‘Do you?’
‘Are you saying you don’t think we would?’
Yes. No. Whatever. That was exactly what she was saying. Because it was now abundantly clear to Bridget that she, unlike Hayden, couldn’t sleep with someone one week and then act normally around them the next.
Or maybe that was because it was Hayden she’d slept with. It wasn’t as though she had anyone else to compare it to.
She felt trapped. As blocked in as this vast, landlocked country, and just as full of conflict.
‘No,’ she lied. ‘Of course I’m not saying that.’
He grinned broadly and she knew that she’d just walked into that one.
The oddest thing was that she actually agreed with Hayden that they had the potential to be a good team. She happened to think so too. It was galling that the fact that he’d seen her naked and so...exposed had robbed her of the ability to act like she wanted to around him. Like the professional that she normally was.
Well, that stopped now.
‘All right, let’s discuss the feasibility. I think an army presence will just give the illusion of additional security without you having to act on anything. And I know it would be a morale boost for the teams.’
‘Teams?’
‘A logistical team and a medical team,’ she elaborated. ‘I would be going on the distribution mission anyway as a medic, in case something were to go wrong and someone ended up getting hurt.’
Hayden frowned, something shifting in his gaze. If she hadn’t known better, she might have thought he was actually concerned for her.
But that would be nonsense. Hayd was a self-confessed playboy who had slept with army officers who put themselves in danger on a regular basis. He wasn’t going to around worrying about the her security just because...well, because. Bridget rushed on quickly.
‘But also I’ve been told that, a few months back, Mandy had been talking about sending out a two-or three-man medical team in order to carry out a measles vaccination campaign if we were going to be out in those villages anyway.’
‘Measles?’
‘I know it’s not a major problem back home, but out here it’s second only to kala-azar in terms of serious paediatric illnesses,’ she told him earnestly. ‘It hits under-fives very hard, and unfortunately even with prompt diagnosis and our care, many, many of those children simply won’t survive it.’
‘And vaccinating them will prevent that?’
‘It will give them a better chance than they would otherwise have,’ Bridget confirmed. ‘Certainly out here, where immune systems can be non-existent given the conditions. A mass measles vaccination campaign is something that I’ve done before elsewhere, but we didn’t think we’d be able to here because of the security concerns.’
‘Is that so?’
‘Come on, Hayd.’ The teasing tone was out before Bridget could stop herself. ‘You know you want to help, deep down.’
She couldn’t identify the look he shot her, but it made her stomach pull tight and heat pool between her legs.
‘Okay.’ He nodded. ‘You’ve sold me. I’ll put a dozen or so men together to accompany your teams. We’ll put it to regiment as a support task as part of our mission to support the charity.’
‘Thanks. I’ll prepare the gear tomorrow. I’ll drive the medical team in one of the charity’s four-by-fours, and I’ll get Christophe to drive the logistic team in the other. We can be ready to head out the day after.’
‘Those timings work,’ he concurred. ‘But, Birdie, you’ll need another driver. You’ll be travelling with me.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
IT HAD BEEN a hectic night.
Bridget had been on call but hadn’t slept well—if at all—and not just because of the conversation with Hayden. She’d lain on her bed, worrying, right up until a teenager had been brought in with a soaring fever. She’d had to strip him and administer a cold water sponge bath and paracetamol, before carrying out a malaria test.
She’d barely got back to her mosquito-net-protected bed, pretending that she wasn’t still dwelling on the way Hayden had looked at her every now and then. When their conversation had flowed and he’d suddenly let his guard down.
And she’d schooled herself each time she’d risked imagining Hayden in his own hammock right then, in the army camp barely a couple of hundred metres away, on the other side of the wide but shallow dried-up riverbed.