“Sorry for making an assumption. I lost my father some time ago and I know they were about the same age.”
“It’s all right,” he said gently. “And I’m sorry. My father spoke highly of your father.”
“Thank you.”
Betty turned and gazed out of the window, her eyelids becoming heavy as the exhaustion that had been pestering her finally caught up with her.
* * *
Axel could hear her deep, even breathing and he glanced over at her. Her head was pressed against the window and she was fast asleep. She was quite beautiful. He hadn’t been expecting that. He didn’t know what he had been expecting, to be honest, but he hadn’t been expecting her.
Blonde hair, brown eyes and a pixie-like face. She was tall, or at least taller than the women he was used to dating. Although it was hard to tell because of the heels. She seemed to have a bit of fire in her, but one that she was suppressing and he couldn’t help but wonder why.
Axel was attracted to her but, with his past and the fact that Betty would only be in Iceland for a short time, there was no point acting on that attraction.
He relaxed, but only fractionally.
When he had been ordered by his father to take on the role of assisting the new American surgeon in her three-month placement he’d instantly been outraged.
“I don’t want to babysit some American surgeon.”
“You need to do this, Axel,” his father had said sharply. “I don’t have time to deal with her.”
Axel had been able to feel the pain in his father’s eyes even without looking directly at them. He’d become an expert at it since the accident two years ago. He still couldn’t look his father in the eye. Not really.
“I’m here to save lives, not babysit another surgeon who outranks me.”
“And whose fault is that?”
“I do my work. I save lives!”
“You’re not striving for anything better. You’re not publishing papers or doing anything innovative. There will be no more discussion about this. You’re doing it.”
Axel really hadn’t been able to say no. His father was the Chief of Surgery and was Axel’s boss now that he was no longer part of the tactical coast guard and worked as a surgeon in the hospital. He just wanted to save lives and go home. He didn’t want anything more. He didn’t deserve anything more.
He’d worked with Americans before and they hadn’t been pleasant to him. So when he’d gone to the airport to pick up Dr. Betty Jacinth, he hadn’t been expecting the woman he’d found waiting for him.
Her beauty stunned him. Sure, she had a feisty little temper, but there was a vulnerability beneath her surface and he wondered what had made her that way.
What had hurt her?
What made her feel as if she needed to prove herself in front of him? Prove that she was so strong, when really he could see that her confidence was shaken under the surface.
That he understood.
He could still hear the screams, smell the smoke and feel the icy cold water cut through his skin like daggers.
Get control of it.
Axel rolled his shoulders as he banished the thought away. It was hard, especially during the winter months when the thoughts of the helicopter crash crept closer. The botched rescue attempt.
His elder brother drowning beside him.
He was the only one who survived, when he should’ve been the one who died.
Now, Axel was guardian to his fourteen-year-old niece, Eira, and he had to deal with the fact that his father blamed him for Calder’s death. His niece certainly did.
Don’t think about it.