‘I’m leaving,’ she’d blurted, as if it weren’t obvious. ‘I’m sorry, I just can’t do this anymore.’

  Heath’s words still rang in her head: ‘How can you walk away when I need you the most?’

  ‘How can you actually think I’d stay after what you did?’

  She sighed, still able to picture the handsome Dr Heath Illario that she’d happened to run into on the hospital’s rooftop during her first week. It’d been the perfect spot to finally take a breath after the first half of her busy emergency department shift where she’d been incredibly overwhelmed by the pace at which everything happened. She hadn’t realised she’d been sharing the courtyard above the equally busy streets of Sydney with Heath. His chest had been puffed out proudly, his golden short back-and-sides hair precisely combed and scrubs stretching tellingly across broad shoulders. She’d fallen instantly. Along with multiple other women in the hospital—doctors, nurses, administration staff. But it was her he’d chosen to give his attention to. Piper had been flattered by his pursuit of her, even if she didn’t understand it.

  How had she not seen it? How had she been so blind? She’d left that mess so far behind her. Now she needed to let it go in her mind as well.

  Piper stood from the Kombi step and checked around the campsite to make sure she hadn’t left anything behind. Not that it mattered too much—she’d be back tonight. After she’d showered at the hospital. Piper pressed her lips together and shook her head with amusement. She’d gone from a doctor salary–funded penthouse apartment to camping out by the creek in her Kombi and squatting in the bushes. No one would believe it even if she told them.

  Fall from grace?

  She scoffed at the direction of her thoughts as she twisted the Kombi’s key and the engine spluttered to life. More like getting back to her roots. The new head unit her stepfather had put in the Kombi started playing ‘Exile’ by the queen herself, Taylor Swift. Piper screwed her nose up and quickly thumbed through her playlists. With one click, the opening chords of ‘Lose You to Love Me’ started playing.

  Taking the dirt track away from the creek, Piper sang loudly, letting her mood soar upwards with the sun. Today was going to be a good one. The sun was shining, there were new friends to be made and soon she’d be helping people again.

  After pulling into a park, Piper jogged up the hill to where the blue signs indicated the hospital sat. The single-level red-brick hospital stretched across the top of the hill, partially hidden behind wellmaintained gardens. Piper paused out the front to take it all in, a little out of breath. Despite the length of the building and the helipad to the far left side, it was significantly smaller than any of the other places she’d worked. Excitement bubbled within her. She’d always wanted a rural nursing position. Somewhere without all the specialists, equipment or colleagues to rely on. Where you had to trust yourself and make do with what was there. A challenge. She was more than ready for it.

  Piper pushed open the front door of the Rush Creek Hospital and entered the main lobby. The area was neat but dated and sparse. She pressed her lips together. Which door did she go through first? There was no one sitting behind the desk at the front of the room.

  A tall woman in scrubs walked through the automatic doors to her left.

  ‘Piper Hendrix?’ she asked.

  ‘That’s me.’ Piper’s shoulders loosened when a warm smile filled the other woman’s face.

  ‘I’m Cara Phillips.’ She stuck her hand out for Piper to shake. ‘I’m glad you’re here. The agency has been trying to help us fill this position for a while, but no one seems to stay around.’ Cara turned on her heel and Piper hoisted her bag higher on her shoulder as she followed.

  ‘Why’s that?’

  ‘They come for the experience then head for somewhere bigger.’ Cara led her through the sliding doors. ‘We’re a small country hospital with a main ward and emergency department only. This is our ED.’

  Piper looked around at the crisply made beds lining either side of the large room. It was only a tenth of the size of what she was used to working in, but excitement washed through her nonetheless.

  ‘The ED closes at five and everything goes through to the main ward, which is manned by three nurses overnight. We have a locum in from Townsville through the day who’s on call at night.’

  ‘Does he get called in often?’

  Cara shook her head. ‘No, but when he does, it’s horrific. All serious cases go to Townsville via ambulance. Critical cases get airlifted by the Royal Flying Doctor Service. The ambulance station is at the bottom of the hill next to the firies. You probably drove past it on your way up here.’

  Piper cast her mind back to the little brown brick building with two large roller doors. The familiar emblems named it unmistakeably.

  A handful of nurses wandered through the door at the far end of the ward.

  ‘Ah, I was hoping this lot would be around soon,’ Cara said, gesturing to them. ‘Through that door is a staff room, where you’ll be able to store your belongings, as well as a kitchenette, fridge, bathroom and a bunk room for naps during night shift.’ She turned to the group of nurses. ‘Ladies and gent, this is our new nurse from Sydney, Piper Hendrix. She’ll be commencing with us today and I expect you all to answer any questions she has.’

  ‘Of course we will, Cara,’ said a female nurse on the left with dark skin and a bouncy brown ponytail. ‘You make it sound like we’re a closed-off mob.’

  ‘Piper will soon learn we’re all oversharers.’ A vibrant redhead grinned at her, showing off a white smile. Piper couldn’t help but smile back.

  ‘Mmm,’ Cara hummed dryly. ‘Piper, meet Maddie.’ The redhead gave a wave. ‘Greta.’ The bouncy brown ponytail girl smiled. ‘Robbie and Audrey.’ A man with a closely shaved head also grinned and the blonde next to him dipped her head in a nod.

  ‘Nice to meet you, and apologies in advance if I have to ask your names a few times,’ Piper said. They shared a laugh and Piper’s anxiety at meeting a new crew dissipated a little.

  A beeping from the phone that Cara held drew their attention. ‘Maddie, can you show Piper where she can put her things, please?’

  ‘Sure,’ Maddie said, but it was to Cara’s retreating back as the head nurse bustled out of the emergency department.

  Piper glanced around. ‘Is it normal for there not to be any patients?’

  Maddie gestured towards the staff room door. ‘We move all patients over to the main ward when the ED closes each day to start fresh in the morning. You’re from Sydney?’

  ‘Yep. The ED’s never empty there.’ Piper laughed.

  ‘This will be a big change for you then. Why come all the way to Rush Creek? Have you got family out here?’

  Piper shook her head as Maddie held the door to the staff room open for her. ‘Just needed a big scenery change and a fresh start.’

  ‘Well, you’ve come just in time for Christmas.’

  Piper’s brow folded. ‘Christmas? It’s like six weeks away.’

  ‘Not in Rush Creek.’

  ‘QAS just pulled up,’ Maddie called after lunch.

  QAS—Queensland Ambulance Service. Piper finished tucking the sheet under the corner of the bed and joined the redheaded nurse in the bay closest to the door for assessing patients. As if she had ultrasonic hearing, Cara came through the doors from the waiting area and squirted sanitiser on her hands. Robbie was taking observations of an elderly lady on another bed and Audrey and Greta were on their lunch breaks.

  The door from the ambulance bay opened and the soft cries of a little girl filled the emergency room. Empathy flowed from Piper at the sight of the patient on the stretcher, her hair in braids, her blue and yellow uniform dusty. She was clutching her arm to her chest. ‘Eight-year-old Moni Rays took a tumble from the monkey bars,’ the female paramedic said as she walked alongside the stretcher. ‘Suspected broken wrist …’

  The woman’s voice and everything she was saying faded when Piper caught sight of the other paramedic pushing the stretcher into the bay. His light brown hair was pulled away from his face and knotted at the back of his head in a man bun, his broad shoulders swathed in the green of his jumpsuit uniform and he wore a plaited leather band around his wrist. He locked the stretcher in place and looked up, straight into Piper’s eyes. She was frozen by the familiar hazel stare, so she didn’t miss the shock of recognition.

  ‘Piper?’

  Her name on his lips jarred her out of her frozen state. ‘Emmett. What the hell are you doing here?’

  ‘I could ask you the same thing.’

  ‘Let’s focus, people.’ Cara’s voice was stern.

  Piper quickly jumped in next to Maddie and gripped the bottom of the sheet to move the little girl over to the bed.

  ‘On my count …’ said Cara.

  ‘I thought you said you didn’t know anyone in Rush Creek?’ Maddie whispered.

  ‘One … two …’

  ‘I didn’t know he was here.’

  ‘Three.’

  They lifted the girl from the stretcher as a woman burst through from the waiting room, her daughter’s name on her lips.

  Piper glanced back to Emmett. Holy crap. Emmett Coleman was here in Rush Creek. Memories of doodling his name in the back of her high school notebook swamped her. Heat rushed to her cheeks as she recalled what else she’d written. Piper Coleman.

  Chapter 2

  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.’