Intensive Care: Escape to the Country, #1

By Nicki Edwards

Escaping to the country was meant to be easy ...

On the surface it looks like busy intensive care nurse Kate Kennedy has it all: a long-term relationship, a great career and a sleek inner city apartment. But appearances are deceiving, and in one fell swoop everything comes crashing down around her. In a moment of spontaneity, Kate leaves her city life and takes a new role as Nurse Unit Manager at Birrangulla Base Hospital, but her dream move proves harder than expected.

Local café owner Joel O'Connor finds himself increasingly drawn to the gorgeous new nurse, but like Kate, he's been scarred by love and isn't looking to jump into anything. Yet their chemistry is hard to deny and after a near fatal incident, Joel and Kate find themselves opening up to one another.

Just when Kate thinks she's found love again, their fragile relationship is thwarted by their pasts. Can they both let go of their guilt and grief to move on to a bright new future?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nicki Edwards
• Release date: Dec 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393967088

Nicki Edwards

Nicki Edwards : AUTHOR OF CONTEMPORARY, HEARTWARMING ROMANCE : Sweet stories set in small towns, filled with life, love and medical dramas. Nicki Edwards is a city girl with a country heart. Growing up on a small family acreage outside Geelong, she spent her formative years riding horses, hand rearing lambs and pretending the neighbour’s farm was her own. After spending three years in a regional city in New South Wales in her 20’s, her love of small country towns and rural life was further developed. ​For years Nicki dreamed of one day escaping to the country with her husband Tim where they would live on land surrounded by horses, dogs, cows and sheep. Unfortunately, that's not likely to happen, so instead Nicki continues to live vicariously through the lives of the characters in the books she loves to read and write. Nicki also dreams of living in Canada, but as that's also unlikely, she keeps visiting and setting some of her books in the country that stole her heart 30 years ago. A voracious reader, Nicki always wanted to be an author. After returning to university as a mature aged student in her mid-30’s to study nursing, she juggled full time study, part time work and raising four small children to achieve her dream of becoming a nurse in 2011. But her other dream - the dream to write - never left. In January 2014 Nicki wrote her first book and was published by Momentum, the digital imprint of Pan Macmillan Australia. Nicki now divides her time between working as a Critical Care Nurse in the Emergency Department or Intensive Care Unit at Epworth Hospital in Geelong or in a busy local General Practice where she works as a Practice Nurse. These are the places where many of Nicki’s stories and characters are imagined. Nicki and her husband Tim live in Geelong, Victoria. They have four young adult children, two spoiled border collies and a Burmese cat. Life is always busy, always fun and definitely exhausting, but Nicki wouldn’t change it for anything. Nicki loves to hear from readers and can be contacted via her website www.nickiedwardsauthor.com

Book preview

Dear readers,

This book was originally published by Momentum in 2015 in e-book and print. If you have re-purchased this book, thinking it is a new title, I apologise, as this is a revised version of the original book.

However, because this book has had a total re-write (the story and characters are basically the same), I think you’ll find there are many differences in this edition to the original one.

I hope you enjoy this new (and hopefully improved) version of Kate and Joel’s story.

Much love

Nicki

Intensive Care

Escaping to the country was meant to be easy ...

On the surface it looks like busy intensive care nurse Kate Kennedy has it all: a long-term relationship, a great career and a sleek inner-city apartment. But appearances are deceiving, and in one fell swoop everything comes crashing down around her. In a moment of spontaneity, Kate leaves her city life and takes a new role as Nurse Unit Manager at Birrangulla Base Hospital, but her dream move proves harder than expected.

Local café owner Joel O'Connor finds himself increasingly drawn to the gorgeous new nurse, but like Kate, he's been scarred by love and isn't looking to jump into anything. Yet their chemistry is hard to deny and after a near fatal incident, Joel and Kate find themselves opening up to one another.

Just when Kate thinks she's found love again, their fragile relationship is thwarted by their pasts. Can they both let go of their guilt and grief to move on to a bright new future?

Chapter 1

Could this shift get any worse? Kate Kennedy glanced at the fob watch pinned to her scrub top. Less than an hour to go. She exhaled slowly. All she wanted to do was go home and crash.

She’d been rushed off her feet all day after one of their patients had suffered a massive peritoneal bleed following his surgery and had to be rushed back to theatre. He’d returned to ICU intubated and ventilated and Kate and the team hadn’t stopped running since.

The harsh clang of the hospital alarm system came through the speakers and Kate froze. 

‘Attention all staff. MET call level five south, room five-oh-six.’

She stifled a groan. Yes, apparently the shift could get worse. Much worse. Level Five was the Paediatric ward. Her pulse quickened. Codes involving kids were often the worst.

Grabbing the resuscitation trolley, she pushed it toward the elevators. She jabbed her finger on the down arrow button three times in quick succession, as if doing so more than once would make the elevator arrive faster.

‘Come on,’ she muttered as she stabbed the button again for good measure.

Fraser, one of the new residents, skidded to a stop beside her. Fraser was cocky, inexperienced and good-looking—a dangerous combination in a fresh-faced doctor—and he hadn’t taken Kate’s rejection of his interest in her well.

‘Kate.’ He greeted her without making eye contact.

‘Fraser.’

The lift doors opened, and Kate stepped inside first and pressed the button for the fifth floor. As the lift travelled up, she ran through the Advanced Paediatric Life Support protocol in her mind as her imagination jumped ahead to why the code had been called.

When the doors opened again, they jogged down the corridor towards the people gathered outside the patient’s room.

On the bed, sitting limp in her mother’s arms, Kate saw white-blond curls and wide eyes above an oxygen mask.

Kate gave the child’s mother a reassuring smile before glancing up at Richard, the hospital co-ordinator. ‘What’s the story?’ she asked.

‘This is Lily and her mum Jane. Lily was admitted last night with a chest infection. She’s been treated already but isn’t responding to antibiotics or oxygen. She’s also running a fever. Temp forty-point-one.’

‘Has someone taken cultures?’ Kate asked.

‘Yes, I did,’ a nurse called out from the door.

Kate turned and offered her a quick smile of thanks. The nurse looked young, probably still a grad. She turned back to Jane, Lily’s mum. ‘What’s her breathing been like today?’

‘She’s gotten progressively worse since lunchtime,’ Jane said.

‘Sats?’ Fraser asked.

‘They were eighty-eight percent on room air with an increased respiratory rate and an increased work of breathing,’ the young nurse answered.

‘Heart rate?’ Kate asked.

‘One-sixty.’

Kate squatted beside Jane and stroked Lily’s head. ‘How old is she?’

‘Thirteen months.’

‘She’s gorgeous,’ Kate said.

Jane tried to smile but it didn’t reach her eyes. ‘Thanks.’

Kate unwrapped her stethoscope from around her neck but as she placed it on Lily’s chest, Lily began to convulse. Jane screamed in terror and shoved Lily into Kate’s arms.

Kate lay her on the bed. Was it a febrile convulsion or a seizure? As quickly as Lily had started to convulse, she went limp.

‘Is she breathing?’ Fraser asked, his voice filled with fear.

He was so close to Kate she felt his breath on the back of her neck.

She tipped her head sideways and put it close to Lily’s face.

Look. Listen. Feel.

No. Lily wasn’t breathing.

‘Pass me the air-viva,’ Kate said as she unbuttoned Lily’s pink jumpsuit. She put her stethoscope in her ears and placed the bell on Lily’s chest.

Nothing.

Fraser handed her the paediatric-sized bag-valve-mask. ‘What do you want me to do?’

‘Get ready to start CPR. And Rich, can you get hold of the on-call paediatrician and an anaesthetist just in case please?’

Placing the mask over Lily’s mouth and nose, Kate squeezed the bag gently with two fingers and forced herself to block out the sound of Jane’s sobs. Right now, the most important person in the room was Lily and Kate needed to focus all her attention on her.

‘Where’s the defib?’ she asked after a moment.

Richard placed it on the bed beside Lily. While Kate continued to bag Lily, Fraser leaned in and attached the pads to Lily’s chest. Moments later a reassuring rhythmic sound filled the room. Kate allowed herself to relax a fraction. Lily was receiving oxygen and her heart was beating. She just wasn’t breathing on her own.

‘Come on, Lily, breathe,’ she silently begged.

Seconds later, moments before the paediatrician rushed into the room, Lily took a gulp of air, coughed, and started to cry. She pushed away the mask Kate held to her face, eyes wild, searching for her mother.

Jane scooped Lily up into her arms and covered her with kisses. As Lily continued to cry, Jane rocked her, patting her back and gently soothing her.

Kate exhaled heavily. Crisis averted. It never ceased to amaze her or scare her the way kids went downhill so quickly. One moment Lily had been lying as still as a rag doll, and the next she was behaving like nothing had happened.

As Kate watched Jane with Lily, a familiar ache formed in the back of her throat and sudden tears welled up. Would her baby have looked anything Lily? Turning away, she pressed her fingertips into the inner corners of her eyes hoping no-one had noticed her tears. Now wasn’t the time nor place to think about the past.

After packing up their equipment, thanking the staff, and ensuring Lily and Jane were both okay, Kate headed for the lifts. She checked her watch again. Her shift was almost over.

When the doors opened, she stepped in, not looking where she was going, and almost knocked over a man carrying a cardboard tray of take away coffees.

‘Sorry,’ she said, stepping to the left.

He stepped to his right and they bumped into each other again. ‘My fault. I wasn’t looking either.’ He glanced behind her. ‘Oops, sorry. Wrong floor anyway.’

The man’s long brown hair brushed over the collar of a red and white check shirt and he had a three-day beard. Rather than giving him a scruffy appearance, it suited him. Around his neck was a twisted leather band and he had a similar one around his left wrist. She glanced down at his long legs dressed in camel-coloured chinos, rolled up at each ankle. Not her type, but Kate smiled anyway. It was hard not to. An attractive-looking man with an accent was every woman’s dream.

When he smiled back, Kate felt her face flame. She averted her gaze, but not before noting the deep dimples in his cheeks.

She pressed the button for the second floor. ‘Which floor do you want?’ she asked, staring straight ahead and willing her skin to return to a normal colour.

‘Level three please.’

She took two backwards steps until her back was pressed into the corner of the lift. From her vantage point, she was able to watch him without being seen. And she liked what she saw. Just because she was on a diet didn’t mean she couldn’t look at the menu. She’d seen her boyfriend take a second look at an attractive woman, even with Kate at his side.

He turned to face her, holding up the tray of coffees. The aroma of them filled the cramped space.

‘Can I offer you one?’ He grinned again.

Seriously, those dimples. 

Kate stammered a reply. ‘Oh, um, no, that’s okay. Thanks anyway.’

The lift came to a stop at his floor. Seconds later the doors opened, and he exited without a backward glance or comment, leaving nothing except the faint smell of his aftershave and coffee in his wake.

As Kate headed back into the Intensive Care Unit, she walked past the front reception desk, stopping to admire a huge bouquet of long-stemmed red roses on the counter. There had to be two dozen flowers in the massive arrangement. 

‘Wow. Someone wants to make a statement,’ she said. ‘Who are these for?’

Sue, the receptionist beamed. ‘You.’

Kate raised an eyebrow.

‘I presume they’re from Marcus,’ Sue said.

Kate reigned in her irritation. Marcus always liked to make a statement. Unpinning the small envelope from the elaborate packaging she stuffed it into her scrub pants pocket to read later.

‘Thanks, Sue. Is it okay if I leave them here while I go and grab my bag?’

The last thing she wanted to do was carry the roses into the unit and have everyone ask why Marcus had sent her flowers. It wasn’t their anniversary and it wasn’t her birthday.

‘Seriously, I know that man loves you, but when is he going to propose?’ Sue asked.

Kate shrugged. Sue read romance novels in her lunch break and thought every person deserved a happy ever after ending. Kate wanted a happy ending as much as Sue, but with Marcus acting so weird lately, Kate didn’t know what to think about the flowers. Maybe they were a hint of something special.

After grabbing her bag and filling in her timesheet, Kate headed back past reception and grabbed the flowers. They were heavy and it was hard to see past them. She exited the unit and headed for the lifts. The doors opened straight away, and she entered, walking into someone.

‘Sorry.’ Kate shifted the flowers to her hip and came face to face with Mr. Irish Coffee Man again. Her face burned. It had to be illegal to be that good looking. Or to have eyes that blue. ‘Sorry,’ she repeated.

He flashed a smile. ‘We really have to stop meeting like this.’

‘Yes, sorry. We do have to stop bumping into each other.’

‘Oh hey, I’m not complaining. Bumping into a pretty lady twice in one day.’ He winked. ‘I’d say I’m a lucky man.’ He reached out and flicked a finger towards the roses in her arms. ‘Although by the look of those, I’d say there’s already another lucky man.’ He shrugged. ‘My loss.’  

Kate’s heart sped and warmth flooded through her.

The man’s gaze narrowed. ‘Then again, maybe he’s a guilty man.’

Her smile fell and instant negative thoughts rushed in. The last time Marcus brought her flowers was to apologise. Suddenly his unread note burned like a hot coal in her pocket. She wanted to pull it out and read it, but she needed to do it away from this man’s prying blue eyes and probing questions. The doors opened and she bolted through them like a horse out of the gates.

‘Where’s the fire?’

She turned. He was hot on her heels.

‘Can I give you a lift somewhere?’ he asked. ‘Those flowers must weigh a ton.’

They did but that didn’t mean she would get in the car with a stranger. ‘Thanks. I’m okay. I have my own car.’ She nodded in the direction of the car park. Of course, today her car was in the furthest corner.

She walked quickly but couldn’t shake him. He trotted beside her like a happy little puppy. But as cute as he was, she wasn’t sure why was he following her.

She stopped and faced him. ‘Where are you going?’

‘Home.’

She frowned. ‘Right.’

‘My car is parked over there,’ he pointed in the same direction of where she’d parked her car.

‘Oh.’ He wasn’t following her after all.

They started walking again.

‘Busy day?’ he asked after a moment.

‘Yeah it was.’

She wasn’t normally the type to engage in conversation with someone she didn’t know, but there was something about this guy’s charm that made her want to keep him talking. It must be the accent.

‘What about you? What were you doing at the hospital today?’

‘Delivering coffees to the nurses. Mum’s in there for a few days after her surgery and I like to take the nurses a proper coffee to say thanks. They do an amazing job and instant coffee doesn’t cut it.’

Gorgeous, generous, family-focused, and he understood proper coffee. He’d make a good catch.

‘That’s really sweet of you,’ Kate said. ‘Hospital coffee generally sucks unless you’re on night duty, in which case it’s almost safe to drink.’

They’d reached Kate’s car and she stopped. ‘This is me.’ She shifted the flowers to her other hip and rifled through her bag for her keys.

‘Here, let me hold them.’ He took the flowers from her and waited patiently for her to find her keys and unlock the car.

‘Roses, eh?’ He buried his head in the blooms and inhaled. ‘Is this how a man wins the way to your heart?’

Kate took the flowers back, looked at them, then met his gaze. ‘To be totally honest, they’re not exactly my favourite flower, but the thought’s there.’

She knew she sounded ungrateful, but the ostentatious flowers embarrassed her and the idea that they might have been given with an ulterior motive troubled her.

Mr. Irish Coffee Man stared directly at her, not blinking, and she stared back, mesmerised by the intensity and colour of his eyes framed by thick, dark lashes. 

‘I didn’t peg you as a red rose kind of a girl,’ he said softly.

She felt her face flame again and inwardly cursed her fair skin. ‘What kind of flowers do you think I’d like?’

He didn’t hesitate. ‘I’d say you’re into softer arrangements—more pastels, less in-your-face-show-off-and-make-a-statement factor.’

Kate added perceptive to this guy’s list of attractive qualities. She dumped the flowers on the front passenger seat. He was right. She hated the kinds of floral arrangements Marcus liked to give her.

‘For your sake, I hope they’re not guilt flowers from your boyfriend.’ He held out his hand. ‘I’m Joel by the way.’

She shook his hand. It was warm and smooth and steady, unlike her. ‘Kate Kennedy.’

He grinned. ‘Nice to meet you Kate Kennedy.’

‘Nice to meet you too.’

‘Hope we bump into each other again.’

As he strode off, Kate followed him with her eyes, admiring the way his plain grey t-shirt hugged the shape of his body as it stretched across his broad shoulders. She closed her eyes and gave herself a mental shake. What did it matter how hot he was? Glancing at the flowers on the seat of her car, she sighed heavily. Mr. Irish Coffee Man—Joel—might be cute, but she had a boyfriend already. A boyfriend she dreaded going home to.

Chapter 2

Kate slammed the apartment door closed behind her and tossed her bag on the couch. It was only four o’clock but the light filtering through the gaps in the curtains wasn’t enough to see clearly. She flicked on the lights and sighed as she surveyed their apartment. It was a pig sty.

Matilda greeted her enthusiastically, rubbing herself around Kate’s ankles. Before she could scoop the cat up, Matilda stalked off towards the kitchen, meowing for food. Kate followed. Marcus probably hadn’t remembered to feed her before he’d left for work that morning.

She turned on another light in the small galley kitchen and was greeted by more mess. Dumping the roses on the kitchen table, she gazed around and tried to push aside her resentment. Marcus had been busy at work for the past few months and when he came home late, he never remembered to clean up after himself.

When they’d first moved in together, Marcus was a neat freak, but after a while, he gave up all evidence of domestication. She suspected he presumed she’d clean up after him like his mother used to do.

Kate knew the dishes from the previous night would still be sitting on the kitchen bench and the rubbish bin would be overflowing even though Marcus knew the bins needed to go out that morning and she’d left him a note to remind him.

Where to begin? The kitchen or lounge room? She wouldn’t be able to relax until the place was tidy.

Picking up her bag from where she’d dumped it, Kate placed it on the metal hook beside the front door. Flinging back the curtains, muted light entered the room. She stared out the window. The tall buildings on either side of their apartment cast long shadows over the windows. She missed having natural sunlight and windows that opened, but Marcus argued that was the price to pay for city living.

Kate had been excited about moving into the apartment with Marcus three years earlier, but the novelty didn’t take long to wear off. They lived close to the harbour so she made good use of the running tracks that weaved their way through the city’s parks and gardens, otherwise she would have hated living there.

On the other hand, Marcus loved it. Every time Kate raised the topic of moving out of the city and buying their own place in the suburbs, Marcus changed the subject.

Back in the kitchen she pulled out the full garbage bag, tied a knot in it and put it by the front door to take downstairs to the basement later. Scraping food scraps off last night’s dinner plate, she rinsed it and put it into the dishwasher.

She glanced at the flowers and sighed. Maybe they were apology flowers after all—Marcus’s way of saying sorry for being so preoccupied with work. Feeling guilty, she found a vase, filled it with water and dropped the roses in it.

Catching sight of a framed

Reviews for Intensive Care

[Leena Aluru · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

2.5 ?. There's just too much happening and the story's just all over the place and very predictable. Writing was very tedious too. I liked all the ICU descriptions in the book.