A Mother for Matilda by Amy Andrews Page A

how many people he’d saved with the kiss of life. She pulled up behind them and winked at him. His loose stance was deceptive. His jaw muscle was clenched as he shot her a get-me-out-of-here look. ‘Ready?’
    Lawson, grateful for the interruption, crushed his empty polystyrene coffee cup in his hands and pushed away from the wall. ‘Remember,’ he said, tossing the cup in the nearby bin, ‘next time swim on patrolled beaches, between the flags.’
    ‘Oh, we will, Lawson,’ Jacinta said. ‘And thank you again so much for saving my brother’s life.’ She touched his sleeve. ‘I’m never going to forget you or what you did for Michael.’
    Vic rolled her eyes. Had Jacinta deliberately dropped the blanket a little lower? And hello? What was she? Chopped liver? Lawson hadn’t exactly been Robinson Crusoe down on the beach. ‘Coms had a patient transport job for us,’ she lied.
    ‘Right.’ Lawson extricated himself from the circle. ‘Bye.’
    ‘Bye,’ they said in unison.
    Vic looked back over her shoulder to see them all twinkling their fingers at his back and looking at him as if they wouldn’t mind giving him a little mouth-to-mouth of their own.
    Oh, please!
    Strangely it irritated her. Her lips tingled again with the memory of her kiss. Although they’d studiously avoided talking about it, it was always there, in the back of her mind, and she was beginning to think of it as the elephant in the room. She’d kill to know what he was thinking.
    Had he put it down to her being a little tipsy or excused it as one of those strangely intimate moments between people who had known each other for ever that was almost inevitable after an emotional event? Or was he just not thinking about it at all? Was that why he hadn’t mentioned it?
    Somehow that was an even more disturbing thought…
    She waited till they climbed back in the cab before she commented. ‘Ooh, Lawson, you’re so-o-o brave,’ she cooed, and turned to him to bat her eyelashes in an exaggerated fashion. She kept it light but couldn’t deny there was a degree of the green-eyed monster involved.
    Lawson frowned. ‘Cut it out.’
    Vic laughed. ‘Oh, but, Lawson,’ she said breathily, touching his sleeve, ‘I’m never going to forget you.’
    He jammed his seat belt buckle into its clasp, shaking her hand aside. ‘Yeah, yeah.’
    She pulled out into traffic with a smile on her face, comfortable now with their familiar patter. She knewwhere she stood with the banter that was the hallmark of their relationship. The grizzled veteran and the rookie. She didn’t know where she stood after the kiss. She didn’t know how to talk to him about that.
    ‘You won some hearts there.’
    ‘Please. I’m old enough to be their father. Speaking of which.’ He looked at his watch. ‘Looks like we’ll make Kids Quiz today.’
    Vic nodded enthusiastically. She enjoyed the day-shift ritual almost as much as Lawson. And at least with Matilda’s endless prattle she didn’t have time to think about her error of judgement. ‘One dose of PG TV coming up.’ She grinned.
     
    ‘Daddy!’
    ‘Tilly!’ Lawson grinned, holding his arms out to his daughter, who’d run out of the front door the minute the ambulance had pulled into the driveway.
    Matilda hurled herself into her father’s arms and squealed, clutching his big shoulders as he spun her around and around, her blonde curls flying behind.
    ‘What’d you learn at school today?’ he asked as he gave in to her ‘stop Daddy’ giggles.
    ‘Miss Simpson taught us the eight times tables.’
    ‘Oh, yeah? What’s eight times zero?’
    Matilda giggled again. ‘Daddy, that’s the easy one.’
    Vic, who was lounging against the side of the van, shook her head as she watched father and daughter with a big grin. Lawson’s kid was great. And an absolute credit to him. Deb had literally left him holding the baby and he hadn’t blinked. Just totally changed his lifestyle and committed every cell he owned