Christmas at Coorah Creek (Choc Lit) (10 page)

He sighed. ‘How did you get to be so wise?’

‘I come from a pretty close family. I know how much they mean to me. I couldn’t imagine how hard it must have been without that.’

‘I missed out on a lot of the fun of being a teenager. The other kids always ostracised me because I was Ed Collins’s son. When they came here for parties, I was never invited. They came here to make out with their girlfriends, but I always came alone. I should have had my first kiss here with pretty little Alice Lake from school. It never happened.’

A gentle silence seemed to settle around them. The breeze in the trees faded. The ripples on the water seemed to sigh into stillness. The world around them held its breath as the silence grew.

‘It could happen now.’ Katie’s voice was soft and inviting.

Scott didn’t need to be told twice. Feeling not unlike a nervous teenager, he leaned forward and his lips touched Katie’s. Gently. Softly. With great tenderness. There was an innocence to the kiss that seemed to wash away all the ugliness of his memories. His heart jumped and in that heartbeat, some of his lost youth returned to him. After a few seconds, they moved apart, just enough to breathe. Scott looked down into Katie’s lovely face. This was not Alice – the girl of his teenage fantasies. The girl who shunned him. This was Katie. A warm and beautiful woman, whose shining eyes were all the invitation he needed.

When he kissed her the second time, it was as a man kisses a woman.

Chapter Fourteen

Maybe Coorah Creek wasn’t really such a bad place. Katie pulled some dressings from the storage cupboard and headed back towards the treatment room. The past few days had been good days. With both feet firmly planted on solid ground, she’d been working at the hospital with Adam.

It still seemed strange to be calling the doctor by his first name. That wasn’t how they did things back home. There were a lot of things about this hospital and this job that weren’t like they were back home. She wasn’t wearing a uniform. There were no rules and regulations. Patients came in without appointments. And they brought things. The young couple she’d met on her first day here had brought flowers with them this morning when they brought their daughter for a check-up. An aboriginal man from one of the outlying cattle properties had come by – not for treatment, but to drop off a painting for Adam as a belated wedding gift. The painting was beautiful. It was just a brown canvas covered with brown dots, but somehow it seemed to evoke a wonderful sense of this place that was literally out the back of nowhere.

Everything was a bit strange.

But she had to admit Adam was a very good doctor. She enjoyed working with him. His focus on his patients was total, and she enjoyed being there to assist. To hand him the things he needed before he asked for them. That was what she had trained for. She had started taking over the office paperwork from Jess too. There was a lot to learn. Australia’s health system was very different to the British one. But she’d figure it out.

And then there was Scott.

Since that first kiss down by the creek, they had seen each other every day. They had met twice in the pub for dinner. And there had been another trip to the creek bank. This time with some beer and a picnic basket. But tonight, Scott was coming to her place for dinner. And she was as eager as a teenager on her first date.

Which was ridiculous when you thought that Scott had spent the night on her couch the day they met. They hadn’t spent the night together since. That kiss down by the creek had changed everything. But tonight, maybe …

‘Katie?’

Adam’s voice dragged her back to reality. She was standing in the open doorway of the treatment room, her arms full of the dressings that Adam needed for the injured mine worker whose arm was currently swathed in slightly bloody cloth.

‘Sorry.’ She darted forward to do her job, all thoughts of Scott pushed hurriedly to the back of her mind.

He didn’t stay there though. As soon as she was no longer needed at the hospital, Katie drove to the town’s store to get what she needed. She had already discovered that the store’s supplies were generous in number but not very broad in content. Obviously artichoke hearts and anchovies were not popular items on home menus in Coorah Creek. Still, she wasn’t a bad cook and was sure she’d come up with something.

Behind the serving counter, Ken Travers raised a hand in greeting as she entered the store. He’d been back for another appointment just yesterday. She’d seen the test results and they weren’t good. That, she knew, was the disadvantage of this more personal style of nursing. It was harder to accept the bad news when your patient was more than just a number and a chart.

The store was looking festive with tinsel along the shelves, shiny globes glinting in the afternoon sunlight and cotton wool pretending to be snow along the window ledge. Katie had almost forgotten about Christmas. Back home, the shops in Oxford Street started getting all dressed for the season in October. But here it was, just a couple of weeks to go, and the store had only just placed a huge box of Christmas decorations by the front counter to attract shoppers. She walked over and picked up some shiny gold tinsel. Christmas. That didn’t seem right when she was standing there in a tank top and shorts. It wasn’t supposed to be 100 degrees at Christmas. And there was no point in crossing her fingers and hoping for snow. A white Christmas was never going to happen out here.

A wave of homesickness hit her so hard, she felt tears prick the back of her eyes. She had wanted this adventure. This chance to rethink her life and her career choices … but now that she was alone, she missed them all terribly. E-mail and Facebook helped, but Katie knew in her heart that this Christmas would not bring her the joy she always felt at home, around the fireplace with her family.

She allowed herself only a moment of self-pity then shook it off. This Christmas was going to be exciting. A new place. New friends. Scott …

Would he be spending Christmas with his father? And then what?
He hadn’t talked about leaving, but she remembered his words on the day they met. Just visiting for a while. That’s what he’d said. He’d come back to try to mend his relationship with his father. But then what? Would he just drive away and not look back?

She didn’t want to examine that thought too closely. Instead, she began to rummage around in the box of decorations. There was some tinsel that wasn’t too tatty. Some nice shiny glass baubles. Even a star for the top of the tree she didn’t have. Surely she could get one though? She didn’t think for one minute she could buy one – but someone around here must own an axe. There were plenty of trees about. It might be fun to have a gum tree instead of a pine tree in her flat.

As for snow – well, there was plenty of cotton wool at the hospital. She’d make do.

She assembled her decorations, and started collecting the ingredients for the evening’s dinner. Scott was bringing the wine. Maybe he could help her acquire a tree of some sort and they could decorate it together. Her spirits lifted even more. That would be fun! She vaguely heard a telephone ringing, but was too caught up with her plans to pay any attention, until Ken called her to his counter.

‘That was Adam on the phone,’ he told her in a low urgent voice. ‘He needs you at the airstrip right now.’

‘Now?’ her heart sank.

‘Yep. Leave that stuff. I’ll get it over to the hospital for you later. Adam sounded like it was urgent.’

Katie wanted to swear. Having no mobile phone service should have made her harder to find. But not when everyone in town knew everybody else in town and where they were at any given moment. Still … whoever needed medical care would be grateful she was that easy to find.

She left the store and drove straight to the airport. Jess already had the plane on the runway. Adam reached down through the open door and helped her on board. The plane was taxiing before she was even strapped in. Katie clenched her hands around the armrests of her chair. She was in the back this time. She wouldn’t be so scared. Would she?

Her heart lurched as the plane raced down the runway and leaped gracefully into the air. She forced herself to let go of the armrest long enough to remove an airsick bag from the seat pocket. She might need it. As her stomach lurched again, she suddenly remembered her date with Scott. She hadn’t called … or even had time to leave a note. Still, this was Coorah Creek. She was sure someone would tell him what was happening.

The plane bounced as it hit an air pocket and all thoughts of Scott left Katie’s head. Her only concern now was trying not to throw up.

Chapter Fifteen

This wasn’t how he’d planned to spend his evening. Scott took another swig on his beer and glared along the bar at the Christmas tree, shining and sparkling away with no regard for his mood. Bah Humbug!

For a few minutes he contemplated going and getting his laptop. He could answer some e-mails, or even hunt for a place to live in England. There were plenty of things he should be doing. But what he really wanted was to be in Katie’s tiny flat, watching her as she cooked, waiting for the smile that lit not just her face, but the whole room. He wanted to listen to her voice. They never seemed to run out of things to talk about, but what he loved most of all was just the sound of her voice. That cute accent had somehow worked its way into his heart and lodged there. A day without Katie in it was not a good day.

And there it was – his real problem.

He was going to leave Coorah Creek very soon.

His aim in coming here was to see his father. If he’d hoped for some sort of rapprochement – it hadn’t happened. But at least some contact had been made. All he had to do now was tell his father about his job in England, and leave.

But that also meant leaving Katie – and in his heart of hearts, he didn’t want to do that. Just his luck to meet someone like her in the one place on Earth where he would never live again. And just as she was starting to make a home and a life here.

The lights on the Christmas tree twinkled at him, and he scowled again.

Bah humbug indeed!

‘So, are you planning to sit here glaring at that inoffensive tree all night, or do you want to make yourself useful?’

Scott turned to look at Trish. She was at her usual place behind the bar doing her usual thing – getting involved in everyone else’s business. He grunted in a non-committal sort of way, but she was totally unaffected.

‘Excellent. Some of the men are down at the church hall, getting ready for the Waifs and Orphans on Christmas day. They could use an extra hand.’

‘Waifs and Orphans?’

‘It started a few years ago, when the mine was just opening. All the people without families got together on Christmas day. It started here in the pub – but it’s grown bigger and now half the town comes. We moved it to the hall a couple of years ago.’

‘So am I a waif or an orphan?’ he asked, his mood not improved one whit.

‘That’s entirely up to you,’ Trish said, her smile never faltering. ‘You don’t have to be either, unless you want to be.’

Her eyes were far too knowing as she stared him down.

Admitting defeat, Scott tossed back the last of his beer and slid off his stool. At least it would stop him thinking about Katie off somewhere on a rescue mission. ‘So, where do I go?’

Scott remembered the Church. As a kid, he’d been there once or twice, but there hadn’t been enough people for a permanent minister of any denomination. Services had been held at odd intervals whenever a churchman was passing through. Times had changed now. He had spotted at least one other church in the town, and both had looked prosperous. The hall was a recent addition. A long wooden building with a corrugated iron roof that was already showing signs of rust. The weather out here was quick to take its toll.

There were several cars parked outside. Scott slipped his into line beside them and headed for the open doors of the hall, his mood starting to lift at the thought of doing something useful. The hall was surprisingly large and bright. At one end of the hall, dark red curtains had been pushed back to reveal a small wooden stage. No doubt the local school kids had performed many a play there. The place was buzzing with activity. He wasn’t the only one Trish had bullied into helping. He saw Jack North, her sometime barman, struggling to drag a heavy cast iron bathtub out from under the stage. That bathtub would no doubt be filled with ice on Christmas morning to keep the beer cold.

In one corner of the room, a couple of women were pulling decorations out of a couple of big cardboard boxes. The boxes were dusty, the tinsel glinted in the strong overhead lights as they sorted the red, green and gold into separate piles. He could see other women through a door to his left. They were in what appeared to be a kitchen doing whatever mysterious things were done in kitchens before large parties. Further towards the back of the hall, another door was open. As Scott watched, one of the working party emerged holding one end of a long broad piece of wood; the makings of a table no doubt.

This was not Christmas as Scott had ever known it. Christmas had never been a time of laughter and sharing. Not for many many years. He started to cross the pale wooden floor. Then another sound stopped him dead.

A man was laughing. It was a sound he hadn’t heard in a very long time – but he knew it in an instant.

He turned slowly to see Ed carrying an empty oil drum from the back room. The drum still bore the hint of last year’s festive decorations. Ed was obviously sharing a joke with the man working with him. He looked younger. He looked happy. He looked … not at all like the Ed Collins who Scott hated.

Ed put the drum down in front of the stage. At some point in the next few days, a tree would be placed in there – with sand to hold it firm. Then would come the decorations. For the first time in many years, Ed decided he was looking forward to Christmas day. Especially if Trish was right about Scott.

He turned around and looked down the hall, straight into his son’s face.