‘There’s your first medevac,’ Maddie said, slinging her arm around Piper’s shoulders. ‘How does it feel?’

  Piper let out a burst of exhausted laughter. ‘A bit different from taking them off at the other end.’

  Emmett pushed the stretcher down the slope to the hospital from the helipad behind them.

  ‘Are you taking her husband into Townsville?’ Piper asked over her shoulder. Her shift had ended a while ago and she was overdue for a soak in the delicious clawfoot tub in Emmett’s newly renovated bathroom. She wouldn’t be complaining if Mr Didn’t-like-musiclouder-than-a-dripping-tap wouldn’t be home to complain about her latest playlist.

  ‘Nah, Eddie and Mick have already left with him, but Stef and I will have to pull a bit of overtime until they get back.’

  ‘What a shame.’ Piper couldn’t hide the glee in her voice.

  Emmett groaned. ‘You’re going to hide away in the bathroom with music I’ll hear from halfway down the street, aren’t you, twinkle tones?’

  ‘Twinkle tones?’ Maddie laughed. ‘Where do you come up with this stuff?’

  ‘Don’t encourage him, Maddie.’

  Emmett’s slow chuckle ran over Piper like she’d already slipped into the hot bubble bath headfirst. It’s just Emmett. But the reminder didn’t stop the warmth in her veins.

  The door to the hospital opened and Cara’s head poked out. ‘Piper! You have a phone call.’

  Her brow crinkled. ‘Me?’

  ‘Yes, you. They asked for Piper Hendrix. That’s you, isn’t it?’

  ‘Who would be calling you here?’ Maddie asked.

  Panic seized Piper and she gasped, her eyes flying to Emmett’s. ‘What if something’s happened to Mum? Or Carter?’

  ‘I’m sure it’ll be fine.’

  But she didn’t hear him. Breaking into a jog she ran into the main entrance of the hospital, which was empty, and snatched the phone up from behind the desk. ‘Hello?’

  ‘Piper. It’s so good to finally hear your voice.’

  A coldness seeped into the marrow of her bones. ‘Heath? How’d you find me here?’

  ‘Were you hiding from me? Rush Creek is a bit far for a game like that.’

  ‘I didn’t end our relationship and leave Sydney because I wanted to stay in contact with you. Why won’t you just leave me alone?’ Tears pricked her eyes as her frustration soared like a kite on a windy day.

  ‘Piper, I can’t let you go that easily. Not without a fight. Let me fight for us.’

  ‘There’s nothing left to fight for.’ Her voice was loud. ‘You’re too late. You need to fight for yourself and forget me. Don’t call me again.’

  She slammed the receiver down and took in everyone around her staring: Maddie, Cara and Emmett. Oh, no. They’d all think she was an absolute loon.

  ‘Excuse me,’ she murmured then turned and ran for the sanctuary of the staff room.

  Emmett stared after Piper, anger and protectiveness mixing in his stomach. Leaving the stretcher in the middle of the waiting room, he marched to the desk and lifted the discarded receiver to his ear. A dial tone was all he heard, and he cursed. He would’ve loved to have ripped Heath a new one for upsetting her, leave him with a very real threat of what would happen if he called her again.

  ‘What the hell was that?’ Maddie asked.

  ‘Her ex.’ He glanced at the door Piper had disappeared through. ‘I’m going to check on her.’

  ‘Yeah, you are.’

  Emmett shot Maddie a glare. ‘Tell Stef to put the stretcher in the ambulance.’

  She gave him a salute and he shook his head before heading after Piper. The door led to the staff room that hosted a small kitchenette and a giant table. A couch sat beneath the window and lockers lined the opposite wall. But there was no Piper.

  The door nestled next to the fridge, which led to the bunk room, was open and Emmett took some tentative steps towards it. Peering in, he spotted Piper curled up at the top of a bed made for the night shift to take a nap on their break. Her knees were pulled up to her chest, her head bowed on top of them. Her shoulders were moving with her silent sobs.

  Emmett rubbed at his chest, sure there was a chip in his heart. Going to her, he gripped her shoulders and lifted her high enough to wrap his arms around her, crushing her to his chest. Her body responded to his hug and she buried her face in his neck. The wet of her tears made him hold her tighter. Was it wrong that he was noticing how well she fit against him? Probably. But it wasn’t enough to stop him. Hugging Piper Hendrix was the most natural thing he’d ever done. What would kissing her be like? You’re an insensitive prick, Coleman. She was crying over her ex and he was thinking of kissing her. His childhood best friend’s little sister. What’s wrong with me?

  All too soon, Piper calmed and pulled her head back from his chest. He reluctantly loosened his grip but didn’t let her go.

  ‘Help me understand what he’s done to cause this much of a reaction from you.’

  She closed her eyes but nodded and sank back down to the mattress, slipping through his arms. He took the seat beside her, giving her space but not too much, and rested his hand on her leg. She took a deep breath, her brown eyes piercing his.

  ‘Heath has an opioid addiction and is under investigation for stealing medication from the hospital.’

  Emmett’s breath escaped him in a hiss. He’d heard about doctors and surgeons taking drugs to either keep them going during the long shifts or to zone out after all the trauma from dealing with medical emergencies. He’d never met any, but he knew they existed and, apparently, Heath was one of them.

  ‘Shit, Piper. When did you find out?’

  Piper tipped her head back. ‘When the executive director gave me a call with the medical superintendent right beside her.’

  Emmett cringed.

  ‘It gets better,’ she continued. ‘I had to answer to the board of medical directors about why I never reported him. It was so humiliating to have to admit that I had no idea.’ She paused and Emmett could see the tears welling in her eyes again, but she seemed to try to swallow them down. ‘I know what you’re thinking. How could I not know? Sounds like a cop-out, right? I’ve asked myself the same question over and over, but I swear I didn’t, Emmett. The only conclusion I can come up with is that I didn’t care about him enough to notice.’

  ‘I wasn’t thinking that,’ Emmett said, squeezing her leg. ‘I was thinking of how far a man has to fall to develop a problem so significant and hide it from his partner.’

  Piper scoffed lightly. ‘We weren’t really partners by then. We’d drifted so far apart that we were no more than roommates who barely saw each other.’ She shook her head. ‘I feel so bloody guilty for it.’

  ‘It takes two people to be in a relationship, Piper. You can’t shoulder all the blame yourself.’

  ‘I didn’t know what to do. If I’d stayed with him, then I was guilty by association. Word got out in the hospital and everyone started treating me differently—like I was the one stealing medication. None of the people I thought were friends acted like they were; I wasn’t allowed to go to the restricted medication room by myself; I was getting side eyes everywhere and the whispers … they may as well have been shouting. How could I stay with him? And if I left, how could I abandon him when he needed me the most? I was completely trapped.’ She swiped at the tears that had slipped past her resolve.

  The chip in Emmett’s heart turned into a crack straight down the middle. ‘It’s not your fault. He put you in an impossible position.’

  ‘It was too much. I know he needed me, but I couldn’t be the person he needed me to be for him. I didn’t want to be.’ Her voice broke and Emmett shuffled closer, putting his arm around her. She leaned into his side. ‘I wasn’t strong enough and I was terrified of the damage it would do to Carter’s career, and Jonathan’s, if it got out and they linked me to them. So, I put myself and my family over my partner and ran away to Rush Creek in my Kombi.’

  ‘You were so strong,’ he said, shaking his head in disbelief. ‘Don’t let him make you feel bad for choosing your own mental health over a man who’d become someone you didn’t know.’

  ‘That’s the bit that really kicks,’ she said, anger seeping into her voice. ‘I thought I knew who Heath was. I lived with him for eighteen months. Slept in the same bed. Had the same group of friends. But when it came down to it, I didn’t know him at all.’

  ‘It might not count for much, but I think it takes guts to walk away from a situation like that. He made his choices, Piper, and he would’ve brought you down with him. If he can’t respect the space you’ve put between you when it’s this much space, then I shudder to think what would’ve happened if you’d decided to stay.’

  ‘I have zero regrets about leaving. I should’ve broken it off earlier. I think I just got complacent. That makes me sound like a really terrible person.’ She dipped her head into her hand.

  Emmett tugged her hand away from her face. ‘No, it doesn’t. You can tell me anything, Piper, and I’ll never think badly of you. I’ve known you forever. I know your heart.’

  Her face softened.

  The door to the bunk room flew open and Stef’s head popped around it. ‘Sorry to interrupt, but we’ve got another call.’

  Annoyance flooded Emmett’s veins. He wanted to stay with Piper but he was needed.

  ‘Go.’ Piper nodded towards Stef as if she knew he was torn. ‘I’ll be fine.’

  He leaned over and wrapped her up into another hug. ‘I’ll see you at home?’

  ‘I’ll be there.’ She squeezed him tightly.

  He was a big fan of hugs.

  Chapter 8

  Piper sat in the bunk room a full twenty minutes after Emmett left, straining to hold apart the conflicting emotions within her. Humiliation and resentment gripped her atria, the upper chambers of her heart, and warmth and love had a firm hold of her ventricles, the lower chambers. Heath on one side and Emmett on the other, in the ultimate tug of war. It wasn’t a battle of which way she wanted to sway, but of the guilt from being unable to understand which emotion she should be feeling.

  She was sure she should be sinking into the humiliation of the phone call and rehashing every embarrassing morsel of her reason for being in Rush Creek to Emmett. Instead, the comfort of his hug, the thrill of her body held against his, the smell of cedarwood and gingerbread washing over her, had her forgetting why she was upset in the first place. She was so pathetic.

  Piper shut the door to her locker and hoisted the strap of her shoulder bag higher. She was really looking forward to that bubble bath. Peeking out the door, she sighed with relief when the main waiting area was clear of people and rushed out the front doors. It was well into evening and the nurses on shift would be settling the people from the emergency department into the main ward. Or they could be attending to anyone Emmett and Stef could be bringing back in from the callout.

  ‘About time you came out.’

  Piper jumped like an Olympic pole vaulter as Maddie pushed off the wall, her bag over her shoulder. ‘Why haven’t you gone home?’

  ‘Because I heard my choir buddy wig out at an ex-boyfriend on the phone and my superpower just happens to be waiting until she’s finished burying her head in the sand to talk to me about it.’

  Piper gave a small laugh. ‘That’s some superpower. Do you want the shortened version, which I’m sure Emmett would’ve preferred?’

  ‘Hit me with it.’

  Maddie fell into step beside her as Piper walked towards the car park. ‘My ex-partner is a surgeon at the Sydney hospital I used to work at, and I left him to run all the way up here because he’s been stood down from the hospital, under investigation for stealing medication to feed an opioid addiction, which I embarrassingly didn’t find out about until after it had happened.’

  To Maddie’s credit, the only reaction was the bounce of her head that Piper caught out the corner of her eye. ‘Makes sense why you don’t want to talk to him.’

  Piper wanted to sigh at the lack of judgement in her friend’s voice, reinforcing her move to Rush Creek as the right one. ‘He said on the phone that he wants to fight for us. There’s no us left to fight for.’

  ‘But his phone call still upset you?’

  ‘I’m trying to shut the door on that part of my life but it’s like he keeps sticking his foot out. I guess I feel a lot of guilt for not standing by him. I fell out of love with him a long time ago.’

  Maddie remained silent as they reached the car park. Piper’s breath came a little easier at the sight of Connie. She stuck the key in the passenger door to unlock it and threw her bag on the seat. Maddie leaned against the sliding door.

  ‘Look, I might regret saying this, but maybe you should talk to him? On your own terms. To give yourself some closure from the guilt. I can be with you when you do, if you want.’

  ‘Maybe.’ Piper’s shoulder jerked up in a shrug, letting the idea marinate for a few seconds. ‘Maybe I should hear him out, so he’ll stop calling.’

  ‘It can’t hurt. And if it does start hurting, I’ll help you hang up on him, then we’ll block his number. There’s obviously a reason you haven’t blocked him yet.’

  It hadn’t ever occurred to her. What did that say about her and her choices? ‘Okay,’ she said before she could overthink it. ‘If you’re really happy to be there with me.’

  ‘Let’s do it.’ She nodded at Connie. ‘Wanna open her up and we’ll call from inside?’

  ‘You want me to speak to him here? In a car park?’

  ‘You got anywhere better to speak to your ex-boyfriend?’ Well, when she put it that way.

  Piper opened Connie up, flicking the fan on with the fairy lights. The van was more than a little stuffy from being locked up in the hot afternoon sun but bearable with the breeze coming through the open door. Maddie bounced up onto the bed with a proclamation of ‘cool’ and Piper perched on the edge as if ready to leg it out of the Kombi and throw her phone down the hill.

  ‘Just do it,’ Maddie said, wriggling around and making herself right at home. ‘The more you put it off, the harder it’ll be.’

  With a deep breath, Piper pressed the call icon next to Heath’s name and placed it on speaker, holding the phone out between her and Maddie.

  ‘Piper?’ The desperation in his voice made her cringe. ‘Is it you?’

  ‘Yes, it’s me,’ she snapped. ‘You wanted to talk, Heath, so talk. I’m giving you five minutes then you’re going to listen to me.’

  Maddie’s raised eyebrows and nod said she was impressed with the firm boundaries Piper was putting in place. She wished she knew where they’d come from.

  ‘Five minutes? After nearly three years together, that’s all you’re going to give me?’

  ‘I don’t have to give you any time, Heath. I broke up with you. I left. We’re over. I’m prepared to hear you out but don’t waste your time trying to convince me to come back, because I won’t be.’ Did she sound like a bitch? She didn’t want to, but being direct seemed to be the only way she was going to get through to him.

  His dejected sigh rang over the line and Piper bit on her bottom lip.

  ‘I do want you back, Piper. I was prepared to beg and plead because I have no dignity left after what I have been through over the last couple of weeks. These so-called investigators have combed through every inch of my life from when I entered the world to the second I walked into the interview—No. Interrogation room. And all I kept thinking the entire time they asked me the same question, over and over, was that none of it mattered. None of it mattered because all of the lies and all of the secrets cost me the only person who truly meant something to me. You.’

  Sadness settled over Piper’s heart at the authenticity in his voice.

  She hadn’t expected that. Even Maddie’s face had softened.

  ‘Are you still there, Piper?’

  She cleared her throat. ‘I’m listening.’

  ‘I’m so ashamed of this addiction. Ashamed of the lies I told you, the way I avoided you and pretended I was coping when I wasn’t. I took them so rarely in the beginning, just one when a surgery went wrong because it helped me to not feel. Then the Anderson child happened, and I couldn’t get him out of my head. I just wanted to switch off, to forget and feel good about myself instead of the failure that I was for not being able to save him. He was so little. I couldn’t get the image of his tiny body lying on my table out of my mind. I can hear my voice pronouncing him as dead, over and over. The tablets made it go away. I thought I had a handle on it, that there was no way I could get addicted. I was a doctor, for fuck’s sake. I knew the risks, I knew the effect it would have. I knew what it would cost me, and I did it anyway.’

  Tears ran down Piper’s cheeks as she thought of the little boy and his family. She’d been on shift and had to watch Heath tell the parents that their little boy had died on the table. That there’d been nothing he could’ve done to save him. She’d watched the mother crumble to the floor, the father grip Heath as he cried out in agony. A sound that still ripped through Piper.

  ‘What happened to that little boy was tragic, Heath. It plays on everybody’s mind, but why didn’t you get help? You could’ve talked to your supervisor or the counselling service. Your friends or family. You could’ve talked to me. There’s so many people you could’ve spoken to rather than take that stuff.’

  ‘I didn’t want you to think of me as weak. I didn’t want anyone to look at me and think that I couldn’t handle my job.’

  ‘Taking drugs is weak. Lying to everyone who loved you is weak. What’s strong is admitting you’re not okay when you’re struggling with something that traumatic. You’re not invincible. We would’ve helped you, not judged you.’