The warble started again. Nope, he was not putting up with this. This was worse than his neighbour Harry Flinders starting up the mower three times a week. He kicked the sheet off and threw himself from his mattress. His room, the master bedroom, was at the back of the Queenslander he’d bought after taking his permanent position. He stomped down the hall, past the main bathroom, his office aka the dumping room, and the spare room that now occupied the most annoying housemate in the history of roomies.

  ‘Piper, I had forty-five minutes left until the alarm was going to go off. Are you trying to piss me—’ He cut across the living area and halted at the entry to the kitchen. Frowned.

  Piper was dressed in her nursing scrubs, leaning against the bench and staring out the window. Her vacant expression told him she was a million miles away. Glancing around the kitchen, he noted her toast had popped and was still sitting in the toaster, but she hadn’t bothered to get any condiments out yet. What was going on with her? The country singer’s voice rose into the chorus and Emmett tuned into what she was crooning about. A blue heart? Being lonely at Christmas? Ah, shit.

  He leaned over and pressed the power button on the Bluetooth speaker sitting on the bench, effectively pulling Piper out of her reverie with a jolt.

  ‘Morning, Emmett.’ The smile she pointed at him was strained.

  Who did this to you? The words were on the tip of his tongue, but he didn’t voice them. Couldn’t.

  ‘Get your shoes on,’ he said instead. ‘We’re leaving early. I’ll drive and we’ll get breakfast on the way in at the Rush Creek Christmas Pancake sign-on.’ They’d stuck their rosters up beside each other on the fridge and today was a rare one where their shifts actually lined up.

  Piper tilted her head and her eyes raked over his body. ‘If you’re going in that then I’m afraid I’m a little overdressed.’

  He looked down, realising he was dressed in his sleep shorts. Only dressed in his sleep shorts. He growled and turned to go to his room before his body gave away exactly how much he liked Piper’s gaze on him.

  Dressed in paramedic coveralls, Emmett pulled his ute into the last free park on the main street of Rush Creek. Piper was in the passenger seat, her head out the window as she stared up at the Christmas decorations.

  ‘This is gorgeous,’ she said as he opened her door. ‘Look at those giant bells!’

  He spared a glance to the oversized bells hanging from the eaves beneath the hotel’s balcony. Tinsel was wrapped around every post up the street, alternating in colours. Giant bows or wreaths were on every door and each shop window held a different festive scene. A Nativity scene had been set up in the grass at the foot of the clock tower and in the next roundabout along, reindeer grazed, waiting for Mr Claus to gather them. Brightly coloured monster baubles hung in the big fig trees along the street and Emmett knew that come nightfall, the lights that were strung in the leaves and wrapped around the tree trunks would be spectacular. He wanted to show Piper that too.

  ‘I told you, no one does Christmas like Rush Creek, and this is just the beginning.’ He shut the car door behind her, not caring that the window was still down.

  ‘It’s definitely something.’

  They took off on foot for the community hall that sat at the end of the street. Disappointment lanced through Emmett when comments on the decorations ceased and Piper’s attention turned to where they were going. Whenever he’d had Christmas at the Hendrix home, the house had been dressed up to the nines, a different theme every year, and Emmett knew that Piper was responsible for it. He’d thought she’d be gushing over the street, hoped she’d be too busy looking around and taking it all in so he’d have to guide her towards the hall. If she was impressed, as he’d expected her to be, then she was holding back from showing it.

  The smell of pancakes reached their noses as they arrived at the hall, set halfway down a large sloping block. The building itself was rectangular with a large concrete patio to the side, where hot plates had been set up and a line was forming.

  ‘Is this where the Christmas Eve carols are held?’ Piper asked as they joined the end of the long line.

  Emmett nodded. ‘The concrete area turns into the outdoor stage as long as the weather’s good and everyone brings picnic rugs and camping chairs to sit on the grassy hill. They have a sausage sizzle, face painting and other activities on the footpath up on top of the slope.’

  He was pointing as he was explaining and Piper followed along.

  ‘I’ll finish at like six in the morning that day before I’m back on nights on Christmas Day, so I might come down for it.’

  ‘You might come down for it?’ He gaped at her. ‘I thought I was the one on par with the Grinch. Has your love for Christmas diminished in your old age?’

  ‘If I’m old, what does that make you?’ she said snarkily.

  ‘Definitely over the hill.’

  She let a light laugh loose and he grinned. The line moved up by a few steps.

  ‘I just want a quiet Christmas this year.’

  ‘I didn’t even know you knew that term,’ he scoffed before lightly gripping her shoulders and turning her to face him. ‘What’s going on?’

  Taking another step forward, she shrugged off his hands. ‘It’s nothing. There was some stuff going on at the hospital that my ex, Heath, got caught up in. I broke it off and needed to put some distance between us.’

  ‘Two thousand kilometres of distance was needed?’ The dial on Emmett’s trouble radar flew to the red zone and he worked hard at keeping his sudden need to wrap her up in bubble wrap off his face. She was finally talking to him, even if she was keeping it surface level. Whatever Heath had done, it was enough to drive Piper to another state, so it couldn’t have been anything small. Emmett forced his fingers to unfurl.

  ‘Like I’ve already told you, a change of scenery was appealing.’

  Before Emmett could answer, they’d reached the front of the line.

  ‘Hello, Emmett, so good of you to find time to come down. And I don’t believe I’ve met your friend.’ Gloria Briggs beamed at them from the other side of a folding table, fresh pancakes on the plates lined up along it.

  ‘Good morning, Gloria, as if I’d miss this. You’d never let me hear the end of it.’

  ‘You’ve got that right.’

  Emmett turned to Piper. ‘This is Piper Hendrix, one of the new nurses at the hospital and a family friend of mine from our hometown of Euronga. Piper, this is Gloria Briggs, the wonderful wife of Rush Creek’s mayor and the brains behind the Christmas Eve Bonanza.’

  Gloria’s cheeks turned pink as her smile grew impossibly wider. ‘It’s a whole town effort and one I hope you’ll be part of, Piper. Lovely to meet you, sweetie.’

  ‘You too,’ Piper said, accepting the plate that Gloria thrust at her.

  Emmett was a little quicker in grabbing his. He dug out a ten-dollar note from the pocket of his coveralls and handed it to Gloria. ‘I got this one.’

  Gloria raised a brow, accepting the note, and Emmett didn’t miss the look she flicked between him and Piper. Did he hate that the bush telegraph would have them paired up as a couple before the end of the day? No. But he probably should.

  ‘Did you get to see the street decorations?’ Gloria asked.

  ‘They’re beautiful,’ Piper replied. ‘Especially against that brilliant blue sky. Not a cloud in sight.’

  ‘Yes, well, don’t let it fool you. It can be blue one minute and black with a raging storm the next. Keeps us on our toes, that’s for sure. We secured those decorations so well that hell in a tornado couldn’t destroy them.’

  Piper’s eyebrows rose and Emmett’s smug satisfaction at Gloria backing him up on the savage nature of their storms showed itself in his grin.

  ‘I’ll believe it when I see it,’ she said with a warm smile.

  ‘Head on down to the sign-up tent.’ Gloria waved them further along to a camping gazebo that held two tables parallel to each other with several clipboards on them. ‘I’ll be very interested to see where your names end up.’

  ‘Our names?’ Piper asked when they followed the queue to the next tent.

  Emmett took a bite of pancake and groaned at the fluffiness of it. ‘These are so good. They’ve gotta be homemade. No packet ever tasted like this.’

  Piper rolled her eyes. ‘Emmett, focus. Where are our names going?’

  ‘There’s lists up here of activities to partake in for the Christmas Eve Bonanza. Volunteers, contests, and other things.’

  ‘And the pancakes are part of this?’ She took a nibble. Her face brightened and she took a bigger bite.

  ‘Hard to say no when the bribe’s this good.’

  Piper laughed but didn’t disagree. He hadn’t heard her laugh so much in the five days they’d been housemates and he wanted to keep it going. An idea sparked.

  ‘Want to make things interesting?’

  ‘I’m listening.’ Piper took another mouthful of breakfast.

  ‘Instead of signing up for something for ourselves, let’s pick for each other. I’ll put your name on a list, and you can put mine. Just remember that I’m already manning the first aid tent with Stef.’

  Her eyes widened and she chewed thoughtfully. Then a grin spread across her face as she swallowed. ‘Deal.’

  They turned to separate tables, pens at the ready. Emmett scanned the options before sighting the one he wanted.

  He stepped back and finished off his pancakes while he waited for Piper, who was hunched over a different clipboard.

  She whirled around to face him, mischief twinkling in her eyes.

  ‘Congratulations, you’re the newest member of the Rush Creek Carols Choir.’ He pointed to her name on the clipboard.

  ‘How do you even know I can sing?’ she hissed.

  He rolled his eyes. ‘Because, diva, you sing really loudly in the shower and it’s not terrible.’

  ‘It’s not good either,’ she mumbled, and Emmett hid his smile.

  ‘Relax, Maddie’s on the list too.’ Emmett hadn’t missed the chatting and laughter between the two nurses when he’d brought patients into the ED.

  She brightened at that news. ‘I haven’t been in a choir since the sixth grade but I’m up for the challenge. You’re probably going to need just as much practice because I have signed you up for this …’

  He followed the finger she pointed. Gingerbread House Decorating Contest. His groan was drowned out by her full-blown laughter. The sound rained over him like water from the sprinkler they used to race under in the summer as children. It was glorious. He looked again at her neat writing of his name, the third on the list because clearly it wasn’t a popular contest.

  He shook his head. ‘Challenge accepted. Now stop laughing so we can get to work.’

  Chapter 5

  A few days later, Piper dragged herself out of Connie and through the front door of the house she shared with Emmett. It hadn’t taken long for the simple act of walking in, dropping her keys in the bowl on the side table by the door and hanging her bag on the wall hook next to Emmett’s to feel natural. She glanced around the tidy but basic lounge area with its long couch, oversized television and coffee table. Emmett had made it clear that he was in the middle of renovations when she’d moved in, but she was also picking up on his minimalistic personality shining through in his decorating. Although he did have an eye for detail if those ceiling cornices were anything to go by. Still, the furniture she could fill this place with and the colour she would splash on the panelling. Hello, Hamptons styling with a hint of green.

  ‘Do you ever get sick of so much white on the walls?’ Piper said as she caught sight of him in the kitchen. ‘It’s really bright and … clinical.’

  ‘Spoken like someone who just finished night shift.’

  ‘Guilty,’ she confirmed, sliding onto the stool across from him. ‘What are you doing?’

  The intense gaze of his hazel eyes flicked up to her from the two pieces of gingerbread he was holding at a right angle, icing slathered between them. His long hair was tied out of his face in a bun and his tongue was poking out the corner of his mouth. She swallowed hard. Damn, he was good looking. Her cheeks heated. She needed to get some sleep.

  ‘I have nineteen days to finish this gingerbread house to a standard that won’t embarrass me—or you, for nominating me for this—and trust me, it’s harder than it looks.’ His head jerked towards the bin, where Piper spotted a package sporting the words ‘Gingerbread House Kit’ against a bright red background. There was another one on the bench next to Emmett’s elbow.

  ‘Isn’t it cheating if you don’t bake the gingerbread?’ she asked, drumming her fingers on the benchtop.

  ‘You should’ve read the fine print before writing my name on the list.’ The tip of his tongue poked out the side of his mouth as he let the sides go. They leaned precariously too far left and he snatched at them again. ‘This ridiculous contest is being judged on the decorating, not the baking.’

  ‘Well, I hope you’re right because I wouldn’t want to have the wrath of Gloria come down on you if you’re not.’

  A smile spread across Emmett’s face, lighting his eyes up when they connected with hers. ‘I can take Gloria, I’ve got broad shoulders. There’s a breakfast wrap in the sandwich press for you.’

  Piper brought a hand to her chest. ‘A breakfast wrap? For me? Thank you.’

  ‘I was making one, so it wasn’t a big stretch to make two.’

  She frowned. It was a big stretch for Heath. He was the king of making a meal for one and then blaming confusion over their conflicting rosters. Stop being petty and put Heath in the past already. She took a bite and groaned at the explosion of egg, bacon, cheese and some sort of amazing sauce.

  ‘Are you right?’ Emmett asked. ‘It could be a bit hot.’

  ‘It’s so good,’ she said before stuffing another big bite in and spinning around. His hands were hovering near the two sides of the gingerbread house that were now standing semi-straight. ‘Double thank you. This is just what I need before I crash out.’

  Emmett slathered more icing onto the ends of two more pieces of gingerbread. He was on day shift, which meant Piper would be able to sleep in quiet. As long as his annoying neighbour didn’t mow for the third time this week.

  ‘Why won’t these stupid things stick?’ Emmett exploded when all four sides of his house fell down at once.

  Piper couldn’t stop the giggle.

  ‘You think this is funny?’

  His raised brow made her giggle louder. ‘At least you’ve got nineteen days to figure it out.’

  He tipped his head back and groaned loudly, which was sexier than it should have been. God, she really needed to sleep.

  A ringing came from the pocket of her scrubs, and she fished out her phone. ‘Hey, Mum.’

  ‘Piper, I just got off the phone with Carter and he said you weren’t coming home for Christmas. Something about working shifts that are too close together? I said you could come down on Christmas Eve, we could do breakfast and then you could fly home in time for work again. It’s not ideal to be on a plane twice within twenty-four hours but we can make it work.’

  ‘Oh, Mum, no. Please don’t get your heart set on this. I can’t come home for Christmas this year. I have a night shift ending on Christmas Eve morning then Emmett signed me up to sing in the choir at the Christmas Eve Bonanza, but don’t worry, two can play at this game. I signed him up for the gingerbread house decorating competition.’

  Emmett sent her a withering glare that she smiled at.

  Maree’s woeful sigh echoed down the phone. ‘You’re not coming home at all?’

  Piper walked away from the bench, her smile slipping. ‘I’m sorry, Mum. You know how it is when you start a new job, especially at Christmas time. There’s always a wait list for leave and the new girl isn’t going to be at the top of it. I need to pay my dues before I can expect things like holidays over Christmas.’

  ‘I know, but we’re always together at Christmas. When you had a shift, we worked around it to have a family meal. Even Carter would make sure he was there.’

  ‘Yes, and we could’ve if we weren’t in different states and I hadn’t moved so quickly. I’m back on an early shift on Boxing Day so there really isn’t enough turn around. I’m sorry!’ Piper flopped herself down on the couch and stifled her groan as the cushions absorbed her. Emmett definitely knew a thing or two about comfort.

  ‘I hate that you’re so far away,’ Maree continued softly. ‘I like having all my family together. It’ll be Indy’s first Christmas with us and she’s going to miss out on your wonderful decorations.’

  Piper looked around the living room. There was no tree, no tinsel and a beautiful fireplace without any stockings hung from it. Pathetic really. Emmett obviously wasn’t the decorating kind, and she couldn’t summon the enthusiasm this year. ‘Indy might like a quiet Christmas. She’s had a lot of change in the last twelve months. I know I’m looking forward to a quiet one this year.’

  ‘I suppose …’ Maree’s voice trailed off into acceptance and relief trickled down Piper’s spine. Her mum had always tried to hold her and Carter so tightly to her and when their dad died, the tightness had reached suffocation levels. Jonathan coming along and staying around had helped a lot, but Piper’s moving away had probably set all that progress back.

  ‘It’s just too soon for me to come back to Sydney. Maybe next year. Or you guys could come and stay with me. I should have my own place by then.’ Piper swung her legs to the ground, forcing herself to sit up.

  ‘Ah, shit!’ Emmett’s groan stole Piper’s attention, and she pressed her lips together at the sight of the piece of gingerbread that had cracked in half.

  ‘That’s a long time to stay away, Piper. What did Heath do to hurt you so badly?’

  Reality crashed into her chest, and she folded forward, pinching the bridge of her nose. ‘It’s more what I did or didn’t do, I guess. Just leave it, Mum. It’s over and I’m not looking back.’

  ‘Honey, you and Heath were together for nearly three years. There’s no salvaging that?’