He coasted down the school drive and pulled out onto the highway, doing his best to surrender his doubts to the beautiful afternoon.
Nope. It was no good.
Everything was too familiar. The road, the tiny cluster of shops, who ran them, the clumps of gum and eucalyptus trees shading this house or that. If he was going to see Liesel again, he was going to have to come clean—at some point.
Truth be told, it would be nice to date someone who didn’t have a clue about his history. Someone who just liked plain ol’ Jack the fireman.
He gave a little snort. Date! He hadn’t dated anyone properly in years. Girls in Engleton had always had their eye on the River’s Bend prize, while in Adelaide during training there just hadn’t been enough time. Or just not the right women. Or maybe for once he just wanted to see something through and prove to his father he had it in him to talk the walk. Or walk the talk. Or whatever that saying was.
Liesel definitely had something that spoke to him. Too bad the timing was shambolic.
He pulled the truck into the station-house drive, smiling at the sight of a couple of volunteers washing down one of the big rigs. It had just received a whopper of an upgrade thanks to a ten-grand anonymous donation. All of the guys had sworn ignorance and he believed them. They had an angel out there and he, for one, was grateful. The volunteers were great guys. He was just getting to know them, but already they had him knee-deep in barbecue invitations and bursting with ideas for fundraising drives.
They’d make a success of this station. He was sure of it. The big guns over in Adelaide had given him a year to turn around the waning number of volunteers and poor track record on incident attendance. It would mean a lot of hard work, being on call 24/7 and his 100 percent dedication. He pressed his lips together as if to strengthen his resolve and scrubbed a hand through his hair.
He’d been kidding himself back at the school. He barely had time to grab a meal for himself, let alone complicate his life with a milk shake quest and a beautiful woman.
Short, sharp shock it was, then. Who was going to feel the pain the most, though, was up in the air.
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