The Nurse's Wedding Rescue (Lakeside Mountain Rescue 2)

‘I’m not going anywhere without you.’

‘I don’t want to go out there. I’ll bump into someone I know,’ she said desperately. ‘I don’t want anyone asking.’

‘I’m a great bodyguard,’ he assured her, flexing his muscles in an exaggerated pose. ‘If anyone approaches you, I’ll knock them down. No questions asked.’

Helen found herself laughing. ‘What are you? Mr Good Guy?’

‘Dr Good Guy, actually,’ Oliver said smoothly, grabbing her hand and dragging her towards the door. ‘Come on.’

‘I can’t go out looking like this.’ She gestured to her face, which she knew must look pale and awful. ‘I ought to put on some make-up.’

‘Why?’ He frowned down at her. ‘You look beautiful just as you are.’

She stared at him, a lump forming in her throat.

She wasn’t beautiful. If she was beautiful David wouldn’t have—

‘You don’t think you’re beautiful?’ His eyes narrowed speculatively. ‘The bastard really did do a good job on you, didn’t he? Well, we’ll deal with that later but for now we only have two choices. We can go home and I’ll make you chicken soup or we can go out there and you can dance with me until your feet are sore.’

‘Chicken soup?’

He gave a careless shrug. ‘It’s my mother’s answer to life’s problems. You’d be amazed how often it works.’

‘Oh.’ She rummaged for another tissue and blew her nose. ‘You can’t go home. You’re the best man.’

‘Which means you’ve decided on the dancing.’ His mouth curved into a sexy smile. ‘Good choice. I’m an amazing dancer. And it gives me an excuse to take this damned jacket off. It’s the most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever worn!’

Helen looked at him helplessly, wondering why he was bothering with her.

‘Look, you’re being very kind but I really don’t think—’

‘Good idea—don’t think. It’s a vastly overrated pastime.’ He grabbed her hand and dragged her across the carpeted floor towards the door.

‘Wait.’ She dug her heels in. ‘Please, can you at least let me put some make-up on?’

‘No point. You’ll only sweat it off on the dance floor.’ He pulled open the door just as a group of women approached the toilets. ‘Evening, ladies.’ He smiled at them warmly, as if exiting from the ladies’ toilets was an everyday occurrence for him, and they simply smiled back.

‘Hi, Oliver.’

He proceeded to kiss a string of women as they passed and Helen looked at him in amazement.

‘Do you kiss everyone?’

‘If I think I can get away with it.’ He let the door swing behind her. ‘It’s my sister’s wedding and this is a small town. We all pretty much know each other.’

Helen digested that. It was such a contrast from London, which always seemed to be full of people leading their own lives in parallel.

‘It must be weird,’ she said, ‘knowing everyone’s business and everyone knowing yours.’

Oliver cast her a searching look. ‘Actually, it’s pretty good,’ he said softly. ‘Only yesterday I went to see an old man who fell out of bed the night before. The reason I know he fell out of bed was because Pam, who lives next door, happened to notice that he didn’t put the bin outside. For the last twenty years he’s always put the bin outside on a Friday.’

‘And she called you because of that?’ Helen looked at him in astonishment and he nodded.

‘Yes, but only after she’d let herself in and found him lying there.’

‘She had a key?’

‘Of course.’ His shrug suggested that it was normal practice. ‘Around here everyone keeps an eye on everyone.’