‘All right, then. What do I need to watch out for?’ She obviously wasn’t about to give up, and exhilaration flared in the pit of Reece’s stomach.
‘Kangaroos on the road, for a start.’ He reckoned she hadn’t come across that one.
‘Simon’s told me about not trying to overtake them. I reckon I’m in much better shape than you are to keep an eye out for anything about to leap out in front of me, and I know where the brake is.’ She wrinkled her nose at him, and Reece wondered how long he could hold out if she was going to use such unscrupulous methods of persuasion.
She had half turned towards him in her seat, and even though he couldn’t see her eyes behind her sunglasses, he was pretty sure that she was sizing him up. ‘So are you going to stop, or do we need to do that thing they do in the movies, where they keep driving while they swap places? I’ve not done that before, but I can give it a try.’
He found himself wondering whether she would actually do it, and a laugh began to rumble deep in his chest, leaving him almost breathless.
‘What’s that?’ Her attention was diverted for a moment and the tone of her voice changed. Reece followed the line of her pointing finger and saw a ute stopped at the side of a track leading to the road.
Without a word, Reece swung the steering-wheel round, bumping onto the cracked, dry earth. She had the presence of mind to hang on, and they sped towards the vehicle. The hazards were on, blinking a warning, or in these circumstances more likely a cry for help.
‘There’s someone in there.’ She was leaning forward, trying to see through the dust. Reece jammed on the brakes, and before he could tell her to stay in the car, she had released her seat belt and had jumped out, running towards the stranded truck.
He was right behind her. A quick look told him all he needed to know, and he opened the driver’s door and spoke quietly to the middle-aged man behind the wheel.
‘What’s up, mate?’ Blue lips. Perspiration. Gasping for breath. ‘I’m a doctor.’
‘Bloody angina. Always seems to come on just when you don’t want it, eh?’ The man seemed more annoyed than relieved to see them.
Reece resisted the temptation to roll his eyes. Bravado was just one of the unhelpful reactions that someone might have to a situation like this. ‘Have you got medication? Pills or a spray?’
‘Yes.’ The man tried to turn in his seat and winced, clutching his chest. ‘There’s a spray in the emergency bag behind my seat.’
‘I’ll get it.’ Sara was grinning, only a slight shake of her head betraying that she was probably thinking exactly the same as Reece was. Opening the passenger door, she clambered inside, tugging at the red canvas bag that was wedged behind the driver’s seat. She managed to pull it out, almost falling backwards out of the vehicle, and unzipped it. ‘Gotcha.’
‘That’s the one.’ Disarmed by her smile, the man began to relax in his seat.
She passed the canister of nitroglycerin spray over to Reece, and he checked the prescription details on the label. ‘Here you go, mate.’
The spray began to work, and almost before his eyes the man began to recover, the blue tinge around his lips fading. Reece straightened and beckoned Sara to his side, out of earshot. ‘I’ll check that the truck’s running all right and then I want you to take my car. Keep going on this road for another thirty kilometres and we’ll meet you …’
‘I’ll stay with you.’ She grabbed the car keys from him and pocketed them. ‘How long do we have?’ She scanned the horizon, suddenly tense.
Reece didn’t know. The fire might be coming this way and it might not. But by the time he got on the road again she could put at least five kilometres between herself and here and that could only be good. ‘Not enough time to argue about it.’
‘Perfect.’ She turned on her heel and almost flounced the two steps back to the truck, bending down by the driver’s door to talk to the man.
Reece sighed. The look on her face when she’d looked back in the direction they’d just come from told him that she had understood the risks of staying any longer, and her body language now showed that there was no changing her mind. And since he would have made the same decision in her place, he couldn’t think of a single argument to persuade her differently.
‘Right, then, Frank, if you’re up to standing, we’ll just move you round to the passenger seat and we can get going.’ She gave the man a bright smile and he grinned at her. She had a way with her. No-nonsense, but with a lightness of touch that made even Reece feel better about the situation.
‘Sure.’ The man took her arm, leaning heavily on it, and Reece supported him from the other side. They slowly walked him around to the passenger seat and she folded a rug to make a support for his back, and buckled the seat belt over him.
‘Where are we going?’ That hint of tension had returned, although she hid it from Frank.
‘It’s thirty kilometres to the next town. I’ll call ahead, see if an ambulance can meet us there.’
‘Okay. I’ll follow you.’
‘Think you can keep up?’ Reece grinned at her, suddenly relishing the chance to goad her a little.
Her cheeks flushed prettily and suddenly the day seemed a whole lot easier. ‘I’ll do my best.’
They leaned against the SUV side by side, drinking the takeaway coffee that Sara had got from the store in the main street while Reece had been busy seeing Frank into the ambulance. Trader lapped greedily at the water that she had poured into a camping dish she found in the boot of the car. ‘So what was he doing out there? The guy in the café said that whole area is on high alert.’
‘It is. He’d been staying with his daughter for a couple of days and he reckoned he’d nip back and get some things from home. He would have been fine if the angina hadn’t slowed him up.’
‘Hmm. So you gave him the talk about not being indestructible, then?’
Reece chuckled. He liked the way that she anticipated him. The way that they’d fallen into an almost seamless synchronicity back there. Just training, he guessed, hers and his. ‘Yeah. I imagine he’ll hear it again from a few different directions.’
She shrugged. ‘Well, as long as he listens to one of them. We must be in mobile range by now.’
‘Yeah. I’ll call the hospital and get them to tell Simon that we’re on our way. We can stop by at my house first and you can have a shower and change your clothes.’ Reece drew his phone out of his pocket.
She twisted her mouth ruefully and Reece wondered what her lips would taste like. Sweet, he reckoned. Like the rest of her. ‘I’ll take the shower, but I don’t have a change of clothes with me.’
‘Wasn’t that your case I put in the back of the car?’ The large, lightweight case with a strip of gaudy material tied around the handle so it could be picked out easily at an airport.
‘Yes, but my clothes are in the chest of drawers in Simon’s spare room. I filled my case with his things.’ She shrugged. ‘It’s his home. I wanted to bring as much of it as I could.’
Most women would have brought at least a change of clothes, but it seemed that Sara wasn’t most women. She’d left behind practically everything she possessed in this hemisphere, putting her brother first. That simple act of selflessness made Reece smile.
‘I’ll call my sister, then. She’s about your size. I dare say she can fix you up with something.’
She blushed again. Reece could really get used to that. ‘That’s okay. I have plenty of spending money. I can pop to the shops somewhere. I don’t need much.’
Maybe