too,’ Kate added. ‘Those kids were doing my head in to start with.’
The bunch of children was being ushered back into the building now, probably to prepare for the next scenario. As Kate and Georgia drove away, they spotted a car they recognised heading towards the school.
‘I think those boys are stalking us.’
Kate’s lips twitched as if she was trying not to smile. ‘Just coincidence.’ But she turned her head to watch the car disappear. ‘I wonder how they’ll cope with finding a riot going on.’
Georgia lapsed into silence. Matteo would cope very well. He probably wouldn’t even need to shout at the children to get their attention and gain control of the scene. He’d only need to smile at them and they would be eating out of his hand because they’d know how much he loved kids.
And he did love kids. A large part of the conversation they’d had over drinks last night, when Kate and Luke had been talking quietly, had been about his family. About how much he adored his sister’s children and what a thrill the recent birth of a new nephew had been. It sounded as if the entire Martini clan had been at the hospital to welcome that new arrival and Georgia hadn’t missed the way Matteo had spoken about his other sisters and his mother. She could have sworn he’d actually had tears in his eyes at one point. Family was clearly of the utmost importance in his life.
And wouldn’t he make the best father? He would be totally devoted to his children and there would be a huge, extended family in the wings to make every milestone a glorious celebration.
If that was what Georgia was looking for, Matteo would be perfect.
A few years ago even, when she’d still had the dream that she could find her perfect partner and be totally confident that her own children would never face the kind of fear that had poisoned her own childhood, Matteo would have stood out as being exactly what she was searching for. Gorgeous and confident and super-smart. She’d been more than impressed to learn about his postgraduate qualifications in resuscitation and aeromedical transportation.
But the last remnants of that dream had come crashing down in the wake of the brutal ending of her last relationship. Her heart had been broken for the last time and she knew not to trust that tiny flutter of hope that had come from nowhere when she’d seen this gorgeous Italian for the first time.
His passion for his family was actually a massive negative in the grand scheme of things because if the worst happened, she would be facing an army of opponents if she wanted to protect her children. And she knew that fighting even one could be too many.
It was an automatic gesture to turn her arm a little whenever this memory surfaced. To see the jagged scar that remained from the arm that had been so badly broken when she was only five years old. To feel a shiver of that terror when her birth father had arrived to claim her and the struggle to drag her from her mother’s arms had turned vicious.
Not that it had surfaced much in the last few years, because Georgia had believed she would choose a good man and could rewrite history, but her choices had proved untrustworthy. And, okay, maybe Rick had only been verbally vicious when he’d ended their relationship but that had been more than enough to stir the memories. Her ‘father’ had been just as quick to cause pain with words as anything physical.
And Italians had a reputation for having quick tempers, didn’t they? Imagine having to face an entire family of angry Italians?
Kate’s voice broke into her thoughts. ‘Penny for them?’
‘Huh?’
‘You’re miles away. What’s up?’
‘I’m just hungry,’ Georgia said. ‘It must be time for lunch, isn’t it?’
Kate checked their schedule.
‘Yep. We’ve got a break for over an hour.’
Finding a parking space near the main buildings of the ski resort, the two women handed over their vouchers to receive another meal featuring dumplings.
Georgia felt suddenly weary.
‘I feel like I’ve been on a full shift already,’ she told Kate. ‘And we’re only a third of our way through the competition. At least we get a break after this. I’m going to try and catch a nap.’
After they’d eaten, they went outside into the sunshine and found a grassy patch to lie on that was shaded by a huge tree. Georgia closed her eyes and hoped that Kate would think she had fallen asleep.
She just needed a little quiet time and maybe she could stop the unsettling thoughts that were only a distraction to why she was really here and then she could focus completely on winning this competition.
Childhood memories of the trauma of being forcibly taken from her mother, the intervention of child protection services and then being moved from one town to another until her father’s death had finally freed them from the threat that had never gone away but were of no help to her concentration.
Stupid dreams of finding ‘the one’, like Kate still had, were just as useless.
The plan of launching her new future as a single parent by choosing her baby daddy at this competition were well and truly being laid to rest.
Because, if she had the choice, she wouldn’t be able to choose anyone other than Matteo?
And he would end up finding out, wouldn’t he? He was best friends with her best friend’s friend and secrets had a nasty tendency to get revealed eventually.
Besides...she liked him.
She really liked him. Too much to consider the kind of deception that would end up haunting her for ever.
Her breath escaped in a small sigh as she turned her mind back to the tasks they had already completed today. The baby resuscitation. All those little scamps creating havoc in the schoolroom.
And thinking about those children produced an idea that Georgia hadn’t ever considered before.
Perhaps she didn’t actually need to have a baby herself. There were always children who needed adoption or fostering. Children who were having to live with the kind of trauma she knew about all too well.
She’d be good at that.
With another long, outward breath, Georgia relaxed into the companionable silence she was sharing with Kate.
Yes. That was an idea that merited a lot more thought in the near future. When this competition was over.
IT WAS ALL over bar the shouting.
All tasks had been completed and the rest of the twenty-four-hour period after the lunch break had been jam packed with challenges and excitement.
The bus-crash scenario where they’d needed to triage so many injured people, including the woman who was trapped and losing a dangerous amount of blood. They’d dealt with a cardiac arrest and a young man having a stroke, whose acting had been superb. Even as Georgia had been asking her initial questions, his speech had become slurred and his face had started to droop on one side. The impressively set up scenario of a mass shooting incident in the last couple of hours had been responsible for finally using up any remaining ounce of her energy.
Skipping breakfast, she and Kate had gone to their room to grab a few hours’ sleep but it hadn’t been enough. When the alarm sounded to remind them it was time to go to the competition debrief, Georgia couldn’t drag herself out of bed.
‘You go,’ she mumbled. ‘Tell me all about it later.’
The extra sleep had been exactly what she’d needed. By the time the competitors gathered in the town square for the prize-giving ceremony, Georgia was refreshed and ready for anything. Standing in the crowd beside Matteo was adding considerably to the anticipation. More than once, she found her gaze