Chapter Two
Emmett relied on memory to get him out of the emergency room and to the ambulance—he wasn’t seeing the rig past the illusion of Piper in nurse’s scrubs. Only it wasn’t an illusion. If he turned around, he’d see her. Right here. In Rush Creek. The town he’d called home for two years. What the hell?
‘Dude, are you good?’ Stef, his paramedic partner, called out as she jogged to catch up with him. ‘You look like someone took your legs off but you’re still walking.’
He screwed his nose up to look at her. It wasn’t the first time her oddly fitting statements made sense. ‘Seeing her was the last thing I expected when we walked in there.’
‘Ex-flame?’ Stef asked, hovering at the back door as he pushed the stretcher inside.
‘No.’ Shit, did he say that too quickly? Stef’s raised brow said that he did. ‘She’s my childhood best friend’s little sister.’
Checking everything was in its place and they didn’t need to source any more supplies, Emmett secured the stretcher and backed out, closing the door closest to him.
Stef leaned on hers wearing a thoughtful look. ‘She’s your … what?’
Emmett sighed. ‘I grew up in a town called Euronga in New South Wales with my mum. It was just us and we lived in a small two-bedroom house on the Hendrix family’s property. My best friend, Carter Hendrix, lived in the main house with his sister, Piper.’
‘Piper who was just in the hospital?’
‘The very one.’ Emmett headed for the driver’s seat, hearing the slam of the back door to confirm that Stef would soon be climbing into the passenger seat.
‘Hang on,’ she said, holding a hand up. ‘Carter Hendrix? As in the Sydney Scorpions’ halfback?’
Emmett nodded. ‘He’s a bit younger than me, but it didn’t matter.
We’d spend every afternoon after school and weekends running through paddocks, playing in the dams and building forts.
Riding motorbikes when we were older. Until the family moved to Sydney when he was accepted into the Scorpions junior program. ’
‘Wow. We’ve been working together for what? Ten months? And you never mentioned that you were best friends with the nation’s leading halfback.’
Emmett shrugged. ‘We haven’t really seen each other in years. We went in different directions and last I heard, Piper was living and working in the city. At least that’s what her Instagram said.’ He clipped his seatbelt in and turned on the ignition. ‘It doesn’t make sense that she’s here.’
‘Maybe she got sick of the rat race,’ Stef said as they headed down the hill. ‘Bloody big coincidence that she turns up here, of all places.’
Emmett couldn’t agree more, even if he didn’t say it. He swept his gaze over the staff car park. Surprise whacked him in the face again when the only car he didn’t recognise was a Kombi. Surely that wasn’t Piper’s? A Kombi?
‘Hey,’ Stef said suddenly. ‘I’ve seen that Kombi camping down at the creek for the last couple of nights. Is it your girl Piper’s?’
‘Maybe—probably. I recognise all the other cars.’ He shook his head.
The creek? Camping? He wouldn’t call Piper a city girl—she’d grown up in the same quintessential country town that he did—but her social media said she’d enjoyed all the comforts city living offered.
Then he registered what Stef had actually said.
‘She’s not my girl.’
But the knowing laugh Stef gave him told him that this time, he’d been too late.
Later that afternoon, Emmett leaned forward in the camp chair, resting his elbows on his knees.
He’d wrapped up his shift with no more emergencies requiring the hospital and had gone home to shower and unwind.
But the idea of Piper camping out here in a Kombi had kept his shoulders tight.
After everything Maree Hendrix had done for him and his mum, he owed it to her to make sure her daughter was okay.
At his feet, Major whined before lying in the dirt.
Emmett hadn’t hesitated to order the German Shepherd into the tray of his ute before he took off for the free campgrounds just outside the town limits.
Just as Stef had said, the Kombi was parked in a shady spot beside the creek.
It hadn’t taken long to establish that it was Piper’s.
Piper’s campsite. Why did his brain struggle with that concept?
Regardless, he had to hand it to her—she’d picked a good spot.
The soft babbling of the creek over rocks, the birds calling to each other more jovially as the late afternoon heat faded and a breeze started to trickle in.
There was only one other group of campers in the grounds and Emmett kept an eye on the maybe nineteenyear-olds who were already cracking open the beers.
This was the problem with free campgrounds; there was no policing who used them.
And this one in particular was pretty isolated.
Unease clawed at him. Piper couldn’t stay here.
Major’s ears pricked up and Emmett noticed Piper’s slim figure coming out of the bush where he knew the walking path along the creek was located.
Her colouring was the same as it had been when they were children—that long dark hair—but there was a lot about her that was new, including the curves he couldn’t stop his eyes from straying to.
She strolled at a leisurely pace, seemingly unaware that she had an audience.
Emmett’s mouth dropped into a scowl when one of the young men in the other campsite smacked his mate on the shoulder before gesturing towards Piper. Emmett could smell trouble.
When she was metres away from the Kombi, her face split into a giant grin. Emmett had been sighted.
‘Stay,’ he commanded Major before standing to greet Piper.
‘How’d you know I was here?’ she asked, stepping in to give him a hug. He wrapped his arms around her, breathing in her cherryvanilla scent. A pang for home made him pause, something he hadn’t felt since he first arrived in Rush Creek.
‘Rush Creek isn’t that big and no one else drives a bright orange Kombi.’
She pulled back and gestured for him to sit in the camping chair while she perched herself in the open Kombi doorway. ‘Isn’t she great? I named her Connie.’
‘Connie the Kombi?’ The corners of his mouth twitched. Typical Piper, naming a car.
‘Yep.’ Her grin was wickedly wide. ‘I got her for a bargain too. Jonathan installed a new head unit for me and made sure the mechanic checked everything before I left, but she made the distance and is still going strong.’
Emmett peered inside at the bed and the fairy lights she’d strung up. ‘Looks cosy.’
‘She’s pretty comfy.’ Piper held his eye for a few seconds before ducking her head. ‘I can’t believe you’re living in Rush Creek. I was so surprised to recognise you today.’
‘I felt the exact same when I saw you.’
‘How did you end up here?’
Emmett blew out a long breath as his mind glazed over the last several years of his life.
‘The short version is that, after Mum passed, I went back to uni and finished off my paramedic degree but couldn’t figure out where I really wanted to work.
So I signed up with a national temp agency and literally travelled all across Australia, filling positions and gaining a world of experience.
Rush Creek was the first place that I couldn’t leave. ’
‘How long ago was that?’
‘Two years.’ Contentment settled over him, something that’d been missing when advanced lung disease had finally claimed his mum and which he’d only found again in Rush Creek. He shook his head. ‘I still can’t believe you’re here and that your family didn’t insist on driving with you.’
Piper gave a laugh. ‘Well, Jonathan’s back in the coaching seat, developing a training program to make the Scorpions backto-back champions, and Mum’s got a foal expected any day.
Not sure if you saw the announcement on socials, but Carter’s now got himself a fiancée and I’m fairly sure they’re still celebrating. ’
‘Yeah, I messaged to congratulate him. You’ll finally get the sis-ter you always wanted.’
‘Indy’s pretty cool.’
‘How’d he meet her?’ Emmett asked. ‘She doesn’t seem like the sporty kind.’
‘She’s not, but theirs is a much longer story that you should really hear from them.’
Emmett nodded before standing and taking a few steps towards the end of the awning. ‘So how long are you in Rush Creek for?’
‘Six-month contract with the possibility of permanency,’ she said more hesitantly than anything else she’d already divulged.
‘That’s a long time to camp without a proper toilet or shower.’
She pinned him with her stare, her jaw more pronounced. ‘I can shower at the hospital and I’m no stranger to a camp toilet.’
‘I have a spare room at my place. You can have it and the main bathroom for as long as you need.’
‘Thanks, but I’ll pass. Connie has everything I need.’ Her tone was defiant, just how it used to be when they were kids and Carter was trying to explain why she couldn’t tag along with them.
‘You can’t stay here in a van. Packing and setting up every day. What are you going to do when you’re on an evening shift? Set up in the dark?’
‘I’ve managed so far and I’ll continue to manage for as long as I need to.’
‘What about in the rain? Or the thunder and lightning? I’m telling you, storms this far north spring up out of nowhere and hit with a force that’s brutal enough to roll you over faster than you can blink, or wash you and your Kombi clean down the creek, leaving no trace.
And we’re in cyclone season. We may not be on the coast, but they hit us just the same. You can’t stay out here. It’s unsafe.’
Her eyes flared with anger. ‘What makes you think you have the right to tell me what I can and can’t do? I didn’t drive two thousand kilometres, alone, just to be bossed around by a man I haven’t seen in ten years.’
His eyes narrowed and he folded his arms across his chest. ‘Why did you move so far away?’