Chapter 4
CHAPTER
Anna was standing outside as the sun peeped over the top of the hills.
She loved the sights and sounds of dawn after a night’s rain.
She loved the smell of wet earth and grass.
And she particularly loved those smells after the smoky air from the bushfires.
Mornings like this brought the promise of renewal and recovery.
She had felt that way about this place since the moment she’d laid eyes on it.
She would be forever grateful to the old uni friend who had drawn her attention to the clinic for sale in Wagtail Ridge.
It was a long way from her parents in Adelaide, but it was also a long way from the people who had known her before.
People who couldn’t hide their shock and pity, no matter how hard they tried.
The town had welcomed her as she was now, and she couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.
Her home hadn’t been in the path of this latest fire, but as always, the fire had almost filled her small clinic with its victims. That was the other reason she was up so early.
She had injured wildlife to treat here before setting out to visit patients at a local horse stud and the alpaca farm run by her friend Bree.
But before that, she wanted a few minutes of peace to listen to the sounds of the bush and enjoy a moment of solitude.
She stretched her shoulders, tossed back her sandy hair, closed her eyes and turned her face to the rising sun.
The first rays of light fell gently on her face.
She stayed that way for almost a minute, before she felt the harsher touch of the summer sun on the sensitive skin of her cheek and chin.
The accident that had left those scars had not quite robbed her of this joy.
Not quite. She lowered her face, rubbing the puckered skin gently.
She frowned and scratched the itching skin on her forehead.
The scar there was less visible, but at times, it bothered her most of all.
Time to get to work. She pulled a scrunchie from her pocket and caught her hair back in a ponytail.
Funding from a state-wide charity had allowed her to equip her native animal clinic well.
When she walked inside, too many of the cages and pens were occupied.
She had been busy in the last twenty-four hours.
Despite the ventilation, the room had a rank smell, mostly of singed hair or burned skin.
There were still a couple of empty cages, but that might not last long; there could be other fire victims found over the next couple of days. She’d be ready for them.
‘Hello, little man.’ She bent over a basket with a juvenile koala curled inside a well-washed baby blanket covered with unicorns.
The koala looked back at her, blinking with button-shaped brown eyes.
‘Let’s have a look at that burn.’ She carefully lifted him out of the basket and placed him on the treatment table.
Anna worked quietly and happily for an hour, talking to each patient as she dressed burns, cut away charred fur and performed general health checks, to make sure each animal would be in good condition when it left her to be returned to the wild.
She was just finishing checking the koala Carol had brought her yesterday when she heard a car pull up outside.
It was too early for either her nurse or receptionist to start work.
Placing the koala in her pen, Anna opened the door to find a red, yellow and white Landcruiser outside.
It was emblazoned with the Rural Fire Service logo. A man got out and turned towards her.
Anna knew a lot of the Rural Fire Service men who worked the Upper Hunter Valley, both the staff and the local volunteers.
But she’d never seen this man before. She certainly would have remembered.
At college, she’d joked with her friends about hot firemen.
Here was that joke personified. The man walking towards her was tall and solid.
His hair was the gold of a Queensland beach.
Even from this distance, she could see that his eyes were a deep brown.
She would have gambled good money that, up close, they would have gold flecks in them, because this man would put Adonis to shame.
As he walked, he exuded a feeling of controlled power, yet the half-smile on his lips was kind and gentle.
Anna wished she hadn’t put her hair in a ponytail. Around people, she usually let her hair hang loose to partly obscure the scars. To change it now would be too obvious.
‘Hi. You must be Anna Prentiss, the vet? I’m Justin Turner. RFS.’ He held out his hand.
Anna took it and as his warm fingers closed around her hand, almost engulfing it, something deep inside her stirred. A part of her that had lain dormant since that day a truck carrying rodeo bulls had skidded off a wet road, leaving injured animals needing help.
The sudden warmth shook her and she pulled her hand away as quickly as she could.
‘How can I help you?’
‘I’ve been told you often help out with injured wildlife. After the fire, I mean.’
‘That’s right. Have you found an animal that needs care?’ She glanced over at his vehicle.
‘No. I mean, not today. Yesterday there was a koala rescued from my sector. By a woman. You might have seen the video on the news.’
Anna knew exactly what he was talking about. She had seen the news and the video going viral on social media.
‘Yes. She was brought here. She’s doing fine. Come and see.’
She turned her back to lead the disconcerting firefighter to her little hospital. Once inside, she showed him the cage where the koala in question was resting.
‘Mostly it was just her fur that was burned. A couple of small burns on her skin. She’s going to be fine.
’ Anna wasn’t quite so certain she was going to be fine.
In the confines of her small hospital, Justin was standing close.
Far too close. All the oxygen seemed to have been sucked out of the room and she was feeling a little …
Not faint. That was ridiculous. She wasn’t some swooning maiden in a bad romance novel. But still …
‘That’s good.’ Justin leaned over to look at the koala. ‘You get better soon, little girl.’
Anna led the way back outside where she could breathe. ‘Was that why you came? To check on her?’
‘No.’ Justin paused.
Anna had the feeling he wasn’t too certain how to continue.
‘The woman who rescued her,’ the firefighter said. ‘She—I know her. I was wondering if you could tell me how to get in touch with her.’
‘You know Carol?’
‘I do.’
There was something in his voice. A hesitation.
And suddenly Anna understood. This was Carol’s son.
The one in the video. She’d been so caught up in this …
whatever it was … attraction … that the name hadn’t registered.
Carol had mentioned her son Justin. And they shared the same last name.
She waited for him to say more, but he didn’t.
She wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing.
Of course, there was no way she was going to share Carol’s number.
She was an intensely private woman who hung on the edge of their small community without ever really joining in.
Not even this overwhelming attraction that was turning Anna’s insides to mush was enough to make her tell him what he wanted to know.
‘I’m sorry. I really don’t think I can give out her phone number without her permission.’
Justin looked like he was going to say something, but obviously changed his mind. He did seem disappointed as he nodded. ‘I understand. If I left my number, perhaps you could give it to her when next you see her?’
‘Of course.’
He pulled a card from the zip pocket in his jacket. ‘This card has details of the Tamworth RFS station where I am based. But I’ll write my mobile on it as well. Have you got a pen?’
She did.
When he was finished writing, he handed her the card. ‘Well, thank you for your time. I hope the koala continues to get better.’
‘I’m sure she will. We’ll be releasing her back into the wild in a few days—as long as there’s some trees somewhere not burned out.’
‘Well, I’ll do my best to see that there are.’ He smiled and turned away.
Anna watched as the vehicle reversed and drove towards the gate, leaving her standing outside her clinic, wondering why she felt slightly bereft.
She wasn’t a teenager anymore, to react like that when meeting a good-looking guy.
Well, more than simply good-looking. But as she stood staring down the now empty road, she realised it wasn’t his looks, no matter how spectacular, that had done this to her.
Nor was it that cute smile nor the way he’d talked to the injured koala.
He’d won her over because, for the first time in years, a man hadn’t done a double take when he looked at her face.
When they’d talked, his eyes hadn’t slid away from her eyes to the left side of her face, as so many others had.
He hadn’t shown any repulsion or sympathy or pity.
Maybe he was just better at hiding his reaction than most people.
Not only that, but not once during his short visit had she felt the urge to turn her head, to cover the scar. When he looked at her with those deep brown eyes, she had forgotten all about her scarred face. Doing that, even for such a short time, was a rare and precious thing.
She gently rubbed the left side of her face.
He had treated her as if she was still the person she used to be and that was extraordinary.
She looked down at the small square of cardboard in her hand and realised there were two cards there.
One for Carol and … Had he left that extra card deliberately?
For her? He’d only written his number on one, but she could easily copy it.
She shook her head. There was no point to doing that. Someone like him could have any woman he wanted. He would date beautiful women, not someone like her. She slipped the cards into her pocket and walked determinedly back into the main clinic.