Page 30 of Wounded Hearts

“What’s so funny?” he asked as he moved to Mara, pulled into her orbit as naturally as the sun pulled the earth.

Mara reached for his hand as he stopped beside her and looked up at him. “Lizzie was just telling me about Nate’s mum hitting Kanan with a welsh cake griddle.”

He smiled to include Lizzie who was watching them intently. “Oh yeah, K still flinches when Mrs Jones moves too fast. It’s hilarious to see an ex-spy terrified of a woman who probably weighs less than a hundred pounds soaking wet.”

“I’m surprised he doesn’t hold a grudge. That was quite the whack to his pride and head I assume.”

“Nah, he loves Mrs Jones now. He recognises it was his own fault and he deserved what he got. He was the one who replaced the griddle pan for a new one. She makes him welsh cakes for his birthday every year.”

Mara was shaking her head, a surprised smile on her face. “Wow.”

He laughed. “Yeah we’re a special kind of weird here.”

“I love it. I’ve never met a team like it. I loved my team at the hospital, but this is a whole other level.”

“Yeah, they are.”

Lizzie looked at him then. “How is Smithy?”

Drew was careful with his words, knowing the man wouldn’t want sympathy. “He took it well considering. He’s going to keep helping Meg at the lab and see if they can find a cure for the drugs.”

Mara looked at him then. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Drew pushed his hands in his pockets. “It might be worth speaking to Doc and finding out if he needs anything. I know most of the team have some kind of injury or another that would benefit from a physio looking over them. Is that something you could do?” He’d actually talked to Zack about hiring a full-time sports therapist, but a qualified physio would be even better, especially one with PTSD experience.

“I’d love that. Who’s Doc?”

“Do you know Doctor Turner? He was an accident and emergency consultant.”

“Oh my god, yes, I know him. He worked on a paeds case with me, such a lovely guy.”

“Well, when he came up for retirement we poached him and persuaded him to be our personal doctor.”

“Wow, I’m pumped to get started now.”

Drew chuckled at the excitement on her face and the way she clapped her hands. It was crazy to think how far she’d come in less than a week. From a woman who was afraid to make eye contact, that didn’t want to make any decisions about what she even ate, to the woman he recognised and had fallen for nearly two years ago. Mara was coming back to them. Maybe she’d never be the same as she was but that didn’t mean she’d be less. What she’d been through was horrific, but she’d survive because underneath her grief and pain, she had a backbone of steel.

Drew tilted his head to Lizzie. “Any chance you can take Mara over to the estate to meet Doc when Nate goes?”

“You’re not coming?”

Drew could hear the disappointment in Mara’s voice and felt the same way but for them to have a shot at any kind of future they needed to eradicate the threat the past still posed. “I wish I could, but Jace and I have to go and check through my father’s things and see if there’s anything there that might give us a clue what Winslow is up too.”

He saw her face turn down and felt immense satisfaction that she wanted him with her. It wasn’t a declaration of love or even close, but it did give him hope that maybe they could forge something from this. His heart certainly hoped they could because it was growing ever more attached to the pretty, guarded physio.

“Will I see you tonight?”

“I’ll pick you up when we’re done, and we can go home and finish season three of Jane the Virgin.”

Her smile was enough for him to put himself through anything, even episode after episode of that odd tella-novel that she’d been so excited to catch up on. “Thanks, Drew.”

He nodded and leaned in, dropping a light kiss on her temple before he headed to the door and the horrendous task of opening up wounds he’d long since thought healed.