Four #2
The woman glanced at Rowena curiously but Lachlan kept going, as did she.
‘Are you nervous about your first day?’
‘A little.’
She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t apprehensive. But not about the kind of stuff most people were anxious over when starting a new job—making a good impression, getting along with people, not screwing up.
Considering her recent history, Rowena was just hoping she could get through the day without that sick feeling of dread that had been her constant companion in those weeks and months before she’d cracked up.
Her therapist had been disapproving of Rowena’s use of that term. Its negativity, its stigma. But hell, that’s exactly how her sudden implosion had felt, and this was her breakdown so she’d use whatever damn words she wanted.
Thankfully, she was in a much better place now. With treatment and medication, her panic attacks had subsided. But she hadn’t been back to work for three months, and maybe she’d never be able to cope with high levels of stress again?
Which was kind of an occupational hazard …
And that thought was more frightening than anything. She loved what she did. More than that, she was good at it. She’d been a disappointing daughter. A terrible wife—twice. And a failure as a woman countless times.
But being a neonatal intensive care nurse? That she could do.
‘The staff are great there.’ His voice broke into the sticky morass of her thoughts. ‘It’s not a big place but they punch above their weight. It has a great community feel.’
He stopped at a familiar vehicle parked at an angle, nose to the kerb. ‘This is me.’
A bark caught her attention and Rowena noticed the dog in the tray of the ute, tongue lolling. The red and white dappling of its coat was distinctly Australian cattle dog.
‘Yours?’
He nodded. ‘Red.’
‘Original.’
‘We have a blue girl at Blairgowrie we call Blue.’
Rowena smiled. ‘Of course you do.’
‘You want me to give you a lift the rest of the way?’ He jingled his keys.
‘Aren’t you in the opposite direction?’
He shrugged. ‘It’ll only take a couple of minutes to get you there.’
She shook her head. ‘I’ll be fine. I like to walk.’
Her psychologist had recommended daily exercise and Rowena had definitely found it therapeutic. Plus it was a beautiful, crisp morning—good for clearing the head, if a little on the nippy side.
‘No worries.’ He smiled. ‘Have a good first day. See you around.’
He opened the door, climbed into his battered old ute and started the engine like he hadn’t just caused a minor ruction in her undies at the thought. See him around? As long as it wasn’t in her dreams …
*
Rowena walked through the emergency department entrance with five minutes to spare. Between the coffee and the walk she was warmed through, but the cosy hug of central heating was welcome, too, as she shrugged out of her jacket.
She’d been told to ask for Diana Reece, the director of nursing, who she assumed must be one of the five people—three women and two men—all huddled around the triage desk. Recognising one of them, Rowena instantly felt less apprehensive.
‘Brooke.’
Rowena smiled at the woman ten years her junior who she’d befriended five years ago when Brooke had done a year stint in the NICU where Rowena worked.
They’d kept in sporadic touch in the intervening years, but had reconnected more solidly last year when Brooke had stayed with Rowena in Sydney for three months while she’d completed a renal dialysis course.
It was during this time that Brooke met the guy she’d married a couple of months ago.
Nathan was a skinny, freckled, red-haired Irishman who, as an electrician, had quickly found himself employed when he’d moved to Acacia Junction a month after Brooke had left Sydney.
Rowena had been unable to attend their wedding, but she was super thrilled to see them all loved-up and living their best lives.
It was Brooke who’d suggested Rowena try the slower pace of rural nursing for a while rather than throwing herself straight back into the high-stress environment of neonatal intensive care.
‘Speak of the devil!’ Brooke beamed. ‘Our roadside rescue ninja is in the house.’
Everyone broke into a round of applause. Even some patients in the chairs in the nearby waiting area and a passing janitor stopped and clapped.
Rowena blushed. ‘Yeah, yeah.’ She dismissed them with a wave of her hand, feeling embarrassed and yet instantly at ease in the familiar surrounds.
‘Not “yeah yeah”,’ Brooke chided, her Aboriginal flag nail art flashing red, yellow and black as she pulled Rowena in for a hug. ‘Dragging Silvano Morelli out of a crashed car and doing CPR on him until the ambulance arrived? Man, everyone’s talking about you!’
Great. Just what she needed as she tried to get her life back together—intense scrutiny. ‘It wasn’t just me.’ It didn’t seem right that she got all the glory when Silvano owed his life to a team effort.
‘Yes, we heard about the lovely Lachy stopping to help. And that is a story I definitely want to hear.’ Brooke waggled her eyebrows suggestively. ‘But for now I’m not sure how much you appreciate what kind of debt we owe you. You do know what Silvano means to Acacia Junction, right?’
Rowena held up the Morelli bakery packet in her hand. ‘I do now.’
Everyone laughed. ‘Come on, let me introduce you.’
Brooke introduced her to her colleagues—Jennifer Braithwaite, the senior doctor in charge of the emergency department; Ragav Kohli, one of a half-dozen junior doctors that staffed the hospital twenty-four seven; Russell Turner, one of the registered nurses working in the ED; and Shari Knowles, from the medical records department.
Then she took her to Diana’s office. The DON was engrossed in her computer screen but stood when Brooke entered. The woman appeared to be only a few years older than Rowena and capable in that quiet, self-assured way.
She held out her hand and smiled warmly. ‘Welcome to Acacia Junction. You’re going to love it here.’
Rowena shook the proffered hand. She wasn’t sure about love but at the moment it felt a lot like salvation, and that was good enough.