Date with Destiny by Helen Lacey

Author:Helen Lacey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-11-09T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Grace heard a scream and realized it was her own terrified voice. Cameron trudged up the embankment with Thomas in his arms as she dropped the backpack.

Panic coursed through her blood. She’d felt that panic before. The accident and Richard’s death came rushing back into her thoughts. She tried to shake off the memory, tried to act normally, tried to stop her knees from failing.

Take a breath...one...two...

Slow breathing helped whenever she experienced that rush of adrenaline, that same dreaded coldness whispering across her skin. Usually it happened when she was alone at night, or about to drift off to sleep...then the darkness wrapped her up and for a while she was back, trapped in that car, praying...hoping that someone would find her.

“Grace?”

Cameron’s voice jerked her back into the present and she quickly pulled herself together as he laid the child on the ground. Thomas looked ghostly pale and she dropped to her knees beside him.

Her voice cracked when she spoke. “Is he breathing?”

Cameron shook his head and rolled the child over to clear water from his airway.

“Try my phone again,” he barked and pulled the phone from his pocket as he turned Thomas onto his back again. “The nearest hospital is half an hour away so get an ambulance to meet us at the farm.”

Grace grabbed the phone and hit the emergency number. Thankfully, there was a signal and she quickly made the call, ensuring an ambulance was on its way to the house. Time stretched like elastic, and what was seconds seemed like an eternity. She watched, horrified and fascinated as Cameron performed CPR and encouraged the child to breathe in between puffs of lifesaving oxygen. Finally Thomas spluttered and drew in a long gasp of air. She touched the boy’s muddy hair soothingly as his breathing steadied. He opened his eyes and croaked out a word she couldn’t understand. With instincts she hadn’t known she possessed, Grace comforted Thomas and told him it would be all right. Cameron rocked back on his heels and closed his eyes and Grace touched his arm.

“You did it,” she said, squeezing a little. “He’s okay.”

Cameron nodded and let out a long breath. “Let’s get him home.”

She nodded. “He’s cold,” she said, touching his pale face. Grace pulled a sweater from the small backpack and quickly threaded Thomas’s arms into the sleeves and then took off her own jacket and tucked it around his small body. She rubbed his hands together for moment then looked toward Cameron. “Let’s go.”

She watched as he lifted the child effortlessly and held him against his chest. He walked back to the house as quickly as possible, and too emotional to speak, Grace followed. Pat and the rest of the children were waiting by the fence when they arrived and she heard Cameron’s palpable sigh of relief at the sight of the ambulance in the driveway. Two medics were instantly on hand and rushed forward to take Thomas from Cameron’s arms. Within minutes the little boy was wrapped in a thermal blanket and received the necessary attention from the officers.

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