruly lock of hair flopping across his forehead and overrode all her common sense.

No seemed to have been stricken from her vocabulary.

Besides, Gerri was giving her a lift home so she had to stay. Right?

Sebastian beckoned a waitress over and they placed their orders. As she left, Callie became aware of a raised voice behind her and all three of them turned to look at what was happening.

They were sitting in the alfresco area of a restaurant in a trendy new footpath strip in Fortitude Valley. The suburb was up-and-coming, quite hip with the movers and shakers but by and large it was still less than salubrious in places with a lot of cheap boarding-house accommodation. With a large client base here and Jambalyn being located a stone’s throw from the restaurant, Callie knew the area well.

A dishevelled man, probably homeless, definitely down on his luck, was asking customers at the tables closest to the street for spare change for food. A young, preppy-looking man in an expensive suit at a table full of suits had taken it on himself to loudly lecture the unfortunate man, who was shuffling his feet, his head downcast, much to the delight of the other suits.

Callie turned away, unable to witness such callous inhumanity. She felt sick. How could he? What would a preppy inner-city suit know about the difficulties some people faced and how life could go down the drain so rapidly? How could he judge so cruelly someone he didn’t even know?

Her gaze fell to her lap where her hands shook, and she twisted them together to still the tremor. Her heart thumped like a gong in her chest and the meal she’d just eaten felt like a lump of lead in her belly.

Gerri placed a hand over hers. ‘Are you okay?’

Callie looked up into Gerri’s concerned eyes. She could see a frown knitting Sebastian’s brows in her peripheral vision. Callie’s gaze darted to Sebastian’s and back again. She nodded but the ugly scene had opened the floodgate on memories she’d been trying to keep at bay all day, from the bridge to Zack’s little-boy voice, and she felt like she was suffocating.

Sebastian was surprised by the sudden change in the previously animated Callie. She’d gone very pale and there was an unbearable sadness in her expressive amber eyes. The arrogant fool confronting the homeless man had obviously upset her. After her fearless performance on the bridge today he’d half expected her to march over and verbally eviscerate the conceited guy, but she looked like she was about to faint.

‘Excuse me,’ he murmured.

It was Callie’s turn to frown as she and Gerri watched Sebastian’s progress towards the altercation.

Sebastian drew level with the table and looked down at the offending man just as he finished suggesting that the obviously itinerant man get a job. ‘Have you quite finished?’

Sebastian didn’t usually court danger. In fact, he’d had enough of danger this last year. He was certainly no he-man. He didn’t pick fights or go around looking for trouble. But some things just couldn’t be ignored and this man’s attitude was abhorrent. Hopefully after tonight he’d think twice about using someone else’s misfortune to make himself look good.

‘I…I beg your pardon? ‘the younger man blustered. He looked around at his friends and the rest of the people in the half-full restaurant, obviously embarrassed to be called on his appalling behaviour.

Good!

‘Feel like a big man now in front of your friends, humiliating another human being who was just looking for a bit of decency and compassion?’

The man stood, the scrape of his chair loud in the suddenly charged atmosphere. ‘Who the hell are you?’ he demanded.

Sebastian noted the younger man pale when he realised that Sebastian had four inches and several muscles groups on him. He lowered his voice. ‘A concerned citizen.’

Callie shivered as the rumble of quiet menace in Sebastian’s voice was felt all the way around the restaurant. Her heart hammered and her palms felt sweaty where they gripped the table.

‘Look…I’m sorry, mate,’ the man said, holding his hands up. ‘I didn’t mean any harm.’

Sebastian jaw tightened. This guy was nothing but a bully. Picking on someone helpless but backing down at the first sign of superior strength. He needed to apologise. He looked over to the street but the homeless man had obviously seen his opportunity and fled the ugly scene. Sebastian could see him shuffling away, his shoulders slumped.

Callie looked back at her hands as Sebastian suggested the man bring his best manners next time he came out. He was being amazing—calm but firm—and she felt ridiculously like bursting into tears.

Pressure built in her chest and she suddenly felt as if she couldn’t breathe. She half stood. ‘I…I need some air.’

Gerri inspected her face closely and then gave a brisk nod, handing over the doggy bag. Callie took the offering and slipped out of the restaurant, sagging against its door briefly, grateful for the cool night air on her heated face.

She saw the hunched old man farther down the street and hurried after him, pressing the leftover pizza into his hands when she caught up. He avoided her gaze but Callie could see the tears shining in his eyes as he mumbled his thanks. She smiled at him and backed away, not wanting to humiliate the man any further by trite words or useless platitudes.

Sebastian, who had followed her out of the restaurant, walked towards her slowly as she retraced her steps. Where was his tall, proud Amazon from the bridge, eyes blazing? Was brave Callie the real deal or was the real Callie the woman walking towards him now? Softer, more vulnerable. He’d wanted to kiss the woman on the bridge senseless. This Callie he wanted to wrap up in his arms and shield from the big bad world.

Which one was she?

‘You okay?’ he asked as she approached.

Callie stopped in front of him, still too emotional to meet Sebastian’s eyes. She bit the inside of her cheek. She would not fall apart now. It didn’t matter that she seemed to be an unwilling rider on an emotional roller-coaster that was flinging her hither and thither; she would not crack.

The memories. Her brother—years of not knowing where he was or if he was alive or dead. The bridge. Zack.

They would not break her. Not right now.

She cleared her throat. ‘Fine.’

Sebastian stopped the snort that rose automatically. Callie was nowhere near fine. Still, he admired her stoicism. Did she spend all of her life putting on a brave face?

He regarded her for a few moments. ‘I think our coffees are getting cold,’ he murmured.

Callie heard the soft don’t-spook-the-horses note in his voice and braced her shoulders. She hated it that he’d seen her like this. She didn’t need his pity. ‘Can’t have that,’ she quipped, raising her chin and striding towards the restaurant.

Geraldine rose when they arrived back at the table. She looked from Callie to Sebastian and then back again. ‘Everything okay?’

‘Fine,’ Callie said, uncaring how overly bright it sounded as she sat. Still unable to look at Sebastian, she picked up her spoon and stirred the cappuccino that had arrived during the fracas.