Though the injured men were partially anaesthetised by their alcohol consumption, the emergency department rang with groans and muttered expletives and some not-quite-so-muttered outbursts. Zac stood to the left of the ambulance entrance, examining tipsy and torn players who were triaged his way. There weren’t enough ED staff to manage the patient flow, but help came from other wards, pulled from less frantic areas in the hospital until the rush could be contained, with an efficiency he could only wish for in his Sydney hospital. Thankfully, the emergency department had been rebuilt recently, so the layout and lighting made for effective flowthrough.

He looked up as an additional two nurses appeared from the staff entrance and he waved to direct them his way. His come-hither head signal froze as he took in the shorter blonde woman gliding towards him and his breath hitched in his chest – Ava! Recognition and a flare of something else ignited. Something he didn’t know he had inside him as he glanced around at the alcohol-infused patients that filled the room.

Ava’s delicious curves were hidden beneath the purple scrubs she wore, but he didn’t need to see them to know. Every delectable inch lay imprinted in his brain. He dragged his eyes to the taller nurse, who reached him first, and kept them on the unknown woman’s face.

‘I’m Jade and this is Ava, from maternity,’ the nurse said. ‘The nursing supervisor said you guys need extra hands down here for a while?’

Zac’s grip loosened for a second in shattered concentration, and the swollen, tattooed arm he held shifted under his fingers. The man groaned in a cloud of alcoholic fumes, and Zac muttered an apology as he focused back on stabilising the fractured humerus. When he looked up again, he had himself under control.

‘Thanks. One of you with Ruth over there.’ He nodded his head towards a tall young woman in a white coat bandaging a bloody leg. ‘And one with me would be great, thanks.’ He knew which one he wanted, but he shook that thought and focused on the task at hand.

‘I’ll stay here.’ Ava spoke crisply, and Jade nodded and moved swiftly towards the other doctor.

‘What can I do, Doctor?’ Her voice was professionally neutral and she didn’t meet his eyes. He would have loved to know what was going on inside her head because he surely didn’t know what to think. Just when he’d decided it was best he never see her again … That certainly wasn’t what he was thinking now. His emotions were cheering and whooping and totally letting him down with the delight of the moment, and he was ridiculously aware of some of the ribald comments from the footballers when Ava passed them. She completely ignored them, but he found himself wanting to growl with an unexpected silent baring of teeth in the direction of the other men.